COULD HE HEAL HER BROKEN HEART?What was she doing here? Hyattown had changed very little in the years Vanessa Sexton had been away. In some ways her high school sweetheart, Brady Tucker, hadn\'t changed much either - he was still lean, athletic, rugged...But the once reckless boy had become a solid, dependable man. He\'d stood her up on the most important night of her life; could she ever trust him again?So Vanessa had finally come home, Brady thought. She could still turn him inside out with one of her sultry looks. He couldn\'t believe she hadn\'t forgiven him for that night twelve years ago--but he\'d had his reasons for not showing up. He\'d let her leave town then--but he wasn\'t going to let her get away this time. . . 

‟A tender but unflinching portrayal of the bond between two sisters."—Celeste Ng, New York Times bestselling author of Little Fires Everywhere and Everything I Never Told You A dazzling novel of two sisters and their emotional journey through love, loyalty, and heartbreak Two sisters—Miranda, the older, responsible one, always her younger sister's protector; Lucia, the headstrong, unpredictable one, whose impulses are huge and, often, life changing. When their mother dies and Lucia starts hearing voices, it is Miranda who must find a way to reach her sister. But Lucia impetuously plows ahead, marrying a bighearted, older man only to leave him, suddenly, to have a baby with a young Latino immigrant. She moves her new family from the States to Ecuador and back again, but the bitter constant is that she is, in fact, mentally ill. Lucia lives life on a grand scale, until, inevitably, she crashes to earth. Miranda...

The man she loved is gone forever. The child she lives for could be next. Each day is a struggle for Amanda Gleason's newborn son as he battles a rare immune deficiency. Justin's best chance for a cure lies with his father, who was brutally murdered before Amanda even realized she carried his child. Or was he? One emailed photo changes everything, planting a seed of doubt that Amanda latches on to for dear life: a recent photo of a man who looks exactly like Paul. Could Justin's father be alive? The mother in her is desperate to find out. But tracking down a ghost when every second counts is not for amateurs. Forensic Instincts is the one team up for the challenge. A behaviorist. A former navy SEAL. A techno-wizard. An intuitive. A retired FBI agent. A human-scent-evidence dog. Together they achieve the impossible, pushing ethical and legal boundaries whenever the ends justify the means. The manhunt is on for the elusive father. Yet the further FI digs into his past, the more questions are raised about whether the man Amanda fell in love with ever really existed at all. Dark secrets. Carefully crafted lies. From the congressional halls of Washington, D.C., to exclusive Hamptons manors, there are ruthless people who would stop at nothing to make Forensic Instincts forget about the man Amanda desperately needs to find. Little do they realize that once Forensic Instincts takes the case, nothing will stop them from uncovering the shocking truth that transcends The Line Between Here and Gone.

FROM USA TODAY BESTSELLING AUTHOR M. ROBINSON The sequel to Road to Nowhere is coming April 4th. Find out all the answers to the questions you are dying to know in Ends Here. Cover and synopsis coming soon. *Note: Road to Nowhere must be read before Ends Here.

Three girls, three trips, one amazing summer! Liza Gold's biggest nightmare: a cross-country road trip with her parents and two other crazy families; visiting sights like the world's largest ketchup bottle; two whole months away from her best friends, Sam and Mina. And it's all coming true. Liza is convinced that this will be the worst summer ever. But this is one trip that just might surprise her. . . .

Booker Prize-winning author John Berger, one of the most widely admired writers of our time, returns us to the captivating play and narrative allure of his previous novels-G. and Pig Earth among them-with a shimmering fiction drawn from chapters of his own life. One hot afternoon in Lisbon, the narrator finds his long-dead mother seated on a park bench. "The dead don't stay where they are buried," she tells him. And so begins a remarkable odyssey, told in simple yet gorgeous prose, that carries us from the London Blitz in 1943, to a Polish market, to a Paleolithic cave, to the Ritz Hotel in Madrid. Here Is Where We Meet is a unique literary journey that moves freely through time and space but never loses its foothold in the sensuous present.

An unforgettable new series from acclaimed author Katie McGarry about taking risks, opening your heart and ending up in a place you never imagined possible. Seventeen-year-old Emily likes her life the way it is: doting parents, good friends, good school in a safe neighborhood. Sure, she's curious about her biological father—the one who chose life in a motorcycle club, the Reign of Terror, over being a parent—but that doesn't mean she wants to be a part of his world. But when a reluctant visit turns to an extended summer vacation among relatives she never knew she had, one thing becomes clear: nothing is what it seems. Not the club, not her secret-keeping father and not Oz, a guy with suck-me-in blue eyes who can help her understand them both. Oz wants one thing: to join the Reign of Terror. They're the good guys. They protect people. They're…family. And while Emily—the gorgeous and sheltered daughter of the club's most respected member—is in town, he's gonna prove it to her. So when her father asks him to keep her safe from a rival club with a score to settle, Oz knows it's his shot at his dream. What he doesn't count on is that Emily just might turn that dream upside down. No one wants them to be together. But sometimes the right person is the one you least expect, and the road you fear the most is the one that leads you home.

Charlotte has spent her twenties adrift, floating from interest to interest, job to job, and guy to guy, searching for a spark but never quite finding it. All she knows is that she won’t discover it working as a waitress at a pies-and-fries joint in Los Angeles or living with her fun but aimless best friend in a tiny apartment in the Arts District. Then Charlotte collides with Adam, a gorgeous and soulful painter who seems just as lost as she feels. Their instant connection turns into a midnight drink… and a whirlwind night of champagne, Chinese food, and the kind of conversation that only happens in romantic comedies. But the next morning, Adam gives Charlotte the cold shoulder, leaving her confused and hurt—and wondering if the few odd moments between them the night before were red flags in disguise. Months later, Charlotte hasn’t been able to shake Adam, so she decides to find out what happened the morning after their magical night together. This fateful decision rewrites their wild love story, but what Charlotte doesn’t know yet is that the ending has already been written.

The man she loved is gone forever. The child she lives for could be next. Each day is a struggle for Amanda Gleason's newborn son as he battles a rare immune deficiency. Justin's best chance for a cure lies with his father, who was brutally murdered before Amanda even realized she carried his child. Or was he? One emailed photo changes everything, planting a seed of doubt that Amanda latches on to for dear life: a recent photo of a man who looks exactly like Paul. Could Justin's father be alive? The mother in her is desperate to find out. But tracking down a ghost when every second counts is not for amateurs. Forensic Instincts is the one team up for the challenge. A behaviorist. A former navy SEAL. A techno-wizard. An intuitive. A retired FBI agent. A human-scent-evidence dog. Together, they achieve the impossible, pushing ethical and legal boundaries whenever the ends justify the means. The manhunt is on for the elusive father. Yet the further FI digs into his past, the more questions are raised about whether the man Amanda fell in love with ever really existed at all. Dark secrets. Carefully crafted lies. From the Congressional halls of Washington, D.C., to exclusive Hamptons manors, there are ruthless people who would stop at nothing to make Forensic Instincts forget about the man Amanda desperately needs to find. Little do they realize that once Forensic Instincts takes the case, nothing will stop them from uncovering the shocking truth that transcends The Line Between Here and Gone.

Milo Mitchell's life used to be charmed, but that was before her family dissolved, she went a little crazy, and her best friends started acting more like strangers. Spending Saturday morning in a treehouse with a stun gun for company and a herd of deer for friends is the only exciting thing in her life...until she shoots a fawn and finds her dart stuck in a guy. Her gorgeous victim is dressed in a Brioni tux and armed with a hanky. He has no idea who or where he is. Afraid her dart caused his amnesia, Milo takes him in, names him Nick, and vows to help him solve his mystery. Soon the pair find Nick's face in a newspaper obituary, and Nick beings to have strange, ethereal memories of Milo--who is sure she's never met him. Suddenly Nick knows things he shouldn't know and is doing things he shouldn't do. When the Department of Defense shows up, Nick and Milo run--toward a shocking conclusion that could destroy both their worlds.

Betsey Biggalow is here! She may be small but she's full of bright and shiny ideas about new trainers, winning at marbles and even helping the world! Join Betsey on four short, sun-filled adventures as she learns you don't have to be big to make a big difference. This book is one of five short story collections featuring the lively and likeable Betsey Biggalow from Children's Laureate, Malorie Blackman. Beautifully illustrated by Jamie Smith, these stories are ideal for building confidence in readers aged 5 and over, whether reading aloud or reading alone.

Everyone has secrets. Some are buried so deep, their existence is forgotten. But a secret never told can turn into a lie. And in love, a lie is one thing: Poison. Reid's in love with Dori, though she hasn't told her parents that she's fallen hard for the guy they'd forbidden her to see. Now she's leaving for college, and Reid's promise not to push her to go public is wearing thin, especially when she can't - or won't - return those three important words he wants to hear. Five years ago, Brooke and Reid were a Thing. That relationship is long gone, detonated amid allegations of cheating - but they still share a secret that would stun everyone they know and alter public perception of them both if it ever comes out. And it's about to do just that. Here Without You is the fourth, final installment in the Between the Lines series, which includes: Between the Lines, Where You Are, and Good For You.

