A razor-sharp tale of two couples, two marriages, a bar, and a San Francisco start-up from a best-selling, award-winning novelist. This is a story about two marriages. Or is it? It begins with a wedding, held in the small San Francisco forest of Bottle Grove--bestowed by a wealthy patron for the public good, back when people did such things. Here is a cross section of lives, a stretch of urban green where ritzy guests, lustful teenagers, drunken revelers, and forest creatures all wait for the sun to go down. The girl in the corner slugging vodka from a cough-syrup bottle is Padgett--she's keeping something secreted in the woods. The couple at the altar are the newly named Nickels, as the bride is emphatic about changing her name--there is plenty about her old life she is ready to forget. Set in San Francisco as the tech-boom is exploding, Bottle Grove is a sexy, skewering dark comedy about two unions--one forged of love and the other of greed--and about the forces that can drive couples together, into dependence, and then into sinister, even supernatural realms. Add one ominous shape-shifter to the mix, and you get a delightful and strange spectacle: a story of scheming and yearning and foibles and love and what we end up doing for it--and everyone has a secret. Looming over it all is the income disparity between San Francisco's tech community and . . . everyone else.

This deluxe novel dives into the history and ancient conspiracy behind the world of Tomorrowland with an action-packed original story. It includes a 20-page full color comic insert, bringing to life a comic that plays an integral role in the plot. Written by the film's writers, Brad Bird (The Incredibles), Damon Lindelof (Lost), and Jeff Jensen (Entertainment Weekly), this book is perfect for fans of Tomorrowland and fans of science fiction and alternative history in general.

After the shocking murder of her husband, 19-year-old Ros and her one-year-old son relocate to her childhood home to live with her parents. Palm Springs--full of sunlight, small and safe--should be the perfect place to bring up a child. But things aren't always as they appear. When the father of one of Ros's friends is shot in front of her house--an incident that also lands Ros in the hospital--it marks the beginning of a terrible string of events. Someone is out to get her, and they seem determined not to stop until her friends and family are also drawn in. As she struggles to uncover the identity of her mysterious enemy, Ros finds herself looking for answers in the most unusual places. Could the attacks have something to do with her increasingly disturbing dreams? And if so, how can she make them stop? In Past Crimes, bestselling author Carol Matas once again asks her readers to question their assumptions about the world around them. Are we capable of fully understanding the lives we lead, or do the things we fail to understand far outnumber those that we do? Growing out of her work in books like The Freak, Past Crimes offers an innovative twist on the mystery/thriller genre, and is a must-read for fans of Matas's work. Veteran novelist Carol Matas knows that a fast-paced plot is mandatory for youth raised on television. In Ros [the protagonist], Matas has created a heroin who will appeal to teenage girls Canadian Review of Materials Ive read Past Crimes and its interesting that shes tackled something typically new. Shes gone from one genre to another and not many writers can. Shes willing to challenge different kinds of writing, and shes incredibly productive. Helen Norrie, Childrens reviewer from the Winnipeg Free Press as quoted in the Jewish Tribune

The second novel in Amelia Atwater-Rhodes's dazzling Mancer trilogy, Of the Divine takes place seventy-one years before Of the Abyss, in a world where sorcery is still practiced freely—but at what cost? Henna is one of the most powerful sorcerers in the Order of Napthol, and her runes ’s runes tell her that the future of Kavet is balanced on the edge of the knife. The treaties between Kavet and the dragon-like race known as the Osei have become intolerable. The time has come for the royal house to magically challenge Osei dominion. Prince Verte, Henna' lover, is to serve as the nexus for the powerful but dangerous spell, with Naples--an untested young sorcerer from the Order of Napthol--a volatile but critical support to its creation. Amid these plans, Dahlia Indathrone’s arrival in the city shouldn’t matter. She has no magic and no royal lineage, and yet, Henna immediately knows Dahlia is important. She just can’t see why. As their lives intertwine, the four will learn that they are pawns in a larger game, one played by the forces of the Abyss and of the Numen—the infernal and the divine. A game no mortal can ever hope to win.

In 1581 a Cossack raider crossed the Ural Mountains to plunder and claim for Tsar Ivan IV the land called "Sibir" by its Tatar inhabitants. Within half a century, Moscow's reach would extend nearly six thousand miles to the east. Thus Russia has a long history as part of Asia. Does it have a future there as well? Rediscovering Russia in Asia takes the reader on a trans-Siberian expedition to encounter the peoples, cultures, and riches of Russia's eastern expanses. The expert guides are scholars with the language skills and the sense of adventure to explore a "crossroads of civilizations" at long last reopened to the world.

