To the Bozo, the clown who sits inside the cage above the dunk tank, everyone is a "mark." Once he has zeroed in on his victim, the Bozo comes up with the perfect wisecrack—something funny enough to make people stop and listen, and cruel enough to hook the mark. Now the mark is bent on revenge, and he'll buy however many balls he needs to hit the target and see the Bozo plunge into the water. It's a game that fascinates Chad, who lives on the Jersey shore, where the boardwalk turns into an amusement park every summer. He wishes he could shout at the world from the safety of a cage—his dad ran out on him and his mom, and now everyone seems convinced that Chad will wind up a loser, too. He's determined to get a job playing the Bozo, something he knows he'd be good at. Suddenly, Chad finds himself thrown into a strange and twisted world, where humor has far more power than he ever imagined. With a crackling plot and smart, funny dialogue, Dunk pulls readers along on a journey that exposes a universal truth: We all need to laugh. Views: 45
Tom Piazza's sharp intelligence, insight, and passion fuel this new collection of writings on music, literature, New Orleans, and America itself in desperate times.For his first book since his award-winning novel City of Refuge and his stunning and influential post-Katrina polemic Why New Orleans Matters, Piazza selects the best of his writings on American roots music and musicians, including his Grammy-winning album notes for Martin Scorsese Presents: The Blues; his classic profile of bluegrass legend Jimmy Martin; essays on Jimmie Rodgers, Charley Patton, and Bob Dylan; and much more.In the book's second section, Piazza turns his attention to literature, politics, and post-Katrina America in articles and essays on subjects ranging from Charlie Chan movies to the life and work of Norman Mailer, from the New Orleans housing crisis to the BP oil spill, from Jelly Roll Morton's Library of Congress recordings to the future of books. The third and final... Views: 45
Sometimes love is the most dangerous magic of all...Within a dark elf and a firemage lies the hope of the dying elven race, the renewal of a beleaguered kingdom and an incredible chance at love. If they don't kill each other first.This fantasy romance features fun, mayhem, death, destruction, love, hate and everything in between.This book was an RWA Golden Heart finalist. Views: 45
A woman is found butchered not far from an archaeological siteIn the woods of the Dordogne, farmers and their pigs hunt the forest floor for truffles. It is June 1942, and one such farmer has found something unusual: the postmaster's wife, murdered and left to rot beneath the trees. By the time police inspectors Jean-Louis St-Cyr and Hermann Kohler arrive from Paris, she has been dead four days, and the flies have begun to feast. As Kohler combs the area, finding a picnic basket, two bottles of Champagne, and a collection of poisonous mushrooms, St-Cyr turns the body on its back. The woman has been mutilated, hacked to pieces by a blunt ax.She died steps from the famous Lascaux caves, an invaluable archaeological site that has attracted the Führer's attention. The SS is about to descend on the area, a film crew in tow, confounding the investigation as they swarm like the flies on the postmaster's wife. Views: 45
Matt Helm Mission 14. Matt was on vacation in Mexico with nothing on his mind bigger than a fish, when some joker tried to shoot him in the back. Naturally it was no accident. When secret agents get shot at, it's never an accident. So matt had to go back to work immediately. And for a bonus--he was given his boss's beautiful daughter as a playmate in peril. Views: 45
The bluest of blood; the noblest of hearts; the de Montforte brothers will take your breath away.Meet Lord Charles..."On the eve of battle, I find my heart is restless and uneasy. And when a fellow is three thousand miles from home, love makes a far more desirable companion than loneliness." —Lord Charles de Montforte, Boston, Massachusetts, 1775Wounded in battle, Englishman Charles de Montforte has awakened to find himself in the tender care of a sensuous, sloe-eyed local miss, whose beauty would be a joy he would treasure always...if only their paths had crossed in some other place and time. Charles' heart is profoundly moved by Amy Leighton's desperate plight, and her curvaceous dark loveliness and gentle, healing touch are enflaming his desire. But the noble British lord is already taken, though Amy soon lures him away from past loyalties to Crown and fiancée with a golden, rapturous promise of love happily forever after. Amy has long prayed for someone special to enter her life—someone who would take her far away from the daily drudgery imposed upon her by a cruel, unloving step-family. Now fate has brought her the strong yet gentle man of her dreams; but the handsome stranger is from an enemy land...and he's sworn to love another. Views: 45
Davey Warner bets school bully Mo Clouter that he can hit six sixes in the Sandhills Sluggers’ upcoming battle against their club rivals. But after a disastrous school excursion to the local lawn bowls club, Davey is in trouble again, then forgets to hand in his assignment. His Year Six teacher, Mr Mudge, bans Davey from playing cricket until it’s done. Can Davey get his assignment done, hit six sixes in the match and help the Sluggers seize top spot on the ladder? Views: 45
Craig just got fired from his dead-end job, and Jeff just got kicked out of his dead-end relationship. Frustrated with their unhappy lives, the two friends decide to let off some steam by going out to the Music Box, the town's most notorious gay club. But after an unsatisfying night in the back room, Jeff decides there has to be something better for them out there, and he drags a reluctant Craig into starting a fledgling business called The Male Room, an online alternative for the gay dating scene in their area. Views: 45
A photographer in 1889 London, Miss Sarah Bain runs a private detective agency with her friends, Lord Hugh Staunton and former street urchin Mick O'Reilly. Their sole credential is that they solved the Jack the Ripper case, a secret they can never tell because they did it outside the boundaries of the law. Their new big case arises when a wealthy banker, Sir Gerald Mariner, posts a handsome reward for finding his missing infant. All of London joins in the search. But Sarah has an advantage—a photograph she took during a routine surveillance job, which unexpectedly reveals a clue about the kidnapping.After Sir Gerald hires Sarah, Hugh, and Mick to find his son, they move into his opulent mansion and discover a photograph of baby Robin. It eerily resembles postmortem photographs taken of deceased children posed to look as if they're alive. Was the kidnapping real, or a cover-up for a murder? Is the perpetrator a stranger, or someone inside the troubled Mariner family?... Views: 45
Already fast becoming a classic among coming-of-age tales, John the Revelator has garnered praise from Nick Laird, Colm Tóibín, Roddy Doyle, and John Boyne, and is a critical darling in the U.K.This is the story of John Devine—stuck in a small town in the otherworldly landscape of southeastern Ireland, worried over by his single, chain-smoking, Bible-quoting mother, Lily, and spied on by the neighborly" Mrs. Nagle. When Jamey Corboy, a self-styled Rimbaudian boy wonder, arrives in town, John's life suddenly seems full of possibility. His loneliness dissipates. He is taken up by mischief and discovery, hiding in the world beyond as Lily's mysterious illness worsens. But Jamey and John's nose for trouble may be their undoing, and soon John will be faced with a terrible moral dilemma.Joining the ranks of the great novels of friendship and betrayal—A Separate Peace, A Prayer for Owen Meany, and Paddy Clarke Ha Ha... Views: 45
It's 1922 and Jack Haldean, young crime writer and former Royal Flying Corps pilot, is enjoying the local fete on a beautiful summer's day in rural Sussex. But then Jack's fellow officer, Jeremy Boscombe, is found dead in the fortune teller's tent and later the same day Boscombe's shady friend, Reggie Morton, is murdered in the village pub. Jack's search for the truth will lead him back to the Battle of the Somme and an act of terrible betrayal. Views: 45
