The classic novel--and hit Broadway show--about escaped convict Jean Valjean has been adapted with easy-to-read text, large type, and short chapters. This engaging adaptation of the timeless tale is ideal for reluctant readers and kids not yet ready to tackle the original.

""[An] intriguing philosophical journey into a critical issue within evolutionary theory that for too long has remained unresolved."" —Wall Street JournalMatt Ridley is one of our finest science writers. This book is a treat for bird lovers and evolutionary biologists alike.” —Richard Dawkins, author of The Genetic Book of The Dead and The God DelusionThe New York Times bestsellin...

**The long-awaited biography of the genius who masterminded Henry VIII's bloody revolution in the English government, which reveals at last Cromwell's role in the downfall of Anne Boleyn"This a book that - and it's not often you can say this - we have been awaiting for four hundred years." --Hilary Mantel, author of Wolf Hall**Since the sixteenth century we have been fascinated by Henry VIII and the man who stood beside him, guiding him, enriching him, and enduring...

A selection of the best and most representative contemporary American short fiction from 1970 to 2020, including such authors as Ursula K. LeGuin, Toni Cade Bambara, Jhumpa Lahiri, Sandra Cisneros, and Ted Chiang, hand-selected by celebrated editor and anthologist John Freeman.IN THE PAST fifty years, the American short story has changed dramatically. New voices, forms, and mixtures of genres have brought this unique US genre a thrilling burst of e...

**“Dazzling. Sweeping. Mind-altering. World-changing. . . . Destined to become our new reference for understanding the making of the modern world.” —Naomi Klein, New York Times bestselling author of Doppelganger“Scintillating . . . It’s a monumental new view of the New World.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)From the Pulitzer Prize–winning historian, the first comprehensive history of the Western Hemisphere, a sweeping five-century narrative of...

With his trademark humor and flair, bestselling linguist John McWhorter busts the myths and shares the history of the most controversial language topic of our times: pronounsThe nature of language is to shift and evolve—but every so often, a new usage creates a whole lot of consternation. These days, pronouns are throwing curveballs, and it matters, because pronoun habits die hard. If you need a refresher from eighth-grade English: Pronouns are short, used endlessl...

**"Ambitious... With meticulous research and in lively style, Jones presents us with the man beyond the Shakespeare character."—The New York Times“The best biography yet of England’s greatest king."—Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of The Romanovs and JerusalemThe New York Times bestselling author returns with a biography examining the dramatic life and unparalleled leadership of England's greatest medieval king**Henry V reigned ove...

**"A treasure of a book."—David McCulloughThe harrowing story of a pathbreaking naval expedition that set out to map the entire Pacific Ocean, dwarfing Lewis and Clark with its discoveries, from the New York Times bestselling author of Valiant Ambition and In the Hurricane's Eye.**A New York Times Notable BookAmerica's first frontier was not the West; it was the sea, and no one writes more eloquently about that wa...

“An elegant, wide-ranging history” (The New York Review of Books) of the centuries-long quest to discover the critical role of germs in disease thatreveals as much about human reasoning—and the pitfalls of ego—as it does about microbes.“Levenson takes readers through an entertaining . . . journey of missed opportunities in microbiology and the eventual advances that arose in this field.”—ScienceScientists and enthusiastic ...

A powerful collection of short stories by Shirley Jackson"The Lottery," one of the most terrifying stories of the twentieth century, created a sensation when it was first published in the New Yorker. "Powerful and haunting," and "nights of unrest" were typical reader responses. This collection, the only one to appear during Jackson's lifetime, unites "The Lottery" with twenty-four equally unusual stories. Together they demonstrate her remarkable range—from the hilarious to...

Roy Peter Clark, one of America's most influential writing teachers, offers writing lessons we can draw from 25 great texts.Where do writers learn their best moves? They use a technique that Roy Peter Clark calls X-ray reading, a form of reading that lets you penetrate beyond the surface of a text to see how meaning is actually being made. In The Art of X-Ray Reading, Clark invites you to don your X-ray reading glasses and join him on a guided tour through...

The New York Times-bestselling final book by the beloved, Pulitzer-Prize winning historian Tony Horwitz.With Spying on the South, the best-selling author of Confederates in the Attic returns to the South and the Civil War era for an epic adventure on the trail of America's greatest landscape architect. In the 1850s, the young Frederick Law Olmsted was adrift, a restless farmer and dreamer in search of a mission. He found it during an extr...