Literature has never been so literate. Romance, never so romantic. Philosophical musings, never so brooding. Poetry, never so verbose. Since the advent of the Guttenberg press, rarely has a dissertation been so boldly compiled, capturing the essence of human élan vital with such transitoriness.Literature has never been so literate. Romance, never so romantic. Philosophical musings, never so brooding. Poetry, never so verbose. Since the advent of the Guttenberg press, rarely has a dissertation been so boldly compiled, capturing the essence of human élan vital with such transitoriness. This prose is penned with the efficacy of a Chilean rellano; and the voice, a perfect juxtaposition of insouciance and zeal. Little can be said without tarnishing the succulent succinctness of this prophetic syllabus on being human. Like a short, but meaningful journey one embarks on alone, like a solo climber scaling a tall mountain without anyone beside them, each woman, each man and each child must ascend the cliffs demanded of them by The Longest Story in the World to discover their own fateful end. Uti ante vos in via.

Two poor kids write a letter to Santa Claus wishing for a special present. What happens is a surprise of a lifetime for the whole family.Ud was once a man, but then he died and then tumbled down the lower dead realms called the Way Down, until he ended up as a skeleton creature in Fourth World, three layers beneath ours. He became a wight (skeleton) slave to the ruling elite there, known to Ud as the Ereshkagali, from his name for the god of the underworld when he was a human in the far past.Over the course of millennia, he achieved what no one else had ever done, climbing from the bone dust lands of Fourth World, up to the Ghast swamps of Third World, through the Ghoul forests of Second World, and finally up to First World, the world of mortals.And, after his initial elation at being able to feel as he once did the wates and clean air, free of rot and parasites the size of dogs passed, he began to realize a few truths.-His mind was now in four parts, one for Ud the Wight (skeleton), Ud the Ghast, Ud the Ghoul and the newly minted Ud the Mortal.-Fragmented memories meant that he only remembered pieces of his selves at a time.-One of those fragments of memory brings with it a warning that all mortals should fear regarding the future of the Way Down.**Note-It's worth pointing out that the words and backstory of Ud when he was alive are related to a people that really existed, as well as a real language.

VIPER must extract seven persons of interest from a UN world on the brink of civil war.Ariadne has been abandoned. As the UN reels from multiple Ascendancy attacks and cedes hundreds of lightyears of territory, Solar Operations Command has initiated a policy of "Strategic Sacrifice". Hundreds of colonies across the Outer Ring will be left to their fate as the UN Fleet desperately rallies. With six hours to go until the provar arrive, VIPER must extract seven persons of interest from two cities on Ariadne. Except, with the planet on the brink of civil war, the arrival of the Ascendancy is the least of their worries…

It’s Time To Meet A New Kind Of Hero... Dante Stark has a dark secret--a legacy left to him by his father which is both a blessing and a curse. A traumatic experience as a small boy gave him special powers of healing, but it comes with a price. Destined to wander the world alone to heal others, he's accepted his fate. Until Selina Rogers forces him to confront his deepest fears, erotic desires, and question his capacity to love. Selina Rogers has made a name for herself at Inferno Enterprises. She's tough, confident and prepared to succeed. She's also built a world she believes is safe, until she's attacked and then saved by a masked stranger. As he helps her heal physically and emotionally, she becomes fascinated by his overwhelming power and gentle touch. Determined to show Dante the love he's been denying himself, Selina surrenders her heart, and dreams of a future with the mysterious man who completes her. But will his dark legacy destroy them...or save them both...

• Highly acclaimed, iconic author: Larry McMurtry is renowned for his elegiac prose, sharp wit, and engaging plotlines. His Thalia, Texas, series is among his most famous and Duane is an icon as much as his creator. • The Thalia Finale: Readers have followed the life of Duane through The Last Picture Show, Texasville, Duane’s Depressed, and When the Light Goes . Rhino Ranch, ** the final episode in Duane’s saga, represents the end of an era and is the most unusual and compelling novel in the series. • Irony, romance, and cycle of life: Duane comes back from a near-fatal heart attack to discover that his new neighbor has recently opened a rhino preserve on her property. As he watches his world change around him, he reminisces on love affairs past and the missed opportunities he now regrets. Rhino Ranch is a bittersweet and fitting end to this iconic series, a tribute to all of the emotion, hilarity, whimsy, and poignancy that readers have followed across decades.

