Second Nature: A Love Story

      Jacquelyn Mitchard
     Second Nature: A Love Story

New York Times bestselling author Jacquelyn Mitchard’s novels, with their riveting stories and unforgettable characters, have won the hearts of millions of readers. Now, from the author of The Deep End of the Ocean and No Time to Wave Goodbye, comes the fierce and moving tale of one woman’s fight for her identity and her life when fate holds out a second chance. Sicily Coyne was just thirteen when her father was killed in a school fire that left her face disfigured. Twelve years later, a young surgeon, Eliza Cappadora, offers hope in the form of a revolutionary new surgery that may give Sicily back the grace and function she lost. Raised by a dynamic, tenacious aunt who taught her to lead a normal life, and engaged to a wonderful man who knew her long before the accident, Sicily rejects the offer: She knows who she is, and so do the people who love her. But when a secret surfaces that shatters Sicily’s carefully constructed world, she calls off the wedding and agrees to the radical procedure in order to begin a new life. Her beauty restored virtually overnight, Sicily rushes toward life with open arms, seeking new experiences, adventures, and, most of all, love. But she soon discovers that her new face carries with it risks that no one could have imagined. Confronting a moral and medical crisis that quickly becomes a matter of life and death, Sicily is surrounded by experts and loving family, but the choice that will transform her future, for better or worse, is one she must make alone. An intense and moving story of courage, consequence, and possibility, Second Nature showcases the acclaimed storyteller at her very best. From the Hardcover edition.

Read online

  • 1 169

    Blood Sins

      Kay Hooper
     Blood Sins

New York Times bestselling author Kay Hooper delivers once again with this chilling novel in which the Special Crimes Unit sends a Haven operative undercover to catch a charismatic killer who promises his victims heaven in exchange for more than their lives. . .  Young, vulnerable, attractive, Tessa Gray looked like the perfect victim. Which was why Noah Bishop of the FBI’s Special Crimes Unit recruited the novice operative to use as bait for a killer hidden inside the Church of the Everlasting Sin–a fortified mountain compound where at least two women have already been murdered in ways that defy explanation. By entering the cult’s compound, Tessa will expose herself to the dark magnetism of its leader and his fanatically loyal followers. Once she’s inside, no one, not even Bishop or the town’s chief of police, can guarantee she’ll come out alive. And not even Tessa knows if she’s strong enough to resist the lure of a killer who is less than human.

Read online

  • 1 169

    Mr Palomar

      Italo Calvino
     Mr Palomar

Mr Palomar is a delightful eccentric whose chief activity is looking at things. He is simply seeking knowledge; 'it is only after you have come to know the surface of things that you can venture to seek what is underneath'. Whether contemplating a fine cheese, a hungry gecko, a woman sunbathing topless or a flight of migrant starlings, Mr Palomar's observations render the world afresh.

Read online

  • 1 168

    World's Fair

      E. L. Doctorow
     World's Fair

"Something close to magic." The Los Angeles Times The astonishing novel of a young boy's life in the New York City of the 1930s, a stunning recreation of the sights, sounds, aromas and emotions of a time when the streets were safe, families stuck together through thick and thin, and all the promises of a generation culminate in a single great World's Fair . . .

Read online

  • 1 168

    Back to Blood

      Tom Wolfe
     Back to Blood

A big, panoramic story of the new America, as told by our master chronicler of the way we live now. As a police launch speeds across Miami's Biscayne Bay-with officer Nestor Camacho on board-Tom Wolfe is off and running. Into the feverous landscape of the city, he introduces the Cuban mayor, the black police chief, a wanna-go-muckraking young journalist and his Yale-marinated editor; an Anglo sex-addiction psychiatrist and his Latina nurse by day, loin lock by night-until lately, the love of Nestor's life; a refined, and oh-so-light-skinned young woman from Haiti and her Creole-spouting, black-gang-banger-stylin' little brother; a billionaire porn addict, crack dealers in the 'hoods, "de-skilled" conceptual artists at the Miami Art Basel Fair, "spectators" at the annual Biscayne Bay regatta looking only for that night's orgy, yenta-heavy ex-New Yorkers at an "Active Adult" condo, and a nest of shady Russians. Based on the same sort of detailed, on-scene, high-energy reporting that powered Tom Wolfe's previous bestselling novels, BACK TO BLOOD is another brilliant, spot-on, scrupulous, and often hilarious reckoning with our times.

