Impish the Elf is not your traditional gift-wrapping elf! Sure, she wraps gifts for Santa to place under the tree, but she never puts nameteags on anything. Rather, Impish leaves her clue-of-the-year in children's stockings to help them discover which presents are whose on Christmas morning! In the second book in the series, Lil' Impish travels the world looking for inspiration in the faces of those children whom she has delighted with her gift-wrapping antics. To which magical lands will she take you this Christmas? She left you the clues...!
Impish is Santa’s #1 gift-wrapping elf, but she has giant antics up her tricky elf sleeve. What began as a ploy to brighten the long, dark winters at the North Pole, developed into a grand gift-wrapping tradition. Impish replaces conventional name tags with thematic clues-of-the-year, and when, on Christmas morning, children wake to find her carefully crafted clues in their stockings, the fun begins. In the third book in the series, Lil’ Impish is struck with a case of creator’s block and searches for a taste of genius in the large candy kitchens tucked deep below the North Pole. It is there she finds an unlikely friend and some very sweet inspiration. This Christmas, get ready to open more than gifts under the tree... unwrap a really BIG treat!
Now a limited Netflix series starring Zoe Saldana! This Reese Witherspoon Book Club Pick and New York Times bestseller is “a captivating story of love lost and found” (Kirkus Reviews) set in the lush Sicilian countryside, where one woman discovers the healing powers of food, family, and unexpected grace in her darkest hours. It was love at first sight when actress Tembi met professional chef, Saro, on a street in Florence. There was just one problem: Saro’s traditional Sicilian family did not approve of his marrying a black American woman. However, the couple, heartbroken but undeterred, forged on. They built a happy life in Los Angeles, with fulfilling careers, deep friendships, and the love of their lives: a baby girl they adopted at birth. Eventually, they reconciled with Saro’s family just as he faced a formidable cancer that would consume all their dreams. From Scratch chronicles three summers Tembi spends in Sicily with her daughter, Zoela, as she begins to piece together a life without her husband in his tiny hometown hamlet of farmers. Where once Tembi was estranged from Saro’s family, now she finds solace and nourishment—literally and spiritually—at her mother-in-law’s table. In the Sicilian countryside, she discovers the healing gifts of simple fresh food, the embrace of a close knit community, and timeless traditions and wisdom that light a path forward. All along the way she reflects on her and Saro’s romance—an incredible love story that leaps off the pages. In Sicily, it is said that every story begins with a marriage or a death—in Tembi Locke’s case, it is both. “Locke’s raw and heartfelt memoir will uplift readers suffering from the loss of their own loved ones” (Publishers Weekly), but her story is also about love, finding a home, and chasing flavor as an act of remembrance. From Scratch is for anyone who has dared to reach for big love, fought for what mattered most, and those who needed a powerful reminder that life is...delicious.
In exploring how Icelanders interact with nature—and their idea that elves live among us—Nancy Marie Brown shows us how altering our perceptions of the environment can be a crucial first step toward saving it. Icelanders believe in elves. Why does that make you laugh?, asks Nancy Marie Brown in this wonderfully quirky exploration of our interaction with nature. Looking for answers in history, science, religion, and art—from ancient times to today—Brown finds that each discipline defines what is real and unreal, natural and supernatural, demonstrated and theoretical, alive and inert. Each has its own way of perceiving and valuing the world around us. And each discipline can be defined, in the Icelandic perception, by its own sort of elf. Illuminated by her own encounters with Iceland’s Otherworld—in ancient lava fields, on a holy mountain, beside a glacier or an erupting volcano, crossing the cold desert at the island’s heart on horseback—Looking for the Hidden Folk offers an intimate conversation about how we look at and find value in nature. It reveals how the words we use and the stories we tell shape the world we see. It argues that our beliefs about the Earth will preserve—or destroy it. Scientists name our time the Anthropocene: the Human Age. Climate change will lead to the mass extinction of numerous animal species unless we humans change our course. Iceland suggests a different way of thinking about the Earth, one that offers hope. Icelanders believe in elves— and you should, too.
