'Lawson's sketches are beyond praise.' JOSEPH CONRAD'Lawson gets more feelings, observation and atmosphere into a page than does Hemingway.' EDWARD GARNETTOne of the great observers of Australian life, Henry Lawson looms large in our national psyche. Yet at his best Lawson transcends the very bush, the very outback, the very up-country,, the very pub or selector's hut he conveys with such brevity and acuity: he make specific places universal.Henry Lawson s too often regarded as a legend rather than a writer to be enjoyed. In this selection Lawson is revealed as an author whose delightful, humorous, wry and moving short stories continue to delight generations of readers. This is the essential Lawson collection — the classic of Australian classics. Views: 60
“Alice Petersen writes as eloquently about the natural world as she does about the world of human emotion and desire. This is a wise and impressive collection of stories.”—David Bezmozgis, author of The Free WorldAlice Petersen's All the Voices Cry is masterful and potent—incredibly satisfying for a reader.— Kathleen Winter, author of AnnabelAn academic’s wife, struggling to keep up with her husband’s quest to find a long-dead author’s Tahitian love-garden, realizes that her own idea of paradise no longer includes her husband. An architect dreams of slender redheads, Champlain’s astrolabe, and a brush with mortality—and finds at least the latter at Danseuses 7 Jours. An elderly man boards a trans-Pacific flight in an attempt to elude the prediction of a psychic, only to understand too late how the prophecy has shaped his actions.In All the Voices Cry, modern life collides with all the old pushes and pulls: city and country, the global and the local, the ideal and the real. Petersen’s characters chase the mirage of escape, and are brought up hard by reality. This is a book rooted in landscape, tangled in the brambles of personal history, and it introduces in Alice Petersen a wondrous new voice that is yours to discover.Alice Petersen is a writer and critic whose work has been shortlisted for numerous Canadian prizes and awards. She was born in New Zealand and now lives and works in Montreal, Quebec.Review"All the Voices Cry has to be counted one of the most assured short story debuts in recent years."—goodreports.net"Alice Petersen writes as eloquently about the natural world as she does about the world of human emotion and desire. This is a wise and impressive collection of stories."—David Bezmozgis, author of The Free World"Alice Petersen's All the Voices Cry is masterful and potent—incredibly satisfying for a reader."—Kathleen Winter, author of Annabel"The story is balanced between this sense of nostalgia and acceptance, and sustained by the narrator's charming voice and her gift for physical description."—David Bezmozgis, on "After Summer""These stories are lively, immediate ... the metaphorical eye and the ear for voice are strong here."—David Adams Richards Prize, Winner's Citation (2009)About the AuthorAlice Petersen: Alice Petersen is a writer and critic whose work has been shortlisted for the Journey Prize, the Canada Broadcast Corporation Literary Awards, and the Writers' Union of Canada Short Story Competition. She was born in New Zealand and now lives and works in Montréal. Views: 60
Paris, 1314: A Knight Templar weeps as he watches his friends, broken by torture, go to their deaths at the stake. Pope Clement has destroyed the Order, persuaded of corruption within it. All that remains is the desire for vengeance on those who defiled the Order's name. Devon, 1316: Two years of heavy rains and poor harvests have driven many to a life of thieving; bands of outlaws known as "trail bastons" rove the countryside, spreading terror in their wake. The newly appointed Bailiff of Lydford Castle, Simon Puttock, has had little experience of violence. When the charred body of Harold Brewer is found in his burned-out cottage, Simon assumes it's accidental death. It's the new master of the local manor, Sir Baldwin Furnshill, recently returned from Europe, who deduces that Brewer was dead before the fire began. With the assistance of the astute yet strangely reticent knight, Simon begins to piece together the events of Brewer's last days. Then word comes of another murder, more horrible by far – for in this case, the victim was undoubtedly burned alive. Are the two incidents connected, and will the killers strike again? Views: 60
Around here, even dying can be hard. Horribly hard. Only death itself comes easy. By easy, I mean frequent. Death happens so often that people regard it pretty much the same as the never-ending rain. When life itself is hard, you have to be hard to live. Even a bitch will cull one of her own pups if she doesn't think he's going to be tough enough--she knows she's only got but so much milk, and there's none to waste.Survival isn't some skill we learned--it's in all our genes. Nobody needed to be told to step aside when they saw the Beast coming. But not everyone stepped fast enough.There's rock slides. Floods, too. Those are natural phenomena. You live here, you expect them. But just because a man's found under tons of rock, or floating in the river, doesn't mean his death was due to natural causes.Folks drink a lot. Wives get beaten something fierce. Some of those wives can shoot pretty good. And some of their husbands never think it can happen to them, even when they're sleeping off a drunk.There's supposed to be good and bad in everyone. Probably is. But here, it's the bad in you that's more often the most useful.Like the difference between climate and weather. Most folks around here don't view a killing as good or bad--just something that happens, like a flood or a fire. That's why a whole lot of bodies never get viewed at all.For a man like me, this is a good part of the country to do my work. I take pride in the quality of my work, but I never deceive myself that every death at my hands is justified, never mind righteous or noble. I never saw myself as ... much of anything, really. Just a crippled, cornered rat, trying to protect my little brother with whatever I can. Views: 60
