Jay Gatsby is the man who has everything. But one thing will always be out of his reach ... Everybody who is anybody is seen at his glittering parties. Day and night his Long Island mansion buzzes with bright young things drinking, dancing and debating his mysterious character. For Gatsby - young, handsome, fabulously rich - always seems alone in the crowd, watching and waiting, though no one knows what for. Beneath the shimmering surface of his life he is hiding a secret: a silent longing that can never be fulfilled. And soon this destructive obsession will force his world to unravel.

In his debut novel， The Kite Runner， Khaled Hosseini accomplishes what very few contemporary novelists are able to do。 He manages to provide an educational and eye-opening account of a country’s political turmoil--in this case， Afghanistan--while also developing characters whose heartbreaking struggles and emotional triumphs resonate with readers long after the last page has been turned over。 And he does this on his first try。 The Kite Runner follows the story of Amir， the privileged son of a wealthy businessman in Kabul， and Hassan， the son of Amir’s father’s servant。 As children in the relatively stable Afghanistan of the early 1970s， the boys are inseparable。 They spend idyllic days running kites and telling stories of mystical places and powerful warriors until an unspeakable event changes the nature of their relationship forever， and eventually cements their bond in ways neither boy could have ever predicted。 Even after Amir and his father flee to America， Amir r

At the dawn of the next World mar, a plane crashes on an uncharted island, stranding a group of schoolboys. At first, with no adult superutsion, their freedom is something to celebrate. This far from Cluilizatlon thep can do anpthing thep want. Rnything. But as order collapses, as strange ho,,,ls echo in the night, as terror begins its reign, the hope of sduenture seems as far remoued from realitp as the hope of being rescued...

From Walt Disney Pictures and visionary director Tim Burton comes a magical re-imagining of one of the most beloved stories of all time. Mia Wasikowska stars as 19-year-old Alice, who returns to the whimsical world she first encountered as a young girl, reuniting with her childhood friends: the White Rabbit, Tweedledee and Tweedledum, the Dormouse, the Caterpillar, the Cheshire Cat, and of course, the Mad Hatter. Alice embarks on a fantastical journey to find her true destiny and end the Red Queen's reign of terror.

Pride & Prejudice Jane Austen constructed Pride & Prejudice, with wit, social precision and an irresistible heroine. Beginning with one of the most famous sentences in English Literature, it is a perfect ironic novel of manners. Persuasion Jane Austen's question 'What is persuasion?' - a firm belief, or the action of persuading someone to think something else? - is the force behind this novel. Anne Elliot, one of Austen's quietest yet strongest heroines, is also open to change. Jane Eyre Charlotte Bronte's poor, plain, but plucky heroine, possesses an indomitable spirit, a sharp wit and great courage. She is forced to battle against a cruel guardian, a harsh employer and a rigid social order. Wuthering Heights Emily Bronte's tale is a wild, passionate story of intense and almost demonic love between Catherine Earnshaw and the adopted foundling Heathcliff. Humiliated by Hindley, Catherine's brother, Heathcliff leaves Wuthering Heights, but in time he returns to exact a terrible revenge. Tess of the d'Urbervill

' This is the most astonishing piece of writing, lyrical in itsemotion and spare in its construction ...Toibin has crafted anunmissable read' - "Sunday Herald". In Blackwater in the early1990s, three women - Dora Devereux, her daughter Lily and hergranddaughter Helen - have come together after years of strife andreached an uneasy truce. Helen's adored brother Declan is dying.Two friends join him and the women in a crumbling old house by thesea, where the six of them, from different generations and withdifferent beliefs, must listen and come to terms with oneanother.'It is in his emotional choreography that Toibin showshimself to be an exceptional writer. Helen is estranged from bothher mother and grandmother ...Toibin helps them make peace - and hedoes it beautifully' - "Sunday Telegraph". 'He writes in spare,powerful prose and he is truly perceptive about familyrelationships which, at times, makes reading his stories incrediblypainful. But this is a beautiful novel' - "Belfast News". 'We shallbe readin

Née en 1967 au Japon, Amélie Nothomb est l'auteur de plusieursautres romans dont Hygiène de l'assassin (1992), Les Catilinaires(1995), Stupeur et tremblements (Grand Prix du roman de l'Académiefran?aise 1999 et Grand Prix des lecteurs du Livre de Poche 2001).Amélie Nothomb conna?t une constance dans le succès qui est en soiun phénomène rare : quinze livres, quinze best-sellers. Célèbrequoique discrète, elle est indiscutablement l'auteur le pluspopulaire de sa génération.

