The Agony of Alice

      Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
$value['title']

Right from the start, readers know that Alice McKinney is something special. In this, her very first book, Alice is in sixth grade, right on the cusp of adolescence and increasingly anxious about growing up in a household with no other females. "A wonderfully funny and touching story."--Booklist, starred review.

Read online

  • 1 217

    Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances

      Neil Gaiman
$value['title']

Multiple award winning, #1 New York Times bestselling author Neil Gaiman returns to dazzle, captivate, haunt, and entertain with this third collection of short fiction following Smoke and Mirrors and Fragile Things--which includes a never-before published American Gods story, "Black Dog," written exclusively for this volume. In this new anthology, Neil Gaiman pierces the veil of reality to reveal the enigmatic, shadowy world that lies beneath. Trigger Warning includes previously published pieces of short fiction--stories, verse, and a very special Doctor Who story that was written for the fiftieth anniversary of the beloved series in 2013--as well "Black Dog," a new tale that revisits the world of American Gods, exclusive to this collection. Trigger Warning explores the masks we all wear and the people we are beneath them to reveal our vulnerabilities and our truest selves. Here is a rich cornucopia of horror and ghosts stories, science fiction and fairy tales, fabulism and poetry that explore the realm of experience and emotion. In "Adventure Story"--a thematic companion to The Ocean at the End of the Lane--Gaiman ponders death and the way people take their stories with them when they die. His social media experience "A Calendar of Tales" are short takes inspired by replies to fan tweets about the months of the year--stories of pirates and the March winds, an igloo made of books, and a Mother's Day card that portends disturbances in the universe. Gaiman offers his own ingenious spin on Sherlock Holmes in his award-nominated mystery tale "The Case of Death and Honey". And "Click-Clack the Rattlebag" explains the creaks and clatter we hear when we're all alone in the darkness. A sophisticated writer whose creative genius is unparalleled, Gaiman entrances with his literary alchemy, transporting us deep into the realm of imagination, where the fantastical becomes real and the everyday incandescent. Full of wonder and terror, surprises and amusements, Trigger Warning is a treasury of delights that engage the mind, stir the heart, and shake the soul from one of the most unique and popular literary artists of our day.

Read online

  • 1 217

    The Wish List

      Eoin Colfer
$value['title']

Eoin Colfer has made millions of fans around the world with his much-loved character, Artemis Fowl, the star of his hugely best-selling series. Now, in a beautifully written novel that is already breaking records in his native Ireland, Colfer introduces readers to a lovable but troubled heroine, who has been given the opportunity for a special kind of redemption. Meg Finn is in trouble-unearthly trouble. Cast out of her home by her stepfather after her mother's death, Meg is a wanderer, a troublemaker. But after her latest stunt, finding a place to sleep is the least of her worries. Belch, her partner in crime, has gotten her involved in the attempted robbery of an elderly man, Lowrie McCall. And things go horribly wrong. After an accidental explosion, Meg's spirit is flung into limbo, and a race begins between the demonic and the divine to win her soul. Irreverent, hilarious, and touchingly hopeful, The Wish List takes readers on a journey of second chances, where joy is found in the most unexpected places.

Read online

  • 1 217

    The Complete Short Prose, 1929-1989

      Samuel Beckett
$value['title']

Nobel prize winner Samuel Beckett is one of the most profoundly original writers of our century. He gives expression to the anguish and isolation of the individual consciousness with a purity and minimalism that have altered the shape of world literature. A tremendously influential poet and dramatist, Beckett spoke of his prose fiction as the "important writing, " the medium in which his ideas are most powerfully distilled. Here, for the first time, his short prose is gathered in a definitive, complete volume by leading Beckett scholar S. E. Gontarski. In the introduction, Gontarski discusses Beckett's creative roots in the tradition of Irish storytelling and the perpetual evolution of his writing as he "pushed beyond recognizable external reality and discrete, recognizable literary characters, replacing them with something like naked consciousness or pure being." From the 1929 "Assumption, " published in transition magazine when Beckett was twenty-three, to the aptly named "Stirrings Still, " written whe he was eighty-two, and including a new translation of "The Image" as well as the newly translated and previously unpublished "The Cliff, " Gontarski has arranged Beckett's work into a smooth chronology that suggests, as he puts it, "Beckett's own view of his art, that it is all part of a continuous process, a series."

