Thurber," "Get Thee to a Monastery" and "The Moribundant Life, or Grow Old Along with Whom?""His writings will be a document of the age they belong to." --T.S. Eliot

    The Victorian house near the cliffs holds much more than painful memories, and when lightning strikes midnight, family secrets unfold. She and her sisters have no choice but to work together, as they find strength they never knew they had . . . and face danger from a place they never knew existed.

    Inside, you'll find hilarious plot breakdowns and masterful analyses of sixteen of literature's most beloved classics, including: Things Fall Apart, To Kill a Mockingbird, Hamlet, The Catcher in the Rye, Lord of the Flies, Pride and Prejudice, and more!  The series Thug Notes has been featured on BET, PBS, and NPR and has been used in hundreds of classrooms around the world. Whether you’re a student, teacher, or straight-up literary gangster like Dr. Sweets, Thug Notes has got you covered. You'll certainly never look at literature the same way again.www.wisecrack.co/book

    All proceeds of this unique venture will be going to Save the Children Tsunami Relief Fund. Authors participating are: Alexander McCall Smith chapter from Sunday Philosophy Club #2: Friends, Lovers, Chocolates coming 9/05 from Pantheon Ian McEwan chapter from Saturday coming 3/05 from Doubleday Maeve Binchy short story Georgia Hall – as yet unscheduled Margaret Atwood excerpt from the Tree coming in 06 from Doubleday Marian Keyes chapter from If You Were Me Mark Haddon chapter from Blood and Scissors Nicholas Evans chapter from the Divide Nick Hornby chapter from A Long Way Down coming 6/05 from Riverhead Paulo Coelho chapter from the Zahir Scott Turow chapter from the Law of War coming 10/05 from FSG Stephen King short story: Lisey and the Madman from McSweeney’s Enchanted Chamber of Astonishing Stories published 11/04 Tracy Chevalier untitled novel excerpt, as yet unscheduled for publication Vikram Seth poem, "Earth and Sky" as yet unscheduled Helen Fielding - introduction Harlan Coben chapter from the Innocent coming 4/05 from Dutton Joanna Trollope chapter from Second Honeymoon coming 2/06 from Bloomsbury JM Coetzee chapter from Slow Man coming 10/05 from Viking This is an extraordinary collection of superb pieces from the world’s most celebrated writers. All of this is being made available to consumers in advance of publication and in aid of Tsunami victims. Your generous and enthusiastic support of this project will enable Save the Children to continue their important work in the wake of the Tsunami devastation.

    Yet the events Princip triggered were so monumental that his own story has been largely overlooked, his role garbled and motivations misrepresented.The Trigger puts this right, filling out as never before a figure who changed our world and whose legacy still has an impact on all of us today. Born a penniless backwoodsman, Princip’s life changed when he trekked through Bosnia and Serbia to attend school. As he ventured across fault lines of faith, nationalism and empire, so tightly clustered in the Balkans, radicalisation slowly transformed him from a frail farm boy into history’s most influential assassin.By retracing Princip’s journey from his highland birthplace, through the mythical valleys of Bosnia to the fortress city of Belgrade and ultimately Sarajevo, Tim Butcher illuminates our understanding both of Princip and the places that shaped him. Tim uncovers details about Princip that have eluded historians for a century and draws on his own experience, as a war reporter in the Balkans in the 1990s, to face down ghosts of conflicts past and present.The Trigger is a rich and timely work that brings to life both the moment the world first went to war and an extraordinary region with a potent hold over history.

    From policy rows which aren't about policy at all and boozy nights with dramatic consequences, to people spinning their way to the top and dark secrets never seeing the light of day, Marie explores in great and entertaining detail the human side of the people running the country against a backdrop of political mayhem.

    When she and her best friend, Marcus, witness an elderly lady jettisoned out the front door of her home, it's pretty obvious to Julie there's a supernatural connection. In fact, there's a whisper of menace behind increasing levels of poltergeist activity all over town. After a large-scale paranormal assault on Julie's high school, her mother falls victim to the spell Endless Night. Now it's a race against time to find out who is responsible or Julie won't just lose her mother's soul, she'll lose her mother's life.

    Now, share their adventures, pleasures, and frustrations: the joys and occasional hazards of wining and dining in France, taking part in goat races, attending a Pavorotti concert under the stars -- and much more. Meet Provence's unique characters: a wary truffle hunter, a gourmet in a track suit, the wise and crafty Massot -- and many more. Funny, touching, endearing -- Peter Mayle's Provence proves the adage that while you may not be able to escape from it all, you sure can have fun trying.

