Charles Darwin’s masterpiece, On the Origin of Species, shook society to its core on publication in 1859. Darwin was only too aware of the storm his theory of evolution would provoke, but he would surely have raised an incredulous eyebrow at the controversy still raging a century and a half later.
Evolution is accepted as scientific fact by all reputable scientists and indeed theologians, yet millions of people continue to question its veracity. In The Greatest Show on Earth, Richard Dawkins takes on creationists, including followers of ‘Intelligent Design’ and all those who question the fact of evolution through natural selection.
Like a detective arriving on the scene of a crime, he sifts through fascinating layers of scientific facts and disciplines to build a cast-iron case: from the living examples of natural selection in birds and insects, the ‘time clocks’ of trees and radioactive dating that calibrate a timescale for evolution, the fossil record and the traces of our earliest ancestors, to confirmation from molecular biology and genetics. All of this, and much more, bears witness to the truth of evolution.
The Greatest Show on Earth comes at a critical time: systematic opposition to the fact of evolution is now flourishing as never before, especially in America. In Britain and elsewhere in the world, teachers witness insidious attempts to undermine the status of science in their classrooms. Richard Dawkins provides unequivocal evidence that boldly and comprehensively rebuts such nonsense. At the same time, he shares with us his palpable love of the natural world and the essential role that science plays in its interpretation.
Written with elegance, wit, and passion, it is hard-hitting, absorbing, and totally convincing.
The Hunger Games Trilogy Boxset includes the extraordinary and ground-breaking New York Times bestsellers The Hunger Games and Catching Fire, along with the third book in The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins, Mockingjay. These books are now available for the first time ever in a stunning boxset edition. The set is gripping and powerful, completing the thrilling journey of Katniss Everdeen in the dystopian world of Panem.
As the creepy little town of Nightshade prepares to celebrate its 200th anniversary—on Halloween, of course—many of its paranormal residents are receiving mysterious blackmail letters. Psychic teen Daisy Giordano and her sisters set out to find out who is behind the threats. But launching an investigation isn’t easy for Daisy with her overprotective father watching her every move.
Though she’s happy to have him back after the years he spent being held captive by an anti-paranormal group called the Scourge, Dad is having a difficult time adjusting to home life—and the fact that his little girl is now a senior in high school. He even disapproves of Daisy’s boyfriend, Ryan. Can their relationship take the strain?
And Daisy’s got even more on her plate: A talented amateur chef, she has won cooking lessons with celebrity chef Circe Silvertongue. After nosing around (with a little help from Circe’s pet pig), Daisy begins to suspect the temperamental chef’s secrets aren’t only in her ingredients...
HER TOUCH IS DEADLY
As the only female Seminus demon ever born, master assassin Sinead Donnelly is used to being treated like an outcast. She spent decades enslaved, and now vows she'll die before she'll relinquish her freedom again. Then Sin's innate ability to kill her enemies goes awry: She creates a lethal new werewolf virus that sparks a firestorm of panic and violence.
HIS HUNGER CAN'T BE DENIED
Half-werewolf, half-vampire Conall Dearghul is charged with bringing in Sin to face punishment for the plague. And she's no stranger: He's bound to her by blood, and the one sexual encounter they shared has left him hungering for her raw sensuality. Worse, Sin is the underworld's most wanted and Con soon learns he's the only one who can help her... and that saving her life might mean sacrificing his own.
Listen. The Sanctuary of the Redeemers on Shotover Scarp is named after a damned lie for there is no redemption that goes on there and less sanctuary.
The Sanctuary of the Redeemers is a vast and desolate place—a place without joy or hope. Most of its occupants were taken there as boys and for years have endured the brutal regime of the Lord Redeemers whose cruelty and violence have one singular purpose—to serve in the name of the One True Faith.
In one of the Sanctuary’s vast and twisting maze of corridors stands a boy. He is perhaps fourteen or fifteen years old—he is not sure and neither is anyone else. He has long-forgotten his real name, but now they call him Thomas Cale. He is strange and secretive, witty and charming, violent and profoundly bloody-minded. He is so used to the cruelty that he seems immune, but soon he will open the wrong door at the wrong time and witness an act so terrible that he will have to leave this place, or die.
His only hope of survival is to escape across the arid Scablands to Memphis, a city the opposite of the Sanctuary in every way: breathtakingly beautiful, infinitely Godless, and deeply corrupt. But the Redeemers want Cale back at any price... not because of the secret he now knows but because of a much more terrifying secret he does not.
Narrowly surviving their encounter with Erasers in New York City, the flock is following up a lead on their pasts in Washington, D.C. But what they find waiting for them is...a home?!
How will the flock adjust to a real school - one that doesn't involve mad scientists and genetic freaks?
The Spook and his apprentice, Thomas Ward, have returned to the county after a long journey and a hard battle. But their troubles are far from over. Their home has been over-run by enemy soldiers.
