Short Story. As dean, Jason makes the tough calls so his struggling small college will survive, including hiring a digitally savvy scholar to replace the recently deceased Professor Maynard Allen. In life, Maynard never interfered with Jason's agenda. So why is his ghost haunting Jason's office? To destroy the new school Jason must create? Or is his plan even more sinister: to reform Jason?Short Story (6,639 words). As dean, Jason makes the tough calls so his struggling small college will survive. So when the school’s legendary English professor dies of cancer, Jason hires a trendy, digitally savvy scholar as Dr. Maynard Allen’s replacement.Jason had no animosity toward Maynard, and Maynard never interfered with Jason’s agenda. So why is his ghost haunting Jason’s office? Is he trying to destroy the new school Jason must create? Or is he there for something much more sinister: reforming Jason?“A Spring Break Carol” is a short ghost story of 6,639 words

Along For the Ride: And Other Stories is an enchanting collection of short stories which range from Fantasy to Science Fiction with some Horror in between, all while focusing on the human condition and what lies within us.Along for the Ride: And Other Stories explores the point of view of a literal beast in Rex Noctem and the outcomes of the far more terrible, figurative ones that lie just behind the self control of those in power with Purgation. Then, The Final Account of Dr. Fredrick Morrison takes us back to real monsters that spill over from our darkest fears into reality to pull us into the nightmares we harbor in our mind from day to day. Next, Along for the Ride ventures into an examination of life and to which unknown we are heading to from the darkness that we all come from, with a colorful, metaphoric depiction of all the puzzling mystery in between. Finally, Rebirth closes with a tale about the possibility of the consequences of our actions leading us to discover who we really are in Rebirth.

*Forensic detective Lincoln Rhyme and his partner Amelia Sachs return in this short story from *New York Times* bestselling author Jeffery Deaver* **THE DELIVERYMAN** *A Lincoln Rhyme Short Story* A man is murdered in a back alley. Renowned forensic detective Lincoln Rhyme and his partner Amelia Sachs are left with a veritable mountain of evidence collected from the trash-filled alley, and their only lead is a young eyewitness: the man's eight-year-old son, who was riding along on his father's delivery route. But the murder victim may have been more than just a simple deliveryman. Rhyme and Sachs uncover clues that he might have been delivering a highly illegal, contraband shipment--which is now missing. And someone wants it back...

David Sedaris's beloved holiday collection is new again with six more pieces, including a never before published story. Along with such favorites as the diaries of a Macy's elf and the annals of two very competitive families, are Sedaris's tales of tardy trick-or-treaters ("Us and Them"); the difficulties of explaining the Easter Bunny to the French ("Jesus Shaves"); what to do when you've been locked out in a snowstorm ("Let It Snow"); the puzzling Christmas traditions of other nations ("Six to Eight Black Men"); what Halloween at the medical examiner's looks like ("The Monster Mash"); and a barnyard secret Santa scheme gone awry ("Cow and Turkey"). No matter what your favorite holiday, you won't want to miss celebrating it with the author who has been called "one of the funniest writers alive" (Economist).

Earthquake damage has left Winding Circle vulnerable to pirate attack and Tris, Briar, Daja, and Sandry are working with the community to strengthen their defenses. When the pirate onslaught begins, two things become terribly clear: The pirates have a powerful new weapon--and they have an accomplice within Winding Circle. But they've failed to anticipate the fury of a young mage who has been betrayed once too often, and who has very stubborn, very loyal friends.... With the defenses of Winding Circle Temple seriously weakened by an earthquake, Tris and her fellow mages-in-training try to join their different magic powers to protect the Winding Circle community from a pirate attack.

Return to the sun-drenched settings of The Shell Seekers and the rich emotion of Coming Home, as Rosamunde Pilcher takes you on an unforgettable journey of the heart. It is the passage of a young woman from a relationship that has become too tame and predictable to the excitement of a new life brimming with possibilities and the thrilling promise of love. And along the way, all the hopes, secrets, and desires that enrich us unite a joyous carousel of life that only Rosamunde Pilcher can create.

