By the end of America s Golden Age of Magic, Chicago had taken center stage in front of an American audience drawn to the craft by the likes of Harry Houdini and Howard Thurston. Cashing in on a craze that rivaled big-band mania, magic shops and clubs sprang up everywhere across the Windy City, packed in customers and put down roots. Over the last century, for example, Magic, Inc. has outfitted magicians from Harry Blackstone Sr. to Penn and Teller to David Copperfield. Magic was an integral part of Chicago s culture, from its earliest venture into live television to the card sharps and hucksters lurking in its amusement parks and pool halls. David Witter keeps track of the shell game of Chicago s fascinating magic history from its vaudeville circuit to its contemporary resurgence.

The third and final book in Cornelia Funke's internationally celebrated trilogy - magical, thrilling and mesmerising. 'I don't think I've ever read anything that conveys so well the joys, terrors and pitfalls of reading' Diana Wynne Jones on Inkheart Life in the Inkworld has been far from easy since the extraordinary events of Inkspell, when the story of Inkheart magically drew Meggie, Mo and Dustfinger back into its pages. With Dustfinger dead, and the evil Adderhead now in control, the story in which they are all caught has taken an unhappy turn. Even Elinor, left alone in the real world, believes her family to be lost - lost between the covers of a book. But as winter comes on there is reason to hope - if only Meggie and Mo can rewrite the wrongs of the past and make a dangerous pact with death ... A thrilling and magical series about stories and the imagination they inspire Book 1, Inkheart, is now a major movie starring Andy Serkis, Paul Bettany and Brendan Fraser! Cornelia Funke is the critically-acclaimed, internationally bestselling author of Dragon Rider and The Thief Lord

A selection of fifty of Guy de Maupassant's finest short stories, including "Was It a Dream?" "Madame Baptiste," "The Lancer's Wife," "The Relics," "The Carter's Wench," and many more!

Would you believe that you could ask a full-grown man to hold a penny for you and then tell him to drop it and finds he can t, hard as he may try? In what is undoubtedly the most original magic book of our time, John Fisher shows the reader how, with minimal practice, he can use the marvels of the human body to entertain and mystify friends and family, small and large audiences. This book is first of all a delight to read because of the instant education it provides us with about the unknown powers we have in our hands, our eyes, our noses, and our incredible nervous system. In each case, Mr. Fisher shows the easy-to-grasp principle first and then how to put the principle to work in actual tricks. Most magic books require a great deal of study and dexterity. This one enables you to entertain people even before you have finished the book. Moreover, you never have to worry about being prepared, because you always have with you all the miraculous things you need your hands, your eyes, and the rest of your body."

To spice up dinner parties, readers can turn to this book for more than 150 tricks anyone can do at the dinner table--from making salt and pepper shakers disappear to bending solid silver utensils with a quarter. 113 diagrams.