Daedalus Books

Finding the right words has never been easier...with the ultimate source for today's students, writers, readers, and communicators. From the editors of America' s favorite dictionary comes the definitive reference for meeting today' s challenging communication demands. Remarkably easy to use and completely up-to-date, The American Heritage Thesaurus is an essential resource for finding the perfect word, enhancing your mastery of the English language, and expressing yourself with precision and efficiency. No other thesaurus on the market today offers a more superlative selection of synonyms, concise definitions, easy-to-follow cross-references, and depth of meaning for the modern-day user. — More than 20,000 main entries and 150,000 synonyms — A-to-Z dictionary format that eliminates lengthy index and appendix — Comprehensive list of synonyms grouped by clear definitions — avoids the confusing hodgepodge of obscure and distantly related terms — Cross-references among closely related entries to insure precision — Thousands of completely updated slang and informal terms — Pertinent quotations and examples that convey nuances in meaning among the most basic and important synonyms An indispensable addition to the American Heritage family of language guides, destined to become a classic, The American Heritage Thesaurus is a book no home, school, or office should be without.

With just 27 words, the inimitable Ruth Krauss created a charming little universe. Now Maurice Sendak has turned her bears into a troupe of players in a slapstick comedy starring a familiar boy in a wolf suit.

When Marion Dutilleul enters the service of the Marquise de Montespan, she never imagines that her ability to recognize scents and to blend them into perfumes will win her the favor of Louis XIV's mistress. But the marquise quickly has the young girl creating new perfumes for her. Eager to please and hopeful that her olfactory gifts will win her recognition, Marion concocts memorable fragrances. Then, to her horror, credit is bestowed on someone else. Marion feels betrayed. Now Marion opens her eyes and ears (in addition to her nose) and realizes that beneath the splendor of palace life is a place teeming with deceit. To survive, she must use her keen sense of smell not to create perfumes, but to thwart those who would do her — and one of France's beloved monarchs — great harm. From the Hardcover edition.

Paris in the twenties: Pernod, parties and expatriate Americans, loose-living on money from home. Paris in the twenties: Pernod, parties and expatriate Americans, loose-living on money from home. Jake is wildly in love with Brett Ashley, aristocratic and irresistibly beautiful, with an abandoned, sensuous nature that she cannot change. When the couple drift to Spain to the dazzle of the fiesta and the heady atmosphere of the Bullfight, their affair is strained by new passions, new jealousies, and Jake must finally learn that he will never possess the woman that he loves.

You know what a pigeon is, but what is a pugeon? An overweight bird of course. If you are late to ballet class, you are leotardy. Fun to browse and hilarious to share aloud, the imaginary, but oh so meaningful words are a celebration of the elasticity of the English language.

On a balmy summer's day in Oxford an old lady who once helped decipher the Enigma Code is killed. After receiving a cryptic anonymous note containing only the address and the symbol of a circle, Arthur Seldom, a leading mathematician, arrives to find the body. Then follow more murders — an elderly man on a life-support machine is found dead with needle marks in this throat; the percussionist of an orchestra at a concert at Blenheim Palace dies before the audience's very eyes — seemingly unconnected except for notes appearing in the math department, for the attention of Seldom. Why is he being targeted as the recipient of these coded messages? All he can conjecture is that it might relate to his latest book, an unexpected bestseller about serial killers and the parallels between investigations into their crimes and certain mathematical theorems. It is left to Seldom and a postgraduate mathematics student to work out the key to the series of symbols before the killer strikes again.

Taking a position with the Ystad police force shortly after graduating, Linda Wallander, the daughter of veteran inspector Kurt Wallender, struggles with their contentious relationship before becoming embroiled in the case of a childhood friend, who has inexplicably disappeared. By the author of The Return of the Dancing Master. 25,000 first printing.

The Christmas story, told and retold in many formats, never loses its meaning or magic. Aimed at children ages 4-8, this book weaves the story of Jesus' birth into a rhyming, alphabetical journey. At the back of the book, author Debbie Trafton O'neal provides instructions for making four crafts inspired by the beautiful modern folk-art illustrations from Jan Bryan-Hunt.

Based on hundreds of hours of interviews with the man who authored In Cold Blood and Breakfast at Tiffany's, as well as with nearly everyone who knew him, this absorbing, definitive biography follows Truman Capote from his eccentric childhood in Alabama to the heights of New York society. Featuring many photographs, this book also candidly recounts a gifted and celebrated writer's descent into the life of alcohol and drugs that would ultimately consume his bulldog spirit and staggering talent — but not before he'd hobnob with the likes of Grace Paley and Lee Radziwill, feud outrageously with Gore Vidal and Jacqueline Susann, and stage at New York's Plaza Hotel the sensational Black and White Ball.

