With his disarmingly simple style and complex imagination, Ray Bradbury has seized the minds of American readers for decades.This collection showcases thirty-two of Bradbury's most famous tales in which he lays bare the depths of the human soul. The thrilling title story, A Sound of Thunder, tells of a hunter sent on safari -- sixty million years in the past. But all it takes is one wrong step in the prehistoric jungle to stamp out the life of a delicate and harmless butterfly -- and possibly something else much closer to home ...

"Father Sergius" (Russian: Отец Сергий, translit. Otets Sergiy) is a story written by Leo Tolstoy between 1890 and 1898 and first published (posthumously) in 1911. For some weeks Father Sergius had been living with one persistent thought: whether he was right in accepting the position in which he had not so much placed himself as been placed by the Archimandrite and the Abbot. That position had begun after the recovery of the fourteen-year-old boy. From that time, with each month, week, and day that passed, Sergius felt his own inner life wasting away and being replaced by external life.

The final book in the NEW YORK TIMES bestselling series by H.M. Ward Blackmail. Sex. Ferro. Time is my enemy and I won’t waste another second. I have a choice to make: a life with Neil or what’s left of life with Bryan. I make my decision, but could lose everything when the one Ferro I never want to see interferes. I feel like my life is spiraling out of control, but this could lead to what I’ve been searching for all along—hope.

From New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Katy Evans comes a brand new contemporary romance. WOMANIZER is a full standalone, and no other books in the series need to be read. You've seen the headlines: Womanizing billionaire player! Watch out! Stay away! We were just two strangers. Facing a forbidden attraction, a chemical connection. Neither of us expected or wanted it to amount to more. But I had never been drawn to a guy the way I was drawn to this one: my brother's best friend, and CEO of the company where I interned. Even knowing I should stay away, I proved to be too human, after all. The chemistry was amazing. The laughs were incredible. I opened up to him in more ways than I'd opened up to anyone before. But sex was as far as I'd go. Just sex because he was too irresistible. Just sex because I wouldn't be falling for him. Just sex because I'd leave in three months, and I'd like for my brother not to kill me, and for nobody to find out he was my wicked little secret. He wasn't the One. He was just a womanizer. But for a time, he would be mine.

""How wonderful to be an artist and a women in the twentieth-century," Fleur Talbot rejoices. Loitering about London, c. 1949, with intent to gather material for her writing, Fleur finds a job "on the grubby edge of the literary world," as secretary to the odd Autobiographical Association. Mad eogmanics, hilariously writing their memoirs in advance - or poor fools ensnared by a blackmailer? Rich material, in any case." "But when its pompous director, Sir Quentin, steals the manuscript of Fleur's new novel, fiction begins to appropriate life. The association's members begin to act out scenes exactly as Fleur herself and already written them in her missing manuscript. And as they meet darkly funny, pre-visioned fates, where does art start or reality end?"--BOOK JACKET.

The classic memoir of Africa, aviation, and adventure—the inspiration for Paula McLain’s Circling the Sun and “a bloody wonderful book” (Ernest Hemingway). Beryl Markham’s life story is a true epic. Not only did she set records and break barriers as a pilot, she shattered societal expectations, threw herself into torrid love affairs, survived desperate crash landings—and chronicled everything. A contemporary of Karen Blixen (better known as Isak Dinesen, the author of Out of Africa), Markham left an enduring memoir that soars with astounding candor and shimmering insights. A rebel from a young age, the British-born Markham was raised in Kenya’s unforgiving farmlands. She trained as a bush pilot at a time when most Africans had never seen a plane. In 1936, she accepted the ultimate challenge: to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean from east to west, a feat that fellow female aviator Amelia Earhart had completed in reverse just a few years before. Markham’s successes and her failures—and her deep, lifelong love of the “soul of Africa”—are all told here with wrenching honesty and agile wit. Hailed as “one of the greatest adventure books of all time” by Newsweek and “the sort of book that makes you think human beings can do anything” by the New York Times, West with the Night remains a powerful testament to one of the iconic lives of the twentieth century.

Where can a woman turn when her own life threatens to overwhelm her ability to keep her children safe? New York Times bestselling author Jacquelyn Mitchard takes the readers of her newest novel on a wry and moving journey of loss and healing. Giving advice is what Julieanne does for a living -- every Sunday she doles it out to clueless people she doesn't know, in a column in her local Wisconsin paper. But when it comes to her personal life, Julie herself seems to have missed some clues. Having worked creatively to keep her twenty-year marriage to Leo fresh and exciting, she is completely caught off guard when he tells her he needs to go on a "sabbatical" from their life together, leaving Julie and their three children -- Gabe, Caroline, and Aury -- behind. But it soon becomes clear that his leave of absence is meant to be permanent. The succeeding months are filled with a confusion and sadness that shake the core of the entire family. Things take a turn for the worse when Julie is diagnosed with a serious illness and the children undertake a dangerous journey to find Leo -- before it's too late. As the known world sinksprecariously from view, the clan must navigate its way through the shoals of love, guilt, and betrayal. Together, with the help of Leo's parents and Julie's best friend, Cathy, they work their way back to solid ground and a new definition of family. No one illuminates modern love, marriage, and parenting better than Jacquelyn Mitchard. Written with her trademark poignancy, humor, and insight, The Breakdown Lane is her most moving, eloquent,and life-affirming work yet.

