On a snowy Friday night in 1979, just hours after making love for the first time, Richard's girlfriend, high school senior Karen Ann McNeil, falls into a coma. Nine months later she gives birth to their daughter, Megan. As Karen sleeps through the next seventeen years, Richard and their circle of friends reside in an emotional purgatory, passing through a variety of careers—modeling, film special effects, medicine, demolition—before finally reuniting on a conspiracy-driven super-natural television series. But real life grows as surreal as their TV show as Richard and his friends await Karen's reawakening . . . and the subsequent apocalypse. Views: 819
Danger wears many faces....
Ten years ago Rachel Grant's fiancé, Thomas, disappeared. His body was never found. Now there's a stranger in town, a man who could be Thomas's twin--or his ghost.
His name is Adam Delafield. He's been watching Rachel for days. He has the locket she gave Thomas before he vanished. And he says he owed her father three million dollars.
But there's no record of the loan—or a shred of proof that Adam is who he claims to be. And he's always nearby as accidents begin to threaten Rachel's life.
Is he an innocent man who only wants to repay a debt? Or a figure from the past with a score to settle? Rachel must expose lies and unravel stories, find out who wants her dead and why...before the next attempt to kill her succeeds.
From the Paperback edition. Views: 818
A moving, exciting, and heartfelt American saga inspired by the author's own family memoirs, these words belong to Sarah Prine, a woman of spirit and fire who forges a full and remarkable existence in a harsh, unfamiliar frontier. Scrupulously recording her steps down the path Providence has set her upon—from child to determined young adult to loving mother—she shares the turbulent events, both joyous and tragic, that molded her, and recalls the enduring love with cavalry officer Captain Jack Elliot that gave her strength and purpose.
Rich in authentic everyday details and alive with truly unforgettable characters, These Is My Words brilliantly brings a vanished world to breathtaking life again. Views: 813
BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Dean Koontz's The City.
There are no rules in the dark, no place to feel safe, no escape from the shadows. But to save the day, you must...Seize the Night.
At no time does Moonlight Bay look more beautiful than at night. Yet it is precisely then that the secluded little town reveals its menace. Now children are disappearing. From their homes. From the streets. And there's nothing their families can do about it. Because in Moonlight Bay, the police work their hardest to conceal crimes and silence victims. No matter what happens in the night, their job is to ensure that nothing disturbs the peace and quiet of Moonlight Bay....
Christopher Snow isn't afraid of the dark. Forced to live in the shadows because of a rare genetic disorder, he knows the night world better than anyone. He believes the lost children are still alive and that their disappearance is connected to the town's most carefully kept, most ominous secret—a secret only he can uncover, a secret that will force him to confront an adversary at one with the most dangerous darkness of all. The darkness inside the human heart. Views: 812
Remember the true meaning of the holidays with three touching novellas from best-selling author Lurlene McDaniel.
In the opening novella, "Christmas Child," 15-year-old Melanie is just getting used to the idea of having a sister when she learns that the child will only live for a few hours. But Melanie learns much about love during her sister's brief but poignant life. In "The Last Dance," Brenda is faced with the difficult choice between good intentions and what she really wants when she becomes the last chance for happiness for a dying boy. In "Kathy's Life," two 16-years-olds seem to have everything on the surface, but not everything is as perfect as it appears. Views: 811
"By The Light Of My Father's Smile" presents a celebration of sexuality, its absolute usefulness in the accessing of one's mature spirituality, and the father's role in assuring joy or sorrow in this arena for his female children, " says Walker. "It examines the ways imposed religion almost always acts to inhibit and harden the hearts of those who would instinctively love, and presents the richness and coherence of an alternative culture's experience of sexuality as a celebration of life, " she adds.The story begins at an outpost in the remote Sierras in Mexico, where an African American family (two daughters and their partners) from the United States come to live for several years. The father, who narrates much of the novel from the grave, finds his fifteen-year-old daughter Magdalena, having sex with a local boy named Manuelito. He beats her in a scene witnessed by her sister, Susannah. While both daughters are wounded by the beating, it is Magdalena who remains scarred throughout her life by this incident.
