Does Jerry Renault dare to disturb the universe? You wouldn't think that his refusal to sell chocolates during his school's fundraiser would create such a stir, but it does; it's as if the whole school comes apart at the seams. To some, Jerry is a hero, but to others, he becomes a scapegoat—a target for their pent-up hatred. And Jerry? He's just trying to stand up for what he believes, but perhaps there is no way for him to escape becoming a pawn in this game of control; students are pitted against other students, fighting for honor—or are they fighting for their lives? In 1974, author Robert Cormier dared to disturb our universe when this book was first published. And now, with a new introduction by the celebrated author, The Chocolate War stands ready to shock a new group of teen readers.

After their baby sister dies, Willa Jo and Little Sister's family falls apart. Their mother sinks deep into an unshakable depression, so the two older girls are sent to live with their strict Aunt Patty and her husband. Since Little Sister refuses to talk, Willa Jo has to try and make things right in their new home, but she can't stop missing her mother or the life the four of them had before Baby died. Aunt Patty is trying as hard as she can, but she doesn't really understand what Willa Jo and Little Sister are trying to deal with-until the morning the two girls climb up to the roof of her house, and stay there. Audrey Couloumbis's masterful debut novel brings to mind Karen Hesse, Katherine Paterson, and Betsy Byars's The Summer of the Swans-it is a story you will never forget.

Generation X is a field guide to and for the vast generation born in the late 1950s and the 1960s—a generation that has been erroneously labelled "postponed" and "indifferent." This is facto-fiction about a wildly accelerating subculture waiting in the corridor.

In this latest novel from the poet laureate of Gen X—who is himself now a dangerously mature 36—boy does indeed meet girl. The year is 1979, and the lovers get right down to business in a very Couplandian bit of plein air intercourse: "Karen and I deflowered each other atop Grouse Mountain, among the cedars beside a ski slope, atop crystal snow shards beneath penlight stars. It was a December night so cold and clear that the air felt like the air of the Moon—lung-burning; mentholated and pure; hint of ozone, zinc, ski wax, and Karen's strawberry shampoo." Are we in for an archetypal '80s romance, played out against a pop-cultural backdrop? Nope. Only hours after losing her virginity, Karen loses consciousness as well—for almost two decades. The narrator and his circle soldier on, making the slow progression from debauched Vancouver youths to semiresponsible adults. Several end up working on a television series that bears a suspicious resemblance to The X-Files (surely a self-referential wink on the author's part). And then ... Karen wakes up. Her astonishment—which suggests a 20th-century, substance-abusing Rip Van Winkle—dominates the second half of the novel, and gives Coupland free reign to muse about time, identity, and the meaning (if any) of the impending millennium. Alas, he also slaps a concluding apocalypse onto the novel. As sleeping sickness overwhelms the populace, the world ends with neither a bang nor a whimper, but a universal yawn—which doesn't, fortunately, outweigh the sweetness, oddity, and ironic smarts of everything that has preceded it.

A thought-provoking collection of stories explores the nature of spirituality in a fast-moving modern culture and its impact on human nature, beliefs, relationships, attitudes, hopes, fears, and dreams. By the author of Generation X. 60,000 first printing.

Microserfs is not about Microsoft—it—it's about programmers who are searching for lives. A hilarious but frighteningly real look at geek life in the '90's, Coupland's book manifests a peculiar sense of how technology affects the human race and how it will continue to affect all of us. Microserfs is the hilarious journal of Dan, an ex-Microsoft programmer who, with his coder comrades, is on a quest to find purpose in life. This isn't just fodder for techies. The thoughts and fears of the not-so-stereotypical characters are easy for any of us to relate to, and their witty conversations and quirky view of the world make this a surprisingly thought-provoking book.

" ... just think about the way high-tech cultures purposefully protract out the adolescence of their employees well into their late 20s, if not their early 30s," muses one programmer. "I mean, all those Nerf toys and free beverages! And the way tech firms won't even call work 'the office,' but instead, 'the campus.' It's sick and evil."

The eponymous heroine of Miss Wyoming is one Susan Colgate, a teen beauty queen and low-rent soap actress. Dragooned into show business by her demonically pushy, hillbilly mother, Susan has hit rock bottom by the time Douglas Coupland's seventh book begins. But when she finds herself the sole survivor of an airplane crash, this "low-grade onboard celebrity" takes the opportunity to start all over again:She felt like a ghost. She tried to find her bodily remains there in the wreckage and was unable to do so.... Then she was lost in a crowd of local onlookers and trucks, parping sirens and ambulances. She picked her way out of the melee and found a newly paved suburban road that she followed away from the wreck into the folds of a housing development. She had survived, and now she needed sanctuary and silence. She's not, of course, the only Hollywood burnout who'd like to vanish into thin air. Her opposite number, a producer of big-budget, no-brainer action flicks named John Johnson, stages a similar disappearing act. After a near-death experience, in the course of which he is treated to a vision of Susan's face, he roams the western badlands. And even after his return to L.A., Johnson is determined to unravel the mystery of this woman's fate.

