The debut psychological thriller that will forever change the way you look at other people's lives, from the author of Into the Water and A Slow Fire Burning.
Rachel takes the same commuter train every morning and night. Every day she rattles down the track, flashes past a stretch of cozy suburban homes, and stops at the signal that allows her to daily watch the same couple breakfasting on their deck. She's even started to feel like she knows them. Jess and Jason, she calls them. Their life-as she sees it-is perfect. Not unlike the life she recently lost. UNTIL TODAY And then she sees something shocking. It's only a minute until the train moves on, but it's enough. Now everything's changed. Unable to keep it to herself, Rachel goes to the police. But is she really as unreliable as they say? Soon she is deeply entangled not only in the investigation but in the lives of everyone involved. Has she done more harm than good?
Charlotte's Web is a classic of children's literature that is considered "just about perfect." This edition features vibrant illustrations colorized by Rosemary Wells. The story revolves around Some Pig. Humble. Radiant. These words are found in Charlotte's spiderweb, high up in Zuckerman's barn, and they tell of her feelings for a little pig named Wilbur, who simply wants a friend.
The novel also explores the love of a girl named Fern, who saved Wilbur's life when he was born the runt of his litter. Authored by E. B. White, who also wrote Stuart Little and The Trumpet of the Swan, Charlotte's Web is a tender novel of friendship, love, life, and death that will continue to be enjoyed by generations to come.
Set in a modern, urban Paris, the prose pieces in this volume constitute a further exploration of the terrain Baudelaire had covered in his verse masterpiece, The Flowers of Evil: the city and its squalor and inequalities, the pressures of time and mortality, and the liberation provided by the sensual delights of intoxication, art, and women.
Published posthumously in 1869, Paris Spleen was a landmark publication in the development of the genre of prose poetry—a format which Baudelaire saw as particularly suited for expressing the feelings of uncertainty, flux, and freedom of his age—and one of the founding texts of literary modernism.
Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, the highly acclaimed translators of War and Peace, Doctor Zhivago, and Anna Karenina, which was an Oprah Book Club pick and million-copy bestseller, bring their unmatched talents to The Selected Stories of Anton Chekhov, a collection of thirty of Chekhov’s best tales from the major periods of his creative life.
Considered by many the greatest short story writer, Anton Chekhov changed the genre itself with his spare, impressionistic depictions of Russian life and the human condition. From characteristically brief, evocative early pieces such as “The Huntsman” and the tour de force “A Boring Story,” to his best-known stories such as “The Lady with the Little Dog” and his own personal favorite, “The Student,” Chekhov’s short fiction possesses the transcendent power of art to awe and change the reader. This monumental edition, expertly translated, is especially faithful to the meaning of Chekhov’s prose and the unique rhythms of his writing, giving modern readers an authentic sense of his style and a true understanding of his greatness.
Shadows of Self is the sequel to The Allow of Law, part of the Mistborn series. When family obligations forced Waxillium Ladrian to forsake the frontier lands and return to the metropolis of his birth to take his place as head of a noble House, he little imagined that the crime-fighting skills acquired during twenty years in the dusty plains would be just as applicable in the big city.
He soon learned that there too, just being a talented Twinborn —one who can use both Allomancy and Feruchemy, the dominant magical modes on Scadrial —would not suffice. This bustling, optimistic, but still shaky society will now face its first test by terrorism and assassination, crimes intended to stir up labor strife and religious conflict. Wax, his eccentric sidekick Wayne, and brilliant, beautiful young Marasi, now officially part of the constabulary, must unravel the conspiracy before civil strife can stop Scadrial's progress in its tracks.
Sanderson's fantasy world partakes equally of steampunk, early industry, and the Wild West, and he cleverly incorporates the metal-shaping magic of feruchemists and allomancers. Fantasy fans will savor this exciting escapade.
What happens when a man does the unthinkable?
In this modern and magically profound debut novel, Alexander Helas delivers a masterful, thought-provoking vision on the struggle of free will at the hands of society's quest for progress. Christian Matters is a neurotic architect living in Chicago, but thrown off his routine by a bizarre episode he blames the whiskey on, he abandons his promising career, girlfriend, and home for a life-changing journey to California.
There, he meets a cavalier aristocrat named Lester Rothschild and the extravagant musician Ella Athens. Mysterious and insane, Lester takes Christian on his adventure to open Société, the most luxurious entertainment complex at the heart of the world's richest city.
But, with the chance meeting of an unlikely visitor and the sudden death of a lover, colliding events lead him to unravel the true ambitions behind the greatly anticipated opening of Société, where he discovers the fate of something much greater is at stake.
