This morning I stood naked beside the icy waters of Lake Riley, high in the Appalachians of north Georgia, above the fall line where the tame Atlanta winters end and the freezing wild mountain winters begin. A mile away, in my dead mother’s hometown, Riley, people were just breaking the ice on their gravel roads and barnyards and church lots and sidewalks, stomping the mountain bedrock before little stores with mom-and-pop names, most of which belong to heavy-footed Rileys. But there I was, alone as always, Odd Alice, the daughter of a reckless young mother and an unknown father who passed along some very strange traits. I had slipped out to the lake from my secluded cabin for my morning swim, stripping off my dowdy denim, doing the impossible. It is February, with a high of about twenty-five degrees, and the lake has an apron of ice like the white iris on a dark eye, narrowing my peculiar view of the deep world beneath. Not that that scares me. The water is the only element in my life I never fear. I stood there in the cold dawn as usual, not even shivering. As I stretched and filled my body with frigid air, I looked out over the icy mountain world and heard a thin trickle of sound stroking the frosty branches of tall fir trees so far around a bend in the lake my ears shouldn’t be able to recognize it if I were like anyone else. The sound was a child screaming. And then I heard a splash. I may be a freak or a monster—some unnatural quirk of nature too odd for normal people to accept or for anyone to love—but I couldn’t let a child drown just to keep my secrets.  So there I went, into the cold, safe water, deep into the heart of the lake, faster than anyone imagines a person can swim, fluting the currents with the iridescent webbing between my bare toes, able to go farther, deeper, quicker, and for much, much longer in that netherworld than any human being possibly can. We are all bodies of water, guarding the mystery of our depths, but some of us have more to guard than others. I’ve never known quite who I am, but worse than that, I’ve never known quite what I am. And after today, I won’t be the only person asking that question.

One kiss can change everything…I wished I’d known that before I’d kissed my best friend.Things are different now. We can’t go back. I’m not even sure I want to go back. I guess the question is….What happens now?

Amazon.com ReviewIn An Army at Dawn,, a comprehensive look at the 1942-1943 Allied invasion of North Africa, author Rick Atkinson posits that the campaign was, along with the battles of Stalingrad and Midway, where the "Axis ... forever lost the initiative" and the "fable of 3rd Reich invincibility was dissolved." Additionally, it forestalled a premature and potentially disastrous cross-channel invasion of France and served as a grueling "testing ground" for an as-yet inexperienced American army. Lastly, by relegating Great Britain to what Atkinson calls the status of "junior partner" in the war effort, North Africa marked the beginning of American geopolitical hegemony. Although his prose is occasionally overwrought, Atkinson's account is a superior one, an agile, well-informed mix of informed strategic overview and intimate battlefield-and-barracks anecdotes. (Tobacco-starved soldiers took to smoking cigarettes made of toilet paper and eucalyptus leaves.) Especially interesting are Atkinson's straightforward accounts of the many "feuds, tiffs and spats" among British and American commanders, politicians, and strategists and his honest assessments of their--and their soldiers'--performance and behavior, for better and for worse. This is an engrossing, extremely accessible account of a grim and too-often overlooked military campaign. --H. O'BillovichFrom Publishers WeeklyAtkinson won a Pulitzer Prize during his time as a journalist and editor at the Washington Post and is the author of The Long Gray Line: The American Journey of West Point's Class of 1966 and of Crusade: The Untold Story of the Persian Gulf War. In contrast to Crusade's illustrations of technomastery, this book depicts the U.S. Army's introduction to modern war. The Tunisian campaign, Atkinson shows, was undertaken by an American army lacking in training and experience alongside a British army whose primary experience had been of defeat. Green units panicked, abandoning wounded and weapons. Clashes between and within the Allies seemed at times to overshadow the battles with the Axis. Atkinson's most telling example is the relationship of II Corps commander George Patton and his subordinate, 1st Armored Division's Orlando Ward. The latter was a decent person and capable enough commander, but he lacked the final spark of ruthlessness that takes a division forward in the face of heavy casualties and high obstacles. With Dwight Eisenhower's approval, Patton fired him. The result was what Josef Goebbels called a "second Stalingrad"; after Tunisia, the tide of war rolled one way: toward Berlin. Atkinson's visceral sympathies lie with Ward; his subtext from earlier books remains unaltered: in war, they send for the hard men. Despite diction that occasionally lapses into the melodramatic, general readers and specialists alike will find worthwhile fare in this intellectually convincing and emotionally compelling narrative. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