Thirteenth-century Wales is a divided country, ever at the mercy of England’s ruthless, power-hungry King John. Llewelyn, Prince of North Wales, secures an uneasy truce by marrying the English king’s beloved illegitimate daughter, Joanna, who slowly grows to love her charismatic and courageous husband. But as John’s attentions turn again and again to subduing Wales---and Llewelyn---Joanna must decide where her love and loyalties truly lie.The turbulent clashes of two disparate worlds and the destinies of the individuals caught between them spring to life in this magnificent novel of power and passion, loyalty and lies. The book that began the trilogy that includes Falls the Shadowand The Reckoning, Here Be Dragons brings thirteenth-century England, France, and Wales to tangled, tempestuous life.Review“A masterful picture of Wales in the thirteenth century . . . vividly pictured as grandly beautiful, its people volatile, stubborn, and mystic.” ---The San Diego Union“There is everything in Here Be Dragons but dragons: princesses held captive in stone towers, bloody wars, princes scheming to dethrone their own brothers, castles under siege, maidens in distress, power struggles for half of civilization, rampant infidelity, lusting, mead guzzling, wine drinking, love affairs that topple kingdoms---how did England survive the thirteenth century? . . . History and fiction bound up together in historical novels have always had their own uneasy alliance. . . . Penman deftly makes the mesh work.” ---The Washington Post Book World“Remarkable. . . . Her writing is faultless, deftly interweaving the threads of the various story lines into a glowing, living tapestry. . . . This is storytelling at its finest.” ---United Press International“With a fidelity to historical detail, a deep understanding of the period, a lucid, felicitous prose style, a sensitivity to nuances of character, and a sure sense of drama, the new novel by the author ofThe Sunne in Splendour is an engrossing tale.” ---Publishers WeeklyFrom the PublisherAs a publisher I have been lucky to be able to visit bookstores all over the country, independent and chain alike. What interests me first about these stores is what titles are being displayed in the 'Staff Recommends' section of the store. It is here that you can find treasured, beloved books quite dear to someone who works in the stores, someone waiting quite eagerly for the chance to hand sell their recommended titles.It is in these Staff Recommend sections that I kept on seeing our Penman's titles, HERE BE DRAGONS, FALLS THE SHADOW, THE RECKONING and also SUNNE IN SPLENDOUR and WHEN CHRIST AND HIS SAINTS SLEPT.It's funny, you can sell something for years before you notice that the author has been quietly making a powerful impact on people everywhere.I started with HERE BE DRAGONS and I have never looked back. Her trilogy of the decline of the Welsh kings ( DRAGON, FALLS THE SHADOW and THE RECKONING)is a holiday gift I give year after year, and I'm happy to say they have always been embraced and loved. From my 15 year old niece to my 70 year old mother and many ages in between, all readers are enchanted and transported to a land and an age gone forever. But Penman makes them live forever in our minds and hearts with fantastic, unforgettable characters and wonderful history. HERE BE DRAGONS is such a great title--medieval mapmakes would write those words across any part of the map that was unknown.. a wonderful metaphor for how little the Welsh and English knew of each other.SUNNE IN SPLENDOUR--Warning: This is not Shakespeare's Richard III. In this novel, Richard is a victim of circumstance and man vilified by the Tudors, but here presented as a decent and normal man, a man of conscience.AND he is not a murderer. Yes, those princes did die, but not by Richard's hand.WHEN CHRIST AND HIS SAINTS SLEPTAnother wonderful title, for it refers to the 15 years of England's darkest time-the civil war between the cousins Queen Maud and King Steven. England was deserted, for Christ and his saints were sleeping. I had never even heard of these royals. Queen Maud was the legitimate heir to the throne, but a woman, and there fore not fit to rule. She is also the mother of Henry, who later married Eleanor of Aquitaine . Pretty heady stuff, more incredible men and women, another book to get totally lost in. Although it has been years since all these books were first published, I can name 5 stores I have been in in the past 3 months that have one of these titles in the Staff Recommends section.-Alice Kesterson, Ballantine Regional Sales Manger

Award-winning writer Patrick Ness’s bold and irreverent novel powerfully asks what if you weren't the Chosen One? The one who's supposed to fight the zombies, or the soul-eating ghosts, or whatever this new thing is, with the blue lights and the death? What if you were like Mikey? Who just wants to graduate and go to prom and maybe finally work up the courage to ask Henna out before someone goes and blows up the high school. Again. Because sometimes there are problems bigger than this week’s end of the world and sometimes you just have to find the extraordinary in your ordinary life. Even if your best friend might just be the God of mountain lions... An exceptional novel from the author praised by John Green as "an insanely beautiful writer".

They say if you stare at him long enpigh. you can see what's written on the wall behind him. They say a lot of things about the Schwa, but one thing's for sure: noone ever noticed him. Except me. My name is Antsy Bonano- and I can tell you what's true and what's not 'cause I was there. I was the one who realized the Schwa was functionaly invisible and used it to make some big bucks. But I was also the one that caused him more grief than a friend should. So if you all just shut up and listen, I'll spill everything. Unless of course, the Schwa-effect wipes him out of my brain before I'm done...

James Jones’s epic story of army life in the calm before Pearl Harbor—now with previously censored scenes and dialogue restored At the Pearl Harbor army base in 1941, Robert E. Lee Prewitt is Uncle Sam’s finest bugler. A career soldier with no patience for army politics, Prewitt becomes incensed when a commander’s favorite wins the title of First Bugler. His indignation results in a transfer to an infantry unit whose commander is less interested in preparing for war than he is in boxing. But when Prewitt refuses to join the company team, the commander and his sergeant decide to make the bugler’s life hell. An American classic now available with scenes and dialogue considered unfit for publication in the 1950s, From Here to Eternity is a stirring picture of army life in the months leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor. This ebook features an illustrated biography of James Jones including rare photos from the author’s estate.

From the well-loved author of Knitting Under the Influence and The Smart One and the Pretty One comes a new novel about a young single mother trying to move out of her family's shadow. Rickie left home a long time ago-so how is it that at the age of twenty-five, she's living with her parents again, and sleeping in the bedroom of her childhood home? At least one thing has changed since high school: She now has a very sweet but frequently challenging son named Noah, who attends the same tony private LA school she herself attended. Rickie fit in fine when she was a student, but now her age and tattoos make her stand out from all the blond Stepford moms, who are desperate to know why someone so young-and so unmarried-has a kid in first grade. Already on the defensive, Rickie goes into full mother-tigress mode when her small and unathletic son tells her that the gym teacher is out to get him. She storms the principal's office, only to discover that Andrew Fulton, the coach, is no dumb jock. As her friendship with Andrew develops, Rickie finds herself questioning her assumptions-about motherhood, being a grown-up, and falling in love.

In 1963, Ellie's mother, Doris Day Dingman, was crowned the Bosetti Beauty at Mr. Bosetti's supermarket, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, and the Dingmans began to fall apart." So begins 11-yr-old Eleanor Roosevelt Dingman's story. Ellie, who is about to start 6th grade in the small town of Spectacle, NY, is the oldest child in her off-center family. Her father works construction jobs, while her mother, Doris, has only one dream - to become a rich and famous actress. But when that dream leads to Doris's abandonment of the family, it is Ellie who is called upon to take charge.

After nearly twenty years of living in California, March Murray, along with her fifteen-year-old daughter, Gwen, returns to the sleepy Massachusetts town where she grew up to attend the funeral of Judith Dale, the beloved housekeeper who raised her. Yet returning to her hometown also brings her back to Hollis, March’s former soul mate and lover. March’s father had taken the teenaged Hollis, an abandoned child, and the product of a series of detention homes, into his house as a boarder, and treated him like a son. Yet March and Hollis’s passionate love was hardly a normal sibling relationship. When Hollis left her after a petty fight, March waited for him three long years, wondering what she had done wrong. Encountering Hollis again makes March acutely aware of the choices that she has made, and the choices everyone around her has made—including Mrs. Dale, who knew more of love than March could ever have suspected, and her brother Alan, whose tragic history has left him grief-struck, with alcohol as his only solace. Her attraction to Hollis is overwhelming—and March jeopardizes her marriage, her relationship with her daughter and her own happiness in an attempt to reclaim the past.

