The classic collaboration from the internationally bestselling authors Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, now an original series starring Michael Sheen and David Tennant.
Season 2 of Good Omens coming soon!
Good Omens . . . is something like what would have happened if Thomas Pynchon, Tom Robbins and Don DeLillo had collaborated. Lots of literary inventiveness in the plotting and chunks of very good writing and characterization. It's a wow. It would make one hell of a movie. Or a heavenly one. Take your pick.--Washington Post
According to The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch (the world's only completely accurate book of prophecies, written in 1655, before she exploded), the world will end on a Saturday. Next Saturday, in fact. Just before dinner.
So the armies of Good and Evil are amassing, Atlantis is rising, frogs are falling, tempers are flaring. Everything appears to be going according to Divine Plan. Except a somewhat fussy angel and a fast-living demon--both of whom have lived amongst Earth's mortals since The Beginning and have grown rather fond of the lifestyle--are not actually looking forward to the coming Rapture.
And someone seems to have misplaced the Antichrist . . .
If you're one of the few who haven't experienced the genius of Agatha Christie, this novel is a stellar starting point. -- DAVID BALDACCI, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author
An exclusive authorized edition of the most famous and beloved stories from the Queen of Mystery.
Ten people, each with something to hide and something to fear, are invited to an isolated mansion on Indian Island by a host who, surprisingly, fails to appear. On the island they are cut off from everything but each other and the inescapable shadows of their own past lives. One by one, the guests share the darkest secrets of their wicked pasts. And one by one, they die...
Which among them is the killer and will any of them survive?
Agatha Christie is the gateway drug to crime fiction both for readers and for writers. . . . Just one book is never enough. -- VAL MCDERMID, Internationally Bestselling Author
Exceptionally amusing and enjoyable. --Michael Moorcock
'Twas the night before Hogswatch and all through the house . . . something was missing. Don't miss this hilarious and irreverent installment in the beloved Discworld series from New York Times bestselling author Sir Terry Pratchett.
It's the most wonderful time of the year, Hogswatchnight, when the Hogfather himself dons his red suit and climbs in his sleigh pulled by--of course--eight hogs, to shower gifts across Discworld. But when the fat man goes missing, someone has to sit in. It's up to Death to take up the reigns--otherwise the sun won't shine tomorrow . . . or ever again.
Who would want to harm Discworld's most beloved icon? Very few things are held sacred in this twisted, corrupt, heartless--and oddly familiar--universe, but the Hogfather is one of them. Yet here it is, Hogswatchnight, that most joyous and acquisitive of times, and the jolly, old, red-suited gift-giver has vanished without a trace. And there's something shady going on involving an uncommonly psychotic member of the Assassins' Guild and certain representatives of Ankh-Morpork's rather extensive criminal element. Suddenly Discworld's entire myth system is unraveling at an alarming rate. Drastic measures must be taken, which is why Death himself is taking up the reins of the fat man's vacated sleigh . . . which, in turn, has Death's level-headed granddaughter, Susan, racing to unravel the nasty, humbuggian mess before the holiday season goes straight to hell and takes everyone along with it.
The Discworld novels can be read in any order, but Hogfather is the fourth book in the Death series. The collection includes:
THE MOST WIDELY READ MYSTERY OF ALL TIME--NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE DIRECTED BY KENNETH BRANAGH AND PRODUCED BY RIDLEY SCOTT!
The murderer is with us--on the train now . . .
Just after midnight, the famous Orient Express is stopped in its tracks by a snowdrift. By morning, the millionaire Samuel Edward Ratchett lies dead in his compartment, stabbed a dozen times, his door locked from the inside. Without a shred of doubt, one of his fellow passengers is the murderer.
Isolated by the storm, detective Hercule Poirot must find the killer among a dozen of the dead man's enemies, before the murderer decides to strike again.
What more . . . can a mystery addict desire? -- New York Times
A NPR Best Book of the Year
The number one New York Times bestselling authors of Vanderbilt return with another riveting history of a legendary American family, the Astors, and how they built and lavished their fortune.
