An overnight heiress meets the man of her dreams—and her newfound family's worst nightmare. Discovering she's a member of Manhattan's most famous retail dynasty has given Emma Stewart a place to belong. Meeting a seductive stranger makes her rags-to-riches transformation complete. But British-born heir Daniel Stone is secretly carrying out revenge against her new family. Now the clock is ticking down to midnight on their secret affair... Views: 609
A grieving mother learns to heal in Amish country, in this heartfelt, beautifully told novel from national bestselling author Laura Bradford. Danielle Parker is a gold-medal mom—the kind who volunteers in her children's classrooms, shuttles them between activities, throws legendary birthday parties, and has a remedy on hand for any emergency. Whatever her husband, Jeff, and their children need, Dani is there, always. Except for one day. On that day—the day that Dani reluctantly takes some "me time" while her mom and Jeff drive the children to the park—the unthinkable happens. The car crash leaves no survivors. Somehow, Dani gets through the funerals and visits, accepting neighbors' sympathy and dropped-off meals. All the while, guilt and grief make her wish the accident had claimed her life too. Then a call comes from Lydia Schlabach, an Amish woman Dani befriended in childhood. In addition to condolences, Lydia offers... Views: 609
Sheriff Burt gets himself embroiled again in a series of heinous crimes that seem to be the work of an imitator of Reverend Larry, who left a trail of dead girls in the cold winter. Peter, who still remains distant from his platonic love, Ann, has restored his friendship with his brother Denny, and he becomes involved again in a crime spree with many young girls from News Academy High School being murdered. Burt decides to close the high school during the rainy fall, but the corpses appear everywhere. But Peter is not alone this time. Ethan and Charlotte, who belong to the FBI, join the investigation, although there are certain situations that develop in serious clashes against Burt and Peter. Peter can see now the memories of the dead girls. He is able to see the last thing they saw, the images engraved in their retinas. But he also discovers that he is able to see beyond it. He can see through the killer's eyes just by touching an object, with the help of the deceased... Views: 609
Grace Jensen longs to be a doctor, but her dream died long ago. Ward is a loner, not sure of his true name. He was struck with an ax at a young age, leaving a devastating scar, none can bear to see.Until he meets Grace, Grace, Unimagined. Views: 609
This book is a story of events and laughs in the lives of a river boatmen and his two sons as they work each day on the river, including their reluctant involvement in helping the police solve several crimes. It gives the reader a deep insight into the personalities and relationships of the three main characters, plus many sidelights about life on the river, its ambience and the local inhabitants.The book is a story of events and laughs in the lives of a river boatman and his two sons as they work each day on the river, including their reluctant involvement in helping the police solve several crimes. It gives the reader a view of the personalities of the father and his two sons, their opinions of each other, and how these change as the book progresses, particularly as the youngest son matures. The book contains many sidelights about life on the river, its ambience, and its local inhabitants. Part one of the book is told by the father, Ted, part two by the eldest son, Jack, and part three by the youngest son, Tim. Views: 609
Nine-year-old Levi King knew he should have left for home sooner; instead he found himself all alone, adrift on the vastness of Caddo Lake. A sudden noise - and all goes dark.Ranger Darren Matthews is trying to emerge from another kind of darkness; his career and reputation lie in the hands of his mother, who's never exactly had his best interests at heart. Now she holds the key to his freedom, and she's not above a little blackmail to press her advantage.An unlikely possibility of rescue arrives in the form of a case down Highway 59, in a small lakeside town. With Texas already suffering a new wave of racial violence in the wake of the election of Donald Trump, a black man is a suspect in the possible murder of a missing white boy: the son of an Aryan Brotherhood captain.In deep country where the rule of law only goes so far, Darren has to battle centuries-old prejudices as he races to save not only Levi King, but himself. Views: 609
