Anna Mitchel has been writing letters to her French penfriend, Alexandre Tourville, for fifteen years, but hasn't seen him since an exchange trip when they were at school. But when Alex, now a successful photographer, has the opportunity to work in London, Anna offers him a place to stay but is astounded that the small, geeky boy she remembers is now tall, broad-shouldered and gorgeous, and has just broken up with his long-term girlfriend. Anna's female friends are soon swooning over Alex's Gallic charm, and Anna's boyfriend Nick is becoming extremely jealous of their friendship. Then Alex has to return to Paris to oversee the hanging of his photographs in an exhibition, and invites Anna to accompany him so that he can show her the city he adores... Views: 71
Review"Ambitious...compelling...concerned with the tension between our biology and our culture...in power, sex, status, and war games." -- The New York TimesProduct DescriptionHow does city life change the way we act? What accounts for the increasing prevalence of violence and anxiety in our world? In this new edition of his controversial 1969 bestseller, The Human Zoo, renowned zoologist Desmond Morris argues that many of the social instabilities we face are largely a product of the artificial, impersonal confines of our urban surroundings. Indeed, our behavior often startlingly resembles that of captive animals, and our developed and urbane environment seems not so much a concrete jungle as it does a human zoo. Animals do not normally exhibit stress, random violence, and erratic behavioruntil they are confined. Similarly, the human propensity toward antisocial and sociopathic behavior is intensified in todays cities. Morris argues that we are biologically still tribal and ill-equipped to thrive in the impersonal urban sprawl. As important and meaningful today as it was a quarter-century ago, The Human Zoo sounds an urgent warning and provides startling insight into our increasingly complex lives. Views: 71
Lady Scrapple lurks in the depths of Kanebullar Mountain, building her army of mindless slaves and waiting for the perfect moment to strike. As the final pieces are about to fall into place and secure her victory, an anomaly is born. One of her goblins, an incredibly powerful shaman, stands free of Lady Scrapple's iron-clad hive mind.A few miles west of Kanebullar Mountain, the frontier city of Talonrend perches dangerously on the edge of anarchy. King Lucius Firesbane has disappeared without an heir and left the city leaderless.In the face of chaos, a disgruntled paladin sets out to find his king. Views: 71
Wright’s new fantasy is a tale about five orphans raised in a strict British boarding school who begin to discover that they may not be human beings. The students at the school do not age, while the world around them does. The children begin to make sinister discoveries about themselves. Amelia is apparently a fourth-dimensional being; Victor is a synthetic man who can control the molecular arrangement of matter around him; Vanity can find secret passageways through solid walls where none had previously been; Colin is a psychic; Quentin is a warlock. Each power comes from a different paradigm or view of the inexplicable universe: and they should not be able to co-exist under the same laws of nature. Why is it that they can? The orphans have been kidnapped from their true parents, robbed of their powers, and raised in ignorance by super-beings no more human than they are: pagan gods or fairy-queens, Cyclopes, sea-monsters, witches, or things even stranger than this. The children must experiment with, and learn to control, their strange abilities in order to escape their captors. Views: 71
A Cthulhu Cycle series book. Views: 71
The Elegance of the Hedgehog meets The Perks of Being a Wallflower in this novel celebrating being a little bit odd, finding your people, and the power of music to connect usFor Steffi, going to school everyday is an exercise in survival. She's never fit in with any of the groups at school, and she's viciously teased by the other girls in her class. The only way she escapes is through her music—especially jazz music.When Steffi hears her favorite jazz song playing through an open window of a retirement home on her walk home from school, she decides to go in and introduce herself.The old man playing her favorite song is Alvar. When Alvar was a teenager in World War II Sweden, he dreamed of being in a real jazz band. Then and now, Alvar's escape is music—especially jazz music. Through their unconventional but powerful friendship, Steffi comes to realize that she won't always be stuck and lonely in her town. She can go... Views: 71
Sam Acquillo can hide in his windswept waterfront cottage all he wants, but the demons of his past are going to find him. Worse, they've teamed up with some pretty nasty demons of the present, including a very determined Chief of Police whose top detective has Sam caught in the crosshairs.
