Collection: Shop Woman

Mrs Pollifax is on hand in Morocco to back up an inept CIA agent, and it's a good thing...

All she has to do is to masquerade as his aunt while he confirms the identities of seven undercover agents in Morocco - and keep him from making an unpleasant ass of himself. But things quickly go wrong. Their first informant is killed, and Mrs Pollifax begins to get the idea that her colleague is not who he says he is.

Still, she forges ahead, checking out suspicious informants, and coming to the conclusion that someone is an impostor and someone wants her dead.

Armed with only an open mind and a little karate, Mrs Pollifax is the most unlikely and lovable of international spies.

What readers are saying:

"Love, love, love Mrs Pollifax. Ms Gilman has an extraordinary way of keeping you on the edge of your seat and turning the pages of her books."

"How can a sweet little old lady get into so much trouble? Mrs Pollifax is a gem and a hoot!"

"A book that gives you a big smile on every page. I'm looking forward to my next Mrs Pollifax adventure."

"Who wouldn't fall in love with a senior citizen who wears absurd hats, pushes the book cart at the hospital, and knows karate?"

"I first read the Mrs Pollifax books when I was a little girl and I keep coming back to read the books again and again."

"Read it, it's the best thing you can do for yourself. It's like a reminder of the zest for life."

Editorial reviews:

"Mrs Pollifax is an enchantress." New York Times

"Mrs Pollifax gives Agatha Christie's Miss Marple a rival to reckon with." Toronto Star

"Filled with adventures-and misadventures-but through it all Mrs Pollifax is triumphant." Booklist

"Absorbing and worthwhile ... You won't want to put the book down." Portland Telegram

"The pace never flags, bolstered by the shrewd Mrs P. and a host of well-defined characters who all work their surprising wiles." Publishers Weekly

"Should delight you whether you're looking for smiles or thrills." New York Times Book Review

"All's right with the world as long as Mrs Pollifax is part of it." Mobile Register

Avani Patel loves to skateboard. With the nearest skate park an hour away, though, she doesn't get much chance to sharpen her skills or practice advanced tricks. Then one day, she learns the city council is considering building a skate park in town! But it's far from a done deal. Can Avani and her friends find a way to convince the council that a park is a worthy investment for the community, or will she be stuck doing ollies in her driveway? Find out in this fast-paced, easy-to-read illustrated chapter book by Jake Maddox!

What to expect. . . the first step. Answers to all your baby-making questions.

• Are there ways to improve our chances of having a girl (or boy)?
• Does stress affect fertility?
• Should we be having sex every day? Every other day? Three times a day?
• I'm 37. Does that mean I'll have a harder time getting pregnant?
• How long should we keep trying to conceive before we get some help?
• What fertility treatments are available--and how will we be able to pay for them?

Expecting to expect? Plan ahead. Here's everything you need to know to help prepare for the healthiest possible pregnancy and the healthiest possible baby. Filled with practical tips, empathetic advice, and savvy strategies, all designed to help you get that baby of your dreams on board faster. How to get your body into the best baby-making shape. Which foods feed fertility. Which lifestyle habits to quit and which to cultivate. All about baby-making sex, from timing to positions to logistics--and how to keep it sexy. Figuring out your fertility (and his). When to seek fertility help, and the latest on tests, treatments, and reproductive technology. Expecting to become a dad? This book has you covered, too. Plus, all about the family-building options for single women and same-sex couples.

"One thing's for certain, no house that Anne's in will ever be dull."

That's what Marilla Cuthbert says about Anne, the lively red-headed orphan she and her brother Matthew adopt. For decades, girls have agreed, eagerly reading every book in Lucy Maud Montgomery's series that chronicles Anne's coming of age.

*A New York Times Book Review Notable Book*
*An NPR Best Book of the Year*
*An NPR Book We Love*
*A New York Times Editors' Choice Pick*
*A Most Anticipated Read in LitHub, CrimeReads, Thrillist, and Popsugar*
*A Boston Globe Thriller to Read on Your Summer Vacation*
*A Crime Reads Best International Crime Fiction for 2022*

The kinetic story of a sixty-five-year-old female assassin who faces an unexpected threat in the twilight of her career--this is an international bestseller and the English language debut from an award-winning South Korean author

At sixty-five, Hornclaw is beginning to slow down. She lives modestly in a small apartment, with only her aging dog, a rescue named Deadweight, to keep her company. There are expectations for people her age--that she'll retire and live out the rest of her days quietly. But Hornclaw is not like other people. She is an assassin.

