Nova will do anything for her closest friend, Mal, whom she has known since childhood. So when Mal and his wife, Stephanie, ask Nova to be a surrogate mother, she agrees—despite her reservations about what it might mean for their friendship. Then Nova’s fears are realized. Halfway through the pregnancy, Stephanie finds a text from her husband to Nova that reads “Goodnight, beautiful.” Already suspicious of their deep connection, Stephanie demands that Mal cut all ties to Nova and their unborn baby, leaving Nova to raise the child alone. Eight years later, Nova is anxiously waiting for her son, Leo, to wake up from a coma, while childless Stephanie is desperately trying to save her failing marriage. Despite her anger and hurt, Nova wants Mal to have the chance to know his son before it’s too late. Will it take a tragedy to remind them all how much they mean to one another?

A Canadian icon gives us his final book, a memoir of the events that shaped this beloved writer and activist. Farley Mowat has been beguiling readers for fifty years now, creating a body of writing that has thrilled two generations, selling literally millions of copies in the process. In looking back over his accomplishments, we are reminded of his groundbreaking work: He single-handedly began the rehabilitation of the wolf with Never Cry Wolf. He was the first to bring advocacy activism on behalf of the Inuit and their northern lands with People of the Deer and The Desperate People. And his was the first populist voice raised in defense of the environment and of the creatures with whom we share our world, the ones he has always called The Others. Otherwise is a memoir of the years between 1937 and the autumn of 1948 that tells the story of the events that forged the writer and activist. His was an innocent childhood, spent free of normal strictures, and largely in the company of an assortment of dogs, owls, squirrels, snakes, rabbits, and other wildlife. From this, he was catapulted into wartime service, as anxious as any other young man of his generation to get to Europe and the fighting. The carnage of the Italian campaign shattered his faith in humanity forever, and he returned home unable and unwilling to fit into post-war Canadian life. Desperate, he accepted a stint on a scientific collecting expedition to the Barrengrounds. There in the bleak but beautiful landscape he finds his purpose — first with the wolves and then with the indomitable but desperately starving Ihalmiut. Out of these experiences come his first pitched battles with an ignorant and uncaring federal bureaucracy as he tries to get aid for the famine-stricken Inuit. And out of these experiences, too, come his first books. Otherwise goes to the heart of who and what Farley Mowat is, a wondrous final achievement from a true titan.

In this latest adventure (following Pigeon Post, winner of the Carnegie Medal), the Walker family has come to Harwich to wait for Commander Walker's return. As usual, the children can't stay away from boats, and this time they meet young Jim Brading, skipper of the well-found sloop Goblin. But fun turns to high drama when the anchor drags, and the four young sailors find themselves drifting out to sea - sweeping across to Holland in the midst of a full gale! As in all of Ransome's books, the emphasis is on self-reliance, courage, and resourcefulness. We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea is a story to warm any mariner's heart. Full of nautical lore and adventure, it will appeal to young armchair sailors and season sailors alike.

Aideen Collins is fed up. She is at her wits’ end with her eon long pregnancy, her new-found paranoia, but mostly she is fed up with her boyfriend’s constant hovering and nit-picking. Kane Slater is happier than ever. He is about to become a father for the first time with the woman he loves. Little does he know that Aideen is both literally and figuratively a ticking time bomb. He just has to survive a few more weeks of murderous hormonal outbursts, and all will be well… or so he hopes. They’re both caught up with the expected arrival of their little one, but in the back of their minds is a shadow that won’t fade away. Neither of them talk about it, but the shadow’s lingering presence casts doubt over their relationship. Big Phil worked his way into their minds many weeks ago and rooted himself as the haunting figure. Without even trying, he ruins things and causes problems. He watches them from afar, hoping he can break their family. Aideen’s instincts to protect her own are stronger than ever. If Big Phil wants to hurt those dearest to her, he is going to have one hell of a fight on his hands. Aideen worships Kane, and what Aideen worships, Aideen shelters.

Number one New York Times bestselling author Karen Kingsbury delivers an instant classic with this heartwarming Christmas story about a hundred-year flood, lost love, and the beauty of enduring friendships. Molly Allen lives alone in Portland, but she left her heart back in Tennessee with a man she walked away from five years ago. They had a rare sort of love she hasn’t found since. Ryan Kelly lives in Nashville after a broken engagement and several years on the road touring with a country music duo. He can still hear Molly’s voice encouraging him to follow his dreams; Molly, whose memory stays with him. At least he can visit The Bridge—the oldest bookstore in historic downtown Franklin—and remember the hours he and Molly once spent there. For thirty years, Charlie and Donna Barton have run The Bridge, providing the people of middle Tennessee with coffee, conversation, and shelves of good books—even through dismal book sales and the rise of digital books. Then in May, the hundred-year flood swept through Franklin and destroyed nearly every book in the store. Now the bank is pulling the lease on The Bridge. Despondent and without answers, Charlie considers the unthinkable. Then tragedy strikes, and suddenly, everything changes. In the face of desperate brokenness and lost opportunities, could the miracle of a second chance actually unfold? The Bridge is a love story set against the struggle of the American bookstore, a love story you will never forget.

