Sports fans are a devoted bunch, win or lose. Millions sit in the wind and the cold, watching their team slip ever further from the playoffs--only to come back for more next year. What is it that keeps them going? This book, published just before the Cubs ended the longest active drought in pro sports, features more than 100 loyal followers of 23 teams who explain their reasons for never giving up. They tell stories of devotion and determination: the Toronto Maple Leafs fans who got married, on the ice, before a game; the Sacramento Kings supporters who fought to keep their team from leaving town; and the fans of Mississippi State football with their never-say-die cowbells. For these fans, optimism outweighs disappointment.

Advertisements for Myself, a diverse and freewheeling tour through Mailer’s early career, covers the many subjects with which he’d grapple for the rest of his life: sex, race, politics, literature, and the systems of power that shape American life. There are lists, interviews, poems, confessions, postscripts, two Tables of Contents (one chronological, one thematic), undergraduate short stories, fragments from a one-act play—and of course, Mailer’s classic, groundbreaking essays, including “The White Negro (Superficial Reflections on the Hipster)”, perhaps Mailer’s most prescient early polemic, and “Mind of an Outlaw”, which lends its name to Mailer’s latest, and first posthumous, collection. A playful, unclassifiable snapshot of American culture at the end of the fifties, Advertisements for Myself, is also a cornerstone of Mailer’s long and prolific career: “In this volume,” declared The New York Times in 1959, “Mr. Mailer, at 36, shows once again that he is the most versatile if not the most significant talent of his generation.”

'A moving novel with unforgettable characters' - Closer 'A brilliant read' - Bella Sometimes you have to fall apart to become whole again... Kate is a successful interior designer with two wonderful kids. Kate is also a recent widow, a grieving daughter and worrying about how to pay the bills. Her life might look perfect from the outside, but making things look better than they are is just how Kate copes. Her mother, Jean, worries about her - but she has her own problems. A mystery from the past has come back to haunt her, and she decides now is the time to put the pieces together. When romance makes an appearance in both their lives, can mother and daughter lay the past to rest - and begin again? 'A great piece of storytelling - it swept me away' Sue Moorcroft on A Gift in December

Perfect for fans of Wednesday and Monster High, the second book of this wickedly funny graphic novel series follows an aspiring witch and her two best friends as they try to have the most epic Halloween ever…while also dealing with pesky do-gooders, escaped monsters, and one harsh curfew. Halloween is hella fun when you’re a monster! Or at least it used to be, before those junior Helsings got in the way of Gwen and her friends. Now, on top of that, the whole town is in lockdown, with a curfew and everything. Gwen thinks it’s time to ditch suburbia and finally head to the Hallowlands. But Miles and Sloane are determined to save their “normie” holiday. The vampire and werewolf scramble to fulfill their sacred need to party. The plan: throw the most epic bash this town has ever seen . . . and then scare everyone who shows up! But Gwen has plans of her own. Fed up with being told no, she decides to use her magic to break into the Hallowlands once and for all. And she quickly discovers it’s as strange as she always dreamed, but also as dangerous as her friends have warned. Luckily, she soon meets a fellow witch who can be her guide through the bizarre land and also help level up her powers. But could it all be too good to be true? The fate of these three best friends’ Halloween night hangs in the balance—but will it end in trick or treat?

The author recounts her experiences growing up in North Dakota from 1928 to 1937 the years of the Dust bowl and Depression