It's easy to dismiss taxidermy as a kitschy or morbidsideline, the realm of trophy fish and jackalopes or ananachronistic throwback to the dusty diorama. Yet theirs is a worldof intrepid hunter-explorers, eccentric naturalists, and giftedmuseum artisans, all devoted to the paradoxical pursuit of creatingthe illusion of life.Into this subculture of insanely passionateanimal lovers ventures journalist Melissa Milgrom, whose journeystretches from the anachronistic family workshop of the last chieftaxidermist for the American Museum of Natural History to thestudio where an English sculptor, granddaughter of a surrealistartist, preserves the animals for Damien Hirst's most disturbingartworks. She wanders through Mr. Potter's Museum of Curiosities inthe final days of its existence to watch dealers vie for preservedVictorian oddities, and visits the Smithsonian's offsite lab, wheretaxidermists transform zoo skins into vivacious beasts. She tagsalong with a Canadian bear trapper and former Roy Orbisonimpersona

GOSSIP FROM THRUSH GREEN returns readers to the delightfulEnglish village, neighbor to Fairacre, for a golden summer. Butthis sleepy, pristine setting conceals a flurry of activity amongstthe villagers. Rumor has it that Mr. Venables is consideringretirement just as the village's teacher is about to make animportant decision. Molly Curdle prepares for a new baby. Thekindly vicar, Charles Henstock, works on his sermon -- quiteunaware of the disaster that will overtake him. However, there isnever any doubt that all will end well in this very Englishvillage.

Bennie Ford, a fifty-three-year-old failed poet turnedtranslator, is traveling to his estranged daughter's wedding whenhis flight is canceled. Stuck with thousands of fuming passengersin the purgatory of O'Hare International Airport, he watches theclock tick and realizes that he will miss the ceremony. Frustrated,irate, and helpless, Bennie does the only thing he can: he startsto write a letter. But what begins as a hilariously excoriatingdemand for a refund soon becomes a lament for a life gone awry, foryears misspent, talent wasted, and happiness lost. Bennie's writingis infused with a sense of remorse for the actions of alifetime--and made all the more urgent by the fading hope that ifhe can just make it to the wedding, he might have a chance to dosomething right. A margarita blend of outrage, humor,vulnerability, intelligence, and regret, "Dear American Airlines"gives new meaning to the term "airport novel" and announces theemergence of a major new talent in American fiction.

Rheinhardt, a disk jockey and failed musician, rolls into NewOrleans looking for work and another chance in life. What he findsis a woman physically and psychically damaged by the men in herpast and a job that entangles him in a right-wing politicalmovement. Peopled with civil rights activists, fanaticalChristians, corrupt politicians, and demented Hollywood stars, AHall of Mirrors vividly depicts the dark side of America thaterupted in the sixties. To quote Wallace Stegner, "Stone writeslike a bird, like an angel, like a circus barker, like a con man,like someone so high on pot that he is scraping his shoes on thestars."

America is currently looking to the family tosolve the ills of modern-day society. This book provides parentswith the tools to instill character in their children--throughcaring, communication and example. Includes chapters on empathy,helpfulness, fairness, caring, courage, respect, loyalty, and muchmore.

Times are changing in the charming downland village of Fairacre,and Miss Read isn't certain that it's all for the best. The newcommuter lifestyle has caused a drop in attendance at the localschool, and officials are threatening closure. Miss Read worriesabout the failing health of Dolly Clare. Vegetable gardens havegiven way to trips to the Caxley markets, and the traditionalvillage fete now includes a prize for best quiche. With hertrademark patience and good humor, Miss Read hopes for the best andplans for the worst as the village grows increasingly modern.Despite all the innovations, Fairacre still retains its essentialelements: gentle wit, good manners, and the comfort of caringneighbors.

