TAO TE CHING IS ANCIENT CHINA'S GREAT CONTRIBUTION TO THE LITERATURE OF PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, AND MYSTICISM. TAO TE CHING CONTAINS THE TIME-HONORED TEACHINGS OFTAOISM AND BRINGSA MESSAGE OF LIVING SIMPLY, FINDING CONTENTMENT WITH A MINIMUM OFCOMFORT, AND PRIZING CULTURE ABOVE ALL ELSE. THIS IS THE LAUDED TRANSLATION OF THE EIGHTY-ONE POEMS CONSTITUTING AN EASTERN CLASSIC, THE MYSTICAL AND MORALTEACHINGS OF WHICH HAVE PROFOUNDLY INFLUENCED THE SACRED SCRIPTURES OF MANY RELIGIONS--AND THE LIVES AND HAPPINESS OF COUNTLESS MEN AND WOMEN THROUGH THE CENTURIES. TRANSLATED AND WITH AN INTRODUCTION BYR. B. BLAKNEY AND WITHANEWAFTERWORD BY RICHARD JOHN LYNN

Herbert Mason's best-selling Gilgamesh is the most widely readand enduring interpretation of this ancient Babylonian epic. One ofthe oldest and most universal stories known in literature, the epicof Gilgamesh presents the grand, timeless themes of love and death,loss and reparations within the stirring tale of a hero-king andhis doomed friend. A finalist for the National Book Award, Mason'sretelling is at once a triumph of scholarship, a masterpiece ofstyle, and a labor of love that grew out of the poet's longaffinity with the original.

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

Selden Edwards, apparently, took 35 years to write this dismal piece of drivel. He started writing at age 25, but I suspect that he conceived the idea at the age of 15. How else to explain the wholly un-ironic adoption of the puerile schoolboy nickname for the main character's guru - the Venerable Haze, a.k.a. the Haze - throughout the book? On page 6, Mr Edwards employs the word 'momentarily' to mean 'in a moment' - when in fact it means 'for a moment'. I would say that if it is English teaching that he has recently retired from, then it is just as well that he has retired. Time travel, I can (only just) live with, but the plot is contrived, and the story wholly devoid of humour, takes itself far too seriously, and employs tortured coincidences to allow the hero to make his way through life in 19th Century 'fin de siecle' (he loves that term!) Vienna. I managed 36 pages of this rubbish, and then gave up in disgust. I trust that Mr Edwards, if he ever does write another novel, will again take 35 years t

An acknowledged masterpiece, this is the story of seven generations of the Buendía family and of Macondo, the town they have built. Though little more than a settlement surrounded by mountains, Macondo has its wars and disasters, even its wonders and miracles. A microcosm of Columbian life, its secrets lie hidden, encoded in a book and only Aureliano Buendía can fathom its mysteries and reveal its shrouded destiny. Blending political reality with magic realism, fantasy with comic invention, One Hundred Years of Solitude is one of the most daringly original works of the twentieth century.

In his most brilliant and powerful novel, Pat Conroy tells thestory of Tom Wingo, his twin sister, Savannah, and the dark andviolent past of the family into which they were born. Set in NewYork City and the lowcountry of South Carolina, the novel openswhen Tom, a high school football coach whose marriage and careerare crumbling, flies from South Carolina to New York after learningof his twin sister's suicide attempt. Savannah is one of the mostgifted poets of her generation, and both the cadenced beauty of herart and the jumbled cries of her illness are clues to thetoo-long-hidden story of her wounded family. In the paneled officesand luxurious restaurants of New York City, Tom and SusanLowenstein, Savannah's psychiatrist, unravel a history of violence,abandonment, commitment, and love. And Tom realizes that trying tosave his sister is perhaps his last chance to save himself. Withpassion and a rare gift of language, the author moves from presentto past, tracing the amazing history of the Wingos from Wo

Kikuji has been invited to a tea ceremony by a mistress of hisdead father. He is shocked to find there the mistress's rival andsuccessor, Mrs. Ota, and that the ceremony has been awkwardlyarranged for him to meet his potential future bride. But he is mostshocked to be drawn into a relationship with Mrs. Ota - arelationship that will bring only suffering and destruction to allof them. "Thousand Cranes" reflects the tea ceremony's poeticprecision with understated, lyrical style and beautiful prose.

Brand New Book with Free Worldwide Delivery. This is a storyof heroism, love, honour, loyalty and betrayal, reaching from theoffice of the Hat Creek Cattle Company of the Rio Grande to theheart and the wilderness of the American West. This book won thePulitzer Prize.

A nineteenth-century American travels back in time to sixth-century England in this darkly comic social satire. THIS ENRICHED CLASSIC EDITION INCLUDES: A concise introduction that gives the reader important background information A chronology of the author's life and work A timeline of significant events that provides the book's historical context An outline of key themes and plot points to guide the reader's own interpretations Detailed explanatory notes Critical analysis, including contemporary and modern perspectives on the work Discussion questions to promote lively classroom and book group interaction A list of recommended related books and films to broaden the reader's experience Enriched Classics offer readers affordable editions of great works of literature enhanced by helpful notes and insightful commentary. The scholarship provided in Enriched Classics enables readers to appreciate, understand, and enjoy the world's finest books to the

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.

