The first awareness of existence was a chaotic flash of colors, meaningless and yet in an odd way logical; why, she wasn’t sure. Birth is the most significant event in life, and yet it is never memorable; at least not for the newborn; but then she really wasn’t a newborn, even though it was the first day of her life. She was 1A526, the first of her kind, an artificially intelligent blend of technology and bio-mechanics. Created to serve humans, Solaria and her AI programmer, Carley, soon discover the company funding the Hubot Project had more sinister motives. If Solaria is to fulfill the hopes of the woman who had given her existence meaning, she would have to become the human her programmer had dreamed of and take down Future Dynamicon, the company that created her. Views: 49
Recent Yale graduate Megan Smith comes to Manhattan with big plans for a career in journalism and even bigger student loan debt: $75,000, to be exact. When she flails at a disastrous editorial meeting at her trashy tabloid job, Megan is called into the editor-in-chief's office certain that she's going to be fired. And she is. Sort of....As it turns out, Megan's suddenly ex-boss is old friends with the grandmother of seventeen-year-old identical twins Rose and Sage Baker-the infamous Baker heiresses of Palm Beach, Florida, best known for their massive fortunes and their pension for drunkenly flashing the paparazzi. Their grandmother is set on the girls attending Duke University despite their combined GPA of roughly 0.2. And if Megan can tutor the girls and get them into Duke, their grandmother will pay off Megan's college loans in full. Unfortunately for Megan, the Baker twins aren't about to bend their busy social schedules for basic algebra. And they certainly aren't thrilled to have to sit down for a study session with dowdy Megan, who quickly discovers that if she's going to get her bonus, she'll have to know her Pucci from her Prada. And if she can look the part, maybe, just maybe, she can teach them something along the way. Views: 49
It began as a kidnap plot, but quickly became something even more deadly through the innocent instrumentality of the intended victim himself, a sickly ten-year-old boy. An avid pet collector, that day he brought home to Eaton Square and the awaiting kidnappers a crate in which–you could hear it–a living creature dryly rustled. It was supposed to be a harmless black house snake, but there had been carelessness along the route from Africa, and it was really a black mamba, most poisonous of all reptiles.Louise, the French maid and one of the conspirators, angrily tearing open the crate, was struck at once and was dead within the hour. And Inspector Nash, first policeman on the scene, was blasted into eternity by a panicky kidnapper when Nash pushed open the door on Eaton Square.Now began that grimmest of modern games, the game of hostages. With three of them in hand, Jacmel, the chief conspirator, bargained for a car and money and time. But outside in Eaton Square his adversary was the rocklike, contemptuous, implacable, seemingly indomitable Inspector Bulloch. And always lying in wait somewhere in the bowels of the house was the black mamba, its venom sacs scarcely depleted, ever ready to strike again . . Views: 49
"Much less a book than a state of vision." – Henry James The narrative drive of Stowe's classic novel is often overlooked in the heat of the controversies surrounding its anti-slavery sentiments. In fact, it is a compelling adventure story with richly drawn stories has earned a place in both literary American history. Views: 49
Deeper than the city streets, the subways, even the dry riverbeds that no longer flow, are the roots of a tree that remembers love and tragedy…Financier Dina Rowland’s assignment is to make fashion designer Leo Goranson a lot of money. But the more she knows of him, the more repugnant his personal life is to her. Not the least inconsequential is his unbreakable hold on his greatest asset: supermodel Christabel. One touch and the power—and responsibility—of Dina’s long-hidden heritage threatens to crumble the careful plans she has made for her life.Christa knows there is no escaping her tormentor, but she has a plan to deny him what he ultimately wants from her. The past can’t be changed. Having long accepted her fate she is unprepared for the wild feelings that Dina’s eyes arouse in her. There is passion, certainly, but also the rarest feeling of all to her: hope. This revised and augmented edition of Karin Kallmaker’s gothic lesbian romance tale of two captive souls will move and inspire a new generation of readers. Originally published in 1998 under the pen name of Laura Adams, this imaginative and passionate story is sure to please new and old fans alike.
EDITORIAL REVIEW:
Deeper than the city streets, the subways, even the dry riverbeds that no longer flow, are the roots of a tree that remembers love and tragedy... Financier Dina Rowland's assignment is to make fashion designer Leo Goranson a lot of money. But the more she knows of him, the more repugnant his personal life is to her. Not the least inconsequential is his unbreakable hold on his greatest asset: supermodel Christabel. One touch and the power--and responsibility--of Dina's long-hidden heritage threatens to crumble the careful plans she has made for her life. Christa knows there is no escaping her tormentor, but she has a plan to deny him what he ultimately wants from her. The past can't be changed. Having long accepted her fate she is unprepared for the wild feelings that Dina's eyes arouse in her. There is passion, certainly, but also the rarest feeling of all to her: hope. Views: 49
National Book Award Finalist: "Wickersham has journeyed into the dark underworld inside her father and herself and emerged with a powerful, gripping story." —The Boston Globe One winter morning in 1991, Joan Wickersham's father shot himself in the head.The father she loved would never have killed himself, and yet he had. His death made a mystery of his entire life. Who was he? Why did he do it? And what was the impact of his death on the people who loved him? Using an index—that most formal and orderly of structures—Wickersham explores this chaotic and incomprehensible reality. Every bit of family history, every encounter with friends, doctors, and other survivors, exposes another facet of elusive truth. Dark, funny, sad, and gripping, at once a philosophical and a deeply personal exploration, The Suicide Index is, finally, a daughter's anguished, loving elegy to her father. Views: 49
“Giffels does well as a voice of the Midwest…but this is for everyone.” —Library Journal From the acclaimed author of The Hard Way on Purpose, a vibrant, heartfelt memoir about confronting mortality, surviving loss, finding resilience in one’s Midwest roots and seeking a father’s wisdom through an unusual woodworking project—constructing his own coffin.David Giffels grew up fascinated by his father’s dusty, tool-strewn workshop and the countless creations—some practical, others fantastical—it inspired. So when he enlisted his eighty-one-year-old dad to help him with the unusual project of building his own casket, he thought of it mostly as an opportunity to sharpen his woodworking skills and to spend time together. But life, as it usually does, had other plans. The unexpected deaths of his mother and, a year later, his best friend, coupled with the dawning realization that his... Views: 49
‘I am not sure that I am a man,’ said Yuvanashva. ‘I have created life
outside me as men do. But I have also created life inside me, as women
do. What does that make me? Will a body such as mine fetter or free
me?’Among the many hundreds of characters who inhabit the Mahabharata,
perhaps the world’s greatest epic and certainly one of the oldest, is
Yuvanashva, a childless king, who accidentally drinks a magic potion
meant to make his queens pregnant and gives birth to a son. This
extraordinary novel is his story.It is also the story of his mother
Shilavati, who cannot be king because she is a woman; of young Somvat,
who surrenders his genitals to become a wife; of Shikhandi, a daughter
brought up as a son, who fathers a child with a borrowed penis; of
Arjuna, the great warrior with many wives, who is forced to masquerade
as a woman after being castrated by a nymph; of Ileshwara, a god on
full-moon days and a goddess on new-moon nights; and of Adi-natha, the
teacher of teachers, worshipped as a hermit by some and as an
enchantress by others.Building on Hinduism’s rich and complex
mythology—but driven by a very contemporary sensibility—Devdutt
Pattanaik creates a lush and fecund work of fiction in which the lines
are continually blurred between men and women, sons and daughters,
husbands and wives, fathers and mothers. Confronted with such fluidity
the reader is drawn into Yuvanashva’s struggle to be fair to all—those
here, those there and all those in between. Views: 49
After his parents and family die, Seven escapes his factory job. By wits and will alone, he survives in a London divided into the affluent Fairside and the squalor of London's industrial Blackside, where many struggle to eke their existence out of despair. But Seven has to fight for more than just food and shelter.All over Blackside, a secret cabal of prominent citizens and the mysterious Mr. Kettlebent are snatching children. Rumor has it a wizard is controlling the queen, and the country's most notorious villain is the only one who wants to stop him. Seven is determined to find out why.Hired by the criminal Jack Midnight to steal the evil wizard's spellbook, Seven soon discovers the mystery runs deeper than he suspected. But events spiral out of control, and it isn't long before the intrigue sweeps Seven into its deadly current. Views: 49
Garrett's newest visitors are a pack of lovelies led by his main squeeze Tinnie Tate and her friend, Alyx Weider, the spoiled daughter of the largest brewer in town. Her father needs Garrett'shelp-his workers are being attacked by everything from giant insects to ghosts. Garrett takes the case. After all, working for the Weiders means free beer. But it also means serious danger. Views: 49
