Science Fiction/Erotica. 192049 words long. Views: 62
First Place Winner of the 2015 HOLT Medallion Award.Harvest Festival, 1459 - On a moonless night, the half-Gypsy Stephen Ellingham accidentally kills Lord Faierfield. With her father not yet buried, Nicole Miles marries the man who killed him—without the king's blessing and under the shadow of her family's curse.Nicole doesn't care whether her new husband believes the rumors that her womb is cursed, but Stephen has vowed to protect her younger brother, Alex. Rendered deaf when his mother boxed his ears, Alex has tried diversions over the years to keep people from realizing he's deaf. His efforts have backfired, though, and people believe he's mad, unfit to inherit his title or hold claim to the Faierfield lands.Stephen weds Nicole to make amends for accidentally killing her father and leaving her family vulnerable. He must protect Alex from their ambitious uncle, who plans to kill the young boy to claim the family's holdings.Then the Battle of Blore Heath erupts, the first of many... Views: 62
Sometimes the typical Happily Ever After isn't what you're looking for. Sometimes you want it quick. You want it erotic. You want it dirty. Sometimes you. Want. It. Now. Sometimes, you want something to make you sWet. The art of burlesque was something Sabra had managed over time with a little practice and the use of a few...NATURAL assets. The coy smile, the sultry stare, and the right pout had gotten her many things during her career. But none of those seemed to be working to her advantage when it came to photographer extraordinaire Tristan. It might've had something to do with the fact that the cheeky Dom had a lot more fortitude than past males who'd come and gone before him. The more he says she's not ready for his...PARTICULAR talents, the more Sabra finds herself wanting to explore the unknown. When she finds herself stepping out of the nipple tassels and into his lair, she wonders if the promise in his eyes will match the one in his cane..." Views: 62
"Stories are wondrous things. And they are dangerous." In The Truth About Stories, Native novelist and scholar Thomas King explores how stories shape who we are and how we understand and interact with other people. From creation stories to personal experiences, historical anecdotes to social injustices, racist propaganda to works of contemporary Native literature, King probes Native culture's deep ties to storytelling. With wry humor, King deftly weaves events from his own life as a child in California, an academic in Canada, and a Native North American with a wide-ranging discussion of stories told by and about Indians. So many stories have been told about Indians, King comments, that "there is no reason for the Indian to be real. The Indian simply has to exist in our imaginations." That imaginative Indian that North Americans hold dear has been challenged by Native writers - N. Scott Momaday, Leslie Marmon Silko, Louis Owens, Robert Alexie, and others - who provide alternative narratives of the Native experience that question, create a present, and imagine a future. King reminds the reader, Native and non-Native, that storytelling carries with it social and moral responsibilties. "Don't say in the years to come that you would have lived your life differently if only you had heard this story. You've heard it now."From BooklistTrust a novelist and English professor to get to the heart of how stories and storytelling shape our perceptions. Oral stories, King asserts, are public, requiring interaction with an audience. Gathering oral stories into book form compromises the narratives; once set on the page, a story loses its context and voice. And written stories are usually private; no matter how many people read a particular book, each person reads that story as an individual. While King primarily considers narratives by and about Indians, his unusual treatise also includes coverage of a lengthy stay in New Zealand, identity politics, Native American history, and the experience of being the only middle-aged member of an amateur basketball team. Ultimately, King exhorts listeners to accept the responsibility of stories, writing, "Take it. It's yours. Do with it what you will. But don't say in the years to come that you would have lived your life differently if only you had heard this story. You've heard it now." This is a wonderful study of the power of words. Rebecca MakselCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reservedBook Description"Stories are wondrous things. And they are dangerous." In The Truth About Stories, Native novelist and scholar Thomas King explores how stories shape who we are and how we understand and interact with other people. From creation stories to personal experiences, historical anecdotes to social injustices, racist propaganda to works of contemporary Native