The year is A.D. 793; Jack and his sister have been kidnapped by Vikings and taken to the court of Ivar the Boneless and his terrifying half-troll wife; but things get even worse when Jack finds himself on a dangerous quest to find the magical Mimir's Well in a far-off land, with his sister's life forfeit if he fails.
Other threats include a willful mother Dragon, a giant spider, and a troll-boar with a surprising personality -- to say nothing of Ivar the Boneless and his wife, Queen Frith, a shape-shifting half-troll, and several eight foot tall, orange-haired, full-time trolls. But in stories by award-winner Nancy Farmer, appearances do deceive. She has never told a richer, funnier tale, nor offered more timeless encouragement to young seekers than "Just say no to pillaging." Views: 678
The acclaimed author of Into the Forest mines our fears and explores our capacity to love in this epic tale of modern motherhood.
Young and pregnant, Cerise and Anna make very different decisions about how to direct their lives. While teenaged Cerise struggles to support herself and her young daughter, Anna finishes college, marries, and later gives birth to two daughters of her own. After the birth of her second child, a tragic accident tears Cerise's life apart, and she loses her already tenuous position in society. As the story progresses--and Cerise's and Anna's lives interweave and inexorably approach each other--both women are dramatically, forever changed. Unforgettable, awe-inspiring, and grippingly honest, Windfalls is a daring and mesmerizing tale. Views: 678
In the wake of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court's historic Goodridge decision, a reissue of the bible of the same-sex marriage movementWill same-sex couples destroy "traditional" marriage, soon to be followed by the collapse of all civilization? That charge has been leveled throughout history whenever the marriage rules change. But marriage, as E. J. Graff shows in this lively, fascinating tour through the history of marriage in the West, has always been a social battleground, its rules constantly shifting to fit each era and economy. The marriage debates have been especially tumultuous for the past hundred and fifty years-in ways that lead directly to today's debate over whether marriage could mean not just Boy + Girl = Babies, but also Girl + Girl = Love. Views: 678
Reva Ewing, a former member of the Secret Service and a security specialist for Roarke Enterprises, is a prime suspect in a double homicide. She had every reason to want to kill her husband, the renowned artist Blair Bissel. Not only was he having an affair, he was having it with her best friend.
But Lieutenant Eve Dallas, who's on the case, believes Reva is innocent. Eve's instincts tell her that the murder scene looks too perfectly staged, the apparent answers too obvious. And when she digs for more, she discovers that at nearly the exact time a kitchen knife was jammed into the victim's ribs, the passcode to his art studio was changed - and all of the data on his computer deliberately corrupted.
To Roarke, it's the computer attack that poses the real threat. Signs show that this is the nightmare his company has secretly been preparing for. He and Reva have been under a code-red government contract to develop a program that would shield against a new breed of hackers, the Doomsday Group. These techno-terrorists with brilliant minds and plenty of financial backing hack into systems, steal data, and corrupt computer units on a large scale - and kill anyone who gets too close.
Eve and Roarke must infiltrate an extraordinarily secretive government agency to expose the corruption at its core, before the virus spreads from one office to a corporation to the entire country. Views: 677
Forty wry, whimsical and witty essays Views: 676
Tom Wolfe, the master social novelist of our time, the spot-on chronicler of all things contemporary and cultural, presents a sensational new novel about life, love, and learning--or the lack of it--amid today's American colleges.
Our story unfolds at fictional Dupont University: those Olympian halls of scholarship housing the cream of America's youth, the roseate Gothic spires and manicured lawns suffused with tradition . . . Or so it appears to beautiful, brilliant Charlotte Simmons, a sheltered freshman from North Carolina. But Charlotte soon learns, to her mounting dismay, that for the upper-crust coeds of Dupont, sex, cool, and kegs trump academic achievement every time.
As Charlotte encounters the paragons of Dupont's privileged elite--her roommate, Beverly, a Groton-educated Brahmin in lusty pursuit of lacrosse players; Jojo Johanssen, the only white starting player on Dupont's godlike basketball team, whose position is threatened by a hotshot black freshman from the projects; the Young Turk of Saint Ray fraternity, Hoyt Thorpe, whose heady sense of entitlement and social domination is clinched by his accidental brawl with a bodyguard for the governor of California; and Adam Geller, one of the Millennial Mutants who run the university's "independent" newspaper and who consider themselves the last bastion of intellectual endeavor on the sex-crazed, jock-obsessed campus--she is seduced by the heady glamour of acceptance, betraying both her values and upbringing before she grasps the power of being different--and the exotic allure of her own innocence.
With his trademark satirical wit and famously sharp eye for telling detail, Wolfe's I Am Charlotte Simmons draws on extensive observations at campuses across the country to immortalize the early-21st-century college-going experience. Views: 675
From the Newbery Honor and Schneider Award-winning author of The War that Saved My Life comes The President's Daughter, a novel about the Roosevelts and perfect for fans of hisorical fiction.
ETHEL IS 10 YEARS OLD in 1901 when her family’s life changed forever. Suddenly, Father is not only a famous cowboy, war hero, and politician, but also President Theodore Roosevelt, leader of the United States—and Ethel has a new place to call home. The White House is older and stuffier than Ethel imagined, but there’s never a dull moment with her adventurous family around. Ethel would love to spend every day following Father on horseback rides and scrambles through neighboring Rock Creek Park.
