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The Inhuman Condition

A master storyteller and unrivaled visionary, Clive Barker has mixed the real and unreal with the horrible and wonderful in more than twenty years of fantastic fiction. The Inhuman Condition is a masterwork of surrealistic terror, recounting tragedy with pragmatism, inspiring panic more than dread and evoking equal parts revulsion and delight.
Views: 398

The Christening Quest

Going on a quest with a handsome prince might sound like a dream, but Prince Rupert's cousin Carole comes to feel it isn't all it's cracked up to be. Carole agrees to accompany her hunky cousin to Miragenia to christen his baby niece. But it is really hard to even explain the situation to anyone; how the little Princess was stolen from her mother's side by Miragenians . . .
Views: 385

An Egyptian Journal

A first-hand journal about the Goldings' travels through Egypt, soon after winning the Nobel Prize, living on a motor cruiser on the Nile. Nothing went quite as planned, but William Golding's vivid and honest account of what actually happened, and of what he saw and felt about ancient Egypt and the exasperations of the living present, will delight his innumerable admirers and everyone who visits Egypt. 'One of the funniest anti-travel books I have ever read.' Daily Telegraph 'No previous book brings you so close to Golding the man. It bulges with abstruse knowledge . . . and is often screamingly funny . . . Hugely enjoyable.' The Times
Views: 384

Maigret Bides His Time

Maigret’s longest-running case involves two decades of jewelry heists, a generation of conspiracy, and the revelation of a long-buried secret from World War II. “[Simenon could] turn the simplest of romans policiers into a moving and memorable form of art.” — The Times (London) “[Maigret’s investigation] is a bittersweet elegy for the glory days of both thief and cop.” — Chicago Sun-Times 
Views: 377

My Mother's Body

My Mother's Body, Marge Piercy's tenth book of poetry, takes its title from one of her strongest and most moving poems, the climax of a powerful sequence of Poems to her mother. Rooted in an honest, harrowing, but ally ecstatic confrontation of the mother / daughter relationship in all its complexity and intimacy, it is at the same time an affirmation of continuity and identification. "The Chuppah" comprises poems actually used in her wedding ceremony with Ira Wood. This section sings with powerfully female love poetry. There is also a sustained and direct use of her Jewish identity and faith in these poems, as there is in a number of other poems throughout the volume. Readers of Piercy's previous collections will not be surprised to encounter her mixture of the personal and the political, her love of animals and the Cape landscape. There are poems about doing housework, about accidents, about dreaming, about bag ladies, about luggage, about children's fears of nuclear holocaust; about tomcats, insects in the rafters, the influence of a name, appleblossoms and blackberries, pollution, and some of the ways women objectify one another. In "Does the light fail us, or do we fail the light?" Piercy writes with lacerating honesty about our relationships with the elderly and about hers with her father. Some of the most moving poems are domestic, as in the final sequence, "Six underrated pleasures," which finds in daily women's tasks both pleasure and mystery, affirmation of serf and connection with the mother. In all, My Mother's Body is one of Piercy's most powerful and balanced collections.
Views: 376

Lost Lady

Jude Deveraux touches the heart with this captivating novel of unexpected passion, adventure, and second chances. Lost Lady * Forsaken by her guardian and narrowly escaping marriage to a money-hungry suitor, Regan flees Weston Manor, the only home she's ever known, determined to rule her own destiny. When Travis Stanford, a big, rugged American, finds Regan on London's docks, he vows to protect her -- unaware of the magnificent, iron-willed beauty she would become, or the dangerous, passion-filled future that awaited them both. From England's bawdy wharves to Virginia's elegant mansions, their love was kindled by chance, and flamed by the thrilling pursuit of unknown tomorrows.
Views: 366

