Follows the escapades of self-centered Rat and kindly (but dumb) Pig and their pals, with commentary from the author.

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “The story Unger weaves with those earlier accounts and his original reporting is fresh, illuminating and more alarming than the intelligence channel described in the Steele dossier.”—The Washington Post House of Trump, House of Putin offers the first comprehensive investigation into the decades-long relationship among Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, and the Russian Mafia that ultimately helped win Trump the White House. It is a chilling story that begins in the 1970s, when Trump made his first splash in the booming, money-drenched world of New York real estate, and ends with Trump’s inauguration as president of the United States. That moment was the culmination of Vladimir Putin’s long mission to undermine Western democracy, a mission that he and his hand-selected group of oligarchs and Mafia kingpins had ensnared Trump in, starting more than twenty years ago with the massive bailout of a string of sensational Trump hotel and casino failures in Atlantic City. This book confirms the most incredible American paranoias about Russian malevolence. To most, it will be a hair-raising revelation that the Cold War did not end in 1991—that it merely evolved, with Trump’s apartments offering the perfect vehicle for billions of dollars to leave the collapsing Soviet Union. In House of Trump, House of Putin, Craig Unger methodically traces the deep-rooted alliance between the highest echelons of American political operatives and the biggest players in the frightening underworld of the Russian Mafia. He traces Donald Trump’s sordid ascent from foundering real estate tycoon to leader of the free world. He traces Russia’s phoenix like rise from the ashes of the post–Cold War Soviet Union as well as its ceaseless covert efforts to retaliate against the West and reclaim its status as a global superpower. Without Trump, Russia would have lacked a key component in its attempts to return to imperial greatness. Without Russia, Trump would not be president. This essential book is crucial to understanding the real powers at play in the shadows of today’s world. The appearance of key figures in this book—Paul Manafort, Michael Cohen, and Felix Sater to name a few—ring with haunting significance in the wake of Robert Mueller’s report and as others continue to close in on the truth.

"These strips appeared in newspapers from February 28, 2011, to December 4, 2011" -- verso.

The Pearls gang returns with characteristically misanthropic humor (but with more leather): no self-aggrandizing is too flagrant for Rat, no subject is too erudite for Goat, and no sensory input is too basic for Pig. All topics are fair game for Stephan Pastis and his brass-knuckle punch lines. Comic strip censors, apathetic baristas, and IRS employees are all strongly advised to laugh or get out of the way. Pearls Hogs the Road also features three comic strips illustrated by the legendary Bill Watterson of Calvin and Hobbes, who ended a 19-year hiatus from the comics page to collaborate with Pastis.

This is not your grandmother’s gift book. Sarcastic with a cutting wit, this is Stephan Pastis’s particularly funny take on the anti side of friendship, shown through sarcastic comments juxtaposed with sappy photographs. Looking for a kind and thoughtful gift to share with a bud? Well, then you’ve picked the wrong book. But if you’re looking for an antidote to the sweet and sappy inspirational tripe that clogs gift book shelves, you’ve just hit pay dirt. Bless your sociopathic heart.

True to Pearls Before Swine tradition, the latest cartoon collection brims with Stephan Pastis’s cynical humor, sharp wit, and clever commentary. Always together—and sometimes with their fellow funny-page characters—the regular Pearls clan weighs in on everything from modern technology to current events to human nature. All the members of the skewed gang are here as Zebra engages in a never-ending war of neighborly hate with the Crocs. As always, Goat offers a voice of reason amid the ongoing chaos that Pastis creates, either from behind the pen or as a character within the strip itself. Pastis’s latest collection is sure to add to the funny-page phenomenon, giving Pearls fans more of what they know and love: satirical logic and hilarious wit. Includes all cartoons from the collections Breaking Stephan and King of the Comics.