For centuries I have suffered. Solidified and silenced, all because I failed to destroy what I was created for. Except now, after so long… There is a female. One who always seems to be by my side. Day after day. Night after night. She talks to me. Touches me. Tells me things. She shares stories of a world I no longer know. She is a reprieve from my punishment. A sweet delight. She liberates me from my solitude. But when I rise, my adversary seizes his opportunity, and she’s caught between us. He only wants her to get to me. She isn’t his. And I’ll do anything to protect what’s MINE.

The encyclopaedia once shaped our understanding of the world. Created by thousands of scholars and the most obsessive of editors, a good set conveyed a sense of absolute wisdom on its reader. Contributions from Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, Orville Wright, Alfred Hitchcock, Marie Curie and Indira Gandhi helped millions of children with their homework. Adults cleared their shelves in the belief that everything that was explainable was now effortlessly accessible in their living rooms. But now these huge books gather dust, and sell for almost nothing on eBay, and we derive our information from our phones and computers, apparently for free. What have we lost in this transition? And how did we tell the progress of our lives in the past? All the Knowledge in the World is a history and celebration of those who created the most ground-breaking and remarkable publishing phenomenon of any age. It tracks the story from Ancient Greece to Wikipedia, from modest single-volumes to the 11,000-volume Chinese manuscript that was too big to print. It looks at how Encyclopaedia Britannica came to dominate the industry, how it spawned hundreds of competitors, and how an army of ingenious door-to-door salesmen sold their wares to guilt-ridden parents. It explains how encyclopaedias have reflected our changing attitudes towards sexuality, race and technology, and exposes how these ultimate bastions of trust were often riddled with errors and prejudice. With his characteristic ability to tackle the broadest of subjects in an illuminating and highly entertaining way, Simon Garfield uncovers a fascinating and important part of our shared past, and wonders whether the promise of complete knowledge - that most human of ambitions - will forever be beyond our grasp.

From a New Yorker staff writer and PEN Award winner, a blend of memoir, history, and reportage on one of the most complex and least understood states in America. “In Alabama, we exist at the border of blessing and disaster….” Alexis Okeowo grew up in Montgomery, Alabama—the former seat of the Confederacy—as the daughter of Nigerian immigrants. Here, she weaves her family’s story with her state’s, from Alabama’s forced removal of the Creek Nation, making room for enslaved West Africans, to present-day legislative battles for “evolution disclaimers” in biology textbooks. She immerses us in a landscape today dominated not by cotton fields but by auto plants and Amazon warehouses. Defying stereotypes at every turn, Okeowo shows how people can love their home while still acknowledging its sins. In this perspective-shifting work that is both an intimate memoir and a journalistic triumph, Okeowo investigates her life, other Alabamians’ lives, and the state’s lesser-known histories, to examine why Alabama has been the stage for the most extreme results of the American experiment.

All Joseph wants is to be let into Tartuffe's world. All Ettie wants is to escape it.The year is 1920. The place is a remote farmhouse in Provence, home to the reclusive painter Edouard Tartuffe and his niece, Ettie. Into this strange, silent house walks a young journalist hoping to write an article about Tartuffe. But the more he entangles himself in the peculiar household, the more Joseph's curiosity grows . . .Ettie cooks and cleans for her uncle. She prepares his studio, scrubs his paintbrushes, and creates the perfect environment for him to work. She has never gone further than the local village. She is sharp-eyed and watchful. But beneath her cool exterior, Joseph senses something simmering. Ettie, Joseph and Tartuffe circle each other throughout the hot, crackling summer, until finally they collide.The Artist is about two people grabbing the other by the hand and pulling each other into life.

Behind the glamour of Gilded Age New York, a marriage of convenience between an artisan and a ballerina masks their shared appetite for revenge in this darkly seductive gothic romance. In early 1900s New York, former ballerina Petronille De Villier makes an unconventional Marry struggling sculptor Arkady Kamenev. For her, it’s an escape from her family’s unsavory legacy. For him, the De Villier name promises the patronage his art desperately needs. It should be a simple arrangement. But beneath their marriage of convenience lurks a darker recognition. In each other, they see a reflection of their own dangerous appetites. As buried secrets surface and bodies begin disappearing, Petronille and Arkady discover their union runs deeper than social advantage. Their shared obsessions draw them into an intoxicating dance of predator and prey, though it’s never quite clear who is which. Bound by law, God, and blood, they must decide if their monstrous natures will tear them apart or forge them into something terribly wonderful together. In a world where nothing is quite what it seems, two creatures of shadow learn that true love requires a taste for the macabre.