Tom, Alice, and the Spook flee across the ocean to the island of Mona. It's on Mona that this small band fighting against the dark will face an old enemy grown terrifyingly powerful. Will they be able to vanquish an evil that crawls beneath the ground itself? At what cost?
Will Tom and the Spook ever be able to return home?
High above the sky stands Swarga, paradise, abode of the gods. Still above is Vaikuntha, heaven, abode of God. The doorkeepers of Vaikuntha are the twins, Jaya and Vijaya, both whose names mean 'victory'. One keeps you in Swarga; the other raises you into Vaikuntha. In Vaikuntha there is bliss forever, in Swarga there is pleasure for only as long as you deserve.
What is the difference between Jaya and Vijaya? Solve this puzzle and you will solve the mystery of the Mahabharata.
In this enthralling retelling of India's greatest epic, the Mahabharata, originally known as Jaya, Devdutt Pattanaik seamlessly weaves into a single narrative plots from the Sanskrit classic as well as its many folk and regional variants, including the Pandavani of Chhattisgarh, Gondhal of Maharashtra, Terukkuttu of Tamil Nadu and Yakshagana of Karnataka.
Richly illustrated with over 250 line drawings by the author, the 108 chapters abound with little-known details such as the names of the hundred Kauravas, the worship of Draupadi as a goddess in Tamil Nadu, the stories of Astika, Madhavi, Jaimini, Aravan and Barbareek, the Mahabharata version of the Shakuntalam and the Ramayana, and the dating of the war based on astronomical data.
With clarity and simplicity, the tales in this elegant volume reveal the eternal relevance of the Mahabharata, the complex and disturbing meditation on the human condition that has shaped Indian thought for over 3000 years.
In the Cities of Coin and Spice and In the Night Garden introduced readers to the unique and intoxicating imagination of Catherynne M. Valente. Now, she weaves a lyrically erotic spell of a place where the grotesque and the beautiful reside, and the passport to our most secret fantasies begins with a stranger’s kiss.
Between life and death, dreaming and waking, at the train stop beyond the end of the world is the city of Palimpsest. To get there is a miracle, a mystery, a gift, and a curse—a voyage permitted only to those who’ve always believed there’s another world than the one that meets the eye. Those fated to make the passage are marked forever by a map of that wondrous city tattooed on their flesh after a single orgasmic night.
To this kingdom of ghost trains, lion-priests, living kanji, and cream-filled canals come four travelers: Oleg, a New York locksmith; the beekeeper November; Ludovico, a binder of rare books; and a young Japanese woman named Sei. They’ve each lost something important—a wife, a lover, a sister, a direction in life—and what they will find in Palimpsest is more than they could ever imagine.
Things have taken a darker turn for the half-human teenager with an appetite for blood. Joss, a vampire slayer and Vlad's former friend, has moved back to Bathory. A mysterious and powerful new vampire, Dorian, appears with a shocking secret and an overwhelming desire to drink Vlad's blood. And Vlad's arch enemy, D'Ablo, has a sinister plan to eliminate Vlad once and for all.
With death threatening from every angle, Vlad will have to use every ounce of his skill and training to survive, but nothing can prepare him for what awaits him in the end.
Now nearly a full-fledged member of the Agency, the all-female detective unit operating out of Miss Scrimshaw's Academy for Girls, Mary Quinn is back for another action-packed adventure. Disguised as a poor apprentice builder and a boy, she must brave the grimy underbelly of Victorian London - as well as childhood fear, hunger, and constant want - to unmask the identity of a murderer.
Assigned to monitor a building site on the clock tower of the Houses of Parliament, Mary earns the confidence of the work crew, inching ever nearer her suspect. But if an irresistible desire to help the city's needy doesn't distract her and jeopardize her cover, unexpectedly meeting up with an old friend - or flame - just might.
A suspenseful and evocative window into a fascinating moment in history, The Body at the Tower is the much-anticipated second outing with a daring young detective.
Haven Moore has always lived in the tiny town of Snope City, Tennessee. But for as long as she can remember, Haven has experienced visions of a past life as a girl named Constance, whose love for a boy called Ethan ended in a fiery tragedy.
One day, the sight of notorious playboy Iain Morrow on television brings Haven to her knees. Haven flees to New York City to find Iain and there, she is swept up in an epic love affair that feels both deeply fated and terribly dangerous. Is Iain her beloved Ethan? Or is he her murderer in a past life?
Haven asks the members of the powerful and dangerous Ouroboros Society to help her unlock the mysteries of reincarnation and discover the secrets hidden in her past lives, and loves, before all is lost and the cycle begins again. But what is the Ouroboros Society? And how can Haven know who to trust?
Civilization and Its Discontents stands as a brilliant summary of Sigmund Freud's views on culture from a psychoanalytic perspective that he had been developing since the turn of the century. It is both witness and tribute to the late theory of mind—the so-called structural theory, with its stress on aggression, indeed the death drive, as the pitiless adversary of eros.