On the eve of World War II, in a place called Half-Village, ayoung man nicknamed the Pigeon falls in love with a girl fabled forher angelic looks. To court Anielica Hetmanska he offers up his"golden hands" to transform her family's modest hut into abeautiful home, thereby building his way into her heart.Then wararrives to cut short their courtship, delay their marriage, andwreak havoc in all their lives, even sending the young lovers farfrom home, to the promise of a new life in Krakow.Nearly fiftyyears later, their granddaughter, Beata, repeats their postwarjourney, seeking a new life in the fairy-tale city of hergrandmother's stories. But when she arrives in Krakow, instead ofthe whispered prosperity of the New Poland, she discovers a citycaught between its future and its past.Whimsical, wise, beautiful,magical, and at times heartbreaking, "A Long, Long Time Ago andEssentially True" weaves together two remarkable stories,reimagining half a century of Polish history through the legacy ofone unforgettable lo

In "Hi Howya Doin " an intrusive jogger meets with an abruptfate; in "The Man Who Fought Roland LaStarza" a young woman'sromantic view of her girlhood is devastated by her father'sconfessions; and in "Valentine, July Heat Wave" a man prepares agruesome surprise for the wife who has betrayed him. In the titlestory, a young woman tries to rescue her mother from the museum ofDr. Moses--with unexpected results. And the children of a notoriousserial killer struggle to "decode" the patterns behind theirfather's seemingly random acts in "Bad Habits." In these and othersuspenseful stories, Joyce Carol Oates explores with chillingaccuracy the ways in which evil enters our lives. "The Museum ofDr. Moses" is another masterpiece from "one of the great artisticforces of our time" ("The Nation").

The second book in Robert Jordan's internationally bestsellingepic fantasy series, THE WHEEL OF TIME, now reissued with astunning new cover design. The Forsaken are loose, the Horn ofValere has been found and the Dead are rising from their dreamlesssleep. The Prophecies are being fulfilled - but Rand al' Thor, theshepherd the Aes Sedai have proclaimed as the Dragon Reborn,desperately seeks to escape his destiny. Rand cannot run forever.With every passing day the Dark One grows in strength and strivesto shatter his ancient prison, to break the Wheel, to bring an endto Time and sunder the weave of the Pattern. And the Patterndemands the Dragon. Look out for more information on this title andothers at www.orbitbooks.co.uk

Released from prison, Shadow finds his world turned upside down. His wife has been a mysterious stranger offers him a job. But Mr. Wednesday, who knows more about Shadow than is possible, warns that a storm is coming -- a battle for the very soul of America . . . and they are in its direct path. One of the most talked-about books of the new millennium, American Gods is a kaleidoscopic journey deep into myth and across an American landscape at once eerily familiar and utterly alien. It is, quite simply, a contemporary masterpiece.

Caryl Phillips’ ambitious and powerful novel spans two hundred and fifty years of the African Diaspora. It tracks two brothers and a sister on their separate journeys through different epochs and continents: one as a missionary to Liberia in the 1830s.one a pioneer on a wagon trail to the American west later that century, and one a Gl posted to a Yorkshire village in the Second World War. Crossing the River won the James Tait Black Memorial Award in 1994, and was shortlist for the 1993Booker Prize. Caryl Phillips exploration of the relations between black and white is nuanced, humane,and sympathetic ,And his deep awareness of the historical proess is combined with an exceptionally inteligent prose style-clear,unecumbered,and compassionate'New Statesman& Society.

Drawing on her investigative and literary talents, JuliaKeller offers a riveting account of the invention of the world'sfirst working machine gun. Through her portrait of itsmisunderstood creator, Richard Jordan Gatling-who naively hopedthat the overwhelming effectiveness of a multiple-firing weaponwould save lives by decreasing the size of armies and reducing thenumber of soldiers needed to fight-Keller draws profound parallelsto the scientists who would unleash America's atomic arsenal half acentury later. The Gatling gun, in its combination of ingenuity,idealism, and destructive power, perfectly exemplifies the paradoxof America's rise in the nineteenth century to a worldsuperpower.