    But what if we were to suffer a zombie apocalypse in the UK today? Through meticulous research and field work, The Official Zombie Handbook (UK) is the only guide you need to make it through a major zombie outbreak in the UK, including: -Full analysis of the latest scientific information available on the zombie virus, the living dead creatures it creates and most importantly, how to take them down - UK style. Everything you need to implement a complete 90 Day Zombie Survival Plan for you and your family including home fortification, foraging for supplies and even surviving a ghoul siege. Detailed case studies and guidelines on how to battle the living dead, which weapons to use, where to hide out and how to survive in a country dominated by millions of bloodthirsty zombies. Packed with invaluable information, the genesis of this handbook was the realisation that our country is sleep walking towards a catastrophe - that is the day when an outbreak of zombies will reach critical mass and turn our green and pleasant land into a grey and shambling wasteland. Remember, don't become a cheap meat snack for the zombies!

    Some of the more amusing anecdotes involve a pair of rabbit-skin capes that begin shedding at the most inopportune moments and an episode in which the girls are stranded atop Notre Dame cathedral at midnight. And, of course, there's romance, in the form of handsome young doctor Tom Newhall and college "Lothario" Avery Moore.

    The characters of the Twilight Saga carry a rich history that shapes their identities and actions over the course of the series. Edward, for instance, may look like a seventeen-year-old teen heartthrob, but was actually born in 1901 and died during the Spanish Influenza of 1918. His adopted sister, Alice, was imprisoned in an insane asylum in 1920 and treated so badly there that even becoming a vampire was a welcome escape. This book is the first to explore the history behind the Twilight Saga's characters and their stories. You’ll learn about what life might have been like for Jasper Whitlock Hale, the Confederate vampire who fought during the Civil War, Carlisle Cullen, the Puritan witch hunter-turned-vampire who participated in the witchcraft persecutions in Early Modern England, and the history of the Quileute culture that shaped Jacob and his people —and much more.Gives you the historical backdrop for Twilight Saga characters and eventsAdds a whole new dimension to the Twilight novels and moviesOffers fresh insights on vampires, romance, and historyTwilight and History is an essential companion for every Twilight fan, whether you've just gotten into the series or have followed it since the beginning.

    So he takes up an offer to go on a seriously long walk – the ancient Christian pilgrimage of the Camino de Santiago de Compostela, the domain of the devout.Despite his good intentions, Tom's route takes him into every bar along the way while crossing paths with the loopy and the wise, the pious and the distinctly ungodly. He finds himself contending with song-happy evangelists, unlikely scholars and enlightened globetrotters, and randy backpackers out to bed every pilgrim they meet. Not to mention his own very restless demons, some of which lead him to confront troubles he thought he'd left at home.Unholy Pilgrims is an irreverent and engaging take on figuring out what the hell to do with your life.

    Items on her new to-do list include: 1) Quit going-somewhere copywriting job and get going-to-band-practice job. 2) Break up with Hootie and the Blowfish-lovin' boyfriend. 3) Hang out in skanky bars. Meet musicians. 4) Cash in pension and buy kickass guitar amp. 5) Team up with sex-crazed guitar genius/best friend Lucy Stover Hanover II. After auditioning every musician in the greater Los Angeles area---including the deluded, deranged, and underaged---Jenny finds the perfect lineup, and 60-Foot Queenie is born. But while reveling in free tequila shots, autograph hunters, and other perks of minor stardom, Jenny realizes with a shock that 60-Foot Queenie is poised to become even bigger than she imagined. Suddenly, she's learning the real lessons of Rock and Roll High School, including the danger of trusting a record company executive who ties a ponytail in his goatee, and the ten telltale signs your bass player is living in your practice space. Part diary, part crash course in rock stardom, Don't Sleep with Your Drummer is a hilarious, no-holds-barred guide through the pleasures and pitfalls of the music industry---from the beginning to the bitter end, and back again.

    Mackenzie travelled by bark canoe and had a cache of rum and a crew of Canadian voyageurs, hard-living backwoodsmen, for company. Two centuries later, in a spirit of organic authenticity, Robert Twigger follows in Mackenzie's wake. He too travels the traditional way, having painstakingly built a canoe from birch bark sewn together with pine roots, and assembled a crew made up of fellow travellers, ex-tree-planters and a former sailor from the US Navy. After the ice has melted, Twigger and his crew of wandering spirits finally nose out into the Athabasca River . . . Three Years . . . two thousand miles . . .over one thousand painfully towing the canoe against the current . . . several had tried before them but they were the first people to successfully complete Mackenzie's diabolical route over the Rockies in a birch bark canoe since 1793. Subsisting on a diet of porridge, elk and jackfish, supplemented with whisky and a bag of grass for the tree planters, and with an Indian medicine charm bestowed by the Cree People of Fox Lake, the voyageurs embark on an epic road trip by canoe . . . a journey to the remotest parts of the wilderness, through Native American reservations, over mountains, through rapids and across lakes, meeting descendants of Mackenzie and unhinged Canadian trappers, running out of food, getting lost and miraculously found again, disfigured for life (the ex-sailor loses his thumb), bears brown and black, docile and grizzly. Voyageur is a moving tale of contrasts from the bleak industrial backwaters of Canada to the desolate wonder of the Rocky Mountains.

    Identifying the likenesses between animals in the wild and human beings, a humorous reflection on the ridiculous side of life pokes fun at nutrition, talk shows, childbirth, and more.