The Old Town Butcher

      Brian S. Wheeler
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Chuck Wuebbles has lost much since his relocation into Old Town. All of the possessions Chuck earned as a younger man have been noted in the Administrators' black notebooks, to be liquidated to pay for the care Chuck's age will inevitably demand. Yet the Administrators have not taken all. Chuck still possesses his old skills; and with a knife and cleaver, Chuck vows to keep one final freedomThe sick and the old fuel the modern world's economy. Age and disease supply a final, and renewable, resource for a new world's commerce. Chuck Wuebbles has turned old, and so the Administrators have assigned him to a housing unit in the Old Town district, where the care which Chuck will, surely, one day soon need may be delivered quickly. Only that care, that supervision and concern comes with a cost which forces Chuck to watch the Administrators claim possession of his wealth in order to pay for all the doctor and hospital bills eventual sickness will demand. Yet when the pain visits, Chuck vows to keep his suffering a secret with a plan to keep the last possession of his pride through the end.

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    Butcher, Baker and Replicant Maker

      Brian S. Wheeler
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Nigel Hightower cannot sleep in a world built upon dreams. The machine has shunned Mr. Hightower, refusing to give him digital manifestations of his dreams. So Mr. Hightower finds solace in crafting replicas of the lost world's wildlife for the children too young for the computer, until a series of updates threatens Mr. Hightower's audience so that none remain to call him “replicant maker.”The world has retreated into the limitless landscapes the computer constructs out of zeros and ones. Every citizen of the machine realizes his or her dreams. Everyone is content. No one lacks for any kind of wealth or pleasure. Everyone except for Nigel Hightower. For the machine has shunned Mr. Hightower by replacing his dream with nightmare. Like a child, Mr. Hightower cannot thrive in the virtual landscape. And so he creates mechanical creatures to stir the imagination of the children, who like himself, find no solace in an electronic world. Now even the children threaten to leave Mr. Hightower as updates tempt their younger minds. Mr. Hightower promises to resist the machine with a final, incredible creation.

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    Attack Doll 3: Protocol Black

      Douglas A. Taylor
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The death of Prime Commander has dealt a heavy blow to Trevor and his fellow Primes. And when the team is threatened by government forces intent on discovering their secrets, things go from bad to worse. To hold the team together, the Primes must enlist the aid of an old friend and implement . . . Protocol Black.Twenty-one-year-old Trevor Chiao is Prime Indigo; he is a member of the fabulous Primes, a group of seven men and women whose mission is to protect the Earth from Enclave, an alien organization bent on taking over the world. Protected by an indigo-colored force shield that enhances his strength and speed and keeps his identity secret, he travels all over the world with his fellow Primes, battling monsters, Zoinks, and the mysterious Lily Lee, a beautiful Asian woman who refers to herself as . . . the Attack Doll. The death of Prime Commander has dealt a heavy blow to Trevor and his fellow Primes. And when the team is threatened by government forces intent on discovering their secrets, things go from bad to worse. To hold the team together, the Primes must enlist the aid of an old friend and implement . . . Protocol Black.

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    Let Us Talk of Basketball!

      John Janovy, Jr
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In poetry, four sets of parents of a players on a high school girls team lament their daughters obsession with the sport; they end up with the conclusion that human beings are at their best when working in a group of five! If you have children in athletics, or have had, you need this book big time!Pro Se Productions, the home of the Pro Se Single Shot Signature line of digital singles, announces the first tale in a new author focused digital single imprint. From the Pen of J. Walt Layne features stories by the Author of Pro Se Productions’ Champion City series of books (A Week in Hell, Breathless). Within this imprint, Layne will explore both familiar fields and new grounds of storytelling.In Hard Up! A Tale of Champion City, the first story in J. Walt Layne’s From the Pen of…, a man with no name and a monkey on his back roll into Champion City in the wee hours. There's no rest for a man in trouble with the mob. Personal demons and dead bodies revisit a man hard up and down on his luck.From the Pen of J. Walt Layne. A Pro Se Single Shot Signature writer’s imprint from Pro Se Productions.

