A young prince must flee for his life when jealous brothers try to kill him. His journey leads him to examine himself, to discover the difference between right and wrong, and to question whether he really wants to fight for what is his own. In the process he discovers love and is faced with the challenge of duty versus desire.“The Cygnet grows into a Swan...and the Falcon shall not hunt forever.”Teenage Sheiji-Yueng is the youngest prince in the Imatsuran palace. Accustomed to complete freedom and being ignored by the rest of the palace inhabitants, he has little need—or desire—to grow up. When his father, on his deathbed, unexpectedly names him successor to the throne, Sheiji must cross the line from childhood into adulthood. Guided by the gentle hand of the late king’s advisor, Sheiji finds himself looking forward to the day he will rule Imatsuro. However, two jealous brothers stand in the way and won’t give up the kingdom without a fight.Forced to flee for his life, Sheiji is suddenly driven into the outside world with little knowledge of its people or customs. As a pampered prince, Sheiji has never needed the skills his life now depends upon—quick thinking, innate instincts, even just the will to survive. Beginning to enjoy his new life a little too much, he must make a decision. Does he continue his carefree life as a street boy with his newfound soul mate, or return to his own people who are counting on their king to save them from a tyrannical usurper?

This rush to light, literary works in its very own rush saving light, is design to demonstrate the easy, involve in making up, inventing, conjuring, placating, overnight, structuring suspensions of disbelief, flying high by night schemes, involving in fabricating, following the money and intangible business.The preoccupation stage of our existence, determines our type of evolution, and future. Preordain is a cosmic inter global and intergalactic glow-flow of every critical and relative performed actions and inaction. Everyone plays and intricate role, whether ying or yang, everyone that ever existed, contributes to our stepping stone relay future, of our earth, and off course the universe.

Jerry Baker had a difficult time deciding what to write for the essay. There were so many people in his life who were heroes, that it was hard to pick just one. However, once Jerry read the definition of the word itself,only one name came to mind.He could not help... recall the day he stopped his bike on the bridge intending only to look over the thin spreading creek beyond the falls to the gorge and the green water pooled below. It was then he found himself looking upon the private scene of a girl climbing the falls hand in hand with a young man—neither of whom, so entranced were they with one another, detected his presence. Continuing to look, he revised his opinion, and determined she was no mere unformed girl but rather a shapely and quite desirable young woman. From Jordan’s elevated position, her contours seemed more revealed than hidden by the short cut-off jeans and long-tailed shirt which, partially unbuttoned, afforded a tantalizing glimpse into the descending cleft of her décolletage. Further, he remembered her demure smile from an all-too-brief encounter one night at a local bar. And so he waited, with whetted longing, hoping she might look up and smile again, until she disappeared, perhaps forever, underneath the bridge deck where he stood. After waiting a moment more in indecision, he rode off unseen, suddenly aware he was entirely unsure of his destination. How many years ago would it be now? He told himself a dozen, wondering if the truth wasn’t closer to half again as many years as he imagined. And yet all this time later, he still entertained the possibility he might, one day, ride to the same place and look down to find the young woman—a little older, yes, but also still almost eagerly compliant—once more climbing the falls, this time alone.

Hope has had visions her whole life, but she has never had one like this before. Hope has to figure out what her visions mean and act now because the fate of England could be in her hands.Lu is an 18-year-old apothecary, trying to get along as an immigrant in the port city of Seashine. Her closest friend is a young assassin named Silveo. Lu doesn’t like to think about how Silveo makes his living, but she owes him her freedom, and she cares for him deeply. She also happens to be an excellent chemist with a knowledge of dangerous substances. When Silveo asks Lu to formulate a new poison, her involvement brings her into contact with a dangerously attractive pirate captain, as well as thugs and slavers in the belly of Seashine’s underground. As pressures build, Lu makes a mistake which may cost both she and Silveo their lives.“Chemistry” is a novelette from the world of Panamindorah, related to the Guild of the Cowry Catchers series. The story has some mild sexual references and innuendo. It is not intended for children. “Chemistry” is a stand-alone story that can be enjoyed without reading Cowry Catchers, but the story will have more meaning for fans of the series. “Chemistry” is also available along with other stories in: Secret Things – Short Stories from Panamindorah, Volume 2.

