Parnassus on Wheels

      Christopher Morley
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I imagined him in his beloved Brooklyn, strolling in Prospect Park and preaching to chance comers about his gospel of good books. "When you sell a man a book," says Roger Mifflin, the sprite-like book peddler at the center of this classic novella, "you don't sell him just twelve ounces of paper and ink and glue—you sell him a whole new life." In this beguiling but little-known prequel to Christopher Morley's belovedHaunted Bookshop, the "whole new life" that the traveling bookman delivers to Helen McGill, the narrator of Parnassus on Wheels, provides the romantic comedy that drives this charming love letter to a life in books. ** The Art of The Novella Series **Too short to be a novel, too long to be a short story, the novella is generally unrecognized by academics and publishers. Nonetheless, it is a form beloved and practiced by literature's greatest writers. In the Art Of The Novella series, Melville House celebrates this renegade art form and its practitioners with titles that are, in many instances, presented in book form for the first time.

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    On Every Side

      Karen Kingsbury
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After suffering the loss of his mother and separation from his sister and the girl he loved, Jordan Riley fills the holes in his soul with anger. But Faith Evans begins to disassemble the walls around Jordan ’s heart, and he realizes there’s something very familiar about her… Everything Is on the Line ...for Faith Evans, an up-and-coming newscaster. A woman of honor and integrity, who finds herself making a stand against the one man she never imagined would be her enemy... ...for Jordan Riley, a powerful attorney dedicated to fighting for human rights and against God. A man still reckoning with the boyhood loss of the three women who once meant everything to him... ...for Bethany, Pennsylvania, a small town no one ever dreamed would become the center of national attention. But it has. All because of a beloved, hundred-year-old statue of Jesus Christ that stands in Bethany’s park. A statue that some say is a clear violation of separation of church and state. A statue that has to come down. A statue that suddenly becomes the focus of a bitter conflict—one rife with political intrigue, social injustice, and personal conflicts. Before it’s over, everything that Jordan and Faith and the town of Bethany stand for will be challenged. Will love be enough when the battle rages on every side? Story Behind the Book “Each of my novels is a piece of my heart. Where Yesterday Lives was my first-ever novel, and as such it is somewhat autobiographical. The childhood story of Ellen Barrett, her love for her parents and siblings, is my story—though her current story and struggles are fictional. On Every Side sheds light on the struggle for religious freedom in today’s climate; something I am passionate about. Finally, When Joy Came to Stay is the story of one woman’s battle against depression and the secrets of her past.” —Karen Kingsbury

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    The Scorpio Races

      Maggie Stiefvater
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It happens at the start of every November: the Scorpio Races. Riders attempt to keep hold of their water horses long enough to make it to the finish line. Some riders live. Others die. At age nineteen, Sean Kendrick is the returning champion. He is a young man of few words, and if he has any fears, he keeps them buried deep, where no one else can see them. Puck Connolly is different. She never meant to ride in the Scorpio Races. But fate hasn’t given her much of a chance. So she enters the competition — the first girl ever to do so. She is in no way prepared for what is going to happen.

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    The Flying U Ranch

      B. M. Bower
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The well-known characters of Chip, Pink, Andy Green, Irish, Slim, Weary, Big Medicine and the Little Doctor – all the genial and well beloved members of the Happy Family – once more appear in this splendid new story of the cattleland. While “the old man” was away in Chicago, Dunk Whittaker, his former pardner, stocked a neighboring ranch with sheep. The very sight and smell of their woolly bodies, as the sheep were driven upon the choicest pasturage land of the Flying U Coulee, drove the cowboys frantic with rage.

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    The Thirteenth Unicorn

      W. D. Newman
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Ben Alderman and his sister Casey discover a portal to a world of magic, a world discovered, shaped, and settled by wizards. It is a world where elves and dwarves are locked in mortal combat against a witch who is trying to free the last wizard from exile. The witch has been defeated once before but with the combined power of the wizard, no one will be able to stand against them.While spending the summer with their grandparents on a remote farm in South Carolina, Ben Alderman and his sister Casey uncover a hidden world of magic; a world their grandmother is secretly visiting. It is a world where elves and dwarves are locked in mortal combat against a witch who is trying to free the last surviving wizard from exile. The witch has been defeated once before but with the combined power of the wizard, no one will be able to stand against them. Much to Ben's dismay, he learns that he is the one foretold in the ancient elfin prophecies to bring about the downfall of the witch and save this exciting new world from destruction.

