Susan loves her baby sister, Jackie, but as Jackie grows older and behaves more and more like a boy Susan must adjust to having a brother, Jack, instead.

Two siblings reenact events from the first Christmas by traveling from their home and using flashlights on an adventure that takes them across snowy fields, during which the sister whispers the story of Jesus' birth to her brother.

When Jim's gingerbread pirate, Captain Cookie, comes alive, the tasty treat prepares to battle Santa Claus, who likes to eat cookies on Christmas Eve.

When Papa, Mama and Baby Bear return from a walk on Christmas Eve, they're surprised to find their pudding eaten and their chairs sat in and broken. And who's that asleep in Baby Bear's bed?

Finn is not very kind to his classmates, and he cares mostly about himself. He doesn't help Ahmed or Lily. He shoves Molly and Freddy on the playground. In soccer, he doesn't play fair. The children are mad at Finn. Then, when no one wants to play with him at recess, he feels sad and lonely. How will Finn find a way to make it all better? Ultimately, Finn's teacher helps him see that he can change his mean behavior and that kindness leads to friendship and fun.

"They look like an everyday family living an ordinary life. But beyond the edges of this peaceful farm, unimaginable forces of light and dark have been unleashed. Fallon Swift, approaching her thirteenth birthday, barely knows the world that existed before -- the city where her parents lived, now in ruins and reclaimed by nature since the Doom sickened and killed billions. Traveling anywhere is a danger, as vicious gangs of Raiders and fanatics called Purity Warriors search for their next victim. Those like Fallon, in possession of gifts, are hunted -- and the time is coming when her true nature, her identity as The One, can no longer be hidden. In a mysterious shelter in the forest, her training is about to begin under the guidance of Mallick, whose skills have been honed over centuries. She will learn the old ways of healing; study and spar; encounter faeries and elves and shifters; and find powers within herself she never imagined. And when the time is right, she will take up the sword, and fight. For until she grows into the woman she was born to be, the world outside will never be whole again." -- From publisher's description.

When failed scholar Yên is sold to Vu Côn, one of the last dragons walking the earth, she expects to be tortured or killed for Vu Côn's amusement. But Vu Côn, it turns out, has a use for Yên: she needs a scholar to tutor her two unruly children. She takes Yên back to her home, a vast, vertiginous palace-prison where every door can lead to death. Vu Côn seems stern and unbending, but as the days pass Yên comes to see her kinder and caring side. She finds herself dangerously attracted to the dragon who is her master and jailer. In the end, Yên will have to decide where her own happiness lies—and whether it will survive the revelation of Vu Côn’s dark, unspeakable secrets...

When students gather at the nation's top high school jazz competition in San Antonio, Texas, the musicians at Xavier Desmond High, teenagers with strange abilities, start going wayward in their efforts to outplay their rivals.

In this thriller from Ezekiel Boone, author of The Hatching series, a family moves into a home equipped with the world's most intelligent, most cutting-edge, and most intuitive computer ever--with terrifying and catastrophic results.

"From his corner office on the 44th floor of the Bank of America Tower, Tom Smith, global managing director for security, could see the Statue of Liberty, Battery Park--and a ravening zombie horde. Officially, Smith was paid to preserve the lives and fortunes of employees, billionaires and other clients. And with an implacable virus that turned the infected into ravenous zombies tearing through the world, his job just got a lot harder. Good thing Smith, late of the Australian special forces, isn't a man to give up easily. But saving civilization is going to take more than the traditional banking toolbox of lawyers, guns and money. He'll have to survive making shady alliances and move enough personnel to safe havens and prepare to restart civilization"-- Provided by publisher.

An epic space opera trilogy featuring the gunrunner empress, Hail Bristol, who must navigate alien politics and deadly plots to prevent an interspecies war. The battle for the throne is over. The war for the galaxy is just beginning. Hail Bristol, infamous galactic gunrunner and former runaway princess, never expected to inherit the throne of Indrana. But after avenging the murder of her entire family and cleansing the Empire of usurpers in a bloody civil war, the former outlaw must fulfill her duties to her people. Hail retires her gun and throws herself into the rebuilding of her Empire. Her hard-won peace is short-lived. When Indrana's closest ally asks Hail to intervene in an interstellar military crisis, she embarks on the highest stakes diplomatic mission the Empire has ever faced. Caught between two alien civilizations at each other's throats, she must uncover each side's true intentions before all of humanity becomes collateral damage in a full-blown galactic war. There Before the Chaos begins a fresh, pulse-pounding space opera series from an exciting new voice in science fiction. For more from K.B. Wagers, check out: The Indranan War Behind the Throne After the Crown Beyond the Empirec.