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    Erotophobia and Other Challenges

      R K Smith
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Irrational fears can be overwhelming but as Stephen discovers in Eorotophobia, they can lead to worse problems. Or challenges can be channeled, as the main character in A.D.D. P.I. discovers. He has Attention Deficit Disorder and his bouncing brain connects seemingly unrelated facts to solve mysteries. Other challenges simply make life complicated, as readers see in these short stories.Life can be difficult enough without the additional challenges of irrational fears, Attention Deficit Disorder, or Asperger's Syndrome. When those are added to the obstacles anyone can encounter, creating a satisfying existence can be a problem. In these short stories, characters find the challenges can cause worse problems, can be channeled to become strengths, or can simply be complicating factors.

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    Dire Straits

      Helen Harper
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Bo Blackman is a rookie private investigator working for the London based firm of Dire Straits. She doesn't often get triber-based assignments, which is just as well. Vampires and daemons don't interest her as much as humans do. However, when she has to serve a summons on a dodgy daemon called Devlin O'Shea and she ends up saving his life instead of being framed for his murder, her life takes a shocking turn for the worse. And when the vampire Families start involving themselves too, Bo no longer knows where to turn...

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    Darkness Unbound

      Keri Arthur
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The fight against darkness rages on for the next generation—in New York Times bestselling author Keri Arthur’s exciting new series set in the world of the Guardians. Being half werewolf and half Aedh, Risa Jones can enter the twilight realms between life and death and see the reapers, supernatural beings that collect the souls of the dead. But she soon makes a terrifying discovery: Some sinister force is stealing souls, preventing the dead from ever knowing the afterlife. Reapers escort souls—not snatch them—but Risa is still unnerved when a reaper shadows her in search of someone Risa has never met: her own father, an Aedh priest, who is rumored to be tampering with the gates of hell for a dark purpose. With the help of her “aunt”—half-werewolf, half-vampire Riley Jenson—and an Aedh named Lucian who may have lost his wings but none of his sex appeal, Risa must pursue whatever shadowy practitioner of blood magic is seizing souls, and somehow stop her father . . . before all hell breaks loose. From the Paperback edition.

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    The Caller

      Juliet Marillier
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Neryn has made a long journey to perfect her skills as a Caller. She has learned the wisdom of water and of earth; she has journeyed to the remote isles of the west and the forbidding mountains of the north. Now, Neryn must travel in Alban's freezing winter to seek the mysterious White Lady, Guardian of Air. For only when Neryn has been trained by all four Guardians will she be ready to play her role in toppling the tyrannical King Keldec. But the White Lady is not what she seems. Trapped with Whisper, her fey protector, Neryn is unable to send word to her beloved Flint, who is in danger of being exposed as a double agent. When a new threat looms and the rebellion is in jeopardy, Neryn must enter Keldec's court, where one false move could see her culled. She must stand up against forces more powerful than any she has confronted before, and face losses that could break her heart. The Caller is the thrilling conclusion to the Shadowfell trilogy.

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    The Breaking Wave

      Nevil Shute
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The Breaking Wave is one of Nevil Shute’s most poignant and psychologically suspenseful novels, set in the years just after World War II. Sidelined by a wartime injury, fighter pilot Alan Duncan reluctantly returns to his parents' remote sheep station in Australia to take the place of his brother Bill, who died a hero in the war. But his homecoming is marred by the suicide of his parents' parlormaid, of whom they were very fond. Alan soon realizes that the dead young woman is not the person she pretended to be. Upon discovering that she had served in the Royal Navy and participated along with his brother in the secret build-up to the Normandy invasion, Alan sets out to piece together the tragic events and the lonely burden of guilt that unravelled one woman’s life. In the process of finding the answer to the mystery, he realizes how much he had in common with this woman he never knew and how “a war can go on killing people long after it's all over.” From the Trade Paperback edition.

