Adult

The only legitimate child of Lord Byron, the most brilliant, revered and scandalous of the Romantic poets, Ada Byron King was destined for fame long before her birth. Banishing fairy tales and make-believe from the nursery, Ada’s mother provides her daughter with a rigorous education grounded in mathematics and science. Any troubling spark of imagination --- or worse yet, passion or poetry --- is promptly extinguished. Or so her mother believes. When Ada is introduced into London society as a highly eligible young heiress, she at last discovers the intellectual and social circles she has craved all her life. Little does she realize that her delightful new friendship with inventor Charles Babbage will shape her destiny.

The family thought the little house they had made themselves in Elmet, a corner of Yorkshire, was theirs. Cathy and Daniel roamed the woods freely, occasionally visiting a local woman for some schooling, living outside all conventions. Their father built things and hunted, working with his hands; sometimes he would disappear, forced to do secret, brutal work for money, but to them he was a gentle protector. But when a local landowner shows up on their doorstep, their precarious existence is threatened. Daddy and Cathy, both of them fierce, strong and unyielding, set out to protect themselves and their neighbors, putting into motion a chain of events that can only end in violence.

Off the coast of Brazil, a team of scientists discovers a horror like no other, an island where all life has been eradicated, consumed and possessed by a species beyond imagination. Before they can report their discovery, a mysterious agency attacks the group, killing all but one --- Professor Ken Matsui, an expert on venomous creatures. Strangest of all, this inexplicable threat traces back to a terrifying secret buried a century ago beneath the National Mall: a cache of bones preserved in amber. The artifact was hidden away by a cabal of scientists --- led by Alexander Graham Bell --- to protect humankind. But they dared not destroy it, for the object also holds an astonishing promise for the future: the very secret of life after death.

Henry Fonda and James Stewart were two of the biggest stars in Hollywood for 40 years. They got along famously, with a shared interest in elaborate practical jokes and model airplanes, among other things. Fonda was a liberal Democrat, Stewart a conservative Republican, but after one memorable blow-up over politics, they agreed never to discuss that subject again. For HANK AND JIM, biographer and film historian Scott Eyman spoke with Fonda’s widow and children as well as three of Stewart’s children, plus actors and directors who had worked with the men --- in addition to doing extensive archival research to get the full details of their time together.

When the Countess of Walther dies at her German estate, her loyal dwarfess Maria-Barbara is forced to work as a prophet for a traveling magician, who betrays her by selling her to the Queen of Spain. At the royal court in Madrid, Mari finds herself in a bizarre, enchanted world, a society culturally splendid but intellectually isolated. There she becomes Maribarbola, prophet to the Queen, and, her survival at stake, endeavors to outsmart the Spaniards. Mari's wits and loyalties are tested as she becomes embroiled in palace intrigue alongside the politically embattled Queen. But even as she survives and thrives at the Spanish court, the loss of identity Mari suffers from living a lie makes her question whether she is really surviving at all.

THE VANITY FAIR DIARIES is the story of an Englishwoman barely out of her 20s who arrives in New York City with a dream. Summoned from London in hopes that she can save Condé Nast's troubled new flagship Vanity Fair, Tina Brown is immediately plunged into the maelstrom of the competitive New York media world and the backstabbing rivalries at the court of the planet's slickest, most glamour-focused magazine company. She survives the politics, the intrigue and the attempts to derail her by a simple stratagem: succeeding. In the face of rampant skepticism, she triumphantly reinvents a failing magazine.

Nothing stops former Navy SEAL and Tier One operator John Dempsey from answering the call of duty --- including a mission with the highest stakes he’s ever faced. When one of the most brazen and lethal acts of terrorism rocks American and Israeli intelligence forces at the highest levels, Dempsey’s ultracovert antiterror unit, Ember, mobilizes. But this operation isn’t just a retaliatory strike by Ember; it’s a mission of vengeance for Dempsey --- against the Iranian terrorist mastermind who slaughtered Dempsey’s Tier One comrades. Racing from Tel Aviv to Tehran, the elite American warrior and his formidable Israeli counterpart must forsake their backup in a capture-or-kill gambit that could turn into a suicide run.

When Jo Harding falls down the stairs at home, she wakes up in the hospital with partial amnesia. In fact, she finds that she's lost an entire year of memories, and she can't remember anything that happened the night she fell. Her husband and her two children assure her that everything's fine, but Jo's family seems to have gone through a lot of dramatic changes in the past year, and she can't let go of the suspicion that there's more they're keeping from her. As she pieces together the details of the past 12 months, it becomes more and more clear that her family wants her to stay in the dark. But why?

Everyone in the charming Hudson Valley town of Oak Falls expected Flynn Keegan, their handsome blond "Golden Boy," to make it big in Hollywood. So when veterinarian Kate Turner identifies a bone dug up by one of her dog patients as human, no one thinks back 10 years to remember Flynn. Until DNA and a smashed skull prove he was murdered. With few clues available to the forensic team, the grieving family begs Kate to investigate. His four closest friends plead ignorance. Neighbors and teachers remember the charismatic young man but offer no real help. Meanwhile, Kate is juggling her eccentric house call clients, a silly pot-bellied pig wedding and the sudden reappearance of an old college boyfriend.