The Fortress of Solitude is the story of Dylan Ebdus growingup white and motherless in downtown Brooklyn in the 1970s. It's aneighborhood where the entertainments include muggings along withgames of stoopball. In that world, Dylan has one friend, a blackteenager, also motherless, named Mingus Rude. As Lethem follows theknitting and unraveling of their friendship, he creates anoverwhelmingly rich and emotionally gripping canvas of race andclass, superheros, gentrification, funk, hip-hop, graffiti tagging,loyalty, and memory. The Fortress of Solitude" "is the first greaturban coming of age novel to appear in years.

Amazon Best of the Month, August 2010: "The awful thing about life is this:" says Octave to the Marquis in Renoir's Rules of the Game. "Everyone has his reasons." That could be a motto for novelists as well, few more so than Jonathan Franzen, who seems less concerned with creating merely likeable characters than ones who are fully alive, in all their self-justifying complexity. Freedom is his fourth novel, and, yes, his first in nine years since The Corrections. Happy to say, it's very much a match for that great book, a wrenching, funny, and forgiving portrait of a Midwestern family (from St. Paul this time, rather than the fictional St. Jude). Patty and Walter Berglund find each other early: a pretty jock, focused on the court and a little lost off it, and a stolid budding lawyer, besotted with her and almost burdened by his integrity. They make a family and a life together, and, over time, slowly lose track of each other. Their stories align at times with Big Issues--among them mountaintop removal, war pro

From America's most inventive novelist, Jonathan Lethem, comesthis compelling and compulsive riff on the classic detective novel.Lionel Essrog is Brooklyn's very own self-appointed HumanFreakshow, an orphan whose Tourettic impulses drive him to bark,count, and rip apart our language in startling and original ways.Together with three veterans of the St. Vincent's Home for Boys, heworks for small-time mobster Frank Minna's limo service cumdetective agency. Life without Frank Minna, the charismatic King ofBrooklyn, would be unimaginable, so who cares if the tasks he setsthem are, well, not exactly legal. But when Frank is fatallystabbed, one of Lionel's colleagues lands in jail, the other twovie for his position, and the victim's widow skips town. Lionel'sworld is suddenly topsy-turvy, and this outcast who has troubleeven conversing attempts to untangle the threads of the case whiletrying to keep the words straight in his head. Motherless Brooklynis a brilliantly original homage to the classic detective novel b

This unique collection of Twain’s essential short stories andsemiautobiographical narratives is a testament to the author’s vastimagination. Featuring popular tales such as “Jim Smiley and HisJumping Frog” and “The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg,” as well assome delightful excerpts from The Diaries of Adam and Eve, thiscompilation also includes darker works written in the author’stwilight years. These selections illuminate the depth of Twain’sartistry, humor, irony, and narrative genius.

胖查理在伦敦过着正常的生活，当他给住在美国、久已疏远的父亲打电话，请他来参加自己的婚礼时，却发现父亲刚刚过世了。胖查理去佛罗里达参加了父亲的葬礼，于是惊心动魄的故事逐一上演…… 因为他发现两件事：，他的父亲是化作人形的蜘蛛神阿纳西，一个来自非洲的骗子之神；第二，他还有个叫“蜘蛛”的兄弟继承了父亲的部分神力。蜘蛛拥有胖查理所没有的一切优点：幸运、快活、充满自信，还有父亲的如簧巧舌和追求女人的天份。他的出现把胖查理有条不紊的生活被蜘蛛搅得天翻地覆，他偷走了胖查理的工作、未婚妻，甚至是家中好的房间，更糟的是，他还害胖查理被警方当作挪用公款和谋杀客户的嫌疑犯…… 胖查理身陷囹圄，只得回到佛罗里达，试图摆脱兄弟的干扰。他借助于魔法，进入了图腾动物神祗们居住的灵魂世界，但故

They were Easy Company, 101st Army Airborne-the World War IIfighting unit legendary for their bravery against nearlyinsurmountable odds and their loyalty to one another in the face ofdeath. Every soldier in this band of brothers looked to one man forleadership: Major Dick Winters. This is the riveting story of an ordinary man who became anextraordinary hero. After he enlisted in the army's arduous newAirborne division, Winters's natural combat leadership helped himclimb the ranks, but he was never far from his men. Decades later,Stephen E. Ambrose's Band of Brothers made him world-famous. Fullof never-before-published photographs, interviews, and Winters'scandid insights, Biggest Brother is the story of a man who became asoldier, a leader, and a living testament to the valor of the humanspirit.

