Broken Bone China by Laura Childs, 326 pages

It is Sunday afternoon, and Theodosia and Drayton are catering a formal tea at a hot-air balloon rally. The view aloft is not only stunning, they are also surrounded by a dozen other colorful hot-air balloons. But as the sky turns gray and the clouds start to boil up, a strange object zooms out of nowhere. It is a drone, and it appears to be buzzing around the balloons, checking them out. 
As Theodosia and Drayton watch, the drone, hovering like some angry, mechanized insect, deliberately crashes into the balloon next to them. An enormous, fiery explosion erupts, and everyone watches in horror as the balloon plummets to the earth, killing all three of its passengers.
Sirens scream, first responders arrive, and Theodosia is interviewed by the police. During the interview she learns that one of the downed occupants was Don Kingsley, the CEO of a local software company, SyncSoft. Not only do the police suspect Kingsley as the primary target, they learn that he possessed a rare Revolutionary War Union Jack flag that several people were rabidly bidding on.
Intrigued, Theodosia begins her own investigation. Was it the CEO's soon-to-be ex-wife, who is restoring an enormous mansion at no expense? The CEO's personal assistant, who also functioned as curator of his prized collection of Americana? Two rival antiques' dealers known for dirty dealing? Or was the killer the fiancée of one of Theodosia's dear friends, who turns out to be an employee—and whistle-blower—at SyncSoft?

My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix, 330 pages

1988. Charleston, South Carolina. High school sophomores Abby and Gretchen have been best friends since fourth grade. . But after an evening of skinny-dipping goes disastrously wrong, Gretchen begins to act… different. She’s moody. She’s irritable. And bizarre incidents keep happening whenever she’s nearby.

Abby’s investigation leads her to some startling discoveries - and by the time their story reaches its terrifying conclusion, the fate of Abby and Gretchen will be determined by a single question: Is their friendship powerful enough to beat the devil?

Like an unholy hybrid of Beaches and The Exorcist, My best Friend's Exorcism blends teen angst, adolescent drama, unspeakable horrors, and a mix of '80s pop songs into a pulse-pounding supernatural thriller.

Celebrations at Thrush Green by Miss Read, 152 pages

Miss Read's 36th novel takes readers back to the village of Thrush Green, where special plans and celebrations are being made for the village school's 100th anniversary celebration. And although plans become complicated, events culminate in a very special celebration.

Archie Giant Comics Gala, 416 pages

This volume collects 480 pages of iconic Archie comic stories, featuring the same mix of wild humor, awkward charm and genuine relatability that has kept Archie and the gang popular with kids and families for 75+ years

The Best of Archie Americana Bronze Age 1980s-1990s, 416 pages

The Awesome Eighties: Experience the punk movement as it shakes up Riverdale! Behold the rise of MTV! The Nifty Nineties: Rock out to the sensational sounds of boy bands, and hook up your satellite dish so you can enjoy teens from Beverly Hills and more! It's all here and then some in this edition chock-full of comedy classics from the Bronze Age of Archie!

Archie Giant Comics Hop, 416 pages

This volume collects 480 pages of iconic Archie comic stories, featuring the same mix of wild humor, awkward charm and genuine relatability that has kept Archie and the gang popular with kids and families for 75+ years

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins, 517 pages

It is the morning of the reaping that will kick off the 10th annual Hunger Games. In the Capitol, 18-year-old Coriolanus Snow is preparing for his one shot at glory as a mentor in the Games. The once-mighty house of Snow has fallen on hard times, its fate hanging on the slender chance that Coriolanus will be able to out charm, outwit, and outmaneuver his fellow students to mentor the winning tribute.

The odds are against him. He's been given the humiliating assignment of mentoring the female tribute from District 12, the lowest of the low. Their fates are now completely intertwined - every choice Coriolanus makes could lead to favor or failure, triumph or ruin. Inside the arena, it will be a fight to the death. Outside the arena, Coriolanus starts to feel for his doomed tribute... and must weigh his need to follow the rules against his desire to survive no matter what it takes.

