Gladys

Things aren’t going Dottie’s way. Howard Hugues hasn’t kept his promise to free Gary from the Russians, and Dottie isn’t sure she’ll succeed in helping him escape the gulag, or even in freeing herself from the ever-watchful eye of the megalomaniac billionaire. It seems nothing can be accomplished without the help of… Poison Ivy! This sixth volume beautifully concludes the second triptych of the “Pin-Up” series.

Going into their last year of middle school, Valentine and her friends are at that defining time of their lives when new experiences are coming thick and fast. They’ve got their finals just around the corner, but that doesn’t stop them from bunking classes and flirting with guys (even if, in Valentine’s case, they’re not the guys she actually wants to flirt with… the gorgeous Felix is as aloof as ever). Valentine struggles to find her feet in this emotional whirlwind.

On a forgotten cul-de-sac in a nameless city, a child is born. It doesn’t take long for the charming little girl to work her way into the hearts of all the residents on this cozy little street. Does it really matter that she’s invisible? The child’s mother delivered a stillborn, fatherless baby. Two months later, she becomes convinced that her child has returned from heaven. The neighbors don’t have the heart to tell her otherwise, and so they play along. After all, “why bring somebody pain when it’s so easy to bring joy instead?” …But is Lydie really a figment?

The gorgeous Jazz Maynard is back. With Judas in prison, El Raval seems at last to have found its peace. Jazz plays gigs at Club Canem, Teo’s engaged, Laura’s getting her life together. But it’s not long before a certain Caligula takes it upon himself to fill the vacancy left by Judas in the neighbourhood. Will Jazz be able to avoid yet again being dragged back down into Barcelona’s underworld in spite of his honourable efforts to get clean of it?

Valentine is a secondary-school student like many others. Her daily life is filled with all the upheavals and self-questioning of adolescence. Self-conscious, she tries to assert herself within a group in which she is “the shy one”. She spends most of her time with her girlfriends, at school or at parties on the weekend. She also tries desperately to get the attention of Felix, the boy she’s in love with – and who has no idea she exists. To make things worse, he’s in the “rival” class to her own… Little by little, this young woman learns to express herself and find her place in the cruel and treacherous world of adolescence, from MP3 players and Japanese mangas, to her first parties and her first whiskey and Coke.

This is the tale of Luisa Casati Amman, otherwise known as ‘The Marchesa’, an Italian heiress whose life ambition was to transform herself into a living, breathing work of art. She was obsessed with beauty and extravagance, and devoted her entire family fortune to purchasing the means to astonish her contemporaries with her daredevil style. But her originality extended to more than just the adornment of her own person; she embellished her whole life with a succession of fantastical parties, large houses, ostentatious pets and outrageous public appearances. But, as ever, such exorbitance can hardly last forever… This intriguing biography traces the rise and fall of one of the 20th century’s most fascinating personalities.

Asgard, the fallen viking with the iron leg, and Sieglind, a slave girl seeking to change her destiny, trek through the deadly winter landscape with the voracious Krökken in relentless pursuit, struggling to stay alive and to understand why the gods that have already taken so much from them refuse to let up and ease their suffering.

Star of a reality show program produced by Médiacop, the super-cop Norman Barron continues chasing criminals. Along with his young and smart partner Oshii Feal, he is hunting down the “Red Triangle” — a gruesome robot-killer. Meanwhile the lawyers have discovered small fragments of an unknown shell as well as claw marks on the necks of the Red Triangle’s victims. As it turns out, the shells came from Mars…

As the hour of First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte’s glory approaches, his paranoia intensifies and heads start to roll. More plotting, more backstabbing… A not-so-pretty young society lady is courted by an ambitious young man with dubious intentions; a sinister priest enters the scene; a man hangs in a jail cell; a young prostitute’s fate is sealed; an aristocrat is wrongfully accused; and a mysterious pack of wolves roams the streets of Paris as History marches on, unstoppable.

Things aren’t looking so good for the Geezers… one of them’s in the hospital, the other’s been arrested, and the third one is dealing with leaky roofs, drowning sheep, and eggs he doesn’t approve of. Two new characters make their appearance in this book, and through their stories we are taken to shark-infested waters and treasure-hunting in the Pacific, to village fairs, rugby matches, broken hearts, and behavior unbefitting neighbors–which continues to this day. Thank goodness young Sophie and her puppets are around to keep these old men in check.