The story of the lives of two friends who met as Prisoners of War in World War II (2).

A very wealthy businessman buys a plane to carry his fianc�e, a non-US citizen, into Canada. However, an unexpected landing of the plane prompts an investigation into the man's affairs based on his tax payment history. As his assistant tries to help him put things back together, secrets are revealed, and it is discovered the man is a powerful political insider who's been evading tax law. The investigation deepens and his future is even more at risk.

A collection of thirty-two one-act plays and short dramatic pieces that the author considers some of the best writing he has ever done

When Harold Ross founded The New Yorker in 1925, he called it a “comic weekly.” And although it has become much more than that, it has remained true in its irreverent heart to the founder’s description, publishing the most illustrious literary humorists in the modern era—among them Robert Benchley, Dorothy Parker, Groucho Marx, James Thurber, S. J. Perelman, Mike Nichols, Woody Allen, Calvin Trillin, Garrison Keillor, Ian Frazier, Roy Blount, Jr., Steve Martin, and Christopher Buckley. Fierce Pajamas is a treasury of laughter from the magazine W. H. Auden called the “best comic magazine in existence.”

A collection of the New Yorker's groundbreaking writing on race in America, including work by James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Hilton Als, Zadie Smith, and more From the pages of the New Yorker comes a bold and telling portrait of Black life in America, with astonishing early work from Rebecca West's account of a lynching trial and James Baldwin's 'Letter from a Region in My Mind' (which later formed the basis of The Fire Next Time) to more recent writing by Toni Morrison, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Zadie Smith, Hilton Als, Jamaica Kincaid, Malcolm Gladwell, Elizabeth Alexander, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Doreen St. Félix, Henry Louis Gates Jr., Kelefa Sanneh, and more. Reaching back across the last century, The Matter of Black Lives includes a wide array of material from the New Yorker archives ranging across essays, reported pieces, profiles, criticism, and historical pieces. This book addresses everything from the arts to civil rights, matters of justice, and politics, and brings us up to the present day with accounts of what Jelani Cobb calls "The American Spring." The result is a startling, nuanced and, ultimately, indelible portrait of America's complex relationship with race.

Never before in the history of mankind have so few people had so much power over so many. The people at the top of the American national security establishment, the President and his principal advisors, the core team at the helm of the National Security Council, are without question the most powerful committee in the history of the world.Yet, in many respects, they are among the least understood. A former senior official in the Clinton Administration himself, David Rothkopf served with and knows personally many of the NSC's key players of the past twenty-five years. In Running the World he pulls back the curtain on this shadowy world to explore its inner workings, its people, their relationships, their contributions and the occasions when they have gone wrong. He traces the group's evolution from the final days of the Second World War to the post-Cold War realities of global terror—exploring its triumphs, its human dramas and most recently, what many consider to be its breakdown at a time when we needed it most. Drawing on an extraordinary series of insider interviews with policy makers including Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell, Henry Kissinger, senior officials of the Bush Administration, and over 130 others, the book offers unprecedented insights into what must change if America is to maintain its unprecedented worldwide leadership in the decades ahead.

Lyndon Baines Johnson, Margaret Thatcher, Bill Clinton, Tony Blair, Barack Obama, Gordon Brown, Theresa May, and Donald Trump: each had different motivations, methods, and paths, but they all sought the highest office. And yet when they reached their goal, they often found that the power they had imagined was illusory. Their sweeping visions of reform faltered. They faced bureaucratic obstructions, but often the biggest obstruction was their own character. However, their personalities could help them as much as hurt them. Arguably the most successful of them, LBJ showed little indication that he supported what he is best known for - the Civil Rights Act - but his grit, resolve, and brute political skill saw him bend Congress to his will. David Runciman tackles the limitations of high office and how the personal histories of those who achieved the very pinnacles of power helped to define their successes and failures in office. These portraits show what characters are most effective in these offices. Could this be a blueprint for good and effective leadership in an age lacking good leaders?

