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For decades, Condé Nast and its glittering magazines defined how to live the good life in America. The brilliant, complicated, striving characters behind Vogue, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, GQ, Architectural Digest and many other titles manufactured a vision of luxury and sophistication that shaped consumer habits, cultural trends, intellectual attitudes and political beliefs the world over. Condé’s billionaire owner, Si Newhouse, and his stable of star editors, photographers and writers were the gatekeepers who decided what and who mattered, and they offered those opinions to tens of millions of readers every month. EMPIRE OF THE ELITE is full of fresh behind-the-scenes reporting about a plethora of boldface names and sets out to explain how Condé Nast established itself as a de facto American aristocracy, anointing an elite and dictating the culture they presided over.

New York, 1972. A cloistered college student slips out of the dorms to attend a performance by a legendary experimental performance troupe. Within months, she has left campus life behind and joined the company, infatuated by its charismatic leader and his promises of absolute freedom. California, 1997. A theater teacher at an exclusive private school receives an unsettling letter. With her job at risk and her past clawing at her carefully constructed present, what will she do to protect the life she has made?

In this ambitious and groundbreaking book, Philippa Gregory tells the story of England over 900 years, for the very first time placing women --- some 50 percent of the population --- center stage. Using research skills honed in her work as one of our foremost historical novelists, Gregory trawled through court records, newspapers and journals to find highwaywomen and beggars, murderers and brides, housewives and pirates, female husbands and hermits. The “normal women” you will meet in these pages went to war, plowed the fields, campaigned, wrote and loved. They rode in jousts, flew Spitfires, issued their own currency, and built ships, corn mills and houses. They committed crimes or treason, worshipped many gods, cooked and nursed, invented things and rioted. A lot.

Despite his many responsibilities, there is nothing Leopold Sloane, the 11th Duke of Debden, takes more seriously than the safety of those he loves. When one of his sisters is injured at a protest rally, he drags his family to Bath for the summer. The only flaw in his plan is his overwhelming but inexplicable attraction to the new chaperone he has hired to watch out for them. From the moment Portia Kendall read her first revolutionary pamphlet beneath her bedcovers, she realized that her true calling was to make the world a fairer place. But as Portia discovers, writing doesn’t pay the bills. A temporary position as a chaperone in the home of a pompous duke seems like the perfect way to earn enough to follow her heart. Unfortunately, the duke who hires her seems to be more dashing and noble than pompous. But dare she risk her principles for love or will her pride always come before a fall?

Halla unexpectedly has inherited the estate of a wealthy uncle. Unfortunately, she also is saddled with money-hungry relatives full of devious plans for how to wrest the inheritance away from her. While locked in her bedroom, Halla inspects the ancient sword that's been collecting dust on the wall since before she moved in. Out of desperation, she unsheathes it --- and suddenly a man appears. His name is Sarkis, he tells her, and he is an immortal warrior trapped in a prison of enchanted steel. Sarkis is sworn to protect whoever wields the sword. And for Halla, a most unusual wielder, he finds himself fending off not grand armies and deadly assassins but instead everything from kindly-seeming bandits to roving inquisitors to her own in-laws. But as Halla and Sarkis grow closer, they overlook the biggest threat of all --- the sword itself.

Sweden’s far north is growing colder; even in springtime, the town of Gasskas is buried under a relentless snow. As temperatures drop, tensions rise between a global corporation shamelessly exploiting the area's natural resources and wary locals who have scores to settle. A bomb blasts apart a crucial bridge. Soon after, a young journalist is found murdered. Meanwhile, Lisbeth Salander is at home in Stockholm, looking to fill the void her last lover left behind. When she discovers that fellow hacker Plague has been kidnapped and taken up north, and finds her niece, Svala, on her doorstep, she has no choice but to return to Gasskas --- with Mikael Blomkvist at her side. Blomkvist takes the helm at Gasskas' newspaper, and Lisbeth tries to locate Plague. But then Svala goes missing, and Lisbeth's worst fears come to haunt her.

