A forty-year-old schoolteacher from Ohio still reeling from the tragedies of the Great War and the influenza epidemic comes into a modest inheritance that allows her to take the trip of a lifetime to Egypt and the Holy Land. Arriving at the Semiramis Hotel, site of the 1921 Cairo Peace Conference, she meets Winston Churchill, T. E. Lawrence, and Lady Gertrude Bell. With her plainspoken American opinions, she becomes a sounding board for these historic luminaries who will, in the space of a few days, invent the nations of Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Jordan. While neither a pawn or a participant at the conference, she is drawn into the geopolitical intrigue surrounding the conference.

After her husband's death, Eleanor returns to her New Hampshire farm to care for their brain-injured son while facing family tensions, personal struggles and national events, in the follow-up to Count the Ways.

Joshua Braff delivers an authentic, funny and honest tale about modern family life. Jay and Jackie uproot their family of four from San Francisco after Jackie loses her job but finds a lucrative new one in St. Petersburg, Florida. Jay, a one-time copywriter and aspiring author, now plays househusband, caring for his troubled thirteen-year-old son and precocious daughter as they adjust to their new life. As his children begin to assert their independence, Jay realizes that the challenges of child rearing are only going to grow more difficult in the teen years. Through a series of misadventures and run-ins with his narcissistic older brother, his lunatic childhood friend, and his increasingly estranged but beloved son, Jay learns that he must tap his own vulnerabilities if he is to be the rock of stability his family so desperately needs. Overflowing with pathos and humor, The Daddy Diaries is a memorable take on contemporary fatherhood and a clear-sighted look at how the upending of traditional marital roles can affect the delicate balance of familial love.

When Dana's ex-husband is found dead in an apparent murder-suicide, she digs into the mystery surrounding his death, sifting through the clues of his life and their doomed marriage.

Teen troll Gog and his best friend Pook work as roadies for a troll rock and roll band until Gog's younger brother gets kidnapped. Like all trolls, Gog is magic-he just can't do magic. His friend Pook can do a little magic, but not magic big enough to get tickets for Boots and the Seven Leaguers. The concert is sold out. But with a bit of luck and a magical disguise, the two are able to find work with the band as roadies. Yet no sooner have they begun working when Gog's little brother vanishes. How will the two teen roadies rescue the kid, elude his kidnappers, and get back in time to see Boots perform?

Alfred Rosenberg, a Nazi ideologue, is convinced of German cultural greatness but he becomes haunted by the intellectual legacy of his hero, Goethe, when he discovers the poet's regard for the Jewish philosopher Baruch Spinoza.

Inspired by the Robert De Niro film, this story spans three generations of a family of Jewish immigrants to the United States. A gang of friends discover - through trust, hard work and brutality - the true meaning of the American Dream.

Detective Peter Decker of the LAPD is stunned when he gets the report. Someone has shattered the sanctuary of a remote yeshiva community in the California hills with an unimaginable crime. One of the women was brutally raped as she returned from the mikvah , the bathhouse where the cleansing ritual is performed. The crime was called in by Rina Lazarus, and Decker is relieved to discover that she is a calm and intelligent witness. She is also the only one in the sheltered community willing to speak of this unspeakable violation. As Rina tries to steer Decker through the maze of religious laws, the two grow closer. But before they get to the bottom of this horrendous crime, revelations come to light that are so shocking, they threaten to come between the hard-nosed cop and the deeply religious woman with whom he has become irrevocably linked.

"To open this book is to enter the perilous, thrilling world of Billy Bathgate, the brazen boy who is accepted into the inner circle of the notorious Dutch Schultz gang. Like an urban Tom Sawyer, Billy takes us along on his fateful adventures as he becomes good-luck charm, apprentice, and finally protégé to one of the great murdering gangsters of the Depression-era underworld in New York City. The luminous transformation of fact into fiction that is E. L. Doctorow’s trademark comes to triumphant fruition in Billy Bathgate, a peerless coming-of-age tale and one of Doctorow’s boldest and most beloved bestsellers." -- From publisher's website.

