A van exited an orphanage under the cover of the night but wait, what is it carrying..? Dead bodies! Dead bodies of children and toddlers! No one knew for certain where it was going and what happened to the children but one thing's for sure, it had to do with the mysterious disappearance of highly intelligent children all around the world. A recurring nightmare triggered Xia Xinghe's desire to unveil the mystery behind her mother's disappearance, a mystery that led to the discovery of a larger conspiracy. Follow along as she made new allies and enemies as she delved deeper into the twisting conspiracy, all the while fielding her ex-husband's relentless romantic advances. The quarrelsome yet loving couple supported each other as they crossed the boundaries of class, nations, space, life and even dimension itself, each pursuing their own goal. For the wife it is to discover the identity of her origin and for the husband, to make his ex-wife fall in love with him.

A van exited an orphanage under the cover of the night but wait, what is it carrying..? Dead bodies! Dead bodies of children and toddlers! No one knew for certain where it was going and what happened to the children but one thing's for sure, it had to do with the mysterious disappearance of highly intelligent children all around the world. A recurring nightmare triggered Xia Xinghe's desire to unveil the mystery behind her mother's disappearance, a mystery that led to the discovery of a larger conspiracy. Follow along as she made new allies and enemies as she delved deeper into the twisting conspiracy, all the while fielding her ex-husband's relentless romantic advances. The quarrelsome yet loving couple supported each other as they crossed the boundaries of class, nations, space, life and even dimension itself, each pursuing their own goal. For the wife it is to discover the identity of her origin and for the husband, to make his ex-wife fall in love with him.

A van exited an orphanage under the cover of the night but wait, what is it carrying..? Dead bodies! Dead bodies of children and toddlers! No one knew for certain where it was going and what happened to the children but one thing's for sure, it had to do with the mysterious disappearance of highly intelligent children all around the world. A recurring nightmare triggered Xia Xinghe's desire to unveil the mystery behind her mother's disappearance, a mystery that led to the discovery of a larger conspiracy. Follow along as she made new allies and enemies as she delved deeper into the twisting conspiracy, all the while fielding her ex-husband's relentless romantic advances. The quarrelsome yet loving couple supported each other as they crossed the boundaries of class, nations, space, life and even dimension itself, each pursuing their own goal. For the wife it is to discover the identity of her origin and for the husband, to make his ex-wife fall in love with him.

The bestselling author of Gettin' Buck Wild and The Sisters of APF gives new meaning to the term "office party" in this exhilarating and boldly erotic novel about the passion of business—and the business of passion. Most corporations hand out bonus checks or gift certificates for Christmas, but Wolfe Industries hands out drama. Skyscraper chronicles the week before the annual Christmas party at Wolfe Industries, an African American–owned automobile manufacturer. The week leading up to the Wolfe Industries annual Christmas party is unforgettable, as the lives of four people who have barely interacted with one another in the past begin to cross paths in the most disturbing ways. Affairs, a secret sex penthouse, and revenge fill the pages, and everyone is on the edge of exploding from the tension. By the time the party is over, they will be lucky if the skyscraper is still standing.

Zora Neale Hurston brings us Black America’s folklore as only she can, putting the oral history on the written page with grace and understanding. This new edition of Mules and Men features a new cover and a P.S. section which includes insights, interviews, and more. For the student of cultural history, Mules and Men is a treasury of Black America’s folklore as collected by Zora Neale Hurston, the storyteller and anthropologist who grew up hearing the songs and sermons, sayings and tall tales that have formed and oral history of the South since the time of slavery. Set intimately within the social context of Black life, the stories, “big old lies,” songs, voodoo customs, and superstitions recorded in these pages capture the imagination and bring back to life the humor and wisdom that is the unique heritage of Black Americans.

