Stuck in a small wooden rowboat, stalked by an unknown beast, two teenage girls must fight their fear and try to survive.Prospector Dan Rourke is always the first one to go in springtime and the last one out in the fall. This year, he’s left it a bit late. After days on snowshoes, and with night falling, he desperately needs to warm up. The Ghost Saloon still stands, but he’ll burn it down if he has to, unless McKittrick’s ghost has other ideas. A short story of western adventure.

THREE LOCAL BOYS DEAD, ONE MISSING. Sunday, June 19th, 1983   Darkness covers Minea. Trevor Trills 14, Bradley Penwood 12, and George Thyme 11, were all found dead, facedown in the stream beneath the downtown bridge. It is believed that they jumped. Thomas Aerie 7, is still missing. He was last seen walking home from class.John DoeJohn Doe is a killer. Fourteen children in the last twenty six years. Teddy tells him to and he listens. He has to listen. He is parked across the street from the elementary school in Payne, North Dakota, waiting for Teddy to tell him the name of the next child. He hasn’t yet, but he will… Matthew Mills God is good. It's the only truth Matthew Mills needs. But, pain is still pain. It has only been a week since his wife had her second miscarriage in the last three years. She has become a shell of who she was. Only his daughter Marcy is a light in his life.What would happen if she was taken away?

If they had known the danger that awaited them, would they have built the clubhouse in the Lost Forest?June 15, 2014. Week one of summer vacation had flown by and the three boys couldn’t believe they had built a clubhouse in that short amount of time. If they had known the danger that awaited them, would they have built the clubhouse in the Lost Forest? Richard told them it was a bad location, but they wouldn’t listen. Wouldn’t listen to the stories Richard told them. Stories of how the forest would go silent, deathly silent. Not even the sweet song of a Robin could be heard, and the wind, the wind would blow strong and fast. And within that time lives could be lost.

An essay about the illusion of race in America. According to anthropologists, there is only one race – the human race. A “must read” for anyone interested in race relations in America.A SIMPLE SOLUTION FOR THE PROBLEM OF RACE IN AMERICAAn essay about the illusion of race in America. According to anthropologists, there is only one race – the human race. However, slavery in America was uniquely based on skin color and ancestral heritage. In America, the creation of racial divisions and the redefinition and separation of people according to visible differences has created a unique form of racism, with profound and lingering consequences. This essay provides a historical perspective of the journey of Africans to America and the transition of these people over the evolution of America. More importantly, it considers the history, evolution and difficulty about what Africans and their descendants in America have been called over time. It questions the validity of racial divisions and the motivations of those who use race to divide Americans. Finally, it calls for action by Americans to confront the illusion of race, specifically calling for a proactive approach to the 2020 U.S. Census. A “must read” for anyone interested in race relations in America.

"Sometimes being in love is just trading one curse for another." - Gabriella. OBJECTS is a short story that weaves together five individual tales of love and curses in a modern setting. Meet Amelia and her siblings Waverly, Marcus, Gabriella and Eileen. Tied together by a family curse and bound by ordinary objects, these selkies have to learn to trust others and open their hearts or spend the rest"Sometimes being in love is just trading one curse for another." - GabriellaOBJECTS is a short story that weaves together five individual tales of love and curses in a modern setting. Meet Amelia and her siblings Waverly, Marcus, Gabriella and Eileen. Tied together by a family curse and bound by ordinary objects, these selkies have to learn to trust others and open their hearts or spend the rest of their lives without love. Waverly is a smart girl that's not looking to break her curse but when she meets a prom queen with a deep secret she's intrigued enough to try. Gabriella finds a friend in a coffee shop, but is she clever enough to outsmart her own curse? Marcus meets a lady online that sparks his interest, but his friends are convinced that virtual love is no substitute for reality. Eileen meets a trans beauty in her college class who harbors a secret of her own and might just take a chunk out of Eileen's tender (and juicy) heart. Self-doubt and worry plague Amelia while she watches her siblings trip and stumble through their stories, making her wonder if she's ever going to deserve a love of her own.

Ayna could predict the future. Cari could find what was lost. Gair thought he was ordinary. The three children of Gest, the chief of Garholt, know the perils of the Moor on which they live. The Dorig, their people's enemies, are cold-blooded, fierce underwater creatures who terrify anyone unlucky enough to happen upon them. The Giants are dangerous and violent. But it's not until their home is invaded that Gair learns of a dying curse that endangers all three peoples of the Moor. A curse that ordinary Gair, with the help of his extraordinary brother and sister, may be able to break, but only at the most dreadful risk to all three, and to the Moor itself.