Falling in love is easy. Staying in love—that’s the challenge! How can you keep your relationship fresh and growing amid the demands, conflicts, and just plain boredom of everyday life?
In the #1 New York Times international bestseller The 5 Love Languages, you’ll discover the secret that has transformed millions of relationships worldwide. Whether your relationship is flourishing or failing, Dr. Gary Chapman’s proven approach to showing and receiving love will help you experience deeper and richer levels of intimacy with your partner—starting today.
The 5 Love Languages is as practical as it is insightful. Updated to reflect the complexities of relationships today, this new edition reveals intrinsic truths and applies relevant, actionable wisdom in ways that work.
Includes the Love Language assessment so you can discover your love language and that of your loved one.
Book 3 of the After series—newly revised and expanded, Anna Todd's After fanfiction captivated readers across the globe. Experience the internet's most talked-about book for yourself.
Tessa and Hardin’s love was complicated before. Now it’s more confusing than ever. AFTER WE FELL... Life will never be the same.
Just as Tessa makes the biggest decision of her life, everything changes. Revelations about first her family, and then Hardin’s, throw everything they knew before in doubt and makes their hard-won future together more difficult to claim.
Tessa’s life begins to come unglued. Nothing is what she thought it was. Not her friends. Not her family. The one person she should be able to rely on, Hardin, is furious when he discovers the massive secret she’s been keeping. And rather than being understanding, he turns to sabotage.
Tessa knows Hardin loves her and will do anything to protect her, but there’s a difference between loving someone and being able to have them in your life. This cycle of jealousy, unpredictable anger, and forgiveness is exhausting. She’s never felt so intensely for anyone, so exhilarated by someone’s kiss—but is the irrepressible heat between her and Hardin worth all the drama? Love used to be enough to hold them together. But if Tessa follows her heart now, will it be...the end?
The New York Times-bestselling series soars to even greater heights with a new prophecy and five new dragonets ready to claim their destiny!
Peace has come to Pyrrhia . . . for now. The war between the tribes is finally over, and now the dragonets of the prophecy have a plan for lasting peace: Jade Mountain Academy, a school that will gather dragonets from all the tribes and teach them to live together, perhaps even as friends.
Moonwatcher isn’t sure how she feels about school, however. Hidden in the rainforest for most of her life, the young NightWing has an awful secret. She can read minds, and even see the future. Living in a cave with dozens of other dragons is noisy, exhausting—and dangerous.
In just a few days, Moon finds herself overwhelmed by her secret powers and bombarded by strange thoughts, including those of a mysterious dragon who might be a terrible enemy. And when someone starts attacking dragons within the academy, Moon has a choice to make: Stay hidden and safe? Or risk everything to save her new friends?
Why are outsiders not allowed on Vypeen Island after sunset? What brought Richard Baxter to the dreaded Clifford Mansion in 1948? Where did Baxter and his wife disappear on the night of Pournami? Who is the visitor that the fishermen fear so much?
How do true love and destiny justify their existence? How far will one man go for the one he loves? Will he go beyond death? Six decades later, Shiuli Dutta is mysteriously lured into the Mansion, where she encounters the ghost of Richard Baxter. The grieving ghost tells her an incomplete story of its life. A story that will reveal the darker side of a man’s mind. A story that shall unveil a venomous truth of the past. A story so sinister that it could alter the fate of an entire nation’s future. A story of courage and cowardice, of deceit and insanity. The story of THAT FREQUENT VISITOR.
When Cassie Taylor met Ethan Holt at acting school, sparks flew. She was the good girl actress. He was the bad boy about campus. But one fated casting choice for Romeo and Juliet changed it all. Like the characters they were playing, Cassie and Ethan's romance seemed destined. Until he broke her heart and betrayed her trust.
Now, the A-list heartthrob is back in her life and turning her world around. One touch at a time. Cast as romantic leads once again, they're forced to confront raw memories of the heartbreaking lows and pulse-pounding highs of their secret college affair.
But they'll also discover that people who rub each other the wrong way often make the best sparks.
Pay It Forward is a wondrous and moving novel about Trevor McKinney, a twelve-year-old boy in a small California town who accepts a challenge from his teacher. This challenge offers a chance to earn extra credit by coming up with a plan to change the world for the better—and to put that plan into action.
The idea that Trevor comes up with is so simple and so naive that when others learn of it, they are dismissive. Even Trevor himself begins to doubt when his "pay it forward" plan seems to founder on a combination of bad luck and the worst of human nature.
