It is 2029. The Mandibles have been counting on a sizable fortune filtering down when their 97-year-old patriarch dies. Yet America's soaring national debt has grown so enormous that it can never be repaid. Under siege from an upstart international currency, the dollar is in meltdown. A bloodless world war will wipe out the savings of millions of American families. Their inheritance turned to ash, each family member must contend with disappointment,...

David Sedaris plays in the snow with his sisters. He goes on vacation with his family. He gets a job selling drinks. He attends his brother's wedding. He mops his sister's floor. He gives directions to a lost traveler. He eats a hamburger. He has his blood sugar tested. It all sounds so normal, doesn't it? In his newest collection of essays, David Sedaris lifts the corner of ordinary life, revealing the absurdity teeming below its surface. His...

Greg Heffley and his family escape to a tropical island resort for some much-needed rest and relaxation, but sun poisoning, stomach troubles, and venomous creatures all threaten their vacation.

Meg Langlsow volunteers to help her parents when the Caerphilly Garden Club sponsors its first annual rose show. But after a few hours of dealing with her parents' competitors, Meg is worried--someone is attempting to kill the wealthy woman on whose estate the competition is being held. Could it be one of the eccentric rose growers after the coveted Black Swan trophy? Or one of the animal welfare activists--which includes Meg's zoologist grandfather--resorting...

This is the long-awaited first novel from one of the most original and memorable writers working today. Things have never been easy for Oscar, a sweet but disastrously overweight, lovesick Dominican ghetto nerd. From his home in New Jersey, where he lives with his old-world mother and rebellious sister, Oscar dreams of becoming the Dominican J.R.R. Tolkien and, most of all, of finding love. But he may never get what he wants, thanks to the Fukœ--the...

The unexpected delivery of a large crate containing an Antarctic penguin changes the life and fortunes of Mr. Popper, a house painter obsessed by dreams of the Polar regions.

Confined to a nursing home and about to turn 100, Allan Karlsson, who has a larger-than-life back story as an explosives expert, climbs out of the window in his slippers and embarks on an unforgettable adventure involving thugs, a murderous elephant and a very friendly hot dog stand operator.

"In this book with no pictures, the reader has to say every silly word, no matter what"--

The local curmudgeon, whose beard and belly made him a natural for the role of Santa Claus, has been murdered. Now Meg and Chief Burke, who is playing one of the wise men in the annual Caerphilly Christmas parade, are faced with the two-fold mission of solving the murder and saving Christmas!

Rat brothers Louie and Ralphie Ratso try to prove they can be as rough and tough as their father in the Big City, but every time they try to show how tough they are, they end up accidentally doing good deeds instead.