"When Christopher Columbus stumbled upon America in 1492, the Italians had no pasta with tomato sauce, the Chinese had no spicy Szechuan cuisine, and the Aztecs in Mexico were eating tacos filled with live insects instead of beef. In this lively, always surprising history of the world through a gourmet's eyes, Raymond Sokolov explains how all of us -- Europeans, Americans, Africans, and Asians -- came to eat what we eat today. He journeys with the reader to far-flung ports of the former Spanish empire in search of the points where the menus of two hemispheres merged. In the process he shows that our idea of "traditional" cuisine in contrast to today's inventive new dishes ignores the food revolution that has been going on for the last 500 years. Why We Eat What We Eat is an exploration of the astonishing changes in the world's tastes that let us partake in a delightful, and edifying, feast for the mind."--Publisher's description.

This work brings together for the first time the interpretation of the best authorities respecting the evidences, historical, archaeologic, inscriptive, and deductive, of Norse discovery, occupation, and colonization of America five centuries before the time of Columbus. The subject, though it has engaged in a general way the attention of historians for a long time, has only within recent years been brought into great prominence by a serious study of the Saga writers of Iceland and Scandinavia. The beginning of this interest dates from 1837 in which year was published, by the Royal Danish Society of Northern Antiquaries, a large quarto volume of old Icelandic documents, in which the proofs were set forth that the discovery credited to Columbus was anticipated by sea-roving Norsemen five hundred years earlier. This great work was edited by Prof. C. C. Rafn, founder of the Royal Danish Society, and was the result of painstaking labor and expensive research by that very distinguished antiquarian.

A page-turning novel that is also an exploration of the great philosophical concepts of Western thought, Jostein Gaarder's Sophie's World has fired the imagination of readers all over the world, with more than twenty million copies in print. One day fourteen-year-old Sophie Amundsen comes home from school to find in her mailbox two notes, with one question on each: "Who are you?" and "Where does the world come from?" From that irresistible beginning, Sophie becomes obsessed with questions that take her far beyond what she knows of her Norwegian village. Through those letters, she enrolls in a kind of correspondence course, covering Socrates to Sartre, with a mysterious philosopher, while receiving letters addressed to another girl. Who is Hilde? And why does her mail keep turning up? To unravel this riddle, Sophie must use the philosophy she is learning—but the truth turns out to be far more complicated than she could have imagined.

David Nolan is an award-winning journalist who's authored biographies on subjects ranging from Simon Cowell to the Sex Pistols. He's also written for newspapers, magazines, radio and television.

NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • Celebrated food blogger and best-selling cookbook author Deb Perelman knows just the thing for a Tuesday night, or your most special occasion—from salads and slaws that make perfect side dishes (or a full meal) to savory tarts and galettes; from Mushroom Bourguignon to Chocolate Hazelnut Crepe. “Innovative, creative, and effortlessly funny." —Cooking Light Deb Perelman loves to cook. She isn’t a chef or a restaurant owner—she’s never even waitressed. Cooking in her tiny Manhattan kitchen was, at least at first, for special occasions—and, too often, an unnecessarily daunting venture. Deb found herself overwhelmed by the number of recipes available to her. Have you ever searched for the perfect birthday cake on Google? You’ll get more than three million results. Where do you start? What if you pick a recipe that’s downright bad? With the same warmth, candor, and can-do spirit her award-winning blog, Smitten Kitchen, is known for, here Deb presents more than 100 recipes—almost entirely new, plus a few favorites from the site—that guarantee delicious results every time. Gorgeously illustrated with hundreds of her beautiful color photographs, The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook is all about approachable, uncompromised home cooking. Here you’ll find better uses for your favorite vegetables: asparagus blanketing a pizza; ratatouille dressing up a sandwich; cauliflower masquerading as pesto. These are recipes you’ll bookmark and use so often they become your own, recipes you’ll slip to a friend who wants to impress her new in-laws, and recipes with simple ingredients that yield amazing results in a minimum amount of time. Deb tells you her favorite summer cocktail; how to lose your fear of cooking for a crowd; and the essential items you need for your own kitchen. From salads and slaws that make perfect side dishes (or a full meal) to savory tarts and galettes; from Mushroom Bourguignon to Chocolate Hazelnut Crepe Cake, Deb knows just the thing for a Tuesday night, or your most special occasion. Look for Deb Perelman’s latest cookbook, Smitten Kitchen Keepers!

'Armfield is an enormous, gut-wrenching talent.' Daisy Johnson, author of Everything Under 'salt slow is exemplary. A distinct new gothic, melancholy, powerful and poised.' China Miéville, author of The City & The City This collection of short stories is about women and their experiences in society, about bodies and the bodily, mapping the skin and bones of its characters through their experiences of isolation, obsession and love. Throughout the collection, women become insects, men turn to stone, a city becomes insomniac and bodies are picked apart to make up better ones. The mundane worlds of schools and sea side towns are invaded and transformed, creating a landscape which is constantly shifting to hold on to the bodies of its inhabitants. Blending the mythic and the gothic, the collection considers characters in motion – turning away, turning back or simply turning into something new. From Julia Armfield, the winner of The White Review Short Story Prize 2018, Salt Slow is an extraordinary collection of short stories that are sure to dazzle and shock.