As the temperatures drop and the snow falls, settle in with a wintry read and join us for our Winter of Reading.
A mother and daughter travel from abroad to meet in Tokyo: they walk along the canals through the autumn evenings, escape the typhoon rains, share meals in small cafes and restaurants, and visit galleries to see some of the city's most radical modern art. All the while, they talk: about the weather, horoscopes, clothes, and objects, about family, distance, and memory. But uncertainties abound. Who is really speaking here? And what is the real reason behind this elliptical, perhaps even spectral journey?
The knights of the round table are alive in Vancouver, but when one winds up dead, it's clear the familiar stories have taken a left turn. Hildie, a Valkyrie and the investigator assigned to the case, wants to find the killer -- and maybe figure her life out while she's at it. On her short list of suspects is Wayne, an autistic college student and the reincarnation of Sir Gawain, who these days is just trying to survive in a world that wasn't made for him. To figure out the truth, Wayne and Hildie have to connect with dangerous forces: fallen knights, tricky runesmiths, the Wyrd Sisters of Gastown. And a hungry beast that stalks Wayne's dreams.
This book chronicles the campaigns for and against holding the 1976 Olympic Games at Denver, which became the first city to reject having the event, opposition having arisen among wealthier residents looking to protect their communities' natural beauty, young activists hoping to expand civic participation in the name of liberal causes, and Denver's excluded minority communities.
Explore the world's most thrilling snow adventures with the latest instalment in Lonely Planet's Epic series. From skiing British Columbia's Coast Mountains to ice-caving in Iceland and splitboarding the mountains of Hokkaido in Japan, this book contains 50 first-person stories plus a further 150 route ideas.
A poetry collection exploring the author's personal life, the passing of his parents, and his close relationship with his wife.
Ellie Christie is thrilled to begin a new chapter. She's recently returned to her tiny Colorado hometown to run her family's historic bookshop with her elder sister Meg and their beloved cat Agatha. Perched in a Swiss-style hamlet accessible by ski gondola and a twisty mountain road, the Book Chalet is a famed bibliophile destination known for its maze of shelves and relaxing reading lounge. At least, until trouble blows in with a wintry whiteout: a man is found dead on the gondola and a rockslide throws the town into lockdown--no one in, no one out.
One year ago, recent Portland transplant Ellie Oliver had her dream job in animation and a Christmas Eve meet-cute with a woman at a bookstore that led her to fall in love over the course of a single night. But after a betrayal the next morning and the loss of her job soon after, she finds herself adrift, alone, and desperate for money. Finding work at a local coffee shop, she's just getting through the days-until Andrew, the shop's landlord, proposes a shocking, drunken plan: a marriage of convenience that will give him his recent inheritance and alleviate Ellie's financial woes and isolation.
Your daily dose of nature doesn't have to retreat with the warm weather. The Joy of Winter Hiking is your ultimate guide to getting outdoors in the most underrated season. In fact, author Derek Dellinger believes you should be seeking outdoor adventure in colder months, not just in spite of snow and cloudy days, but because of these factors! From unmatched snow-capped views to the mental and physical health benefits of nature to precious wildlife sightings, the winter holds endless hiking opportunities.
Batman and Robin, Dick Grayson, face down the coldest winter Gotham City has ever seen. A winter so cold that Mr. Freeze, Victor Fries, no longer needs his containment suit to survive; he is in an element where he can thrive. Robin empathizes with Mr. Freeze, all Freeze wants to do is save his wife, Nora --but Batman warns Robin not to give his empathy to Victor Fries. He's a man who decided his own fate a long time ago and he deserves none of our warmth. And this winter... he will show his true wickedness and power. Mr. Freeze's most frigid story yet.
Mallory Moe is a twenty-five-year-old veteran Army mechanic, living with her girlfriend, Andrea, and working overnights at a gas station store while figuring out what's next. Andrea's off-grid cabin provides a perfect sanctuary for Mallory, a synesthete with a hypersensitivity to sound that can trigger flashbacks from her childhood. The getaway that's largely abandoned during the off season starts out idyllic, until Andrea's once-loving behavior turns controlling and abusive, and Mallory once again finds herself not wanting to go home.