I Heart short story: a new story starring Jenny Lopez. From the bestselling author of What a Girl Wants and I Heart Christmas. Sleighbells ring, are you listening... Who wouldn't want to escape to a cabin in snowy Vermont for Christmas? Jenny Lopez's year has gone wrong, and Vermont with champagne and a sparkly Christmas tree is going to mend everything, along with her best friend Angela. She hits a few obstacles along the way, including a major work crisis and some unexpected Christmas companions. But this is Jenny Lopez. She's determined to have the best Christmas known to man, even if it means dragging a turkey three miles in the snow. Single-handedly and in a Santa outfit Jenny Lopez is going to save Christmas - and have the best holiday season ever.

A hapless fairy godmother faces her toughest assignment yet: a perfect little girl whom she must teach to be normal Maybelle was only trying to help. Maybe that's the problem—every time she tries to help, her magic makes things worse. This time, her spell was supposed to turn a frog into a prince, but instead it turned a princess into a frog! For more than a century, every spell she's cast has backfired, and now her boss is fed up. She has one last chance to make things right—or she'll lose her wings forever. With the help of the legendary fairy godmother Edna Prim, Maybelle takes charge of a snooty young girl named Susan whose only problem is that she's too perfect. Maybelle's job is to help Susan learn to be a regular kid, but there's a mischief-loving imp working against her. Saving Susan will take a new kind of spell—and a special brand of magic that only Maybelle has to offer. This ebook features an illustrated...

Introducing The Enchanted Files! Told in diary entries and other "documents," this magical, modern-day new comedy series by the master of funny fantasy, Bruce Coville is filled with laugh-out-loud humor and heart. In the first hilarious Enchanted Files, Angus is a brownie. No, not the kind you eat! He's a tiny magical creature that loves to do chores. Angus has just "inherited" a new human girl, Alex. To say that Alex is messy would be an understatement. She's a total hurricane-like disaster--and she likes it that way, thankyouverymuch! Living with each other isn't easy but Angus and Alex soon learn there is a curse that binds them. What's worse, it threatens Alex's family! Working together, Angus and Alex will set out to break the curse . . . without killing each other first . . . hopefully.* "Smart, amusing, and a lot of fun" --Booklist (starred review)"With magic, mischief, and mayhem to spare, this sweet story of an unlikely...

Karpathos publishes the greatest works of history's greatest authors and collects them to make it easy and affordable for readers to have them all at the push of a button.  All of our collections include a linked table of contents.Algernon Blackwood was an English author best known for his ghost stories. Blackwood's short stories The Willows and The Wendigo were very influential in the genre. This collection includes the following:NOVELS:The CentaurJimbo: A FantasyThe Human ChordA Prisoner in FairylandThe Extra DayJulius LeVallonThe Bright MessengerThe Wave: An Egyptian AftermathThe Promise of AirThe Garden of Survival SHORT STORIES:The WillowsThe WendigoThe DamnedThe Man Whom the Trees LovedThe Insanity of JonesThe Man Who Found OutThe Glamour of SnowSandA Physical InvasionAncient SorceriesThe Nemesis of FireSecret WorshipThe Camp of the DogA Victim of Higher SpaceThe Empty HouseA Haunted...

Ten years after it was first announced, Dzanc is proud to deliver the lost novel from a master of the Southern Gothic—the work William Gay fans have anticipated for a decade. Billy Edgewater is a harbinger of doom. Estranged from his family, discharged from the Navy, and touched by a rising desperation, he sets out hitchhiking home to East Tennessee, where his father is slowly dying. On the road, separately, are Sudy and Bradshaw, brother and sister, and a one-armed con man named Roosterfish. All, in one way or another, have their pasts and futures embroiled with D.L. Harkness, a predator in all the ways there are. Hounded at every turn by scams, vigilantes, grievous loss, and unspeakable violence, Edgewater navigates the long road home, searching for a place that may be nothing but memory. Hailed as "a seemingly effortless storyteller" by the New York Times Book Review and "a writer of striking talent" by the Chicago Tribune, William Gay,...

