The Relive Box and Other Stories

      T. Coraghessan Boyle
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A raucous collection of short stories from the astonishingly inventive and bestselling writer of The Harder They Come and The Terranauts While T. C. Boyle is known as one of our greatest American novelists, he is also an acknowledged master of the short story. In The Relive Box, his first collection following two hugely influential collected volumes, Boyle’s crackling wit and thematic range combine with a penetrating social consciousness to produce his trademark “inventive and often crushingly comic” (NPR) short fiction. From the title story, featuring a so-called relive box that allows users to experience anew almost any moment from their past, to “The Five-Pound Burrito,” the tale of a man aiming to build the biggest burrito in town, the twelve stories in this collection represent a whole new way of looking at the world from one of the best storytellers at work today. The Relive Box is an exuberant, linguistically dazzling book from someone the Boston Globe has said is “such a good storyteller it will probably take, as in Alice Munro’s case, the Nobel Prize or retirement for us to realize what tremendous talent has lain right in front of our noses.”

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    Private Life

      Jane Smiley
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A riveting new novel from the Pulitzer Prize–winner that traverses the intimate landscape of one woman’s life, from the 1880s to World War II. Margaret Mayfield is nearly an old maid at twenty-seven in post–Civil War Missouri when she marries Captain Andrew Jackson Jefferson Early. He’s the most famous man their small town has ever produced: a naval officer and a brilliant astronomer—a genius who, according to the local paper, has changed the universe. Margaret’s mother calls the match “a piece of luck.” Margaret is a good girl who has been raised to marry, yet Andrew confounds her expectations from the moment their train leaves for his naval base in faraway California. Soon she comes to understand that his devotion to science leaves precious little room for anything, or anyone, else. When personal tragedies strike and when national crises envelop the country, Margaret stands by her husband. But as World War II approaches, Andrew’s obsessions take a different, darker turn, and Margaret is forced to reconsider the life she has so carefully constructed. Private Life is a beautiful evocation of a woman’s inner world: of the little girl within the hopeful bride, of the young woman filled with yearning, and of the faithful wife who comes to harbor a dangerous secret. But it is also a heartbreaking portrait of marriage and the mysteries that endure even in lives lived side by side; a wondrously evocative historical panorama; and, above all, a masterly, unforgettable novel from one of our finest storytellers. From the Hardcover edition.

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    Undeniable

      Madeline Sheehan
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Librarian Note: Alternate Cover Edition for 9781301741724. Warning (This book contains several aspects of the uglier side of life; it is not for everyone.) The story of Deuce and Eva... An undeniable connection that stands the test of time. Unforgettable moments. Love and pain and everything in between. I was five years old when I met Deuce, he was twenty-three, and it was visiting day at Riker's Island. My father, Damon Fox or "Preacher", the President of the infamous "Silver Demon's" motorcycle club -mother chapter- in East Village, New York City, was doing a five-year stint for aggravated assault and battery with a deadly weapon. It was not the first time my father had been in prison and it wouldn't be the last. The Silver Demon's MC was a notorious group of criminals who lived by the code of the road and gave modern society and all it entailed a great big f**k you. "Never forget the day Eva came bouncin' into my fked up life, shakin' pigtails, singin' Janis, wearin’ chucks and sharin' peanuts and straight up stole any decency I had left which wasn't a whole lot but she fkin' took it and I've been hers ever since."

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    Sun-Kissed Christmas

      Katherine Applegate
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All she wants for Christmas… Summer is headed to the Keys for winter break, but what should be a fun-in-the-sun holiday is becoming unbearable. Summer hasn’t been able to stop thinking about her ex-boyfriend, Austin, since their summer romance fizzled, and she can’t stand seeing him at the beach with his new girlfriend…. Now Austin is everywhere she goes. She’s reminded of how much fun they had, how gorgeous he is, and what she really wants is what she can’t have. Will it take a Christmas miracle for Summer to survive this holiday season? Or will the mistletoe work its magic?

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    The Dark Divine

      Bree Despain
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Grace Divine, daughter of the local pastor, always knew something terrible happened the night Daniel Kalbi disappeared--the night she found her brother Jude collapsed on the porch, covered in his own blood--but she has no idea what a truly monstrous secret that night held. The memories her family has tried to bury resurface when Daniel returns, three years later, and enrolls in Grace and Jude's high school. Despite promising Jude she'll stay away, Grace cannot deny her attraction to Daniel's shocking artistic abilities, his way of getting her to look at the world from new angles, and the strange, hungry glint in his eyes. The closer Grace gets to Daniel, the more she jeopardizes her life, as her actions stir resentment in Jude and drive him to embrace the ancient evil Daniel unleashed that horrific night. Grace must discover the truth behind the boy's dark secret...and the cure that can save the ones she loves. But she may have to lay down the ultimate sacrifice to do it--her soul.

