Susan Sontag's On Photography is a seminal and groundbreaking work on the subject. Susan Sontag's groundbreaking critique of photography asks forceful questions about the moral and aesthetic issues surrounding this art form. Photographs are everywhere, and the 'insatiability of the photographing eye' has profoundly altered our relationship with the world. Photographs have the power to shock, idealize or seduce, they create a sense of nostalgia and act as a memorial, and they can be used as evidence against us or to identify us. In these six incisive essays, Sontag examines the ways in which we use these omnipresent images to manufacture a sense of reality and authority in our lives. 'Sontag offers enough food for thought to satisfy the most intellectual of appetites' The Times 'A brilliant analysis of the profound changes photographic images have made in our way of looking at the world, and at ourselves' Washington Post 'The most original and illuminating study of the subject' New Yorker One of America's best-known and most admired writers, Susan Sontag was also a leading commentator on contemporary culture until her death in December 2004. Her books include four novels and numerous works of non-fiction, among them Regarding the Pain of Others , On Photography , Illness as Metaphor , At the Same Time , Against Interpretation and Other Essays and Reborn: Early Diaries 1947-1963 , all of which are published by Penguin. A further eight books, including the collections of essays Under the Sign of Saturn and Where the Stress Falls , and the novels The Volcano Lover and The Benefactor , are available from Penguin Modern Classics.

One of Durkheim's most important works, serving as a model in social theory.

Seventeen-year-old Molly Peskin-Suso knows all about unrequited love, she's lived through it twenty-six times. She crushes hard and crushes often, but always in secret. Because no matter how many times her twin sister, Cassie, tells her to woman up, Molly can't stomach the idea of rejection. So she's careful. Fat girls always have to be careful. Then a cute new girl enters Cassie's orbit, and for the first time ever, Molly's cynical twin is a lovesick mess. Meanwhile, Molly's totally not dying of loneliness, except for the part where she is. Luckily, Cassie's new girlfriend comes with a cute hipster-boy sidekick.

Heartwarming and uplifting novel examining love in all its guises. As a boy, Charlie St Cloud narrowly survived a car crash that killed Sam, his little brother. Years later, still unable to recover from his loss, Charlie has taken a job tending to the lawns and monuments in the New England cemetery where Sam is buried. When he meets Tess Carroll, a captivating, adventurous woman in training for a solo sailing trip around the globe, they discover a beautiful and uncommon connection that, after a violent storm at sea, eventually forces them to choose between death and live, past and present, holding on and letting go. The Death and Life of Charlie St Cloud is a romantic and uplifting novel about second chances and the liberating power of love.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • What might have been ? That tantalizing question propels a woman on a cross-country adventure to reunite with the men she loved and let go, in Danielle Steel’s exhilarating new novel. It all starts with a fall from a ladder, in a firehouse in New York City. The firehouse has been converted into a unique Manhattan home and studio where renowned photographer Madison Allen works and lives after raising three children on her own. But the accident, which happens while Maddie is sorting through long-forgotten personal mementos and photos, results in more than a broken ankle. It changes her life. Spurred by old memories, the forced pause in her demanding schedule, and an argument with her daughter that leads to a rare crisis of confidence, Maddie embarks on a road trip. She hopes to answer questions about the men she loved and might have married—but didn’t—in the years after she was left alone with three young children. Wearing a cast and driving a rented SUV, she sets off to reconnect with three very different men—one in Boston, one in Chicago, and another in Wyoming—to know once and for all if the decisions she made long ago were the right ones. Before moving forward into the future, she is compelled to confront the past. As the miles and days pass, and with each new encounter, Maddie’s life comes into clearer focus and a new future takes shape. A deeply felt story about love, motherhood, family, and fate, Lost and Found is an irresistible new novel from America’s most dynamic storyteller.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • In Danielle Steel’s gripping novel, a reclusive woman opens up her home to her neighbors in the wake of a devastating earthquake, setting off events that reveal secrets, break relationships apart, and bring strangers together to forge powerful new bonds. Meredith White was one of Hollywood’s most recognizable faces. But a personal tragedy cut her acting career short and alienated her from her family. For the last fifteen years, Meredith has been living alone in San Francisco with two trusted caretakers. Then, on a muggy late summer day, a massive earthquake strikes Northern California, plunging the Bay Area into chaos. Without a moment’s hesitation, Meredith invites her stunned and shaken neighbors into her mostly undamaged home as the recovery begins. These people did not even realize that movie star Meredith White was living on their street. Now, they are sharing her mansion, as well as