Where My Heart Used to Beat

      Sebastian Faulks
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A sweeping drama about the madness of war and the power of love that marks acclaimed novelist Sebastian Faulks's return, after twenty years, to the fictional territory of his #1 international bestseller *Birdsong* London, 1980. Robert Hendricks, an established psychiatrist and author, has so bottled up memories of his own wartime past that he is nearly sunk into a life of aloneness and depression. Out of the blue, a baffling letter arrives from one Dr. Alexander Pereira, a neurologist and a World War I veteran who claims to be an admirer of Robert's published work. The letter brings Robert to the older man's home on a rocky, secluded island off the south of France, and into tempests of memories--his childhood as a fatherless English boy, the carnage he witnessed and the wound he can't remember receiving as a young officer in World War II, and, above all, the great, devastating love of his life, an Italian woman, "L," whom he met during the war. As Robert's recollections pour forth, he's unsure whether they will lead to psychosis--or redemption. But Dr. Pereira knows. Profoundly affecting and masterfully told, Where My Heart Used to Beat sweeps through the 20th century, brilliantly interrogating the darkest corners of the human mind and bearing tender witness to the abiding strength of love.

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    Murder in LaMut: Legends of the Riftwar: Book II

      Raymond E. Feist
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It should have been so simple . . . Durine, Kethol, and Pirojil are three mercenaries who have spent twenty years fighting other people's battles, defeating the Tsurani and the Bugs and the goblins. Yet now it seems there are no more enemies to vanquish, leaving them with a few months of welcomed garrison duty as the Riftwar rages on in the west. When the trio is ordered to accompany a lady and her husband safely to the city of LaMut, it looks like an easy—even cushy—assignment. But in Midkemia, nothing is that straightforward, and the men find themselves trapped by a vicious winter storm in a castle with scheming lords and ladies, an unsolved murder, and nothing less than the political future of Midkemia at stake. . . .

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    The Devil Finds Work

      James Baldwin
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James Baldwin At The Movies...  Provocative, timeless, brilliant. Bette Davis's eyes, Joan Crawford's bitchy elegance, Stepin Fetchit's stereotype, Sidney Poitier's superhuman black man...  These are the movie stars and the qualities that influenced James Baldwin...  and now become part of his incisive look at racism in American movies. Baldwin challenges the underlying assumptions in such films as In the Heat of the Night, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, and The Exorcist, offering us a vision of America's self-delusions and deceptions.  Here are our loves and hates, biases and cruelties, fears and ignorance reflected by the films that have entertained us and shaped our consciousness.  And here, too, is the stunning prose of a writer whose passion never diminished his struggle for equality, justice, and social change. From The Birth of a Nation to The Exorcist--one of America's most important writers turns his critical eye to American film.

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    The Empty Kingdom

      Elizabeth E. Wein
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In The Lion Hunter, Telemakos, the half-British, half-Aksumite grandson of King Arthur, was sent for his safety to stay with one of Aksum's former enemies. When Abreha, ruler of Himyar, allegedly the boy's protector, catches him in the midst of what appears to be treachery, he sentences him to a fate seemingly worse than death. Not only is Telemakos forbidden to see his beloved younger sister, Athena, but he is also commanded to reproduce the maps that Abreha plans to use in order to invade Aksumite territory. Countries away from his family, lacking any way to tell them what has happened, Telemakos must bring all of his subtle talents to bear in order to regain his freedom. The Empty Kingdom is a stunning conclusion to the Mark of Solomon duology, a triumph of historic suspense.

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    Lighthousekeeping

      Jeanette Winterson
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Lighthousekeeping tells the tale of Silver ("My mother called me Silver. I was born part precious metal, part pirate."), an orphaned girl who is taken in by blind Mr. Pew, the mysterious and miraculously old keeper of a lighthouse on the Scottish coast. Pew tells Silver stories of Babel Dark, a nineteenth-century clergyman. Dark lived two lives: a public one mired in darkness and deceit and a private one bathed in the light of passionate love. For Silver, Dark's life becomes a map through her own darkness, into her own story, and, finally, into love. One of the most original and extraordinary writers of her generation, Jeanette Winterson has created a modern fable about the transformative power of storytelling.

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    Rebecca's Forgotten Journal + Bonuses and Extras Collection

      Lisa Renee Jones
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A bonus-packed feature from Lisa Renee Jones! This bonus book leads off with Rebecca’s Forgotten Journals, all new journals that began in the bestselling Inside Out series, which have never been formally released before. Find out more of Rebecca’s story! It also includes extras from a ton of Lisa’s series to introduce new readers, and remind her faithful readers of the fun (and sexy) times! With extras such as character profiles, playlists, behind the scenes information, and much more. Plus, don’t miss four never published before scenes from your favorites couples: Chris & Sara, Kayden & Ella, Amy & Liam and Chad & Gia.