However, it is because of Manuelito and his tradition that reconciliation between father and daughters eventually happens. Manuelito is a Mundo, a deeply spiritual and wise tribe of mixed race, both Black and Indian. The Mundo are unimpressed by a world concerned primarily with exploitation and monetary gain. They treasure their relationship to the earth and ultimately teach the father, who believes his daughter's sexuality is evil, that in fact sexuality is a blessing. In the end, it is the Mundo way of life that leads the father back to his daughters. Views: 811
A recurring theme throughout Anna Quindlen's How Reading Changed My Life is the comforting premise that readers are never alone. "There was waking, and there was sleeping. And then there were books," she writes, "a kind of parallel universe in which anything might happen and frequently did, a universe in which I might be a newcomer but never really a stranger. My real, true world." Later, she quotes editor Hazel Rochman: "Reading makes immigrants of us all. It takes us away from home, but, most important, it finds homes for us everywhere." Indeed, Quindlen's essays are full of the names of "friends," real or fictional--Anne of Green Gables and Heidi; Anthony Trollope and Jane Austen, to name just a few--who have comforted, inspired, educated, and delighted her throughout her life. In four short essays Quindlen shares her thoughts on the act of reading itself ("It is like the rubbing of two sticks together to make a fire, the act of reading, an improbable pedestrian task that leads to heat and light"); analyzes the difference between how men and women read ("there are very few books in which male characters, much less boys, are portrayed as devoted readers"); and cheerfully defends middlebrow literature:
Most of those so-called middlebrow readers would have readily admitted that the Iliad set a standard that could not be matched by What Makes Sammy Run? or Exodus. But any reader with common sense would also understand intuitively, immediately, that such comparisons are false, that the uses of reading are vast and variegated and that some of them are not addressed by Homer.
The Canon, censorship, and the future of publishing, not to mention that of reading itself, are all subjects Quindlen addresses with intelligence and optimism in a book that may not change your life, but will no doubt remind you of other books that did. --Alix Wilber(less) Views: 810
“As I remember, I had just woken up from a nap when I decided to create the universe.”
So begins Alan Lightman’s playful and profound new novel, Mr g, the story of Creation as told by God. Barraged by the constant advisements and bickerings of Aunt Penelope and Uncle Deva, who live with their nephew in the shimmering Void, Mr g proceeds to create time, space, and matter. Then come stars, planets, animate matter, consciousness, and, finally, intelligent beings with moral dilemmas. Mr g is all powerful but not all knowing and does much of his invention by trial and error.
Even the best-laid plans can go awry, and Mr g discovers that with his creation of space and time come some unforeseen consequences—especially in the form of the mysterious Belhor, a clever and devious rival. An intellectual equal to Mr g, Belhor delights in provoking him: Belhor demands an explanation for the inexplicable, requests that the newly created intelligent creatures not be subject to rational laws, and maintains the necessity of evil. As Mr g watches his favorite universe grow into maturity, he begins to understand how the act of creation can change himself, the Creator.
With echoes of Calvino, Rushdie, and Saramago, combining science, theology, and moral philosophy, Mr g is a stunningly imaginative work that celebrates the tragic and joyous nature of existence on the grandest possible scale. Views: 810
Michael was in a hurry. He was scrambling up the ladder at Drake & Sweeney, a giant D. C. law firm with eight hundred lawyers. The money was good and getting better; a partnership was three years away. He was a rising star with no time to waste, no time to stop, no time to toss a few coins into the cups of panhandlers. No time for a conscience. But a violent encounter with a homeless man stopped him cold. Michael survived; his assailant did not. Who was this man? Michael did some digging, and learned that he was a mentally ill veteran who'd been in and out of shelters for many years. Then Michael dug a little deeper, and found a dirty secret, and the secret involved Drake & Sweeney. The fast track derailed; the ladder collapsed. Michael bolted the firm and took a top-secret file with him. He landed in the streets, an advocate for the homeless, a street lawyer. And a thief. Views: 805
Nola and Tina are both girls with problems. They don't know each other yet, though they will; each is a Creator, with the magical ability to turn dreams into reality. That would be a powerful gift--if either knew that she had it. And this world is hard on dreamers. Nola is trapped in a terrible, abusive relationship with a man she once loved, and Tina is an orphan who makes her living on the street. All their dreams are slowly being ground into dust.
