Written with complete access to the Queen Mother's personalletters and diaries, William Shawcross's riveting biography is thetruly definitive account of this remarkable woman, whose lifespanned the twentieth century. Elizabeth Angela Marguerite BowesLyon,the youngest daughter of the Earl of Strathmore, was born on 4August 1900. Drawing on her private correspondence and otherunpublished material from the Royal Archives, William Shawcrossvividly reveals the witty girl who endeared herself to soldiersconvalescing at Glamis in the First World War; the assured youngDuchess of York; the Queen, at last feeling able to look the EastEnd in the face at the height of the Blitz; the Queen Mother,representing the nation at home and abroad throughout her longwidowhood.

In eight new stories, a master of the form extends and magnifies her great themes--the vagaries of love, the passion that leads down unexpected paths, the chaos hovering just under the surface of things, and the strange, often comical desires of the human heart. Time stretches out in some of the stories: a man and a woman look back forty years to the summer they met--the summer, as it turns out, that the true nature of their lives was revealed. In others time is telescoped: a young girl finds in the course of an evening that the mother she adores, and whose fluttery sexuality she hopes to emulate, will not sustain her--she must count on herself. Some choices are made--in a will, in a decision to leave home--with irrevocable and surprising consequences. At other times disaster is courted or barely skirted: when a mother has a startling dream about her baby; when a woman, driving her grandchildren to visit the lakeside haunts of her youth, starts a game that could have dangerous consequences.

In Paris for a weekend visit, Elizabeth Bard sat down to lunchwith a handsome Frenchman--and never went home again. Was it love at first sight? Or was it the way her knife slideffortlessly through her pavé au poivre, the steak's pinkjuices puddling into the buttery pepper sauce? LUNCH IN PARIS is amemoir about a young American woman caught up in two passionatelove affairs--one with her new beau, Gwendal, the other with Frenchcuisine. Packing her bags for a new life in the world's mostromantic city, Elizabeth is plunged into a world of bustlingopen-air markets, hipster bistros, and size 2 femmesfatales . She learns to gut her first fish (with a little helpfrom Jane Austen), soothe pangs of homesickness (with the rise of achocolate soufflé) and develops a crush on her local butcher (whobears a striking resemblance to Matt Dillon). Elizabeth finds thatthe deeper she immerses herself in the world of French cuisine, themore Paris itself begins to translate. French culture, shediscovers, is not unlik

理查德·梅休是伦敦一个平平常常的生意人，过着平平常常的生活。但有一天，他做了件不太平常的事：把一位身负重伤、素不相识的姑娘带回了自己的公寓。 从此，一切都变得不同寻常—— 同事们看不见他，从前的恋人不再认识他，甚至连他的家都不再属于他。他走在人流中，人们却完全意识不到他的存在。理查德·梅休这个人不复存在了，仿佛从未存在过。 都是因为这个名叫门菲的姑娘。她为他打开了一扇门，通往另一个世界—— 一个隐藏在伦敦之下、阴险邪恶却又充满刺激的乌有乡。 Under the streets of London there's a world most people couldnever even dream of. A city of monsters and saints, murderers andangels, and pale girls in black velvet. Richard Mayhew is a youngbusinessman who is about to find out more than he bargained forabout this other London. A single act of kindness catapults him outof h

THE ANIMAL DIALOGUES tells of Craig Childs' own chillingexperiences among the grizzlies of the Arctic, sharks off the coastof British Columbia and in the turquoise waters of Central America,jaguars in the bush of northern Mexico, mountain lions, elk,Bighorn Sheep, and others. More than chilling, however, thesestories are lyrical, enchanting, and reach beyond what one commonlyassumes an "animal story" is or should be. THE ANIMAL DIALOGUES isa book about another world that exists alongside our own, an entirerealm of languages and interactions that humans rarely get thechance to witness.

