Bastard Out of Carolina, nominated for the 1992 National Book Award for fiction, introduced Dorothy Allison as one of the most passionate and gifted writers of her generation. Now, in Two or Three Things I Know for Sure, she takes a probing look at her family's history to give us a lyrical, complex memoir that explores how the gossip of one generation can become legends for the next. Illustrated with photographs from the author's personal collection, Two or Three Things I Know for Sure tells the story of the Gibson women -- sisters, cousins, daughters, and aunts -- and the men who loved them, often abused them, and, nonetheless, shared their destinies. With luminous clarity, Allison explores how desire surprises and what power feels like to a young girl as she confronts abuse. As always, Dorothy Allison is provocative, confrontational, and brutally honest. Two or Three Things I Know for Sure, steeped in the hard-won wisdom of experience, expresses the strength of her unique vision with beauty and eloquence.

In the second volume of bestselling author Gerald N. Lund's explosive new series, the Eckhardt family finds that the turmoil in their lives will only increase as they try to move forward in a nation divided. Sergeant Hans Eckhardt has been discharged from his military service and wants nothing more than to start a new life with a career and a family, but the unrest swallowing his homeland seems determined to stop him.Suffering the devastating impact of defeat in the Great War, the people of Germany must find ways to face widespread food shortages, crippling unemployment, skyrocketing inflation, and the forced disbandment of the German military. The nation becomes a hotbed of revolutionary attacks, bringing the fledgling government to its knees. Conditions are so grim that the German people are desperate for someone—anyone—to step forward and bring stability back to their beloved Fatherland.But as the flames of adversity grow more threatening, hope is on the...

At fifteen I fell in love. His name was Jake Stephens and he took the abandoned, lonely girl I had been and made me whole. His love was a pure and unconditional love that made every day better than the last…a fairy tale of my very own. But this story isn’t about Jake. It’s about Abel Madden; the man I meet after the fairy tale goes to hell. A cocky, arrogant man who says what he wants, does as he pleases, and makes no excuses for it. He irritates me—downright pisses me off at times—but he also brings me back to life. My name is Sidney Ellis and this is my story of finding love twice—the first when I needed it most and the second when I never saw it coming.

I’ve met the man of my dreams. Glenn Jackson is everything I could possible ever want in a man, except for one little detail: he’s from a different time. 1962 to be exact, and I have no idea how to get back to him. When Maya Cruz wakes up in 2017, instead of in the arms of her fiancé back in 1962, all she can think about is how to return – if she even can. Maybe she’s not supposed to get back. She saved Florence’s life, completed her mission. Perhaps that was all fate wanted of her. However, when she learns that her lover's life and career spiraled downward after of her disappearance, she takes it upon herself to find a way back to him before it's too late. You don’t want to miss Chasing Temptation, the second book in the Glenn Jackson Saga, by USA Today’s Bestselling author, M. S. Parker.

Three chapters each from the first three novels in The Owen Family Saga, plus a bonus look at the forthcoming Book 4: Spinster's Folly. "Marsha Ward really does write Westerns with heart. And her Owen family saga is among the best you'll ever read. Learn what our ancestors did to build this land. Like the Man from Shenandoah. Highly recommended." ~Chuck Tyrell, author of The ProdigalThis sampler is the fastest way to satisfy your curiosity about those fabled members of the Owen Family from Shenandoah County, Virginia. Acclaimed author Marsha Ward introduces the family in three chapters from each of the first three novels in The Owen Family Saga. Then there's the bonus chapter from the forthcoming novel, Spinster's Folly, Book 4 in the Saga. A "don't miss" way to get acquainted."Marsha Ward has the ability to grab readers by the lapels, yank them into her stories, and make them care deeply about her characters." ~Phyllis Dugan, Former President, Wyoming Writers, Inc."Trail of Storms by Marsha Ward is the third book in a western series featuring the Owen family that takes place during those first years following the conclusion of the US Civil War. Ward is recognized as an award winning western writer, the founder of the American Night Writers Association, and an authority on Southwestern history. "This series chronicles the events...that send several families from the Shenandoah Valley west following the war, their journey westward, and their struggle to establish homes in the American Southwest.... It is the historical details of Colorado and New Mexico and the writer's understanding of both the American and Hispanic cultures of this place and time period that are superbly done and make all three novels worth reading.... Ward doesn't glamorize the West and some of her characters aren't particularly likable, but they are realistic and she is true to the rough times of that settlement period.... Historical and Western fans of either gender will enjoy this series from the compelling covers to the last word of this third volume. It's a series I'm glad I had the opportunity to read."~Jennie Hansen, Reviewer, Meridian Magazine