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    H.P. Lovecraft Goes to the Movies

      H. P. Lovecraft
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With more than 100 movies based on his writing, H.P. Lovecraft ranks among the most adapted authors in history--along with Edgar Allan Poe and Stephen King.  His unnervingly scary tales appeal to both diehard fans of horror and readers with mainstream tastes, and H.P. Lovecraft Goes to the Movies presents the very best of his filmed stories. Additionally, this unique collection provides an enlightening historical introduction, short headnotes for each story calling out interesting trivia, and an appendix with credits for each screen version. THE STORIES INCLUDE: "The Colour out of Space": filmed twice, once as a vehicle for Boris Karloff called Die, Monster, Die! "The Dunwich Horror," also filmed two times, once with Dean Stockwell "Pickman's Model" and "Cool Air": both for Rod Serling's Night Gallery TV program "The Call of Cthulhu," which laid the foundation for the Cthulhu Mythos

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    Dark Prince

      David Gemmell
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The chaos spirit had chosen the child Alexander to be its human host. But Parmenion, most powerful warrior of ancient Greece, had won a small victory over the darkness that sought to rule through Alexander. The boy's soul had not been destroyed by evil, but instead had merged with it -- and now Parmenion aided Alexander in the battle between light and dark that constantly raged within him. But there was another world, where the creatures of Greece's legends still flourished. There, the chaos spirit already ruled, through a demon king. In this Greece, there was a prophecy that a child of great power, the legendary golden child, would come and restore the fading magic of the land to the creatures of myth. The demon king believed also that devouring the heart of this fabled child would give him immortality. He believed Alexander, with the power of the chaos spirit within him, to be that child. And so he called Alexander into his world . . . Only Parmenion, guided by the seeress Derae, his lost love from another life, could hope to save Alexander from the demon king. But who could save the young prince from the chaos spirit that threatened to conquer his soul? From the Trade Paperback edition.

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    Ravenheart

      David Gemmell
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Eight hundred years have passed since King Connavar of the Rigante and his bastard son, Bane, defeated the invading army of Stone. Now the Rigante have lost the freedom and culture so many gave their lives to preserve. Only one woman remains who follows the ancient ways–the Wyrd of Wishing Tree Wood–and she alone knows the nature of the evil soon to be unleashed. But the Wyrd pins her hope on two men: a giant Rigante fighter, a man haunted by his failure to save his best friend from betrayal; and a youth whose deadly talents will earn him the rancor of the brutal Varlish. One will become the Ravenheart, an outlaw leader whose daring exploits will inspire the Rigante. The other will forge a legend–and light the fires of revolution. . . .

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    Murther and Walking Spirits

      Robertson Davies
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Murther & Walking Spirits is available as an eBook for the first time. * “I was never so amazed in my life as when the Sniffer drew his concealed weapon from its case and struck me to the ground, stone dead.” * So begins the unusual story of Connor “Gil” Gilmartin when he catches his wife in flagrante with the Sniffer, his former colleague and now his murderer. Though he is struck dead in the very first line of this novel, death is only the first indignity Gil is about to suffer. For he lingers on as a ghost, and from this bleak vantage–made even less endurable by the fact that he must spend the afterlife sitting beside his killer at a film festival–he is forced to view the exploits and failures of his ancestors, from the forerunners who sailed up the Hudson to Canada during the American Revolution right up to his university-professor parents.

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    Vault of Shadows

      Jonathan Maberry
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Milo must choose between risking his life to save both the human and magical universes or to live and save only his own in the explosive and fast-paced follow-up to the first novel in the Nightsiders series, which "Kirkus Reviews "called the perfect mix of science fiction and magic in a starred review. After joining forces with the magical Nightsiders and surviving a trip to the enemy Bugs Hive ship, Milo Silk still has a lot to fear. The Huntsman has pledged a revenge worse than death on Milo, a group of nefarious fairies are bent on taking back Earth, and zombie-like holo-men are trapping humans for the Bugs to take. Even more unsettling is that the Witch of the World has disappeared and a mysterious boy is haunting Milo s dreams in her stead. But none of these threats compare to what may happen to the world if the humans and the Nightsiders don t unite to fight for each other."

