From the New York Times best-selling author of Cod and Salt, a definitive history of paper and the astonishing ways it has shaped today’s world. Paper is one of the simplest and most essential pieces of human technology. For the past two millennia, the ability to produce it in ever more efficient ways has supported the proliferation of literacy, media, religion, education, commerce, and art; it has formed the foundation of civilizations, promoting revolutions and restoring stability. By tracing paper’s evolution from antiquity to the present, with an emphasis on the contributions made in Asia and the Middle East, Mark Kurlansky challenges common assumptions about technology’s influence, affirming that paper is here to stay. Paper will be the commodity history that guides us forward in the twenty-first century and illuminates our times.

The charming genealogical gumshoes in the cozy southern Family History Mystery series give new meaning to the old saying “keep the home fires burning” when their investigation into a long-ago house fire leads to a modern-day murder. It’s not just politics as usual when genealogists Sophreena McClure and Esme Sabatier are hired to create scrapbook tributes for a former North Carolina senator’s intricate family heritage and illustrious career. Sifting through the ashes of his past, they discover his baby brother perished in a suspicious fire that burned down his childhood home. Still saddened by his late parents’ steadfast conviction—against all evidence to the contrary—that the fire was cover for a kidnapping, the senator wants this rumor put to rest once and for all. So with only snapshots of the evidence, Soph and Esme are determined to smother all speculation about the decades-old tragedy. The party lines are drawn when a shocking present-day murder turns up new candidates for the crime—including some suspects from the senator’s inner circle. Are the sleuthing scrapbookers trying to pin down a killer as adept at making laws as breaking them?

New York Times Bestseller Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize Winner of the J. Anthony Lukas Award "Nimbly splices together history, science, reporting and personal experiences into a taut and cautiously hopeful narrative.… Egan’s book is bursting with life (and yes, death)." —Robert Moor, New York Times Book Review The Great Lakes—Erie, Huron, Michigan, Ontario, and Superior—hold 20 percent of the world’s supply of surface fresh water and provide sustenance, work, and recreation for tens of millions of Americans. But they are under threat as never before, and their problems are spreading across the continent. The Death and Life of the Great Lakes is prize-winning reporter Dan Egan’s compulsively readable portrait of an ecological catastrophe happening right before our eyes, blending the epic story of the lakes with an examination of the perils they face and the ways we can restore and preserve them for generations to come.

For fans of Gillian Flynn, Caroline Cooney, and R.L. Stine comes Whispers from the Dead from four-time Edgar Allen Poe Young Adult Mystery Award winner Joan Lowery Nixon. Only Sarah senses the horror. The minute she steps through the doorway of her family’s new home, Sarah feels a smothering cold mist, and hears the echo of a scream and a heartbreaking whisper in Spanish, “Help me!” Sarah feels compelled to find out who is trying to reach her. But can she uncover the mysteries of the past before terror strikes again? “A master at creating compelling suspense novels, Nixon has written yet another carefully plotted, subtly terrifying thriller.” –Publishers Weekly

"Make no bones about it, genealogist Sophreena McClure and her psychic business partner Esme Sabatier have a lot of dirty work ahead of them. "The Forgotten man," a skeleton found inside of an unusual coffin in a nearby backyard, is creating a buzz around their small town. But it's the fresh corpse of a mysterious young woman that soon grabs everyone's attention ..."--Page 4 of cover.

Jennie's connection with her twin brother, Toby, grew stronger after he died in 1864. Now Jennie must rely on her ability to communicate with his spirit to find out what has happened to her beloved fiancé, Will, while he was off at war. The army says he died honorably in battle. But his brother confides that Will became a violent criminal and died in a prison camp. Jennie begins to doubt that anyone is telling her the truth. With the help of a spiritualist photographer, the spirit of her dead fiancé, and the clues she discovers and keeps in her scrapbook, Jennie must put together the pieces of this mystery before she loses her home, her fortune, and possibly her life.

Piecing together the evidence . . . Genealogist Sophreena McClure is an expert at unearthing other people’s secrets. Using old documents and photographs, Soph and her business partner, Esme Sabatier—also a gifted medium—trace family histories and create heritage scrapbooks. Their latest client, Dorothy Pritchett Porter, is thrilled with their research into Morningside’s most prestigious clan. But before Dorothy can proudly display her new scrapbooks on Founders’ Day, she’s found murdered. It seems the ties that bind can also strangle, for Dorothy has been killed using the Pritchett family pearls. Pegged as prime suspects, Sophreena and Esme turn their investigative skills from the dearly departed to the alive and dangerous, hoping to pin down the real killer among Dorothy’s kinfolk. Sophreena’s scrapbooking club members, crafty in more ways than one, pitch in to help. As the Pritchett ancestral roots turn out to be more tangled than anyone suspected, Sophreena wonders just how many skeletons lurk in this family closet—and whether she and Esme are destined to join them. . . .