When the hard-bitten Police Sarge in Traffic Control hears about a broken down vehicle on the motorway from a rookie patrolman and his partner, are they pulling his leg? A whimisical tale set just before dawn on Christmas morning.When the hard-bitten Police Sarge in Traffic Control hears about a broken down vehicle on the motorway from a rookie patrolman and his partner, are they pulling his leg? A whimisical tale set just before dawn on Christmas morning. Set in England. Views: 696
Arnold Bennett was a prolific British writer who penned dozens of works across all genres, from adventurous fiction to propaganda and nonfiction. He wrote plays like Judith and historical novels like Tales of the Five Towns. Views: 696
After a medical discharge from his duties in the Napoleonic War, Thomas Quincy Fitzbatten has returned home. Disoriented, burdened by guilt for his wealth, and disillusioned with life's injustices, Thomas longs for a chance to make a difference in the world. But he keeps himself a mystery to those around him, and another motive for his charity gnaws at the back of his mind: to seek redemption from the traumatic demons of war. Then everything changes at the arrival of Ruth Dawson, the niece of Thomas's butler, a stunning woman with a secret of her own. Thomas graciously offers to assist Ruth in her predicament, but a surprise instinct prompts Thomas to handle the case a little more personally—through marriage. As their love blossoms, it appears that all will be well—until Thomas receives a mysterious letter from an old friend in trouble, compelling him to the rescue. But what will Thomas do when nothing is as it seems? And why can't Ruth shake the feeling that her... Views: 696
When Newbery Medal winner Neil Gaiman and Emmy Award winner Michael Reaves teamed up, they created the bestselling YA novel InterWorld.
InterWorld tells the story of Joey Harker, a very average kid who discovers that his world is only one of a trillion alternate earths. Some of these earths are ruled by magic. Some are ruled by science. All are at war.
Joey teams up with alternate versions of himself from an array of these worlds. Together, the army of Joeys must battle evil magicians Lord Dogknife and Lady Indigo to keep the balance of power between all the earths stable. Teens—and tweens and adults—who obsessively read the His Dark Materials and Harry Potter series will be riveted by InterWorld and its sequel, The Silver Dream. Views: 696
A young thief mounts a daring and perilous burglary, but finds things do not turn out the way he’d expected.A short fantasy story set in the mythological ancient world of the Craft of Shadows.Dusk has fallen, Hildur is asleep, when granny arrives, for dinner. And she isn't a vegetarian.Caution: This is no lovey-dovey modern version of vampires. You are warned. It's also possibly the darkest of all stories in the series. Won't say more, because it'll be a spoiler.--Matilda Mathildis is a series of stories about Matilda, and about others who impact on her life.Each story is different, however they all come under the general umbrella of realistic fantasy: that is fantasy that could theoretically exist in the real world (sorry, no witches on broomsticks).Many of the stories are free. Those ebooks which aren’t have a free sample read, so kindly enjoy. Views: 696
"I'm here to take you to live with your father. In Tokyo, Japan! Happy birthday!" In the Land of the Rising Sun, where high culture meets high kitsch, and fashion and technology are at the forefront of the First World's future, the foreign-born teen elite attend ICS—the International Collegiate School of Tokyo. Their accents are fluid. Their homes are ridiculously posh. Their sports games often involve a (private) plane trip to another country. They miss school because of jet lag and visa issues. When they get in trouble, they seek diplomatic immunity. Enter foster-kid-out-of-water Elle Zoellner, who, on her sixteenth birthday discovers that her long-lost father, Kenji Takahari, is actually a Japanese hotel mogul and wants her to come live with him. Um, yes, please! Elle jets off first class from Washington D.C. to Tokyo, which seems like a dream come true. Until she meets her enigmatic father, her way-too-fab aunt, and her hyper-critical grandmother, who seems to wish Elle didn't... Views: 696
In the series Chris Grabenstein called "hysterically hilarious," the saga about the evil werepenguins of Brugaria comes to a stunning, action-packed conclusion!When Bolt, Annika, and Blackburn are given another cryptic clue by Omneseus the Seer, they know the time has come to defeat the baddest Werepenguin, "the Stranger," and free the world's penguins from his evil reign. Only a very special tooth can bring the Stranger down, but of course, procuring this precious item is no easy task, and it doesn't help that Bolt can't stop hearing the Stranger in his head, trying to coax him to the dark side. When Bolt stumbles into a weremole burrow and meets Grom, a human boy with a penguin birthmark who's desperate to be bitten, he starts to question whether a werepenguin can be anything but a terrible monster. Or if one born out of love might be the key to penguin salvation. As Bolt's werepenguin strengths grow more powerful, the ultimate war between good and evil looms closer.... Views: 696
Fifteen short stories, featuring Cinderella Shoes, Analog, Cast, and Traveled Time.Cinderella Shoes contains 15 short stories, including the titular story.Stiletto: An exotic dancer struggles to make a living after encountering a murder-in-progress on the job.Cast: The world is increasingly run by robots, which grow increasingly human.Analog: An ex-Air Force pilot subsists after a weapon disables all modern technology.Weakness: Sergeant Ruocco hanged himself.My Beloved's Eyes: We leave pieces of ourselves with our loved ones- sometimes literally. Reformatory: A juvenile delinquent and her roommate mature in the aftermath of a devastating assault.Capricorn: A man wrecks his life and chases fairy tales, while dealing with his young daughter's impending illness.Behav: Future terrorists recruit a past terrorist.Death Echoes: A detective communes with the dead to close their unsolved cases.Traveled Time: A man examines his life and choices, with the advent of time travel.Genetic Memory: A dog confronts his owner after gaining the ability to speak and reason.Darling, Wendy, M.A.: A girl saves her brothers from their abusive father by masquerading as a gang leader. From a 2009 series of shorts reexamining classic heroines.Eponine: Following her near-death in the streets of Paris, a young woman witnesses the birth of feminism and the industrialization of Europe. From a 2009 series of shorts reexamining classic heroines.Dorothy: Her fantasy was undoubtedly much happier than the reality of her injuries. From a 2009 series of shorts reexamining classic heroines.Cinderella Shoes: A man discovers a new side of himself after acquiring women's clothing. Views: 696
From Granny Catchprice, who runs her family business--and her family--with senility, cunning, and a handbag full of explosives to sixteen-year-old Benny, who dreams of transforming a failing automobile franchise into an empire--and himself into an angel--the Catchprices may be the most spectacularly contentious family since Dostoevsky's Karamozovs. But when a beautiful and very pregnant agent of the Australian Taxation Office enters their lives, the resulting collision becomes, in Carey's hands, masterpiece of coal-black humour and compassionate horror.
