Since then, Schott's Original Miscellany and its two sequel volumes have been translated into more than fifteen languages and have sold some three million copies.Now Ben Schott returns to the miscellany format with a brand-new cabinet of curiosities. Inside, you'll find fascinating facts cheek by jowl with information you can't live without. All things are considered, from footwear labeling symbols, airport runway markings, and sign-writing brush sizes to the traditional method of counting sheep and how to smoke cigars while reading the news.Nothing escapes the jeweler's eye of this curator of unconsidered trifles. An essential addition to the bookshelf of all who love life's rich tapestry, Schott's Quintessential Miscellany-equal parts encyclopedia, almanac, treasury, and lexicon-will remind you that there is only one Ben Schott.Praise for Schott's Miscellanies:"If we live in an information age, then Ben Schott has become something of a maestro, or perhaps a master chef, ranging over the whole of knowledge and seasoning his...books with a pinch of this, a drop of that." -Chicago Sun-Times"Genuine practical value...Elegantly designed...A vast empire of informational flotsam and jetsam." -New York Times"One of the oddest and most addictively readable reference books in print."-Boston Globe"Completely earnest and mischievous at the same time."-Newsday

    This play, first staged at the Leicester Haymarket Theatre, is based on a tenth-century Jain myth about a king who finds his queen involved with an elephant-keeper.

    The unit, the reports claimed, had carried out a series of illegal spook operations: they had spied on President Jacob Zuma, run a brothel, illegally bought spyware and entered into unlawful tax settlements.In a plot of Machiavellian proportions, head of the elite crime-busting unit Johann van Loggerenberg and many of SARS’s top management were forced to resign. Van Loggerenberg’s select team of investigators, with their impeccable track record of busting high-level financial fraudsters and nailing tax criminals, lost not only their careers but also their reputations.Now, in this extraordinary account, they finally get to put the record straight and the rumours to rest: there was no ‘rogue unit’. The public had been deceived, seemingly by powers conspiring to capture SARS for their own ends.Shooting down the allegations he has faced one by one, Van Loggerenberg tells the story of what really happened inside SARS, revealing details of some of the unit’s actual investigations.

    A twisted truth. A fight for survival.Investigative journalist Meg Dawson is about to be demoted to the graveyard shift unless she can score a big scoop. But she gets more than she bargained for when a murder case lands in her lap—the victim was her good friend, Sam Vargas. Just when Meg starts building momentum to uncover the truth about Sam’s death, her boss at the Times hands her story to her archrival. What’s worse, the police are asking all the wrong questions, both about Sam and her dark past. Meg continues her investigation in secret, uncovering one ugly deed after the next, until she comes face to face with a devastating truth. Can Meg outsmart a killer who always seems to be one step ahead? Fans of Melinda Leigh’s Bree Taggart series and Kendra Elliot’s Columbia River mysteries will devour this page-turning whodunnit. Start the thrilling Meg Dawson mystery series with Her Final Mistake today!

    He’s charged into burning buildings to rescue men and women, young and old. He’s scaled ladders that towered over blistering infernos, and defied blazes that terrified lesser men.Fire? He understands. Women? Not so much. Now there’s some real danger. He should know. He’s been burned before. He’s not interested in romance, or the perils that come with it. His priority is caring for his two small boys, and making his mark as the new fire chief of Sawyer, but everything changes the day he catches sight of Sugar, the pretty girl who works at the local bakery. Sugar is exactly what he wants: A fun, no-strings distraction. A friends-with-benefits arrangement that won’t break what’s left of his heart. A Battered Heart On the heels of an abusive marriage, Sugar Stonemyer is done with men. But when Jaxson Anderson strolls into the bakery with a very wicked offer, she can’t resist. One look at the fireman, and Sugar knows the Sawyer rumor mills haven’t exaggerated. Jaxson’s tall, dark, and smokin’ hot. He wants an arrangement, nothing more, and that’s perfect. Or so she thought. With each slow seduction, Sugar falls a little more. She has only herself to blame. She didn’t want either of them to have feelings, but that’s not how the game is played…Flames of Love is the first novel in the Firefighters of Long Valley series, although all books in the Long Valley world can be read as standalones. It has some strong language, and oh my, sexy times. Enjoy!

    Ankur Warikoo is an entrepreneur and content creator whose witty and brutally honest thoughts on success and failure, money and investing, self-awareness and personal relationships have made him one of India’s top personal brands.In his first book, Ankur puts together the key ideas that have fuelled his journey.This is a book to be read, and reread, a book you will give your family and friends and strangers.

