Best Selling Books by Frances Thomas

Athens, Georgia, seems the quintessential southern university town. With a geography chiseled over geologic time by its lifeblood, the slow-flowing Oconee River, Athens has developed a unique culture as the two-century-long home of the state''s bustling center of learning and research, the University of Georgia. A multitude of influences have powered the emergence of Athens from its eighteenth-century rustic solitude to its current incarnation as a community striving to preserve the old while embracing the new. A Portrait of Historic Athens and Clarke County gives equal attention to Athens''s natural and built environments and their coevolution into one of the modern South''s most dynamic small cities. Starting with the town''s beginnings, Frances Taliaferro Thomas emphasizes settlement patterns, key events, institutions, architecture, landscape, economics, and the highly distinctive personalities that have molded Athens into what it is today. This edition includes two new sections of color photographs as well as a comprehensive new chapter tracing the milestones that led town and gown into the twenty-first century. Topics include the emerging cultural importance of the Classic Center; restoration and revitalization of many historic sites; vast building projects under two presidents of the University of Georgia; the progression of the greenway along the North Oconee River; and initiatives to address rising poverty rates within the county. Blending scholarly research with archival materials, official data, newspaper accounts, interviews, and personal letters and diaries, A Portrait of Historic Athens and Clarke County is the definitive account of a place that makes history each and every day.

Polly is ready to run away from home, since her best friend Kelly doesn''t want to be friends, her pet hamster, Horace, has disappeared, and her mother is pregnant, so the whole family is paying more attention to the coming baby than to her.

Will this really be Polly''s worst birthday ever?

A new poetry collection covering memories, loss, family life, history and nature from author Frances Thomas. For more information and to find out about Frances'' other publications, visit her website at www.francesthomas.org

Imagine the isolation of a place where, within several miles of home, there were no people other than immediate family-no modern conveniences, telephones, television, internet, newspaper or mail delivery, supermarkets or shopping malls. Imagine a terrain sometimes more hospitable to mesquite trees, rattlesnakes, and jackrabbits than to human inhabitants. Imagine hot, dry weather that could change abruptly as a blue norther rolled in across the plains, dropping temperatures thirty or forty degrees before nightfall. Could you thrive in such an environment? The author did, and she reflects on these vicissitudes with both nostalgia and humor.

A new poetry collection by the author of ''The Memory Gate'' and Girls of Troy quartet.

Little Monster is concerned about leaving his parents behind when he grows up to be an explorer in outer space.

In her illustrated diary, Polly writes about her family, her plans to run away, her school friends and ex-friends, and her boring hamster Horace.

Little Monster is learning to count by watching the world around him - noticing apples in the tree, planes in the sky, balloon floating by, to name but a few! Join the fun in this wonderful little board book, perfect for babies learning all about their world.

Little Monster is discovering opposites - from hot and cold to young and old, from good and bad to happy and sad. Join him as he explores his surroundings! A perfect board book for babies learning all about their world.

Electra is eagerly looking forward to her father Agamemnon''s triumphant return to Mycenae after the long war in Troy. But his wife Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus have other plans - Clytemnestra cannot forgive her husband for the sacrifice of her eldest daughter Iphigenia at the start of the war, and Aegisthus covets the kingship. Instead of celebrating his return, they murder him horribly; and suddenly Mycenae isn''t a safe place for Electra or her brother Orestes. Orestes goes into exile, and Electra has to submit to a humiliating fate. When Orestes eventually returns, there is only one word on his mind - revenge! What part will Electra play in this?