Everyone has their rough nights, but things have clearly taken a turn for the surreal when Angel, a young photographer, finds a group of drunken teenagers in the courtyard of his apartment building, taunting a young troll. Trolls are known in Scandinavian mythology as wild beasts like the werewolf, but this troll is just a small, wounded creature. Angel decides to offer it a safe haven for the night. In the morning Angel thinks he dreamed it all. But he finds the troll alive, well, and drinking from his toilet. What does one do with a troll in the city? Angel begins researching frantically. Angel searches the Internet, folklore, nature journals, and newspaper clippings, but his research doesn't tell him that trolls exude pheromones that have a profound aphrodisiac effect on all those around him. As Angel's life changes beyond recognition, it becomes clear that the troll is familiar with the man's most forbidden feelings, and that it may take him across lines he never thought he'd cross. A novel of sparkling originality, Troll is a wry, peculiar, and beguiling story of nature and man's relationship to wild things, and of the dark power of the wildness in ourselves.

For a group of five girls at Westerly High, the last dance of the year will be filled with magic, moonlight, and end-of-year romance—or will it? Midnight will mark the end of one era . . . and the beginning of another. Kip wishes she could turn back the clock. A few months ago, two boys were competing for her. Now she has no one—just four younger brothers who drive her crazy. One kiss, and Gary turned Beth Rose into a princess. But her Prince Charming has moved on, and Beth’s date for the New Year’s Eve Ball is a friend’s kid brother. Moving in with Anne saved Emily when her parents separated. She may not have Anne’s poise or beauty, but she has Matt, a boy who seems to truly love her. Anne isn’t the same girl she was last year. And she’s lost Con, the love of her life. Molly hates the other girls. And when this night is over, revenge will be sweet indeed. In the grand ballroom of a hotel, on the last Saturday night of the year, New Year’s Eve will bring joy, heartbreak, one surprise proposal . . . and unexpected love. 

The Financial Lives of the Poets is a comic and heartfelt novel from National Book Award nominee Jess Walter, author of Citizen Vince and The Zero, about how we get to the edge of ruin—and how we begin to make our way back. Walter tells the story of Matt Prior, who’s losing his job, his wife, his house, and his mind—until, all of a sudden, he discovers a way that he might just possibly be able to save it all . . . and have a pretty damn great time doing it.

Follow Djibi the cat as she bounces from farm to forest to a hunter’s cozy home in this collectible edition of a classic animal story from the author of Bambi. Djibi the cat is loveable, independent, resourceful, and wise. After escaping from the farm where she was born, this extraordinary kitty learns how to survive in the woods. Djibi travels far in the forest before encountering a hunter. Knowing she is something special, the hunter takes Djibi home. It is a warm and cozy place, home to Tasso the dog, Hansi the canary, and soon, three rambunctious kittens. Ever the curious cat, Djibi continues to get into scrapes and messes around the house, but she loves the hunter and her other animal companions, and rules their home like a queen in her castle. Felix Salten’s timeless tale of a delightful cat and her extraordinary adventures is vividly depicted in this beautiful repackage.

Harlan Ellison has been compared to an annoying gnat, a no-see ’em buzzing in your peripheral vision till you try to swat him, and he’s gone. The great English writer Michael Moorcock—and if his name does not leave you dumbstruck with awe, you should move on—called Ellison a “fox in the sf hen-coop” whose presence will “produce a brighter, faster hen, with improved survival characteristics, laying a tastier, more nourishing egg” and went on to say Ellison was “a brave and lively little beast, who makes a great show of himself to the hounds, but remains too wary ever to lead them to his lair.” The brilliant novelist Joanna Russ, in admiring frustration, opined that Ellison’s stories “have an assault on you,” but complained that “they’re not like a piece of sculpture that you can stop and walk around and look at from all sides.” Ellison’s reply: “Absolutely not; I want them to grab you by the throat and tear off parts of your body.” Ellison’s a double agent who lures you into the bush, and when you blink, he’s gone; you don’t know whether to turn left or right, or just dig a hole. He crafts enigmas set to entrap you. When Ellison sees where a story is going, he figures—since he’s writing for the smartest readers alive—you do, too. So he stops and turns left. Or right. Or widdershins. Or digs a cave with 200 tunnels. Can & Can’tankerous gathers ten previously uncollected tales from the fifth and sixth decades of Harlan Ellison’s professional writing career: a written-in-the-window endeavor that invites re-reading from the start before you’ve even finished it; a second entry in his (now) ongoing abcedarian sequence; a “lost” pulp tale re-cast as a retro-fable; a melancholy meditation for departed friend and fellow legend, Ray Bradbury; a 2001 revision of a 1956 original; an absurdist ascent toward enlightenment (or its gluten-free substitute); a 200-word exercise in not following the directions as written (with a special introduction by Neil Gaiman that weighs in at four times the word count of its subject); a fantastical lament for a bottom-line world; the 2011 Nebula Award-winning short story; and Ellison’s most recent offering, a fusion of fact and fiction that calls to mind Russ’s frustration and Moorcock’s metaphor while offering a solution to the story’s enigma in plain view. Strokes be damned! Ellison’s still here! HE’s still writing! And with more new books published in the last ten years than any preceding decade of his career, his third act is proving to be the kind other living legends envy.

