American Scoundrel American Scoundrel American Scoundrel

      Thomas Keneally
$value['title']

Hero, adulterer, bon vivant, murderer and rogue, Dan Sickles led the kind of existence that was indeed stranger than fiction. Throughout his life he exhibited the kind of exuberant charm and lack of scruple thatwins friends, seduces women, and gets people killed. In American Scoundrel Thomas Keneally, the acclaimed author of Schindler's List," "creates a biographythat is as lively and engrossing as its subject. Dan Sickles was a member of Congress, led a controversial charge at Gettysburg, and had an affair with the deposed Queen of Spain-among manyother women. But the most startling of his many exploits was his murder of Philip Barton Key (son of Francis Scott Key), the lover of his long-suffering and neglected wife, Teresa. The affair, the crime, and the trialcontained all the ingredients of melodrama needed to ensure that it was the scandal of the age. At the trial's end, Sickles was acquitted and hardly chastened. His life, in which outrage and accomplishment hadequal force, is a compelling American tale, told with the skill of a master narrative. "From the Trade Paperback edition."

Read online

  • 1 015

    Raven

      Lauren Oliver
$value['title']

This captivating story set in the world of Lauren Oliver’s New York Times bestselling Delirium series focuses on Raven, the fiery leader of a rebel group in the Wilds. As a teenager, Raven made the split-second decision to flee across the border to the Wilds, compelled to save an abandoned newborn—a baby girl left for dead and already blue from the cold. When she and the baby are taken in by a band of rebels, Raven finds herself an outsider within a tight-knit group. The only other newcomer is an untrustworthy boy known as the Thief until he finally earns himself a new name: Tack. Now she and Tack are inseparable, committed to each other, the fledgling rebellion, and a future together. But as they both take center stage in the fight, Raven must decide whether the dangers of the revolution are worth risking her dreams of a peaceful life with Tack. As her story hurtles back and forth between past and present, Raven transforms from a scared girl newly arrived in the Wilds to the tough leader who helps Lena save former Deliria-Free poster boy Julian Fineman from a death sentence. Whatever the original mission may have been, Raven abides by a conviction that she believes to her core: You always return for the people you love. By turns surprising, revelatory, and poignant, Raven’s story enriches the Delirium world and resonates with a voice that is as vulnerable as it is strong.

Read online

  • 1 015

    In Other Words

      Jhumpa Lahiri
$value['title']

From the Pulitzer Prize winner, a surprising, powerful, and eloquent nonfiction debut In Other Words is at heart a love story—of a long and sometimes difficult courtship, and a passion that verges on obsession: that of a writer for another language. For Jhumpa Lahiri, that love was for Italian, which first captivated and capsized her during a trip to Florence after college. And although Lahiri studied Italian for many years afterward, true mastery had always eluded her. So in 2012, seeking full immersion, she decided to move to Rome with her family, for “a trial by fire, a sort of baptism” into a new language and world. In Rome, Lahiri began to read, and to write—initially in her journal—solely in Italian. In Other Words, an autobiographical work written in Italian, investigates the process of learning to express oneself in another language, and describes the journey of a writer seeking a new voice. Presented in a dual-language format, it is a book about exile, linguistic and otherwise, written with an intensity and clarity not seen since Nabokov. A startling act of self-reflection and a provocative exploration of belonging and reinvention.

Read online

  • 1 015

    The Collected Stories

      Richard Yates
$value['title']

Richard Yates was acclaimed as one of the most powerful, compassionate and accomplished writers of America's post-war generation. Whether addressing the smothered desire of suburban housewives, the white-collar despair of Manhattan office workers or the heartbreak of a single mother with artistic pretensions, Yates ruthlessly examines the hopes and disappointments of ordinary people with empathy and humour. Contents: Doctor Jack-o'-Lantern -- The best of everything -- Jody rolled the bones -- No pain whatsoever -- A glutton for punishment -- A wrestler with sharks -- Fun with a stranger -- The B.A.R. man -- A really good jazz piano -- Out with the old -- Builders -- Oh, Joseph, I'm so tired -- A natural girl -- Trying out for the race -- Liars in love -- A compassionate leave -- Regards at home -- Saying goodbye to Sally -- The canal -- A clinical romance -- Bells in the morning -- Evening on the Cote d'Azur -- Thieves -- A private possession -- The comptroller and the wild wind -- A last fling, like -- A convalescent ego.