Hailed as a classic upon its first publication in 1934, TheValleys of the Assassins firmly established Freya Stark as oneof her generation's most intrepid explorers. The book chroniclesher travels into Luristan, the mountainous terrain nestled betweenIraq and present-day Iran, often with only a single guide and on ashoestring budget. Stark writes engagingly of the nomadic peoples who inhabit theregion's valleys and brings to life the stories of the ancientkingdoms of the Middle East, including that of the Lords of Alamut,a band of hashish-eating terrorists whose stronghold in the ElburzMountains Stark was the first to document for the RoyalGeographical Society. Her account is at once a highly readabletravel narrative and a richly drawn, sympathetic portrait of apeople told from their own compelling point of view. This edition includes a new Introduction by Jane FletcherGeniesse, Stark's biographer.

Ken Follett has 90 million readers worldwide. The Pillars of theEarth is his bestselling book of all time. Now, eighteen yearsafter the publication of The Pillars of the Earth, Ken Follett haswritten the most-anticipated sequel of the year, World WithoutEnd. In 1989 Ken Follett astonished the literary world with The Pillarsof the Earth, a sweeping epic novel set in twelfth-century Englandcentered on the building of a cathedral and many of the hundreds oflives it affected. Critics were overwhelmed--"it will hold you,fascinate you, surround you" (Chicago Tribune)--and readerseverywhere hoped for a sequel. World Without End takes place in the same town of Kingsbridge, twocenturies after the townspeople finished building the exquisiteGothic cathedral that was at the heart of The Pillars of the Earth.The cathedral and the priory are again at the center of a web oflove and hate, greed and pride, ambition and revenge, but thissequel stands on its own. This time the men and women of anextraordinary cast of charact

Seventeen-year-old Veronica 'Ronnie' Miller's life was turnedupside-down when her parents divorced and her father moved from NewYork City to Wilmington, North Carolina. Three years later, sheremains angry and alienated from her parents, especially her father...until her mother decides it would be in everyone's best interestif she spent the summer in Wilmington with him. Ronnie's father, aformer concert pianist and teacher, is living a quiet life in thebeach town, immersed in creating a work of art that will become thecenterpiece of a local church. The tale that unfolds is anunforgettable story about love in its myriad forms - first love,the love between parents and children - that demonstrates, as onlya Nicholas Sparks novel can, the many ways that deeply feltrelationships can break our hearts ...and heal them.

Captain Gault has decided that his family must leave Lahardane. They are after all Protestants living in the big house in rural Cork, and the country is in turmoil. It is 1921. But 8-year-old Lucy can't bear to leave the seashore, the old house, the woods - so she hatches a plan. It is then that the calamity happens - an accident almost, but so vicious in its consequences that it blights the lives of the Gaults for years to come. Trevor's new novel beautifully evokes rural Ireland and the tensions existing there, but also is Hardy-like in its portrayal of the impact of mere chance on a life.

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

World-renowned Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is summoned to a Swiss research facility to analyze a cryptic symbol seared into the chest of a murdered physicist. What he discovers is unimaginable: a deadly vendetta against the Catholic Church by a centuries-old underground organization -- the Illuminati. Desperate to save the Vatican from a powerful time bomb, Langdon joins forces in Rome with the beautiful and mysterious scientist Vittoria Vetra. Together they embark on a frantic hunt through sealed crypts, dangerous catacombs, deserted cathedrals, and the most secretive vault on earth...the long-forgotten Illuminati lair.

"The Undomestic Goddess is a genuinely funny, sweet book. Kinsella is a comic whiz who consistently delivers what her readers crave: a good read with lots of laughs." ——Miami Herald Workaholic attorney Samantha Sweeting has just done the unthinkable. She's made a mistake so huge, it'll wreck any chance of a partnership. Going into utter meltdown, she walks out of her London office, gets on a train, and ends up in the middle of nowhere. Asking for directions at a big, beautiful house, she's mistaken for an interviewee and finds herself being offered a job as housekeeper. Her employers have no idea they've hired a lawyer - and Samantha has no idea how to work the oven. She can't sew on a button, bake a patato, or get the #@%# ironing board to open. How she takes a deep breath and begins to cope - and finds love - is a story as delicious as the bread she learns to bake. But will her old life ever catch up w

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.