The story of the Astors is a quintessentially American story--of ambition, invention, destruction, and reinvention.
From 1783, when German immigrant John Jacob Astor first arrived in the United States, until 2009, when Brooke Astor's son, Anthony Marshall, was convicted of defrauding his elderly mother, the Astor name occupied a unique place in American society.
The family fortune, first made by a beaver trapping business that grew into an empire, was then amplified by holdings in Manhattan real estate. Over the ensuing generations, Astors ruled Gilded Age New York society and inserted themselves into political and cultural life, but also suffered the most famous loss on the Titanic, one of many shocking and unexpected twists in the family's story.
In this unconventional, page-turning historical biography, featuring black-and-white and color photographs, #1 New York Times bestselling authors Anderson Cooper and Katherine Howe chronicle the lives of the Astors and explore what the Astor name has come to mean in America--offering a window onto the making of America itself.
Pratchett's books are almost always better than they have to be, and Going Postal is no exception, full of nimble wordplay, devious plotting and outrageous situations, but always grounded in an astute understanding of human nature.--San Francisco Chronicle
A splendid send-up of government bureaucracy, corruption, the postal system, and everything in between in this ingenious entry in Sir Terry Pratchett's internationally bestselling Discworld series.
By all rights, Arch-swindler Moist von Lipwig should be meeting his maker at the end of a noose. Instead, Lord Vetinari, supreme ruler of Ankh-Morpork, has made him the city's Postmaster General. Death may be preferable to fixing the Postal Service--a creaky, outdated institution beset by eccentric employees, mountains of old, undelivered mail Moist swears is talking to him, and a dangerous secret order. To restore the postal service to its former glory, Moist accepts the help of the tough talking and very attractive activist Adora Belle Dearheart.
But to succeed, Moist must overcome two formidable foes--new technology and the greedy chairman of a communication monopoly who will stop at nothing to delay Ankh-Morpork's post for good . . .
The Discworld novels can be read in any order, but Going Postal is the first book in the Moist von Lipwig series. The series, in order, includes:
Set during World War II, an unforgettable historical novel about love, war, family, and loyalty told in in the voices of two women, generations apart, who find themselves connected by a mysterious and valuable bottle of wine stolen by the Nazis.
1942. Seven-year-old Martine hides in an armoire when the Nazis come to take her father away. Pinned to her dress is a note with her aunt's address in Paris, and in her arms, a bottle of wine she has been instructed to look after if something happened to her papa. When they are finally gone, the terrified young girl drops the bottle and runs to a neighbor, who puts her on a train to Paris.
But when Martine arrives in the city, her aunt is nowhere to be found. Without a place to go, the girl wanders the streets and eventually falls asleep on the doorstep of Hotel Drouot, where Sister Ada finds her and takes her to the abbey, and watches over her.
1990. Charlotte, a commercial airline pilot, attends an auction with her boyfriend Henri at Hotel Drouot, now the oldest auction house in Paris. Successfully bidding on a box of wine saved from the German occupation during the Second World War, Henri gives Charlotte a seemingly inferior bottle he finds inside the box. Cleaning the label, Charlotte makes a shocking discovery that sends her on a quest to find the origins of this unusual--and very valuable--bottle of wine, a quest that will take her back fifty years into the past. . . .
A powerful tale of love, war, and family, The French Winemaker's Daughter is an emotionally resonant tale of two women whose fates are intertwined across time. Loretta Ellsworth's evocative and poignant page-turner will linger in the heart, and make you think about luck, connection, and the meaning of loyalty.
New York Times bestselling author Sir Terry Pratchett makes Death a central character in Mort, his fourth sojourn to Discworld, the fantasy cosmos where even the angel of darkness needs some assistance.
