The Lucids of the Permafrost Society

      Michael D. Britton
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Someone said "life is but a dream." But can the ability to control your dreams be bred into you? Find out how far one man would go to achieve his dream in this sci-fi short.Four PlayA film director has problems with actors who aren’t happy having their lines cut, a writer is under pressure to add new scenes for a female lead, and filming is delayed when two people are found murdered. How will it be resolved? It’s just a series of nuisances the director has to labor through. The Art HeistCarl Vesti’s life has gone sideways from his earlier dreams of one day opening his own upscale art gallery, working instead selling those cheap furniture store paintings imported by the car load from China. But he sees a way out – the valuable Max Beckmann self portrait that resides in the serious art collection of his wife’s employer. Can he lose a wife and gain a Beckmann? Well, that is the challenge. Do You Have An App For That? The news anchor for Seattle’s Channel 6 is fascinated with this planet, amused by its emotions, passion and vulgarity, and has become so concerned that his origins may be discovered he is contemplating doing away with a woman who is probing into his background. But she is killed in a mysterious attack, and her attackers soon come after him. Since he comes from a planet whose chief activity is technical expertise, he is well equipped to face those who have traveled from afar to kill him.

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  • 390

    The Demigod Interviews: Sean Andrews

      Mandy Oviatt
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Meet Sean Andrews, a United States Marine and son of Ares, as he tells his story to the "young college student" that wants to know about his heritage. Born in the 1960s in Texas, Sean grew up thinking his father dead in the Vietnam War. Except.... Ares is still alive, and has a plan for his son.In My Lady Olives, book one of the Olisbeth Mason Chronicles, Olisbeth/Athena discovers the existence of an entire world of gods and half-gods "demigods" in human form. Each demigod is born for a purpose, and their experiences as the child of a god varies as much as the gods themselves. In this, the first of the Demigod Interviews, Olisbeth Mason interviews Sean Andrews, the son of Ares and a United States Marine. Sean Andrews grew up thinking his father died in the Vietnam War.... except..... his father Ares still lives.

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  • 390

    Revelations

      Pam Crane
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'Revelations' is a collection of futuristic and thought-provoking science fiction stories by Pam Crane.'Revelations' is a collection of futuristic and thought-provoking science fiction stories by Pam Crane. Two of them - 'Clouds on the Horizon' and 'Never' are written out of her decades of experience as one of today's most adventurous astrologers. 'Desert Island Disks' came out of her love of the long-running BBC radio programme - but there's a real castaway with a surprise in store! 'Pioneers' and 'Celebration' take us off-planet into other worlds; one is Mars, where there has been a catastrophe, and the second is a mysterious world that challenges its human visitors' tenacity and entire belief-system. Back on earth for the other four stories and four end-time scenarios, 'The Happiest Day of my Life' takes us into a post-Solar-Flare world - in stark contrast to 'Silver' where everything has frozen, 'The Greening of Terra' and the restoration of oxygen to a largely deforested landscape, and 'The Future of Fish' in which one tiny baby proves to be the future of humanity as the oceans rise and drown the continents. 'Intervention' could be set in any time - its superhero saves the world by terrifying the terrorists.

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  • 390

    Twenty Four Weeks - Episode 24 - "Thirty Five" (PG)

      James David Denisson
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Twenty Four WeeksEpisode 24- "Thirty Five"Judd makes a decision about his future… Quinn and Judd rush to hospital… Judd makes a terrible discovery…“Are you okay?” I ask her, but it is a stupid question.“More contractions,” she tells me. “Worse than before.”“Are you bleeding again?” We are here again. Eight months. Too early.She shakes her head as another contraction takes her...Twenty Four WeeksEpisode 24- "Thirty Five"Judd makes a decision about his future… Quinn and Judd rush to hospital… Judd makes a terrible discovery…“Are you okay?” I ask her, but it is a stupid question.“More contractions,” she tells me. “Worse than before.”“Are you bleeding again?” My blood is running cold. We are here again. Eight months. Too early.She shakes her head as another contraction takes her.“I think she's coming..."Still reeling from the shock of discovering his wife's infidelity, Judd Altman learns that he has lost his father and will be one himself. His soon to be ex-wife, Quinn, is pregnant with his child.After almost losing the baby, Wade (Judd's old boss and Quinn's lover) realizes the truth about himself and his relationship with Quinn and leaves her. Judd, in the face of Quinn's situation, forgives her, but cannot reconcile their marriage.With nothing but a stolen Porsche, Judd drives to Maine with limitless possibilities. A man with nothing has nothing to lose, and a man with nothing to lose can do anything.Twenty Four Weeks begins with Judd's time of reflection in Maine and his eventual decision to return to New York City, to take back the life that has been so cruelly taken from him. Sometimes humorous, this bitter-sweet tale is full of hope, love and forgiveness.With characters and back story based on the novel "This is Where I Leave You" by Jonathan Tropper, Twenty Four Weeks is set after the events of the movie of the same name.