"Paris, 1958: Rose, a seamstress at a fashionable atelier, has been entrusted with sewing a Grace Kelly-look-alike gown for a wealthy bride-to-be. But when, against better judgment, she finds herself falling in love with the bride's handsome brother, Rose must make an impossible choice, one that could put all she's worked for at risk: love, security and of course, the dress. Sixty years later, tech CEO Rachel, who goes by the childhood nickname "Rocky," has inherited the dress for her upcoming wedding in New York City. But there's just one problem: Rocky doesn't want to wear it. A family heirloom dating back to the 1950s, the dress just isn't her. Rocky knows this admission will break her mother Joan's heart. But what she doesn't know is why Joan insists on the dress - or the heartbreaking secret that changed her mother's life decades before, as she herself prepared to wear it. As the lives of these three women come together in surprising ways, the revelation of the dress's history collides with long-buried family heartaches. And in the lead-up to Rocky's wedding, they'll have to confront the past before they can embrace the beautiful possibilities of the future."--Publisher description

A SUNDAY TIMES CRIME BOOK OF THE MONTH PICK ****** The new V.I. Warshawski novel from the New York Times bestselling author pits acclaimed detective V.I. Warshawski against some of today's most powerful figures. 'The 19th Warshawski novel is also a panoramic vision of Chicago at a time when the city is so polarised that decent people don't know who to trust' The Sunday Times 'Paretsky is a genius' Lee Child Legendary sleuth V.I. Warshawski returns to the Windy City to save an old friend's nephew from a murder arrest. The case involves a stolen artifact that could implicate a shadowy network of international criminals. As V.I. investigates, the detective soon finds herself tangling with the Russian mob, ISIS backers, and a shady network of stock scams and stolen art that stretches from Chicago to the East Indies and the Middle East. In Shell Game , nothing and no one are what they seem, except for the detective herself, who loses sleep, money, and blood, but remains indomitable in her quest for justice.

"Want to be immortal? It's not so hard, in 2110 A.D. Just go to the Hereafter Insurance Corporation, pay your fee, and hook yourself up to The Machine. There's nothing to fear. That is... if it happens ot be working right, and if nobody slips another mind into your body when you're not looking, and if you're not in a poltergeist hate-list... Immortality, Inc. is the trenchantly witty novel of a future where everything has improved except the bumbling human race, which just plain can't let itself enjoy a good thing when it finally gets it."--Provided by publisher.

MACKINLAY KANTORPulitzer Prize-winning author of Andersonville A Novel of Escape During the Civil War BASIS FOR THE FILMTHE MAN FROM DAKOTA This is the story of three strange companions who attain what seldom has been won by any escaping prisoners. Two Yankee soldiers escape from Belle Island, the Confederate Prison, in 1864. As they make their way northward to the Union lines on the Rapidan they are joined by a woman who is fleeing from Richmond. The hazards of their painful flight are tremendous as they travel by night on roads as ominous as the incredible future awaiting them. Starvation and feasting, the swift beat of love, the primitive encounter, the hot cry of triumph-these elements are combined in this bold and valiant tale of sacrifice and high devotion. Arouse and Beware, first published in 1936, was widely praised by the critics and became a best seller. Now with the success of MacKinlay Kantor's great novel, Andersonville, and the enormous interest in the Civil War period, it is being re-issued again to be enjoyed by a whole new generation of readers.

"The modern novel in its most cogent and permanent form"--this has been the achievement of E. M. Forster; his masterpiece, A Passage to India, belongs with perhaps three or four other works in English at the pinnacle of literary craftsmanship in this century. Yet for many years Forster's genius was virtually unrecognized in America. Not until 1943, when Lionel Trilling's authoritative and discerning study was first published, did Forster find his way to a broad American audience. In this 1964 revision of the first paperbook edition, Mr. Trilling added a preface and brought the bibliography up to date. His book performs two services: it is a critical-biographical introduction to the master novelist and his works; it is in itself a primary document in the development of, contemporary American criticism. Here is criticism functioning at its best, deftly, surely, wittily, within a framework of the ideas which are basic to literary thought today.

