Daedalus Books

All offers of surrender from Leningrad must be rejected, wrote Adolph Hitler on September 29, 1941, at the outset of Operation Barbarossa. In this struggle for survival, we have no interest in keeping even a proportion of the city's population alive. During the famed 900-day siege of Leningrad, the German High Command deliberately planned to eradicate the city's population through starvation. Viewing the Slavs as sub-human, Hitler embarked on a vicious program of ethnic cleansing. By the time the siege ended in January 1944, almost a million people had died. Those who survived would be marked permanently by what they endured as the city descended into chaos. In Leningrad, military historian Michael Jones chronicles the human story of this epic siege. Drawing on newly available eyewitness accounts and diaries, he reveals the true horrors of the ordeal — including stories long-suppressed by the Soviets of looting, criminal gangs, and cannibalism. But he also shows the immense psychological resources on which the citizens of Leningrad drew to survive against desperate odds. At the height of the siege, for instance, an extraordinary live performance of Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony profoundly strengthened the city's will to resist. A riveting account of one of the most harrowing sieges of world history, Leningrad also portrays the astonishing power of the human will in the face of even the direst catastrophe.

The number of women who have ruled as queens or empresses, or governed as presidents or prime ministers, remains but a small subset of the total of those who have attained ultimate political power. But this elite group of women, who — through dynastic succession, democratic election or other means — have reached the heights of political and ceremonial leadership, includes some of the most influential and charismatic figures of world history. Queen, Empress, Concubine paints vivid portraits of the lives of 50 extraordinary women who have held positions of executive or ceremonial power throughout history, from the Queen of Sheba to Margaret Thatcher. Each biographical profile sets its subject clearly in the culture and context of its time, enabling author Claudia Gold not only to tell the stories of 50 courageous and fiercely independent women, but also to provide a fascinating and informative alternative social history of the last 3500 years.

Children and adults alike will be awestruck as a stunning three-dimensional medieval world unfolds before their eyes The sliding castle gate on the front cover serves as an entrance into a world from long ago. Inside, vibrant art and amazingly intricate pops guide readers through life as it really was for Sir Hugo, a brave and noble knight From pages and ladies, to castles and cathedrals, this book is certain to educate and entertain readers both young and old This sturdy 8 1/2 x 11 paper-over-board book includes multi-level detailed pops and acetate windows. This book comes packaged in a resealable polybag.

Following the success of Battle and Weapon, Battle at Sea looks at every aspect of warfare on, above, and under the sea. This dramatic book catalogs the stories of the people, ships, and organizations behind history's greatest naval conflicts.

»When it comes to love, there are a million theories to explain it», notes the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Middlesex in his introduction to this collection of love stories from literature. «But when it comes to love stories, things are simpler. A love story can never be about full possession. Love stories depend on disappointment, on unequal births and feuding families, on matrimonial boredom and at least one cold heart. Love stories, nearly without exception, give love a bad name.» Here then are 27 such cures for lovesickness and antidotes to adultery — by Harold Brodkey, Grace Paley, William Faulkner, James Joyce, Milan Kundera, and Vladimir Nabokov.

Shakespeare was blinded by love, Dorothy Parker felt the heartache of jilted lovers, Sappho saw the sensuality in love, and Byron despaired that there is little to be said about a happy marriage. From the artist whose illustrations charmed readers in The Sweet Life and Off the Beaten Path comes a delightful and amusing lover's-eye view of human behavior. Laura Stoddart has selected and elegantly illustrated this collection of brief, witty quotations from men and women who have experienced love firsthand. All for Love is a heartwarming treat for those reveling in love for the first time, contemplating marriage, celebrating an anniversary... or putting the whole business behind them.

Most people have heard of blini, borscht and pirozhki (relatives of the pirogi), but what's the story behind these traditional Eastern European dishes? While vodka, caviar and Crimean sparkling wine found their way onto the shelves of Western European supermarkets a long time ago, Russian cuisine is just starting to be discovered. This new book in the popular Culinaria series presents an extraordinarily varied and fascinating multi-ethnic cuisine. This book helps you learn about the great variety of Russian appetizers, called pelmeni; how Ukrainian ravioli are made; warenyky, the Georgian national dish, or chatschapuri, the traditional Armenian festive meal; or about Azerbaijan's summer fresh vegetable dishes. In this stunningly illustrated volume, the authors present you with the entire range of cuisine enjoyed in this fascinating part of the world, enticing you to discover new culinary terrain!