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  • 390

    Second Chances: A Romance Writers of America Collection

      J. Kenner
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Do you believe in second chances? Romance Writers of America® brings together seventeen of today's hottest authors in an anthology of never-before-published tales that reveal true love always deserves a happy ending. Follow New York Times best-selling authors J. Kenner and Christina Lauren back to reader-favorite worlds. New York Times bestseller Alyssa Day sprinkles djinn magic in her humorous paranormal romance, while Rachel Hauck brings the enchantment of the holidays in her New Year’s Eve contemporary love story. And Liliana Hart delivers thrills and adventure in her hero and heroine's search for the impossible. With characters who find love through tough situations, in elegant 1800s ballrooms, with an old friend who shows up when least expected, at a tender age when cliques and homework get in the way of relationships, or after a random encounter in an unlikely setting, Second Chances delivers romance to strike every reader’s fancy. Plus tales from: Marilyn Brant Kerri Carpenter CiCi Coughlin Cassandra Dean Tina Ferraro Renee Luke Ariella Moon Brandi Willis Schreiber Lizzie Shane Sharon Sobel Damon Suede Tara Wyatt “The Fisher Men: Levi’s Story” copyright © 2017 by Lauren Billings and Christina Hobbs “Scandalous” copyright © 2017 by Cassandra Dean “One Hot Mess” copyright © 2017 by Christina Morgan Ferraro “Something Old, Something New” copyright © 2017 by Lizzie Shane “Reload” copyright © 2017 by Tara Wyatt “When Life Imitates Art” copyright © 2017 by Marilyn B. Weigel “Under a Burning Sky” copyright © 2017 by Renee Luke “Just Looking” copyright © 2017 by Maggie Worth “Covert Hearts” copyright © 2017 by Ariella Moon “One Night” copyright © 2017 by Julie Kenner “The Jilt” copyright © 2017 by Sharon Rebecca Sobel “Fortune’s Treasure” copyright © 2017 by Liliana Hart “Twice Shy” copyright © 2017 by Damon Suede “Love Is in the Air” copyright © 2017 by Rachel Hauck “The Family Tree” copyright © 2017 by Brandi Willis Schreiber “Homecoming” copyright © 2017 by Kerri Carpenter “Jake’s Djinn” copyright © 2017 by Alesia Holliday

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    The Duniazát

      Salman Rushdie
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In the year 1195, the great philosopher Ibn Rushd, once the qadi, or judge, of Seville and most recently the personal physician to the Caliph Abu Yusuf Yaqub in his home town of Córdoba, was formally discredited and disgraced on account of his liberal ideas, which were unacceptable to the increasingly powerful Berber fanatics who were spreading like a pestilence across Arab Spain, and was sent to live in internal exile in the small village of Lucena, a village full of Jews who could no longer say they were Jews because they had been forced to convert to Islam.

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  • 390

    Gothic Tales

      Elizabeth Gaskell
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'Such whispered tales, such old temptations and hauntings, and devilish terrors' Elizabeth Gaskell's chilling Gothic tales blend the real and the supernatural to eerie, compelling effect. 'Disappearances', inspired by local legends of mysterious vanishings, mixes gossip and fact; 'Lois the Witch', a novella based on an account of the Salem witch hunts, shows how sexual desire and jealousy lead to hysteria; while in 'The Old Nurse's Story' a mysterious child roams the freezing Northumberland moors. Whether darkly surreal, such as 'The Poor Clare', where an evil doppelganger is formed by a woman's bitter curse, or mischievous like 'Curious, if True', a playful reworking of fairy tales, all the pieces in this volume form a start contrast to the social realism of Gaskell's novels, revealing a darker and more unsettling style of writing. Laura Kranzler's introduction discusses how Gaskell's tales, with their ghostly doublings and transgressive passions, show the Gothic underside of female identity, domestic relations and male authority. This edition also contains a chronology, further reading and explanatory notes.