There's a saying at Hollywood Station that the full moonbrings out the beast--rather than the best--in the precinct'scitizens. One moonlit night, veteran officers Dana Vaughn and"Hollywood" Nate Weiss get a call about a prowler who's beenbrutally attacking women. Meanwhile, a pair of cops with the surfersobriquets Flotsam and Jetsam are on the lookout for asmooth-talking player in dreads and a crazy-eyed, tattooed biker.But something bigger, more high-tech, and much more deadly is aboutto go down. After a dizzying series of twists, turns, and chases,the cops discover that they've stumbled upon a complex web of crimewhere even the criminals aren't sure who's conning whom. And forsome of the men and women in blue, public duty will exact theheaviest of tolls.

With an Introduction by Richard Jenseth, St Lawrence University The Red Badge of Courage is one of the greatest war novels of all time. It reports on the American Civil War through the eyes of Henry Fleming, an ordinary farm boy turned soldier. It evokes the chaos and the dull clatter of war: the acrid smoke, the incessant rumours of coming battles, the filth and cold, the numbing monotony, the unworldly wailing of the dying. Like an impressionist painter, Crane also captures the strange beauty of war: the brilliant red flags against a blue sky, steel bayonets flashing in the morning sun as soldiers step off into battle. In the midst of this chaotic outer world, he creates an intricate inner world as he takes us inside the head of Henry Fleming.

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".

In this nightmare vision of a not-too-distant future, fifteen-year-old Alex and his three friends rob, rape, torture and murder - for fun. Alex is jailed for his vicious crimes and the State undertakes to reform him - but how and at what cost?

Following the tremendous popular success of Jane Eyre, which earned her lifelong notoriety as a moral revolutionary, Charlotte Bront vowed to write a sweeping social chronicle that focused on "something real and unromantic as Monday morning." Set in the industrializing England of the Napoleonic wars and Luddite revolts of 1811-12, Shirley (1849) is the story of two contrasting heroines. One is the shy Caroline Helstone, who is trapped in the oppressive atmosphere of a Yorkshire rectory and whose bare life symbolizes the plight of single women in the nineteenth century. The other is the vivacious Shirley Keeldar, who inherits a local estate and whose wealth liberates her from convention. A work that combines social commentary with the more private preoccupations of Jane Eyre, Shirley demonstrates the full range of Bront 's literary talent. "Shirley is a revolutionary novel," wrote Bront biographer Lyndall Gordon. "Shirley follows Jane Eyre as a new exemplar--but so much a forerunner of the femini

Once in a generation a novel comes along that taps a vein ofuniversal human experience, resonating with readers of all ages.THE LOVELY BONES is such a book -- a #1 bestseller celebrated atonce for its artistry, for its luminous clarity of emotion, and forits astonishing power to lay claim to the hearts of millions ofreaders around the world. "My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie. I wasfourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973." So begins the story of Susie Salmon, who is adjusting to her newhome in heaven, a place that is not at all what she expected, evenas she is watching life on earth continue without her -- herfriends trading rumors about her disappearance, her killer tryingto cover his tracks, her grief-stricken family unraveling. Out ofunspeakable tragedy and loss, THE LOVELY BONES succeeds,miraculously, in building a tale filled with hope, humor, suspense,even joy. The major motion picture version of THE LOVELY BONES, directed byPeter Jackson and starring

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

As special assistant to the president, Arthur Schlesingerwitnessed firsthand the politics and personalities that influencedthe now legendary Kennedy administration. Schlesinger's closerelationship with JFK, as a politician and as a friend, hasresulted in this authoritative yet intimate account in which thepresident "walks through the pages, from first to last, alert,alive, amused and amusing" (John Kenneth Galbraith). A THOUSANDDAYS is "at once a masterly literary achievement and a work ofmajor historical significance" (New York Times).

From the award-winning author of "A Year on Ladybug Farm" comesthe continuing story of three women who learn what it takes to turna house into a home. A year after taking the chance of a lifetime,Cici, Lindsay, and Bridget are still trying to make a home forthemselves on the newly-renovated Ladybug Farm. Life in theShenandoah Valley is picturesque, but filled with unexpectedtrials- such as the introduction of two young people into theordered life the women have tried to build for themselves. As thewalls of the old house reveal their secrets and the lives of thosewho have gone before begin to unfold, the cobbled-togetherhousehold starts to disintegrate into chaos. And when one of theirmembers is threatened by a real crisis, they must all come togetherto fight for the roots they've laid down, the hopes they share, andthe family they've become.

The author of Leviathan returns with a dazzling, picaresque,new novel in which Walter Claireborne Rawley, now an octogenarian,recounts his extraordinary vaudevillian adventures as "Walt theWonder Boy" in 1924. "One hears every page of this novel, and seesit as well".--Washington Post.

Hired by a Massachusetts grand dame to prove the innocence of her grandson, who has been implicated in a school shooting during which seven people were killed, Spenser wonders why the boy seems unconcerned about his possible wrongful imprisonment and faces difficult obstacles in the wake of unhelpful school officials and a blackmail conspiracy.