A “cool, humorous, and affectionate” book of vignettes about a practice that is universal and universally taboo: masturbation.In sixty-one vignettes, Harry Mathews records the imaginative varieties of this solitary activity in prose that is playful, intimate, and humane. The soloists range in age from nine to eighty; the locales from Australia to Zaire; the means from the commonplace to the bizarre. There is the young man in Gaza with his hair dryers, the woman in ...

Exam Board: EdexcelLevel: AS/A-levelSubject: HistoryFirst Teaching: September 2015First Exam: June 2016Endorsed for EdexcelEnable your students to develop high-level skills in their Edexcel A level History breadth and depth studies through expert narrative and extended reading, including bespoke essays from leading academics...

Abidjan’s favorite daughter returns in an all-new volume of writer Marguerite Abouet’s beloved seriesLong-time creative team Marguerite Abouet and Clément Oubrerie make a stunning comeback after a lengthy twelve-year hiatus. Aya: Claws Come Out takes us all back to Yop City—home to the hustle and bustle of the Ivory Coast.As Solibra’s newest intern, clear-eyed college student Aya finds an unexpected adversary in the beer giant’s brand-new head of H...

A love story about grief, OCD, and dirtTilly Silverberg is rebuilding her life with her young son, Isaac, one potted-up plant at a time. Since her husband’s death, gardening has become her livelihood and her salvation. Hiding out in the North Carolina forest, she wants only to be left alone with Isaac and her greenhouse.New to the area, successful software developer James Nealy needs a garden. On a solitary mission to reclaim his life from irrational obsessions and relentle...

Boys Like Me is a powerful story that will take you on a journey through the eyes of a precocious twelve-year-old boy named Roy. Despite struggling with dyslexia, Roy has a passion for reading and a keen awareness of the bigotry and injustices that plague his small town in south-central Texas. He holds strong ethics and an unwavering commitment to the truth. Roy falls for Kid, the "best looker" he's ever seen. When Kid becomes distant due to problems at home, Roy begins to have strange vis...

This authoritative book is aimed particularly at those who participate in racing pigeons at distances of over five hundred miles but will be of value to all pigeon fanciers. John Clements succeeds in making the reader view the humble pigeon in a different light and ensures that he, or she, gains a deeper appreciation of the enormous joy and satisfaction that can be gained from long-distance pigeon racing.Contains detailed accounts of interviews with the owners of nine top British and Conti...

“In this madly original debut, Ms. Harrison speaks up in a fresh, animated voice to say something worth saying about the festering animosities of small minds cooped up in small towns.” —The New York Times Book ReviewBlue Deer, Montana may seem like a tranquil town nestled at the foot of the Crazy Mountains, but an influx of writers, artists, and actors has driven its inhabitants a little nuts. When someone uses a rifle on George Blackwater as he’s working ...

This holiday, we proudly present to you this unique collection of the greatest Christmas stories. Over 250 of them are included by your favourite authors:Charles Dickens, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Leo Tolstoy, Willa Cather, Beatrix Potter, Louisa May Alcott, Lucy Maud Montgomery, Hans Christian Andersen, E.T.A. Hoffmann, O. Henry, Mark Twain and many more!

“Oubrerie’s style animates both the broadly funny and painfully grave moments in Abouet’s rhythmic slice-of-life storytelling.” —The Washington PostAya: Love in Yop City comprises the final three chapters of the Aya story, episodes never before seen in English. Aya is a lighthearted story about life in the Ivory Coast during the 1970s, a particularly thriving and wealthy time in the country's history.While the stories fou...

Empress Wu Zetian (624-705 AD) was the only woman to be the sovereign ruler of imperial China. A teenage concubine of the Tang Emperor Taizong, she seduced his son while the emperor lay dying. Recalled from a nunnery as part of an intricate court power-game, she caused the deaths of two lady rivals, before securing her enthronement as the Emperor Gaozong's consort. She ruled in the name of her husband and two eldest sons, presiding over the pinnacle of the Silk Road, before proclaiming her...

The Asclepius is one of two philosophical books ascribed to the legendary sage of Ancient Egypt, Hermes Trismegistus, who was believed in classical and renaissance times to have lived shortly after Moses. The Greek original, lost since classical times, is thought to date from the 2nd or 3rd century AD. However, a Latin version survived, of which this volume is a translation. Like its companion, the Corpus Hermeticum (or The Way of Hermes), the Asclepius ...

Brought to you by Penguin.The gripping and atmospheric new thriller from the award-winning, million-copy-bestselling author.THE CLOSER YOU GET, THE FURTHER YOU HAVE TO FALL . . .Munich, 1936. All eyes are on the Bavarian capital for the upcoming Olympic Games. As athletes fight for gold and the Nazis fight for power, Detective Sebastian Wolff faces a battle of his own.A famous actress has disappeared and Wol...