The Last Execution

The Last Execution

Jesper Wung-Sung

Jesper Wung-Sung

Based on the chilling true story of the last execution in Denmark's history, this award-winning, mesmerizing novel asks a question that plagues a small Danish town: does a fifteen-year-old boy deserve to be put to death?On February 22, 1853, a fifteen-year-old Niels Nelson is prepared to be executed on Gallows Hill. The master carpenter comes to measure Niels for his coffin. The master baker bakes bread for the spectators. The messenger posts the notice of execution in the town square. The poet prepares his best pen to record the events as they unfold. A fly, Niels's only companion in the cell, buzzes. A dog hovers by his young master's window. A young girl hovers too, pitying the boy. The executioner sharpens his blade. This remarkable, wrenching story is told with the alternating perspectives of eleven different bystanders—one per hour—as the clock ticks ever closer to the moment when the boy must face his fate. Niels...
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Imaginary Friends

Imaginary Friends

Nora Ephron

Nora Ephron

Although Lillian Hellman and Mary McCarthy probably only met once in their lives, their names will be linked forever in the history of American literary feuds: they were legendary enemies, especially after McCarthy famously announced to the world that every word Hellman wrote was a lie, “including ‘and’ and ‘the.’” The public battle, and the legal squabbling, that ensued ended, unsatisfactorily for all, with Hellman’s death. In Imaginary Friends, Nora Ephron brilliantly and hilariously resuscitates these two bigger-than-life women to give them a post-mortem second act, and the chance to really air their differences.Review“A sharp-eyed and even sharper-clawed memory-play. . . . Provides . . . guilty pleasures, keeping the repartee both snappy and snappish.” --*The Wall Street Journal“A feast of wit and language . . . that grows into a hair-pulling duel even Don King could appreciate.” --Los Angeles Times“Takes the prize for audacity. . . . Two august ladies of letters as you’ve never seen them before. . . . [I]n American theater, everybody loves a bitch with style.” --The New York Times“A witty, swanky, thoroughly delightful intellectual vaudeville that’s as light as it is sneakily substantial.” --Newsday“Nora Ephron knows how to refine the passions of Hellman and McCarthy into glittering comedy. . . . [She] also gives her dueling heroines some swipes worthy of Clare Boothe Luce’s long-form catfight, The Women.” –-The New York Sun*From the Inside FlapAlthough Lillian Hellman and Mary McCarthy probably only met once in their lives, their names will be linked forever in the history of American literary feuds: they were legendary enemies, especially after McCarthy famously announced to the world that every word Hellman wrote was a lie, "including ‘and' and ‘the.'" The public battle, and the legal squabbling, that ensued ended, unsatisfactorily for all, with Hellman's death. In Imaginary Friends, Nora Ephron brilliantly and hilariously resuscitates these two bigger-than-life women to give them a post-mortem second act, and the chance to really air their differences.
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Descendants Series

Descendants Series

Melissa Wright

Fantasy / Paranormal / Young Adult

This Descendants Series box set includes the following titles:BOUND BY PROPHECY — Aern's only job is to protect the chosen. Emily just wants her sister back. Together, they'll take on destiny.SHIFTING FATE — Brianna Drake was born to save the world. Logan was sent to watch over her. Neither expects what fate has in store.REIGN OF SHADOWS — Brianna and Emily thought they'd set things to right, beaten the prophecy. But the shadows have other plans.Book One: Bound by ProphecyAern's only job is to protect the chosen. The trouble is, she's the key to a prophecy and everyone wants her. Hiding a girl in the center of a secret war is tricky business, but when her sister shows up to take Aern hostage, all bets are off.A slim brunette in borrowed jeans should be the least of his problems, but there's something about Emily he just can't put to rights. And it's not her penchant for using hand tools as weapons or the fact that she seems immune to his sway.Everything about her screams run. But...
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The Pleasure Slave i-2

The Pleasure Slave i-2

Gena Showalter

Romance / Paranormal / Young Adult

When Santa Fe antique dealer Julie Anderson was curiously drawn to purchase a battered jewelry box, she never expected it to contain her own personal love slave. Especially not tall, dark and sinfully handsome Tristan-a man hard to resist, and determined to fulfill her every desire. Though Tristan was a rogue of the battlefield and the boudoir, making love with Julia was like nothing he'd ever known. Yet revealing his true heart would break the centuries-old spell and separate them forever. And Tristan would do anything to go on loving Julia. even remain a slave through all eternity.
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Steel Beach

Steel Beach

John Varley

John Varley

John Varley's Steel Beach is a daring, well-conceived work of science fiction. Humanity has been ejected from Earth by enigmatic aliens trying to save cetaceans. Homo sapiens finds itself exiled to strongholds throughout the solar system, foremost of which is Luna. There, human beings live in great comfort with almost all of their needs met and very little to worry about. As a result, they are losing their minds. Through the unremarkable antagonist Hildy, Varley asks what happens to human beings who lack challenges and who lack any real direction. Comforts there are aplenty in Luna. Technology makes sex changes routine and has all but defeated death itself. So now what? Humanity has slumped into a self-absorbed torpor that would be bad enough if the unimaginably complex supercomputer that controls every aspect of Lunar life weren't on the edge of a catastrophic breakdown. Hildy gains an increasing awareness of this problem as the narrative progresses; and he (later she) manages to struggle out of the cocoon of smothering comfort that threatens to make humanity incapable of responding to the imminent central computer breakdown. As with much good science fiction, Varley uses Steel Beach to ask what humanity ought to do with its capabilities. He suggests that it is human nature to use awesome abilities for small-minded diversions. We are our own greatest limitation, though we are also our own greatest resource. The story is overlong, though. The pace drags a bit. More ruthless editing would have yielded a story that was better-paced but still covered the important points. Though it can be uncomfortable to read (or perhaps because), Steel Beach is quite worthy of the reading.
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Serving Pride

Serving Pride

Jill Sanders

Romance / Suspense / Paranormal

Robert Brogan was destined to be sheriff in the small town of Pride, Oregon. He moved to Pride when he was eight after his mother’s mysterious disappearance. Always following the rules and sticking up for the weak, he had only one thing in mind after graduation—tracking down his mother.
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Montana Legend (Harlequin Historical, No. 624)

Montana Legend (Harlequin Historical, No. 624)

Jillian Hart

Romance

Product Description"Happily Ever After" Wasn't Much To Wish ForYoung widow Sarah Redding swore that if Providence sent her another man to love, he would definitely have to love her back. Then into her life rode Gage Gatlin, a rugged jewel of a man who could offer her everything—except his heart!Gage Gatlin Knew Love Was A Fairy TaleBut devotion and desire—those were things he knew he could build a life around. One he could share with Sarah Redding, a woman practical yet passionate, caring to both of their daughters, a woman he wanted forever. If only she didn't want love...!
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