Forget what you thought you knew about the universe and enter the fantastic world of master storyteller Alan Dean Foster . . . OPERATOR ASSISTED CALLS ARE CHARGED AT A HIGHER RATE. Mr. Parkworthy had a score to settle with the telephone company, and he was a man used to getting his own way. But he should have remembered that it is not polite to be rude to a lady . . . especially when the lady is Ma Bell.THE METROGNOME. Charlie Dimsdale was only a little man in the company that ran New York City's subways . . . until some odd little denizens of the city's subterranean tunnels showed him who was really in charge!THE TESSELATED TETRAHEXAHEDRAL YELLOW ROSE OF TEXAS. Country people in America are a fair but mighty independent bunch. So when some government scientists rudely demanded that the Shattucks turn over the UFO that crashed on their Texas ranch, the Shattucks became a bit obstinate. Besides, the shining little spacecraft looked real cute hanging on the barn with the Christmas decorations.COLLECTIBLE. When young Pearl's life was collapsing around her, she could always find comfort in her extensive collection of dragon memorabilia -- but some youngsters are more fragile than others, and dragons can be deadly.Plus eleven more stories!**

Last summer, three very different girls--wild Murphy, perfect Leeda, and shy Birdie--etched their initials on a Magnolia tree at Darlington Peach Orchard to symbolize that they're friendship will last forever. But can it survive the less-than-peachy year ahead?Murphy, more in love with Rex than ever, is torn between her big-city dreams and following her heart . . . all the way across the railroad tracks and into Rex's arms.Leeda, nominated to be Bridgewater's Pecan Queen, basks in the rose-scented glow of her Ice Queen mother's sudden affection--until her sister, the princess, returns. Birdie, happy for the first time, wants nothing more than to make time stand still. Too bad everything is changing, whether she likes it or not.The sweet trio of Georgia girls that made Peaches a national bestseller returns in this delicious and satisfying sequel. This year, Murphy, Leeda, and Birdie discover that bitter endings can lead to...

About the AuthorJamie Magee has always believed that each of us have a defining gift that sets us apart from the rest of the world, she has always envied those who have known from their first breath what their gift was. Not knowing hers, she began a career in the fast paced world of business. Raising a young family, and competing to rise higher in that field would drive some to the point of insanity, but she always found a moment of escape in a passing daydream. Her imagination would take her to places she'd never been, introduce her to people she's never known. Insight, her debuting novel, is a result of that powerful imagination. Today, she is grateful that not knowing what defined her, led her on a path of discovery that would always be a part of her.

*Duty, fate, desire, and destiny collide in this intricately wrought tale, perfect for fans of Sarah J. Maas.* Although she was born to save the kingdom by sacrificing herself to the rising sea, Khosa's marriage to King Vincent has redeemed her. As the Queen of Stille, she's untouchable. But being Queen hasn't stopped her heart from longing for the King's stepbrother, Donil. And it hasn't stopped her body from longing for the sea itself, which still calls for her. While Khosa is made to choose between loyalty and love, Dara is on a mission for vengeance. Years ago, the Pietra slaughtered the entire Indiri race, leaving only Dara and her twin, Donil, alive. Now, spurned by King Vincent, Dara has embarked on a mission to spill the blood of Pietra's leader, Witt, and will stop at nothing to show his people the wrath of the last Indiri. As the waves crash ever closer to Stille, secrets are revealed, hearts are won and lost, and allegiances change like the shifting sand. **

As yet, the crime novels of Karin Fossum are something of a well-kept secret, known to a growing band of aficionados but not to the larger crime readership. In fact, Fossum's highly atmospheric and involving books are among the best being produced in the genre today. Don't Look Back was a psychological thriller that was both economical and forceful, and He Who fears the Wolf is an even more persuasive piece of writing. Like the best of Ruth Rendell, this is a dark and unsettling novel...' Barry Forshaw, Crime TimeA boy arrives - breathless and aghast - at his police station, to report the discovery of a horribly maimed body outside an isolated house in the woods. Yet there was another person in the woods that day - standing nearby, hidden within the trees, was the mysterious figure of the local misfit, Errki. The next morning a bank in the nearby town is robbed at gunpoint. The gunman takes a hostage and flees. As his plans begin to come apart he, unlike his passive hostage,...

A powerful political novel based on the sudden, mysterious death of the man who had been handpicked to succeed the hated Albanian dictator Enver Hoxha. Did he commit suicide or was he murdered? That is the burning question. The man who died by his own hand, or another's, was Mehmet Shehu, the presumed heir to the ailing dictator, Enver Hoxha. So sure was the world that he was next in line, he was known as The Successor. And then, shortly before he was to assume power, he was found dead. THE SUCCESSOR is simultaneously a mystery novel, a historical novel-based on actual events and buttressed by the author's private conversations with the son of the real-life Mehmet Shehu-and a psychological novel (How do you live when nothing is sure?). Vintage Kadare, THE SUCCESSOR seamlessly blends dream and reality, legendary past, and contemporary history.

