Random House Inc.

This first novel in Alexander McCall Smith’s widely acclaimed The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series tells the story of the delightfully cunning and enormously engaging Precious Ramotswe, who is drawn to her profession to “help people with problems in their lives.” Immediately upon setting up shop in a small storefront in Gaborone, she is hired to track down a missing husband, uncover a con man, and follow a wayward daughter. But the case that tugs at her heart, and lands her in danger, is a missing eleven-year-old boy, who may have been snatched by witchdoctors. The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency received two Booker Judges’ Special Recommendations and was voted one of the International Books of the Year and the Millennium by the Times Literary Supplement.

When the going gets tough, you find out who your friends really are... Laura Fanning has talent to burn, a brand-new jewellery design company and a wonderful husband. Nicola Peters has independence, a job she loves and her own home. Helen Jackson has a killer wardrobe, a thriving career and a lively and engaging daughter. But all is not as it seems. Laura's struggling to live up to her parents' impossible expectations, Nicola is coping with a life-changing event, Helen's worried that her maternal instinct has gone AWOL — and trying to cope with their problems alone is driving the three friends apart just when they need each other most. Then into the mix comes Chloe Fallon. She's marrying gorgeous Dan Hunt and planning the wedding of the year, but little does she realise how much chaos her wedding preparations are about to cause...

No one knows the dark side of “The Street” better than master storyteller Stephen Frey, author of such riveting novels as Shadow Account and The Day Trader. Now, in his most ambitious work to date, Frey proves that no writer can put a high-powered hero at greater risk, nor offer readers more thrilling rewards. A towering legend among New York private equity partnerships, Everest Capital is aptly named. When its founder meets an untimely death, thirty-six-year-old superstar Christian Gillette gets the top job. But with the power and prestige come risks. The day he narrowly escapes a fiery explosion that consumes his limo and takes two innocent lives, Gillette instantly understands how intense those risks are. It comes as no surprise to him that he has enemies in the world of multibillion—dollar deals. But now that he controls Everest, he’s not going to let those enemies keep him from taking the firm–and himself–to even greater heights. Gillette has never hesitated to be aggressive, even ruthless, in his pursuit of success. This time will be no exception. But in order to forge the alliances necessary to achieve his goals, Gillette forsakes a cardinal rule: Never trust anyone. The only certainties are the insidious campaign of corporate sabotage that could cost Gillette his job and the relentless assassination attempts that could cost him his life. To break a deadly conspiracy of greed, he’ll be forced to walk–then run–an ever-blurring line between loyalty and betrayal, attack and retreat, survival and destruction... in the ultimate game of profit and loss. With The Chairman, Stephen Frey presides with intensified skill over the market he has so dramatically cornered–sharpening his patented brand of hard-boiled high-finance intrigue to its keenest cutting edge yet.

In 1957, Dr. Seuss published the very first Beginner Book, The Cat in the Hat, and made a major impact on the world of education, proving that learning to read can indeed be fun. Now, for the first time, children can hear their favorite Beginner Books on compact disc.

Chuck Palahniuk’s world has always been, well, different from yours and mine. In his first collection of nonfiction, Chuck Palahniuk brings us into this world, and gives us a glimpse of what inspires his fiction. At the Rock Creek Lodge Testicle Festival in Missoula, Montana, average people perform public sex acts on an outdoor stage. In a mansion once occupied by The Rolling Stones, Marilyn Manson reads his own Tarot cards and talks sweetly to his beautiful actress girlfriend. Across the country, men build their own full-size castles and rocketships that will send them into space. Palahniuk himself experiments with steroids, works on an assembly line by day and as a hospice volunteer by night, and experiences the brutal murder of his father by a white supremacist. With this new direction, Chuck Palahniuk has proven he can do anything.

Laurie R. King’s bestselling mystery series featuring Mary Russell and her husband and partner, Sherlock Holmes, is beloved by readers and acclaimed by critics the world over. Now the illustrious duo returns for their most dangerous exploit yet, in a rich and atmospheric tale that takes them to India to save the life of one of literature’s most fabled heroes. It’s the second day of the new year, 1924, and Mary Russell is settling in for a much-needed rest with her husband, Sherlock Holmes. But the fragile peace will be fleeting—for a visit with Holmes’s gravely ill brother, Mycroft, brings news of an intrigue that is sure to halt their respite. Mycroft, who has ties to the highest levels of the government, has just received a strange package. The oilskin-wrapped packet contains the papers of a missing English spy named Kimball O’Hara—indeed, the same Kimball who served as the inspiration for Rudyard Kipling’s famed Kim. An orphaned English boy turned loose in India, Kim long used his cunning to spy for the Crown. But after inexplicably withdrawing from the “Great Game” of border espionage, he’s gone missing and is feared taken hostage—or even killed. When Russell learns of Holmes’s own secret friendship with Kim some thirty years before, she knows the die is cast: she will accompany her husband to India to search for the missing operative. But even before they arrive, danger will show its face in everything from a suspicious passenger on board their steamer to an “accident” that very nearly claims their lives. Once in India, Russell and Holmes must travel incognito—no small task for the English lady and her lanky companion. But after a twist of fate forces the couple to part ways, Russell learns that in this faraway place it’s often impossible to tell friend from foe—and that some games must be played out until their deadly end. Showcasing King’s masterful plotting and skill at making history leap from the page, «The Game» brings alive an India fraught with unrest and poised for change—and an unpredictable mystery with brilliance and character to match.