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    Eligible

      Curtis Sittenfeld
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This version of the Bennet family and Mr. Darcy is one that you have and haven't met before: Liz is a magazine writer in her late thirties who, like her yoga instructor older sister, Jane, lives in New York City. When their father has a health scare, they return to their childhood home in Cincinnati to help and discover that the sprawling Tudor they grew up in is crumbling and the family is in disarray. Youngest sisters Kitty and Lydia are too busy with their CrossFit workouts and Paleo diets to get jobs. Mary, the middle sister, is earning her third online master's degree and barely leaves her room, except for those mysterious Tuesday-night outings she won't discuss. And Mrs. Bennet has one thing on her mind: how to marry off her daughters, especially as Jane's fortieth birthday fast approaches. Enter Chip Bingley, a handsome new-in-town doctor who recently appeared on the juggernaut reality TV dating show Eligible. At a Fourth of July barbecue, Chip takes an immediate interest in Jane, but Chip's friend, neurosurgeon Fitzwilliam Darcy, reveals himself to Liz to be much less charming. . . . And yet, first impressions can be deceiving.

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    The Cutting Edge

      Linda Howard
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From New York Times bestselling author Linda Howard comes a fan-favorite tale of romantic intrigue Brett Rutland is the top troubleshooter at Carter Engineering, and he's used to getting his way. When he's tasked with cracking an internal embezzlement case, he meets firm accountant Tessa Conway. She's beautiful and interested, but falling for her will not only test Brett's control, it may also jeopardize the case—especially since she's the prime suspect.

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    Rules for Secret Keeping

      Lauren Barnholdt
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Samantha Carmichael has made a business out of shuttling secrets—drop your secret and a dollar into locker #321, and it gets anonymously delivered without being read. Samantha ensures confidentiality and discretion, and her gig is so successful that You Girl magazine has named her a finalist for Tween Entrepreneur of the Year. But when her classmate Olivia starts a secret-passing business of her own, Sam learns that imitation is not always the sincerest form of flattery. And when a secret leaks out that puts Sam’s own clandestine crush at stake, the battle of the businesses gets personal.

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    Miller's Valley

      Anna Quindlen
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In a small town on the verge of big change, a young woman unearths deep secrets about her family and unexpected truths about herself. Filled with insights that are the hallmark of Anna Quindlen's bestsellers, Miller's Valley is an emotionally powerful story about a family you will never forget. For generations the Millers have lived in Miller's Valley. Mimi Miller tells about her life with intimacy and honesty. As Mimi eavesdrops on her parents and quietly observes the people around her, she discovers more and more about the toxicity of family secrets, the dangers of gossip, the flaws of marriage, the inequalities of friendship and the risks of passion, loyalty, and love. Home, as Mimi begins to realize, can be "a place where it's just as easy to feel lost as it is to feel content." Miller's Valley is a masterly study of family, memory, loss, and, ultimately, discovery, of finding true identity and a new vision of home. As Mimi says,...

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    The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language

      Steven Pinker
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The classic book on the development of human language by the world’s leading expert on language and the mind. In this classic, the world's expert on language and mind lucidly explains everything you always wanted to know about language: how it works, how children learn it, how it changes, how the brain computes it, and how it evolved. With deft use of examples of humor and wordplay, Steven Pinker weaves our vast knowledge of language into a compelling story: language is a human instinct, wired into our brains by evolution. The Language Instinct received the William James Book Prize from the American Psychological Association and the Public Interest Award from the Linguistics Society of America. This edition includes an update on advances in the science of language since The Language Instinct was first published.

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    Beauvallet

      Georgette Heyer
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What happens when a pirate falls in love with his captive? During her return to Spain with her father, the lovely Dona Dominica de Rada y Sylva is horrified when their ship is set upon by pirates. Far worse is her discovery that their captor isn't just any pirate -- he is the notorious Sir Nicholas Beauvallet, an Englishman with a scandalous reputation for plundering Spanish ships. But Dominica's pride braces her determination to be no one's hostage . . . It should have been easy for Sir Nicholas. It was, after all, just another ship. But instead, Sir Nicholas finds himself captivated by Dominica's dark beauty and indomitable courage. After returning his captives to their homeland, Sir Nicholas vows to win the heart of the Spanish beauty. It could be his riskiest venture yet -- and one that promises a treasure greater than any other . . .

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