This book is one of the last of Freud's works, written in the decade before his death and first published in German in 1929. In it, he states his views on the broad question of man's place in the world, a place Freud defines in terms of ceaseless conflict between the individual's quest for freedom and society's demand for conformity.
Freud's theme is that what works for civilization doesn't necessarily work for man. By nature, man is aggressive and egotistical, seeking self-satisfaction, but culture inhibits his instinctual drives. The result is a pervasive and familiar guilt.
Of the various English translations of Freud's major works to appear in his lifetime, only one was authorized by Freud himself: The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud under the general editorship of James Strachey. Freud approved the overall editorial plan, specific renderings of key words and phrases, and the addition of valuable notes, both bibliographical and explanatory.
West with the Night is the captivating story of Beryl Markham—an aviator, racehorse trainer, and beauty—set against the backdrop of Kenya in the 1920s and '30s.
Journey through Africa with Beryl as she breaks barriers and takes to the skies, living a life full of adventure and daring exploits. Her incredible experiences as one of the first women to fly solo across the Atlantic from east to west are beautifully chronicled in this autobiography.
This is a tale of courage, determination, and the pioneering spirit that captures the essence of a remarkable woman's life in a land full of wonder and excitement.
After losing to manga genius Eiji Nizuma, Moritaka and Akito make it their mission to beat this rival--even going so far as to ignore their editor's wishes! But will this decision ultimately help or harm their cause?
Hikaru no Go follows the story of a young boy named Hikaru who encounters an ancient ghost that possesses him and unleashes his hidden genius for the game of Go. In this volume, Go players under the age of 18 from Japan, Korea, and China are preparing to qualify for the prestigious Hokuto Cup. Among them are Hikaru and Akira, both vying for a spot on the Japanese team.
The journey to the Hokuto Cup is fraught with intense competition, and the preliminaries are especially challenging. Hikaru, after being struck by a harsh reality check, dedicates himself to the game with newfound focus. Yet, he faces the daunting task of overcoming the unique and powerful Go techniques of Kiyoharu Yashiro from the Kansai Go Association.
Will Hikaru's intense dedication be enough to conquer the obstacles ahead and secure his place in the tournament? Vol. 20: The Young Lions! explores the high-stakes world of competitive Go with a blend of drama and strategy that will captivate readers.
After centuries of terrorizing Europe as the world's most powerful vampire queen, Lenah is finally able to realize the dream all vampires have -- to be human again. After performing a dangerous ritual to restore her humanity, Lenah entered a century-long hibernation, leaving behind the wicked coven she ruled over and the eternal love, Rhode, who sacrificed himself in the ritual to grant her deepest wish.
But when Lenah draws her first natural breath in centuries at Wickham Boarding School in Lover's Bay, Massachusetts, she rediscovers a human life that bears little resemblance to the one she had known. As if suddenly waking up a teenager isn't hard enough, she has to dress herself appropriately, go to class, and be gawked at as the beautiful new girl, all while learning her new human senses and weaknesses -- and trying not to fall in love with Justin, the most popular guy in school.
And right when she thinks she has the hang of it, the worst happens: Her old life collides violently with her new one, making Lenah realize how attached she's become to her humanity. How can she choose between protecting her new friends and honoring her past?
Artemis Fowl, the world’s greatest teenage criminal mastermind, has committed his entire fortune to a project he believes will save the planet and its inhabitants, both human and fairy. Can it be true? Has goodness taken hold of Artemis? Captain Holly Short is unconvinced, and discovers that Artemis is suffering from Atlantis Complex, a psychosis common among guilt-ridden fairies - not humans - and most likely triggered by Artemis’s dabbling with fairy magic. Symptoms include obsessive-compulsive behavior, paranoia, multiple personality disorder and, in extreme cases, embarrassing professions of love to a certain feisty LEPrecon fairy.
Unfortunately, Atlantis Complex has struck at the worst possible time. A deadly foe from Holly’s past is intent on destroying the actual city of Atlantis. Can Artemis escape the confines of his mind – and the grips of a giant squid – in time to save the underwater metropolis and its fairy inhabitants?
New York Times best-selling author Eoin Colfer delivers a knockout, fast-paced, and hilarious adventure in The Atlantis Complex, the seventh book in the blockbuster Artemis Fowl series.
It was the last-chance moment of the war. In January 2007, President George W. Bush announced a new strategy for Iraq. He called it the surge. “Many listening tonight will ask why this effort will succeed when previous operations to secure Baghdad did not. Well, here are the differences,” he told a skeptical nation. Among those listening were the young, optimistic army infantry soldiers of the 2-16, the battalion nicknamed the Rangers. About to head to a vicious area of Baghdad, they decided the difference would be them.
Fifteen months later, the soldiers returned home forever changed. Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post reporter David Finkel was with them in Baghdad, and almost every grueling step of the way. What was the true story of the surge? And was it really a success? Those are the questions he grapples with in his remarkable report from the front lines.
