A life-changing secret destroys an unlikely friendship in this "magnetic" psychological thriller from the Edgar Award-winning author of Dare Me (Meg Wolitzer). Kit Owens harbored only modest ambitions for herself when the mysterious Diane Fleming appeared in her high school chemistry class. But Diane's academic brilliance lit a fire in Kit, and the two developed an unlikely friendship. Until Diane shared a secret that changed everything between them. More than a decade later, Kit thinks she's put Diane behind her forever and she's begun to fulfill the scientific dreams Diane awakened in her. But the past comes roaring back when she discovers that Diane is her competition for a position both women covet, taking part in groundbreaking new research led by their idol. Soon enough, the two former friends find themselves locked in a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse that threatens to destroy them both.Named one of the Most Anticipated Books... Views: 42
USA Today bestselling author of the King Series, T.M. Frazier, brings you an all-new trilogy with a sexy anti-hero you're going to love to hate, and a ballsy heroine with more up her sleeve than just tricks. Love is supposed to be a fairy tale. Ours is a death wish.I'm the executioner for the Bedlam Brotherhood.She's a con artist working for my greatest enemy.I use her.She manipulates me.We find ourselves on opposite sides of a bloody war.My heart and head tell me I have to stay away.My lust for her doesn't give a sh*t.Nothings fair in love and gang war. Views: 42
Join Darius and Jerico, faithful paladins of opposing deities, as they struggle against monsters invading from the Vile Wedge, a civil war in the North, and a growing unrest fed by prophets and madmen that would tear apart the land for their insidious goals.This bundle contains the following four novels:Night of WolvesClash of FaithsThe Old WaysThe Broken PiecesAbout the Author:David Dalglish currently lives in rural Missouri with his wife Samantha, and daughters Morgan and Katherine. He graduated from Missouri Southern State University in 2006 with a degree in Mathematics and currently spends his free time playing way too much Warhammer 40k Views: 42
Classic reprints from: Ambrose Bierce, Frank Norris, Mark Twain, Jack London, Dashiell Hammett, Fletcher Flora, Bill Pronzini, Joe Gores, Janet Dawson, Oscar Peñaranda, Seth Morgan, Craig Clevenger, and others.Peter Maravelis is a native San Franciscan with a life-long involvement in the art and literary scenes. He programs the events calendar at City Lights Bookstore and is editor of the first volume of San Francisco Noir. He’s been known to occasionally moonlight with private investigators.From Publishers WeeklyThis classics entry in Akashic's noir anthology series boasts an impressive roster of names, including such standard authors as Mark Twain, Jack London, Ambrose Bierce and Dashiell Hammett. Unsurprisingly, Hammett, one of the fathers of American hard-boiled fiction, supplies the best story, The Scorched Face, which sets his Continental Op on the trail of two missing women. Marcia Muller's Deceptions makes good use of the Golden Gate Bridge's appeal to potential suicides in a short but gripping exploit of her series PI, Sharon McCone. Readers looking for lesser-known talent will welcome Janet Dawson's Invisible Time, which presents a grim view of life on the streets for two young people. Don Herron's gritty Knives in the Dark, with its Chandler-like plot line, convincingly depicts Prohibition-era tough guys. As usual, the overall caliber of the writing in this reprint volume is superior to the average all-original book in the series. (Feb.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. About the AuthorPeter Maravelis is a native San Franciscan with a life-long involvement in the art and literary scenes. He programs the events calendar at City Lights Bookstore and is editor of the first volume of San Francisco Noir. He?s been known to occasionally moonlight with PIs. He was the editor of the first volume of San Francisco Noir. Views: 42
July, 1802. In the marshy eastern reaches of the Thames lies the Hispaniola, an inn kept by Jim Hawkins and his son. Young Jim spends his days roaming the mist-shrouded estuaries, running errands for his father and listening to his stories in the taproom; tales of adventures on the high seas, of curses, murder and revenge, black spots and buried treasure - and of a man with a wooden leg.Late one night, a mysterious girl named Natty arrives on the river with a request for Jim from her father - Long John Silver. Aged and weak, but still possessing a strange power, the pirate proposes that Jim and Natty sail to Treasure Island in search of Captain Flint's hidden bounty, the 'beautiful bar silver' left behind many years before. Silver has chartered a ship and a hardy crew for this purpose, whose captain is waiting only for the map, now locked away at the Hispaniola.Making haste from London, Jim and Natty set off in the footsteps of their fathers, their tentative friendship growing stronger day by day. But the thrill of the ocean odyssey gives way to terror as the Nightingale reaches its destination, for it seems that Treasure Island is not as uninhabited as it once was... Featuring a cast of noble seamen, murderous pirates, and stories of love, valour and terrible cruelty, Silver is a worthy sequel to Treasure Island - one of the greatest adventure stories ever told - and a work of extraordinary authenticity and imaginative power from one of England's greatest writers. Views: 42