Elizabeth Berg, bestselling author of The Art of Mending and The Year of Pleasures, has a rare talent for revealing her characters’ hearts and minds in a manner that makes us empathize completely. Her new novel, We Are All Welcome Here, features three women, each struggling against overwhelming odds for her own kind of freedom. It is the summer of 1964. In Tupelo, Mississippi, the town of Elvis’s birth, tensions are mounting over civil-rights demonstrations occurring ever more frequently–and violently–across the state. But in Paige Dunn’s small, ramshackle house, there are more immediate concerns. Challenged by the effects of the polio she contracted during her last month of pregnancy, Paige is nonetheless determined to live as normal a life as possible and to raise her daughter, Diana, in the way she sees fit–with the support of her tough-talking black caregiver, Peacie. Diana is trying in her own fashion to live a normal life. As a fourteen-year-old, she wants to make money for clothes and magazines, to slough off the authority of her mother and Peacie, to figure out the puzzle that is boys, and to escape the oppressiveness she sees everywhere in her small town. What she can never escape, however, is the way her life is markedly different from others’. Nor can she escape her ongoing responsibility to assist in caring for her mother. Paige Dunn is attractive, charming, intelligent, and lively, but her needs are great–and relentless. As the summer unfolds, hate and adversity will visit this modest home. Despite the difficulties thrust upon them, each of the women will find her own path to independence, understanding, and peace. And Diana’s mother, so mightily compromised, will end up giving her daughter an extraordinary gift few parents could match. From the Hardcover edition.

Every summer the Pikes rent a house right on the ocean in Sea City, New Jersey. And they bring two sitters along to take care of the Pike kids. Only this time, the whole entire Baby-sitters Club is going! Mary Anne shows Logan all the sites - the beach, the boardwalk, the infamous Tunnel of Luv. Mallory gets asked out on a date (except it's with Stacey's ex-boyfriend!). And Jessi's busy being Sea City's Super Sitter. In fact, the Baby-sitters are having so much fun, no one's noticed that a gigantic hurricane named Bill is headed straight for Sea City!

Sam Parker is a vampire with a gift so strong and substantial that she is invited to partake in a test for a place in the Grand High Master Vampire’s private army. She finds that not only has the army never included a woman, but it has never included a Sventé vampire; a breed that is regarded by the super strong Pagori breed and the hypnotically beautiful Keja breed to be too tame and human-like. Most refuse to take her seriously, especially a Pagori commander named Jared who she craves in spite of herself. The Grand High Master, however, sees her potential and offers her the position of Jared’s co-commander to help train the newest squad in time for the impending attack on his home. Sam has to demonstrate to Jared and the squad of chauvinists why it is incredibly foolish to underestimate a wilful, temperamental, borderline-homicidal Sventé female. Warning: This novel contains an iron-willed female vampire with an energy whip, a sexist male vampire who is determined to have her, explicit vampy sex, and a romance story with real bite.

A Chicago reporter in her mid-twenties unexpectedly finds love in Napa Valley when she’s assigned to spend a week with a famously reclusive genius. Kate Corbin has lost her spark. From the outside, her life seems charmed. She has a handsome, long-term boyfriend and a budding journalism career at a popular Chicago newspaper. But in reality, her relationship is going nowhere, and she’s quickly losing motivation for what she once believed was her dream job. When her boyfriend dumps her unceremoniously, Kate loses all hope of finding love. With no living family and few friends, Kate confides in her boss. Trusting that the hungry, ace reporter is buried somewhere deep inside, he gives Kate the opportunity to jumpstart her career. The assignment: to interview the famously reclusive R.J. Lawson, a wealthy tech genius who disappeared years ago but recently reemerged as a Napa Valley vintner. The week takes an unexpected turn, however, when Lawson refuses to divulge any information. Desperate for a lead, Kate turns to Jamie, a vineyard hand who shows her the romance of wine country—and stirs her aching heart. But his connection to Lawson is ambiguous, and when Jamie disappears before the end of the week, Kate is left to investigate another story: the truth behind the man who stole her heart. USA TODAY bestselling author Renée Carlino explored love and heartbreak in her beautifully written debut Sweet Thing, and her newest novel does not disappoint. For fans of Colleen Hoover, K.A. Tucker, and Katja Millay, Nowhere But Here is a stirring and satisfying romance that you won’t want to put down.

THE BESTSELLING, CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED WINNER OF THE 2007 FRANK O'CONNOR INTERNATIONAL SHORT STORY AWARD 'Blisteringly good' Guardian In her remarkable stories of seemingly ordinary people living extraordinary lives, Miranda July reveals how a single moment can change everything. Whether writing about a middle-aged woman's obsession with Prince William or an aging bachelor who has never been in love, the result is startling, tender and sexy by turns. One of the most acclaimed and successful short story collections, No One Belongs Here More Than You confirms Miranda July as a spectacularly original, iconic and important voice today.

Wedding bells ring on both coasts, for Dawn's dad and for Mrs. Barrett, a client of the Babysitters Club. This super special marks Dawn's long-awaited return to the Club.

Sometimes even devils get bored ... a short horror story by David Wesley Hill. Not for the squeamish!"We called them Martians for they had no other name. When they bore down upon us in droves from on high, they offered no treatise, no declarations, and certainly no gentleman's agreement. Had they called out to us, we would have responded, would have bartered, bargained or surrendered. Instead, the only sounds uttered unto us were the clicking of multiplicitous claws, sinewy carapaces sucking and frothing as they slid together like fleshy armour, and the vague sound of chittering when they moved."1914. An alien invasion decimates London, forcing a pair of reluctant soldiers to lead a ragtag group of refugees out of the city and to safety through a country that they no longer recognise. Along the way, they encounter horrors of both a terrestrial and extra-terrestrial nature, encounters which bring about an end to everything that they've ever known. Equal parts action and philosophy, their story is not a celebration of war, nor of the soldiers themselves, rather it concerns that inner darkness that lies under the surface of all authority, and the resulting effect upon society when the true horror of humanity, unburdened by any sense of propriety, awakens in violent fashion.

The ULTIMATE story collection for Skulduggery Pleasant fans. Featuring two AMAZING novellas and fourteen GRIPPING short stories - including three new stories written exclusively for this edition. We all know that doors are for people with no imagination so smash the glass, climb through the window and enter the awesome world of Skulduggery Pleasant with this ultimate story collection. For the first time, every Skulduggery Pleasant short story, plus two novellas – Get Thee Behind me, Bubba Moon and The End of the World – is collected into one magnificent volume. But that's not all… This collection includes fourteen short stories – three of which are AWESOME NEW stories written exclusively for this edition. Two of them delve into the things that our old friend Billy-Ray Sanguine gets up to between books, while the third pits Skulduggery and Valkyrie against a serial killer, a desperate ghost, and a swarm of very nasty insects. So it’s business as usual, then. Introduced by Derek, these are the hidden stories of the skeleton who saves the world… and the girl who's destined to destroy it.

NOTE: The version of the play contained in this acting edition is one which was specifically revised by the author for release to the nonprofessional theatre. As George Oppenheimer describes "We first encounter Mrs. Goforth in one of her three villas on the southern coast of Italy frantically endeavoring to complete her memoirs before her death. However, there is still life in the old girl as she bullies her attractive female secretary, spits venom at a visitor whom she dubs "the witch of Capri," makes propositions to a handsome young itinerant poet over half her age, and dictates night and day, either to the secretary or to any number of tape recorders scattered about the premises, her vapid and ridiculous memories which she believes will form an important social commentary. To the triple homes of Mrs. Goforth comes Chris Flanders, the young poet, who because of his past presence in the company of so many elderly women at the time of their deaths has won the mocking nickname of "the angel of death." At first we take him to be, as does Mrs. Goforth, a hustler who is willing to sell his poems, his mobiles, or his body to susceptible and lonely ancients. To Mrs. Goforth, who has lived a full and promiscuous life and is in mortal fear of relinquishing it, Chris comes as an answer to a carnal prayer, a last fling before she is forced to face ultimate loneliness. Then she discovers that he is unwilling to give in to her seductions at any price, that his is a spiritual nature which seeks only to allay her fears and soothe her pain. Until almost the very end she refuses to believe in his virtue. Her life has been so hedged in viciousness that she cannot accept readily anything but venality."

Are you afraid of the monsters lurking in the shadows of your closet? What about the ones skulking nefariously under your bed? I bet you are. You should probably be more worried about the ones hiding in your head. So lock your doors, bar you windows, and pray to whatever god you choose. Because Here There be Monsters.Those twisted voices screaming in the back of your head, the ones urging you to slash that moron's tires when he won't get off your ass or the ones telling you to bleed your neighbor's dog dry when the little thing won't shut up at three AM, the ones you try so hard to silence and to ignore, are getting sick of you not paying attention. Oh, don't look so surprised; we all have those monsters within us. In the following collection of short stories and poetry, A. Mims lets some of her monsters loose. Her words are full of the darkness inside us all. So beware, because Here There be Monsters.

On the ninth floor of an upscale apartment ocomplex, a young couple will come to terms with the loss of their son and the impending release of their daughter from a psychiatric clinic on her fourth birthday.On the ninth floor of an upscale apartment complex, a young couple will come to terms with the loss of their son and the impending release of their daughter from a psychiatric clinic on her fourth birthday.In the three days leading to Korine being released from the clinic, The Mother, The Father and Linda will each, in their escapism, deal with their own demons. And each will captain their negation and ridicule before eventually, on the third day, falling into some kind of teary and blissful acceptance.This is a story of happiness, regardless of the hurt and suffering of which it is sometimes garbed.