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    Dimanche and Other Stories

      Irene Nemirovsky
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A never-before-translated collection by the bestselling author of *Suite Française Written between 1934 and 1942, these ten gem-like stories mine the same terrain of Némirovsky's bestselling novel Suite Française*: a keen eye for the details of social class; the tensions between mothers and daughters, husbands and wives; the manners and mannerisms of the French bourgeoisie; questions of religion and personal identity. Moving from the drawing rooms of pre-war Paris to the lives of men and women in wartime France, here we find the beautiful work of a writer at the height of her tragically short career. From the Trade Paperback edition.

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    Hot Water

      P. G. Wodehouse
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A P.G. Wodehouse novel Ch�teau Blissac, on its hill above St Roque, is in a setting where every prospect pleases. But it doesn't please its current occupier, J. Wellington Gedge. Mr Gedge wants none of it - and particularly none of the domineering Mrs Gedge's imperious wish that he should become American Ambassador to Paris. Instead he pines for the simpler life of California, where men are men and filling stations stand tall. Mrs Gedge has powerful allies - including the prohibitionist Senator Opal. But will she get her way? And will the Senator's delightful daughter Jane get her man? In a plot which involves safe-blowers, con men, jewel-thieves and even a Bloomsbury novelist, few are quite as they seem. But the heady atmosphere of France in the 1930s makes for one of Wodehouse's most delightful comedies.

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    Fancy Pants

      Susan Elizabeth Phillips
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THEY'RE CAVIAR AND BEER. KEROSENE ON FIRE. AND THEY'RE FALLING HEAD-OVER-HEELS IN LOVE.... She was the most beautiful British bauble in Europe's jet-set playgrounds. Now she's broke, furious, and limping down a backwoods road in an ugly pink Southern Belle gown.... He was tall, lean, and all-American gorgeous. He liked his brews cold and women loved to keep him warm. Why in hell is he stopping his car for this woebegone, surly Scarlett? Meet Francesca Day and Dallie Beaudine, two incredible characters whose tangled love affair is at the heart of this ravishing New York Times bestseller from award-winning author Susan Elizabeth Phillips. Come enjoy the adventure of a lifetime — an irresistible story that's touching, hilarious, and hellcat-passionate. You'll never forget Dallie and the sassy lady who needs a good swift kick in her...

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    A Thousand Acres

      Jane Smiley
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Aging Larry Cook announces his intention to turn over his 1,000-acre farm--one of the largest in Zebulon County, Iowa--to his three daughters, Caroline, Ginny, and Rose. A man of harsh sensibilities, he carves Caroline out of the deal because she has the nerve to be less than enthusiastic about her father's generosity. While Larry Cook deteriorates into a pathetic drunk, his daughters are left to cope with the often grim realities of life on a family farm--from battering husbands to cutthroat lenders. In this winner of the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, Smiley captures the essence of such a life with stark, painful detail.

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    Snake Eyes

      Joyce Carol Oates
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Attorney Michael O’Meara’s dogged belief that Lee Roy Sears was innocent of murder has paid off. The lawyer has not only gotten the convicted inmate released from death row at Connecticut State Prison, but also procured an artist’s residency in Mount Orion, New Jersey, for the rehabilitated Vietnam vet upon his parole. Sears is adapting nicely. He’s selling his sculptures. He’s eating well. He has ingratiated himself into Michael’s home; is eternally grateful for Michael’s benevolent motives, however mysterious their origin; and is thriving on the town’s liberal patronage and attention—especially that of Michael’s adulterous wife, Gina. But as Michael’s picture-perfect family begins to show signs of cracking, his suspicions about Sears become violent obsessions. Now, the dreams and secrets of two men are about to collide in a nightmare. And before long, the lines between guilt and innocence, lies and truth, trust and betrayal are bound to go up in flames. Snake Eyes is in an astute and suspenseful story by the National Book Award–winning author of them, We Were the Mulvaneys, The Gravedigger’s Daughter, and many other acclaimed novels.

