Search results for ""Author Sly"

No one knows who exactly invented the wheel, but in the inventive hands of illustrator Tom Schamp young readers will have great fun learning about all the ways wheels have rolled through history. From prehistoric carts to cars of tomorrow, this big, fun book takes a historic journey through a world where everything has wheels, from the Trojan horse to the Harley Davidson; from the stagecoach and the steam train to the Vespa and the Ferrari; from skateboards to electric scooters. Every spread of this deliriously entertaining and educational book is filled with Tom Schamp's quirky and colorful art. His sly, subtle texts will make older readers smile. Younger readers will return again and again to these playfully crowded pages to discover what different countries' emergency vehicles look like; to learn about buses of every imaginable dimension and weight; and to choose which bike they'd use to win a race. Each viewing will reveal charming new details that are as absurdly funny as they are educationally rewarding.

Read more less

**Previously published as Cold Kiss**The most gripping thriller you'll read this year, perfect for fans of The Hunting Party and An Unwanted GuestSeven strangers. One body. A decision that will change everything. Nate and Sara are broke – and on the run from the past. When a shady hitchhiker offers them cold hard cash for a lift, they can't afford to say no. But when the man dies in the back seat, with more than two million dollars in his possession, Nate and Sara are forced to make a difficult decision. And, with a blizzard closing in, trapping them for who knows how long in a motel with five strangers, it’s a decision they won’t be able to run from…Perfect for fans of Lucy Foley and Ruth Ware, The Couple in Room 13 is a tense, twisty thriller that will not leave your hands until you've finished and will force you to ask the question, 'What would I have done?' Praise for The Couple in Room 13:'A well-crafted, tightly plotted thriller which steadily cranks up the sense of menace page by page. You know something bad's going to happen and just have to keep reading…' Simon Kernick, Sunday Times bestselling author of Die Alone 'Clean, lean writing. Pure story with no padding. The pace was cracking and the tension cranked up with each chapter. I inhaled it! Allie Reynolds, author of Shiver 'Portents of disaster accumulate like wind-driven snow... A sly and very accomplished first novel' Booklist'Highly rewarding... I just couldn't stop reading... There's no better place to spend a few imaginative hours these days than Rector's snowbound motel' National Review'Highly suspenseful, highly provocative... has elements of the teen horror film I Know What You Did Last Summer and the classic, groundbreaking Psycho... highly recommended' Gumshoe Review'One of the most violent, frightening and gripping books I have ever read. The phrase "I could not put it down" fits here -- and the ending stopped me COLD. An outstanding read -- don't miss this one!' Beyond her Book, Publisher's Weekly'A novel that compels you to read on - even though there are times you are too scared to. Brilliant' Sun'Rector is the best find I've made all year' Tony Black'Wonderfully compelling. Could almost see the film racing across my eyes' Maxim Jakubowski'Tense, taut, throat-grabbing. John Rector is far more accomplished than his years. Reads like a cross between No Country for Old Men and Deliverance. Terrific' Eric Van Lustbader'One of the best debuts I've read in a very long time' Scott Phillips

Read more less

A bear searches for his missing hat in the bestselling, multiple award-winning picture book debut of Jon Klassen.In his bestselling debut picture book, the multiple award-winning Jon Klassen, illustrator of This Is Not My Hat and Sam and Dave Dig a Hole, tells the story of a bear who's hat has gone. And he wants it back. Patiently and politely, he asks the animals he comes across, one by one, whether they have seen it. Each animal says no (some more elaborately than others). But just as it he begins to lose hope, lying flat on his back in despair, a deer comes by and asks a rather obvious question that suddenly sparks the bear’s memory and renews his search with a vengeance... Told completely in dialogue, this quirky, hilarious, read-aloud tale plays out in sly illustrations brimming with visual humour and winks at the reader who will be thrilled to be in on the joke.

Read more less

A young Parisian lawyer is found murdered, burned alive with a flaming tyre around his neck.For Lola Jost, retired police commissioner, the killer's methods are all too familiar. Her beloved assistant Toussaint Kidjo was dispatched in the same way five years before. Convinced of a connection, and aided by her loyal sidekick Ingrid Diesel, Lola reopens the Kidjo investigation on the sly.But the murdered lawyer turns out to be the protégé of a shadowy fixer known as "Mister Africa", who is heavily involved in the arms trade. And the official investigation becomes mired in a power struggle between the Paris police and a newly formed national intelligence agency.Lola and Ingrid have earned their reputation as amateur super sleuths who get the job done when the police can't - or won't. But the high-stakes world of international arms dealing plays by its own brutal rules, and this case could prove too hot for them to handle . . .

Read more less

From the New York Times best-selling creator of Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site and Steam Train Dream Train, Tom Lichtenheld, comes a laugh-out-loud story of a runaway teddy bear's secret life, now available in a sturdy board book edition.Louis the bear has had enough.From day one, life has been one indignity after another. If he's not being used as a hankie, he's being hung out to dry—literally. (No one likes clothespins used on their ears!) This teddy is sneaking away just as soon as he can. Then again, no use running off in the rain . . . or during a show-and-tell routine. Maybe Louis has something to lose, after all. This fresh and funny take on a teddy bear come to life is a salty and sweet, grumpy and tender, sly tribute to the ties that bind. This sturdy board book edition is perfect for the youngest of readers.

Read more less

Naila's conservative immigrant parents have always said the same thing: You may choose what you want to be when you grow up, but we will choose your husband. Dating, even a friendship with a boy, is forbidden. So when Naila falls in love with Saif, a Pakistani-American classmate, and tries to date him on the sly, her parents are livid. They insist on a trip to Pakistan to visit their relatives and explore their roots. But several weeks into what she's been led to believe is a family vacation, Naila suddenly learns the real reason for the trip - her parents have found a 2 suitor and they are determined Naila will marry him. Naila is aghast. Her only hope of escape is Saif, who swore he would do anything for her. But will it be too late by the time he gets to her? And was this destiny written in the stars? Or can she make her own destiny.

