Originally published in 1976, James A. Michener’s explosive, spectacular Sports in America is a prescient examination of the crisis in American sports that is still unfolding to this day. Pro basketball players are banned for narcotics use, while a Major League pitcher is arrested for smuggling drugs across the Mexican border. The NFL’s “injury report” grows longer every Sunday. Corruption and recruiting violations plague collegiate sports as the “winning is everything” mentality trickles down to the Little League level. With his lifelong enthusiasm for sports in evidence, the incomparable Michener tackles this subject thoroughly and leaves us amazed and appalled by what we’ve learned, yet still loving the games we grew up on. BONUS: This edition includes an excerpt from James A. Michener's Hawaii. Praise for *Sports in America  * “A comprehensive, controversial examination of sports as a major force in American life.”—Los Angeles Times  * “Michener’s life was saved by sports twice. In return, he has issued a long, lovingly critical, prodigiously researched account of the passions and politics of America at organized play. Rich in anecdote, source material and his own shrewd commentary.”—The New York Times Book Review “Like just about everything James Michener has produced, Sports in America *is a thoughtful, well-written document that’s thoroughly researched. . . . For anyone interested in how the ball bounces in the U.S. of A., the answers are all here.”—The Wall Street Journal  * “Encyclopedic . . . amusing and sometimes alarming.”—The Washington Post***

Bestselling author Kate Forsyth's mesmerizing return to the magical land of Eileanan. Condemned for lacking the horns so prized by her people, One-Horn's daughter must escape by riding one of the legendary flying horses to freedom-if she can stay on its back long enough. But to save a land where the dead walk and ghosts haunt the living, this strange, feral girl-renamed Rhiannon, the rider no one can catch-must convince the human apprentice witches she meets to trust the word of a wild, half-human girl.

This sequel to Deadly Flowers is a fast-paced and compelling read with a multitude of astonishing plot twists. Kata is one of the best employees of a master thief until he sells her to Madame Chiyome, the woman who trained Kata as a ninja. It turns out that Madame Chiyome has been hired by Kata’s enemy, Saiko, to capture Kata and the magical pearl she possesses. But while escaping her enemies, Kata puts her trusted group of friends in danger. Should Kata stay loyal to her mission, as a true ninja would, or to her friends? Can Kata trust the fellow thief who says he is in love with her and wants to help her? The themes of trust versus independence underlie each of Kata’s decisions as she tries to get the pearl out of Japan to weaken the demon within it. As Kata faces one obstacle after another, including a wide range of supernatural creatures, she is tempted to make a wish to save herself, even though could it be the last wish, the one that frees the demon and lets him take her soul. Will her sense of duty and honor prevail against all odds?

From the New York Times bestselling author of From a Drood to a Kill comes the next Secret Histories adventure... The name is Drood, Eddie Drood, also known as Shaman Bond. My family has been safeguarding humanity for generations, facing the hidden horrors of the world so you can sleep at night and remain oblivious to the existence of the monstrous nightmares that walk and stalk among us. Speaking of predatory night terrors, there is a man who gets away with murder. A man who specializes in removing the problems from other people’s lives, by killing the people who cause those problems. He operates from the darkest shadows of the hidden world, coming and going unseen. No-one knows who he is, just his nomme du muerte. Dr. DOA. Somehow, this demented doc poisoned me. I don’t know how he did it, when or where, but whatever is coursing through my veins seems to be immune to magic cures and treatments. But that’s not going to stop me from finding him and whoever hired him and give them both a taste of their own medicine... ** Review Praise for the series “A literary love letter to the spy thrillers of the ’60s mashed up with every sort of paranormal weirdness under the sun.”—SF Revu “A hard-boiled, fast-talking, druidic James Bond who wields ancient magic instead of a gun...a witty fantasy adventure.”—Library Journal “I love going on adventures with Eddie Drood...Simon R. Green takes the superhero/spy tropes and turns them upside down.”—Fresh Fiction About the Author Simon R. Green is the New York Times bestselling author of the Secret Histories Novels, the Novels of the Nightside, the Ghost Finders series, and the Deathstalker series.