Stephen Greenblatt sets out to explain his longtime fascination with the ghost of Hamlet's father, and his daring and ultimately gratifying journey takes him through surprising intellectual territory. It yields an extraordinary account of the rise and fall of Purgatory as both a belief and a lucrative institution--as well as a capacious new reading of the power of Hamlet. In the mid-sixteenth century, English authorities abruptly changed the relationship between the living and dead. Declaring that Purgatory was a false "poem," they abolished the institutions and banned the practices that Christians relied on to ease the passage to Heaven for themselves and their dead loved ones. Greenblatt explores the fantastic adventure narratives, ghost stories, pilgrimages, and imagery by which a belief in a grisly "prison house of souls" had been shaped and reinforced in the Middle Ages. He probes the psychological benefits as well as the high costs of this belief and of its demolition. With the doctrine of Purgatory and the elaborate practices that grew up around it, the church had provided a powerful method of negotiating with the dead. The Protestant attack on Purgatory destroyed this method for most people in England, but it did not eradicate the longings and fears that Catholic doctrine had for centuries focused and exploited. In his strikingly original interpretation, Greenblatt argues that the human desires to commune with, assist, and be rid of the dead were transformed by Shakespeare--consummate conjurer that he was--into the substance of several of his plays, above all the weirdly powerful Hamlet. Thus, the space of Purgatory became the stage haunted by literature's most famous ghost. This book constitutes an extraordinary feat that could have been accomplished by only Stephen Greenblatt. It is at once a deeply satisfying reading of medieval religion, an innovative interpretation of the apparitions that trouble Shakespeare's tragic heroes, and an exploration of how a culture can be inhabited by its own spectral leftovers.

Hans Breuer, Austria’s only wandering shepherd, is also a Yiddish folksinger. He walks the Alps, shepherd’s stick in hand, singing lullabies to his 625 sheep. Sometimes he even gives concerts in historically anti-Semitic towns, showing slides of the flock as he belts out Yiddish ditties. When New York-based writer Sam Apple hears about this one-of-a-kind eccentric, he flies overseas and signs on as a shepherd’s apprentice. For thoroughly urban, slightly neurotic Sam, stumbling along in borrowed boots and burdened with a lot more baggage than his backpack, the task is far from a walk in Central Park. Demonstrating no immediate natural talent for shepherding, he tries to earn the respect of Breuer’s sheep, while keeping a safe distance from the shepherd’s fierce herding dogs. As this strange and hilarious adventure unfolds, the unlikely duo of Sam and Hans meander through a paradise of woods and high meadows toward awkward encounters with Austrians of many stripes. Apple is determined to find out if there are really as many anti-Semites in Austria as he fears and to understand how Hans, who grew up fighting the lingering Nazism in Vienna, became a wandering shepherd. What Apple discovers turns out to be far more fascinating than he had imagined. With this odd and wonderful book, Sam Apple joins the august tradition of Tony Horwitz and Bill Bryson. Schlepping Through the Alps is as funny as it is moving.

Written in rhyme, Dr. Ruth, who uses a scooter in real life, goes with her grandchildren, also on scooters, to the zoo. On the way, they run into a friend who is missing her own grandmother. Dr. Ruth offers to be her "grandmother for the day", and they all have an adventure at the zoo. Illustrations. (Baby/Preschool)

Worldly, Jewish, at one time a standout on his legendary Greenwich Village basketball team, an American classical guitar teacher seeks a new life in Portugal after the death of so many friends. But what he calls the viral eclipse over sexuality pursues him even there, when Antonio, his most talented and beloved student, tests HIV-positive and threatens to give up on life at just twenty-four. Desperate to show the young man that he still has a future, 'the Professor' arranges a car trip across Spain to Paris, hoping to be able to convince a leading virtuoso there to begin preparing his protege for a concert career. Antonio's estranged father, Miguel, a stonemason by trade, insists on coming along with them, and en route the three fall into a triangle of adventure, personal disclosure, violence, and at last a strange redemption.