Love hurts... Makani Young thought she'd left her dark past behind her in Hawaii, settling in with her grandmother in landlocked Nebraska. She's found new friends and has even started to fall for mysterious outsider Ollie Larsson. But her past isn't far behind. Then, one by one, the students of Osborne Hugh begin to die in a series of gruesome murders, each with increasingly grotesque flair. As the terror grows closer and her feelings for Ollie intensify, Makani is forced to confront her own dark secrets.

With the bravura storytelling and pungent authenticity of detail she brought to her acclaimed Lymond Chronicles, Dorothy Dunnett presents The House of Niccolò series. The time is the 15th century, when intrepid merchants became the new knighthood of Europe. Among them, none is bolder or more cunning than Nicholas vander Poele of Bruges, the good-natured dyer's apprentice who schemes and swashbuckles his way to the helm of a mercantile empire.       In 1462, Nicholas is a wealthy 21-year-old. His beloved wife has died. His stepchildren have locked him out of the family business. He and his private army are the target of multiple conspiracies. And both contenders for the throne of Cyprus, the brilliant Queen Carlotta and her charismatic, sexually ambivalent brother James, are demanding his support. Walking a tightrope of intrigue, Dunnett's hero juggles adversaries and allies, from the delectable courtesan Primaflora to the Mameluke commander Tzani-Bey al Ablak, a man of undiluted evil. Masterfully paced, alive with sensual delights, Race of Scorpions confirms Dorothy Dunnett as the grande dame of the genre. From the Trade Paperback edition.

His name is West. Her name is Cally. They speak different languages and come from different countries thousands of miles apart, but they do not know that. What they do know are the tragedies that took their parents, then wrenched the two of them out of reality, into a strange and perilous world through which they must travel together, knowing only that they must reach the sea. Together West and Cally embark upon a strange and sometimes terrifying quest, learning to survive and to love and, at last, the real secret of their journey.

When twin classmates are abducted from Bolton Prep, Tory and the Virals decide there’s no one better equipped than them to investigate. But the gang has other problems to face. Their powers are growing wilder, and becoming harder to control. Chance Claybourne is investigating the disastrous medical experiment that twisted their DNA. The bonds that unite them are weakening, threatening the future of the pack itself. The Virals must decipher the clues and track down a ruthless criminal before he strikes again, all while protecting their secret from prying eyes. And everyone seems to be watching.

A master storyteller, Stephen R. Donaldson established a worldwide reputation with his unforgettable, critically acclaimed fantasy series The Chronicles Of Thomas Covenant.  Then, with The Real Story * and Forbidden Knowledge*, he launched a thrilling new science fiction series.  Now the galactic epic continues as humanity struggles against the forces of ultimate evil--and its own dark nature. The stage is set of confrontation at Billingate--illegal shipyard, haven for pirates and brigands, where every vice flourishes and every appetite can be sated.  Gateway to the alien realm of the Amnion, the shipyard is a clearinghouse for all they require to fulfill their mutagenic plans against humanity. It is here that the fate of Morn Hyland is to be decided amid a kaleidoscopic whirl of plot and counterplot, treachery and betrayal. As schemes unravel to reveal yet deeper designs, Morn, Nick, Angus' lives may all be forfeit as pawns in the titanic game played our between Warden Dios, dedicated director of the UMC Police, and the Dragon, greed-driven ruler of the UMC.  Here, the future of humankind hangs on the uncertain fortune of Morn Hyland in a daring novel of epic power and suspense, relentlessly gripping from first page to last. From the Paperback edition.

This is an alternate Cover Edition for ASIN: B00L01GH8C. Can one girl take on so many identities without losing her own? Find out in this riveting companion to The Program and the New York Times bestselling The Treatment. In a world before The Program… Quinlan McKee is a closer. Since the age of seven, Quinn has held the responsibility of providing closure to grieving families with a special skill—she can “become” anyone. Recommended by grief counselors, Quinn is hired by families to take on the short-term role of a deceased loved one between the ages of fifteen and twenty. She’s not an exact copy, of course, but she wears their clothes and changes her hair, studies them through pictures and videos, and soon, Quinn can act like them, smell like them, and be them for all intents and purposes. But to do her job successfully, she can’t get attached. Now seventeen, Quinn is deft at recreating herself, sometimes confusing her own past with those of the people she’s portrayed. When she’s given her longest assignment, playing the role of Catalina Barnes, Quinn begins to bond with the deceased girl’s boyfriend. But that’s only the beginning of the complications, especially when Quinn finds out the truth about Catalina’s death. And the epidemic it could start.