Unable to let go of the past, an office drone seeks to escape the confines of his boring life. From the author of The Bitter End, comes a tale of two lost souls embarking on a transatlantic voyage, drawn together by a burning desire to break free from the unforgiving torment of reality.An advanced species with the ability to teleport at will seeks to claim our planet and its inhabitants for its own, but upon arriving they become hopelessly intoxicated from our atmosphere.

Cody and Meg were inseparable. Two peas in a pod. Until . . . they weren’t anymore. When her best friend Meg drinks a bottle of industrial-strength cleaner alone in a motel room, Cody is understandably shocked and devastated. She and Meg shared everything—so how was there no warning? But when Cody travels to Meg’s college town to pack up the belongings left behind, she discovers that there’s a lot that Meg never told her. About her old roommates, the sort of people Cody never would have met in her dead-end small town in Washington. About Ben McAllister, the boy with a guitar and a sneer, who broke Meg’s heart. And about an encrypted computer file that Cody can’t open—until she does, and suddenly everything Cody thought she knew about her best friend’s death gets thrown into question. I Was Here is Gayle Forman at her finest, a taut, emotional, and ultimately redemptive story about redefining the meaning of family and finding a way to move forward even in the face of unspeakable loss.

Als Sandy Shortt zehn Jahre alt ist, verschwindet ein Mädchen aus ihrer Klasse. Seit dieser Zeit sucht sie leidenschaftlich nach allem, was vermisst wird: nach Socken, Schlüsseln und später auch nach Menschen. In ihrer Suchagentur macht sie Angehörigen Mut, denn sie gibt niemals auf. Doch als Sandy den Auftrag bekommt, den Bruder von Jack Ruttle wiederzufinden, verirrt sie sich im Wald und verschwindet selbst – an einen geheimnisvollen Ort, den alle nur »Hier" nennen ...Fantasievoll, spannend und tief berührend macht sich Cecelia Aherns Roman auf die Suche – nach dem Leben, der Liebe und uns selbst.

After being warped back to ancient China, Joe, Fred, and Anna are faced with some big tasks. They must rescue General Li Shimin from prison so he can defeat the awful ruler, Wang. Then they must figure out how to free Sam, who is trapped in . . . The Book. Join the Time Warp Trio as they learn kung fu, scale the Great Wall of China, and learn to stop time itself!

Britt-Marie can’t stand mess. A disorganized cutlery drawer ranks high on her list of unforgivable sins. She is not one to judge others—no matter how ill-mannered, unkempt, or morally suspect they might be. It’s just that sometimes people interpret her helpful suggestions as criticisms, which is certainly not her intention. But hidden inside the socially awkward, fussy busybody is a woman who has more imagination, bigger dreams, and a warmer heart that anyone around her realizes. When Britt-Marie walks out on her cheating husband and has to fend for herself in the miserable backwater town of Borg—of which the kindest thing one can say is that it has a road going through it—she finds work as the caretaker of a soon-to-be demolished recreation center. The fastidious Britt-Marie soon finds herself being drawn into the daily doings of her fellow citizens, an odd assortment of miscreants, drunkards, layabouts. Most alarming of all, she’s given the impossible task of leading the supremely untalented children’s soccer team to victory. In this small town of misfits, can Britt-Marie find a place where she truly belongs?

When Nell Sely moves from sleepy Dorset to Hampstead she leaves behind a childhood of dull teas and oppressive rules for the freedom of the big city. Naive and only nineteen, she becomes embroiled with the wayward John Gaunt and falls in with London's bohemian crowd. In this city of seductive, shifting morals, smoke-filled jazz-clubs and glamorous espresso bars, Nell must master her new found independence and learn to strike her own course.

When Samantha took the wheel that night, she had no idea her life was about to change forever. Cradling her dying husband in her arms, salvation appears to her in the form of a little girl. Reaching the end of the rope, she has no choice but to accept the girl's offer, a bargain that on the surface, seems to be everything she wanted. But looks can be deceiving.Samantha and Morgan have had their difficulties, as have most married couples. But when a nasty accident forces Samantha to reevaluate that life, she realizes that she would do anything to have that back again. A little girl offers Samantha a deal, a bargain that seems too good to be true. But can Samantha deal with the consequences of her actions? Or will she learn the hard way that when you go to little girls in dark corners with your problems, you don't often get what you pay for.

A man from an advanced-technological civilization visits Earth and attempts to solve some of our problems with not quite the results he expected.A man that claims to be from an advanced-technological civilization thousands of light years away appears at a meeting of the UN and states that he has come to Earth to solve our problems. He has to convince the delegates that he is what he says he is and his attempts to prove this and to help the people of Earth does not have desired outcome.

Store clerks by day, innkeepers for the Magi by night! Twenty-year-olds Bob Himmel and Julie Beckerhof aren’t getting paid anything, but the thrills are there. If the inn isn’t sold out from under them, and if they can keep their guests alive—number seven on the list of innkeepers’ rules—they just might get married and settle into this.Brought to you by award-winning author, Molly Snow...Surla and Cathy have a HUGE secret!After spending hundreds of years as a 'familiar' to an abusive witch, Surla runs away to find freedom. But there's one catch! The Black Cats' Curse states she will have to switch bodies with the first lonesome soul to cross her path.Painfully shy Cathy Phillips can't muster the courage to ask hot water polo player, Craig Nelson, on a date. Neither can she stand up to the three biggest snobs at Washington High. What's a girl to do? Could switching lives with a sassy cat be the answer to her wishes?The "curse" of being "BeSwitched" may just be the most purr-fect secret these new best friends could ever have!

A short collection of writing and poems by Eric Paguio. Eric Paguio lives with his cat and girlfriend in Seattle, WA where he battles with aliens from mars that wear french toast body armor. Yes, they do have lasers.Alzheimer’s disease affects millions of people. When it strikes, this disease can disturb the family dynamic. Grandchildren may feel excluded from the new relationship that forms between a sick grandparent and a parent who has become the primary caregiver.Eventually, you’ll need to tell your children what is happening in a way they can understand. Author Viorel Anghel offers an approach that parents have used to explain complicated things since ancient times: magical tales …

The Secret History of Here is the story of a single place, a farm in the Scottish Borders. The site on which Alistair Moffat's farm now stands has been occupied since pre-historic times. The fields have turned up ancient arrow heads, stone spindles, silver pennies and a stone carved with the rune-like letters of Ogham. Walking this landscape you can feel the presence and see the marks of those who lived here before. But it is also the story of everywhere. In uncovering the history of one piece of land, Moffat shows how history is all around us, if only we have the eyes to see it. Under our feet, carved into the landscape, in the layout of paths and roads, in the stories we pass down, our history leaves its trace on the land. Taking the form of a journal of a year, The Secret History of Here is a walk through the centuries as much as the seasons. We hear the echo of battles long since fought, of lives lived quietly or scandalously, of armies, of kings, of the common folk who mostly...

Shreddies in my hair.I looked at Eddie.Eddie's looking at me.Big grin on his face.I knew he had done it.Last week he put pepper in the raisins.The yucky things your borther does, the annoying things your parents say, the funny things you feel.Michael Rosen knows all about YOU! Look inside and see if he's spotted your deepest, darkest secrets.A much-loved classic of family life from the brilliant Michael Rosen & Quentin Blake.

CATHERINE ANDERSON WILL TOUCH YOUR EMOTIONS WITH THE NEXT CONTEMPORARY STORY IN HER HARRIGAN FAMILY SERIES. Mandy Pajeck had a tough childhood --- an abusive father, a mother who left, and a younger brother, Luke, who depended on her when she was just a child herself. Now twenty-eight, Mandy remains devoted to Luke and feels responsible for the accident that took his sight. But his complete reliance on her care is making them both miserable. When she meets handsome Zach Harrigan and his mini guide horse, she thinks she's found the ticket to her brother's happiness --- and maybe her own. Of the five Harrigan siblings, Zach is the hellion who parties hard and takes nothing seriously. But lately his life has felt empty. So, employing his skills as a horseman, he begins training a mini guide horse for the blind, never expecting that the project will lead him to beautiful, tenderhearted Mandy. She's everything he's ever wanted in a woman. But though she's charmed by Zach's patience and compassion, she can't bring herself to fully trust him. And when Zach urges her to confront the truth about her mother's disappearance, the secrets they uncover are so shocking that even Zach's steadfast devotion may not be enough to win Mandy's heart.

