An Almanac for Moderns contains a short essay for each day of the year that contemplates a unique but factual aspect of unbridled nature. According to a review in Nation, this collection of essays manages to appeal to the ordinary lover of nature . . . but the turn of Peattie's mind is poetic and speculative.

An 1890 manual of pasttimes which includes instructions for making kites, fishing poles, a blow gun, boats, and theatrical costumes, and for raising dogs, stuffing animals, stocking an aquarium, and camping.

"A remarkable book written with such dazzling verbal imagery and such relish in all the sensations of being alive that it is magically contagious."-New York Times A beloved classic-more than six million copies sold worldwide-that celebrates a bygone world and the author's own unforgettable journey from the wonder of childhood to the awkward agonies of adolescence. Laurie Lee was born in 1914 in Gloucestershire, then a remote corner of England....

The Folded Leaf, first published in 1945, is a classic American coming-of-age novel. In the suburbs of Chicago in the 1920s, two boys initiate an unusual friendship: Lymie Peters, a skinny and somewhat clumsy boy who always gets good grades, and newcomer Spud Latham, a star athlete and mediocre student. Spud accepts Lymie's devotion without questioning it, but once high school ends and the boys enter college, tensions begin to arise between them....

"The decision to invite his Southern relatives to stay proves a fateful one for Austin King. By the time they leave, his reputation and his marriage have suffered irreparable damage. Against the perfectly-drawn background of small-town Illinois at the turn of the 20th century, Maxwell once again uncovers the seeds of potential tragedy at the heart of a happily-established family." --Amazon.com.

"Riveting . . . rollicking . . . elegantly captures a changing France reckoning with the cultural revolutions of the mid-20th century."-Publishers Weekly (starred review) Enthralling essays on the expatriate experience in Paris and shrewd literary criticism by one of the twentieth century's finest writers. Mavis Gallant is revered as one of the great short story writers of her generation, but she was also an astute observer and formidable reporter....

A stirring memoir of a young, single woman's laborious struggle to save her family's New England apple farm from going under during the Great Depression. The Orchard is an exquisitely beautiful and poignant memoir of a young woman's single-handed struggle to save her New England farm in the depths of the Great Depression. Discovered by the author's daughter after the author's death, it tells the story of Adele "Kitty" Robertson, young and energetic,...