Witch’s Curse
If you had to do
something really good for someone else to remove a curse, but no one could see
you, where would you start?
Think how much fun it would be if you were a puff of smoke. If you were
a naughty ten year old, you would look at your sister’s diary. If you were a
teenage boy, you could drift into the girls’ locker room. If you were a man,
wait, if you were a man who had been born centuries ago, and you and your
brothers had done a thoughtless deed to a sweet young girl and had a curse put
on you, well, drifting around as smoke could become something else.
It did not help if the witch who put the curse on you
let you form a small part of your body now and then. You could talk, but that
often scared people away, a voice from nowhere. You could produce a hand, maybe
one foot, and, yep, that impressed people.
Then, after all the centuries of drifting with forest fires,
and campfires, and wherever the wind sent you, there was a woman who closed her
eyes and only smelled cinnamon and sandalwood. But you needed to do more than
just pleasure her with a hand.
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A hurricane sweeps off the Gulf of Mexico and in, the back-country of Alabama, assembles a passenger jet out of old bean-cans and junkyard waste. An eccentric mathematician – last heard of investigating the physics of free will and ranting about the devil – vanishes in the French Pyrenees. And the thuggish operatives of a multinational arms conglomerate are closing in on Alex Smart – a harmless Cambridge postgraduate who has set off with hope in his heart and a ring in his pocket to ask his American girlfriend to marry him. At the Directorate of the Extremely Improbable – an organisation so secret that many of its operatives aren't 100 per cent sure it exists – Red Queen takes an interest. What ensues is a chaotic chase across an imaginary America, haunted by madness, murder, mistaken identity, and a very large number of unhealthy but delicious snacks. The Coincidence Engine exists. And it has started to work. "The Coincidence Engine" is consistently engaging – one of the most enjoyable, entertaining debut novels you'll come across for ages. Views: 45
Morse had never ceased to wonder why, with the staggering advances in medical science, all pronouncements concerning times of death seemed so disconcertingly vague.The newly appointed member of the Oxford Examinations Syndicate was deaf, provincial and gifted. Now he is dead . . .And his murder, in his north Oxford home, proves to be the start of a formidably labyrinthine case for Chief Inspector Morse, as he tries to track down the killer through the insular and bitchy world of the Oxford Colleges . . . Views: 45
All Silas wanted was a quiet evening at home. He definitely didn't want to be sucked into some weird, alternate world and then captured by a tribe of warrior women. As the women bring Silas and his friends to their city for the claiming ceremony, they begin to realize how treacherous their new lives are. Warring tribes, strange creatures and powerful magic are only a few of the dangers in this new world.As the head of the Queen's Guard, Quinn's orders are simple – capture those who appear in the orb and bring them to her Queen. And just because her new prisoner and his demanding touch resurrect feelings she believed were long dead, doesn't mean she can disobey her Queen's orders. Men are the claimed ones in this world and allowing Silas to claim her would be a grave mistake.In a world where men serve only one purpose, Quinn and Silas must hide their desire for each other. They grow closer with each passing day but Silas' determination to return to his own world and the secrets... Views: 45
GQ called the three short novels in this collection "wondrous." A woman returns to live on her family's west Texas ranch . . . a man tracks his wife through a winter wilderness . . . an ancient ocean buried in the foothills of the Appalachians becomes a battleground for a young wildcat oilman and his aging mentor. Here is Bass at his magical, passionate, and lyrical best. Views: 45
Set in 1860 as the first wagon trains rumble into the American West, this adventure-filled novel centers on a frontier girl and the beloved pony she tries to save Born in the back of a covered wagon traveling west from Vermont, Annie Dawson dreams of someday seeing what's on the eastern side of the great Mississippi. For now, she'll have to be content living with her parents and younger brother in the Nebraska Territory at the Red Buttes Pony Express station run by her family. That is, until her favorite pony starts going wild, and Annie's friend—Pony Express rider Billy Cody—suspects that someone is poisoning her. But who'd want to hurt gentle Magpie? Indian tribes stirring up trouble? Or the Butterfield Mail, the Pony Express rival that seems to feel threatened by the ponies' speed in delivering mail to California? The night before Magpie is scheduled to be put down, Annie steals out to see if her half-Shoshone friend Redbird... Views: 45
Mystery/Crime. 64009 words long. Views: 45
