Almost there...

Readers of the “Frank” stories know that The Unifactor is in control of everythingthat happens to the characters that abide there, and that however extremethe experiences they undergo may be, in the end nothing really changes. Thatgoes treble for Frank himself, who is kept in a state of total ineducability by theunseen forces of that haunted realm. And so the question arises: what wouldhappen if Frank were to leave The Unifactor?That question is answered in Congress of the Animals, Jim Woodring's much-anticipatedsecond full-length graphic novel, and first starring his signaturecharacter Frank. In this gripping saga an act of casual rudeness sets into motiona chain of events which propels Frank into a world where he is on his own atlast; and like so many who leave home, Frank finds himself contending withrealities of which he had no previous inkling.In Congress of the Animals we are treated to the pitiful spectacle of Frank losing his house, taking a factory job, fallingin with bad comp

Can a one-legged boy become a great samurai warrior? Meet some unique aspiring champions in this kick-off to an exciting new martial arts series.Niya Moto is the only one-legged samurai kid in Japan, famous for falling flat on his face in the dirt. The one school that will accept him is the Cockroach Ryu, led by the legendary sensei Ki-Yaga. He may be an old man overly fond of naps, but Ki-Yaga is also known for taking in kids that the world has judged harshly: an albino girl with extra fingers and toes, a boy who is blind, a big kid whose past makes him loath to fight. A warrior in his time, Ki-Yaga demands excellence in everything from sword fighting to poetry. But can the ragtag Cockroaches make the treacherous journey to the Samurai Trainee Games, never mind take on the all-conquering Dragons? In a fast-moving, action-filled tale that draws on true details of feudal Japan, Niya finds there’s no fear they can’t face as long as they stick together — for

From the beloved New York Times bestselling author of Home Safe and The Last Time I Saw You comes a beautiful and moving novel about a man and woman, long divorced, who rediscover the power of love an

One of Isaac Asimov’s SF masterpieces, this stand-alone novel is a monument of the flowering of SF in the 20th century. It is widely regarded as Asimov’s single best SF novel and one every SF fan should read.Andrew Harlan is an Eternal, a member of the elite of the future. One of the few who live in Eternity, a location outside of place and time, Harlan’s job is to create carefully controlled and enacted Reality Changes. These Changes are small, exactingly calculated shifts in the course of history made for the benefit of humankind. Though each Change has been made for the greater good, there are always costs.During one of his assignments, Harlan meets and falls in love with Noÿs Lambent, a woman who lives in real time and space. Then Harlan learns that Noÿs will cease to exist after the next change, and risks everything to sneak her into Eternity.Unfortunately, they are caught. Harlan’s punishment? His next assignment: kill the woman he loves before the paradox they have created resul

The Vampire Bund, a peaceful island nation of vampires off the coast of Tokyo, ruled by Princess Mina Tepes, has seen its share of conflict and turmoil.Yet there are times of relative tranquility when the Bund is a popular tourist destination.When two teenage tourists visit the Bund and are unexpectedly turned into vampires, they appeal to Mina and her loyal lycanthrope bodyguard, Akira, for help. Their only hope is to find a cure to reverse their vampirism within forty eight hours, or they will be stuck as vampires forever. Unfortunately for them,their race against time turns into a game of cat and mouse that takes them across the entire Bund in pursuit of the one person who holds the key to their salvation.

Brendan has never really fit into the human world and he soon finds out he is actually a fairy, only to be caught in a struggle between the two worlds.

The musical superstar of 18th-century France was Joseph Boulogne—a black man. This inspiring story tells how Joseph, the only child of a black slave and her white master, becomes "the most accomplishe

Why are homeless people sleeping on the sidewalks of New York in the winter, when the abandoned apartment buildings in the city have four times as many dwelling units as there are homeless people in the city? Why did Russians have to import food to feed people in Moscow, when Russia itself has vast amounts of some of the richest farmland in Europe within easy driving distance? Why did unemployment reach 25 percent and American corporations as a whole operate in the red for two years in a row during the Great Depression of the 1930s?All these very different—but equally puzzling and needless—tragedies grew out of a failure to understand and apply basic economic principles. Explaining these principles for the general public in plain English, with neither graphs nor equations nor jargon, is the goal and the achievement of Basic Economics by Thomas Sowell. Professor Sowell has taught economics at leading colleges and universities across the country and now uses his years of experience to br

Alberto Garc a-Alix (born 1956) is widely considered Spain's most popular contemporary photographer. Emerging from the post-Franco era of free expression known as La Movida, Garc a-Alix vividly captur

A fascinating account from a highly acclaimed writer of the life and charming inhabitants of a typical countryside village, and how it must adapt and change in order to survive in the modern worldThe countryside is in crisis. The shops are closing down in the villages, there is no school for miles around and, when they grow up, the few remaining children will escape to a less arduous life in the city. The village as we have known it for centuries must adapt to survive, but what will be lost in the process? In this book Geert Mak returns to the small Netherlands village of his childhood, Jorwerd (pop. 330 and falling), and meets the present-day Jorwerders: a stubborn, stoic people for whom the flat, windswept landscape has been a source of livelihood for generations, but is now rarely more than a tourist attraction. He has tea with the butcher's wife, drops in on the pub for a beer, and recounts the stirring story of Old Peet, a farmhand who was born, lived, and died in Jorwerd. Such me