Was it just pure bad luck that the Amarantin's star chose to flare just when they were on the verge of discovering space flight? For the human colonists now settling the Amarantin homeworld, this seems of little interest, until they discover that the Amarantin were wiped out for a reason.

"Every Heart a Doorway racked up comparisons to C. S. Lewis and Lewis Carroll, and the Wayward Children series has delighted and mesmerized readers. This fourth entry tells the origin story of Lundy, a very serious young girl who would rather study and dream than become a respectable housewife and live up to the expectations of the world around her. As well she should. When she finds a doorway to a world founded on logic and reason, riddles and lies, she thinks she's found her paradise. Alas, everything costs at the goblin market, and when her time there is drawing to a close, she makes the kind of bargain that never plays out well. For anyone . . ."-- Provided by publisher.

Closeted advertising executive Adrian returns to his Texas hometown for the holidays during the first wave of the AIDS crisis. Burdened with an unspeakable tragedy in New York City. Adrian looks to reconnect with his preteen brother Andrew while navigating his relationship with religious parents Eileen and Dale. When he reaches out to his estranged childhood friend, their unresolved issues force Adrian to confront an uncertain future that will significantly alter the lives of those around him.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor damaged Americans' morale, FDR decided bomb Tokyo in retaliation, to raise the public's hopes. Bomber planes led by Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle successfully bombed Tokyo, but after completing their mission, ran out of fuel and were forced to bail out in occupied China. One young pilot, Jack Turner, was hidden from brutal Japanese forces by local villagers, including a widow named Ying. With time running out, they took their one chance to make their break for safety.

As longtime couple Owen and Hallie take a break, their friends Matt and Willa decide to take a chance on love, and the couple's fates intertwine over the course of a single summer.

Lisa is the last person some would expect to find in a highway-side 'sports bar with curves,' but as general manager at Double Whammies, she has come to love the place and its customers. An incurable den mother, she nurtures and protects her girls fiercely, but over the course of one trying day, her optimism is battered from every direction. Double Whammies sells a big, weird American fantasy, but what happens when reality pokes a bunch of holes in it?

The first, and arguably greatest, film adaptation of Hemingway's great war novel in which lovers find their affair undermined by the horrors of the most brutal war the world had yet witnessed.

An entertainer's memoir chronicling her cabaret days unleashes a talons and fact-baring litigation that proves girls will be girls.

Adela Quested is a plucky young woman who journeys from England with the free-spirited Mrs. Moore. Flouting convention, the two women accompany the handsome Dr. Azis on a tour of the mysterious Marabar Caves. But things turn ugly when Adela returns scratched and bloodied from the expedition. As British authorities urge her to press charges against Aziz, the line separating truth and fantasy begin to blur.

Tells of a pair of half sisters whose lives end up caught in a grand conspiracy revolving around a mentally ill woman dressed in white. As the story unfolds, murder, love, marriage, and greed stand between the two women and happy lives. Their only hope is the secret the woman in white waits to tell them.

"An incredible true-life story story of heroism and a man's unbreakable will to live." --From container.

A night guard at a car company organizes one of the biggest bank heists in American history for seventeen million. Only problem is he hands the money over to a group of double crossers and is set up to take the fall.

A sizzling comedy about two lifelong friends whose romance is threatened by their parents' rival pizzerias.

Roy is a heavy-drinking criminal enforcer and mob hit man whose boss set him up in a double-cross scheme. After killing his would-be assassins before they could kill him, Roy discovers Rocky, a young woman being held captive, and reluctantly takes her with him on his escape. Determined to find safety and sanctuary in Galveston, Roy must find a way to stop his boss from pursuing them while trying to out-run the demons from his and Rocky's pasts.

The story of Dr. Faraday, the son of a housemaid, who has built a life of quiet respectability as a country doctor. During the long hot summer of 1948, he is called to a patient at Hundreds Hall, where his mother once worked. But it is now in decline and its inhabitants, a mother, son, and daughter, are haunted by something more ominous than a dying way of life. When he takes on his new patient, Faraday has no idea how closely the family's story is about to become entwined with his own.