Thirty years ago, ecstasy and torment took hold of John Rivers, shocking him out of "half-baked imbecility into something more nearly resembling the human form." He had an affair with the wife of his mentor, Henry Maartens--a pathbreaking physicist, winner of the Nobel Prize, and a figure of blinding brilliance--bringing the couple to ruin. Now, on Christmas Eve while a small grandson sleeps upstairs, John Rivers is moved to set the record straight about the great man and the radiant, elemental creature he married, who viewed the renowned genius through undazzled eyes.

One of Zola's most famous realistic novels, Therese Raquin is a clinically observed, sinister tale of adultery and murder among the lower classes in nineteenth-century Parisian society. Set in the claustrophobic atmosphere of a dingy haberdasher's shop in the passage du Pont-Neuf in Paris, this powerful novel tells how the heroine and her lover, Laurent, kill her husband, Camille, but are subsequently haunted by visions of the dead man and prevented from enjoying the fruits of their crime. Zola's shocking tale dispassionately dissects the motivations of his characters--mere "human beasts", who kill in order to satisfy their lust--and stands as a key manifesto of the French Naturalist movement, of which the author was the founding father. Published in 1867, this is Zola's most important work before the Rougon-Macquart series and introduces many of the themes that can be traced through the later novel cycle.

Something Borrowed tells the story of Rachel, a young attorney living and working in Manhattan. Rachel has always been the consummate good girl—until her thirtieth birthday, when her best friend, Darcy, throws her a party. That night, after too many drinks, Rachel ends up in bed with Darcy's fiancé. Although she wakes up determined to put the one-night fling behind her, Rachel is horrified to discover that she has genuine feelings for the one guy she should run from. As the September wedding date nears, Rachel knows she has to make a choice. In doing so, she discovers that the lines between right and wrong can be blurry, endings aren't always neat, and sometimes you have to risk all to win true happiness. Something Borrowed is a phenomenal debut novel that will have you laughing, crying, and calling your best friend.

In Pilot Pirx, Lem has created an irresistibly likable character: an astronaut who gives the impression of still navigating by the seat of his pants-a bumbler but an inspired one. By investing Pirx with a range of human foibles, Lem offers a wonderful vision of the audacity, childlike curiosity, and intuition that can give humans the courage to confront outer space. Translated by Louis Iribarne. A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book

Don Rigoberto - by day a grey insurance executive, by night a pornographer and sexual enthusiast - misses Lucrecia, his estranged second wife. The pair separated following a sexual encounter between Lucrecia and Alfonso, Rigoberto's son. To compensate for her absence, Rigoberto fills his notebooks with memories, fantasies and unsent letters. Meanwhile, Alfonso visits Lucrecia, determined to win her love. In The Notebooks of Don Rigoberto, Mario Vargas Llosa keeps the reader guessing which episodes are real and which issue from Rigoberto's imagination. The novel, a wonderful mix of reality and fantasy, is sexy, funny, disquieting, and unfailingly compelling. If you enjoyed The Notebooks of Don Rigoberto, you might also like Mario Vargas Llosa's In Praise of the Stepmother.

From the acclaimed author of the international best seller Einstein’s Dreams, here is a stunning, lyrical memoir of Memphis from the 1930s through the 1960s that includes the early days of the movies and a powerful grandfather whose ghost remains an ever-present force in the lives of his descendants. Alan Lightman’s grandfather M.A. Lightman was the family’s undisputed patriarch: it was his movie theater empire that catapulted the Lightmans to prominence in the South, his fearless success that both galvanized and paralyzed his children and grandchildren. In this moving, impressionistic memoir, the author chronicles his return to Memphis in an attempt to understand the origins he so eagerly left behind forty years earlier. As aging uncles and aunts begin telling family stories, Lightman rediscovers his southern roots and slowly recognizes the errors in his perceptions of both his grandfather and his father, who was himself crushed by M.A. The result is an unforgettable family saga that extends from 1880 to the present, set against a throbbing century of Memphis—the rhythm and blues, the barbecue and pecan pie, the segregated society—and including personal encounters with Elvis, Martin Luther King Jr., and E. H. “Boss” Crump. At the heart of it all is a family haunted by the memory of its domineering patriarch and the author’s struggle to understand his conflicted loyalties. (With black-and-white illustrations throughout.) From the Hardcover edition.