Read online

  • 1 168

    Infinite Possibilities

      Lisa Renee Jones
     Infinite Possibilities

Secrets and lies. They are everywhere: haunting her, tormenting her. In the midst of it all, he’d been her escape, her passion. The only person she’d trusted in six years. And then he’d made her doubt that trust, cutting her deeply. But as she’d once told him, she was damaged, not broken. She is ready to fight and not just for survival. She is fighting for the truth and she won’t stop until she has it, not even for…him.

Read online

  • 1 168

    The Spinoza Problem

      Irvin D. Yalom
     The Spinoza Problem

When sixteen-year-old Alfred Rosenberg is called into his headmaster’s office for anti-Semitic remarks he made during a school speech, he is forced, as punishment, to memorize passages about Spinoza from the autobiography of the German poet Goethe. Rosenberg is stunned to discover that Goethe, his idol, was a great admirer of the Jewish seventeenth-century philosopher Baruch Spinoza. Long after graduation, Rosenberg remains haunted by this “Spinoza problem”: how could the German genius Goethe have been inspired by a member of a race Rosenberg considers so inferior to his own, a race he was determined to destroy? Spinoza himself was no stranger to punishment during his lifetime. Because of his unorthodox religious views, he was excommunicated from the Amsterdam Jewish community in 1656, at the age of twenty-four, and banished from the only world he had ever known. Though his life was short and he lived without means in great isolation, he nonetheless produced works that changed the course of history.  Over the years, Rosenberg rose through the ranks to become an outspoken Nazi ideologue, a faithful servant of Hitler, and the main author of racial policy for the Third Reich. Still, his Spinoza obsession lingered. By imagining the unexpected intersection of Spinoza’s life with Rosenberg’s, internationally bestselling novelist Irvin D. Yalom explores the mindsets of two men separated by 300 years. Using his skills as a psychiatrist, he explores the inner lives of Spinoza, the saintly secular philosopher, and of Rosenberg, the godless mass murderer.

Read online

  • 1 168

    Pure Lust Vol. 1

      M. S. Parker
     Pure Lust Vol. 1

Gabriella Baine has a way with words. She dreams of one day becoming a staff writer for the biggest TV shows. But dreams don't pay rent and during a job interview at one of the largest model agencies in the country, she meets fashion photographer, Flynn McCreary. Sparks fly and there's an intense, visceral pure lust that culminates in the hottest sex Gabriella's ever experienced. Soon afterwards, Flynn's gone and once again she realize that her wish for Prince Charming will never come true. Then she meets the handsome, romantic and mysterious Edward, a man who seems to have it all but is also keeping secrets that could destroy any chance of Gabriella ever finding her happy ever after. You don't want to miss the first book in M.S. Parker and Cassie Wild's newest sexy and twisted collaboration, Pure Lust.

Read online

  • 1 168

    The Lies We Told

      Diane Chamberlain
     The Lies We Told

Maya and Rebecca Ward are both accomplished physicians, but that's where the sisters' similarities end. As teenagers, they witnessed their parents' murder, but it was Rebecca who saved Maya from becoming another of the gunman's victims. The tragedy left Maya cautious and timid, settling for a sedate medical practice with her husband, Adam, while Rebecca became the risk taker. After a devastating hurricane hits the coast of North Carolina, Rebecca and Adam urge Maya to join them in the relief effort. To please her husband, Maya finally agrees. She loses herself in the care and transport of victims, but when her helicopter crashes into raging floodwaters, there appear to be no survivors. Forced to accept Maya is gone, Rebecca and Adam turn to one another—first for comfort, then in passion—unaware that, miles from civilization, Maya is injured and trapped with strangers she's not certain she can trust. Away from the sister who has always been there to save her, now Maya must find the courage to save herself—unaware that the life she knew has changed forever.