their most closely kept secrets. Without the walls and privacy of their own homes, one by one, new relationships are forged. For every neighbor there is a story, from the doctor whose wife and children fear him, to the beautiful young woman dating a dishonorable man, to the aspiring writer caring for a famous blind musician. In the heart of the crisis, Meredith finds herself venturing back into the world. And thanks to the suspicions and the dogged detective work of a disaster relief volunteer, a former military officer named Charles, a shocking truth about her own world is exposed. Suddenly Meredith sees her isolation, her estranged family, and even her acting career in a whole new light. Filled with powerful human dramas, Neighbors is a penetrating look at how our world can be upended in a moment. In a novel of unforgettable characters and stunning twists, acts of love and courage become the most powerful forces of all.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER In a rich historical novel of family and World War II, #1 New York Times bestselling author Danielle Steel unfurls a powerful saga that spans generations and continents. This is a story of courage, friendship, and fate as two families face the challenges of war . . . and the magnificent stallion that will link them forever. PEGASUS Nicolas von Bingen and Alex von Hemmerle, titled members of the German aristocracy, have been best friends since childhood. Both widowers, they are raising their children—Nick’s two lively boys and Alex’s adored teenage daughter—in peace and luxury on the vast Bavarian estates that have belonged to their families for generations. While Nick indulges in more glamorous pursuits, Alex devotes himself to breeding the renowned white Lipizzaner horses that enthrall audiences throughout Europe with their ability to dance and spin on command, majestic creatures whose bloodlines are rare and priceless. But it is Nicolas’s bloodline that changes everything, when his father receives a warning from a high-ranking contact inside the Wehrmacht. A secret from the past has left the family vulnerable to the rising tide of Nazism: Nick’s mother, whom he never knew, was of Jewish descent. Suddenly Nicolas must flee Germany, wrenching his sons away from the only home they have known, sailing across the Atlantic for a new life in America. Their survival will depend on a precious gift from Alex, their only stake for the future: eight purebred horses, two of them stunning Lipizzaners. In Florida, where Nicolas joins the Ringling Brothers Circus, he becomes Nick Bing, with Alex’s prize white stallion—now named Pegasus—the centerpiece of the show. In this extraordinary book, Danielle Steel tells the story of a family reinventing itself in America, while the country they left behind is engulfed in flames and madness, and men like Alex von Hemmerle are forced to make unbearable choices. Alex’s daughter will find sanctuary in England. In America, Nick will find love, his sons will find a future, and their left-behind world will eventually find them. A novel of hope and sacrifice, of tragedy, challenge, and rebirth, Pegasus is a brilliant family chronicle that unfolds across half a century—a masterwork from one of our most beloved writers.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Handsome, widowed, sophisticated, utterly charming, Paul Parker won the heart of a wealthy young Frenchwoman—the daughter of an American financier, the granddaughter of a major French art dealer—as his second wife. In two marriages, he fathered a challenging son and three very different daughters. But as irresponsible as he was irresistible, he ultimately shrugged off the demands of marriage and parenting to pursue life as an international bon vivant. Raised by their mother with all the care and resolve their father lacked, the three Parker sisters have become vibrant, self-reliant young women: Timmie, the oldest, a fiercely dedicated social worker in New York; sweet, nurturing Juliette, proprietor of a fledgling bakery in Brooklyn; and their younger sister, Joy, who is struggling to build an acting career in Los Angeles. While they love their mostly absent, glamorous father, he has left them with a legacy of impermanence and uncertainty in their own relationships with men. And with no strong role model to guide him, Paul’s son has gone from one failure to another, even while his stepmother makes excuses for him, as he seethes with jealousy of his younger sisters. Now, after a long illness, Paul has slipped away peacefully in his sleep, and his family has gathered together to read his will. As his final wishes are revealed, his son is forced to face reality as an adult. And his daughters see a new side to their father—one that shows a caring man trying to redeem himself with a different, lasting legacy. He has made a very personal bequest to each of his children, carefully designed to help them achieve their own unique dreams and find true happiness. But Paul has saved the biggest surprise for his ex-wife Véronique: a secret from the past that shakes her world and sets her free. He leaves her a gift that remained a mystery for their entire marriage, and she begins a search to discover its history and rightful owner. The story of a man’s last wish to make a difference—and of the loved ones he leaves behind fulfilling their destinies at last— Precious Gifts is bursting with indelible characters and emotional complexity as it takes readers from New York and Los Angeles to the art capitals of Europe and the South of France. Inspiring and uplifting, it is a deeply moving exploration of the rich territory of loss, inheritance, and reawakening—Danielle Steel at the height of her literary prowess.