As his fifth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry approaches, 15-year-old Harry Potter is in full-blown adolescence, complete with regular outbursts of rage, a nearly debilitating crush, and the blooming of a powerful sense of rebellion. It's been yet another infuriating and boring summer with the despicable Dursleys, this time with minimal contact from our hero's non-Muggle friends from school. Harry is feeling especially edgy at the lack of news from the magic world, wondering when the freshly revived evil Lord Voldemort will strike. Returning to Hogwarts will be a relief... or will it? The fifth book in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series follows the darkest year yet for our young wizard, who finds himself knocked down a peg or three after the events of last year. Somehow, over the summer, gossip (usually traced back to the magic world's newspaper, the Daily Prophet) has turned Harry's tragic and heroic encounter with Voldemort at the Triwizard Tournament into an excuse to ridicule and d

Sookie Stackhouse is a small-time cocktail waitress in small-town Louisiana. She's quiet, keeps to herself, and doesn't get out much - not because she's not pretty - she's a very cute bubbly blonde - or not interested in a social life. She really is ...but Sookie's got a bit of a disability. She can read minds. And that doesn't make her too dateable. And then along comes Bill: he's tall, he's dark and he's handsome - and Sookie can't 'hear' a word he's thinking. He's exactly the type of guy she's been waiting all her life for. But Bill has a disability of his own: he's fussy about his food, he doesn't like suntans and he's never around during the day ...Yep, Bill's a vampire. Worse than that, he hangs with a seriously creepy crowd, with a reputation for trouble - of the murderous kind. And then one of Sookie's colleagues at the bar is killed, and it's beginning to look like Sookie might be the next victim ...

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.

When successful young Manhattan attorney Emily Haxby ends her happy relationship, just as her boyfriend is on the verge of proposing, she can’t explain to even her closest friends why she did it. As Emily contemplates whether she made a huge mistake, the rest of her world begins to unravel: she is assigned to a multimillion-dollar lawsuit where she must defend the very values she detests by a boss who can’t keep his hands to himself; her grandfather, a feisty octogenarian and the person she cares most about, is losing it, while her emotionally distant father has left her to cope with this alone; and her fading memories of her deceased mother continue to remind her that love doesn’t last forever. How this brave young heroine finally decides to take control of her life and face the fears that have long haunted her ,is the great achievement of Julie Buxbaum’s marvelous first novel. Written with the authority, grace, and wisdom of an author far beyond her years, The Opposite of Love heralds the debu

It's winter break at St Vladimir's, and a massive Strigoi vampire attack has put the school on high alert. This year's trip away from the academy to the wintery peaks of Idaho has suddenly become mandatory. But Rose's troubles seem to follow her wherever she goes - dealing with the pain of knowing that her relationship with her tutor Dimitri can never be, things get even more complicated when one of her closest friends admits his feelings for her. The glittering winter landscape may create the illusion of safety but Rose - and her heart - are in more danger than she ever could have imagined...

Karen Wynn Fonstad's THE ATLAS OF MIDDLE-EARTH is an essentialvolume that will enchant all Tolkien fans. Here is the definitiveguide to the geography of Middle-earth, from its founding in theElder Days through the Third Age, including the journeys of Bilbo,Frodo, and the Fellowship of the Ring. Authentic and updated --nearly one third of the maps are new, and the text is fully revised-- the atlas illuminates the enchanted world created in THESILMARILLION, THE HOBBIT, and THE LORD OF THE RINGS. Hundreds oftwo-color maps and diagrams survey the journeys of the principalcharacters day by day -- including all the battles and keylocations of the First, Second, and Third Ages. Plans andde*ions of castles, buildings, and distinctive landforms aregiven, along with thematic maps describing the climate, vegetation,languages, and population distribution of Middle-earth throughoutits history. An extensive appendix and an index help readerscorrelate the maps with Tolkien's novels.

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.

Sookie's got just a month, before the next full moon, to find out who wants her brother dead - and to stop the fiend! Sookie Stackhouse enjoys her life, mostly. She's a great cocktail waitress in a fun bar; she has a love life, albeit a bit complicated, and most people have come to terms with her telepathy. The problem is, Sookie wants a quiet life - but things just seem to happen to her and her friends. Now her brother Jason's eyes are starting to change: he's about to turn into a were-panther for the first time. She can deal with that, but her normal sisterly concern turns to cold fear when a sniper sets his deadly sights on the local changeling population. She afraid not just because Jason's at risk, but because his new were-brethren suspect Jason may be the shooter. Sookie has until the next full moon to find out who's behind the attacks - unless the killer decides to find her first. The Sookie Stackhouse books are delightful Southern Gothic supernatural mysteries, starring Sookie, the telepathic cocktail