The classic story by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli is released in an all-new deluxe hardcover edition! A young Bruce Wayne spent his adolescence and early adulthood traveling the world so he could hone his body and mind into the perfect fighting and investigative machine. But now as he returns to Gotham City, he must find a way to focus his passion and bring justice to his city. Retracing Batmans first attempts to fight injustice as a costumed vigilante, we watch as he chooses the guise of a giant bat, creates an early bond with a young Lieutenant James Gordon, inadvertently plays a role in the birth of Catwoman, and helps to bring down a corrupt political system that infests Gotham. This edition includes new introductions by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli, development art with commentary by Mazzucchelli, script pages, thumbnails, promotional art, samples and a look at Richmond Lewiss groundbreaking color.

The Khao San Road, Bangkok—first stop for the hordes of rootless young Westerners traveling in Southeast Asia. On Richard's first night there, in a low-budget guest house, a fellow traveler slashes his wrists, bequeathing to Richard a meticulously drawn map to "the Beach."

The Beach, as Richard has come to learn, is the subject of a legend among young travelers in Asia: a lagoon hidden from the sea, with white sand and coral gardens, freshwater falls surrounded by jungle, plants untouched for a thousand years. There, it is rumored, a carefully selected international few have settled in a communal Eden.

Haunted by the figure of Mr. Duck—the name by which the Thai police have identified the dead man—and his own obsession with Vietnam movies, Richard sets off with a young French couple to an island hidden away in an archipelago forbidden to tourists. They discover the Beach, and it is as beautiful and idyllic as it is reputed to be. Yet over time it becomes clear that Beach culture, as Richard calls it, has troubling, even deadly, undercurrents.

Spellbinding and hallucinogenic, The Beach is a look at a generation in their twenties, who, burdened with the legacy of the preceding generation and saturated by popular culture, long for an unruined landscape, but find it difficult to experience the world firsthand.

For everyone who wants to make wonderful, hearty, delicious breads of all kinds, turn to the bread expert, James Beard. Step-by-step, with detailed, understandable instructions, this is the book and the author who are going to turn you into an expert bread baker.

Like Susan Isaacs, Rosemary Edghill cast a keenly observant, friendly, yet faintly amused eye on an intriguing American micro-culture. Like The Witches of Eastwick, the Bast novels offer a very new view of the practitioners of a very old faith. Like Alice Hoffman, Edghill allows that there's still magic in the air.

Rosemary Edghill's Bast novels are a real treat. Bell, Book, and Murder contains all three Bast novels, Speak Daggers to Her, Book of Moons, and the first softcover edition of The Bowl of Night (excerpted in USA Today).

Hail Spring with a "Bright Fire" Celebration!

Discover the roots of Beltane or "bright fire," the ancient Pagan festival that celebrates spring, and the return of nature's season of growth and renewal. In the only book written solely on this ancient Pagan festival, you'll explore the evolution of the May Pole and various folklore characters connected to May Day celebrations. Raven Grimassi reveals the history behind the revelry, and shows you how to welcome this sacred season of fertility, growth, and gain with:  

·May Day magick and divination: Beltane spells to attract money, success, love, and serenity; scrying with a bowl or glass
·Beltane goodies: Quick May Wine, Bacchus Pudding, May Serpent Cake, May Wreath Cake
·Seasonal crafts: Maypole centerpiece, May wreath and garland, pentacle hair braids, May Day basket
·Springtime rituals and traditions: the Maypole dance, May doll, the Mummer's Play, Beltane fires, May King and Queen
·Myths, fairy and flower lore: Green Man, Jack-in-the-Green, Dusio, Hobby Horse; elves, trolls and fairies; spring flowers and their correspondences

This well-researched book corrects many of the common misconceptions associated with May Day, and will help you appreciate the spirituality and connection to Nature that are intimate elements of May Day Celebrations. Welcome the season of fertility, flowers, and fairies with Beltane: Springtime Rituals, Lore & Celebration.

Finest heroic poem in Old English celebrates character and exploits of Beowulf, a young nobleman of the Geats, a people of southern Sweden. Narrative combines mythical elements, Christian and pagan sensibilities, actual historical figures and events to create a striking work of great power and beauty. Authoritative translation by R. K. Gordon. Genealogies.

Contains over 1,200 phrases and 2,300 words, covering almost every holiday situation. The book includes an easy-to-use phonetic system to help with pronunciation and a dictionary cross-referencing words to working phrases. Phrases are organized by situations such as shopping and eating out.

Star-studded and with something for every sexual taste and curiosity

Famous for taking her readers to undiscovered places, Susie Bright has changed the rules for writing about sex. Erotica is no longer under-the-covers reading; it's thrilling literature that showcases the best writing around.

In Best American Erotica 2006, Bright chooses stories that toy with desire in excerpts from some of the most sexually charged and fearless writing of the year. John Updike's story recalls his narrator's first love and how they began to have sex. David Sedaris takes us into his strip poker card room. Tom Perrotta portrays a bored married man whose wife busts him as he navigates his Internet swinger life. Helen Walsh's diary shows a college student in England who drifts from a promis-ing academic career into the arms of prostitutes.

In Best American Erotica 2006, today's most popular writers add their voices to a collection for any reader — straight, gay, curious — seeking memorable sex and riveting storytelling.

Contributors

John Updike, David Sedaris, Tom Perrotta, Steve Almond, Lynn Freed, Maxine Chernoff, Carol Queen, Helen Walsh, Stephen Elliott, Rachel Kramer Bussel,Bob Vickery, James Williams, Will Heinrich, Peggy Munson, Sera Gamble, Salome Wilde, Bianca James, Donna George Storey, Mr. Sleep, Gwen Masters, Gaea Yudron, Kweli Walker, L. Elise Bland, and Sidney Durham

Since the series' inception in 1915, the annual volumes of The Best American Short Stories have launched literary careers, showcased the most compelling stories of each year, and confirmed for all time the significance of the short story in our national literature. Now THE BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES OF THE CENTURY brings together the best of the best - fifty-five extraordinary stories that represent a century's worth of unsurpassed accomplishments in this quintessentially American literary genre. Here are the stories that have endured the test of time: masterworks by such writers as Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, Willa Cather, F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Saroyan, Flannery O'Connor, John Cheever, Eudora Welty, Philip Roth, Joyce Carol Oates, Raymond Carver, Cynthia Ozick, and scores of others. These are the writers who have shaped and defined the landscape of the American short story, who have unflinchingly explored all aspects of the human condition, and whose works will continue to speak to us as we enter the next century. Their artistry is represented splendidly in these pages. THE BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES series has also always been known for making literary discoveries, and discovery proved to be an essential part of selecting the stories for this volume too. Collections from years past yielded a rich harvest of surprises, stories that may have been forgotten but still retain their relevance and luster. The result is a volume that not only gathers some of the most significant stories of our century between two covers but resurrects a handful of lost literary gems as well. Of all the great writers whose work has appeared in the series, only John Updike's contributions have spanned five consecutive decades, from his first appearance, in 1959, to his most recent, in 1998. Updike worked with coeditor Katrina Kenison to choose stories from each decade that meet his own high standards of literary quality.