Art Tatum defined the limits of the possible in jazz piano. Gunther Schuller called Tatum's playing "a marvel of perfection.... His deep-in-the-keys full piano sonority, the tone and touch control in pyrotechnical passages...are miracles of performance." Whitney Balliett wrote "no pianist has ever hit notes more beautifully. Each one--no matter how fast the tempo--was light and complete and resonant, like the letters on a finely printed page." His famous runs have been compared to the arc left against the night sky by a Fourth-of-July sparkler. And to have heard him play, one musician said, "was as awe-inspiring as to have seen the Grand Canyon or Halley's Comet." Now, in Too Marvelous For Words, James Lester provides the first full-length biography of the greatest virtuoso performer in the history of jazz. Before this volume, little was known about Tatum, even among jazz afficionados. What were his origins, who taught him and who provided early pianistic influences, how did he break into the jazz field, what role did he play in the development of other jazz players, and what was he like when he wasn't playing? To answer these questions, Lester has conducted almost a hundred interviews for this book, with surviving family, childhood friends, schoolteachers, and the famous jazz musicians who played with him or knew him. Lester creates a memorable portrait of this unique musician and of the vibrant jazz world of the 1930s and 1940s, capturing the complexity and vitality of this remarkable performer. Tatum, who was virtually blind, suffering between 70% and 90% visual impairment, emerges as cheerful, fun-loving, energetic and out-going, with none of the demonic self-destructiveness that seemed to haunt such jazz greats as Charlie Parker or Billie Holiday. He often joked about his blindness, but did not like it mentioned as a handicap and preferred to pre-plan his entrance to the piano in a club, rather than have someone lead him there. He was simply inexhaustible and had a life-long habit of staying up all night after a gig, usually seeking an after-hours club in which to listen and play until daybreak. Lester also reveals that Tatum was generous with younger players, but his extraordinary technical brilliance often devastated them. No less a talent than Oscar Peterson remembers that after first hearing Tatum, "I gave up the piano for two solid months, and I had crying fits at night." And Les Paul remarked that after hearing Tatum for the first time, he quit piano completely and began playing guitar. Perhaps most important, Lester provides a thorough, knowledgeable discussion of Tatum's music, from his early influences, such as stride pianist Fats Waller, to his mature style in which Liszt, Rachmaninoff, Debussy, Waller, and Earl Hines all became grist for his harmonic mill. From unexceptional origins in Toledo, Ohio, Art Tatum evolved into a world-class musician whose importance in jazz is comparable to Louis Armstrong and Charlie Parker and whose command of the piano captured the admiration of Horowitz and Paderewski. Too Marvelous For Words is the first full portrait of this extraordinary musical genius.

Midnight feasts in dorms, jolly japes with chums, pranks on mad teachers and no boys whatsoever: THE REAL MALORY TOWERS LIFE from award-winning writer, Julie Welch. ‘As we spilled from the train we could hear loud revving and smell exhaust fumes, and there in the forecourt was a coach waiting to drop us all off at our various houses. I’d been living for this moment since I’d arrived at the school; since before that. . . We were all schoolgirls everywhere, past, present and future, real and imagined. We were Darrell and her chums at Malory Towers – except the school in front of me wasn’t quite the picture I had imagined. Suddenly I had this out-of-nowhere, waking up from a coma moment, as if I had been whisked away by a tornado or washed up by shipwreck on an unknown shore. Where was I? How did I get here? I was on my own, and now I would have to survive. . .' Too Marvellous for Words! is the wonderfully evocative and entertaining memoir of life in an all-girls boarding school in Suffolk in the early 1960s. Award-winning writer Julie Welch remembers her time spent at Felixstowe College, a long-lost world of arcane rules and happenings, when the headmistress and the Head of Science raced each other on public roads in their sports cars, and when having meringues for birthday tea instead of plain cake was branded ‘disgraceful’. As the social morals of post-war Britain collided with those of the decadent 1960s, Julie and her fellow pupils discovered Radio Caroline, fashion and the facts of life at the same time as playing lacrosse derbies, attending classical music concerts and sea-bathing.The years spent at Felixstowe College made a lasting impression on the girls who boarded there. Amidst all the fun, deeply emotional attachments were made, with some girls – whose parents were remote or absent – finding support from their classmates that they didn't get at home. Too Marvellous for Words! is the real Malory Towers life, full of character and charm, and serviing as both a memoir and a fascinating social history of a way of English life lived by 'young ladies' some 50 years ago.