In 1922, a young Agatha Christie, still at the dawn of her literary career, received an incredible opportunity. Britain was preparing for a grand festival - the British Empire Exhibition - to be held in Wembley in 1924. But such an ambitious event needed planning, and Agatha and her husband, Archie, were asked to help. Would they like to travel to different parts of the Empire to assist in its preparation? Naturally, their answer was a resounding yes.Nearly a century later, the legendary Sir David Suchet and his wife Sheila were invited to retrace Agatha's remarkable journey. In Travels with Agatha Christie, Suchet - renowned for his iconic portrayal of Hercule Poirot - follows in Agatha's footsteps, visiting the diverse landscapes of South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii and Canada. With his trademark charm and warmth, and insightful reflections, David not only explores the enduring legacy of the British Empire but also uncovers the profound impact these travels had on a young Agatha Christie, shaping her future as the Queen of Crime.Rich with personal anecdotes, David's own stunning photography and fascinating history, Travels with Agatha Christie offers a fresh, intimate look at the woman behind the distinguished mysteries. Through David's eyes, we gain a deeper understanding of Agatha's early writing, her love for adventure and the lasting influence of her travels on her creative journey. A captivating blend of history, travel and personal insight, this book reveals a side of Agatha Christie that few know.

A frank, witty, and dazzlingly written memoir of one woman trying to keep it together while her body falls apart—from the “brilliant mind” (Michaela Coel, creator of I May Destroy You ) behind Shutterbabe “The most laugh-out-loud story of resilience you’ll ever read and an essential road map for the importance of narrative as a tool of healing.”—Lori Gottlieb, bestselling author of Maybe You Should Talk to Someone NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY REAL SIMPLE I’m crawling around on the bathroom floor, picking up pieces of myself. These pieces are not a metaphor. They are actual pieces. Twenty years after her iconic memoir Shutterbabe, Deborah Copaken is at her darkly comedic nadir: battered, broke, divorcing, dissected, and dying—literally—on sexism’s battlefield as she scoops up what she believes to be her internal organs into a glass container before heading off to the hospital . . . in an UberPool. Ladyparts is Copaken’s irreverent inventory of both the female body and the body politic of womanhood in America, the story of one woman brought to her knees by the one-two-twelve punch of divorce, solo motherhood, healthcare Frogger, unaffordable childcare, shady landlords, her father’s death, college tuitions, sexual harassment, corporate indifference, ageism, sexism, and plain old bad luck. Plus seven serious illnesses, one atop the other, which provide the book’s narrative skeleton: vagina, uterus, breast, heart, cervix, brain, and lungs. Copaken bounces back from each bum body part, finds workarounds for every setback—she transforms her home into a commune to pay rent, sells her soul for health insurance, turns FBI informant when her sexual harasser gets a presidential appointment—but in her slippery struggle to survive a steep plunge off the middle-class ladder, she is suddenly awoken to what it means to have no safety net. Side-splittingly funny one minute, a freak horror show the next, quintessentially American throughout, Ladyparts is an era-defining memoir.

This landmark book celebrates, for the very first time, the costume designer's contribution to the telling of the cinematic story in 100 years of Hollywood. Rocking the conventions of what is considered 'costume', 'Hollywood Costume' reveals what is hidden in plain sight: that films are about people and it is the art of the costume designer who helps create those characters. This book looks at this process of transformation by analyzing some of the finest and most eclectic costumes from the most beloved films of the last 100 years. As well as essays by a wide variety of leading scholars, archivists and private collectors, the book incorporates contributions by key costume designers, actors and directors working in Hollywood today. Fabulous golden age of Hollywood costumes are juxtaposed beside all the contemporary classics including "The Tramp", "Ben Hur", "Cleopatra", "The Wizard of Oz", "Gone with the Wind", "Pirates of the Caribbean", "Ocean's Eleven", "Sherlock Holmes" and "Avatar."

In this classic work - her first - Tannen brilliantly tackles crucial interactions, looking at conversations with colleagues, bosses, friends and family. Engaging, accessible and absolutely compelling, Tannen once again shows us what's really shaping - or breaking- our relationships with others.