Death comes to everyone eventually on Discworld. And now he's come to Mort with an offer the young man can't refuse. (No, literally, can't refuse since being dead isn't exactly compulsory.) Actually, it's a pretty good deal. As Death's apprentice, Mort will have free board and lodging. He'll get use of the company horse. And he won't have to take any time off for family funerals. But despite the obvious perks, young Mort is about to discover that there is a serious downside to working for the Reaper Man . . . because this perfect job can be a killer on one's love life.
Terry Pratchett's profoundly irreverent, bestselling novels have garnered him a revered position in the halls of parody next to the likes of Mark Twain, Kurt Vonnegut, Douglas Adams, and Carl Hiaasen.
The Discworld novels can be read in any order, but Mort is the first book in the Death series.
As traumatic as it is to only choose one Pratchett, this first entry in his Guards sub-series encompasses everything that is brilliant about his writing: terrific characterization and plotting, a completely believable world, and new details that come up with each re-reading. . . . The story of dwarves, dragons and good police work remains fresh, sharp, and incredibly funny. -- Telegraph (UK)
Magic, mayhem, and a marauding dragon combine for extraordinary fun in this brilliant Discworld novel from New York Times bestselling author Terry Pratchett.
Insurrection is in the air in the city of Ankh-Morpork. The Haves and Have-Nots are about to face off. Again.
It's old news to Captain Sam Vimes of the city's ramshackle Night Watch. But this time, something is different--the Have-Nots have found the key to a dormant, lethal weapon that even they can't fully control, and they're about to unleash a campaign of terror on the city.
Long believed extinct, a draco nobilis can now be seen patrolling the skies above Discworld's greatest city. Not only does this unwelcome visitor have a nasty habit of charbroiling everything in its path, but it's also soon crowned King.
Can Vimes, Captain Carrot, and the rest of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch restore order (before it's burned to a crisp)?
The Discworld novels can be read in any order but Guards! Guards! is the first book in the City Watch collection.
The City Watch collection in order:
#1 New York Times Bestseller and #1 International Bestseller - Now a Peacock Original Series starring Harvey Keitel and Melanie Lynskey
This beautiful, illuminating tale of hope and courage is based on interviews that were conducted with Holocaust survivor and Auschwitz-Birkenau tattooist Ludwig (Lale) Sokolov--an unforgettable love story in the midst of atrocity.
The Tattooist of Auschwitz is an extraordinary document, a story about the extremes of human behavior existing side by side: calculated brutality alongside impulsive and selfless acts of love. I find it hard to imagine anyone who would not be drawn in, confronted and moved. I would recommend it unreservedly to anyone, whether they'd read a hundred Holocaust stories or none.--Graeme Simsion, internationally-bestselling author of The Rosie Project
In April 1942, Lale Sokolov, a Slovakian Jew, is forcibly transported to the concentration camps at Auschwitz-Birkenau. When his captors discover that he speaks several languages, he is put to work as a Tätowierer (the German word for tattooist), tasked with permanently marking his fellow prisoners.
Imprisoned for over two and a half years, Lale witnesses horrific atrocities and barbarism--but also incredible acts of bravery and compassion. Risking his own life, he uses his privileged position to exchange jewels and money from murdered Jews for food to keep his fellow prisoners alive.
One day in July 1942, Lale, prisoner 32407, comforts a trembling young woman waiting in line to have the number 34902 tattooed onto her arm. Her name is Gita, and in that first encounter, Lale vows to somehow survive the camp and marry her.
A vivid, harrowing, and ultimately hopeful re-creation of Lale Sokolov's experiences as the man who tattooed the arms of thousands of prisoners with what would become one of the most potent symbols of the Holocaust, The Tattooist of Auschwitz is also a testament to the endurance of love and humanity under the darkest possible conditions.
A truly spectacular psychological thriller with a dazzling mystery at its core. Shell Games is the ultimate one-sitting read that has everything--incredible family dynamics, characters that burst off the page and a premise so deliciously enticing and surprising that the pages quite simply turn themselves. Bonnie Kistler is a genius!--Matthew Blake, author of Anna O
A brilliant page-turning thriller about a young woman whose fabulously wealthy mother might be the victim of an elaborate con or might be losing her mind--and the daughter can't tell where the truth lies.
