SUMMARY: Murder in the holiday spiritIt was Christmas in Lickin Creek, and all through the town something was stirring..The borough council was quarreling about the color of the Christmas lights. A social worker wouldn't let a living baby be part of the town's living crèche. And some ladies were stretching the limits of their leotards in a pageant called the Nutcracker. All in all, former New Yorker Tori Miracle was basking in the quaint glow of her adopted Pennsylvania town, when suddenly the season went sour. A boy was missing. A thirty-year-old mystery resurfaced. And now two people have been murdered. With her boyfriend--the town police chief--out of town, Tori must help his befuddled replacement. And what she finds out, or should be finding out, is making Tori the next target--of someone only in the mood for murder.... Views: 428
This rollicking, raunchy, and romantic coming-of-age tale centers on new kid Blondie Reimer's senior year at Fenton High School in the early 1960s. Blondie is struggling with his adolescent demons—not the least of which is his pursuit of the elusive Tammy Hollander—when he's recruited into a group of misfits trying to establish their own "club." Chief among them is the Grouper, an odd-shaped fellow with a large head who, like the fish of the same name, lives in depths Blondie only begins to discover during the course of his senior year. Grouper's apparent function in the club is to observe the behaviors of his classmates and enunciate laws that explain them. As Blondie pursues Tammy, eventually learning the downside of a romantic approach to life, the other members of the group suffer their own misfortunes, from mangling famous quotes in class to an encounter with the mythical Hook Man. High school is never easy, but with Grouper's Laws helping... Views: 426
The six stories in Haruki Murakami’s mesmerizing collection are set at the time of the catastrophic 1995 Kobe earthquake, when Japan became brutally aware of the fragility of its daily existence. But the upheavals that afflict Murakami’s characters are even deeper and more mysterious, emanating from a place where the human meets the inhuman.
An electronics salesman who has been abruptly deserted by his wife agrees to deliver an enigmatic package—and is rewarded with a glimpse of his true nature. A man who has been raised to view himself as the son of God pursues a stranger who may or may not be his human father. A mild-mannered collection agent receives a visit from a giant talking frog who enlists his help in saving Tokyo from destruction. As haunting as dreams, as potent as oracles, the stories in After the Quake are further proof that Murakami is one of the most visionary writers at work today. Views: 426
Will the perfect senior prank turn out to be Emlyn’s last?
Emlyn is a good girl. She is the perfect studious and athletic daughter and sister. She studies hard, paints watercolors, and especially loves rowing crew. She doesn’t gossip. She is every parent and teacher’s dream. But Emlyn has a secret. She has an entire library in her head filled with terrifically terrible plots and schemes: jewel heists, corporate espionage, and other mischief. She successfully hides her desire to be bad from the world. That is, until Jack, Mavis, Lovell, and Donovan approach her with their idea for a senior class prank: to steal the famous mummy, Amaral-Re, from their local museum. Now Emlyn’s “mental library of Bad” will come in handy. But when the harmless heist turns out to be filled with real-life danger, will Emlyn’s mental bag of tricks be enough to save the mummy . . . and herself? This ebook features an illustrated biography of Caroline B. Cooney including rare images and never-before-seen documents from the author’s personal collection. Views: 421
Boone's Lick is Pulitzer Prize-winning author Larry McMurtry's return to the kind of story that made him famous -- an enthralling tale of the nineteenth-century west. Like his bestsellers Lonesome Dove, Streets of Laredo, Comanche Moon, and Dead Man's Walk, Boone's Lick transports the reader to the era about which McMurtry writes better and more shrewdly than anyone else.
Told with McMurtry's unique blend of historical fact and sheer storytelling genius, the novel follows the Cecil family's arduous journey by riverboat and wagon from Boone's Lick, Missouri, to Fort Phil Kearny in Wyoming. Fifteen-year-old Shay narrates, describing the journey that begins when his Ma, Mary Margaret, decides to hunt down her elusive husband, Dick, to tell him she's leaving him. Without knowing precisely where he is, they set out across the plains in search of him, encountering grizzly bears, stormy weather, and hostile Indians as they go. With them are Shay's siblings, G.T., Neva, and baby Marcy; Shay's uncle, Seth; his Granpa Crackenthorpe; and Mary Margaret's beautiful half-sister, Rose. During their journey they pick up a barefooted priest named Father Villy, and a Snake Indian named Charlie Seven Days, and persuade them to join in their travels.
