Matilda Wormwood’s father thinks she’s a little scab. Matilda’s mother spends all afternoon playing bingo. And Matilda’s headmistress Miss Trunchbull? Well, she’s the worst of all. She is a big bully, who thinks all her pupils are rotten and locks them in the dreaded Chokey. As for Matilda, she’s an extraordinary little girl with a magical mind – and now she’s had enough. So all these grown-ups had better watch out, because Matilda is going to teach them a lesson they’ll never forget.

The Phenomenal #1 New York Times bestseller: Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus

In his classic guide to understanding the opposite sex, Dr. John Gray, provides a practical and proven way for men and women to improve their communication and relationships by acknowledging the differences between them.

Once upon a time Martians and Venusians met, fell in love, and had happy relationships together because they respected and accepted their differences. Then they came to Earth and amnesia set in: they forgot they were from different planets.

Based on years of successful counseling of couples and individuals, Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus has helped millions of couples transform their relationships. Now viewed as a modern classic, this timeless book has helped men and women realize how different they can be in their communication styles, their emotional needs, and their modes of behavior, and offers the secrets of communicating without conflicts, allowing couples to give intimacy every chance to grow.

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One boy, one boat, one tiger . . .

After the tragic sinking of a cargo ship, a solitary lifeboat remains bobbing on the wild, blue Pacific. The only survivors from the wreck are a sixteen year-old boy named Pi, a hyena, a zebra (with a broken leg), a female orang-utan and a 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger. The scene is set for one of the most extraordinary and best-loved works of fiction in recent years.

Zachary Ezra Rawlins is a graduate student in Vermont when he discovers a mysterious book hidden in the stacks. As he turns the pages, entranced by tales of lovelorn prisoners, key collectors, and nameless acolytes, he reads something strange: a story from his own childhood. Bewildered by this inexplicable book and desperate to make sense of how his own life came to be recorded, Zachary uncovers a series of clues—a bee, a key, and a sword—that lead him to a masquerade party in New York, to a secret club, and through a doorway to an ancient library hidden far below the surface of the earth. What Zachary finds in this curious place is more than just a buried home for books and their guardians—it is a place of lost cities and seas, lovers who pass notes under doors and across time, and of stories whispered by the dead. Zachary learns of those who have sacrificed much to protect this realm, relinquishing their sight and their tongues to preserve this archive, and also of those who are intent on its destruction. Together with Mirabel, a fierce, pink-haired protector of the place, and Dorian, a handsome, barefoot man with shifting alliances, Zachary travels the twisting tunnels, darkened stairwells, crowded ballrooms, and sweetly soaked shores of this magical world, discovering his purpose—in both the mysterious book and in his own life.

Aging and reclusive Hollywood movie icon Evelyn Hugo is finally ready to tell the truth about her glamorous and scandalous life. But when she chooses unknown magazine reporter Monique Grant for the job, no one is more astounded than Monique herself. Why her? Why now?

Monique is not exactly on top of the world. Her husband has left her, and her professional life is going nowhere. Regardless of why Evelyn has selected her to write her biography, Monique is determined to use this opportunity to jumpstart her career.

Summoned to Evelyn’s luxurious apartment, Monique listens in fascination as the actress tells her story. From making her way to Los Angeles in the 1950s to her decision to leave show business in the ‘80s, and, of course, the seven husbands along the way, Evelyn unspools a tale of ruthless ambition, unexpected friendship, and a great forbidden love. Monique begins to feel a very real connection to the legendary star, but as Evelyn’s story near its conclusion, it becomes clear that her life intersects with Monique’s own in tragic and irreversible ways.

When Death has a story to tell, you listen.

It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will become busier still.

Liesel Meminger is a foster girl living outside of Munich, who scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist–books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement.

In superbly crafted writing that burns with intensity, award-winning author Markus Zusak, author of I Am the Messenger, has given us one of the most enduring stories of our time.

“The kind of book that can be life-changing.” —The New York Times

“Deserves a place on the same shelf with The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank.” —USA Today

When Death has a story to tell, you listen.

It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will become busier still.

