High school is hard enough when you do fit in, but if you don’t look a certain way or have the right friends, you’d better hope you grow a thick skin to defend yourself from the ones that do. Arianna Weller and Evan Drake are worlds apart, moving in different circles until they are forced together for a science fair project. Putting aside their differences from the past is not easy for either of them, but can they do it long enough to realize that they’re not that different after all? Views: 245
From Aislinn Hunter, the award-winning author of The World Before Us, comes a vivid novel reminiscent of Anthony Doerr and Michael Ondaatje, about the entwined fates of two very different refugees in two distinct moments: a war-torn Spanish border town in the 1940s; and a British island in the 1970s, as a ship full of would-be migrants approaches shore.1940 in the Spanish border city of Portbou. As the shadow of fascism lengthens over Europe, three mysterious travellers arrive in town. They carry themselves with the casual ease of Parisian intellectuals, but in reality this trio of two men and a woman are starving, desperate and exhausted from dodging bullets and German forces to cross illegally through the Pyrenees. Their goal is to escape notice in Spain long enough to book transit to Portugal, and then to the USA. Their story, told over a period of 48 absorbing and tense hours, is narrated by one of the men, a writer who gradually accepts... Views: 245
In Nothing by Chance, Richard Bach shares the adventure of one magical summer he spent as an old-fashioned barnstormer flying an antique biplane. The journey is another soaring adventure of wonder and insight from the author of Jonathan Livingston Seagull.
Views: 244
Transgressive fiction authors write stories some are afraid to tell. Stories with taboo subjects, unique voices, shocking images--nothing safe or dry.
Burnt Tongues is a collection of transgressive stories selected by a rigorous nomination and vetting process and hand-selected by Chuck Palahniuk, author of Fight Club, as the best of The Cult workshop.
These stories run the gamut from horrific and fantastic to humorous and touching, but each leaves a lasting impression.
Some may say even a scar. Views: 244
Dressed in his cheap, battered suit, Joseph Marti arrives at the impressive villa of Karl Tobler, an enthusiastic but ill-starred inventor, to begin employment as his clerk. Tobler is determined to finance his family's lavish lifestyle with the proceeds from his latest idea – a clock adorned with advertisements. But Tobler's grand plans are destined for failure and the household, including Marti, refuse to acknowledge their approaching ruin. Robert Walser claimed to have written The Assistant, a semi-autobiographical work, in just six weeks as an entry for a literary competition. The second of his few surviving novels, it is now regarded as major work of modernist literature. Views: 244
EDITORIAL REVIEW: In this new novel, beloved bestselling author Elizabeth Berg weaves a beautifully written and richly resonant story of a mother and daughter in emotional transit. Helen Ames–recently widowed, coping with loss and grief, unable to do the work that has always sustained her–is beginning to depend far too much on her twenty-seven-year-old daughter, Tessa, and is meddling in her life, offering unsolicited and unwelcome advice. Helen’s problems are compounded by her shocking discovery that her mild-mannered and loyal husband was apparently leading a double life. The Ameses had painstakingly saved for a happy retirement, but that money disappeared in several large withdrawals made by Helen’s husband before he died. In order to support herself and garner a measure of much needed independence, Helen takes an unusual job that ends up offering far more than she had anticipated. And then a phone call from a stranger sets Helen on a surprising path of discovery that causes both mother and daughter to reassess what they thought they knew about each other, themselves, and what really makes a home and a family. Views: 244
Claire Harte-Mathias is an infinitely capable solver of other people's problems. Along with her husband, she has established a prestigious foundation to aid in the rehabilitation of people with spinal cord injuries. Training therapists, counseling patients, and conducting workshops keeps Claire busy, fulfilled, and happy. It is a life she wouldn't trade for anything...and one that is about to fall apart. One snowy night, Claire tries and fails to prevent a tragedy from occurring. The incident at first obsesses her, then seems to trigger something deep in her soul. Soon she is haunted by momentary disturbing visions - terrifying images that are vaguely familiar, yet unexplainable. Slowly Claire comes to realize that the pictures are in fact fragmented and forgotten memories of her childhood - a childhood she has always remembered as close to perfect. While part of her wants to see where these memories will lead her another part wants only to run from them, to bury them once again. Confused and frightened, Claire is caught up in a complex and devastating struggle between yesterday and today; between the man who wants to help her and the husband who cannot; between terrible secrets and life-altering revelations. In her fight to uncover and accept the truth, Claire discovers that the past, present, and future are intertwined in a way she can never change...or forget. Written with sensitivity, Brass Ring is a heartfelt and mesmerizing novel of great loss and even greater courage. Views: 244
Acclaimed author Arturo Pérez-Reverte has earned a distinguished reputation as a master of the literary thriller with his international bestsellers The Club Dumas and The Queen of the South. Now, in this haunting new work, Pérez-Reverte has written his most accomplished novel to date. The Painter of Battles is a captivating tale of love, war, art, and revenge.
Andrés Faulques, a world-renowned war photographer, has retired to a life of solitude on the Spanish coast. On the walls of a tower overlooking the sea, he spends his days painting a huge mural that pays homage to history’s classic works of war art and that incorporates a lifetime of disturbing images.
One night, an unexpected visitor arrives at Faulques’ door and challenges the painter to remember him. As Faulques struggles to recall the face, the man explains that he was the subject of an iconic photo taken by Faulques in a war zone years ago. “And why have you come looking for me?” asks Faulques. The stranger answers, “Because I’m going to kill you.”
This story transports Faulques to the time when he crossed continents to capture conflicts on film with his lover, Olvido, at his side. Until she walked into his life, Faulques muses, he had believed he would survive both war and women.