Catherine Asaro, a physicist who combines believable hard science with first-rate storytelling, exploded onto the science fiction scene with her stellar debut novel, Primary Inversion. Now she brings us the third tale of the Skolian Empire, which AudioFile calls “a classic tale of power and conflict, with a twist.” When Kelric, a scion of the imperial family of Skolia, crash-lands his fighter on the off-limits planet of Coba, he figures it will be only a short time before he makes his way home. But he fails to account for the powerful matriarchy of Coba, the mistresses of the great estates who do not want the Empire to know about their recent cultural advances. First they take him prisoner. Then, one by one, the most powerful women on the planet fall in love with him!

Sitcom director Tia Morales is used to calling the shots and having everything securely in her control—that is, until a handsome cameraman turns both her heart and her life upside-down.Tia Morales is used to calling the shots. She's the director of the popular sitcom Stars Collide, and her life on set is calculated and orderly. Well, most of the time. But her life outside the studio is another matter. If only she could get her family to behave as well as her stars do! When she starts butting heads with handsome camera operator Jason Harris, it's enough to send a girl over the edge. Will she ever learn to let go and take life—and love—as it comes?Full of the humor and crazy family dynamics Janice Thompson fans have come to love, this colorful story gives readers an inside look at Hollywood and a healthy dose of romance.

After the War of the Gods, the demons were cast out and fell to the world. Mankind was nearly eradicated by the seemingly unstoppable beasts, until the gods sent the great hero, Ramrowan, to save them. He united the tribes, gave them magic, and drove the demons into the sea. Yet as centuries passed, Gods and demons became myth and legend, and the people no longer believed. The Age of Law began.  Ashok Vadal has been chosen by a powerful ancient weapon to be its bearer. He is a Protector, the elite militant order of roving law enforcers. No one is more merciless in rooting out those who secretly practice the old ways. Everything is black or white, good or evil, until he discovers his entire life is a fraud. Ashok isn’t who he thinks he is, and when he finds himself on the wrong side of the law, the consequences lead to rebellion, war—and destruction.

Many years ago, the storytellers say, the great King Arthur held court with his gallant Knights of the Round Table. Poor Givret, who is easily the shortest man at court, bears the brunt of their jokes. But what he lacks in stature, Givret makes up for in brains—and before he knows it, his quick thinking has landed him a place at the famous Round Table! And so beginneth the exciting and funny adventures of Sir Givret the Short, Brilliant, and Marvelous.

Second in the beloved, hilarious Regency series that launched the career of New York Times bestselling author Katie MacAlister.If Dare thinks he can escape his fate...Having weathered the scandal of elopement with an Italian count who subsequently had the bad taste to die, Lady Charlotte Collins has set her sights on Alasdair "Dare" McGregor—one deliciously handsome and brilliantly inventive Scottish earl.Then he doesn't know CharlotteCharlotte doesn't accept that the McGregor family fortune is a sham and Dare is working desperately hard to find a way out. She has no intention of giving up one iota of either the success or the connubial bliss they both so clearly deserve. She will simply have to take their destiny into her own hands...with explosive results."Imbued with a delectable sense of wit...an irresistible, laughter-laced treat." —Booklist"Another wonderful Regency romp. Funny and fast-paced, with...

Andre Norton, the celebrated author of Witch World and many other fantasy adventures, offers a new novel unique among her works, set in a realm not dissimilar to northern England in the sixteenth century: also, the Dismals of Northern Alabama are the model for part of the exotic setting. Drucilla, Sabina, and Tamara, identical sisters born to Desmond, Earl of Skorpys, understand the price of being princesses in a realm bordered by fractious neighbors. For generations their land has been plagued by incursions, raiding parties, and more serious conflicts with Gurlyon, the land to their North. But when these three plucky young ladies are kidnapped as part of a plot to undermine their father's domain, they are taken to a mysterious realm where they experience terrors unlike anything they could imagine.Their captors, fearing pursuit, thrust the princesses into a deep recess in a bizarre underworld called the Dismals. Once there, they must fend off hideous...

From the inimitable and bestselling author Thomas Cahill, another popular history, focusing on the Renaissance and Reformation and how this innovative period changed the Western world. In Volume VI of his acclaimed Hinges of History series, Thomas Cahill guides us through the thrilling period of Renaissance and Reformation (late fourteenth to early seventeenth centuries), so full of innovation and cultural change that the Western world would not experience its like again until the twentieth century. Beginning with the continent-wide disaster of the Black Plague, Cahill traces the many innovations in European thought and experience that served both the new humanism of the Renaissance and the seemingly abrupt religious alterations of the increasingly radical Reformation. This is an age of the most sublime artistic and scientific adventure, but also of newly powerful princes and armies, and of newly found courage, as many thousands refuse to bow their heads to the...