"This combination of history, mythology, lore, science and sheer entertainment takes us on a tour of the world's most unusual plants." — Sacramento BeeThe Big, Bad Book of Botany introduces a world of wild, wonderful, and weird plants. Some are so rare, they were once more valuable than gold. Some found in ancient mythology hold magical abilities, including the power to turn a person to stone. Others have been used by assassins to...

What is the price of brilliance?Why are so many creative geniuses also ruinously self-destructive? From Caravaggio to Jackson Pollack, from Arthur Rimbaud to Jack Kerouac, from Charlie Parker to Janis Joplin, to Kurt Cobain, and on and on, authors and artists throughout history have binged, pill-popped, injected, or poisoned themselves for their art. Fully illustrated and addictively readable, Genius and Heroin is the indispensable reference to the untidy lives of our grea...

The world's wildest collection of animal knowledge and lore!Lions, and tigers, and bears . . . and dinosaurs, dragons, and monsters. Oh my!For hundreds of years, the most popular books in the Western world next to the Bible were "bestiaries," fanciful encyclopedias collecting all of human knowledge and mythology about the animal kingdom. In these pages, eagles and elephants lived next to griffins and sea monsters. Now, in The Big, Bad Book of Beasts, award...

God's Lunatics is an eyebrow-raising encyclopedia of the strange and shocking side of history's religions, cults, and spiritual movements, by Michael Largo, the bestselling author of the Bram Stoker Award-winning Final Exits. A fascinating compendium of "Lost Souls, False Prophets, Martyred Saints, Murderous Cults, Demonic Nuns, and Other Victims of Man's Eternal Search for the Divine," God's Lunatics contains a wealth of valuable extreme spiritual information—in...

In Furiously Happy, #1 New York Times bestselling author Jenny Lawson explores her lifelong battle with mental illness. A hysterical, ridiculous book about crippling depression and anxiety? That sounds like a terrible idea.But terrible ideas are what Jenny does best.As Jenny says*:*"Some people might think that being 'furiously happy' is just an excuse to be stupid and irresponsible and invite a herd of kangaroos over ...

Afghan-American Nadia Hashimi's literary debut novel is a searing tale of powerlessness, fate, and the freedom to control one's own fate that combines the cultural flavor and emotional resonance of the works of Khaled Hosseini, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Lisa See.In Kabul, 2007, with a drug-addicted father and no brothers, Rahima and her sisters can only sporadically attend school, and can rarely leave the house. Their only hope lies in the ancient custom of bacha posh, which allows young ...

Jenna Miscavige Hill, niece of Church of Scientology leader David Miscavige, was raised as a Scientologist but left the controversial religion in 2005. In Beyond Belief, she shares her true story of life inside the upper ranks of the sect, details her experiences as a member Sea Org—the church's highest ministry, speaks of her "disconnection" from family outside of the organization, and tells the story of her ultimate escape.Piercing the veil of secrecy th...

New York Times and USA Today BestsellerWith the dead of a bitter Vermont winter closing in, evil is alive and well . . .Frank Rath thought he was done with murder when he turned in his detective's badge to become a private investigator and raise a daughter alone. Then the police in his remote rural community of Canaan find an '89 Monte Carlo abandoned by the side of the road, and the beautiful teenage girl who owned the car seems to have disappea...

In the ruins of civilization, a young girl's kindness and capacity for love will either save humanity—or wipe it out in this USA Today bestselling thriller."Heartfelt, remorseless, and painfully human." —Josh Whedon, creator of Buffy the Vampire SlayerMelanie is a very special girl. Dr Caldwell calls her "our little genius."Every morning, Melanie waits in her cell ...

‘Wow. What a book … a roller coaster ride of emotions ...’ Goodreads ReviewerTwo childhoods destroyed. One story they will never tell. Until now.Beth ran away from her family when she was a teenager. She left behind a terrible evil that took her innocence. She also left behind her sister, Sara.When Beth returns home, she is shocked to discover her terrible secret is not just hers alone…she shares it with Sara....

'I did something terrible Grace. I hope you can forgive me...'Grace hasn't been the same since the death of her best friend Charlie. She is haunted by Charlie's words, the last time she saw her, and in a bid for answers, opens an old memory box of Charlie's. It soon becomes clear there was a lot she didn't know about her best friend.When Grace starts a campaign to find Charlie's father, Anna, a girl claimin...

The No. 1 ebook bestseller, Sunday Times Top 10 bestseller and USA Today bestsellerThe real nightmare starts when her daughter is returned…A girl is missing. Five years old, taken from outside her school. She has vanished, traceless.The police are at a loss; her parents are beyond grief. Their daughter is lost forever, perhaps dead, perhaps enslaved.But the biggest mystery is yet to come: one week after she was abducted, th...