At the heart of the novel, and the adventure, is Mary Margaret, whom we first meet shooting a sheriff's horse out from underneath him in order to feed her family. Forceful, interesting, and determined, she is written with McMurtry's trademark deftness and sympathy for women, and is in every way a match for the worst the west can muster.
Boone's Lick abounds with the incidents, the excitements, and the dangers of life on the plains. Its huge cast of characters includes such historical figures as Wild Bill Hickok and the unfortunate Colonel Fetterman (whose arrogance and ineptitude led to one of the U.S. Army's worst and bloodiest defeats at the hands of the Cheyenne and Sioux) as well as the Cecil family (itself based on a real family of nineteenth-century traders and haulers).
The story of their trek in pursuit of Dick, and the discovery of his second and third families, is told with brilliance, humor, and overwhelming joie de vivre in a novel that is at once high adventure, a perfect western tale, and a moving love story -- it is, in short, vintage McMurtry, combining his brilliant character portraits, his unerring sense of the west, and his unrivaled eye for the telling detail.
Boone's Lick is one of McMurtry's richest works of fiction to date. Views: 419
The charming town of Glenbrooke, Oregon, welcomes readers once more to delight in a contemporary love story. In this all-new offering in the heartwarming Glenbrooke series, bestselling author Robin Jones Gunn's characters get two lessons on love: it's not based on performance and its motives must be pure. When Leah Hudson, the "ugly duckling" among beautiful sisters, meets mysterious newcomer Seth Edwards, she thinks someone could love her after all. Their friendship grows, but Seth has things he must work through before he can open himself to anyone. An unexpected inheritance serves to complicate matters that strike to the core of Seth's and Leah's hearts and faith.
Leah Hudson loves to give. But when others want to give back? Well, that’s another story entirely!
After years of pouring herself out for others, Leah, an average twenty-seven-year-old woman, finally finds herself receiving. She has her own cottage in Glenbrooke, wonderful friends, a great job at the hospital, and the attention of Seth Edwards, the new guy in town. She even wins a cruise to Alaska when she accidentally dials the number of a radio station!
So why can’t Leah relax and enjoy this new season of her life?
When an inheritance of fifty acres of prime Oregon woodlands is left to her—with a certain condition attached—Glenbrooke’s town lawyer, Collin Radcliffe, prompts Leah to question Seth’s motives for his interest in her. Only by turning her affections in a new direction will Leah be able to hear the true song of this springtime of her life. Views: 419
For generations, the firstborn children of the rulers of the planets Rutan and Senali have been exchanged at the age of seven. This was meant to promote peace and understanding between the societies. Now it has led them to the brink of war.
Leed, the heir to the Rutan throne, does not want to return to his home planet. His father will stop at nothing to get him back. Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi must prevent this rift from turning to bloodshed.
It is their hardest challenge yet. Views: 417
Three proper English sisters who, upon the death of their father and brother in a shipwreck, take over the family business -- as privateers in the employ of Charles of England.
THE HANDSOME CAPTAIN WAS DUTY BOUND...
At the dying man's request, Riordan Spencer had pledged to watch over John Lambert's beautiful daughters. But when he arrived in Land's End, he never expected that Ambrosia Lambert would ignite a passion in him unlike any he'd ever known!