During the languid days of the Christmas break, a group of thirtysomething friends from Oxford meet to welcome in the New Year together, a tradition they began as students ten years ago. For this vacation, they've chosen an idyllic and isolated estate in the Scottish Highlands--the perfect place to get away and unwind by themselves. The trip began innocently enough but after a decade, the weight of secret resentments has grown too heavy for the group's tenuous nostalgia to bear. Amid the boisterous revelry of New Year's Eve, the cord holding them together snaps.
Penny Paige is an aspiring novelist and current ne'er-do-well entertainment writer-slash-waitress. She knows she doesn't have this whole thing called life together. But she's got plans. Big plans. And they hinge on winning the coveted Malcolm Dagner Writer Fellowship for up-and-coming thriller authors. There's just one problem: Malcolm Dagner ended the fellowship, and he kinda hates humanity. After a series of heartbreaking events, he's grumpy, distrustful, and absolutely will not tolerate strangers coming to learn about how to write in his home. Oh, and he has writer's block.
Artist Miriam Blum has her decoupaged glitter ducks perfectly lined up. Only for one phone call to bring her whole life all crashing down. Her beloved and eccentric great-aunt has just died-leaving her part-owner of the only Jewish-owned Christmas tree farm in the country. Facing the family Miriam abandoned terrifies her. But facing the farm's unbelievably sexy zaftig manager is another complication entirely.
In the summer of 1913, the wooden-hulled brigantine Karluk departed Canada for the Arctic Ocean. At the helm was Captain Bob Bartlett, considered the world's greatest living ice navigator. The expedition's visionary leader was a flamboyant impresario named Vilhjalmur Stefansson hungry for fame. Just six weeks after the Karluk departed, giant ice floes closed in around her. As the ship became icebound, Stefansson disembarked with five companions and struck out on what he claimed was a 10-day caribou hunting trip. Most on board would never see him again. Twenty-two men and an Inuit woman with two small daughters now stood on a mile-square ice floe, their ship and their original leader gone.
Li Juan and her mother own a small convenience store in the Altai Mountains in Northwestern China, where she writes about her life among grasslands and snowy peaks. To her neighbors' surprise, Li decides to join a family of Kazakh herders as they take their 30 boisterous camels, 500 sheep and over 100 cattle and horses to pasture for the winter. As she journeys across the vast, seemingly endless sand dunes, she helps herd sheep, rides horses, chases after camels, builds an underground home using manure, gathers snow for water, and more.
Japanese embroidery artist Alice Makabe explores and celebrates her love of pattern through floral embroidery. Organized by season, you'll find soft, muted motifs to embroider in springtime, refreshing patterns for summer, warm, rich color combinations for autumn and bold, vivid hues to brighten up the winter.
We tend to think of silence as the absence of sound, but it is actually the void where we can hear the sublime notes of nature. In Seeing Silence, McBride reveals the wonders of these hushed places in spectacular imagery. Often showing beauty from vantages where no photographer has ever stood, this seven-continent visual tour of global quietude will both inspire and calm.
Robert 'Doc' Wright, a veteran of Antarctic surveying, was there on the ice when the worst happened. He holds within him the complete story of that night--but depleted by the disaster, Wright is no longer able to communicate the truth. Instead, in the wake of the catastrophic expedition, he faces the most daunting adventure of his life: learning a whole new way to be in the world. Meanwhile Anna, his wife, must suddenly scramble to navigate the sharp and unexpected contours of life as a caregiver.
Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Sûreté du Québec and his team of investigators are called in to the scene of a suspicious death in a rural village south of Montreal. Jane Neal, a local fixture in the tiny hamlet of Three Pines, just north of the U.S. border, has been found dead in the woods. The locals are certain it's a tragic hunting accident and nothing more, but Gamache smells something foul in these remote woods, and is soon certain that Jane Neal died at the hands of someone much more sinister than a careless bowhunter.