Julie's mother Kate is a force of nature--a glamorous woman of seventy, a self-made real estate developer, a grande dame in Florida society, and a power broker in Florida politics. It wasn't easy for Julie to grow up in the shadow of such a dynamo, but she loves her mother, and she and her husband Eric are thrilled when Kate marries her long-lost high school sweetheart, a salt-of-the-earth man named Charlie.
But their storybook romance ends abruptly. On their wedding night, Kate calls the police in hysterics to report that Charlie just confessed to a notorious unsolved crime from decades before.
Charlie says she imagined it. Eric says that Kate has dementia. And the FBI says that Charlie couldn't possibly have committed that crime.
Julie doesn't know what to believe. Is her brilliant mother losing her mind? Or is sweet, lovable Charlie gaslighting Kate to gain control of her fortune?
As Julie tries to navigate through this maze of paranoia and mind games, cracks start to develop in her own marriage as it seems that Eric is keeping secrets . . .
Set against a backdrop of rampant development and devastating climate change, Shell Games is a psychological thriller that will make your head spin and the pages turn as you wonder exactly who is doing what to whom.
Pratchett's Monty Python-like plots are almost impossible to describe. His talent for characterization and dialogue and his pop-culture allusions steal the show.--Chicago Tribune
No sacred cow is left unskewered in this intriguing installment in Sir Terry Pratchett's internationally bestselling Discworld series, a divinely funny take on organized religion, petty gods, and the corrupting thirst for power.
Religion is a competitive business in the Discworld. Everyone has their own opinion and their own gods of every shape and size--all fighting for faith, followers, and a place at the top. So when the great god Om accidentally manifests as a lowly tortoise, stripped of all divine power, it's clear he's become less important than he realized.
Om needs an acolyte and fast. Enter Brutha, the Chosen One--or at least the only One available. He's a simple lad whose highest ambition is tending his melon patch--until he hears the voice of a god calling his name. A small god for sure. But bossy as Hell.
Brutha wants peace, justice, and love--but that's hard to achieve in a world where religion means power, money is worshipped, and corruption reigns supreme. . . .
The Discworld novels can be read in any order but Small Gods is a standalone.
Instant New York Times Bestseller
One of Barack Obama's Favorite Books of the Year
An Economist and Air Mail Best Book of the Year
Brave and absorbing. -- New York Times
Alberta is not just a thorough and responsible reporter but a vibrant writer, capable of rendering a farcical scene in vivid hues. -- Washington Post
An astonishingly clear-eyed look at a murky movement. -- Los Angeles Times
Evangelical Christians are perhaps the most polarizing--and least understood--people living in America today. In his seminal new book, The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory, journalist Tim Alberta, himself a practicing Christian and the son of an evangelical pastor, paints an expansive and profoundly troubling portrait of the American evangelical movement. Through the eyes of televangelists and small-town preachers, celebrity revivalists and everyday churchgoers, Alberta tells the story of a faith cheapened by ephemeral fear, a promise corrupted by partisan subterfuge, and a reputation stained by perpetual scandal.
For millions of conservative Christians, America is their kingdom--a land set apart, a nation uniquely blessed, a people in special covenant with God. This love of country, however, has given way to right-wing nationalist fervor, a reckless blood-and-soil idolatry that trivializes the kingdom of Jesus Christ. Alberta retraces the arc of the modern evangelical movement, placing political and cultural inflection points in the context of church teachings and traditions, explaining how Donald Trump's presidency and the COVID-19 pandemic only accelerated historical trends that long pointed toward disaster. Reporting from half-empty sanctuaries and standing-room-only convention halls across the country, the author documents a growing fracture inside American Christianity and journeys with readers through this strange new environment in which loving your enemies is woke and owning the libs is the answer to WWJD.
