This is a collection of 160 stories from over forty cultures. The stories are grouped thematically: fooling the devil, shape shifters, the not-quite-human, numbskulls and noodleheads, true loves and false, likely and unlikely heroes, and death and the world's end.

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of Calvin and Hobbes, Bill Watterson shares his thoughts on cartooning and the creation of the popular "boy and tiger" strip. The book is illustrated throughout with his favourite cartoons.

When Kasey Edwards discovers she'll be infertile within a year, she is forced to bring the baby issue to the forefront of her mind. In "30-Something and the Clock Is Ticking", she explores what having a child would mean to her identity, her career, her body, her relationships and her mental health. Kasey speaks to people who have children and people who don't, women who claim motherhood is the best thing they've ever done and those who say it's the worst. She discovers how the desire for a baby can drive people to the brink of insanity, the logistical challenges of ovulating and trying to conceive on a longhaul flight, the indignity and despair of IVF and the price of buying sperm on the Internet. This witty memoir will make you laugh, cry and ponder the joys and regrets of

She's a catwalk model who has everything: a boyfriend, a career, a loyal best friend. But when a sudden motor 'accident' leaves her disfigured and incapable of speech, she goes from being the beautiful centre of attention to being an invisible monster, so hideous that no one will acknowledge she exists.

This collection of cartoons features Calvin and Hobbes . It shows Calvin-turned-firefly waking Hobbes with his flashlight glow; Spaceman Spiff rocketing through alien galaxies as he battles Dad-turned-Bug-Being; and Calvin's always inspired snowman art.

Fleur is beautiful, unscrupulous, and has a large wardrobe of black designer suits. With the help of "The Times" announcements page she gatecrashes the funerals and memorial services of the wealthy, preying on rich, vulnerable men. She charms her way into their lives and onto their platinum credit cards, takes what she can, and then moves swiftly on. When Richard, a dull but wealthy businessman, meets Fleur at his wife's memorial service, he's bowled over. Gradually Fleur works her spell on Richard's family - transforming their lives while she moves in on their wealth. But she finds herself lingering longer than she meant to ...

It. Is. On. From the pen of the prolific (and bestselling) author Barney Stinson comes the indispensable guide for every Bro looking to score with The Ladies. Featuring the famous plays including: -The Lorenzo Von Matterhorn -Mrs. Stinsfire -The Ted Mosby -The Time Traveller -The 'SNASA' -The Scuba Diver -The 'He's Not Coming' ...and other greatest hits from Barney Stinson's secret Playbook of legendary moves. So suit up and get ready to be schooled in awsomeness.

A rich, successful Moscow professor befriends a stray dog and attempts a scientific first by transplanting into it the testicles and pituitary gland of a recently deceased man. A distinctly worryingly human animal is now on the loose, and the professor's hitherto respectable life becomes a nightmare beyond endurance. An absurd and superbly comic story, this classic novel can also be read as a fierce parable of the Russian Revolution.

Frankie's mother is desperate to find someone to take care of her baby and she doesn't have much time. Noel isn't the most promising of fathers but could be Frankie's best hope. As for Lisa, she is prepared to give up everything for the man she loves; surely he's going to love her back Moira knows what's right, and has the power to change the course of Frankie's life.but Moira is hiding secrets of her own. MINDING FRANKIE is a story about unconventional families, relationships which aren't quite what they seem, and the child at the heart of everyone's lives.

When Gregor Samsa woke up one morning from unsettling dreams, he found himself changed in his bed into a monstrous vermin. With this startling, bizarre, yet surprisingly funny first sentence, Kafka begins his masterpiece, The Metamorphosis. It is the story of a young man who, transformed overnight into a giant beetlelike insect, becomes an object of disgrace to his family, an outsider in his own home, a quintessentially alienated man. A harrowing -- though absurdly comic -- meditation on human feelings of inadequecy, guilt, and isolation, The Metamorphosis has taken its place as one of the mosst widely read and influential works of twentieth-century fiction. As W.H. Auden wrote, Kafka is important to us because his predicament is the predicament of modern man.

An epic, richly inventive, historically sweeping, magical romance. When historian Diana Bishop opens an alchemical manuscript in the Bodleian Library, it's an unwelcome intrusion of magic into her carefully ordered life. Though Diana is a witch of impeccable lineage, the violent death of her parents while she was still a child convinced her that human fear is more potent than any witchcraft. Now Diana has unwittingly exposed herself to a world she's kept at bay for years; one of powerful witches, creative, destructive daemons and long-lived vampires. Sensing the significance of Diana's discovery, the creatures gather in Oxford, among them the enigmatic Matthew Clairmont, a vampire genticist. Diana is inexplicably drawn to Matthew and, in a shadowy world of half-truths and old enmities,