Dark family secrets, a long-lost love affair and a multi-million pound gaming business lie at the heart of Iain Banks's fabulous new novel. The Wopuld family built its fortune on a board game called Empire! ? now a hugely successful computer game. So successful, the American Spraint Corp wants to buy the firm out. Young renegade Alban, who has been evading the family clutches for years, is run to ground and persuaded to attend the forthcoming family gathering ? part birthday party, part Extraordinary General Meeting ? convened by Win, Wopuld matriarch and most powerful member of the board, at Garbadale, the family's highland castle. Being drawn back into the bosom of the clan brings an inevitable and disconcerting confrontation with Alban's past. What drove his mother to take her own life? And is he yet ready to see Sophie, his beautiful, enchanting cousin and teenage love, at the EGM? Grandmother Win's revelations will radically alter Alban's perspective for ever.

These seventeen stories, first published in Italian between 1949 and 1986, demonstrate Levi's extraordinary range, taking the reader from the primal resistance of a captured partisan fighter to a middle-aged chemist experimenting with a new paint that wards off evil, to the lustful thoughts of an older man obsessed with a mysterious woman in a seaside villa. In the title story, Levi demonstrates his unerringly tragic understanding of the fragility of the universe through the tale of a pensive astronomer, terrified by the possibility that a long-dormant star might explode and reduce the entire planet to vapor. This remarkable new collection affirms Italo Calvino's conviction that Levi was "one of the most important and gifted writers of our time."

What would you do if you had unlimited power and eternal life? Would you...go back to high school? Attend the same classes year after year, going through the pomp and circumstance of one graduation after another, until you found the perfect date to take to prom? Would you...spend your days moping and brooding, finding your only joy in a game of baseball on a stormy day? Or would you...do something else? Anything else? The authors of this collection have a few ideas; some fanciful, some humorous, and some as dark as an endless night. Join us, and discover what it truly means to be "vampyre." Edited by Michael West Foreword by Michael West "A New Life" by J. F. Gonzalez "What Once was Flesh" by Tim Waggoner "The Darkton Circus Mystery" by Elizabeth Massie "Robot Vampire" by R. J. Sullivan "Beneath a Templar Cross" by Gord Rollo "The Weapon of Memory" by Kyle S. Johnson "The Excavation" by Stephen Zimmer "Skraeling" by Joel A. Sutherland "Dreams of Winter" by Bob Freeman "Dracula's Winkee: Bloodsucker Blues" by Gregory L. Hall "I Fuck Your Sunshine" by Lucy A. Snyder "A Soldier's Story" by Maurice Broaddus "Rattenkonig " by Douglas F. Warrick "Vampire Nation" by Jerry Gordon "Curtain Call" by Gary A. Braunbeck

"Fans of such notables as C.J. Box, Peter Straub, and Joyce Carol Oates chiefly known for their novels will be pleased to see how well they write at shorter length."--Publishers Weekly “Some people might tell you that crime short stories, unlike the more precious kind, are a kind of fictional ghetto, full of cardboard characters and clichéd situations. Not true. These stories are remarkably free of bullshit—al­though there’s always a little, just to grease the wheels,” writes guest editor John Sandford in his introduction. From an isolated Wyoming ranch to the Detroit boxing underworld, and from kidnapping and adultery in the Hollywood Hills to a serial killer loose in a nursing home, The Best American Mystery Stories 2017 hosts an entertaining abundance of crime, psychological suspense, and bad intentions. The Best American Mystery Stories 2017 includes C. J. BOX, GERRI BRIGHTWELL, JEFFERY DEAVER, BRENDAN DUBOIS, TRINA COREY, CRAIG JOHNSON, JOYCE CAROL OATES, PETER STRAUB, and others

