Pomp and chilling circumstance combine when a bizarre group of animal-rightists kidnap a royal bride-to-be on the eve of her wedding, and Jemima Shore, now a freelance commentator for American television, races against time to rescue the princess bride.
Cover Artist: Tom Hallman Views: 807
After being told he was adopted on his 18th birthday Patrick Waverly sets out to find his birth parents. He boards a plane, strikes up a conversation with a passenger next to him. What happens next will change his life forever.After being told he was adopted on his 18th birthday Patrick Waverly sets out to find his birth parents. He boards a plane, strikes up a conversation with a passenger next to him. What happens next will change his life forever. Join him on his Journey and you won't be disappointed. Views: 807
A novel filled with new insights into the story of Henry VIII’s second—and most infamous—wife, Anne Boleyn. The second book in the epic Six Tudor Queens series, from the acclaimed historian and bestselling author of Katherine of Aragon.
It is the spring of 1527. Henry VIII has come to Hever Castle in Kent to pay court to Anne Boleyn. He is desperate to have her. For this mirror of female perfection he will set aside his Queen and all Cardinal Wolsey’s plans for a dynastic French marriage.
Anne Boleyn is not so sure. She loathes Wolsey for breaking her betrothal to the Earl of Northumberland’s son, Harry Percy, whom she had loved. She does not welcome the King’s advances; she knows that she can never give him her heart.
But hers is an opportunist family. And whether Anne is willing or not, they will risk it all to see their daughter on the throne… Views: 806
Celebrated actress Christabel Cartwright trades her country house, its staff of servants, and her husband for a reckless affair.
She also thought she could resume her career--her director was delighted, and so was Megalith Television. But one person in Christabel's circle had doubts.
What happens next is murder, and it brings Jemima Shore, the author's elegant alter ego, into the fray. She trails her man (or is it woman?) through the thickets of human emotion.
Cover Artist: Tom Hallman Views: 806
Don Phillips lives in a part of Spain where you have to speak the language. These four amusing and basically true stories reflect various moments in the last twenty five years he has lived there where this has caused the odd problem.Living abroad can be good and enjoyable, but there are some things that have to be taken into consideration before you go. Firstly the locals will almost definitely talk a different language and it is really up to you to learn enough of it to at least get by. Secondly, you have to accept that the natives will have different values and culture to the one you are used to. Lastly, if you do not accept all this and learn to live with it then you will be at the mercy of others whenever you want to do anything, such as buy or sell a house or query something in your bank statement. These four stories illustrate some of these difficulties in a humorous way. Views: 801
Short Story.A boy with fantastic ability is desperate to showcase himself, but will pride come before a fall? His simple trial to display an adolescent's grasp of the all powerful Potency should be straightforward. It isn't always.Short Story.A boy with fantastic ability is desperate to showcase himself, but will pride come before a fall? His simple trial to display an adolescent's grasp of the all powerful Potency should be straightforward. It isn't always. The three species graced with god-like abilities have finally reached a tentative symbiosis after millennia of war and destruction – giving their respective worlds a peaceful order. The Potent take pride in their new found self restraint, which goes against their natural want for all.Atmospheric, escapist, dark, mysterious, surreal science fiction/fantasy. Second part of a space opera series. (This part is ~3000 words). Views: 801
James A. Michener, the master of historical fiction, revisits the scenes of his first great work, Tales of the South Pacific, the Pulitzer Prize winner that brought him international acclaim. In this sequel collection, Michener once again evokes the magic of the extraordinary isles in the Pacific—from Fiji and Gaudalcanal to New Zealand and Papua New Guinea—through stories that burst with adventure, charm, and local color. For Michener’s many fans around the globe, Return to Paradise is a precious second look at a land of enchantment by one of the most gifted storytellers of the twentieth century.
BONUS: This edition includes an excerpt from James A. Michener's Hawaii.
Praise for Return to Paradise
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“A brilliant book and a worthy successor to Tales of the South Pacific*.”—The Atlanta Constitution
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“This is a book that should be read by everyone. . . . All who have seen the South Pacific will find on every page the odors of frangipani, copra, blood, and beer.”—*The New York Times
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“There’s drama and pathos and adventure and humanity . . . and a very high degree of excellence. Michener can write.”—Kirkus Reviews*** Views: 800
"My new favorite book of all time." —Bill Gates "A terrific book...[Pinker] recounts the progress across a broad array of metrics, from health to wars, the environment to happiness, equal rights to quality of life." —The New York TimesThe follow-up to Pinker's groundbreaking The Better Angels of Our Nature presents the big picture of human progress: people are living longer, healthier, freer, and happier lives, and while our problems are formidable, the solutions lie in the Enlightenment ideal of using reason and science.Is the world really falling apart? Is the ideal of progress obsolete? In this elegant assessment of the human condition in the third millennium, cognitive scientist and public intellectual Steven Pinker urges us to step back from the gory headlines and prophecies of doom, which play to our psychological biases. Instead, follow the data: In seventy-five jaw-dropping graphs, Pinker shows... Views: 800
When a beautiful teen with polio enters their lives, a girl and her older brother find themselves drawn into a web of lies in this compelling novel by a best-selling author.