Friends at Thrush Green by Miss Read, 244 pages

There had been general dismay when Miss Watson and Miss Fogerty retired to Barton-on-Sea after many years of devoted service teaching the children of Thrush Green, so their visit to see old friends in the village brings great pleasure. The new headmaster, Alan Lester, is cautiously accepted, but rumor is rife about his wife’s health.

Meanwhile, farmer Percy Hodge is also the subject of local speculation: Is his strange behavior the result of an infatuation with the young Doreen Lilly? As for affairs at the Lovelocks’ house, it is increasingly apparent that Bertha Lovelock is now in her dotage, and a new and most unfortunate habit is the cause of considerable embarrassment to the good people of Lulling. All these matters and more are faced by our old friends against the familiar background and changing seasons of the Cotswolds.

The King's Justice by Susan Elia MacNeal, 337 pages

Could a stolen violin be linked to a serial killer terrorizing London during World War II? Only secret agent extraordinaire Maggie Hope knows in this riveting mystery from the New York Times bestselling author of Mr. Churchill's Secretary.

London. December, 1942. As the Russian army repels German forces from Stalingrad, Maggie Hope, secret agent and spy, takes a break from the Special Operations Executive division to defuse bombs in London. But Maggie herself is like an explosion waiting to happen. Shaken by a recent case, she finds herself living more dangerously--taking more risks than usual, smoking again, drinking gin and riding a motorcycle--and the last thing she wants is to get entangled in another crime. But when she's called upon to look into a stolen Stradivarius, one of the finest violins ever made, Maggie finds the case too alluring to resist.

Meanwhile, there's a serial killer on the loose in London and Maggie's skills are in demand. Little does she know that in the process of investigating this dangerous predator, she will come face to face with a new sort of evil...and discover a link between the precious violin and the murders no one could ever have expected.

Archie Modern Classics, Volume 2, 256 pages

This is Archie's new sister series to our all-time best-selling graphic novel series, featuring a focus on the latest and greatest stories from the previous year of digests.

After 75+ years of humorous tales, the Riverdale gang are still going strong! Archie is proud to present the best stories from 2019 - collected for the first time ever. Don't miss these modern classics!

The Willoughbys by Lois Lowery, 174 pages

Abandoned by their ill-humored parents to the care of an odious nanny, Tim, the twins, Barnaby A and Barnaby B, and their sister, Jane, attempt to fulfill their roles as good old-fashioned children. Following the models set in lauded tales from A Christmas Carol to Mary Poppins, the four Willoughbys hope to attain their proscribed happy ending too, or at least a satisfyingly maudlin one. However, it is an unquestionably ruthless act that sets in motion the transformations that lead to their salvation and to happy endings for not only the four children, but their nanny, an abandoned baby, a candy magnate, and his long-lost son too. Replete with a tongue-in-cheek glossary and bibliography, this hilarious and decidedly old-fashioned parody pays playful homage to classic works of children’s literature. 

Adequate Yearly Progress by Roxanna Elden, 378 pages

From the mundane to the insane, Adequate Yearly Progress captures the teaching experience with insight, humor, and heart.

Each year brings familiar educational challenges to Brae Hill Valley, a struggling urban high school in Texas. But the school’s teachers face plenty of challenges of their own. English teacher Lena Wright, a spoken-word poet with a deep love for her roots, can never seem to satisfy her students that she’s for real. Hernan D. Hernandez is confident in front of his biology classes, yet tongue-tied around the woman he most wants to impress: namely, Lena. Down the hall, math teacher Maybelline Galang focuses on the numbers as she blocks out problems whose solutions aren’t so clear, while Coach Ray hustles his football team toward another winning season, at least on the field. Recording it all is idealistic history teacher Kaytee Mahoney, whose blog gains new readers by the day but drifts ever further from her in-class reality.
And this year, a new celebrity superintendent is determined to leave his own mark on the school—even if that means shutting the whole place down. The fallout will shake up the teachers’ lives both inside and outside the classroom.

