A supermodel is missing and her girlfriend doesn't know what happened. She turns to their mutual friend, private eye, Stevie Garrett, for help. All signs point to blackmail but when the model is found murdered, a race is on with only a few clues that lead Stevie on a cross-country journey before the secrets of these Sexy Girls are revealed. Views: 59
In God’s Fool Mark Slouka, the acclaimed author of Lost Lake and Other Stories, presents us with an unparalleled novel about Chang and Eng, the original Siamese twins. In a masterstroke of creative storytelling, we experience their lives through Chang’s eyes. Despite the incomparable predicament of their physical condition, Chang is wrapped in ordinary grace and suffering, searching for tranquility as he travels from Siam’s marketplace to Parisian salons, to London’s underworld and P.T. Barnum’s side show, all the while improbably connected to a man who becomes his sworn enemy. In a last attempt at a normal life, Chang and Eng retire from the sideshow and move to the American South where they marry two sisters and Chang finds short-lived peace and redemption in his love for his son Christopher. This peace, however, is overtaken as events in their adopted home country force them into a final terrifying battle with fate.From Publishers WeeklySiamese twins Chang and Eng, who caused a sensation 160 years ago, when they were exhibited by P.T. Barnum, still hold a mysterious fascination Slouka's version of their story is the second novel dedicated to their vicissitudes in the last two years (the other being Darin Strauss's Chang and Eng). Chang, at the beginning of the book, is in his declining years. He and Eng have become sworn enemies at one point they even try to kill one another. Their enmity comes after they retire from Barnum's American Museum and buy a plantation, with its complement of slaves, in North Carolina, and Eng, much to Chang's chagrin, becomes a fundamentalist Christian. While Eng approves of Chang's marital relations with his wife, Addy, both brothers remember Chang's first affair: it was in Paris, their first season in Europe, with Sophia Marchant, a famous beauty. Chang's memories move toward her and away, as he trawls his past, going back to his and Eng's first astonishing appearance in the world (at the sight of the two, their mother's midwives fled). From a Siamese notoriety the king of Siam's astrologers took their birth as an evil omen they move to Europe, under the aegis of Robert Hunter, an opium trader and impresario. Slouka, a gifted stylist, eschews much of the freak-show energy that thrust Chang and Eng onto the stage of world history, in favor of an alluring balance between the elegiac and the ironic. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. From Library JournalSlouka's exceptional first novel opens with a description of an apple fight among young Confederate soldiers awaiting orders from General Longstreet to begin the infamous Pickett's charge. Reflecting on this, the narrator (father to one of the boys) asks, "What manner of God ... would turn them, laughing, to blood and bone?" The same God, it turns out, who would cause one of them to eat so many green apples that he ends up sick, pants around his ankles, as his comrades march off to their doom. We are all God's fools, it seems. While this episode lies at the heart of the novel, the narrative is quite wide-ranging. The boy's father happens to be Chang, one of the famous Siamese twins brought to America by Phineas Barnum, and it is his (and, inevitably, his brother Eng's) story that Soulka details. This fascinating tale traces their birth and childhood in Siam, their travels and abandonment in Europe, the Barnum years, and their lives as slaveholding farmers in North Carolina (something of any irony in itself). Part historical novel, part commentary on the human condition, this powerful and often poetic novel belongs on the shelves of all public and most academic libraries. David W. Henderson, Eckerd Coll. Lib., St. Petersburg, FL Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. Views: 59
When earthlings discover that the galaxy is teeming with advanced societies with the secrets of interstellar travel, one of them steals the technology, triggering a massive manhunt across the stars. HIDE-AND-GO-SEEK AMONG THE PLANETS Five bracelets of solid gold-five clues that began an interstellar treasure hunt. And as the luck of the Irish would have it, Paddy Blackthorn found himself the chief hunter-and the chief hunted. He had only the cryptic messages imprinted in the five armbands so involuntarily left him by the five planetary rulers. He had also the help of a little, black-haired Earther girl to figure out their secrets. But it was no children's game they were playing. Old Mother Earth, now abandoned by her spawn, foundered on the verge of extinction. Only the treasure Paddy sought would suffice to rescue the home planet-and incidentally to rule the rest of the cosmos. Views: 59
Welcome to Mountain Meadow, Virginia, where love is worth waiting for... The town bad girl is back, and this time, Erin Richardson is in need of protection. Years ago, her youthful crush on handsome older man Sam Barnes nearly led to scandal. Now she's on the run from an entirely different kind of trouble: a criminal intent on eliminating his witnesses—including Erin. As the local sheriff, Sam's duty-bound to provide a safe haven. Though tongues will surely wag once Erin is sharing a house with the sexy lawman.... Erin is still too young, too vulnerable, and too irresistibly beautiful. But when Sam lays eyes on her again, all he wants to do is shelter her in his arms. It won't be easy keeping her out of harm's way. But it'll be even harder keeping the woman he never forgot out of his bed—and his heart... Views: 59
Playing "Winter Wonderland" for last-minute Christmas shoppers has got to be the all-time low point of Stephanie Glassman's career. The aspiring jazz soloist and single mother has no singing prospects, no man in her life since her hot fling with a movie stuntman, and a social life that consists of having her two best friends over for high-calorie Sunday brunches. Even her grandmother's having more sex than she is. That is, until toddler Jake's irresistible father hurtles back into her life.Albert promises fidelity, plus married life filled with the best sex Stephanie's ever had. But there's a tantalizing new wrinkle: Frank Waterman, rising star and Stephanie's old crush, is suddenly semi-available and interested. And her stalled career seems to be heating up. But when her big break erupts in a scandal that puts her on the front page instead, Stephanie's in a whole new league. Now, with fame at her door and two hot guys fighting over her, Stephanie's got some big... Views: 59
He doesn’t want to take the job, but he has no choice. He owes a debt to the Moretti mob, and last he checked, they don’t take no for an answer. He takes a moment to soak in the information. A pregnant mafia princess, wanted for murder, and he's supposed to track her down. The professed father is a childhood friend, yet he’s considered a potential enemy of the family. This could get very interesting. What starts out as a simple task, one that could easily take him one day to execute, has turned into so much more than he bargained for. They’re each fighting their own personal demons, and it’s more than just a chase at hand. They both have secrets, hearts are on the line, and he resolves himself to go above and beyond the call of duty for reasons he can’t understand. The last thing he ever intends on finding is an angel. Views: 59
Bobby Clark is just sixteen when he drops out of school to follow his big brother, Jim, into the jewelry business. Bobby idolizes Jim and is in awe of Jim's girlfriend, Lisa, the best saleswoman at the Fort Worth Deluxe Diamond Exchange. What follows is the story of a young man's education in two of the oldest human passions, love and money. Through a dark, sharp lens, Clancy Martin captures the luxury business in all its exquisite vulgarity and outrageous fraud, finding in the diamond-and-watch trade a metaphor for the American soul at work. Views: 59
Nicco Tescotti is drop-dead gorgeous, but this eligible prince needs to marry for duty, and he still hasn't found a suitable wife. So he decides to buy a bride. Only, his wedding ultimatum unexpectedly produces two potential candidates--and they're twin sisters! Callie Lassiter has flown to Italy to meet her groom-to-be, with no intention of going through with the ceremony--until she meets Nicco himself! Now there's only one question in Callie's mind: is she a bride fit for a prince? Views: 59