Back again with even more adrenaline-filled suspense!7 complete novels -- each a stand-alone read, many from bestselling series -- by some of the most popular thriller writers today.Over 300 5-star reviews for the individual booksIncludes:IMPROPER INFLUENCE (Sasha McCandless Series) - Melissa F MillerTHE DEVIL'S CAULDRON (Devil's Deep Series) - Michael WallaceULTIMATE JUSTICE (The Justice Series) - M A ComleyDARK SIDE OF THE MOON (Laura Cardinal Series) - J Carson BlackNIGHT GAME (The Night Series) - Carol Davis LucePOE (Alexandra Poe Series) - Brett Battles & Robert Gregory BrowneSECTOR C - Phoenix Sullivan Views: 60
Acclaimed master of the YA novel A. S. King's eleventh book is a surreal and searing dive into the tangled secrets of an upper-middle-class white family in suburban Pennsylvania and the terrible cost the family's children pay to maintain the family name.The Shoveler, the Freak, CanIHelpYou?, Loretta the Flea-Circus Ring Mistress, and First-Class Malcolm. These are the five teenagers lost in the Hemmings family's maze of tangled secrets. Only a generation removed from being simple Pennsylvania potato farmers, Gottfried and Marla Hemmings managed to trade digging spuds for developing subdivisions and now sit atop a seven-figure bank account, wealth they've declined to pass on to their adult children or their teenage grand children. "Because we want them to thrive," Marla always says. What does thriving look like? Like carrying a snow shovel everywhere. Like selling pot at the Arby's drive-thru window. Like a first class ticket to Jamiaca between cancer treatments. Like a... Views: 60
Red Hot Reads offers five fabulous, varied stories by the very best erotic writers, including: Beach Babe by Lucy Felthouse, A Question of Control by Fulani, Fun on Cam by Jen Ricci, Dionysus by J. Manx and Divorced...in My Forties by Eva Hore. A wonderful collection of erotic reading to suits everyone's tastes... Views: 60
From Walter Jon Williams, author of Implied Spaces, Hardwired, and Voice of the Whirlwind, comes The Green Leopard Plague and Other Stories, a stunning collection of short fiction including the Nebula Award winning story The Green Leopard Plague, as well as Daddy's World, Lethe, The Last Ride of German Freddie, Millennium Party, The Tang Dynasty, Underwater Pyramid, Incarnation Day, Send Them Flowers, and Pinocchio. Views: 60
Collected in this volume are spine-tingling tales showing us that below the ground and at the top of mountain peaks lurk nameless gods and ghouls, powerful and horrific. In cemeteries and desert wastes and swampy bogs, the evidence of past civilizations remains waiting to be uncovered, ominously portending mankind's own inglorious future conclusion. Even more disconcerting in H. P. Lovecraft's fictional world is that one need not even leave home to come face-to-face with the cataclysmic revelation of man's insignificance. Monsters not only skulk in underground crypts and exotic foreign lands, but swarm all around us, just out of sight.Among the creepy tales included in this volume are "He," "The Moon-Bog," "The Other Gods," "Polaris." Views: 60
Cody Miller is on the brink of having it all: an MBA, a high-powered job in corporate finance, and the girl of his dreams. And then one mistake, one unfortunate accident, takes it all away in the blink of an eye. His future, his health and his hope—gone—up in flames, leaving him the victim of an unimaginably horrific injury.Upon emerging from a coma, Cody discovers his life and plans have been shattered. As he struggles to find the strength to go on and a reason to live, he slowly begins to realize things may not be as they seem. His life has changed more than he could've ever imagined, but someone…or something…may be working beneath the surface…changing the world around him, altering lives and procuring victims…an ancient evil that hides in plain sight and destroys as it consumes.To uncover the truth, Cody will have to forget everything he thought he knew about reality in order to salvage his sanity and save the life of the woman he loves.How much would you give, how far would you go, what would you sacrifice, to save the person you love more than life itself? From deep within the flames, Cody Miller is about to find out.DREAM OF THE SERPENT, the new novel from Alan Ryker, author of THE HOARD. Views: 60
Mandy Green is happy juggling her life as a single mom and her dream job as a third grade teacher. Her world is knocked on its edge when her high school sweetheart connects with her via Facebook. Mandy decides on one, last date with Kip to finally move on. Kip isn't quite so ready to let go. Will Mandy dare to take a second chance with her first love? Warning: This book contains adult language, nature of a sexual content including anal sex.July 2012 update: this book has finally been edited. Thanks to everyone who has read and reviewed. Views: 59
