Hidden Libraries: The World's Most Unusal Book Depositories by DC Helmuth, 208 pages

 Discover 50 of the world's most magnificent hidden libraries — each with a unique and uplifting story to tell — featuring a foreword by librarian, bestselling author, and literary critic Nancy Pearl.

Book swap your latest read in a cool 1950s style fridge in New Zealand or hike through the ethereal woodlands of Eas Mor in Scotland where a hidden library in a small log cabin awaits. Each entry shares the library's mission and impact on the local community and offers fascinating stories from its resident caretaker.

Inside Hidden Libraries:

- 50 enchanting, obscure and astounding libraries from around the world
- Fascinating insider knowledge and unique stories from each library's resident caretaker
- Captivating photos accompany every entry and the exact location of each hidden library is revealed

Featured libraries include:
North America - Idaho: Little Free Library in a Cottonwood Tree; California: The Prison Library Project.
South America - Argentina: The Weapon of Mass Instruction; Colombia: The Biblioburro.
Africa - Egypt: St Catherine's Monastery; Mali: The Timbuktu Manuscripts.
Asia & the Middle East - China: The Lonely Library; Philippines: Reading Club 2000.
Europe - England: Phone Booth Library; Norway: The Future Library.
Oceania & Beyond - Antarctica: The Little Free Library at the South Pole; Outer Space: The International Space Station Library

Early Days by Miss Read, 208 pages

 Dora Shafe was to become the author Miss Read. This work brings together her two volumes of autobiography, "A Fortunate Grandchild", which depicts the life of an ordinary family living in the shadow of World War I, and "Time Remembered", a portrait of her life in Kent in the 1920s.

Spy x Family, Volume 12 by Tatsuya Endo, 208 pages

 Master spy Twilight is unparalleled when it comes to going undercover on dangerous missions for the betterment of the world. But when he receives the ultimate assignment—to get married and have a kid—he may finally be in over his head!

Anya’s friendship scheme seems to be taking a turn for the better in the aftermath of the failed hijacking. Meanwhile, Operation Strix and Loid’s true identity are in danger—a mole has been uncovered and has gone underground. Will Loid and his allies be able to catch this double agent before all is lost?

Spy x Family, Volume 11 by Tatsuya Endo, 208 pages

 Master spy Twilight is unparalleled when it comes to going undercover on dangerous missions for the betterment of the world. But when he receives the ultimate assignment—to get married and have a kid—he may finally be in over his head!

Threatened by Yor’s relationship with Melinda Desmond, Anya gets serious about her own friendship scheme. On the way to a museum field trip, however, she and her class become the target of political activists looking to free their political allies…

Movie Night by Jerry Scott & Jim Borgman, 208 pages

 Step into the chaotic and comical world of Jeremy Duncan, the star of Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman's beloved comic strip, Zits. The comic's pitch-perfect portrayal of teenage life is filled with awkward moments, parental bewilderment, and the eternal struggle to fit in while standing out. Jeremy's world is populated by his quirky friends and classmates and his loving yet perplexed parents. Jeremy's neverending quest to keep a clean room, stay on his family's good side, impress his girlfriend, and pursue his rock and roll dreams is a delightful escape into a comic strip world that's both funny and familiar.

Dance Like Everybody's Watching! by Jerry Scott & Jim Borgman, 208 pages

 Sixteen-year-old Jeremy Duncan is a high school freshman and an aspiring musician. He daydreams about the day when his band, Goat Cheese Pizza, records their first monster hit single, and they all pile into his van for their cross-country, sold-out concert tour. Between naps, study hall and band practice, Jeremy still manages to find time to be the star of the hugely popular comic strip, Zits.

Zits en Concert by Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman, 208 pages

 In their immensely popular comic strip Zits, Pulitzer Prize-winning artist Jim Borgman and writer Jerry Scott have succeeded in creating one of the most poignant, realistic, and funny portrayals of teenagers found in any medium today.

Sixteen-year-old Jeremy Duncan is a high school freshman and an aspiring musician. He daydreams about the day when his band, Goat Cheese Pizza, records their first monster hit single and they all pile into his van for their cross-country, sold-out concert tour. Between naps, study hall, and band practice, Jeremy still manages to find time to be the star of the hugely popular comic strip, Zits.


Jeremy is a good kid. He is intelligent and kind, yet he still has the attitude that one would expect from a teenager. His unpredictable mood swings and monosyllabic answers to his parents’ mild-mannered questions often leave them baffled and bemused.

Binge-Worthy Zits by Jerry Scott & Jim Borgman, 208 pages

 Featuring the complete Zits comics from 2020, the newest treasury by award-winning duo Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman is filled with zaniness, wit, and relatable comedic truths about being — and raising — a teenager.

Featuring the award-winning combination of Jerry Scott's trademark humor and Jim Borgman's brilliant line art, Zits is the perfect comic for anyone parenting a teenager, or who remembers the days of sleeping in until noon, subsisting entirely on pizza, and rehearsing for an arena rock tour from the cozy confines of the garage. This fantastic Zits treasury presents the timeless teenage antics of Jeremy and friends and the trials of his Baby Boomer parents. Filled with lessons about growing up and growing older, this book contains so many laughs it will make your sides hurt.

