Nimira is a foreign music-hall girl forced to dance for pennies. When wealthy sorcerer Hollin Parry hires her to sing with a piano-playing automaton, Nimira believes it is the start of a new and better life. In Parry's world, however, buried secrets are beginning to stir. Unsettling below-stairs rumors swirl about ghosts, a madwoman roaming the halls, and Parry's involvement with a league of sorcerers who torture fairies for sport. Then Nimira discovers the spirit of a fairy gentleman named Erris is trapped inside the clockwork automaton, waiting for someone to break his curse. The two fall into a love that seems hopeless, and breaking the curse becomes a race against time, as not just their love, but the fate of the entire magical world may be in peril.

New Girl. New School. Old Evil. From the author of the Chicagoland Vampires novels. A new series about a boarding school filled with something worse than homework. Lily's parents have sent her to a fancy boarding school in Chicago filled with the ultra-rich. If that wasn't bad enough, she's hearing and seeing bizarre things on St. Sophie's creepy campus. Her roommate, Scout, keeps her sane, but keeps disappearing at night. When one day Lily finds Scout running from real-life monsters, she learns the hard way that Scout is involved in a splinter group of rebel teens. They protect Chicago from demons, vamps, and dark magic users. It's too bad Lily doesn't have powers of her own to help. At least, none that she's discovered yet...

In its 12th volume, the New Playwrights just keep getting better. Lawrence Harbison handpicked the finest plays by new American Playwrights from the 2008-2009 theatrical season. A satisfying collection of comedies and dramas awaits you.AMERICAN HWANGAP by Lloyd Suh. It's dear old Dad's 60th birthday. Although he deserted his family years ago, they are holding a traditional Korean 60th birthday celebration (a hwangap) anyway. He comes back to the U.S. for his hwangap, and what ensues is funny and often quite poignant. Produced in NYC by Ma-Yi Theatre Co. and The Play Company. "Suh strikes just the right balance between humor and deeply felt emotion." Theatremania.ANIMALS OUT OF PAPER by Rajiv Joseph. A comedy from NYC's Second Stage. A high school teacher and Origami enthusiast is a big fan of the work of an origami artist. He asks her to tutor a gifted young student of his, who might just be the Tiger Woods of Origami.BEACHWOOD DRIVE by Steven Leigh Morris. This compelling drama from NYC's Abingdon Theatre Co. centers on a Ukrainian woman working as a prostitute in Los Angeles and a LAPD detective determined to bust the gangsters with whom she is involved."A police case study that is a truly chilling cautionary tale." - Backstage CROOKED by Catherine Trieschmann. Laney, a teenaged girl with a crooked spine, has moved to a new town with her mother. There, she meets another girl named Maribel, who changes her life."The themes -- mother-daughter tensions, adolescence itself and religion as a refuge -- emerge naturally from the fluent, often funny and sometimes fearlessly cruel dialogue." NY Times. Produced in NYC by The Women's Project. END DAYS by Deborah Zoe Laufer. The Steins are one strange American Family. Dad, Arthur, a World Trade Center survivor, suffers from terminal depression. Their daughter, Rachel, is an alienated goth chick, and Mom, Sylvia, thinks the Rapture is imminent. Neighbor Nelson, who dresses in Elvis' white jumpsuit, is an incorrigible optimist who loves Rachel and physics, and slowly but surely he straightens out the Stein family. Oh, and two of the characters, are none other than Jesus Christ and Stephen Hawking."Enormously funny, warm and uplifting." Curtain Up. Original produced by Florida Stage. Premiered in NYC at Ensemble Studio Theatre. FARRAGUT NORTH by Beau Willimon. This compelling drama is about skullduggery on the campaign trail."Beau Willimon's juicy and timely drama is a potent reminder that, like Hollywood, politics is a high-stakes game where one wrong liaison can finish you off. It's a place where friendships and loyalties are only as deep as the next cocktail or quick jump in the sack." NY Daily News. Produced in NYC by Atlantic Theatre Co. JESUS HATES ME by Wayne Lemon. This hilarious comedy premiered at the Denver Center and has gone on to several other productions around the country. Set in W. Texas, it takes place at a run-down mini-golf track with a religious theme. It's called "Blood of the Lamb" and its trademark is a crucified Christ."It disarms the audience with pointed one-liners and thoughtful existential observations. The audience laughs and hoots." Variety

This year Smith and Kraus has decided to combine its annual best monologues and best scenes anthologies. The scenes included in this book are either for two men or for one man and one woman. The latter are scenes in which the male role is predominant.Here you will find a rich and varied selection of monologues and scenes from plays that were produced and/or published in the 2008-2009 theatrical season. Most are for younger performers (teens through thirties), but there are also some excellent pieces for men in their forties and fifties, and even a few for older performers. Some are comic (laughs), some are dramatic (generally, no laughs). Some are rather short, some are rather long. All represent the best in contemporary playwriting.Several of the monologues are by playwrights whose work may be familiar to you, such as Don Nigro, A. R. Gurney, Sam Bobrick, Terrence McNally, Adam Rapp, Steven Dietz, Itamar Moses, Stephen Belber, Keith Reddin, Naomi Iizuka, Michael Weller, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, Richard Vetere, Bruce Graham, Jacquelyn Reingold, Sam Shepard, and Nicky Silver; others are by exciting up-and-comers like Octavio Solis, Lydia Stryk, Michael Vukadinovich, Liz Flahive, John Kolvenbach, Sylvia Reed, Barton Bishop, Padraic Lillis, Michael Golamco, and Lucy Thurber.The scenes are by master playwrights, such as Itamar Moses, Noah Haidle, Aguirre-Sacasa, and Silver, and by exciting new writers, such as Saviana Stanescu, E. M. Lewis, Jonathan Rand, Kolvenbach, Golamco, Larry Kunofsky, and Susan Bernfield.