     One text message from a complete stranger. The same answer to both...Yes. Scarlett Bell has found a way to move beyond a dark past that threatened to take her best friend, Kinsley, from her. Now ten years later Scarlett has everything. A multi-billion dollar fashion and beauty empire. A fabulous New York apartment filled with everything a girl could need. And an awesome best friend. What more could she want? Love, marriage, and a baby. Everything her best friend has. One ex-boyfriend could give her everything she thinks she wants. Even if he is a little too nice... One dark stranger could give her everything she never knew she wanted. But he could destroy her life... Two men. Two choices. One answer to both: Definitely Yes.

    In the century since its first performance, The Cherry Orchard has undergone a wide range of conflicting interpretations: tragic and comic, naturalistic and symbolic, reactionary and radical. Beginning with the 1904 premiere at Stanislavsky's Moscow Art Theatre, this study traces the performance history of one of the landmark plays of the modern theatre. Considering the work of such directors as Anatoly Efros, Giorgio Strehler, Peter Brook, and Peter Stein, Chekhov: The Cherry Orchard explores the way different artists, periods and cultures have reinvented Chekhov's poignant comedy of failure and hope.

    Inquisitive and restless by nature, Graham suspects his State Department father is a CIA operative, and that their family’s fragile domesticity is merely a front for American efforts along the nearby Israeli border. Over the course of one year, 1972, Graham’s life will utterly change. Two men are murdered, his parent’s marriage disintegrates, and Graham, along with his two ex-pat friends, run afoul of forces they cannot understand. The City on the Edge is elegiac, atmospheric, and utterly authentic. It’s the story of innocents caught within the American net of espionage, of the Lebanese transformed by such interference, of the children who ran dangerously beside the churning wheel of history. One part Stephen King’s “The Body” and another John le Carre’s A Perfect Spy, it’s a transformative crime story told with heart and genuine experience.

    Each time I meet a guy, I cross my fingers and hope he is at least halfway normal. I’m so tired of dealing with crybabies and freak shows that I could just scream. At this point, I’m so close to just joining a convent, taking the vow of chastity, and calling it quits with men entirely. Well, I probably don’t need to go to that extreme... I mean who am I kidding? There's no way I could be a nun. But becoming an old crotchety lady with 20 cats lurking around? Now THAT is a definite possibility. That is until I see him, my brown-eyed stallion man, swooping in to save me from an unforeseen wrinkly old balls attack, and then... he is gone. Well, not gone completely, because I can’t stop fantasizing about him. I fantasize about him so much that when I finally do see him again, I make a complete and total ass of myself. Several times in fact. How I do not drop dead of embarrassment right then and there is beyond me. So, remember I said I have really bad luck? Well, sit back, grab a glass of wine or your favorite mixed drink, and let me tell you how it all started, and how it all ends... ~ Renaming my past boyfriends has always been a favorite pastime of ours. Why not give them a more fitting name, because who really needs to remember the guy’s real name? You want a name to remind you why it didn’t work, so at three in the morning on a drunken, horny night you don’t call him. Thinking you made a mistake. In this case, The Huffer left no room for regret. ~ "So are we going to talk about the fact that your jeans have ripped apart like a hooker's legs on a Friday night?" he asks and starts laughing ~ "I could go for a Sinful 7, but only if you will share it with me." I say as I look up from the menu to Bash "I think I could be sinful with you" he responds seductively. Bash gives me a look that I haven't seen yet. I think it is a lets go back to your apartment and get sinful look. I look back at the bartender and say "One Sinful 7 please. Togo!"

    But, as Will Johnson shows, the physical aspect of the practice is far too often underemphasized. The alert-yet-relaxed sitting posture that is the common denominator of so many meditative techniques is a wonderful aid for clearing the mind and opening the heart, but it also works to activate the natural healing energies of both body and mind. The author offers guidance and exercises for working with the posture of meditation and advice on how to carry its benefits on into all the rest of life.