In the end, Pay It Forward is the story of seemingly ordinary people made extraordinary by the simple faith of a child. It is a story of hope for today and for many tomorrows to come.
Jubilee Chase and Flynn Cormac should never have met. Lee is captain of the forces sent to Avon to crush the terraformed planet's rebellious colonists, but she has her own reasons for hating the insurgents. Rebellion is in Flynn's blood. His sister died in the original uprising against the powerful corporate conglomerate that rules Avon with an iron fist.
These corporations make their fortune by terraforming uninhabitable planets across the universe and recruiting colonists to make the planets livable, with the promise of a better life for their children. But they never fulfilled their promise on Avon, and decades later, Flynn is leading the rebellion. Desperate for any advantage against the military occupying his home, Flynn does the only thing that makes sense when he and Lee cross paths: he returns to base with her as a prisoner.
But as his fellow rebels prepare to execute this tough-talking girl with nerves of steel, Flynn makes another choice that will change him forever. He and Lee escape base together, caught between two sides in a senseless war. The stunning second novel in the Starbound trilogy is an unforgettable story of love and forgiveness in a world torn apart by war.
The classic novel Zorba the Greek is the story of two men, their incredible friendship, and the importance of living life to the fullest. Zorba, a Greek working man, is a larger-than-life character, energetic and unpredictable. He accompanies the unnamed narrator to Crete to work in the narrator’s lignite mine, and the pair develops a singular relationship. The two men couldn’t be further apart: The narrator is cerebral, modest, and reserved; Zorba is unfettered, spirited, and beyond the reins of civility. Over the course of their journey, he becomes the narrator’s greatest friend and inspiration and helps him to appreciate the joy of living.
Zorba has been acclaimed as one of the most remarkable figures in literature; he is a character in the great tradition of Sinbad the Sailor, Falstaff, and Sancho Panza. He responds to all that life offers him with passion, whether he’s supervising laborers at a mine, confronting mad monks in a mountain monastery, embellishing the tales of his past adventures, or making love. Zorba the Greek explores the beauty and pain of existence, inviting readers to reevaluate the most important aspects of their lives and live to the fullest.
Saga, Volume 4 continues the enthralling and critically acclaimed space opera series written by Brian K. Vaughan and illustrated by Fiona Staples. As Hazel becomes a toddler, her family faces new challenges and adventures, traveling to exotic planets and confronting new adversaries. This volume marks a significant direction in the storyline, focusing on the family's struggle to maintain their unity and survive in a universe that is constantly threatening to tear them apart. Saga is known for its rich character development, complex themes, and imaginative world-building, making it a standout series in the graphic novel genre.
Alex Cross is back—and so is a raging and suicidal Gary Soneji. Out of prison and dying from the AIDS virus he contracted there, he will get revenge on Cross before he dies.
In addition, we are introduced to a new pair of rivals whose paths cross that of Alex and Soneji. Thomas Augustine Pierce has been chasing his demon, Mr. Smith, since the savage murder of his fiancée. Mr. Smith is a unique monster, with actions toward his victims so insane—so unimaginable—that he is thought of as "not of the earth." Pierce, known in the business as St. Augustine because of his track record for catching killers and his invaluable status to the FBI and Interpol, may even be better than Cross.
When things heat up and Alex is in a near-death coma following an attack in his own home, Pierce goes to Washington to help with the investigation. But just as he begins to piece together the mystery of how Gary Soneji could have mortally wounded Cross after he was believed to be dead, he is summoned to Paris with a postcard from Mr. Smith inviting him to a very special killing.
The body count is high, the tension the highest, and the two killers on the loose are watching every move their pursuers make. Who is the cat, and who is the mouse? What and where is the final trap? And who survives?
The city of Bulikov once wielded the powers of the gods to conquer the world, enslaving and brutalizing millions — until its divine protectors were killed. Now, Bulikov’s history has been censored and erased, its citizens subjugated. But the surreal landscape of the city itself, forever altered by the thousands of miracles its guardians once worked upon it, stands as a haunting reminder of its former supremacy.
Into this broken city steps Shara Thivani. Officially, the unassuming young woman is just another junior diplomat sent by Bulikov’s oppressors. Unofficially, she is one of her country’s most accomplished spies, dispatched — along with her terrifying “secretary”, Sigrud — to solve a murder.
But as Shara pursues the killer, she starts to suspect that the beings who ruled this terrible place may not be as dead as they seem, and that Bulikov’s cruel reign may not yet be over.
A tale of vast conspiracies, dead gods, and buried histories, City of Stairs is at once a gripping spy novel and a stunningly original work of fantasy.