Part-time carpenter, full-time drinker and co-conspirator with an existential mutt named Eddie Van Halen, Sam tries to lead the simple life. But as always, fate intervenes, this time in the form of Robbie Milhouser, local builder and blundering bully who shares at least one thing with Sam — an irresistible attraction to the beautiful Amanda Anselma.
Peel back the glitz and glory of the fabled Hamptons and you'll find a beautiful place filled with ugly secrets. This is Sam Acquillo's world. Moving effortlessly across the social divide with wry pal Jackie Swaitkowski and rich guy Burton Lewis, the ex-boxer, ex-corporate infighter seems doomed to straddle the thin red line between envy and love, hate and forgiveness, goodness and greed.
And sometimes life and death. Only this time, the life at stake is his own.
From the Hardcover edition. Views: 71
Living in the Bloggins School boiler room isn't glamorous, but that's life for Martha Snapdragon, daughter of the beleaguered janitor. Life only gets weirder when Martha realizes bizarre events are afoot at the school. There's the dastardly dealings of evil principal Dr. Klunk and school bully Rufus. There's the dozen dancing eggs and the misbehaving dragons, property of the mysterious science teacher. And then there's the strangest thing of all: a giant golden spoon that simply appears one day, stuck in the wall of the school bathroom. Although everyone tries, only Martha is able to extract the spoon from the wall—an act that leads her to a destiny far beyond her meager life in the boiler room.Tony Johnston's funny, magical story spoofs the legend of The Sword in the Stone—and conveys some poignant truths about teaching, leadership, and the responsibilities we have to one another. Views: 71
Fall back in love with 1800s Kansas in Susan Mallery's fan-favorite tale of love, loss, and redemption. Justin Kincaid is the local bad-boy-turned-sheriff, and now he's got to prove himself to his people and his town. When a saloon girl is murdered, it's up to him to lead the investigation and to find a home for the dead woman's young daughter. But what he hadn't counted on was Megan, the only woman he's ever loved, volunteering to take in the young girl... Megan Bartlett had all but given up on ever seeing Justin Kincaid again when he returned to assume the sheriff's position. And the man who returns—the man with a bitter, mocking smile—is not the man she remembers. But when she notices how tender he is with the orphaned girl, she can't help but see glimpses of the man she fell in love with, and she wonders if life has granted them a second chance after all... Views: 71
After fog forces her to spend the night in a country guesthouse called The Seven Stars, Helen Campbell reads her horoscope in the local paper. Little does she realise that by doing so she will dramatically change not only her own life, but the lives of everyone else living in the village. Ten days later, she returns to stay at The Seven Stars while attending a local course on antiques. Slow she finds herself increasingly involved in the lives of the people living there. As she arrived a girl was killed in a hit-and-run accident. But was it an accident? Or was it murder? A spate of robberies have targeted local country houses. Are they connected to the girl’s death? And what is the significance of the phrase which recurs in the horoscope column under ‘Tomorrow’s Birthday’? Whether or not it was written in the stars, Helen's stay at the guesthouse ensures that life will never be the same again... for any of them. ‘The Seven Stars’ is a gripping crime novel featuring Anthea Fraser's popular detective David Webb. Praise for Anthea Fraser: “A superbly crafted, riveting, page-turner of a read" Booklist “Ms Fraser is her dependable elegant, guileful self withholding the killer's identity till a dying fall" Sunday Times ANTHEA FRASER has written all her life but did not begin to take it seriously until after marriage, when she found herself at home with two small daughters and embarked on a correspondence course with the London School of Journalism. She wrote short stories before turning to novels of the supernatural, and then to crime. The Seven Stars is her twelfth crime novel. Praise for Anthea Fraser's books. 