"Stern" follows the story of Irving Stern, a Jewish man living in New York City who finds himself disillusioned with his life and career. As an advertising executive, Stern is successful but deeply unhappy, feeling trapped in a world of superficiality and materialism. The novel explores Stern's existential crisis as he grapples with questions of identity, purpose, and authenticity. Feeling disconnected from his Jewish heritage and dissatisfied with his marriage and career, Stern embarks on a journey of self-discovery, seeking meaning and fulfillment in a world that often seems absurd and meaningless. As Stern navigates the complexities of urban life, he encounters a cast of eccentric characters, including fellow advertising executives, artists, and intellectuals, each with their own struggles and desires. Through a series of darkly comedic and often surreal encounters, Stern confronts his own insecurities and fears, ultimately coming to terms with his place in the world.

Any chess enthusiast knows how important tactics is in the "royal game" and how crucial it is to make a. thorough study of this aspect of the game. But up to now opinion has been divided on the best way of studying tactics. The well-known Soviet international, grandmaster and chess author Averbakh has developed an entirely novel approach, which is expounded in the present work. His main aim was to create a theoretical basis with whose aid the learner can effortlessly study the numerous and manifold tactical problems facing the chess player. Averbakh begins by examining the simplest situations resulting from confrontations between different pieces. He then proceeds to analyze more complex situations and demonstrates the importance of the double attack. With instructive examples he proves that double attacks in the broadest sense are the basis of most tactical operations. This discovery prompted Averbakh to focus his attention on the double attack in the first part of the book. The second part is devoted to combinations. The author delves into the question of what lies hidden behind the mysterious concept of harmony of pieces. The astonishing simplicity of the answer he finds to this question enables him to reduce the bulk of the combinations to a handful of basic elements. From this Averbakh derives a convincing definition of the term "combination" and introduces a new, promising system of classifying different combinations. All this is explained with the aid of numerous practical examples including complete games and chess problems. The book contains special chapters with numerous exercise problems for the reader to test and consolidate his newly-acquired skill. In this way Averbakh's work is both very instructive and easy to understand.

"An excellent comic novel that interweaves the romance, humor, and pathos of three complicated families."--"Publishers Weekly "Three suburban moms who have long been friends decide to show up unannounced at the homes of their thirty-something layabout sons. Their goal: to swoop in and set things right. The result: a hilarious mix that will resonate with mothers who can't turn a blind eye and their adult sons who can't quite get it together.

"Will Eisner (1917-2005), best known for his influential comic book series The Spirit and his groundbreaking graphic novel A Contract with God, believed in the teaching power of comics, and from 1951 to 1971 he produced PS magazine for the U.S. Army. This Preventive Maintenance Monthly, called PS because it was a postscript to the standard technical manuals, was aimed at teaching American soldiers about weapons safety and proper maintenance of vehicles, aircraft, and electronics. Eisner illustrated these vital lessons with spot art, pinups, step-by-step guides, and comic strips. This collection, the best of Eisner's 227 issues of PS, explores this relatively unknown body of work--the missing link between his comic books and his later, mature graphic novels."--Page 4 of cover.

Last Day in Vietnam is Will Eisner's memoir of stories about soldiers who are engaged not only in the daily hostilities of war but also in larger, more personal combat. During Eisner's years in the military, and particularly during the many field trips he made for P.S. Magazine, he observed camp life at close range. Some of the stories in this novel are comical, some heart-rending, some frightening, yet all display the incredible insight into humanity characteristic of Eisner's entire oeuvre. The first edition of this graphic novel features a full-color cover painted by the artist, with a matte and spot-gloss finish, interior cover flaps, and special sepia-colored ink printed on high-quality antique paper-- Provided by publisher.