At age twelve, Cassandra Madden fell in love with Jefferson Ames, a young man she met at one of her mother's business conferences. Over the years, during periods of loneliness and struggle, Cassie held on to this unrequited love in order to cope with her isolated heart and the pain of a cold mother. Even when Cassie grew up, went off to college, and met a man she thought she'd marry, her heart yearned for Jeff. In a decisive moment, she breaks off the pending engagement and travels to Williamsburg, Virginia, where the now-widowed Jeff lives with his young daughter. Cassie becomes the child's nanny, but, even though she sees the object of her desire every day, Jeff has yet to even notice her. Then, one day, she hears shots coming from the mansion of Althea Fairmont, an eccentric woman who is thought of as the world's greatest living actress. Cassie runs to investigate, and, in an instant, her safe little life is turned upside down. She begins to learn that all the people around her aren't who they claim to be. Everyone has secrets -- and until Cassie unravels those secrets, she and Jeff will never have a chance to be happy together.

Grace Dillon was a champion figure skater until she moved to Thunder Point to escape the ruthless world of fame and competition. And though she's proud of the quiet, self-sufficient life she's created running a successful flower shop, she knows something is missing. Her life could use a little excitement. In a community where there are few eligible singles, high school teacher Troy Headly appoints himself Grace's fun coach. When he suggests a little companionship with no strings attached, Grace is eager to take him up on his offer, and the two enjoy…getting to know each other. But things get complicated when Grace's past catches up with her, and she knows that's not what Troy signed up for. Faced with losing her, Troy realizes Grace is more than just a friend with benefits. He's determined to help her fight for the life she always wished for but never believed she could have—and maybe they can find real love along the way.

Ethan Frost returns in another breathtaking novel by Tracy Wolff—New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of Ruined—perfect for fans of Release Me and Bared to You. As Chloe Girard discovers, there’s love . . . and then there’s addiction. Ethan Frost is everything a woman could want in a man. He’s rich, gorgeous, powerful, one of the most eligible bachelors in the world. But that’s not why I’m with him. I love Ethan for all the things no one else gets to see: his innate kindness, his reckless spontaneity, his unwavering determination to use his brilliance for good. I love the way he looks at me, the way he touches me. The way he makes me forget the wreckage of my past and the twisted fear that still lives inside me. But sometimes it terrifies me how much I crave him, how much I need him just to breathe. I always thought it would be my past that ruined us, but there’s a darkness in Ethan I never dreamed existed. Can we survive as his secrets surface—threatening to unravel us both?

My second life began when I was kidnapped by two complete strangers . . . That the kidnappers are actually Aunt Sandy and Uncle Max makes no difference to thirteen-year-old Domenica Santolina Doone, better known as Dinnie--she just doesn't want to go. Dinnie's accustomed to change, with her family constantly moving for "opportunity"--but when her aunt and uncle whisk her far away to an international school in Switzerland, she's not sure she's ready to face this "opportunity" alone. All at once she finds herself in a foreign country, surrounded by kids from different cultures speaking all sorts of languages and sharing various beliefs. Home and her first life seem so far away. But new friendships and the awesome beauty of Switzerland begin to unlock thoughts and dreams within her. Her joys and struggles make up a rich tapestry of experiences she can find nowhere else. Switzerland begins to be more than a temporary home--it becomes a part of Dinnnie herself, the self she never knew she could be. Switzerland is the picturesque backdrop of Newbery Medal winner Sharon Creech's new novel about a young girl discovering the beauty of nature, her place in the world, the value of friendship--and that life is full of wonderful "bloomabilites."

The Carolinas, 1699: The citizens of Fount Royal believe a witch has cursed their town with inexplicable tragedies, and they demand that beautiful widow Rachel Howarth be tried and executed for witchcraft. Presiding over the trial is traveling magistrate Issac Woodward, aided by his astute young clerk, Matthew Corbett. Believing in Rachel's innocence, Matthew will soon confront the true evil at work in Fount Royal. After hearing damning testimony, magistrate Woodward sentences the accused witch to death by burning. Desperate to exonerate the woman he has come to love, Matthew begins his own investigation among the townspeople. Piecing together the truth, he has no choice but to vanquish a force more malevolent than witchcraft in order to save his beloved Rachel and free Fount Royal from the menace claiming innocent lives.

