The book of word records

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retold by Barbara Cohen

A somewhat humorous retelling, featuring Balaam's donkey, of the Bible story in which Balak, king of Moab, calls upon Balaam, the prophet, to curse the Israelites, but he blesses them instead.

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P.J. O'Rourke

An upbeat dissemination of Adam Smith's "The Wealth of Nations" and "The Theory of Moral Sentiments" condenses and illuminates the key points of the original works while discussing how their messages remain relevant.

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Alexander Welsh

"Welsh closely examines the two novels Dickens wrote after David Copperfield and reassesses the importance of this crucial stage of Dickens's career.". "In spite of the famous double narrative of Bleak House, says Welsh, the various actions and roles of the characters answer the needs of the protagonist much as they do in David Copperfield. Dickens redresses himself as the female narrator Esther Summerson and at the same time redirects his artistic energy in forms less explicitly personal. When he wrote Hard Times - which can be considered an epilogue to the much longer Bleak House - Dickens was able to conceive a plot neither centered around a hero nor fueled by the kind of wish fulfillment that structure had implied. Welsh's engaging discussion and original insights into two of Dickens's most successful novels will enhance the enthusiast's pleasure in reading these works and inspire longtime students of the novelist to think about Dickens's extraordinary accomplishments in new ways."--BOOK JACKET.

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Arturo Pérez-Reverte

Arturo Perez-Reverte has enthralled readers and criticsaround the globe with his Captain Alatriste series. Having sold four and a half million copies to date inthe Spanish-speaking world, the series has made Perez-Revertea literary superstar and his fictional seventeenth-century mercenarya national icon. The King’s Gold picks up in Seville, 1626. After serving withhonor at the bloody siege of Breda, Captain Alatriste and hisprotege, Inigo Balboa, have returned: battle-weary, short ofcash, and with few prospects for honest work. But the Spanishempire is as dangerous as ever, and it’s not long before Alatristereceives an intriguing offer of short-term employment. He andInigo must recruit a dozen swordsmen and mercenaries for arisky job involving a dazzling amount of contraband gold anda heavily guarded Spanish galleon returning from the WestIndies. The offer comes from the king himself, for at stake isnothing less than the Spanish Crown, and its dominion over thewealth of the Americas. The seedy taverns, the teeming prisons of Seville, the sanddunes of Guadalquivir find Alatriste, Inigo, and their motleyband of cutthroats embarking on a new adventure, one thatbrings them surprising new alliances and perilous encounterswith old enemies.