Eleven-year-old Georgie loves science-fiction movies, but she won’t be going to the theater anytime soon. It’s a hot Indiana summer in 1952, and public places from pools to camps are closing to slow the spread of polio. Despite all the headlines, Georgie never thought she’d come as close to the fearful disease as she does when she spies a silver glint in her neighbor’s yard. There she discovers a monstrous, hissing machine, and inside is Phyllis, a girl encased in an iron lung. "I have eighty-seven cubic centimeters of air, but you have the world," Phyllis tells her. Phyllis’s ability to breathe may be limited, but her strength to manipulate is boundless. As Georgie struggles to comprehend this once-gorgeous teenager’s life in a "coffin with legs," Phyllis slowly weaves a web of lies that snare all those around her, including Georgie’s quickly smitten brother. Can Georgie untangle the truth before Phyllis’s deception achieves its inevitable end? Views: 799
There's strange things afoot on Mars. Mike must dig deep if he's going to find out what's going on, make it out alive, and locate the mysterious Rose.There's strange things afoot on Mars.In this incredibly skewed and slightly humourous tale, Mike must dig deep if he's going to find out what's going on at Mars Incorporated, make it out alive, and above all else locate the mysterious Rose.And... what's the deal with the Black Cat, and why is it so important that Mike follows it? To make matters worse, he doesn't even like cats! Views: 798
Sandra Hedley was getting sick of her horrible life in New York...until a mysterious dark-skinned man showed up with his giant black Rottweiler. Phooka is the fourth story in the Bestiary TalesOne day while rummaging around in the church attic, Pastor Butch Gregory discovers evidence that something in his beloved church's past has been covered up. Unable to get it out of his mind, he begins to try and find out what happened almost forty years ago, and what he discovers opens up the floodgates of healing. The Land Begins to Heal is a reminder that there is a spiritual dynamic to addressing the injustices of the past. Views: 797
Once a small-town success and happy family man, Hagren Roose finds his slide backwards at once abrupt and wrenching. His small-town mentality sets him on a journey of his own making, of which he has no control—and only he can atone for.A chevauchée is nothing more than a raid, designed as much for punishment as for plunder. Sir Thomas has seen it all, and lived to tell the tale. The withered old man was a vigorous knight and a pillar of the community, with his wife and sons gone before him. Sir Thomas Jolly is on his deathbed. Father Hardie is there at his side, to give him the last rites, to offer comfort and solace and to listen, as Thomas opens up about his feelings, possibly for the first time in many years. A short story of The Hundred Years War. Views: 794
From the author of Forrest Gump and A Storm in Flanders comes a riveting chronicle of America's most critical hour. On December 6, 1941, an unexpected attack on American territory pulled an unprepared country into a terrifying new brand of warfare. Novelist and popular historian Winston Groom vividly re-creates the story of America's first year in World War II. To the generation of Americans who lived through it, the Second World War was the defining event of the twentieth century, and the defining events of that war were played out in the year 1942.
This account covers the Allies' relentless defeats as the Axis overran most of Europe, North Africa, and the Far East. But midyear the tide began to turn. America finally went on the offensive in the Pacific, and in the west the British defeated Rommel's panzer divisions at El Alamein while the U.S. Army began to push the Germans out of North Africa. By the year's end, the smell of victory was in the air. 1942, told with Groom's accomplished storyteller's eye, allows us into the admirals' strategy rooms, onto the battle fronts, and into the heart of a nation at war. Views: 794
Pence is the story of a small boy carved out of a potato with all the wrong proportions of courage and common sense, a big ego, and an even bigger mouth.This is the story of a small boy carved out of a potato with all the wrong proportions of courage and common sense, a big ego, and an even bigger mouth. With a rock for a brain, a pair of emerald earrings for his eyes, and a rare seed pressed into his chest that beats with a pulse, Pence awakens his first morning with grandiose ambitions but he is quickly brought down to earth by the old man who made him, who sternly tasks the boy with an impossible quest and then kicks him out of the garden with little more than a splinter for a sword and a penny for a shield.Pence does not appreciate having his life charted out for him, but a boy cannot outrun his own heart. Whether he likes it or not, Pence was made for a purpose: he is the gardener’s last hope.Pence makes me laugh. He is only five inches tall and wonderfully fragile, but he approaches the world outside the garden fearlessly and never backs down from danger. Half fairy tale, half fable, half comedy, half tragedy, Pence is a brief, bittersweet tale about growing old gracefully in a world that has passed you by, about selfless loyalty, courage in the face of certain death, and undying love.The structure of the book is somewhat odd: there are only a handful of characters, only a couple settings, and the whole story takes place over a few short days; yet within Pence's whirlwind adventure there is contained a hundred years history of The Hundred Kingdoms of Man, and his own small place in that long-unfolding epic may be more important than he could ever know. Views: 794
With legalization sweeping the world, what's needed is a more mature attitude toward cannabis. Steven Hager has spent a lifetime on the front lines of the legalization movement and has long stressed responsible use. Cannabis has always had a very close connection with spirituality, along with math and music.Unfortunately, the image of the average stoner is not particularly attractive for people outside the culture, and for good reason since stoners are most often portrayed in the mass media as dumb slacker slobs. But this was not always the case. In the 1930’s, vipers were actually daper cats with refined taste in fashion and a deep understanding of blues and jazz. So what's required is a path back to this forgotten past, a time when cannabis use was cool and carried zero negative stigma. And the route is through the harmonization of all religions, which will end the manipulation of religion to manifest war for profit. Views: 793
