A cold-hearted murderer. A vicious abuser. A young man hiding a shameful secret. A bewildered immigrant. A pure-minded spy. All of these men have found their appointed places at Mercy Prison, where it is easy to tell who your enemies are. But a new visitor to Mercy is about to challenge decades-old customs. Now these men's worst enemies may be hiding behind masks...and so may their closest allies."'You have committed a vile and savage act, one that any other nation would punish with death. Our punishment, on the other hand, will only be to give you what you want. You have sought to live in a world without boundaries of civilization, and such a world shall henceforth be your dwelling place.'"A cold-hearted murderer. A vicious abuser. A young man hiding a shameful secret. A bewildered immigrant. A pure-minded spy.All of these men have found their appointed places at Mercy Life Prison, where it is easy to tell who your enemies are. But a new visitor to Mercy is about to challenge decades-old customs. Now these men's worst enemies may be hiding behind masks . . . and so may their closest allies.A runner-up in the Rainbow Awards 2014, the book bundle "Mercy's Prisoner" can be read on its own or as the first volume in the Life Prison series. Friendship, desire between men, and the costs of corruption and integrity are examined in this multicultural speculative fiction series, which is inspired by prison life at the end of the nineteenth century.VOLUME CONTENTS"Life Prison." In the unmerciful world of Mercy Prison, there is no rule but unending pain. For Merrick, the arrival of his new guard provides hope that he may break beyond the boundaries of his life prison. But appearances can be deceptive, and Merrick does not yet recognize the danger this guard poses to his future."Men and Lads." Two guards. Two prisoners. A multitude of problems."Milord." He was the model prisoner, respectful to his guards and loyal to his fellow prisoners. What no one knew was that he held the key to destruction."Isolation." Being locked in a prison cell can cause a man to re-examine his priorities. Especially when the door never opens."Curious." His job is to guard the prisoners. But against what?"Mercy's Prisoner: Epilogue.""Mercy's Prisoner: Historical Note."REVIEW"Liveprison. Der Name sagt alles. Sehr düster." - Mllesatine: Empfehlungen.PREVIEWHis face came full into the light as he stepped forward. Wearing the uniform of a Compassion guard, he looked even more like his father: he had the same thin lips and the same straight eyebrows. But the eyes were empty of all coldness – indeed, of all expression of any sort – and there was no smile on his lips, cruel or otherwise."My name is Thomas," he said. "I'm your new guard."I noted the use of his given name rather than his paternal name, and with the instinct of a veteran fighter I dropped and made my attack accordingly. "Ah, yes," I said. "The son of Compassion's Keeper. I can expect great deeds from you, I'm sure."His lips grew even thinner, but that was all; it seemed that he was well used to this mode of attack. He said, as though I had not spoken, "My job is to provide service to you during your stay at this prison, and to make your stay as comfortable as is possible under your circumstances. If you have any needs, I hope you will let me know of them."I stared at him open-mouthed for a moment, and then I gave a hoot of laughter that resounded through the entire level. The early-morning conversations across the fire-pit paused briefly, and Sedgewick, who was passing my cell, glanced in with narrowed eyes before continuing on."Let me – let me understand you correctly," I said, struggling to gain control of myself. "You'll give me any service I want?""Any service that is in accordance with the rules of your stay.""But the only rule is that I should not be permitted escape, either through death or any other means. So you'll give me anything else?""If it's within reason, yes.""Anything at all?""Tell me what you want, and I'll be able to give you a firm answer." His patience, I saw with delight, was wearing down."Fine," I said, leaning back and pulling off the blanket to reveal my body underneath. I had given up wearing clothes at bedtime several guards before. "I want you to come over here and service me on your knees."

