In the first of the epic series of humorous fantasy short stories, Trallis the Warrior sets off on his quest for loot, excitement, and something good to eat. When he finds the greatest sword in existence right at the start of his journey, he's delighted! He could never have guessed that by the end of it all he would have soggy pants and a chance of slight brain damage.In this first episode of Trallis the Warrior's epic saga, the man who describes himself as a "freelance warrior" sets off on his quest for loot, excitement, and something good to eat. When Trallis finds what is perhaps the greatest sword in existence right at the start of his journey, he's obviously rather delighted! He could never have guessed however that by the end of it all he would have soggy pants and a chance of slight brain damage. All in a day's work though for our dear warrior!"Trallis the Warrior and the Sword of Unimaginable Power" is a humorous fantasy short story by author Jack Thomas. It is the first installment of "The Ridiculously Epic Saga of Trallis the Warrior". Views: 703
Emi Nakano just wants to eat carrion in peace. And thanks to a business deal she had going with Goro Nanase, that was possible...until a group of teenagers posed a threat to her way of life. No big deal, though. She'll just scare them off; how hard can it be? Jikininki is eighth story in the Bestiary Tales.In Prohibition-Era Kansas City, being a part of the underworld was sometimes both a figurative and literal concept. In an underground speakeasy located just outside of the metropolis, Paul Verconi was already aware of the risks involved in simply being where he was and who he was. On this rainy night, he'd been looking for nothing more than a few drinks to soothe his nerves before heading home. However, what came looking for Paul would prove to be even tougher to swallow than the diluted bootleg whiskey swirling in his dirty glass: a drop-dead gorgeous dame that was enigmatic, curiously silent ... and perhaps even dangerous. Views: 702
In middle age, Ehrenreich came across the journal she had kept during her tumultuous adolescence and set out to reconstruct that quest, which had taken her to the study of science and through a cataclysmic series of uncanny — or, as she later learned to call them, "mystical" — experiences. A staunch atheist and rationalist, she is profoundly shaken by the implications of her life-long search.
Part memoir, part philosophical and spiritual inquiry, Living with a Wild God brings an older woman's wry and erudite perspective to a young girl's uninhibited musings on the questions that, at one point or another, torment us all. Ehrenreich's most personal book ever will spark a lively and heated conversation about religion and spirituality, science and morality, and the "meaning of life."
Certain to be a classic, Living with a Wild God combines intellectual rigor with a frank account of the inexplicable, in Ehrenreich's singular voice, to produce a true literary achievement. Views: 701
A collection of gothic, romantic, dark, horror, and some other poems.It’s 1987. Dane Morrison, a middle-aged ad agency sales rep, meets an enigmatic street rose salesman during a hot summer in Houston, Texas. As Dane learns more about the Rose Man, Dane’s dreams and reality become a hellish playground for the unearthly vagabond. And as Dane soon discovers, where love and hope are found, the Rose Man walks…The Rose Man is an early, award-winning story from critically-acclaimed horror author, Terry M. West. Thought lost until it was found on a recovered computer drive, The Rose Man presents one of Terry M. West's most unique horror characters. This story is presented with an introduction from the author as well as story notes. Views: 697
This book is a collection of three different short stories. While all are separate stories entirely, all zone in on moments in character's lives when they're faced with making some very important decisions.This book is composed of three short stories all focused on character's during a very important moment in their life. YES, centers in on a woman named Mimi right after she has been asked one of the most important questions in her life. While second guessing her own thoughts, she turns to the one person she could always count on for help. QUIET, jumps into the household of couple Jasper and Sam, but they aren't alone. Trapped in their bedroom closet during a break-in, there's no escape as they hear the unknown get closer and closer. BEHIND CLOSED DOORS, looks into the eye of Christopher, a young man struggling to keep the things in his life together. After a hard few months with his wife, Sarah, Christopher takes one last chance to restore things back to the way they used to be. Views: 697
These essays, reviews and articles illuminate the life and work of one of the most individual writers of this century - a man who created a unique literary manner from the process of thinking aloud and who elevated political writing to an art. Views: 697
