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Young Countess Meliara swears to her dying father that she and her brother will defend their people from the growing greed of the king. That promise leads them into a war for which they are ill-prepared, which threatens the very people they are trying to protect. But war is simple compared to what follows, in peacetime. Meliara is summoned to live at the royal palace, where friends and enemies look alike, and intrigue fills the dance halls and the drawing rooms. If she is to survive, Meliara must learn a whole new way of fighting-with wits and words and secret alliances.
In war, at least, she knew in whom she could trust. Now she can trust no one.
The Firebird edition of Crown Duel combines the hardcover editions of Crown Duel and Court Duel-and features a never-before-published story by Sherwood Smith! Views: 827
Thirteen years ago, Moab Is My Washpot, Stephen Fry's autobiography of his early years, was published to rave reviews and was a huge best seller. In the years since, Stephen Fry has moved into a completely new stratosphere, both as a public figure, and a private man. Now he is not just a multi-award-winning comedian and actor, but also an author, director, and presenter. Views: 826
Tales of love and loneliness in which the author blends reality and illusion. “The quirkiness and grace of the writing, the originality of the imagination at work,...and a certain lovable nuttiness make this collection well worth reading” (Margaret Atwood). Translated by William Weaver, Peggy Wright, and Archibald Colquhoun. A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book Views: 824
Hera is angry with Zeus and the rest of the male gods. She takes their powers, and comes to Earth, handing them out to random old women, saying that the weakest have the most wisdom, and further warns them to prove her right!
This tongue-in-cheek urban fantasy novelette by Sherwood Smith features old women, including one disabled, whose take on super-powers is different from the usual. Views: 821
Arty has a crush on his best friend. Then, on the night that Arty’s about to share his true feelings, a mutual friend attacks Larissa in the most shocking way.Arty and Larissa have the perfect relationship. She’s beautiful and afraid of her own popularity. He sits alone and draws comics. They're both social misfits—him obsessively, her secretly. They go to different schools, but they trade late-night phone calls and between-class meetings in Hebrew School. They never run out of things to say. Then one night, one of their common friends attacks Larissa in the darkest and most unforgivable of ways—the same night that Arty was planning to kiss her. Larissa’s world falls into a tailspin, and at the same time Arty's own life threatens to explode. He wonders if being a guy is just like being a time bomb. His own body—his own head—feels like a traitorous enemy.As Arty and Larissa find themselves betrayed by their own feelings and torn apart by circumstance. What will this mean to their group of friends? Who can he trust? Will Larissa ever be the same—and can Arty ever feel the same about her again? Views: 821
Red Azalea is Anchee Min’s celebrated memoir of growing up in the last years of Mao’s China. As a child, she was asked to publicly humiliate a teacher; at seventeen, she was sent to work at a labor collective. Forbidden to speak, dress, read, write, or love as she pleased, she found a lifeline in a secret love affair with another woman. Miraculously selected for the film version of one of Madame Mao’s political operas, Min’s life changed overnight. Then Chairman Mao suddenly died, taking with him an entire world. A revelatory and disturbing portrait of China, Anchee Min’s memoir is exceptional for its candor, its poignancy, its courage, and for its prose which Newsweek calls "as delicate and evocative as a traditional Chinese brush painting."
From the Trade Paperback edition. Views: 819
A melancholy young gay man marries a widower, and becomes intrigued by the idea of his dead predecessor: the man he would love to be, and even love to love...When shy, reticent Elias gets married to a dynamic older man, he hopes to say goodbye to his melancholy former life and make the most of their modern civil partnership. But soon he finds himself haunted by the beguiling idea of his dead predecessor: the man Elias would love to be, and even love to love.Inspired by Chaucer's medieval dream romances, this modern day folktale uses gothic themes to explore the differences between civil partnerships and traditional notions of love and marriage. Views: 819
Having woken up from his coma Connor has to deal with the on-going threat of further encounters with the bully Dale Tanner.Connor struggles to come to terms with his life. He has met someone special but all the hope and excitement offered by a new relationship is being overshadowed. The trauma from being assaulted by Dale Tanner and the on-going threat of further attacks is pushing Connor over the edge. Views: 818
A selection of the best writing, including fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and comics, published in American periodicals during during 2012 aimed at readers fifteen and up. Views: 814
There is nothing lonelier than a cat who has been loved, at least for a while, and then abandoned on the side of the road.
A calico cat, about to have kittens, hears the lonely howl of a chained-up hound deep in the backwaters of the bayou. She dares to find him in the forest, and the hound dares to befriend this cat, this feline, this creature he is supposed to hate. They are an unlikely pair, about to become an unlikely family. Ranger urges the cat to hide underneath the porch, to raise her kittens there because Gar-Face, the man living inside the house, will surely use them as alligator bait should he find them. But they are safe in the Underneath...as long as they stay in the Underneath.
Kittens, however, are notoriously curious creatures. And one kitten's one moment of curiosity sets off a chain of events that is astonishing, remarkable, and enormous in its meaning. For everyone who loves Sounder, Shiloh, and The Yearling, for everyone who loves the haunting beauty of writers such as Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Flannery O'Connor, and Carson McCullers, Kathi Appelt spins a harrowing yet keenly sweet tale about the power of love and its opposite, hate the fragility of happiness and the importance of making good on your promises. Views: 814
Farely Mowat's best-loved book tells the splendidly entertaining story of his boyhood on the Canadian prairies. Mutt's pedigree was uncertain, but his madness was indisputable. He climbed tress and ladders, rode passenger in an open car wearing goggles and displaying hunting skills that bordered on sheer genius. He was a marvelous dog, worthy of an unusual boy growing up in a raw, untamed wilderness.
From the Paperback edition. Views: 812
**Never-before-published fiction by one of the finest war authors of the twentieth century
In 1943, a young soldier named James Jones returned from the Pacific, lightly wounded and psychologically tormented by the horrors of Guadalcanal. When he was well enough to leave the hospital, he went AWOL rather than return to service, and began work on a novel of the World War II experience. Jones’s AWOL period was brief, but he returned to the novel at war’s end, bringing him to the attention of Maxwell Perkins, the legendary editor of Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and Thomas Wolfe. Jones would then go on to write From Here to Eternity, the National Book Award–winning novel that catapulted him into the ranks of the literary elite. Now, for the first time, Jones’s earliest writings are presented here, as a collection of stories about man and war, a testament to the great artist he was about to become. This ebook features an illustrated biography of James Jones including rare photos from the author’s estate. Views: 811
This prequel to Crown Duel is about the early life of Vidanric Renselaeus, Marquis of Shevraeth, who as a courtly, well-mannered teen coached in the noble art of dueling, finds himself thrown into the infamous cavalry command academy in Marloven Hess. There, instead of reading theories about statecraft, he is forced to learn about command from the inside--and what it means to be king. Views: 808
Pomp and chilling circumstance combine when a bizarre group of animal-rightists kidnap a royal bride-to-be on the eve of her wedding, and Jemima Shore, now a freelance commentator for American television, races against time to rescue the princess bride.
Cover Artist: Tom Hallman Views: 807
Celebrated actress Christabel Cartwright trades her country house, its staff of servants, and her husband for a reckless affair.
She also thought she could resume her career--her director was delighted, and so was Megalith Television. But one person in Christabel's circle had doubts.
What happens next is murder, and it brings Jemima Shore, the author's elegant alter ego, into the fray. She trails her man (or is it woman?) through the thickets of human emotion.
Cover Artist: Tom Hallman Views: 806