Bennie Ford, a fifty-three-year-old failed poet turned translator, is traveling to his estranged daughter’s wedding when his flight is canceled. Stuck with thousands of fuming passengers in the purgatory of O’Hare International Airport, he watches the clock tick and realizes that he will miss the ceremony. Frustrated, irate, and helpless, Bennie does the only thing he can: he starts to write a letter.But what begins as a hilariously excoriating demand for a refund soon becomes a lament for a life gone awry, for years misspent, talent wasted, and happiness lost. Bennie’s writing is infused with a sense of remorse for the actions of a lifetime—and made all the more urgent by the fading hope that if he can just make it to the wedding, he might have a chance to do something right.A margarita blend of outrage, humor, vulnerability, intelligence, and regret, Dear American Airlines gives new meaning to the term "airport novel" and announces the emergence of a major new talent in American fiction.Amazon.com ReviewElizabeth Gilbert on *Dear American AirlinesElizabeth Gilbert's first three books, Pilgrims, Stern Men, and the National Book Award nominee The Last American Man, received awards and acclaim, but her fourth, Eat, Pray, Love, a chronicle of her spiritual search and redemption following a difficult divorce, has put her on the bedside tables of millions of readers across the world. Her next book, Weddings and Evictions*, a memoir about her unexpected journey into second marriage, will be published in 2009. I'm one of those readers who can't get enough of Martin Amis novels, since Amis--a savage misanthrope who sometimes writes, it seems, with a drill bit--is a guilty pleasure of mine from way back. So it's no wonder that I fell so hard for the bitter, hilarious, dark, twisted, and wonderfully written delights of Dear American Airlines--the most Amis-like novel I've ever read. Jonathan Miles is a first-time novelist (and--full disclosure--friend of mine) whose journalism I've long admired for its clear, humane prose. I never suspected that he had a book like this in him, and--frankly--now that I do know, I'm a little worried for his mental state (even as I'm totally impressed with his writing.)The novel relays the tale of Bennie Ford, a man who is marinating like a cocktail olive in the sour middle-aged juices of his own mistakes, but who has decided to redeem himself completely by attending the wedding of his estranged daughter. Now, as some of us have learned from painful personal experience, it's not always easy to redeem a lifetime of screw-ups in one weekend, but that doesn't deter Bennie from heading to the airport to fly off to what he has decided is the most important event in his life. (The fact that he doesn't seem to notice that the wedding should actually be the most important event in his DAUGHTER'S life, not his, is an early clue of his particular breed of hilarious narcissism.) But at the airport is where his troubles begin, as American Airlines cancels his flight and thus--as far as he is concerned--destroys his life. What follows is a complaint letter raised to the level of high narrative art. I have never before encountered a novel written in the form of a complaint letter, and we can safely assume there will never be another such after this one, just because Miles has created an inimitable story here--one which, despite all the dark wit of its narrator--leaves room in the sad margins for real heartbreak, real feeling, real life. (This is something Amis himself wasn't able to do until many years into his career.) This is the most entertaining first novel I've read in a long while, as well as a searing cautionary tale. Bring it to the airport with you next time you fly somewhere to change your life...*From Publishers WeeklyThis crisp yowl of a first novel from Miles, who covers books for Men's Journal and cocktails for the New York Times, finds despairing yet effusive litterateur Benjamin Ford midair in midlife crisis. Bennie is en route from New York, where he shares a cramped apartment with his stroke-disabled mother and her caretaker, to L.A., where he will attend his daughter Stella's wedding. He gets stranded at O'Hare when his connecting flight—along with all others—is unaccountably canceled. In the long, empty hours amid a marooned crowd, Bennie's demand for a refund quickly becomes a scathing yet oddly joyful reflection on his difficult life, and on the Polish novel he is translating. Bennie writes lightly of his dark years of drinking, of his failed marriages, about his mother's descent into suicidal madness and about her marriage to Bennie's father, a survivor of a Nazi labor camp. Bennie's father recited Polish poetry for solace during Bennie's childhood, inadvertently setting Bennie's life course; Bennie's command of language as he describes his fellow strandees and his riotous embrace of his own feelings will have readers rooting for him. By the time flights resume, Miles has masterfully taken Bennie from grim resignation to the dazzling exhilaration of the possible. (June) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Views: 42
"It's unlikely that a more intelligent, amusing and yet disturbing novel will appear this autumn." ScotsmanOn The Island, just as on many other islands, marriages are unhappy, people fall in love and the seasons pass. The town of Aberdeen is no different, until the earthquakes. These seismic ripples tear down houses, forge bonds, and shake the foundations of humanity and religion. And in the midst of it all, Nellie and Ingrid fall in love.In Aftershocks A. N. Wilson offers a portrait of nature, death and morality. Moved by the real losses of the Christchurch earthquake, this is an extraordinary novel about a community profoundly linked to the land it lives on."Witty, erudite and artful." Spectator Views: 42