One horrible Mother-in-law, one lamp with a Genie in it, three wishes - what could go wrong. Henry knew it was too good to be true. It was!Henry sat silently in his recliner, trying hard to not listen to his mother-in-law's utterances to his wife. He needed a walk.Walking slowly along the beach his mind was preoccupied in his simmering anger, so he didn't see the object half-buried in the sand. He tripped. Looking back at whatever it was that had caused him to fall, he saw an old-looking lamp. It had a rounded midsection and bell-like base, and there was a small top covering an opening in the middle. The handle was curved, reminding him of the outline of an ear, and the spout was long and slender, protruding up and out like the neck of a swan. It looked just like the lamp in every movie about Aladdin that he'd ever seen. He absentmindedly rubbed at it with his sleeve. Suddenly, the lamp flew from his hands, smoke began to bellow out of the spout, and he stared in amazement as a large, seemingly naked, man appeared in the cloud. “Master, I am yours to command.” came the baritone voice, “What is your wish?” Views: 696
Koestler examines the notion that the parts of the human brain-structure which account for reason and emotion are not fully coordinated. This kind of deficiency may explain the paranoia, violence, and insanity that are central parts of human history, according to Koestler's challenging analysis of the human predicament. Views: 695
On the 10th anniversary of when UN peacekeepers landed in Rwanda, Random House Canada proudly publishes the unforgettable 1st-hand account of the genocide by the leader of the mission. Digging deep into shattering memories, Dallaire has written a powerful story of betrayal, naïveté, racism & international politics. His message is simple, undeniable: Never again.
When Lt-Gen. Roméo Dallaire was called to serve as force commander of the UN intervention in Rwanda in '93, he thought he was heading off on a straightforward peacekeeping mission. Thirteen months later he flew home from Africa, broken, disillusioned & suicidal, having witnessed the slaughter of 800,000 Rwandans in 100 days.
In Shake Hands with the Devil, he takes readers with him on a return voyage into hell, vividly recreating the events the international community turned its back on. This book is an unsparing eyewitness account of the failure by humanity to stop the genocide, despite timely warnings. Woven thru the story of this disastrous mission is his own journey from confident Cold Warrior, to devastated UN commander, to retired general engaged in a painful struggle to find a measure of peace, hope & reconciliation.
This book is a personal account of his conversion from a man certain of his worth & secure in his assumptions to one conscious of his own weaknesses & failures & critical of the institutions he'd relied on. It might not sit easily with standard ideas of military leadership, but understanding what happened to him & his mission to Rwanda is crucial to understanding the moral minefields peacekeepers are forced to negotiate when we ask them to step into dirty wars. Views: 692
''A first-class crime thriller' CHARLES CUMMINGS. When Detective Balthazar Kovacs is called out before dawn to a brothel owned by his brother, he knows it can only be bad news. A customer has died in the brothel's VIP room. Worse still, he's an Arab financier, a guest of government, connected to a massive investment programme that could transform Hungary. It looks like a heart attack – but why has the brothel's CCTV footage been erased? Kovacs knows only too well the treacherous undercurrents that permeate life in Hungary's capital – the deadly intersection between the criminal underworld, the corridors of power and the ghosts of history. He knows that his investigation is more than likely to lead back to the seat of power, the Országház, in Kossuth Square... but he does not expect to be swept into his own family's dark past too. Views: 690
Peter and Edward are best friends - they spend their days in blissful abandon, generally doing what little boys do best (that is, making messes and having fun). However, one day, Edward becomes ill. So ill that Peter thinks he isn't going to make it. All Peter can wonder is why did his friend get so sick so quickly?Grylio is first story in the Bestiary Tales.In A+ For Murder, English teacher Michael O'Brien has to solve a murder mystery before he becomes the next victim. But before he got caught up in solving murders, Michael had to handle smaller mysteries that sharpened his skills and failed to give him self-confidence.In The Adventure of The Costume Ball, Mike is stuck at a costume party event, and his superintendent is trotting him out as a mystery-solving teacher. But before Mike can make his escape, the lights go out and priceless jewels vanish, and Mike has to stop the thief before he gets through the very door Mike has been eying since the party started! Views: 688
Gerhard Self, the seventy-something, sambuca-drinking, Sweet-Afton smoking sleuth returns in a riveting new mystery about money-laundering, murder, and mafiosi.