Throughout, Coupland displays his usual gift for capturing the absurdities of modern existence. The distinctive minutiae of our age—junk mail and fast food, sitcoms and Singapore slings, and the "shop fronts bigger and brighter and more powerful than they needed to be"—come to vivid, funny life in this author's hands. And while Susan and John occupy center stage, Coupland is just as generous with his peripheral characters. A scriptwriter and his supernaturally intelligent girlfriend, a recluse who spends his evening generating Internet rumours—all manage to be blessed and cursed, numbed by their pointless existences but full of humanity when put to the test. Picture Joseph Heller and Kurt Vonnegut collaborating on a Tinseltown version of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and you come halfway to grasping Coupland's brand of thoughtful, supremely funny storytelling. —Matthew Baylis

A collection of essays by Douglas Coupland, whose first novel Generation X received critical acclaim. In his mid-30s, Coupland writes about what it means to grow up and the realization that he is not young anymore. Essays include observations on parents his age at Grateful Dead concerts who seem intent on preserving a youthful reckless and carefree lifestyle at the expense of their children, to the "gristled leather bachelors" and "straw-permed sex androids from Planet 1971," to mourning his own sense of youthfulness as he revisits old haunts in his native Vancouver.

Tyler Johnson, a twenty-something Reagan youth, must confront such things as fatherlessness, toxic waste, rock videos, and deforestation as he attempts to make sense of his world. By the author of Generation X. National ad/promo.

A Childrens book.

Newbery Medal winner Sharon Creech's Love That Dog, a funny, sweet, original short novel written in free verse, introduces us to an endearingly unassuming, straight-talking boy who discovers the powers and pleasures of poetry. Against his will. After all, "boys don't write poetry. Girls do." What does he say of the famous poem "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening"? "I think Mr. Robert Frost / has a little / too / much / time / on his / hands." As his teacher, Ms. Stretchberry, introduces the canon to the class, however, he starts to see the light. Poetry is not so bad, it's not just for girls, and it's not even that hard to write. Take William Carlos Williams, for example: "If that is a poem / about the red wheelbarrow / and the white chickens / then any words / can be a poem. / You've just got to / make / short / lines." He becomes more and more discerning as the days go by, and readers' spirits will rise with Jack's as he begins to find his own voice through his own poetry and through that of others. His favorite poem of all is a short, rhythmic one by Walter Dean Myers called "Love That Boy" (included at the end of the book with all the rest of Ms. Stretchberry's assignments). The words completely captivate him, reminding him of the loving way his dad calls him in the morning and of the way he used to call his yellow dog, Sky. Jack's reverence for the poem ultimately leads to meeting the poet himself, an experience he will never forget.

This winning, accessible book is truly remarkable in that Creech lets us witness firsthand how words can open doors to the soul. And this from a boy who asks, "Why doesn't the person just / keep going if he's got / so many miles to go / before he sleeps?" (Ages 8 to 12) —Karin Snelson

Clare Crespo's delightful debut, The Secret Life of Food will spark children's imaginations in the kitchen and give playful grownups a host of ideas for hip and colorful concoctions to serve at their next dinner party. In the quirky tradition of Play with Your Food and the whimsical work of "Surreal Gourmet" Bob Blumer , The Secret Life of Food presents 46 fun recipes—including Tarantula Cookies, Monkey Pops, and Spaghetti with Eyeballs—destined to be hits on the children's birthday and Halloween party circuit.

Some of the recipes are amazingly simple: Caterpillar Cake calls for 10 Hostess Sno Balls, two google eyes, and a handful of artfully arranged pipe cleaners; the Football Meatloaf is—you guessed it—a football-shaped meatloaf with onion slices for stitching. Standouts include Pond Pie (a plastic frog resting on the surface of a mint-green vanilla pudding pie with assorted fresh herbs peeking over the chocolate-cookie-crust perimeter), Jell-O Aquarium (a small fishbowl with Berry Blue Jell-O "water," Swedish fish, and fruit cocktail "gravel"), Flower Pot Cakes (chocolate cake baked in individual terra cotta pots, each with a single long-stemmed flower poking through the "dirt"), and Sushi Cupcakes (green Fruit Roll-Ups for seaweed, coconut frosting for rice, and dried mangoes for ginger).

Eric Staudenmaier's colorful photography and Lisa Barnett's artful food styling really makes this book sing. But would the Cherry Roses look as tempting sitting on a dessert plate as they do peeking out of a real floral bouquet? Probably not. And, granted, many of the recipes are intended as blueprints for your imagination, but more detailed instructions would have been helpful in some recipes. ("Shape the dough into insect shapes and decorate with small candies or mixed nuts" is miles away from the fanciful finished Candy Bugs flittering in the photograph on the opposite page.) Overall, though, Crespo's collection will provide hours of culinary exploration for kids and grownups alike. —Brad Thomas Parsons

Everyone loves cookies, and with Betty Crocker, everyone can bake them!

From novice to pro, these cookies will fill the bill, whether for holiday treats, bake sales, or everyday energizers, these are the cookies you want, with more than 240 to choose from. Every chapter has a most requested cookie, hot from Betty Crocker's kitchens-these are the cookies America's been asking for. There is also an entire chapter for kids, as well as tons of super-easy bar cookies-just pour, bake, and enjoy! And with the "Doughs and Doughnut's" chapter to guide readers through the basics, there is no part of cookie baking that will cause even the most inexperienced baker any concern. About the only problem readers will have is deciding which cookie to make first, Deluxe Chocolate Chip Cookies, No-Roll Sugar Cookies, Mousse Bars, Rocky Road Bars, Walnut Biscotti-but whatever they choose, it'll be a winner.