Here is the dazzling saga of two women, the brilliant, bookish Elena and the fiery uncontainable Lila. In this book, both are adults; life's great discoveries have been made, its vagaries and losses have been suffered. Through it all, the women's friendship, examined in its every detail over the course of four books, remains the gravitational center of their lives. Both women once fought to escape the neighborhood in which they grew up—a prison...

Settle into the season with A Christmas Carol. Charles Dickens?s timeless novella tells the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, an old miser who learns the value of kindness and generosity thanks to visits from the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come.

Hassan is a culinary ingenue with the gastronomic equivalent of perfect pitch. Displaced from their native India, his family settles in a quaint village in the south of France. They plan to open an Indian restaurant, that is, until Madame Mallory, the owner of a classical French restaurant, gets wind of it. Her icy protests against the new Indian restaurant so near her own escalate to all out war; until Hassan's cooking talent and love for Mme. Mallory's...

"Keiko Furukura had always been considered a strange child, and her parents always worried how she would get on in the real world, so when she takes on a job in a convenience store while at university, they are delighted for her. For her part, in the convenience store she finds a predictable world mandated by the store manual, which dictates how the workers should act and what they should say, and she copies her coworkers' style of dress and speech...

Zamora, 13, lives in the country, has chores in the morning, and attends school in the afternoon. She shows us how the homes in her village are built around a common courtyard to help protect them from the elements. Twelve-year-old Madina lives in Kabul. After school and the midday meal she shares with her family, Madina helps with household chores like vacuuming and ironing, then enjoys an afternoon snowball fight.

Against the backdrop of post-World War II Australia, Sarah Adams is a nurse who becomes involved in the affairs of the wealthy Bligh family. It is dealing with themes such as anti-Semitism, sexuality, and social class.

In the winter of 1820, the New England whaling ship Essex was assaulted by something no one could believe: a whale of mammoth size and will, and an almost human sense of vengeance. The real-life maritime disaster would inspire Herman Melville's Moby-Dick. But that told only half the story. This story reveals the encounter's harrowing aftermath, as the ship's surviving crew is pushed to their limits and forced to do the unthinkable to stay alive.

To live in Barbie Land is to be a perfect being in a perfect place. Unless you have a full-on existential crisis. Or you're a Ken.

Presents life in a barrio in San Francisco, describing the school, recreation, holidays, and family life of an eight-year-old boy who lives there.

The year is 1795 and the feisty 20-year-old Jane Austen is an emerging writer who already sees a world beyond class and commerce, beyond pride and prejudice, and dreams of doing what was nearly unthinkable - marrying for love. Naturally, her parents are searching for a wealthy, well-appointed husband to assure their daughter's future social standing. As a prospective match for Jane, her parents are eyeing Mr. Wisley. He is the nephew to the very formidable,...