Combining the action of Mark Bowden’s Black Hawk Down with the literary brio of Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, The Good Soldiers is an unforgettable work of reportage. And in telling the story of these good soldiers, the heroes and the ruined, David Finkel has also produced an eternal tale—not just of the Iraq War, but of all wars, for all time.
A lost treasure, a Nazi war criminal, and an expedition to find a legend . . . After fifty years in hiding, the Nazi war criminal known as the Butcher of Spiegelgrund has finally been tracked down by Father Anthony Fowler, a CIA operative and a member of the Vatican’s secret service. He wants something from the Butcher—a candle covered in filigree gold that was stolen from a Jewish family many years before. But it isn't the gold Fowler is after. As Fowler holds a flame to the wax, the missing fragment of an ancient map that uncovers the location of the Ten Commandments given to Moses is revealed.
Soon Fowler is involved in an expedition to Jordan set up by a reclusive billionaire. But there is a traitor in the group who has ties to terrorist organizations back in the United States, and who is patiently awaiting the moment to strike. From wartime Vienna to terrorist cells in New York and a lost valley in Jordan, The Moses Expedition is a thrilling read about a quest for power and the secrets of an ancient world.
Zombies have infested a fallen America. A young girl named Temple is on the run. Haunted by her past and pursued by a killer, Temple is surrounded by death and danger, hoping to be set free.
For twenty-five years, civilization has survived in meager enclaves, guarded against a plague of the dead. Temple wanders this blighted landscape, keeping to herself and keeping her demons inside her heart. She can't remember a time before the zombies, but she does remember an old man who took her in and the younger brother she cared for until the tragedy that set her on a personal journey toward redemption.
Moving back and forth between the insulated remnants of society and the brutal frontier beyond, Temple must decide where ultimately to make a home and find the salvation she seeks.
Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void by Mary Roach explores the irresistibly strange universe of space travel and life without gravity.
Space is a world devoid of the things we need to live and thrive: air, gravity, hot showers, fresh produce, privacy, and even beer. Space exploration is, in some ways, an exploration of what it means to be human. How much can a person give up? How much weirdness can they take?
What happens to you when you can’t walk for a year? Have sex? Smell flowers? What happens if you vomit in your helmet during a space walk? Is it possible for the human body to survive a bailout at 17,000 miles per hour?
To answer these questions, space agencies set up all manner of quizzical and startlingly bizarre space simulations. As Mary Roach discovers, it’s possible to preview space without ever leaving Earth. From the space shuttle training toilet to a crash test of NASA’s new space capsule (cadaver filling in for astronaut), Roach takes us on a surreally entertaining trip into the science of life in space and space on Earth.
Within our tale, gentle reader, you will see writ before you a palimpsest of low living and high misdemeanor, and the curious redresses that are visited as a result thereof...
The Baby Killers by Jay Lake restages mankind's Fall from Grace as an alternate-history steampunk fable. Written in a style of rambunctious Victoriana-that-never-was, this novella is set in Philadelphia in 1907, when that city serves as the seat of the British Dominion of the Americas, and as a Pandora's Box of sin and vice.
The Governor-General has a taste for violating innocents, while the good Dr. Scholes uses them to fashion his mechanized agents of Justice. The Gollinoster, a feminine incarnation of angry retribution, wanders beneath the city streets - and an undying creature of ancient destruction is rushing to meet her.
Villains and heroes (categories that overlap significantly) battle in a story of debauchery, degradation, radical experimentation, mad metaphysics... and a farting Frenchman.
Both popular culture and actual history are mined here to create a tale in which the use of idealized technology meets our darkest desires... and the result is positively electric.
Enter a world of fierce wolves, stunning magic, and romance...
It's bad enough feeling different among the human crowd, but feeling different among wolves? No one said returning to her pack would be easy, especially after ten years without them, but seventeen-year-old Caia Ribeiro is unprepared for the realities of the transition. Raised in a world where kids aren't scared by bedtime tales of the bogeyman but by the real-life threat of enemy supernaturals who might come creeping into their community to kill them in their sleep, Caia is used to the darkness; she's used to the mystery and the intrigue of the ancient underworld war she's bound to by chance of birth.
What she's having trouble with are pack members treating her with wary suspicion, the Elders tucking secrets behind their backs out of her sightline, and her young Alpha, Lucien, distracting her, with a dangerous attraction, from her decision to uncover the truth.
But as the saying goes 'the truth will out' and when it does, Caia will only have so long to prepare herself before the war comes pounding on their door threatening to destroy the safe, secret lives of the wolves... and the girl they protect.
Dru Anderson might finally be safe. She’s at the largest Schola on the continent, and beginning to learn what it means to be svetocha—half vampire, half human, and all deadly. If she survives her training, she will be able to take her place in the Order, holding back the vampires and protecting the oblivious normal people.