A Density of Souls is a stunning debut novel that uncovers the darker side of the teenage psyche. Set in the brooding milieu of New Orleans, this gripping tale follows four childhood friends torn apart by envy, passion, and a secret murder.
Five years ago, Meredith, Brandon, Greg, and Stephen discovered the fragile boundaries between friendship and betrayal as they entered high school and formed new allegiances. While Meredith, Brandon, and Greg gained popularity, Stephen was viciously treated as an outcast. The delicate bonds of their friendship were destroyed by two violent deaths, leading to unexpected revelations.
When the friends are drawn back together, new facts about their mutual history are exposed, and what was believed to be a tragic accident is revealed as murder. As the true story emerges, other secrets begin to unravel with more dangerous, far-reaching consequences.
The Starchild Compact is an epic tale of beginnings, roots, what might have been, and what might be. It is an adventure of heroic proportions, commencing 500 light years away, arriving here just a few years from now, and ending in the distant expanses of the Universe.
Jon Stock takes his international exploration team to Saturn's moon, Iapetus, that Earth scientists have determined may be an artifact. Following launch, they discover Saeed Ismail, a Jihadist stowaway, who hopes to sabotage the mission.
They arrive at Iapetus, determine it is a derelict starship, and eventually meet with the Founders, descendants of the starship builders. Their revelations impact the entire Solar System with momentous implications going backward and forward in time, paving the way for a joint push to the distant reaches of the Galaxy.
At the dawn of time, there were 13 Houses in the Zodiac Galaxy. Now only 12 remain.... Rhoma Grace is a 16-year-old student from House Cancer with an unusual way of reading the stars. While her classmates use measurements to make accurate astrological predictions, Rho can’t solve for ‘x’ to save her life—so instead, she looks up at the night sky and makes up stories.
When a violent blast strikes the moons of Cancer, sending its ocean planet off-kilter and killing thousands of citizens—including its beloved Guardian—Rho is more surprised than anyone when she is named the House’s new leader. But, a true Cancerian who loves her home fiercely and will protect her people no matter what, Rho accepts.
Then, when more Houses fall victim to freak weather catastrophes, Rho starts seeing a pattern in the stars. She suspects Ophiuchus—the exiled 13th Guardian of Zodiac legend—has returned to exact his revenge across the Galaxy. Now Rho—along with Hysan Dax, a young envoy from House Libra, and Mathias, her guide and a member of her Royal Guard—must travel through the Zodiac to warn the other Guardians.
But who will believe anything this young novice says? Whom can Rho trust in a universe defined by differences? And how can she convince twelve worlds to unite as one Zodiac? Embark on a dazzling journey with ZODIAC, the first novel in an epic sci-fi-meets-high-fantasy series set in a galaxy inspired by the astrological signs.
In the summer of 1348, as the Black Death ravages their city, ten young Florentines take refuge in the countryside. They amuse themselves by each telling a story a day for the ten days they are destined to remain there—a hundred stories of love, adventure, and surprising twists of fate. Less preoccupied with abstract concepts of morality or religion than with earthly values, the tales range from the bawdy Peronella hiding her lover in a tub to Ser Cepperello, who, despite his unholy effrontery, becomes a Saint. The result is a towering monument of European literature and a masterpiece of imaginative narrative. This is the second edition of G. H. McWilliam’s acclaimed translation of The Decameron. His introduction illuminates the worlds of Boccaccio and of his storytellers, showing Boccaccio as a master of vivid and exciting prose fiction.
Nothing about Saitama passes the eyeball test when it comes to superheroes, from his lifeless expression to his bald head to his unimpressive physique. However, this average-looking guy has a not-so-average problem—he just can't seem to find an opponent strong enough to take on!
When aliens invade Earth, a group of Class S heroes finally finds a way to fight back and go on the offensive! Inside the enemy mother ship, Saitama fights Boros. Faced with the alien's frightful power, he decides to get serious! What is the Earth's fate?
Quentin Coldwater has been cast out of Fillory, the secret magical land of his childhood dreams. With nothing left to lose, he returns to where his story began, the Brakebills Preparatory College of Magic. But he can’t hide from his past, and it’s not long before it comes looking for him.
Along with Plum, a brilliant young undergraduate with a dark secret of her own, Quentin sets out on a crooked path through a magical demimonde of gray magic and desperate characters. But all roads lead back to Fillory, and his new life takes him to old haunts, like Antarctica, and to buried secrets and old friends he thought were lost forever.