The latest release from the best-selling Simpsons Library of Wisdom series. Resident of Springfield and owner of the Android's Dungeon & Baseball Card Shop, the infamous Comic Book Guy spends his days at the comfort of his stool, patiently awaiting his next paying customer. The Comic Book guy embodies all the traits of your typical comic book shop owner, being tubby, and wearing his brown hair in a pony tail. He is also known for being extremely sarcastic. Being a sci-fi, comic and movie buff, the Comic Book Guy holds several prized collectibles: a rare copy of Mary Worth, in which Mary advises a friend to commit suicide, as well as his rare photo of Sean Connery, signed by Roger Moore. In some scenarios, the Comic Book Guy can be found sporting his alter-ego, The Collector, a menacing superhero with the intention of finding the most sought-after collectible! (The Collector makes his first appearance in the Treehouse of Horror X Halloween special).

The first crusade was set in motion by Pope Urban II in 1095 and culminated in the capture of Jerusalem from the Muslims four years later. In 1291 the fall of Acre marked the loss of the last Christian enclave in the Holy Land. This Pocket Essential traces the chronology of the Crusades between these two dates and highlights the most important figures on all sides of the conflict. It covers the creation of the kingdom of Jerusalem and the other crusader states and their struggle to survive. It looks at the successes and failures of the Third Crusade and at the legendary figures of Richard the Lionheart and Saladin, explores the truth and the myths behind the orders of military monks like the Hospitallers and examines such strange historical events as the Children's Crusade and the crusader sacking of Byzantium in 1204. It also looks at the struggles of the Teutonic Knights against paganism in the Baltic. The book provides the essential information about one of the great unifying, and disunifying, forces of medieval Christendom.

It was a chance encounter with Armistead Maupin (of Tales of the City fame) in San Francisco which inspired Alexander McCall Smith to write his daily novel about the residents of 44 Scotland Street, a fictitious building in a real street in the author's home town of Edinburgh. With its multiple-occupancy flats, Scotland Street is an interesting corner of the city, verging on the Bohemian, where haute bourgeoisie rub shoulders with students and the more colourful members of the intelligentsia. The comings and goings at 44 Scotland Street first made their way into print in The Scotsman newspaper in the first half of 2004. Espresso Tales features further escapades from the fringes of the New Town which appeared in The Scotsman during 2005. This new novel gives Scotland Street aficionados a chance to catch up with the occupants of what must surely be Edinburgh's most well-known literary address, and to meet more of the inhabitants of this unique corner of the city. Espresso Tales is vintage McCall Smith, tackling issues of trust and honesty, snobbery and hypocrisy, love and loss, but all with great lightness of touch. Clever, elegant and funny, this is a novel that provides huge entertainment but which is underpinned by the moral dilemmas of everyday life and the characters' struggles to resolve them.

The excitement and wonder of a mid-winter sled ride — seen through the vivid imagination of a young child — allows readers to follow along as the child transforms into a queen, observes colorful soldiers in formation, visits a gypsy camp, and goes wherever her lucid imagination takes her.

This brilliant work by one of Russia's foremost novelists teems with greed, passion, depravity, and complex moral issues. Three brothers, involved in the brutal murder of their despicable father, find their lives irrevocably altered as they are driven by intense, uncontrollable emotions of rage and revenge.

A wondrously enthralling (The Times [London]) history of the bloody battle that halted the French attempt to dominate Europe and changed the course of history In 1704, the armies of French King Louis XIV were poised to extend the French frontiers to the Rhine and install a French prince on the Spanish throne. But as French forces marched toward Vienna, allied armies commanded by John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, and Prince Eugene of Savoy set out to oppose them. The two forces clashed at Blenheim, in Bavaria, and the previously undefeated French were routed, ending France's dream of European domination. Based on original sources, this page-turning narrative brings the battle to life, capturing the deliberations of kings as well as the experiences of ordinary soldiers.

Throughout the centuries, royal mistresses have been worshiped, feared, envied, and reviled. They set the fashions, encouraged the arts, and, in some cases, ruled nations. As she did with Sex with the Queen, Eleanor Herman takes readers into the throne rooms and bedrooms of Europe's most powerful monarchs to relate history from the women's point of view. She finds that in most cases, the main function of a royal mistress was not providing the king with sex as much as with companionship. «Open Sex With Kings at almost any page and you'll find yourself immersed in a bawdy, deliciously appealing illicit scene occurring in the highest places.... Herman has written an enlightening social history that is great fun to read.»

On 22 June 1941 The Germans launched their long-expected invasion of the Soviet Union. Codenamed Operation Barbarossa, after the famous 12th century crusading emperor, what followed was perhaps the greatest clash of arms the world has ever witnessed. With the aid of specially commissioned maps, Barbarossa: The First 7 Days describes the dramatic history of the first week of the invasion of the Soviet Union. The book begins with an extensive overview of the Wehrmacht's success up until 1941, followed by chapters outlining the German High Command's plan of attack and the defensive dispositions of the Soviet forces. The author goes on to describe the opening bombardment, followed by detailed accounts of the three Army Groups' fortunes in the first week of the campaign. The book finishes with an analysis of the remainder of the campaign and the ultimate failure of the Germans to destroy the Red Army and capture Moscow. With first hand accounts from both sides, vivid photographs, detailed fact boxes, and specially commissioned maps of the German advance and the Soviet defensive actions, Barbarossa: The First 7 Days is a comprehensive examination of the first week of the four-year war on the Eastern Front.