Though irresistibly drawn to the mysterious Captain Spencer, Ambrosia would not be swayed from her mission to carry on her father's legacy. Yet how could she convince her handsome protector that her need to remain a privateer to the king would not stand in the way of the powerful love that surged between them? Views: 417
Gabriel Noone forms a bond with a young, troubled listener to his late-night radio show. As Noone's friendship with the dying boy grows, he feels he can unlock his innermost feelings. But troubling questions arise, and he is forced to confront all his relationships - familial, romantic and erotic. Views: 412
With the demon dactyl and its foul minions defeated, the war-weary citizens of the kingdom of Honce-the-Bear wish only to begin rebuilding their broken lives. Yet the specter of civil war haunts the ravaged land -- and a specter more fearsome still. For the demon, though defeated, was not destroyed. And now its vengeful spirit has found an unholy sanctuary. The elf-trained ranger Elbryan Wynden presses north to reclaim the savage Timberlands from retreating goblin hordes. His companion, Pony, mistress of gemstone magic, turns south to the civilized -- but no less perilous -- streets of Palmaris. Suddenly they find themselves caught up in a ruthless power struggle to decide the fate of all Corona -- a struggle that will push their courage and love to the breaking point. . . and beyond. Views: 410
When sorcerers and demigods go to war, those wars are fought by mercenaries, "dog soldiers," grunts in the trenches. And the stories of those soldiers are the stories of Glen Cook's hugely popular "Black Company" novels. If the Joseph Heller of Catch-22 were to tell the story of The Lord of the Rings, it might read like the Black Company books. There is nothing else in fantasy like them.
Now, at last, Cook brings the "Glittering Stone" cycle within the Black Company series to an end . . . but an end with many other tales left to tell. As Soldiers Live opens, Croaker is military dictator of all the Taglias, and no Black Company member has died in battle for four years. Croaker figures it can't last. He's right.
For, of course, many of the Company's old adversaries are still around. Narayan Singh and his adopted daughter--actually the offspring of Croaker and the Lady--hope to bring about the apocalyptic Year of the Skulls. Other old enemies like Shadowcatcher, Longshadow, and Howler are also ready to do the Company harm. And much of the Company is still recovering from the fifteen years many of them spent in a stasis field.
Then a report arrives of an evil spirit, a forvalaka, that has taken over one of their old enemies. It attacks them at a shadowgate--setting off a chain of events that will bring the Company to the edge of apocalypse and, as usual, several steps beyond.
Glen Cook is the leading modern writer of epic fantasy noir, and Soldiers Live is Cook at his best. None of his legion of fans will want to miss it. Views: 409
Psychological profiler Robert Payne is drawn into a circle of intrigue and murder and he investigates the murder of man's girlfriend, whom he claims was killed by an arsonist who burned down an asylum long ago, and disappeared. With TV Psychics and the local police, Payne must unravel the past to solve the case in the present. Views: 408
'[Arnold Bennett's] superb Old Wives' Tale, wandering from person to person and from scene to scene, is by far the finest 'long novel' that has been written in English and in the English fashion, in this generation.'--H. G. WellsFirst published in 1908, The Old Wives' Tale affirms the integrity of ordinary lives as it tells the story of the Baines sisters--shy, retiring Constance and defiant, romantic Sophia--over the course of nearly half a century. Bennett traces the sisters' lives from childhood in their father's drapery shop in provincial Bursley, England, during the mid-Victorian era, through their married lives, to the modern industrial age, when they are reunited as old women. The setting moves from the Five Towns of Staffordshire to exotic and cosmopolitan Paris, while the action moves from the subdued domestic routine of the Baines household to the siege of Paris during the Franco-Prussian War. 'Like Wordsworth, [Arnold Bennett] has... Views: 408
Michael Adams is a composer of advertising jingles who shares a bachelor pad with three other guys. He spends his days lying in bed (a minifridge positioned perfectly within reach) and playing trivia games with his underachieving roommates. And when he feels like it, Michael crosses the city and returns home to his unsuspecting wife and two small children. Michael is living a double life, stretching out his wilting salad days” with imaginary business trips and fake deadlines while his wife enjoys the exhausting misery of the little ones. It’s the best thing for his marriage, Michael figures. She can care for the new loves of her life as it seems only she knows how, and he can sleep until the afternoon. Can this double life continue indefinitely? In The Best a Man Can Get, best-selling comic novelist John O’Farrell takes readers on a dark romp through the soul of the contemporary male, torn between eternal adolescence and the very real demands of... Views: 407