二十一岁的巴特与十八岁的新兵莫菲，於美国出兵伊拉克前夕于军中相识，两人一见如故，巴特答应莫菲母亲，会平安带著她儿子归来，但二○○五年，只剩巴特独自一人退伍返国。莫菲在伊拉克战场上因饱受死亡威胁，精神崩溃逃出军营，巴特与士官长施大林发现他时，莫菲已遭不明人士虐杀，全身赤裸，不仅眼睛被挖出，耳朵、鼻子被割掉，生殖器也几乎被切断，两人在怕事的心态下将莫菲丢入河中佯装失踪，巴特事后假扮莫菲写了封信给莫菲之母。然而等到巴特退伍回国后，莫菲的尸体浮现在底格里斯河与幼发拉底河的汇流处…… A novel written by a veteran of the war in Iraq, The YellowBirds is the harrowing story of two young soldiers trying to stayalive. "The war tried to kill us in the spring." So begins thispowerful account of friendship and loss. In Al Tafar, Iraq,twenty-one-year old Private Bartle and eighte

This blood-and-thunder tale, lifelike and thoroughly cynical, certainly carries the ring of authenticity ... a great triumph.' - Independent The exciting thriller that has Westminster buzzing. Here is a political thriller writer with a marvellous inside track knowledge of government.' - Daily Express It has pace, a beguiling authenticity and a cast of Achilles heels.' - Daily Telegraph What a brilliant creation F.U. is.' - Sunday Telegraph

Jim Marlow and his strange-looking Martian friend Willis wereallowed to travel only so far. But one day Willis unwittingly tunedinto a treacherous plot that threatened all the colonists on Mars,and it set Jim off on a terrfying adventure that could save--ordestroy--them all!

Book De*ion Reissued to coincide with the September Random House release ofThe Last Don, here is the sweeping saga of a family and of itsleader, a friendly and reasonable man who just happens to be thedeadliest gang leader in the Cosa Nostra. Amazon.com The story of Don Vito Corleone, the head of a New York Mafiafamily, inspired some of the most successful movies ever. It is inMario Puzo's The Godfather that Corleone first appears. AsCorleone's desperate struggle to control the Mafia underworldunfolds, so does the story of his family. The novel is full ofexquisitely detailed characters who, despite leading unconventionallifestyles within a notorious crime family, experience the triumphsand failures of the human condition. Filled with the requisitevalor, love, and rancor of a great epic, The Godfather is thedefinitive gangster novel. From Library Journal Diehard Godfather fans play second banana to no other subculturein their obsession with the minutiae of Puz

Who's testing whom? When Kris Kelvin arrives at the planetSolaris to study the ocean that covers its surface, he is forced toconfront a painful, hitherto unconscious memory embodied in theliving physical likeness of a long-dead lover. Others examining theplanet, Kelvin learns, are plagued with their own repressed andnewly corporeal memories. Scientists speculate that the Solarisocean may be a massive brain that creates these incarnate memories,its purpose in doing so unknown.The first of Lem's novels to bepublished in America and now considered a classic, SOLARIS raises aquestion: Can we truly understand the universe around us withoutfirst understanding what lies within?

Tom Hanks introduces the “remarkable”( PublishersWeekly ) story of two inseparable friends and soldiers portrayedin the HBO miniseries Band ofBrothers . William “Wild Bill” Guarnere andEdward “Babe” Heffron were among the first paratroopers of the U.S.Army—members of an elite unit of the 101st Airborne Division calledEasy Company. The crack unit was called upon for every high-riskoperation of the war, including D-Day, Operation Market Garden inHolland, the Battle of the Bulge, and the capture of Hitler’sEagle’s Nest in Berchtesgaden. Both men fought side by side—untilGuarnere lost his leg in the Battle of the Bulge and was sent home.Heffron went on to liberate concentration camps and take Hitler’sEagle’s Nest hideout. United by their experience, they reconnectedat the war’s end and have been best friends ever since. Their storyis a tribute to the lasting bond forged between comrades inarms—and to all those who fought for freedom.

You love the boy body and soul, plainly, directly, as he lovesyou ...'. Lucy has her rigid, middle-class life mapped out for heruntil she visits Florence with her uptight cousin Charlotte, andfinds her neatly ordered existence thrown off balance. Her eyes areopened by the unconventional characters she meets at the PensionBertolini: flamboyant romantic novelist Eleanor Lavish, the CockneySignora, curious Mr Emerson and, most of all, his passionate sonGeorge. Lucy finds herself torn between the intensity of life inItaly and the repressed morals of Edwardian England, personified inher terminally dull fiance Cecil Vyse. Will she ever learn tofollow her own heart? "A Room with a View" is a sunny, brilliantlywitty comedy of manners.

Trurl and Klaupacius are constructor robots who try toout-invent each other. They travel to the far corners of the cosmosto take on freelance problem-solving jobs, with dire consequencesfor their employers. "The most completely successful of hisbooks... here Lem comes closest to inventing a real universe"(Boston Globe). Illustrations by Daniel Mr--z. Translated byMichael Kandel.