Read online

  • 1 217

    The Day of the Jackal

      Frederick Forsyth
$value['title']

One of the most celebrated thrillers ever written, The Day of the Jackal is the electrifying story of the struggle to catch a killer before it's too late. It is 1963 and an anonymous Englishman has been hired by the Operations Chief of the O.A.S. to murder General de Galle. A failed attempt in the previous year means the target will be nearly impossible to get to. But this latest plot involves a lethal weapon: an assassin of legendary talent. Known only as The Jackal this remorseless and deadly killer must be stopped, but how do you track a man who exists in name alone?

Read online

  • 1 217

    Deep Surrendering: Episode 1

      Chelsea M. Cameron
$value['title']

She's all about rules. He lives by none but his own. When these two meet, the results could be disastrous. When Marisol Everly’s friend Rory sets her up with Fin Herald, Marisol doesn't expect that it will amount to anything, .but that was before she saw Fin's searing blue eyes and mischievous smile. Not to mention, he seems absolutely fascinated by her mundane life. He's everything that a girl could want, but there's something else that ripples under the surface of his flirty behavior. Something darker. Something that fascinates Marisol, but scares her at the same time. Is she willing to risk falling into an abyss she might not get out of?

Read online

  • 1 217

    Frostbite

      Adrienne Woods
$value['title']

Losing Lucian McKenzie, the Prince of her heart and discovering her true identity has made Elena Watkins' life almost unbearable. However, new trials will test the 17 year-old's strength and push her to limits she didn’t think were possible. Only a mysterious offer from Blake Leaf, the Rubicon and a dragon predestined for evil, reveals there may be a light at the end of Elena’s dark tunnel. With the life she thought she knew crashing down around her, Elena will have to face a monumental decision about the fate of Paegeia. She can either make peace with Blake’s demands or try once again to unravel the Queen’s secrets that lie deep within her dragon, Tanya La Frey’s, heart. The third heart pounding novel in The Dragonian Series by Adrienne Woods

Read online

  • 1 217

    The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity

      Simon Winchester
$value['title']

The Professor and the Madman, masterfully researched and eloquently written, is an extraordinary tale of madness, genius, and the incredible obsessions of two remarkable men that led to the making of the Oxford English Dictionary -- and literary history. The compilation of the OED, begun in 1857, was one of the most ambitious projects ever undertaken. As definitions were collected, the overseeing committee, led by Professor James Murray, discovered that one man, Dr. W. C. Minor, had submitted more than ten thousand. When the committee insisted on honoring him, a shocking truth came to light: Dr. Minor, an American Civil War veteran, was also an inmate at an asylum for the criminally insane.

Read online

  • 1 217

    Horton Halfpott; Or, the Fiendish Mystery of Smugwick Manor; Or, the Loosening of M’Lady Luggertuck’s Corset

      Tom Angleberger
$value['title']

Tom Angleberger's latest, loopiest middle-grade novel begins when M'Lady Luggertuck loosens her corset (it's never been loosened before!), thereby setting off a chain of events in which all the strict rules of Smugwick Manor are abandoned. When, as a result of "the Loosening," the precious family heirloom, the Luggertuck Lump (quite literally a lump), goes missing, the Luggertucks look for someone to blame. Is it Horton Halfpott, the good-natured but lowly kitchen boy who can't tell a lie? Or one of the many colorful cast members in this silly romp of a mystery.

Read online

  • 1 217

    The Cat's Eye Shell

      Kate Forsyth
$value['title']

The final three paperbacks of the award-winning six-book series by Kate Forsyth. Life is always hard for the gypsies, who live to their own rhythm and their own rules, but since Oliver Cromwell had seized control of England, life had been harder – and drabber – than ever. But now life for the Finch tribe has gone even more horribly wrong. They have been accused of vagrancy and murder, and thrown into gaol with only three weeks to live. The only members of the family to escape are 13-year-old Emilia and her cousin Luka. They have been entrusted to find the six charms and bring them together again. Then, perhaps, the gypsies could once again have some luck... and the Finch tribe could walk free. What Emilia and Luka do not realise is that there is a price to be paid for each lucky charm, and that the cost may prove too high... 20th August – 24th August 1658: Having acquired the first three charms in the quest to secure their family's freedom, Luka and Emilia flee into Sussex with soldiers hot on their heels, in company with a Royalist duke, a Catholic priest, a highwayman and young Tom Whitehorse. Only the Catholic underground can help them all escape – but this is a most dangerous religion in the time of Puritan rule. And Emilia and Luka still must find the elusive gypsy tribe of the cat's eye shell, who, it seems, have turned to smuggling...