Spy x Family, Vol. 6 by Tatsuya Endo, 208 pages

 Master spy Twilight is unparalleled when it comes to going undercover on dangerous missions for the betterment of the world. But when he receives the ultimate assignment—to get married and have a kid—he may finally be in over his head!

Twilight and Nightfall enter an underground tennis tournament, hoping for an opportunity to obtain an intelligence document that threatens to bring the world to the brink of war! But will their mission be compromised by Nightfall’s secret crush on Twilight?!

Spy x Family, Vol. 5 by Tatsuya Endo, 208 pages

 Master spy Twilight is unparalleled when it comes to going undercover on dangerous missions for the betterment of the world. But when he receives the ultimate assignment—to get married and have a kid—he may finally be in over his head!

Anya Forger has been trying her best to befriend Damian Desmond, the son of the powerful Ostanian political leader Donovan Desmond, but her attempts have been constantly rebuffed. Despite the setbacks, Anya is determined to gain access to the Desmonds’ inner circle and even devises a new plan—acing her midterm exams to earn stella stars! Can the academically challenged Anya pull off this feat for the sake of world peace?

Rumpole of the Bailey by John Mortimer, 208 pages

 These six short stories introduce all the lovable (or not so lovable) characters from the delightful Rumpole series.

Horace Rumpole, the irreverent, iconoclastic, claret-swilling, poetry-spouting barrister at law, is among the most beloved characters of English crime literature. He is not a particularly gifted attorney, nor is he particularly fond of the law by courts if it comes to that, but he'd rather be swinging at a case than bowing to his wife Hilda, She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed.

In this first title of the popular series featuring Rumpole, all of the major characters who occupy the Rumpole stories make their introductions: the sneaky, slightly effeminate Erskine-Brown, the bumbling Guthrie Featherstone and various and sundry other lawyers and clerks whose lives weave in and out of these stories.

These six stories include: Rumpole and the Younger Generation, Rumpole and the Alternative Society, Rumpole and the Honourable Member, Rumpole and the Married Lady, Rumpole and the Learned Friends, and Rumpole and the Heavy Brigade.

The Elusive Mrs. Pollifax by Dorothy Gilman, 208 pages

 If you make it across the border, get us help.

Some of us care.
Do you understand?
Right now we desperately need passports and identity papers.
The arrests grow insane.
At the very hour this message was en route to the CIA, Mrs. Pollifax was waiting for her night-blooming cereus too do its thing.
She hardly got to see it, however, because Mr. Carstairs was already on his way to recruit that gallant lady for another daring mission.
Soon, the most unlikely of all international spies was sporting a beautiful new hat. Perfect for hiding eight forged passports...

Laura Ingall's Wilder's Little Town by John E. Miller, 208 pages

 "I understand that in my own life, I represented a whole period of American history."

As Laura Ingalls Wilder realized they would, her widely loved stories of her prairie childhood have become much more than a nostalgic blend of myth, memories, and autobiography. Historically, John Miller reveals, they have much to tell us about the realities of day-to-day living and attitudes in the nineteenth century.

History and literature are closely intertwined, Miller contends, and in this book he illustrates how Wilder's novels enhance our understanding of history and how, simultaneously, a historical perspective framed Wilder's fiction. Wilder, he shows, interwove content and form to produce a sentimental and compelling, yet nuanced and believable, picture of family life on the agricultural frontier.

Focusing on Wilder's novels set in and around De Smet, South Dakota, which include By the Shores of Silver Lake and Little Town on the Prairie , Miller compares her fictional world to history recorded in census figures, newspaper accounts, county records, maps, and photographs. He illustrates that, although Wilder sacrificed some historical details for simplicity and drama, she preserved a general accuracy of people, places, events, and customs and depicted many facets of late nineteenth-century life, from food and entertainment to work ethics and education.

Miller also addresses the controversy over the authorship of the eight novels attributed to Wilder—was she the true author or were they ghostwritten by her daughter, Rose Wilder Lane? He contends that while Lane's editorial contribution was of great value, the voice in the book belongs to Wilder. The books are filled with her interpretations of the truth as influenced by the time period in which she grew up and the culture—the institutions, gossip, informal community pressure, media, stories, songs, roles, and stereotypes—that surrounded her.

Providing a glimpse of prairie life through the eyes of a young girl, Wilder's novels are as historically valid as their nonfiction cousins, Miller argues. Hers is a lived history—a sometimes romantic, sometimes observational account of the joys and frustrations of life on the prairie and a reflection of the westward movement in its prime.

The Incredible Adventures of Professor Branestawm by Norman Hunter, 208 pages

 Still one of the immortals of children's literature - Professor Branestawm's continues to amuse generations of young readers.

