Unique, daring, and unforgettable, it tells the story of an ordinary family who accidentally threaten the security of a hidden civilization as intelligent as our own--a colony of ants determined to survive at any cost....Jonathan Wells and his young family have come to the Paris flat at 3, rue des Sybarites through the bequest of his eccentric late uncle Edmond. Inheriting the dusty apartment, the Wells family are left with only one warning: Never go down into the cellar.But when the family dog disappears down the basement steps, Jonathan follows--and soon his wife, his son, and various would-be rescuers vanish into its mysterious depths.Meanwhile, in a pine stump in a nearby park, a vast civilization is in turmoil. Here a young female from the russet ant nation of Bel-o-kan learns that a strange new weapon has been killing off her comrades. To find out why, she enlists the help of a warrior ant, and the two set off on separate journeys into a harsh and violent world. It is a world where death takes many forms--savage birds and voracious lizards, warlike dwarf ants and rapacious termites, poisonous beetles and, most bizarre of all, the swift, murderous, giant guardians of the edge of the world: cars.Yet the end of the female's desperate quest will be the eerie secret in the cellar at 3, rue des Sybarites--a mystery she must solve in order to fulfill her special destiny as the new queen of her own great empire. But to do so she must first make unthinkable communion with the most barbaric creatures of all. Empire of the Ants is a brilliant evocation of a hidden civilization as complex as our own and far more ancient. It is a fascinating realm where boats are built of leaves and greenflies are domesticated and milked like cows, where citizens lock antennae in "absolute communication" and fight wars with precisely coordinated armies using sprays of glue and acids that can dissolve a snail. Not since Watership Down has a novel so vividly captured the lives and struggles of a fellow species and the valuable lessons they have to teach us.From the Hardcover edition.

    Now their client can cozy up to the money. But there are too many beautiful women in the mansion, and the slimy little parasite is confused when he should be scared. After Archie Goodwin drops the ball, Nero Wolfe is ready to break a few laws--like extortion.

    To the incredulity of the passers-by, he refuses their offers to play in concert halls, or at prestigious gatherings. He is waiting for someone, he tells them.Joseph was just sixteen when he was sent to a religious boarding school in the Pyrenees: les Confins, a dumping ground for waifs, strays, and other abandoned souls. His days were filled with routine and drudgery, and he thought longingly of the solace he found through music in his former life.Joe dreams constantly of escape, but it seems impossible. That is, until a chance encounter with the orphanage's benefactor leads him to Rose, and a plan begins to form...Humorous even in its darkest moments, Devils and Saints tells a daring tale of camaraderie, love, and good triumphing over evil.

    The turbulent marriage of Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald from Zelda's perspective.

    In 1789 a small band of Indians attacked the Wiley cabin and killed Jennie’s three older children and her brother. Jennie was taken captive along with her baby son.Quickly the Indians and their captives moved westward into what is now Kentucky. Jennie’s only hope for herself and her child was to keep pace with her captors. The Indians moved northwest into the Big Sandy Valley of Kentucky. Unable to cross the flooded Ohio River, they retreated to a series of winter camps in present-day Carter, Lawrence and Johnson (Kentucky) Counties.With only a rock bluff for shelter Jennie spent the winter laboring as a slave. After almost a year in captivity Jennie escaped, miraculously evading pursuit as she made her way to a small settlement at Harman’s Station on John’s Creek where settlers helped her return to her husband.The author Arville Wheeler was inspired to write this book because his grandmother told him the story of Jennie Wiley when he was a child.