Read online

  • 1 015

    Last Immortal Dragon

      T. S. Joyce
$value['title']

Can Be Read As a Standalone Dragon Shifter Romance or As Part of the Gray Back Bears Series Damon Daye is the last immortal dragon shifter, and has been protecting his mountains and the people who live there for years. His outlook on life is simple. Remain cold enough that no one ever touches his heart. This is the only way he’s learned after all this time to protect himself, but the bear crews in his mountains have been breaking down his walls little by little, and no one realizes how dangerous the consequences can be. When his best friend, Mason, brings a woman to him to settle his want for a child, Damon is stunned to find she is the exact physical replica of the woman who destroyed him eons ago. Unfortunately for all, the more attached he becomes to the beguiling woman, the more dangerous his dragon becomes. Alpha bear shifter, Clara Sutterfield, thinks she has everything figured out. After the tragic loss of her crew, she is bound and determine to face this harsh world alone as a closed-hearted and minimally talented psychic. Tarot cards and palm readings are her gig, but lately, she’s been dreaming of otherworldly creatures with wings, and teeth, and fire. When she is hired to help a rich landowner with his ghost problem, she has no idea she is walking into a hoax for her to meet the man who has been visiting her in visions. The more she gets to know about the cold dragon, the more he warms her heart, but there’s a reason her fate has led her to Damon, and they are both about to face a storm that could end the world as they know it. Her options are simple: run away and survive the dark destiny that is coming for her, or stand and fight with the dragon who now protects her heart. And if she survives Dangerous Damon, she just might find that she can survive anything. Content Warning: explicit love scenes, naughty language, and piles of sexy shifter secrets.

Read online

  • 1 015

    Matter

      Iain M. Banks
$value['title']

In a world renowned even within a galaxy full of wonders, a crime within a war. For one man it means a desperate flight, and a search for the one - maybe two - people who could clear his name. For his brother it means a life lived under constant threat of treachery and murder. And for their sister, even without knowing the full truth, it means returning to a place she'd thought abandoned forever. Only the sister is not what she once was; Djan Seriy Anaplian has changed almost beyond recognition to become an agent of the Culture's Special Circumstances section, charged with high-level interference in civilizations throughout the greater galaxy. Concealing her new identity - and her particular set of abilities - might be a dangerous strategy, however. In the world to which Anaplian returns, nothing is quite as it seems; and determining the appropriate level of interference in someone else's war is never a simple matter. MATTER is a novel of dazzling wit and serious purpose. An extraordinary feat of storytelling and breathtaking invention on a grand scale, it is a tour de force from a writer who has turned science fiction on its head.

Read online

  • 1 015

    Picked-Up Pieces: Essays

      John Updike
$value['title']

In John Updike’s second collection of assorted prose he comes into his own as a book reviewer; most of the pieces picked up here were first published in The New Yorker in the 1960s and early ’70s. If one word could sum up the young critic’s approach to books and their authors it would be “generosity”: “Better to praise and share,” he says in his Foreword, “than to blame and ban.” And so he follows his enthusiasms, which prove both deserving and infectious: Kierkegaard, Proust, Joyce, Dostoevsky, and Hamsun among the classics; Borges, Nabokov, Grass, Bellow, Cheever, and Jong among the contemporaries. Here too are meditations on Satan and cemeteries, travel essays on London and Anguilla, three very early “golf dreams,” and one big interview. Picked-Up Pieces is a glittering treasury for every reader who likes life, books, wit—and John Updike.