At home, on the job, in a personal relationship, it's often not what you say but how you say it that counts. Deborah Tannen revolutionized our thinking about relationships between women and men in her #1 bestseller You Just Don't Understand. In That's Not What I Meant!, the internationally renowned sociolinguist and expert on communication demonstrates how our conversational signals--voice level, pitch and intonation, rhythm and timing, even the simple turns of phrase we choose--are powerful factors in the success or failure of any relationship. Regional speech characteristics, ethnic and class backgrounds, age, and individual personality all contribute to diverse conversational styles that can lead to frustration and misplaced blame if ignored--but provide tools to improve relationships if they are understood. At once eye-opening, astute, and vastly entertaining, Tannen's classic work on interpersonal communication will help you to hear what isn't said and to recognize how your personal conversational style meshes or clashes with others. It will give you a new understanding of communication that will enable you to make the adjustments that can save a conversation . . . or a relationship.

"More than half of American adults and more than seventy-five percent of young Americans believe in intelligent extraterrestrial life. This level of belief rivals that of belief in God. In American Cosmic, D.W. Pasulka examines the mechanisms that foster a thriving belief in extraterrestrial life. Her work takes her from Silicon Valley to the Vatican Secret Archive and reveals how media has supplanted religion as a cultural authority that offers believers answers about non-human intelligent life"-- Provided by publisher.

"A visual tribute to the creative vision, designs, and feminist philosophy of Diane Von Furstenberg and her eponymous brand whose iconic printed wrap dress, created fifty years ago, remains a conduit of personal expression, self-empowerment, and confidence for women all over the world"-- Provided by publisher.

Who will be president in 2008? Many believe that the White House is Hillary Clinton's to lose. As long-time strategists Dick Morris and Eileen McGann reveal in Condi vs. Hillary , however, Hillary's plans for higher office are vulnerable to a challenge from a most unexpected quarter: the Bush administration's secretary of state and former national security advisor, Condoleezza Rice. Rice is the only figure on the national scene who has the credentials, the credibility, and the charisma to lead the GOP in 2008. And, as this first book on the subject demonstrates, a race between these two commanding, but very different, women is a very real possibility -- and would inevitably prove one of the most fascinating and important races in American history. Blending insider insight and political foresight, Condi vs. Hillary surveys the strengths and weaknesses of the two candidates, finding persuasive clues about what we might expect from each of them as a chief executive. It traces their very different childhoods -- Hillary Rodham's in unchallenging suburban comfort, Condi Rice's in Birmingham, Alabama, during the civil rights era -- and finds in each the roots of their latter-day selves. It explores their career in public life -- Hillary's as an ambitious liberal who attached herself to a governor on the rise, Condi's as a woman of broad and deep talents who has earned her own way. It turns a discerning eye on how each has spent her time in government, contrasting Condi's growth and maturation in office with Hillary's record of underachievement as both first lady and senator from New York. And it reveals how a draft-Condi movement could sweep the secretary of state into the presidency even as she forgoes campaigning to address her responsibilities as secretary of state. America, in short, may be on the verge of a perfect storm of twenty-first-century politics, pitting two of America's most popular -- and controversial -- women against each other, and offering Americans a choice between fulfilling the ambitions of one of our most polarizing figures . . . or changing history by electing not just the first woman, but also the first African American woman, to lead the free world into the future.

For fifty years, Encyclopedia Brown has been the best boy detective on the block and a favorite character for generations of middle-grade readers. Following the classic formula, this installment presents ten mysteries, complete with answers at the end of the book that allow the reader to solve the cases, too. Join Encyclopedia as he takes on the cases of an African killfish, a library book vandal, and a nail-biting soccer game.

Suspects who are identical twins... A leaking tent... Magical worm pills... A zebra's portrait... And a sheet of toilet paper from Spain that's been swiped! These are just some of the ten brain-twisting mysteries that Encyclopedia Brown must solve by using his famous computer-like brain. Try and crack the cases along with him--the answer to all the mysteries are found in the back!

The young sneaker-clad super sleuth saves the day again in a collection of ten short mysteries that invite readers to puzzle out the solutions before consulting the answers in the back of the book. No mystery is too huge for Encyclopedia Brown, and there's no loengths that she won't go to crack the case!