It is twenty years after Nazi Germany's triumphant victory in World War II and the entire country is preparing for the grand celebration of the Führer's seventy-fifth birthday, as well as the imminent peacemaking visit from President Kennedy. Meanwhile, Berlin Detective Xavier March -- a disillusioned but talented investigation of a corpse washed up on the shore of a lake. When a dead man turns out to be a high-ranking Nazi commander, the Gestapo orders March off the case immediately. Suddenly other unrelated deaths are anything but routine. Now obsessed by the case, March teams up with a beautiful, young American journalist and starts asking questions...dangerous questions. What they uncover is a terrifying and long-concealed conspiracy of such astonding and mind-numbing terror that is it certain to spell the end of the Third Reich -- if they can live long enough to tell the world about it.

Walker Percy's mordantly funny and wholly original contribution to the self-help book craze deals with the Western mind's tendency toward heavy abstraction. This favorite of Percy fans continues to charm and beguile readers of all tastes and backgrounds. Lost in the Cosmos invites us to think about how we communicate with our world.

Money’s tight and Henry is lucky to have the job at Mr. Hairston’s grocery store. His parents are both lost in despair following the death of Henry’s older brother, and Henry is glad for the opportunity to feel like he’s helping. Saving to buy a marker for Eddie’s grave, Henry tries to ignore Mr. Hairston’s commentary about the customers. But Henry is shocked when he is told he’s being laid off. That is, unless he agrees to do one thing, one terrible thing.

Heam: It’s the hottest drug around. Users are able to see Heaven—a place so beautiful, so indescribably serene, many people never want to come back. And some don’t, like Faye’s best friend, Christian. But when Faye was forced to take Heam, she didn’t see Heaven; she saw Hell. And now she spends her nights training to take revenge on the men who destroyed her future and murdered Christian. When a mysterious young man named Chael appears, Faye’s plans suddenly get a lot more complicated. Love and Death. Will Faye overcome her desires, or will her quest for revenge consume her?

The newly crowned Prince Jared, ruler of All Archenfield, has inherited a kingdom in crisis. The murder of his older brother has revealed a traitorous plot in his court, calling into question who, if anyone, Jared can trust as he ascends the throne. Now the realm is on the brink of invasion from the brutal Princes of Paddenburg, and Jared must travel to neighboring kingdoms in search of allies to defend his throne. Little does he know that an even more dangerous plot is hatching in the Archenfield court—one put in motion by the very people he left in charge. The second book in Justin Somper’s Allies & Assassins series delivers another twisted tale of high-stakes betrayal and political machinations in a court where no one can be trusted and everyone is a suspect.

Franny's supposed to be working this summer, not flirting. But you can't blame her when guys like Alex and Harry are around. . . . Franny Pearson never dreamed she'd be attending the prestigious Mansfield Summer Theater Program. And she's not, exactly. She's working for her aunt, the resident costume designer. But sewing her fingers to the bone does give her an opportunity to spend time with her crush, Alex Braverman. If only he were as taken with the girl hemming his trousers as he is with his new leading lady. When Harry Cartwright, a notorious flirt, shows more than a friendly interest in Franny, she figures it can't hurt to have a little fun. But as their breezy romance grows more complicated, can Franny keep pretending that Harry is just a carefree fling? And why is Alex suddenly giving her those deep, meaningful looks? In this charming tale of mixed messages and romantic near-misses, one thing is clear: Flirting might be more trouble than Franny ever expected.

New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author, Elle Casey, brings readers the New Adult Romance By Degrees. Celebrities all suffer from the same disease. I call it the create-your-own-reality disease. Most of them start out normal, like you and me, but somewhere along the way they lose sight of up and down, left and right, and then eventually right and wrong. It's my job to fix that. Who hires me, Scarlett Barnes, otherwise known as ‘The Normalizer’? Agents usually. Producers sometimes. They know they can trust me to be professional, discreet, and above all, not personally involved with my clients. I come in, I take over their lives, and I get them back on track. Help them remember what it's like to be an average Joe. My latest job acquisition? His friends call him Tear-It-Up Kilgour, but I just call him Tarin - lead singer and guitarist for the band By Degrees. I have thirty days to get his butt back on planet earth before he loses his record deal, his movie contract, and possibly even his life. I've never failed so far, and I don't plan on failing this time either, even if Tarin has other ideas. Content Warning: This is a New Adult Romance, perhaps not suitable for younger readers due to foul language, sexual situations, drug use, and obnoxious rock-n-roll musicians. A message from Elle about this book: Every time I read another story about a Hollywood star or famous musician going off the deep end, I wonder how they got there. How it was that all the people around them weren’t able to or willing to stop it from happening. It must be easy when a person has more money than he or she can ever spend and people hanging around are leeches, for a person’s view of reality to get really skewed; and that’s a real shame for these talented people who have so much to share with the world. For years I’ve imagined this great job I could have where I’d hang out with celebrities who’ve lost track of the real world (the place where my readers and I live) and get them re-oriented, re-focused on what matters … clean the garbage out of their heads and their lives. Then of course, I couldn’t get that thought out of my head until I wrote a book about it, so here it is! By Degrees. The title of the book is actually the slogan of the Scottish clan Kilgour, something I learned on a trip I made there in the year this book was written.