As the tense dialogue between Faulques and his visitor continues, the stakes grow ever higher. What they are grappling with quickly proves to be not just Faulques’ fate but the very nature of human love and cruelty itself.
Arturo Pérez-Reverte perfectly balances the shadows of the heart with the chaos of war in this stunning composition on morality. Superb and tautly written, The Painter of Battles is a deeply affecting novel about life and art.
From the Hardcover edition. Views: 244
The latest novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Philippa Gregory features one of the most famous girls in history, Lady Jane Grey, and her two sisters, each of whom dared to defy her queen.
Jane Grey was queen of England for nine days. Her father and his allies crowned her instead of the dead king’s half sister Mary Tudor, who quickly mustered an army, claimed her throne, and locked Jane in the Tower of London. When Jane refused to betray her Protestant faith, Mary sent her to the executioner’s block, where Jane transformed her father’s greedy power grab into tragic martyrdom.
“Learn you to die,” was the advice Jane wrote to her younger sister Katherine, who has no intention of dying. She intends to enjoy her beauty and her youth and fall in love. But she is heir to the insecure and infertile Queen Mary and then to her half sister, Queen Elizabeth, who will never allow Katherine to marry and produce a Tudor son. When Katherine’s pregnancy betrays her secret marriage, she faces imprisonment in the Tower, only yards from her sister’s scaffold.
“Farewell, my sister,” writes Katherine to the youngest Grey sister, Mary. A beautiful dwarf, disregarded by the court, Mary keeps family secrets, especially her own, while avoiding Elizabeth’s suspicious glare. After seeing her sisters defy their queens, Mary is acutely aware of her own danger but determined to command her own life. What will happen when the last Tudor defies her ruthless and unforgiving Queen Elizabeth? Views: 244
Who's really crazy? Joe Montcrief is a hard driving workaholic corporate shark who rarely sees the light of day between the Manhattan highrises where he lives to work. When he arrives in the small town of Beaverton, Idaho with takeovers and profit in mind, he discovers the townspeople are eccentric to say the least and more interested in their slow pace of life than money. Sexy, gorgeous Emily Sargent runs the Shady Lady B&B, a former brothel where he's forced to stay as it's the only accommodation in town. The Shady Lady is so antiquated the only place he can get decent cell reception is in the middle of Emily's rose garden. Still, he manages to keep his mind on work except when Emily's around and he notices that this rose-growing, cookie baking, small-town girl has something about her that turns him inside out.
Emily has always been level headed. In a town founded on sex and freedom, she's a little blase about the whole messy attraction thing. But then she's never met anyone like Joe. When he's around she feels like giving in to a little of the madness that's in the air. Besides, she has to save her hometown and if the only way to do that is to seduce Joe, well, she'll do her civic duty.
The town was founded by the late Dr. Emmet Beaver, a man who believed in clean water, fresh air and doing what comes naturally. Joe's clients will pay handsomely for the mineral rights under the ground of Beaverton but the people of Beaverton have other ideas.
Joe's hobby is motorcycles and while he's in Beaverton he's planning to check out the world famous Changing Gears bike store where they've got a certain Ducati he's had his eye on. When the eccentric, elf-like owner of Changing Gears arrives in town with the bike, Joe discovers Emily is also an m/c enthusiast. As they hit the road together, they discover that the twists and turns of a country road are a lot like the bumpy ride to love.
This small town, sexy contemporary romance, is a story where opposites attract and friends become lovers. Where it's never too late for old love or too fast for new love. In Beaverton, nothing is ever quite what it seems. And the citizens wouldn't have it any other way.
Fans of Kristen Higgins, Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Barbara Freethy and Susan Mallery will enjoy this madcap romantic comedy that Lori Foster calls 'sexy and wonderfully witty.' Views: 244
An American shipwreck has unforseen, picaresque consequences for an English fishing village Views: 244
Features 11 outstanding works by Osamu Dazai, widely regarded as one of 20th century Japan's most gifted writers and a master teller of tales. Dazai experimented with a wide variety of short story styles and brought to each a sophisticated sense of humor, a broad empathy for the human condition, and a tremendous literary talent. This book showcases a range of his styles from the poignant childhood recollections of "Memories", to the samurai buffoonery of "A Poor Man's Got His Pride", to reworked folk classics such as the title story. By turns hilarious, ironic, introspective, mystical and sarcastic, the eleven stories present the most fully rounded portrait available of a tragic, multifaceted genius of modern Japanese letters. Views: 244
Reading a ghost story on Christmas Eve was once as much a part of traditional Christmas celebrations as turkey, eggnog, and Santa Claus. Behind the run-down bookstore is a private room for favoured customers, a strange little annex with a stranger atmosphere. The young man feels a wistful presence vying got his attention as he browses, and when he leaves, he knows he will return. Something has been asked of him, and he will answer. Views: 244
The legendary CIA spy is back—in a gripping collection featuring an all-new novella, by the New York Times–bestselling author of Six Days of the Condor. James Grady, the "king of the modern espionage thriller" (George Pelecanos, award-winning writer/producer of The Wire), first introduced his clandestine CIA operative—codename: Condor—in a debut novel that became Three Days of the Condor, one of the key films of the paranoid era of the 1970s, and is now the basis for the hit AT&T original series, Condor, starring Max Irons and William Hurt. In this explosive collection featuring a new introduction on the writing and publication history of Condor, a never-before-published original novella, and short fiction collected for the first time, Grady brings his covert agent into the twenty-first century. From the chaos of 9/11 to the unprecedented Russian cyber threats, Condor is back.... Views: 244
This ebook compendium includes the entire text for three of Carl Hiaasen's most acclaimed books for young readers: Hoot, Flush, and Scat. Views: 244