But a web of lies and betrayals is still closing around her, just when she thinks she can relax a little. Her mentor Christophe is missing, her almost-boyfriend is acting weird, and the bodyguards she’s been assigned seem to know much more than they should. And then there’s the vampire attacks, the strange nightly visits, and the looks everyone keeps giving her. As if she should know something.
Or as if she’s in danger.
Someone high up in the Order is a traitor. They want Dru dead—but first, they want to know what she remembers of the night her mother died. Dru doesn’t want to remember, but it looks like she might have to—especially since once Christophe returns, he’ll be on trial for his life, and the only person who can save him is Dru.
The problem is, once she remembers everything, she may not want to...
City of Ghosts is the third book in this gritty, sexy, urban fantasy trilogy.
Rogue spirits and psychopomps are terrorising people, and someone is planning to open the gates to the City of Ghosts and unleash the dead on humanity. Faced with her greatest challenge yet, Chess has to travel to the spirit city to finally lay all her ghosts to rest...
Chess Putnam has a lot on her plate. Mangled human corpses have started to show up on the streets of Downside, and Chess's bosses at the Church of Real Truth have ordered her to team up with the ultra-powerful Black Squad agency to crack the grisly case.
Chess is under a binding spell that threatens death if she talks about the investigation, but the city's most notorious crime boss—and Chess's drug dealer—gets wind of her new assignment and insists on being kept informed.
If that isn't bad enough, a sinister street vendor appears to have information Chess needs. Only he's not telling what he knows, or what it all has to do with the vast underground City of Eternity. Now Chess will have to navigate killer wraiths and a lot of seriously nasty magic—all while coping with some not-so-small issues of her own.
And the only man she can trust to help her through it all has every reason to want her dead.
An immortal war has been brewing in the darkness... And now one woman has stumbled into the shadows. Chicago private investigator Kira Graceling should have just kept on walking. But her sense of duty refused to let her ignore the moans of pain coming from inside a warehouse just before dawn. Suddenly she finds herself in a world she's only imagined in her worst nightmares.
At the center is Mencheres, a breathtaking Master vampire who thought he'd seen it all. Then Kira appears—this fearless, beautiful... human who braved death to rescue him. Though he burns for her, keeping Kira in his world means risking her life. Yet sending her away is unthinkable.
But with danger closing in, Mencheres must choose either the woman he craves, or embracing the darkest magic to defeat an enemy bent on his eternal destruction.
Jemima Jones is overweight. About one hundred pounds overweight. Treated like a maid by her thin and social-climbing roommates, and lorded over by the beautiful Geraldine (less talented but better paid) at the Kilburn Herald, Jemima finds that her only consolation is food. Add to this her passion for her charming, sexy, and unobtainable colleague Ben, and Jemima knows her life is in need of a serious change.
When she meets Brad, an eligible California hunk, over the Internet, she has the perfect opportunity to reinvent herself–as JJ, the slim, beautiful, gym-obsessed glamour girl. But when her long-distance Romeo demands that they meet, she must conquer her food addiction to become the bone-thin model of her e-mails–no small feat.
With a fast-paced plot that never quits and a surprise ending no reader will see coming, Jemima J is the chronicle of one woman's quest to become the woman she's always wanted to be, learning along the way a host of lessons about attraction, addiction, the meaning of true love, and, ultimately, who she really is.
The Constant Gardener is a magnificent exploration of the new world order by one of the most compelling and elegant storytellers of our time, John le Carré. The novel opens in northern Kenya with the gruesome murder of Tessa Quayle--young, beautiful, and dearly beloved to husband Justin. When Justin sets out on a personal odyssey to uncover the mystery of her death, what he finds could make him not only a suspect among his own colleagues, but a target for Tessa's killers as well.
A master chronicler of the betrayals of ordinary people caught in political conflict, le Carré portrays the dark side of unbridled capitalism as only he can. In The Constant Gardener, he tells a compelling, complex story of a man elevated through tragedy as Justin Quayle--amateur gardener, aging widower, and ineffectual bureaucrat--discovers his own natural resources, and the extraordinary courage of the woman he barely had time to love.
Lexi White finds herself at a crossroads. After putting everything on hold to care for her ailing father, it’s finally time for her to start living her life again. An exciting new job holds the promise of a fresh start, until she comes face to face with someone from her past who has always stopped her dead in her tracks, and who evidently still has the power to make her forget her own name.
This time around, Lexi’s a grown woman who refuses to back away from her dreams, even if it requires working with her old high school crush. Side by side. Every day. Will he end up being her downfall or exactly what she needs?
Vincent doesn’t even remember Lexi from high school, but he begins to take notice when the fiery young woman is hired as his new assistant. Quickly, Lexi turns his world upside down and becomes an invaluable addition not only to his team, but to his life. Having learned a few hard lessons about trust in the past, Vincent is reluctant to let down his guard, especially when it appears that someone is out to sabotage his family’s advertising agency.