Accessing the highest echelons of the American evangelical movement, Alberta investigates the ways in which conservative Christians have pursued, exercised, and often abused power in the name of securing this earthly kingdom. He highlights the battles evangelicals are fighting--and the weapons of their warfare--to demonstrate the disconnect from scripture: Contra the dictates of the New Testament, today's believers are struggling mightily against flesh and blood, eyes fixed on the here and now, desperate for a power that is frivolous and fleeting. Lingering at the intersection of real cultural displacement and perceived religious persecution, Alberta portrays a rapidly secularizing America that has come to distrust the evangelical church, and weaves together present-day narratives of individual pastors and their churches as they confront the twin challenges of lost status and diminished standing.
Sifting through the wreckage--pastors broken, congregations battered, believers losing their religion because of sex scandals and political schemes--Alberta asks: If the American evangelical movement has ceased to glorify God, what is its purpose?
In the vein of the bestselling California noirs of Sue Grafton and Sara Gran, a whodunnit about loyalty, love, and the legacy of trauma featuring a hardboiled, queer private eye whose latest case takes her deep into her own complicated past.
On the cusp of forty, Justine Bailen, better known as Jo, works for an all-female detective agency based in Tucson, Arizona. While staking out a cheating spouse, she learns that her long-estranged best friend from childhood, Rose, is missing, and that Rose's mother wants to hire Jo to find her. This case is all kinds of wrong for Jo, but she has no choice but to head back to her hometown, an hour north and a world away from Tucson.
Back in Delphi, she learns that her high school boyfriend, Tyler--who is probably part of the reason her friendship with Rose went south--is the cop assigned to the case. It doesn't take long for Jo to realize that he's all mixed up in it, too. To have any hope of learning the truth about Rose's disappearance, Jo must finally face the demons she thought she'd escaped.
If you read just one of Pratchett's books, you'll want to read everything he wrote. That now includes A Stroke of the Pen. -- Washington Post
A delightfully funny, fantastically inventive collection of twenty-one newly unearthed short stories by Sir Terry Pratchett, the award-winning and bestselling author of the phenomenally successful Discworld fantasy series. This special trove--featuring charming woodcut illustrations--is a must-have for Pratchett fans of all ages.
These rediscovered tales were written by Terry Pratchett under a pseudonym for British newspapers during the 1970s and 1980s. The stories have never been attributed to him until now, and might never have been found--were it not for the efforts of a few dedicated fans.
Though none of the short works are set in the Discworld, all are infused with Pratchett's trademark wit, satirical wisdom, and brilliant imagination, hinting at the magical universe he would go on to create.
Meet Og the inventor, the first caveman to cultivate fire, as he discovers the highs and lows of progress; haunt the Ministry of Nuisances with the defiant evicted ghosts of Pilgarlic Towers; visit Blackbury, a small market town with weird weather and an otherworldly visitor; and embark on a dangerous quest through time and space with hero Kron, which begins in the ancient city of Morpork . . .
Irresistibly entertaining, A Stroke of the Pen is an essential collection from the great Sir Terry Pratchett, a master storyteller (A. S. Byatt) who defies categorization (The Times); a writer whose novels have always been among the most serious of comedies, the most relevant and real of fantasies (Independent UK).
Engaging, surreal satire. . . nothing short of magical. --Chicago Tribune
The eleventh installment in the Discworld fantasy series from New York Times bestselling author Terry Pratchett -- in which Death has been fired by the Auditors of Reality, and Ankh-Morpork's undead and underemployed set off to find him.
They say there are only two things you can count on. But that was before Death started pondering the existential. Of course, the last thing anyone needs is a squeamish Grim Reaper and soon his Discworld bosses have sent him off with best wishes and a well-earned gold watch. Now Death is having the time of his life, finding greener pastures where he can put his scythe to a whole new use.
But like every cutback in an important public service, Death's demise soon leads to chaos and unrest--literally, for those whose time was supposed to be up, like Windle Poons. The oldest geezer in the entire faculty of Unseen University--home of magic, wizardry, and big dinners--Windle was looking forward to a wonderful afterlife, not this boring been-there-done-that routine. To get the fresh start he deserves, Windle and the rest of Ankh-Morpork's undead and underemployed set off to find Death and save the world for the living(and everybody else, of course).