In the mid-1970s, Jay Leno, David Letterman, Andy Kaufman, Richard Lewis, Robin Williams, Elayne Boosler, Tom Dreesen, and several hundred other shameless showoffs and incorrigible cutups from all across the country migrated en masse to Los Angeles, the new home of Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show. There, in a late-night world of sex, drugs, dreams and laughter, they created an artistic community unlike any before or since. It was Comedy Camelot—but it couldn’t last.William Knoedelseder, then a cub reporter covering the scene for the Los Angeles Times, was there when the comedians—who were not paid for performing—tried to change the system and incidentally tore apart their own close-knit community. In I’m Dying Up Here he tells the whole story of that golden age, of the strike that ended it, and of how those days still resonate in the lives of those who were there.From Publishers WeeklyStarred Review. In 1978, Knoedelseder (Stiffed: A True Story of MCA, the Music Business, and the Mafia) was a journalist assigned to cover newcomers transforming the comedy clubs: For the next two years, I had stage-side seats at the best show in show business.... I met and wrote about Jay Leno, David Letterman and Richard Lewis before the world knew who they were. Mitzi Shore, recently labeled the Norma Desmond of Comedy by the Los Angeles Times, took over L.A.'s Comedy Store in 1973 with a no-pay policy because she saw it as a training ground, a workshop, a college. It became a focal point for local comics, including Lewis, his friend Steve Lubetkin, Elayne Boosler, Tom Dreesen, Letterman, Leno and many more. Some were in desperate circumstances, surviving by living in their cars and eating bar condiments. Driving a silver Jaguar to her massive, cash-generating laugh factory, Shore was seen as cunningly manipulative, and her unfair payment policies led to an organized strike in 1979 by the CFC (Comedians for Compensation). This confrontation of comics vs. club owner (Not... one... red... fucking... cent) is the core of the book, with the suicide of Lubetkin taking the tone from comedy to tragedy. Filmmakers will eye this as a potential property similar to Bill Carter's The Late Shift (1996), about Letterman and Leno. Knoedelseder skillfully layers powerful dramatic details, and readers will shelve the book alongside those other key classics on comedy: Steve Allen's The Funny Men and Janet Coleman's The Compass. (Aug. 24) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. ReviewPublishers Weekly, STARRED review“Knoedelseder skillfully layers powerful dramatic details, and readers will shelve the book alongside those other key classics on comedy.”Shelf Awareness“A revealing and entertaining look at the 1970s Los Angeles comedy scene and the labor dispute that ended its most glorious era.”Booklist“Fact-packed, highly readable history… peppered with plenty of portraits of struggling young comics, some destined for national fame, others headed to obscurity and, in a few cases, early death.”Buffalo News“One of the most eye-opening and informative books ever written about standup comedy…One of the books of the year for any student of American television and pop culture…A little-known story has now been told very well in perfect context. And when you finish the book you may feel as if you finally understand every comedian you see on TV for the first time.”Daily Variety“A lively new book…Knoedelseder reminds us that comedy is a dicey calling.”New York Times Book Review“Illuminating”Irish Times“Knoedelseder, who was around in those days as a reporter on the Los Angeles Times, interweaves the fascinating stories of the tragic, unknown Lubetkin and the performers who were to become household names, set against the basic contradictions of working the Comedy Store.”Dallas Morning News“Written with a journalist's strong narrative sense, I'm Dying Up Here chronicles the tight-knit community of artists who cracked open the world of funny entertainment and the event that shattered their camaraderie...Knoedelseder's ability to sniff out the human stories behind the headlines is what makes this rowdy chapter in stand-up such a good read. It's a bittersweet tale told with humor and economy.”DigitalCity.com“I’m Dying Up Here lays bare the bad and the ugly of Hollywood; from what good there was, like primordial muck, emerged the funniest guys and gals around.”

"Brimming with kindness, forgiveness, humor and love and yet (magically) also a page turner that held me captive until it was finished. This is Emma Straub's absolute best and the world will love it. I love it." -New York Times bestselling author Ann Patchett"A totally engaging and smart book about the absolutely marvelous messiness of what makes up family; a wonderful book." - New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth StroutNamed a Most Anticipated Book of 2020 by The Today Show, Good Morning America, Vogue,Real Simple, Marie Claire, Good Housekeeping, Town & Country, The Washington Post, USA Today, Buzzfeed, GoodReads, and many more.A warm, funny, and keenly perceptive novel about the life cycle of one family—as the kids become parents, grandchildren become teenagers, and a matriarch...

Expensive. Powerful. And entirely f*cked up. That sums up the pretentious - but elite - circle I grew up in. As much as I hate it, this life has its perks. If I want it, it's mine. It's as simple as that. Until she showed up; she's a tempting little vixen I'm not allowed to have. One intense night changed it all between us, threatening to shatter everything we know. She came up with a lie. I came up with a cover. Because the truth is... I can't keep my hands off her and one night would never be enough.

Suncoast Society 54 (MMM, contemporary BDSM, HEA) Stuart moves to Florida because he knows being out as gay and kinky won’t be possible around his family in Iowa. It’s a new start for him, and he’s already made a kinky friend online. Now all he has to do is find the nerve to get out in real life. Jeff has had nothing but bad luck in love lately. He’s fluent in heartache and finally listens when friends tell him he needs to do something different. Brandon faces a delicate balancing act between being the father of a brilliant teenaged daughter and trying to find a subby guy who will accept he’s a package deal. He’s not just alone, but lonely, and wants more than pick-up play at Venture. When Stuart realizes he’s been catfished, he’s mortified. But is it a blessing in disguise? Can the three men find what they’ve all been looking for in each other, or will heartache continue to be their primary language?

I'd wondered about my mother all my life — what she looked like, how she smelled and sounded and acted. Lately this wondering had grown to encompass a curiosity about the kind of people she herself came from, because they were my family, too, after all, even though I knew nothing about them. I'd no idea whether they were loud or soft-spoken, funny or boring, preferred chocolate to vanilla, if they liked movies over books or the other way around. I wondered whether any of them had ever done anything magnificent in their lives, or if they were the kind of folks who were satisfied with just getting by. These things were important — knowing them would help me to know myself, and the only way that would happen was if I went and looked for her.With all his possessions on his motorcycle, Billy Mann sets off on a cross-country odyssey from New York to Santa Fe in search of a mother who deserted him long ago. What Billy discovers, however, is a life rich with possibility —...

The charm and humor of To All the Boys I've Loved Before meets Dumplin' in this body-positive YA love story between two boys who must spend 15 days living with each other over school break. "I read this in one sitting, laughing out loud and cheering for Felipe to follow his heart. I love this book!" —Rainbow Rowell, New York Times bestselling author of Carry On and Wayward Son "Martins perfectly captures the magic of first love and the power of being exactly who you are. Remarkably relatable." —Rachael Lippincott, New York Times bestselling author of Five Feet Apart "Candid, thoughtful, and hilarious. Felipe is the hero teens deserve." —Julian Winters, award-winning author of Running with Lions Felipe can't wait for winter break: Finally, he'll get...

From one of the original leading ladies of historical fiction, this reissued classic captures the life of sir Walter Raleigha man of extraordinary ambition whose complex relationship with Elizabeth I followed him around the globe. Beloved historical novelist Norah Lofts was the queen of royal tales for generations. Lofts books are back, and in Here Was a Man, one of the greatest adventurers of the sixteenth century vividly and romantically comes to life. When young Walter Raleigh first presented himself before Elizabeth I, he dreamt of carving out an empire in the New World to lay at her feet. But Elizabeth is equally determined to keep this handsome, witty young man at her side. Through years of frustration, violent quarrels, reconciliation, and the challenges and rewards of exploration, Raleigh desperately tries to hold on to his dream. Lofts peoples her rich tale with some of the greatest personalities of the age, including Shakespeare, Marlowe, Sir Phillip...

It's the most wonderful time of the year in Connecticut, but Melanie Travis finds surviving this December may take a real Christmas miracle when a yuletide murderer comes to town . . . As Melanie attempts to deck the halls in a house overrun by pampered Poodles, her event planner friend, Claire, is busy playing Santa—beard and belly not included—for the wealthiest clientele on Connecticut's Gold Coast. A personal shopper gig in the affluent town of New Canaan seems like business as usual. Except Claire's stylish stint comes at a higher price than she bargains for when she stumbles over her newest customer's dead body on the job. Named a prime suspect for murder, she begs for Melanie's help, then vanishes like cookies and milk on Christmas Eve . . . Determined to track down Claire, Melanie and her nosy Aunt Peg dash into a dizzying investigation that leads to even more questions. Why was homicide victim Lila Moran, a secretive woman with an...

Fast moving tale of a dollar bill engaging in commerce. From Washington's point of view Bobbi G pens this entertaining novella. Washington's personality captures your attention as he travels from hand to hand, catching glimpses of people's lives as their stories come alive through his eyes. Slightly put off after purchasing a toe ring, Washington regains his composure...but you'll have to read it!From columnist Bobbi G: what started as a column has turned into a fast moving novella imagining the tale of a dollar bill moving through mainstream commerce. Bobbi G pens this story from the point of view of Washington, as he travels from hand to hand in exchange for goods and services. Washington entertains you as he tells tales of robbery, being washed in the laundry and the day he purchased a toe ring. (Not his proudest moment.) Glimpse people's lives as their stories come to life through his eyes. Great story!

