Twice in a Lifetime by Merline Lovelace Rugged rancher and widower Jake Henderson could have told you the exact day his life ended -- it coincided with the day his wife was killed. Because for the longest time Jake felt that he wasn't really alive, either. And then came that invitation to dance -- from a woman with the best pair of legs he'd ever seen. And looking up, he saw that she had a face to match.... Suddenly Jake was falling fast, though he doubted that lovely investigator Rachel Quinn saw him as her ideal man -- prime suspect was more like it! But if he could clear himself of the latter charge, could he still be convicted of the former? Views: 59
Hot cop Vaden Holbrook pushes sexy widow Olivia Connor so far out of her sexual comfort zone, she can’t see straight. When she looses all control, can Vaden catch her? Includes bonus content: an excerpt of BLOOD LAW Views: 59
MURDER IN THE FIRST PEDIGREEEveryone thought that dog show judge James Hunnewell was dead—after all, the aging and ailing man had been out of the dog show circuit for years.But he turns up, alive and ready to judge, at the Alaskan Malamute National Specialty Show. So does Dog’s Life columnist Holly Winter, who wouldn’t miss the chance to enter her own malamutes, Rowdy and Kimi. From the moment she arrives, it’s apparent that petty jealousies, rampant gossip, and back-stabbing politics are part of the dog show game. And when Hunnewell is bludgeoned to death, Holly soon learns that everyone was dying to be rid of him. His judging would have been a fiasco. Was he killed to save the show? Could there be a connection between Hunnewell’s murder and the violent death of a woman who once owned the legendary stud dog known as Northpole’s Comet? Just how ferocious is the competition for Best of Breed? It’s up to Holly to find out wTho murdered the judge—before the dog fancy breeds a new generation of deadly deeds.-+ STUD RITES +-“HOLLY’S SLANT ON LIFE, HUMOROUS, SOMETIMES ACERBIC, PROVIDES FOOD FOR THOUGHT”—The Drood Review of Mystery“A FRISKY LOOK AT MAYHEM.”—Publishers Weekly Views: 59
...Because a tree bloomed seasonally we felt its body like our own. A tree stood still and yet suffered change. A tree growing old grew down into itself. Trees could not heal wounds, only cover them up. Trees were magnificent survivors. Trees got used. Trees behaved erratically under stress. Trees strove to fulfill an ideal shape but were twisted out of it by pressures of existence.... In THE TREE IN CHANGING LIGHT, Roger McDonald meditates on our unique landscape and its rich tapestry of native and introduced trees, which 'give language to our existence'. His most intimate and personal book to date, it also celebrates country men like his grandfather Chester Bucknall, a forester and pine-planter, of whom he writes, 'I believe him to have been a dreamer about trees'; Wilf Crane, Roger McDonald's mentor with trees who flew planes across country on solo planting raids and whose death while flying inspired this book; and Tom Wyatt, a bush gardener whose dedicated hands made trees... Views: 59
Embroiled in an all-out war in the Mediterranean Sea, the Sixth Fleet finds itself being slowly taken apart by the enemy. Hope appears in the form of reinforcements — a fully armed task force led by the carrier "Stennis". But the new battle group must first face its own test under fire by fighting its way past the gates of the enemy in the hellish Straits of Gibraltar. Views: 59
Readers know what they are going to get when they pick up an unfamiliar Alice Munro collection, and yet almost every page carries a bounty of unexpected action, feeling, language, and detail. Her stories are always unique, blazing an invigorating originality out of her seemingly commonplace subjects. Each collection develops her oeuvre in increments, subtly expanding her range.Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage is, of course, no exception. It is a fairly conservative collection of nine stories, none of which move far beyond Munro's favored settings: the tiny towns and burgeoning cities of southern Ontario and British Columbia. There are glimpses of youth here--in the title story, an epistolary prank by two teenage girls leads to a one-sided cross country elopement and, seemingly, a happy marriage, and in "Nettles," disrupted childhood affection fleetingly returns through a chance meeting--but most of these pieces are stories of aging women and men, confronting the twin travails of death and late love. As is always the case with Munro, their plots are too elegantly elaborate to summarize, and their unsentimental power is a given; baroque praise would be futile. Read these stories--it is the only way to really understand the miracles that Munro so regularly