Young, beautiful, and connected by blood to the most powerful families in England, Bess Throckmorton had as much influence over Queen Elizabeth I as any woman in the realm—but she risked everything to marry the most charismatic man of the day. The secret marriage between Bess and the Queen’s beloved Sir Walter Ralegh cost both of them their fortunes, their freedom, and very nearly their lives. Yet it was Bess, resilient, passionate, and politically shrewd, who would live to restore their name and reclaim her political influence. In this dazzling biography, Bess Ralegh finally emerges from her husband’s shadow to stand as a complex, commanding figure in her own right. Writing with grace and drama, Anna Beer brings Bess to life as a woman, a wife and mother, an intimate friend of poets and courtiers, and a skilled political infighter in Europe’s most powerful and most dangerous court. The only daughter of an ambitious aristocratic family, Bess was thrust at a tender age into the very epicenter of royal power when her parents secured her the position of Elizabeth’s Gentlewoman of the Privy Chamber. Bess proved to be a natural player on this stage of extravagant mythmaking and covert sexual politics, until she fell in love with the Queen’s Captain of the Guard, the handsome, virile, meteorically rising Ralegh. But their secret marriage, swiftly followed by the birth of their son, would have grave consequences for both of them. Brooking the Queen’s wrath and her husband’s refusal to acknowledge their marriage, Bess brilliantly stage-managed her social and political rehabilitation and emerged from prison as the leader of a brilliant, fast-living aristocratic set. She survived personal tragedy, the ruinous global voyages launched by her husband, and the vicious plots of high-placed enemies. Though Raleigh in the end fell afoul of court intrigue, Bess lived on into the reign of James I as a woman of hard-won wisdom and formidable power. With compelling historical insight, Anna Beer recreates here the vibrant pageant of Elizabethan England—the brilliant wit and vicious betrayals, the new discoveries and old rivalries, the violence and fierce sexuality of life at court. Peopled by poets and princes, spanning the reigns of two monarchs, moving between the palaces of London and the manor house outside the capital, My Just Desire is the portrait of a remarkable woman who lived at the center of an extraordinary time.

Now a new MTV series, from acclaimed director and executive producer Doug Liman (“Mr. and Mrs. Smith, “Swingers,” “Go,” “Bourne Identity”) Jason Strider is a twentysomething young man in the city, with an English degree from an Ivy League university, a very small apartment in the West Village, a vapid job as a receptionist at a casting agency—and no particular idea what to do with his life. On most evenings, Jason gets stoned and goes out, sometimes with his party-hearty school chum Tina and sometimes alone in the immemorial male quest to get laid or, if not, get hammered enough to really regret it the next day and be late for work. Then one night Jason has athletic, appliance-assisted intercourse with a cute girl named Jane—and ends up lending her his Dickies jeans. Many, many e-mails and text messages later, he is unable to reconnect with her and is reduced to the plaint “I just want my pants back.” How he does, in a most unexpected way, find those pants, and how maturity and mortality come to enter his slacker’s existence, form the matter of this smart, raunchily comic, and finally affecting first novel.

Kids can be super in so many ways. One morning, Nino findsa mask that gives him amazing powers. He can't wait to blast into action! Butno one will let him do all the super things he wants to do. Instead, everybodytells him stuff like, Put away yourdishes. Get dressed. BeCAREFUL. Will Nino ever get thechance to show just how super he can be? With empathy,exuberance and imagination reminiscent of Calvinand Hobbes and Where The Wild ThingsAre, dynamic writer-illustrator duo Andrew Katz and Tony Luzano tell astory all children will relate to, one about stretching their limits and discoveringjust what it means to be super.

Mommy and Daddy want to F%#& is a children's book for grown-ups! A hilarious story of a Mommy and Daddy who just need a little "alone time" to themselves, and will do almost anything to get it. If you're the parents of little kids - or know anybody who is - this book is for you!

Caldecott Honor-winner Rachel Isadora’s stunning oil paintings illustrate this delightful bedtime tale, set on the African plains. The sun has set and the moon is rising, and that means it’s bedtime. But not if Lala has a say—because she’s not ready to go to sleep! First she needs to say good night to the cat. And the goat. And the chickens. And, and, and . . . Lala’s adorable stalling strategy will ring true for all parents whose little ones aren’t ready to say goodbye to the day—and all will appreciate the wonderful culmination to the bedtime ritual.

RJ is struggling in math class and many of his assignments are missing or incomplet. With help he discovers how to stay organized so he doesn't have to do things over and over again.

If you desperately want to change your life, but have no idea what to change it to, then let this guide help you pinpoint your true desires. How do you figure out what you want? Just Tell Me What I Want is for anyone who has ever been told to “follow their bliss” and then immediately wanted to punch that person in the face. Maybe you feel like you should have things figured out by now. Maybe you think things should be better, but you don’t know how to get started. Maybe you would love to work really hard toward something, but aren’t totally sure what that something is. What if there was actually a way to get you pointed in the right direction? And what if it didn’t involve someone telling you to “follow your bliss?” Change can be scary. Change can feel risky. But taking a chance is always worth it. Just Tell Me What I Want helps readers take the right steps for them to figure out what they want.