SUMMARY: Disgruntled, disheveled, fish-out-of-water mobile librarian Israel Armstrong is finally going home to London, rattling along with his irascible companion Ted Carson in their rust bucket book van en route to the Mobile Meet. The annual library convention gives Israel the opportunity to catch up with his family, eat paprika chicken and baklava, and drink good coffee. But they've barely found parking when the unimaginable occurs: their library-on-wheels is stolen! Who on earth would want to take a thirty-year-old traveling disaster with the words "The Book Stops Here" painted across the back? Israel and Ted are determined to find out. But their search is leading them on a very twisty trail through the countryside in pursuit of a suspicious convoy of New Age travelers. And the hunt is raising numerous troubling questions—such as where exactly is Israel's high-flying girlfriend, Gloria? And is Ted really making a move on Israel's widowed mother?

Will Coy Bedlam survive his stay in Sullen?Painfully he raised his head, looking out into a dreary drizzling environment, seeing his headlights purposefully reflecting off a roadside sign, with a name of a town called Sullen. Today’s population is 169.“What does that mean?” He growled, “Today’s population is 169.” Then he asked, “Where the hell is Sullen?”Will Coy Bedlam survive his stay in Sullen?Painfully he raised his head, looking out into a dreary drizzling environment, seeing his headlights purposefully reflecting off a roadside sign, with a name of a town called Sullen. Today’s population is 169.“What does that mean?” He growled, “Today’s population is 169.” Then he asked, “Where the hell is Sullen?” forcing himself to move, he dragged a map from his glove box, “I’ve never heard of it before…” And strangely it didn’t appear on the map either.

"This is Littlehaven. Nothing ever happens here. Until the spotlight hits my family." Izzy's family is under the spotlight when her dad comes out as Danielle, a trans woman. Izzy is terrified her family will be torn apart. Will she lose her dad? Will her parents break up? And what will people at school say? Izzy's always been shy, but now all eyes are on her. Can she face her fears, find her voice and stand up for what's right?

Following the death of his ten-year-old son, physician Peter Croft embarks on a desperate, seemingly random search for a missing child, risking his sanity, even his life in a grief-induced quest. His journey propels him into the darkest reaches of human suffering and pits him squarely against an adversary whose own obsession defies all reason.

The ebullient, troubled life of a Broadway legend who became a heroine to a younger generationStill Here is the first full telling of Elaine Stritch’s life. Rollicking but intimate, it tracks one of Broadway’s great personalities from her upbringing in Detroit during the Great Depression to her fateful move to New York City, where she studied alongside Marlon Brando, Bea Arthur, and Harry Belafonte. We accompany Elaine through her jagged rise to fame, to Hollywood and London, and across her later years, when she enjoyed a stunning renaissance, punctuated by a turn on the popular television show 30 Rock. We explore the influential—and often fraught—collaborations she developed with Noël Coward, Tennessee Williams, and above all Stephen Sondheim, as well as her courageous yet flawed attempts to control a serious drinking problem. And we see the entertainer triumphing over personal turmoil with the development of her Tony Award–winning one-woman show, Elaine Stritch at Liberty, which established her as an emblem of spiky independence and Manhattan life for an entirely new generation of admirers. In Still Here, Alexandra Jacobs conveys the full force of Stritch’s sardonic wit and brassy charm while acknowledging her many dark complexities. Following years of meticulous research and interviews, this is a portrait of a powerful, vulnerable, honest, and humorous figure who continues to reverberate in the public consciousness. Review “One of the more surreal, gratifying, and wonderful experiences of my career was when Elaine Stritch played my mother on 30 Rock. An acting lesson, a therapy session, a chance to know the great La Stritch. This book is your chance.” ―Alec Baldwin “Elaine Stritch brought a raw truth to musical theater that had rarely been seen before or since. Her whole self―warts, drinks, and all. In this biography, Alexandra Jacobs shows Stritch’s every pore, and we are all better for it.” ― Sarah Silverman I laughed. I cried. Alexandra Jacobs lovingly pulls back the curtain on "Stritchy," a sacred cow of American showbiz, revealing her to beas talented, reckless, flawed and fabulous as I always hoped she was.― Simon Doonan , author of Drag and Wacky Chicks “Alexandra Jacobs’s Still Here is a delicious, page-turning, and meticulous romp through the distinctive life of a feminist icon. The talented, urbane, smoking-and-drinking queen of Broadway’s tough dames lived a life of accomplishment, boldly frank opinions, and just as bold-faced names that defined the Great White Way (and Hollywood) of recent yore. Elaine Stritch balanced theatrical perfectionism, glamorous Manhattan evenings, and behavioral brinksmanship with the never-quite-dismissed lessons of her Catholic background in the Midwest. I learned as much as I was entertained and left smitten: my idea of a pretty terrific book.” ―Sheila Weller , New York Times –bestselling author of Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon―and the Journey of a Generation and Carrie Fisher: A Life On The Edge About the Author Alexandra Jacobs is a longtime features writer, cultural critic, and editor who has worked at The New York Times since 2010. She has contributed to many other publications, including The New Yorker , The New York Observer , and Entertainment Weekly.

A film legend recalls his remarkable life of nearly eight decades—a heralded actor who's played the roles he wanted, from Brian’s Song to Lando in the Star Wars universe—unchecked by the racism and typecasting so rife in the mostly all-white industry in which he triumphed.“The story of a legend, written by the legend himself! Impressive, inspiring, entertaining and endearing.” —J. J. AbramsBilly Dee Williams was born in Harlem in 1937 and grew up in a household of love and sophistication. As a young boy, he made his stage debut working with Lotte Lenya in an Ira Gershwin/Kurt Weill production where Williams ended up feeding Lenya her lines. He studied painting, first at the High School of Music and Art, with fellow student Diahann Carroll, and then at the National Academy of Fine Art, before setting out to pursue acting with Herbert Berghoff, Stella Adler, and Sidney Poitier.His first film role was in...

Competitive barrel racer Lacey Bishop has worked her way from homelessness and poverty to needing only a few points to qualify for the National Rodeo Finals when her only horse suffers a career-ending injury. Without the money to buy a new horse, Lacey has no choice but to trust an offer from Double R Ranch to lease one of their best barrel-racing horses.Horse trainer Wil Rivers is working hard to get her family's ranch profitable again after the coronavirus pandemic shut them down for more than a year. Her best chance to save the ranch from foreclosure is a half-million-dollar-plus offer to buy the mare she's promised to the bewitching Lacey Bishop.When Lacey discovers Wil's plan to sell the Double R's "money" horse to her fiercest competitor, she sees their chance for a future together and her chance to qualify for the finals disappearing in the rodeo arena dust.

This noir classic by an Edgar Award winner delves into the mind of a criminal: "Close to the perfect psycho thriller . . . a relentless dance of death tempo." —The New York Times With innovative style far ahead of its time, this novel follows Joe Bailey, perched precariously on the fence between two lives. He's seeing a good-hearted girl who holds the promise of a comfortably content, if uneventful, future. But he's also passionately drawn to a femme fatale—and the world she inhabits, run by a tough Milwaukee racketeer. Haunted by a childhood rhyme and accompanying trauma, Bailey wrestles with his demons, in this psychologically complex tale with a shocking twist by an award-winning author praised as "a natural storyteller" (The New York Times Book Review).

Current events, politics and economics point toward dangerous instability for our Republic. We need to look forward in the world's new conditions, rather than hold on to failed ideas and policies.The existing finance/tax code rule set is wrecking our long-term real wealth in favor of evanescent paper profits, and worse yet, stripping the poor to profit the rich. In parallel, a calamitous policy that repeats the error of failed alcohol prohibition, our War on Drugs is a hundred billion dollar subsidy for the terrorists, and debases our society with a criminal money culture. These economic structures...the finance/tax/corporate globalizations, and unregulated dope billions...combine to make heartless greed ascendant. Legal or not, inhuman values permeate too much.Any democracy is far more vulnerable than most of us realize, and carries within the seeds of its own destruction. Even the original Greek version of 2500 years ago was felled by excesses of demagoguery and populism. People are easily manipulated to vote against their own interests, something Hitler proved so notoriously, but the mechanisms are active in American politics. Psychopaths, PACs, media, fanaticism, fears, ignorance and more can combine in new ways to grasp power for its own sake. Today,America's population is triple the whole world's in 500BC, a fact that should give us perspective on the accelerating complexities. But this is a country that can turn on a dime, throw off outdated habits and remake itself in a shining new image. We must change direction or fall.

Senator Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign was a beginning, not an end. In his new book, America's most popular political figure speaks about what he's been doing to oppose the Trump agenda and strengthen the progressive movement and how we go forward as a nation. Senator Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign was a beginning, not an end. In his new audiobook, America's most popular political figure speaks about what he's been doing to oppose the Trump agenda and strengthen the progressive movement and how we go forward as a nation.

The moving, eye-opening memoir of an innocent man detained at Gauntánamo Bay for 15 years: a story of humanity in the unlikeliest of places and an unprecedented look at life at Gauntánamo on the eve of its 20th anniversary At the age of 18, Mansoor Adayfi left his home in Yemen for a cultural mission to Afghanistan. He never returned. Kidnapped by warlords and then sold to the US after 9/11, he was disappeared to Gauntánamo Bay, where he spent the next 15 years as Detainee #441.Don't Forget Us Here tells two coming-of-age stories in parallel: a makeshift island outpost becoming the world's most notorious prison and an innocent young man emerging from its darkness. Arriving as a stubborn teenager, Mansoor survived the camp's infamous interrogation program and became a feared and hardened resistance fighter leading prison riots and hunger strikes. With time though, he grew into the man prisoners nicknamed "Smiley Troublemaker": a student, writer, and...

