In her second novel, Luciana is off to youth astronaut training camp! She hopes to be chosen to dive to an underwater habitat where real astronauts train for life in space. But when Luci accuses her diving partner of sabotage, no one believes her and her chances of making the diving team sink fast. Things hit rock bottom when Luci has an underwater crisis. Suddenly, making the dive team isn't her biggest worry. She'll have to conquer her fears if she ever wants to make it to Mars. If she can't, will she have to kiss her dreams of becoming an astronaut good-bye? Views: 43
The Blake Boys Book Thirteen Will love bloom when stranded in paradise? Jared Reed, a handsome, divorced architect, has been busier than ever since he started doing business with his in-laws, the Blakes. He won't need a social life if he consumes himself with work. Everyone seems determined to set him up with software executive Autumn Waverly, but who has the time for romance? Besides, his ex-wife has resurfaced with an outlandish request that will change his life forever if he agrees. In dire need of some alone time to clear his head, Jared decides to vacation at the Executive Desires resort...where he runs into none other than Autumn. As Autumn's twin sister prepares to take a walk down the aisle with her soul mate, Autumn can't help but feel a little separation anxiety about the different paths they are taking. When her sister surprises her with a vacation to the Executive Desires resort, Autumn gets the shock of her life when she arrives to find that Jared Reed is there. They agree they've been tricked, but they don't have to fall for the matchmaking trap thrust upon them. Besides, Jared has baggage, and she isn't ready to give her heart away just for a fling in paradise...** Views: 43
Beloved for his fanciful and engrossing children's literature, controversial for his enthusiasm for British imperialism, Rudyard Kipling remains one of the most widely read writers of Victorian and modern English literature. In addition to writing more than two dozen works of fiction, including Kim and The Jungle Book, Kipling was a prolific poet, composing verse in every classical form from the epigram to the ode. Kipling's most distinctive gift was for ballads and narrative poems in which he drew vivid characters in universal situations, articulating profound truths in plain language. Yet he was also a subtle, affecting anatomist of the human heart, and his deep feeling for the natural world was exquisitely expressed in his verse. He was shattered by World War I, in which he lost his only son, and his work darkened in later years but never lost its extraordinary vitality. All of these aspects of Kipling's poetry are represented in this selection, which ranges... Views: 43
“Fantastic . . . an honest, beautifully detailed book and an entertaining read.”
—DIANA GABALDON, THE WASHINGTON POST
“Simultaneously sweeping and intricate . . . Tompkins’s amazing debut novel conjures an epic battle for the soul of Ireland. Filled with papal machination and royal intrigue, magic and mayhem, faeries, Vikings, legates, kings and queens, angels and goddesses, this is one wild and breathless ride.”
—KAREN JOY FOWLER**
“Plundering the treasure chest of human myths, from mysterious biblical giants to ferocious Celtic faeries, Tompkins has created a fantasy adventure with the shifting perspectives of dreamscape. A novel rich and strange.”
—GERALDINE BROOKS
What became of magic in the world? Who needed to do away with it, and for what reasons? Drawing on myth, legend, fairy tales, and Biblical mysteries, The Last Days of Magic brilliantly imagines answers to these questions, sweeping us back to a world where humans and magical beings co-exist as they had for centuries.
Aisling, a goddess in human form, was born to rule both domains and—with her twin, Anya—unite the Celts with the powerful faeries of the Middle Kingdom. But within medieval Ireland interests are divided, and far from its shores greater forces are mustering. Both England and Rome have a stake in driving magic from the Emerald Isle. Jordan, the Vatican commander tasked with vanquishing the remnants of otherworldly creatures from a disenchanted Europe, has built a career on such plots. But increasingly he finds himself torn between duty and his desire to understand the magic that has been forbidden.
As kings prepare, exorcists gather, and divisions widen between the warring clans of Ireland, Aisling and Jordan must come to terms with powers given and withheld, while a world that can still foster magic hangs in the balance. Loyalties are tested, betrayals sown, and the coming war will have repercussions that ripple centuries later, in today’s world—and in particular for a young graduate student named Sara Hill.
The Last Days of Magic introduces us to unforgettable characters who grapple with quests for power, human frailty, and the longing for knowledge that has been made taboo. Mark Tompkins has crafted a remarkable tale—a feat of world-building that poses astonishing and resonant answers to epic questions.
**Review
Praise for *The Last Days of Magic*
“Reading The Last Days of Magic is like playing a well-constructed video game. There’s a fantastic world . . . and an exciting storyline. Set as a battle between wild-and-free ancient Magic and aggressive Religion bent on absolute control, the action focuses on Ireland, designated as the last place on Earth where real magic (known as Ardor) still flourishes in its natural form. . . . An honest, beautifully detailed book and an entertaining read.”
—Diana Gabaldon, *The Washington Post*
“A heady brew of Celtic and Biblical mythology with late medieval political intrigue and warfare. . . . Tompkins combines deft characterization with treachery, battle, magic, and hints of Dan Brown.”
—*Publishers Weekly*
“Simultaneously sweeping and intricate, reaching all the way back to the Dead Sea Scrolls and all the way forward to now, Tompkins’s amazing debut novel conjures an epic battle for the soul of Ireland. Filled with papal machination and royal intrigue, magic and mayhem, faeries, Vikings, legates, kings and queens, angels and goddesses, this is one wild and breathless ride.”
—Karen Joy Fowler
“Plundering the treasure chest of human myths, from mysterious biblical giants to ferocious Celtic faeries, Tompkins has created a fantasy adventure with the shifting perspectives of dreamscape. A novel rich and strange.”