Double-crossers, corporate enemies, cheating spouses--for the past four decades, Hornclaw has killed them all with ruthless efficiency, and the less she's known about her targets, the better. But now, nearing the end of her career, she has just slipped up. An injury leads her to an unexpected connection with a doctor and his family. But emotions, for an assassin, are a dangerous proposition. As Hornclaw's world closes in, this final chapter in her career may also mark her own bloody end.

A sensation in South Korea, and now translated into English for the first time by Chi-Young Kim, The Old Woman with the Knife is an electrifying, singular, mordantly funny novel about the expectations imposed on aging bodies and the dramatic ways in which one woman chooses to reclaim her agency.

"This book is a must-read for any woman who wants to make a bigger impact in the world." - John Gerzema, New York Times Bestselling Author, The Athena Doctrine

"I think working women in all stages of their career from entry level to senior executives could benefit from reading this book." Patti Solaski, Global Diversity & Inclusion Manager, Microsoft

"The practical exercises present throughout the book are an added plus. I highly recommend it." - Merrin P, Amazon Review

Leading Gracefully by Monique Tallon offers a new roadmap for women who want to lead differently from the status-quo.

Since women entered the workplace, they have made the incorrect assumption that in order to get ahead, they must behave like men to be taken seriously, to get ahead, and to lead. While trying to get into the boy's club, women have subsequently forgotten how to bring their unique strengths to the table - qualities like vulnerability, humility, collaboration and compassion which are essential to leading in today's highly complex and volatile world.

Leading Gracefully is a self-coaching guide that is designed to help you rediscover your strengths, identifies the gaps in your leadership style, and introduces the Feminine Leadership Model to help you develop the skill set necessary to thrive in the modern workplace. An insightful and step-by-step guide to helping you step into your leadership more fully and to discover what authentic and effective leadership can really look like.

In this book you will learn how to:

-Identify your current leadership style and understand the impact you have on others

-Navigate the confusing messages on how to show up in a leadership capacity

-Be assertive without being aggressive

-Deal with the "Imposter Syndrome" and build more self-confidence

-Tap into your vulnerability and use it as a strength in a leadership context

-Tap into your intuition and make decisions more easily

-Communicate your feelings and give feedback without conflict

-Claim your authenticity and bring your full self to work

-Let go of perfection and claim your value and worth

-Promote yourself without bragging or seeming "arrogant"

-So much more!

Whether you are a senior level executive, a mid‐career manager or just starting out, Leading Gracefully is a must‐read for women who want to get to the next level in their career and life. Through personal stories and those of female executives and entrepreneurs from the world of technology, science, retail and non‐profits, you will learn how to successfully use 'feminine' strengths combined with traditional traits to breakthrough gender bias. Use it as self‐coaching 'how‐to' guide, with 15 powerful exercises, tips and resources you can apply right away to gain more confidence, authenticity and effectiveness.

From the author of the classic multimillion bestseller The Shell Seeker, comes Rosamunde Pilcher's September, a story of homecomings and heartbreaks, friendships, betrayals, forgiveness, and love.

The basis for the TV mini-series of the same name, now available on streaming platforms.

A place you will never forget

Rosamunde Pilcher's Scotland...where the fields flourish with greenery, the bills bloom with purple, and the lochs glitter with the bright blue of the sky.

A time you will never forget

September...when the heather is in full flower, the first chill of autumn cools the air, and the countryside stirs with the hunt, balls, dinner parties, and dance.

A novel you will never forget

A main selection of the Literary Guild and the Doubleday Book Club

Hands-on space science projects help launch kids ages 8 to 11 into learning about fearless female astronauts who broke barriers across space and gender in this full-color book full of real-world connections!

Do you dream of going into space? Do you wonder what it's like on the moon? In Gutsy Girls Go for Science: Astronauts with STEM Projects for Kids, readers ages 8 through 11 explore the lives of some of the world's most amazing female astronauts, including Bonnie Dunbar, Sally Ride, Mae Jemison, Sunita Williams, and Serena Auñón-Chancellor--all pioneers in the field of space exploration. Their hard work and dedication to science and experimentation gave the world much new knowledge about space, biology, and more. These brave women took risks and pushed the limits of what we know about life in space.

- Through hands-on STEM projects such as designing and building space rovers, rockets, and even a model of the International Space Station using inexpensive and easy-to-find supplies, kids gain critical thinking skills just like the ones necessary to succeed in space.

- Essential questions, cool facts about female scientists, and links to online resources all reinforce high-level learning.