Vanishing Fruit? No Way! Nancy and her friends are off on an apple-picking adventure! They are headed to the Kids Apple Festival, where they will pick apples, go on a hayride, and work their way through a cornstalk maze. Bess is excited about the applesauce-eating contest -- after all, apples are her favorite food! And the winner gets a whole basket of River Heights Reds -- a brand new type of apple! But when the basket -- and all the apples in it -- vanishes, Nancy knows she has to get to the core of this mystery. Can she figure out who the bad apple is, or is this festival on the verge of an apple emergency?

Hidden from mortal eyes and divided into three factions are the creatures of darkness that coexist with mortals. In the witches’ town Morganefaire, an ancient legend tells the story of a mirror that was once shattered into four fragments, each able to entrap a powerful soul. Amber Reed is a struggling necromancer on a mission: help vampire Aidan stop the Prophecy of Morganefaire and protect the many innocents from the inevitable fate that will befall them if the wrong faction wins. When bodies begin to pile up, Amber realizes she has no choice than to work together with the fashion-savvy yet irritating ghost of a young witch to solve the mystery and protect the one she loves. In a world of forbidden love, of ancient enemies and bonds spun by fate, nothing is as it seems and no one can be trusted. Amber’s life will never be the same again unless she finds out who the murderer is, and quick, before everything she ever loved is taken from her forever… Shadow Blood (Ancient Legends), the continuation to Forever And Beyond, will be released Oct. 2012.

In The Mind’s Eye, Oliver Sacks tells the stories of people who are able to navigate the world and communicate with others despite losing what many of us consider indispensable senses and abilities: the power of speech, the capacity to recognize faces, the sense of three-dimensional space, the ability to read, the sense of sight. For all of these people, the challenge is to adapt to a radically new way of being in the world. There is Lilian, a concert pianist who becomes unable to read music and is eventually unable even to recognize everyday objects, and Sue, a neurobiologist who has never seen in three dimensions, until she suddenly acquires stereoscopic vision in her fifties. There is Pat, who reinvents herself as a loving grandmother and active member of her community, despite the fact that she has aphasia and cannot utter a sentence, and Howard, a prolific novelist who must find a way to continue his life as a writer even after a stroke destroys his ability to read. And there is Dr. Sacks himself, who tells the story of his own eye cancer and the bizarre and disconcerting effects of losing vision to one side. Sacks explores some very strange paradoxes—people who can see perfectly well but cannot recognize their own children, and blind people who become hyper-visual or who navigate by “tongue vision.” He also considers more fundamental questions: How do we see? How do we think? How important is internal imagery—or vision, for that matter? Why is it that, although writing is only five thousand years old, humans have a universal, seemingly innate, potential for reading? The Mind’s Eye is a testament to the complexity of vision and the brain and to the power of creativity and adaptation. And it provides a whole new perspective on the power of language and communication, as we try to imagine what it is to see with another person’s eyes, or another person’s mind. From the Hardcover edition.

Silver Medal Winner for Readers' Favorite International Book Award for Young Adult-Fantasy 2016 Above a small hill lay a home. And green men peer out under the dome. Thirteen crisscrossing arches behold, with angels singing must be told. Cubes like teeth thus showed, pierce one and the door shall glow. Part the sea like Moses, to see the bundle of red roses. Only then you shall see, what is destined to be free. But beware, if you are not the heir, for damnation you shall declare, for the false burden you shall bare. Eli, Lucia’s half-demon love interest, has been stabbed with a true-cross dagger and captured by Cyrus, master of the possessor demons. The Chosen Knights must work together once again not only to save Eli, but also to decipher a clue to find the second missing page of Jacques de Molay’s journal. Meanwhile, Uncle Davin informs Crossroads’ Divine Elders of the danger ahead and learns there is much to fear. Countless children are being taken from all over the world to be turned into demons. Michael has no choice but to intervene. The Chosen Knights track down Mortem, the demon who is the key to finding Cyrus, and learn they must travel deep into the pit of a Hawaiian volcano. When they astral travel to the past in search of a clue and follow Jacques de Molay to Rosselyn Chapel in medieval Scotland, what they find will rewrite history.