Passionate and perceptive, the three short novels that make upBalzac's "History of the Thirteen" are concerned in part with theactivities of a rich, powerful, sinister and unscrupulous secretsociety in nineteenth-century France. While the deeds of "TheThirteen" remain frequently in the background, however, theindividual novels are concerned with exploring various forms ofdesire. A tragic love story, Ferragus depicts a marriage destroyedby suspicion, revelation and misunderstanding. The Duchess deLangeais explores the anguish that results when a society coquettetries to seduce a heroic ex-soldier, while "The Girl with theGolden Eyes" offers a frank consideration of desire and sexuality.Together, these works provide a firm and fascinating foundation forBalzac's many later portrayals of Parisian life in his greatnovel-cycle "The Human Comedy".

The New York Times bestseller that followsthe making of five films at a pivotal time in Hollywoodhistory In the mid-1960s, westerns, war movies, andblockbuster musicals like Mary Poppins swept the box office.The Hollywood studio system was astonishingly lucrative for the fewwho dominated the business. That is, until the tastes of Americanmoviegoers radically- and unexpectedly-changed. By the Oscarceremonies of 1968, a cultural revolution had hit Hollywood withthe force of a tsunami, and films like Bonnie and Clyde, TheGraduate, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, In the Heat of theNight , and box-office bomb Doctor Doolittle signaled achange in Hollywood-and America. And as an entire industry changedand struggled, careers were suddenly made and ruined, studios grewand crumbled, and the landscape of filmmaking was altered beyondall recognition.

Jane Goodall's account of her life among the wild chimpanzees ofGombe is one of the most enthralling stories of animal behaviorever written. Her adventure began when the famous anthropologistLouis Leakey suggested that a long-term study of chimpanzees in thewild might shed light on the behavior of our Stone Age ancestors.Accompanied by only her mother and her African assistants, she setup camp in the remote Gombe Stream Chimpanzee Reserve in Tanzania.For months the project seemed hopeless; out in the jungle from dawnuntil dark, she had but fleeting glimpses of frightened animals. Atlast came the day when she was accepted and no longer feared. Shewas able to record previously unknown behavior, such as theuse--and even the making--of tools, until then believed to be anexclusive skill of man. As she came to know the chimps asindividuals, she deciphered their complicated social hierarchy,their rituals, and many other extraordinary behaviors, which haveforever changed our understanding of the profound connectionb

Offers a detailed, fact-filled examination of the AirborneTask Force, complete with exclusive photographs, illustrations,diagrams, and an extensive interview with the commander of the 18thAirborne Corps, General John Keen. Original."

The third book in Robert Jordan's internationally bestsellingepic fantasy series, THE WHEEL OF TIME, now reissued with astunning new cover design. The Land is One with the Dragon - andthe Dragon is One with the Land The Shadow lies across the Patternof the Age, and the Dark One has turned all his power against theprison that binds him. If it fails he will escape and nothing willstand in the storm that blows then ...save the man that was born tobattle the darkness: Rand al' Thor, the Dragon Reborn. But to wagehis war Rand must find Callandor, ancient Sword of the Dragon...and the Forsaken will shatter the world to thwart him. Look outfor more information about this title and others atwww.orbitbooks.co.uk

Kerouac's gritty, moving take on the destruction of his ownmyth, as the King of the Beats approaches middle age! Unmistakablyautobiographical, Big Sur, Kerouac's ninth novel, was written asthe 'King of the Beats' was approaching middle-age and reflects hisstruggle to come to terms with his own myth. The magnificent andmoving story of Jack Duluoz, a man blessed by great talent andcursed with an urge towards self-destruction, Big Sur is at onceKerouac's toughest and his most humane work.

"Seeds of Terror" is a groundbreaking triumph of reporting, a book that changed U.S. policy toward the Afghan heroin trade and the fight against terror. In it, Gretchen Peters exposes the deepening relationship between the Taliban and drug traffickers, and traces decades of America's failure to disrupt the opium production that helps fund extremism. The Taliban earns as much as half a billion dollars annually from drugs and crime, and Peters argues that disrupting this flow of dirty money will be critical to stabilizing Afghanistan. Based on hundreds of interviews with fighters, smugglers, and government officials, "Seeds of Terror" is the essential story of the narco-terror nexus behind America's widening war in Afghanistan.