Read more less

Presenting thirty-five stories from seven collections published over more than forty years, Vincent O’Sullivan’s Selected Stories is a milestone in the career of one of New Zealand’s leading writers. `Vincent O’Sullivan’s short fictions go straight to the heart of human experience. They are by turn tender, deeply moving, unsparing and often witty, endowed with a sly humour that cuts through his characters’ foibles and pretensions. He is simply one of our very best storytellers, with total mastery of his craft.’—Fiona Kidman `These finely attuned, wry and deeply moving stories that have been gathered together here are executed with such compassion and grace that we might not even be aware at the time of our reading just how much they have taught us about what it is to be human and frail in this large world.’—Kirsty Gunn `Vincent O’Sullivan ranks with the best worldwide. His stories are as fine as any being written today.’—Kevin Ireland

Read more less

Selected by Nobel Laureate Louise Glück as Winner of the inaugural Changes Book Prize, Rachel Mannheimer's debut, Earth Room, is a dazzling book-length narrative poem that explores with tenderness how art and love intersect to make one's life. Transporting the reader across decades and from the Moon to Mars by way of Alaska, Berlin, and the Hudson Valley, Earth Room considers a lineage of sculpture, performance, and land artfrom Robert Smithson to Pina Bauschwith observations shaped by gender and environment, history and portents of apocalypse. With an urgent, direct, and unmistakably powerful voice, Mannheimer tests the line between nature and culture, ordinary life and performance.A work of sly wit and bracing sincerity, Earth Room is an original, unsparing book that Louise Glück calls a lesson in how to make something of where we find ourselves.RACHEL MANNHEIMER was born and raised in Anchorage, Alaska, and lives in New Haven, Connecticut, where she works as a literary scout and as

Read more less

More commonly known as The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, Victor Hugo's Romantic novel of dark passions and unrequited love, Notre-Dame de Paris, is translated with an introduction by John Sturrock in Penguin Classics.In the vaulted Gothic towers of Notre-Dame Cathedral lives Quasimodo, the hunchbacked bellringer. Mocked and shunned for his appearance, he is pitied only by Esmerelda, a beautiful gypsy dancer to whom he becomes completely devoted. Esmerelda, however, has also attracted the attention of the sinister archdeacon Claude Frollo, and when she rejects his lecherous approaches, Frollo hatches a plot to destroy her, that only Quasimodo can prevent. Victor Hugo's sensational, evocative novel brings life to the medieval Paris he loved, and mourns its passing in one of the greatest historical romances of the nineteenth century.John Sturrock's clear, contemporary translation is accompanied by an introduction discussing it as a passionate novel of ideas, written in defence of Gothic architecture and of a burgeoning democracy, and demonstrating that an ugly exterior can conceal moral beauty. This revised edition also includes further reading and a chronology of Hugo's life.Victor Hugo (1802-85) was a forceful and prolific writer. He wrote volumes of criticism, Romantic costume dramas, lyrical and satirical verse and political journalism but is best remembered for his novels, especially Notre-Dame de Paris (1831) and Les Miserables (1862) which was adapted into one of the most successful musicals of all time. Though exiled to the Channel Islands by Napoleon III, Hugo returned to Paris in 1870 and remained a great public figure until his death: his body lay in state under the Arc de Triomphe, and he was later buried in the Panthéon.If you enjoyed Notre-Dame de Paris, you might like Gaston Leroux's The Phantom of the Opera.'A great writer - inventive, witty, sly, innovatory'A. S. Byatt, author of Possession

Read more less

'One of the significant writers of her generation.' Saul Bellow'Her prose is cooler than a cocktail and sharper than a Japanese knife . . . Nora Ephron meets Lorrie Moore, which is about as good as it gets.' Rachel Cooke, Observer'We should be glad to have her back . . . Howland has the pinpoint vision that can make any sentence into a jewel.' John Self, The TimesBlue in Chicago brings together the bittersweet short stories of the remarkable American writer Bette Howland. Hailed as a major talent before all but disappearing from public view, this tenderly compiled collection restores her vital voice to our shelves. Bette Howland was an outsider: an intellectual from a working-class neighborhood in Chicago; a divorcee and single mother, to the disapproval of her Jewish family; an artist chipped away at by poverty and self-doubt. Her stories radiate a passionate commitment to the lives of ordinary people and the humble grace of everyday.From city streets to the hospital to the public library to the mundane family outing, her sly humour, aching melancholy and tender insight illuminate every page. Here is an astonishing literary voice rediscovered. Blue in Chicago features an afterword by Honor Moore and was published in the US under the title Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage.'Beautifully bittersweet . . . funny, ruefully poetic and effortlessly perceptive.' Daily Mail'Captivating writing: rhythmic, alert, empathetic . . . I haven’t enjoyed another book more this year.' Telegraph'Profound . . . To read Bette Howland is to be handed a gift you didn't know you needed.' Irenosen Okojie, author of Nudibranch

Read more less

"Spider Eaters" is at once a moving personal story, a fascinating family history, and a unique chronicle of political upheaval told by a Chinese woman who came of age during the turbulent years of the Cultural Revolution. With stunning honesty and a lively, sly humor, Rae Yang records her life from her early years as the daughter of Chinese diplomats in Switzerland, to her girlhood at an elite middle school in Beijing, to her adolescent experience as a Red Guard and later as a laborer on a pig farm in the remote northern wilderness. She tells of her eventual disillusionment with the Maoist revolution, how remorse and despair nearly drove her to suicide, and how she struggled to make sense of conflicting events that often blurred the line between victim and victimizer, aristocrat and peasant, communist and counter-revolutionary. Moving gracefully between past and present, dream and reality, the author artfully conveys the vast complexity of life in China as well as the richness, confusion, and magic of her own inner life and struggle. Much of the power of the narrative derives from Yang's multi-generational, cross-class perspective. She invokes the myths, legends, folklore, and local customs that surrounded her and brings to life the many people who were instrumental in her life: her nanny, a poor woman who raised her from a baby and whose character is conveyed through the bedtime tales she spins; her father; and her beloved grandmother, who died as a result of the political persecution she suffered. Spanning the years from 1950 to 1980, Rae Yang's story is evocative, complex, and told with striking candor. It is one of the most immediate and engaging narratives of life in post-1949 China.

Read more less

A debutante frees a hyena from the zoo so that it might take her place at her coming-out ball; an artist paints a portrait of a man s dead wife, but finds she has painted herself instead; a woman makes love to a boar underneath a mountain of cats; a chicken is roasted with the brains and livers of thrushes, truffles, crushed sweet almonds, rose conserve and drops of divine liqueur; two noble sisters wonder whether anybody can be a person of quality if they wash away their ghosts with common sense ; a psychoanalyst must decide what to do with the gift of a team of Russian rats trained to operate on humans. In this first complete edition of Leonora Carrington's short stories, written throughout her life from her early years in Surrealist Paris to her late period in Dirty War-era Mexico City, the world is by turns subversive, funny, sly, wise and disarming.