He uncovers the key to a sorcery masterwork, a spell that could create a magical utopia, a new Fillory—but casting it will set in motion a chain of events that will bring Earth and Fillory crashing together. To save them, he will have to risk sacrificing everything.
The Magician’s Land is an intricate thriller, a fantastical epic, and an epic of love and redemption that brings the Magicians trilogy to a magnificent conclusion. It’s the story of a boy becoming a man, an apprentice becoming a master, and a broken land finally becoming whole.
In addition to his many remarkable paintings and drawings, Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) left behind a fascinating and voluminous body of correspondence. This highly accessible book includes a broad selection of 265 letters, from a total of 820 in existence, that focus on Van Gogh’s relentless quest to find his destiny, a search that led him to become an artist; the close bond with his brother Theo; his fraught relationship with his father; his innate yearning for recognition; and his great love of art and literature. The correspondence not only offers detailed insights into Van Gogh’s complex inner life, but also re-creates the world in which he lived and the artistic avant-garde that was taking hold in Paris.
The letters are accompanied by a general introduction, historic family photographs, and reproductions of 87 actual pages of letters that contain sketches by Van Gogh. Selected from the critically acclaimed 6-volume set of letters published by the Van Gogh Museum in 2009, Ever Yours is the essential book on Van Gogh’s letters, which every art and literature lover needs to own.
Pilgrim is the codename for a man who doesn't exist. The adopted son of a wealthy American family, he once headed up a secret espionage unit for US intelligence. Before he disappeared into anonymous retirement, he wrote the definitive book on forensic criminal investigation. But that book will come back to haunt him. It will help NYPD detective Ben Bradley track him down. And it will take him to a rundown New York hotel room where the body of a woman is found facedown in a bath of acid, her features erased, her teeth missing, her fingerprints gone. It is a textbook murder—and Pilgrim wrote the book.
What begins as an unusual and challenging investigation will become a terrifying race-against-time to save America from oblivion. Pilgrim will have to make a journey from a public beheading in Mecca to a deserted ruins on the Turkish coast via a Nazi death camp in Alsace and the barren wilderness of the Hindu Kush in search of the faceless man who would commit an appalling act of mass murder in the name of his God.
Just Perfect is a grippingly honest account of love and friendship, betrayal and trust, anorexia and the fight for a better tomorrow. Through her engaging and well-paced work, 18-year-old Hanne Arts provides a helping hand to young adults with mental illnesses worldwide.
When sixteen-year-old Christina Jacobs comes to school one day and discovers that life will never be the same again, she soon finds herself sinking away into the bottomless pit of a depression and eating disorder, haunted by her troubled thoughts and experiences and striving for acceptance. Fate was never easy on her, having given her an appearance far from desirable and a family situation far from the norm. But when she is forced to face it all on her own, forced to battle her inner demons, she knows she needs to give all she's got to fight her way back to the surface and get her life back on track.
Before America Singer's story began, another girl came to the palace to compete for the hand of a different prince….
Don't miss this digital original novella set in the captivating world of Kiera Cass's #1 New York Times bestselling Selection series. This prequel story takes place before the events of The Selection and is told from the point of view of Prince Maxon's mother, Amberly. Discover a whole new Selection with this inside look at how Maxon's parents met—and how an ordinary girl named Amberly became a beloved queen.
Galen is the prince of the Syrena, sent to land to find a girl he's heard can communicate with fish. Emma is on vacation at the beach. When she runs into Galen—literally, ouch!—both teens sense a connection. But it will take several encounters, including a deadly one with a shark, for Galen to be convinced of Emma's gifts. Now, if he can only convince Emma that she holds the key to his kingdom...
Told from both Emma and Galen's points of view, here is a fish-out-of-water story that sparkles with intrigue, humor, and waves of romance.
Seattle's waterfront has served as a central hub for people, transportation, and commerce since time immemorial. A low natural shoreline provided the Duwamish-Suquamish people with excellent canoe access to permanent villages and seasonal fishing camps. High bluffs served as a sacred place for tribal members' final journey to the spirit world.
When the first settlers arrived in the 1850s, Seattle's shoreline began to change drastically. Emerald hills covered with dense forests were logged for timber to make way for the new city. As time passed, Seattle constructed a log seawall, wooden sidewalks, wharfs, buildings, streets, railroad trestles, and eventually, a massive concrete viaduct over the original aquatic lands, changing the natural environment to a built environment.
Today, Seattle's shoreline continues to change as the city demolishes the viaduct, rebuilds the seawall, and creates an inviting new waterfront that all will enjoy for generations to come.
