A compendium of fifty short stories ranging from politics and travels to tales of adventure and romance. Their topics vary exuberantly from the 9/11 origins of the croissant and the bagel pastries over three-hundred years ago to what life in the universe will be like a thousand years from now. But they also tell of beloved pets and of broken hearts. They make you laugh and may move you to tears. They make you think and see things you never knew or overlooked before. Life in all its nakedness, vicissitudes, and mysteries.

Every time their brother turned a cartwheel, golden oranges fell from his pockets, along with sugar sweets in gold and silver paper. Schnitzle, Schnotzle & Schnootzle

More than 75 satisfying recipes to warm body and soul as you snuggle up against the cold by the fireside. Winter is the perfect time to stay indoors and prepare comforting home-cooked meals. Lizzie Kamenetzky takes her inspiration from snow-covered mountains, ski towns, and cozy winter cabins, to bring you recipes that are perfect for snuggling up against the cold in front of a crackling log fire. Enjoy these delicious recipes from dawn till dusk. Start your day with coffee and a sugar-dusted breakfast bake, still warm from the oven. Rustle up a hearty winter salad or serve a bowl of steaming soup for lunch, as you look forward to a satisfying plate of dumplings, or a rich casserole come the evening. Create creamy gratins, tasty supper skillets, slow-cooked meats, and deep-filled pies, or entertain your friends with a traditional cheese fondue. Finish your indulgent meal with a rustic fruit tart, or a baked soufflé spiked with a little warming winter spirit. Whatever your craving, you will find the perfect recipe to satisfy it here, as winter food has never been so comforting or delicious.

Ghost stories at Christmas can be traced back to pagan times - Yule and Saturnalia - when the Winter Solstice (like Hallowe'en and Wulpurgis Night) was viewed as a moment in space and time where the thinness of the boundaries between the supernatural and human worlds became remarkably plastic, and all manner of strange things were said to be seen and heard in the winter air. while we no longer have the old stories spoken in the old homes around the old fires by the old myth-keepers, let us sit around and enjoy some of the stories that would have sent shivers up the great-great-grandchildren of those little ones sitting around the Yule fire - the supernatural literature of the Victorians and Edwardians. Enclosed in this volume are tales of dark winter nights and harrowing encounters between the worlds of Man and the Hereafter. There are tales of cursed antiquities, otherworldly toy stores, possessed dolls, deals with the devil, and murderous cabin fever. I hope your Christmas is - as M. R. James put it "may be the cheerfuller for a story-book" which takes you back to a different world - one not mapped out, trending, or tweeted about, one dark, forbidding, and evocative. Perhaps I may be a luddite for saying it, but I find something strangely comforting in that. Something consoling and hushing and chilling. Perhaps you will, too.

Original and classic stories of adventure, ghosts, and all the things that you must worry about the next time you hear something go bump in the night.