The City of Dreaming Books

Author: Walter Moers
Publisher: Abrams
ISBN: 1590203682
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 480

Book Description
In this whimsical fantasy adventure, a novelist’s search for an author takes him to a magical city, a villainous literary scholar, and perilous catacombs. Optimus Yarnspinner’s search for an author’s identity takes him to Bookholm―the so-called City of Dreaming Books. On entering its streets, our hero feels as if he has opened the door of a gigantic second-hand bookshop. His nostrils are assailed by clouds of book dust, the stimulating scent of ancient leather, and the tang of printer’s ink. Soon, though, Yarnspinner falls into the clutches of the city’s evil genius, Pfistomel Smyke, who treacherously maroons him in the labyrinthine catacombs underneath the city, where reading books can be genuinely dangerous . . . In The City of Dreaming Books, Walter Moers transports us to a magical world where reading is a remarkable adventure. Only those intrepid souls who are prepared to join Yarnspinner on his perilous journey should read this book. We wish the rest of you a long, safe, unutterably dull, and boring life! Praise for The City of Dreaming Books “German author and cartoonist Moers returns to the mythical lost continent of Zamonia in his uproarious third fantasy adventure to be translated into English, a delightfully imaginative mélange of Shel Silverstein zaniness and oddball anthropomorphism à la Terry Pratchett’s Discworld. . . . A wonderfully whimsical story that will appeal to readers of all ages.” —Publishers Weekly “A salmagundi of whimsy, imagination and book lore—remarkable fun.” —Cleveland Plain Dealer “Moers puts Tolkien through some sort of Willy Wonka sweetening process and comes up with characters such as Optimus Yarnspinner, who, names being fate and all, just has to be a storyteller.” —Kirkus Reviews

Queen of the Sea

Author: Dylan Meconis
Publisher: Walker Books US
ISBN: 1536204986
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 401

Book Description
Cult graphic novelist Dylan Meconis offers a rich reimagining of history in this beautifully detailed hybrid novel loosely based on the exile of Queen Elizabeth I by her sister, Queen Mary. When her sister seizes the throne, Queen Eleanor of Albion is banished to a tiny island off the coast of her kingdom, where the nuns of the convent spend their days peacefully praying, sewing, and gardening. But the island is also home to Margaret, a mysterious young orphan girl whose life is upturned when the cold, regal stranger arrives. As Margaret grows closer to Eleanor, she grapples with the revelation of the island’s sinister true purpose as well as the truth of her own past. When Eleanor’s life is threatened, Margaret is faced with a perilous choice between helping Eleanor and protecting herself. In a hybrid novel of fictionalized history, Dylan Meconis paints Margaret’s world in soft greens, grays, and reds, transporting readers to a quiet, windswept island at the heart of a treasonous royal plot.

A Wild Ride Through The Night

Author: Walter Moers
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1448138191
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 155

Book Description
Using twenty-one drawings from the work of Gustave Dor-, the most successful illustrator of the 19th century, Walter Moers has created a wondrous and utterly delightful tale. In a world between legend and dream, in a time between childhood and adulthood, A Wild Ride Through the Night describes the exhilarating and comic adventures of 12-year-old Gustave, a boy who aspires one day to be a great artist. But before he can achieve this, Gustave must first tackle Mysterious Giants and a Siamese Twins Tornado; he also finds himself encountering the Greatest Monster of All, freeing a maiden from the claws of a dragon, riding through a forest full of ghosts, navigating a Galactic Gully and meeting a dream princess, a talking horse, scantily-clad Amazons and even his own self. Having made a wager with death for nothing less than his life and his soul, he must travel from the earth to the moon and back in a single night.

