As the years mount one’s outlook on life can mellow, and oft with this comes an inclination to rail less vigorously against the elements (you might say), to see one's failures in a softer light and to be less reticent in trumpeting one's triumphs – though softly still and with elemental decorum. So let me open the door on my private life and affairs the merest fraction and I’ll tell you a story…Are you looking for a kid's or children's book that is highly entertaining, great for early readers, and is jam-packed with bedtime stories, jokes, games, and more? This children's storybook has it all!Finley is a shy fish. He has a hard time making friends because he is so shy, but his best-friend Barney is always by his side. Follow the adventures of Finley and Barney! This is an excellent read for beginning and early readers. Each story is easy to read and exciting. Cute and bright illustrations for younger readers and a free coloring book.This book is especially great for traveling, waiting rooms, and read aloud at home.* Fun games and puzzles included* Excellent for beginning and early readers* Cute short stories that are great for a quick bedtime story* Funny and hilarious jokes & illustrations for kidsThis story is great for a quick bedtime story and to be read aloud with friends and family.WHAT A GREAT DEAL! => 5 FUN STORIES, JOKES, GAMES, ACTIVITIES, AND A COLORING BOOK!Your child will be entertained for hours!

On his first afternoon in Mexico, George finds himself at a beach bar frequented by strange characters with even stranger pasts. As happy hour progresses, George's mood turns from confusion to disbelief. Who are these people? A Hawaiian Shirt in Mexico is a surreal ride for anyone who has looked at a bad invention and wondered, "why?"How strong is love?Does it have the power to reach across the centuries and bring life where there was none? Does it have the power to bring together two unlikely people who have never spoken to each other?In this short story, the magic of unspoken love creates life where only stone had been before.

"What if you hypnotize me, I will fall in love, for example, with ice-cream, will overeat on it and will die from a sore throat, but will be happy. Or you convince me that death is happiness, and I climb into a loop or jump off a bridge. And, you go to report to your superiors about another 'lucky man'. Forced to pass up until you don’t tell me how it works."Nomads the Risen God is the third and the last in my sci-fi adventure trilogy, in the final book the Nomads of Gorn face powerful enemies from within and from the unstoppable army of the Mac-Mar Alliance that covet the riches of their world, we follow Arn, Andra, Osh and the rest of the Outlanders as they face the harsh winter and then travel to the Western Sea to meet old friends and hunt for the gigantic Leviathans the rule the waters. But things are not what they seem and a force that once keep them safe is now turning against them and a war is coming that will decide the fate of Gorn forever.

Some philosophies and phenomenons are considered sacrosanct. These elements of life are dealt with. Love, immortality, eternity, death and war inclusive. It also includes in it subjects relating to apocalyptic events and psychological matters. The poem takes you into the world of contemporary poetry. Read and be awaken!!!Reader, how far you have come.An epic clashing of fantastical worlds and dramatic prose files into a tale of such heart-wrenching disaster, that if you read, you will undoubtedly find yourself wishing you hadn't, and then reading on to the next scene, and the next, and to the last few, dribbling words. Only the first installment of this saga, we find ourselves thrust into a dying world where the darkness of a tainted heart has begun to creep into the realms. Here in Axis, where the Emperor's hefty arm crushes all beneath his reach, we are introduced to a select few souls that threaten to bend the rights of existence, not for them, but for you. Rorith's power wanes. Savill's spirit is to be overcome. And Aviin? What can be said of this poor, wretched man, for he is nothing, and yet everything to us. And into the past where we remember the long lost tales of an unfortunate boy that simply couldn't escape the Fate's grasp, squeezed between their grimy fingers for all he had.Perhaps some books were never meant to be read?Others, never to be written....You will not find disappointment, as it is sure to drag you on from bleeding page to bleeding page, but I cannot promise that you will be happy with your reward at the final remark, nor will you be glad that you must read on, for this story simply does not end. In all that is fantastical and mystic, though, there will be no equal. So read on, yes, read until your soul cries out and your lips pour out onto the paper alongside so many others.

A short story about a third-grader named Parker who kicks a soccer ball too far one day at recess. It lands in the bleachers, ruining another boy's extra-credit project, a 3-D model of the solar system. They fight. Both boys are sent to detention, where Ms. Lehmann lectures them.A two-chapter vignette, set in the Deathskull Bombshell universe. It's 1996, and Parker Beloit has no idea what he's in for when he kicks a soccer ball - straight into Nick O'Doole's science project! It's hate at first sight. After some harsh words are exchanged, they end up in after-school detention with the cruel Ms. Lehmann.