Mothering Sunday by Graham Swift, 177 pages

A luminous, intensely moving tale that begins with a secret lovers' assignation in the spring of 1924, then unfolds to reveal the whole of a remarkable life.

Twenty-two-year-old Jane Fairchild has worked as a maid at an English country house since she was sixteen. For almost all of those years she has been the clandestine lover to Paul Sheringham, young heir of a neighboring house. The two now meet on an unseasonably warm March day—Mothering Sunday—a day that will change Jane's life forever.

As the narrative moves back and forth from 1924 to the end of the century, what we know and understand about Jane—about the way she loves, thinks, feels, sees, remembers—expands with every vividly captured moment. Her story is one of profound self-discovery, and through her, Graham Swift has created an emotionally soaring, deeply affecting work of fiction.

Death In Ecstasy by Ngaio Marsh, 272 pages

When lovely Cara Quayne dropped dead to the floor after drinking the ritual wine at the House of the Sacred Flame, she was having a religious experience of a sort unsuspected by the other initiates. Discovering how the fatal prussic acid got into the bizarre group's wine is but one of the perplexing riddles that confronts Scotland Yard's Inspector Roderick Alleyn when he's called to discover who sent this wealthy cult member to her untimely death. 

A View To A Kilt by Kaitlyn Dunnett, 282 pages

A series of blizzards have kept tourists away from Moosetookalook, Maine, and shoppers out of Liss MacCrimmon’s Scottish Emporium. But as warmer weather brings promises of tartan sales and new faces, melting snow reveals cold-blooded murder . . .

Liss has suddenly found herself in charge of the March Madness Mud Season Sale, a town-wide celebration created to boost the local economy during the slushy weeks of early spring. With businesses ailing after a rough winter, the pressure is on to make this year’s effort the can’t-miss-event of the season. But before Liss can get her hands dirty, her husband makes a horrifying discovery. There’s a dead man on their property, and he didn't die of natural causes . . .

Stunned by the murder mystery developing in her own backyard, Liss receives another shock. The victim is identified as Charlie MacCrimmon, an uncle believed to have died eleven years before Liss was born. No one has seen or heard from Charlie since he went off to fight in Vietnam. What secrets could he have been hiding for so many years, and who would want to kill a man long thought to be dead?

Enlisting the help of her family, Liss uncovers more questions than answers as she delves into her uncle’s murky past. One thing is clear—before he met his end, Uncle Charlie was desperately trying to warn her about something sinister. And unless Liss can soon track down a maniacal criminal as elusive as the Loch Ness Monster, she just might be the next MacCrimmon to disappear . . .

Archie Modern Classics Volume 1, 256 pages

After 75+ years of humorous tales, the Riverdale gang are still going strong! Archie is proud to present the best stories from 2018 - collected for the first time ever. Don't miss these modern classics!

Archie Milestones: Volume 3, 186 pages

Archie Comics has been around for over 75 years, and we’ve had our finger on the pulse of pop culture the entire time! This third issue of the brand new digest series will be an all-out summer blowout, as well as highlighting some of the newer faces in Riverdale and Archie and friends' various travels--through time, that is! 

Archie Milestones, Volume 2, 183 pages

Archie Milestone Comics Digest highlights the best of the best of pop culture trends, fads and classic Archie fun! This second issue is filled some of the most hilarious dating disasters, Archie and the gang’s jet-setting adventures and more!

Archie Milestones Volume 1, 183 pages

Archie Comics has been around for over 75 years, and we've had our finger on the pulse of pop culture the entire time! This new digest series will highlight some of the biggest trends in each decade of Archie-including special cameos, fashion fads and historical moments! This series will not only spotlight trends in American culture, but also milestones within the comics, featuring characters' first appearances, landmark stories and more!