Keeping secrets ruined her life. But the truth might just kill her. Piper Woods can't wait for the purgatory of senior year to end. She skirts the fringes of high school like a pro until the morning she finds a notebook with mutilated photographs and a list of student sins. She's sure the book is too gruesome to be true, until pretty, popular Stella dies after a sex-tape goes viral. Everyone's sure it's suicide, but Piper remembers Stella's name from the book and begins to suspect something much worse. Drowning in secrets she doesn't want to keep, Piper's fears are confirmed when she receives an anonymous text message daring her to make things right. All she needs to do is choose a name, the name of someone who deserves to be punished...

Hope Delafield hasn't always had an easy life. She has red hair and a temper to match, as her mother is constantly reminding her. She can't wear heels, is terrified of heights and being a primary school teacher isn't exactly the job she dreamed of doing, especially when her class are stuck on the two times table. At least Hope has Jack, and Jack is the God of boyfriends. He's sweet, kind, funny, has a killer smile, a cool job on a fashion magazine and he's pretty (but in a manly way). Hope knew that Jack was The One ever since their first kiss after the Youth Club Disco and thirteen years later, they're still totally in love. Totally. They're even officially pre-engaged. And then Hope catches Jack kissing her best friend Susie... Does true love forgive and forget? Or does it get mad... and get even?

The evil dummy comes to life to tell his own twisted tales and scary stories! It's bad enough Ian Barker has to spend his twelfth birthday with his sister and their two annoying cousins. The four of them can't ever hang out without getting into trouble. Vinnie and Jonny always want to play with Ian's stuff. They take extra turns and break everything they touch. Even Ian's new birthday presents are up for grabs. But when Ian gets a Slappy dummy from his dad, things go from bad to worse. When Slappy's in charge, you don't fight over him, he fights over you!

Most people would describe Katherine Berger as a responsible girl with a big heart, a loyal friend who takes care of those close to her, and the possessor of a wicked sense of humor. There was something about her that most people didn't know. "My name is Kat Berger, and I love porn." When twenty-five-year-old Kat is dragged to a porn convention by her best friend, she's both embarrassed and nervous. The last thing she ever expected was to meet someone who makes her laugh like no other. This is a story about acceptance and friendship, and a love born out of the most unexpected of places.

Review“Clearly one of romance’s finest writers.”“Kurland is a skilled enchantress...”Product DescriptionFALLING THROUGH TIME IS DANGEROUS... Peaches Alexander is thrilled to receive an unexpected invitation to a weekend party given by the handsome, eligible Duke of Kenneworth. The only problem: Stephen de Piaget, a stuffy medieval studies scholar who seems determined to get in the way. Peaches has absolutely no desire to get involved with Stephen, until a quirk of Fate sends her hurtling through time... UNLESS THERE’S SOMEONE TO CATCH YOU. Stephen de Piaget has been leading a double life: respectable professor by day, knight-in-training during holidays and summer terms. When Peaches goes missing, Stephen knows he’s the only one who can rescue her from medieval peril. Little do they know that the greatest danger they’ll face won’t be the business end of a sword, but their own unruly hearts....

**Galápagos** takes the reader back one million years, to A.D. 1986. A simple vacation cruise suddenly becomes an evolutionary journey. Thanks to an apocalypse, a small group of survivors stranded on the Galápagos Islands are about to become the progenitors of a brave, new, and totally different human race. In this inimitable novel, America’s master satirist looks at our world and shows us all that is sadly, madly awry–and all that is worth saving.

Derek fills a void in his own life by leading locals on weekend treks up a small mountain. This time, a young climber touches that void in a way he couldn't have imagined, or wanted. First published in Wanderings Magazine, Spring 2007. A short story.Mistress of the Game is about marriage of two cultures, African and Western that went wrong in the end becasue of betrayal of trust . It is also about the politics of new found oil in Ghana and the greed and dirty dealings that go with it. Mistress of the Game is also about courage, hope and survival in the face of despair and the shattering realisation of living with HIV/AIDS.The intrigue in the novel is hightened when Sarah, the Ghanaian young woman married to a Canadian, Philip, connives with her pushy and overbearing mother (who incidentally means well) to deceive Philip in the most bizarre and unscrupulous manner ever imagined; juxtaposed with this couple are Jason, Philip’s younger brother and Araba, a young Ghanaian girl who discovers that one of the ways to survive in a dying metropolis that now threatens to come alive through the oil boom and the influx of expatriates, technocrats and crooks alike all wanting to cash in on the ‘liquid gold’, is to make good use of her one major asset - her body. Ironically, it is Araba who with her two fatherless children of mixed race, give us hope at the end of the story.The language is rich with humour, laced with Ghanaian English and Akan akin to Ayikwei Parkes’ Tail of the Blue Bird. The main settings for the plot are Takoradi, in Ghana, and Canada. The writer expounds well researched history and facts that gives credence to her academic background. The descriptions of scenes and planes are so vivid that the reader keeps ohing and ahing in recognition of familiar sights and landmarks. The Ghanaian characters are real, with everyday expressions and attiitudes that spell out the ingredients that make the Ghanaian that happy, go lucky human being, easily able to shrug off problems with that matter of fact approach to life, albeit full of humour.

Eighteenth-century Venice is the setting for The Bravo, a sprawling sea novel that is equal parts travelogue, cultural analysis, political treatise, and adventure tale. While packed with plenty of the gripping action Cooper's novels are known for, The Bravo also offers readers an insightful glimpse into the social class differences and tensions that served to corrupt European leaders in the era.