"December 6, 1941: Best friends Frank and Stanley have it good. Their dads are Navy pilots stationed at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, and the boys get a front-row view of the huge battleships and the sparkling water. Yes, World War II is raging in Europe and in Asia, but the US isn't involved in the war, and the boys are free to dream about becoming comic book creators. They've even invented a superhero of their own, in the style of Batman, Superman, Captain...

"Malaya, 1945. Cecily Alcantara's family is in terrible danger: her fifteen-year-old son, Abel, has disappeared, and her youngest daughter, Jasmin, is confined in a basement to prevent being pressed into service at the comfort stations. Her eldest daughter Jujube, who works at a tea house frequented by drunk Japanese soldiers, becomes angrier by the day. Cecily knows two things: that this is all her fault; and that her family must never learn the...

Deceived by his wife, a man prepares to take revenge on her a terrible way.

Charles suffers from terrible writer's block so he invites the eccentric mystic Madame Acarti (Judi Dench) to perform a seance in his home. He gets more than he bargained for when Madame Acarti inadvertently summons the spirit of his first wife who is shocked to find Charles now married to a new picture-perfect wife. Charles finds himself stuck between his two wives and their increasingly over-the-top attempts to outdo one another in this lethally...

When Sinbad inadvertently kills a man and causes the death of his beloved brother, he is cursed and escapes to sea as a stowaway. Sinbad is an impetuous young man on a quest for redemption, condemned to keep searching for a way to lift the curse that chains him to the seas, until he can find the goodness in himself. But a terrible storm ensues, killing many on board the ship. The few survivors - sensitive young doctor Anwar, Viking warrior Gunnar,...

Follows the infamously terrible American Samoa soccer team, known for a brutal 2001 FIFA match they lost 31-0. With the 2014 World Cup Qualifiers approaching, the team hires down-on-his-luck, maverick coach Thomas Rongen, hoping he will turn the world's worst soccer team around in this humorous and heartfelt underdog story.

Many factories around the world use perfluorinated chemicals to make everyday products. Due to their chemical stability, these compounds are “forever chemicals” They do not break down. Even worse, they can build up inside the human body and cause health problems, including cancer, and compromise the immune system. Companies have routinely dismissed campaigners who insist that cancer cases have risen close tofactories which use perfluorinated chemicals....

"Two rival queens. History's greatest playwright. And a deadly plot for the crown. London, 1600. With no legitimate heir to Queen Elizabeth's throne, and no clear successor with her modern vision of a civilization that thrives in peace and diversity, England is in a supremely perilous moment. Elizabeth's foes understand the power of a poet's voice to shape popular opinion, and force esteemed playwright William Shakespeare to write a script detailing...

"In the old tales, it is written that the egg of a seadragon, dragonfruit, holds within it the power to undo a person's greatest sorrow. But as with all things that offer hope when hope has gone, the tale comes with a warning. Every wish demands a price. Hanalei of Tamarind is the cherished daughter of an old island family. But when her father steals a seadragon egg meant for an ailing princess, she is forced into a life of exile. In the years that...

A "magisterial" (Sunday Times) illumination of how books were used in war across the twentieth century--both as weapons and as agents for peace. We tend not to talk about books and war in the same breath--one ranks among humanity's greatest inventions, the other among its most terrible. But as esteemed literary historian Andrew Pettegree demonstrates, the two are deeply intertwined. The Book at War explores the various roles that books have played...