There are twelve stories here that deal with devotion. The titles of the stories are: Devotion; Girl With Binoculars; The Girl in Red; If You Were the Only Girl in the World; The Heavenly Sacrifice; A Momentous Decision; Play Moonlight Sonata For Me; The Love of My Life; My Dear It Was You; The Shared Gift; I Sent Her A Single Red Rose; I Will Always Love You.THE FLUFF's, a series of short stories based on fluffy characters who live in The Land of Fluff, which was created by Felix the magician when a magical spell went terribly wrong in his house. In the deep pile of the living room carpet the Land of Fluff is found.The first story is about Spike who is so excited on buying a new Yo-Yo that forgets to look as he crosses the Road. A LESSON FOR SPIKE.Follow Spike as he learns his lesson and has a lucky escape. In this the first story of THE FLUFF's.

When a girl walks into a monastery, she disrupts all order. But when she’s visited by an angel, it’s pure chaos.A girl walks into a monastery and disrupts all order. Everything is havoc for a few days--maybe a week. Maybe two. But monks are resilient, aren’t they? They are, they are. Yes they are. The persevere--they endure. They get used to her. They even try to incorporate her.But then one day, she’s visited by an angel. An actual angel! After that, it’s beyond “disrupting all order.” It’s pure chaos. Part-play, part-picture book. The pictures are included to help those of you with wee-little imaginations visualize the scenes. Or perhaps the pictures are included to help my wee-little imagination convey the message: in the presence of an angel, be a saint; don’t try to turn the Celestial into man.But enough with all of this maundering chatter. The devil is loquacious. Or, at least, every single bore is. So let’s shush up. Shh. Silence is divine. “God? Are you there God? If you are, please answer me!” It’s why he’s always so quiet. So damn quiet.

“Before I get to the video, I’d like to say a short prayer for the families of those who lost their lives and those affected by that Asiana Boeing 777 plane crash.”Bismillah“Are you sayin’ that this was planned?”“Of course. I have no doubt about it. What about that really ridiculous news report about the pilots’ names? Captain Sum Ting Wong, Wi Tu Lo, Ho Lee Fuk, Bang Ding Ow.”He shakes his head.“That news reporter blames it on the intern for gettin’ the names wrong. Absurd. What reporter lets the intern do her work for her, especially reports that are supposed to go live on air?”He shakes his head.“Any way, it was planned to be like that. That report was supposed to be aired that way.”He looks at them all.InshaAllah

A modern medieval tale of craven ambition, grasping opportunism and the unconstrained pursuit of self-interest. Abelard's 650 year gap in his recall confers on him a huge advantage as he successfully claws his way up the corporate food chain. The memories he does have are awash in medieval warfare, murderous vengeance and brigandage on the highways of 14th century Europe.“The Perfect Human” is a tale of craven ambition, grasping opportunism, modern corporate greed and epic medieval violence. It is played out through the adventures of Abelard Bush, an ambitious, deeply ruthless executive with all the ethical standards and negotiating acumen necessary for the successful medieval nobleman. What might seem to be a handicap, a 650 year gap in his recall, provides Abelard with an overwhelming advantage as he claws his way up the corporate food chain. Abelard, is a man whose good fortune is to have no memories other than a life lived during the Middle Ages to guide him in his relentless pursuit of self interest. Urbane, civilized Felicity and Oliver had no reason to dwell on the brutality, mistrust and casual violence that polite society has for so long ago left behind. That is, until they find Abelard. He is an enigma created by the only recall he possesses: a childhood in medieval Gascony, followed by a captain’s career in the Black Prince’s armies during the Hundred Years War, a successful run as a brigand on the highways of Fourteenth Century Europe, and as a Condottiere to the Italian city states.All the more baffling is his ease with everyone he meets, from CEOs of large corporations, through dodgy characters who run timeless criminal organizations to the people who care most deeply for him. How could a man whose golden rule is to do unto others before they do unto him fit so snugly into Felicity’s orderly, civilized world? Abelard is a man apparently unhampered by empathy, who relies mainly on duplicity and violence. Is Abelard an amnesiac who has lost his moral way, a psychopath who has lost his memory or, astonishingly, is he just an ordinary human with an extraordinary story?The soon-to-be-dead, believing him to know the location of a fabulous, long lost fortune, as well as to possess the secret of very long life, pursue Abelard over two continents. The police are never far behind.

RUN... OR DIE The van was in back of them again. Closer this time. There could be no mistake--they were being followed. RUN... OR DIE But why? The question kept nagging at Alex and Colin as they left Philadelphia behind and sped toward their new home in San Francisco. Courtney would be waiting for the, ready to begin a wonderful new life with her husband, her brother... RUN... OR DIE Now, someone else is driving cross-country to see Courtney, too. Someone whose brain is rotting inside. Someone who knows their route, their stops, even their destination. RUN... OR DIE He's got an ax. "Shattered catches you by the throat and won't let you go" --Chicago SunTimes

A Gift Of Love captures holiday magic as it transports us...to New York City, where a schoolteacher slips an antique gold ring on her finger and travels back in time to a man who desperately needs her love...to a village in Victorian England, where an embittered earl seeks a governess for a lovely, defiant little girl named Noelle...to a starry London night, on which a Christmas pony heralds a gift greater than any king's ransom...to the snow-covered hills of Virginia, where a young widow learns during a holiday trip that miracles really do come in the least expected packages...and to a reclusive tycoon's Newport estate, where a determined young woman sets out to unlock the secrets of a man's heart. Let A Gift Of Love open the door to worlds of passion and adventure, where love -- and miracles -- are always in the air!

