The return of a classic—long-lived and treasured by all who love the good, considered life.

Boldly confessing her prejudices and her passions, M. F. K. Fisher has written a mouth-watering, soul-satisfying book composed of seventeen chapters with over 140 recipes. Whether recalling forbidden fruits from her childhood (like mashed potatoes with catsup), her mother's legendary mustard pickles, or a Caribbean bride singing about peas and rice, each description is flavored with the eloquence, warmth, and wit that has become her hallmark. Here are dishes for every course of every meal, from the simplest to the most esoteric: tidbits, appetizers, breads, pastries, fish, fowl, meats, soups, vegetables, desserts, and casseroles.

The 50th anniversary keepsake edition of M. F. K. Fisher's food writing classic

This beautifully produced commemorative edition of M. F. K. Fisher's The Art of Eating celebrates the 50th anniversary of its original publication. Fisher's writing has delighted and inspired generations of lovers of good food and exquisite writing, and this outstanding compilation of her best work is as exciting and engaging today as it was half a century ago. Special features of the anniversary edition include an introductory tribute by Fisher's leading biographer, Joan Reardon, and quotes from some of today's top culinary names on the impact of Fisher's writing. Printed on high-quality stock complemented by French flaps and a stunning new cover design, this volume is a must-have for Fisher fans and first-timers.

M. F. K. Fisher (1908—82) is revered as one of America's best food writers. She was the author of more than a dozen books, and her personalized essays on the pleasures of cooking and eating made her famous. Her most popular books-Serve It Forth, Consider the Oyster, How to Cook a Wolf, The Gastronomical Me, and An Alphabet for Gourmets-were bound into one volume, The Art of Eating, in 1954.

In these fifteen remarkable stories, M.F.K. Fisher, one of the most admired writers of our time, embraces age as St. Francis welcomed Brother Pain. With a saint to guide us, she writes in her Foreword, perhaps we can accept in a loving way "the inevitable visits of a possibly nagging harpy like Sister Age" But in the stories, it is the human strength in the unavoidable encounter with the end of life that Mrs. Fisher dramatizes so powerfully. Other themes — the importance of witnessing death, the marvelous resilience of the old, the passing of vanity — are all explored with insight, sympathy and, often, a sly wit.

Wal-Mart isn’t just the world’s biggest company, it is probably the world’s most written-about. But no book until this one has managed to penetrate its wall of silence or go beyond the usual polemics to analyze its actual effects on its customers, workers, and suppliers. Drawing on unprecedented interviews with former Wal-Mart executives and a wealth of staggering data (e.g., Americans spend $36 million an hour at Wal-Mart stores, and in 2004 its growth alone was bigger than the total revenue of 469 of the Fortune 500), The Wal-Mart Effect is an intimate look at a business that is dramatically reshaping our lives.

Ages 8-12. Thirty-two years before it was made into a movie, Harriet the Spy was a groundbreaking book: its unflinchingly honest portrayal of childhood problems and emotions changed children's literature forever. Happily, it has neither dated nor become obsolete and remains one of the best children's novels ever written. The fascinating story is about an intensely curious and intelligent girl, who literally spies on people and writes about them in her secret notebook, trying to make sense of life's absurdities. When her classmates find her notebook and read her painfully blunt comments about them, Harriet finds herself a lonely outcast. Fitzhugh's writing is astonishingly vivid, real and engaging, and Harriet, by no means a typical, loveable heroine, is one of literature's most unforgettable characters. School Library Journal wrote, "a tour de force... bursts with life." The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books called it "a very, very funny story." And The Chicago Tribune raved, "brilliantly written... a superb portrait of an extraordinary child."

Harriet the Spy refuses to become ruffled when an unidentified person starts leaving disturbing notes all over the quiet little beach town of Water Mill. She’s determined to discover the author of the notes. And she drags her best friend, mousy Beth Ellen, into all kinds of odd and embarrassing situations in her efforts to reveal the culprit. Observing in her own special, caustic way with her ever-present notebook, Harriet the Spy is on the case. But will she be ready to face the truth when she finds it?

Award-winning food writer Janet Fletcher describes the tantalizing array of top-quality cheeses now available. She offers suggestions for presentation and more than 40 delectable recipes for sweet and savory pairings. The Cheese Course, enjoying the worl

A literary investigation by "one of the most powerful American writers at work today" [Annie Proulx] of a story that riveted the nation: how an accomplished, world-traveled fashion writer who had retreated to a simpler life as a single mother on Cape Cod became the victim of a brutal, still-unsolved murder.

On the surface, Christa Worthington’s life had the appearance of privilege and comfort. She was the granddaughter of prominent New Yorkers. Her sparkling journalism earned the fashion world’s respect. But she had turned her back on a glamorous career and begun living in the remote Cape Cod town where she had summered as a child. When she was found murdered in Truro, Massachusetts, just after New Year’s Day in 2002, her toddler daughter clinging to her side, her violent death brought to the surface the many unspoken mysteries of her life.

Invisible Eden is the deeply felt story of a career woman's attempt to start over and reinvent her life away from the fashion circles of New York and Paris only to have an out-of-wedlock child with a local fisherman, forge a life as a single mother, and meet a violent end. Brilliantly portraying Christa’s hunger for belonging and her struggle for survival as a first-time mother, Flook searingly evokes her search for a safe haven, her many tumultuous relationships, and the evidence linking family, strangers, lovers, suspects, and innocents to the tragedy that both shocked a seaside town on Cape Cod and horrified the nation. Flook intricately maps Christa's charged life before her death and follows the first year of the murder investigation with the help of the district attorney who is in an election battle even as he searches for the killer. At the same time, Invisible Eden captures the Cape's haunted landscape, class stratifications, and never-ending battles between its weathy summer residents and its hardscrabble working families who together form a backdrop for a powerful chronicle of love and murder. An edgy and compelling portrait of a woman's tragic journey, Invisible Eden is a mesmerizing true story.