This time it's Cate's turn... Cate Padgett was the bridesmaid, four times over, in Always the Bridesmaid. Now she's finally the blushing bride—for better, for worse... Cate couldn't wait for her own wedding so she could do it right, after all she'd learned from the mistakes her friends made before her. And Ethan was the perfect husband-to-be. If only something, anything, else was perfect... First her engagement ring disappears. Then Ethan's ex-girlfriend shows up—and keeps showing up. Cate's mother has a stranglehold on the planning, Cate's on the verge of turning into bridezilla, and Ethan's meddling cousin is making Cate regret inviting her to join the wedding party. She wants to marry her one true love. But her special day is making her want to run the other way...

A big-hearted, beautiful, and funny novel told from multiple viewpoints about neurodiversity, friendship, and community from the award-winning author of The Truth as Told by Mason Buttle, Leslie Connor.Eleven-year-old Aurora Petrequin's best friend has never spoken a word to her. In fact, Frenchie Livernois doesn't talk.Aurora is bouncy, loud and impulsive—"a big old blurter." Making friends has never come easily. When Frenchie, who is autistic, silently chose Aurora as his person back in third grade, she chose him back. They make a good team, sharing their love of the natural world in coastal Maine.In the woods, Aurora and Frenchie encounter a piebald deer, a rare creature with a coat like a patchwork quilt. Whenever it appears, Aurora feels compelled to follow.At school, Aurora looks out for Frenchie, who has been her classmate until this year. One morning, Frenchie doesn't make it to his classroom. Aurora feels she's to...

An epic World War II tale of star-crossed lovers separated by class, circumstance and tragedy from the bestselling author of The Girl They Left Behind Hungary, 1943. As war encroaches on the country's borders, willful young Eva arrives in the idyllic town of Sopron to spend her last summer as a single woman on her aristocratic family's estate. Longing for freedom from her domineering father, she counts the days to her upcoming nuptials to a kind and dedicated Red Cross doctor whom she greatly admires. But Eva's life changes when she meets Aleandro, a charming and passionate Romani fiddler with a love for painting. With time and profound class differences against them, Eva and Aleandro still fall deeply in love – only to be separated by a brutal act of hatred. As their lives diverge and they are each swept into the tides of war and its aftermath they try to forget what they once shared. But as the years pass, the haunting memory of...

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe meets The Sun is Also a Star in this YA contemporary love story from Jonny Garza Villa, Ander & Santi Were Here, about a nonbinary Mexican American teen falling for the shy new waiter at their family's taqueria.Finding home. Falling in love. Fighting to belong.The Santos Vista neighborhood of San Antonio, Texas, is all Ander Martínez has ever known. The smell of pan dulce. The mixture of Spanish and English filling the streets. And, especially their job at their family's taquería. It's the place that has inspired Ander as a muralist, and, as they get ready to leave for art school, it's all of these things that give them hesitancy. That give them the thought, are they ready to leave it all behind?To keep Ander from becoming complacent during their gap year, their family "fires" them so they can transition from restaurant life to focusing on their murals and prepare for...

What do you do when you’ve got a hillbilly tiger by the tail? Or maybe the question should be: what wouldn’t you do… Nikolai Vorislav likes his single life just as it is. Simple, relaxing and quiet. What he doesn’t need is some foul-mouthed Texan hellcat living in his house, eating his food, flirting with his idiot brothers and shooting holes in his home with his granddaddy’s gun. But those long legs, dark eyes and lethal tongue are making Nik insane and he fears he may be caught in the sexiest animal trap ever. Angelina Santiago doesn’t know how she got from Texas to North Carolina in a night or how she ended up in some hillbilly tiger’s house wearing only a sheet. What she does know is that she doesn’t like good ol’ boys with slow, sexy drawls who can’t seem to stop rubbing up against her. Yet in order to protect her friends, Angie has to stay with a cat who seems hellbent on finding all sorts of delicious ways to make her purr.

An asexual writer meets a male model... and slowly falls in love.[Please note: This is an omnibus of the first three books in the It's Just Us Here series.]Chris is a writer minding his own business and not really looking for love. Or interested, if we're being honest. He's kind of given up on the whole 'love' thing. It feels like no one will be able to understand him. Then along comes Mark, and suddenly everything feels like it's up in the air.Slowly but surely, Chris comes to accept the mutual attraction, though he is reluctant to act on it. Then, Mark jumps in and makes the decision for him. Ready to risk it all. As he has done ever since.Well, mostly. I'm Chris and from my perspective, it feels like Mark is always pushing me out of my comfort zone and possibly taking advantage of me. He thinks it's the opposite way. I'll leave the truth up to the readers, but since these books are written from my perspective, Mark thinks I have an unfair advantage.Tough luck. You pushed me to write, then finish these books. So it's your own fault.[Friends to Lovers is a 280,000 word trilogy about two men who should be incompatible, but somehow become inseparable. They have their ups and downs over the first few months of their relationship, which these books recreate from a mixture of diaries and memories. These men are not perfect, but their relationship eventually blossoms into a strong, unbreakable partnership.]

FBI agent Trace Nickels seeks revenge for the killing of his partner. Someone possesses nuclear briefcases and is trying to manipulate events in the US. Follow Agent Nickels personal trials as he helps the High-Tech Division of the FBI. Read how Trace and his fellow agents race against time to expose the criminal they know as The Doctor.How does a normal, college educated, military trained Intelligence agent get so far down that he has to spend time on skid row busting perps? Is it therapy? Or just anger and depression. What does he really want out of life; peace and quiet or always in crisis? Follow FBI agent Trace Nickels as he seeks revenge for the killing of his partner. Someone possesses nuclear briefcases and is trying to manipulate events in the US. Follow Agent Nickels personal trials as he helps the High-Tech Division of the FBI. Read how Trace and his fellow agents race against time to expose the criminal they know as The Doctor.

Evil Times Two Something icky is brewing, as usual, in Sunnydale. This time it's in the form of two clean-cut, prep school-type boys. Buffy's suspicious from the start — their fashion statement is so old it's dead, and it seems they have a slightly unnatural attachment to their mother. But then, almost everything about these boys is unnatural — they're vampires. Not ordinary vampires, either — they are descendants of a clan known for its ability to summon powerful occult forces. And when the Slayer dusts this dynamic duo, she learns what you get when you mess with a vamp family tree. Now it's up to Buffy to battle her personal demons — or risk endangering her own most cherished relation. Because mama vamp has something in mind for Joyce....

A deeply felt, beautifully crafted meditation on friendship and loss in the vein of A Year of Magical Thinking, and a touching portrait of Philip Roth from his closest friend.I had a baseball question on the tip of my tongue: What was the name of "the natural," the player shot by a stalker in a Chicago hotel room? He gave me an amused look that darkened in-to puzzlement, then fear. Then he pitched forward into the soup, unconscious. When I entered the examining room twenty minutes after our arrival at Charlotte Hungerford Hospital, Philip said, "No more books." Thus he announced his retirement.So begins Benjamin Taylor's Here We Are, the unvarnished portrait of his best friend and one of America's greatest writers. Needless to say, Philip Roth's place in the canon is secure, but what is less clear is what the man himself was like. In Here We Are, Benjamin Taylor's beautifully constructed memoir, we see him as a mortal man,...

The stories in I'm Here dramatize life in the Alaskan interior, describing the difficult lives of people in Fairbanks, Alaska as they move through the long, brilliant days of summer into the deep winter months. These are characters living on the tenuous edge of things—on the economic edge caused by poverty and disillusion, on the dividing line between outsider and insider, and on the literal edge of the Alaskan wilderness. The stories in this collection move from beauty to danger and back again with decisive grace, although the lingering effect is not shock, but empathy toward people simultaneously alien and oddly familiar.

Every family has its special aunt: the cool aunt, the wacky aunt, the scary aunt. But this family has ALL THE AUNTS. Shhh, listen. Do you hear that?Oh no. Oh dear. Oh . . . my . . . godmother. They've traveled on planes, in taxis, and across state lines. And now they're here at the doorstep, a cheesy gift in one hand, the other poised for a pinch on the cheek.IT'S THE AUNTS! THE AUNTS ARE HERE. One girl's all-too-recognizable experience—a visit from a troupe of overwhelming and overly enthusiastic relations—escalates to new heights of chaos, absurdity, and delight in a laugh-out-loud take on family reunions. Written with signature humor by Adam Rex and illustrated by Lian Cho, this picture book is a celebration of the universal and endearing strangeness of family.MULTIGENERATIONAL FAMILY SHENANIGANS: The antics of our silliest family members are never not funny. This uniquely hilarious and authentic...

