"While a single short story may have a difficult time raisingenough noise on its own to be heard over the din of civilization,short stories in bulk can have the effect of swarming bees,blocking out sound and sun and becoming the only thing you canthink about," writes Ann Patchett in her introduction to The BestAmerican Short Stories 2006. This vibrant, varied sampler of theAmerican literary scene revels in life's little absurdities,captures timely personal and cultural challenges, and ultimatelyshares subtle insight and compassion. In "The View from CastleRock," the short story master Alice Munro imagines a fictionalaccount of her Scottish ancestors' emigration to Canada in 1818.Nathan Englander's cast of young characters in "How We Avenged theBlums" confronts a bully dubbed "The Anti-Semite" to both comic andtragic ends. In "Refresh, Refresh," Benjamin Percy gives aforceful, heart-wrenching look at a young man's choices when hisfather -- along with most of the men in his small town -- isdeployed to Ir

One of Vonnegut's major works, this is an apocalyptic tale ofthe planet's ultimate fate, featuring a cast of unlikelyheroes.

The hilarious and well-traveled Sloane Crosley, author of the New York Times bestseller I Was Told There’d Be Cake , helms this collection of the genre’s gems.

The Celestine Prophecy is one of the most widely read books ofour times. It s insights have proven to strike deep and universalchords. Now those insights have inspired this breathtakinglyhandsome illustrated book. Grounding her poetic story in the tenetsfound in James Redfield s remarkable work, Dee Lillegard tells thestory of Celestine, a young boy, who "finds his path but loses hisway" while wandering in the woods. How he uses the insights that hefinds on his journey to find his way back to the safety of his ownhome and bed is the core of this intriguing tale. Magnificentillustrations by Dean Morrissey not only depict the action but helpreaders understand the meaning of the song of then is a new andenriching treatment of James Redfield s themes that can beunderstood and relished by perceptive readers of all ages.

This tale of two princesses - one beautiful and oneunattractive - and of the struggle between sacred and profane loveis Lewis?’s reworking of the myth of Cupid and Psyche and one ofhis most enduring works.

In the "stifling heat of equatorial Newark," a terrifyingepidemic is raging, threatening the children of the New Jersey citywith maiming, paralysis, life-long disability, and even death. Thisis the startling and surprising theme of Roth's wrenching new book:a wartime polio epidemic in the summer of 1944 and the effect ithas on a closely knit, family-oriented Newark community and itschildren. At the center of NEMISIS is a vigorous, dutiful, twenty-threeyear old playground director, Bucky Cantor, a javelin thrower andweightlifter, who is devoted to his charges and disappointed withhimself because his weak eyes have excluded him from serving in thewar alongside his contemporaries. Focusing on Cantor's dilemmas aspolio begins to ravage his playground--and on the everday realitieshe faces--Roth leads us through every inch of emotion such apestilence can breed: the fear, the panic, the anger, thebewilderment, the suffering, and the pain. Moving between the smoldering, malodorous streets of besieg

The unforgettable trilogy by the #1 "New York Times" bestsellingauthor is now available in this beautiful boxed set. Includes "Keyof Light, Key of Knowledge," and "Key of Valor." Original.

The last decades of the nineteenth century were a violent periodin China's history, marked by humiliating foreign incursions anddomestic rebellions and ending in the demise of the Ch'ing Dynasty.The only constant during this tumultuous time was the power wieldedby one woman, the resilient, ever-resourceful Tsu Hsi -- or EmpressOrchid, as readers came to know her in Anchee Min's criticallyacclaimed, best-selling novel covering her rise to power. The LastEmpress is the story of Orchid's dramatic transition from astrong-willed, instinctive young woman to a wise and politicallysavvy leader who ruled China for more than four decades. In thisconcluding volume Min gives us a compelling, very human leader whoassumed power reluctantly and sacrificed all to protect those sheloved and an empire that was doomed to die.

The inspiration for the major motion picture starring BradPitt and Cate Blanchettaplus eighteen other stories by the belovedauthor of "The Great Gatsby" IN THE TITLE STORY, a baby born in1860 begins life as an old man and proceeds to age backward. F.Scott Fizgerald hinted at this kind of inversion when he called hisera aa generation grown up to find all Gods dead, all wars fought,all faiths in man shaken.a Perhaps nowhere in American fiction hasthis aLost Generationa been more vividly preserved than inFitzgeraldas short fiction. Spanning the early twentieth-centuryAmerican landscape, this original collection captures, withFitzgeraldas signature blend of enchantment and disillusionment,America during the Jazz Age.

