Stories by Suzy McKee Charnas, Ted Chiang, Avram Davidson, Karen Joy Fowler, Paul McAuley, Brian Stableford, and others.
The theme of this anthology is "endangered species", loosely interpreted to include in some cases the human race. The contents are four excellent reprints and a dozen new stories, including a new novella from Ted Chiang, one of the hottest young story writers in SF. This is a distinguished original anthology fit to put on the shelf beside Starlight. Views: 335
The tales of this book, as Ursula K. Le Guin writes in her foreword, explore or extend the world established by her first four Earthsea novels. Yet each tale stands on its own.
"The Finder," a novella set a few hundred years before A Wizard of Earthsea, presents a dark and troubled Archipelago and reveals how the school on Roke came to be.
"The Bones of the Earth" features the wizards who taught the wizard who first taught Ged and demonstrates how humility, if great enough, can rein in an earthquake.
"Darkrose and Diamond" is a delightful story of young courtship showing that sometimes wizards can pursue alternate careers.
"On the High Marsh," from the brief but eventful time of Ged as Archmage of Earthsea, tells of the love of power--and of the power of love.
"Dragonfly" shows how a woman, determined enough, can break the glass ceiling of male magedom. Taking place shortly after the last Earthsea novel, it also provides a bridge--a dragon bridge--to the next Earthsea novel, The Other Wind.
The author concludes this collection with an essay about Earthsea's history, people, languages, literature and magic, and provides two new maps of Earthsea. Views: 330
In his new work, Michel Houellebecq combines erotic provocation with a terrifying vision of a world teetering between satiety and fanaticism, to create one of the most shocking, hypnotic, and intelligent novels in years.
In his early forties, Michel Renault skims through his days with as little human contact as possible. But following his father’s death he takes a group holiday to Thailand where he meets a travel agent—the shyly compelling Valérie—who begins to bring this half-dead man to life with sex of escalating intensity and audacity. Arcing with dreamlike swiftness from Paris to Pattaya Beach and from sex clubs to a terrorist massacre, Platform is a brilliant, apocalyptic masterpiece by a man who is widely regarded as one of the world’s most original and daring writers. Views: 328
At the flat in Weatherall Walk there was no milk in the fridge, no ice in the tiny freezer unit.... The better furniture was hung over with drop cloths, the leather-bound books evacuated from their shelves.... Unconnected wiring threaded from walls, and a smell of lazy drains, something rotting, unfurled from the sewer all the way up to this flat. Winnie wrenched open a window. But no sign of John?
Winifred Rudge, a bemused writer struggling to get beyond the runaway success of her mass-market astrology book, travels to London to jump-start her new novel about a woman who is being haunted by the ghost of Jack the Ripper. Upon her arrival, she finds that her stepcousin and old friend John Comestor has disappeared, and a ghostly presence seems to have taken over his apartment in the nineteenth-century rowhouse once owned by Winnie's great-great-grandfather. Is it the spirit of this ancestor, who, family legend claims, was Charles Dickens's childhood inspiration for Ebenezer Scrooge? Could it be the ghostly remains of Jack the Ripper? Or a phantasm derived from a more arcane and insidious origin?
Winnie begins to investigate, but John's erstwhile girlfriend, Allegra, is aggressively unhelpful, and his downstairs neighbor, the cat-obsessed Mrs. Maddingly, is growing stranger by the day. Gripped by inspiration and desperation alike, Winnie finds herself the unwilling audience for a drama of specters and shades, some from her family's peculiar history and some from her own unvanquished past. Views: 326
This collection of inspirational stories will undoubtedly touch many hearts. Written by authors who have lost loved ones, these stories offer comfort, peace, and understanding to those going through the grieving process. Individual people deal with grief in their own ways and within their own time, but the guidance and support they receive from others is what helps them through it. One of the key messages of Chicken Soup for the Grieving Soul is that togetherness and sharing are the keys to moving on. In these stories people share their experiences with coping and they share deep memories. Each one has found that putting thoughts and feelings into words is not only cathartic, but allows them to reconnect with their loved one and others. Words of encouragement are plentiful in this edition and they go straight to the heart. Chapters encompass the complete grieving experience and include: Final Gifts, The Power of Support, Coping and Healing, Those We Will Miss, Special Moments, Insights and Lessons, and Living Again. Readers will be comforted and inspired by the stories of regaining strength and hope, such as holding meaningful services, performing thoughtful deeds, and cherishing special memories. Most important, just as the writers have come to appreciate life through the grieving process, readers will discover how to do the same. This soothing bowl of stories is the perfect gift to bring comfort, strength, and courage. Views: 325
When the sun goes down, the mood is right — for heart-pounding romantic suspense! A sizzling, stay-up-all-night anthology featuring the national bestselling and award-winning talents of four sensational storytellers!KAREN ROBARDS Danger and desire ignite when Charlotte Bates drives straight into a DEA agent's hot pursuit of a drug smuggler. But when the lawman takes Charlie hostage, an electrifying adventure begins.... ANDREA KANE An architect inherits the house of her dreams — a mansion by the sea — only to find that someone will do anything to keep her away.... LINDA ANDERSON When a killer targets her book club friends, a small-town librarian sees a handsome visiting professor in a new light: is he her happy ending? Or a fatal attraction? MARIAH STEWART Coming home to Montana after a stalker's attack, a model finds an old love rekindled and a safe place for healing. Until her... Views: 325
Feel the thrill of unexpected passion between strangers in the night...in this "New York Times" bestselling story collection from Linda Howard
"Lake of Dreams"
Thea Marlow had encountered her soul mate in the depths of her overpowering, frightening dreams. Now, on the shores of a country lake, the stranger comes to her in the flesh -- and lures her into a timeless love.