Read online

  • 1 015

    The Tale of Two Bad Mice

      Beatrix Potter
$value['title']

This original, authorised version has been lovingly recreated electronically for the first time, with reproductions of Potter's unmistakeable artwork optimised for use on colour devices such as the iPad. When two naughty little mice discover the door to the beautiful dolls' house ajar, they just have to tiptoe inside and have a look. The temptation to try the delicious looking food in the dining room proves too great however, and chaos ensues when they discover that it will not come off the plates! The Tale of Two Bad Mice is number five in Beatrix Potter's series of 23 little books, the titles of which are as follows: 1 The Tale of Peter Rabbit 2 The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin 3 The Tailor of Gloucester 4 The Tale of Benjamin Bunny 5 The Tale of Two Bad Mice 6 The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle 7 The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher 8 The Tale of Tom Kitten 9 The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck 10 The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies 11 The Tale of Mrs. Tittlemouse 12 The Tale of Timmy Tiptoes 13 The Tale of Johnny Town-Mouse 14 The Tale of Mr. Tod 15 The Tale of Pigling Bland 16 The Tale of Samuel Whiskers 17 The Tale of The Pie and the Patty-Pan 18 The Tale of Ginger and Pickles 19 The Tale of Little Pig Robinson 20 The Story of a Fierce Bad Rabbit 21 The Story of Miss Moppet 22 Appley Dapply's Nursery Rhymes 23 Cecily Parsley's Nursery Rhymes

Read online

  • 1 015

    Fear Me Not

      Sara Wolf
$value['title']

The aliens crash-landed on Earth eleven years ago. And now, sixteen-year-old Victoria Hale feeds them. With her emotions. Victoria is an EVE - an Emotion Vesicle Engraft - and one of few humans who are genetically capable of producing emotions for the Gutters to feed on. She's doing it for the money - her sister Alisa needs a good doctor, and fast. But what she didn't count on was being sent to the world's first desegregated high school for Gutters and humans. She didn't count on the paparazzi, the protestors, or the insane Gutter politics and government secrets. She didn't count on the crimson-eyed Gutter prince with an intriguing heart of cold iron, either. She especially didn't count on murder. But it's counting on her.

Read online

  • 1 015

    Forest of the Hanged

      Liviu Rebreanu
$value['title']

During the First World War, just behind the eastern front, there was a forest, where Austrians and Hungarians used to hang deserters. To this place came Apostol Bologa, a young Romanian officer eager to serve his country. Born in a Romanian region of Transylvania which was then under Hungarian rule, he had naturally enough joined the Austro-Hungarian army. But soon Romania itself entered the war, and Bologa found himself fighting his own people. The Forest of the Hanged asks a fundamental question about war: namely, why does a man fight? Apostol condemns an officer to death for desertion and attempting to give information to the enemy. He watches the execution of the officer with satisfaction until he witnesses a fellow soldier's grief and pity for the dead man. At this point his world shifts. His growing self-doubt and uncertainty lead him to question beliefs he once held without question. Unprepared for his own reaction when he is once again called to sit on a court martial, he finds that he too must go to the forest. This very rare, richly descriptive novel lays bare the inner conflict engendered by a total war, yet seldom expressed

Read online

  • 1 015

    Above

      Roland Smith
$value['title']

Pat O'Toole and his brother, Coop, are on the run from an enemy that specializes in hiding in plain sight. Along with their new companion, Kate, they've narrowly escaped a cultlike community situated beneath the streets of New York City. Kate has lived underground since birth, and the world above thrills her, but it's treacherous as well. With the cult's leader -- Kate’s grandfather -- hatching a new scheme of global consequence, the three runaways may be the only ones who can stop him. Will they face him head-on, or will they spend the rest of their lives as fugitives? The adventure that started Beneath concludes Above in this action-packed middle-grade thriller by Roland Smith!

Read online

  • 1 015

    A Wicked Kiss

      M. S. Parker
$value['title']

A Wicked Kiss is the second installment in the Wicked series. You should read "A Wicked Lie" before reading this There were three men in this world I thought I could trust and two of them had just betrayed me. Everything I'd thought I'd known about my life, about the people I loved, all of it was gone. I found myself staring at a pack of lies with no idea just how deep they went. When twenty-six year-old Shae Lockwood is widowed after a horrible accident, she thinks that things can get any worse. The one person who is there for her through it all is her late husband's best friend, Jasper Whitehall. Kind and compassionate, Jasper is exactly what she needs...until she discovers that Jasper is hiding more than one dark secret. Don't miss the second installment from best-selling author M.S. Parker's erotic Wicked suspense series.