The Map from Here to There is an unforgettable story of identity and the companion novel to the stellar The Start of Me and You, which was a Zoella Book Club pick for WHSmith. It's senior year, and Paige Hancock is finally living her best life. She has a fun summer job, great friends, and a super charming boyfriend who totally gets her. But senior year also means big decisions. Feeling the weight of 'the rest of her life' Paige starts to panic. Everything is exactly how she always wanted it to be – how can she leave it all behind next year? In her head, she knows there is so much more to life after high school. But in her heart, is it so terrible to want everything to stay the same forever? Emery Lord's signature storytelling shines with lovable characters and heartfelt exploration of life's most important questions. There will be break-ups, make-ups, a road trip, and even a wedding. Through it all, can Paige figure out what happens in the...

A widower lets a new woman into his heart and his home—but she has her own agenda, in this thriller from the bestselling author of The Girl I Used to Be. Ever since Sophia Saunders was murdered, her husband, Peter, and daughter, Lauren, have been trying to rebuild their lives. Desperate to fill the emotional void, Peter becomes involved with a woman from his grief support group. But as his relationship with Alice progresses, Lauren becomes unsettled. Why can't she find any trace of Alice online? Who is she, really, and what does she want? Lauren is right to be suspicious. But the deeper her investigation of Alice goes, the greater the danger grows . . .

Huda hatches a bold plan to help her dad get a job - which lands her and her brother in all kinds of trouble. A delightful and hilarious story from a CBCA award-winning author, about a lion-hearted girl who just wants the best for her family.Huda yawns loudly and stretches out her arms. Almost like she's bored in science class and waiting for the bell to go for lunch. Except we're not at school, we're in police custody. Because of her stupid idea.When her dad loses his job as a security officer and has to work interstate, Huda convinces her brother Akeal to sneak out at night to make mischief. They hope that introducing some minor crime activity into the neighbourhood will force their dad's bosses to hire him back.The dynamic duo begin their crime spree by pushing over bins the night before rubbish collection. They're almost caught - but that's only the beginning of the hot water they end up in. As their activities escalate, will they be able to outsmart...

Two damaged people, one unlikely friendship and a way to find hope in the darkness. Anna has survived the worst. So has Nat. Two broken souls, struggling to find a place in a world they no longer fit. Anna, 62, is the victim of a terrorist attack in which eleven others were murdered. Nat, 35, is an Army veteran who fought in Afghanistan. They have so little in common. And so much.A friendship stirs between them, tentative and unlikely, its foundation the violence they have seen and the memories that stalk them. Together, they begin to search for a way back home.But when Nat's wife falls unexpectedly pregnant, terrible ghosts from his wartime past rise up and much more than a friendship is at stake.Here in the after is a poignant and uplifting exploration of the legacy of trauma and the healing power of connection.'Bold, unflinching and courageous, this book dives with sensitivity and compassion into the dark shadows of...

Saturday morning coffee sessions are never going to be the same. . . .Sydney marketing exec Sophie presumed "making sacrifices for your children" meant giving up Bloody Marys and champagne for nine months. When she thought about it, that is. . . . But then two blue lines appear on her pregnancy test. How does a baby fit in with a hectic job, a chaotic social life, and the absence of Max, the Y chromosome in the equation, who has moved to San Francisco?Support and dubious advice are provided by an unlikely group that gathers for a weekly coffee get-together at the King Street Cafe. With Debbie the glamorous man-eater, Andrew the fitness junkie, Anna the disaster-prone doctor, and Karen the statistically improbable happily married mother of three, Sophie discovers the ups and downs of motherhood. And when an unexpected business venture and a new man appear on the scene, it appears that just maybe there is life after a baby.Written by two sisters who live on different...

In this powerful debut memoir, Neesha Powell-Ingabire chips away at coastal Georgia's facade of beaches and golden marshes to recover undertold Black history alongside personal and family stories. In May of 2020, Neesha Powell-Ingabire's hometown became infamous after a viral video spread of white vigilantes killing a Black man named Ahmaud Arbery. The small coastal city of Brunswick, Georgia became synonymous with this tragedy, which, along with the police murders of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, spurred an international movement that summer to end white supremacy. Neesha Powell-Ingabire, a millennial journalist, essayist, and organizer, grew up in Brunswick feeling alienated as a Black queer and disabled girl in a fraught racial and political environment. Come By Here: A Memoir in Essays from Georgia's Geechee Coast traces the genealogy of systemic racial violence while paying homage to the area's long history of Black resistance and...

Murders, muggings, and assaults…just a routine night and day in the 87th Precinct until one of their own is shot, sending every available detective on the hunt to bring down the gunman.“McBain forces us to think twice about every character we meet…even those we thought we already knew.” — New York Times Book Review“Imagine your favorite Law & Order cast solving fresh mysteries into infinity, with no re-runs, and you have some sense of McBain’s grand,ongoing accomplishment.” — Entertainment Weekly

On an autumn day in 2006, on the Isle of Wight, Jack Luxton—once a Devon farmer, now the proprietor of a seaside caravan park—receives the news that his brother, Tom, not seen for years, has been killed in combat in Iraq. For Jack and his wife, Ellie, this will have unexpected, far-reaching effects. For Jack in particular it means a crucial journey: to receive his brother’s remains and to confront his most secret, troubling memories. A hauntingly intimate, deeply compassionate story about things that touch and test our human core, Wish You Were Here also looks, inevitably, to a wider, afflicted world. Moving toward a fiercely suspenseful climax, it brilliantly transforms the stuff of headlines into heart-wrenching personal truth.

Taking inspiration from the monotony and struggle of everyday life. I am proud to present to you – 'Here’s Hoping' a collection of poems.This book offers the reader something we can each relate to.Taking inspiration from the monotony and struggle of everyday life. I am proud to present to you – 'Here’s Hoping' a collection of poems.This book offers the reader something we can each relate to. The want for money and success. Death happens to us all and there’s no escape from it. Even in the darkest moments of our lives there can be beauty found in almost everything, whether that be in love, nature or anything that you hold dear. I hold hope as my highest value, because, if you have no hope, what do you have?For a better reading experience - please read in landscape.

Eight heroines, romance galore & no end of bad decisions... New to Clare Lydon's books? Not read her series yet? This boxset is for you! Included are Clare's best-selling debut novel, London Calling; her hilarious festive romp, All I Want For Christmas; fresh novella, Try Me Again; and an exclusive short story, World's Greatest. What can you expect? Oodles of lesbians. Far too much tequila. Laugh-out-loud moments in two of Clare's best-loved romantic comedies, London Calling and All I Want For Christmas. Plus, the short stories are packed with a sprinkle of angst, heart-warming tingles and ALL the feels. If you've been holding out on Clare's series, hold out no more. Snap up this bargain boxset today!

From the author of A Place at the Table and A Soft Place to Land, a gripping, multigenerational story inspired by true events that follows two best friends through their political awakenings in the turbulent 1960s—and the repercussions of their actions after their daughters encounter the secrets they thought they had buried long ago.Eve Whalen, privileged child of an old-money Atlanta family, meets Daniella Gold in the fall of 1962, on their first day at Belmont College. Paired as roommates, the two become fast friends. Daniella, raised in Georgetown by a Jewish father and a Methodist mother, has always felt caught between two worlds. But at Belmont, her bond with Eve allows her to finally experience a sense of belonging. That is, until the girls' expanding awareness of the South's caste system forces them to question everything they thought they knew about the world and their places in it. Eve veers toward radicalism—a choice pragmatic...

Kirsty has planned the perfect Leap Day wedding.And it’s all falling apart...The Scottish Highlands are in the middle of the worst snow storm in decades. Cell towers are down, electricity is out and roads are closed.In true Invertary style the town’s folk have decided to ignore the weather and carry on with the party. Kirsty is at the castle, in the middle of her hen-night and having second thoughts about the wedding. Lake is enduring his stag-do at the town’s only pub, helpfully organised by his “best man” eighty-nine year old Betty. Rainne, Lake’s sister, has come back to town after three years away to not only attend the wedding, but to see if Alastair will give her a second chance to love him. Oh yeah, and a whole bunch of men with guns have surrounded the castle!The castle is under siege. The town is under snow. The men are stuck at the pub and the women are on their own. With emotions running high,...

In a town slowly being destroyed by rising tides, one girl must fight to find a way to keep her community's spirit from drowning.For thirteen-year-old Jillian Robichaux, three things are sacred: bayou sunsets, her grandmother Nonnie's stories, and the coastal Louisiana town of Boutin that she calls home.When the worst flood in a century hits, Jillian and the rest of her community band together as they always do—but this time the damage may simply be too great. After the local school is padlocked and the bridges into town condemned, Jillian has no choice but to face the reality that she may be losing the only home she's ever had.But even when all hope seems lost, Jillian is determined to find a way to keep Boutin and its indomitable spirit alive. With the help of friends new and old, a loveable golden retriever, and Nonnie's storytelling wisdom, Jillian does just that in this timely and heartfelt story of family, survival, and hope.In her stunning...