From the Hardcover edition.

Using Jungian, Freudian, and personal theories, the author provides a visual approach to dream interpretation with easy-to-follow dream directory organized by thematic and symbolic headings, accompanied by advice on fostering self-empowerment by utilizing dream interpretations. Original. IP.

This landmark anthology takes its impulse from the words of Bertolt Brecht: "In the dark times, will there be singing? /Yes, there will be singing./About the dark times." Bearing witness to extremity—whether of war, torture, exile, or repression—this volume encompasses more than 140 poets from five continents, a chorus of voices from dark times, giving testimony to the poetic imagination seared by the fire of human suffering.

A couple of years ago, Richard Ford himself was included in this annual anthology with a personal—and funny—meditation on hunting with his wife. It's no surprise, then, that Ford, one of America's finest novelists (The Sportswriter), would turn to David Mamet, one of America's finest screenwriters and playwrights (Glengarry Glen Ross) to anchor his superlative collection of the year's best with a very personal and very funny meditation on a deer-hunting trip in Vermont to mark his 50th birthday. "As a hunter, of course, I am a fraud," Mamet admits without much prodding; as an observer of the macho milieu, however, he hits the bull's-eye: "To hunt deer in thick woods in a snowstorm is one of the most beautiful, happiest, things that I know. I was enjoying it so much," he confesses, "that I missed the deer," which were passing in front of him a mere 20 yards away.

If Mamet missed his deer, Ford misses nothing, bagging trophy pieces on Ali (by David Remnick), Michael Jordan's finale (by David Halberstam), a Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo (by John McPhee), the end of Cal Ripkin's streak (by Thomas Boswell), bowling (by Steve Friedman), pool (by J.D. Dolan), and women's pick-up hoops (by Melissa King). Tradition—and seven decades of good craftsmanship—brings Shirley Povich's final Washington Post column into Ford's sights as well.

"There's just something in the American sensibility that values joining the often primal yet contrived acts of sport to the intensities and suave logics of well-made prose," writes Ford in his kick-off to the volume. "It seems to free us.... Plus reading sports may be the only reading for pleasure most Americans ever do." The Best American Sportswriting 1999 certainly adds to that. —Jeff Silverman

Ellen Forney's guide to alternative experiences, with cameos by Camille Paglia, Kristin Gore, Margaret Cho, and others.

"Ellen Forney's comics are smart.
Ellen Forney's comics are sexy.
Ellen Forney's comics are funny.
Ellen Forney's comics are hotter than five-star curry."
—Sherman Alexie (from his Introduction)

I Love Led Zeppelin is a long-awaited collection of strips created for several alternative newsweeklies and magazines over the last several years by the Harvey and Eisner Award-nominated cartoonist Ellen Forney.

This book includes full-page comics published in prestigious weeklies such as the L.A. Weekly and Seattle's The Stranger, as well as the leading feminist magazine, Bust, and the Oxford American. Her strips are characterized by bold, sensual brushstrokes and striking images of powerful, butt-kicking women.

While most of the stories sprang from Forney's own inspiration, some are collaborations with such luminaries as comedienne Margaret Cho, novelist (and Al Gore's daughter) Kristin Gore, writer and editor Dan Savage, writer David Schmader, cartoonist Ariel Bordeaux, writer Tamara Paris, Forney's beloved Grandma Florence, and Camille Paglia.

Several of Forney's strips fall into the "How-To" category, although this is not your standard advice column fare: topics range from the practical ("How to Tip Your Server") to the whimsical ("How to Twirl Your Tassles In Opposite Directions") to the fascinating but hopefully never-needed ("How to Sew On an Amputated Finger").

Other strips include "The Final Soundtrack," a death fantasy involving blood, glamour, and Led Zeppelin; "How to Smoke Pot and Stay Out of Jail"; "How to Talk About Drugs With Your Kid"; "How to Fuck a Woman With Your Hands"; "How to Be a Fabulous Fag Hag" (an illustrated interview with Margaret Cho); "Seattle's Erotic Landmarks"; and "Memories of Love," a graphic tour of Courtney Love's rise and fall of celebritydom.

Traditionally, women share their secrets with their hairdressers. But what about their manicurists, masseurs, chi gong teachers, and tattoo artists? In Damage Control, women wax poetic about the experts and gurus who help them love themselves, sharing stories of everything from friendships born in the make-up chair to the utter dismay of a truly horrible haircut.

Minnie Driver finally meets a Frenchman who understands her hair . . . and tries to teach her not to hate it.

Marian Keyes remembers the blow-dry that pushed her over the edge.

Francesca Lia Block tells the ugly story of the plastic surgeon who promised to make her beautiful.

Rose McGowan explains why it's harder to be depressed when you're glamorous . . . and shows how it takes a village to transform from mere mortal to movie star.

Witty and wise, Damage Control is an intimate, sometimes dark, look at our experiences with the professionals who pluck, prod, and pamper every inch of our bodies—and a reminder why we surrender ourselves to their (hopefully) very capable hands.