Big data entrepreneur Allen Gannett overturns the mythology around creative genius, and reveals the science and secrets behind achieving breakout commercial success in any field. We have been spoon-fed the notion that creativity is the province of genius -- of those favored, brilliant few whose moments of insight arrive in unpredictable flashes of divine inspiration. And if we are not a genius, we might as well pack it in and give up. Either we have that gift, or we don’t. But Allen shows that simply isn’t true. Recent research has shown that there is a predictable science behind achieving commercial success in any creative endeavor, from writing a popular novel to starting up a successful company to creating an effective marketing campaign. As the world’s most creative people have discovered, we are enticed by the novel and the familiar. By understanding the mechanics of what Gannett calls “the creative curve” – the point of optimal tension between the novel and the familiar – everyone can better engineer mainstream success. In a thoroughly entertaining book that describes the stories and insights of everyone from the Broadway team behind Dear Evan Hansen, to the founder of Reddit, from the Chief Content Officer of Netflix to Michelin star chefs, Gannett reveals the four laws of creative success and identifies the common patterns behind their achievement.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A stunning “portrait of the enduring grace of friendship” (NPR) about the families we are born into, and those that we make for ourselves. A masterful depiction of love in the twenty-first century. NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • MAN BOOKER PRIZE FINALIST • WINNER OF THE KIRKUS PRIZE A Little Life follows four college classmates—broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition—as they move to New York in search of fame and fortune. While their relationships, which are tinged by addiction, success, and pride, deepen over the decades, the men are held together by their devotion to the brilliant, enigmatic Jude, a man scarred by an unspeakable childhood trauma. A hymn to brotherly bonds and a masterful depiction of love in the twenty-first century, Hanya Yanagihara’s stunning novel is about the families we are born into, and those that we make for ourselves. Look for Hanya Yanagihara’s latest bestselling novel, To Paradise.

India today is a vibrant free-market democracy, a nation well on its way to overcoming decades of widespread poverty. The nation’s rise is one of the great international stories of the late twentieth century, and in India Unbound the acclaimed columnist Gurcharan Das offers a sweeping economic history of India from independence to the new millennium. Das shows how India’s policies after 1947 condemned the nation to a hobbled economy until 1991, when the government instituted sweeping reforms that paved the way for extraordinary growth. Das traces these developments and tells the stories of the major players from Nehru through today. As the former CEO of Proctor & Gamble India, Das offers a unique insider’s perspective and he deftly interweaves memoir with history, creating a book that is at once vigorously analytical and vividly written. Impassioned, erudite, and eminently readable, India Unbound is a must for anyone interested in the global economy and its future.

Thoroughly revised and expanded for a new generation of readers, this classic guide to enjoying literature to its fullest—a lively, enlightening, and entertaining introduction to a diverse range of writing and literary devices that enrich these works, including symbols, themes, and contexts—teaches you how to make your everyday reading experience richer and more rewarding. While books can be enjoyed for their basic stories, there are often deeper literary meanings beneath the surface. How to Read Literature Like a Professor helps us to discover those hidden truths by looking at literature with the practiced analytical eye—and the literary codes—of a college professor. What does it mean when a protagonist is traveling along a dusty road? When he hands a drink to his companion? When he’s drenched in a sudden rain shower? Thomas C. Foster provides answers to these questions as he explores every aspect of fiction, from major themes to literary models, narrative devices, and form. Offering a broad overview of literature—a world where a road leads to a quest, a shared meal may signify a communion, and rain, whether cleansing or destructive, is never just a shower—he shows us how to make our reading experience more intellectually satisfying and fun. The world, and curricula, have changed. This third edition has been thoroughly revised to reflect those changes, and features new chapters, a new preface and epilogue, as well as fresh teaching points Foster has developed over the past decade. Foster updates the books he discusses to include more diverse, inclusive, and modern works, such as Angie Thomas’s The Hate U Give; Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven; Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere; Elizabeth Acevedo’s The Poet X; Helen Oyeyemi's Mr. Fox and Boy, Snow, Bird; Sandra Cisneros’s The House on Mango Street; Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God; Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet; Madeline Miller’s Circe; Pat Barker’s The Silence of the Girls; and Tahereh Mafi’s A Very Large Expanse of Sea.