Moonwalk is the only book about his life that Michael Jackson ever wrote. It chronicles his humble beginnings in the Midwest, his early days with the Jackson 5, and his unprecedented solo success. Giving absolutely unrivalled insight into the King of Pop's life, it details his songwriting process for hits like Beat It, Rock With You, Billie Jean, and We Are the World; describes how he developed his signature dance style, including the Moon Walk; and opens the door to his very private personal relationships with his family, including sister Janet, and stars like Diana Ross, Berry Gordy, Marlon Brando, Quincy Jones, Paul McCartney, and Brooke Shields. At the time of its original publication in 1988, MOONWALK broke the fiercely guarded barrier of silence that surrounded Michael Jackson. Candidly and courageously, Jackson talks openly about his wholly exceptional career and the crushing isolation of his fame, as well as the unfair rumors that have surrounded it. MOONWALK is illustrated.

When she was nine years old, Melody Browne's house burned down, taking every toy, every photograph, every item of clothing and old Christmas card with it. But not only did the fire destroy all her possessions, it took with it all her memories — Melody Browne can remember nothing before her ninth birthday. Now in her early thirties, Melody lives in a council flat in the middle of London with her seventeen-year-old son. She hasn't seen her parents since she left home at fifteen, but Melody doesn't mind, she's better off on her own. She's made a good life for herself and her son and she likes it that way. Until one night something extraordinary happens. Whilst attending a hypnotist show with her first date in years she faints — and when she comes round she starts to remember. At first her memories mean nothing to her but then slowly, day by day, she begins to piece together the real story of her childhood. Her journey takes her to the seaside town of Broadstairs, to oddly familiar houses in London backstreets and to meetings with strangers who love her like their own. But with every mystery she solves another one materialises, with every question she answers another appears. And Melody begins to wonder if she'll ever know the truth about her past...

Boston medical examiner Dr. Maura Isles literally meets her match-and must face a savage serial killer and shattering personal revelations-in the brilliant new novel of suspense by the New York Times bestselling author of The Surgeon and The Sinner. Dr. Maura Isles makes her living dealing with death. As a pathologist in a major metropolitan city, she has seen more than her share of corpses every day-many of them victims of violent murder. But never before has her blood run cold, and never has the grim expression dead ringer rung so terrifyingly true. Because never before has the lifeless body on the medical examiner's table been her own. Yet there can be no denying the mind-reeling evidence before her shocked eyes and those of her colleagues, including Detective Jane Rizzoli: the woman found shot to death outside Maura's home is the mirror image of Maura, down to the most intimate physical nuances. Even more chilling is the discovery that they share the same birth date and blood type. For the stunned Maura, an only child, there can be just one explanation. And when a DNA test confirms that Maura's mysterious doppelganger is in fact her twin sister, an already bizarre murder investigation becomes a disturbing and dangerous excursion into a past full of dark secrets. Searching for answers, Maura is drawn to a seaside town in Maine where other horrifying surprises await. But perhaps more frightening, an unknown murderer is at large on a cross-country killing spree. To stop the massacre and uncover the twisted truth about her own roots, Maura must probe her first living subject: the mother that she never knew...an icy and cunning woman who could be responsible forgiving Maura life-and who just may have a plan to take it away.

A collection of tongue twisters for the young reader to read by himself is accompanied by a sound disc.

The unhappy inhabitants of planet Krikkit are sick of looking at the night sky above their heads so they plan to destroy it. The universe, that is. Now only five individuals stand between the white killer robots of Krikkit and their goal of total annihilation. They are Arthur Dent, a mild-mannered space and time traveler, who tries to learn how to fly by throwing himself at the ground and missing; Ford Prefect, his best friend, who decides to go insane to see if he likes it; Slartibartfast, the indomitable vicepresident of the Campaign for Real Time, who travels in a ship powered by irrational behavior; Zaphod Beeblebrox, the two-headed, three-armed ex-head honcho of the Universe; and Trillian, the sexy space cadet who is torn between a persistent Thunder God and a very depressed Beeblebrox. How will it all end? Will it end? Only this stalwart crew knows as they try to avert «universal» Armageddon and save life as we know it and don't know it!

One fish, two fish, three, four, five...This one has a car to drive...This bouncy counting board book comes with five beads shaped like Seussian fish that toddlers can move across the top of the book as they count along. Based on Dr. Seuss' s celebrated classic, this sturdy board book will be a hit with all the little fish in your family.