Read online

  • 1 015

    No Reservations

      Kristen Proby
$value['title']

From New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Kristen Proby comes a new story in her Fusion series… Chase MacKenzie is not the man for Maura Jenkins. A self-proclaimed life-long bachelor, and unapologetic about his distaste for monogamy, a woman would have to be a masochist to want to fall into Chase’s bed. And Maura is no masochist. Chase has one strict rule: no strings attached. Which is fine with Maura because she doesn’t even really like Chase. He’s arrogant, cocky, and let’s not forget bossy. But when he aims that crooked grin at her, she goes weak in the knees. Not that she has any intentions of falling for his charms. Definitely not. Well, maybe just once… Every 1001 Dark Nights novella is a standalone story. For new readers, it’s an introduction to an author’s world. And for fans, it’s a bonus book in the author’s series. We hope you'll enjoy each one as much as we do.

Read online

  • 1 015

    BOUND (#1 in The Crystor Series)

      C.K. Bryant
$value['title']

BOUND is a heroic tale of true friendship, infinite sacrifice and untamed love.When a photo shoot ends in tragedy, Kira discovers her best friend, Lydia, has been keeping a secret. Knowing the truth, and accepting it, will change Kira’s life forever and thrust her into a world of ancient curses, magical objects, and savage enemies. What happens next will challenge everything Kira knows about her world, herself and the shape-shifting warrior she’s falling in love with. No longer the timid mouse her mother accused her of being, but a woman who finds the mental and physical strength to endure and survive.BOUND is a heroic tale of true friendship, infinite sacrifice and untamed love.

Read online

  • 1 014

    Chloe Babineaux Private Investigator

      Lisa Clancey
$value['title']

Chloe is a private investigator hired to find a missing painting. Chloe's brother and his hot, new partner are detectives in the Rapides Parish Sherriff's Department keep getting in her way. They don't slow her down but the person shooting at her does. But doesn't stop her from her task. Chloe's adventure is funny to everyone but her.Chloe Babineaux is a private investigator from central Louisiana with an aggravating cop brother who has a hot, new partner who apparently doesn't understand English. The words 'stay away' confounds him. Chloe is hired to find a missing painting. No problem if the painting hasn't been missing for long. Problem: It's been missing for 100 years. She digs her heels in and hunts for the elusive painting. Her family she can avoid the person shooting at her is harder to do.Chloe's adventures are funny, intriguing and will keep you turning the pages.Chloe Babineaux Private InvestigatorChloe Babineaux In Over Her Head

Read online

  • 1 014

    Searching for Sara

      Nona Mae King
$value['title']

Sara Little has ached to live in America. But being born of a single mother in London’s working class, she could only dream. Drawn to the possibility of a new beginning, she follows God’s whisper into the unknown. But more awaits than the realization of her dreams. Caught in the whirlwind of debuts and dinner parties, she has fallen in love with the one man she believes she does not deserve.Sara Little has ached to live in America. But being born of a single mother in London’s working class, she could only dream. Then, scrawled in hasty intensity, Sara receives an invitation to America. Drawn to the possibility of a new beginning, she follows God’s whisper and steps forward into the unknown. But more awaits than the realization of her dreams.Sara’s benefactor is handsome widower Christopher Lake, a philanthropist dedicated to helping the less fortunate redefine their future. Though devastated by the loss of his wife, he dedicates himself to her last request: To provide Sara the means for a brighter future.Sara’s gift of art inspires Christopher’s sponsorship, and he is determined to protect her gentle heart while propelling her into artistic society. Even if he must press her forward beyond her shy nature. But when a local paper weaves tales of a romantic entanglement, Sara is struck by the stark reality of a growing devotion. Caught in the whirlwind of debuts and dinner parties, she has fallen in love with the one man she believes she does not deserve.Can a servant girl hope to bless such a noble man to happiness?

Read online

  • 1 014

    A Shilling for Candles

      Josephine Tey
$value['title']

When a woman's body washes up on an isolated stretch of beach on the southern coast of England, Scotland Yard's Inspector Alan Grant is on the case. But the inquiry into her death turns into a nightmare of false leads and baffling clues. Was there anyone who didn't want lovely screen actress Christine Clay dead?

Read online

  • 1 014