Dear Reader: Evening Star, formerly titled Sweet Surrender, first appeared in 1984. I have not rewritten it, but now this novel is where it belongs --- it's the first book in what has become the Star Quartet. In Midnight Star, the first book in the former Star Trilogy, you met Delaney Saxton in San Francisco in 1851. Evening Star features his older brother Alex Saxton, with Delaney making a cameo appearance. Giana Van Cleve, the heroine, has fallen in love with a vicious fortune hunter. Her mother, the renowned shipowner and builder Aurora Van Cleve, is desperate to save her daughter. She agrees to support Giana's wedding if Giana agrees to first spend an unusual three months in Rome with her Uncle Daniele. But Giana's uncle takes his bargain far beyond Aurora ever imagined. Thus, Giana first sees Alex Saxton not in a society drawing room, but in a brothel. The next time she sees him, she is one of the virgins to be sold to the highest bidder at the infamous Roman Flower Auction. He wins the bid and her but not for long. Four years later, when Alex meets Giana again in London, she has become a woman intent on success in a man's world. Alex is set on revenge --- he will have her and nothing will stop him. Would you make Giana's bargain with Daniele? Would you keep the bargain? Agree to be part of the Roman Flower Auction? Let me know --- Catherine Coulter (The Author)

Two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize David McCullough tells the dramatic story-behind-the-story about the courageous brothers who taught the world how to fly: Wilbur and Orville Wright.On a winter day in 1903, in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, two unknown brothers from Ohio changed history. But it would take the world some time to believe what had happened: the age of flight had begun, with the first heavier-than-air, powered machine carrying a pilot.Who were these men and how was it that they achieved what they did?David McCullough, two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize, tells the surprising, profoundly American story of Wilbur and Orville Wright.Far more than a couple of unschooled Dayton bicycle mechanics who happened to hit on success, they were men of exceptional courage and determination, and of far-ranging intellectual interests and ceaseless curiosity, much of which they attributed to their upbringing. The house they lived in had no electricity or...

**-Reading Order- 1 - KILLING SARAI 2 - REVIVING IZABEL 3 - THE SWAN & THE JACKAL 4 - SEEDS OF INIQUITY 5 - THE BLACK WOLF 6 - BEHIND THE HANDS THAT KILL 7 - SPIDERS IN THE GROVE** Even professional killers need vacations, but for Victor Faust, his vacation in Venezuela is about more than relaxation and time alone with Izabel Seyfried. It is a chance for him to come clean to Izabel: to tell her the truth about why he sent her to Italy with his brother, the truth behind his interest in Nora Kessler, and about his knowledge of Izabel’s child with her former captor. But before Victor can spill his soul, reality proves that for some killers, vacations are just pipe-dreams. Attacked and kidnapped, Izabel finds herself stuffed in a suitcase, while Victor later wakes up imprisoned in a cage. In any other situation, Victor would find a way out and save himself and the woman he loves—but not this time. When the identities of their kidnappers are revealed, Victor loses all hope, and begins the mental process of accepting his and Izabel’s last moments together. And Izabel’s final moments of life. As if his circumstances are not complicated enough, members of Vonnegut’s Order are finally closing in on Victor. And when they do, he comes face-to-face with someone else he once knew and loved, who could either help him, or make a grave situation much worse. Victor’s past has finally caught up with him: the women he has cared for, loved, and killed; the families he has destroyed; the unforgivable crimes he has committed. And now he must face the consequences, and pay the ultimate price for absolution. But when it is all over, Victor may not have the strength to pick up what is left and move on. Because the event changes him. Because love changed him. And because, unlike before when he thought it is was for the best, he cannot imagine a life without Izabel in it.

Now a major motion picture from Fernando Meirelles, the Academy Award-nominated director of *City of God* The Constant Gardener is a magnificent exploration of the new world order by one of the most compelling and elegant storytellers of our time. The novel opens in northern Kenya with the gruesome murder of Tessa Quayle--young, beautiful, and dearly beloved to husband Justin. When Justin sets out on a personal odyssey to uncover the mystery of her death, what he finds could make him not only a suspect among his own colleagues, but a target for Tessa's killers as well. A master chronicler of the betrayals of ordinary people caught in political conflict, John le Carre portrays the dark side of unbridled capitalism as only he can. In The Constant Gardener he tells a compelling, complex story of a man elevated through tragedy as Justin Quayle--amateur gardener, aging widower, and ineffectual bureaucrat--discovers his own natural resources and the extraordinary courage of the woman he barely had time to love.