From celebrated novelist S.E. Hinton, the classic YA novel TEX, now available as an eBook for the first time. Tex McCormick, fifteen, is happy: happy living in a small town in Oklahoma; happy living with his big brother Mason; and especially happy to live next door to his best friend Johnny, and Johnny's sister Jamie. But with money running out and no sign of Pop for months on end, Mason is getting nervous. He's talking about leaving Oklahoma too, for good. Feeling adrift, Tex goes looking for - and finds - trouble. When happiness is impossible to find, how will Tex keep himself and his family together? From the author of THE OUTSIDERS, S.E. Hinton’s classic story explores the true meanings of strength and vulnerability. “In Tex, the raw energy for which Hinton has justifiably reaped praise has not been tamed—it’s been cultivated, and the result is a fine, solidly constructed, and well-paced story.”—School Library Journal An ALA Best Books for Young Adults A School Library Journal Best Books of the Year A New York Public Library Books for the Teen-Age An American Book Award Nominee ** ### From the Publisher Easygoing, thoughtless, and direct, Tex at fifteen likes everyone and everything, especially his horse, Negrito, and Johnny Collins's blue-eyed sister, Jamie. He thinks life with his seventeen-year-old brother, Mason, in their ramshackle house would be just about perfect if only Mace would stop complaining about Pop. Pop hasn't been home in five months. Mace wants to get out of Oklahoma. Tex just seems to attract trouble and daneger . . . Suddenly everything's falling apart. Can Tex keep it all together? ### From the Inside Flap Easygoing, thoughtless, and direct, Tex at fifteen likes everyone and everything, especially his horse, Negrito, and Johnny Collins's blue-eyed sister, Jamie. He thinks life with his seventeen-year-old brother, Mason, in their ramshackle house would be just about perfect if only Mace would stop complaining about Pop. Pop hasn't been home in five months. Mace wants to get out of Oklahoma. Tex just seems to attract trouble and daneger . . . Suddenly everything's falling apart. Can Tex keep it all together?

Callie Sheppard went wild once in her life, sharing a perfect weekend with two men she could never forget but thought she would never see again. Nathan Wright and Zane Hollister were two DEA agents who needed a decadent weekend before going on a long, undercover assignment to take down an outlaw biker gang. Six years later, Callie has to break in a new Sheriff after Rye Harper walked out on the job. But her heart skips a beat when Nate walks through the door in his new uniform. Nate and Zane have come to Bliss, Colorado, to heal. Their cover is blown, and while the Barbarians are almost put out of business, Zane pays a horrible price. The boys are determined to win back Callie’s broken heart. But when the Barbarians return with revenge in mind, they’ll need to save her before they can claim her.

A room of one's own: is there anybody who hasn't at one time or another wished for such a place, hasn't turned those soft words over until they'd assumed a habitable shape? When writer Michael Pollan decided to plant a garden, the result was an award-winning treatise on the borders between nature and contemporary life, the acclaimed bestseller Second Nature. Now Pollan turns his sharp insight to the craft of building, as he recounts the process of designing and constructing a small one-room structure on his rural Connecticut property--a place in which he hoped to read, write and daydream, built with his two own unhandy hands. Invoking the titans of architecture, literature and philosophy, from Vitrivius to Thoreau, from the Chinese masters of feng shui to the revolutionary Frank Lloyd Wright, Pollan brilliantly chronicles a realm of blueprints, joints and trusses as he peers into the ephemeral nature of "houseness" itself. From the spark of an idea to the search for a perfect site to the raising of a ridgepole, Pollan revels in the infinitely detailed, complex process of creating a finished structure. At once superbly written, informative and enormously entertaining, A Place of My Own is for anyone who has ever wondered how the walls around us take shape--and how we might shape them ourselves. A Place of My Own recounts his two-and-a-half-year journey of discovery in an absorbing narrative that deftly weaves the day-to-day work of design and building--from siting to blueprint, from the pouring of foundations to finish carpentry--with reflections on everything form the power of place to shape our lives to the question of what constitutes "real work" in a technological society. A book about craft that is itself beautifully crafted, linking the world of the body and material things with the realm of mind, heart, and spirit, A Place of My Own has received extraordinary praise.

`It is better to be feared than loved' - Niccolo Machiavelli In the bear pit of renaissance politics, a young Florentine diplomat finds himself first hand observer on the history's most notorious family - the Borgias. In the Name of the Family - as Blood and Beauty did before - holds up a mirror to a turbulent moment of history, sweeping aside the myths to bring alive the real Borgia family; complicated, brutal, passionate and glorious. Here is a thrilling exploration of the House of Borgia's doomed years, in the company of a young diplomat named Niccolo Machiavelli. It is 1502 and Rodrigo Borgia, a self-confessed womaniser and master of political corruption is now on the Papal throne as Alexander VI. His daughter Lucrezia, aged twenty-two, already thrice married and a pawn in her father's plans, is discovering her own power. And then there is Cesare Borgia: brilliant, ruthless and increasingly unstable; it is his relationship with the diplomat Machiavelli which offers a master class on the dark arts of power and politics. What Machiavelli learns will go on to inform his great work of modern politics, The Prince. But while the pope rails against old age and his son's increasing maverick behavior it is Lucrezia who will become the Borgia survivor: taking on her enemies and creating her own place in history. Conjuring up the past in all its complexity, horror and pleasures, In The Name of the Family confirms Sarah Dunant's place as the leading novelist of the Renaissance and one of the most acclaimed historical fiction writers of our age.