Read more less

Pinocchio plays pranks upon the kindly woodcarver Geppetto, is duped by the Fox and the Cat, kills the pedantic Talking Cricket, and narrowly escapes death, with the help of the blue-haired Fairy. A wooden puppet without strings, Pinocchio is a tragicomic figure, a poor, illiterate, naughty peasant boy who has few choices in life but usually chooses to shirk his responsibilities and get into trouble. This sly and imaginative novel, alternately catastrophic and ridiculous, takes Pinocchio from one predicament to the next, and finally to an optimistic, if uncertain, ending. In his compelling introduction, Jack Zipes places Pinocchio within the traditions of the oral folk tale and the literary fairy tale, showing how Collodi subverts those traditions while raising questions about how we 'civilize' children in uncivilized times.For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, P

Read more less

Before Joe rolled in / I was the ten-year-old King / of all I surveyed / Now that he's here / It's perfectly clear / That I / am in the way.James is NOT a fan of his new little brother, Joe. His parents adore Joe and don't have time for James anymore. What is an older sibling supposed to do?!When James stumbles upon a baby-changing station that can exchange younger siblings for much more exciting things, he is faced with endless options. Should he choose the night-vision googles, a cool chemistry set, a guitar, or keep his baby brother? James is put through the ultimate test until he realizes that being a big brother is not so bad after all.With sly humor, playful rhymes, and dynamic art, The Baby-Changing Station celebrates the timeless theme of older-younger sibling rivalry with a humorous magical twist perfect for readers of all ages.

Read more less

A full-color book to help boys and girls and parents enjoy the Easter season. Read read-aloud text and vibrant, whimsical illustrations will provide fun for young readers eager to track the Easter Bunny and find her hidden eggs!Legend has it that the only way to find all the hidden Easter eggs is to track an Easter Bunny’s every move. . . . But be careful: Easter Bunnies hop fast! To find one, you’ll need to be clever in crafting a tricky nest. So, grab some nest supplies, glitter, and glue, and get prepared for your sly holiday visitor!On the night before Easter, the Easter Bunny will show up to hide her eggs and then disappear as quickly as she came. However, if you’re careful and clever and quick, you can set up a bunny nest that will let you track the Easter Bunny, and then you’ll be sure to find all her hidden treasures, no matter where they might be!

Read more less

Hilarious, shocking and hugely entertaining, Reheated Cabbage has all the classic Irvine Welsh ingredientsIn Reheated Cabbage you can enjoy Christmas dinner with Begbie and discover how aliens addicted to Embassy Regal have Midlothian under surveillance. You will meet a husband who values a televised Hibs v Hearts game more than his wife's life and see two guys fighting over a beautiful girl agree - after a few pills and pints of lager - that their friendship is actually more important. And you will be delighted to welcome back 'Juice' Terry Lawson, and to watch what happens when he meets his old nemesis under the strobe-lights of a Miami Beach nightclub.'The stories combine sly humour with the tang of lived experience. It makes for a terrific collection, showcasing a writer who...has blossomed into one of the most distinctive, and distinguished, observers of British life' Sunday Telegraph

Read more less

Lovers of Haiku, Zen and Japan will find this novel truly inspiring!An extraordinary man at a crucial time and place."In Mister Timeless Blyth, writer Alan Spence has created a fascinating (auto) biography, convincingly in R.H. Blyth's own voice. In it, he has conveyed the haiku scholar's love of music, eastern and western literature, Zen Buddhism, and sly contradictions. Blyth's profound understanding of haiku and his self-deprecating humor permeate every page. Throughout this work, Mr. Spence has included an interesting constellation of characters who influenced Blyth on what he considered his own karmic path, giving us an entirely new perspective of his life and personal development. I could not put the book down." — William Scott Wilson, author of The Life and Zen Haiku Poetry of Santoka TanedaImprisoned during World War I as a conscientious objector and interned during World War II as an enemy alien, Reginald Horace Blyth was a poet, a scholar, a musician, a linguist and a student of Zen who ultimately became teacher to an emporer. His pivitol works were published in Japan even during his internment. Blyth ultimately became the key link and mediator between the Imperial Household and the occupying American forces, whom many credit with saving Japan from chaos after the war. His fingerprints are everywhere today in the study of Zen, Haiku and Japanese culture, and his work has influenced some of the most important writers of the 20th century— including Huxley, Oshi, Aiken, Watts, Salinger, Kerouac, Ginsberg and others. He was, in many ways, a man who changed the world!Mister Timeless Blyth is his story. Written in the form of an autobiographical novel filled with Zen and poetry, this book recounts a life of hard work, books and music, of spiritual questing, and of learning to be at peace with one's self and one's choices. It celebrates a man who built bridge between East and West for the greater part of his lifetime. Through it, we understand someone who moved with a sense of purpose, warmth and humor and left a mark that was very distinct indeed.

Read more less

Hypnotic and tender, this book reminds us that even if we leave our homes, our homes never leave us.-Oprah Daily[Hull] has that sly eye for sublime details, but also a killer instinct for tight storytelling.-Carl Hiaasen, New York Times Book ReviewA richly evocative coming-of-age memoir set in the Florida orange groves of the 1960s by a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalistAnne Hull grew up in rural Central Florida, barefoot half the time and running through the orange groves her father's family had worked for generations. The ground trembled from the vibrations of bulldozers and jackhammers clearing land for Walt Disney World. Look now, her father told her as they rode through the mossy landscape together. It will all be gone. But the real threat was at home, where Hull was pulled between her idealistic but self-destructive father and her mother, a glamorous outsider from Brooklyn struggling with her own aspirations. All the while, Hull felt the pressures of girlhood closing in. She dream

Read more less

WINNER OF THE BSFA AWARD FOR BEST NOVELJack Glass is the murderer. We know this from the start. Yet as this extraordinary novel tells the story of three murders committed by Glass the reader will be surprised to find out that it was Glass who was the killer and how he did it. And by the end of the book our sympathies for the killer are fully engaged.Riffing on the tropes of crime fiction (the country house murder, the locked room mystery) and imbued with the feel of golden age SF, JACK GLASS is another bravura performance from Roberts. Whatever games he plays with the genre, whatever questions he asks of the reader, Roberts never loses sight of the need to entertain and JACK GLASS has some wonderfully gruesome moments, is built around three gripping HowDunnits and comes with liberal doses of sly humour.Roberts invites us to have fun and tricks us into thinking about both crime and SF via a beautifully structured novel set in a society whose depiction challanges notions of crime, punishment, power and freedom. It is an extraordinary novel.