A powerful new novel about an ordinary family facing extraordinary times at the start of the Chinese Cultural Revolution.  China, 1957. Chairman Mao has declared a new openness in society: “Let a hundred flowers bloom; let a hundred schools of thought contend.” Many intellectuals fear it is only a trick, and Kai Ying’s husband, Sheng, a teacher, has promised not to jeopardize their safety or that of their young son, Tao. But one July morning, just before his sixth birthday, Tao watches helplessly as Sheng is dragged away for writing a letter criticizing the Communist Party and sent to a labor camp for “reeducation.” A year later, still missing his father desperately, Tao climbs to the top of the hundred-year-old kapok tree in front of their home, wanting to see the mountain peaks in the distance. But Tao slips and tumbles thirty feet to the courtyard below, badly breaking his leg. As Kai Ying struggles to hold her small family together in the face of this shattering reminder of her husband’s absence, other members of the household must face their own guilty secrets and strive to find peace in a world where the old sense of order is falling. Once again, Tsukiyama brings us a powerfully moving story of ordinary people facing extraordinary circumstances with grace and courage.

*Author's Note: This novella is no longer available. I combined all of the Dumont Diaries novellas into a standalone novel, which was rewritten, expanded, and retitled as Trophy Wife. * When Nathan Dumont, heir to Dumont Shipping, steps onto the scene with a new wife, the media sits up and takes notice. But nothing can be found on the new Mrs.Dumont. No family history, private school chums, or expensively hidden skeletons in couture closets. It is as if she has materialized out of thin air, and wearing Chanel. Life in a fairytale sucks. Even if it does come complete with eight inches of wontleavemealone steel. But when that glorious package is attached to a man that won’t give me a second glance, much less a piece of his heart, what good is a wedding ring and boatloads of cash? To make matters worse, I am slowly stumbling along and finding red flags. Flags that make me think there is more to this fairytale than meets the eye. In fact, I’m not so sure it’s a fairytale at all. It looks to be much, much worse. To Hold is a novella, approximately 60 pages, and was book 2 of a 4-part series.

Readers of the nine bestselling Mitford novels have been captivated by Jan Karon's gift for illuminating the struggles that creep into everyday lives along with a vividly imagined world (People). They learned quickly that after you've spent time in Mitford, you'll want to come back (Chicago Tribune). Millions eagerly awaited the publication of each novel, relishing the story of the bookish and bighearted Episcopal priest and the extraordinary fullness of his seemingly ordinary life. Now, Jan Karon enchants us with the story of the newly retired priest's spur-of-the-moment adventure. For the first time in decades, Father Tim returns to his birthplace, Holly Springs, Mississippi, in response to a mysterious, unsigned note saying simply: Come home. Little does he know how much these two words will change his life. A story of long-buried secrets, forgiveness, and the wonder of discovering new people, places, and depth of feeling, Home to Holly Springs will enthrall new readers and longtime fans alike.

The magical adventures of an eccentric Mary Poppins-esque heroine and her flying feline charges, sure to charm readers big and small. The first book for children by an internationally acclaimed novelist and poet. Miss Petitfour enjoys having adventures that are "just the right size - fitting into a single, magical day." She is an expert at baking and eating fancy iced cakes, and her favorite mode of travel is par avion. On windy days, she takes her sixteen cats out for an airing: Minky, Misty, Taffy, Purrsia, Pirate, Mustard, Moutarde, Hemdela, Earring, Grigorovitch, Clasby, Captain Captain, Captain Catkin, Captain Cothespin, Your Shyness and Sizzles. With the aid of her favorite tea party tablecloth as a makeshift balloon, Miss Petitfour and her charges fly over her village, having many little adventures along the way. Join Miss Petitfour and her equally eccentric felines on five magical outings -- a search for marmalade, to a spring jumble sale, on a quest for "birthday cheddar", the retrieval of a lost rare stamp and as they compete in the village's annual Festooning Festival. A whimsical, beautifully illustrated collection of tales that celebrates language, storytelling and small pleasures, especially the edible kind!

Growing up in Detroit in the 1950s, and going to college when the first seeds of sexual freedom are being sown, Jill and Donna are coming of age in an exciting, turbulent time. Wry, independent Jill thrives in the new free-spirited world, while her beautiful cousin Donna desperately searches for a man to make her life whole. As each cousin is driven by different demons and desires, they eventually realize that they cannot overcome fundamental differences in each others' lives. Still, as their futures assume contrary paths, Jill and Donna realize that they may be separated, but they'll never be truly divided from one another. "Rings with passionate awareness...honest and impressive." THE WASHINGTON POST BOOK WORLD From the Paperback edition.