    But it's not Christian charity that's driving Sister Genevieve--she wants Micah to take her to a place called the Valley of Fire, deep in the most lawless and perilous part of New Mexico Territory. It was here where an order of nuns met their Maker, and it's Sister Genevieve's mission to see that they are given a proper funeral. Or so she claims. Micah's not in the habit of helping nuns, but it turns out the only true vow Genevieve ever took was to get rich--and there's a fortune in gold buried along with the sisters. With kill-crazy bandits and blood-hunting bounty hunters after them, it'll take a miracle to reach the Valley of Fire, let alone get the gold. But sometimes, the Almighty does work in mysterious ways. . ."Johnny Boggs has produced another instant page-turner...don't put down the book until you finish it." --Tony Hillerman on Killstraight "Johnny D. Boggs tells a crisply powerful story that rings true more than two centuries after the bloody business was done." --The Charleston (S.C.) Post and Courier on The Despoilers Raves For The Westerns Of Johnny D. Boggs "Another dramatic story by a finalist for the Spur award of Western Writers of America." --Amarillo Globe-News (on Once They Wore the Gray)"An entertaining western in the classic mold. The characters possess enough human frailty to be believable, the author includes interesting stuff on the weaponry of the times, and there is enough gunplay to satisfy genre purists." --Booklist on Ten and Me"Boggs has once more written a humdinger of a book with wonderful characters, even the villains. The Despoilers tears at one's heart, which is what really good fiction should do." --Roundup on The Despoilers"Boggs' unique approach to the Lincoln County War's legal skirmishing is both eye-opening and memorable." --True West on Law of the Land"... a finely crafted historical novel with fully developed characters playing out their lives against the backdrop of early Texas settlement." --American Cowboy on Spark on the Prairie"Boggs delivers a colorful, clever and arresting tale." --Santa Fe New Mexican on Camp Ford

    Grammy-winning singer Melanie Free comes to a turning point in her life and career?. Former war correspondent and photographer Everett Carson finds new purpose amid the carnage?and Sister Maggie Kent searches through the rubble - and knows instantly that there is much work to be done?.Honor Thyself: Carole Barber has come to Paris to work on her novel - and to find herself after a lifetime in the spotlight. But on this cool November evening, a fiery instant of terror shatters hundreds of lives - and leaves Carole alone, unconscious and unidentified in a Paris emergency room. As a woman whom the whole world knows slowly awakens, she knows nothing of herself. For Carole, an extraordinary opportunity has arisen in a life-threatening crisis: a second chance to count her blessings, heal wounded hearts, recapture lost love?.Rogue: For five years, Blake and Maxine have worked out an odd but amicable divorce. Blake enjoys his globe-trotting lifestyle while Maxine raises their kids in Manhattan and pursues her passion, working as a psychiatrist. When a devastating earthquake strikes near one of Blake's palatial foreign homes, he sees hundreds of orphaned children in need of shelter. Now, Blake wants Maxine in his life again - as a partner in a humanitarian project. Blake's sudden transformation - from carefree playboy to compassionate, responsible grown-up - raises questions Maxine's never managed to answer?.

     Cleo knows a secret... Sixteen years ago in the middle of the night, Cleo Merrifield and her parents left her Aunt Clara’s house in Goldebury Bay. Cleo also left the two young men who loved her, Oliver Sutton and Thaddeus Beaumont. Now Cleo’s back and she’s brought her best friend Poppy. Long, hot days and sultry nights, gorgeous men and chilled champagne, seem the perfect summer cocktail for two thirty-something girls intent on having fun. But Cleo knows not everything is as it seems in the picturesque seaside resort, including Aunt Clara. And secrets have a way of getting out. When gossip spreads like wildfire, Cleo’s hopes go up in flames. Then Poppy uncovers an even bigger secret. Ninety Steps to Summerhill. Book 2, is out now. Ninety Days to Christmas. Book 3, is out now. Each book contains a complete story with its own ending but there is a background story running through all three books in this series. Also by EMILY HARVALE Highland Fling Lizzie Marshall's Wedding The Golf Widows' Club Sailing Solo Carole Singer's Christmas Christmas Wishes A Slippery Slope The Perfect Christmas Plan

    Sure, they’re all puffed up, strutting egos, but they’re also the best and brightest creatives in Chicago. Including the newest recruit, disturbingly attractive Levi Wolcott.Award-winning copywriter Levi is pumped to have been headhunted to Huxworth Packard to work on the beer account. But he’s not off to a good start when he and Sloane first meet in an embarrassing encounter in a hotel hall, and the Brew Crew’s merciless new-guy hazing doesn’t improve his shaky first impression. Even worse, Levi can’t ignore the intense attraction he has to Sloane.Despite their mutual “hell no” when it comes to love, a moment of weakness makes Sloan and Levi believe business and pleasure can be kept separate, and maybe a little harmless sex isn’t that dangerous.Or maybe it’s as harmless as a bomb with a lit fuse…Warning: This book contains a hero with an award-winning, panty-melting vocabulary intent on the hard sell, and a take-charge businesswoman who doesn’t mind giving up control in the bedroom…and thinks panties are overrated, anyway.