The Overcoat is generally acknowledged as the finest of Gogol's memorable Saint Petersburg stories. It is a tale of the absurd and misplaced obsessions, centered around the life and death of Akaky Akakievich Bashmachkin, an impoverished government clerk and copyist in the Russian capital of St. Petersburg.
Akaky is dedicated to his job as a titular councillor, taking special relish in the hand-copying of documents, though little recognized in his department for his hard work. Instead, the younger clerks tease him and attempt to distract him whenever they can. His threadbare overcoat is often the butt of their jokes.
Akaky decides it is necessary to have the coat repaired, so he takes it to his tailor, Petrovich, who declares the coat irreparable, telling Akaky he must buy a new overcoat. The story follows Akaky's journey to attain an "overcoat" of untold value and power, representing the mighty bureaucracy.
The narrative takes an interesting turn when Akaky dies of a broken heart after his beloved smart coat is stolen, symbolizing the reprisal of the lower class against the dominance of the ruling class.
We're free. I'm free. Never again will we have to face the Moonlight pack.
Beaten, punched, slapped, kicked, tortured. That was Celina’s life with the pack who was supposed to take care of her. She was nothing but their slave.
And then one day, she decided that it had to stop. She would run away. And she did. And when she shifted, little did Celina know that she was the last pure white wolf in the world. Or that she was special. She just knew she was different.
She ran for days, until she got to the territory of the Nightfall Pack. She was taken to see their alpha, and for reasons she couldn’t understand, sparks just appeared when their fingers touched.
Axel was everything the alpha of her old pack was not. He was strong, powerful, demanding. And apparently, he was the only pitch black wolf left in the world. And he was going to take what’s his: his mate, who happened to be the rogue Celina.
Running away seemed to be the best decision she ever made, but will a destiny that was foretold long before she was born rip her apart about things in her past? Or will she show everyone she’s not the weak girl her old pack made her to be?
Treasure Island, published in 1883, popularized the now familiar characters of pirates and brought them to rum-swilling life. When an old sailor named Billy Bones dies in the inn belonging to young Jim Hawkins's parents, he leaves a greasy old map on which an "X" marks the spot where treasure is buried. Jim joins the crew of a ship in pursuit of Bones's treasure, and on the seas meets up with Long John Silver, a peg-legged pirate who has infiltrated their ranks. Jim must survive mutinies and counter-mutinies, face hand-to-hand combat with drunken sailors, and outwit double-crossing thieves before the treasure can be his.
For sheer storytelling delight and pure adventure, Treasure Island has never been surpassed. From the moment young Jim Hawkins first encounters the sinister Blind Pew at the Admiral Benbow Inn until the climactic battle for treasure on a tropic isle, the novel creates scenes and characters that have fired the imaginations of generations of readers. The story centers upon the conflict between good and evil - but in this case a particularly engaging form of evil. It is the villainy of the most ambiguous rogue, Long John Silver, that sets the tempo of this tale of treachery, greed, and daring. Designed to forever kindle a dream of high romance and distant horizons, Treasure Island is a vision not only of white skeletons but also of green palm trees and sapphire seas.
This Side of Paradise, F. Scott Fitzgerald's romantic and witty first novel, was written when the author was only twenty-three years old. This semi-autobiographical story of the handsome, indulged, and idealistic Princeton student Amory Blaine received critical raves and catapulted Fitzgerald to instant fame. Now, readers can enjoy the newly edited, authorized version of this early classic of the Jazz Age, based on Fitzgerald's original manuscript. In this definitive text, This Side of Paradise captures the rhythms and romance of Fitzgerald's youth and offers a poignant portrait of the "Lost Generation."
Tessa has everything to lose. Hardin has nothing to lose… except her.
After a tumultuous beginning to their relationship, Tessa and Hardin were on the path to making things work. Tessa knew Hardin could be cruel, but when a bombshell revelation is dropped about the origins of their relationship—and Hardin’s mysterious past—Tessa is beside herself.
Hardin will always be… Hardin. But is he really the deep, thoughtful guy Tessa fell madly in love with despite his angry exterior—or has he been a stranger all along? She wishes she could walk away. It’s just not that easy. Not with the memory of passionate nights spent in his arms. His electric touch. His hungry kisses.
Still, Tessa’s not sure she can endure one more broken promise. She put so much on hold for Hardin—school, friends, her mom, a relationship with a guy who really loved her, and now possibly even a promising new career. She needs to move forward with her life.
Hardin knows he made a mistake, possibly the biggest one of his life. He’s not going down without a fight. But can he change? Will he change for love?
