A SLIP OF THE KEYBOARD brings together for the first time the finest examples of Terry Pratchett's nonfiction writing, both serious and surreal: from musings on mushrooms to what it means to be a writer (and why banana daiquiris are so important); from memories of Granny Pratchett to speculation about Gandalf's love life, and passionate defenses of the causes dear to him.

Once a week in the Kurlansky home, Mark spins a globe and wherever his daughter's finger lands becomes the theme of that Friday night's dinner. Their tradition of International Night has afforded Mark an opportunity to share with Talia the recipes, stories and insights he has collected over more than 30 years of traveling the world writing about food, culture and history, and his charming pen-and-ink drawings, which appear throughout the book.

A revolution has taken over the government of the United States, and the environment has been saved. But now the U.S. is ruled by a dictatorship, and the corporations are fighting back. Joining them are an increasing number of rebels angered by the dictatorship of Chairman Rahma. However, cracks are beginning to show as new weapons are developed by the old corporate powers and strange reports of mutants filter through the government's censorship.

WALLS OF WIND unfolds on an alien world whose two sentient species, Ghen and Bria, are interdependent and reproductively symbiotic, yet have been conditioned through many generations to believe they otherwise have very little in common. Against daunting challenges, they come together when threatened by a predator to whom both are dangerously --- and genetically --- linked.

Sensual, painterly, even prayerful, these 50 poems and 50 full-color original pictures by Sheryl Loeffler deepen into a land of legend and myth, an island populated, past and present, by saints, beggars and pirates, all of whom are blessed by "vivid geometries" of light. Sheryl Loeffler portrays Malta as a country awash in splendor and contradiction, "this land where Christians call God Alla."

The Late Starters Orchestra is the bona fide amateur string orchestra where Ari Goldman pursues his lifelong dream of playing the cello. Goldman hadn’t seriously picked up his cello in 25 years, but the Late Starters seemed just the right orchestra for this music lover whose busy life had always gotten in the way of its pursuit. In his memoir, Goldman takes us along to LSO rehearsals and lets us sit in on his son’s Suzuki lessons, where we find out that children do indeed learn differently from adults.

Fifteen years ago, Krista Bremer would not have been able to imagine her life today: married to a Libyan-born Muslim, raising two children with Arabic names in the American South. Nor could she have imagined the prejudice she would encounter or the profound ways her marriage would change her perception of the world. MY ACCIDENTAL JIHAD explores what it means to open our hearts to another culture and to embrace our own.

One day, Carol Wall, a white woman living in a lily-white neighborhood in Middle America, notices a dark-skinned African man tending her neighbor’s yard. Before long, Giles Owita is transforming not only Carol’s yard, but her life. Though they are seemingly quite different, a caring bond grows between them. But they both hold long-buried secrets that, when revealed, will cement their friendship forever.

In 1988, Su Meck suffered a traumatic brain injury that erased all her memories of her life up to that point. Although her body healed rapidly, her memories never returned. Yet after just three weeks in the hospital, Su was released and once again charged with the care of two toddlers and a busy household. Nearly 20 years would pass before a series of personally devastating events shattered the “normal” life she had worked so hard to build, and she realized that she would have to grow up all over again.

Beethoven scholar and classical radio host John Suchet has had a lifelong, ardent interest in the man and his music. Here, in his first full-length biography, Suchet illuminates the composer’s difficult childhood, his struggle to maintain friendships and romances, his ungovernable temper, his obsessive efforts to control his nephew’s life, and the excruciating decline of his hearing.