Beloved for his hilarious and unexpectedly moving novels, Bruce Coville is also a master of the short story. These two collections, in one volume for the first time, feature eighteen tales of unusual breadth and emotional depth. This omnibus is a perfect introduction to Bruce Coville's magic for the uninitiated. Includes an introduction by Jane Yolen. Views: 150
After Grandma Mary dies, sixteen-year-old JP's safe, secure world quickly unravels. He finds himself living in complete chaos when his mother wins a farmhouse in an essay contest and insists on sharing her good fortune with other neighborhood outcasts. Suddenly there are no rules, and the house is filled with poets, musicians, a reformed drug addict, an abused teen, and too many others who seem to have replaced JP and his father in his mother's life.JP longs for his family to be restored to what it once was. But then somehow, amid the madness, his idea of family is redefined in ways he never expected. Views: 148
By the author of Dare Me and The End of Everything Femmes fatales. Obsessive love. Double crosses. How does a respectable young woman fall into Los Angeless hard-boiled underworld? Shadow-dodging through the glamorous world of 1950s Hollywood and its seedy flip side, Megan Abbotts debut, Die a Little, is a gem of the darkest hue. This ingenious twist on a classic noir tale tells the story of Lora King, a schoolteacher, and her brother Bill, a junior investigator with the district attorneys office. Loras comfortable, suburban life is jarringly disrupted when Bill falls in love with a mysterious young woman named Alice Steele, a Hollywood wardrobe assistant with a murky past. Made sisters by marriage but not by choice, the bond between Lora and Alice is marred by envy and mistrust. Spurred on by inconsistencies in Alices personal history and possibly jealous of Alices hold on her brother, Lora finds... Views: 148
Giulia has been an orphan all her life. Raised in Florence's famous Ospedale degli Innocenti, her probing questions and insubordinate behavior made her an unwelcome presence, and at the age of fifteen, she was given an awful choice: become a nun, or be married off to a man she didn't love. She chose neither, and after refusing an elderly suitor, Guilia escaped onto the streets of Florence. Now, after spending two years as a successful pickpocket, an old man catches her about to make off with his purse, and rather than having her carted off to prison he offers her a business proposition. The man claims to be a cabalist, a student of Jewish mysticism and ritual magic, who works for the most powerful families in Florence. But his identity is secret—he is known only as "the Magician of Florence"—and he is in need of an assistant. She accepts the job and begins smuggling his talismans throughout the city. But the talismans are not what they seem, and... Views: 148
Moving Mars is a story of human courage and love set within the greater saga of a planetary liberation movement. Mars is a colonial world, governed by corporate interests on Earth. The citizens of Mars are hardworking, but held back by their lack of access to the best education, and the desire of the Earthly powers to keep the best new inventions for themselves. The young Martians -- the second and third generations born on Mars -- have little loyalty to Earth, and a strong belief that their planet can be independent. The revolution begins slowly, but will grow in power over decades of political struggle until it becomes irresistible. Told through the eyes of an extraordinary character, Casseia Majumdar, a daughter of one of Mars' oldest, most conservative Binding Multiples, Moving Mars is Greg Bear's brilliant conception of the human colonization of the red planet, with lovingly painted details and a grand historical sweep, embellishing an audacious scientific speculation. Greg Bear sold his first short story, at the age of fifteen, to Robert Lowndes's Famous Science Fiction. Since then, he has written some twenty novels. A winner of the Hugo and Nebula Awards, Bear is married to Astrid Anderson, and they, and their two children, live near Seattle, Washington. A Hugo Award NomineeWinner of the Nebula Award for Best NovelShe is a daughter of one of Mars's oldest, most conservative Binding Multiples—the extended family syndicates that colonized the red planet. But Casseia Majumdar has a dream of an independent Mars, a notion born in the student protests of 2171. During those brief days of idealism she had forged bonds of friendship and hatred that set the stage for an astonishing revolution on Mars.Charles Franklin was also caught up in those days of passion and youth. A brilliant physicist, and Casseia's first love, Franklin is so dedicated to science that he seeks to link his mind to the most advanced artificial intelligence in the solar system. Doing so will cost him a lifetime with the lovely Casseia, but will teach him the secrets of space and time. “Nebula Award winner Bear has long been known for novels of stunning scientific extrapolation and high literary quality . . . This new novel of Mars is his finest yet. Bear follows the unlikely career of Casseia Majumdar of the Majumdar Binding Multiple (a sort of cross between an extended family and a corporation) as she goes from lukewarm student activist to president of the fledgling Federal Republic of Mars. Beginning as a coming-of-age story, with Casseia encountering corruption as well as courage and determination in a student uprising, the narrative then becomes a fine, taut and realistic political novel, as Casseia travels to Earth as part of an ambassadorial retinue, and later serves as second in leader Ti Sandra's push for Martian unification. As conflict heats up between upstart Mars and Mother Earth, Bear introduces a wildly intriguing hard-science idea, and the novel spins into a tense science fiction thriller. Bear offers a fast-moving plot; realistic, appealing characters; a vividly imagined future Earth awash in 'tailored microbes,' nanotechnology and dirty dealing; and the most believable evocation of the workings of politics and science in any recent science fiction novel.”—Publishers Weekly "Bear's Mars is one of the most vividly realized of the recent body of areological novels . . . He has the gift of implying a whole background with high-resolution but subtly-signaled background details."