Read more less

At first glance, Walton Ford’s large-scale, highly detailed watercolors of animals recall the prints of 19th-century illustrators John James Audubon and Edward Lear. A closer look reveals a complex and disturbingly anthropomorphic universe, full of symbols, sly jokes, and allusions to the ‘operatic’ quality of traditional natural history.In this stunning but sinister visual universe, beasts and birds are not mere aesthetic objects but dynamic actors in allegorical struggles: a wild turkey crushes a small parrot in its claw; a troupe of monkeys wreaks havoc on a formal dinner table; an American buffalo is surrounded by bloodied white wolves. In dazzling watercolor, the images impress as much for their impeccable realism as they do for their complex narratives.First available as a signed and limited volume, this updated edition of Pancha Tantra is the most comprehensive survey of Ford’s oeuvre to date, with more than 20 new works. It features dazzling details, an in-depth exploration of his visual universe, a complete biography, and excerpts from his textual inspirations: from Indian folktales and the letters of Benjamin Franklin to the Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini and Audubon’s Ornithological Biography.

Read more less

In a culture infatuated with youth and determined to avoid old age at all costs, this book dares to raise a question that has been all but forgotten in the age of Viagra and cosmetic surgery. What benefits might lie in accepting the aging process as natural, rather than trying to hold on to youth and its pleasures all the way to the grave?Osho takes us back to the roots of what it means to grow up rather than just to grow old. Both in our relationships with others, and in the fulfillment of our own individual destinies, he reminds us of the pleasures that only true maturity can bring. He outlines the ten major growth cycles in human life, from the self-centered universe of the preschooler to the flowering of wisdom and compassion in old age.Osho's sly sense of humor runs like a red thread through the book, along with a profound compassion and understanding of how easy it is to be distracted from the deeper meaning and purpose of our lives-which is, ultimately, to flower into our own individual uniqueness and maturity with an attitude of celebration and joy.

Read more less

Boots Marez is a Latina single mother raising a headstrong and sly 18-year-old boy she adopted six years ago. She also runs a school that helps the undocumented people in her politically divided town in Northern California. When her son Jaral is jailed for the murder of one of her former students, her world is turned upside down. Struggling to protect her son, Boots has to spotlight a community used to living in the shadows, putting her hard work over the years in doubt. Meanwhile, a vicious parents'' board wants to trash her ideals and oust her from the school she helped build. As she faces increasing danger to clear her son''s name, she must decide how far she is willing to go to bring her son home. But nothing is as it seems - Jaral has been keeping secrets from her after all. And as she puts the missing pieces together, she will discover a deeper and darker web of lies that has been hiding in plain sight.

Read more less

Jessica Kate’s heartfelt and romantic debut proves that love always comes in God’s own time. Natalie Groves once had big dreams. But soon after her fiancé, Jeremy Walters, inexplicably broke off their engagement and left town, her father was diagnosed with cancer. Now tasked with keeping her family afloat, Natalie’s grand plans have evaporated . . . and God feels very far away. Fast-forward seven years, and Jeremy is back in Charlottesville with an infant son and years of regrets. When his niece, Lili, lands on his doorstep in need of a place to stay, Jeremy needs help—and fast. An internship opening finally presents Natalie a chance at her dream job, but she needs a second income to work around it—and the only offer available is Jeremy’s. They could be the solutions to one another’s problems, provided they don’t kill each other in the process. When they join forces, sparks fly. But they both know there’s a thin line between love and hate . . . and that love will turn out to be the best decision—or the biggest mistake—of all. This inspirational contemporary read is a standalone novel, though it also features characters from Jessica Kate’s forthcoming novel, A Girl’s Guide to the Outback (coming January 2020). Book length: approximately 90,000 words. Includes a reading group guide. “A stunning debut . . . This tale of love and redemption will stay with you long after you've closed the book. A must-read.” —Rachel Hauck, New York Times bestselling author of The Wedding Dress “Witty. Charming. Heartfelt. I could go on and on about Jessica Kate’s debut novel. From its highly relatable characters to its pitch-perfect dialogue, Love and Other Mistakes is a delightful, romantic read filled with just the right amount of sass. I lost count of the number of times I laughed out loud as I watched Natalie and Jem navigate their relationships, careers, and faith. Definitely one of the most enjoyable books I've read lately, and I can't wait to see what’s next from Jessica Kate!” —Melissa Tagg, Carol Award–winning author of Now and Then and Always and the Walker Family series “Love and Other Mistakes wraps a poignant and warm look at relationships within a smart, sly, and knowing comedic voice. Readers of Sally Thorne and Bethany Turner will be immediately at home with Natalie: an all-too-real heroine who balances whip-smart agency with an endearing vulnerability and whose intersection with long-lost Jeremy helps her forge a path to confidence and discover the woman she was always meant to be. Kate’s unputdownable debut recognizes that all human relationships—familial, friendship, romantic—are worth the keen eye and clever insight of her talented pen.” —Rachel McMillan, author of the Van Buren and DeLuca Mysteries “If you’re looking for a story with sass on top of style, or a fresh voice pumped full of fun, you need to read Love and Other Mistakes. Then after you’ve enjoyed this—and I’m confident you will—make a date with whatever this exciting new author writes next!” —David Rawlings, author of The Baggage Handler

Read more less

Celebrate ten years of the Singing Mermaid with this special anniversary edition of The Singing Mermaid from the fantastic partnership of Julia Donaldson and Lydia Monks - the bestselling team behind the What the Ladybird Heard adventures.Hoping for fame and fortune, the Singing Mermaid joins Sam Sly's circus. The crowds love her, but the poor mermaid is kept in a tank by the wicked circus owner and she soon longs to return to the freedom of her ocean home.The Singing Mermaid is a delightful tale from the stellar picture book partnership of Julia Donaldson and Lydia Monks, creators of What the Ladybird Heard. With brilliant rhyming verse, bright and distinctive illustrations, this story is loved by children and parents alike.Enjoy all the stories from Julia Donaldson and Lydia Monks: Sharing a Shell, The Princess and the Wizard, The Rhyming Rabbit, The Singing Mermaid, Sugarlump and the Unicorn, Princess Mirror-Belle and the Dragon Pox, What the Ladybird Heard, What the Ladybird Heard Next and What the Ladybird Heard on Holiday.