The Discworld novels can be read in any order, but Reaper Man is the second book in the Death series. The Death collection includes:
An Amazon Best of the Year Pick
An utterly original and compulsively readable detective story about a woman who uses her uncanny ability to analyze words and speech patterns to help solve crimes.
Tattooed, pierced, and a bit of a mess, Maggie Moore is a surprising genius when it comes to words, a savant able to solve any linguistic puzzle. The top student in her forensic linguistics class, she's tapped by local police to use her skills to decipher harrowing notes left by a stalker-turned-rapist--and succeeds brilliantly.
But when the daughter of a local mayor is abducted, Maggie isn't sure she's the right person to help the police solve the crime. Given what happened to her best childhood friend, Maggie just might be too close to this one.
Yet she knows the authorities in this rural south-Central Florida town cannot crack the case without her special skill. Along with her new best friend, a detective Jackson, Maggie begins to analyze the texts, emails, and verbal tics of various suspects . . . and comes to a disturbing conclusion that will rock this small community.
The seventh book in the award-winning comic fantasy Discworld series by Terry Pratchett.
Unlike most teenaged boys, Teppic isn't chasing girls and working at the mall. Instead he's just inherited the throne of the desert kingdom Djelibeybi--a job that's come a bit earlier than he expected (a turn of fate his recently departed father wasn't too happy about either).
It's bad enough being new on the job, but Teppic hasn't a clue as to what a pharaoh is supposed to do. After all, he's been trained at Ankh-Morpork's famed assassins' school, across the sea from the Kingdom of the Sun. First, there's the monumental task of building a suitable resting place for Dad--a pyramid to end all pyramids. Then there are the myriad administrative duties, such as dealing with mad priests, sacred crocodiles, and marching mummies. And to top it all off, the adolescent pharaoh discovers deceit and betrayal--not to mention a headstrong handmaiden--at the heart of his realm.
Sometimes being a god is no fun at all. . . .
Pratchett's Discworld yarns . . . are comic masterpieces. This one, unfailingly amusing and sometimes hysterically funny, is recommended for anyone with the slightest trace of a sense of humor. -- Kirkus Reviews
The sixteenth novel in the Discworld series from New York Times bestselling author Terry Pratchett -- in which Death's granddaughter Susan must take over the family business.
When her dear old Granddad-- the Grim Reaper himself--goes missing, Susan takes over the family business. The progeny of Death's adopted daughter and his apprentice, she shows real talent for the trade. That is, until a little string in her heart goes twang.
With a head full of dreams and a pocketful of lint, Imp the Bard lands in Ankh-Morpork, yearning to become a rock star. Determined to devote his life to music, the unlucky fellow soon finds that all his dreams are coming true. Well almost.
The Discworld novels can be read in any order, but Soul Music is the third book in the Death series and the sixteenth book in the Discworld series. The Death collection includes:
Superb.--Washington Post Book World
A cauldron of fun is brewing when a trio of the Discworld's witches, led by the delightfully iconoclastic Granny Weatherwax, turn their wands to royal politics in internationally bestselling author Sir Terry Pratchett's brilliant satire that echoes some of William Shakespeare's best-loved works.
Three witches on a lonely heath.
A king cruelly murdered, his throne usurped by his ambitious cousin.
A child heir and the royal crown, both missing.
The witches in Discworld don't have these kinds of problems--because they don't like being bossed about. They do, however, have Granny Weatherwax, the most highly regarded non-leader of their non-social coven.
But when the future of the Discworld is at stake, Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg, and Margat Garlick form an unlikely alliance to save a prince and restore him to the throne of Lancre. As they learn, though, it's far more complicated to stir up trouble in a castle than a certain Bard would have it, even when you've got a few unexpected spells up your sleeve.
The Discworld novels can be read in any order but Wyrd Sisters is the second book in the Witches series.
The Witches collection in order: