When Tom Quinn first came to the little patch of prairie that would become Stratton, it wasn’t paradise, but it was close. The town he built there was beautiful in a humble way, an honest Western village where hardworking settlers came to make new lives. When Tom moved on, he left a happy town behind him. And then a man called Shelley Peebles came and turned it into hell.Backed up by a gang of hired guns, Peebles pushed out the small landowners, using money and muscle to corrupt the village and its people. Only one man stood in his way—the veteran gunman Tyler Holt—and so Peebles used his influence to have Holt lynched. This outrage brings Quinn back to the town he loved so much—not to save it, but to wipe it off the earth. Views: 40
A serial killer stalks the streets of Spokane, acting out a misogynist script from the dark heart of this culture. Across town, a writer named Derrick has spent his life tracking the reasons—political, psychological, spiritual—for the sadism of modern civilization. And through the grim nights, Nika, a trafficked woman, tries to survive the grinding violence of prostitution. Their lives, and the forces propelling them, are about to collide. Derrick’s current project is a book called Possession, which asks the ontological question of who is responsible for the culture of domination that’s destroying the earth. Who actually benefits from a dead planet, the endgame that’s fast approaching? What if the answer is something way bigger than humans? Meanwhile, with motivations opposite to Derrick’s, the serial killer is asking much the same question of the women he kidnaps as his final act of possession—and Nika is next. Derrick’s metaphysical explorations suddenly take on more urgency as visions both terrifying and sacred begin to intrude, and past and future collapse without warning. All Derrick knows is Nika’s name and her impending death. The only person who believes him is his partner Allison, a woman with both strengths and scars, whose past has led her to a commitment to justice no matter what the cost. As the visions intensify and the killer draws nearer, Derrick and Allison are compelled to act, making themselves the next targets. Derrick must learn to negotiate a world of spirits and demons, living and dead, before it’s too late. And what hangs in the balance is not just their lives, but also the fate of life on earth. With Songs of the Dead, Derrick Jensen has written more than a thriller. This is a story lush with rage and tenderness on its way to being a weapon. Views: 40
In this sequel to the best-selling Uncle John’s Presents Book of the Dumb, guest author John Scalzi casts a wide net to bring readers more mind-boggling dumbosities perpetrated by dumb-doers. This time, to prove that dumb-nastics are not a modern phenomenon, Scalzi digs into the past to unearth some of history’s most ill-advised blunders. The lesson: Dumb is as dumb does. And you’ll be smarter for reading it. Views: 40
There has been much talk of late about how the continuing financial turmoil will find expression in the arts. Will the literature of this depression match the quality of that created in the 1930s?Impossible to précis its narrative, Palumbo's story weaves and curves its way around the adventures of Tomas, a young man ensconced in a world of wealth, privilege and corruption.Like Candide and Gulliver before him, Tomas's adventures will startle the reader's imagination, yet linger in her mind. What seems grotesque, even impossible, has already happened...For excess of imagination, passion, outrage, death and love, greed and vice, often provide a clearer view of life. Views: 40
Callie Gray always assumed she would never marry, until she took a leap and became a mail-order bride. But when she arrives in Sweetgum, Texas, she gets the shock of her life. Her husband is dead, and his brother proposes she marry him, for the sake of his orphaned nephew and nieces. Jack Tyler warns her not to hope for a love match—theirs is strictly a convenient marriage. But Callie yearns for a true partnership with the man who has unexpectedly captured her heart. Now she must convince him what he truly needs is a lifetime of love, faith and family—with Callie by his side. Views: 40
Sian has been watching Rob for a while...as he plays rugby for the club she follows. However, she’d also love to get down and dirty with the hot and hunky prop in more intimate surroundings. A chance mishap in a crowded nightclub may mean her wish is fulfilled, going by her intense reaction when their bodies entangle. Will she have the chance to play up with him? Views: 40
Hadley is pretty much the model student: straight As, perfect attendance, front row in class. So what if she's overstressed and overscheduled: She's got school covered. (Life—;not so much.)Ms. Pitt is the kind of teacher who wants you to call her by her first name and puts all the chairs in a circle and tells her students to feel their book reports.Hadley wishes Ms. Pitt would stick to her lesson plan. Ms. Pitt wishes Hadley would lighten up.So when Hadley and Ms. Pitt find themselves switched into each other's bodies, the first thing they want to do is switch right back. It takes a family crisis, a baffled principal, and a (double) first kiss to help them figure out that change can be pretty enlightening.Even if it is a little freaky! Views: 40
From Publishers WeeklyGladstone's meandering debut, the latest thriller tied to the mystical date of December 12, 2012, when Mayan legend predicts the world's end, charts the life of Max Doff, starting with his conception in 1949 in Tarrytown, N.Y. After Max dies briefly at the age 15, he has a vision of 12 people. On returning to consciousness, he begins a decades-long quest to find them. His path takes him to Yale, where his radical philosophical ideas lead to his forced departure from campus. A formulation like 'A is, and is not, equal to A' as the ultimate equation in explaining how to penetrate the impenetrable intellectual domain of 'understanding understanding' is symptomatic of Max's difficulty in getting his message, whatever it actually is, across. Max then begins globe-trotting as part of the production team for a documentary on ancient astronauts. Serendipitous encounters with the twelve will strike many readers as more contrived than magical. (Sept.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. ReviewEckhart Tolle, author of A New Earth“Entertaining and inspiring.”Mark Victor Hanson, co-author of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series“I have never enjoyed a novel more than The Twelve. [William Gladstone’s] theme and message of hope and inspiration is exactly what Jack Canfield and I worked so hard to achieve with our Chicken Soup for the Soul book series.” Views: 40