Last Dance on the Starlight Pier

Author: Sarah Bird
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
ISBN: 125026555X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 370

Book Description
Set during the Great Depression, Sarah Bird's Last Dance on the Starlight Pier is a novel about one woman—and a nation—struggling to be reborn from the ashes. July 3. 1932. Shivering and in shock, Evie Grace Devlin watches the Starlite Palace burn into the sea and wonders how she became a person who would cause a man to kill himself. She’d come to Galveston to escape a dark past in vaudeville and become a good person, a nurse. When that dream is cruelly thwarted, Evie is swept into the alien world of dance marathons. All that she has been denied—a family, a purpose, even love—waits for her there in the place she dreads most: the spotlight. Last Dance on the Starlight Pier is a sweeping novel that brings to spectacular life the enthralling worlds of both dance marathons and the family-run empire of vice that was Galveston in the Thirties. Unforgettable characters tell a story that is still deeply resonant today as America learns what Evie learns, that there truly isn’t anything this country can’t do when we do it together. That indomitable spirit powers a story that is a testament to the deep well of resilience in us all that allows us to not only survive the hardest of hard times, but to find joy, friends, and even family, in them.

The Alchemaster's Apprentice

Author: Walter Moers
Publisher: Abrams
ISBN: 1590205189
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 356

Book Description
A cat-like creature foils the plans of an evil alchemist in this comic fantasy by the author of The City of Dreaming Books. Malaisea, the unhealthiest town in the whole of Zamonia, is home to Echo the Crat, a multitalented creature resembling a cat in appearance but capable of speaking any language under the sun, human or animal. When his mistress dies, Echo finds himself out on the street. Dying of starvation, he is compelled to sign a contract with Ghoolion the Alchemaster, Malaisea’s evil alchemist-in-chief. This fateful document gives Ghoolion the right to kill Echo at the next full moon and render him down for his fat, with which he hopes to brew an alchemical concoction that will make him immortal. In return, he promises to regale the little Crat with the most exquisite gastronomic delicacies until his time is up. But Ghoolion has reckoned without Echo’s talent for survival and his ability to make new friends. Walter Moers’s magnificent translation of Optimus Yarnspinner’s novel introduces us to yet another of Zamonia’s hotbeds of adventure: Malaisea, a place where sick is healthy, up is down, right is wrong, and Ghoolion the Alchemaster reigns supreme—until Echo crosses his path. Praise for The Alchemaster’s Apprentice “Cheerfully insane. . . . Remains lively and inventive right through the final heroic battle between good and evil.” —New York Times Book Review “Moers’s creative mind is like J. K. Rowling’s on ecstasy; his book reads like a collision between The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and the Brothers Grimm. . . . What a delightful book.” —Detroit News and Free Press “Relentlessly whimsical.” —Library Journal “Cross The Lord of the Rings with Yellow Submarine, throw in dashes of Monty Python, Douglas Adams, Shrek, and The Princess Bride . . . That’s the sort of alchemy in which this sprawling novel trades.” —Kirkus Reviews

Rumo & His Miraculous Adventures

Author: Walter Moers
Publisher: Abrams
ISBN: 1468307908
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 609

Book Description
“Equal parts J. K. Rowling, Douglas Adams, and Shel Silverstein . . . a work of monumental silliness” from the author of The City of Dreaming Books (The Washington Post). Rumo is a little Wolperting who will one day become the greatest hero in the history of Zamonia. Armed with Dandelion, his talking sword, he fights his way across Overworld and Netherworld, two very different realms chock-full of adventures, dangers, and unforgettable characters: Rala, the beautiful girl Wolperting who cultivates a hazardous relationship with death; General Ticktock, the evil commander of the Copper Killers; Ushan DeLucca, the finest and most weather-sensitive swordsman in Zamonia; Volzotan Smyke, the corpulent Shark Grub; Rolv of the Forest, a Wolperting who can pass through the White Fire; Yggdra Syl, the guardian of the Nurn Forest and its talkative animals; Professor Abdullah Nightingale, inventor of the Chest-of-Drawers Oracle; and, the worst of luck, the deadly Metal Maiden. “There are weird and wonderful fantasy creatures and astonishingly original settings.” —The Guardian “Exuberant . . . Full of sly humor, this rambunctious novel will appeal to fans tired of the usual epic fantasy.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) “A brilliantly imagined, well-executed jaunt through strange lands full of wild characters.” —Booklist “Cross Lord of the Rings with Yellow Submarine, throw in dashes of Monty Python, Douglas Adams, Shrek and The Princess Bride, season with more serious fare such as The Tin Drum and The Odyssey . . . part of the pleasure of reading it is to see what echoes will next bounce off its crags.” —Kirkus Reviews