“Big-hearted and inspired, George Falls Through Time gifts us the timeless reminder that love makes the best sword to slay our outsized problems. On top of that, it's great, page-turning fun.” —Steven Rowley, New York Times bestselling author of The Guncle and The Celebrants A brilliant, genre-exploding love story about a man who, in a moment of extreme stress, time travels to the year 1300 . . . where his modern problems are replaced by medieval brutalities—blending  the literary dynamism of Madeline Miller with the sharp wit of Andrew Sean Greer, and perfect for fans ofThe Ministry of Time. Newly laid off George’s internet bill is in his ex-boyfriend’s name. He’s got a spider-infested apartment, and two of the six dogs he’s walking in London have just escaped. It’s pure undiluted stress that sends him into a spiral—all the way to the year 1300. When he comes to, George recognizes the same rolling hills of Greenwich Park. But the luxuries and phone service of modernity are nowhere. In their place are locals with a bizarre, slanted speech in awe of his foreign clothes, who swiftly toss him in a dungeon. Despite the barbarity of a medieval world, a servant named Simon helps George acclimate to a simpler, easier existence. But rumors of a dragon haunting the countryside and a summons from the King threaten to send his life up in flames—this time, literally. A confessional queer romance, a swords-and-sorcery soap opera, a paradox-embracing reimagining of the legend of St. George and the Dragon, George Falls Through Time is a profound meditation on the nature of desire that pits modern sensibilities against a raw and alien backdrop. It asks whether we can love each other without destroying one another, even when life feels like a pile of bills. 

In this gorgeous stand-alone fantasy romance perfect for fans of Margaret Rogerson and Allison Saft, a rebellious witch undertakes a last-ditch quest to restore magic to medieval Wales—as two princes vie for her heart. Ffion is the last hedgewitch in Foxhall. To work her magic, she takes only what nature can spare, unlike the witches of the powerful Foxhall coven, who sacrifice whole forests to fuel their spells. But across the warring kingdoms of Wales, all magic is fading. Even the dragons have vanished. Prince Taliesin would love nothing more than to watch magic die. But when his father charges Tal and his brother, Dafydd, with destroying King Offa’s dyke—the massive earthen wall raised by their Mercian enemies to the east, which may be the cause of magic’s disappearance—he begrudgingly seeks aid from a witch. Because whichever prince succeeds in destroying the dyke will win the throne, and Tal is willing to do whatever it takes to become king. Even if the Foxhall coven refuses to help him. Even if he’s forced to team up with a spitfire hedgewitch who hates him almost as much as he hates her magic. And even if Dafydd proves to be a worthier rival than he anticipated…for the crown, and for Ffion’s heart.

Part noir, part psychedelic romp, all Thomas Pynchon - private eye Doc Sportello comes, occasionally, out of a marijuana haze to watch the end of an era as free love slips away and paranoia creeps in with the L.A. fog It's been awhile since Doc Sportello has seen his ex-girlfriend, Shasta Fay. Suddenly out of nowhere she shows up with a story about a plot to kidnap a billionaire land developer whom she just happens to be in love with. Easy for her to say. It's the tail end of the psychedelic sixties in L.A., and Doc knows that "love" is another of those words going around at the moment, like "trip" or "groovy," except that this one usually leads to trouble. Despite which he soon finds himself drawn into a bizarre tangle of motives and passions whose cast of characters includes surfers, hustlers, dopers and rockers, a murderous loan shark, a tenor sax player working undercover, an ex-con with a swastika tattoo and a fondness for Ethel Merman, and a mysterious entity known as the Golden Fang, which may only be a tax dodge set up by some dodgy dentists. In this lively yarn, Thomas Pynchon, working in an unaccustomed genre, provides a classic illustration of the principle that if you can remember the sixties, you weren't there . . . or . . . if you were there, then you . . . or, wait, is it . . .hang on. . .what

A hilarious contemporary fantasy about a junior sales witch stuck in corporate hell, who has to evade devilish pacts and her kickass, world-saving, demon-slaying mum to save a (surprisingly hot) demon, and work out how to hit her quarterly target. From the New York Times-bestselling author of Dreadful and The Grimoire Grammar School Parent Teacher Association. Morgan Blackwater's mother is a kickass, world-saving, demon-slaying Shadow Council wizard. As for Morgan? Morgan's a junior salesperson at a tech startup that can't even decide what its product is. But with magic dyslexia and a disinclination to kick ass, Morgan is doing her best carving out a niche for herself in the mundane world. Leaving work late one night, she discovers her boss dead from the effort of summoning a demon to trade his soul in order to make his quarterly target. The disturbingly-attractive demon, Lucareoth (Luke for short), is trapped here until he finds someone to sell their soul. While trying to sneak Luke out of the building, Morgan runs into her infamous mother. Apparently, someone has been summoning demons and she's here to get to the bottom of it. Trying to protect Luke from her mother, Morgan gets sucked into the Infernal Plane and discovers hell really is a corporate nightmare. She only gets back home with a promise to deliver a human soul of her own. While her coworkers are really annoying, she's not willing to sacrifice their souls. The company's tech bro CEO, though, is another story. With Caitlin Rozakis's signature wit, STARTUP HELL is a contemporary fantasy that exposes the demonic nature of the corporate world.

Former star player Tate Ward has become easily the best coach in professional hockey, leading the Vancouver Storm team to victory. Everyone is in love with the handsome, authoritative single dad—except Jordan Hathaway, the newest staff member on the Vancouver Storm team. Jordan was more than comfortable behind her bar at the team’s favorite watering hole. When her father threatens to sell the team, though, she’s forced to put her grievances aside and work with the man who likes everyone but her—: Coach Tate Ward. But beneath his controlled exterior, Tate is funny, encouraging, and protective. He moves Jordan into his guest house, trusts her with his daughter, and fires the person who made her cry. He’s her boss, and a relationship would ruin both their careers, but Jordan still finds herself dreaming of a life with Tate. As the lines between them blur and Jordan encourages him to be selfish, Tate realizes what he wants . . . is her.