Despite his failing health and his girlfriend's pleading, Gerhard Self won't stop doing what he does best—investigating. And his most recent case is one of the most intriguing of his career. Herr Welker desperately wants to write a history of his bank, but to do so he needs Self to track down a mysterious silent partner. Self takes the job, but is soon accosted by a man who frantically hands him a suitcase full of cash and speeds off in a car, only to crash into a tree, dying instantly. Perplexed, and convinced there is more to the case than he is being told, Self follows the money. Soon he finds himself traveling to eastern Germany, where he encounters some of the most unsavory villains he has met yet.
From the Trade Paperback edition. Views: 686
The end of the world started in Glasgow, with a kiss.
Two people - two creatures - fated to be eternal enemies downed their blazing spears and loved. To do so, they broke rules hardwired into the DNA of the universe.
The universe noticed. The universe broke.
Now Heaven and Hell are hunting them. Nobody on Earth can help them. Worst of all, the fabric of reality is unravelling around them, the Apocalypse has been brought forward a millennium, and it might all be their fault.
On cold streets, the last tattered remnants of humanity must draw faith in a world that has no more use for them. As the masses pray and crawl on bloody knees, the few must restore the fearful symmetry between good and evil - for the sake of all.
Blood will flow. Days will end. Fire will fall. Views: 680
This outstanding collection brings together Orwell's longer, major essays and a fine selection of shorter pieces that includes "Shooting an Elephant", "My Country Right or Left", "Decline of an English Murder" and "A Hanging". With great originality and wit Orwell unfolds his views on subjects ranging from a revaluation of Charles Dickens to a spirited defence of English cooking. Displaying an almost unrivalled mastery of English plain prose style, Orwell's essays challenge, move and entertain. Views: 680
In each of his astounding #1 New York Times bestsellers, Mark R. Levin’s overlying patriotic mission has been to avert a devastating tragedy: The loss of the greatest republic known to mankind. But who stands to lose the most?
In modern America, the civil society is being steadily devoured by a ubiquitous federal government. But as the government grows into an increasingly authoritarian and centralized federal Leviathan, many parents continue to tolerate, if not enthusiastically champion, grievous public policies that threaten their children and successive generations with a grim future at the hands of a brazenly expanding and imploding entitlement state poised to burden them with massive debt, mediocre education, waves of immigration, and a deteriorating national defense.
Yet tyranny is not inevitable. In Federalist 51, James Madison explained with cautionary insight the essential balance between the civil society and governmental restraint: “In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.”
This essential new book is, against all odds, a likeminded appeal to reason and audacity—one intended for all Americans but particularly the rising generation. Younger people must find the personal strength and will to break through the cycle of statist manipulation, unrelenting emotional overtures, and the pressure of groupthink, which are humbling, dispiriting, and absorbing them; to stand up against the heavy hand of centralized government, which if left unabated will assuredly condemn them to economic and societal calamity.
Levin calls for a new civil rights movement, one that will foster liberty and prosperity and cease the exploitation of young people by statist masterminds. He challenges the rising generation of younger Americans to awaken to the cause of their own salvation, asking: will you acquiesce to a government that overwhelmingly acts without constitutional foundation—or will you stand in your own defense so that yours and future generations can live in freedom? Views: 679