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    The Other

      David Guterson
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From the author of the bestselling Snow Falling on Cedars comes a compelling new novel about youth and idealism, adulthood and its compromises, and two powerfully different visions of what it means to live a good life.

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    Murder in Primary Colors

      Nora Barker
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Normally the most violent thing that happens on the campus of Midstate University is a football game, but that all changes when Dr. Christmas Connery and her basset hound find the director of the Midstate Museum of Art on the gallery floor, murdered, in the middle of a kinetic sculpture exhibit.Normally the most violent thing that happens on the campus of Midstate University is a football game, but that all suddenly changes. Dr. Christmas Connery and her basset hound find Elizabeth Page, the director of the Midstate Museum of Art, dead on the gallery floor in the middle of a kinetic sculpture exhibit shortly after a successful opening. It gets even more complicated when it’s discovered she was killed with a very unusual weapon, one that crushed the side of her skull with a half-inch steel ball bearing. The list of people who were not fond of Page is a long one. She could charm the big bucks out of even the stingiest donors, but she rarely wasted her energy on even being polite to her colleagues. Chris’s murder-buff mother, Pansy, while visiting Chris, works her wiles on the police detective in charge, whose unwelcome presence on campus shakes the ivy-covered walls to their foundations. When the most obvious suspect is murdered, even Chris herself is suddenly in danger.

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    Dead and Buryd

      Chele Cooke
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On the planet Os-Veruh, the native Veniche have endured a decade under the oppressive rule of a race of invaders. When Georgianna Lennox, a Veniche medic, discovers her childhood friend has been sold into slavery, her struggle to save one life ignites a battle to liberate her homeworld. Is she about to discover that it is better to be dead than 'buryd'?“You are an inmate, not a medic. You should get used to that.”On the planet Os-Veruh, the native Veniche have endured a decade under the oppressive rule of a race of invaders, the Adveni.When Georgianna Lennox, a Veniche medic, discovers her childhood friend has been sold into slavery, she seeks help from a revolutionary outlaw group.As Georgianna’s struggle to save one life ignites a battle to liberate her homeworld, is she about to discover that it is better to be dead than ‘buryd’?Dead and Buryd is the first book in the Out of Orbit series.

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    Dear Aaron

      Mariana Zapata
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Ruby Santos knew exactly what she was getting herself into when she signed up to write a soldier overseas. The guidelines were simple: one letter or email a week for the length of his or her deployment. Care packages were optional. Been there, done that. She thought she knew what to expect. What she didn’t count on was falling in love with the guy.**

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    Knights: Defenders of Ollanhar

      Robert E. Keller
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Lannon Sunshield and his friends have found a new home--the dreary, cursed tower known as Ollanhar where the Dark Watchmen once dwelt. They vow to restore and defend the ancient keep, even as an old enemy returns stronger than ever and creatures of darkness close in on them. Meanwhile, King Verlamer continues to expand his colossal, brutal empire, and Dremlock Kingdom remains his primary target.The Black Grouse is an English hero in Scotland, helping out where the Scottish can’t, mainly due to their love of barley based refreshments. With his team, not only does the Grouse perform well at the Highland games, but also in his mission. The villains are English too, a right mad duo, but are sorted out by the grouse and his friends. The real villain is a Scot, whose name, if you don’t read it properly, sounds like a fish Scotland is famous for (he has a thing about those ugly wind tower things).I tried to write it in a Scottish accent, so it hasn’t been spell checked, as that task would have sent whoever attempted it quite in need of a good stiff drink.

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    Memories of My Melancholy Whores

      Gabriel García Márquez
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Memories of My Melancholy Whores is a powerful novel about a man who so far has never felt love from Nobel Laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez, author of the One Hundred Years of Solitude. 'The year I turned ninety, I wanted to give myself the gift of a night of wild love with an adolescent virgin' On the eve of his ninetieth birthday a newspaper columnist in Colombia decides to give himself 'a night of mad love with a virgin adolescent'. But on seeing this beautiful girl he falls deeply under her spell. His love for his 'Delgadina' causes him to recall all the women he has paid to perform acts of love. And so the columnist realises he must chronicle the life of his heart, to offer it freely to the world. . .