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    This Charming Man

      Marian Keyes
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'Everybody remembers where they were the day they heard that Paddy de Courcy was getting married'. But for four women in particular, the big news about the charismatic politician is especially momentous... Stylist Lola has every reason to beinterested in who Paddy's marrying - because she's his girlfriend, yet she definitely isn't the bride-to-be ... Journalist Grace wants the inside story on the de Courcy engagement and thinks Lola holds the key ... while Grace's sister, Marnie, still can'tforget her first love: a certain Paddy de Courcy. And what of the soon-to-be Mrs de Courcy? Alicia will do anything for her fiancé and is determined to be the perfect wife. But does she know thereal Paddy? Four very different women. One awfully charming man. And the dark secret that binds them all...

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    Cutie Pies and Deadly Lies: A Cozy Mystery

      Addison Moore
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A HILARIOUS cozy mystery from the New York Times bestselling author Addison Moore My name is Lottie Lemon and I see dead people.Okay, so I rarely see dead people, mostly I see creatures of the dearly departed variety, aka dead pets. And for some reason those sweet, fluffy albeit paranormal cuties always seem to act as a not-so-great harbinger of deadly things to come for their previous owner. So when I saw that sweet orange tabby twirling around my landlord’s ankles, I figured Merilee was in for trouble. Personally, I was hoping for a skinned knee—what I got was a top spot in an open homicide investigation. Throw in a hot judge and an ornery detective that oozes testosterone and that pretty much sums up my life right about now. Have I mentioned how cute that detective is? Lottie Lemon has a bakery to tend to, a budding romance with perhaps one too many suitors and she has the supernatural ability to see dead pets—which are always harbingers for ominous things to come. Throw in the occasional ghost of the human variety, a string of murders and her insatiable thirst for justice and you’ll have more chaos than you know what to do with. Living in the small town of Honey Hollow can be murder. From the NEW YORK TIMES and USA TODAY bestselling author, Addison Moore— Cosmopolitan Magazine calls Addison's books, "...easy, frothy fun!"

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    Literary Occasions: Essays

      V. S. Naipaul
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Nobel laureate V. S. Naipaul brings his signature gifts of observation, his ferocious impatience with received truths, and his masterfully condensed prose to these eleven essays on reading, writing, and identity—which have been brought together for the first time. Here the subject is Naipaul’s literary evolution: the books that delighted him as a child; the books he wrote as a young man; the omnipresent predicament of trying to master an essentially metropolitan, imperial art form as an Asian colonial from a New World plantation island. He assesses Joseph Conrad, the writer most frequently cited as his forebear, and, in his celebrated Nobel Lecture, “Two Worlds,” traces the full arc of his own career. Literary Occasions is an indispensable addition to the Naipaul oeuvre, penetrating, elegant, and affecting. From the Trade Paperback edition.

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    The Nonesuch

      Georgette Heyer
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STARTLING NEWS When they learned that Sir Waldo Hawkridge was coming, the village gentry were thrown into a flurry. The famed sportsman himself! Heir to an uncounted fortune, and a leader of London society! The local youths idolized "the Nonesuch"; the fathers disapproved; and the mothers and daughters saw him as the most eligible--and elusive--man in the kingdom. But one person remained calm. When she became a governess, Ancilla Trent had put away romance, and at first she could only be amused at the fuss over Sir Waldo. But when he ignored the well-born beauties of the district, a shocking question began to form: could the celebrated gentleman be courting her?

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    The Cutthroat

      Clive Cussler
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** Isaac Bell may be on the hunt for the greatest monster of all time in the newest action-adventure novel from the #1 "New York Times" bestselling author. **The year is 1911. Chief Investigator Isaac Bell of the Van Dorn Detective Agency has had many extraordinary cases before. But none quite like this. Hired to find a young woman named Anna Pape who ran away from home to become an actress, Bell gets a shock when her murdered body turns up instead. Vowing to bring the killer to justice, he begins a manhunt which leads him into increasingly more alarming territory. Anna Pape was not alone in her fate petite young blond women like Anna are being murdered in cities across America. And the pattern goes beyond the physical resemblance of the victims there are disturbing familiarities about the killings themselves that send a chill through even a man as experienced with evil as Bell. If he is right about his fears, then he is on the trail of one of the greatest monsters of his time."