Lord of the Libraries by Mel Odom, 379 pages

In The Destruction of the Books, the Vault of All Known Knowledge was destroyed and its learned caretaker abducted, leaving the forces against darkness without resource and leadership.

The world as they know it and all that is good are now threatened by the same shadows that have oppressed the continent beyond the sea.

The only hope for enlightenment and salvation lies in a lowly librarian adventurer named Juhg who unknowingly brought about the cataclysm, and now must save the day by seeking out his master and another store of knowledge that has been held in secret, and in doing so unlock the mysteries of the past so as to allow the emergence of a new guardian…


THE LORD OF THE LIBRARIES.

The Destruction of the Books by Mel Odom, 424 pages

THE ROVER RETURNS
After his adventures on the mainland Wick, the Rover, returned to his duties at the Vault of All Known Knowledge and quickly worked his way up the hierarchy , continuing his quest for the preservation of books and the knowledge contained therein.
And now that quest is threatened.
AN APPRENTICE ACQUIRED
It is many years later and lowly Wick is now Grandmagister Lamplighter of the Great Library. His trips to the mainland are fewer due to his advanced age, and lately he has enlisted an apprentice researcher by the name of Jugh to undertake those roving duties he used to relish.
An encounter with a goblin ship on the high seas leads to Jugh's discovery of a book in goblin hands, a most urgent matter that must be investigated.
A SHADOW DESCENDS
This single event , the acquisition of a single book, leads to startling revelations that forewarns of a great evil that exists that is every bit as powerful as the Vault of All Known Knowledge, and whose presence in the Great Library may indeed result in The Destruction of the Books
And perhaps much worse.

The Rover by Mel Odom, 505 pages

Edgewick Lamplighter (Wick to his friends) is a humble librarian in the isolated halls of Greydawn Moors until dreams of wanderlust and a bit of dereliction in his duties result in his being shanghaied to a far-off land.

Captured by pirates, sold into slavery, and adopted by a gang of thieves, Wick soon finds himself with more adventures than even a halfling librarian can imagine.

Rival gangs, goblin marauders, evil wizards, and monstrous dragons are soon after the wee adventurer and his newfound allies in a tale of treasures and treachery, magic and mystery, where even a little guy can rise to the occasion and save the day.

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Why Did the Chicken Cross the World?: The Epic Saga of the Bird That Powers Civilization by Andrew Lawler, 324 pages

From ancient empires to modern economics, veteran journalist Andrew Lawler delivers a sweeping history of the animal that has been most crucial to the spread of civilization across the globe—the chicken.
Queen Victoria was obsessed with it. Socrates' last words were about it. Charles Darwin and Louis Pasteur made their scientific breakthroughs using it. Catholic popes, African shamans, Chinese philosophers, and Muslim mystics praised it. Throughout the history of civilization, humans have embraced it in every form imaginable—as a messenger of the gods, powerful sex symbol, gambling aid, emblem of resurrection, all-purpose medicine, handy research tool, inspiration for bravery, epitome of evil, and, of course, as the star of the world's most famous joke.
In Why Did the Chicken Cross the World?, science writer Andrew Lawler takes us on an adventure from prehistory to the modern era with a fascinating account of the partnership between human and chicken (the most successful of all cross-species relationships). Beginning with the recent discovery in Montana that the chicken's unlikely ancestor is T. rex, this book builds on Lawler's popular Smithsonian cover article, "How the Chicken Conquered the World" to track the chicken from its original domestication in the jungles of Southeast Asia some 10,000 years ago to postwar America, where it became the most engineered of animals, to the uncertain future of what is now humanity's single most important source of protein.
In a masterful combination of historical sleuthing and journalistic exploration on four continents, Lawler reframes the way we feel and think about our most important animal partne—and, by extension, all domesticated animals, and even nature itself.
Lawler's narrative reveals the secrets behind the chicken's transformation from a shy jungle bird into an animal of astonishing versatility, capable of serving our species' changing needs. For no other siren has called humans to rise, shine, and prosper quite like the rooster's cry: "cock-a-doodle-doo!"