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  • 390

    The Tailor of Panama

      John le Carré
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Le Carré's Panama—the young country of 2.5 million souls which, on December 31, 1999, will gain full control of the Panama Canal—is a Casablanca without heroes, a hotbed of drugs, laundered money and corruption. Seldom has the weight of global politics descended so heavily on such a tiny and unprepared nation. And seldom has the hidden eye of British Intelligence selected such an unlikely champion as Harry Pendel—a charmer, a dreamer, an evader, a fabulist and presiding genius of the house of Pendel & Braithwaite Co. Limitada, Tailors to Royalty, formerly of London and presently of Panama City. Yet there is a logic to the spies' choice. Everybody who is anybody in Central America passes through Pendel's doors. He dresses politicos and crooks and conmen. His fitting room hears more confidences than a priest's confessional. And when Harry Pendel doesn't hear things as such—well, he hears them anyway, by other means. For what is a tailor for, if not to disduise reality with appearance? What is truth if not the plaything of the artist? And what are spies and politicians and journalists if not themselves selectors and manipulators of the truth for their own ends? In a thrilling, hilarious novel, le Carré has provided us with a satire about the fate of truth in modern times. Once again, he has effortlessly expanded the borders of the spy story to bring us a magnificent entertainment straight out of the pages of tomorrow's history. JOHN LE CARRÉ was born in 1931. After attending the universities of Bern and Oxford, he taught at Eton and spent five years in the British Foreign Service. His third novel, The Spy Who Came In from the Cold, secured him a worldwide reputation, which was solidified by the acclaim for his trilogy, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, The Honourable Schoolboy and Smiley's People. His mostly autobiographical novel, A Perfect Spy, wa followed by The Russia House, The Night Manager and Our Game. The Tailor of Panama is his sixteenth novel. John le Carré lives in Cornwall, England.

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  • 390

    Tough Guys Don't Dance

      Norman Mailer
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A dark, brilliant novel of astonishing pitch, set in Provincetown, a "spit of shrub and dune" captured here in the rawness and melancholy of the off-season, "Tough Guys Don't Dance" is the story of Tim Madden, an unsuccessful writer addicted to bourbon, cigarettes, and blonde, careless women with money. On the twenty-fourth morning after the decampment of his wife, Patty Lareine, he awakens with a hangover, considerable sexual excitement, and, on his upper arm, a red tattoo bearing a name from the past. Of the night before, he remembers practically nothing. What he soon learns is that the front passenger seat of his Porsche is soaked with blood and that in a secluded corner of his marijuana stash in a nearby woods rests a blonde head, severed at the throat. Is Madden therefore a murderer? He has no way of knowing. As in many novels of crime, the narrative centers on violence--physical, sexual, and emotional--but these elements move in their orbits through a rich constellation of character as Madden tries to reconstruct the missing hours of a terrible evening. In the course of this in-quiry a bizarre and vividly etched gallery of characters reappears to him as in a dream--ex-prizefighters, sexual junkies, mediums, former cons, a police chief, a world-weary former girl friend, and Mad-den's father, old now but still a Herculean figure, a practitioner of the sternest backroom ethics. "Tough Guys Don't Dance" represents Mailer at the peak of his powers with a stunningly conceived novel that soon transcends its origins as a mystery to become a relentless search into the recesses and buried virtues of the modern American male. Rarely, as many readers will discern, have the paradoxes ofmachismo and homosexuality been so well explored.

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  • 390

    Search and Destroy

      James Hilton
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Brothers Danny and Clay Gunn were brought up an ocean apart, but blood will out. Both served in the military, and both know how to kill, taking work as private military contractors and freelance ‘fixers’. But when they save a female journalist in the Nevada desert, it is they who become the targets, stalked by a paramilitary team known only as The Presidents, under orders from the heart of government. To stay alive they must turn the tables, stop running, and become hunters once again.

