Why the modern world forgot how to sleep Why is sleep frustrating for so many people? Why do we spend so much time and money managing and medicating it, and training ourselves and our children to do it correctly? In Wild Nights, Benjamin Reiss finds answers in sleep's hidden history -- one that leads to our present, sleep-obsessed society, its tacitly accepted rules, and their troubling consequences. Today we define a good night's sleep very narrowly: eight hours in one shot, sealed off in private bedrooms, children apart from parents. But for most of human history, practically no one slept this way. Tracing sleep's transformation since the dawn of the industrial age, Reiss weaves together insights from literature, social and medical history, and cutting-edge science to show how and why we have tried and failed to tame sleep. In lyrical prose, he leads readers from bedrooms and laboratories to factories and battlefields to Henry David Thoreau's famous cabin at Walden Pond, telling the stories of troubled sleepers, hibernating peasants, sleepwalking preachers, cave-dwelling sleep researchers, slaves who led nighttime uprisings, rebellious workers, spectacularly frazzled parents, and utopian dreamers. We are hardly the first people, Reiss makes clear, to chafe against our modern rules for sleeping. A stirring testament to sleep's diversity, Wild Nights offers a profound reminder that in the vulnerability of slumber we can find our shared humanity. By peeling back the covers of history, Reiss recaptures sleep's mystery and grandeur and offers hope to weary readers: as sleep was transformed once before, so too can it change today.

The Taming of the Shrew Robust and bawdy, The Taming of the Shrew captivates audiences with outrageous humor as Katharina, the shrew, engages in a contest of wills–and love–with her bridegroom, Petruchio, in a comedy of unmatched theatrical brilliance, filled with visual gags and witty repartee. A Midsummer Night's Dream Fairy magic, love spells, and an enchanted wood turn the mismatched rivalries of four young lovers into a marvelous mix-up of desire and enchantment, all touched by Shakespeare’s inimitable vision of the intriguing relationship between dreams and the waking world. The Merchant of Venice This dark comedy of love and money contains one of the truly mythic figures in literature–Shylock, the Jewish moneylender. The “pound of flesh” he demands as payment of Antonio’s debt has become a universal metaphor for vengeance. Here, pathos and farce combine with moral complexity and romantic entanglements, to display the extraordinary power and range of Shakespeare at his best. Twelfth Night Set in a topsy-turvy world like a holiday revel, this comedy juxtaposes a romantic plot involving separated twins and mistaken identity with a more satiric one about the humiliation of a pompous killjoy. The hilarity is touched with melancholy, and the play ends, not with laughter, but with a clown’s plaintive song. Each Edition Includes: • Comprehensive explanatory notes • Vivid introductions and the most up-to-date scholarship • Clear, modernized spelling and punctuation, enabling contemporary readers to understand the Elizabethan English • Completely updated, detailed bibliographies and performance histories • An interpretive essay on film adaptations of the play, along with an extensive filmography

­Arminita Robicheaux—Cinderella’s daughter—discovers that the best way to happily ever after is doing what you can to make your own fairy tale come true in this enchanting follow-up to Charmed, I’m Sure that’s perfect for fans of The Descendants! Arminita Robicheaux is convinced her parents are out to ruin her life. Not only did they move Minty to New York City right before the school year started, but her mom’s late-night infomercials for a variety of cleaning products follow Minty wherever she goes. Oh, and did she mention that her mother happens to be Ella Robicheaux—a.k.a. Cinderella? And Minty’s eccentric aunties—who may or may not have made Ella clean and wait on them while growing up—decide to cast Minty’s entire class in their new commercial for their “Comfortably Ever After” shoe line, complete with raps that make Minty want to run far, far away. But Minty’s new friend has a perfect distraction; the boy-band mega-star Theo Downy who is staying in town for a series of concerts. If Minty can find a way to get her shoe designs in front of Theo, maybe she can get tickets to the sold-out show. Of course, things don’t go according to plan, and Minty ends up leaving a big clue behind… Like mother, like daughter!

"They are known as the Rake Slayers ... Tired of the different standards applied to the men who flout society's rules, three young ladies seek a little primitive justice and hatch a plan to bring a few of London's most notorious rakes up to snuff before refusing them. But they soon learn exactly what it is that makes rakes so dangerous."--Back cover.

Meet Robin Page: outcast sorceress, mythic history buff, unapologetic bookworm, and the last person you'd expect to command the rarest demon in the long history of summoning. Though she holds his leash, this demon can't be controlled ... but can he be tamed?