"Whom to marry, and when will it happen ... these two questions define ever woman's existence". So begins Spinster, a revelatory and slyly erudite look at the pleasures and possiblilities of remaining single. Using her own experiences as a starting point, journalist and cultural critic Kate Bolick invites us into her carefully considered, passionately lived life, weaving together the past and present to examine why she ... along with over 100 million...

Horrified at the thought of caring for talkative, ten-year-old Rebecca, the spinster aunts nevertheless spend seven difficult years raising their niece, rewarding years for all three inhabitants of the little brick house in a small New England town.

The Witches' Tree continues the tradition in M. C. Beaton's beloved Agatha Raisin mystery series--now a hit T.V. show. Cotswolds inhabitants are used to inclement weather, but the night sky is especially foggy as Rory and Molly Devere, the new vicar and his wife, drive slowly home from a dinner party in their village of Sumpton Harcourt. They strain to see the road ahead--and then suddenly brake, screeching to a halt. Right in front of them, aglow...

"The leading ladies of the small town of Cranford have kept the locals in line with the manners and tastes they catered for years, but when a newcomer moves into town, their rules are challenged, threatening to change the town for good. Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell's Cranford is humorous slice-of-life novel that tracks the changes of a 19th century English town."--

From the New York Times bestselling novelist, a stunning historical novel that follows the story of Mary Anning and Elizabeth Philpot, two extraordinary 19th century fossil hunters who changed the scientific world forever.
On the windswept, fossil-strewn beaches of the English coast, poor and uneducated Mary learns that she has a unique gift: "the eye" to spot ammonites and other fossils no one else can see. When she uncovers...

"A lively exploration of the struggles faced by women in law enforcement and mystery fiction for the past 175 years In 1910 Alice Wells took the oath to join the all-male Los Angeles Police Department. She wore no uniform, carried no weapon, and kept her badge stuffed in her pocketbook. She wasn't the first or only policewoman, but she became the movement's most visible voice. Police work from its very beginning was considered a male domain, far too...

"It is 1950. London is still reeling from World War II, and Margery Benson--a sensible schoolmarm and lonely spinster--is just trying to get through life. But one day, she reaches her breaking point, abandoning her job and her tidy, circumscribed life, toset out on an expedition to the other side of the world in search of an insect that may or may not exist: the golden beetle of New Caledonia, Margery's childhood obsession ever since her father gave...

A self-anointed spinster at fifty-one, Myra Lipinski is reasonably content with her quiet life, her dog, Frank, and her career as a visiting nurse. But everything changes when Chip Reardon, the golden boy she adored in high school, is assigned as her new patient. Choosing to forgo treatment for an incurable illness, Chip has returned to his New England hometown to spend what time he has left. Now, Myra and Chip find themselves engaged in a poignant...

London, June 1835: In the interest of being a good neighbor, Charles checks in on Miss Haverstock, the elderly spinster who resides in the flat above his. But as the young journalist and his fiance Kate ascend the stairs, they are assaulted by the unmistakable smell of death. Upon entering the woman's quarters, they find her decomposing corpse propped up, adorned in a faded gown that looks like it could have been her wedding dress, had she been married....

An Authentic Glimpse of a North Korea We've Never Seen Before, by a Prize-Winning Filmmaker. Anna Broinowski is the only Westerner ever granted full access to North Korea's propaganda machine, its film industry. Aim High in Creation! is her funny, surreal, insightful account of her twenty-one-day apprenticeship there. At the same time it is a fresh-eyed look, beyond stereotypes, at life in that most secretive of societies. When Anna learned that fracking...