This is the ultimate journey around England. Christopher Winn takes us to each county, to see where history happened, where people and ideas were born, where dreams took flight and where men and women now rest from their labours. To tread in their footsteps, to touch and experience some of what inspired and moved them is to capture some of the flavour of their lives and make their stories alive and real. Crammed with facts and information, I NEVER KNEW THAT ABOUT ENGLAND celebrates the places and people that make the country unique and includes history, legends, firsts, supremes, unusuals, inventions, birthplaces and gossip. You'll be able to visit the bridge where Pooh and Piglet played Poohsticks and see where Alfred burnt the cakes. In a small village in Bedfordshire you can visit the graveyard where Long John Silver and Wendy rest. These stories will bring any place that you visit to life (keep one copy in the car and one in the house!) and enable you to discover England's rich and surprising history.

Written by renowned jewellery designer Valerie Hector, this book introduces readers to the quality, diversity, and artistry of both and ancient and modern beadwork from around the world. Readers will learn to recognize characteristics such as colour, design, and dimension.

Sexy supernatural suspense abounds in this fifth novel in Armstrong's «Women of the Otherworld» series.

The girls from the Sisterhood return in the next film based on Ann Brashares' bestselling series, set for theatrical release by Warner Bros. Pictures on August 8. This tie-in includes «Forever in Blue» the final novel in the series, a full-color insert of movie stills, and favorite moments from the entire series.

In his final hours in the Oval Office the outgoing President grants a controversial last minute pardon to Joel Backman, a notorious Washington power broker who has spent the last six years hidden away in a federal prison. It seems that Backman, may have obtained secrets that compromise the world's most sophisticated satellite surveillance system.

Book II of the Bartimaeus Trilogy Eagerly awaited sequel to The Amulet of Samarkand an unputdownable combination of magic, adventure and political ambition, with an enigmatic djinni as complex as ever! Two years have passed since the events of The Amulet of Samarkand and the young magician Nathaniel is rising fast through the government ranks. But his career is suddenly threatened by a series of terrifying crises. A dangerous golem makes random attacks on London and other raids, even more threatening, are perpetrated by the Resistance. Nathaniel and Bartimaeus travel to Prague, enemy city of ancient magic, but while they are there uproar breaks out at home and Nathaniel returns to find his reputation in tatters. Can he rescue it from his Machiavellian adversaries in the government bent on his destruction? A thrilling sequel in which the relationship between the young magician and the djinni remains as teasing and complex as ever.

During a vicious persecution of the clergy in Mexico, a worldly priest, the whisky priest is on the run. With the police closing in, his routes of escape are being shut off, his chances getting fewer. But compassion and humanity force him along the road to his destiny.

Our age is obsessed by the idea of conspiracy. We see it everywhere — from Pearl Harbour to 9/11, from the assassination of Kennedy to the death of Diana. «Voodoo Histories» entertainingly demolishes the absurd and sinister conspiracy theories of the last 100 years. Aaronovitch reveals why people are so ready to believe in them and the dangers of this credulity. Meticulous in its research, forensic in its reasoning, hilarious in its debunking, this book will arm anyone who has found themselves at the wrong end of a conversation about moon landings or the twin towers. The book explodes the conspiracy theories surrounding: the Protocols of the Elders of Zion; Pearl Harbour; the deaths of Kennedy, Monroe and Princess Diana; 'Pseudohistory' such as the «Holy Blood», «Holy Grail», and 9/11 Truth Movement; and the moon landings.

Aanton Chekhov, widely hailed as the supreme master of the short story, also wrote five works long enough to be called short novelshere brought together in one volume for the first time, in a masterly new translation by the award-winning translators Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. The Steppethe most lyrical of the fiveis an account of a nine-year-old boy's frightening journey by wagon train across the steppe of southern Russia. The Duel sets two decadent figuresa fanatical rationalist and a man of literary sensibilityon a collision course that ends in a series of surprising reversals. In The Story of an Unknown Man, a political radical spying on an important official by serving as valet to his son gradually discovers that his own terminal illness has changed his long-held priorities in startling ways. Three Years recounts a complex series of ironies in the personal life of a rich but passive Moscow merchant. In My Life, a man renounces wealth and social position for a life of manual labor. The resulting conflict between the moral simplicity of his ideals and the complex realities of human nature culminates in a brief apocalyptic vision that is unique in Chekhov's work. From the Hardcover edition.

The authors present provocative new perspectives on female history, the history of American medicine and psychology, and the history of child-rearing unlike any other.

Combining scholarly authority with a new awareness of today's communication demands, Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus is the simple, reliable way to find the perfect word for your needs. It features an easy-to-use dictionary format plus a revolutionary Concept Index that arranges words by idea, thus enhancing the user's process of association and leading to scores of additional selections. The inclusion of a wide spectrum of words and phrases with each entry from sophisticated choices to completely new vocabulary in the language — brings users an exceptional number of alternatives to fit any variation of style and tone.

This work abandons the conventional distinctions between history and science. Diamond focuses on what ancient people were endowed with in the way of land, animals and plants, and on the confrontations between less and more advanced people to see how this led to today's inequalities.