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Danielle Steel fearlessly tackles a catastrophe and its aftermath with characters who are joined together by accident, then share their vulnerabilities, regrets, losses, and hopes. Hurricane Ophelia is bearing down on New York City. And in a matter of hours, six people, along with their families, friends, and millions of other New Yorkers living around them, will be caught up in the horrific flooding it unleashes. Ellen Wharton has flown into New York from London, regardless of the weather and her husband’s worry. The successful interior designer is intent on seeing her lively architect mother and has an important personal appointment to keep. But despite Ellen’s urging, when the storm hits, seventy-four-year-old Grace Madison refuses to leave her Tribeca apartment in the midst of the evacuation zone, and they must eventually wade through chest-high water to the police boats outside. British investment banker Charles Williams is traveling on business but is also eager to see his young daughters, who live with his beautiful, estranged ex-wife in SoHo. Desperate to find them, he checks the shelters where thousands have taken refuge and runs into Ellen and her mother. Juliette Dubois, a dedicated ER doctor, fights to save lives when the generators at her hospital fail. NYU students Peter Holbrook and Ben Weiss, living in a shabby downtown walkup, are excited by the adventure of the approaching hurricane, refuse to evacuate, and settle in with junk food and beer until their building threatens to collapse. Should they swim for it or not? A day of chaos takes its toll. Lives, belongings, and loved ones are swept away. Heroes are revealed as the city and New Yorkers struggle to face a natural disaster of epic proportions. And then the real challenge begins, as the survivors face their futures, with damage to repair and scars to heal. Keenly observed and brilliantly told, this is an unforgettable story that proves that while life can change in an instant, even the darkest storm can bring forth courage, resilience, unexpected joy, and new life. And it reminds us all that nature, at its fiercest, is a powerful force nothing and no one can resist.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • In this gripping novel from Danielle Steel, a top Hollywood executive seeks a new beginning when his career takes an unplanned turn. As the head of a prestigious movie studio for nearly two decades, Andy Westfield has had every conceivable professional luxury: a stunning office on the forty-fourth floor, a loyal assistant who can all but read his mind, access to a private jet and company cars. The son of Hollywood royalty, Andy always put his career before his marriage, and now, besides his daughter and young grandchildren, it’s the only thing he truly loves. But then Andy’s world is upended. The studio is sold, and the buyer’s son demands the top seat. Out of a job and humiliated, Andy spirals. When his head clears, he decides to get as far away from Los Angeles as possible until the dust settles and he can find a new way forward. Andy signs a six-month rental agreement for a luxurious home in a tiny, forgotten coastal town two hours from London. When he arrives, he hires a local woman to help get his affairs in order. A former journalist, Violet Smith is at a crossroads as well, and this temporary job is exactly what she needs to tide her over. But when Violet leaves the manuscript of her unfinished novel behind after work one day, Andy lets his curiosity get the best of him and is captivated by a story that begs to be adapted for the big screen. Could this be the miracle they’ve both been looking for? In Second Act, Danielle Steel presents a heartening tale of how challenging times give way to opportunities and an original outline does not always contain the perfect ending.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • In this riveting novel, Danielle Steel explores a high-profile affair that reverberates throughout an entire family, from the wounded wife to her husband—torn between two women—to the wife’s close-knit sisters and their mother. When Rose McCarthy’s staff at Mode magazine pitches a cover shoot with Hollywood’s hottest young actress, the actress’s sizzling affair with a bestselling French author is exposed. The author happens to be Rose’s son-in-law, which creates a painful dilemma for her. Her daughter Nadia, a talented interior designer, has been struggling to hold her marriage together, and conceal the truth from their young daughters, her family, and the world. But Nicolas, her straying husband, is blinded by passion for a younger woman—and not only that, she is pregnant with his child. Nadia’s three sisters close ranks around her, flying to Paris from Los Angeles and New York to lend support and offer their widely divergent advice. Athena, a jovial celebrity chef with her own TV show in Los Angeles, is leery of marriage. Olivia, a stern conservative New York superior court judge, is haunted by a shocking secret of her own. Venetia, a zany fashion designer, happily married with three kids, has the gentlest, most realistic point of view. Despite their well-meaning advice, Nadia needs to figure out what she herself thinks, and what to do next. The Affair is about the painful journey to discover who you are, what you want, and how much forgiveness and compromise you are capable of in order to be loved. It’s about finding yourself at the crossroads of life when everything is on the line. It’s about the hard lessons we are forced to learn about others and ourselves. Right up until its final twist, this gripping novel is full of powerful insights about who we love, how much—and even how much we love ourselves.