What is more important: a successful career or a happy marriage?In the small town of Hubli, Shrikant discovers that he is attracted to his plain-looking but charming neighbour Shrimati, who always does better than him in the school exams. Shrimati too falls in love with the amiable and handsome Shrikant and the two get married. Shrikant joins an IT company and starts rapidly climbing the corporate ladder. He works relentlessly and reaches the pinnacle of his industry, while Shrimati abandons her academic aspirations and becomes his uncomplaining shasow, silently fulfilling her duties as a corporate leader's wife. But one day, while talking to an old professor, she starts examining what she has done with her life and realizes it is dismally empty...Gently Falls the Bakula is the story of a marriage that loses its way as ambition and self-interest take their toll. Written nearly three decades ago, Sudha Murty's first novel remains startlingly relevant in its scrutiny of modern...

New York Times bestselling author and Printz Award winner Walter Dean Myers once again connects with teenagers everywhere in Darius & Twig, a novel about friendship and needing to live your own dream.Darius and Twig are an unlikely pair: Darius is a writer whose only escape is his alter ego, a peregrine falcon named Fury, and Twig is a middle-distance runner striving for athletic success. But they are drawn together in the struggle to overcome the obstacles that Harlem life throws at them.The two friends must face down bullies, an abusive uncle, and the idea that they'll be stuck in the same place forever in this touching and raw new teen novel from Walter Dean Myers, award-winning author of Monster, Kick, We Are America, Bad Boy, and many other celebrated literary works for children and teens.

Nine years ago, Alexa Kirkwood met Darius Riverside, a man who captured her heart and spirit. He seemed to fulfill her every dream and Alexa could hardly believe the joy she felt in his arms. But when a fabulous career opportunity arose, Alexa questioned if their romance could survive a long-distance relationship. Hesitant to pass up something she'd worked so hard for, Alexa simply walks out of Darius's life, offering him no explanation. When Alexa agrees to participate in her best friend's wedding, she finds herself back home and face-to-face with the only man who's ever had the key to her heart: Darius. Alexa misses the soul-stirring kisses and tender embraces they used to share, and she knows walking away was a mistake. Alexa still sees the spark of passion in Darius's eyes and hopes that fate has given them another opportunity to rekindle their love.

Instantly reminiscent of the work of Osamu Dazai and Patricia Highsmith, Fuminori Nakamura's latest novel is a dark and twisting house of mirrors that philosophically explores the violence of aesthetics and the horrors of identity.A young writer arrives at a prison to interview a convict. The writer has been commissioned to write a full account of the case, from its bizarre and grisly details to the nature of the man behind the crime. The suspect, a world-renowned photographer named Kiharazaka, has a deeply unsettling portfolio--lurking beneath the surface of each photograph is an acutely obsessive fascination with his subject.He stands accused of murdering two women--both burned alive--and will likely face the death penalty. But something isn't quite right, and as the young writer probes further, his doubts about this man as a killer intensify. He soon discovers the desperate, twisted nature of all who are connected to the case, struggling to...

Rebus and Malcolm Fox go head-to-head when a 30-year-old murder investigation resurfaces, forcing Rebus to confront crimes of the pastRebus is back on the force, albeit with a demotion and a chip on his shoulder. He is investigating a car accident when news arrives that a case from 30 years ago is being reopened. Rebus's team from those days is suspected of helping a murderer escape justice to further their own ends.Malcolm Fox, in what will be his last case as an internal affairs cop, is tasked with finding out the truth. Past and present are about to collide in shocking and murderous fashion. What does Rebus have to hide? And whose side is he really on? His colleagues back then called themselves "The Saints," and swore a bond on something called the Shadow Bible. But times have changed and the crimes of the past may not stay hidden much longer -- and may also play a role in the present, as Scotland gears up for a referendum on independence....

