NOW IN PAPERBACK-FROM THE AUTHOR OF MARSBOUND Grad- school dropout Matt Fuller is toiling as a lowly research assistant at MIT when he inadvertently creates a time machine. With a dead-end job and a girlfriend who left him for another man, Matt has nothing to lose in taking a time-machine trip himself-or so he thinks.

When Joe tells a local news reporter exactly what he would do if he were leader of the country, the video goes viral and Joe's speech becomes famous all over the world! Before long, people are calling for the current leader to resign and give someone else a go . . . and that's how an ordinary boy like Joe ended up with the most extraordinary job. Now the fun can really start . . . Hats for cats! Pet pigs for all! Banana shaped buses! Swimming pools on trains! A hilarious story of one boy's meteoric rise to power!

One of the Washington Post’s “5 mystery novels to savor this summer” A maverick celebrity chef reluctantly agrees to let the CIA use his hugely popular international food, culture, and travel TV series as cover for a dangerous espionage mission. When the CIA approaches celebrity chef Sebastian Pike about using his award-winning food and culture travel show as cover for espionage, the outspoken bad-boy host says no. When they point out how roaming the globe interviewing foodies, heads of state, rock stars, journalists-in-exile, poets, subversives, supermodels—even the pope—gives him perfect cover, Pike smiles and says, “F@#! no.” They push. Promising it’s only one mission. Vowing he won’t be in danger. Calling him the MVB: Most Valuable Bystander. They’d embed their top agent in his crew to do the spy work. It’s still no. But when they hit him with the patriotism card, he weakens. And when romantic sparks crackle between him and the female agent, Pike’s all in, kicking off a romantic spy thriller in which the globetrotting celebrity chef uses his TV series to help sneak Putin’s accountant out of Russia before he’s exposed as a mole for US intelligence. The high-stakes mission quickly puts Pike in harm’s way. So much for MVB. There’s danger, there’s double dealing, there’s torture, there’s shooting with real bullets. Plus, a minefield of complications from the hot romance that grows between Pike and his gutsy CIA handler-producer, Cammie Nova. From Paris to Provence, this chef is no bystander. Beyond their attraction, Pike and Nova become an operational team, not only to survive the perils they face but to pull off an operation fraught with one twist after another, capped by a shocking, emotional climax.

The ultimate guide to President Joe Biden, filled with all the fun, all the inspiration, and none of the malarkey. The aviators. The Amtrak. The bromance with Barack Obama. Few politicians are as iconic, or as beloved, as Joe Biden. Now, in The Book of Joe, Biden fans and political junkies alike have the ultimate look at America’s 46th president. Covering the key chapters in Biden’s life and career—and filled with classic Biden-isms, including “That’s a bunch of malarkey” and “I may be Irish, but I’m not stupid”—this entertaining blend of biography, advice, and muscle cars explores the moments that forged Joe Biden, and what they can teach us today. But along with this “Wisdom of Joe,” the book also reveals the inspirational story of a man whose life has been shaped by his father’s advice: Get back up. Time after time, Biden has bounced back from both personal heartbreaks and professional disappointments, and just like Joe, sometimes we all have to dust ourselves off and fight back. Packed with lessons we need now more than ever, The Book of Joe is both a celebration of a revered political figure and a testament to the power of a life filled with integrity, perseverance, and plenty of ice cream.

After the government’s first choice to design a secret installation is discovered and murdered by foreign agents, the president turns to a lonely widower from Pittsburgh to take her place. Stanley Bigelow’s unusual engineering skills and solitary life make him suitable for the work, but Captain Tyler Brew, the Navy SEAL overseeing the project worries that the man’s age, weight, and lack of physical fitness will make him vulnerable to his predecessor’s fate. Despite round-the-clock protection by female FBI agent, L.T. Kitt, and a specially trained German shepherd from the witness protection program (Augie), the SEAL’s fears prove warranted. All while a terrorist offensive takes shape. The Accidental Patriot is a story of citizenship and service; loyalty and love; and how personal transformation happens in unexpected ways.