A vibrant and eclectic collection from a stunningly mature young poet "The world—the time has come to say it, though the news will not be welcome to everyone—has no intention of abandoning enchantment altogether." Roberto Calasso's words in Literature and the Gods remind us that, in an age of reason, of mechanization, of alienation, of rote drudgery, we still seek out the transcendent, the marvelous. Ange Mlinko's luminous fourth collection is both a journey toward and the space of that very enchantment. Marvelous Things Overheard takes its title from a collection of ancient rumors about the lands of the Mediterranean. Mlinko, who lived at the American University of Beirut and traveled to Greece and Cyprus, has penned poems that seesaw between the life lived in those ancient and strife-torn places, and the life imagined through its literature: from The Greek Anthology to the Mu'allaqat. Throughout, Mlinko grapples with the passage of time on two levels: her own aging (alongside the growing up of her children) and the incontrovertible evidence of millennia of human habitation. This is an assured and revealing collection, one that readers will want to seek refuge in again and again.

Turning into a Celestial-Like Entity, Louis Proof's ordinary life takes an unexpected turn as he needs to use all his new-found talents to fight off the invading Celestial Entities that are soon to reach Earth and destroy the only world he has ever known.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR, BOOKPAGE, AND SHELF AWARENESS • “Paula McLain is considered the new star of historical fiction, and for good reason. Fans of The Paris Wife will be captivated by Circling the Sun, which . . . is both beautifully written and utterly engrossing.”—Ann Patchett, Country Living This powerful novel transports readers to the breathtaking world of Out of Africa—1920s Kenya—and reveals the extraordinary adventures of Beryl Markham, a woman before her time. Brought to Kenya from England by pioneering parents dreaming of a new life on an African farm, Beryl is raised unconventionally, developing a fierce will and a love of all things wild. But after everything she knows and trusts dissolves, headstrong young Beryl is flung into a string of disastrous relationships, then becomes caught up in a passionate love triangle with the irresistible safari hunter Denys Finch Hatton and the writer Baroness Karen Blixen. Brave and audacious and contradictory, Beryl will risk everything to have Denys’s love, but it’s ultimately her own heart she must conquer to embrace her true calling and her destiny: to fly. Praise for Circling the Sun “In McLain’s confident hands, Beryl Markham crackles to life, and we readers truly understand what made a woman so far ahead of her time believe she had the power to soar.”—Jodi Picoult, author of Leaving Time “Enchanting . . . a worthy heir to [Isak] Dinesen . . . Like Africa as it’s so gorgeously depicted here, this novel will never let you go.”—The Boston Globe “Famed aviator Beryl Markham is a novelist’s dream. . . . [A] wonderful portrait of a complex woman who lived—defiantly—on her own terms.”—People (Book of the Week) “Circling the Sun soars.”—Newsday “Captivating . . . [an] irresistible novel.”—The Seattle Times “Like its high-flying subject, Circling the Sun is audacious and glamorous and hard not to be drawn in by. Beryl Markham may have married more than once, but she was nobody’s wife.”—Entertainment Weekly “[An] eloquent evocation of Beryl’s daring life.”—O: The Oprah Magazine

A beautiful book about the importance of art - and the joy of having good friends. A picture paints a thousand words... Tapir and his friends all have nice new notebooks, just waiting to be filled. Giraffe decides to write a poem, Hippo writes a story and Flamingo composes a beautiful song. But poor Tapir can't think of anything to write - and the harder he tries the more upset he becomes! But everything starts to change when Tapir stops trying to write, and instead he begins to draw... An uplifting and inspiring story about friendship and finding your feet, with the reassuring message that we are all unique and all good at something.

Rescuing a squirrel after an accident involving a vacuum cleaner, comic-reading cynic Flora Belle Buckman is astonished when the squirrel, Ulysses, demonstrates astonishing powers of strength and flight after being revived. By the Newbery Medal-winning author of The Tale of Despereaux.