In 1925, four-year-old Michael Tolkien lost his beloved toydog on the beach. To console him, his father, J.R.R. Tolkien,improvised a story about Rover, a real dog who is magicallytransformed into a toy and is forced to seek out the wizard whowronged him in order to be returned to normal. This charming tale,peopled by a sand-sorcerer and a terrible dragon, by the king ofthe sea and the Man-in-the-Moon, endured several drafts over theyears. Now, more than seventy years later, the adventures of Roverare published for the first time. Rich in wit and wordplay,Roverandom is edited and introduced by Christina Scull and Wayne G.Hammond and illustrated with Tolkien's own delightful drawings.

The New York Times bestseller and Booker Prize contender that"delivers...a ghost story that creeps up your spine" (SeattleTimes). One post-war summer in rural Warwickshire, Dr. Faraday is calledto a patient at lonely Hundreds Hall. Home to the Ayres family forover two centuries, the Georgian house, once impressive andhandsome, is now in decline. Its owners-mother, son, anddaughter-are struggling to keep pace with a changing society, aswell as with conflicts of their own. But are the Ayreses haunted bysomething more sinister than a dying way of life? Little does Dr.Faraday know how closely, and how terrifyingly, their story isabout to become intimately entwined with his.

David Baldacci lives with his family in Virginia. He and hiswife have founded the Wish You Well Foundation, a nonprofitorganization dedicated to supporting literacy efforts acrossAmerica. He invites you to visit him at www.david-baldacci.com andhis foundation at www.wishyouwellfoundation.org, and to look intoits program to spread books across America atwww.FeedingBodyandMind.com.

Jill Taylor was a 37-year-old Harvard-trained brain scientistwhen a blood vessel exploded in her brain. Through the eyes of acurious scientist, she watched her mind deteriorate whereby shecould not walk, talk, read, write, or recall any of her life.Because of her understanding of the brain, her respect for thecells in her body, and an amazing mother, Jill completelyrecovered. In My Stroke of Insight, she shares her recommendationsfor recovery and the insight she gained into the unique functionsof the two halves of her brain. When she lost the skills of herleft brain, her consciousness shifted away from normal realitywhere she felt "at one with the universe." Taylor helps others notonly rebuild their brains from trauma, but helps those of us withnormal brains better understand how we can consciously influencethe neural circuitry underlying what we think, how we feel and howwe react to life's circumstances.

Now a classic of the travel genre, The Great Railway Bazaarchronicles Paul Theroux's adventures by rail from Victoria Stationin London to Tokyo Central, told with his signature wryobservations.

Many years ago, J.R.R. Tolkien composed his own version of thegreat legend of Northern antiquity, recounted here in The Legend ofSigurd and Gudrún. In the Lay of the V?lsungs is told the ancestry of the great heroSigurd, the slayer of Fáfnir, most celebrated of dragons; of hisawakening of the Valkyrie Brynhild, who slept surrounded by a wallof fire, and of their betrothal; and of his coming to the court ofthe great princes who were named the Niflungs (or Nibelungs), withwhom he entered into blood-brotherhood. In scenes of dramatic intensity, of confusion of identity,thwarted passion, jealousy, and bitter strife, the tragedy ofSigurd and Brynhild, of Gunnar the Niflung and Gudrún his sister,mounts to its end in the murder of Sigurd, the suicide of Brynhild,and the despair of Gudrún. The Lay of Gudrún recounts her fate after the death of Sigurd,her marriage against her will to the mighty Atli, ruler of the Huns(the Attila of history), his murder of her brothers, and herhideous reve

The young life of Daoud Hari–his friends call him David–hasbeen one of bravery and mesmerizing adventure. The Translator is asuspenseful, harrowing, and deeply moving memoir of how one personhas made a difference in the world, an on-the-ground account of oneof the biggest stories of our time: the brutal genocide under wayin Darfur. In 2003, Daoud Hari, a Zaghawa tribesman, was among the hundredsof thousands of villagers attacked and driven from their homes bySudanese-government-backed militia groups. Though Hari’s villagewas burned to the ground, his family decimated and dispersed, hehimself escaped, eventually finding safety across the border. Withhis high school knowledge of languages, Hari offered his servicesas a translator and guide. In doing so, however, he had to returnto the heart of darkness–and he has risked his life again and againto help ensure that the story of his people is told while there isstill time to save them.