Professionally, they are dynamite together, but when sparks fly between them personally, will Vincent let lies and jealousy ruin everything between them, or will he finally learn not only how to love, but ultimately trust... in advertising?
At twenty-one, Savannah Levine—orphaned daughter of a notorious dark witch and an equally notorious cutthroat sorcerer—considers herself a full-fledged member of the otherworld. The once rebellious teen has grown into a six-foot-tall, motorcycle-riding jaw-dropper, with an impressive knowledge of and ability to perform spells.
The only problem is, she's having a hard time convincing her adoptive parents, Paige and Lucas, to take her seriously as an adult. She's working as the research assistant at the detective agency they founded, and when they take off on a romantic vacation alone, leaving her in charge, Savannah finds herself itching for a case to call her own.
(She's also itching for Adam, her longtime friend and colleague, to see her as more than just a little girl, but that's another matter.)
Suddenly, Savannah gets the chance she's been waiting for: Recruited by another supernatural detective, she travels to Columbus, Washington, a small, dying town. Two troubled young women have been found in an abandoned warehouse, murdered. Now a third woman's dead, and on closer inspection, small details point to darker forces at play.
Savannah feels certain she can handle the case, but with signs of supernatural activity appearing at every turn, things quickly become more serious—and far more dangerous—than she realizes.
Forget You by Jennifer Echols is a gripping tale of a young girl named Zoey who is dealing with a tumultuous time in her life. Zoey wishes she could forget certain events, such as her father's affair with a much younger woman and her mother's mental breakdown. Amidst this chaos, she encounters Doug, a dark and alluring bad boy who constantly provokes her at school.
Striving to maintain control, Zoey commits to being the perfect daughter, student, and girlfriend to the popular football player, Brandon. However, a car accident leaves her with a gap in her memory, specifically the events of the night before. Brandon seems distant and unconcerned about the accident, while Doug, who rescued her, suggests that something more happened between them.
Torn between her need for perfection and the unsettling feelings Doug evokes, Zoey begins to question her emotions towards both boys. As she navigates her heart's desires, she must decide if being perfect is worth more than being true to herself.
Before that fateful summer night, Willow had balanced the insight of emotion, and the vivid images. That night, the figure in her nightmare marked her wrist with a star, giving her father no choice but to tell Willow a family secret that would abruptly change life, as she knew it, forever.
Before Willow had time to absorb the shock of her father's secret, her soul mate that had shared every stunning dream with her, found her, and darkness captured her closest friends. In order to save them, she must weave through broken myths and the undeniable power of the Zodiac.
In the end, Willow discovers that at the moment of our birth we are all given a divine gift.
Half Summer faery princess, half human, Meghan has never fit in anywhere. Deserted by the Winter prince she thought loved her, she is prisoner to the Winter faery queen. As war looms between Summer and Winter, Meghan knows that the real danger comes from the Iron fey—ironbound faeries that only she and her absent prince have seen. But no one believes her.
Worse, Meghan's own fey powers have been cut off. She's stuck in Faery with only her wits for help. Trusting anyone would be foolish. Trusting a seeming traitor could be deadly. But even as she grows a backbone of iron, Meghan can't help but hear the whispers of longing in her all-too-human heart.
Kaylin Neya is a Hawk, part of the elite force tasked with keeping the City of Elantra safe. Her past is dark, her magic uncontrolled, and her allies unpredictable.
And nothing has prepared her for what is coming, when the charlatans on Elani Street suddenly grow powerful, the Oracles are thrown into an uproar, and the skies rain blood.
The powerful of Elantra believe that the mysterious markings on Kaylin's skin hold the answer, and they are not averse to using her—however they have to—in order to discover what it is.
Something is coming, breaking through the barriers between the worlds. But is it a threat that Kaylin needs to defend her city against—or has she been chosen for another reason entirely?
Swallows and Amazons is the first title in Arthur Ransome's classic series, originally published in 1930. It's a book for children, for grownups, for anyone captivated by the world of adventure and imagination.
Swallows and Amazons introduces the lovable Walker family, the camp on Wild Cat Island, the able-bodied catboat Swallow, and the two intrepid Amazons, Nancy and Peggy Blackett. Join them as they embark on a summer filled with unforgettable discoveries and incredible adventures, setting sail on the open waters and exploring the enchanting landscapes of the English countryside.
The Sign of Four, the second novel featuring Sherlock Holmes, was written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and first published in Lippincott's Monthly Magazine in February 1890. Set in 1888, the novel presents a flashback of characters working for the East India Company and the Indian Rebellion of 1857, involving a treasure heist, four convicts, and corrupt prison guards.
It is in this narrative that Doyle first delves into Holmes's drug addiction, providing a more human aspect to his character than seen in the preceding novel, A Study in Scarlet. This story also introduces Dr. Watson's future wife, Mary Morstan, who brings a perplexing mystery to Holmes—a mystery that he eagerly embraces as a stimulating challenge.