With the fate of the drow hanging in the balance, a powerful priestess sets out to understand the Spider Queen’s silence, in this thrilling sequel to Dissolution Quenthel Baenre is Menzoberranzan’s most powerful priestess of Lolth, second only to the Matron Mother. When the Spider Queen goes silent, Quenthel is called upon to lead a team of dark elves on a mission that could save their city—or doom it forever. Accompanied by the cunning wizard Pharaun Mizzrym, weapons master Ryld Argith, mercenary Valas Hune, and vicious draegloth Jeggred, the priestess is sent to the trade city of Ched Nasad to determine the scope of Lolth’s silence. Is Menzoberranzan alone being punished, or are all the drow? Have all the gods gone quiet, or just Lolth? The answers to these questions will determine the fate of the entire drow race and set the course for the future of the Underdark. If the powerful dark elves falter, the world below is open for insurrection.
“A wonderfully evocative biography of the . . . 13th century Icelandic writer and chieftain” who wrote the immortal stories of Thor, Odin, Valhalla, and Ragnarök (Guardian, UK). Much like Greek and Roman mythology, Norse myths are still with us. Famous storytellers from JRR Tolkien to Neil Gaiman have drawn their inspiration from the long-haired, mead-drinking, marauding and pillaging Vikings. But few of us know much about the creator of these immortal heroes: a thirteenth-century Icelandic chieftain by the name of Snorri Sturluson. Like Homer, Snorri was a bard, writing down and embellishing the folklore and pagan legends of medieval Scandinavia. Unlike Homer, Snorri was a man of the world—a wily political power player, one of the richest men in Iceland who came close to ruling it, and even closer to betraying it. In Song of the Vikings, award-winning author Nancy Marie Brown brings Snorri Sturluson’s story to life in a richly textured narrative that draws on newly available sources.
"Why are we here?" The only time I ever asked meself that was on a surprise holiday to Lanzarote. Left to his own devices, Karl Pilkington would be happy with his life just as it is. But now he's hit forty, everyone keeps asking him why he's so reluctant to marry his girlfriend and why he doesn't want to have kids. It's time for Karl to face up to the biggest question of the lot - what does it all mean? Karl thought he'd seen it all filming An Idiot Abroad, but now he's off around the globe to learn how other cultures deal with life's big issues. Find out how Karl copes as he . . . - Has plastic surgery in LA - Models for a Japanese life drawing class - Helps to deliver a baby in Bali Have his experiences changed him? Find out in this hilarious new book .
Get in on the Christmas cheer with Dr. Seuss’s iconic holiday classic starring the Grinch and Cindy-Lou Who—guaranteed to grow your heart three sizes! Every Who down in Who-ville liked Christmas a lot...but the Grinch, who lived just north of Who-ville, did NOT! Not since “’Twas the night before Christmas” has the beginning of a Christmas tale been so instantly recognizable. From the Grinch and his dog, Max, to Cindy-Lou and all the residents of Who-ville, this heartwarming story about the effects of the Christmas spirit will warm even the coldest and smallest of hearts. Like mistletoe, candy canes, and caroling, the Grinch is a mainstay of the holidays, and his story is perfect for readers young and old.
Here is a book as joyous and painful, as mysterious and memorable, as childhood itself. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings captures the longing of lonely children, the brute insult of bigotry, and the wonder of words that can make the world right. Maya Angelou’s debut memoir is a modern American classic beloved worldwide. Sent by their mother to live with their devout, self-sufficient grandmother in a small Southern town, Maya and her brother, Bailey, endure the ache of abandonment and the prejudice of the local “powhitetrash.” At eight years old and back at her mother’s side in St. Louis, Maya is attacked by a man many times her age—and has to live with the consequences for a lifetime. Years later, in San Francisco, Maya learns that love for herself, the kindness of others, her own strong spirit, and the ideas of great authors (“I met and fell in love with William Shakespeare”) will allow her to be free instead of imprisoned. Poetic and powerful, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings will touch hearts and change minds for as long as people read. “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings liberates the reader into life simply because Maya Angelou confronts her own life with such a moving wonder, such a luminous dignity.”—James Baldwin From the Paperback edition.