The highly anticipated, brand-new timeslip romance from New York Times bestselling author Susanna Kearsley For nearly 300 years, the mysterious journal of Jacobite exile Mary Dundas has lain unread-its secrets safe from prying eyes. Now, amateur codebreaker Sara Thomas has been hired by a once-famous historian to crack the journal's cipher. But when she arrives in Paris, Sara finds herself besieged by complications from all sides: the journal's reclusive owner, her charming Parisian neighbor, and Mary, whose journal doesn't hold the secrets Sara expects. As Mary's tale grows more and more dire, Sara, too, must carefully choose which turning to take... to find the road that will lead her safely home.

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane comes a chilling mystery—Prep meets The Crucible. It’s senior year at St. Joan’s Academy, and school is a pressure cooker. College applications, the battle for valedictorian, deciphering boys’ texts: Through it all, Colleen Rowley and her friends are expected to keep it together. Until they can’t. First it’s the school’s queen bee, Clara Rutherford, who suddenly falls into uncontrollable tics in the middle of class. Her mystery illness quickly spreads to her closest clique of friends, then more students and symptoms follow: seizures, hair loss, violent coughing fits. St. Joan’s buzzes with rumor; rumor blossoms into full-blown panic. Soon the media descends on Danvers, Massachusetts, as everyone scrambles to find something, or someone, to blame. Pollution? Stress? Or are the girls faking? Only Colleen—who’s been reading The Crucible for extra credit—comes to realize what nobody else has: Danvers was once Salem Village, where another group of girls suffered from a similarly bizarre epidemic three centuries ago . . . Inspired by true events—from seventeenth-century colonial life to the halls of a modern-day high school—Conversion casts a spell. With her signature wit and passion, New York Times bestselling author Katherine Howe delivers an exciting and suspenseful novel, a chilling mystery that raises the question, what’s really happening to the girls at St. Joan’s?

A powerfully emotional and beautifully written story of heartbreaking loss and undying love He was a fishing guide and struggling artist from a south George trailer park. She was the beautiful only child of South Carolina’s most powerful senator. Yet once Doss Michaels and Abigail Grace Coleman met by accident, they each felt they’d found their true soul mate. Ten years into their marriage, when Abbie faces a life-threatening illness, Doss battles it with her every step of the way. And when she makes a list of ten things she hopes to accomplish before she loses the fight for good, Doss is there, too, supporting her and making everything possible. Together they steal away in the middle of the night to embark upon a 130-mile trip down the St. Mary’s River—a voyage Doss promised Abbie in the early days of their courtship. * Where the River Ends * chronicles their love-filled, tragedy-tinged journey and a bond that transcends all.

*The beloved Noel Streatfeild classic back in print! *It's a stroke of great luck when Harriet Johnson’s doctor prescribes skating after an illness that has left her feeling frail and listless. For on her very first day at the rink, Harriet meets orphaned Lalla Moore, who is being brought up by her wealthy aunt Claudia to be a skating champion. Although they have little in common, the girls form a fast friendship. Harriet is energized by talented, funny Lalla, and Lalla in turn blossoms under the affection of openhearted Harriet. The girls skate together more and more. But just as Lalla’s interest in skating starts to fade, Harriet’s natural talent begins to emerge. Suddenly Lalla and Harriet seem headed in two very different directions. Can their friendship survive? From the Trade Paperback edition.