Mary Morstan seeks Holmes's help to solve the enigma surrounding her father, Captain Arthur Morstan, who disappeared under mysterious circumstances ten years prior upon returning to London from India, where he and his friend Thaddeus Sholto had discovered a vast treasure.
Stepping Heavenward is the fictional coming of age story of a young Christian girl named Katherine. The story follows her life from when she is sixteen, through courtship, engagement, marriage, having children, and the many challenges that she confronts in her adult life.
This classic Christian story is told through a series of journal entries by Katherine and is an inspirational tale for young girls who themselves are facing the very same challenges of growing up.
Who is Katherine Patterson? It is a question she hopes no one can answer. To erase her past, Katherine has moved to a new city, enrolled in a new school, and even changed her name. She’s done the next best thing to disappearing altogether. Now, wary and alone, she seeks nothing more than anonymity.
What she finds instead is the last thing she expected: a friend. Even more unlikely, Katherine’s new friend is the most popular and magnetic girl in school. Extroverted, gorgeous, flirtatious, and unpredictable, she is everything that Katherine is not and doesn’t want to be: the center of attention. Yet Alice’s enthusiasm is infectious, her candor sometimes unsettling, and Katherine, in spite of her guarded caution, finds herself drawn into Alice’s private circle.
But Alice has secrets, too—darker than anyone can begin to imagine. And when she lets her guard down at last, Katherine discovers the darkest of them all. For there will be no escaping the past for Katherine Patterson—only a descent into a trap far more sinister . . . and infinitely more seductive.
Back in 1985, Frank Mackey was a nineteen-year-old kid with a dream of escaping his family’s cramped flat on Faithful Place and running away to London with his girl, Rosie Daly. But on the night they were supposed to leave, Rosie didn’t show. Frank took it for granted that she’d dumped him—probably because of his alcoholic father, nutcase mother, and generally dysfunctional family. He never went home again. Neither did Rosie.
Then, twenty-two years later, Rosie’s suitcase shows up behind a fireplace in a derelict house on Faithful Place, and Frank, now a detective in the Dublin Undercover squad, is going home whether he likes it or not.
Getting sucked in is a lot easier than getting out again. Frank finds himself straight back in the dark tangle of relationships he left behind. The cops working the case want him out of the way, in case loyalty to his family and community makes him a liability. Faithful Place wants him out because he’s a detective now, and the Place has never liked cops. Frank just wants to find out what happened to Rosie Daly—and he’s willing to do whatever it takes, to himself or anyone else, to get the job done.
On a warm summer night in one of Boston’s working-class neighborhoods, an unthinkable crime has been committed: Four members of a family have been brutally murdered. The father—and possible suspect—now lies clinging to life in the ICU. Murder-suicide? Or something worse?
Veteran police detective D. D. Warren is certain of only one thing: There’s more to this case than meets the eye.
Danielle Burton is a survivor, a dedicated nurse whose passion is to help children at a locked-down pediatric psych ward. But she remains haunted by a family tragedy that shattered her life nearly twenty-five years ago. The dark anniversary is approaching, and when D. D. Warren and her partner show up at the facility, Danielle immediately realizes: It has started again.
A devoted mother, Victoria Oliver has a hard time remembering what normalcy is like. But she will do anything to ensure that her troubled son has some semblance of a childhood. She will love him no matter what. Nurture him. Keep him safe. Protect him. Even when the threat comes from within her own house.
The lives of these three women unfold and connect in unexpected ways, as sins from the past emerge—and stunning secrets reveal just how tightly blood ties can bind. Sometimes the most devastating crimes are the ones closest to home.
Ben and his ex-mercenary buddy Chon are not your average entrepreneurs. Operating out of Laguna Beach, they run a highly successful marijuana operation, reaping significant profits from their loyal clientele.
When their turf is challenged by the Mexican Baja Cartel, they face a threat like never before. The cartel sends a clear message: a "no" is unacceptable.
Refusing to back down, Ben and Chon find themselves in a precarious situation when the cartel escalates its threats by kidnapping Ophelia, their playmate and confidante. Her abduction sets off a dizzying array of ingenious negotiations and gripping plot twists.
This tale is a provocative, sexy, and darkly engrossing thrill ride that will leave you breathless as you explore the costs of freedom and the price of one amazing high.
Mean Girls meets Middle School in The Clique... The only thing harder than getting in, is staying in.
Enter Claire Lyons, the new girl from Florida in Keds and two-year-old Gap overalls, who is clearly not Clique material. Unfortunately for her, while they look for a new home, Claire's family is staying in the guesthouse of the one and only Massie Block -- Queen Bee of Octavian Country Day School. Claire's future looks worse than a bad Prada knockoff. But with a little luck and a lot of scheming, Claire might just come up smelling like Chanel No. 19.
