For 150 years people have looked to Bartlett's Familiar Quotations for wisdom, inspiration, and pure fun. Here now is an elegant new collection of the best advice ever given, inspiring words from the world's wisest men and women.

"There is no cure for birth and death save to enjoy the interval." -George Santayana

Readers will be delighted by insights that span almost five thousand years of human history, from ancient Egypt to the modern day, capturing the differences-and the similarities-of human thought over time.

"Truth is great and its effectiveness endures." -Ptahhotpe

From such varied sources as the Bible, Jane Austen, and John F. Kennedy, everyone is sure to find a gem.

"Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee." -Muhammad Ali

With its thoughtful and entertaining selection of quotes, Bartlett's Words to Live By is an enlightening gift for the graduate or the student of life and a splendid addition to the reference shelf.

"In my end is my beginning." -Mary, Queen of Scots

"Bartlett's Familiar Quotations is an admirable work, and I studied it intently."

-Sir Winston Churchill

In 1855, Massachusetts bookseller John Bartlett self-published a small collection of prose and verse quotations. Since then, his volume has been continuously expanded and published to reflect the ever-changing cultural climate. Bartlett's Familiar Quotations remains the most authoritative, thought-provoking, and entertaining book of quotations available.

Ramsay is a man twice born, a man who has returned from the hell of the battle-grave at Passchendaele in World War I decorated with the Victoria Cross and destined to be caught in a no man's land where memory, history, and myth collide. As Ramsay tells his story, it begins to seem that from boyhood, he has exerted a perhaps mystical, perhaps pernicious, influence on those around him. His apparently innocent involvement in such innocuous events as the throwing of a snowball or the teaching of card tricks to a small boy in the end prove neither innocent nor innocuous. Fifth Business stands alone as a remarkable story told by a rational man who discovers that the marvelous is only another aspect of the real.

Six intrepid brothers and sisters crew out on the high seas where they brave every imaginable danger.

During a summer of sailing and camping the Swallows and Amazons discover a cave and have to deal with a great-aunt.

During the winter holidays the Swallows and Amazons abandon their ships and take to the iced-over lake on skates to form an expedition to their own North Pole.

While he was best known for the Tarzan of the Apes and Barsoom series, Edgar Rice Burroughs true brilliance bursts forth in the Caspak Trilogy. In this trilogy, which includes "The Land that Time Forgot," "The People that Time Forgot," and "Out of Time's Abyss," we have Burroughs at his very best. This adventure streaks onward like a bullet to its jaw-dropping end. The Caspak trilogy, set during World War I, begins with the discovery of Bowen J. Tyler's worn manuscript floating in a bottle off the coast of Greenland. The manuscript reveals that Bowen and his companions were taken captive by a German submarine. The harrowing submarine ride leads to the discovery of a subterranean passageway to a most incredible land. This land, called Caspak by its inhabitants, is a microcosm of millions of years of evolutionary progress - with winged, humanlike creatures, dinosaurs, ferocious beasts of prey, Neanderthals, "wild ape-men," and monstrous reptiles. Ray Bradbury was a huge fan of Burroughs, as can be seen in the following quote: "We may have liked Verne and Wells and Kipling, but we loved, we adored, we went quite mad with Mr. Burroughs." Bradbury was certainly not alone in his admiration of Burroughs as over the years countless directors, producers, actors, and writers have drawn inspiration from his writings. Burroughs' influence can still be seen nearly 60 years after his death. Spielberg's "Jurassic Park", Peter Jackson's "King Kong", and Tim Burton's "Planet of the Apes" all owe a debt of gratitude to Mr. Burroughs.

The engrossing tale of an idealistic and naïve British interpreter, Bruno Salvo Salvador. The 29-year-old Congo native's mixed parentage puts him in a tentative position in society, despite his being married to an attractive upper-class white Englishwoman, who's a celebrity journalist. Salvo's genius with languages has led to steady work from a variety of employers, including covert assignments from shadowy government entities. One such job enmeshes the interpreter in an ambitious scheme to finally bring stability to the much victimized Congo, and Salvo's personal stake in the outcome tests his professionalism and ethics. Amid the bursts of humor, le Carré convincingly conveys his empathy for the African nation and his cynicism at its would-be saviors, both home-grown patriots and global powers seeking to impose democracy on a failed state.

Graham Greene's classic study in the banality of evil is set in the unforgettably evoked underworld of pre-war Brighton where Pinkie, a small-time ganster, meets his nemesis at the hands of Ida, the girl he betrays, Published in 1938, Greene's most celebrated novel signalled the beginning of the long series of masterpieces produced between then and his death in 1991

The stories in this collection from Orange-Prize winner Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie straddle the cultures of Nigeria and the West. Her characters battle with the responsibilities of modern life, a world in which identity is too often compromised.

It is summer in Istanbul and the body of a young man is discovered in a local lake. The air is oppressive as Behiye prepares to enter one of Turkey's most prestigious universities. Angry, overweight, embarrassed by her parents and contemptuous of her Nazi older brother - Behiye longs for some salvation from her teenage despair. In the week before she starts university she is introduced to Handan - a beautiful, gentle girl who will change Behiye's life forever. Immediately drawn to one another, the two girls embark upon an intense, exclusive relationship even though they are from completely different backgrounds, with different dreams and ambitions. As their friendship spirals out of control, Behiye realises the impossibility of their being able to cross the cultural divide. - Now a Kutlug Ataman film. 

SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE

Frank Reid had been born and brought up in Moscow. His father had emigrated there in the 1870s and started a print-works which, by 1913, had shrunk from what it was when Frank inherited it. In that same year, to add to his troubles, Frank's wife Nellie caught the train back home to England, without explanation.

How is a reasonable man like Frank to cope? How should he keep his house running? Should he consult the Anglican chaplain's wife? Should he listen to the Tolstoyan advice of his chief book-keeper? How do people live together, and what happens when, sometimes, they don't?

"For the life of me I can't decide how properly to respond to this book. Whether it contains a latent moral or allegorical message, or whether it is simply a tour de force of craft and imagination I have not the faintest idea. I only know that it is one of the most skilful and utterly fascinating novels I have read for years. I cannot imagine any kind of reader who would not get a thrill from this gloriously peculiar book."JAN MORRIS, 'Independent'

"Penelope Fitzgerald has produced a real Russian comedy, at once crafty and scatty. She has mastered a city, a landscape and a vanished time. She has written something remarkable, part novel, part evocation, and done so in prose that never puts a foot wrong. She is so unostentatious a writer that she needs to be read several times. What is impressive is the calm confidence behind the apparent simplicity of utterance. 'The Beginning of Spring' is her best novel to date."ANITA BROOKNER, 'Spectator'

A compendium of the greatest thoughts, greatest minds and greatest books - listed in accessible and concise form - from one of the world's greatest scholars.

When Meredith bumps into her old school friend Rachel Hunter at the Chelsea Flower Show, she is shocked to discover that she was the first wife of her companion, Chief Inspector Markby. But the meeting is not the only surprise - before the afternoon is out, Markby has a death on his hands.

In the near future bees are extinct, until five unconnected individuals, in different parts of the world, are stung. Immediately snatched up by ominous figures in hazmat suits, interrogated separately in neutral Ikea-like chambers, and then released as 15- minute celebrities, into a world driven by the internet!

In those days in the early Sixties we were not women yet but girls. This was, without irony, perceived as our advantage. So begins I'll Take You There, an astonishingly intimate and unsparing self-portrait of a nameless young student who, though, gifted with a penetrating intelligence, is drastically inclined to obsession. Funny, mordant, and compulsive, Anellia (as she sometimes calls herself) falls passionately in love with a brilliant yet elusive black philosophy student. But she is tested most severely by a figure out of her past she'd long believed dead. Pitiless in exposing the follies of the time (the bizarre sisterhood of sororities, the self-lacerating extremes of the intellectual life), I'll Take You There is a dramatic revelation of the risks -- and curious rewards -- of the obsessive personality as well as a testament to the stubborn strength of a certain type of contemporary female intellectual.

In a retelling of an ancient Celtic myth about Angus, the god of love, youth, and beauty and a trickster who turns one's romantic dreams upside down, five young men named Angus parallel the god's story as they search for true love.

It has never occurred to Precious Ramotswe that there might be disadvantages to being the best-known lady detective in Botswana. But when she receives a threatening anonymous letter, she is compelled to reconsider her unconquerable belief in a kind world and good neighbours. While she ponders the identity of the letter-writer Mma Ramotswe has a further set of problems to solve, both professional and personal. There is an adopted child's poignant search for her true family, and Mr J. L. B. Matekoni's pursuit of an expensive miracle for their own foster daughter Motholeli. With these latest developments on Tlokweng Road, Alexander McCall Smith reveals with all his brilliant storytelling skill that there are very few troubles that cannot be solved with kindness, and very few dry seasons that do not end with welcome rain.

Typography, the art of designing printed words, was once the domain of an elite few artists but has become an area with which millions of people engage daily. The widespread usage of digital devices from laptops to tablets and smart phones which are used for written communications means that we are regularly asked to make decisions about the fonts, sizes, and layouts we use in our writing. This broadening engagement with the field of typography has led to a perceptible shift from debates about legibility and technicalities to conversations about which fonts best reflect the writer's personality or style.

In this Very Short Introduction, Paul Luna offers a broad definition of typography as design for reading, whether in print or on screens, where a set of visual choices are taken to make a written message more accessible, more easily transmitted, more significant, or more attractive. Considering the development of letterforms and the shapes of letter we use, Luna discusses the history behind our modern day letters and fonts, before considering the issues behind key typographic decisions, and the differences between printed and on-screen typography. Presenting any piece of typography as a fundamental design choice, Luna introduces the options available today, and explores the reasons why key typographic decisions are made.

ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Beginning with his bestselling debut, Flight of the Old Dog, ex-Air Force captain Dale Brown has redefined the modern military thriller. Now, in his New York Times bestseller Storming Heaven, Brown brings back the heroic Coast Guard admiral Ian Hardcastle in a tale of covert warfare that will leave reader hanging on the edge of their seats.

