A modern dystopian classic that stands alongside 1984 and Brave New World, Ira Levin’s This Perfect Day is a stunningly prescient work of science fiction that asks what it means to remain human in a world increasingly governed by technology and AI. “Chip” (born Li RM35M4419) lives in a future controlled by an all-powerful global supercomputer, UniComp. In this seemingly utopian society, free from war and want, every aspect of human existence is meticulously planned and calibrated for efficiency by Uni, which guides the lives of each member of the Family—the eugenically-merged human race, who share a single language and religion, yet live under constant chemical conditioning and behavioral monitoring—long unaware that their sustenance comes at the expense of all individuality and autonomy. When Chip begins to question Uni’s benevolence, he embarks on a perilous journey to reclaim his true self, and challenge Uni’s rule. Its predictions already proving unnervingly on target, This Perfect Day is a thought-provoking exploration of free will, and of who ultimately holds the reins of power. Levin’s masterful storytelling and vividly imagined world make for an epic tale that’s as unsettling as it is unforgettable.)

A perfect day means different things to different animals in Bert's backyard in this droll tale from bestselling, Caldecott Honor-winner Lane Smith.

Astutely observed and deftly witty, One Perfect Day masterfully mixes investigative journalism and social commentary to explore the workings of the wedding industry-an industry that claims to be worth $160 billion to the U.S. economy and which has every interest in ensuring that the American wedding becomes ever more lavish and complex. Taking us inside the workings of the wedding industry-including the swelling ranks of professional event planners, department stores with their online registries, the retailers and manufacturers of bridal gowns, and the Walt Disney Company and its Fairy Tale Weddings program-New Yorker writer Rebecca Mead skillfully holds the mirror up to the bride's deepest hopes and fears about her wedding day, revealing that for better or worse, the way we marry is who we are.

It snowed. And snowed. And snowed. After it snowed, everyone bundled up and went outside to play. You come, too! Carin Berger's exquisite collages illuminate, from dawn to dusk, the perfect winter day.

A lesson in being content. Ruby's plans for a perfect day with friends ends up more special than she could have imagined!

When the day doesn't go as planned, two friends use positive thinking and creative ideas to make it great anyway. What can you do if your swimming hole dries out? Or a thunderstorm crashes your afternoon? Just ask Mac and Will! When these unlikely friends’ fun plans go awry, they show how a day of unexpected ups and downs can still be a perfect day—all it takes is a little imagination. The stars of Bad Apple, A Tale of Friendship are back, making new friends by looking on the bright side.

A seagull is enjoying a perfect day until a disagreeable crab comes along, but by sunset, they have discovered what really makes a day perfect.

While popular culture beguiles us with the myth of an untamed nature in which to get away from the frustrations of our daily lives, our most habitual experience keeps us tied either to mass tourism or to fleeting escapes to places that are simply what is left of the landscape: vestiges of what was once countryside, now overrun by industry, housing developments and superstores. Appropriated out of necessity and transformed through sheer resilience, these places have been rescued from their inhospitable dimension to become plausible options in which we can still enjoy a bit of free time in the sunshine, well away from the bustle of the city. It is precisely these sites of leisure in post-industrial society that interest Txema Salvans, whose shots of them bring out all their surreal banality and sharpen the funny sense of strangeness they engender. Most of the pictures were taken on the beach or near the sea and yet the sea is always invisible, because Salvans positions himself between the water and the characters, reversing the direction of their gaze. As a result, what the camera shows us is the degraded prospect that the characters want to turn their backs on. To turn one's back on something is to ignore it, even to pretend that it does not exist. Salvans's work speaks to us, then, of this collective delusion that leads us to fantasize these transient scraps of paradise. Since we have no way of knowing if any other paradise is possible, we content ourselves with these moments of tranquillity and even happiness amidst the concrete and the factories.

This is the story of two mothers, strangers to one another. The first has two children -- twins, a boy and girl, who are seniors in high school. She wants their last Christmas as a family living in the same home to be perfect, but her husband is delayed returning from a business trip abroad. And then there's an accident -- a fatal one involving a drunk driver. Meanwhile, the other mother has a daughter who needs a new heart, and so the loss of one woman becomes the miracle the other has desperately prayed for. While one mother grieves, and pulls away from her family, the other finds that even miracles aren't always easy to receive.