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    Drunk Dial

      Penelope Ward
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From New York Times bestselling author Penelope Ward, comes a new, sexy standalone novel. It seemed like a good idea at the time. Look up Landon Roderick, that boy from childhood whom I’d never been able to forget—even though he so easily forgot about me—and call him. Then again, anything sounds like a good idea when you’ve had a little too much wine before bed, right? It was supposed to be just a quick, meaningless, prank call. Instead, I went off on him—unloading thirteen years of pent-up emotions. I didn’t think he’d call me back. I certainly could never have anticipated the weeks of sexually tense phone conversations that followed as I got to know the man he’d become. Turned out, Landon had never really forgotten me, either. That special connection we had was still there. I opened up to him, but there were also things about me he didn’t know. And he had his own secrets. Over the countless hours we talked on the phone, I wondered what would happen if we actually saw each other. One night, I did something impulsive again. Only this time, I went to the airport and booked a ticket to California. We were about to find out if one phone call could bring two lost souls together or if my drunk dial really was all just a big mistake. A complete STANDALONE.

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    To Be Where You Are

      Jan Karon
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#1 New York Times bestselling author Jan Karon returns with the fourteenth novel in the beloved Mitford series, featuring three generations of Kavanaghs. After twelve years of wrestling with the conflicts of retirement, Father Tim Kavanagh realizes he doesn't need a steady job to prove himself. Then he's given one. As for what it proves, heaven only knows. Millions of Karon fans will be thrilled that it's life as usual in the wildly popular Mitford series: A beloved town character lands a front-page obituary, but who was it, exactly, who died? And what about the former mayor, born the year Lindbergh landed in Paris, who's still running for office? All this, of course, is but a feather on the wind compared to Muse editor J.C. Hogan's desperate attempts to find a cure for his marital woes. Will it be high-def TV or his pork chop marinade? In fiction, as in real life, there are no guarantees. Twenty minutes from Mitford at Meadowgate Farm, newlyweds Dooley and Lace Kavanagh face a crisis that devastates their bank account and impacts their family vet practice. But there is still a lot to celebrate, as their adopted son, Jack, looks forward to the most important day of his life--with great cooking, country music, and lots of people who love him. Happily, it will also be a day when the terrible wound in Dooley's biological family begins to heal because of a game--let's just call it a miracle--that breaks all the rules. In To Be Where You Are, Jan Karon weaves together the richly comic and compelling lives of two Kavanagh families, and a cast of characters that readers around the world now love like kin.

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    Here to Stay

      Catherine Anderson
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CATHERINE ANDERSON WILL TOUCH YOUR EMOTIONS WITH THE NEXT CONTEMPORARY STORY IN HER HARRIGAN FAMILY SERIES. Mandy Pajeck had a tough childhood --- an abusive father, a mother who left, and a younger brother, Luke, who depended on her when she was just a child herself. Now twenty-eight, Mandy remains devoted to Luke and feels responsible for the accident that took his sight. But his complete reliance on her care is making them both miserable. When she meets handsome Zach Harrigan and his mini guide horse, she thinks she's found the ticket to her brother's happiness --- and maybe her own. Of the five Harrigan siblings, Zach is the hellion who parties hard and takes nothing seriously. But lately his life has felt empty. So, employing his skills as a horseman, he begins training a mini guide horse for the blind, never expecting that the project will lead him to beautiful, tenderhearted Mandy. She's everything he's ever wanted in a woman. But though she's charmed by Zach's patience and compassion, she can't bring herself to fully trust him. And when Zach urges her to confront the truth about her mother's disappearance, the secrets they uncover are so shocking that even Zach's steadfast devotion may not be enough to win Mandy's heart.

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    Heather 101

      Jack Weyland
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When Jason compliments his wife, Heather, on the amazing dinner she made last year for Mother’s Day, he gets a response that surprises him – but really shouldn’t have. Soon, Jason, his cousin, Cole, and a few other ‘clueless’ husbands find themselves learning to cook from the Cook-Nazi at the local prison, of all places. After he learns his Mother’s Day lesson, Jason is off to his next fiasco. This short story is filled with wonderful life lessons woven together with a humor that is classic Jack Weyland.

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    The Miseducation of Cameron Post

      Emily M. Danforth
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When Cameron Post's parents die suddenly in a car crash, her shocking first thought is relief. Relief they'll never know that, hours earlier, she had been kissing a girl. But that relief doesn't last, and Cam is soon forced to move in with her conservative aunt Ruth and her well-intentioned but hopelessly old-fashioned grandmother. She knows that from this point on, her life will forever be different. Survival in Miles City, Montana, means blending in and leaving well enough alone (as her grandmother might say), and Cam becomes an expert at both. Then Coley Taylor moves to town. Beautiful, pickup-driving Coley is a perfect cowgirl with the perfect boyfriend to match. She and Cam forge an unexpected and intense friendship--one that seems to leave room for something more to emerge. But just as that starts to seem like a real possibility, ultrareligious Aunt Ruth takes drastic action to "fix" her niece, bringing Cam face-to-face with the cost of denying her true self--even if she's not exactly sure who that is. The Miseducation of Cameron Post is a stunning and unforgettable literary debut about discovering who you are and finding the courage to live life according to your own rules.