Liesel Meminger is a foster girl living outside of Munich, who scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist–books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement.

In superbly crafted writing that burns with intensity, award-winning author Markus Zusak, author of I Am the Messenger, has given us one of the most enduring stories of our time.

“The kind of book that can be life-changing.” —The New York Times

“Deserves a place on the same shelf with The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank.” —USA Today

Gone Girl is a novel written by author Gillian Flynn. It is written as a contemporary thriller novel and is first published in June 2012. The novel’s core mystery stems from an uncertainty about the protagonist, Nick Dunne. Whether Nick killed his wife, Amy Dunne, is the suspense the novel is built up on. The novel is well received throughout the United States and other English-speaking nations.

Gone Girl centers its story about Nick and Amy Dunne’s strained marriage relationship. Nick used to work as a journalist, but loses his job. With his broke financial status, Nick decides to relocate from New York City to his smaller home town, North Carthage. In an attempt of recovering from his financial deprivations, Nick opens a bar using the money from his wife. Nick runs the bar along with his twin sister Margo, providing a decent living for his family. But, as they days go by, his marriage with Amy is falling apart slowly. Amy resents her new life.

On a summer morning in Missouri, when Nick and Amy are celebrating their fifth wedding anniversary along with their relatives and acquaintances, Amy goes missing. Police’s eyes turn towards Nick as an act of suspicion, since Nick used Amy’s money for his business and their relationship is strained. As the police delve into the investigation, different shades of stories come out from Nick’s and Amy’s sides. The suspense of the book is carried until the actual information is demystified. The edition is published in paperback, on 8th November, 2012.

Key Features

• This book entered into the New York Times Best Seller list.
• The book is praised by reviewers for its use of unreliable narration, plot twists and suspense.

A gripping portrayal of London’s dark criminal underbelly, published in Penguin Classics with an introduction by Philip Horne.

The story of Oliver Twist – orphaned, and set upon by evil and adversity from his first breath – shocked readers when it was published. After running away from the workhouse and pompous beadle Mr Bumble, Oliver finds himself lured into a den of thieves peopled by vivid and memorable characters – the Artful Dodger, vicious burglar Bill Sikes, his dog Bull’s Eye, and prostitute Nancy, all watched over by cunning master-thief Fagin. Combining elements of Gothic Romance, the Newgate Novel and popular melodrama, Dickens created an entirely new kind of fiction, scathing in its indictment of a cruel society, and pervaded by an unforgettable sense of threat and mystery.

This Penguin Classics edition of Oliver Twist is the first critical edition to faithfully reproduce the text as its earliest readers would have encountered it from its serialisation in Bentley’s Miscellany, and includes an introduction by Philip Horne, a glossary of Victorian thieves’ slang, a chronology of Dickens’s life, a map of contemporary London and all of George Cruikshank’s original illustrations.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

يهدف الكتاب إلى دراسة بعض الظواهر الأدبية في تاريخ الأدب العربي، التي نشأت في أطر اجتماعية وثقافية وسياسية معينة، من خلال توزيع الأدب العربي إلى فترات زمنية وتاريخية، حيث تناول العصر الجاهلي، والعصر الإسلامي، والعصر الأموي، والعصر العباسيّ، والعصر الأندلسي، وشيئاً من العصر الحديث. +++ إن قضايا الأدب العربي ومسائله في مختلف العصور على درجة من التنوع والاتساع، وبالتالي فقد وقفت الكاتبة على القضايا الأدبية العامة من خلال تناول بعض المسائل الأدبية البارزة، التي تشكّل محاور رئيسة في أدب هذه العصور، وكان ظهورها نتيجة مؤثرات سياسية واجتماعية وحضارية وجمالية وطبيعية مختلفة، ساهمت في كل عصر على ظهورها بالشكل الذي وُجدت عليه.

صدر حديثا كتاب ” تاريخ العبيد فى الخليج العربي ” للدكتور هشام العوضى، أستاذ تاريخ بالجامعة الأمريكية فى الكويت، والذى يناقش فترة مهمة من التاريخ العربي عامة والخليجى خاصة، والكتاب صادر عن  دار نشر التنوير.