"The world's greatest adolescent British chemist/busybody/sleuth" (The Seattle Times), Flavia de Luce, returns in a twisty new mystery novel from award-winning and New York Times bestselling author Alan Bradley.In the wake of an unthinkable family tragedy, twelve-year-old Flavia de Luce is struggling to fill her empty days. For a needed escape, Dogger, the loyal family servant, suggests a boating trip for Flavia and her two older sisters. As their punt drifts past the church where a notorious vicar had recently dispatched three of his female parishioners by spiking their communion wine with cyanide, Flavia, an expert chemist with a passion for poisons, is ecstatic. Suddenly something grazes against her fingers as she dangles them in the water. She clamps down on the object, imagining herself as Ernest Hemingway battling a marlin, and pulls up what she expects will be a giant fish. But in Flavia's grip is something far better: a human head, attached to a... Views: 43
A book about 'real witches' - the ones that absolutely loathe children and are always plotting to get rid of them. Great new Quentin Blake cover as well as a whole new exciting end section about Roald Dahl and his world. Views: 43
Maud Gonthier yearns for an escape from the cocoon of the bourgeois modesty. The splendid, caddish David Tyler appears to offer one. In this stylish, deeply knowing novel by the author of Hotel du Lac, Maud's seduction creates a chemistry of longing, sensuality, and betrayal--with a surprising climax. 240 pp. Views: 43
Two women take their edgy sex public—the combination of being watched, being envied, and being helpless in the hands of a domineering lover ups the heat factor into the too-hot-to-handle zone.Previously published in Radical Encounters (Bold Strokes Books, 2009). Views: 43
Part social satire, part police procedural, Bill James returns with the stunning prequel to Tip Top - In the drug-ridden Whitsun and Temperate housing estates a connection, once made, is only ever one thing: trouble. Trouble for the journalist whose investigation into the estates leads to his murder; trouble for policewoman Esther Davidson, whose job it is to arrest the killer; and trouble for TV producer Larry Edgehill, who becomes more involved with a Romeo and Juliet-esque cross-estate romance than he ever would have wanted . Views: 43
The inventive, exuberant, and totally original literary fun that began with The Eyre Affair continues with Jasper Fforde’s magnificent second adventure starring the resourceful, fearless literary sleuth Thursday Next. When Landen, the love of her life, is eradicated by the corrupt multinational Goliath Corporation, Thursday must moonlight as a Prose Resource Operative of Jurisfiction—the police force inside books. She is apprenticed to the man-hating Miss Havisham from Dickens’s Great Expectations, who grudgingly shows Thursday the ropes. And she gains just enough skill to get herself in a real mess entering the pages of Poe’s "The Raven." What she really wants is to get Landen back. But this latest mission is not without further complications. Along with jumping into the works of Kafka and Austen, and even Beatrix Potter’s The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies, Thursday finds herself the target of a series of potentially lethal coincidences, the authenticator of a newly discovered play by the Bard himself, and the only one who can prevent an unidentifiable pink sludge from engulfing all life on Earth. Views: 43
Simon de Montfort was a man ahead of his time in the thirteenth century, a disinherited Frenchman who talked his way into an English earldom and marriage with a sister of the English king, Henry III. A charismatic, obstinate leader, Simon soon lost patience with the king’s incompetence and inability to keep his word, and found himself the champion of the common people.This is his story, and the story of Henry III, as weak and changeable as Simon was brash and unbending. It is a tale of opposing wills that would eventually clash in a storm of violence and betrayal—an irresistible saga that brings the pages of history completely, provocatively, and magnificently alive. Views: 43
Peek into an aged journal that links the adventurous lives of four courageous midwives. Wisconsin farmer, widow, mother, and midwife Adele Marley is too busy for a smitten, unwavering banker. To survive in love and life, Polly Schultz must rise above her fears on the Oregon Trail. Christiana is in a battle to prove to one man that she can be both a wife and a midwife. Her confidence shaken, Kendra Silverstone needs confirmation of God’s hand in her life and love. How will God work to give these women the direction they need?Book DescriptionFour brave midwives fight against all odds in life and love. Adele Marley is courted by a determined banker. Polly Schultz’s fear of abandonment may keep her from matrimony. Christiana fights for a working woman’s rights. Kendra Silverstone seeks God’s will for her life. How will God get His message across to these women? Views: 43
An Omnibus Edition of Three Classic Early Novels from the Critically Acclaimed Author of Cloudsplitter and Affliction Family Life: Russell Banks's first novel is an adult fairy tale of a royal family in a mythical contemporary kingdom where the myriad dramas of domesticity blend with an outrageous slew of murders, mayhem, coups, debauches, world tours, and love in all guises, transcendent or otherwise. Hamilton Stark: This tale of a solitary, boorish, misanthropic New Hampshire pipe fitter - the sole inhabitant of the house from which he evicted his own mother - is at once a compelling meditation on identity and a thoroughly engaging story of life on the cold edge of New England. The Relation of My Imprisonment: Utilizing a form invented by imprisoned seventeenth-century Puritan divines - an utterly sincere and detailed, if highly artificial, recounting of great suffering - Banks's novel is a remarkably inventive, lovingly good-humored argument, exploration, and map of the caged religious mind. Views: 43
A Japanese cargo ship cruises the eastern Atlantic near the Azores- when it bursts into flames. A gang of pirates speeds to take advantage of the disaster- when their boat explodes. What is happening in that part of the world? As Kurt Austin, Joe Zavala, and the rest of the NUMA(r) Special Assignments Team rush to investigate, they find themselves drawn into the extraordinary ambitions of an African dictator, the creation of a weapon of almost mythical power, and an unimaginably audacious plan to extort the world's major nations. Their penalty for refusal? The destruction of their greatest cities. Views: 43
Actress Sophie Birch is used to having to look out for herself. So when her theater catches fire and a big guy scoops her up into his arms to save her, she's going to fight every step of the way. Even if he's a cop. And really sexy. And his arms feel oh-so-good.Finn Kelly can't help but appreciate how good the woman in his arms looks in her sexy pink lingerie. Even if she's currently resisting arrest. But as the two get to know each other, they're both surprised by the things Finn is willing to do to get closer to her. And when Sophie's estranged father arrives in town and starts causing trouble, the stage is set for disaster...unless Finn can convince her that, for once in her life, she has someone to lean on. Views: 43
New York Times bestselling author Ron Rash demonstrates his superb narrative skills in this suspenseful and evocative tale of two brothers whose lives are altered irrevocably by the events of one long-ago summer—and one bewitching young woman—and the secrets that could destroy their lives. While swimming in a secluded creek on a hot Sunday in 1969, sixteen-year-old Eugene and his older brother, Bill, meet the entrancing Ligeia. A sexy, free-spirited redhead from Daytona Beach banished to their small North Carolina town until the fall, Ligeia will not only bewitch the two brothers, but lure them into a struggle that reveals the hidden differences in their natures. Drawn in by her raw sensuality and rebellious attitude, Eugene falls deeper under her spell. Ligeia introduces him to the thrills and pleasures of the counterculture movement, then in its headiest moment. But just as the movement's youthful... Views: 43