and more

    • An affordable, accessible companion to vampire literature, films, and TV • Several vampire movies are due out in 2008 and 2009: Twilight, Underworld: Rise of the Lycans, and The Historian • Vampire communities are flourishing on the Internet—a simple “vampire societies” search on Google yields over 580,000 results • Everything reference books have sold more than 575,000 copies! Bram Stoker’s Dracula Anne Rice’s Lestat Stephenie Meyer’s Edward Who can resist these erotic, exotic creatures of the night? And who wants to? In The Everything® Vampire Book, readers unearth all the secrets of this beautiful, terrible underworld, including: • How vampires live, hunt, and endure • Why they refuse to die • How to destroy a vampire—from holy water to decapitation • The best—and worst—vampire books, TV shows, and films • What constitutes the “vampire lifestyle” and blood fetish practices • All the incarnations of vampires—from the Greek Lamia to the Indian Churel • Real-life encounters with vampires Vampire aficionados will enjoy sinking their teeth into the notorious history and bewitching tales in The Everything® Vampire Book!

    The Loch Ness Monster: a creature that should have died out with the dinosaurs, or a legend built on hoaxes and wishful thinking?Sir Peter Scott, internationally renowned naturalist and president of the World Wildlife Fund, was convinced that the Monster existed. So were senior scientists at London's Natural History Museum and Chicago University; they lost their jobs because they refused to renounce their belief in the creature. For decades, the scientific establishment was determined to quash attempts to investigate Loch Ness - until Nature, the world's greatest research journal, published an article by Peter Scott featuring underwater photographs of the Monster. Drawing extensively on new material, Gareth Williams takes a wholly original look at what really happened in Loch Ness. A Monstrous Commotion tells the story as never before: a gripping saga populated by colourful characters who do extraordinary things in pursuit of one of evolution's wildest cards.Meticulously researched and dazzlingly written, this book will appeal to anyone fascinated by nature and its mysteries - and to everyone who enjoys a beautifully crafted detective story with a strong cast of heroes and villains, plenty of twists and an unexpected ending.

    The worst she has to contend with is that the boy of Carla’s dreams is trying to get off with her instead.But then, after chasing a lost little girl no one seems to be able to see, Aoife starts to develop mysterious powers. Eventually her parents confess that she isn’t their real daughter. Their human child was stolen by the fairies, and Aoife is the changeling left behind in her place.Shocked and disorientated, Aoife turns to Shay, the taciturn farmer’s son who is the only person who might believe her story. Together, they embark on a dangerous journey, which takes them deep into the underworld and changes everything they thought they knew about fairies.

    That's about it, right? Well, no, not exactly. Florida is also one of the best places to chart your weirdest travel destinations. And who better to chronicle this state's fabled places, roadside wonders, bizarre beasts, and downright peculiar people than Charlie Carlson, a tenth-generation Floridian. All who know Charlie can testify that he is one very strange dude and the perfect person to steer you to Florida's best-kept secrets and oddest legends.Mosquito netting in place and notepad in hand, Charlie has waddled through swamps, trekked the lesser-traveled roads, and visited the weirder destinations of our country's only peninsula state. Looking for the odd and the offbeat, he found them everywhere. He has tracked down impossible-to-believe tales that had just enough truth in them to create the same uneasiness a gator sighting would. Whether it's the Skunk Ape, the Devil's Chair of Cassadaga, or the She-Man of the Caloosahatchee River, Charlie presents it here for you, our fellow admirers of the weird.So act like a tourist and start browsing. You'll be entranced with the beer-can car, the tombstone for Pearl ("I told you I was sick") Roberts, the Blue Heaven Rooster Graveyard, the Devil Tree, the bowling-ball house, Catalina's ghost, the Mafia House, and Xanadu, the abandoned and neglected house of the future. Read all about the Wizard of Central Florida and Count Von Cosel and his immortal love. It's all here. It's all for you. It's all...very weird.A brand-new entry in the best-selling Weird U.S. series, Weird Florida is packed with all the info about the Sunshine State that your history teacher never taught you. So travel down our state's highways and byways with your tour guide, Mr. Charlie. It's a great adventure. And we promise: it's a journey you'll never forget.

    The Bell family are terrorized by an invisible, talking poltergeist that has taken up residence in their home. While the children are beaten and harassed in their beds, their father is stricken by seizures, and visiting skeptics are confounded by a hateful, disembodied voice that ridicules their attempts at investigation. Centered around the person of young Betsy Bell, the Bell Witch haunting has been called the 19th century's answer to "The Exorcist," and has been the inspiration for such popular films as "The Blair Witch Project" and "An American Haunting."Nicknamed the "Red Book," "An Authenticated History of the Bell Witch" was the first published book on the legend. It contains the full text of "Our Family Troubles," the purported diary of Richard Williams Bell, as well interviews with the descendents of some of the characters who figure in the story. Written in 1894, it stands alone the single most important source for historians of the Bell Witch haunting.

    Little do they know that it is the summer of the Hunter's Moon, a dangerous time for mortals who meddle with the kingdom of Faerie. One night, camping out on old ruins, Finn is kidnapped by the Faerie king, who wants her for a bride and possible sacrifice. It is up to Gwen, the more indecisive of the two, to rescue her cousin. Beautifully written, romantic, exciting, and evocative of both modern-day and mystical Ireland, this is a treat for girl fantasy readers.

