'Whoever best acquits himself, and tells The most amusing and instructive tale, Shall have a dinner, paid for by us all...' In Chaucer's most ambitious poem, The Canterbury Tales (c. 1387), a group of pilgrims assembles in an inn just outside London and agree to entertain each other on the way to Canterbury by telling stories. The pilgrims come from all ranks of society, from the crusading Knight and burly Miller to the worldly Monk and lusty Wife of Bath. Their tales are as various as the...

Already excerpted in the New Yorker, Black Cloud Rising is a compelling and important historical novel that takes us back to an extraordinary moment when enslaved men and women were shedding their bonds and embracing freedomBy fall of 1863, Union forces had taken control of Tidewater Virginia, and established a toehold in eastern North Carolina, including along the Outer Banks. Thousands of freed slaves and runaways flooded the Union lines, but Co...

A memoir from one of the most admired players in baseball, the captain of the New York Mets, David WrightDavid Wright played his entire Major League Baseball career for one team, the team he dreamed of playing for as a kid: the New York Mets.A quick fan favorite from Virginia who then earned his stripes in New York, Wright came back time and again from injury and demonstrated the power of hard work, total commitment, and an infinite love of the game.

English Romantic poetry from its beginnings and its flowering to the first signs of its decadence. Nearly all the famous piéces de résistance will be found here - 'Intimations of Immortality', 'The Ancient Mariner', 'The Tyger', excerpts from 'Don Juan' - as well as some less familiar poems. As far as possible the poets are arranged in chronological order, and their poems in order of composition, beginning with eighteenth-century precurs...

This fine collection of vintage mysteries from the pulp magazines presents 13 tales sure to thrill the armchair detective. Included are:HANDS OF DOOM, by David H. KellerEVIDENCE, by Murray LeinsterTHE DRUMS OF DEATH, by J. Allan DunnHAIR OF THE CAT, by Robert TurnerHELL’S SIPHON, by George Harmon CoxeDIBBLE DABBLES IN DEATH, by David Wright O’BrienCLOSE TO MY HEART, by Chester S. GeierTHE RAG-TAG GIRL, by Norbert DavisMASTER O...

This isn’t a book full of rules on How You Should Write Your Book.First off, I don’t even know all the rules to writing, at least not in any instructional sort of way. For every rule identified by an expert, you can easily find someone else who did the exact opposite and somehow managed to create a kick-ass story.This is a book about how I understand darkness, its place in story, and how I make dark fiction that people enjoy reading.I'll show you my...

A stunning novel of post-war Paris that interweaves a coming-of-age story, a cross-cultural romance, and a portrait of the international youth at a definitive moment in contemporary historyParis, 1947. The city, recovering from the Nazi occupation, suffers from an economy in shambles and an unraveled social fabric. Alongside the wary and war-weary population, American GIs and young people from France’s colonies also pack the city. Cecile Rosenbaum, from a bourgeois...

For 150 years, Down's Syndrome has constituted the archetypal mental disability, easily recognisable by distinct facial anomalies and physical stigmata. In a narrow medical sense, Down's syndrome is a common disorder caused by the presence of all or part of an extra 21st chromosome. It is named after John Langdon Down, the British asylum medical superintendent who described the syndrome as Mongolism in a series of lectures in 1866. In 1959, the disorder was identified as a chromosome 21 tr...

For over 100 years the world's best motorcycle racers have pitted themselves against the gruelling 37-and-threequarter-mile Isle of Man Mountain Course at the annual event known worldwide simply as 'the TT'. The Tourist Trophy meeting - to give its proper name - represents perhaps the greatest challenge that the sport of motorcycle racing can offer. The top names in road racing - Collier, Wood, Duke, Hailwood, Agostini, Hislop, Jefferies, McGuinness, Hutchinson and the Dunlop dynasty - hav...

- Swimming A Training Program sets out the 300 swimming schedules and 115 weight schedules making up a single six-month training cycle. While David Wright's and Garth Gilmour's Swim to the Top provided the training theory, this book sets the theory into practice. Each week's program, which in most cases involves thirteen swim practices and five weight sessions, also includes a description of how the week's program is compatible with and contributes to Lydiard's training obj...

In 1955 the United States-owned ship Joyita mysteriously disappeared while sailing between Apia, Samoa, and Tokelau in the Pacific Ocean. The ship was discovered in poor condition near Fiji five weeks later, but no trace has ever been found of the 25 crew and passengers who had been aboard. This is an account of events and a thorough investigation of possible explanations. It evokes the exotic expatriate life of the mid-century Pacific Islands with colorful characters and unexpect...

Live More by Choosing LessOur lives are full of stuff. Our world encourages both buying and holding onto things. We seem to have this obsession with possessing things. And, sadly, we are reluctant to let go of what we already own. This leads to clutter, hoarding, and the unhealthy thinking that goes with it.Thanks to clever advertising and eager sellers we’ve become accustomed to wanting more, bigger, improved faster, more efficient products. We can’t get e...