The Gift

      Vladimir Nabokov
     The Gift

The Gift is the last of the novels Nabokov wrote in his native Russian and the crowning achievement of that period in his literary career.  It is also his ode to Russian literature, evoking the works of Pushkin, Gogol, and others in the course of its narrative:  the story of Fyodor Godunov-Cherdyntsev, an impoverished émigré poet living in Berlin, who dreams of the book he will someday write--a book very much like The Gift itself. From the Trade Paperback edition.

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    Black Sunday

      Thomas Harris
     Black Sunday

When the game begins in New Orleans this Super Bowl Sunday . . . 80,000 people had better get ready to die. — The Super Bowl--where thousands have gathered for an all-American tradition. Suddenly it's the most terrifying place on earth . . . — Michael Lander is the most dangerous man in America. He pilots a television blimp over packed football stadiums every weekend. He is fascinated with explosives. And he happens to be very, very crazy. That's why a beautiful PLO operative has seduced him. That's why--on Super Bowl Sunday--the world will witness the bloody assassination of the U. S. president and the worst mass murder in history. Unless someone discovers what Michael Lander plans . . . and can kill him first.

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    What Happened to Goodbye

      Sarah Dessen
     What Happened to Goodbye

Who is the real McLean? Since her parents' bitter divorce, McLean and her dad, a restaurant consultant, have been on the move-four towns in two years. Estranged from her mother and her mother's new family, McLean has followed her dad in leaving the unhappy past behind. And each new place gives her a chance to try out a new persona: from cheerleader to drama diva. But now, for the first time, McLean discovers a desire to stay in one place and just be herself, whoever that is. Perhaps Dave, the guy next door, can help her find out. Combining Sarah Dessen's trademark graceful writing, great characters, and compelling storytelling, What Happened to Goodbye is irresistible reading.

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    The Woman in the Dunes

      Kōbō Abe
     The Woman in the Dunes

The Woman in the Dunes, by celebrated writer and thinker Kobo Abe, combines the essence of myth, suspense and the existential novel. After missing the last bus home following a day trip to the seashore, an amateur entomologist is offered lodging for the night at the bottom of a vast sand pit. But when he attempts to leave the next morning, he quickly discovers that the locals have other plans. Held captive with seemingly no chance of escape, he is tasked with shoveling back the ever-advancing sand dunes that threaten to destroy the village. His only companion is an odd young woman. Together their fates become intertwined as they work side by side at this Sisyphean task.

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    Every Seventh Wave

      Daniel Glattauer
     Every Seventh Wave

Love Virtually ends as Leo leaves Austria for America. He and Emmi have still not met, but the intensity of their correspondence has been threatening Emmi’s marriage. But shouldn’t these unconventional lovers be given another chance? When Leo returns from Boston, he gradually resumes his email contact with Emmi. But he has plans to settle down with Pamela, the woman he met in America. Emmi and Leo meet at last in person, in an attempt to draw a line under their relationship, but they cannot stop writing to each other. When Pamela learns of Leo’s secret and unusual liaison, she returns to the USA, and Emmi’s marriage to Bernhard is tested to its limits. Readers of Love Virtually begged to know more: could Emmi and Leo ever get together? Once again Daniel Glattauer takes us up and down through stormy waters, and delivers a thrilling sequel.

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    Beautiful Struggle

      Ta-Nehisi Coates
     Beautiful Struggle

An exceptional father-son story about the reality that tests us, the myths that sustain us, and the love that saves us. Paul Coates was an enigmatic god to his sons: a Vietnam vet who rolled with the Black Panthers, an old-school disciplinarian and new-age believer in free love, an autodidact who launched a publishing company in his basement dedicated to telling the true history of African civilization. Most of all, he was a wily tactician whose mission was to carry his sons across the shoals of inner-city adolescence--and through the collapsing civilization of Baltimore in the Age of Crack--and into the safe arms of Howard University, where he worked so his children could attend for free. Among his brood of seven, his main challenges were Ta-Nehisi, spacey and sensitive and almost comically miscalibrated for his environment, and Big Bill, charismatic and all-too-ready for the challenges of the streets. The Beautiful Struggle follows their divergent paths through this turbulent period, and their father's steadfast efforts--assisted by mothers, teachers, and a body of myths, histories, and rituals conjured from the past to meet the needs of a troubled present--to keep them whole in a world that seemed bent on their destruction. With a remarkable ability to reimagine both the lost world of his father's generation and the terrors and wonders of his own youth, Coates offers readers a small and beautiful epic about boys trying to become men in black America and beyond.