Meet the rest of the Clique:
Massie Block - With her glossy brunette bob and laser-whitened smile, Massie is the uncontested ruler of The Clique and the rest of the social scene at Octavian Country Day School, an exclusive private girls' school in Westchester County, New York. Massie knows you'd give anything to be just like her.
Dylan Marvil - Massie's second in command who divides her time between sucking up to Massie and sucking down Atkins Diet shakes.
Alicia Rivera - As sneaky as she is beautiful, Alicia floats easily under adult radar because she seems so "sweet." Would love to take Massie's throne one day. Just might.
Kristen Gregory - She's smart, hardworking, and will insult you to tears faster than you can say "my haircut isn't ugly!"
The Mezzanine is a startlingly inventive and witty novel that takes a seemingly mundane ride on an office escalator and transforms it into a brilliant exploration of everyday life. As the narrator returns to work after buying shoelaces, Baker lends the associative richness of Marcel Proust's madeleines to everyday objects like milk cartons and shoelaces.
This novel delves into the eight most significant advances in a human life, starting with the simple act of shoe-tying. It poses intriguing questions, like whether hot air blowers in bathrooms are indeed more sanitary than towels, and casts a dazzling light on our relationships with the objects and people we often take for granted.
Baker's unconventional, conversational style and sharp storytelling turn the ordinary into the extraordinary, making The Mezzanine a celebration of reflection and the importance of everyday human experiences.
Quintus Ambustus is a slave, while Adiona Leonia is a wealthy socialite. He fights for his life in the gladiator's ring, and she plays cutthroat politics in Rome's high society. He's sacrificed everything for his Christian faith; she believes in nothing and no one.
But when Adiona's life is threatened, Quintus is chosen as her bodyguard, and their fascination with one another shocks them both. Neither thought to find joy in a match society would condemn, but their feelings cannot be denied. Have they lost too much to believe in happiness? Or will their growing love let them leave the past behind and build a new future together?
Why did Gandhi hate iodine (I, 53)? How did radium (Ra, 88) nearly ruin Marie Curie's reputation? And why is gallium (Ga, 31) the go-to element for laboratory pranksters?
The periodic table is a crowning scientific achievement, but it's also a treasure trove of adventure, betrayal, and obsession. These fascinating tales follow every element on the table as they play out their parts in human history, finance, mythology, conflict, the arts, medicine, and in the lives of the (frequently) mad scientists who discovered them. "The Disappearing Spoon" masterfully fuses science with the classic lore of invention, investigation, discovery, and alchemy, from the big bang through the end of time.
Though solid at room temperature, gallium is a moldable metal that melts at 84 degrees Fahrenheit. A classic science prank is to mold gallium spoons, serve them with tea, and watch guests recoil as their utensils disappear.
April Dunne is not impressed. She's had to move from Edinburgh to Highgate, London, with her parents, leaving her friends—and her entire life—behind. She's now stuck in a creepy old dump of a house which doesn't even have proper mobile phone reception.
Her new school, Ravenwood, is a prestigious academy for gifted (financially or academically) students—the only place her parents could find her a spot, in the middle of term, in the middle of London, on incredibly short notice. So she's stuck with the super-rich and the super-smart, and trying to fit in is more than tough. It's intimidating and isolating, even when she finds a friend in the conspiracy-theorist Caro Jackson—and perhaps something more than friendship in the gorgeous, mysterious Gabriel Swift.
But there's more going on at Ravenwood than meets the eye. Practical jokes on new students are normal, but when Gabriel saves her from something in Highgate Cemetery, and then she discovers that a murder took place just yards away from where she had been standing, April has to wonder if something more sinister is going on... and whether or not she's going to live through it.
A Dog's Purpose—the #1 New York Times bestseller and major motion picture—is a perfect gift to introduce dog lovers to this wonderful series. Based on the beloved bestselling novel by W. Bruce Cameron, A Dog's Purpose, from director Lasse Hallström (The Cider House Rules, Dear John, The 100-Foot Journey), shares the soulful and surprising story of one devoted dog (voiced by Josh Gad) who finds the meaning of his own existence through the lives of the humans he teaches to laugh and love. The family film told from the dog’s perspective also stars Britt Robertson, KJ Apa, John Ortiz, Peggy Lipton, Juliet Rylance, Luke Kirby, Pooch Hall and Dennis Quaid. A Dog's Purpose is produced by Gavin Polone (Zombieland, TV’s Gilmore Girls). The film from Amblin Entertainment and Walden Media will be distributed by Universal Pictures. Screenplay by W. Bruce Cameron & Cathryn Michon and Audrey Wells and Maya Forbes & Wally Wolodarsky.
Heartwarming, insightful, and often laugh-out-loud funny, A Dog's Purpose is not only the emotional and hilarious story of a dog's many lives, but also a dog's-eye commentary on human relationships and the unbreakable bonds between man and man's best friend. This moving and beautifully crafted story teaches us that love never dies, that our true friends are always with us, and that every creature on earth is born with a purpose.