"Former poet laureate Donald Hall selects the essential work from a life in poetry"--Publisher.

In this poignant and poetic novel, looking back on her sixty years, a dying woman examines the great relationships of her life  When she learns that she is dying, Laura Spelman vows to spend her final year only on what matters most. As she quickly realizes, this means coming to terms with her most fruitful and important bonds-her "real connections"-all of which have been with women. From her tempestuous daughter and beloved aunt, to a promising lesbian...

"This book reveals new science and remarkable discoveries about the octopus, one of nature's most elusive and intelligent animals"--

From the majestic Bengal tiger to the domesticated Siamese comes a meditation on cats from the bestselling author of The Hidden Life of Dogs and The Social Lives of Dogs  From as far back in time as the disappearance of the dinosaurs, cats have occupied an important place in our evolutionary, social, and cultural history. The family of the cat is as diverse as it is widespread, ranging from the lions, tigers, and pumas of the African and Asian...

"When raiders sent by a man known as the General attack her village, Delta suspects he is searching for her. Delta sets out to rescue her family but quickly learns that in the Wastes no one can be trusted; perhaps not even her childhood friend, Asher, who has been missing for nearly a decade. If Delta can trust Asher, she just might decode the map and trade evidence of the Verdant to the General for her family. What Delta doesn't count on is what...

Robert Langdon, Harvard professor of symbology and religious iconology, arrives at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao to attend the unveiling of a discovery that "will change the face of science forever". The evening's host is his friend and former student, Edmond Kirsch, a forty-year-old tech magnate whose dazzling inventions and audacious predictions have made him a controversial figure around the world. This evening is to be no exception: he claims he...

"The first full-length volume of poems in a decade by former poet laureate of the United States Donald Hall. In The Back Chamber, Donald Hall illuminates the evocative, iconic objects of deep memory--"a cowbell," "a white stone perfectly round," "a three-legged milking stool"--that serve to foreground the rich meditations on time and mortality that run through his remarkable new collection. While Hall's devoted readers will recognize many of his long-standing...

A splendidly edited anthology of the greatest poems of one of America's finest writers From the very beginning of May Sarton's career, in her fiction, memoir, and poetry, her work has been touched by a deep sense of order. The careful structure of her work provides an elegant backdrop against which her emotions are free to unfold, rising up through the cracks and fissures of her poems' architecture only to pass through and disappear like a summer...

As informative as it is lovely, “Homes in the Wild” is an adorable nonfiction picture book from author/illustrator Lita Judge that shows that wild creatures-from beavers to bobcats, and sloths to squirrels-aren't so different from us after all. Just like us, every baby animal has a home. Some live in complex burrows deep underground, others in simple nests high in the treetops. But all homes, regardless of where they are or how they're built,...

From Pulitzer Prize winner and former Poet Laureate Charles Simic comes a dazzling collection of poems as original, meditative, and humorous as the legendary poet himself. This latest volume of poetry from Charles Simic, one of America's most celebrated poets, demonstrates his revered signature style-a mix of understated brilliance, wry melancholy, and sardonic wit. These seventy luminous poems range in subject from mortality to personal ads, from...