In this beautifully written tour de force of a novel, Beth Gutcheon takes readers back to the coastal village of Dundee, Maine. There, in a Victorian summer house called Leeway Cottage, we witness the scenes of a long twentieth-century marriage.

A collection of prose and poetry.When the gates first opened on Latolan some eight hundred years ago, the only thing the first explorers found were the drunken ruins of a civilization at least a thousand years dead. Since then, The District has taken advantage of the relative neutrality to make the world the home of its headquarters and most of its government funded projects. The only major settlement is Tomar, a single, 80 mile wide city-state containing a number of prestigious universities and private schools, The Grand Tomar Library, and the main hall of several technical and magical guilds. The kaleidoscopic native population is joined by the seasonal residents of Starlight Vale, off-world wealth and nobility with the disposable income and inclination to keep a second estate in the lush hills and meadow-lands set aside on one edge of the city proper just for that purpose.She's pretty in her petticoats, but, according a man who's a little bit frightening himself, she's a creature to be feared. But is it jealously that drives his warning? A direct sequel to "A Question of Culture."

Nancy, George, and Bess smell trouble -- and their noses don't lie! Nancy, George, and Bess love Hamburger Herbie's -- after all, they know a good hamburger when they taste one! But when Regal Burger opens across the street with its games and flashy giveaways, Herbie is scared that his business will be ruined. Nancy, George, and Bess know they can't let Herbie's close down. They have to do something, but what? The girls decide to make goodie bags that Herbie can give away at his restaurant. But when someone fills the bags with stinky cheese, Nancy smells trouble! She knows someone is up to no good, and Herbie is counting on her to sniff out the clues. Can Nancy crack the case and save Herbie's?

Far and near. Lost and found. Four girls. Four generations. Georgia cannot figure out what's going on in her family. Her mother, Francie, is extremely overprotective. Her grandmother, Dana, and her great-grandmother, Abby, don't speak to each other. And Georgia's great-great-grandmother also had some secrets that nobody else knows about. Georgia knows this because she's found her great-great grandmother's diary hidden in a wall in the family's house in Maine. Reading the diary makes her think of her own struggles - and draws her even closer to the mysteries of her family as Abby's hundredth birthday approaches. HOME IS THE PLACE is the heartfelt, remarkable conclusion to Ann M. Martin's Family Tree series, which has followed Abby, Dana, Francie, and now Georgia from girlhood to womanhood, showing readers the intertwining, extraordinary ways we grow up.

The last night that Sam had the dream, she was seven years old; and that was the night her parents were to die. Twenty five years later her childhood is but a bad memory. Now married to a wealthy Eurobond dealer, she has a child, two homes and a highly successful career. An enviable lifestyle. But for Sam it is becoming a nightmare. Because the childhood dreams are returning - and this time they are coming true...Gradually and subtly, the dreams of the night foretell the disasters of the day - and no-one believes her, nothing can help her. As psychiatrists, clairvoyants and dream therapy fail her, she is left to confront the evil alone, without knowing its name: hallucination, premonition, reincarnation or psychic projection? Whatever it is, it won't relinquish its hold. And then Sam starts dreaming her own death...

Amazon.com ReviewWith his actor's ear for dialogue, his dead-on pacing, and his talent for social comedy, British playwright Alan Bennett (The Madness of King George) is hardly lacking in literary gifts. The three stories in The Laying On of Hands, two of which have been filmed by the BBC, are funny in different ways. The title piece is a slow-to-ripen satire set at the Anglican funeral service of a handsome young masseur, whose clients turn out to include cabinet ministers, soap opera stars, and the presiding clergyman. The second story, "Miss Fozzard Finds Her Feet," describes the odd relationship a pure-minded middle-aged woman develops with her charming chiropodist (podiatrist). And the final story, "Father! Father! Burning Bright," follows a mousy schoolteacher named Midgley through the self-searching and nurse-hunting days preceding his father's death in Intensive Care. The range and subtle coloration of Bennett's humor will appeal, especially, to readers of Robertson Davies and Muriel Spark. --Regina MarlerFrom Publishers WeeklyBennett hits the mark in the title novella of this brief collection, which also features a second, shorter novella as well as a single short story. The funeral of a masseur who serviced British celebrities in a variety of ways becomes the setting for a cheeky comedy of manners in the title yarn, as a young gay priest fails his first big test when he lets the final testimonials turn into an outrageous debate over whether the masseur died of AIDS or contracted an obscure disease while traveling in South America. The punch line falls flat in the second effort, "Miss Fozzard Finds Her Feet," when a woman finds a mutual outlet for her unusual sexual fetish in her ongoing appointments with her podiatrist. The final novella, "Father! Father! Burning Bright," gets off to a murky start as a married, middle-aged schoolteacher struggles to sort through his mixed emotions when a stroke leaves his father at death's door, but the ending, involving the teacher's strange attraction to his father's comely nurse, closes the narrative with a nice satiric twist. Bennett's multileveled approach makes the title story work, as he slowly layers his conceit with observations on the celebrity scene in Britain and the priest's recollections of his romantic interaction with the deceased. Unfortunately, the quality of craft drops significantly in the other two efforts, with the second novella in particular focusing more on manners than comedy.Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

All I want for Christmas is... a new GEEK GIRL story! Harriet Manners knows a lot about Christmas. She knows that every year Santa climbs down 91.8 million chimneys. She knows that Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer was almost definitely a girl. She knows that the first artificial Christmas trees were made out of goose feathers. But this Christmas is extra special for Harriet, because four days ago she had her First Ever Kiss. Now she just needs to work out what's supposed to happen next... A romantic festive treat from the internationally bestselling award-winning author of the GEEK GIRL series.