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    Reaper

      Janet Edwards
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In the year 2519, people on Earth don’t grow old and die any longer, their bodies are frozen and they start a new life in the virtual reality of the Game. Jex is almost eighteen, working twelve hour shifts, and dreaming of when she’ll be legally adult and begin her long-planned idyllic life in Game. When a bomber attacks a Game server complex, one of the virtual worlds of Game crashes, and eleven thousand immortal players die during emergency defrost. Death has struck Game for the first time in centuries, and Jex is questioned as a suspect in the bombing. With this on her record, Jex will never be allowed to enter Game, but then one of the legendary founder players of Game offers her the chance to join his investigation into the bombing. Jex must help Hawk catch the true bomber to protect the worlds of Game and save her own future, but the bomber is far more dangerous than anyone realizes.

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    Twisted Affair Vol. 2

      M. S. Parker
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When I proposed to Livie Dusek, I didn't really think that she'd say yes, but I was glad she did. Marrying her would keep my inheritance secure and my dad off of my back. Then we slept together and I thought things were even better. I had no idea. Ladies' man and partier Blayne Westmore has been forced into marriage, but his Czech wife is smoking hot and seems to have gone back on her previous rule about no touching...or has she? Livie doesn't know why her business-only husband has suddenly decided it's okay to try to kiss her, or why he keeps saying that they've slept together. She hopes her sister Katka isn't right that Blayne is just trying to get her into bed, but she's determined to rebuff his advances as much as possible. Once her three years are up and she has her money, she's done, and nothing that Blayne says will stop her. Volume two in M.S. Parker's sexy new series is full of twists, turns and heat. Don't miss it!

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    The Silver Mage

      Katharine Kerr
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Read Katharine Kerr's posts on the Penguin Blog. ”Prepare to get lost in the magic” (VOYA) of Katharine Kerr’s newest Deverry fantasy. The Horsekin are assembling along Prince Dar’s northern border, and the Deverry alliance simply does not have the men and resources to prevent their enemies from moving into the wilderness areas known as the Ghostlands. But suddenly, the Dwrgi folk and the dragons come to Dar’s aid, tipping the balance in their favor and offering Dar’s people a chance to defeat the Horsekin once and for all.

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    Tales of Freedom

      Ben Okri
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As one of Britain's foremost poets, Ben Okri is rightly acclaimed for his use of language. And as a Booker Prize winning novelist, this skill was shown to particular effect in both Starbook (his most recent work) and in The Famished Road. In Tales of Freedom he brings both poetry and story together in a fascinating new form, using writing and image pared down to their essentials, where haiku and story meet. Thus we discover Pinprop, the slave to an old couple lost in a clearing, who holds the keys to the universe in his quirky hands. Then there is the beautifully dressed black Russian on the train, helping to film a new version of 'Eugene Onegin'. Later, in the chaos of the aftermath of war, orphaned children paint mysterious shapes of bulls, birds, hybrid creatures, and we wonder if grief has unhinged them into genius...And who is that woman, who hardly speaks, who presses a tiny flower into the palm of the young boy on the bus, and then leaves his life forever? Tales of Freedom offers a haunting necklace of images which flash and sparkle as the light shines on them. Quick and stimulating to read, but slowly burning in the memory, they offer a different, more transcendent way of looking at our extreme, gritty world - and show the wealth of freedom that's available beyond the confines of our usual perceptions.

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    Chernevog

      C. J. Cherryh
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A sequel to Rusalka, set in the magical world of pre-Christian Russia. Petyr and Eveshka, now married and living in domestic bliss in Uulemet's cottage, begin to realize that the past is not truly buried. Premonitions lead to a sense of unease that is terrifyingly realized. Publisher's Weekly In this strong sequel to Rusalka, Cherryh continues her fantasy series based on ancient Russian folklore. During the hoary time of the book's setting, wizards have power to influence events by wishing things to happen--but sometimes unlooked-for side effects occur. Here the former destructive rusalka (ghost) Eveshka, killed by the sorcerer Chernevog in the earlier volume and resurrected when her father sacrificed his life in her stead, is living with her husband Pyetr and the young wizard Sasha. Both Sasha and Eveshka worry about the power of their often unconscious wishes, concerned that their thoughts are being influenced by still-functioning wishes remaining in the atmosphere from a former time. When Eveshka suddenly leaves home without reason, Sasha and Pyetr feel sure someone has been wishing or magicking her, and set out in search of Chernevog. Cherryh's lyrical, vivid depiction of lonely northern forests and their supernatural inhabitants creates a believable backdrop for her three-dimensional characters and their emotionally involving story. Library Journal A young wizard, his best friend, and a woman magically restored to life find their idyllic forest existence shattered by the dark machinations of an old and implacable enemy in this sequel to Rusalka. Forest spirits, "yard things," and other magical creatures drawn from Russian folklore add a unique flavor to this story of loyalty and courage. Recommended for fantasy collections.

