Two ebullient young men are engaged in a passionate search for Dharma, or truth. Their major adventure is the pursuit of the Zen way, which takes them climbing into the high Sierras to seek the lesson of solitude, a lesson that has a hard time surviving their forays into the pagan groves of San Francisco's Bohemia with its marathon wine-drinking bouts, poetry jam sessions, experiments in "yabyum," and similar nonascetic pastimes.

A trip to the laundromat leads to a momentous occasion when Trixie, too young to speak words, realizes that something important is missing and struggles to explain the problem to her father. Using a combination of muted black-and-white photographs and expressive illustrations, this book tells a true-to-life tale about what happens when Daddy's in charge and things go terribly, hilariously wrong.

"Merricat Blackwood lives on the family estate with her sister Constance and her uncle Julian. Not long ago there were seven Blackwoods -- until a fatal dose of arsenic found its way into the sugar bowl one terrible night. Acquitted of the murders, Constance has returned home, where Merricat protects her from the curiousity and hostility of the villagers. Their days pass in happy isolation until cousin Charles appears. Only Merricat can see the danger,...

An African American woman searches for a fulfilling relationship through two loveless marriages and finally finds it in the person of Tea Cake, an itinerant laborer and gambler. Their Eyes Were Watching God, an American classic, is a luminous and haunting novel about Janie Crawford, a Southern black woman in the 1930s whose journey from a free-spirited girl to a woman of independence and substance has inspired writers and readers for close to seventy...

A small, exclusive college in upstate New York is nestled along the frozen shores of Lake Mohiga ... and directly across from a maximum-security prison. The two institutions manage to coexist peacefully, until 10,000 prisoners break out and head directly for the college.

The daughter of a non-believing Jewish mother and a non-believing gentile father - dedicated Communists both - Davita Chandel, growing up as the world suffers through the Spanish Civil War and World War II, turns to Judaism for consolation and spiritual sustenance.

The author of The Satanic Verses returns with his most humorous and accessible novel yet. This is the story of Haroun, a 12-year-old boy whose father Rashid is the greatest storyteller in a city so sad that it has forgotten its name. When the gift of gab suddenly deserts Rashid, Haroun sets out on an adventure to rescue his print.

Black historian and professor John Washington has been summoned to his hometown just north of the Mason-Dixon Line. Reluctantly leaving his white lover, Judith, a psychiatrist in Philadelphia, he travels to the small western Pennsylvania town for Old Jack Crawley, a friend of his late father, Moses Washington. Old Jack helped raise John, and now he is dying. Seeing Old Jack, John is drawn back to his childhood, to the mystery of Moses and his death....

Mama Day uses her ancient knowledge of herbal medicine and pits herself in mortal combat with dark forces that threaten the body and soul of her niece, Cocoa.

A retired Episcopal rector accepts an interim post on an island off North Carolina. The novel describes the way he and his wife minister to the needs of the parishioners and their low-key social life.