From the moment these two legendary players took the court onopposing sides, they engaged in a fierce physical and psychologicalbattle. In Celtic green was Larry Bird, the hick from French Lick,with laser-beam focus, relentless determination, and a deadly jumpshot, a player who demanded excellence from everyone around him andwhose caustic wit left opponents quaking in their high-tops. MagicJohnson was Mr. Showtime, a magnetic personality with all the rightmoves. Young, indomitable, he was a pied piper in purple and gold.And he burned with an inextinguishable desire to win. Their uncommonly competitive relationship came to symbolize themost thrilling rivalry in the NBA—East vs. West, physical vs.finesse, old school vs. Showtime, even white vs. black. Each pushedthe other to greatness, and together Bird and Johnson collectedeight NBA Championships and six MVP awards, helping to save afloundering NBA. At the start they were bitter rivals, but alongthe way they became lifelong friends.

**DEBUT FICTION** Mary Todd Lincoln is one of history's mostmisunderstood and enigmatic women. The first president's wife to becalled First Lady, she was a political strategist, a supporter ofemancipation, and a mother who survived the loss of three childrenand the assassination of her beloved husband. Yet she also ran herfamily into debt, held seances in the White House, and wascommitted to an insane asylum. In Janis Cooke Newman's debut novel,Mary Todd Lincoln shares the story of her life in her own words.Writing from Bellevue Place asylum, she takes readers from hertempestuous childhood in a slaveholding Southern family through theyears after her husband's death. A dramatic tale filled withpassion and depression, poverty and ridicule, infidelity andredemption, Mary allows us entry into the inner, intimate world ofthis brave and fascinating woman.

Hans Christian Andersen was the profoundly imaginative writerand storyteller who revolutionized literature for children. He gaveus the now standard versions of some traditional fairy tales - withan anarchic twist - but many of his most famous tales sprangdirectly from his imagination. The thirty stories here range fromexuberant early works such as "The Tinderbox" and "The Emperor'sNew Clothes" through poignant masterpieces such as "The LittleMermaid" and "The Ugly Duckling," to more subversive later talessuch as "The Ice maiden" and "The Wood Nymph."

This unusual fictional account, in good part autobiographical,narrates without self-pity and often with humor the adventures of apenniless British writer among the down-and-out of two greatcities. In the tales of both cities we learn some soberingOrwellian truths about poverty and society.

Alan Lee, the Oscar-winning conceptual designer for the Lordof the Rings movie trilogy, discusses his approach to depictingTolkien's imaginary world. The book presents more than 150 of Lee'scelebrated illustrations to show how his imagery for both theillustrated Lord of the Rings and the films progressed from conceptto finished art. In addition, the book contains 20 full-colorplates and numerous examples of the conceptual art produced forPeter Jackson's film adaptation. The Lord of the Rings Sketchbookprovides a wealth of background information and will be of interestto those who know and love Tolkien's work, from books to films toDVDs, as well as to budding artists and illustrators interested inhow to approach book illustration.

An astonishing technique for recovering and cloning dinosaurDNA has been discovered. Creatures once extinct now roam JurassicPark, soon-to-be opened as a theme park. Until something goeswrong...and science proves a dangeroustoy...."Wonderful...Powerful."THE WASHINGTON POST BOOK WORLD "Fromthe Paperback edition."

A city is hit by an epidemic of "white blindness" which sparesno one. Authorities confine the blind to an empty mental hospital,but there the criminal element holds everyone captive, stealingfood rations and raping women. There is one eyewitness to thisnightmare who guides seven strangers-among them a boy with nomother, a girl with dark glasses, a dog of tears-through the barrenstreets, and the procession becomes as uncanny as the surroundingsare harrowing. A magnificent parable of loss and disorientation anda vivid evocation of the horrors of the twentieth century,Blindness has swept the reading public with its powerful portrayalof man's worst appetites and weaknesses-and man's ultimatelyexhilarating spirit. The stunningly powerful novel of man's will tosurvive against all odds, by the winner of the 1998 Nobel Prize forLiterature

Originally subtitled "An Adventurous Education, 1935-1946",this book is a key volume in Kerouac's lifework, the series ofautobiographical novels he referred to as The Legend of Duluoz. Awonderfully unassuming look back at the origins of his career--aprehistory of the Beat era, written from the perspective of thepsychedelic '60s.

First published in 1938, The Hobbit is a story that "grew inthe telling," and many characters and events in the published bookare completely different from what Tolkien first wrote to readaloud to his young sons as part of their "fireside reads." For thefirst time, The History of the Hobbit reproduces the originalversion of one of literature's most famous stories, and includesmany little-known illustrations and previously unpublished maps forThe Hobbit created by Tolkien himself. Also featured are extensiveannotations and commentaries on the date of composition, howTolkien's professional and early mythological writings influencedthe story, the imaginary geography he created, and how he came torevise the book in the years after publication to accommodateevents in The Lord of the Rings.