Here are eight decades of holiday cheer — plus the occasional comical coal in the stocking — in this collection of The New Yorker's best seasonal stories, poems, commentary, and memoirs, illuminated with color reproductions of Christmas-themed covers and, of course, a healthy smattering of cartoons from all eras. Here are such classics as John Cheever's 1949 story «Christmas Is a Sad Season for the Poor», about an elevator operator in a Park Avenue apartment building who experiences the fickle power of charity; John Updike's «The Carol Sing», in which a group of small-town carolers remember an exceptionally enthusiastic fellow singer («How he would jubilate, how he would God-rest those merry gentlemen, how he would boom out when the male voices became King Wenceslas»); and Richard Ford's acerbic and elegiac 1998 story «Crèche», in which an unmarried Hollywood lawyer spends an unsettling holiday with her sister's estranged husband and kids. Here too are S.J. Perelman's 1936 «Waiting for Santy», a playlet in the style of a Cliff Odets labor drama (the setting: «The sweatshop of Santa Claus, North Pole»), and Vladimir Nabokov's heartbreaking 1975 story «Christmas», in which a father grieving for his lost son in a world «ghastly with sadness» sees a tiny miracle on Christmas Eve.

Paul Kemp has moved from New York to the steamy heat of Puerto Rico to work at the Daily News. He starts hanging out at Al's Backyard, a local den selling booze and hamburgers to vagrant journalists who are mostly crazy drunks on the verge of quitting. Then he meets Yeamon, whose delectable girlfriend has Kemp stewing in his own lust. But the idle tension that builds up in places where men sweat twenty-four hours a day is reaching a violent breaking point.

This book reprints a four-hour conversation between Mr. Schickel and Mr. Allen and includes a long essay of introduction by Mr. Schickel, which places Woody Allen's entire career in critical perspective, as well as a complete filmography. Readers will find Mr. Allen's reflections on his major preoccupations — the battle of the sexes; the conflict between reality and fantasy in his major films; mortality, religion, and the role that chance plays in the unfolding of our lives. The book also offers insights into Mr. Allen's working methods as a writer and the growth of his skills as a director.

Twain's two most famous creations, Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, are reunited for a high-spirited and engaging tale of mystery and murder in deepest Arkansas. When Tom and Huck are invited to stay on Tom's uncle's farm in Arkansas, they jump at the opportunity to escape the tedium of a long winter at home. A chance encounter on a steamboat downriver, though, leads to a complex plot of diamond heists, mistaken identity and murder, involving the two boys in a bigger adventure than even they had in mind. Huck's typical bemused and timid observation provides a poignant contrast to Tom's frenetic ingenuity, as the mystery begins tortuously to unravel, and it is in these two wryly affectionate portrayals that Twain breathes life and warmth into his charming and unjustly neglected story.

WILHELM HAUFF was a story-teller in the great European mythic tradition. His short stories, peopled with a vivid assortment of dwarves, evil witches, enchanted swans, and devious princes, owe a clear debt to the Brothers Grimm. But rather than rehashing old tales, Hauff created a realm far more exotic than the Grimm's Black Forest, a place where the morals are less than clear-cut and where characters must rely on wits as much as magic spells to solve their predicaments. One collection (probably his best known volume), Little Mook, provides the two tales for our new Pocket Paragon: «The History of Little Mook» and «Longnose the Dwarf.» «Little Mook» features a gnomish, innocent orphan whose parents never thought he would amount to much and refused him even the most basic education. Friendless and alone, the naive Little Mook is stripped of his inheritance, cast out into a hostile world. Blessed with an enterprising nature and outfitted with a pair of magic slippers, he still manages to outwit a cabal of treacherous courtiers and make his fortune. «Longnose the Dwarf» stars a clever little boy enslaved by a cruel witch's curse. Freed from servitude but transformed into a hideous dwarf with a huge proboscis, he returns to parents who no longer recognize him. Luckily his culinary skills put him in good standing with the local Duke, and his good nature and generous heart restore him (with a little help from some magic herbs and an enchanted goose) to his family. Both stories are decorated with the glowing, gemlike tempera paintings of Boris Pak, a Russian artist whose ornate, whimsical style perfectly captures the romance and humor of these two extraordinary fables. His paintings, smuggledout of Communist Russia, are the first of his works to be published in the U.S. and they're reproduced here in glorious color.

A dazzling novel in the most untraditional fashion, this is the remarkable story of Henry DeTamble, a dashing, adventuresome librarian who travels involuntarily through time, and Clare Abshire, an artist whose life takes a natural sequential course. Henry and Clare's passionate love affair endures across a sea of time and captures the two lovers in an impossibly romantic trap, and it is Audrey Nif...

This assortment offers 30 more captionless cartoons by B. Kliban, starring his delightful tabby cats as they visit art museums, take off their fur to go skinny dipping, scare themselves on the piano, lurk in gardens, and bat at airplanes from atop the Empire State Building. This postcard book is one of a series that collects beautifully reproduced images with cultural or historical significance, introduced with a short essay. Tear out the oversized cards and mail them (with first class postage), or put them up on the wall, or keep them intact as miniature art books.