The Mrs. Browne trilogy became an instant bestselling success in author Brendan O'Carroll's native Ireland. Similarly, when Plume introduced The Mammy (the first book in the series, May 1999) in the United States, it was greeted with overwhelming enthusiasm from American readers. Fans of Agnes Browne craving further hilarious and heartwarming adventures will be delighted with The Chisellers. Agnes, the lovable and determined heroine, returns with her seven children—whom she affectionately calls "the chisellers"—all struggling to make their way in the world with varying degrees of success. To make matters more difficult, as Agnes struggles along the bumpy road of parenting, she learns that the family is about to be forced out of their tenement home in the name of urban renewal. Pierre, Agnes' persistent suitor, is thankfully on hand to console her. Like all good Irish stories, The Chisellers includes a wedding and a funeral, much laughter and some tears—and it is sure to please newcomers as well as loyal fans of this terrific series. Amazon.com ReviewIn his introduction to this second episode in the rollicking trilogy that began with The Mammy (1994), Brendan O'Carroll explains that his greatest surprise and pleasure, in the wake of his newfound literary success, was meeting people who told him it was the first book they had ever read. And it's easy to imagine how new readers would be drawn in by engaging, larger-than-life characters, colorful dialogue, and high-spirited plot. The Chisellers opens in 1970, with the widow Agnes Browne still struggling to raise her brood (the chisellers of the title) alone, although the broad-shouldered Mark is now an apprentice carpenter and Rory, his gay brother, is an apprentice hair stylist. Agnes may be too caught up in her exciting bingo win of 310 pounds to notice that little Dermot is developing a dangerous taste for shoplifting, but she frequently wrings her hands over Frankie, a neo-Nazi thug who has been expelled from school. Into this flurry of daily concerns and excitements comes a letter from the local housing authority, notifying her that all the indigent families in her neighborhood are being relocated from their shabby but familiar tenements in the center of Dublin to new houses in a distant suburb. At the sad but raucous farewell party at the pub, Agnes sits drinking cider "in her usual corner," remembering her best friend, Marion, who died three years before: "Ah Jaysus, Marion, listen to them!" she muses. "The music of The Jarro! Will we ever hear the likes of it again?" The music to which Agnes referred could not be played on any instrument, but was the cackle of voices and rhythmic banter of the inner-city folk, the symphony of unanswered questions and impossible statements, that were so much of the colour of Dublin: "Hey, Mr. Foley. A vodka with ice--and fresh ice, none of that frozen stuff!" This would be followed by a howl of laughter. As you read, it is impossible not to envision a feel-good film of The Chisellers (Anjelica Huston directed The Mammy) and to admire O'Carroll's comic skill, even if his sunny, too-tidy conclusion to the novel makes Frank McCourt read like Dostoyevsky. --Regina MarlerFrom Publishers WeeklyBy turns funny, wise and heartbreaking, this Irish Tales of the City is O'Carroll's second book in his Mrs. Browne trilogy; the first, The Mammy, received high praise after publication in the U.S. last year. Featuring eccentric characters who are charming, irreverent and believable, the story continues in 1973 with Agnes Browne at center stage. A widow raising six sons and a daughter, whom she refers to collectively as the "chisellers," she lives in public housing in inner-city Dublin. Agnes is no angel, which makes her all the more human; she chain-smokes, likes a pint or two of an evening and has a sweet-dispositioned boyfriend, a French immigrant named Pierre, who works at a pizza joint and is endlessly patient with Agnes and her rambunctious brood. Mark Browne is the oldest; at 17, he is apprenticed to a furniture-maker whose business is failing. How Mark saves the business and wins the girl of his dreams inform the main storyline, but each of the siblings and Agnes get their fair share of attention. Frankie, the next in age, is involved with violent local skinheads. After he and his gang brutally beat his younger brother, Rory, a subsequent act further tarnishes Frankie's reputation and outrages his family. This lively novel features a wedding, a funeral and an ending that will melt the hardest heart. Readers will eagerly await the third book in this series. (Mar.) FYI: The film version of The Mammy, starring Anjelica Huston, is currently in release. Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. Views: 45
Erotica. 39852 words long. Views: 45
"Smart, honest, powerfully inventive, [Hicok's] writing asks the biggest questions while acknowledging that there are no answers beyond the imposed structure of the page."Los Angeles Times"Seamlessly, miraculously, [Hicok's] judicious eye imbues even the dreadful with beauty and meaning."The New York Times Book ReviewGritty, complicated, and earnest, Elegy Owed breaksthen salvagesthe rules for mourning. While poet Bob Hicok remembers the departed as ephemera or skin cells, fog is invited to tea and the beauty of dandelion fluff is held for ransom. Hicok's language is so humid with expectation and fearlessness that his poems create a clandestine manual to survival.From "The Order of Things":Then I stopped hearing from you. Then I thoughtI was Beethoven's cochlear implant. Then I listenedto deafness. Then I tacked a whisperto the bulletin board. Then I liked dandelionsbest in their afro... Views: 45
Danielle Harris is the daughter of an overprotective police chief and has led a sheltered life. As a kindergarten teacher, she’s as far removed from the world of Harleys and bikers as you could get, but when she’s rescued by the sexy and dangerous Austin Carver, her life is changed forever.Although Austin ‘Booker’ Carver is enamored by the innocent Dani, he tries to keep the police chief’s daughter at arm’s length. But when a threat is made from an unexpected source, he finds himself falling hard and fast for the only woman who can tame his wild heart. Will Booker be able to find the source of the threat before it’s too late?Will Dani finally give her heart to a man who’s everything she’s been warned about? Views: 45