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Two different worlds and two very different lives collide in Paris in this captivating novel by Danielle Steel. Joachim von Hartmann was born and raised in Buenos Aires by his loving German mother, inseparable from his identical twin, Javier. When Joachim moves to Paris with his mother in his late teens, his twin stays behind and enters a dark world. Meanwhile, Joachim begins training to be a butler, fascinated by the precision and intense demands, and goes on to work in some of the grandest homes in England. His brother never reappears. Olivia White has given ten years of her life to her magazine, which failed, taking all her dreams with it. A bequest from her mother allows her a year in Paris to reinvent herself. She needs help setting up a home in a charming Parisian apartment. It is then that her path and Joachim’s cross. Joachim takes a job working for Olivia as a lark and enjoys the whimsy of a different life for a few weeks, which turn to months as the unlikely employer and employee learn they enjoy working side by side. At the same time, Joachim discovers the family history he never knew: a criminal grandfather who died in prison, the wealthy father who abandoned him, and the dangerous criminal his twin has become. While Olivia struggles to put her life back together, Joachim’s comes apart. Stripped of their old roles, they strive to discover the truth about each other and themselves, first as employer and employee, then as friends. Their paths no longer sure, they are a man and woman who reach a place where the past doesn’t matter and only what they are living now is true.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • In this thrilling novel from Danielle Steel, a small community is tested when their children go missing while exploring a dangerous local peak, forcing them to band together during the crisis. Fishtail, Montana, is home to Anne and Pitt Pollock, local royalty, high school sweethearts, and owners of the successful Pollock ranch. The sprawling foothills of the Beartooth Mountains surround the town, overlooking the Pollocks’ property and the nearby ranch belonging to Bill and Pattie Brown. The two couples have known each other since childhood. Their sons Peter Pollock and Matt Brown are also the best of friends. When they and two other local kids meet Juliet Marshall, new to town after her parents’ bitter divorce, the five of them are soon inseparable, spending their summer days swimming, horseback riding, hiking, and fishing. But one August afternoon, their latest adventure takes a dangerous turn—and quickly escalates into a battle for survival—when they find themselves trapped on Granite Peak. Fear reverberates through the town as their parents grow ever more desperate to hear word that their children have been found. They must place their own trials aside amid a massive search-and-rescue operation. As they come to lean on one another for support, a media frenzy ensues, heightening tensions and testing some already fragile relationships. In the aftermath of this one fateful event, devastating secrets are revealed, new love appears on the horizon, and families are forced to reconsider what they once held dear. In The Challenge , Danielle Steel deftly weaves a story that is a portrait of courage and a striking tale of the bonds of love and family.

A concise look at the legendary Shoshone woman who led explorers Lewis and Clark on their route from the Dakotas to the Pacific Ocean. Born in the Rocky Mountains, Sacagawea was taken captive and held hundreds of miles away from home for years. When Meriwether Lewis and William Clark came through her new village, Sacagawea was offered as a guide since the explorers were heading toward Shoshone territory, where she was from. Pregnant with her first child and the only woman on the expedition, she accompanied them through the frigid winter of 1804-05 and gave birth to her son as the group traveled west. Her knowledge of the land, interpretation skills, and diplomatic manner were of great use to the team and helped ensure a successful voyage. This child friendly narrative of Sacagawea's intrepid life contains memorable facts, history, and context, accompanied by elegant illustrations. Back matter includes a timeline, author's note, and bibliography.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE WASHINGTON POST AND KIRKUS REVIEWS Hailed as “the indispensable critic” by The New York Review of Books, Harold Bloom— New York Times bestselling writer and Sterling Professor of Humanities at Yale University—has for decades been sharing with readers and students his genius and passion for understanding literature and explaining why it matters. Now he turns at long last to his beloved writers of our national literature in an expansive and mesmerizing book that is one of his most incisive and profoundly personal to date. A product of five years of writing and a lifetime of reading and scholarship, The Daemon Knows may be Bloom’s most masterly book yet. Pairing Walt Whitman with Herman Melville, Ralph Waldo Emerson with Emily Dickinson, Nathaniel Hawthorne with Henry James, Mark Twain with Robert Frost, Wallace Stevens with T. S. Eliot, and William Faulkner with Hart Crane, Bloom places these writers’ works in conversation with one