The Nursing Home Murder by Ngaio Marsh, 190 pages

When Britain's Home Secretary complained of abdominal pains, it seemed like a simple case of appendicitis. But minutes after his operation, the ill-fated politician lay dead on the table. When Chief Detective-Inspector Roderick Alleyn arrives to dissect the situation, he finds many a likely suspect, including a vengeful surgeon, a lovelorn nurse, an unhappy wife, and a cabinet full of political foes.

Enter a Murderer by Ngaio Marsh, 245 pages

A classic Ngaio Marsh novel reissued - the second Roderick Alleyn Mystery. The crime scene was the stage of the Unicorn Theatre, when prop gun fired a very real bullet; the victim was an actor clawing his way to stardom using bribery instead of talent; and the suspects included two unwilling girlfriends and several relieved blackmail victims. The stage is set for one of Roderick Alleyn′s most baffling cases...

Cartoon America: Comic Art in the Library of Congress edited by Harry Katz, 324 pages

The Library of Congress encompasses virtually the entire history and scope of comic art, including editorial cartoons, caricatures, comic strips, animation and illustration. Cartoon America portrays a common ground that we all can appreciate and learn from. Caricatures and cartoons often depict the principal events and figures of the day. Like jazz and baseball, they are an indelible and indigenous part of American culture. In the best hands, they become topical and timeless, unique and universal. Cartoon America speaks eloquently of the US nation's creativity and resilience, its desire to educate and entertain, laugh at its quirks and foibles and challenge its political leaders and public figures to do better. The book contains a veritable who's who of illustration greats and includes much original art.

Spice: The History of a Temptation by Jack Turner, 352 pages

A brilliant, original history of the spice trade--and the appetites that fueled it.
It was in search of the fabled Spice Islands and their cloves that Magellan charted the first circumnavigation of the globe. Vasco da Gama sailed the dangerous waters around Africa to India on a quest for Christians--and spices. Columbus sought gold and pepper but found the New World. By the time these fifteenth- and sixteenth-century explorers set sail, the aromas of these savory, seductive seeds and powders had tempted the palates and imaginations of Europe for centuries.
"Spice: The History of a Temptation "is a history of the spice trade told not in the conventional narrative of politics and economics, nor of conquest and colonization, but through the intimate human impulses that inspired and drove it. Here is an exploration of the centuries-old desire for spice in food, in medicine, in magic, in religion, and in sex--and of the allure of forbidden fruit lingering in the scents of cinnamon, pepper, ginger, nutmeg, mace, and clove.
We follow spices back through time, through history, myth, archaeology, and literature. We see spices in all their diversity, lauded as love potions and aphrodisiacs, as panaceas and defenses against the plague. We journey from religious rituals in which spices were employed to dispel demons and summon gods to prodigies of gluttony both fantastical and real. We see spices as a luxury for a medieval king's ostentation, as a mummy's deodorant, as the last word in haute cuisine.
Through examining the temptations of spice we follow in the trails of the spice seekers leading from the deserts of ancient Syria to thrill-seekers on the Internet. We discover howspice became one of the first and most enduring links between Asia and Europe. We see in the pepper we use so casually the relic of a tradition linking us to the appetites of Rome, Elizabethan England, and the pharaohs. And we capture the pleasure of spice not only at the table but in every part of life.
"Spice "is a delight to be savored. 

A Man Lay Dead by Ngaio Marsh, 214 pages

At Sir Hubert Handesley's country house party, five guests have gathered for the uproarious parlor game of "Murder." Yet no one is laughing when the lights come up on an actual corpse, the good-looking and mysterious Charles Rankin. Scotland Yard's Inspector Roderick Alleyn arrives to find a complete collection of alibis, a missing butler, and an intricate puzzle of betrayal and sedition in the search for the key player in this deadly game.