From the New York Times best-selling author of The Dovekeepers, Alice Hoffman is at her haunting, thought-provoking best with these interconnected stories about a Long Island family, the Samuelsons, and the lessons in survival and transformation that life brings to every family... "Pulls the reader in effortlessly...Hoffman has the power to make you really laugh and really cry." --USA Today "Moving and deadpan funny...Epiphanies about passion, pain, and resiliency induce smiles and shivers in equal measure." --Entertainment Weekly

Beginning with his debut masterpiece, The Naked and the Dead, Norman Mailer has repeatedly told the truth about war. Why Are We at War? returns Mailer to the gravity of the battlefield and the grand hubris of the politicians who send soldiers there to die. First published in the early days of the Iraq War, Why Are We at War? is an explosive argument about the American quest for empire that still carries weight today. Scrutinizing the Bush administration’s words and actions, Mailer unleashes his trademark moral rigor: “Because democracy is noble, it is always endangered. . . . To assume blithely that we can export democracy into any country we choose can serve paradoxically to encourage more fascism at home and abroad.” Praise for Why Are We at War? “We’re overloaded with information these days, some of it possibly true. Mailer offers a provocative—and persuasive—cultural and intellectual frame.”—Newsweek   “[Mailer] still has the stamina to churn out hard-hitting criticism.”—Los Angeles Times  * “Penetrating . . . There’s plenty of irreverent wit and fresh thinking on display.”—San Francisco Chronicle   “Eloquent . . . thoughtful . . . Why Are We at War? *pulls no punches.”—Fort Worth Star-Telegram *Praise for Norman Mailer   “[Norman Mailer] loomed over American letters longer and larger than any other writer of his generation.”—The New York Times “A writer of the greatest and most reckless talent.”—The New Yorker “Mailer is indispensable, an American treasure.”—The Washington Post “A devastatingly alive and original creative mind.”—Life “Mailer is fierce, courageous, and reckless and nearly everything he writes has sections of headlong brilliance.”—The New York Review of Books “The largest mind and imagination [in modern] American literature . . . Unlike just about every American writer since Henry James, Mailer has managed to grow and become richer in wisdom with each new book.”—Chicago Tribune “Mailer is a master of his craft. His language carries you through the story like a leaf on a stream.”—*The Cincinnati Post From the Trade Paperback edition.

The final adventure in the New York Times bestselling Temeraire series that started with the beloved His Majesty’s Dragon which has won fans of Napoleonic-era military history, Anne McCaffrey’s Pern novels, and Patrick O’Brian’s seafaring adventures. The deadly campaign in Russia has cost both Napoleon and those allied against him. Napoleon has been denied his victory…but at a terrible price. Lawrence and the dragon Temeraire pursue the fleeing French army back west, but are demoralized when Napoleon makes it back to Paris unscathed. Worse, they soon learn that the French have stolen Termeraire and Iskierka’s egg. Now, it is do or die, as our heroes not only need to save Temeraire’s offspring but also to stop Napoleon for good!

Included in The Malazan Empire collection are Steven Erikson's books: Gardens of the Moon Deadhouse Gates Memories of Ice House of Chains Midnight Tides The Bonehunters Reaper's Gale Toll the Hounds Dust of Dreams The Crippled God At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

The Cunning Man is a perceptive and entertaining memoir of a doctor’s life, available as an eBook for the first time. When Father Hobbes mysteriously dies at the high altar on Good Friday, Dr. Jonathan Hullah—whose holistic work has earned him the label “Cunning Man” (for the wizard of the folk tradition)—wants to know why. The physician-cum-diagnostician’s search for answers compels him to look back over his own long life. He conjures vivid memories of the dazzling intellectual high jinks and compassionate philosophies of his circle, including flamboyant, mystical curate Charlie Iredale; cynical, quixotic professor Brocky Gilmartin; outrageous banker Darcy Dwyer; and jocular, muscular artist Pansy Todhunter. In compelling and hilarious scenes from the divine comedy of life, The Cunning Man reveals profound truths about being human. In Robertson Davies’ last novel, he returns to those issues which concerned him throughout his writing career–the nature of friendship, religion, faith, and artistic life–with his famous wit and humour and his usual rich characterization.

