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An uproarious, eye-opening history of Europe's notorious royal houses that leaves no throne unturned and will make you glad you live in a democracy

Do you want to know which queen has the unique distinction of being the only known royal kleptomaniac? Or which empress kept her dirty underwear under lock and key? Or which czar, upon discovering his wife's infidelity, had her lover decapitated and the head, pickled in a jar, placed at her bedside?

Royally dishing on hundreds of years of dubious behavior, Royal Babylon chronicles the manifold appalling antics of Europe's famous families, behavior that rivals the characters in an Aaron Spelling television series. Here, then, are the insane kings of Spain, one of whom liked to wear sixteen pairs of gloves at one time; the psychopathic Prussian soverigns who included Frederick William and his 102-inch waist; sex-fixated French rulers such as Philip Duke D'Oreleans cavorting with more than a hundred mistresses; and, of course, the delightfully drunken and debauched Russian czars - Czar Paul, for example, who to make his soldiers goose-step without bending their legs had steel plates strapped to their knees. But whether Romanov or Windsor, Habsburg or Hanover, these extravagant lifestyles, financed as they were by the royals' badgered subjects, bred the most wonderfully offbeat and disturbingly unbelievable tales - and Karl Shaw has collected them all in this hysterically funny and compulsively readable book.

Royal Babylon is history, but not as they teach it in school, and it underlines in side-splitting fashion Queen Victoria's famous warning that it is unwise to look too deeply into the royal houses of Europe..
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Misreading an order for bridles, a New England farmer sends his four sisters-in-law as mail-order brides to Lickwind, Wyoming When the four women step off the train, astonishment turns to mayhem as the men of the town suddenly spruce up and make time for courting Since James Collingswood - still without tack for his horses - can't afford train tickets to send the women back, they'll have to stay. But what future is there in Lickwind for: Matty, the sociable sister who irritates James' very soul with her unending friendliness to the eager men of Lickwind. Corrine, the mom-to-be still so pained over her young husband's death that she barely knows Luke Collingswood is alive. Bess, who insists that the town must have a church, reform the brothel women, and straighten up the saloon keeper, Gideon Rikers. Bertie, who can outperform any man she ever meets...until the mysterious Thomas Hardin becomes her personal protection agency. Under such absurd circumstances, the sisters will certainly find laughter in Lickwind...but will they also find love? One thing's for sure - the town will never be the same again!.
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There is no other contemporary artist who is so famously difficult, so seemingly enigmatic, and so passionately loved by his fans as Morrissey From the moment he caught the public's eye in the early 1980s as the iconic front man of the Smiths, and through his subsequent solo career, the patron saint of misfits has fascinated and baffled in equal measure.

Yet, as Mark Simpson argues in this wickedly funny and deeply sacrilegious "psycho-bio" -- told through the lens of his own obsession as a lifelong fan -- Morrissey isn't quite so enigmatic as he might appear. To understand this most private (and sexually ambivalent) of stars, one need only uncover the countless clues to his personality in his startlingly candid song lyrics and his innumerable provocative interviews.

Simpson deftly explores why Morrissey bewitched a generation -- and why he remains as intriguing as ever. Both an insightful look at the singer's career and a personal story of a boy's first love for his music idol, Saint Morrissey is, like its subject, shrewd, sharp-witted, charming, and utterly original.

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The best and brightest in America are returning to their homelands in record numbers-and with them is going U.S. technological and economic preeminence. In Flight Capital, we explore this exodus through the personal stories of dozens of successful, foreign-born professionals who are leaving America for opportunities in their native lands. Drawing on their experiences, Heenan analyzes the economic, cultural, and political factors that are driving this flight, as well as the initiatives that countries are using to attract top talent..
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There is something going on among our teenagers and it's alarming! Their behavior is becoming more troubling than most of us are willing to admit. This book looks at 53 disturbing behaviors that teens are involved in. Could the list be longer.
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The astonishingly high level of performance throughout this collection of poems would take almost any reader by surprise Yet scattered among them are individual poems of such perfected skill (I’ve found a generous baker’s dozen at least) such vivacity, wit and intelligence -- exhibiting Dickinson’s cunning, Bishop’s carefulness -- that a reader is filled brim-full of gratitude. When Ms. Monsour describes night as awaiting “opulently eyed,” or an insect whose “strutting legs complexly climb the screen,” or announces that “The morning paper slaps the driveway’s face/ And brings the wincing blush of dawn...” we savor a skill to be relied on, a promise of stored and readied excellence. Description by Anthony Hecht.
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