another, exploring their relationship to the “daemon”—the spark of genius or Orphic muse—in their creation and helping us understand their writing with new immediacy and relevance. It is the intensity of their preoccupation with the sublime, Bloom proposes, that distinguishes these American writers from their European predecessors. As he reflects on a lifetime lived among the works explored in this book, Bloom has himself, in this magnificent achievement, created a work touched by the daemon. Praise for The Daemon Knows “Enrapturing . . . radiant . . . intoxicating . . . Harold Bloom, who bestrides our literary world like a willfully idiosyncratic colossus, belongs to the party of rapture.” —Cynthia Ozick, The New York Times Book Review “The capstone to a lifetime of thinking, writing and teaching . . . The primary strength of The Daemon Knows is the brilliance and penetration of the connections Bloom makes among the great writers of the past, the shrewd sketching of intellectual feuds or oppositions that he calls agons. . . . Bloom’s books are like a splendid map of literature, a majestic aerial view that clarifies what we cannot see from the ground.” — The Washington Post “Audacious . . . The Yale literary scholar has added another remarkable treatise to his voluminous body of work.” — The Huffington Post “The sublime The Daemon Knows is a veritable feast for the general reader (me) as well as the advanced (I assume) one.” —John Ashbery “Mesmerizing.” —New York Journal of Books “Bloom is a formidable critic, an extravagant intellect.” —Chicago Tribune “As always, Bloom conveys the intimate, urgent, compelling sense of why it matters that we read these canonical authors.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “Few people write criticism as nakedly confident as Bloom’s any more.” — The Guardian (U.K.)

"A heartfelt exploration of human grief after the loss of a pet by the New York Times bestselling author of Dogs Never Lie About Love. Over 84 million Americans-almost 3/4 of the US population-own a pet, and our society is still learning how to recognize and dignify that relationship with proper mourning rituals. We have only recently allowed the conversation of how to grieve for our non-human family members to come front and center. Lost Companions fills a specific, important demand, a massive need in the market for an accessible, meaningful book on pet loss. Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson takes a very personal, heartfelt approach to this difficult subject, allowing readers to explore their own responses and reactions, suggesting ways through and out of grief, as well as meaningful ways to memorialize our best friends. Lost Companions is full of moving, thought-provoking and poignant stories about dogs, cats, horses, birds, wombats and other animals that beautifully illustrate the strong bond humans form with them"--

Intricate plotting leads to a stunning conclusion in EVIDENCE, a masterful thriller from New York Times No. 1 bestseller Jonathan Kellerman, author of KILLER and BREAKDOWN. Recommended for fans of Michael Connelly and Harlan Coben. 'It's always a pleasure to read Kellerman, who injects his fast-paced psychological thrillers with enough humour and authentic glimpses of LA life to leaven his often grisly themes' ( Daily Mail ). Early one morning a foreman shows up at the building site of a mega-mansion. Proceeding up unfinished plank steps, he arrives at the master bedroom. There, lying on a blanket, are a man and a woman, stabbed and bludgeoned to death. Who are the lovers? Why have they chosen a construction site for their late-night tryst. Is the double murder simply a horrific example of wrong-place, wrong-time? Or were the victims stalked? And will the outrage be repeated? Alex and Milo are called in but, as they struggle to make their way through the alternative universe that is the domain of the impossibly rich, they discover a scheme rooted in deception and evil beyond even their imaginations.

A second-rate actor is found mutilated in a car trunk. Then a psychologist at a Los Angeles hospital for the criminally insane is murdered in a similar grisly fashion. Suddenly the incoherent ramblings of an inmate at the presumably secure institution begin to make chilling sense--they are, in fact, horrifying predictions. Yet how can a barely functional psychotic locked behind asylum walls possibly know such vivid details of crimes committed in the outside world? Drawn into a labyrinth of secrets, revenge, sex, and manipulation, Dr. Alex Delaware and Detective Milo Sturgis set out to unlock this enigma and put an end to the brutal killings--before the madman predicts their own demise. .

"Quentin Coldwater has been cast out of Fillory, the secret magical land of his childhood dreams. With nothing left to lose he returns to where his story began, the Brakebills Preparatory College of Magic. But he can't hide from his past, and it's not long before it comes looking for him. Along with Plum, a brilliant young undergraduate with a dark secret of her own, Quentin sets out on a crooked path through a magical demimonde of gray magic and desperate characters. But all roads lead back to Fillory, and his new life takes him to old haunts, like Antarctica, and to buried secrets and old friends he thought were lost forever. He uncovers the key to a sorcery masterwork, a spell that could create magical utopia, a new Fillory--but casting it will set in motion a chain of events that will bring Earth and Fillory crashing together. To save them he will have to risk sacrificing everything"--