Read more less

Jennifer Thorne skewers all-too-familiar family dynamics in this sly, wickedly funny vacation-Gothic. Beautifully unhinged and deeply satisfying, Diavola is a sharp twist on the classic haunted house story, exploring loneliness, belonging, and the seemingly inescapable bonds of family mythology.USA Today BestsellerBest Horror Books of 2024 (so far)EsquireMost Anticipated Books of 2024GoodreadsAnna has two rules for the annual Pace family destination vacations: Tread lightly and survive.It isn't easy when she's the only one in the family who doesn't quite fit in. Her twin brother, Benny, goes with the flow so much he's practically dissolved, and her older sister, Nicole, is so used to everyoneincluding her blandly docile husband and two kidsfalling in line that Anna often ends up in trouble for simply asking a question. Mom seizes every opportunity to question her life choices, and Dad, when not reminding every

Read more less

'Alec Blume is an inspired creation. An American who has become a commissioner in the Italian police, he's a sly, sardonic loner who gives the impression of knowing Rome better than its natives ... Fitzgerald is an elegant, visual writer' Guardian 'A powerful and hugely compelling thriller' William Boyd ________________ There’s no cure for murder… Commissario Alec Blume, on health leave and fleeing his partner Caterina, has retreated from Rome to central Italy. At the Villa Romanelli he enrolls on a natural remedies course conducted by a young woman named Silvana. But far from recuperating or resolving his differences with Caterina, a feverish Blume becomes isolated and sluggish with sickness. Increasingly ill-at-ease in the stifling environment, the dark history of the crumbling villa and its once-magnificent gardens draws him in. And when a Romanian girl who works for Silvana’s ambiguous fiancé Niki asks for his help, Blume finds himself dragged into the shadowy case of a missing girl, and the secret horrors of the garden’s malign beauty.

Read more less

Two queens, two concubines, six princes. Innumerable secret agendas.A single hidden blade.The imperial palace -- full of ambitious royals, sly gossip and unforeseen perils -- is perhaps the most dangerous place in the Empire of Zhaon. Komor Yala, lady-in-waiting to the princess of the vanquished kingdom of Khir, has only her wits and her hidden blade to protect herself and her charge, who was sacrificed in marriage to the enemy as a hostage for her conquered people's good behaviour, to secure a tenuous peace.But the Emperor is ageing and the Khir princess and her lady-in-waiting soon find themselves pawns in the six princes' deadly schemes for the throne -- and a single spark could ignite fresh rebellion in Khir.Then, the Emperor falls ill -- and a far bloodier game begins...The Throne of the Five Winds is the first instalment of the Hostage of Empire series, an intricate and ruthless East Asia-inspired epic fantasy trilogy perfect for fans of George R. R. Martin, Ken Liu, Kate Elliott, and K. Arsenault Rivera.

Read more less

In this suspenseful and darkly funny debut novel, a sophisticated French woman spends her life obsessing over her perfect husband—but can their marriage survive her passionate love?“One of the most daring, provocative, unnervingly intimate thrillers I’ve read in years. Few writers besides Ruth Rendell and Patricia Highsmith can evoke domestic unease with such sangfroid; fewer still can make it such delirious fun.” —A. J. Finn, #1 NYT bestselling author of The Woman in the WindowAt forty years old, she has an enviable life: a successful career, stunning looks, a beautiful house in the suburbs, two healthy children, and most importantly, an ideal husband. After fifteen years together, she is still besotted with him. But she’s never quite sure that her passion is reciprocated.Determined to keep their relationship perfect, she meticulously prepares for every encounter they have, always taking care to make her actions seem effortless. She watches him attentively, charting every mistake and punishing him accordingly to help him improve. And she tests him—setting traps to make sure that he still loves her just as much as he did when they first met.Until one day she realizes she may have gone too far . . .The winner of France’s First Novel Prize in 2021, My Husband builds on the premise of hits like Gone Girl and Fates and Furies—how well can you really know your spouse?—and adds the tension and creepy obsession of You. The result is an irresistible read—compelling, tense, and engaging, infused with sly subversive humor, and told in an utterly original voice that makes it unforgettable.Translated from the French by Emma Ramadan

Read more less

A celebration of the extraordinary and ordinary power of dogs of all kinds, in sly and cheerful verse from celebrated poet David Elliott. Features artwork from an all-star cast of eighteen bestselling and award-winning illustrators.In so many hearts you’re number one! Agile! High-spirited! Obedient! Fun! You hunt. You fish. You search and find. You cheer the old. You guide the blind.In this ode to our most loyal companions, you’ll meet the Labrador Retriever and sixteen other remarkable dogs. There''s the Bloodhound, who has a sense of smell one thousand times better than yours or mine. And there’s the Irish Wolfhound, the world’s tallest dog, who was once the companion of royalty. And we can’t forget the mutt.But that’s not all! You’ll meet big dogs and small dogs, scruffy dogs and elegant dogs, and dogs from all around the world. Pairing engaging poems with surprising facts, Best in S

Read more less

[Leon's] portrait of Venice and modern Italy is, as always, captivating...The lively conversations between...characters, displaying Leon's sly humour, are a delight. Evening StandardA Kirkus Reviews Best Mystery 2011A Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Bestseller__________________________________A young woman returns from holiday to find her elderly neighbour dead on the floor. A heart attack seems the likely cause, but Commissario Brunetti is not so sure and decides to take a closer look. Soon he discovers that she was part of an organization that cares for abused women and that her apartment was a safe-house. Convinced that this is the lead he has been looking for, Brunetti begins his search for answers. But as he sets out to discover the truth behind her death, he is drawn into a decades-old story of lies and deceit that has blighted love and ruined lives - and has claimed this innocent woman as its newest victim. Brunetti's investigation takes him deep into the dark heart of his beloved Venice.

Read more less

This gathering of all Dylan Thomas’s stories—ranging chronologically from the dark, almost surrealistic tales of Thomas’s youth to such gloriously rumbustious celebrations of life as “A Child’s Christmas in Wales” and “Adventures in the Skin Trade”—charts the progress of “The Rimbaud of Cwmdonkin Drive” toward his mastery of the comic idiom. Here, too, are stories originally written for radio and television and, in a short appendix, the schoolboy pieces first published in the Swansea Grammar School Magazine. A high point of the collection is Thomas’s “Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog,” a vivid collage of memories from his Swansea childhood that combines the lyricism of his poetry with the sparkle and sly humor of Under Milk Wood. Also here is the fiction from Quite Early One Morning, a collection planned by Thomas shortly before his death. Altogether there are more than forty stories, providing a rich and varied literary feast and showing Dylan Thomas in all his intriguing variety–somber fantasist, joyous word-spinner, and irrepressible comedian of smalltown Wales.