Critically acclaimed author Kimberley Griffiths Little spins a thrilling story of one girl's race to unravel the curse that has haunted her family for generations.When Larissa Renaud starts receiving eerie phone calls on a disconnected old phone in her family's antique shop, she knows she's in for a strange summer. A series of clues leads her to the muddy river banks, where clouds of fireflies dance among the cypress knees and cattails each evening at twilight. The fireflies are beautiful and mysterious, and they take her on a magical journey through time, where Larissa learns secrets about her family's tragic past — deadly, curse-ridden secrets that could harm the future of her family as she knows it. It soon becomes clear that it is up to Larissa to prevent history from repeating itself and a fatal tragedy from striking the people she loves.

Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear return with the third book in their Iskryne trilogy, An Apprentice to Elves. The trilogy began with A Companion to Wolves, and continued in The Tempering of Men. This novel picks up the story of Alfgyfa, a young woman who has been raised in the Wolfhall by her father Isolfr, who is the human leader of the queen-wolf Viridechtis' pack, and was the protagonist of the first book. The warrior culture of Iskryne forbids many things to women—and most especially it forbids them bonding to one of the giant telepathic trelwolves. But as her father was no ordinary boy, Alfgyfa is no ordinary girl. Her father has long planned to send his daughter to Tin, a matriarch among the elves who live nearby, to be both apprentice and ambassador, and now she is of age to go.

The New York Times bestselling queen of romantic suspense returns with a heart-racing tale in which a former soldier turned rancher and a beautiful designer race to stop a vicious killer—a battle for survival that threatens to explode in an intense and irresistible passion.An art dealer and owner of her own design studio, Perfect Touch, Sarah "Sam" Maddox travels the world to find the ideal artwork for her clients. Her sophisticated, comfortable life in San Francisco is light years away from the poverty of her family's dairy farm, and Sam will do whatever it takes to keep her business strong. A dedicated urban career woman focused on her work, she doesn't have time or energy for a family or distracting romantic entanglements.Jay Vermillion recently inherited Vermillion Sky, a working ranch near Wyoming's breathtaking Grand Teton Mountains—and the estates of the rich and restless. While he was fighting in two wars, his father tried to keep the homestead...

A gripping new crime novel from the global bestseller Cathy Glass writing as Lisa Stone 'The Darkness Within hooked me from the start. Once you start you won't be able to stop!' Katerina Diamond, No.1 bestselling author of The Teacher You know your son better than anyone. Don't you? When critically ill Jacob Wilson is given a life-saving heart transplant, his parents are relieved that their loving son has been saved. However, before long, his family are forced to accept that something has changed in Jacob. Their once loving son is slowly being replaced by a violent man whose mood swings leave them terrified – but is it their fault? Jacob's girlfriend, Rosie, is convinced the man she loves is suffering from stress. But when his moods turn on her, she begins to doubt herself – and she can only hide the bruises for so long. When a terrible crime is committed, Jacob's family are forced to confront their darkest fears. Has the boy they raised become a monster? Or is someone else to...

From Ste. Marie's little flat, which overlooked the gardens, they drove down the quiet rue du Luxembourg, and at the Place St. Sulpice turned to the left. They crossed the Place St. Germain des Prés, where lines of home-bound working-people stood waiting for places in the electric trams, and groups of students from the Beaux Arts or from Julien's sat under the awnings of the Deux Magots, and so, beyond that busy square, they came into the long and peaceful stretch of the Boulevard St. Germain. The warm, sweet dusk gathered round them as they went, and the evening air was fresh and aromatic in their faces. There had been a little gentle shower in the late afternoon, and roadway and pavement were still damp with it. It had wet the new-grown leaves of the chestnuts and acacias that bordered the street. The scent of that living green blended with the scent of laid dust and the fragrance of the last late-clinging chestnut blossoms; it caught up a fuller, richer burden from the overflowing front of a florist's shop; it stole from open windows a savory whiff of cooking, a salt tang of wood smoke; and the soft little breeze--the breeze of coming summer--mixed all together and tossed them and bore them down the long, quiet street; and it was the breath of Paris, and it shall be in your nostrils and mine, a keen agony of sweetness, so long as we may live and so wide as we may wander--because we have known it and loved it--and in the end we shall go back to breathe it when we die.

HardPress Classic Books Series