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    The Fellowship of the Talisman

      Clifford D. Simak
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A strange assortment of humans and otherworldly beings joins a young soldier of God on his perilous quest through an alternate, technology-free reality ruled by an all-powerful Evil In an alternate world where the Dark Ages never ended, “the Evil” that arises every five hundred years has prevented all manner of technological advancement, even well into the twentieth century. The son of a powerful English noble, young Duncan Standish has always longed to be a soldier of the Lord, and now he’s been offered a rare opportunity to fulfill his dream. Entrusted with the delivery of an ancient manuscript—purported to be irrefutable evidence of the existence of Jesus Christ—to a noted Oxenford scholar, Duncan must journey many perilous miles in the company of a motley group of fellow travelers, including a goblin, a ghost, and other magical and non-magical companions. But the road they traverse together is fraught with terrible trials that would test even the most devout, for the Evil is strong in this place of dark wonders. Multiple Hugo, Nebula, and Locus Award–winner and SFWA Grand Master Clifford D. Simak moves easily from science fiction to quest fantasy in this enthralling tale of magic, peril, and discovery on an Earth that never was. Rich in color, thrills, and wild invention, and populated by a highly original and unforgettable cast of characters, Fellowship of the Talisman showcases the author’s peerless storytelling skills, demonstrating once again that the great Simak had few equals in the realm of twentieth-century speculative fiction.

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    Real Murders

      Charlaine Harris
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THE FIRST AURORA TEAGARDEN MYSTERY—NOW A HALLMARK MOVIES & MYSTERY ORIGINAL STARRING CANDACE CAMERON BURE!#1 New York Times bestselling author Charlaine Harris introduces a Southern librarian whose bookish bent for murder gets her involved in a real-life killing spree…   Lawrenceton, Georgia, may be a growing suburb of Atlanta, but it’s still a small town at heart. Librarian Aurora “Roe” Teagarden grew up there and knows more than enough about her fellow townsfolk, including which ones share her interest in the darker side of human nature.   With those fellow crime buffs, Roe belongs to a club called Real Murders, which meets once a month to analyze famous cases. It’s a harmless pastime—until the night she finds a member dead, killed in a manner that eerily resembles the crime the club was about to discuss. And as other brutal “copycat” killings follow, Roe will have to uncover the person behind the terrifying game, one that casts all the members of Real Murders, herself included, as prime suspects—or potential victims...

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    The Scorch Trials

      James Dashner
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Solving the Maze was supposed to be the end.   Thomas was sure that escape from the Maze would mean freedom for him and the Gladers. But WICKED isn’t done yet. Phase Two has just begun. The Scorch.   There are no rules. There is no help. You either make it or you die.   The Gladers have two weeks to cross through the Scorch—the most burned-out section of the world. And WICKED has made sure to adjust the variables and stack the odds against them.   Friendships will be tested. Loyalties will be broken. All bets are off.   There are others now. Their survival depends on the Gladers’ destruction—and they’re determined to survive.

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    Mortal Obligation

      Nichole Chase
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Ree will face the darkest form of betrayal before the year is out. Seventeen year old Ree McKenna has three goals: get through high school, convince her crush she is more than his best friend’s little sister, and save money for college. Fate, though, has other plans for her. After the untimely death of her older brother, Ree is haunted by dreadful nightmares and terrifying visions. To make matters worse, Ree has started to suspect that something dangerous is stalking her from the shadows. A night full of frightening surprises leaves Ree with unsettling news. Gifted by the gods with unusual powers, she must devote herself to a battle that could very well lead to not only her death, but the demise of everyone she knows and loves. After all, Ree is the only mortal standing between the Earth and utter darkness. Set in Savannah, Ga, Mortal Obligation is the first book of The Dark Betrayal Trilogy.

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    Spin

      Robert Charles Wilson
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One night in October when he was ten years old, Tyler Dupree stood in his back yard and watched the stars go out. They all flared into brilliance at once, then disappeared, replaced by a flat, empty black barrier. He and his best friends, Jason and Diane Lawton, had seen what became known as the Big Blackout. It would shape their lives. Life on Earth is about to get much, much stranger.

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