Critically acclaimed author Cammie McGovern's middle grade debut is a powerful and heartwarming story that will appeal to readers who loved R. J. Palacio's Wonder, Ann M. Martin's Rain Reign, and Holly Sloan's Counting by 7s.Fourth grade is not going at all how Benny Barrows hoped. He hasn't found a new best friend. He's still not a great bike rider—even though his brother George, who's autistic, can do tricks. And worst of all, he worries his dad's recent accident might be all his fault. Benny tries to take his mom's advice and focus on helping others, and to take things one step at a time. But when his dad ends up in the hospital again, Benny doesn't know how he and his family will overcome all the bad luck that life seems to have thrown their way.Just My Luck is a deeply moving and rewarding novel about a down-on-his-luck boy whose caring heart ultimately helps him find the strength to cope with tragedy and realize how much he truly has to offer his...

Seven years ago, my life changed forever. One accident and the person I saw in the mirror no longer resembled the woman I used to be. I was lost and confused inside my own body. I felt alone and disconnected from the world, carrying the incredible weight of guilt and loss that wasn't even mine to harbor.Then fate led me to Leo James. He taught me that crazy could be perfectly normal and it shouldn't hurt to breathe. Don't get me wrong. Leo isn't perfect. He has his own cross to bear, and the truth is, that might be why I fell for him in the first place. But despite everything he does for me, learning to forgive myself is infinitely harder than overlooking the flaws of another.Now, the secrets and lies of our past have begun to dictate our future—threatening to ruin us before we get the chance to try. Perhaps we were cursed from the start. Or maybe, just maybe, the remnants of our fractured lives will fit together to form one whole, where love isn’t questioned and being happy is…well, easy.Can a second broken soul be enough to fill the voids of my own? Or will such scarred pasts prove too much for our love alone to overcome?

Don’t miss the heart-pounding prequel novella to bestselling author Cynthia Eden’s new Killer Instinct series When untried FBI profiler Samantha Dark is face-to-face with a killer, there’s no room for fear. Her best weapon is her instincts. Those same dark impulses that allow her to get inside the mind of a murderer, to locate victims—or to pull the trigger before she’s next. She can’t afford to have those instincts clouded by anything…especially her far-too-sexy new partner. Former SEAL Blake Gamble plays everything by the book. Except, of course, when it comes to the increasingly simmering attraction between them. But when a vengeful serial killer targets them both, Samantha once again reaches into the sinister, shadowed part of herself. Even as she begins to fear that the only way to catch this killer is to become one… Look for After the Dark, the first in the Killer Instinct series, from HQN Books!

Philip Murdstone has won all the prizes as a Young Adult novelist but his sales are miniscule and he loathes himself. Does he suffer a nervous breakdown or does he get drunk at his local Devon pub, accidentally fall sleep in a stone circle and summon Pocket, a fantasy character who dictates 'inkage' which proves to be a world bestseller fantasy material... BEWARE this novel contains foul language and foul thoughts. If it was a film (which it will be) it would bear an 18 certificate. Also you might die laughing. On the other hand it is intensely dramatic and exciting and contains some of the most sweetly crafted sentences you will ever read in English. The impulse to write this might have started out bitter but Peet has turned in a masterpiece.

A young messenger. A secret mission. A kingdom in peril.It is the dead of night.Sixteen-year-old Tiuri must spend hours locked in a chapel in silent contemplation if he is to be knighted the next day.But, as he waits by the light of a flickering candle, he hears a knock at the door and a voice desperately asking for help.A secret letter must be delivered to King Unauwen across the GreatMountains - a letter upon which the fate of the entire kingdom depends. Tiuri has a vital role to play, one that might cost him his knighthood.Tiuri's journey will take him through dark, menacing forests, across treacherous rivers, to sinister castles and strange cities. He will encounter evil enemies who would kill to get the letter, but also the best of friends in the most unexpected places.He must trust no one.He must keep his true identity secret.Above all, he must never reveal what is in the letter...The Letter for the...