"I am confiding this manuscript to space, not with the intention of saving myself, but to help, perhaps, to avert the appalling scourge that is menacing the human race. Lord have pity on us!" With these words, Pierre Boulle hurtles teh reader onto the Planet of the Apes. In this simian world, civilization is turned upside down: apes are men and men are apes; apes rule and men run wild; apes think, speak, produce, wear clothes, and men are speechless, naked, exhibited at fairs, used for biological research. On the planet of the apes, man, having reached to apotheosis of his genius, has become inert. To this planet come a journalist and a scientist. The scientist is put into a zoo, the journalist into a laboratory. Only the journalist retains the spiritual strength and creative intelligence to try to save himself, to fight the appalling scourge, to remain a man. Out of this situation, Pierre Boulle has woven a tale as harrowing, bizarre, and meaningful as any in the brilliant roster of this master storyteller. With his cutomary wit, irony, and disciplined intellect and style, the author of The Bridge Over the River Kwai tells a swiftly moving story dealing with man's conflicts, and takes the reader into a suspenseful and strangely fascinating orbit.

Ten Years After are an English blues rock band, most popular in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Between 1968 and 1973, Ten Years After scored eight Top 40 albums on the UK Albums Chart. In addition they had twelve albums enter the US Billboard 200, and are best known for tracks such as "I'm Going Home", "Hear Me Calling", "I'd Love to Change the World" and "Love Like a Man". Their musical style consisted of blues rock, and hard rock.

Miracles happen all around us—even though we're seldom sufficiently awake to notice them. Sometimes we find our true self in a Mirror. Sometimes a stray bullet defines our future. At other times we wander for ages without being able to define our purpose. Yet, when we find it, reality fills us with Wonder.After a rough break up with the man he thought he'd spend his happily-ever-after with, Brad returns home to Wyoming to attend his high school reunion. He's still in touch with his best friend since childhood - only problem is that Jimmy doesn't know he's gay. Brad hates the idea of upsetting Jimmy, who has no family left and thinks of Brad as his brother. Plus, he's been lying to him all these years. How will Jimmy take the news, and will their friendship survive? Finding the man of his dreams in Sheridan is not on his radar, but a few surprises are in store for Brad. This light, comedic MM romance explores what it's like to come out in 2014.

Revenge (Formerly Shades of GreyRewritten and Re-edited.What happens to a man when his world is destroyed before his eyes? Jessie Carr, combat veteran, war hero, family man, is one such man. Jessie isn’t your typical hero, or is he your typical villain. He is a man caught between two worlds, one of love and family, the other of drugs and violence.What happens to a man when his world is destroyed before his eyes? Jessie Carr, combat veteran, war hero, family man, is one such man. Jessie isn’t your typical hero, or is he your typical villain. He is a man caught between two worlds, one of love and family, the other of drugs and violence. Jessie proves he can survive in both worlds, but at what cost?Jessie and his wife were living a good life in New Orleans; but when his wife is brutally murdered, Jessie is determined to let the law handle it. When the law fails, Jessie makes a life changing decision, to seek justice on his own. His world spirals out of control, where one violent act leads to another; alone in this struggle he recruits two old friend, ex military buddies. All three enter a world they didn’t even know existed, but they adapt fast. Ordinary men, or are they.Hero or Villain, after you read Shades of Grey you may still not know, but you will understand what drives Jessie and makes him the man he is. You may love him, or you may hate him, but one thing you will never do, is forget him.Shades of Grey is a rough and violent ride. So hang on!Be sure to read all of Jessie Carr's AdventuresGunSlingerBlack TalonVengeanceTormented

Weekly summary of soap opera's hottest news, stories, humour, gossip, blind items, top stars/stories/couples/characters to watch, snark galore, review, and analysis.INSIDE — Sexiest MILF Alive: Exclusive Interview with Daytime’s Best Actress Y&R’s Michelle Stafford! Exclusive: NIGHT SHIFT Writer Sri Rao Comments On Cartini’s GH! Source: Rick Hearst Headed Back to GH! Lynn Herring Visiting, too? Is Y&R’s Michael Muhney Crossing Over to B&B? Also: NASHVILLE’s Jonathan Jackson In Talks With GH To Return! Warning: Spoilers Inside! Exclusive: Sri Rao on Cartini’s GH! Peter Reckell Off DAYS! Lauralee Bell Back on Y&R? Also: Are Chance and Ronan Next? GH’s Nathan Parsons: Is Ethan Luke’s Son?! Kassie De Paiva Turns Down B&B! Exclusive: Martha Byrne on Jon Hensley’s B&B Gig! Are ONE LIFE’s John and Natalie Married? Inside Report: Did ABC Sabotage GH’s Ratings Last Week With A Massive DVR Blackout? Plus: Last Week's Reviews, Unbelievable Blind Items, and Next Week's Cheat Sheet!