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From the Hardcover edition. Views: 696
The real town of Truro, Nova Scotia has problems. It's suffered similarly to the rest of the Canadian province with one small exception: Truro is the Hub of paranormal phonomenon. The following is a collection of short stories about children dealing with disturbing, real life occurances.Childrens imaginations run rampant to explain the circumstances they cannot emotionally fathom.The year is 2048 and Liristan has declared war on the Allied powers. While Canadian Prime Minister Alistair Tillman is doing his best to placate his enemies and assist his friends, there's a traitor on the Hill. He enlists nineteen year old, rookie M.P. Jonathan Tremblay and the beautiful Legislative Assistant, Alexandra Sinclair to help him unmask the enemy within. But what they find is more shocking than they ever could have imagined and the pair of political sleuths must quickly learn to navigate the dangerous game of politics to stay ahead - and stay alive. Views: 696
A grandfather occupies his three grandchildren by telling them a story told to him when he was young by his own father. In telling it he brings to life times and people gone by. Part of the story was originally told in Yorkshire dialect but, because a lot of people found it difficult to understand, a more readable version is now in place.Johanna is the 2nd youngest of 8 children living on a farm in rural Poland in the 1930s. She loves animals but due to her family's financial constraints, she has never been allowed to have a pet. She forms an unlikely friendship with a small cow on the farm and soon the two become inseparable. On the verge of World War II, Johanna and her family must flee Poland and their farm to seek refuge in Canada. Brokenhearted, Johanna is left to deal with life in a new country and wondering about the fate of her best friend. Views: 695
These days, Frank McCourt would seem to have cornered the market on lyrical depictions of Celtic poverty. But never fear, Sebastian Barry--the brilliant Irish playwright, poet, and prose-wrangler--is here. His new novel, The Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty recounts the odyssey of a small-town innocent, who grows up in circumstances more bucolic, but no less threadbare, than McCourt's. It's clear from the very first paragraph, however, that Barry means to take a wide-angle view of his Irish urchin: "In the middle of the lonesome town, at the back of John Street, in the third house from the end, there is a little room. For this small bracket in the long paragraph of the street's history, it belongs to Eneas McNulty. All about him the century has just begun, a century some of which he will endure, but none of which will belong to him."
Having handily survived his Sligo childhood, Eneas joins the British Army in time for World War I--and upon his return home, finds himself shunned as a collaborator. Tarred with this very Britannic brush, he goes one better and enlists in the Royal Irish Constabulary. Alas, this move only cements his fate as a marked man, and his father is soon issued a warning: "Let your son keep out of Sligo if he wants to keep his ability to walk." With a price on his head, Eneas commences a life of wandering, from Mexico to Africa to Nigeria (which the moonlight, he notices, "brings closer to Ireland.") From time to time he sneaks back to Sligo and is promptly expelled.
In another author's hands, this epic of dislocation could well be a bitter one. Yet the stoical and simple-minded Eneas is surprisingly free of anguish, and even his constant fear "has become something else, could he dare call it strength, a privacy anyhow." And the reader, at least, has the delightful distraction of Barry's prose, in which the occasional Joycean notes are entirely subsumed by the author's own colloquial brilliance. In the end, The Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty is less a novel than an exhibition of bardic fireworks--a latter-day Aeniad that's actually worthy of the name. --James Marcus Views: 695
The classic novel of fly fishing and spirituality, originally published in 1983.Since its publication in 1983, THE RIVER WHY has become a classic. David James Duncan's sweeping novel is a coming-of-age comedy about love, nature, and the quest for self-discovery, written in a voice as distinct and powerful as any in American letters.Gus Orviston is a young fly fisherman who leaves behind his comically schizoid family to find his own path. Taking refuge in a remote cabin, he sets out in pursuit of the Pacific Northwest's elusive steelhead. But what begins as a physical quarry becomes a spiritual one as his quest for self-knowledge batters him with unforeseeable experiences. Profoundly reflective about our connection to nature and to one another, THE RIVER WHY is also a comedic rollercoaster. Like Gus, the reader emerges utterly changed, stripped bare by the journey Duncan so expertly navigates. Views: 695
