"Rion Kwirk comes from a rather odd family. His mother named him and his sisters after her favorite constellations, and his father makes funky-flavored jellybeans for a living. One sister acts as if she's always on stage, and the other is a walking dictionary. But no one in the family is more odd than Rion's grandfather, Papa Kwirk. He's the kind of guy who shows up on his motorcycle only on holidays handing out crossbows and stuffed squirrels as...

The historical record crowns success. Those enshrined in its annals are men and women whose ideas, accomplishments, or personalities have dominated, endured, and most important of all, found champions. John F. Kennedy's Profiles in Courage, Giorgio Vasari's Lives of the Artists, and Samuel Johnson's Lives of the Poets are classic celebrations of the greatest, the brightest, the eternally constellated. Paul Collins' Banvard's Folly is a different...

A wealthy and notorious clan, the Bellefleurs live in a region not unlike the Adirondacks, in an enormous mansion on the shores of mythic Lake Noir. They own vast lands and profitable businesses, they employ their neighbors, and they influence the government. A prolific and eccentric group, they include several millionaires, a mass murderer, a spiritual seeker who climbs into the mountains looking for God, a wealthy noctambulist who dies of a chicken...

On a return trip from Germany, Monk and Natalie stop over in Paris. They visit the catacombs, a vast, underground cavern in the center of the city lined with millions of human bones. Monk picks up a skull and announces that the person was murdered. Most of the bodies came from a battlefield, but Monk believes the wound that killed this man came from a modern weapon made in the last few years. He thinks someone hid a recent murder victim among the...

Freya Miller, funny and tenacious with a taste for vodka, escapes a recent tragedy by answering an advertisement for a nursing job that promises LIGHT DUTIES. LARGE PAY. NO QUESTIONS ASKED OR ANSWERED. Her new employer is the infamous, eccentric, and stupendously rich Vincetti family, heads of the Halcyon Corporation. Her task will be to care for their adored heir, Elijah, who is currently lying in a coma amidst an armada of premium machinery. The...

Overseeing her baby, a family wedding, and her own approaching birthday celebration amid rumors that a developer has unwanted plans for Finch village, Lori bonds with an inventor only to discover his true intentions.

Caroline Wimbley Levine returns to her childhood home of Tall Pines Plantation in South Carolina to help her brother deal with their eccentric and headstrong mother, Miss Lavinia, in a story of family bonds, secrets, betrayal, and understanding.

Harvey, upset when his Darth Paper finger puppet brings humiliation, gets Dwight suspended, but Origami Yoda asks Tommy and Kellan, now in seventh grade, to make a new investigation to persuade the school board to reinstate Dwight

While visiting her eccentric aunt who lives in Wyoming, twelve-year-old Jade befriends a boy who believes he is a descendant of Butch Cassidy.

"Oggie Cooder loves cheese so much that he carries a slice of cheese with him wherever he goes. Its not just for a snack -- Oggie is an excellent charver. (Charving is when you chew a piece of cheese to carve it in the shape of something.) The kids at school think Oggie's charving is a little strange. But when a big TV show comes looking for people with unusual talents, Oggie is suddenly Mr. Popular. Can Oggie charve a path to fame and score an invite...