Continuing the series begun with his novel Anno Dracula, Newman recounts the bizarre events of yet another alternative vampire history and introduces a terrifying new anti-hero--the feared flying monster of the Great War, Baron Manfred von Richtofen.

The Body of a Goddess. . . with the Heart of Hell itself. The devil is a dead-beat dad and his consort Lilith couldn't care less. A stolen embryo stirs in Lilith's womb and a plan pulses through her veins: To unleash her child from the gates of hell--as soon as she destroys the only two vampire hunters who can possibly stop her. . . THE FORBIDDEN Damali Richards is a woman-child in a world running with blood, depravity and demons. Turned by her lover, Carlos Rivera, and brought back again, Damali clings to the one measure of purity that was handed down to her through generations of the wise, gifted and strong. Now, through the power of magic, through the ache of desire and the touch of her lover, Damali is on a journey from the streets of Philadelphia to the ancient earth of Africa. With a small army, with Carlos and with her own mad skills, she might just save the world from the demon seductress who wants her and her faith obliterated--before Armageddon begins. . .

Jasmine "Jazz" Callender is on the downhill slide to ruin. Once a decorated homicide detective, she's lost it all: her former partner's been convicted of murder, she's been cashiered out, and she's drinking away what little self-respect she's got left. But Jazz has a talent for trouble, and somebody knows it. When a mysterious, sexy stranger comes looking for her with a fateful red envelope in his hand, she's about to make the deal of her life. . . for good or bad. The deal requires her to enter into a partnership with a stranger and investigate cases that arrive in special red envelopes. . . which is odd enough, but gets weirder as she and her new partner Lucia realize that they may be working for someone with supernatural abilities. And maybe they're not on the side of the angels anymore.

A daughter's deep connection to her decease father sends her mother searching for the exact cause of her husband’s bizarre death and the answer to her greatest question: Is it possible to fall UP?Ziggy proves that NASA know nothing about climatology or science and their scientific advisor Walter, is the man to trust.

I was born with a deformity that the doctors had no name for. You see, I was born ugly.Ugly is only Skin Deep - Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me. Whoever wrote that never had hurtful words hurled at them like brimstone from Heaven.

fiction , poetry

The author of the blockbuster The Bridges of Madison County blends passion and adventure in the story of an American novelist in Mexico and his young lover, who take a trip with a killer.

Take a stripper, a crazy pilot, an ace accountant, an alcohol obsessed engineer, and a mysterious curmudgeon. Place in a small stolen ship and agitate with stalkers, assassins, and lots of espresso. The result is the Astoundingly True Tale of José Fabuloso!A poor choice of passengers leaves Jose, M'Elise and O'Riley stranded on a station in the midst of blowing up. Their efforts to steal a ship to escape the mess are somewhat hampered by Squirrel, a nearly naked stripper manacled to Jose's hand. But the fun doesn't stop there. Fate seems to have it in for them as they are relentlessly pursued by warring criminal factions seeking something they have. If only they knew what and where it was!

While solving the mystery of an old man's disappearing fortune, Nancy ends a family feud and reveals the identity of an orphan of unknown parentage.

As the traffic lights changed to a pale cool blue, Cameron knew something was fundamentally wrong with the very fabric of the universe. He was no longer even sure who and what he was. When the true nature of the higher power controlling the lives of everyone is revealed, Cameron knows its not going to be a good day.Passion. Murder. Bloodlust.Among these nefarious stories, siblings strengthen their bond by plotting against their aggressor; an animal lover seeks revenge on devotees of the exotic skins trade; and a psychiatrist gets what's coming to him when he abuses the trust of a jaded client.These stories take readers straight to the scene of the crime, exploring just how and why people are driven over the edge--and driven to kill.The "Owned" Collection is approximately 14,000 words long. A couple of stories have a speculative element.Stories Include:1. Heart's Blood 2. Beloved Brother 3. My Chance Encounter4. Skins 5. Ms. Zeri ("Misery")6. Owned