One night of passion with the notorious rake, Lord Scandal. Every need satisfied, nothing expected in return. All Lady Miranda Fitsimmon has to do is keep her rendezvous with the man secret from the ton and her heart inured to the memory of their past. Lord Scandal, otherwise known as Lord Sedley, no longer desires such meaningless liaisons in the ton. His taste for bed sport has changed. He only desires one woman to warm his sheets. And when the woman he thought never to see grace his home walks into his library and expects all her desires to be sated, his resolve to redeem himself is tested. Can one night of sin give them both what they crave the most? Or will past wounds be too deep to forgive and forget? Views: 697
"Early in the dark Indianapolis morning, Frank Behr's friend and mentor is murdered - with no motive and no trace of evidence left behind. Behr, a quiet, mountainous former cop, thirsts for answers and retaliation. But before he can make headway in the dead-end case, an exclusive private investigation firm approaches him with a delicate proposition: two of its detectives have gone missing, and they want Behr to find out what happened to them. Prodded to take the case by his old boss - an Indianapolis police captain who holds the strings to Frank's possible return to the force - Behr accepts." "The search for the missing detectives takes Behr into the recesses of Indianapolis's underworld, a place rife with brutality and vice - and a stark contrast to the city's gentle public image. As Behr calls on old street contacts and his hard-boiled investigative skills, he is led deeper into a twisted society of crime and violence and an unknown landscape of "pea-shake" houses - low-rent, transient gambling rings staged in condemned buildings around the city. Behr uncovers an unexpected connection to the missing detectives, and, in the process, he is forced to confront an ominous, deadly new breed of crime family." Introduced in City of the Sun, Frank Behr instantly attracted critical attention and a devoted fan base, and Where the Dead Lay places Behr on a broader, edgier stage. Views: 697
In the mid-1970s, Jay Leno, David Letterman, Andy Kaufman, Richard Lewis, Robin Williams, Elayne Boosler, Tom Dreesen, and several hundred other shameless showoffs and incorrigible cutups from all across the country migrated en masse to Los Angeles, the new home of Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show. There, in a late-night world of sex, drugs, dreams and laughter, they created an artistic community unlike any before or since. It was Comedy Camelot—but it couldn’t last.William Knoedelseder, then a cub reporter covering the scene for the Los Angeles Times, was there when the comedians—who were not paid for performing—tried to change the system and incidentally tore apart their own close-knit community. In I’m Dying Up Here he tells the whole story of that golden age, of the strike that ended it, and of how those days still resonate in the lives of those who were there.From Publishers WeeklyStarred Review. In 1978, Knoedelseder (Stiffed: A True Story of MCA, the Music Business, and the Mafia) was a journalist assigned to cover newcomers transforming the comedy clubs: For the next two years, I had stage-side seats at the best show in show business.... I met and wrote about Jay Leno, David Letterman and Richard Lewis before the world knew who they were. Mitzi Shore, recently labeled the Norma Desmond of Comedy by the Los Angeles Times, took over L.A.'s Comedy Store in 1973 with a no-pay policy because she saw it as a training ground, a workshop, a college. It became a focal point for local comics, including Lewis, his friend Steve Lubetkin, Elayne Boosler, Tom Dreesen, Letterman, Leno and many more. Some were in desperate circumstances, surviving by living in their cars and eating bar condiments. Driving a silver Jaguar to her massive, cash-generating laugh factory, Shore was seen as cunningly manipulative, and her unfair payment policies led to an organized strike in 1979 by the CFC (Comedians for Compensation). This confrontation of comics vs. club owner (Not... one... red... fucking... cent) is the core of the book, with the suicide of Lubetkin taking the tone from comedy to tragedy. Filmmakers will eye this as a potential property similar to Bill Carter's The Late Shift (1996), about Letterman and Leno. Knoedelseder skillfully layers powerful dramatic details, and readers will shelve the book alongside those other key classics on comedy: Steve Allen's The Funny Men and Janet Coleman's The Compass. (Aug. 24) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. ReviewPublishers Weekly, STARRED review“Knoedelseder skillfully layers powerful dramatic details, and readers will shelve the book alongside those other key classics on comedy.”Shelf Awareness“A revealing and entertaining look at the 1970s Los Angeles comedy scene and the labor dispute that ended its most glorious era.”Booklist“Fact-packed, highly readable history… peppered with plenty of portraits of struggling young comics, some destined for national fame, others headed to obscurity and, in a few cases, early death.”Buffalo News“One of the most eye-opening and informative books ever written about standup comedy…One of the books of the year for any student of American television and pop culture…A little-known story has now been told very well in perfect context. And when you finish the book you may feel as if you finally understand every comedian you see on TV for the first time.”Daily