Widely regarded as one of the most influential books of the mid-20th century and the central masterpiece of Nobel Prize winner Doris Lessing, The Golden Notebook is the story of Anna Wulf, a young novelist with writer's block. Divorced, with a young child, and disillusioned by unsatisfactory relationships, she feels her life is falling apart. Fearing the onset of madness, she records her experiences in four colored notebooks. Bold and illuminating, fusing sex, politics, madness and motherhood, it is at once a wry and perceptive portrait of the intellectual and moral climate of the 1950s, on the brink of feminism, and a powerful account of a woman searching for her own personal and political identity.

The extraordinary family story of George V, Wilhelm II, and Nicholas II: they were tied to one another by history, and history would ultimately tear them apart. Known among their families as Georgie, Willy, and Nicky, they were, respectively, the royal cousins George V of England, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, and Nicholas II of Russia — the first two grandsons of Queen Victoria, the latter her grandson by marriage. In 1914, on the eve of world war, they controlled the destiny of Europe and the fates of millions of their subjects. The outcome and their personal endings are well known — Nicky shot with his family by the Bolsheviks, Willy in exile in Holland, Georgie still atop his throne. Largely untold, however, is the family saga that played such a pivotal role in bringing the world to the precipice. Drawing widely on previously unpublished royal letters and diaries, made public for the first time by Queen Elizabeth II, Catrine Clay chronicles the riveting half century of the royals' overlapping lives, and their slow, inexorable march into conflict. They met frequently from childhood, on holidays, and at weddings, birthdays, and each others' coronations. They saw themselves as royal colleagues, a trade union of kings, standing shoulder to shoulder against the rise of socialism, republicanism, and revolution. And yet tensions abounded between them. Clay deftly reveals how intimate family details had deep historical significance: the antipathy Willy's mother (Victoria's daughter) felt toward him because of his withered left arm, and how it affected him throughout his life; the family tension caused by Otto von Bismarck's annexation of Schleswig and Holstein from Denmark (Georgie's and Nicky's mothers were Danish princesses); the surreality surrounding the impending conflict. Have I gone mad? Nicholas asked his wife, Alexandra, in July 1914, showing her another telegram from Wilhelm. What on earth does Willy mean pretending that it still depends on me whether war is averted or not? Germany had, in fact, declared war on Russia six hours earlier. At every point in her remarkable book, Catrine Clay sheds new light on a watershed period in world history.

The newest in Barronas Little People Shape Books has its covers and pages die-cut in the shape of the little boy who appears on the front cover, clad in a shining knightas costume. Younger children will be delighted by the color illustrations and simple description of knighthood, its legends, and its many trimmings, as they turn the pages of this sturdy and attractive board book.

Have you ever heard a reindeer's sleigh bells in the sky on Christmas Eve? Have you ever heard a reindeer's hoofbeat on the roof of your house? Or listened to the clatter of antlers outside in the darkness? Of course you haven't Santa's reindeer are so skillful that they can fly in and out of your neighborhood without anyone hearing a thing. But how do they learn to fly in the first place? What are the reindeer really like? What do the reindeer do for the rest of the year when they're not flying Santa around the world? Find out all about how Santa and his Sleigh Master train the Sleigh Team at the North Pole. Discover just what reindeer games the team likes to play and what they love to eat. Learn everything you ever wanted to know in this beautifully illustrated look at the North Pole's most magical inhabitants. Then watch out on Christmas Eve. Once you know all about Santa's reindeer, you just might be able to spot them stopping somewhere near your house

»Cranford» is the best known and most charming of Elizabeth Gaskell's novels. It is a comic portrait of an early Victorian country village and its genteel inhabitants, mostly women, whose social attitudes remain firmly unchanging against the modernising world, and whose domestic details dominate conversation. Gaskell describes the uneventful lives of Cranford's inhabitants in this witty and poignant classic which deserves to be read and re-read.