What happens when fantasy is the only thing that seems real? Just a few months ago, Tom Boyd was a multi-million-selling author living in LA, in love with a world-famous pianist. But after a very public break-up he's shut himself away, suffering from total writer's block, with only drink and drugs for company. One night, a beautiful, naked stranger appears in Tom's house. She claims to be Billie, a character from his novels, who has fallen into the real world because of a printer's error in his latest book. Crazy as her story sounds, Tom comes to see that this must be the real Billie. And she wants to strike a deal with him: if he writes his next novel she can go back to the world of fiction; in return she will help him win back his beloved Aurore. What does he have to lose? Guillaume Musso's latest romantic bestseller is a story of friendship, love and the special place that books have in our lives.

Unlock your inner Sherlock. It had been a long time since Mat Lawrence went to the city. Only something urgent could take him from his job deep in the desert managing construction of a mammoth power dam . . . something as urgent and shocking as the grisly murder of his father. His father dying wasn't a complete surprise to him; the old man was a big-time gangster. Straight-laced and hard-working, Mat had wanted nothing to do with such vices. But he does share at least one family trait, a temper that propels him to exact revenge in the traditional family style.And so, with the "help" of his father's fast-talking criminal attorney, Mat goes after the culprits. But bullets, lies and bedlam follow when he finds himself neck-deep in trouble trying to single-handedly track down his father's killers and a million dollars gone missing. ALSO INCLUDES THE MYSTERY STORIES "FLAME CITY," "CALLING SQUAD CARS" AND "THE GREASE SPOT"" ..".is pure entertainment from first page to last with that L. Ron Hubbard touch giving this tale an enduring reading engagement from beginning to end." "--Midwest Book Review

War changed Clinton Brown. Permanently disfigured by a tragic military accident, he's struggling to find satisfaction from life as a rewrite man for Pacific City's Courier. Shame has led him to isolate himself from closest friends and even his estranged, still faithfully devoted wife, Ellen. Only the bottle keeps him company. But now Ellen has returned to Pacific City, and she's ready to do whatever it takes to get Brown back. Even if it means exposing his deepest secret ... a painful truth Brown would do anything to stop from coming to light. He'd kill a whole lot of people just to keep this one thing quiet--and soon enough, the bodies just happen to start piling up around him... THE NOTHING MAN is Thompson at his most psychologically astute, in a deeply suspenseful and tragic portrait of one man's journey through the dark side of the Postwar Boom.

Pagan Babies is classic crime fiction from the master of suspense, New York Times bestselling author Elmore Leonard.  Father Terry Dunn thought he'd seen everything on the mean streets of Detroit, but that was before he went on a little retreat to Rwanda to evade a tax-fraud indictment. Now the whiskey-drinking, Nine Inch Nails T-shirt-wearing padre is back trying to hustle up a score to help the little orphans of Rwanda. But the fund-raising gets complicated when a former tattletale cohort pops up on Terry's tail. And then there's the lovely Debbie Dewey. A freshly sprung ex-con turned stand-up comic, Debbie needs some fast cash, too, to settle an old score. Now they're in together for a bigger payoff than either could finagle alone. After all, it makes sense...unless Father Terry is working a con of his own.

The Alliance has been fighting the Syndics for a century--and losing badly. Now its fleet is crippled and stranded in enemy territory. Their only hope is a man who's emerged from a century-long hibernation to find he has been heroically idealized, beyond belief... Captain John "Black Jack" Geary's legendary exploits are known to every schoolchild. Revered for his heroic "last stand" in the early days of the war, he was presumed dead. But a century later, Geary miraculously returns from survival hibernation and reluctantly takes command of the Alliance fleet as it faces annihilation by the Syndics. Appalled by the hero-worship around him, Geary is nevertheless a man who will do his duty. And he knows that bringing the stolen Syndic hypernet key safely home is the Alliance's one chance to win the war. But to do that, Geary will have to live up to the impossibly heroic "Black Jack" legend...

There's a maniacal murderer on the loose, brutally slaughtering young women with a ferocity that rivals that of vampires Harry Koegh has spent his life combatting. The Necroscope's been asked to solve the crimes...asked by the dead spirits of the madman's victims. Harry cannot turn down a request from the dead...even if it costs him his soul. In the climactic battle with the vampires, mankind prevailed and purged the vampires from earth--thanks to Harry, his team of psychically-gifted spies, and Faethor Ferenczy, long-dead 'father' of the world's vampires, who betrayed his own kind. But Harry's alliance with Faethor has a terrible cost--Harry's very humanity is under attack from the vampire evil coiled in his mind!