Originally part of the Southern Seduction Box Set I lost my virginity at age thirteen. I know what you're thinking, and the answer is no. I wasn't raped or molested. Nothing horrible happened to me. I don't have a daddy complex, or a shit life that I need to be rescued from. I just happen to like boys...a lot. I like them all. Tall, short, skinny, buff, light hair, or dark, I don't discriminate. I realized early on that one man wasn't enough for me. It's a simple mathematical fact. Why have one man when you can have two? Any more than two gets complicated. Hell, half the time even two gets complicated. But it’s worth it. Sometimes every woman has to make an exception though, two crappy losers or one smoking hot man. The night I laid eyes on Hunter Coy, I made my choice. At least until he introduced me to Mason Wynn.

SUMMARY: In a perfect marriage of author and subject, P. D. James—one of the most widely admired writers of detective fiction at work today—gives us a personal, lively, illuminating exploration of the human appetite for mystery and mayhem, and of those writers who have satisfied it.P. D. James examines the genre from top to bottom, beginning with the mysteries at the hearts of such novels as Charles Dickens’s Bleak House and Wilkie Collins’s The Woman in White, and bringing us into the present with such writers as Colin Dexter and Henning Mankell. Along the way she writes about Arthur Conan Doyle, Dorothy L. Sayers, Agatha Christie (“arch-breaker of rules”), Josephine Tey, Dashiell Hammett, and Peter Lovesey, among many others. She traces their lives into and out of their fiction, clarifies their individual styles, and gives us indelible portraits of the characters they’ve created, from Sherlock Holmes to Sara Paretsky’s sexually liberated female investigator, V. I. Warshawski. She compares British and American Golden Age mystery writing. She discusses detective fiction as social history, the stylistic components of the genre, her own process of writing, how critics have reacted over the years, and what she sees as a renewal of detective fiction—and of the detective hero—in recent years.There is perhaps no one who could write about this enduring genre of storytelling with equal authority and flair: it is essential reading for every lover of detective fiction.

Like his countrymen Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo, Mankell writes mysteries that connect crimes in Sweden to the rest of the world. Faceless Killers (1997), the first of his books about provincial police inspector Kurt Wallender to appear here, involved Turkish immigrants and Eastern European villains. This novel, written in 1993, links the murder of a real estate agent in Wallender's town of Ystad to South Africa, where Nelson Mandela has just been released from prison, and to Russia, where the KGB is busy planning Mandela's fate. Wallender is a classically dour but dedicated policeman whose progress through his cases is a combination of hard slogging and lucky breaks. But several factors render this effort less compelling than its predecessor. The first is the Day of the Jackal syndrome: we know that Mandela wasn't killed by KGB agents or white Afrikaner terrorists, and that knowledge makes the suspense writer's job even harder. Second is the book's length?560 pages is a long haul,...

Don't go into the woods.Sixteen-year-old Anna Lambert knows that the woods near her new home aren't safe. She's seen the wolves that stalk through that dark forest, but Anna doesn't scare easily. Anna is cursed--or gifted, depending on how you look at it--with the ability to find anyone or anything that is lost. So when folks start disappearing in the small town of Haven, Anna's father, the sheriff, has to use her special skills as they begin to hunt for a killer. But the killer isn't exactly human. As Anna is pulled deeper into the secrets of Haven--a town that is truly cursed--she finds herself falling for two, equally mysterious boys. With the danger closing in, one of those boys may just turn out to be her savior. And the other? He could be a very big, very bad...beast.Beware of beasts...and boys...with bite.Author's Note:  THE BETTER TO BITE is a paranormal young adult romance. It contains a tough heroine, some very dangerous werewolves, and a killer with one serious appetite for blood.  USA Today best-selling author Cynthia Eden writes tales of paranormal romance and romantic suspense. Her books have received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, and her novel, DEADLY FEAR, was named a RITA® finalist for best romantic suspense. THE BETTER TO BITE is Cynthia Eden's first young adult novel.

She’s all I could ever want… I have a reputation around school. Cold. Untouchable. Unfeeling. Only one girl could ever make me want to change and that’s Amanda Winters. Too bad I broke her heart and drove her away. So to get through the rest of my days in high school, I tell myself I need to focus on more important things. Like taking our football team to championships. Get accepted to the college of my choice. And finish my senior year without wanting to run away from my problems. But your problems chase after you no matter where you go. And it’s a lot harder when you fight them alone. The longer I go without Amanda, the more I miss her. Her smile. Her laughter. The things she said. How she looked at me like I was the only person who mattered. The way she made me feel… Why can’t I have everything, including the girl? I’m determined to make things right. And make Amanda mine… Forever.

From the author hailed as "an important talent, a storytelling writer of poetic narrative power" (Los Angeles Times Book Review) comes a dazzling novel of psychological suspense. "This is the darkest story I've ever heard." With these haunting words, Thomas H. Cook begins a tale of love and its aftermath, of a town sent reeling from a moment of passionate betrayal. At its center was Kelli Troy and the town of Choctaw, Alabama. And on one hazy summer afternoon decades ago, a searing burst of violence engulfed Breakheart Hill. For one man who knows the truth about those shattering events, it is a memory that would become his awful secret.From the Paperback edition.