Read online

  • 1 168

    It Girl #10: Classic

      Cecily von Ziegesar
     It Girl #10: Classic

It's almost Valentine's Day at Waverly Academy, and love is in the air...and in everyone's inboxes. Each year, The Waverly Computer Society runs Perfect Match, an online personality survey that pairs up Waverly Owls with their supposed soul mates. Now the campus is overrun with peculiar pairings, odd couples, and mischief makers hoping to play Cupid for a day. Jenny Humphrey is convinced she'll be paired with her adorable new boyfriend, Isaac Dresden. But when he starts acting skittish, she begins to wonder if he's her Perfect Match after all. Brett Messerschmidt and Tinsley Carmichael definitely aren't feeling the love this Valentine's Day: when Isla Dresden, Isaac's sister, steals Tinsley's thunder-and Brett's boyfriend-the two girls vow to plot their revenge. Callie Vernon is starting to wonder if a girl can have two soulmates. She's in love with both Easy Walsh and Brandon Buchanan, but on February 14th, she can only give one of them her heart. In this final dramatic It Girl novel, the Waverly Owls ponder an age-old question: is all really fair in love and war?

Read online

  • 1 168

    Cards on the Table (SB)

      Agatha Christie
     Cards on the Table (SB)

It was the match-up of the century: four sleuths--Superintendent Battle of Scotland Yard; Mrs. Ariadne Oliver, famed writer of detective stories; Col. Race of His Majesty's Secret Service; and the incomparable Hercule Poirot - invited to play bridge with four specially invited guests, each of whom had gotten away with murder! But before the first rubber was completed, the host was dead.

Read online

  • 1 167

    Plexus

      Henry Miller
     Plexus

Second volume in the Rosy Crucifixion series. More about Henry and June, also chronicling the author's travels to the deep South, and his work as an encyclopedia salesmen (after he'd left personnel).

Read online

  • 1 167

    Handwriting

      Michael Ondaatje
     Handwriting

"Tumultuous, vibrant, tragic and over too soon." --Newsday Handwriting is Michael Ondaatje's first new book of poetry since The Cinnamon Peeler. The exquisite poems collected here draw on history, mythology, landscape, and personal memories to weave a rich tapestry of images that reveal the longing for--and expose the anguish over--lost loves, homes, and language, as the poet contemplates scents and gestures and evokes a time when "handwriting occurred on waves, / on leaves, the scripts of smoke" and remembers a woman's "laughter with its / intake of breath. Uhh huh." Crafted with lyrical delicacy and seductive power, Handwriting reminds us of Michael Ondaatje's stature as one of the finest poets writing today. From the Trade Paperback edition.

Read online

  • 1 167

    So Much for That

      Lionel Shriver
     So Much for That

Shep Knacker has long saved for "the Afterlife," an idyllic retreat in the Third World where his nest egg can last forever. Exasperated that his wife, Glynis, has concocted endless excuses why it's never the right time to go, Shep finally announces he's leaving for a Tanzanian island, with or without her. Yet Glynis has some news of her own: she's deathly ill. Shep numbly puts his dream aside, while his nest egg is steadily devastated by staggering bills that their health insurance only partially covers. Astonishingly, illness not only strains their marriage but saves it. From acclaimed New York Times bestselling author Lionel Shriver comes a searing, ruthlessly honest novel. Brimming with unexpected tenderness and dry humor, it presses the question: How much is one life worth?

Read online

  • 1 167

    Just Another Girl

      Elizabeth Eulberg
     Just Another Girl

**You resent her. You can't stand her. You might even hate her. But you don't know her at all.** Hope knows there's only one thing coming between her and her longtime crush: his girlfriend, Parker. She has to sit on the sidelines and watch as the perfect girl gets the perfect boy . . . because that's how the universe works, even though it's so completely wrong. Parker doesn't feel perfect. She knows if everyone knew the truth about her, they'd never be able to get past it. So she keeps quiet. She focuses on making it through the day with her secret safe . . . even as this becomes harder and harder to do. And Hope isn't making it any easier. . . . In Just Another Girl, Elizabeth Eulberg astutely and affectingly shows us how battle lines get drawn between girls -- and how difficult it then becomes to see or understand the girl standing on the other side of the divide. You think you have an enemy. But she's just another girl.

Read online

  • 1 167