Your organizational transformation begins here! Comprehensive, detailed, and easy to read and understand, How to Succeed with Continuous Improvement takes you through a real-life case study of one organization's journey to a world-class continuous improvement process. Joakim Ahlstrom—one of the world's most respected continuous improvement experts—serves as your coach.
He first helps you decide whether you want to embark on the continuous improvement journey and takes you through the entire process step by step, all the way through generating remarkable business results with his unique methods. In each chapter, Ahlstrom describes a specific stage of the transformation story and provides a clear analysis of each one to help you apply his methods in your own company. In no time you'll grasp all the concepts you need to know.
How to Succeed with Continuous Improvement covers it all, including:
Ahlstrom explains the rationale behind all the methods in the book—the results they produce, and why—and offers practical advice on how to get full input from everyone involved. Ahlstrom concludes the book with a chapter offering a current-state analysis tool and a simple template to apply in your company.
If you're seeking to design and launch a continuous improvement program, How to Succeed with Continuous Improvement is the first book you should turn to—and it's the last one you'll ever need!
Vibrant, scale swathed wings... Abilities that can be harnessed by a chosen few... Dragons...
All this may seem like old news, but for seventeen-year-old Elena Watkins, the world of Paegeia is not finished revealing all its secrets. During a summer break intended for relaxation, she discovers that her harrowing adventure to retrieve the King of Lion sword wasn’t the destiny foretold by the cryptic Viden, a dragon with the ability to see a person’s true fate. The words inked onto the page of the mysterious Book of Shadows remains black, and Elena must return to Dragonia Academy to discover their true meaning.
Upon her return to the magnificent castle, she has to face a challenge of a different kind - keeping her boyfriend, Lucian McKenzie, the Prince of Tith and love of her life, away from the dangerous new student, Paul Sutton. As a Wyvern, Paul has made it his mission to claim Elena as his rider, but he is proving to be more perilous than at first glance. Everyone knew that Wyverns were bad news, and just as evil as the darkness lurking inside Blake Leaf, the Rubicon, who is forced to fight against his inner nature every day.
But Elena can see a small light in the darkness, a destiny still unfulfilled; to prove that Wyverns can be claimed. Will Lucian’s dark secret about Wyverns and Elena’s need to prove their true nature cause their love to be torn apart? And which of Elena’s friends will be sacrificed this time if she is wrong?
Kami’s life was hell. Until the bad boy came along to save her.
She never had an easy life. Most of her teenage years were filled with bruises and bad memories. Her mother had married another man whose happiness came from hurting her. But when Brandon appeared in her life, things started to change.
He had seen the bruises and how it pained her. So he did something about it. He married her to protect her. But did Kami make the right decision marrying him?
All the men in her life either left her, like her father did, or hurt her, as was the case with her step-father. There was no guarantee that Brandon wouldn't leave her or hurt her.
What would happen to her life now that she was married to the bad boy? Will he be able to keep her from harm?
Gideon calls me his angel, but he’s the miracle in my life. My gorgeous, wounded warrior, so determined to slay my demons while refusing to face his own. The vows we’d exchanged should have bound us tighter than blood and flesh. Instead, they opened old wounds, exposed pain and insecurities, and lured bitter enemies out of the shadows. I felt him slipping from my grasp, my greatest fears becoming my reality, my love tested in ways I wasn’t sure I was strong enough to bear.
At the brightest time in our lives, the darkness of his past encroached and threatened everything we’d worked so hard for. We faced a terrible choice: the familiar safety of the lives we’d had before each other or the fight for a future that suddenly seemed an impossible and hopeless dream…
The Hot Zone is a riveting account of the appearance of a highly infectious, deadly virus from the central African rain forest that suddenly emerges in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. With no cure available, the virus claims the lives of 90 percent of its victims in just a few days. A secret military SWAT team of soldiers and scientists is deployed with the urgent mission to halt the outbreak of this exotic "hot" virus.
This dramatic narrative gives a hair-raising insight into the world of rare and lethal viruses and their impact on the human race. It's a chilling reminder that sometimes, the truth can be more terrifying than fiction. The Hot Zone is shocking, frightening, and utterly impossible to ignore.
My name is Raymond. Until recently, I was just a normal boy. Well, besides the fact that I grew up wearing a copper bracelet and a malachite collar. When I moved to Johannesburg, though, everything changed. I found out that I had a dark side and that I had enemies. Enemies that wanted to destroy me and others like me. I need to find a way to stop them. I need to get control of my dark side. I need help...