Can a New York City orphan find happiness in Fate Valley? Big hopes ... Orphan and magazine journalist Samantha Cooper is in Fate Valley after a DNA test says she’s related to one of the town’s founders. Her research gets sidetracked when a human-shifter dating website matches her with big, burly confectioner Benjamin Darling. Ben’s as sweet as the candy he makes … but does a New York girl really belong in a small town? Sweet dreams ... After waiting seven long years, Ben isn’t about to blow it with curvy Samantha. If food is the way to a man’s heart, maybe candy will melt his mate’s? Dinners, dancing, and plenty of flirting are his game plan for winning her over. History’s mysteries When a statue of the town’s founder disappears overnight, Ben and Samantha discover there’s much more to Fate Valley’s origins than either of them suspected. Long-buried secrets come to light as they investigate. But will the truth give them the candy-ever-after ending they need?

Dr. Dowan Purcell is al bijna twee maanden spoorloos. De negenzestigjarige arts heeft zijn collega s bij het Pacific Meadows verzorgingstehuis gedag gezegd en is met zijn auto naar huis gegaan, maar daar is hij nooit aangekomen. Zijn verbitterde eerste vrouw Fiona is ervan overtuigd dat hij nog in leven is. Maar zijn tweede vrouw, Crystal, een voormalig stripper van negenentwintig, weet zeker dat hij dood is. Daarom huurt Fiona Kinsey Millhone in om het uit te zoeken. Al snel ontdekt Kinsey dat Purcell betrokken was bij allerlei duistere zaken. Verzekeringsfraude is slechts een draadje in het web van bedrog en dubbelspel waar Kinsey in terechtkomt. En dan is er ook nog Tommy Hevener, een aantrekkelijke roodharige twintiger die zijn zinnen heeft gezet op Kinsey. Een man met een interessant verleden

Only a farmer could delve so deeply into the origins of food, and only a writer of Wendell Berry’s caliber could convey it with such conviction and eloquence. Long before Whole Foods organic produce was available at your local supermarket, Berry was farming with the purity of food in mind. For the last five decades, Berry has embodied mindful eating through his land practices and his writing. In recognition of that influence, Michael Pollan here offers an introduction to this wonderful collection. Drawn from over thirty years of work, this collection joins bestsellers The Omnivore’s Dilemma, by Pollan, and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, by Barbara Kingsolver, as essential reading for anyone who cares about what they eat. The essays address such concerns as: How does organic measure up against locally grown? What are the differences between small and large farms, and how does that affect what you put on your dinner table? What can you do to support sustainable agriculture? A progenitor of the Slow Food movement, Wendell Berry reminds us all to take the time to understand the basics of what we ingest. “Eating is an agriculture act,” he writes. Indeed, we are all players in the food economy.

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Cartel comes an explosive novel of the drug trade that takes you deep inside a world riddled with corruption, betrayal, and bloody revenge. The prequel to The Cartel, and set about 10 years earlier, The Power of the Dog introduces a brilliant cast of characters. Art Keller is an obsessive DEA agent. The Barrera brothers are heirs to a drug empire. Nora Hayden is a jaded teenager who becomes a high-class hooker. Father Parada is a powerful and incorruptible Catholic priest. Callan is an Irish kid from Hell’s kitchen who grows up to be a merciless hit man. And they are all trapped in the world of the Mexican drug Federación. From the streets of New York City to Mexico City and Tijuana to the jungles of Central America, this is the war on drugs like you’ve never seen it.