'A well-mannered, well-plotted and well-told story' Birmingham Post 'The book is a pleasure to read and savour' Woman Journalist 'Irresistible, all-too-human story' Dread Review of Mystery 'A well-structured book, with good balance between depiction of character and development of plot' Criminologist 'Sympathetic, well-executed book, in which full attention is paid to human feelings and failings' Yorkshire Post Endeavour Press is the UK's leading independent publisher of digital books.From Kirkus ReviewsHelen Campbell's marriage to Andrew, an insurance claims adjuster is in trouble. Their two children are grown, and a restless Helen is thinking of renewing her old career in the antiques trade. Driving home one night from a visit to daughter Penelope, a university student, Helen is delayed by heavy fog and thankfully takes a room at The Seven Stars, a B&B along the way. As she's parking her car, a young woman runs out of the inn's doorway. Her body is found later that night--victim of a hit and run. Meanwhile, Chief Inspector David Webb of the nearby Shillingham police (The Gospel Makers, 1996, etc.) is trying to dredge up information from a botched attempt to break into Beckworth House- -one of a series of robberies of stately homes across the county, all of them marked by the theft of one or only a few not-always- valuable objects. Some days later Helen returns to Steeple Bayliss to take a two-week course on antiques, staying again at The Seven Stars, where, as on her first stay, she detects some odd cross- currents amongst owners Stella and Gordon Cain, Stella's sister Kate and brother-in-law Nicholas Warren; disquieting things, too, about their visitor Dominic Hardy--disturbing enough to drive Helen to the local police station, where, eventually, her total recall helps Webb solve a case in which the latest break-in has resulted in murder. Readable and fitfully intriguing, but undermined by too many coincidences, a clumsily absurd conspiracy, and an underlying motive literally not to be believed. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. Views: 71
One whiskey-saturated night turns into something far more in the second standalone installment of the bestselling Whiskey and Lies series from NYT Bestselling Author Carrie Ann Ryan. Fox Collins likes his life just the way it is. His siblings are falling in love all around him, but he'd much rather focus on his next story than on a serious relationship. However, when his latest one-night stand returns to Whiskey—this time for good—he'll need to learn to trust his instincts to figure out if he can live without her in his life. Former dancer Melody Waters is finally ready to settle down in her grandmother's small Pennsylvania hometown. Bad decisions and fateful nights have changed her path more than once, but now she's focused on one thing: opening her new own dance studio. But fate is a funny thing, and once again, she'll be forced to learn that actions have consequences and some repercussions can not only change your life forever, they can also come... Views: 71
Bloodlands . . .
It seems when a lady's called "Calamity," chaos follows wherever she goes -- even to the mostly peaceful railroad town of Mulrooney, Kansas. Martha Jane Canary's always been free as the prairie wind, tied to no place or person, so she never expected to inherit a hardscrabble ranch that other folks have been working. She might have even ignored the legal summons to claim her property ...if someone hadn't tried to kill her first. Now, whether she wants the spread or not, Jane's going to fight for what's hers -- taking on bushwackers, crooked lawyers ...and a woman with a cold and greedy heart, and a plan to steal Jane's land with bullets and brutality. But Calamity's got an ally -- a baby-faced Texas gun called the Ysabel Kid -- not to mention stony courage, a strong and sure whip hand ...and a mule-stubborn willingness to lay down her life for what's right. Views: 71
This collection of 26 stories contains some of Joe R Lansdale's favourite and most violent dark horror tales. 'God of the Razor' introduces the dark god behind serial killers. A martial arts fight to the death between a reluctant champion and a sadistic alpha male, is featured in 'Master of Misery'. Human sacrifice, to ensure prosperity or as a coming-of-age ritual, are themes of 'On a Dark October' and 'Duck Hunt'. In 'The Fat Man', young boys learn the hard way that some mysteries should not be investigated. Many of the tales are truly weird, such as 'Chompers', the story of the false teeth with an appetite. All stories are individually introduced by Lansdale, who explains the humorous, weird, and sometimes sad genesis for each. Views: 71