“We are as real as anything, which is to say, not very. As real as you, which is – not very. And Unicorns are, naturally, as real as us all – which is not very. The Unicorn will not be found, no. It will find you, if you are real enough to be found…”The quest to find the "evil" unicorn begins to unravel Lucerna's power hungry plans. Or will it complete them?“We are as real as anything, which is to say, not very. As real as you, which is – not very. And Unicorns are, naturally, as real as us all – which is not very. The Unicorn will not be found, no. It will find you, if you are real enough to be found...”When the devious and power hungry Lucerna invents an entity known as the Deus Curo, she is surprised and pleased to gain a dedicated following. Only she underestimates the power of belief, and gradually her creation spirals out of her control. In the meantime, Quinn Payne is sent on a quest to find the "evil" unicorn, and Lucerna never guessed that her downfall was living with her in her own house… Views: 608
Some people reject the fact, overwhelmingly supported by scientists, that our planet is warming due to human activities. But do those of us who accept the reality of human-caused climate change truly believe in it? If we did, surely we would be roused to act, to make sacrifices now to prevent calamity in the future. How are we, ordinary civilians, supposed to do anything about a crisis for which we can barely sustain concern, of which our understanding is so incomplete, and from which we cannot imagine an escape? Will future generations distinguish between those who didn't believe in the science of climate change and those who said they accepted the science but didn't act?In Food Will Win the War, Jonathan Safran Foer explores the central dilemma of our time in a surprising, creative, and urgent new way. We have, he reveals, turned our planet into a farm for growing meat, and the consequences are catastrophic. With the future of our home at stake, the time has... Views: 608
How Clarissa Burden Learned to Fly is the transcendent story of a young woman who, in a twenty-four hour period, journeys through startling moments of self-discovery that lead her to a courageous and life-altering decision. Views: 608
“The idea of verse, of poetry, has always, during forty years spent working primarily in prose, stood at my elbow, as a standing invitation to the highest kind of verbal exercise—the most satisfying, the most archaic, the most elusive of critical control. In hotel rooms and airplanes, on beaches and Sundays, at junctures of personal happiness or its opposite, poetry has comforted me with its hope of permanence, its packaging of flux.”
Thus John Updike writes in introducing his Collected Poems. The earliest poems here date from 1953, when Updike was twenty-one, and the last were written after he turned sixty. Almost all of those published in his five previous collections are included, with some revisions. Arranged in chronological order, the poems constitute, as he says, “the thread backside of my life’s fading tapestry.” An ample set of notes at the back of the book discusses some of the hidden threads, and expatiates upon a number of fine points.
Nature—tenderly intricate, ruthlessly impervious—is a constant and ambiguous presence in these poems, along with the social observation one would expect in a novelist. No occasion is too modest or too daily to excite metaphysical wonder, or to provoke a lyrical ingenuity of language. Yet even the wittiest of the poems are rooted to the ground of experience and fact. “Seven Odes to Seven Natural Processes” attempt to explicate the physical world with a directness seldom attempted in poetry. Several longer poems—“Leaving Church Early,” “Midpoint”—use autobiography to proclaim the basic strangeness of existence. Views: 608
The Woman in the Dunes, by celebrated writer and thinker Kobo Abe, combines the essence of myth, suspense and the existential novel.
After missing the last bus home following a day trip to the seashore, an amateur entomologist is offered lodging for the night at the bottom of a vast sand pit. But when he attempts to leave the next morning, he quickly discovers that the locals have other plans. Held captive with seemingly no chance of escape, he is tasked with shoveling back the ever-advancing sand dunes that threaten to destroy the village. His only companion is an odd young woman. Together their fates become intertwined as they work side by side at this Sisyphean task. Views: 608
The Crux is an important early feminist work that brings to the fore complicated issues of gender, citizenship, eugenics, and frontier nationalism. First published serially in the feminist journal The Forerunner in 1910, The Crux tells the story of a group of New England women who move west to start a boardinghouse for men in Colorado. The innocent central character, Vivian Lane, falls in love with Morton Elder, who has both gonorrhea and syphilis. The concern of the novel is not so much that Vivian will catch syphilis, but that, if she were to marry and have children with Morton, she would harm the "national stock." Views: 608