Describes and explains the juvenile and adult stages in the life of an opossum.

"More years ago than I care to reckon up, I met Richard Feynman." So begins American master Herman Wouk's gem on navigating the divide between science and religion. Told by Feynman that he must first learn "the language God talks"--calculus--Wouk set in motion a lifelong inquiry. Here, in one rich, compact volume, he draws on stories from his life as well as on key events from the 20th century to address the eternal questions of why we are here, what...

The year is 1979. The Iranian Revolution is just around the corner. In the northeastern city of Naishapur, a family, including their friends and servants, ranging from young to old, reveal the personal behind the political, reminding us of the human lives that animate historical events. Iran, 1979; the Iranian Revolution is just around the corner. In the northeastern city of Naishapur, a retired judge and his wife, Bibi-Khanoom, continue to run their...

"A luminous, wise, and joyful insight into what really matters at the end of a long life, from the beloved author of the award-winning Somewhere Towards the End. What will you remember if you live to be 100? Diana Athill charmed readers with her prize-winning memoir Somewhere Towards the End, which transformed her into an unexpected literary star. Now, on the eve of her ninety-eighth birthday, Athill has written a sequel every bit as unsentimental,...

"From the daughter of one of America's most virulent segregationists, a memoir that reckons with her father George Wallace's legacy of hate -- and illuminates her journey towards redemption. Peggy Wallace Kennedy has been widely hailed as the 'symbol of racial reconciliation' (Washington Post). In the summer of 1963, though, she was just a young girl watching her father stand in a schoolhouse door as he tried to block two African-American students...

As a fourteen-year-old who just moved to a new town, with no friends, an abusive father, and a louse for an older brother, Doug Swieteck has all the stats stacked against him until he finds an ally in Lil Spicer, a fiery young lady. Together, they find a safe haven in the local library, inspiration in learning about the plates of John James Audubon's birds, and a hilarious adventure on a Broadway stage.

"A brief and tender biography of one of the greatest authors of the 20th century and an elegant exploration of artistic endurance, as told by a life-long lover of Willa Cather's work"-- "The story of Willa Cather is defined by a lifetime of determination, struggle, and gradual emergence. Some show their full powers early, yet Cather was the opposite -- she took her time and transformed herself by stages. The writer who leapt to the forefront of American...

The bestselling classic has been revised and updated! A colorful guide to the world's most consequential trivia, Visual Miscellaneum by David McCandless is a reference book like no other. It now includes 18 all new graphs and 23 updated ones. It helps us make sense of our world by putting the data we are bombarded with every day -- health findings, technological advances, cultural touch points, war statistics -- into creative visual perspective. Like...

"Written late in Anita Desai's illustrious career, these three novellas ruminate on art and memory, illusion and disillusion, and the sharp divide between life's expectations and dreams and its realities. Set in India in the not too distant past, the stories' diverse surroundings and dramas frame universal themes, which illuminate the ways in which various aspects of the Indian culture can nourish or suffocate. All are served up with Desai's characteristic...

For each of 12 months, there are guides to the progress the baby may be expected to be making at this stage, a list of potential health or other problems and paragraphs on the myriad questions all new parents ask--on subjects as various as in-home care, birthmarks, circumcision and breath-holding. Other sections cover what to buy for a new-born, first aid, recipes, adoption and even how to enjoy the first year, in terms of the parents' own activities,...