From Mexico s preeminent man of letters, a Balzacian novel in nine masterly stories (Vanity Fair) that explores the uneven and painful meshing of two North american cultures (Washington Post Book World). A New York Times Notable Book of the Year. A Los Angeles Times Best Book of the Year. Translated by Alfred Mac Adam.
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It's 1939, and a teenage math genius is mysteriously summoned to the Smithsonian Institution, where a crash program to develop the atomic bomb is being conducted in the basement. The boy turns out to hold the key to both the secrets of nuclear fission and breakthroughs in the time continuum. As he brainstorms with Robert Oppenheimer, he catches a glimpse of the coming war and becomes determined to ward off the cataclysm. In a race against time-and surrounded by figures from American history past and present, including Albert Einstein, Grover Cleveland, and Abraham Lincoln-he battles to save...

A perfect balance of science, history, and sociology, Time's Pendulum traces the important developments in humankind's epic quest to measure the hours, days, and years with accuracy, and how our concept of time has changed with each new technological breakthrough. Written in an easy-to-follow chronological format and illustrated with entertaining anecdotes, author Jo Ellen Barnett's history of timekeeping covers everything from the earliest sundials and water clocks, to the pendulum and the more recent advances of battery-powered, quartz-regulated wrist watches and the powerful radioactive...

What does it take for a woman to be judged saintly? In this wily, wonderfully original novel, Michle Roberts tells the story of the fictional Saint Josephine: her life and death, her childhood and evolution from woman to nun to abbess, her unlikely canonization. The more we discover, the more incredible her sainthood seems. Who was Saint Josephine? Craven nun or fearless miracle worker? Pious role model or seductress? Illuminating Saint Josephine's story are the equally fantastical stories of eleven actual female saints: mad one-armed girls, beauties locked in towers, mothers who encourage...

My mother loved me to pieces, as she often said, writes Roy Blount Jr., "and I'm still trying to pick up the pieces." In the book his readers have been waiting for, our generation's master of full-hearted humor lays open the soul of his life story. Blount Georgia boy, New York wit, lover of baseball and interesting women, bumbling adventurer, salty-limerick virtuoso, and impassioned father journeys into his past, and his psyche (and also to China, Manhattan, and sixty feet underwater) in search of the answers to three riddles that have haunted his life: one, the riddle of "the family curse";...

From catfishing in Mississippi as a young girl to battling marlin in the Caribbean, Lorian Hemingway has always felt most comfortable with a fishing pole in hand. But for many years, it was alcohol that held prominence in her life, almost causing her to drown in the family legacy. Walk on Water is Lorian Hemingway's amazing story of how her one true passion-fishing-saved her life. With humor and startling honesty, Hemingway wryly acknowledges how fishing is more than a metaphor for her salvation-it allowed her to feel connected to something as a child, living with her alcoholic mother and...

"Actually, there were no men in Auletta except the married, the stupid, and the dead. In Auletta this worked out to be basically the same thing."
Welcome to Auletta, Louisiana, where the typical bumper sticker reads: "God, Guns and Guts Made This Country Great. Unfortunately for Jeanne Roth, a middle-aged woman with no taste for backwater towns, Auletta becomes her home when she makes good on a promise to her father to care for her mother. When Jeanne learns that her mother has Alzheimer's, she must confront a past bursting with memories of her mama, a once vibrant femme fatale. As she...

A new edition of the groundbreaking spiritual treasure, with a foreword by bestselling author Marianne Williamson .
Since its original publication in 1949, In Search of the Miraculous has been hailed as the most valuable and reliable documentation of G. I. Gurdjieff's thoughts and universal view. This historic and influential work is considered by many to be a primer of mystical thought as expressed through the Work, a combination of Eastern philosophies that had for centuries been passed on orally from teacher to student. Gurdjieff's goal, to introduce the Work to the West, attracted...

In 1965, after a notorious family feud, Robert Mondavi-then fifty-two years old-was thrown out of his family's winery. Far from defeated, Mondavi was dedicated to a vision of creating a superior wine. What has happened since that fateful day is one of the greatest success stories of American business. Today, the Robert Mondavi Winery is one of the most respected in the world, and Mondavi is the man who is most responsible for the worldwide recognition of American wine making, as well as changing America's palate for fine wine and fine food. In Harvests of Joy, Mondavi shares how, through his...

A fun, focused guide to making words work for you

Whether you are working on the novel that's been in the back of your mind for years or simply facing an increasing demand to write well at work or school, the fact remains: we all write more often these days, be it reports, e-mails, blog posts, or texts. But despite the increase in written communication, the fundamentals of good writing have been lost. Grammar maven Patricia T. O'Conner comes to the rescue with the most painless, practical, and funny writing book ever written. In short, snappy chapters filled with crystal-clear examples,...