Chris Kyle—fallen hero and #1 bestselling author of American Sniper—reveals how ten legendary guns forever changed U.S. history. At the time of his tragic death in February 2013, former Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, the top sniper in U.S. military history, was finishing one of the most exciting missions of his life: a remarkable book that retold American history through the lens of a hand-selected list of firearms. Kyle masterfully shows how guns have played a fascinating, indispensable, and often underappreciated role in our national story. "Perhaps more than any other nation in the world," Kyle writes, "the history of the United States has been shaped by the gun. Firearms secured the first Europeans' hold on the continent, opened the frontier, helped win our independence, settled the West, kept law and order, and defeated tyranny across the world." Drawing on his unmatched firearms knowledge and combat experience, Kyle carefully chose ten guns to help tell his story: the American long rifle, Spencer repeater, Colt .45 revolver, Winchester rifle, Springfield 1903 rifle, Thompson sub-machine gun, 1911 pistol, M1 Garand, .38 Special police revolver, and the M-16 rifle platform Kyle himself used as a SEAL. Through them, he revisits thrilling turning points in American history, including the single sniper shot that turned the tide of the Revolutionary War, the firearms designs that proved decisive at Gettysburg, the "gun that won the West," and the weapons that gave U.S. soldiers an edge in the world wars and beyond. This is also the story of how firearms innovation, creativity, and industrial genius has constantly pushed American history—and power—forward. Filled with an unforgettable cast of characters, Chris Kyle's American Gun is a sweeping epic of bravery, adventure, invention, and sacrifice.

"The first is a man who needs you and will use you. He will weaken you dangerously. The second is a man you betrayed, though you believe otherwise. He wishes to kill you and can do so easily. The third is a ship that is more than a ship. She grieves and broods. She will carry you to your grave." These three warnings greet Merlin on his return to Alba, the future England, to the deserted fortress of Taurovinda---the Hill of the White Bull. He is not the only one making the journey: Urtha, High King of the Cornovidi, is coming home to reclaim his stronghold, and Jason is sailing in on the Argo to seek his younger son, hiding somewhere in the kingdom. But Urtha's fortress has been taken by warriors from Ghostland; they claim it as their own. There will be war against the Otherworld. In this sequel to Celtika, Robert Holdstock weaves myth and history into a fabulous tale of honor, death, and magic. At its center, moving along his never-ending path, is Merlin himself, an enchanter in the prime of his life, reckless, curious, powerful, yet a stranger to his own past---a past that is catching up with him.

Kristy's not too happy with some things at Stoneybrook Middle School. The hot lunches, for example, look like dog food. And Kristy's class has to perform Mary Poppins for their annual play. How babyish can you get? What the eighth grade really needs is a new class president. Someone who is organized and has great ideas. Someone like - Kristy! But can Kristy coach a softball team, get straight A's, baby-sit, run the BSC, and be president? The Baby-sitters are about to find out!

What would you do if you were framed and sentenced to twenty years in an Asian prison? Would it make any difference if the heinous crimes that you’d gotten away with carried far longer sentences? Would knowing that your actions led directly to the suicide of your financial controller prick your conscience? Blind hate kept Douglas Aspine alive in Changi Prison. He had no conscience or compassion for those he had hurt, only the lust for revenge. Would this evil man succeed in bringing down those who had framed him?

Eighteen years ago, young Tess McPhail left her tiny hometown of Wintergreen, Missouri, population 1,713. She headed for Nashville--and never looked back. Now one of country music's brightest lights, "Mac" McPhail is a millionaire many times over. Her career is her life. At thirty-five, Mac has no time for marriage, children, or kinfolk--until her sisters insist she come home to help care for their widowed mother...Mac isn't thrilled about spending a month in Wintergreen. But her visit home turns out to be far from dull. After almost two decades of public adoration, she is suddenly a nonperson--insulted by her jealous older sister, enraged by her intractable mother, and ignored by Kenny Kroneck, the next-door neighbor she mercilessly taunted all through high school. Now a handsome divorce who dotes on his teenage daughter, Kenny is widely respected in the community--and refuses to give Mac the time of day. But once she discovers that Kenny's daughter is a promising country music talent, Mac assumes the role of mentor--and everything changes... Gradually, the famous Mac McPhail becomes an integral part of life in Wintergreen. The priceless gifts of family and community open her heart to the sweet rewards of caring and commitment. And as the feigned indifference between Mac and Kenny turns to playful bickering, then passion, the complicated life of a superstar is forever changed--by the simple joys of love...