A timeless selection of some of Charles Bukowski’s best unpublished and uncollected poems Charles Bukowski was a prolific writer who produced countless short stories, novels, and poems that have reached beyond their time and place to speak to generations of readers all over the world. Many of his poems remain little known since they appeared in small magazines but were never collected, and a large number of them have yet to be published. In Storm for the Living and the Dead, Abel Debritto has curated a collection of rare and never- before-seen material—poems from obscure, hard-to-find magazines, as well as from libraries and private collections all over the country. In doing so, Debritto has captured the essence of Bukowski’s inimitable poetic style—tough and hilarious but ringing with humanity. Storm for the Living and the Dead is a gift for any devotee of the Dirty Old Man of American letters.

Winner of the Nebula Award Traveling back in time, from Oxford circa 2060 into the thick of World War II, was a routine excursion for three British historians eager to study firsthand the heroism and horrors of the Dunkirk evacuation and the London Blitz. But getting marooned in war-torn 1940 England has turned Michael Davies, Merope Ward, and Polly Churchill from temporal tourists into besieged citizens struggling to survive Hitler’s devastating onslaught. And now there’s more to worry about than just getting back home: The impossibility of altering past events has always been a core belief of time-travel theory—but it may be tragically wrong. When discrepancies in the historical record begin cropping up, it suggests that one or all of the future visitors have somehow changed the past—and, ultimately, the outcome of the war. Meanwhile, in 2060 Oxford, the stranded historians’ supervisor, Mr. Dunworthy, frantically confronts the seemingly impossible task of rescuing his students—three missing needles in the haystack of history. The thrilling time-tripping adventure that began with Blackout now hurtles to its stunning resolution in All Clear.

On the island of Friday Harbor, magic is in the air—and destiny is a force too powerful to defy… As the proprietor of a successful boutique hotel, Justine Hoffman has the life she has always wanted. But there is still something missing: Love. A spell was cast on Justine when she was born, with the result that she will never find her soul mate. But she is nothing if not determined and eventually Justine finds a way to break the enchantment—never dreaming of the dangerous complications that will follow…

From fantasy and SF master Piers Anthony, a collection of controversial stories and essays that fearlessly push the boundaries and then shamelessly step over them  Readers, beware: The stories, essays, reflections, opinions, and wildly imaginative flights of fancy contained herein may shock, rattle, delight, and surprise you. Piers Anthony—multiple New York Times–bestselling author, much-beloved creator of the popular Xanth universe, and one of the most unabashedly original writers currently operating in the science fiction and fantasy arena—now offers up a one-of-a-kind collection of his most fearless writings, for the pleasure of those unafraid to enter where angels fear to tread. Tackling unusual subjects and challenging social and religious mores, Anthony refuses to be restrained as he explores the strange and the taboo. From the May–December romance of a damaged Romeo and his shockingly young Juliet (though she is no younger than Shakespeare’s) to a woman’s valiant struggle against a grossly aberrant sexual demon, these cautionary tales are not for the faint of heart. They can be troubling, startling, and disturbing, but they are never dull. And readers, be further warned: In the uniquely inventive mind of Piers Anthony, absolutely nothing is sacred—not childhood, marriage, love, religion, sex . . . not even Xanth.

"Don't worry, Anna. I'll tell her, okay? Just let me think about the best way to do it." "Okay." "Promise me? Promise you won't say anything?" "Don't worry." I laughed. "It's our secret, right?" According to her best friend Frankie, twenty days in ZanzibarBay is the perfect opportunity to have a summer fling, and if they meet one boy ever day, there's a pretty good chance Anna will find her first summer romance. Anna lightheartedly agrees to the game, but there's something she hasn't told Frankie---she's already had that kind of romance, and it was with Frankie's older brother, Matt, just before his tragic death one year ago. Beautifully written and emotionally honest, this is a debut novel that explores what it truly means to love someone and what it means to grieve, and ultimately, how to make the most of every single moment this world has to offer.

From the bestselling author of Doppler, a wry and very funny look at the pitfalls of human existence . . . and the charms of celebrity chef Nigella Lawson. Aspiring playwright Bror Telemann loves all things British. His wife, Nina, loves everything German. So a family holiday at the foot of the Alps, south of Munich — which Bror believes to be the birthplace of Nazism — is bound to cause tension. Especially when Bror spends the whole time virtually stalking (and constantly fantasizing about) his greatest obsession, British chef Nigella Lawson. Can Telemann continue to bear the pressure of his empty existence? Or will his long-suffering family be the first to snap?