Read online

  • 1 217

    Ink & Bone

      Skyla Madi
$value['title']

Amidst the chaos of my life, I’ve realized that not all wars can be won. I see it now. My stubbornness was peeled away, allowing me to see through my unrealistic desire to take down a powerful criminal empire. I see it…and it’s too late. I never could turn my back on family—even when I know I should. It would have been okay. It should have been okay…but it wasn’t, and now the stain of betrayal is too prominent to ignore. I blame my brother… I blame my friend… …I blame myself.

Read online

  • 1 217

    Married a Stripper

      M. S. Parker
$value['title']

76,000 words. 300-page standalone romance novel. Includes free bonus book. I should have known that going to Vegas with Astra would cause more problems than it solved, but I never imagined that her latest scheme would completely change my life. Senator’s daughter, Piety Van Allen, wakes up in Las Vegas with no memory of the previous night’s escapes. Not only does she find a naked stranger in her bed, but when she learns that she’s now married to the handsome Australian stripper from Flames Down Under, panic erupts. However, her best friend, Astra, comes up with a plan that could solve everything…or cause even more problems. Don’t miss, Married A Stripper, MS Parker and Cassie Wild’s latest stand-alone romance.

Read online

  • 1 217

    Peculiar Treasures

      Robin Jones Gunn
$value['title']

A fresh start? Katie Weldon catches more than just the bouquet at the wedding of her best friend, Christy Miller. She also snags a job offer that launches her into an adventure she never imagined. Katie eagerly accepts the job as resident assistant at Rancho Corona University, only to find herself in a community of conflict. She thought this was where God wanted her, but how can God use her—and love her—when everything is falling apart? Especially when it comes to her boyfriend, Rick. Katie turns to the women in her life for solace, including Christy. In the safety of their love and encouragement she finally allows herself to spill her heart about her relationship with Rick. But even their advice can’t postpone the decision Katie must face, a decision that will define who she is and the woman she’s becoming. Peculiar Treasures is the first book in the Katie Weldon Series.

Read online

  • 1 217

    It Will End With Us

      Sam Savage
$value['title']

Newsweek's Favorite Books of 2014 Praise for Sam Savage: Winner of the O. Henry Prize for "Cigarettes" Sam Savage manages to be both artful and literal-minded in this faux autobiographical tale of childhood and a mother afflicted and finally driven mad by her wish for artistic success. Savage writes knowingly about the uncertainties of childhood memory, but creates a convincing world of sibling combat and adult pretension. A wonderful, absorbing novel. C. Michael Curtis, Fiction Editor, The Atlantic Monthly If the worldall its hysteric noisewas muted for just one minute, Sam Savage is what you might be fortunate enough to hear. His elegant laconism, his leaps across the self-evident, his soft aplomb, and the rarified air he bestows upon the mundane make him the only American writer worthy of the label the true eccentric."*Valeria Luiselli It Will End With Us is Sam Savage s latest deep dive into the mind and voice of a character, and his most personal work yet. Brick by textual brick, his narrator, Eve, builds a memorial to the mother who raised her, emotionally abandoned her, and shaped her in her own image. Eve s memories summon a childhood in rural South Carolina, a decaying house on impoverished soil, and an insular society succumbing to the influences of a wider world. It Will End With Us is a portrait of a place full of hummingbirds and wild irises, but also of frustration and grief. It is the story of a family tragedy, provoked by a mother s stifled ambitions, and seized by the wide-open gaze of a child. Rarely has a novel so brief taken on so much, so powerfully. Sam Savage is the best-selling author of * Firmin: Adventures of a Metropolitan Lowlife, The Cry of the Sloth, Glass, * and The Way of the Dog*, all from Coffee House Press. A finalist for the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award, Savage holds a PhD in philosophy from Yale University and resides in Madison, Wisconsin. "

