Gregory Maguire creates a fantasy world so rich and vivid that we will never look at Oz the same way again. Wicked is about a land where animals talk and strive to be treated like first-class citizens, Munchkinlanders seek the comfort of middle-class stability and the Tin Man becomes a victim of domestic violence. And then there is the little green-skinned girl named Elphaba, who will grow up to be the infamous Wicked Witch of the West, a smart, prickly and misunderstood creature who challenges all our preconceived notions about the nature of good and evil.

The year is 92 B.C. Gordianus has just turned eighteen and is about to embark on the adventure of a lifetime: a far-flung journey to see the Seven Wonders of the World. Gordianus is not yet called "the Finder"—but at each of the Seven Wonders, the wide-eyed young Roman encounters a mystery to challenge the powers of deduction.

Accompanying Gordianus on his travels is his tutor, Antipater of Sidon, the world's most celebrated poet. But there is more to the apparently harmless old poet than meets the eye. Before they leave home, Antipater fakes his own death and travels under an assumed identity. Looming in the background are the first rumblings of a political upheaval that will shake the entire Roman world.

Teacher and pupil journey to the fabled cities of Greece and Asia Minor, and then to Babylon and Egypt. They attend the Olympic Games, take part in exotic festivals, and marvel at the most spectacular constructions ever devised by mankind. Along the way they encounter murder, witchcraft and ghostly hauntings. Traveling the world for the first time, Gordianus discovers that amorous exploration goes hand-in-hand with crime-solving. The mysteries of love are the true wonders of the world, and at the end of the journey, an Eighth Wonder awaits him in Alexandria. Her name is Bethesda.

For nearly five years, Sarah Smiley has been entertaining readers of
her syndicated newspaper column "Shore Duty" with tales of being a
military wife and mother of three young boys. Now Smiley's best work
is gathered in a collection published by Ballinger Publishing, due to
be released August 16, 2008.

The 288-page paperback book includes forewords by Carol Leifer (former
writer for "Saturday Night Live" and "Seinfeld," the basis for the
character Elaine on "Seinfeld," and screenwriter for Paramount
Television's proposed adaptation of Smiley's columns for a half-hour
sitcom) and Ward Carroll (author, former Navy pilot, and current
managing editor of Military.com).

With commentary on everything from husbands who leave their lunch on
top of their car to Amish Friendship Bread and why children are always
bumping heads, Smiley's writing will "put a grin on your face," says
Time Bete, Director of the Erma Bombeck Writer's Workshop.

"Even those
with no connection to the military will relate," writes Bernie Grimm,
Fox News Analyst.

"Sarah Smiley's columns read like amusing dispatches from your
favorite friend, rather than two-dimensional words on a page. Smiley
has the knack of turning the ordinary, and not-so-ordinary travails of
a modern-day military wife into an absorbing narrative. There's
nothing stoic about this Navy wife who writes with the kind of
three-beer honesty that seems both amusing and brave at the same
time." - Frank Cerabino at the Miami Herald

The goats of VigĂ ta once grazed on the trash-strewn site still known as the Pasture. Now local enterprise of a different sort flourishes: drug dealers and prostitutes of every flavour. But their discreet trade is upset when two employees of the Splendour Refuse Collection Company discover the body of engineer Silvio Luparello, one of the local movers and shakers, apparently deceased in flagrante at the Pasture. The coroner's verdict is death from natural causes - refreshingly unusual for Sicily.

But Inspector Salvo Montalbano, as honest as he is streetwise and as scathing to fools and villains as he is compassionate to their victims, is not ready to close the case - even though he's being pressured by VigĂ ta's police chief, judge, and bishop.

Picking his way through a labyrinth of high-comedy corruption, delicious meals, vendetta firepower, and carefully planted false clues, Montalbano can be relied on, whatever the cost, to get to the heart of the matter.

The Shape of Water is followed by the second in this phenomenal series, The Terracotta Dog.