Heroes

Heroes tells the story of Peter Bayle - heavy drinker, philosopher, scholar, and anemic lover - as he visits a town in Kansas to write a story for Toronto Living magazine about the newfound love of middle-America for the quintessential Canadian game of hockey. During his research Bayle encounters a host of odd characters: a morphine-injecting reverend, a shunned reporter and his former crack-addict girlfriend, and a drug salesman with his sights set on a career as a cable mogul.The article never gets written, and as Bayle becomes more and more involved in the destructive behaviour of the friends and enemies he has made, his problems back home continue to build. His assignment long-since abandoned, Bayle returns to Toronto to face a future he does not want. It is a future obscured by a past he can't let go of, but which he also can't come to terms with.
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A Land of Permanent Goodbyes

Narrated by Destiny, this heartbreaking — and timely — story of refugees escaping from war-torn Syria is masterfully told by a foreign news correspondent who experienced the crisis firsthand.Tareq lives in Syria with his warm and loving family, until the bombs strike. He, his father, and his younger sister are the only survivors, and they have no choice but to go to Raqqa, where they have extended family. But Raqqa is a stronghold for Daesh, the militant group claiming to follow the tennets of Islam, yet who really exist only to enable violence and intolerance. Tareq's family leave quickly, and Tareq heads to Istanbul with his cousin. From there, reunited with his younger sister, they flee successfully to Greece.This is a story of resilience in the face of darkness, and of one boy's courage in desperate circumstances. But it is also the story of all wars, of all tragedy, and of all strife. With Destiny as a narrator offering perspective and context,...
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Rip Van Winkle

'I'm not myself - I'm somebody else - that's me yonder - no - that's somebody else got into my shoes...I can't tell what's my name, or who I am!'Touching and comic short stories from the 19th century American master of the genre.One of 46 new books in the bestselling Little Black Classics series, to celebrate the first ever Penguin Classic in 1946. Each book gives readers a taste of the Classics' huge range and diversity, with works from around the world and across the centuries - including fables, decadence, heartbreak, tall tales, satire, ghosts, battles and elephants.
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Savage Interlude

Read this classic romance by USA Today bestselling author Carole Mortimer, now available for the first time in e-book!A Savage seduction...From the moment successful movie producer, Damien Savage, saw talented actress, Kate Darwood, he wanted her! The only problem is — she's married!But all is not as it seems. Kate's "husband" is her secret brother and to save their family from scandal, the world must continue to think they're a couple. But now that handsome stranger Damien seems set on seducing her, suddenly innocent Kate wants to share all her secrets...Originally published in 1979
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Crystal Cave

Amazon.com ReviewInitially published nearly thirty years ago, Mary Stewart's The Crystal Cave has been spellbinding readers and converting them into serious Arthurian buffs ever since. The first in a series of four books, this novel focuses on the early life of Merlin the magician, and the political developments of fifth-century Britain. Not for the fainthearted, this verbose text pays careful attention to historical details and methodical plot development.Merlin's childhood is formed by the absence of his reticent, convent-bound mother and his unnamed and unknown father. As the bastard grandson of a local king, Merlin is the object of both envy and ridicule. His strange powers and predictions earn him greater status as a pariah, and he leaves home as a preadolescent. Returning years later as a young man--empowered by self-knowledge and magic--Merlin finds himself caught in the currents of the shifting kingdoms.As an established classic in this genre, and the first in a popular series, The Crystal Cave introduces this familiar character with fresh sensitivity. While readers looking for the romance of First Knight will be disappointed, those happy with tight writing and a complex story line will be satisfied. --Nancy R.E. O'BrienReview'Vivid, enthralling, absolutely first-class' -- Daily Mail 'Mary Stewart brilliantly recreates the Britain of the fifth century' -- Books And Bookmen 'Her style is simple yet vivid, displaying a love of words and the sounds they make, and her story is poetically imaginative' -- Daily Telegraph 'A deft colourful ... re-creation of Merlin's early life' -- Sunday Times 'A fascinating story which lays a firm hold on the imagination' -- The Scotsman 'Mary Stewart lightens the Dark Ages with legend, pure invention and a lively sense of history. -- New York Times
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All That Glitters

In New York Times bestselling author Diana Palmer's fan-favorite tale of unexpected passion, opposites attract when a wealthy mogul falls for his beautiful, secretive employee.When Ivory Keene landed a job at a prestigious fashion house in New York, she could never have anticipated the challenges and excitement her new position would provide. Chief among them is her exasperatingly sexy boss, Curry Kells.The older, experienced executive can't help but be drawn to Ivory by a desire neither can resist. He sees only a talented young woman whose fresh, exciting designs might just make them both millions. But he soon discovers that Ivory is keeping secrets.Now, just as Ivory's wildest dreams are within her grasp, she's tempted by the intimacies of a forbidden affair. But is achieving fame and wealth worth sacrificing Curry's love?
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The Memory Trap

A novel about memory, music, friendship, family rifts and reconciliation, this is an intelligent, compelling read set in Melbourne.Nina Jameson, an international consultant on memorial projects based in London, has been happily married to Daniel for twelve years. When her her life falls apart she accepts a job in her hometown of Melbourne. There she joins her sister, Zoe, embroiled in her own problems with Elliot, an American biographer of literary women. And she finds herself caught up in age-old conflicts of two friends from her past: the celebrated pianist Ramsay Blake and his younger brother, Sean.All these people have been treading thin ice for far too long. Nina arrives home to find work, loves and entrenched obsessions under threat.A rich and compelling story of marriage, music, the illusions of love and the deceits of memory, THE MEMORY TRAP's characters are real, flawed and touchingly human.
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Foundation

Peter Ackroyd, whose work has always been underpinned by a profound interest in and understanding of England's history, now tells the epic story of England itself.In Foundation, the chronicler of London and of its river, the Thames, take us from the primeval forests of England's prehistory to the death, in 1509, of the first Tudor king, Henry VII. He guides us from the building of Stonehenge to the founding of the two great glories of medieval England: common law and the cathedrals. He shows us glimpses of the country's most distant past--a Neolithic stirrup found in a grave, a Roman fort, a Saxon tomb, a medieval manor house--and describes in rich prose the successive waves of invaders who make England English, despite being themselves Roman, Viking, Saxon, or Norman French.With his extraordinary skill for evoking time and place and his acute eye for the telling detail, Ackroyd recounts the story of warring kings, of civil strife, and foreign wars....
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Peaches and the Gambler

Take one recently fired woman, add to that two pesky daughters, one opera singing sister, two good-looking men, one murder investigation, and a boxful of Dove Ice Cream Bars. Then, generously stir with a seedy strip club, throw in a .45 Magnum and a dash of Bojangles' cajun seasoned fries and you have a Dish of Disaster!
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Graffiti Palace

A brilliant, exhilarating debut novel that retells The Odyssey during the 1965 Watts Riots—like nothing you've ever read beforeIt's August 1965 and Los Angeles is scorching. Americo Monk, a street-haunting aficionado of graffiti, is frantically trying to return home to the makeshift harbor community (assembled from old shipping containers) where he lives with his girlfriend, Karmann. But this is during the Watts Riots, and although his status as a chronicler of all things underground garners him free passage through the territories fiercely controlled by gangs, his trek is nevertheless diverted. Embarking on an exhilarating, dangerous, and at times paranormal journey, Monk crosses paths with a dizzying array of representatives from Los Angeles subcultures, including Chinese gangsters, graffiti bombers, witches, the Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad, and others. Graffiti Palace is the story of a city transmogrified by the upsurge of...
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