literature, King probes Native culture's deep ties to storytelling. With wry humor, King deftly weaves events from his own life as a child in California, an academic in Canada, and a Native North American with a wide-ranging discussion of stories told by and about Indians. So many stories have been told about Indians, King comments, that "there is no reason for the Indian to be real. The Indian simply has to exist in our imaginations." That imaginative Indian that North Americans hold dear has been challenged by Native writers - N. Scott Momaday, Leslie Marmon Silko, Louis Owens, Robert Alexie, and others - who provide alternative narratives of the Native experience that question, create a present, and imagine a future. King reminds the reader, Native and non-Native, that storytelling carries with it social and moral responsibilties. "Don't say in the years to come that you would have lived your life differently if only you had heard this story. You've heard it now." Views: 62
A young girl's life changes forever when she investigates a mystery with the help of writers, artists, and musicians in 1920s HarlemBessie Coulter has no idea why her father spirits her and her brother, Eddie, away from their home in Burlington, North Carolina, in the middle of the night, leaving their sick mother behind. But from the moment she steps off the train at Grand Central Station, she's captivated by this teeming, colorful city that's both scary and exciting. Although Harlem is a thrilling place, Bessie misses her mother and can't get used to living with her two aunts. She's lonely and homesick, especially when her father begins going out with a beautiful, well-dressed woman. Desperate to find out what's going on, Bessie launches an investigation that takes Eddie and her into a world of artists, jazz musicians, and writers, in search of a strange place called the Dark Tower. With the help of their next-door neighbor Lillian Moore and a... Views: 62
"According to a Source, written by a real celebrity journalist insider, captures the Hollywood lifestyle perfectly." —PopSugar, 26 Brilliant Books You Should Read This Spring"Readers who relish celebrity gossip will have a blast ... in this fun, frothy read." —Booklist"Fast-paced and charming ... readers will eat [it] up." —Kirkus Reviews "I had SO much fun with this hysterical novel about Hollywood." —Lucy Sykes, author of The Knockoff"Reminded me of Sophie Kinsella's Shopaholic—but with A-list celebrities instead of shoes!"—Lauren Willig, New York Times bestselling author"Abby Stern's debut is dishy, wise, and full of heart. Think you can't love a Hollywood gossip? Think again. Stern has written a winner." —Michelle Gable, New... Views: 62
From Anthony and Agatha Award-winning author Elaine Viets—the thrilling mystery series about one woman trying to make a living... while other people are making a killing.Helen Hawthorne is still on the run because of her refusal to pay her worthless ex-husband alimony. But a girl's gotta eat...and pay rent, utilities, etc. So she's taken a cash-paying job at Fort Lauderdale's own Page Turners bookstore. And while the job is decent enough, the owner of the store is anything but.Page Turner III is a boor with more money than brains: he's cheating on his wife while running his family business into the ground and has a list of enemies longer than any bestseller. So when he turns up dead, no one is too surprised. What is surprising is where—in the bed of Helen's glamorous gal pal Peggy, whose usual bedmates are more cultured, refined...and still breathing.Worse still, it turns out that Peggy once had a tryst with the late Mr. Turner that ended quite badly, with a... Views: 62
SUMMARY: In the fifth book of Outremer, a heretic people threaten the fragile peace-and a renegade state becomes the battleground. Views: 62
A suspicious death, a pregnant woman suddenly gone missing: Quirke's latest case leads him inexorably toward the dark machinations of an old foePerhaps Quirke has been down among the dead too long. Lately the Irish pathologist has suffered hallucinations and blackouts, and he fears the cause is a brain tumor. A specialist diagnoses an old head injury caused by a savage beating; all that's needed, the doctor declares, is an extended rest. But Quirke, ever intent on finding his place among the living, is not about to retire. One night during a June heat wave, a car crashes into a tree in central Dublin and bursts into flames. The police assume the driver's death was either an accident or a suicide, but Quirke's examination of the body leads him to believe otherwise. Then his daughter Phoebe gets a mysterious visit from an acquaintance: the woman, who admits to being pregnant, says she fears for her life, though she won't say why. When the woman later... Views: 62