    A pregnant survivor. Can they turn an unwanted marriage… into love? Wyoming, 1866. Brandon Herman wants to drink away his heartache. Divorced, disgraced, and out of work, the last thing he wants to do is marry again. When he’s strong-armed into marrying a Crow Indian woman, he only thinks of running away… until he learns his bride-to-be is nine months pregnant… Lokni doesn’t trust her pale-skinned husband. After all, his kind raided her tribe, killed her loved ones, and stole her freedom. If it weren’t for the contractions, she would've already left her intoxicated groom. But until the baby is born, Lokni must bide her time and plan her escape… As the unlikely couple embarks across the untamed West, Brandon’s support helps their friendship to blossom. They start to realize that it’s more than the baby that draws them together. But on the trail to a brighter future, not everybody they meet is interested in their happily ever after… Forced into Marriage is a historical western romance set in a more realistic Wild West. If you like spirited characters, journeys of exploration, and the healing power of family, then you’ll love Ruth Ann Nordin’s stirring tale. Buy Forced into Marriage to set a course for romance today! PLEASE NOTE: Forced into Marriage is book 4 in the Pioneer Series. Book 1: Wagon Trail Bride Book 2: The Marriage Agreement Book 3: Groom for Hire Book 4: Forced into Marriage

    Merwin --Magic barrel / Bernard Malamud --About marriage / Denise Levertov --from Jane Austen / Virginia Woolf --Princess and the tin box / James Thurber.

    A collection of three dramatic stories of love and difficult choices set in the Alaskan frontier from bestselling author Tracie Peterson.

    The last play by legendary French writer Bernard-Marie Koltès was "a pioneer of a wholly new style of dramatic writing" (The Times)Who is Roberto Zucco?A prisoner or a secret agent? A lover or a rapist? A chameleon or a rhino? A peace-loving student or a killer on the run?In a series of poetic, fast-moving scenes, Koltès takes his hero on a mythical journey through a landscape of strange and violent beauty.

    A scandalous affair. One unique love story. Anne is condemned to a life of loneliness. Until one day, through a massive crowd in London's Cheapside, she sees a man who instantly makes her heart flutter. Their eyes meet in a unique passionate moment... and then she is forced to flee.Overwhelmed by the hardships of her life, Anne is certain that she won't see him again. But fate had other, more sinister plans. When her dear friend Katharine introduces her new intended, Henry, Anne recognizes him immediately...What follows for Anne and Henry is a tale of forbidden passion, friendship, heartbreak, and danger. The closer these two get together, the more they put themselves and everyone they love at risk. The forbidden fruit never tasted sweeter...

    He's the one she's always wanted.From the moment, Justin Ellis reunites with his best friend's little sister in Las Vegas, his world is turned upside down. Angela is beautiful and smart and everything he wants. But they cannot have more than their week-long fling before they both go back to their lives in Seattle.Deciding to give her brother's best friend a Vegas experience was probably not Angela York's smartest move. Especially since she never really got over her school girl crush on him. And why, oh why, did the Vegas experience have to include a drunken night at a wedding chapel.Will they see that they are meant for one another? Or are they headed straight for divorce?

    Brought up in a household of learning and privilege, she is unaware of her difference until she overhears a conversation that makes her suddenly conscious of her race - and of the prejudice it arouses. From this point on, Ourika lives her life not as a French woman but as a black woman "cut off from the entire human race." As the Reign of Terror threatens her and her adoptive family, Ourika struggles with her unusual position as an educated African woman in eighteenth-century Europe. A best-seller in the 1820s, Ourika captured the attention of Duras's peers, including Stendhal, and became the subject of four contemporary plays. The work represents a number of firsts: the first novel set in Europe to have a black heroine, the first French literary work narrated by a black female protagonist, and, as John Fowles points out in the foreword to his translation, "the first serious attempt by a white novelist to enter a black mind." An inspiration for Fowles's acclaimed novel The French Lieutenant's Woman, Ourika will astonish and haunt modern readers.

    It also dares to introduce an asthmatic middle-aged Proust into its masterfully manipulated plot and invents a series of deeply felt letters written by him to the novel's young protagonist, Vincent de l'Etoile. In the summer of 1916, the emotionally precocious Vincent, who is the same age as the century, awakens to the possibilities of both erotic and platonic love. In the course of one week-at literary salons, at the Ritz, in cork-lined rooms-Vincent launches an intense friendship with the celebrated Proust, while at his parents' house in Paris he embarks on a sensual journey with Arthur Vales, the soldier son of a family servant, on leave from the front. Unknowingly, Vincent is also beginning a passage into a manhood that will be haunted by the secret he uncovers behind the love he bears for a doomed French infantryman and a famous middle-aged Jewish writer.