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    Prater Violet

      Christopher Isherwood
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Originally published in 1945, Prater Violet is a stingingly satirical novel about the film industry. It centers around the production of the vacuous fictional melodrama Prater Violet, set in nineteenth-century Vienna, providing ironic counterpoint to tragic events as Hitler annexes the real Vienna of the 1930s. The novel features the vivid portraits of imperious, passionate, and witty Austrian director Friedrich Bergmann and his disciple, a genial young screenwriter -- the fictionalized Christopher Isherwood.

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    The Glass Bees

      Ernst Jünger
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In The Glass Bees the celebrated German writer Ernst Jünger presents a disconcerting vision of the future. Zapparoni, a brilliant businessman, has turned his advanced understanding of technology and his strategic command of the information and entertainment industries into a discrete form of global domination. But Zapparoni is worried that the scientists he depends on might sell his secrets. He needs a chief of security, and Richard, a veteran and war hero, is ready for the job. However, when he arrives at the beautiful country compound that is Zapparoni's headquarters, he finds himself subjected to an unexpected ordeal. Soon he is led to question his past, his character, and even his senses....

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    Written Lives

      Javier Marías
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In addition to his own busy career as "one of Europe's most intriguing contemporary writers" (TLS), Javier Marías is also the translator into Spanish of works by Hardy, Stevenson, Conrad, Faulkner, Nabokov, and Laurence Sterne. His love for these authors is the touchstone of Written Lives. Collected here are twenty pieces recounting great writers' lives, "or, more precisely, snippets of writers' lives." Thomas Mann, Rilke, Arthur Conan Doyle, Turgenev, Djuna Barnes, Emily Brontë, Malcolm Lowry, and Kipling appear ("all fairly disastrous individuals"), and "almost nothing" in his stories is invented. Like Isak Dinesen (who "claimed to have poor sight, yet could spot a four-leaf clover in a field from a remarkable distance away"), Marías has a sharp eye. Nabokov is here, making "the highly improbable assertion that he is 'as American as April in Arizona,'" as is Oscar Wilde, who, in debt on his deathbed, ordered up champagne, "remarking cheerfully, 'I am dying beyond my means.'" Faulkner, we find, when fired from his post office job, explained that he was not prepared "to be beholden to any son-of-a-bitch who had two cents to buy a stamp." Affection glows in the pages of Written Lives, evidence, as Marías remarks, that "although I have enjoyed writing all my books, this was the one with which I had the most fun."

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    The Melody Lingers On

      Mary Higgins Clark
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From #1 New York Times bestselling “Queen of Suspense” comes a thrilling novel about missing billions, a disgraced financier, and those determined to learn the truth at any cost…As the sole assistant to a famous upscale interior designer, Lane Harmon, mother to five-year-old Katie, is accustomed to visiting opulent homes around the tri-state area. A born optimist, Lane finds the glimpse into these gilded worlds fascinating, and loves the reward of exceeding the expectations of their often-demanding owners. When she is called to assist in redecorating a modest townhouse in Bergen County, she knows the job is unusual. Then she learns the home belongs to the wife of a notorious and disgraced financier named Parker Bennett. Parker Bennett has been missing for two years. He dropped out of sight just before it was discovered that the $5 billion dollars in the fund he had been managing had vanished. Bennett had gone out on his sailboat in the...

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    Suicide Notes

      Michael Thomas Ford
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I'm not crazy. I don't see what the big deal is about what happened. But apparently someone does think it's a big deal because here I am. I bet it was my mother. She always overreacts. Fifteen-year-old Jeff wakes up on New Year's Day to find himself in the hospital. Make that the psychiatric ward. With the nutjobs. Clearly, this is all a huge mistake. Forget about the bandages on his wrists and the notes on his chart. Forget about his problems with his best friend, Allie, and her boyfriend, Burke. Jeff's perfectly fine, perfectly normal, not like the other kids in the hospital with him. Now they've got problems. But a funny thing happens as his forty-five-day sentence drags on: the crazies start to seem less crazy. Compelling, witty, and refreshingly real, Suicide Notes is a darkly humorous novel from award-winning author Michael Thomas Ford that examines that fuzzy line between "normal" and the rest of us.

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