"Stella loves books so much, she starts her own library--but then a storm threatens to destroy everything"--

The Mermaid Did It is the 4th book in the Murder by the Sea series by Carol Ann Ross. A trip to Weeki Wachee in Florida proves to be very enlightening as Carrie and Don are led to this Mermaid Capital of the world, a resort in Florida founded in the late 1940s. Who would have thought mermaids existed? Aren’t they fantasy? Oh, they are alive and well and are doing just fine in Florida, a few of them have even made their way to Topsail. But there seems to be different kinds of mermaids, not all are sweet, little Disney characters. Some are like those in Greek mythology, bent on destruction. Carrie wrestles with how anyone can be so manipulative, so vain, so cruel. Someone with a conscience could never be that way. A cooler Don offers explanations Carrie can’t accept. Mirror, mirror on the wall. Who’s the prettiest mermaid of all? She takes you down, Oh, how she takes you down. Oh, how she makes you want to scream. This momma from hell, This mermaid, Estelle.

RADICALLY REIMAGINE THE SECOND HALF OF LIFE “There can be a certain perverse pleasure, as well as a sense of rightness and beauty, in insisting on flowering just when the world expects you to become quiet and diminish.” — from the book For any woman over fifty who has ever asked “What now? Who do I want to be?” comes a life-changing book showing how your next phase of life may be your most dynamic yet. As mythologist and psychologist Sharon Blackie describes it, midlife is the threshold to decades of opportunity and profound transformation, a time to learn, flourish, and claim the desires and identities that are often limited during earlier life stages. This is a time for gaining new perspectives, challenging and evolving belief systems, exploring callings, uncovering meaning, and ultimately finding healing for accumulated wounds. Western folklore and mythology are rife with brilliantly creative, fulfilled, feisty, and furious role models for aging women, despite our culture’s focus on youthfulness. Blackie explores these archetypes in Hagitude, presenting them in a way sure to appeal to contemporary women. Drawing inspiration from these examples as well as modern mentors, you can reclaim midlife as a liberating, alchemical moment rich with possibility and your elder years as a path to feminine power.

A collection of Scottish Traveller folk tales about the Devil from “Scotland’s greatest modern-day storyteller” (The Guardian (UK)). Devil stories are always fascinating, entertaining, and disturbing. These twenty tales, re-told by one of Scotland’s master storytellers, are a fascinating insight into Traveller beliefs about evil, temptation, and suffering in which the Devil exists not to punish, but to outwit you in a contest of intelligence and knowledge. This collection is an expanded edition of Duncan Williamson’s bestselling May the Devil Walk Behind Ye!, originally published by Canongate. Praise for Jack and the Devil’s Purse “An important part of our heritage to be treasured and shared.” —Scottish Home and Country (UK) “Duncan is a first-class storyteller.” —Northern Times (UK) “Superbly handled, as you would expect from this acknowledged master of storytelling.” —The Scots Magazine (UK)

Forty, freckled and facing infertility, Megan Dunn hears the siren call that reawakens her lifelong obsession, and sets off in pursuit of mermaids. Real mermaids. From Coney Island and Copenhagen to Courtenay Place, Wellington, New Zealand, from the semiotics of 1984 romantic comedy Splash to meet-ups with top professional mermaids, her odyssey takes her fathoms deep, past the wreck and the boardwalk, as she asks the question that has plagued humans for millennia: What is it about mermaids? Diving into the caverns of her own life, Megan loses the plot but finds her voice and hears the mermaids singing. Shimmeringly intellectual and devastatingly deadpan, tragicomic and true, this is an off-the-hook tale about sex and death, mothers and daughters, women’s work and marriage, the stories we tell ourselves and the myths that define us all. ‘Her voice is so strong. It’s wonderful.’ — Lorde ‘A treasure of a memoir . . . funny, frank and moving.’ — Kim Hill ‘Observes the importance of fantasy with keen wit and an open heart’. — Pip Adam, author of Nothing to See ‘A fabulously witty adventure, written in deeply moving prose.’ — Philip Hoare, author of Leviathan or, The Whale