“A delightful tour of the tearooms that dotted the nation in the first half of the twentieth century . . . [an] irresistible slice of American popular culture.” —Booklist The Gypsy Tea Kettle. Polly’s Cheerio Tea Room. The Mad Hatter. The Blue Lantern Inn. These are just a few of the many tea rooms—most owned and operated by women—that popped up across America at the turn of the last century, and exploded into a full-blown craze by the 1920s. Colorful, cozy, festive, and inviting, these new-fangled eateries offered women a way to celebrate their independence and creativity. Sparked by the Suffragist movement, Prohibition, and the rise of the automobile, tea rooms forever changed the way America eats out, and laid the groundwork for the modern small restaurant and coffee bar. In this lively, well-researched book, Jan Whitaker brings us back to the exciting days when countless American women dreamed of opening their own tea room—and many did. From the Bohemian streets of New York’s Greenwich Village to the high-society tea rooms of Chicago’s poshest hotels, from the Colonial roadside tea houses of New England to the welcoming bungalows of California, the book traces the social, artistic, and culinary changes the tea room helped bring about. Anyone interested in women’s history, the early days of the automobile, the Bohemian lives of artists in Greenwich Village, and the history of food and drink will revel in this spirited, stylish, and intimate slice of America’s past. “The book is both informative and clear-eyed, and leavened with wonderful illustrations.” —House & Garden

MANHUNTER robots attack a small planet and its people. Luckily, HAL JORDAN is close by!

This book is intended as a gift for someone grieving over the death of a loved one. The text is a poem left by a British soldier killed by an IRA landmine in 1989. It is apparently his adaptation of a poem written by Mary Frye in 1932. It is spoken from beyond the grave, and offers an extended consolation based on the idea that the dead have continuous life in nature's various manifestations - the wind, rain, snow, stars, and so on. Blue Lantern Studio displays their accustomed skill at finding unfamiliar images which bring deeper life to the text.

Comic stories by a Russian writer. In Hermit and Six Toes, chickens debate the nature of the world, which is ruled by bloodthirsty gods in white coats, while in Mid-Game, young Communist activists change sex to become hard-currency prostitutes.

The short stories of Victor Pelevin are as individual, reality-warping and endlessly inventive as his novels, moving effortlessly between different genres and moods, bursting with absurd wit and existential satire. In The Blue Lantern he brings together sex-change prostitutes, melancholy animals and a cabinful of young boys obsessed by death. Sidestepping the world we take for granted, these stories show in miniature the fantastical talent for which the Observer acclaimed Pelevin's work as 'the real thing, fiction of world class'.

“An atmospheric late-1930s adventure with old-time cinematic appeal. Fans of fast-paced, far-fetched action will lap it up as enthusiastically as Sam swallows his favorite brand of sardines.” —Kirkus Reviews Lantern Sam is the wise-cracking, sarcastic, talking cat (for those who can hear him, that is) who lives on board the Lake Erie Shoreliner train and is one of the best detectives no one knows about. He doesn’t have much patience for humans (unless they bring him sardines), but when 10-year-old traveler Henry can’t find his new friend, the exuberant Ellie, Sam’s enlisted to help. A ransom note is soon discovered and just like that, Sam and Henry are on the case, with the help of Clarence the Conductor (who supplies Sam’s sardines). But is Ellie still on board the train? Did the salesman with his trunk full of samples sneak her off? And why does that couple keep acting so suspiciously? Veteran middle-grade mystery author Michael D. Beil has crafted a hilarious and appealing adventure set in the 1930s that’s chock-full of quirky characters and red herrings, and all with an irresistible cat at its center.