8 September 1943. Italy has sued for peace with the Allies and 14-year-old Claudette Blum is learning Italian on the run. She and her father are among the thousands of Jewish refugees scrambling over the Alps to where they hope they will be safe at last. What they don't know is that tomorrow Italy will be under German occupation and about to become a vicious battleground between the Nazis, an increasingly confident resistance and the advancing Allies... Set against this dramatic historical backdrop, Mary Doria Russell's new novel recalls - through the lives of a handful of brilliantly-drawn characters- a mercurial Italian resistance leader, a Catholic priest, an Italian rabbi's family, a disillusioned Wehrmacht doctor - the little known conspiracy of ordinary Italians who saved the lives of thousands of Jews during the final, desperate 20 months of the war. Full of drama, warmth, nobility and, for all the darkness, hope, A THREAD OF GRACE tells a story of ordinary people caught up in extraordinary times and accomplishing remarkable things. It is a breathtaking achievement.

Blending memories and family myths, Mary McCarthy takes us back to the twenties, when she was orphaned in a world of relations as colourful, potent and mysterious as the Catholic religion. There were her grandmothers: one was a blood-curdling Catholic who combined piousness and pugnacity; the other was Jewish and wore a veil to hide the disastrous effects of a face-lift. There was wicked Uncle Myers who beat her for the good of her soul and Aunt Margaret who laced her orange juice with castor oil and taped her lips at night to prevent unhealthy 'mouth-breathing'. 'Many a time in the course of doing these memoirs,' Mary McCarthy says, 'I have wished that I were writing fiction.' But these were the people, along with the ladies of the Sacred Heart convent school, who helped to inspire her devastating sense of the sublime and ridiculous and her witty, novelist's imagination.

Stripping Down, Laughing It Up, and Being Mr. Skin: The Naked Truth Behind a Hilarious and Unlikely Success Story You’ve heard Mr. Skin on The Howard Stern Show . You’ve seen his website in the blockbuster comedy Knocked Up . Maybe you’ve spent some time poking around on MrSkin.com, the world’s #1 resource for celebrity nudity. Now, Jim McBride—“Mr. Skin” himself—tells his story in uproarious, SKINtastic fashion…nip-slips, cheek-peeks, muff-scruffs and all! Being Mr. Skin details how Jim rose from being a suburban teen in the ‘80s with an impressively annotated videotape collection and an expert recall of the most sensational and sensuous scenes from every movie ever made, to his current status as Chief Sexecutive Officer of MrSkin.com—a naked-star-studded pop culture powerhouse. You’ll be riveted as Jim chronicles the unbelievable journey of juggling suburban family life while establishing his online sensation, quickly becoming the “World’s Foremost Authority on Celebrity Nudity.” Throughout this upward (and outward) saga of Tinseltown T&A triumphs, you’ll get the inside skinny on: • The first time Mr. Skin appeared on The Howard Stern Show and how he became a regular on the greatest radio program of all time! • How Judd Apatow turned Mr. Skin into the surprise breakout star of Knocked Up ! • The time, effort, and tissues it takes to track every nude rack and crack in every movie and TV show ever made! • How some of your favorite actresses feel about being featured on the website—including several Anatomy Award winners! • The truth about Mr. Skin, The Family Man—There is a real Mrs. Skin and there are three lovely “skinfants.” • Mr. Skin’s most stunning showcases and shout-outs in top-tier media, including Saturday Night Live , Family Guy , The People’s Choice Awards , American Idol , and The Adam Carolla Show! • How (and why) Mr. Skin.com became one of the first-ever commercially successful websites. Throughout it all, Jim’s story amuses and amazes on every page. Being Mr. Skin supplies one-of-a-kind insights into how he transformed an offbeat passion into a popular and profitable phenomenon against all manner of odds—only some of which involve unclothed body parts—all with the help of his dedicated staff, friends, and, yes…even his mom! Being Mr. Skin is what Jim McBride does, it’s who he is. And now—for the first time in book form—you can enjoy nothing but “the good parts” (no fast-forwarding necessary). Featuring brand-new comics from Eisner Award nominee Johnny Ryan!