THE UNWITHERING REALM is a massive tale of a greater and darker evil with longer reach than anything Man can imagine, of despair without bounds, of pain beyond measure, and of the faith required to surmount all three. It is a story of inexorable destiny written in the stars and the stubborn courage that is required to defy it. In THE BLOOD STORM, Ilya Muromets is bound and determined to be a hero, and heroes do not quit simply because they face impossible odds. THE BLOOD STORM is the fourth book in THE UNWITHERING REALM, the Dragon Award-winning series by science fiction grandmaster John C. Wright, author of THE GOLDEN AGE, MOTH & COBWEB, and AWAKE IN THE NIGHT LAND.

J. P. Donleavy has been writing now for forty-five years and, as he admits, an answer to the question why is ' difficult to dig out of a long past'. Yet over these pages he author's query is largely answered for him: he has written so much for so long because he writes so very well. From the banks of the Seine to the streets of the Bronx, from the stables of the Dublin Horse Show to cocktails at Claridge's, we are transported by these collected short pieces into the singular and spirited world of J. P. Donleavy. Bringing an uncommonly objective yet affectionate eye to his writings on his own birthplace, America, balancing unabashed adoration with good-humoured bewilderment in his depiction of his heart's home, Ireland, the author presents us with a fresh, engaging vista that could only be his own. Whether reviewing a book on sexual exercises for women or paying homage to Yeats, the impress is unmistakably Donleavy's. The initial publication of these pieces in various newspapers and journals around the world gave the author particular pleasure because he knew that he would reach people who were not normally book readers. However, he admits that the fate of most periodicals and newspapers is to be used to 'wrap fish, keep vagrants warm and help light fires'. Books, on the other hand, 'preserve their pages better between covers', and with their publication here he hopes that 'these pieces separately written over these many years can now keep each other company'. An Author and His Image offers a comprehensive overview of one of the most original and incisive voices of the last half-century.

Robert is a difficult and disturbed young man. He turns to his Calvinist faith for solace but finds it hard to get along with other people. After he falls in with the mysterious and charming Gil-Martin, his actions become more and more extreme. He convinces himself that he is one of the chosen few and that, therefore, all his actions are right and good . . . even murder. James Hogg ('the Ettrick Shepherd') was a poet, novelist, and farmer whose work was discovered by Sir Walter Scott and admired by writers as different as Wordsworth and Byron. His most famous book, The Confessions of a Justified Sinner (1824), is striking in its use of Calvinist doctrine, demonology, and a highly modern psychological perception to tell the story of the criminal Colwan, deluded by occult forces into thinking he represents an instrument of divine justice and vengeance.  Introduction by Roger Lewis (Book Jacket Status: Not Jacketed)

Discover what really happened in the final days of the doomed planet from the eyes of Sandor—who would go on to become the reluctant Cêpan to Number Nine. Before Number Four and the others arrived on Earth, they lived on the planet Lorien. A planet filled with others who also had extraordinary abilities. A peaceful planet––until the day the Mogadorians attacked, and nearly annihilated, the Loric people. Only a handful of Loric survived the battle. This is Sandor’s story. Sandor was tired of being a teenager, tired of going to school and obeying his teachers and playing by his parents' rules. He enjoyed breaking the rules rather than following them. But when he makes one mistake too many, Sandor's life takes an unexpected turn, and he is forced join the Lorien Defense Academy. Sandor had never believed in the crazy idea that Lorien needed to defend itself—Lorien was a peaceful planet, with no apparent enemies. But when Mogadorians suddenly attack, Sandor learns how real that threat was. Now Sandor is one of only a handful of Loric left alive, and the fate of Lorien is in their hands.