FAMOUS MORAL STORIES FROM PANCHTANTRA

A New York Times Notable Book for 2011 A Washington Post Notable Nonfiction Book for 2011 The first authoritative biography of Kurt Vonnegut Jr., a writer who changed the conversation of American literature. In 2006, Charles Shields reached out to Kurt Vonnegut in a letter, asking for his endorsement for a planned biography. The first response was no ("A most respectful demurring by me for the excellent writer Charles J. Shields, who offered to be my biographer"). Unwilling to take no for an answer, propelled by a passion for his subject, and already deep into his research, Shields wrote again and this time, to his delight, the answer came back: "O.K." For the next year—a year that ended up being Vonnegut's last—Shields had access to Vonnegut and his letters. And So It Goes is the culmination of five years of research and writing—the first-ever biography of the life of Kurt Vonnegut. Vonnegut resonates with readers of all generations from the baby boomers who grew up with him to high-school and college students who are discovering his work for the first time. Vonnegut's concise collection of personal essays, Man Without a Country, published in 2006, spent fifteen weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and has sold more than 300,000 copies to date. The twenty-first century has seen interest in and scholarship about Vonnegut's works grow even stronger, and this is the first book to examine in full the life of one of the most influential iconoclasts of his time.

With work by 150 writers and artists, The Book of Cats is the most comprehensive cat anthology published. It is extravagantly illustrated with over a hundred pictures, 16 in full colour.The Book of Cats includes:P.G. Wodehouse's Webster, Saki's Tobermory, Kipling's Cat that Walked by himself, T.S. Eliot's Macavity and Growltiger, Christopher Smart's cat Jeoffrey, and Don Marquis's mehitabel.The cat classics of Walter de la Mare, W.W. Jacobs and Edgar Allan Poe.Catty stories from Patricia Highsmith and Jean-Paul Sartre.Cat tales by Ted Hughes, Paul Gallico and Giles Gordon.The cats of Robert Southey, Théophile Gauthier andFeline thoughts by Aldous Huxley, Henry Fielding and Mark Twain.Cat poems by Robert Graves, Marianne Moore, Dorothy L. Sayers, Thomas Gray and Alan Sillitoe.Pussycat rhymes by Ogden Nash, Stevie Smith and Roger McGough.Cat paintings by Bonnard, Chagall, Lucien Freud, Gainsborough, Hockney, Gwen John, Paul Klee and Douanier Rousseau.In all, a rich, affectionate medley of prose, poetry and picture in praise of that most elusive and fascinating of creatures - the cat.