All is never what it seems. Schuyler Van Alen is a Blue Blood,one of the city's glamorous vampire elite. Or so she thinks. Herblood legacy has just been called into question: is she a BlueBlood or is it the more sinister Silver Blood that runs throughher veins? The stakes are high, the Battle is bloody; and throughit all Schuyler must choose between duly and passion, love andfreedom.

First published in 1934, "Border Town" brings to life the story of Cuicui, a young country girl coming of age during a time of national turmoil. Like any teenager, Cuicui dreams of romance and finding true love. She's spellbound by the local custom of nighttime serenades, and she is deftly pursued by two eligible brothers. But Cuicui is also haunted by the imminent death of her grandfather, a poor and honorable ferryman who is her only family. As she grows up, Cuicui discovers that life is full of the unexpected and that she alone will make the choices that determine her destiny. A moving testament to the human spirit, "Border Town" is a beautifully written novel, considered Shen Congwen's masterpiece for its brilliant portrayal of Chinese rural life before the Communist revolution.

It is more than a century since the ascetic, gaunt and enigmatic detective, Sherlock Holmes, made his first appearance in A Study in Scarlet. From 1891, beginning with The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, the now legendary and pioneering Strand Magazine began serialising Arthur Conan Doyle's matchless tales of detection, featuring the incomparable sleuth patiently assisted by his doggedly loyal and lovably pedantic friend and companion, Dr Watson. The stories are illustrated by the remarkable Sydney Paget from whom our images of Sherlock Holmes and his world derive and who first equipped Holmes with his famous deerstalker hat. The literary cult of Sherlock Holmes shows no sign of fading with time as each new generation comes to love and revere the penetrating mind and ruthless logic which were the undoing of so many Victorian master criminals.

When the Good Friday peace accords are shattered by threesavage acts of terrorism, Northern Ireland is blown back into thedepths of conflict. And after his father-in-law is nominated tobecome the new American ambassador to London, retired CIA agentMichael Osbourne is drawn back into the game. He soon discoversthat his father-in-law is marked for execution. And that he himselfis once again in the crosshairs of a killer known as October, oneof the most merciless assassins the world has ever known...

Peter Pan, the "boy who would not grow up," originally appearedas a baby living a magical life among birds and fairies in J.M.Barrie’s sequence of stories, Peter Pan in KensingtonGardens . His later role as flying boy hero was brought to thestage by Barrie in the beloved play Peter Pan , which openedin 1904 and became the novel Peter and Wendy in 1911. In anarrative filled with vivid characters, epic battles, pirates,fairies, and fantastic imagination, Peter Pan’s adventures capturethe spirit of childhood— and of rebellion against the role ofadulthood in conventional society. This edition includes the novel and the stories, as well as anintroduction by eminent scholar Jack Zipes. Looking at the manbehind Peter Pan and sifting through the psychologicalinterpretations that have engaged many a critic, Zipes explores thelarger cultural and literary contexts in which we should appreciateBarrie’s enduring creation and shows why Peter Pan is a worknot for children but for adults seeking to reconnect

In Storybrooke, Maine, Emma Swan and Mary Margaret Blanchardare friends and roommates. They're united in their mission to makelife better for Henry, Emma's young son, who has been raised byStorybrooke's vicious mayor, Regina Mills. Henry is convinced thatMary Margaret and Emma are more than just roommates, however. Hebelieves they're family-mother and daughter fairy-tale charactersexiled from their enchanted forest by an evil curse. And he'sright: Mary Margaret is Snow White, and Emma is her daughter. In this companion book to the hit ABC television show Once Upon ATime, Emma and Snow tell their own stories, in their own words, forthe first time. With Emma relating her time in Storybrooke and Snownarrating the events of fairytale land, present and future fans ofthe show will get a whole new look at their favorite characters andstories. Show de*ion from ABC: "From the inventive minds of Lost executive producers AdamHorowitz and Edward Kitsis, the show is a bold new

Omar Khayyam Shakil had three mothers whoshared the symptoms of pregnancy, as they dideverything else, inseparably. At their six breasts,Omar was warned against all feelings and nuancesof shame. It was training which would prove usefulwhen he left his mothers' fortress (via the dumb-waiter) to face his shameless future. As captivatingfairy-tale, devastating political satire and exquisite,uproarious entertainment, shame is a novelwithout rival.

A collection of stories, whose characters give voice to thevibrant and varied life on both sides of the Mexican border. Thewomen in these stories offer tales of pure discovery, filled withmoments of infinite and intimate wisdom.

Marcovaldo is an unskilled worker in a drab industrial city innorthern Italy. He is an irrepressible dreamer and an inveterateschemer. Much to the puzzlement of his wife, his children, hisboss, and his neighbors, he chases his dreams-but the results arenever the expected ones. Translated by William Weaver. A Helen andKurt Wolff Book