Six provocative essays assess the influence of fairy tales, legends, and myths on contemporary life, interweaving elements of classical mythology, pop culture, and current events into an incisive work of cultural criticism. 15,000 first printing.

A spiritual guide to modern Judaism traces the history of Judaism while offering prayers, ceremonies, and celebrations that take the present-day world into account, from women's equality to changing religious boundaries. 15,000 first printing. Tour.

With over 50,000 copies sold, "Simply Vegan" is not a book that lies on the shelf but is regularly used by busy people trying to live a vegan or vegetarian lifestyle. Over 160 good tasting, but quick practical recipes are profiled. In addition, Reed Mangels gives readers a complete vegan nutrition section that includes easy-to-read charts, menus, and meal plans.

Fingersmith is the third slice of engrossing lesbian Victoriana from Sarah Waters. Although lighter and more melodramatic in tone than its predecessor, Affinity, this hypnotic suspense novel is awash with all manner of gloomy Dickensian leitmotifs: pickpockets, orphans, grim prisons, lunatic asylums, "laughing villains," and, of course, "stolen fortunes and girls made out to be mad." Divided into three parts, the tale is narrated by two orphaned girls whose lives are inextricably linked. Waters's penchant for byzantine plotting can get a bit exhausting, but even at its densest moments—and remember, this is smoggy London circa 1862—it remains mesmerizing. A damning critique of Victorian moral and sexual hypocrisy, a gripping melodrama, and a love story to boot, this book ingeniously reworks some truly classic themes. —Travis Elborough, Amazon.co.uk

It's hard enough for your average person to get a date with all the anxieties we have in our modern world. For Jack, it's even worse. Where he lives, superheroes are a common sight, flying through the air and showing off their outrageous muscles in their skintight outfits. In comparison, a regular guy must seem boring and puny. So when he meets Nora in the midst of two steroid-cases beating the tar out of each other, he can't help but be a little giddy that she has agreed to go out with him. Too bad it's not that simple. Nora works for Expose, the leading magazine for superpowered trends. Chasing a scoop is a little more important to her than getting scooped off her feet, leaving Jack in the dust once again. To make matters worse, his cat, Guthrie, has gone missing, and though the feline will be returned to him - he's not going to be the same cat Jack remembers.

The scandal surrounding the Flamer's alleged love child has left Jack out in the cold romantically. Nora's journalistic ambition has nearly cost him his job, but he's not sure that any of that matters when his heart is in such dire straits. For her part, Nora seems to have picked up and moved on, working with the Fader to get to the bottom of the superhero sex scandal she broke - and which may very well be a fake. Little does she know that Jack's cat, the furball also known as the Future Feline, is dogging her, suspicious of the girl's true motives. It's a complicated world when flying crimefighters patrol your skies...but an old romantic like Andi Watson is ready to tackle these super affairs of the heart with the usual wry wit and skillful brush strucks that earned him an Eisner nomination.

What do kittens like doing? Every double page in this board book features lots of different textures to feel, such as fluffy ears, velvety tummies and squashy noses. The combination of simple text and illustrations is designed to help very young children develop sensory and language awareness.

They're back: Calvin, the six-year-old dirty tricksmeister and master of indignation and his warm, cuddly philosopher sidekick, Hobbes, a tiger whose idea of adventure is to lie on his back by the fire and have his stomach rubbed. In six short years this unlikely due has captured the hearts, the minds, and, most of all, the funny bones of America. They are the msot phenomenal success story in syndication - and publishing - history. In only six years, they appear in more than 2,100 newspapers worldwide, and Calvin and Hobbes wins as many readership polls as Calvin has excesses. All seven of Bill Watterson's collections have sold a million copies within a year of publication. This treasury collection contains a never-before-published full-color section, as well as the cartoons appearing in The Revenge of the Baby-Sat and Scientific Progress Goes "Boink." All Sunday cartoons are presented full-page and full-color.

The mysterious Daddy-long-legs promises to send Jerusha Abbot to college...provided she follows his rules.

Contemporary Cinderella tale.

Jennifer Weiner's talent shines like never before in this collection of short stories, following the tender, and often hilarious, progress of love and relationships over the course of a lifetime. From a teenager coming to terms with her father's disappearance to a widow accepting two young women into her home, Weiner's eleven stories explore those transformative moments in our every day.

We meet Marlie Davidow, home alone with her new baby late one Friday night, when she wanders onto her ex's online wedding registry and wonders what if she had wound up with the guy not taken. We stumble on Good in Bed's Bruce Guberman, liquored-up and ready for anything on the night of his best friend's bachelor party, until stealing his girlfriend's tiny rat terrier becomes more complicated than he'd planned. We find Jessica Norton listing her beloved New York City apartment in the hope of winning her broker's heart. And we follow an unlikely friendship between two very different new mothers, and the choices that bring them together — and pull them apart.

The Guy Not Taken demonstrates Weiner's amazing ability to create characters who "feel like they could be your best friend" (Janet Maslin) and to find hope and humor, longing and love in the hidden corners of our common experiences.

Jennifer Weiner, whose novels Good in Bed and In Her Shoes earned her a place among women's book club aficionados everywhere, proves she still has the touch with Little Earthquakes, a tale of love, heartbreak, redemption, and friendship. Weiner's novel centers around four new mothers, all of whom must learn to adjust their lives and their marriages to deal with the challenges of raising children.

Ayinde is a beautiful, biracial newscaster who moves to Philadelphia after her husband, a star player for the NBA, is traded to the 76ers. She meets Becky, an overweight chef who plays the "pregnant or just fat" game every time she passes a mirror, and Kelly, an overachieving event planner who has her whole life mapped out down to the most minute details, after going into labor at a prenatal yoga class. The three become fast friends, and come to rely on each other for everything from burping techniques to intense emotional support. The group grows to include Lia, a semi-famous Hollywood starlet who leaves her husband and returns to Philly after a sudden tragedy.

While Little Earthquakes may leave little to the imagination, and some of the characters are laughably stereotypical (the Mama's boy Jewish doctor and the cheating ball player, to name a few), it is Weiner's gift for creating compelling characters with whom her readers can identify that make her such a successful storyteller. —Gisele Toueg