As a highly sought-after portrait artist, Devon Darcy seems to have the ability to peer into the souls of her subjects and then capture them on canvas. But the world doesn’t know about the devastating losses she has endured. When entrepreneur Charles Mackenzie Taylor sees her at a New York gallery event, he is instantly haunted by her beauty and her talent. Having lost his mother when he was 13, Charlie has given up on love. But Devon awakens something in him across that crowded gallery, and she is in turn intrigued by Charlie. When they encounter each other over the summer in the Hamptons, their connection deepens as they each release years of pent-up emotions and unfulfilled longing. But the ghosts of their pasts are not easily put to rest. And after an accident endangers Devon’s career, they must decide together what their future holds.

California, Southern Humboldt County, 1985. Renata Drake steps off a Greyhound bus and into small-town Garberville, hoping to disappear. But she’s made a mistake. The FBI has the cannabis-producing “Emerald Triangle” town --- and its corrupt residents --- in their sights. Even worse, a teenage girl is missing. And when she turns up dead, the third in three years, it’s clear a serial killer is living among them. Renata knows about murdered girls and the burning desire for justice --- and for revenge. Her younger sister, Josie, is gone, and now so is the man who killed her. Renata didn’t stay in Washington, D.C. to be arrested for executing a murderer, and she shouldn’t stay here either. But Renata decides to investigate, and what she uncovers will trigger a final reckoning: for herself, for a killer, and for all of Southern Humboldt.

It’s a beautiful day in Newport, Rhode Island, when Phoebe Stone arrives at the grand Cornwall Inn. She's immediately mistaken by everyone in the lobby for one of the wedding people, but she’s actually the only guest at the Cornwall who isn’t here for the big event. Phoebe is here because she’s dreamed of coming for years. She hoped to shuck oysters and take sunset sails with her husband. But she’s here without him, at rock bottom, and determined to have one last decadent splurge on herself. Meanwhile, the bride has accounted for every detail and every possible disaster the weekend might yield…except for, well, Phoebe and Phoebe's plan --- which makes it that much more surprising when the two women can’t stop confiding in each other.

Kate Price, who grew up in a small mill town in central Pennsylvania, was able to escape the unbroken cycles of poverty, violence, addiction, mental illness and abuse that had plagued her family for generations. She started a new life in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in pursuit of her master’s and PhD. But despite having left this dark world behind, it still kept a firm grip on her. Overcome with unexplainable grief and sadness, Price sought out Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, a trauma specialist to help heal her constant emotional pain through EMDR therapy. When Price felt safe enough, she discovered what that darkness that lay within her was. Her father had abused and trafficked her as a child. Price grappled with what had been revealed. And so began a 10-year quest alongside a journalist to prove what Price knew to be her truth.

A multifaceted genius, Toni Morrison transcended her role as an author, helping to shape an important period in American publishing and literature as an editor at one of the nation’s most prestigious publishing houses. While Morrison's literary achievements are widely celebrated, her editorial work is little known. Drawing on extensive research and firsthand accounts, this comprehensive study discusses Morrison's remarkable journey from her early days at Random House to her emergence as one of its most important editors. During her tenure in editorial, Morrison refashioned the literary landscape, working with important authors, including Toni Cade Bambara, Leon Forrest and Lucille Clifton, and empowering cultural icons such as Angela Davis and Muhammad Ali to tell their stories on their own terms.

Lottie Jones thought her crimes were behind her. Decades earlier, she changed her identity and tucked herself away in a small town. Her most exciting nights are the weekly bingo games at the local church and gossiping with her friends. When investigative journalist Plum Dixon shows up on her doorstep asking questions about Lottie’s past and specifically her involvement with numerous unsolved cases, well, Lottie just can’t have that. But getting away with murder is hard enough when you’re young. And when Lottie receives another annoying knock on the door, she realizes this crime just might be the death of her.

When a series of deaths within the small Cotswolds birdwatching community begins to unravel her village, Agatha and her team at Raisin Investigators are certain there has been foul play involved. Now, they must dig up decades' worth of tempestuous relationships and simmering secrets among the birdwatching enthusiasts of the village in order to prevent any further deaths. But with Agatha's own relationship with John Glass on the rocks after he is called away on his job as a cruise ship dance instructor, and Sir Charles Fraith now attempting to step into John’s shoes as her lover, Agatha has her work cut out for her. She will have to break out her binoculars and embrace her bitter side to solve the murders and wrangle the sickly-sweet temptations in her own life.