Vintage movie tie-in paperback

In "Brooklyn Remembered: The 1955 Days of the Dodgers, Allen has captured the emotion, the drama and the sweet reverie of what many baseball people and fans consider the greatest sports triumph ever, the 1955 Brooklyn Series win over the Yankees. It was the one and only Brooklyn championship for the team filled with Hall of Famers like Jackie Robinson, Pee Wee Reese, Roy Campanella, Duke Snider, Sandy Koufax and even fringe lefty Tommy Lasorda. Two years after the title the team moved from Brooklyn's cozy Ebbets Field to laconic Los Angeles. All of the 11 surviving members of that historic baseball team contributed their poignant and personal recollections of that season that warmed the baseball world and sent millions of memorable moments across America, memories that last to this day in millions of homes across the country. Two game winner Johnny Podres, the handsome bachelor, recalls how he drove to the game from his aunt's home in nearby Staten Island a few days after his 23rd birthday and promised his aging teammates a World Series victory. He delivered with a 2-0 triumph. Historic baseball figure Jackie Robinson and supportive teammate pee Wee Reese, knowing their time for titles was short, reached their ultimate goal. Duke Snider, Carl Erskine, Clem Labine, Don Newcombe and all the rest of Dem Bums eased the pain of Brooklyn's millions with that emotional victory. Allen has talked to all of the Brooklyn 1955 survivors and to the women who carry the torch today for the fallen Dodgers, such as Rachel Robinson and Joan Hodges, for memories of that moment and the impact on their lives half a century later. Other significant figures, such as broadcaster Tom Brokaw, opera legend RobertMerrill, opponents Willie Mays, Whitey Ford and Stan (The Man) Musial recall their days as Brooklyn fans, opposing players or just Ebbets Field fanatics. This is the stirring, funny, romantic, touching, historic story of one team in one town in one time that has lasted across the decades. The Brooklyn Dodgers of 1955 were an epic collection of talented athletes and heroic men.

Over the last year, award-winning journalist and videographer Max Blumenthal has been behind some of the most sensational (and funniest) exposes of Republican machinations. Whether it was his revelation that Sarah Palin was "anointed" by a Kenyan priest famous for casting out witches, or his confronting Republican congressional leaders and John McCain's family at the GOP convention about the party's opposition to sex education (and hence, the rise in teen pregnancies like that of Palin's daughter), or his expose of the eccentric multimillionaire theocrat behind California's Prop 8 anti- gay marriage initiative, Blumenthal has become one of the most important and most constantly cited journalists on how fringe movements are becoming the Republican Party mainstream. Republican Gomorrah is a bestiary of dysfunction, scandal and sordidness from the dark heart of the forces that now have a leash on the party. It shows how those forces are the ones that establishment Republicans-like John McCain-have to bow to if they have any hope of running for President. It shows that Sarah Palin was the logical choice of a party in the control of theocrats. But more that just an expose, Republican Gomorrah shows that many of the movement's leading figures have more in common than just the power they command within conservative ranks. Their personal lives have been stained by crisis and scandal: depression, mental illness, extra-marital affairs, struggles with homosexual urges, heavy medication, addiction to pornography, serial domestic abuse, and even murder. Inspired by the work of psychologists Erich Fromm, who asserted that the fear of freedom propels anxiety-ridden people into authoritarian settings, Blumenthal explains in a compelling narrative how a culture of personal crisis has defined the radical right, transforming the nature of the Republican Party for the next generation and setting the stage for the future of American politics.