Deepak Chopra presents ten lessons to help build awareness and change the distorted energy patterns that are the root cause of aging, infirmity, and disease. Fifteen years after his #1 New York Times bestseller, Ageless Body, Timeless Mind, Deepak Chopra revisits "the forgotten miracle"–the body's infinite capacity for change and renewal. You cannot take advantage of this miracle, Chopra says, unless you are willing to completely reinvent your body, transforming it from a material object to a dynamic, flowing process. "Your physical body is a fiction," Chopra contends. Every cell is made up of two invisible ingredients: awareness and energy. Transformation can't stop with the body, however; it must involve the soul. The soul–seemingly invisible, aloof, and apart from the material world–actually creates the body. Only by going to the level of the soul will you access your full potential, bringing more intelligence, creativity, and awareness into every aspect of your life. Reinventing the Body, Resurrecting the Soul delivers ten breakthroughs–five for the body, five for the soul–that lead to self-transformation. In clear, accessible terms, Chopra shows us how to commit ourselves to deeper awareness, focus on relationships instead of consumption, embrace every day as a new world, and transcend the obstacles that afflict body and mind. Deepak Chopra has inspired millions with his profound teachings over the years. His bestselling books have explored the mind/body connection and the power of spirit. With his latest book, he invites you to experience with him the miracles that unfold when we connect the body directly to the awesome mysteries that give life meaning–directly to the soul. When you have completed this journey, after reinventing your body and resurrecting your soul, the ecstasy of true wholeness becomes possible for the very first time. From the Hardcover edition.

Fourteen-year-old Cynthia Bigge woke one morning to discover that her entire family, mother, father, brother had vanished. No note, no trace, no return. Ever. Now, twenty-five years later, she'll learn the devastating truth *Sometimes better not to know. . . * Cynthia is happily married with a young daughter, a new family. But the story of her old family isn't over. A strange car in the neighborhood, untraceable phone calls, ominous gifts, someone has returned to her hometown to finish what was started twenty-five years ago. And no one's innocence is guaranteed, not even her own. By the time Cynthia discovers her killer's shocking identity, it will again be too late . . . even for goodbye.

Marcel Proust’s genius for illuminating pain is on spectacular display in this recently discovered trove of his correspondence, Letters to His Neighbor. Already suffering from noise within his cork-lined walls, his poor soul was not ready for the fresh hell when his neighbor Dr. Williams married a widow with small children. Chiefly to Mrs. Williams, these ever-polite letters (often accompanied by flowers, compliments, books, even pheasants) are frequently hilarious—Proust couches his fury in a gracious tone. In Lydia Davis’s hands, the digressive brilliance of his sentences shines: “Don't speak of annoying neighbors, but of neighbors so charming (an association of words contradictory in principle since Montesquiou claims that most horrible of all are 1) neighbors 2) the smell of post offices) that they leave the constant tantalizing regret that one cannot take advantage of their neighborliness.” Proust makes fine distinctions among his auditory torments: “The valet de chambre makes noise and that doesn't matter. But later he knocks with little tiny raps.  And that is worse.” Lydia Davis has written a generous translator’s note, tracing much of what we can know about Proust’s perpetually dark room; she details the furnishings as well as the life he lived there: burning his powders, talking with friends, hiring musicians, and, most of all, suffering. Letters to His Neighboris richly illustrated with facsimile letters and photographs—catnip for lovers of Proust. With an Introduction by Jean-Yves Tadié and a translator’s note by Lydia Davis.

Cronopios and Famas is one of the best-loved books by Julio Cortazar, one of the greatest of Latin American novelists."The Instruction Manual," the first chapter, is an absurd assortment of tasks and items dissected in an instruction-manual format. "Unusual Occupations," the second chapter, describes the obsessions and predilections of the narrator's family, including the lodging of a tiger-just one tiger- "for the sole purpose of seeing the mechanism at work in all its complexity." Finally, the "Cronopios and Famas" section delightfully characterizes, in the words of Carlos Fuentes, "those enemies of pomposity, academic rigor mortis and cardboard celebrity-a band of literary Marx Brothers." As the Saturday Review remarked: "Each page of Cronopios and Famas sparkles with vivid satire that goes to the heart of human character and, in the best pieces, to the essence of the human condition."

In the first century a.d., Ovid, author of the groundbreaking epic poem Metamorphoses, came under severe criticism for The Art of Love, which playfully instructed women in the art of seduction and men in the skills essential for mastering the art of romantic conquest. In this remarkable translation, James Michie breathes new life into the notorious Roman’s mock-didactic elegy. In lyrical, irreverent English, he reveals love’s timeless dilemmas and Ovid’s enduring brilliance as both poet and cultural critic. From the Trade Paperback edition.