    It may appear that — with immigration questions, airport and border restrictions, debate about common currency and talk of private health clinics — we are drifting inevitably towards a greater political and philosophical alliance with the United States. The implication is that we share their values. As Canadians, we have long defined ourselves as “not Americans.” We cherish our differences from our powerful neighbour but, as the United States grows ever more dominant on the world stage, can we hope to hold on to our national identity? Are we fated to become Americans in a generation or two? In Fire and Ice, Michael Adams challenges the myth of inevitability that has led us to believe our Canadian way of life is doomed to extinction. Drawing upon a decade of never-before released pulse-taking from both sides of the border, he reveals that Canada and the United States are not coming together, but are diverging in significant ways. From the vehicles we buy to the deference we pay to authority, Canadians prove to be firmly separate in their attitudes and opinions.If you have ever wondered whether Canada can survive and prosper as a distinct society in an era of globalization and dizzying technological change, Fire and Ice provides fascinating evidence that the cultural divergence between our country and the United States will continue for years to come.

    His urgent message for humanity: "Humans are harming our own environment and theirs." With charming style and humor, Ms. Helliwell recounts the instructions from the Leprechaun on how humans can interact with elemental beings, as well as revealing the fascinating relationship she developed with this delightful fellow.

     Updating, revising, and expanding on material from his cult classic Hellhounds on Their Trail, Patterson offers up a delectable feast of strange and occasionally frightening rock and roll tales, featuring the ironies associated with the tragic deaths of many rock icons, unsolved murders, and other tales from the "fell clutch of circumstance." Beginning with the fateful place where it all started -- a deserted country crossroads just outside Clarksdale, Mississippi, where Robert Johnson made his deal with the devil -- through the Buddy Holly curse (rock and roll's first great tragedy) and beyond, this incredible volume uncovers some of rock and roll's most celebrated murders, twists of fate, and decades-long streaks of bad luck that defy rational explanation. Inside you'll find: Facts about Jimmy Page and the Zeppelin Curse. Chilling quirks of fate in the fatalities in the Allman Brothers and Lynyrd Skynyrd. Facts about Jimmy Page and the Zeppelin curse Chilling quirks of fate surrounding the deaths of musicians in the Allman Brothers Band and Lynyrd Skynyrd A provocative look at "The Club," membership in which requires an untimely death at age twenty-seven and whose inductees include Kurt Cobain, Jimi Hendrix, and Janis Joplin Cryptic messages in song lyrics that have proved eerily prophetic Carefully researched, wildly enjoyable, and often harrowing, Take a Walk on the Dark Side takes the reader on a mysterious ride through rock and roll history.

    It is the Progressive view that is taught in our schools, that is preached by Hollywood, and that shapes the policies of the Obama administration. If America is a force for inequality and injustice in the world, its power deserves to be diminished; if traditional America is based on oppression and theft, then traditional America must be reformed—and the federal government can do the reforming.In America: Imagine a World without Her D'Souza offers a passionate and sharply reasoned defense of America, knocking down every important accusation made by Progressives against our country. In this book, you'll learn:-Why it is a pernicious myth that English colonists "stole" America from the Indians or that American settlers and soldiers "stole" the southwest from Mexico-Why the descendants of slaves—and the successive waves of immigrants to the United States—are better off here than in their old countries-How America, more than any other country, is based on rewarding the enterprise and hard-work of the common man-How traditional American virtues sustain prosperity and freedom, and Progressive arguments about "liberation" and "justice" undercut them-How Progressive demagoguery about "inequality" expands the power of government and its grasp on the taxpayer's wallet-Why we should fear the Progressive agenda of "reform" which is in fact an agenda of totalitarian control of the state over the individual-Why national decline is a choice--a choice that it is still not too late to reverseProvocative in its analysis, stunning in its conclusions, Dinesh D'Souza's America will be the most talked about book of the year.

    Once there, they've stayed to hear about the young brave with the magic moccasins, who talks with animals and uses his supernatural gifts to bring peace and enlightenment to his people. This 1855 masterpiece combines romance and idealism in an idyllic natural setting.

    Some are "Momotaro, "The Son of a Peach", "The Jellyfish and the Monkey", "The Mirror of Matsuyama", "The Bamboo Cutter and the Moon Child", "The Stones of Five Colors and the Empress Jokwa."

    Like others, it offers a rich and spinetingling history of spectral sightings from ancient times through to the present day but unlike other ghost books it does not seek to convince the reader that such entities exist. Instead, the author accepts tha ghosts are a fact: apparitions that are a natural phenomenon, part of this world and part of its natural laws.

    Shea Serrano deftly pays homage to the most important song of each year. Serrano also examines the most important moments that surround the history and culture of rap music—from artists’ backgrounds to issues of race, the rise of hip-hop, and the struggles among its major players—both personal and professional. Covering East Coast and West Coast, famous rapper feuds, chart toppers, and show stoppers, The Rap Year Book is an in-depth look at the most influential genre of music to come out of the last generation.    Complete with infographics, lyric maps, hilarious and informative footnotes, portraits of the artists, and short essays by other prominent music writers, The Rap Year Book is both a narrative and illustrated guide to the most iconic and influential rap songs ever created.