Smart-opedia: The Amazing Book About Everything is designed to make learning an absorbing adventure that's a treat for even the most reluctant learner. Expertly organized so readers can find what they want when they want it, the book's four main sections (The World Around Us, Life, History, and Genius) are separated into nine detailed chapters (Astronomy, Planet Earth, Plants, Animals, The Human Body, History, The Arts, Science and Technology, and Today's World) that cover more than 85 entertaining and thought-provoking subjects. Each thematic section contains colorful spreads with dramatic illustrations, photographs, and maps, and the book is packed with special features, such as Food for Thought, presenting myths, legends, famous quotes, and historical perspectives. There are also mini-bios that shed light on luminaries from da Vinci to Disney, career descriptions that introduce readers to diverse occupations they may not have heard about, and much more. This fun book entertains youngsters with answers to questions they might not even have known they had, and helps them decipher the world around them, stay abreast of current events, and form opinions on important issues. Meticulously researched, it is also an excellent reference text for homework assignments and school projects.

There are tales of Middle-earth from times long before The Lord of the Rings, and the story told in this book is set in the great country that lay beyond the Grey Havens in the West: lands where Treebeard once walked, but that were drowned in the great cataclysm that ended the First Age of the World. In that remote time Morgoth, the first Dark Lord, dwelt in the vast fortress of Angband, the Hells of Iron, in the North; and the tragedy of Turin and his sister Nienor unfolded within the shadow of the fear of Angband and the war waged by Morgoth against the lands and secret cities of the Elves. Their brief and passionate lives were dominated by the elemental hatred that Morgoth bore them as the children of Hurin, the man who had dared to defy and to scorn him to his face. Against them he sent his most formidable servant, Glaurung, a powerful spirit in the form of a huge wingless dragon of fire. Into this story of brutal conquest and flight, of forest hiding-places and pursuit, of resistance with lessening hope, the Dark Lord and the Dragon enter in direly articulate form. Sardonic and mocking, Glaurung manipulated the fates of Turin and Nienor by lies of diabolic cunning and guile, and the curse of Morgoth was fulfilled. The earliest versions of this story by J.R.R. Tolkien go back to the end of the First World War and the years that followed; but long afterward, when The Lord of the Rings was finished, he wrote it anew and greatly enlarged it in complexities of motive and character: it became the dominant story in his later work on Middle-earth. But he could not bring it to a final and finished form. In this book I have endeavored to construct, after long study of themanuscripts, a coherent narrative without any editorial invention.

In «Death in the Afternoon», Hemingway shares the sights, the sounds, the excitement, and above all, the knowledge which fuelled his passion for Spain and the bullfight. This remarkable book contains some of his finest writing, inspired by the intense life, as well as the inevitable death, of those hot, violent afternoons.

»As is evident from his previous novels Election and Little Children, Tom Perrotta seems to enjoy putting characters with divergent belief systems together in a bag, as it were, and shaking it up. That is the technique he uses in The Abstinence Teacher, to satiric effect. Ruth Ramsey, divorced, is the human sexuality teacher at the local high school; she believes in being honest with her students, telling them that some people 'enjoy oral sex'. She lands in hot water when an evangelical church, offended by her curriculum, forces the school board to include a section on abstinence. Tim Mason is the beloved soccer coach of Ruth's young daughter, Maggie. He is also a reformed stoner/loser and an entrenched member of the church that attacked Ruth. Things get interesting when Tim, in a moment of crisis, leads his team of girls in prayer, and Ruth publicly drags her daughter from the soccer field. Ironically, Ruth and Tim find they have more in common than they thought, and a shaky — at times humorous — interchange begins. Perrotta focuses on the small, personal motives behind life's big shake-ups. A finely wrought novel».

Congratulations — just by looking at this webpage, you became 25% more patriotic. From Stephen Colbert, the host of televisions highest-rated punditry show The Colbert Report, comes the book to fill the other 23? hours of your day. I Am America (And So Can You) contains all of the opinions that Stephen doesnt have time to shoehorn into his nightly broadcast. Dictated directly into a microcassette recorder over a three-day weekend, this book contains Stephens most deeply held knee-jerk beliefs on The American Family, Race, Religion, Sex, Sports, and many more topics, conveniently arranged in chapter form. Always controversial and outspoken, Stephen addresses why Hollywood is destroying America by inches, why evolution is a fraud, and why the elderly should be harnessed to millstones. You may not agree with everything Stephen says, but at the very least, you'll understand that your differing opinion is wrong. I Am America (And So Can You) showcases Stephen Colbert at his most eloquent and impassioned. He is an unrelenting fighter for the soul of America, and in this book he fights the good fight for the traditional values that have served this country so well for so long.