Beyond our world lies a land where darkness reigns - the land of the virile, sensual Shadowdwellers. Yet their mysterious abilities are no match for the power of desire... Double Your Pleasure... Discipline... Penance... Order... A Sanctuary priest's life revolves around such things. But when Sagan is taken captive and thrust into the Alaskan wilderness, he encounters a woman who challenges his faith and his self-control. Valera is a natural born witch who almost lost herself to the lure of dark magic. By rights, Sagan should shun her, but convention will count for nothing in the face of a passion that could change the world of the Shadowdwellers forever.... As Chancellor of the Shadowdwellers, Malaya's first duty is to her people. Her bodyguard, Guin, knows this only too well. For tradition's sake, Malaya must marry, and the thought of this lush, vibrant, woman in a loveless union is impossible for him to bear. Guin loves Malaya - not as a subject loves his queen but as a man craves a woman. And even if he cannot keep her, he'll show her everything she stands to lose...

Marilyn French, author of My Summer with George, The Women's Room, and Her Mother's Daughter, learns at the beginning of this memoir that she has esophageal cancer. (A smoker for 46 years, she had ignored friends and doctors who implored her to quit.) She is told that one survives metastasized esophageal cancer. A Season in Hell is French's personal story of her journey through the nightmares of aggressive cancer treatment, seizures, a two-week coma, kindhearted nurses, and uncompassionate doctors. One told her not to get her hopes up when her tumor disappeared, and a neurologist said (prophetically?), "Doctors hate writers; they always say horrible things about us." It is also French's story of triumph--because she succeeds in conquering the cancer, though she emerges from the struggle far from well, with "just about every system in my body [damaged] by chemotherapy or radiation." Readers share the worst and the best with French, and by the end of the book get to know this woman, feel a part of her humanity, respect her courage, and cherish her circle of close friends (including Gloria Steinem) and relatives who gave her so much when she needed it most. --Joan Price

Intrigue, Betrayal, Blackmail... From the violent, heroin-riddled back streets of Turkey to the heart of government corruption in America, Mission Earth relentlessly hurls into a new labyrinth of Earth's underworld, torn by Mafia wars and criminal rivalry, abounding with assassins, killers, prostitutes, drug-runners, and subverted government agents, the gripping story masterly twists and turns with its heart-pounding pace. The fierce, unique blend of tension, ingenuity, humor, betrayal and tragedy continues...

The next novel by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Tinkers, in which a father's grief over the loss of his daughter threatens to derail his life. Powerful, brilliantly written, and deeply moving Paul Harding has, in Enon, written a worthy successor to Tinkers, a debut which John Freeman on NPR called "a masterpiece." Drawn always to the rich landscape of his character's inner lives, here, through the first person narrative of Charlie Crosby (grandson to George Crosby of Tinkers), Harding creates a devastating portrait of a father trying desperately to come to terms with family loss.

The long-awaited new novel from Greg Egan! Hugo Award-winning author Egan returns to the field with Incandescence, a new novel of hard SF. The Amalgam spans nearly the entire galaxy, and is composed of innumerable beings from a wild variety of races, some human or near it, some entirely other. The one place that they cannot go is the bulge, the bright, hot center of the galaxy. There dwell the Aloof, who for millions of years have deflected any and all attempts to communicate with or visit them. So when Rakesh is offered an opportunity to travel within their sphere, in search of a lost race, he cannot turn it down. Roi is a member of that lost race, which is not only lost to the Amalgam, but lost to itself. In their world, there is but toil, and history and science are luxuries that they can ill afford. Rakesh's journey will take him across millennia and light years. Roi's will take her across vistas of learning and discovery just as vast.

Set in a beautiful but economically devastated Pennsylvania steel town, American Rust is a novel of the lost American dream and the desperation--as well as the acts of friendship, loyalty, and love--that arises from its loss. From local bars to train yards to prison, it's the story of two young men, bound to the town by family, responsibility, inertia, and the beauty around them, who dream of a future beyond the factories and abandoned homes. Left alone to care for his aging father after his mother commits suicide and his sister escapes to Yale, Isaac English longs for a life beyond his hometown. When he finally sets out to leave for good, accompanied by his temperamental best friend, they are caught up in a terrible act of violence that changes their lives forever. Evoking John Steinbeck’s novels of restless lives during the Great Depression, American Rust delves into the contemporary American heartland at a moment of profound unrest and uncertainty about the future. It's a dark but lucid vision, a moving novel about the bleak realities that battle our desire for transcendence and the power of love and friendship to redeem us.