Cotton Crossing was a dead end, but not for Ginny Mills. She’s just marking time, getting experience in the county library system, before moving back to a decent urban environment. Then the phones stop working.Lee Quartine knows there’s no way the pretty girl at the library will even look at him. Especially since he can’t open his mouth. He knows he’s a hick, but when the power starts going out and the woods are full of strange creatures, it’s good to have someone around who can build a fire. And kill.Ginny and Lee and their small band of survivors can’t stay put, and moving is dangerous. The infected are shambling in the hills and the concrete canyons of cities.It’s gonna be a long trip…

Hailed by Salman Rushdie as a "brilliantly innovative thriller-writer," Philip Kerr is the creator of taut, gripping, noir-tinged mysteries that are nothing short of spellbinding. The first book of the Berlin Noir trilogy, March Violets introduces readers to Bernie Gunther, an ex-policeman who thought he'd seen everything on the streets of 1930s Berlin—until he turned freelance and each case he tackled sucked him further into the grisly excesses of Nazi subculture. Hard-hitting, fast-paced, and richly detailed, March Violets is noir writing at its blackest and best.

Edward "Easy" Cantrell knows better than most the pain of not being able to save those he loves--which is why he is not going to let Jenna Dean out of his sight. He may have just met her, but Jenna's the first person to make him feel alive since that devastating day in the desert more than a year ago. Jenna has never met anyone like Easy. She can't describe how he makes her feel--and not just because he saved her life. No, the stirrings inside her reach far beyond gratitude. As the pair are thrust together while chaos reigns around them, they both know one thing: the things in life most worth having are the hardest to hold on to.

A wonderful historical novel from one of our best loved and most prolific writers As a young man Ernest Burton was a bold and reckless journeyman blacksmith, seducing all young girls he comes across. We watch him grow to become a master Blacksmith, and a tyrannical father of eight who refuses even to try to remain faithful to the woman he married and who reigns over his young family with an iron fist, instilling in his sons and daughters a mixture of fear and hatred of him. Burton is an extraordinary fictional creation -- a bully who shows no mercy in his relentless terrorism of his sons, he can also be effortlessly charming, with a magnetic attraction that effects all he meets. Written in the sparse, plain language that Sillitoe has made his own, A Man of His Time is a mesmerising portrait of an extraordinary individual, aware that he is, in many ways, the last of a dying breed. It's a rich, absorbing, wonderfully readable novel that...

With 1919, the second volume of his U.S.A. trilogy, John Dos Passos continues his "vigorous and sweeping panorama of twentieth-century America" (Forum), lauded on publication of the first volume not only for its scope, but also for its groundbreaking style. Again, employing a host of experimental devices that would inspire a whole new generation of writers to follow, Dos Passos captures the many textures, flavors, and background noises of modern life with a cinematic touch and unparalleled nerve. 1919 opens to find America and the world at war, and Dos Passos's characters, many of whom we met in the first volume, are thrown into the snarl. We follow the daughter of a Chicago minister, a wide-eyed Texas girl, a young poet, a radical Jew, and we glimpse Woodrow Wilson, Theodore Roosevelt, and the Unknown Soldier.

A charismatic and immortal leader rises up out of Africa to violently alter humankind's destiny There is great unrest on the African continent, and explosive uprisings that originated there are finding their way to Britain's shores. A man named Nigel Considine, a charismatic leader who calls himself the High Executive, is raising a great army to conquer the world. Universal love is his stated goal, to be achieved through violence if necessary, and his dogma has unleashed a terrible backlash of brutality, prejudice, and hatred throughout so-called civilized London. But who is this immortal prophet-king whose words inflame the passions of untold thousands of disciples? Is he a power-hungry madman, as the unrepentant agnostic Sir Bernard Travers has flatly stated, or is he the Antichrist, as Travers's dearest friend, the vicar Ian Caithness, believes? Perhaps the deathless Considine is the light of the age—indeed, of all ages: a saintly personage to be adored...