Momma Zen

Author: Karen Maezen Miller
Publisher: Shambhala Publications
ISBN: 0834824892
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 169

Book Description
Combining humor, honesty, and plainspoken advice, Momma Zen distills the doubts and frustrations of motherhood into vignettes of Zen wisdom Drawing on her experience as a first-time mother and her years of Zen meditation and study, Karen Miller explores how the daily challenges of parenthood can become the most profound spiritual journey of our lives. Her compelling and wise memoir follows the timeline of early motherhood from pregnancy through toddlerhood. Momma Zen takes readers on a transformative journey, charting a mother’s growth beyond naive expectations and disorientation to finding fulfillment in ordinary tasks, developing greater self-awareness and acceptance—to the gradual discovery of "maternal bliss," a state of abiding happiness and ease that is available to us all. In her gentle and reassuring voice, Karen Miller convinces us that ancient and authentic spiritual lessons can be as familiar as a lullaby, as ordinary as pureed peas, and as frequent as a sleepless night. She offers encouragement for the hard days, consolation for the long haul, and the lightheartedness every new mom needs to face the crooked path of motherhood straight on.

The Blue Bear

Author: Lynn Schooler
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0060935731
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 290

Book Description
With a body twisted by adolescent scoliosis and memories of the brutal death of a woman he loved, Lynn Schooler kept the world at arm's length, drifting through the wilds of Alaska as a commercial fisherman, outdoorsman, and wilderness guide. In 1990, Schooler met Japanese photographer Michio Hoshino, and began a profound friendship cemented by a shared love of adventure and a passionate quest to find the elusive glacier bear, an exceedingly rare creature, seldom seen and shrouded in legend. But only after Hoshino's tragic death from a bear attack does Schooler succeed in photographing the animal -- completing a remarkable journey that ultimately brings new meaning to his life. The Blue Bear is an unforgettable book. Set amid the wild archipelagoes, deep glittering fjords, and dense primordial forests of Alaska's Glacier Coast, it is rich with the lyric sensibility and stunning prose of such nature classics as Barry Lopez's Arctic Dreams and Peter Matthiessen's The Snow Leopard.

Direct Red

Author: Gabriel Weston
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0061991139
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 226

Book Description
“What a terrific book….[Weston] leaves you feeling that if push came to shove you’d want to be operated on by her.” —Nicholas Shakespeare, author of Bruce Chatwin: A Biography The continuing popularity of doctor shows on TV—from Scrubs, House, and Grey’s Anatomy to the television phenomenon ER—indicates a widespread fascination with all things medical. Direct Red, by practicing ear, nose, and throat surgical specialist Gabriel Weston, takes readers behind the scenes and into the operating room for a fascinating look at what really goes on on the other side of the hospital doors. “A Surgeon’s View of her Life-and-Death Profession,” Weston’s Direct Red is written not only with knowledge and insight, but with compassion, honesty, and literary flair.

Thirteen and a Half Lives of Captain Bluebear

Author: Walter Moers
Publisher: Harvill Secker
ISBN: 9780436275005
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 702

Book Description
Captain Bluebear is a bear with blue fur, a creature as unique as the fantastic adventures he undergoes. Unlike cats, which have only nine lives, bluebears have twenty-seven. This is fortunate, because our hero is forever avoiding disaster by a paw's breadth. In this remarkable book, Captain Bluebear tells the story of his first thirteen-and-a-half lives spent on the mysterious continent of Zamonia, where intelligence is an infectious disease and water flows uphill, where headless giants roam deserts made of sugar, and where only Captain Bluebear's courage and ingenuity enable him to escape the dangers that lie in wait for him around every corner. In company with our indomitable hero, we enter a realm of the imagination that combines the fantasy of "Lord of the Rings and "The Neverending Story with the humour of Baron Munchausen - a wonderland where anything can exist except boredom.