"While the major conflicts in American history have become all too familiar, America's "small wars" have played an essential but little-appreciated role in the country's growth as a world power. First published in 2002, The Savage Wars of Peace quickly became a key volume in the case for a new policy of interventionism. Max Boot shows how America's smaller actions--such as the recent conflicts in Bosnia, Somalia, Haiti, Kosovo, and Afghanistan--have made up the vast majority of our military engagements, and yet our armed forces do little to prepare for these "low intensity conflicts." A compellingly readable history of the forgotten wars that helped promote America's rise in the last two centuries, The Savage Wars of Peace is now updated with new material on the repercussions of America's far-flung imperial actions and the impact of these ventures in American international affairs"--Amazon.com, viewed April 3, 2014.

Words, sentences, and even worse, paragraphs fill up books. Ugh! So what's a reluctant reader to do? Actor Max Greenfield (New Girl) and New York Times bestselling illustrator Mike Lowery bring the energy and laugh-out-loud fun out for every child (and parent) who thinks they don't want to read a book. Joining the ranks of favourites like The Book With No Pictures and The Serious Goose, this clever and playful read-aloud breaks the fourth wall and will have all readers coming back for laughs again and again!

The CIA chief, Leon Panetta, calls drones the ‘only game in town’. The figures bear him out. Between 2004 and 2012, the US reportedly conducted over 350 drone strikes in Pakistan, killing between 2,600 and 3,400 people. Drone strikes have killed more than 200 children alone in Pakistan and Yemen. In 2000, the Americans had fewer than fifty aerial drones; ten years later, it had a fleet of nearly 7,500, and the US Air Force now trains more drone ‘pilots’ than bomber and fighter pilots combined. Drones are already a $ 5 billion business in the US alone. American activist Medea Benjamin, a co-founder of the peace group CODEPINK and the international human rights organization Global Exchange, provides the first extensive analysis of who is producing the drones, where they are being used, who controls these unmanned places, and what are the legal and moral implications of their use. Benjamin also looks at what activists, lawyers, and scientists across the globe are doing to ground these weapons.

The first adult novel from acclaimed, bestselling author Meg Rosoff, a perfect summer read about a young New Yorker whose career and love life are turned upside down when he starts taking care of his brother's two dogs. Jonathan is a copywriter at Comrade advertising agency, working on the most lucrative and most numbingly tedious account, Broadway Depot. His best friend Max works at the next desk, keeping him sane. Jonathan's girlfriend, Julie, works for Bridal 360, an online wedding magazine. When Julie suggests they get married for a live online wedding feature, Jonathan finds himself on a conveyor belt, hurtling towards the rest of his life. When his brother asks him to look after his dogs, Jonathan begins to see the world around him differently. Could a border collie and a cocker spaniel hold the key to his true happiness? Their sly maneuvering on daily walks and visits to Dr. Clare, the lady vet, suggest that dog sense is several notches higher than human emotional intelligence. A contemporary romantic comedy set in Manhattan, "Jonathan Unleashed" is as much a love letter to the city as it is a story about tangled relationships, and dogs. Hilarious, wise and heart-warming, Meg Rosoff's novel will touch a nerve with anyone thinking about what they really want to do with their lives, and which eddy they might allow themselves to be caught in."

Mila has an exceptional talent for reading a room--sensing hidden facts and unspoken emotions from clues that others overlook. . . So when her father's best friend, Matthew, goes missing from his upstate New York home, Mila and her beloved father travel from London to find him. She collects information about Matthew from his belongings, from his wife and baby, from the dog he left behind and from the ghosts of his past--slowly piecing together the story everyone else has missed. But just when she's closest to solving the mystery, a shocking betrayal calls into question her trust in the one person she thought she could read best.

