A dreamlike masterpiece of crime, honor, and perverse loyalty by the legendary author of Shoot the Piano Player. Nat Harbin is a family man. His family happens to be a gang of burglars. Now Nat has met a woman so hypnotically seductive that he will leave his partners and his trade to possess her. But you don't get away from family that easily. The Burglar has the hallmarks that made David Goodis one of the great practitioners of the hard-boiled crime novel: a haunting identification with life's losers, and a hero who finds out who he is only by betraying everything he believes in.

Summer is here--and so are the Teeny Weenies! David Lubar is the master of the short story for kids. Now he's back with a new collection of Teeny Weenies stories--just in time for school break! Perfect for the summer holidays, these fun and freaky tales will keep you on the edge of your seat all season long. Young chapter book readers ages 7 to 10, reluctant readers, and fans of very short stories will be entertained and delighted by these twelve zany tales. Wacky comic book style illustrations by Bill Mayer add to the fun. Don't be a weenie. Read these stories! If you dare!

In Victorian Britain, a group of eminent scientists got together to found a society expressly to prove the existence of ghosts. The age of Darwin represented the greatest scientific advances known to man. The tension between science and religion was exposed by Darwin's On the Origin of the Species in 1859, which challenged the basic tenets of belief. Yet many of those in the forefront of the scientific revolution could not give up the idea of a higher reality. Life after death was the unknown frontier. Victorian society was full of mediums claiming they could communicate with the spirits of the dead. Baffling psychic phenomena occurred every day at seances- mysterious rappings were heard, furniture moved, ghostly forms appeared, the mediums spoke in the altered voices of the dead with information only their nearest could possibly know. Pyschometry involving locks of hair and watches and children's toys; telepathy; ouija boards; apparitions; astral projection- all were commonplace. In 1882 the Society of Psychical Research was founded in London to investigate all these phenomena- it was a group led by some of the greatest scientists of the age but its membership also included Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Leslie Stephen, Virginia Woolf's father, John Ruskin, the Reverend Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) and Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain). Six months later William James, Professor of Psychology at Harvard, and the brother of Henry James visited London and went on to set up American branch. Their experiments went on for years. Many mediums, like the notorious Madame Blavatsky, were exposed as charlatans yet there were some mediums who continued to communicate directly with another world, who despite every rigorous scientific test seemed to prove that souls survived death. This is the story of this group of forward thinkers- many of whom were driven to the spirit world by personal tragedy, some whose feeling of loss lead to their own suicides. It is the story of the greatest ghost hunt of any age.

A United Nations insider exposes the ugly truth about the UN—including how UN organizations have been funding terrorist groups! In the New York Times bestseller Tower of Babble , former United Nations ambassador Dore Gold blows the lid off the UN’s shocking failures to keep international peace, its corruption, its rampant anti-Americanism, and its emboldening of terrorist organizations. Citing previously unpublished documents, a brand-new chapter exclusive to this paperback edition provides the untold story of the infamous oil-for-food scandal—including the real scandal, that the UN let oil-for-food money go to fund terrorist organizations.

As the rest of the world worries about what a future might look like under Chinese supremacy, Edward Luttwak worries about China's own future prospects. Applying the logic of strategy for which he is well known, Luttwak argues that the most populous nation on Earth--and its second largest economy--may be headed for a fall. For any country whose rising strength cannot go unnoticed, the universal logic of strategy allows only military or economic growth. But China is pursuing both goals simultaneously. Its military buildup and assertive foreign policy have already stirred up resistance among its neighbors, just three of whom--India, Japan, and Vietnam--together outnumber China in population and wealth. Unless China's leaders check their own ambitions, a host of countries, which are already forming tacit military coalitions, will start to impose economic restrictions as well. Chinese leaders will find it difficult to choose between pursuing economic prosperity and increasing China's military strength. Such a change would be hard to explain to public opinion. Moreover, Chinese leaders would have to end their reliance on ancient strategic texts such as Sun Tzu's Art of War. While these guides might have helped in diplomatic and military conflicts within China itself, their tactics--such as deliberately provoking crises to force negotiations--turned China's neighbors into foes. To avoid arousing the world's enmity further, Luttwak advises, Chinese leaders would be wise to pursue a more sustainable course of economic growth combined with increasing military and diplomatic restraint.