That's a tragedy no matter who it happens to. But when the great dreamers stop dreaming, whole universes of imagination can be lost. And the land of Nola and Tina's dreams is fighting back.
Into their miserable everyday world soars Espirit, a winged unicorn dark as the space between the stars. he is the vessel of Nola's dreams, come to aid her in her battle, with sordid reality. Following after him comes Prince Michael, whose quest it is to find the human dreamers who can save his land from ruin.
And suddenly, Nola realizes that the last thing she wants is to keep both feet firmly on the ground... Views: 801
Rhiow, Urruah, and Arhu, the wizard cats who saved New York City in "The Book of Night with Moon", are summoned to London to deal with a crisis which affects the very fabric of time. Views: 801
The spellbinding Orphans series concludes in this thrilling new novel from V.C. Andrews(R)...
"All for one and one for all" was the girls' motto. In the grim foster home for orphans run by Louise and Gordon Tooey, at least Brooke, Crystal, Raven, and Butterfly had each other. Calling themselves "sisters," together they could forget the past and dream of a new chance...a real home. Then they discovered a secret even more haunting than Gordon's heavy boots pounding on the wooden floors. Their fragile hopes of a better life shattered, they escaped the only way they could. Soon they were runaways in a borrowed car, desperately wishing to wake up one morning in a place of sunshine and love.
Raven hoped to be a singer, Butterfly wanted to be a dancer, Crystal planned for college, and Brooke privately hoped to find her mother in California. On the open road the chains of sadness that had bound them seemed to melt away, and the kindness of strangers made a secure future seem almost real. But the highway was a dangerous place, and soon they were penniless and more vulnerable than ever. Alone under the wide western sky, they had only each other to ask if they should give up their dreams...or if they were really halfway to a haven of safety and happiness.... Views: 799
an alternate cover edition can be found here
Someone to Watch Over Me is a classic tale from New York Times bestselling author Lisa Kleypas. In this Regency romance, Kleypas, the author of Seduce Me at Sunrise, tells the story of a scandalous beauty with no memory of who she is and the man determined to unravel the secrets of her past. Views: 798
A SEARCH FOR A MISSING HORSE LEADS NANCY TO A DARK DISCOVERY!
Nancy's attending the Midwest Grand Prix Dressage Championships, where many of the world's best riders and finest horses compete. But more than blue ribbons is at stake. As Nancy quickly learns, these horses generate big money, turning a friendly competition into a very nasty business.
Discovering a fire in the stables, Nancy barely averts a terrible tragedy. But now she faces a new danger: a valuable horse has vanished, and it's up to Nancy to save it. She pursues the truth down a trail of greed, deception, and sinister secrets...only to find herself in jeopardy! Views: 798
Over the course of nine novels, Tom Clancy’s “genius for big, compelling plots” and his “natural narrative gift” (The New York Times Magazine) have mesmerized hundreds of millions of readers and established him as one of the preeminent storytellers of our time. Rainbow Six, however, goes beyond anything he has done before.
At its heart is John Clark, the ex-Navy SEAL of Without Remorse, well known from several of Clancy's novels as a master of secret operational missions. Whether hunting warlords in Japan, druglords in Colombia, or nuclear terrorists in the United States, Clark is efficient and deadly, but even he has ghosts in his past, demons that must be exorcised. And nothing is more demonic than the peril he must face in Rainbow Six.
Newly named the head of an international task force dedicated to combating terrorism, Clark is looking forward to getting his teeth into a new mission, but the opportunities start coming thicker and faster than anyone could have expected: an incident at a Swiss bank, the kidnapping of an international trader in Germany, a terrible raid on an amusement park in Spain.
Each episode seems separate, discrete, yet the timing disturbs Clark. Is there a connection? Is he being tested? With the help of his close associates, executive officer Alistair Stanley and strike team leaders Domingo Chavez and Peter Covington, Clark tries to figure out where all this activity is heading, but there is no way to predict the real threat: a group of terrorists like none the world has ever encountered, a band of men and women so extreme that their success could literally mean the end of life on this earth as we know it. Views: 797