"Megan Amram, one of Forbes' "30 Under 30 in Hollywood & Entertainment," Rolling Stone's "25 Funniest People on Twitter," and a writer for NBC's hit show Parks and Recreation, delivers a politically, scientifically, and anatomically incorrect "textbook" that will have women screaming with laughter, and men dying to know what the noise is about. In the vein of faux expert books by John Hodgman and Amy Sedaris, Science...for Her! is ostensibly a book of science written by a denizen of women's magazines. Comedy writer and Twitter sensation Megan Amram showcases her fiendish wit with a pitch-perfect attack on everything from those insanely perky tips for self-improvement to our bizarre shopaholic dating culture to the socially mandated pursuit of mind-blowing sex to the cringe-worthy secret codes of food and body issues. Part hilarious farce, part biting gender commentary, Amram blends Cosmo and science to highlight absurdities with a machine-gun of laugh-inducing lines that leave nothing and no one unscathed. Subjects include: this Spring's ten most glamorous ways to die; tips for hosting your own big bang; what religion is right for your body type; and the most pressing issue facing women today: kale!!! Be prepared to laugh about anything in this outrageous satirical gem"--

The ArtScroll Series presents the comments of the classic giants of ancient and contemporary times in a logical, comprehensible manner, like a master teacher on an exciting voyage of intellectual discovery.

Book by Gilbert Pearlman (Adapter), Gene Wilder, Mel Brooks

Joan Rivers was known all over the world-from the Palace Theater to Buckingham Palace, from the bright lights of Las Vegas to the footlights of Broadway, from the days of talkies to hosting talk shows. But there was only one person who knew Joan intimately, one person who the authorities would call when she got a little out of hand. Her daughter and best friend, Melissa. Joan and Melissa Rivers had one of the most celebrated mother-daughter relationships of all time. If you think Joan said some outrageous things to her audiences as a comedian, you won't believe what she said and did in private. Her love for her daughter knew no bounds-or boundaries, apparently. ('Melissa, I acknowledge that you have boundaries. I just choose to not respect them.') In The Book of Joan- Tales of Mirth, Mischief and Manipulation, Melissa shares stories (like when she was nine months old and her parents delivered her to Johnny Carson as a birthday gift), bon mots ('Missy, is there anything better than seeing a really good-looking couple pushing a baby that looks like a Sasquatch who got caught in a house fire?'), and life lessons from growing up in the Rosenberg-Rivers household ('I can do tips and discounts and figure out the number of gay men in an audience to make it a good show.That's all the math you'll ever need.'). These were just the tip of the iceberg when it came to life in the family that Melissa describes as more Addams than Cleaver.And at the center of it all was a tiny blond force of nature. The Book of Joan is full offunny, poignant and irreverent observations, thoughts, and tales about the woman who raised Melissa and is the reason she considers Valium one of the four basic food groups.

Recounts the history of the Syrian Rojava Kurds, a democratic secular society whose all-women militia was instrumental in the mountaintop rescue of tens of thousands of civilians besieged by the Islamic State in Iraq.

Arabelle's life of leisure is shattered when she's attacked by a poisonous creature that hasn't walked the land in over five centuries. As she struggles to live with the effects of the poison, Arabelle learns that it isn't the only cause of her sleepless nights. With her gift of prophecy, her sleep is plagued with visions of assassins and monstrous foes that threaten her people and the ones she loves. Yet during the day, her visions hint of a blue-eyed boy that makes her hope for the future. The fate of her people weighs heavily on her shoulders, and Arabelle knows she must keep a dark secret that only she can bear.

Drawing on thousands of government documents and personal letters, featuring original maps and over sixty photographs, this book reconstructs the diverse and remarkable ways in which Americans have interacted with this alluring yet often hostile land stretching from Morocco to Iran, from the Persian Gulf to the Bosporus.--From publisher description.

The veteran singer and songwriter recounts his life and career, beginning from his teenage performances in dive bars and playing to provide for his family, through selling more than 53 million albums and singles worldwide.

While recuperating after a car accident in Spiker Biotech's lush San Francisco facilities, sixteen-year-old Evening Spiker meets Solo Plissken, a very attractive, if off-putting boy her age who spent his life at Spiker Biotech. Like Evening, he's never questioned anything ... until now. Solo drops hints to Evening that something isn't right, and Evening's mother may be behind it. Evening puts this out of her mind and begins her summer internship project: To simulate the creation of the perfect boy. With the help of Solo, Evening uncovers secrets so big they could change the world completely.