"Private William Mandella hadn't wanted to go to war against the Taurans ...."--p. [4] of cover.

Filled with the bestselling, award-winning author's trademark wordplay and inventive storytelling, here is the dizzyingly entertaining, wickedly humorous story of a mysterious stranger whose sudden appearance during a family’s summer holiday transforms four variously unhappy people. Each of the Smarts—parents Eve and Michael, son Magnus, and the youngest, daughter Astrid—encounter Amber in his or her own solipsistic way, but somehow her presence allows them to see their lives (and their life together) in a new light. Smith’s narrative freedom and exhilarating facility with language propel the novel to its startling, wonderfully enigmatic conclusion.

This is the story of a man who took almost a lifetime to realize that the accidentals of his first fifty years were really the essentials he needed to blossom as a happy, productive chef who enjoys what he does, how he does it, and how he brings enjoyment to others. Some of Joseph's early journey is recounted at the beginning of the book, tales from the ovens of both his mother and his maternal grandparents. Some stories from later years tell of his ongoing love affair with cooking, intermingled with stories of friends, travel and career changes. Still others are serious and soul searching. The man who describes himself as "chubby" since childhood shares recipes remembered and recreated from comfort foods enjoyed by family, to those of Billy, his first restaurateur boss, to those enjoyed in New York, to those amazing traditional dishes of Matilde, a woman he met in Italy. Joseph Caputo has enjoyed a lifetime of family, educational, and theatrical experiences. Born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, he was educated in parochial schools, and went on to earn a degree in Communications from Marywood College in Scranton, and a Master's Degree in Theatre from the State University of New York. Joseph has combined his passion for food, storytelling, and theatre into a recipe for success. Spending countless hours in the kitchen of his boyhood home, and in exceptionally fine restaurants in New York City and worldwide have helped him to develop a unique culinary style. Blessed with keen perception as to which ingredients created the great dishes he enjoyed, he most often came home with a recipe all his own, and more spectacular than the original. Today he is chef/owner of two successful businesses Catering by Joseph LTD, and Zuppa del Giorno, il ristorante di pranzo, both located in Scranton.

Joe Bunch breaks down his life—and his secrets—for a school assignment in this second book of the funny, heartfelt, and beloved Misfits series by Bunnicula author James Howe. What can I say? I’m a total original. Joe may only be twelve-going-on-thirteen, but he’s known who he is from the time he was a little kid tottering around in his mother’s high heels. Now in the seventh grade, he wears green high tops with pink trim, has a (secret) boyfriend, and tells it all from A to Z in the alphabiography assigned by his favorite teacher. The thing is, some of it is seriously private. It’s one thing for Mr. Daly to read it, but what if it falls into the wrong hands? Will he be teased forever about those high heels…and even worse, what will happen if his secret boyfriend is no longer a secret?

For readers of Roddy Doyle, Nick Hornby, and Mark Haddon, The Adulterants is a piercingly funny—and cringingly poignant—take on how hard it is to grow up and how hard it is when you don’t. Ray Morris is a tech journalist with a forgettable face, a tiresome manner, a small but dedicated group of friends, and a wife, Garthene, who is pregnant. He is a man who has never been punched above the neck. He has never committed adultery with his actual body. He has never been caught up in a riot, nor arrested, nor tagged by the state, nor become an international hate-figure. Not until the summer of 2011, when discontent is rising on the streets and within his marriage. Ray has noticed none of this. Not yet. The Adulterants would be a coming-of-age story if its protagonist could only forget that he is thirty-three years old. Throughout a series of escalating catastrophes, our deadpan antihero keeps up a merciless mental commentary on the foibles and failings of those around him, and the vicissitudes of modern urban life: internet trolls, buy-to-let landlords, open marriages, and the threat posed by more sensitive men. But the wonder of The Adulterants is how we feel ourselves rooting for Ray even as we acknowledge that he deserves everything he gets.