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  • 390

    Trusting You and Other Lies

      Nicole Williams
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USA Today and New York Times bestselling author Nicole Williams delivers a seductive summer romance worth swooning over. Perfect for fans of Sarah Dessen and Stephanie Perkins. Phoenix can't imagine anything worse than being shipped off to family summer camp. Her parents have been fighting for the past two years--do they seriously think being crammed in a cabin with Phoenix and her little brother, Harry, will make things better? On top of that, Phoenix is stuck training with Callum--the head counselor who is seriously cute but a complete know-it-all. His hot-cold attitude means he's impossible to figure out--and even harder to rely on. But despite her better judgment, Phoenix is attracted to Callum. And he's promising Phoenix a summer she'll never forget. Can she trust him? Or is this just another lie?

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  • 390

    The Last Four Things

      Paul Hoffman
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The epic story of Thomas Cale-introduced so memorably in "The Left Hand of God"--continues as the Redeemers use his prodigious gifts to further their sacred goal: the extinction of humankind and the end of the world. To the warrior-monks known as the Redeemers, who rule over massive armies of child slaves, "the last four things" represent the culmination of a faithful life. Death. Judgement. Heaven. Hell. The last four things represent eternal bliss-or endless destruction, permanent chaos, and infinite pain. Perhaps nowhere are the competing ideas of heaven and hell exhibited more clearly than in the dark and tormented soul of Thomas Cale. Betrayed by his beloved but still marked by a child's innocence, possessed of a remarkable aptitude for violence but capable of extreme tenderness, Cale will lead the Redeemers into a battle for nothing less than the fate of the human race. And though his broken heart foretells the bloody trail he will leave in pursuit of a personal peace he can never achieve, a glimmer of hope remains. The question even Cale can't answer: When it comes time to decide the fate of the world, to ensure the extermination of humankind or spare it, what will he choose? To express God's will on the edge of his sword, or to forgive his fellow man-and himself?

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  • 390

    Love and Decay, Episode Nine

      Rachel Higginson
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Zombies- as if that wasn’t enough to ruin any girl’s dream of a happily ever after. After a night of horror and bloodshed in Tulsa, Reagan and crew are back on the road traveling south. Their van is armed with weapons and loaded with supplies. If it weren’t for Kane Allen casting a dark shadow on their trip, things would be looking up. But Kane is there, and he’s badly injured. Reagan falls into the role of caretaker in order to protect everyone else from Kane and his disturbing ways. She will do anything to protect those she loves, even if that includes fighting a battle of wits and words against the mysterious force that is Kane Allen. But even Reagan doesn’t understand what she’s up against yet. Kane isn’t the only danger on the road though. When the van screeches to a halt in front of an army of Zombies, the group will have to get creative in order to fight their way free. And just when they’re about to escape, someone Reagan cares about more than anything is thrown into the dangerous melee of Feeders. Reagan must risk everything in order to keep her group whole. But in the end will it be enough to save all of them? Love and Decay, Episode Nine, is the ninth in a novella series in a Dystopian Romance about Zombies, the end of the world and finding someone to share it with. This story takes place over multiple episodes, with a release date every two weeks. Approximately 20,000 words.

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  • 390

    Only You, Sierra

      Robin Jones Gunn
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From the bestselling author of The Christy Miller Series, this series centers around Christy Miller's friend Sierra Jensen. Sierra is a spunky and bold sixteen-year-old with big dreams and unconventional clothes. Today's teens can truly relate to what is going on in Sierra's life -- whether it's friendships, dating, or learning to trust in God. Sierra shows readers how to have a relationship with Jesus Christ and how to grow in their commitment to Him.

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  • 390

    One Hundred Names for Love: A Memoir

      Diane Ackerman
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No other writer can blend the science of the brain with the love of language like Diane Ackerman. In this extraordinary memoir, she opens a window into the experience of wordlessness—the language paralysis called aphasia. In narrating the recovery of her husband, Paul West, from a stroke that reduced his vast vocabulary to a single syllable, she evokes the joy and mystery of the brain’s ability to find and connect words. Deeply rewarding to readers of all kinds, Ackerman has given us a literary love story, accessible insight into the science and medicine of brain injury, and invaluable spiritual sustenance in the face of life’s myriad physical sufferings.