Recently-arrived DI Jack Mooney leads his experienced team in investigating eight mystifying murders on the isle of Saint Marie.

While grieving the loss of her husband, a financially struggling widow meets a race car driver.

Could ten days at a health resort really change you forever? These nine perfect strangers are about to find out.

2029: In Japan, a historically mono-cultural nation, childbirth rates are at a critical low and the elderly are living increasingly long lives. This population crisis has precipitated a mass immigration of foreign medical workers from all over Asia; as well as the development of refined artificial intelligence to step in where humans fall short.

It's the summer of 1922, and nineteen-year-old Paulien Mertens finds herself in Paris broke, disowned, and completely alone. Everyone believes she stole millions in a sophisticated con game perpetrated by her then-fiance, George Everard. She creates a new identity, a Frenchwoman named Vivienne Gregsby, and sets out to recover her father's art collection, prove her innocence, and exact revenge on George.

Phoebe Siegler first meets Charles Heist in a shabby trailer on the eastern edge of Los Angeles. She's looking for her friend's missing daughter, Arabella, and hires Heist to help. Heist intrigues the sarcastic and garrulous Phoebe. Reluctantly, he agrees to help. The unlikely pair navigate the enclaves of desert-dwelling vagabonds and find that Arabella is in serious trouble, caught in the middle of a violent standoff that only Heist, mysteriously, can end.

Centuries before the events of A Game of Thrones, House Targaryen, the only family of dragonlords to survive the Doom of Valyria, took up residence on Dragonstone. Their tale begins with the legendary Aegon the Conqueror, creator of the Iron Throne, and goes on to recount the generations of Targaryens who fought to hold that iconic seat, all the way up to the civil war that nearly tore their dynasty apart.

Filmmaker Michael Moore examines the current state of American politics, particularly the Donald Trump presidency and gun violence, while highlighting the power of grassroots democratic movements. -- From IMDb.

Today, Europe's fastest growing Jewish population is in Berlin. Germany is considered one of the most democratic societies in the world, assuming the position of moral leader of Europe as they embrace hundreds of thousands of refugees. This development couldn't have been imagined in 1945. Through personal stories Germans & Jews explores Germany's transformation as a society, from silence about the Holocaust to facing it head on. Unexpectedly, a nuanced story of reconciliation emerges. What began as a private conversation between the two filmmakers and friends, Tal Recanati (Jewish) and Janina Quint (non-Jewish German), grew into a cultural exchange among many and we realize that the two people are inextricably linked through the memory of the Holocaust. Germans and Jews is at once uncomfortable and provocative, unexpected and enlightening.

Forty years after the death of Elvis Presley, a musical road trip across America in his 1963 Rolls Royce explores how a country boy lost his authenticity and became a king while his country lost her democracy and became an empire.

Depicting the ravages of combat, the lives of soldiers engaged in battle, as well as those left behind on the home front, five of the films that Capra was involved in bringing to the screen are represented in this special edition presented in cooperation with the National Archives.

Itzhak Perlman's violin playing transcends mere performance to evoke the celebrations and struggles of real life. Alison Chernick's film looks beyond the sublime musician, to see the polio survivor whose parents emigrated from Poland to Israel, the young man who struggled to be taken seriously as a music student when schools saw only his disability. As charming and entrancing as the famous violinist himself, it is a portrait of musical virtuosity enclosed in warmth, humor, and above all, love.

Lisa Immordino Vreeland directs this documentary about Academy Award-winning costume designer Cecil Beaton. A respected photographer, artist and set designer, Beaton was best known for designing on award winning films such as "Gigi" (1958) and "My Fair Lady" (1964). The film features archive footage and interviews with a number of models, artists and filmmakers who worked closely with Beaton during his illustrious career.

Never-before-seen footage and journal entries form the narrative spine of the documentary, allowing Gilda Radner to tell her own story; through the laughter and sometimes the tears. Incredibly, she was able to find humor in even the darkest of times. Her spirit lives on in comedy as a female trailblazer who continues to inspire many present day comedic performers.

