The African Safari Papers is an intense and outrageous portrait of a family so troubled that their vacation is, in a word, torture.Richard Clark, the narrator of this sharp and sometimes madcap novel is nineteen—a drug-addicted, foul-mouthed, sex-crazed young man in Africa on a safari with his parents. Obviously, this is a mistake.As Richard smolders with resentment, he documents the trip in a series of journal entries that are funny, sad, and piercingly insightful. Juxtaposed with the hostile environment, the tense situation becomes explosive: with raw energy and acuity, somewhere between Hunter S. Thompson and David Sedaris, we see Mom going insane, Dad drinking compulsively, and Richard busy getting high on smuggled drugs. Anything can happen, and it does, in this family travelogue for the twenty-?rst century. Views: 318
Mr. Gandiss and his son, Jack, ask Mr. Parker to help them stop the theft of brass from their airplane factory. While Jack and Penny visit the factory, a piece of brass is found in the possession of Sally Barker, and she is fired. Sally maintains that she has no idea how the brass came to be in her locker, and Penny believes her. With Jack and Sally\'s help, Penny attempts to bring the real thieves to justice Views: 318
Matchmaking gets mixed up in this all-original eBook addition to The Romantic Comedies series!
Gemma can't believe her luck when the star football player starts flirting with her. Max is totally swoon-worthy, and even gets her quirky sense of humor. So when he asks out her so-called best friend Addison, Gemma's heartbroken.
Then Addison pressures Gemma to join the date with one of Max's friends. But the more time they all spend together, the harder Gemma falls for Max. She can't help thinking that Max likes her back; it's just too bad he's already dating Addison. How can Gemma get the guy she wants without going after her best friend's? Views: 318
Short stories from a married couple who are veteran published novelists, some fiction, some non-fiction, some...well, you decide.From Delphi, Greece, to Colorado, to Roseburg, Oregon, to the terrors of Homeowners Associations, and the Post-World War II American shortage of lumber to build the houses for returning veterans, these short stories offer random readings on random subjects, to be read randomly. Views: 318
Oscar loves his life as Conor's best friend; but what happens when he has to share his bed and best friend with a new family member?This is the first in a series of short children's story's about two mischievous dogs.Jackson never thought buying a yacht could be so dangerous. A deadly attack at sea leaves Jackson wet and bewildered, fighting for his life. Views: 318
Turning sixteen should mean driving and dating, not certain death. Strange dreams of a young girl being led to her death haunt Arrabella's dreams every night. Arrabella begs help from her grandfather, the only person who knows the truth behind the dreams. He warns her that if she takes the first step toward unraveling the mystery she can't go back. Arrabella won't stop until she knows the truth.Turning sixteen should mean driving, dating, and breaking curfew. It should never mean certain death. Arrabella's excitement for her upcoming birthday is swallowed up by not only her dismay at being moved to a tiny little town in the middle of nowhere, but by the terror of the dreams that assault her every night. Stalking her dreams, the raven haired beauty warns her, taunts her, as she is paraded toward her death. Desperate for answers, Arrabella turns to her grandfather, the only one willing to delve into her family's dark past. Warning her that once she takes the first step, there is no going back, Arrabella's grandfather begins to unwind their awful heritage. The only joy she finds in the week leading up to her death is meeting Tanner Wheeler, a young man she barely knows but is immediately drawn to. A story of selfish betrayal reaching back to an age of merciless gods and blood sacrifice, Arrabella's world is sent into a deadly spiral. Views: 318
On top of spending most of her time in a bunker-like safe house and having her dates hijacked by a formidable Fae bodyguard, Faeriewalker Dana Hathaway is in for some more bad news: the Erlking and his pack of murderous minions known as the Wild Hunt have descended upon Avalon. With his homicidal appetite and immortal powers, the Erlking have long been the nightmare of the Fae realm.