Read more less

The image of the rose winds through the book, symbol of eternity and transience, gravity and folly. We find it in the ghastly bloom of the atomic bomb, in the relic of St. Therese of Lisieux, in the wool of a cloned sheep. Its image glows silently under the Waste Isolation Projects of Yucca Mountain and New Mexico, in the U.S. Human Radiation Experiments, in the altars constructed at the schoolyard gate of the Columbine massacre. The poems -- witty, sly, sensitive, and immensely informed -- trace the spiritual inquiries of a series of linked personae adrift in bodies and a world made toxic by the residues of scientific experimentation. Paola’s dramatic monologues begin and end with the same fictional narrator, a wry, cynical, cake-baking woman who, on learning of the atomic structure of all matter, begins a lifetime of questioning. At times blasphemous, at times poignant and humorous, these voices are never less than heartbreakingly human, and the words they utter chill with their honesty. The Lives of the Saints is a stark, wise, meticulously researched book by a writer whose reputation leaps forward with each publication.

Read more less

A powerful novel from one of the most celebrated American writers of her generation, and the winner of the National Book Award for Fiction 2012 In the quiet aftermath of WWI, Fidelis Waldvogel leaves behind his quiet German village, and sets out for America with his new wife Eva – the widow of his best friend, killed in action. Finally settling in North Dakota, Fidelis works hard to build a business, a home for his family – and a singing club consisting of the best voices in town. But his adventure into the New World truly begins when he encounters Delphine Watzka, a local woman whose origins are a mystery, even to her. Delphine meets Eva and is enchanted. She meets Fidelis and the ground trembles… Spanning the decades from the Great War to the fifties, 'The Master Butchers Singing Club' is a gift to readers everywhere, unfolding its themes of love and death, lightness and gravity with the eloquent prose, sly humour, and depth of feeling that only a masterful writer can offer.

Read more less

The acclaimed account of the English people, now updated with two new chapters'Masterful, an enormously readable narrative of the English people from the Anglo-Saxons to the present' Dominic Sandbrook, Sunday Times, Books of the YearIn The English and their History, the first full-length account to appear in one volume for many decades, Robert Tombs gives us the history of the English people, and of how the stories they have told about themselves have shaped them, from the prehistoric 'dreamtime' through to the present day.'As ambitious as it is successful . . . Packed with telling detail and told with gentle, sardonic wit, a vast and delightful book' Ben MacIntyre, The Times, Books of the Year'A stupendous achievement ... a story of a people we can't fail to recognize: stoical, brave, drunken, bloody-minded, violent, undeferential, yet paradoxically law-abiding ... I found myself gripped' Daniel Hannan, Spectator'Original and enormously readable, this brilliant, hugely engaging work has a sly wit and insouciance that are of themselves rather English' Sinclair MacKay, Daily Telegraph

Read more less

A stylish and suspenseful historical page-turner following an up-and-coming journalist who stumbles onto a web of secrets, deceptions, and mysteries at a popular new literary magazine--inspired by the true story of CIA intervention in Cold War American arts and letters.Sly and delightful . . . the book is the equivalent of a flinty, modern dame holding her own in a room full of condescending men. --The New York Times Book ReviewNew York City, 1953: Louise Leithauser''s star is on the rise. She''s filed some of the best pieces at her boyfriend Joe''s brand new literary magazine, Downtown (albeit under a male pseudonym), her relationship still makes her weak at the knees, and the science fiction romance she''s writing on the side, The Lunar Housewife, is going swimmingly. But when she overhears Joe and his business partner fighting about listening devices and death threats, Louise can''t help but investigate, and she quickly finds herself wadi

Read more less

"The Middlesteins had me from its very first pages" - Jonathan Franzen Edie and Richard have been married for over thirty years, living in the Chicago suburbs. Everyone who knew them-even their own children Robin and Benny-agreed that Edie was a tough woman to love, but no one expected Richard to walk out on her, especially not in her condition. Edie is fifty-nine years old, she weighs 300 pounds, and her doctors have told her she'll die if she doesn't stop eating. As Richard is shut out by the family and seeks solace in the world of internet dating, Robin is dragged back from the city and forced to rebuild a relationship with her mother. Meanwhile Benny and his neurotic wife Rachelle try to take control of the situation. But have any of them stopped to think about whether Edie really wants to be saved? Written with sly humour, warmth and great insight, The Middlesteins is a novel about what it means to be part of a family.

Read more less

Seventy-seven tales of the supernatural, intended to frighten and excite and bring to heel their medieval audience, gathered from medieval chronicles, sagas, heroic poetry and romances. Strongly recommended. M R JAMES NEWSLETTER Stories of restless spirits returning from the afterlife are as old as storytelling. In medieval Europe ghosts, nightstalkers and unearthly visitors from parallel worlds had beenin circulation since before the coming of Christianity. Here is a collection of ghostly encounters from medieval romances, monastic chronicles, sagas and heroic poetry. These tales bore a peculiar freight of spooks and spirituality which can still make the hair stand on end. Look at the story of Richard Rowntree's stillborn child, glimpsed by his father tangled in swaddling clothes on the road to Santiago, or the sly habits of water sprites restingas golden rings on the surface of the river, just out of reach. The writer and broadcaster Andrew Joynes brings together a vivid selection of these tales, with a thoughtful commentary that puts them in context and lays bare the layers of meaning in them.

Read more less

From the New York Times bestselling author of When Dimple Met Rishi comes the second instalment in a brand-new series set in St Rosetta's Academy.Caterina LaValle is determined to show she's still the queen of St. Rosetta's Academy. Sure, her crown may be slightly askew after her ex-boyfriend, Alaric, cheated on her, but she's a LaValle. She'll find a way to march right back in there, her hands clutching the strings to the whole puppet show. This time, she's going to be untouchable.Rahul Chopra knows that moment he shared with Caterina LaValle at the winter formal meant something. Surely she feels it, too. He's a little uncertain how someone like him (socially inept to a point way past "adorkable") could fit into her world, but he's loved Caterina for years. He knows they'll find a way.When Caterina finds out Alaric is taking a supermodel to the upcoming gala, she knows she cannot arrive without the perfect date. But the thought of taking another superficial St. R's boy exhausts her. The solution? Sweet-but-clueless Rahul Chopra and a mysterious pot of hair gel with the power to alter the wearer into whatever his heart desires.When Rahul tries it, he transforms instantly into RC-debonair, handsome, and charming. But transformation comes with a price: As Rahul enjoys his new social standing, the line between his two personas begins to blur. Will he give up everything, including Caterina, to remain RC? Or will this unlikely pair find their way back to each other?_________________________________________________Praise for Sandhya Menon's work:'Pure, fantastical escapism with a tiny critique embedded in the privilege that it so joyfully describes' Financial Times'One of the great rom-com YA writers' Paste Magazine 'Adorable, joyous.' BuzzFeed 'Anytime your soul needs a hug, pick up a Sandhya Menon novel.' Book Riot'There's something irresistible about Sandhya Menon's novels: the romances are sweet and winning, the humour is cheerful and sly, and the families are warm and complicated.' Stephanie Perkins