In August 1930, Henry George Watkins (nicknamed Gino), a 23-year-old explorer, led thirteen scientists and explorers on an ambitious journey to the east coast of Greenland and its vast and forbidding interior. Their mission: chart and survey the region and establish a permanent meteorological base 8,000 feet high on the ice cap. That plan turned into an epic survival ordeal when August Courtauld, manning the station solo through the winter, became entombed by drifting snow.
Winter adventures require warm, hearty meals enjoyed with friends next to a wood stove. The call of the wild has never tasted this good. When the temperature drops, out come the winter sweaters, and our appetites for snowy adventures and warm, hearty meals.
When famous wildlife photographer Narumi comes to Hokkaido to take photos of the elusive "snow fairies," he ends up stranded in a snow storm. After being rescued, he takes up residence in local farmer Haruki's house for the winter. As polar opposites, sophisticated and outgoing city slicker Narumi and country boy Haruki have a lot to learn from one another. After Haruki shows an interest, Narumi teaches him about photography and before he realizes it, he finds himself the sole subject of Haruki's new hobby. After a winter spent so close together, what will the spring thaw bring?
The Winter Garden is a celebration of the coldest season, with stunning photography that captures the very best that winter has to offer. Discover the bulbs that will bloom and the ornamental grasses that will dance in the winter breeze; create unique winter flower arrangements with cut stems and dried flowers; and learn how to design a garden with winter beauty at its heart. With tips on supporting wildlife over winter, the best cold-weather crops, and "recipes" for creating winter container displays, this essential book will make you see your winter garden in a whole new light.
After years of city life, Orla and Shaw Bennett are ready for the quiet of New York's Adirondack mountains--or at least, they think they are. Settling into the perfect farmhouse with their two children, they are both charmed and unsettled by the expanse of their land, the privacy of their individual bedrooms, and the isolation of life a mile from any neighbor. But none of the Bennetts could expect what lies waiting in the woods, where secrets run dark and deep.
In this fiendishly clever blend of classic and modern murder mystery. Ernie Cunningham, crime fiction aficionado, is a reluctant guest at his family reunion. Family reunions aren't for everyone, of course. But Ern's part of a notorious crime family--and three years ago, he witnessed his brother kill a man and immediately turned him in to the police. Now Ern's brother is being released from prison and the family is gathering to welcome him home. As if that weren't bad enough, the reunion is taking place at a remote mountain resort. The day before Ern's brother is set to arrive, a man's body is found frozen on the slopes.
Lauren Fox is the bookkeeper for Cold World, a tourist destination that's always a winter wonderland despite being located in humid Orlando, Florida. Sure, it's ranked way below any of the trademarked amusement parks and maybe foot traffic could be better. But it's a fun place to work, even if "fun" isn't exactly Lauren's middle name.
Three ordinary people risk everything for a chance at redemption in this audacious, utterly gripping novel of catastrophe and survival at the end of the world. The imminent dangers faced by Hannah, Meg, and Carter are each one part of the puzzle. Lurking in their shadows is an even greater threat- one that threatens to consume all of humanity.
Six days after giving birth, a polar bear named Aurora got up and walked away from her den at the Columbus Zoo, leaving her tiny squealing cub to fend for herself. Hours later, Aurora still hadn't returned. The cub was furless and blind, and with her temperature dropping dangerously, the zookeepers entrusted with her care felt they had no choice: They would have to raise one of the most dangerous predators in the world by hand.
Inspired from the heart of snowy alpine winters, Lindor's recipes are simple and easy for anyone to follow. These are winter warmers that are perfect to share with family and friends, or just for a cozy night in front of the fire. From nut loaves and crispbreads to winter soups and salads to hearty roasts and pasta plates, Snow Food's extensive range of crowd-pleasing dishes will gratify from morning to night.
In 1846, a group of emigrants bound for California face a choice: continue on their planned route or take a shortcut into the wilderness. Eighty-nine of them opt for the untested trail, a decision that plunges them into danger and desperation and, finally, the unthinkable. From extraordinary poet and novelist Allan Wolf comes a riveting retelling of the ill-fated journey of the Donner party across the Sierra Nevadas during the winter of 1846-1847.