Variety“A lively new book…Knoedelseder reminds us that comedy is a dicey calling.”New York Times Book Review“Illuminating”Irish Times“Knoedelseder, who was around in those days as a reporter on the Los Angeles Times, interweaves the fascinating stories of the tragic, unknown Lubetkin and the performers who were to become household names, set against the basic contradictions of working the Comedy Store.”Dallas Morning News“Written with a journalist's strong narrative sense, I'm Dying Up Here chronicles the tight-knit community of artists who cracked open the world of funny entertainment and the event that shattered their camaraderie...Knoedelseder's ability to sniff out the human stories behind the headlines is what makes this rowdy chapter in stand-up such a good read. It's a bittersweet tale told with humor and economy.”DigitalCity.com“I’m Dying Up Here lays bare the bad and the ugly of Hollywood; from what good there was, like primordial muck, emerged the funniest guys and gals around.” Views: 697
In the good old days, magic was indispensable—it could both save a kingdom and clear a clogged drain. But now magic is fading: drain cleaner is cheaper than a spell, and magic carpets are used for pizza delivery. Fifteen-year-old foundling Jennifer Strange runs Kazam, an employment agency for magicians—but it’s hard to stay in business when magic is drying up. And then the visions start, predicting the death of the world’s last dragon at the hands of an unnamed Dragonslayer. If the visions are true, everything will change for Kazam—and for Jennifer. Because something is coming. Something known as . . . Big Magic. Views: 697
A Conyn the Barbarian story.Conyn signs up as a scout in Pictish territory, and gets involved with his partner in a border war against the wizard Zogara Sag and her cult of followers.A Gender Switch Adventure.First book in the Going to the Dog series and is a short novella at 26,000 wordsJack has some ‘splainin’ to do! That's right! Callie Lassiter's normally well-behaved Great Dane Jack has run off and done the wild thing with the neighbor's dog. It must be puppy love! It's doubly embarrassing since she's a professional dog trainer. Of course, the neighbor would have to be hot, hot nightclub owner bad boy Owen McKay, just the kind of man Callie is determined to avoid. Owen’s comfortable with his playboy status and the hype in the media. But the ground moves beneath his feet when he gets an eyeful of the girl next door. The Dog Whisperer never looked this good! How can he convince this wholesome honey that his player days are behind him? Maybe Jill, his Great Dane can help him with this dilemma now that she’s pregnant and Callie’s dog is to blame. Is this bad boy a bad bet?Beware of dogs, romance and deep belly laughs!Going to the Dogs is a romp through the urban jungle of New York City to find true love, the perfect cocktail, and expensive heels. Dog is a man’s best friend, but sometimes a woman just needs a hot man in the city. This series will appeal to a mature crowd, especially fans of Sex in The City. Views: 696
Fortune Annabel Joseph Kat doesn’t know whether or how to end her six-night-a-week party habit, not to mention her unhealthy addiction to meaningless sex. Then an accident lands her in the hospital. She wakes to find a menagerie of origami figures—and a gorgeous neurosurgeon—beside her bed. The complexity of the paper creations is nothing compared to the complexity of dark-eyed, authoritative Ryan, who seems determined to give her life some direction. Trouble is, Kat’s just as determined to resist his efforts to tame her wild side. With persistence, Ryan draws Kat into his world of dominance and submission, where quiet commands and lengths of rope awaken needs and desires she never knew she possessed. But Ryan’s intimate, erotic shibari sessions frighten Kat as much as they excite her, for each simple knot requires infinite trust and inspires complicated emotions. When a family crisis tests their love and threatens to snap the fragile ties that bind them, will fortune ever smile on this unlikely couple, or will fate tear them apart? Reader Advisory: For those who subscribe to a “more the merrier” philosophy (*cough* we do *cough*), this story contains a scintillating m/f/f/m scene. Views: 696
Have terrorists killed the Superbowl Quarterback? Private investigator Tom Mullins and his 12 year old boy-genius next door neighbor are on the case in this story of a championship football season wrapped in a quirky, fast moving, whodunit. Views: 696
When a startling number of Americans prominent in the fields of science, math or technology mysteriously vanish, two NSA field agents, Ruthanne Carter and Larry Tracker, investigate the disappearances. Unknown to them, Caden Jordan, a highly competent detective, generates strong doubts that certain missing persons vanished of their own accord. The two agents and the detective compile an array of intriguing information that leads them, in company with other specialists within the NSA, to conclude that an alien “Entity,” for some enigmatic reason of his own, is surreptitiously abducting persons with certain abilities and transporting them to an alternate Earth in a parallel universe. When Ruthanne Carter vanishes, Larry realizes that she has been abducted by the Entity. Desperate, owing to his love for Ruthanne, he voluntarily puts himself in a position that increases his chance of being abducted himself. He becomes the next person to vanish. Ryan Bigelow, a geneticist who was the first person to