Instead, Ethel has to stay at boarding school during the week, where nothing she does feels right and none of the girls seem to like her. Ethel’s parents keep telling her to keep her chin up and be patient, but it’s not easy being the president’s daughter. Ethel wishes she could be as courageous as father and make her family proud. When her fashionable older sister arrives home, Ethel feels new hope. Sister knows the secret of being brave and making friends, and she’s willing to share it. All Ethel needs to do is take one outrageous dare.
"[Bradley] makes Ethel a vivid and engaging presence and...[this novel is] a fascinating look at an intriguing world."-Kirkus Reviews
"A fascinating story."-*Booklist
"Loaded with historical details...the novel rings true and the people come to life."-SLJ
"Fascinating glimpses of pre-World War I Washington and one of the liveliest families to ever occupy the White House."- The Bulletin
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From the Hardcover edition. Views: 675
**Named one of the year's Top 5 Romances by Library Journal****Romantic Times award for Best Historical Paranormal Romance** Laird of an ancient, powerful Scottish clan, Duncan Macrae is committed to ending the ceaseless strife between Scotland and England. But he also has other, secret powers—those of a Guardian, humans with mystical abilities to control nature's forces and see into the hearts of others. And from the moment he encounters the young and independent English widow Gwyneth Owens, his fiery spirit is irrevocably drawn to claim her as his own—a passion that will not only set his loyalty to his land against his sworn Guardian vows, but will also threaten everything he cherishes most. Though Gwynne's father was a Guardian, she believes that she has inherited only her mother's beauty, not her father's power. Then one kiss from the dangerously alluring Laird of the Macraes ignites a hunger... Views: 673
This is one spooky spotlight!Nancy and her friends are on a fun-filled trip to the coast of Maine. But when they find out that the historic town lighthouse might be haunted, the girls are spooked! And when they find mysterious clues that seem to lead them on a treasure hunt, Nancy knows she has a mystery on her hands. Who wrote the clues? And where could they lead? Maybe this lighthouse really is haunted like everyone thinks. One thing's for sure -- it's up to Nancy to shed some light on this case before they are all left in the dark! Views: 673
They call Gabriela Tree Girl. Gabi climbs trees to be within reach of the eagles and watch the sun rise into an empty sky. She is at home among the outstretched branches of the Guatemalan forests.
Then one day from the safety of a tree, Gabi witnesses the sights and sounds of an unspeakable massacre. She vows to be Tree Girl no more and joins the hordes of refugees struggling to reach the Mexican border. She has lost her whole family; her entire village has been wiped out. Yet she clings to the hope that she will be reunited with her youngest sister, Alicia. Over dangerous miles and months of hunger and thirst, Gabriela's search for Alicia and for a safe haven becomes a search for self. Having turned her back on her own identity, can she hope to claim a new life?
Ages 12+ Views: 672
A Storm for All Seasons - Winter Ice By Jaci Burton Book 3 in the Storm For All Seasons series. Control is everything to Logan Storm. Control over the family business, the Rising Storm Hotel in New Orleans, control over his emotions, and control over the magic within him. Sophie Breaux is the granddaughter of a voodoo princess and welcomes the supernatural powers that live within her. She's been having visions about hot and sexy Logan Storm. Visions of destiny and of danger. When she tries to warn him, Logan thinks she's a con artist and wants no part of the raven-haired goddess. The one thing Logan can't control is Sophie's fiery passion. She melts his walls of ice with her sultry heat, threatening everything that is orderly in his life. His control begins to slip away with every touch, every inflamed kiss, and he's powerless to stop his feelings. Sophie knows that in order to save Logan she must melt his cold heart with scorching love. And when a woman is determined to get her man, nothing will stop her. Views: 672
"What I wanted after college was a job and my own apartment, but what I needed was a good comeuppance, and that's what I got."When Dave Itzkoff graduated from Princeton in 1998--the first member of his family to earn a college degree--he expected to be rewarded with a career, and a life, that mattered. Instead, he ended up convinced that he was selling the entire institution of manhood down the river. After a series of personal and professional experiences stripped him of any lingering sense of entitlement, Itzkoff found himself working as an editor at Maxim, the pugnacious frontrunner in a new breed of men's periodicals dubbed "lad magazines." There, he was initiated into a culture of heavily retouched girlie pictorials, dirty jokes, disingenuous sex advice, and shopping guides for expensive electronic gadgetry. And as Maxim continued its inexorable rise to become the most successful men's magazine in modern publishing history, Itzkoff was left... Views: 671
The Willows By Algernon Blackwood Views: 671
Two tiger cub brothers are torn from the jungle and taken to Rome. The stronger cub is trained as a killer at the Coliseum. Emperor Caesar makes a gift of the smaller cub to his beautiful daughter, Aurelia. Sheadores her cub, Boots. Julius, a young animal keeper, teaches Aurelia how to earn Boots's trust. Boots is pampered while his brother, known as Brute, lives in the cold and darkness, let out only to kill. Caesartrusts Julius to watch Aurelia and her prized pet. But when a prank backfires, Boots temporarily escapes and Julius must pay with his life. Thousands watch as Julius is sent unarmed into the arena to face the killerBrute. "From the Hardcover edition." Views: 670
One of the famous American author who wrote novels, fictional short stories, and screenplays about the American Old West - B. M. Bower\'s present novel \'The Long Shadow\' was first published in the year 1909. Views: 670