Marielle Fairchild became the envy of all her friends when she lands a job as a director's assistant for Fascination, rumored to be the most explosive romance movie of the decade. Views: 62
Alex is a partner in a company she knows nothing about. Along with her job she has a new name and a whole new set of rules to live by. Now known as Ms. Grey, she realizes she even prefers that to Alex. One thing leads to another when she takes on a routine case. A legendary sniper known only as Penumbra, becomes her main focus. Can she unravel Penumbra's true identity and should she? Views: 62
"[An] elegantly written mix of complex history, riveting memoir and damning exposé," from this award-winning Sierra Leonean author (Publishers Weekly). As a child, Aminatta Forna was witness to the political upheaval and social unrest of post-colonial Africa. Forced to flee her home for exile in Britain, she was subject to the consequences of her dissident father's actions. After war had abated in Sierra Leone, Aminatta's father, Mohamed, returned to his country to be part of the fledgling democracy. But as progress gave way to dictatorships and corruption, Mohamed soon found himself caught in a dangerous political battle, imprisoned for his beliefs and facing far worse. Years later, Aminatta returns to her home country as an adult and a journalist. Searching for the truth of her father's fate and her country's destiny, she uncovers a harrowing web of intrigue, conspiracy, and painful revelations. The... Views: 62
The story behind the stunning, extreme weapons we see in the animal world—teeth and horns and claws—and what they can tell us about the way humans develop and use arms and other weaponsIn Animal Weapons, Doug Emlen takes us outside the lab and deep into the forests and jungles where he's been studying animal weapons in nature for years, to explain the processes behind the most intriguing and curious examples of extreme animal weapons—fish with mouths larger than their bodies and bugs whose heads are so packed with muscle they don't have room for eyes. As singular and strange as some of the weapons we encounter on these pages are, we learn that similar factors set their evolution in motion. Emlen uses these patterns to draw parallels to the way we humans develop and employ our own weapons, and have since battle began. He looks at everything from our armor and camouflage to the evolution of the rifle and the structures human populations have... Views: 62
From Publishers WeeklyThe prolific Vollmann weighs in with at least his third hyper-realized meditation on female prostitution. But whereas Whores for Gloria had an imaginative conceit worthy of Borges and Thirteen Stories and Thirteen Epitaphs teetered provocatively between a Baedeker and a Book of the Dead, his latest effort falls a bit flat. The "Butterfly Boy" grows up as a nerdish American kid who is routinely abused by bullies at school. His adolescent trials, configured against a backdrop of American atrocities in Vietnam, are relieved only by the affections of a particularly plucky girl who then moves away. This sets the stage for the protagonist's adult explorations of love and violence in the Far East, where, as "the journalist," he pals with "the photographer," and together they insist on developing relationships with a series of prostitutes. As always, Vollmann's style--gritty detail stirred with hallucinated fancy--perfectly serves his investigation of the profane, which in this case includes the vile horrors exacted by the Khmer Rouge. However, the heart of this darkness is not convincingly evoked, and readers may begin to wonder if the exoticism of the Orient and its women is not just a handy occasion for Vollmann to act out a forbidden fantasy. Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library JournalThis is not a collection, as the title suggests, but a novel. The main character, known as "the butterfly boy" in grade school but now simply called "the journalist," travels to Southeast Asia to investigate the prostitution problem, accompanied by a photographer. The latter proves to be an impeccable sex tourist, but the journalist is inept. He forgets to use a condom the very first night and suffers from an ever-worsening barrage of fevers and infections thereafter. Then he falls in love with one of the prostitutes and decides to marry. Typically, Vollmann is more interested in the sordid aspects of his tale than in its erotic potential. The tone is sober, almost scholarly, complete with bibliographical notes on source material ranging from Tacitus to Nazi aviator Hanna Reitsch's memoirs. Shorter and more focused than the "Seven Dreams" sequence of novels, this title presents Vollmann's trademark obsessions in a new light. For larger fiction collections.- Edward B. St. John, Loyola Law Sch. Lib., Los AngelesCopyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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