"Blue Moon"
Sheriff Jackson Brody knows folks get a little crazy under a full bayou moon. But on the trail of a scorching murder mystery, it's the lawman himself who succumbs to the spell of a beautiful, mysterious stranger.
"White Out"
In the midst of an Idaho blizzard, Hope Bradshaw offers shelter to a stranger -- and an instant, hungry passion flares between them. When a radio bulletin warns of a dangerous escaped convict, her blood runs cold: has desire blinded her to the risks of trusting a man who is an expert at covering his tracks? Views: 324
In A House Unlocked, Whitbread Award- and Booker Prize-winning Penelope Lively takes us on a journey of her familial country house in England that her grandparents bought in 1923. As her narrative shifts from room to room, object to object, she paints a moving portrait of an era of rapid change -- and of the family that changed with the times. As she charts the course of the domestic tensions of class and community among her relatives, she brings to life the effects of the horrors of the Russian Revolution and the Holocaust through portraits of the refugees who came to live with them. A fascinating, intimate social history of its times, A House Unlocked is an eloquent meditation on place and time, memory and history, and above all a tribute to the meaning of home. Views: 323
“Stunning, speculative novel, equal parts entertaining and moving, and one of the first books I’ve encountered with truly autonomous female characters.” —Angela Meyer, author and editor Jonathon Bridge has a corner office in a top-tier law firm, tailored suits and an impeccable pedigree. He has a fascinating wife, Adalia, a child on the way, and a string of pretty young interns as lovers on the side. He’s a man who’s going places. His world is our world: the same chaos and sprawl, haves and have-nots, men and women, skyscrapers and billboards. But it also exists alongside a vast, self-sustaining city-state called The Fortress where the indigenous inhabitants–the Vaik, a society run and populated exclusively by women–live in isolation. When Adalia discovers his indiscretions and the ugly sexual violence pervading his firm, she agrees to continue their fractured marriage only on the condition that Jonathan... Views: 321
Featuring friendship, school, family, and a diverse community, these early illustrated chapter book Jigsaw Jones Mysteries from James Preller have it all.Jigsaw Jones and Mila Yeh have solved many cases involving stolen or missing items. But when the search for Kim's necklace turns up more than they bargained for, Jigsaw can't trust his eyes. Did the scarecrow on Ms. Rigby's lawn just . . . move? Find out more in The Case of the Haunted Scarecrow. James Preller's wry, witty, Jigsaw Jones books are once again available to inspire the next generation of young readers, featuring both new titles and classroom classics! Views: 321
Taylor Colby and his childhood sweetheart, Laura, abandoned their Nova Scotia coastal village home for a life in the high-octane world of rock music in California. Now, after Laura's drug-related death, Taylor has returned to his roots to live once again with his noble but isolated boat-builder father. Complicating matters further, Taylor's mother, who has been battling cancer, attempts to reconcile with both her husband and son whom she deserted decades earlier. As Taylor grapples with family dysfunction, he becomes involved with Jillian, a feminist professor from Philadelphia, and her troubled twelve-year-old son, who are also on the run from the past they can't seem to escape. Views: 321
MEET JAKE DRAKE, TEACHER'S PET.
Jake doesn't "mean" to be a teacher's pet. But somehow everything he does has his teachers singing his praises -- and his classmates rolling their eyes in disgust.
Jake figures a little misbehavior should take care of his goody-goody image, but even his attempts to be bad just seem to make his teacher's praise him more. And now he's been summoned to the principal's office. Has Jake gone too far to prove he's no teacher's pet? Views: 314
In nine poignant stories spiked with humor and intelligence, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni captures lives at crossroad moments–caught between past and present, home and abroad, tradition and fresh experience.
A widow in California, recently arrived from India, struggles to adapt to a world in which neighbors are strangers and her domestic skills are deemed superfluous in the award-winning “Mrs. Dutta Writes a Letter.” In “The Intelligence of Wild Things,” a woman from Sacramento visits her brother in Vermont to inform him that back in Calcutta their mother is dying. And in the title story, a painter looks to ancient myth and the example of her grandmother for help in navigating her first real crisis of faith.
Knowing, compassionate and expertly rendered, the stories in The Unknown Errors of Our Lives depict the eternal struggle to find a balance between the pull of home and the allure of change.
From the Trade Paperback edition. Views: 313
Where Angels Fear to Tread is a work by E. M. Forster now brought to you in this new edition of the timeless classic. Views: 311
The Mahabharata is some 3,500 years old and is the longest poem in any language. It is one of the founding epics of Indian culture and, with its mixture of cosmic drama and profound philosophy (one small section forms the BHAGHAVAD GITA) it holds aunique place in world literature. In this drastically shortened prose rendering, Narayan uses all his extraordinary talents to convey to a modern reader why this is such a great story. Filled with vivid characters, obsessed with the rise and fall of gods, empires and heroes, Narayan's MAHABHARATA is an enormously enjoyable experience and the perfect introduction to the otherwise bewildering Indian cosmology. Views: 307