A fragile treaty with the Faerie Queen, sealed with a mysterious spell, is the one thing that keeps him from hunting unchecked in Avalon, the only place on Earth where humans and Fae live together. Which means Dana’s in trouble, since it’s common knowledge that the Faerie Queen wants her—and her rare Faeriewalker powers—dead. The smoldering, sexy Erlking’s got his sights set on Dana, but does he only seek to kill her, or does he have something much darker in mind? Views: 317
Philosopher, novelist, essayist, madman, no Czech writer has had a greater impact on underground culture than Ladislav Klíma (1878-1928). Mentor to artists as diverse as Bohumil Hrabal and the Plastic People of the Universe, Klíma's approach to philosophy was similar to that of the sages of ancient India: philosophy should not be limited to speaking or writing about it, it should be lived. Adopting Nietzsche as his paragon, he embarked on a lifelong pursuit to become God, or Absolute Will, and he developed his conception of radical subjectivism in numerous essays, aphorisms, prose works, and plays. The Sufferings of Prince Sternenhoch is the apotheosis of Klíma's philosophy. In a series of journal entries, the novel chronicles the descent into madness of Prince Sternenhoch, the German Empire's foremost aristocrat and favorite of the Kaiser. Having become the "lowliest worm" at the hands of his deceased wife Helga, the Queen of Hells, Sternenhoch eventually attains an ultimate state of bliss and salvation through the most grotesque form of perversion. Klíma explores here the paradoxical nature of pure spirituality with a humor that is as darkly comical as it is obscene. This volume, the first of Klíma's work to appear in English translation, also includes his notorious screed "My Autobiography." Views: 317
Hermann Kermit Warm is going to die. The enigmatic and powerful man known only as the Commodore has ordered it, and his henchmen, Eli and Charlie Sisters, will make sure of it. Though Eli doesn't share his brother's appetite for whiskey and killing, he's never known anything else. But their prey isn't an easy mark, and on the road from Oregon City to Warm's gold-mining claim outside Sacramento, Eli begins to question what he does for a living - and whom he does it for.
With The Sisters Brothers, Patrick deWitt pays homage to the classic Western, transforming it into an unforgettable comic tour de force. Filled with a remarkable cast of characters - losers, cheaters, and ne'er-do-wells from all stripes of life - and told by a complex and compelling narrator, it is a violent, lustful odyssey through the underworld of the 1850s frontier that beautifully captures the humor, melancholy, and grit of the Old West and two brothers bound by blood, violence, and love. Views: 317
Trucker Randy Johnston has taken possession of a strange load Said To Contain ‘ice’ from a shipping facility in California. The journey towards its destination will open his eyes to secrets of the universe that he grows to wish had been kept behind the curtain forever. He will encounter unspeakable nightmares on the road to Cape Canaveral, where the fate of all mankind hangs in the balance.Randy Johnston is a simple man; a trucker by trade, this down-home southern soul is more comfortable behind the wheel of his trusty Kenworth, Big Red, than he is when he finds himself surrounded by the strife his ex-wife seems to insist on causing him when he is anywhere near his home soil. If not for the sporadic and unpredictable visitation she grants him with his 8 year-old son, Sammy, he likely wouldn't return to his adopted state of Florida at all.A full week's time with his beloved boy is approaching quickly. His work has taken him clear across the country, to California, and he is nervous enough as it is about the chances of being lucky enough to catch a decent paying load to carry him back home in time.Unbeknownst to him, trouble has just touched down off the pacific coast. General Richard Tomlinson, a hard-edged and elderly member of the U.S. military brass, has had what will likely be his legacy-defining mission dropped squarely into his lap from the grey skies above. He confers with long-time cohort, Ambassador Conrad Butler, about a situation of epic proportions that many feared would one day come to pass. The covert solution the two of them devise will bring Randy Johnston, unwittingly, into a world he has never known to exist. When the driver takes possession of a strange load Said To Contain twenty-two metric tons of frozen ice from a shady shipping facility in Oceanside, he embarks on a journey that will open his eyes to secrets of the universe that he grows to wish had been kept behind the curtain forever.On this particular haul, he will encounter unspeakable nightmares and learn unfathomable truths before reaching the load's destination in Cape Canaveral -- where the life of his son and the fate of all mankind hang in the balance. Views: 317
Erckmann-Chatrian was the name used by French authors Emile Erckmann (1822–1899) and Alexandre Chatrian (1826–1890), nearly all of whose works were jointly written. Both Erckmann and Chatrian were born in the departement of Moselle, in the Lorraine region in the extreme north-east of France. They specialised in military fiction and ghost stories in a rustic mode, applying to the Vosges mountain range and the Alsace-Lorraine region techniques inspired by story-tellers from the Black Forest. Lifelong friends who first met in the spring of 1847, they finally quarreled during the mid-1880s, after which they did not produce any more stories jointly. During 1890 Chatrian died, and Erckmann wrote a few pieces under his own name. Many of Erckmann-Chatrian\'s works were translated into English by Adrian Ross. Views: 317
In mid-1970s rural Wicklow, John Hughes, a once-feted journalist/author with writer's block, reflects on recent events. When English author William Cromer and his German lover Ingrid move to the Old Rectory nearby, their lives are transformed and an alcohol-fuelled affair begins. Hughes puts at risk everything he has ever loved - his wife Laura, teenage daughter Rachael and the bucolic ease of their quiet corner of Ireland. Nationalist resentment of this tax-free haven enjoyed by foreigners is sparked by events in Northern Ireland, and John finds himself in the middle of extortion, blackmail, marital betrayal and a suicide. As old and new friendships unravel, even lunchtime visits to the local pub become points of attrition. Losing his friends and mistress, John is forced to take responsibility for his actions in order to save his family and his integrity, and to find release as a writer. Views: 317