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    Stay Where You Are and Then Leave

      John Boyne
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The day the First World War broke out, Alfie Summerfield's father promised he wouldn't go away to fight - but he broke that promise the following day. Four years later, Alfie doesn't know where his father might be, other than that he's away on a special, secret mission. Then, while shining shoes at King's Cross Station, Alfie unexpectedly sees his father's name - on a sheaf of papers belonging to a military doctor. Bewildered and confused, Alfie realises his father is in a hospital close by - a hospital treating soldiers with an unusual condition. Alfie is determined to rescue his father from this strange, unnerving place . . .

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    More Pricks Than Kicks

      Samuel Beckett
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Fiction. "More Pricks Than Kicks", Beckett's early tragicomic masterpiece, is a collection of stories about Belacqua, a student in Dublin in the twenties, his adventures, encounters and amours, that through its original style and wry commentary succeeds in turning everyday incidents into high drama and lets us see street and university life through the observant and caustic wit of the author. Highly enjoyable to read, it delights in exuberant language and the pleasure of discovery, very typical of the young writer who in the post-war years was to astonish the world with Waiting for Godot and Molloy. First published in 1934, "More Pricks Than Kicks" is Beckett's second work of fiction. It serves as an excellent introduction to the later work of one of the most seminal and exciting major writers of the twentieth century.

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    Oil! A Novel by Upton Sinclair

      Upton Sinclair
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In Oil! Upton Sinclair fashioned a novel out of the oil scandals of the Harding administration, providing in the process a detailed picture of the development of the oil industry in Southern California. Bribery of public officials, class warfare, and international rivalry over oil production are the context for Sinclair's story of a genial independent oil developer and his son, whose sympathy with the oilfield workers and socialist organizers fuels a running debate with his father. Senators, small investors, oil magnates, a Hollywood film star, and a crusading evangelist people the pages of this lively novel.

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    Archer's Voice

      Mia Sheridan
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When Bree Prescott arrives in the sleepy, lakeside town of Pelion, Maine, she hopes against hope that this is the place where she will finally find the peace she so desperately seeks. On her first day there, her life collides with Archer Hale, an isolated man who holds a secret agony of his own. A man no one else sees. Archer's Voice is the story of a woman chained to the memory of one horrifying night and the man whose love is the key to her freedom. It is the story of a silent man who lives with an excruciating wound and the woman who helps him find his voice. It is the story of suffering, fate, and the transformative power of love.

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    October: The Story of the Russian Revolution

      China Miéville
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In February 1917, in the midst of bloody war, Russia was still an autocratic monarchy: nine months later, it became the first socialist state in world history. How did this unimaginable transformation take place? How was a ravaged and backward country, swept up in a desperately unpopular war, rocked by not one but two revolutions? This is the story of the extraordinary months between those upheavals, in February and October, of the forces and individuals who made 1917 so epochal a year, of their intrigues, negotiations, conflicts and catastrophes. From familiar names like Lenin and Trotsky to their opponents Kornilov and Kerensky; from the byzantine squabbles of urban activists to the remotest villages of a sprawling empire; from the revolutionary railroad Sublime to the ciphers and static of coup by telegram; from grand sweep to forgotten detail. Historians have debated the revolution for a hundred years, its portents and possibilities: the mass of literature can be daunting. But here is a book for those new to the events, told not only in their historical import but in all their passion and drama and strangeness. Because as well as a political event of profound and ongoing consequence, Miéville reveals the Russian Revolution as a breathtaking story. From the Hardcover edition.

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    Circle of Stones

      Catherine Fisher
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TODAY: Sulis, a teenage girl with a mysterious past, arrives in Bath, England, with a new identity. She feels safe at the King’s Circus, a ring of old, strange stone houses where she lives with her foster family—until she spots the one person she’s been trying to outrun. THREE HUNDRED YEARS AGO: Zac is apprenticed to a mad architect who plans to create the world’s first circular street, King’s Circus. Zac probes the mysticism surrounding the structure, but he has his own secret agenda. THE ANCIENT PAST: The mythical first builder of the city of Bath, a leprous druid king, discovers its healing waters . . . but to what end? In each voice, unexpected mysteries entwine, linking together three haunting stories as they hurtle toward a smart and brilliantly intriguing climax.

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