In a small back alley in Tokyo at a century-old coffee shop rumored to offer patrons the chance to travel back in time, four customers reevaluate their formative life choices.

When eighteen-year-old Mallory begrudgingly agrees to return to chess in one last charity tournament, her surprise upset against Nolan Sawyer, the reigning world champ and bad boy of the chess world, sets her on an worldwin adventure as she rediscovers her passion for the game.

"Neil Kearney is set to fly across the country with his childhood friend...Josh, to attend his brother's wedding...until Josh tells Neil that he's in love with him and Neil doesn't return the sentiment...Neil needs to find a new date to bring along. And,almost against his will, roommate Wyatt is drafted. At first, Wyatt (correctly) thinks Neil is acting like a jerk. But when they get to LA, Wyatt sees a little more of where it's coming from. Slowly,...

As everyone prepares for Big Lou and Fat Bob's wedding, the peace and tranquility of 44 Scotland Street is disrupted by the arrival of domineering Irene, while Bruce, after being struck by lightning, prepares to leave his creature comforts for the monastic simplicity of Pluscarden Abbey, much to his house sitter's delight.

Relates the experiences of Bathsheba Everdene as she is courted and married to three different men. Bathsheba Everdene and the three men who love her move through a beautifully realized late nineteenth-century agrarian landscape, still almost untouched by the industrial revolution, and the encroachment of modern life. Takes place in Wessex in the 1840s.

Daisy is a girl coming of age in L.A. in the late sixties, sneaking into clubs on the Sunset Strip, sleeping with rock stars, and dreaming of singing at the Whisky a Go-Go. The sex and drugs are thrilling, but it's the rock and roll she loves most. By the time she's twenty, her voice is getting noticed, and she has the kind of heedless beauty that makes people do crazy things. Another band getting noticed is The Six, led by the brooding Billy Dunne....

"From the beloved author of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series comes a delightful compendium of very short fiction and comics that celebrate the joy and absurdity of the human experience. It is often said that the best things in life come in smallpackages--anyone in search of proof need look no further than the stories in this collection: brief, utterly engaging tales that offer lasting surprise and delight. From the original Greek financial...

"From the author of Before the Coffee Gets Cold and Tales from the Cafe comes another story of four new customers, each of whom is hoping to take advantage of Café Funiculi Funicula's time-traveling offer. Along with some familiar faces from Kawaguchi's previous novels, readers will also be introduced to a daughter, a comedian, a sister and a lover, each with something they wish they had said differently"--

"An interpreter has come to The Hague to escape New York and work at the International Court. A woman of many languages and identities, she is looking for a place to finally call home. She's drawn into simmering personal dramas: her lover, Adriaan, is separated from his wife but still entangled in his marriage. Her friend Jana witnesses a seemingly random act of violence, a crime the interpreter becomes increasingly obsessed with as she befriends...

"Sixteen-year-old Ruby breaks out of a government-run 'rehabilitation camp' for teens who acquired dangerous powers after surviving a virus that wiped out most American children"--