A novel of remarkable depth and poignancy from one of the most acclaimed writers of our time. It is July 1962. Florence is a talented musician who dreams of a career on the concert stage and of the perfect life she will create with Edward, an earnest young history student at University College of London, who unexpectedly wooed and won her heart. Newly married that morning, both virgins, Edward and Florence arrive at a hotel on the Dorset coast. At dinner in their rooms they struggle to suppress their worries about the wedding night to come. Edward, eager for rapture, frets over Florence’s response to his advances and nurses a private fear of failure, while Florence’s anxieties run deeper: she is overcome by sheer disgust at the idea of physical contact, but dreads disappointing her husband when they finally lie down together in the honeymoon suite. Ian McEwan has caught with understanding and compassion the innocence of Edward and Florence at a time when marriage was presumed to be the outward sign of maturity and independence. On Chesil Beach is another masterwork from McEwan — a story of lives transformed by a gesture not made or a word not spoken.

Ewetopia the sheep thinks she has finally hit upon the costume that will get her noticed at the Woolyones Costume Ball: she'll come dressed as a wolf. Unfortunately, this doesn't earn her any points with the rest of the sheep, who find such a thing in rather poor taste. And yet, in this topsy-turvy fairytale for readers 6 to 8, Ewetopia does find a dance partner in a tall, attractive sheep at the ball — but why would a sheep come dressed as a sheep? And why does he keep calling her «Mom?»

Are you a cat lover? A dog person? Either way, this book is for you Read about how your favorite companion came to be a pet and how its body works. Then, flip the book over and find out about the other kind. Once again Steve Jenkins takes children's nonfiction to a new level. Here is an amazing book filled with great information, visual facts, and lots of animal history. The illustrations are so incredibly realistic, you'll want to pet them.

The tortoise and the hare seem old friends on the cover of this journal, as the turtle kicks his heels and the rabbit looks on. This slim, medium-format book has vividly colored and patterned spines and endpapers, and features pastel tinted pages — lined on the right-hand side and blank on the left.

When all is said and done, killing my mother came easily. A woman steps over the line into the unthinkable in this brilliant, powerful, and unforgettable new novel by the author of The Lovely Bones and Lucky. For years Helen Knightly has given her life to others: to her haunted mother, to her enigmatic father, to her husband and now grown children. When she finally crosses a terrible boundary, her life comes rushing in at her in a way she never could have imagined. Unfolding over the next twenty-four hours, this searing, fast-paced novel explores the complex ties between mothers and daughters, wives and lovers, the meaning of devotion, and the line between love and hate. It is a challenging, moving, gripping story, written with the fluidity and strength of voice that only Alice Sebold can bring to the page.

This is a complete new history of the world's greatest stone circle. Britain's leading expert on stone circles turns his attention to the greatest example of them all — Stonehenge. Every aspect of Stonehenge is re-considered in Aubrey Burl's new analysis. He explains for the first time how the outlying Heel Stone long predates Stonehenge itself, serving as a trackway marker in the prehistoric Harroway. He uncovers new evidence that the Welsh bluestones were brought to Stonehenge by glaciation rather than by man. And he reveals just how far the design of Stonehenge was influenced by Breton styles and by Breton cults of the dead. Meticulously research sets the record straight on the matter of Stonehenge's astronomical alignments. Although the existence of a sightline to the midsummer sunrise is well known, the alignment and the viewing-position are different from popular belief. And the existence of an earlier alignment to the moon and a later one to the midwinter sunset has been largely unrealized. One almost unexplained puzzle remains. The site of Stonehenge lies at the heart of a vast six-mile wide graveyard, but before it was built there appears to have been a mysterious gap two miles across on that site. Burl argues that earlier totem-pole style constructions served a ceremonial purpose for the living — to celebrate success in the hunt.

In the action-packed finale to the bestselling «Starcatchers» series by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson, Peter and Molly find themselves in the dangerous land of Rundoon, ruled by an evil king who enjoys watching his pet snake consume those who displease him. But thats just the beginning of their problems, in this wild desert adventure that zooms toward an unforgettable climax.