Read more less

The classic nursery rhymes we know and love – upside-down, backward, in gibberish, and fresh out of bounds – as only Jon Scieszka could stage them.Mother knows best, but sometimes a little nonsense wins the day. Inspired by Dadaism’s rejection of reason and rational thinking, and in cahoots with Blanche Fisher Wright’s The Real Mother Goose, this anthology of absurdity unravels the fabric of classic nursery rhymes and stitches them back together (or not quite together) in every clever way possible. One by one, cherished nursery rhymes – from “Humpty Dumpty” to “Hickory Dickory Dock,” “Jack Be Nimble” to “Mother Hubbard” – fall prey to sly subversion as master of fracture Jon Scieszka and acclaimed illustrator Julia Rothman refashion them into comic strips, errant book reports, anagrams, and manic mash-ups. Playfully reconstructed, the thirty-six old-new rhymes invite further nonsense, bringing kids in on the joke and inviting them to revel in reimagining. Featuring robust back matter, this irreverent take on the rhymes of childhood is a great gift for child readers, a rich classroom resource, and a love song to a living language.

Read more less

In this collection, esteemed poet and translator David R. Slavitt brings to life John Milton's Latin poetry with deft, imaginative modern English translations. While Milton is recognized as one of the most learned English poets in history, his Latin poetry is less well known. Slavitt's careful rendering brings Milton's Latin poems-many written in his late teens-into the present. He keeps true to the style of the originals, showing Milton's maturing poetic voice and the freedom he found working in Latin. On the Gunpowder PlotO, sly Guy Fawkes, you plotted against your king and the British lords, but did you intend to be kindand make up for your malice in this thing with at least a show of piety? Do we findan intention, perhaps, of sending the members of court up to the sky in a chariot made of firethe way Elijah traveled. Or do I distort the simple wickedness of your desire? Featuring an introduction by Gordon Teskey, this comprehensive English-language collection of Milton's Latin poems pays due respect to a master. Poetry lovers, Milton fans, and scholars of either will welcome, enjoy, and learn from this work.

Read more less

'Dark, creepy and very clever, The Trap will lure you in and keep you captive until the very last page' - C L TAYLOR‘Elegant and twisty, it lingers in the memory’ – Daily Mail'Topical, twisty, and with a real heart stopper of a moment halfway in that'll make you turn the lights back on' - GILLIAN MCALLISTERStranded on a dark road in the middle of the night, a young woman accepts a lift from a passing stranger. It's the nightmare scenario that every girl is warned about, and she knows the dangers all too well - but what other choice does she have?As they drive, she alternates between fear and relief - one moment thinking he is just a good man doing a good thing, the next convinced he's a monster. But when he delivers her safely to her destination, she realizes her fears were unfounded.And her heart sinks. Because a monster is what she's looking for.She'll try again tomorrow night. But will the man who took her sister take the bait?-Inspired by a series of still-unsolved disappearances, The Trap is the startlingly original new thriller from internationally bestselling author Catherine Ryan Howard.‘As brain-teasing as it is gripping . . . [a] psychologically dazzling novel' - Sunday Times Thriller of the Month and chosen as one of the 12 best thrillers of 2023 by The Times'Dark and witty and clever. An original and highly gripping read, I couldn't turn the pages fast enough' - Alice Feeney'Howard has a sly gift for misdirection . . . Again and again, you'll blithely follow her down the wrong path' - New York Times'A breakneck thriller with so many twists and turns that your head will spin. I absolutely tore through The Trap ' - Holly Seddon

Read more less

Finalist for the Republic of Consciousness PrizeFamily Album is Ecuadorian author Gabriela Alemán’s rollicking follow-up to her acclaimed English-language debut, Poso Wells.Alemán is known for her spirited and sardonic take on the fatefully interconnected—and often highly compromised—forces at work in present-day South America, and particularly in Ecuador. In this collection of eight hugely entertaining short stories, she teases tropes of hardboiled detective fiction, satire, and adventure narratives to recast the discussion of national identity. A muddy brew of pop-culture and pop-folklore yields intriguing, lesser-known episodes of contemporary Ecuadorian history, along with a rich cast of unforgettable characters whose intimate stories open up onto a vista of Ecuador’s place on the world stage.From a pair of deep-sea divers using Robinson Crusoe’s map of a shipwreck to locate sunken treasure in the Galápagos Archipelago, to a night with the husband of Ecuador’s most infamous expat, Lorena Bobbitt, this series of cracked “family portraits” provides a cast of picaresque heroes and anti-heroes in stories that sneak up on a reader before they know what’s happened: they’ve learned a great deal about a country whose more well known exports—soccer, coffee and cocoa—mask an intriguing national story that’s ripe for the telling.One of The Millions Most Anticipated Books for 2022!"Ecuadorian writer Alemán’s sparkling collection (after the novel Poso Wells) brims with humor and adventure."—Publishers Weekly"Plays with tropes ranging from the Robinson Crusoe story to the classic betrayed-wife setup to wrestle with the impossible-to-decode oddness of human life, which old stories can only hide for so long."—Lily Meyer, NPR"It takes a rare and talented writer to create a cast of characters who each feel so unique, distinct, and whose stories unravel unexpectedly while also feeling inevitable, exactly right. Thoughtful and subversive, with Family Album, Alemán has given us a gift."—Jean Kyoung Frazier, author of Pizza Girl"Divers, adventurers, wrestlers, athletes: a diverse array of people come to light in these stories to insist again and again in challenging the weight of the written letter. Gabriela Alemán's stories inhabit the past to work through its possible versions. Her characters understand that History is a form of desire and the truth is not a house but a patina covering a place that has ceased to exist."—Yuri Herrera, author of A Silent Fury: The El Bordo Mine Fire"Gabriela Alemán's stories unravel a rich and intriguing universe in which nothing, and no one, is what it seems."—Pilar Quintana, author of The Bitch"These stories are like lizards lying on rocks in the sun. When you try to pick one up it darts away and disappears. Sometimes a tail comes off in your hand or the thing bites your fingers and drops of blood decorate the rock. Best read while listening to Julio Jaramillo sing 'Amor sin Esperanza' and 'Hojas Muertas.'"—Barry Gifford, author of Sailor & Lula: The Complete Novels"Gabriela Alemán writes beautiful, sly, enigmatic stories originating in a rogues gallery of real life legends, including El Santo and John Wayne Bobbitt, as well as lesser known and invented souls, all of them struggling against the silent—or is it hostile?—backdrop of Ecuador’s past and present. Family Album is a mordantly funny and haunting collection."—Zachary Lazar, author of Vengeance