- Using a fun narrative style, engaging illustrations combined with photography, fascinating facts, essential questions, and hands-on projects, this book deepens readers' creative thinking skills.

About the Gutsy Girls Go for Science set and Nomad Press

Astronauts is part of a set of four Gutsy Girls Go for Science books that explore career connections for young scientists. The other titles in this series include Paleontologists, Engineers, and Programmers.

Nomad Press books in the Gutsy Girls Go for Science series integrate content with participation, encouraging readers to engage in student-directed learning. Combining content with inquiry-based projects stimulates learning and makes it active and alive. Nomad's unique approach simultaneously grounds kids in factual knowledge while allowing them the space to be curious, creative, and critical thinkers.

All books are leveled for Guided Reading level and Lexile and align with Common Core State Standards and National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies. All titles are available in paperback, hardcover, and ebook formats.

A USA Today Bestseller!

"Every now and then a new voice in fiction arrives to completely charm, entertain and remind us what matters. Viola Shipman is that voice and The Summer Cottage is that absolutely irresistible and necessary novel." -- New York Times Bestselling Author Dorothea Benton Frank

From the bestselling author of The Charm Bracelet and The Recipe Box comes the perfect summer escape about the restorative power of family tradition, small-town community and the feel of sand between your toes

Adie Lou Kruger's ex never understood her affection for what her parents called their Cozy Cottage, the charming, ramshackle summer home--complete with its own set of rules for relaxing--that she's inherited on Lake Michigan. But despite the fact she's facing a broken marriage and empty nest, and middle age is looming in the distance, memories of happy childhoods on the beach give her reason for hope. She's determined not to let her husband's affair with a grad student reduce her to a cliché, or to waste one more minute in a career she doesn't love, so it becomes clear what Adie Lou must do: rebuild her life and restore her cottage shingle by shingle, on her terms.

But converting the beloved, weather-beaten structure into a bed-and-breakfast isn't quite the efficient home-reno experience she's seen on TV. Pushback from Saugatuck's contentious preservation society, costly surprises and demanding guests were not part of the plan. But as the cottage comes back to life, Adie Lou does, too, finding support in unexpected places and a new love story on the horizon. One cottage rule at a time, Adie Lou reclaims her own strength, history and joy by rediscovering the magic in every sunset and sandcastle.

Don't miss bestselling author Viola Shipman's charming new novel, THE WISHING BRIDGE--where an ambitious executive rediscovers the magic of family, friendship, home...and Christmas!

Other books by Viola Shipman:

• Famous in a Small Town
• The Secret of Snow
• A Wish for Winter
• The Edge of Summer
• The Heirloom Garden
• The Clover Girls

A vision of the Virgin Mary foreshadows a string of cold-blooded murders, revealing a dark current of religious fanaticism in an old medieval town in this Ruth Galloway mystery.

When Ruth's friend Cathbad sees a vision of the Virgin Mary--in a white gown and blue cloak--in the graveyard next to the cottage he is house-sitting, he takes it in his stride. Walsingham has strong connections to Mary, and Cathbad is a druid after all; visions come with the job. But when the body of a woman in a blue dressing-gown is found dead the next day in a nearby ditch, it is clear Cathbad's vision was all too human--and that a horrible crime has been committed. DCI Nelson and his team are called in for the murder investigation and soon establish that the dead woman was a recovering addict being treated at a nearby private hospital.

Ruth, a devout atheist, has managed to avoid Walsingham during her seventeen years in Norfolk. But then an old university friend, Hilary Smithson, asks to meet her in the village, and Ruth is amazed to discover that her friend is now a priest. Hilary has been receiving vitriolic anonymous letters targeting women priests-- letters containing references to local archaeology and a striking phrase about a woman "clad in blue, weeping for the world."

Then another woman is murdered--a priest.

As Walsingham prepares for its annual Easter re-enactment of the Crucifixion, the race is on to unmask the killer before they strike again...

In the peaceful town of Grace Valley, neighbors are like family--and just as meddlesome, too.

June Hudson is the town's doctor, a caring, capable woman who now has a bit of explaining to do. People are beginning to notice the bloom in her cheeks--and the swell of her belly. Happily, DEA agent Jim Post is back in June's arms for good, newly retired from undercover work and ready for new beginnings here in Grace Valley.

Expecting the unexpected is a way of life in Grace Valley, and the community is overflowing with gossip right now. Who is the secret paramour June's aunt Myrna is hiding? Does the town's poker-playing pastor have too many aces up his sleeve? But when dangers, from man and nature, rise up with a vengeance to threaten June and the town, this community pulls together and shows what it's made of. And Jim discovers the true meaning of happiness here in Grace Valley: there really is no place like home.