It is the moving portrait of the Rainey family living in North Philadelphia. Beginning at the dawn of the Obama presidency, Christopher "Quest" Rainey, and his wife, Christine'a "Ma Quest" raise a family while nurturing a community of hip-hop artists in their home music studio. It's a safe space where all are welcome, but this creative sanctuary can't always shield them from the strife that grips their neighborhood.

Barack Obama launched into national consciousness at the 2004 Democratic National Convention and ever since, he's delivered messages of patriotism, unity, and hope through the power of words. Interviews with eminent historians and key figures in his writing process give rare insights into these iconic speeches, as well as the Obama presidency and the man himself.

Thieving macaques using psychology to pull off scams. Delinquent cockatoos vandalizing urban residences. Swaggering peacocks lying about their sexual exploits. These are nature's greatest rebels, succeeding by breaking all the rules. Despite how it appears on the surface, researchers are discovering the complex and fascinating science behind why these animals behave the way they do.

Travel to Colombia with photographer Robert Oelman, who leaves his psychology career behind to pursue his greatest passion - photography. Journey through the vanishing rainforests of the Amazon Basin as Oelman takes striking images of insect species never before recorded, and experience a magnificent world of beauty gone unseen by most. The images Oelman captures are astounding - colors and configurations of insects that are the stuff of dreams.

Why have some of the world's most influential people been able to make it big? Explore how some of today's artists, innovators, athletes and political leaders made their careers. Featuring Trevor Noah, Eddie Huang, Danai Gurira, Jason Aldean, Ruth Zukerman, Christian Siriano, Roxane Gay, Michael Strahan, Senator Kristen Gillibrand, Lee Daniels, Gretchen Carlson, and Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz.

Examines the famous shower scene from the 1960 Alfred Hitchcock film Psycho, and its impact on the film industry in the years that followed.

The screeching strings, the plunging knife, the slow zoom out from a lifeless eyeball: in 1960, Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho changed film history forever with its taboo-shattering shower scene. With 78 camera set-ups and 52 edits over the course of three minutes, Psycho redefined screen violence, set the stage for decades of slasher films to come, and introduced a new element of danger to the movie going experience.

"Directed by Academy Award winning filmmaker Murray Lerner, Both Sides Now: Live At The Isle Of Wight Festival 1970 captures Joni Mitchell playing live in front of one of the biggest audiences of her career. With just her guitar, her piano and her voice she first fights against and then wins over the enormous crowd to deliver a truly outstanding performance. Both Sides Now features previously unseen interviews with Joni Mitchell talking about the festival and her experience of it intercut with extensive footage from the concert, both onstage and behind the scenes, giving fascinating insights into the event and Joni Mitchell as an artist. Alternatively, you can play the uninterrupted live concert performance featuring classic songs such as Woodstock, Both Sides Now and Big Yellow Taxi"--Container.

Surly Squirrel and the gang are back. They are once again in Oakton where the evil mayor has decided to bulldoze Liberty Park and build a dangerous amusement park in its place. Surly and his ragtag group of animal friends band together to save their home, defeat the mayor, and take back the park.

The Alden children have a home with their grandfather now, but their adventures are just beginning! The first surprise comes when they learn they'll be spending the summer on their private island. A kind stranger who lives there is always happy to help the children out, but does this new friend have a secret?

"Blast off for an amazing inside view of spacecraft - from the early days of the Space Race to building a space station, exploring Mars and more." -- Description provided by publisher.

"How was our universe made from a tiny speck of energy? Where did the first trees, plants, animals and humans come from? What happened to the dinosaurs? What was so miserable about medieval times? How were railroads and electricity invented? What are the perils of global warming? You might have many big questions about our planet, life and people. Embark on an entertaining journey across millennia and continents with this captivating book by Christopher Lloyd, author of the bestselling What on Earth Happened."-- Amazon.com.

"What kind of house does Garfield live in? A nuthouse, of course! The Arbuckle home is located just around the bend, where Jon and his wacky pets display their mad skills for having fun"--Publisher's description.

Harry Hammer looks for the lost treasure of Long Fin Silver, the greatest pirate of the deep seas, in this ninth Shark School (mis)adventure.