The Invaders Plan

A monumental work -- acclaimed as agenuine masterpiece -- L. Ron Hubbard's 1.2-million-word-ten-volume MISSION EARTH dekalogy brilliantly blends science fiction and action/adventure on a vast interstellar scale with stinging satire -- in the literary tradition of Voltaire, Swift and Orwell -- on the world's foibles and fancies.A true publishing phenomenon -- precedent-setting when each volume, in turn, became a New York Times and then an international bestseller -- MISSION EARTH has already sold more than five million copies and continues to appear on bestseller lists in contries throghout the world. Winner of France's Cosmos 2000 Award and the Nova Science Fiction Award in Italy, and nominated for a Hugo Award, MISSION EARTH is an epic narrative of a secret invasion of Earth as seen-and vividly recounted -- by the aliens who, unrecognized, already live and work among us. It is a novel crowded with sharply memorable characters and with places and events cloaked in splendor, menace and mystery: Palace City, Joy City, the forbidden prison fortress of Spiteos, the violent fall of the Voltar Confederation. The Voltar Confederation has a long-range plan to use Earth as a strategic staging area in its continuing conquest of the galaxy. However, with the discovery that Earth is being destroyed by pollution, drugs and other menaces, Combat Engineer Jettero Heller is sent on a top-secret mission to save the planet from self-destruction. Unknown to Heller, another Voltarian faction (the Coordinated Information Apparatus) has secretly been using Earth as a supply base for drugs. It dispatches its own counter mission to thwart Heller's plans.
Views: 361

Various Miracles

The stories collected here offer an entrancing look at some of the various miracles of everyday life, the quirks of chance and coincidence, life's setbacks and improvisations. Carol Shields deftly draws us into the lives of a broad range of sharply observed characters, from the brilliant young violinist smothered by an overprotective family, to the elderly widow mowing her lawn while a long, passionate life buzzes around in her memory. Blending wit and compassion, Shields illuminates moments when ordinary people face extraordinary circumstances, declarations of love and revelations that transform their lives. Sharp, skeptical and sympathetic, this collection presents Shields at her inimitable best in twenty-one miracles of the storyteller's art. From the Trade Paperback edition.
Views: 360

Collected Stories

Tennessee Williams’ Collected Stories combines the four short-story volumes published during Williams’ lifetime with previously unpublished or uncollected stories. Arranged chronologically, the forty-nine stories, when taken together with the memoir of his father that serves as a preface, not only establish Williams as a major American fiction writer of the twentieth century, but also, in Gore Vidal’s view, constitute the real autobiography of Williams’ "art and inner life."
Views: 345

Stoner McTavish

Meet lesbian travel agent turned reluctant detective, Stoner McTavish and her friends, on their first adventure to Grand Teton National Park, where she falls in love with her dream lover, Gwen, whom she must rescue from almost certain death.ReviewWhat makes Deher's novels special beyond their intriguing plots and engaging characters is Dreher's infectious sense of humor, her vivid descriptions and emotional integrity. I don't think I have read funnier dialogue anywhere. --Elynor Vine -VisibilitesThe book is full of humor, spiced with suspense as Boston-born-and-bred Stoner struggles with horseback riding, murder, and her growing love for Gwen. Stoner McTavish is a treat. --Washington Blade About the AuthorIn addition to writing the Stoner McTavish series of novels, Sarah Dreher is a clinical psycologist and prize winning playwright. She lives in Amherst, Massachusetts with her family of choice and assorted wild and domesticated beasts.
Views: 345

Santa Claus: The Movie Novelization

IN A CERTAIN TIME, IN A CERTAIN LAND . . . Once there lived and once there was a simple woodcutter and his good-hearted wife, whose greatest pleasure was making toys for children. Then the miracle occurred. In a magical kingdom at the Top of the World the kindly pair discovered the secret of making reindeer fly and of bringing happiness to children everywhere, then and forever. His reward was to be the joy that shines in every child’s face at Christmas. But one of his helpers decided he could improve on Christmas—and almost ruined it. Now a wondrous movie and a magical novel, this story tells of the good man’s gravest threat and biggest triumph. He went on to become the Greatest Living Legend of All Time. But still you might not know his name. Unless you too were once a child . . .
Views: 344

Anastasia on Her Own

Help! Anastasia Krupnik's mother must organize her chaotic life. So Anastasia, who is a very organized person, and her father invent the solution to Mrs. Krupnik's problem: the Krupnik Family Nonsexist Housekeeping Schedule. But when Mrs. Krupnik goes to California on a ten-day business trip, Anastasia finds that the problem isn't solved at all. It's hard to stick to a schedule that doesn't leave room for her little brother, Sam, who's come down with the chicken pox, and her father's former girlfriend, who's invited herself to dinner. How is Anastasia supposed to cope with these interruptions when she's planning her first dream-date dinner for Steve Harvey? It's a cinch. As long as she sticks to the Krupnik Romantic Dinner Week Schedule, what could possibly go wrong?
Views: 342