Come join the circus as Caldecott Medal-winner Peter Spier takes you for a look under the big top! The circus is coming to town! Take your front row seat to see how a circus runs—from setting up the tent to performing center ring. Go soaring through the air on the flying trapeze and see how performers from all over the world come together to put on a show. With showbiz excitement that only the circus can create—and Peter Spier's signature humorous details waiting to be discovered on every page—this book is a guaranteed ticket to fun and adventure.

Fiction, Adventure, General Road Trip, Cross Country, Self Discovery

Dr. Pepper Schwartz has spent the past three decades encouraging women to embrace their sexual appetites. But when she became a single woman after 23 years of marriage, she had to take her own advice and discover how sex and dating could work for her at this unique time in her life. Prime is her story of exploration—sex, adventure, and romance—spread out like a road map for women of every age. Whether you're looking to wake up a tired sex life, start a new relationship, or commit to the love of your life, you can find tempting tips and genuinely helpful guidance. Prime invites every woman to relish her sexuality, take risks, and go after what she really wants.

Dive in to this funny and heart-warming adventure from star of stage and screen, Matt Lucas. Perfect for young readers of 8-12! What's better than the best theme park in the world...? The best theme park in the world - IN YOUR OWN GARDEN!! Bob Grubb and his family live on a ramshackle smallholding backing on to the world-renowned theme park, Happey World, run by Arthur Happey and his dreadful granddaughter, Maisie. When Bob accidentally gets into Maisie's bad books, he is banned from Happey World - FOR EVER. What is an entrepreneurial boy to do? Build his own theme park in his back garden, of course! With the help of friends and family, BOBLAND is go! But with Arthur and Maisie doing everything in their power to derail Bob's plans, will they make it to the Grand Opening in one piece, where they are due to meet the king himself? And what is the big family secret that lurks beneath it all? Discover even more laughs, thrills and candyfloss with Matt Lucas' newest wonderful children's novel!

This book is an exciting journey taking place in the Land of Imagination and Fantasy. It is a fairy tale in which the Muse, the Spirit of Creativity, appears and talks to the childen, taking them along with her on a miraculous and wonderful adventure. There are stories within the story, poetry abounds, and the book is designed so that different children and play act different roles as everyone reads along. This is the third book in Magda Herzberger's Holocaust Trilogy, the first two are: "Survival" and "The Waltz of the Shadows."

Leaving her home in Seattle in mid-summer to drive 'the long way round' to the Detroit auto show, Lesley Hazleton embarks on a journey to visit the holy places for cars - where they are raced, displayed, crashed, tested and made - as she seeks to understand our deep fascination with automobiles. Her quest takes her on a road trip that teaches her not only about cars and the peculiar passions of car lovers but also about herself. Halfway through this extraordinary adventure, Hazleton's father, the man who taught her to drive, dies suddenly, and her trip becomes a journey of grief and memory.

"A thief and a nobleman, both down on their luck, cross paths on a bitter winter's day in 1701. One, known locally as "The Fowl-Filcher," is fleeing the gallows; the other, the callow Christian von Tornefeld, has escaped execution to fight for his Swedish king. Neither will reach his destination. Sent with a message to secure aid for von Tornefeld, the thief falls in love with his companion's secret fiance;e. He resolves to win her love for himself, and through a clever stratagem, exchanges his fate for the other man's. Risking everything to attain the woman and station of his dreams, he becomes the Swedish cavalier, staying one step ahead of exposure. Later, he sacrifices everything so that is daughter won't learn of his secret past. In this book he considered is masterpiece, Leo Perutz has created a picaresque world of barons and brigands, swashbuckling dragoons and spurned lovers, gentleman farmers and masked robbers, and lucky parchments, magic spells, and mystical visions. Part adventure, part historical novel of war-ravaged Europe, The Sweddish Cavalier is also a moral tale of deceit, betrayal, and redemption. "--

It's the beginning of an extraordinary night of wild antics, high spirits and unthinkable surprises from all the zoo animals, and still nobody knew - except, of course, YOU!Enthralling, rhyming text and exquisite colored-pencil illustrations combine to make this counting book a wonderful, zoological adventure.

Maynard writes about the struggles and joys of staying married and being a parent in a world more complicated than one most people imagine, a world in which everyday life is an adventure. A confirmation of the power of that mysterious and indestructible force known as maternal love.--People.

A beautiful earth woman is kidnapped by Yargo, the incredibly attractive ruler of a distant world and begins a romantic adventure to exotic planets

An adventure in a Bronze Age that never was, in this sequel to "Beyond the Gap."