Published in 1934, Tender Is the Night was one of the mosttalked-about books of the year. "It's amazing how excellent much ofit is," Ernest Hemingway said to Maxwell Perkins. "I will say now,"John O'Hara wrote Fitzgerald, "Tender Is the Night is in the earlystages of being my favorite book, even more than This Side ofParadise." And Archibald MacLeish exclaimed: "Great God,Scott...You are a fine writer. Believe it -- not me." Set on the French Riviera in the late 1920s, Tender Is the Nightis the tragic romance of the young actress Rosemary Hoyt and thestylish American couple Dick and Nicole Diver. A brilliant youngpsychiatrist at the time of his marriage, Dick is both husband anddoctor to Nicole, whose wealth goads him into a lifestyle not hisown, and whose growing strength highlights Dick's harrowing demise.A profound study of the romantic concept of character -- lyrical,expansive, and hauntingly evocative -- Tender Is the Night, MabelDodge Luhan remarked, raised F. Scott Fitzgerald to the heights of"a mode

Margaret Mitchell's epic novel of love and war won the Pulitzer Prize and went on to give rise to two authorized sequels and one of the most popular and celebrated movies of all time. Many novels have been written about the Civil War and its aftermath. None take us into the burning fields and cities of the American South as Gone With the Wind does, creating haunting scenes and thrilling portraits of characters so vivid that we remember their words and feel their fear and hunger for the rest of our lives. In the two main characters, the white-shouldered, irresistible Scarlett and the flashy, contemptuous Rhett, Margaret Mitchell not only conveyed a timeless story of survival under the harshest of circumstances, she also created two of the most famous lovers in the English-speaking world since Romeo and Juliet.

More than twenty-five years after the groundbreaking movie "StarWars: A New Hope" first hit the silver screen, "Star Wars" remainsone of the most beloved sagas ever told. Together, the threeoriginal "Star Wars" movies-"A New Hope," "The Empire StrikesBack," and "Return of the Jedi"-told one epic: a heroic tale ofinnocence lost and wisdom gained, of downfall and redemption, ofthe never-ending fight between the forces of good and evil. Readthe story of the movies-all three in one trade paperback volume-andrediscover the wonder of the legend that begins: "A long time ago,in a galaxy far, far away . . ."Luke Skywalker lived and worked onhis uncle's farm on the remote planet of Tatooine, but he yearnedto travel beyond the farthest reaches of the universe to distant,alien worlds. Then Luke intercepted a cryptic message from abeautiful, captive princess . . . and found himself catapulted intothe adventure of a lifetime. Luke Skywalker, proud Princess Leia,and headstrong Han Solo . . . merciless Darth Vader, wise Ob

In Dark Star Safari the wittily observant and endearinglyirascible Paul Theroux takes readers the length of Africa byrattletrap bus, dugout canoe, cattle truck, armed convoy, ferry,and train. In the course of his epic and enlightening journey, heendures danger, delay, and dismaying circumstances. Gauging the state of affairs, he talks to Africans, aid workers,missionaries, and tourists. What results is an insightfulmeditation on the history, politics, and beauty of Africa and itspeople, and "a vivid portrayal of the secret sweetness, the hiddenvitality, and the long-patient hope that lies just beneath thesurface" (Rocky Mountain News). In a new post*, Therouxrecounts the dramatic events of a return to Africa to visitZimbabwe.

Los Angeles, 1953: six innocent people gunned down at anall-night diner. Three policemen arrive to investigate: Ed Exley,goaded by his father's success on the force, burning to eclipsehim; Bud White, witness to his mother's murder, a time bomb with abadge; and Jack Vincennes, former addict, a shake-down artist whoworks celebrities. Worse yet, these three see themselves as rivals.Their own rage mirrors that of the killers they seek, all playersin a game without rules or survivors.