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  • 390

    The Way of the Dog

      Sam Savage
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"Sam Savage [creates] some of the most original, unforgettable characters in contemporary fiction. . . . Readers are left with a voice so strong that Savage is able to derive significance from these events by sheer literary force."--Kevin Larimer, "Poets & Writers" "Savage's skill is in creating complex first-person characters using nothing but their own voice."--Carolyn Kellogg, "Los Angeles Times" "[Savage] creates one of the most intriguing stories--and one of the most vivid characters--that this reader has encountered this year."--"The Writer" Sam Savage's most intimate, tender novel yet follows Harold Nivenson, a decrepit, aging man who was once a painter and arts patron. The death of Peter Meinenger, his friend turned romantic and intellectual rival, prompts him to ruminate on his own career as a minor artist and collector and make sense of a lifetime of gnawing doubt. Over time, his bitterness toward his family, his gentrifying neighborhood, and the decline of intelligent artistic discourse gives way to a kind of peace within himself, as he emerges from the shadow of the past and finds a reason to live, every day, in "the now." Sam Savage is the best-selling author of "Firmin: Adventures of a Metropolitan Lowlife," "The Cry of the Sloth," and "Glass." A native of South Carolina, Savage holds a PhD in philosophy from Yale University. He resides in Madison, Wisconsin.

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  • 390

    Lonely Vigil: Coastwatchers of the Solomons

      Walter Lord
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From the bestselling author of Day of Infamy: In the bloodiest island combat of WWII, one group of men kept watch from behind Japanese lines.  The Solomon Islands was where the Allied war machine finally broke the Japanese empire. As pilots, marines, and sailors fought for supremacy in Guadalcanal, Bougainville, and the Slot, a lonely group of radio operators occupied the Solomon Islands’ highest points. Sometimes encamped in comfort, sometimes exposed to the elements, these coastwatchers kept lookout for squadrons of Japanese bombers headed for Allied positions, holding their own positions even when enemy troops swarmed all around. They were Australian-born but Solomon-raised, and adept at survival in the unforgiving jungle environment. Through daring and insight, they stayed one step ahead of the Japanese, often sacrificing themselves to give advance warning of an attack. In Lonely Vigil, Walter Lord, the #1 New York Times–bestselling author of A Night to Remember and The Miracle of Dunkirk, tells of the survivors of the campaign and what they risked to win the war in the Pacific.

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  • 390

    Precursor

      C. J. Cherryh
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National best-selling author and winner of three Hugo Awards, C.J. Cherryh returns to the universe of her acclaimed Foreigner trilogy-with an epic tale of the survivors of a lost spacecraft stranded on a planet inhabited by a hostile, sentient race. The beginning of a second trilogy, Precursor follows a single human delegate living among aliens, who are just gaining access to space.... Praise for Precursor... "An addition to Cherryh's superior alien-contact series...Another intriguing human/alien struggle."-Kirkus Reviews"A powerful look at the effects of alienation on individuals and societies."-Locus ...and C.J. Cherryh's Foreigner Universe: "Superlatively drawn aliens and characterization...a return to the anthropological science fiction in which [Cherryh] has made such a name is a double pleasure."-Chicago Sun-Times "An incisive study-in-contrast of what it means to be human."-Library Journal

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  • 390

    Puckoon

      Spike Milligan
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About the AuthorSpike Milligan was born at Ahmednagar in India in 1918. He received his first education in a tent in the Hyderabad Sindh desert and graduated from there, through a series of Roman Catholic schools in India and England, to the Lewisham Polytechnic. He then plunged into the world of Show Business, seduced by his first stage appearance, at the age of eight, in the nativity play of his Poona convent school. While serving in World War II (on our side) he began his career as a band musician (affiliation less clear) but has since become famous as a humorous scriptwriter and actor in both films and broadcasting. Spike received an honorary CBE in 1992. He died in 2002, leaving a vast body of work and a reknowned comic legacy in his corpse's path.Puckoon was his first novel.

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  • 390

    Help! I'm Trapped in a Supermodel's Body

      Todd Strasser
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Product DescriptionSupermodel Lanny Shanks is coming to town for a photo shoot. The whole school is excited‹even Principal Blanco. By winning a contest, Jake Sherman lands a job as Lanny1s personal assistant. But when Jake accidentally switches bodies with her, he can1t get used to starving all the time, and his new blonde hair is always in his way. Worst of all, he must ward off the principal1s advances!

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