Read online

  • 1 217

    City

      Clifford D. Simak
$value['title']

Simak's "City" is a series of connected stories, a series of legends, myths, and campfire stories told by Dogs about the end of human civilization, centering on the Webster family, who, among their other accomplishments, designed the ships that took Men to the stars and gave Dogs the gift of speech and robots to be their hands. Contents: · City · nv Astounding May 1944 · Huddling Place · ss Astounding Jul 1944 · Census · nv Astounding Sep 1944 · Desertion · ss Astounding Nov 1944 · Paradise · ss Astounding Jun 1946 · Hobbies · nv Astounding Nov 1946 · Aesop · nv Astounding Dec 1947 · The Simple Way [The Trouble with Ants] · nv Fantastic Adventures Jan 1951 · Author’s Note · is · Epilog · ss Astounding, ed. Harry Harrison, Random, 1973

Read online

  • 1 217

    Puzzles of the Black Widowers

      Isaac Asimov
$value['title']

The fifth of the six books featuring the Black Widowers. It collects twelve stories by Asimov, most reprinted from mystery magazines and a few previously unpublished, together with a general introduction and an afterword following each story by the author. Each story involves the club members' knowledge of trivia.

Read online

  • 1 216

    If Angels Burn

      Lynn Viehl
$value['title']

SHE RESTORES THE LIGHT OF HOPE. Dr. Alexandra Keller is Chicago's most brilliant reconstructive surgeon. HE DWELLS IN SHADOW. Michael Cyprien is New Orleans's most reclusive millionaire--and in desperate need of Dr. Keller's skills. A NEW DAWN AWAITS THEM BOTH. . . . Beneath the foundation of a mansion in the heart of the Garden District, Alexandra will perform an illegal surgery. Her patient's disfigurement is beyond medical repair. But his body's ability to recuperate from his wounds borders on the miraculous. Alexandra knows Michael Cyprien is no ordinary patient. Intrigued by how his remarkable physiology might benefit medical science, she is even more compelled by his presence--and the mystery surrounding him and his associates, a cadre of immortals who call themselves the Darkyn.

Read online

  • 1 216

    Switched

      Sienna Mercer
$value['title']

When Olivia Abbott moves to town, she's excited to join the cheerleading team and make new friends. Then she meets Ivy Vega. At first, Ivy, pale and dressed all in black, looks like Olivia's opposite. Then the girls look beyond the glittery pink blush and thick black eyeliner to discover they're identical--identical twins! Olivia and Ivy are brimming with plans to switch places and pull every twin trick in the book. But Olivia soon discovers that she and Ivy aren't exactly the same. Ivy's a vampire. And she's not the only one in town.

Read online

  • 1 216

    Faelorehn - Book One of the Otherworld Trilogy

      Jenna Elizabeth Johnson
$value['title']

Meghan Elam has been strange her entire life: her eyes have this odd habit of changing color and she sees and hears things no one else does. When the visions and voices in her head start to get worse, she is convinced that her parents will want to drag her off to another psychiatrist. That is, until the mysterious Cade MacRoich shows up out of nowhere with an explanation of his own.I never heard him come after me and even as I climbed the slope and stumbled onto our shaded back lawn, I didn’t look back. It was like the day the gnomes chased me all over again, but this time I was not escaping some horrible little creatures, I was fleeing from an incredibly good-looking guy who could very well understand me completely. I was either saving myself from that serial killer I always imagined lived down in the swamp, or I had finally gone over the deep end . . .Meghan Elam has been strange her entire life: her eyes have this odd habit of changing color and she sees and hears things no one else does. When the visions and voices in her head start to get worse, she is convinced that her parents will want to drag her off to another psychiatrist. That is, until the mysterious Cade MacRoich shows up out of nowhere with an explanation of his own.Cade brings her news of another realm where goblins and gnomes are the norm, a place where whispering spirits exist in the very earth, and a world where Meghan just might find the answers she has always sought.

Read online

  • 1 216