—Geraldine Brooks
“A wild grab bag of myth, history, folklore, and the fantastical, The Last Days of Magic is the perfect read for a frozen evening by the fire or a summer night in firefly country. It fills Ireland with blood, monsters, and witchcraft, and fans of Deborah Harkness and Erin Morgenstern will delight in it.”
—Maria Dahvana Headley
“An epic adventure . . . If you are a fan of Game of Thrones, then this will certainly delight you. One of the best aspects of this book is that there are wonderful female characters. . . . All of the different stories are woven together to create a rich tapestry of Ireland and a time gone by.”
—Pondering the Prose
“The Last Days of Magic reminds me why I started to read fantasy. Read it and get lost in the green woods of Eire and in the mist of legends that still permeate Irish hills.”
—Libretto Reviews
“A half-goddess, a Vatican mercenary, kings, queens, warriors, and faery creatures battle for control of Ireland in this historical fantasy adventure. . . . Tompkins creates an intriguing world stocked with colorful characters and rich with biblical and mythological allusions.”
—Kirkus Reviews
About the Author
Mark Tompkins is the founder of the Aspen Writers’ Network and serves on the board of Aspen Words, a program of the Aspen Institute. Born in Texas of Irish ancestry, Tompkins lives in Boston, Houston, and Aspen. The Last Days of Magic is his first novel. Views: 43
John Updike once said of his friend and fellow writer Andre Dubus: “[He] is a shrewd student of people who come to accept pain as a fair price for pleasure, and to view right and wrong as a matter of degree.” Dubus’s characters are depicted in all their imperfection, but with the author’s requisite tenderness and compassion. After all, they are human just as we are human, and their fates not so unlike our own. The short stories and novellas compiled here represent the best work of one of our most accomplished and acutely sensitive authors, and make up an anthology unmatched in its collective portrayal of the human condition.REVIEWI return to Andre Dubus whenever I get hungry for a really good short story. However, after recently experiencing a Matt Fowler's revenge in the movie, "In the Bedroom," I revisited this 1996 collection of short stories. That movie is based on one of the twenty-three, stunning stories collected here, "Killings." Novelist Barbara Kingsolver has said that "a good short story cannot simply be Lit Lite." Rather, "it is the successful execution of large truths delivered in tight spaces." Confronting issues including a bereaved father's revenge ("Killings"), abortion ("Miranda over the Valley"), difficult relationships ("Adultery," "The Winter Father," "Voices from the Moon," "The Pretty Girl," "The Pitcher," "Leslie in California"), religion ("If They Knew Yvonne"), obesity ("The Fat Girl"), fatherhood ("A Father's Story"), rape ("The Curse"), sexuality and death, Dubus triumphs in delivering profound truths in these "tight spaces." You won't find happily-ever-after endings here. Rather, these are emotionally compelling stories that feel too real to be fiction. And they will leave you coming back for more. Views: 43
A group of friends must deal with betrayal, lust and lies in the heart-wrenching sequel to A Sense of GuiltWhat can you do once the worst has already happened? The central characters of A Sense of Guilt – which became a hugely successful television series – are facing the devastating effects of Felix's affair with Sally, the teenage stepdaughter of his best friend, Richard. Elizabeth and Felix's marriage has been tested to its limits: Richard's marriage to Helen, Sally's mother, has collapsed and Richard has returned to his first wife, Inge. 'Elizabeth managed to walk to the door but she still couldn't look at Felix. Were there no limits to what she was asked to endure or had she just reached the end?' 'Inge sat down again at the kitchen table, thinking that a miracle had happened and she did not know how to behave. When you get your heart's desire, what do you do to celebrate?' 'Had Helen... Views: 43
Spud Sweetgrass and his friends Connie Pan and Dink the Thinker are back. And this time Spud is in some frigid trouble. One morning Spud sees a terrible crime. And he can't get it out of his mind. Detective Kennedy wants him to tell her what he saw, but he's affraid of the man with the most beautiful hair in the world — afraid for himself, and afraid for Connie Pan. How will Spud find his way our of the mess he's in? Another masterful book by award-winning author Brian Doyle, Spud in Winter combines rollicking humour, chilling mystery, and delight in human foibles. Views: 43
Folk healer and seer Rhoda-Sue Outlaw Jackson knows her time on earth is running out when she hears the voice of her late husband telling her she has only but so many heartbeats left. She’s had a troubled relationship with her daughter, and has little hope of passing on her extraordinary gifts, either to this difficult daughter or to her granddaughter. With the final hour around the corner, she brings her family together for one more try. Can she leave the world at peace with them, as well as with her legacy?This short story prequel to the Mae Martin Psychic Mystery Series introduces Mae at age ten, as seen through the eyes of her grandmother. Views: 43
Read this classic romance novella by New York Times bestselling author Penny Jordan, now available for the first time in e-book! Originally published as Figgy Pudding in 1997.The perfect Christmas recipe...Take one woman, add a boss who's told the world they're having an affair, and then concoct one very special Christmas dish in order to save her catering career! Views: 43
Trey Taylor was loving life. Bass player to the world famous rock band Devil’s Lair, chicks falling to their knees at every turn, no one to be held accountable to for his actions…life rocked. He had all he needed, food to sustain his body, sex to sustain his libido, rock to sustain his soul. For years he walked to the beat of his own drum, and made no excuses to anyone. Running and hiding can temporarily distract your fate, but it won’t derail it. Fate was coming for him, whether he liked it or not. His past was gaining ground and threatening all the secrets he desperately tried to hide. His present was slowing him down, making him feel emotions he buried years ago. The two are about to collide. Will Trey survive the impact? Views: 43