—Locus"No one spins out ideas like Greg Bear. He explores the very frontiers of possibility, weaving tapestries of wonder. And yet, all of Bear's ideas, all the adventure and action, don't half compare to his finest creation yet—that treasure of a Martian, Casseia Majumdar!"—David Brin"Great characters, science, cultures, action. Moving Mars brings together all the things that make science fiction wonderful."—Vernor Vinge“In 2171, Mars inhabitants are grouped in extended family businesses that sometimes compete, sometimes cooperate, and resist the imposition of a central authority. But Earth is forever trying to impose its will upon Mars; and so young politician-to-be Casseia of the old and powerful Majumdar family—following a brief and painful affair with ambitious, brilliant physicist Charles Franklin—will travel to Earth with her uncle Bithras to negotiate with the powers that be. Unexpectedly, the talks fizzle; worse, Casseia learns that Earth has infected Mars's artificial-intelligence 'thinkers' with virus-like 'evolvons.' With Earth now openly hostile, Mars must present a united front, and Casseia is elected Vice President. She realizes that what has alarmed Earth are the discoveries of Charles Franklin: his physics of 'descriptors' allow the alteration or 'tweaking' of matter and energy within the absolute-zero Bell Continuum. In practical terms: instantaneous communications, the ability to fry remote targets instantaneously, even the moving of entire planets! Earth attacks by activating the evolvons that sabotage Mars's thinkers, producing chaos. Charles Franklin's team retaliates, and the attack ceases. Clearly, though, this is just the first phase of a struggle that must result in Mars's subjugation—or its leaving the solar system altogether.”—Kirkus Reviews“Revolution is not a new concept as colonies grow more independent from their mother countries. Bear, author of The Wind from a Burning Woman, uses this scenario as the backdrop for Moving Mars with great success. Combining hard science with colonial naiveté, he weaves an epic story of Mars, the colony, against the technologically superior but culturally remote mother Earth. When a staggering scientific breakthrough occurs on Mars, the 'Terries' scurry to regain control of their Martian 'Rabbit.' The chaotic political conditions of the Martian republic do not enhance the colonists position, and their leaders find themselves up against more than they bargained for. Frantically trying to gain a base of support from their constituents, they are backed against the wall by the theft of their technology by Earth. Forced to make a monumental decision that changes the future of Mars forever, the colonial leaders embark upon the ride of their lives. This production is well narrated and effective.”—Roxanna Herrick, Washington University Library, St. Louis, Library Journal“Nebula Award winner Bear has long been known for novels of stunning scientific extrapolation and high literary quality from his early novel Blood Music to his more recent Queen of Angels. This new novel of Mars is his finest yet. Bear follows the unlikely career of Casseia Majumdar of the Majumdar Binding Multiple (a sort of cross between an extended family and a corporation) as she goes from lukewarm student activist to president of the fledgling Federal Republic of Mars. Beginning as a coming-of-age story, with Casseia encountering corruption as well as courage and determination in a student uprising, the narrative then becomes a fine, taut and realistic political novel, as Casseia travels to Earth as part of an ambassadorial retinue, and later serves as second in leader Ti Sandra's push for Martian unification. As conflict heats up between upstart Mars and Mother Earth, Bear introduces a wildly intriguing hard-science idea, and the novel spins into a tense science fiction thriller. Bear offers a fast-moving plot; realistic, appealing characters; a vividly imagined future Earth awash in 'tailored microbes,' nanotechnology and dirty dealing; and the most believable evocation of the workings of politics and science in any recent science fiction novel."—Publishers Weekly Views: 148
1st Lindsay Gordon Mystery. Views: 146
Nobody steals Stuart Brannon's cattle...not even a military man with his own private army. Stuart Brannon battles cattle rustlers, befriends Apaches, and feels his heart stir for a beautiful woman he much admires. Will she get Brannon to lay to rest the ghost of his dead wife? Or will he continue to mourn? This time Brannon heads south of the border to buy cattle for his ranch. But he finds the cattle rustled and their owner murdered. Brannon comes up against something a lot bigger than just a band of small-time rustlers. A former Confederate officer stole the herd to finance his private army. Captain Porter has devised a fantastic scheme to "liberate" Baja California, supposedly for the Confederacy. But he should have picked someone else's cattle to steal. Army or no army, Brannon is not about to let the thief walk away with his livestock. Meanwhile Brannon gets reacquainted with the widow Victoria Pacifica and discovers they have much in common. His admiration grows... Views: 146
Steven Silbiger's international bestseller, The Ten-Day MBA, has already helped thousands master the skills taught at America's top-ten business schools--and at a fraction of the time and staggering cost that acquiring an MBA typically demands. This newly revised fourth edition contains the most up-to-date information available for understanding the intricacies of today's complex global business world. Distilling the material contained in most popular business courses presently offered at Harvard, Stanford, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Chicago, Northwestern, and the University of Virginia--including leadership, corporate ethics and compliance, financial planning, real estate, and all the latest topics--this invaluable volume will teach you how to:Read and understand financial statementsDraft and adopt effective and comprehensive marketing plans Comprehend accounting rules and methods Manage your... Views: 145
Samantha was born under a full moon to a mother already dead. Revived by doctors and given to her unloving father, Samantha was raised a cursed child, her only friend the ghost of her mother who speaks to her through keys that open a secret box under her bed. From the inside out, Sam burns with life, a fire so vivid it keeps her peers at a distance, all except one. Views: 145