performs. --Jack IllingworthFrom Publishers WeeklyA writer of Munro's ilk hardly needs a hook like the intriguing title of her 10th collection to pull readers into her orbit. Serving as a teasing introduction to these nine brilliantly executed tales, the range of mentioned relationships merely suggests a few of the nuances of human behavior that Munro evokes with the skill of a psychological magician. Johanna Parry, the protagonist of the title story, stands alone among her fictional sisters in achieving her goal by force of will. A rough, uneducated country girl, blatantly plain ("her teeth were crowded into the front of her mouth as if they were ready for an argument"), she seems doomed to heartbreak because of a teenager's trick, but the bracingly ironic denouement turns the reader's dire expectations into glee. The women in the other stories generally cannot control their fate. Having finally been reunited with the soul mate of her youth, the narrator of "Nettles" discovers that apparently benevolent fate can be cruel. In a similar moment of perception that signals the end of hope, Lorna in "Post and Beam" realizes that she is condemned to a life of submission to her overbearing, supercilious husband; ironically, her frowsy country cousin envies Lorna's luck in escaping their common origin. In nearly every story, there's a contrast between the behavior and expectations of country people and those who have made it to Toronto or Vancouver. Regardless of situation, however, the basics of survival are endured in stoic sorrow. Only the institutionalized wife of a philanderer in "The Bear Came Over the Mountain" manages to outwit her husband, and she has to lose her sanity to do it. All of the stories share Munro's characteristic style, looping gracefully from the present to the past, interpolating vignettes that seem extraneous and bringing the strands together in a deceptively gentle windup whose impact takes the breath away. Munro has few peers in her understanding of the bargains women make with life and the measureless price they pay. (Nov.)Forecast: Munro's collections are true modern classics, as the 75,000 first printing of her latest attests. Expect vigorous sales.Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc. Views: 59
The time has come. China, one half of a powerful street criminal duo with her lover and partner Smooth... is a free woman. Once released from jail it's only a matter of time before she authorizes a series of moves which lead to her regaining her position as top B-I-T-C-H. Her homecoming doesn't play out without a rough patch however. Her 'other half' Smooth was deceived while China was on the inside. Led astray, and now... is beside himself with dark thoughts. Thoughts that are also intertwined with deep feelings of rage and vengeance.China knows he is no good to her in his current frame of mind. Especially as a bloody turf war continues to rage on the streets on Chicago... mostly thanks to Smooth taking his eye off the ball while China was away. For the foreseeable future China will be pulling double duty. Running the crew solo while her partner in life, and crime gets his head together. The future of their organization now rests on China's ability to command respect from... Views: 59
A children's story by Africa's best known and most widely read author whose novels, poetry, essays, lectures, etc… are considered representative of contemporary Nigerian life. Views: 58
The aliens had arrived with gifts, warnings, and an offer we couldn’t refuse …
Our choice was simple: we could be cannon fodder, or we could be… fodder. We could send our forces to fight and die (as only humans can) against a ravening horde that was literally feeding on its interstellar conquests — or remain as we were — virtually weaponless and third in line for brunch. We chose to fight. Thanks to alien technology and sheer guts, the Terrans on two worlds fought the Posleen to a standstill. Thank God there was a moment to catch our breath, a moment, however brief, of peace. Now, for the survivors of the Barwhon and Diess Expeditionary Forces, it was a chance to get some distance from the blood and misery of battle against the Posleen centaurs. A blessed chance to forget the screams of the dying in purple swamps and massacres under searing alien suns. For Earth it was an opportunity to flesh out their force of raw recruits with combat-seasoned veterans. Political, military and scientific blundering had left the Terran forces in shambles — and with the Posleen invasion only months away, these shell-shocked survivors might be the only people capable of saving the Earth from devastation. If the veterans had time to lick their wounds. Because the Posleen don’t read schedules. Views: 58