Read more less

Coyote Anthropology shatters anthropology’s vaunted theories of practice and offers a radical and comprehensive alternative for the new century. Building on his seminal contributions to symbolic analysis, Roy Wagner repositions anthropology at the heart of the creation of meaning—in terms of what anthropology perceives, how it goes about representing its subjects, and how it understands and legitimizes itself. Of particular concern is that meaning is comprehended and created through a complex and continually unfolding process predicated on what is not there—the unspoken, the unheard, the unknown—as much as on what is there. Such powerful absences, described by Wagner as “anti-twins,” are crucial for the invention of cultures and any discipline that proposes to study them. As revealed through conversations between Wagner and Coyote, Wagner's anti-twin, a coyote anthropology should be as much concerned with absence as with presence if it is to depict accurately the dynamic and creative worlds of others. Furthermore, Wagner suggests that anthropologists not only be aware of what informs and conditions their discipline but also understand the range of necessary exclusions that permit anthropology to do what it does. Sly and enticing, probing and startling, Coyote Anthropology beckons anthropologists to draw closer to the center of all things, known and unknown.

Read more less

Frank Ormsby's seventh collection of poems reflects not only the beauty of the Irish landscape and the sensuous and aesthetic impact of the small farms among which he grew up, but also the continuing violence of the 'Troubles'. Close to the surface of mountain and bogland lie the hidden graves of the 'Disappeared'. Ormsby continues to make vivid use of the short, resonant poems which were a striking feature of Goat's Milk and The Darkness of Snow. Here too the content is often delivered and reinforced through rich, contrasting images within or between poems: the scarlet flowers growing in a black kettle, the fuchsia that is both 'redolent of old battles' or a 'peaceful tapestry in the annals of stone'. Among the personae of the collection is the obliging father who volunteers to be buried by his children up to the neck in sand within sight of but some distance from the 'cold shadow of the mountain'. The elegiac note that echoes through the poems rarely darkens the mood. Ormsby’s wit and humour, his sly sense of the absurd and what might be called his affection for the living and the dead draw the reader into considering the conviction that it is sometimes 'possible to believe / that joy grows irresistibly at the roots of everything'.

Read more less

Sisters Lili and Dori Ackerman are deaf. Their parents-beautiful, despondent Anna; fearsome and admired Alex-are deaf, too. Alex, a scrap-metal collector and sometime prophet, opposes any attempt to integrate with the hearing; to escape their destructive influence, the girls are educated at home. Deafness is no disability, their father says, but an alternative way of life, preferable by far to that of the strident, hypocritical hearing. Living in a universe of their own creation, feared by and disdainful of the other children on their block, Lili and Dori grow up semi-feral. Lili writes down everything that happens-just the facts. And Dori, the reader, follows her older sister wherever she goes. United against a hostile and alien world, the girls and their parents watch the hearing like they would fish in an aquarium. But when the hearing intrude and a devastating secret is revealed, the cracks that begin to form in the sisters' world will have consequences that span the rest of their lives. Separated from the family that ingrained in them a sense of uniqueness and alienation, Lili and Dori must relearn how to live, and how to tell their own stories. Sly, surprising, and as fierce as its protagonists, Yaara Shehori's Aquarium is a stunning debut that interrogates the practice of storytelling-and storyhearing.

Read more less

"Atkinson's bright voice rings on every page, and her sly and wry observations move the plot as swiftly as suspense turns the pages of a thriller."-San Francisco ChronicleTwo years after the events of Case Histories left him a retired millionaire, Jackson Brodie has followed Julia, his occasional girlfriend and former client, to Edinburgh for its famous summer arts festival. But when he witnesses a man being brutally attacked in a traffic jam - the apparent victim of an extreme case of road rage - a chain of events is set in motion that will pull the wife of an unscrupulous real estate tycoon, a timid but successful crime novelist, and a hardheaded female police detective into Jackson's orbit. Suddenly out of retirement, Jackson is once again in the midst of several mysteries that intersect in one giant and sinister scheme."Compelling and always entertaining." -USA Today"One Good Turn crackles with energy and imagination." -Chicago Tribune"Atkinson's tart prose sparkles." -Entertainment Weekly"Entertaining both as a murder mystery and as a sprawling multi-character study in the best post-Nashville tradition." -The Onion"A remarkable feat of storytelling bravado." -Washington Post

Read more less

One of the most significant photographers of our time, Stephen Shore has often been considered alongside other artists who rose to prominence in the 1970s by capturing the mundane aspects of American popular culture in straightforward, unglamorous images. But Shore has worked with many forms of photography, switching from cheap automatic cameras to large-format cameras in the 1970s, pioneering the use of colour before returning to black and white in the 1990s, and in the 2000s taking up the opportunities of digital photography, digital printing and social media. Stephen Shore encompasses the entirety of the artist’s work of the last five decades, during which he has conducted a continual, restless interrogation of image making, from the gelatin silver prints he made as a teenager to his current engagement with digital platforms. Published to accompany the major exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, the book allows for a fuller understanding of Shore’s work, and demonstrates his singular vision – defined by an interest in daily life, a taste for serial and often systematic approaches, a strong intellectual underpinning, a restrained style, sly humour and visual casualness – and uncompromising pursuit of photography’s possibilities.

Read more less

A guide to the glories of Rome, conveyed by means of an artist's sketchbookMatthew Rice is a long-time observer and illustrator of cities, buildings and all those who inhabit them, with an uncanny ability to express the energy of a place through a few lines of ink and splashes of paint. In the first book in this new sketchbook series, he explored the glittering canals of Venice: now he turns his attention to Rome, the Eternal City.Rome is a place where the ancient, the baroque and the modern clash, and this tension runs through Matthew's paintings. In this guide, he makes sly juxtapositions of people and animals against the backdrop of the city's architectural and artistic wonders, its ruins and its ristoranti. Matthew's ability to notice detail, his sense of light and dark, his expert's knowledge of architecture and how it creates an atmosphere allows him to present Rome, in these pages, in its all its living, breathing splendour.Following the same landscape format as Matthew's real-life sketchbooks, Rome: A Sketchbook will combine enchanting watercolour illustrations with an informed, personal and witty text, and promises to delight all visitors to Rome, armchair or actual.

Read more less