The concepts of formal and informal remain central to the theory and practice of development more than half a century after they were introduced into the debate. They help structure the way that statistical services collect data on the economies of developing countries, the development of theoretical and empirical analysis, and, most important, the formulation and implementation of policy. This volume brings together a significant new collection of studies on formality and informality in developing countries. The volume is multidisciplinary in nature, with contributions from anthropologists, economists, sociologists, and political scientists. It contains contributions from among the very best analysts in development studies. Between them the chapters argue for moving beyond the formal-informal dichotomy. Useful as it has proven to be, a more nuanced approach is needed in light of conceptual and empirical advances, and in light of the policy failures brought about by a characterization of the 'informal' as 'disorganized'. The wealth of empirical information in these studies, and in the literature more widely, can be used to develop guiding principles for intervention that are based on ground level reality.

The letters Kafka addressed to the woman to whom he was twice engaged make up a collection of some of the most startling "love letters" of our time. They form a revealing record of five crucial years in his life and of his relationship to the one woman who decisively influenced his writing. These letters will take their place alongside Kafka's major novels and stories.

Bodyguard Atticus Kodiak could find himself in over his head when he is approached by a woman in desperate need of his services and who could just be the most dangerous woman in the world.

From the critically-acclaimed author of The Fionavar Tapestry comes an epic fantasy novel of love, both courtly and forbidden, and two kingdoms endlessly opposed... Blaise of Gorhaut is a warrior. He fought for his king and country, until the king died with an arrow in his eye at the battle of Iersen Bridge, and a dishonorable treaty ceded a good part of his country to foreign hands. He has broken relations with his father, adviser to the king of Gorhaut, and abandoned the use of his family name. Now, Blaise is a mercenary. He never expected to work for the lords of Arbonne, the warm, fertile lands south of Gorhaut, whose people praise the love of women—they even worship a goddess, instead of the god. They are a soft people, or so he thought. But for all their nonsense about love, their troubadours and songs, they will fight for their country, when invasion comes from the north.

A photographic record of the making of the film Kids, a story of teenage low-life on the streets of New York.

A New York Times Noteworthy Paperback, 1997

The essays in this volume break new ground in the theory of the business firm and its applications in economics. A leading analyst of industrial organization, Professor Demsetz critically examines current debates on the existence, definition, and organization of the firm and discusses issues related to the emerging theory of the firm. He then analyzes the relation among business ownership, wealth, and economic development. Subsequent essays offer new perspectives on competition, profit maximization and rational behavior, and shed new light on managers' compensation, antitrust policy, and the accuracy of firms' accounting data.

Rabbi David Small series

History is changed by one small act. In an extraordinary saga of nations locked in war, master storyteller Harry Turtledove examines a very different World War II—one which erupts eleven months earlier, and over Czechoslovakia rather than Poland. Now comes the final installment in this landmark series. Hitler’s Plan A was to win in a hurry, striking hard and deep into France. There was no Plan B. Now the war grinds on. Countries have been forced into strange alliances. The Nazis fortify thin lines with Hungarian and Romanian troops. England, finding its footing after the suspicious death of Winston Churchill and a coup d’état, fights back in Europe and on the seas of the North Atlantic. Jews fight on both sides of the war—in secret in German uniform, openly in Spain, France, and Russia. Into the standoff come new killing tools, from tanks to bazookas. In the Pacific, Japan prepares bombs filled with macabre biological concoctions to be dropped on Hawaii. For the U.S., the only enemy is Japan, as there has been no casus belli for America in Europe. Then Hitler becomes desperate and declares war on the United States. But is it too late? His own people are rising up in revolt. The German military may have to put down the violence, even perhaps bomb its own cities. In this epic drama, real men and women are shaped by the carnage, and their individual acts in turn shape history. Drawing on the gritty, personal reality of war and on a cast of unforgettable characters, Harry Turtledove has written an alternate history that intrigues, fascinates, and astounds. Praise for Last Orders “From our perspective seventy years later, we’re accustomed to thinking of WWII’s outcome as being inevitable. Not so, says [Harry] Turtledove. . . . Disdaining broad brush strokes, Turtledove’s focus on the characters serves to fill out the big picture with patient, nitty-gritty detail. It’s all quite plausible. . . . Armchair warriors will have much to ponder.” — Kirkus Reviews Praise for Harry Turtledove “If you like alternate histories, you’re going to like this series a lot.” — The San Diego Union-Tribune “Turtledove is the standard-bearer for alternate history.” — USA Today Coup d’Etat “This is what alternative history is all about.” — Historical Novel Society The Big Switch “The Hugo Award winner continues to delight in exploring the world of ‘what if?’” — Library Journal West and East “There’s plenty to satisfy fans of military strategy, tactics, and armaments.” — Publishers Weekly Hitler’s War “Turtledove is always good, but this return to World War II . . . is genuinely brilliant. . . . The characterizations in particular bring the book to extraordinary life.” — Booklist