The acclaimed story of a timeless place that one day wakes up to find itself in the jaws of history: An exuberant mixture of history and romance, written with a wit that is incandescent (Los Angeles Times Book Review).

The place is the Greek island of Cephallonia, where gods once dabbled in the affairs of men and the local saint periodically rises from his sarcophagus to cure the mad. Then the tide of World War II rolls onto the island's shores in the form of the conquering Italian army.

Caught in the occupation are Pelagia, a willful, beautiful young woman, and the two suitors vying for her love: Mandras, a gentle fisherman turned ruthless guerilla, and the charming, mandolin-playing Captain Corelli, a reluctant officer of the Italian garrison on the island. Rich with loyalties and betrayals, and set against a landscape where the factual blends seamlessly with the fantastic, Corelli's Mandolin is a passionate novel as rich in ideas as it is genuinely moving.

The epic finale of the Latin American trilogy following The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts and Senior Vivo and the Coca Lord

While the economy of his small South American country collapses, President Veracruz joins his improbable populace of ex-soldiers, former guerrillas, unfrocked priests and reformed - though by no means inactive - whores, in a bizarre search for sexual fulfillment.

But for Cardinal Guzman, a man tormented by his own private daemons, their stupendous, hedonistic fiestas represent the epicentre of all heresies.Heresies that must be challenged with a horrifying new inquisition destined to climax in a spectacular confrontation...

An extraordinary feat of imagination... a sensuous, often farcical and ultimately optimistic argument for spiritual sanity - Time Out

with 50 illustrations

A broken kitchen appliance leads Bobbie Kaplowitz -- a single mother of a six-year-old son -- to a new understanding of love and life in the title story of In Case We're Separated, Alice Mattison's family chronicle of interrelated stories.

Spanning the twentieth century, In Case We're Separated looks at a family of Jewish immigrants in the 1920s and 1930s, and follows their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren as they all lead urban, emotionally turbulent lives against the backdrop of political assassinations, the Vietnam War, and the AIDS epidemic.

The title story, which appeared in Best American Short Stories 2002, begins with Bobbie in 1954 Brooklyn. Subsequent stories deal with Bobbie's son, Bradley, a gay man living outside Boston with his partner and playing detective after a cousin's girlfriend is assaulted at knifepoint.

Other stories concern two sisters: one is an editor, always trying to figure out just how Jewish she is, always trying to get through to her troubled sister. The sister, a would-be suicide during the 1960s and 1970s, reappears as a shaky Prozac miracle, helping others and scrambling to hold on to happiness in her middle-aged life. The sisters keep looking for the right man, and the next-to-the-last story includes a midlife wedding and the gathering of what remains of this varied clan.

The sisters' aunt Sylvia appears and reappears throughout the book. She's a schoolteacher who always knows what's best for everyone; later, she's a middle-aged woman still trying to hold on to hope -- and looking for her next affair -- despite an aging mother, an unhappy son, and the election of Ronald Reagan. Later still, with failing eyesight, she hangs on to dignity in her own old age, not wanting to ask her busy, professional daughter whether her shoes match.

Alice Mattison's recent novel The Wedding of the Two-Headed Woman was called "quietly splendid" by the New York Times. The Los Angeles Times has called her a writer's writer. In In Case We're Separated, Mattison's gift for storytelling and ability to create rich, multidimentional characters prove, once again, that she is a master of her craft.

The hero of the novel is Charles-Victor Peniel, called Night-of-Amber,  whose lonely and angry childhood eventually lands him in Paris at the time of the May '68 riots. There, Charles-Victor becomes involved with a band of dangerous companions, and in a whirlwind situation that spins uncontrollably into sadism and murder.

Over landscapes ranging from northern California and the urban Southwest to the hills of eastern Kentucky and the Caribbean island of St Lucia, Barbara Kingsolver tells stories of hope, momentary joy and powerful endurance. In every setting her characters are bound by a strong sense of place and the compelling ties of love and family history: a child accepts the impossible responsibility of remembering her Cherokee great-grandmother's dying culture; a quietly dissolving couple must fight ghosts of past expectations to reach one another; a tough Mexican American woman finds herself in jail because of her commitment to a family legacy of 'doing the right thing.' With disarming honesty - at times comic but often heartrending - Barbara Kingsolver creates a world of love and possibility into which the reader is irresistibly drawn.

Shortlisted for the Folio Prize 2014

Longlisted for the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction

Reno mounts her motorcycle and sets a collision course for New York.

In 1977 the city is alive with art, sensuality and danger. She falls in with a bohemian clique colonising downtown and the lines between reality and performance begin to bleed.

A passionate affair with the scion of an Italian tyre empire carries Reno to Milan, where she is swept along by the radical left and drawn into a spiral of violence and betrayal.

The Flamethrowers is an audacious novel that explores the perplexing allure of femininity, fakery and fear. In Reno we encounter a heroine like no other.

Best Books of the Year in Guardian, New York Times, The Times, Observer, Financial Times, New Yorker, Telegraph, Slate, Oprah, Vogue, Time, Scotsman and Evening Standard

Shortlisted for the National Book Awards 2013