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    Mind Game

      Iris Johansen
     Mind Game

With Iris Johansen’s trademark adventure, intrigue, and explosive energy, Mind Game is a propulsive thriller that’s impossible to put down. Scotland holds a treasure that Jane MacGuire has been hunting for years. But as she scours the Highlands in search of it, she’s plagued by dreams of a girl in danger—dreams she can’t ignore no matter how hard she tries. Who is this girl, and what is she trying to tell Jane? And will Jane figure it out before it’s too late—for her and the mysterious young woman? Things are further complicated when Seth Caleb comes back into Jane’s life. Their history is volatile to say the least. This time Jane finds herself pulled unexpectedly into his world as she fights to save him. But Caleb isn’t the only person sweeping her up into startling developments. When Eve Duncan surprises Jane with news of her own, Jane comes face to face with stunning changes in the lives of those she loves most.

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    The Roman and the Runaway

      A. J. Braithwaite
     The Roman and the Runaway

Having a good family friend as your headmaster might sound ideal, but for Luke Brownlow it just makes life even more complicated...In with the wrong crowd at school, Luke is falling behind in his work. His parents take drastic action: banning him from seeing his friends and making him go to a new school.Luke avoids his family over the summer by spending time with their neighbour, Ned Kelly. He decides to get expelled from his new school but changes his mind when he discovers that his new headmaster is none other than the neighbour he has been getting to know and respect.An enemy within the school and a runaway girl outside it make it harder for Luke to stay out of trouble with Ned than he'd hoped: by the end of the school year it looks like he'll be expelled after all.

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    Potter of the Souls--A Short Story

      Tabatha Deans
     Potter of the Souls--A Short Story

Faced with spending the remainder of his days in a depressing nursing home, Luke spends his time yearning for the eternal nap, and the day he will once again see the love of his life.A mysterious nursing home aide helps seniors transition from this world to the next, to be reunited with their loved ones.

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    Tea With Mrs Saunders

      Kit Duncan
     Tea With Mrs Saunders

I had lost my way and couldn't get home. Mrs Saunders, Ollie, Emma, Ada, and Ursula agreed, "Losing can be a very bad business, a very, very bad business indeed!" Should I study hard and learn everything I could? Wait until someone else rescued me? Make myself at home wherever I was? It took an afternoon tea party for me to realize that the only way is love.I had lost my way, and was having trouble getting home. And, as Mrs Saunders, Ollie, Emma, Ada, and Ursula all agreed, "Losing can be a very bad business, a very, very bad business indeed!"Ollie told me that the way home was to study hard and learn everything there was to know.Emma suggested that I wait until someone else rescued me.Ada recommended that I just make myself at home wherever I was, even if wherever I was wasn't where I wanted to be.It took an afternoon tea party with Mrs Saunders and Ursula for me to realize that the only way home was love.

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    Father's Day Surprise

      Keith Kluksdahl
     Father's Day Surprise

Mark, a young man in his twenties, takes a trip to the mountains to finally learn what he can about his father, who had abandoned the family long ago and has since died. It's not a task he relishes, but he feels that it's something that he must do. While the search to learn about his father yields little, the trip is hardly a waste. He and his new acquaintance both get a Father's Day surprise.What happens when an extraordinary circumstance completely changes the life of an ordinary man? Brian Seymour becomes quite interested in the crows in his home town of Ottawa, Canada, and soon learns that they are even more interested in him. As he learns more about just what incredibly intelligent creatures crows actually are, he begins to pay more and more attention to them. On one fantastic morning he discovers that they understand him, much more than he will ever understand them. He must then calmly decide what he must do with this new awesome power that he has unleashed, or more accurately, that has been unleashed on him. In this entertaining, uplifting story, you will learn many surprising facts about one of the smartest creatures on our planet, that almost everyone sees almost every day, yet pays very little attention to. After reading this I promise you will pay much more attention to them from then on. My Name Is is a fantasy short story that is mostly semi-autobiographical, right up until the supernatural takes over.

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