The wonderfully nutty, fabulously entertaining mishaps of Professor Branestawm. He's madly sane and cleverly dotty. Professor Branestawm is the most absent-minded inventor you'll ever meet and no matter how hard he tries his brilliant ideas never seem to keep him out of crazy scrapes.

Dead People Suck: A Guide for Survivors of the Newly Departed by Laurie Kilmartin, 208 pages

 Death is not for the faint of heart, and sometimes the best way to cope is through humor. No one knows this better than comedian Laurie Kilmartin. She made headlines by live-tweeting her father’s time in hospice and her grieving process after he passed, and channeled her experience into a comedy special, 45 Jokes About My Dead Dad. Dead People Suck is her hilarious guide to surviving (sometimes) death, dying, and grief without losing your mind.

If you are old and about to die, sick and about to die, or with a loved one who is about to pass away or who has passed away, there’s something for you. With chapters like “Are You An Old Man With Daughters? Please Shred Your Porn,” “If Cancer was an STD, It Would Be Cured By Now,” and “Unsubscribing Your Dead Parent from Tea Party Emails,” Laurie Kilmartin guides you through some of life’s most complicated moments with equal parts heart and sarcasm.

Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne, 208 pages

 The Bet of a Lifetime

1875-Phileas Fogg challenges 19th century Earth, wagering his entire fortune that he can cross Europe, Arabia, India, China, Japan, and the untamed vastness of America-with no plans, no arrangements, and no air travel-in exactly eighty days.

The Challenge of the Century

Fogg must cross jungles, deserts, mountains, oceans; he must save a princess; fight duels; battle hurricanes, blizzards, savages, and fanatics. But if Fogg suffers even one breakdown, delay, or missed connection, he will lose everything he owns...

And he is being chased around the world by a bounty hunter who is determined to stop Fogg.

At any cost...

Zits Apocalypse: Are You Ready? by Jerry Scott & Jim Borgman, 208 pages

 Welcome to Zits, the brilliantly funny comic strip that is the perfect portrayal of life with a teenager—complete with an eye-rolling teen and well-intentioned, but baffled, parents.

Teenagers are a lot like zombies--slow-moving, difficult to communicate with, and always, always hungry. Luckily, Zits Apocalypse is here to shed some light on the ups, downs, and in-betweens of parenting teens. Join the Duncan family--Connie, Walt, and Jeremy--as they grapple with modern technology, confront an endless sea of dirty laundry, and learn to bridge the cultural divide between parents and teenagers.

Zits Apocalypse offers a light-hearted yet insightful look at the multifaceted lives of modern teens and their families, complemented with annotations from the creators. From financial trouble to the perils of young love, this collection broaches relevant and familiar topics with with, wit, humor, and affection.

Send help!: a collection of marooned cartoons by Jon Adams, 208 pages

 This timely reflection on isolation brings together the best of a beloved genre, featuring an array of desert cartoons done in the signature single-panel style of a New Yorker cartoon. Whether you’re feeling marooned in too-close quarters with a loved one, are frantically dreaming up ways to escape from your own quarantine island, or are simply feeling nostalgic for palm trees and sand, these cartoons are sure to make you smile–and we could all use a laugh right now.

Drawn from a diverse collection of contributors, these humorous drawings are an essential addition to any coffee table collection, and bring a much-needed dose of levity to the circumstances we all find ourselves in.

 

Ramona and Her Mother by Beverly Cleary, 208 pages

 Ramona Quimby is no longer seven, but not quite eight. She's "seven and a half right now," if you ask her! Not allowed to stay home alone, yet old enough to watch pesky Willa Jean, Ramona wonders when her mother will treat her like her older, more mature sister, Beezus.

But with her parents' unsettling quarrels and some spelling trouble at school, Ramona wonders if growing up is all it's cracked up to be. No matter what, she'll always be her mother's little girl…right? This warm-hearted story of a mother's love for her spirited young daughter is told beautifully by Newbery Medal winning author Beverly Cleary.

Red as Blood, or Tales From the Sisters Grimmer by Tanith Lee, 208 pages

 How would it be if Snow White were the real villain & the wicked queen just a sadly maligned innocent? What if awakening the Sleeping Beauty should be the mistake of a lifetime--of several lifetimes? What if the famous folk tales were retold with an eye to more horrific possibilities?

Only Tanith Lee could do justice to it. In RED AS BLOOD, she displays her soaring imagination at its most fantastically mischievous. Not for nothing was the title story named as a Nebula nominee. Not for nothing was the author of THE BIRTHGRAVE & THE STORM LORD called by New York's Village Voice, "Goddess-Empress of the Hot Read."

Here are the world-famous tales of such as the Brothers Grimm as they might have been retold by the Sisters Grimmer! Fairy tales for children? Not on your life!

Contents:
Paid Piper (1981)
Red as Blood (1979)
Thorns (1972)
When the Clock Strikes (1980)
The Golden Rope (1983)
The Princess and Her Future (1983)
Wolfland (1980)
Black as Ink (1983)
Beauty (1983)