"Seventeen-year-old Ana is a scoundrel by nurture and an outlaw by nature. Found as a child drifting through space with a sentient android called D09, Ana was saved by a fearsome space captain and the grizzled crew she now calls family. But D09 -- one of the last remaining illegal Metals -- has been glitching, and Ana will stop at nothing to find a way to fix him. Ana's desperate effort to save D09 leads her on a quest to steal the coordinates to a lost ship that could offer all the answers. But at the last moment, a spoiled Ironblood boy beats Ana to her prize. He has his own reasons for taking the coordinates, and he doesn't care what he'll sacrifice to keep them. When everything goes wrong, she and the Ironblood end up as fugitives on the run. Now their entire kingdom is after them -- and the coordinates -- and not everyone wants them captured alive. What they find in a lost corner of the universe will change all their lives -- and unearth dangerous secrets. But when a darkness from Ana's past returns, she must face an impossible choice: does she protect a kingdom that wants her dead or save the Metal boy she loves?"--Amazon.com.

"The last person Riya Johnson expected to run into at her new summer camp is Courtney Chastain-- her childhood best friend and the girl who broke her heart"--Page [4] cover.

Sibylla always wanted adventure, but she didn't know it would come in the form of a giant, magical bull. Is he a man or a monster? And who knew a prophecy could be so literal? The first title in a new series co-created by sibling writer/artist team Cat Seaton and Kit Seaton, begins the adventure of a lifetime.

Ancient threats and modern enemies bring the battle to Wakanda, where T'Challa's new constitutional monarchy is emerging from the chaos of Tetu and Zenzi's rebellion.

As seneschal to High King Cardan, Jude must fight to keep control of the Faerie throne while her younger brother, Oak, enjoys the childhood she never knew.

"Lady "Poppy" Pyppenia is guarded by the Sleepless Knight Cyrenic but becomes endangered when an assassin threatens her life in the new king's reign. As Poppy and Cyrenic try to discover who wants her dead, they must navigate the dangerous waters of life at court and of their growing feelings for one another"-- provided by publisher.

"The League was forced to make an impossible decision ... and now its time to face the consequences! The returning Martian Manhunter struggles to protect the team from an incoming threat that will shatter the world as they know it, while a familiar face strikes out on a dark path... Spinning out of the cataclysmic events of Dark Nights: Metal and the universe-defining No Justice, the core members of the Justice League--Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, The Flash and more--are finally reunited for an adventure for the ages!"-- Provided by publisher.

On her sixteenth birthday, Elle Zoellner leaves the foster care system to live with the father she never knew in Tokyo, Japan.

"Five years after the final shot was fired in the War Between the States, Selah Daughtry can barely manage to keep herself, her two younger sisters, and their spinster cousin fed and clothed. With their family's Mississippi plantation swamped by debt and the Big House falling down around them, the only option seems to be giving up their ancestral land -- until a hotel management agent for the railroad offers her hope for the future. If she'll turn her home into a hotel, Levi Riggins says, he can all but guarantee it will be saved. Selah isn't sure she entirely trusts the handsome Yankee. Yet what other options does she have? She'll have to stay on her guard... but she never expected to guard her heart"--Back cover.

Happiness expert Maggie Maguire's friends, worried about her after her fiancé leaves her, get her a job as a speaker on a singles cruise in the Gulf of Mexico, where she clashes with a handsome passenger who criticizes her work.

After years spent living with her mother and oppressive grandfather in Athens, Ariadne runs away to her father's home in Corinth, only to discover the perilous secret that destroyed his marriage: though a Greek of high birth, Galenos is the infamous thief who has been robbing the city's corrupt of their ill-gotten gains. Desperate to keep him safe, Ariadne risks her good name, her freedom, and the love of the man she adores to become her father's apprentice. As her unusual athletic ability leads her into dangerous exploits, Ariadne discovers that she secretly revels in playing with fire. But when the wrong person discovers their secret, Ariadne and her father find their future - and very lives - hanging in the balance. When they befriend a Jewish rabbi named Paul, they realize that his radical message challenges everything they've fought to build, yet offers something neither dared hope for.