Hayley Snow's life always revolved around food. But when she applies to be a food critic for a Key West style magazine, she discovers that her new boss would be Kristen Faulkner, the woman Hayley caught in bed with her boyfriend.

Hayley thinks things are as bad as they can get, until the police pull her in as a suspect in Kristen's murder. Kristen was killed by a poisoned key lime pie. Now Hayley must find out who used meringue to murder before she takes all the blame.

In this international bestseller from the critically acclaimed Little People, BIG DREAMS series, discover the incredible life of Maya Angelou, the powerful speaker, writer, and civil rights activist.

Maya Angelou spent much of her childhood in Stamps, Arkansas. After a traumatic event at age eight, she stopped speaking for five years. However, Maya rediscovered her voice through wonderful books, and went on to become one of the world's most beloved writers and speakers. This moving book features stylish and quirky illustrations and extra facts at the back, including a biographical timeline with historical photos and a detailed profile of Maya Angelou's life.

Little People, BIG DREAMS is a best-selling biography series for kids that explores the lives of outstanding people, from designers and artists to scientists and activists. All of them achieved incredible things, yet each began life as a child with a dream.

This empowering series of books offers inspiring messages to children of all ages, in a range of formats. The board books are told in simple sentences, perfect for reading aloud to babies and toddlers. The hardcover and paperback versions present expanded stories for beginning readers. With rewritten text for older children, the treasuries each bring together a multitude of dreamers in a single volume. You can also collect a selection of the books by theme in boxed gift sets. Activity books and a journal provide even more ways to make the lives of these role models accessible to children.

Inspire the next generation of outstanding people who will change the world with Little People, BIG DREAMS!

Gifted Girls.
Daring Dames.
Marvelous Mysteries.

The Secret Spy Society is back with a new case to solve!

After officially naming themselves the Petite Private Eyes, Peggy, Rita, and Dot are ready to take on a new assignment from the Lady Spies. The Fashion Twins, two local designers, have been robbed! When the girls go undercover to investigate, they find themselves joining a curious scout troop run by a mysterious scout leader. With the help of the Lady Spies and a feisty pet cheetah, will the girls crack the case and make some new friends?

A riveting dual biography of the McLaughlins--identical twin sisters who became groundbreaking photographers in New York during the glamorous magazine golden age of the 1930s and 40s--for fans of Ninth Street Women and The Barbizon.

The McLaughlin twins were trailblazing female photographers, celebrated in their time as stars in their respective fields, but have largely been forgotten since. Here, in Double Click, author Carol Kino provides us with a fascinating window into the golden era of magazine photography and the first young women's publications, bringing these two brilliant women and their remarkable accomplishments to vivid life.

Frances was the only female photographer on staff in Condé Nast's photo studio, hired just after Irving Penn, and became known for streetwise, cinema verité-style work, which appeared in the pages of Glamour and Vogue. Her sister Kathryn's surrealistic portraits filled the era's new "career girl" magazines, including Charm and Mademoiselle. Both twins married Harper's Bazaar photographers and socialized with a glittering crowd that included the supermodel Lisa Fonssagrives and the photographer Richard Avedon. Kino uses their careers to illuminate the lives of young women during this time, an early twentieth-century moment marked by proto-feminist thinking, excitement about photography's burgeoning creative potential, and the ferment of wartime New York. Toward the end of the 1940s, and moving into the early 1950s, conventionality took over, women were pushed back into the home, and the window of opportunity began to close. Kino renders this fleeting moment of possibility in gleaming multi-color, so that the reader cherishes its abundance, mourns its passing, and gains new appreciation for the talent that was fostered at its peak.

Pulling back the curtain on an electric, creative time in New York's history, and rich with original research, Double Click is cultural reportage and biography at its finest.

Back in 1881, when Evelyn Cheesman was born, English girls were expected to be clean and dressed in frilly dresses. But Evelyn crawled in dirt and collected glow worms in jars. When girls grew up they were expected to marry and look after children. But Evelyn took charge of the London Zoo insect house, filling it with crawling and fluttering specimens and breathing life back into the dusty exhibits. In the early 1920s, women were expected to stay home, but Evelyn embarked on eight solo expeditions to distant islands. She collected over 70,000 insect specimens, discovered new species, had tangles with sticky spider webs, and tumbled from a cliff. Inspire children to believe in their dreams and blaze their own trail with the story of Evelyn's amazing life!