She is the most popular novelist in history, yet the drama and torment of Agatha Christie's private life remains a mystery even to her most ardent fans. She made no secret of her disdain for the press and for those who wished to intrude on her private life. Nonetheless, in this immensely readable and intimate biography, best-selling author Richard Hack reveals the romance, scandal, and betrayal that drove one of the 20th century's most celebrated literary figures. Drawing from over 5,000 u...

Only twenty-seven years old, Horatio Hornblower has distinguished himself as a capable and intrepid officer in the Royal Navy. On a reconnaissance mission with the Hotspur, a three-masted frigate under his command, Hornblower and his crew narrowly avoid capture by their French adversaries, but the danger is not over. In the meantime, misgivings about his recent marriage also weigh heavily on the young officer's mind. In this 10th novel of the Hornblower series, C.S. Forester depicts anothe...

From internationally best-selling author Daniel Kehlmann comes this provocative and wickedly funny novel about two unpredictable men—one an artist and the other a journalist—who embark on an unexpected adventure with uproarious results. Sebastian Zollner's failure as a journalist is matched only by his personal failures. Searching for redemption in the eyes of his peers, he heads off into the mountains to interview the eccentric, legendary painter Manuel Kaminski with the hope of writing h...

In the wake of a humbling incident aboard a canal boat in the Cotswolds, young Captain Horatio Hornblower arrives in London to take command of the Atropos, a 22-gun sloop barely large enough to require a captain. Her first assignment under Hornblower's command is as flagship for the funeral procession of Lord Nelson.Soon Atropos is part of the Mediterranean Fleet's harassment of Napoleon, recovering treasure that lies deep in Turkish waters and boldly challenging a Spanish frigate ...

Herodotus, the 5th century chronicler, scarcely figured in the curriculum when famed Polish writer and traveler Ryszard Kapuscinski attended university in the 1950s. After he finished college, Ryszard became a foreign correspondent who hoped to go abroad, perhaps to Czechoslovakia. Instead, he was sent to India—the first stop on a decades-long tour of the world that took him from Iran to El Salvador, from Angola to Armenia. His only companion on his travels was a volume of Herodotus, a gif...

Chief inspector Wexford had almost made up his mind that he would never again set eyes on Eric Targo's short, muscular figure. And yet there he was, back in Kingsmarkham, still with that cocky, strutting walk. Years earlier, Targo stalked and taunted Wexford, daring him to press charges after a woman was found strangled in her bedroom. Over the years there are more unsolved, apparently motiveless murders in the town, and Wexford suspects that the increasingly prosperous Targo is behind the...

Has Jeeves finally lost his grip? Wealthy, scatterbrained Bertie Wooster— with the aid of his ever-faithful butler, Jeeves— attempts to romantically link dreamy, soulful Gussie Fink-Nottle with soppy, sweet Madeline Bassett. But as soon as Bertie takes Gussie and Madeline's love connection into his own hands, things go disastrously wrong! Fortunately, Jeeves steps in to set matters straight. But the characters must endure tangled layers of comedic complications before they reach the invari...

The disastrous banjo-playing of Bertram "Bertie" Wooster has driven the otherwise steadfast gentleman's gentleman Jeeves to give notice— because even butlers have limits. In anger, Bertie disappears to the country with his new valet Brinkley as a guest of Lord " Chuffy" Chuffnell, who has employed the services of the recently resigned Jeeves. Bertie soon finds himself in no shortage of trouble as he encounters his ex-fiancé e Pauline, her formidable father, and the eminent looney-doctor Si...

In this seventh installment of the Jeeves series, the unflappable butler once again must apply his cleverness to rescue Bertie Wooster— this time from being arrested, lynched, and engaged by mistake! Chaos ensues when Aunt Dahlia demands that Bertie help dupe an antique dealer into selling her an 18th-century cow creamer. Complications grow as Bertie's pal Gussie Fink-Nottle is more interested in studying the effects of a full moon on the love life of newts rather than marrying Madeline Ba...

If Lord Ickenham had not succumbed to the temptation to dislodge the hat of Beefy Bastable, the irascible QC, with a well-aimed Brazil nut, the latter’s famous legal mind might never have been stimulated to literature. But the incident provoked Beefy to write his exposé of the younger generation, a novel so shocking that it caused endless repercussions for its hapless author, and sparked off a whole series of outrageous misunderstandings that it would take the inventive talents of Lord Ick...

The description of his ancestral seat as an earthly paradise would, at present, have struck its proprietor as ironical, full as it was with unwanted and troublesome inhabitants. What Lord Emsworth needed above all was a rugged ally at his side to remove from Blandings its superfluous guests, leaving him in peace to tend his beloved pig, Empress of Blandings. However, when Lord Ickenham is on a sweetness-and-light-spreading expedition, there’s always apt to be trouble.

Happy relationships are possible—for everyone.Even if you’ve been married for twenty years and your routine is boring and stressful; although your mom has always been a help-resistant complainer; and despite the fact that your dearest friend moved across the country — all of us can create lasting and joyful connections with the people we care about the most. Using simple tools drawn from the Buddhist tradition, you can cultivate appreciation, set wise expectations, and create meani...