""Be kind and have faith." Ella Troyer strives to abide by her mother's final words, although life in the small Amish town of Echo Creek isn't always easy. Her new stepmother, Linda, treats her coldly, and her two stepsisters, Drusilla and Anna, delight in gossip and laziness. After her father's death, Ella's stepsisters are free to attend youth singings while Ella stays at home to manage the household chores, rarely seeing another soul. Until one day, while running an errand, she has a chance meeting with a young Amish man from a nearby town. Drusilla and Anna are full of admiration for charming, affluent newcomer Johannes Wagler, and Linda hopes to ensnare him as a husband for one of her girls--while keeping Ella out of the way. As for Hannes, he longs to catch another glimpse of the mysterious young woman who can sing so sweetly and bake the most delicious pie he's ever sampled. Now, with a little help from some unlikely sources, Ella dares to hope she might find her heart's dearest wishes--for love, family, and a home of her own--coming true at last . . ."--Publisher's description.

"Huckleberry Hill, Wisconsin's irrepressible eighty-something matchmakers Anna and Felty Helmuth are at it again. And this time they're willing to rough it to get the job done... Mary Anne Neuenschwander knows she should be content with what Gotte has given her. She has a comfortable house, a fruitful farm, and a good, steady husband. But after nearly six years of marriage, she still longs for a baby. Yet her husband, Jethro, seems to care more about fishing than about his wife. Unable to bear Jethro's indifference, Mary Anne moves into a tent in the woods where he won't have to be bothered. But when her mammi and dawdi find out what she's done, they'll stop at nothing--including a little camping trip of their own--to help save their granddaughter's marriage... Jethro's greatest blessing is his beloved wife, Mary Anne. Nothing else in his life has turned out anywhere near the way he expected. Rather than burden Mary Anne with his disappointment, he shields her by spending less and less time at home and more time on the river. But when he finds that she's moved out, he's shocked. What will people think? What is Mary Anne thinking? And what clever plans are her grandparents hatching?..."-- Back cover.

After his youth on an Iowa farm, Wyatt Earp is ready to seek his fortunes by his wits rather than the sweat of his back. In California he meets a Mexican girl, whose philosophy will haunt him for years to come. It is the prophecy of the zadobe moon,y which reminds a man: If you do not achieve your dreams, you must settle for what you have

"An eye-opening memoir of working-class poverty in the American Midwest. During Sarah Smarsh's turbulent childhood in Kansas in the 1980s and 1990s, the forces of cyclical poverty and the country's changing economic policies solidified her family's place among the working poor. By telling the story of her life and the lives of the people she loves, Smarsh challenges us to look more closely at the class divide in our country and examine the myths about people thought to be less because they earn less. Her personal history affirms the corrosive impact intergenerational poverty can have on individuals, families, and communities, and she explores this idea as lived experience, metaphor, and level of consciousness. Smarsh was born a fifth generation Kansas wheat farmer on her paternal side and the product of generations of teen mothers on her maternal side. Through her experiences growing up as the daughter of a dissatisfied young mother and raised predominantly by her grandmother on a farm thirty miles west of Wichita, we are given a unique and essential look into the lives of poor and working class Americans living in the heartland. Combining memoir with powerful analysis and cultural commentary, Heartland is an uncompromising look at class, identity, and the particular perils of having less in a country known for its excess. "-- Provided by publisher.

"Growing up on the wrong side of the tracks, Jolene Wells is forever indebted to the mother who encouraged her to fly--all the way to sunny LA and a world away from Honeymoon Harbor. Although Jolene vowed never to look back, returning home isn't even a question when her mom faces a cancer scare. Which means running into Aiden Mannion all over town, the first boy she ever loved--and lost--and whom she can barely look in the eye. Aiden's black-sheep reputation may have diminished when he joined the marines, but everything he's endured since has left him haunted. Back in Honeymoon Harbor to heal, he's talked into the interim role of police chief, and the irony isn't lost on the locals, least of all Aiden. But seeing Jolene after all these years is the unexpected breath of fresh air he's been missing. He's never forgotten her through all his tours, but he's not sure anymore that he's the man she deserves. Despite the secret they left between them all those years ago, snow is starting to fall on their picturesque little town, making anything seem possible...maybe even a second chance at first love"-- Provided by publisher.

Drawing on newly unearthed documents, and richly informed by rare interviews with warlords, whistle-blowers, and policymakers--including every living former secretary of state from Henry Kissinger to Hillary Clinton to Rex Tillerson. War on Peace makes a powerful case for an endangered profession. Diplomacy, Farrow argues, has declined after decades of political cowardice, shortsightedness, and outright malice--but it may just offer America a way out of a world at war.