disappear, awakens within a mysterious, shimmering dome. He emerges to find himself in a wild, unpopulated land that he suspects to be the American West, even though it contains an old, abandoned stone city that does not resemble any ancient site in America. Bigelow, who finds artifacts in the city that enable him to survive, exercises a remarkable talent for leadership as new arrivals emerge daily from the dome. When Ruthanne Carter appears, she finds that Dr. Saul Steiglitz, a renowned physicist, agrees with the NSA’s conclusion that an alien “Entity” has teleported the MPs to a parallel universe. Dr. Arthur McConnell, a youthful mathematical genius, concurs in that belief. The final abductee to emerge from the dome is Larry Tracker. When the Entity contacts the group, he succeeds in speaking through Ruthanne Carter, who alone of all those snatched has a mind that can withstand the trauma caused by the Entity’s invasion. The horrified listeners learn just what the Entity is and discover what he wants. Assuming right from the start that the Entity can’t be trusted, they assert themselves, despite knowing that the ruthless alien can kill them instantly. Refusing to let themselves be intimidated, they find weaknesses they can exploit in his mental makeup. The tension escalates as the abductees negotiate with the Entity, struggle against him, and finally devise a means by which they hope they can outwit the murderous alien. Views: 695
"It is [Tom] Peters—as consultant, writer, columnist, seminar lecturer, and stage performer—whose energy, style, influence, and ideas have [most] shaped new management thinking." —Movers and Shakers: The 100 Most Influential Figures in Modern Business "We live in a Tom Peters world." —Fortune Magazine Business uber-guru Tom Peters is back with his first book in a decade, The Little Big Things. In this age of economic recession and financial uncertainty, the patented Peters approach to business and management—no-nonsense, witty, down-to-earth, insightful—is more pertinent now than ever. As essential for small-business owners as it is for the heads of major corporations, The Little Big Things is a rousing call-to-arms to American business to get "back to the basics" of running a successful enterprise. Views: 695
A brutal, action-packed account of the sea battles of the Napoleonic War by the author of the bestselling Nelson's Trafalgar and co-author of the forthcoming Gibraltar: The Greatest Siege in British History (March 2018)As he did with his much lauded Nelson's Trafalgar, Roy Adkins (now writing with wife Lesley) again thrusts readers into the perils and thrills of early-nineteenth-century warfare. From its very first page, this is an adventure story—a superb account of the naval war that lasted from Napoleon's seizure of power in 1798 to the War of 1812 with the United States. Providing a ringside seat to the decisive battles, as well as detailed and vivid portraits of sailors and commanders, press-gangs, prostitutes, and spies, The War for All the Oceans is "a rollicking, patriotic account of the Napoleonic wars that will go down well with Master and Commander fans" (The Telegraph). Views: 695
From the author of Where the River Ends, comes this page-turning story of love and survival.
On a stormy winter night, two strangers wait for a flight at the Salt Lake City airport. Ashley Knox is an attractive, successful writer, who is flying East for her much anticipated wedding. Dr. Ben Payne has just wrapped up a medical conference and is also eager to get back East for a slate of surgeries he has scheduled for the following day. When the last outgoing flight is cancelled due to a broken de-icer and a forthcoming storm, Ben finds a charter plane that can take him around the storm and drop him in Denver to catch a connection. And when the pilot says the single engine prop plane can fit one more, if barely, Ben offers the seat to Ashley knowing that she needs to get back just as urgently. And then the unthinkable happens. The pilot has a heart attack mid-flight and the plane crashes into the High Uintas Wilderness-- one of the largest stretches of harsh and remote land in the United States.
Ben, who has broken ribs and Ashley, who suffers a terrible leg fracture, along with the pilot's dog, are faced with an incredibly harrowing battle to survive. Fortunately, Ben is a medical professional and avid climber (and in a lucky break, has his gear from a climb earlier in the week). With little hope for rescue, he must nurse Ashley back to health and figure out how they are going to get off the mountain, where the temperature hovers in the teens. Meanwhile, Ashley soon realizes that the very private Ben has some serious emotional wounds to heal as well. He explains to Ashley that he is separated from his beloved wife, but in a long standing tradition, he faithfully records messages for her on his voice recorder reflecting on their love affair. As Ashley eavesdrops on Ben's tender words to his estranged wife she comes to fear that when it comes to her own love story, she's just settling. And what's more: she begins to realize that the man she is really attracted to, the man she may love, is Ben.
As the days on the mountains become weeks, their survival become increasingly perilous. How will they make it out of the wilderness and if they do, how will this experience change them forever?
Both a tender and page-turning read, The Mountain Between Us will reaffirm your belief in the power of love to sustain us.
From the Hardcover edition. Views: 695