In a universe filled with war and mystical creatures, Raymond embarks on a journey to discover his true identity and to tame his dark side. During his journey, he meets a mermaid, gets tangled up in a love triangle, is taken prisoner, finds his ancestors, and is dragged into the worst war the universe has ever seen. The war of Gog and Magog. Will Raymond discover his destiny? Will he be able to stop the war of Gog and Magog?
Chris Mechling's new historical novel, Peter, introduces readers to the amazing true story behind the fairy tale of Peter Pan. The book tells the adventures of the real boy who came to London and became a well-known figure more than a hundred years before James Barrie penned his classic.
Peter the Wild Boy lived in eighteenth century England, through the reigns of three kings (all named George), and achieved legendary status in his own lifetime. He was not only a popular figure, but also drew intense philosophical and scientific study, and was a subject of interest to literary figures such as Daniel Defoe and Jonathan Swift.
Peter retained a youthful appearance throughout his life and had a joyful, intuitive spirit that was both challenging and infectious. This imaginative dramatization of the life of Peter the Wild Boy captures the joy, innocence, and fire of a bright, feral child living in the midst of the Age of Enlightenment. It is narrated by the girl who perhaps knew him best.
The epic story of his life, spanning approximately seventy years, navigates a tumultuous and thoughtful period in English history, rich with characters. Peter is a magical, poignant tale full of humor, love, and courage in the face of life's difficulties. It will make you laugh, cry, dream, and remember what it means to be young.
One of Beirut’s most celebrated voices, Rabih Alameddine, follows his international bestseller, The Hakawati, with a heart-rending novel that celebrates the singular life of an obsessive introvert, revealing Beirut’s beauties and horrors along the way.
Aaliya Sohbi lives alone in her Beirut apartment, surrounded by stockpiles of books. Godless, fatherless, divorced, and childless, Aaliya is her family’s unnecessary appendage. Every year, she translates a new favorite book into Arabic, then stows it away. The thirty-seven books that Aaliya has translated have never been read—by anyone. After overhearing her neighbors, "the three witches," discussing her too-white hair, Aaliya accidentally dyes her hair too blue.
In this breathtaking portrait of a reclusive woman’s late-life crisis, readers follow Aaliya’s digressive mind as it ricochets across visions of past and present Beirut. Insightful musings on literature, philosophy, and art are invaded by memories of the Lebanese Civil War and Aaliya’s volatile past. As she tries to overcome her aging body and spontaneous emotional upwellings, Aaliya is faced with an unthinkable disaster that threatens to shatter the little life she has left.
A love letter to literature and its power to define who we are, the gifted Rabih Alameddine has given us a nuanced rendering of a single woman's reclusive life in the Middle East.
To want what you’re not supposed to have…
She is only nineteen. She is his new stepfather’s daughter. She is still naïve and innocent due to spending the last three years taking care of her sick mother. But for twenty-four year old Rush Finlay, she is the only thing that has ever been off limits. His famous father’s guilt money, his mother’s desperation to win his love, and his charm are the three reasons he has never been told no.
Blaire Wynn left her small farmhouse in Alabama, after her mother passed away, to move in with her father and his new wife in their sprawling beach house along the Florida gulf coast. She isn’t prepared for the lifestyle change and she knows she’ll never fit into this world. Then there is her sexy stepbrother who her father leaves her with for the summer while he runs off to Paris with his wife. Rush is as spoiled as he is gorgeous. He is also getting under her skin. She knows he is anything but good for her and that he’ll never be faithful to anyone. He is jaded and has secrets Blaire knows she may never uncover but even knowing all of that… Blaire just may have fallen too far.
Rush withheld a secret that had destroyed Blaire's world. Her entire life had all been a lie. Blaire couldn't stop loving him but she knew she could never forgive him. Now, she was back home and learning to live again. Moving on with life... until something happened to send her world spinning once again. What do you do when the one person you can never trust again is the one that you need to trust so desperately? You lie, hide, avoid, and pray that your sins never find you out.
In a small New England town, in the early 60s, a shadow falls over a small boy playing with his toy soldiers. Jamie Morton looks up to see a striking man, the new minister. Charles Jacobs, along with his beautiful wife, will transform the local church. The men and boys are all a bit in love with Mrs. Jacobs; the women and girls – including Jamie’s mother and beloved sister – feel the same about Reverend Jacobs.
With Jamie, the Reverend shares a deeper bond, based on their fascination with simple experiments in electricity. Then tragedy strikes the Jacobs family; the preacher curses God, mocking all religious belief, and is banished from the shocked town.
Jamie has demons of his own. In his mid-thirties, he is living a nomadic lifestyle of bar-band rock and roll. Addicted to heroin, stranded, desperate, he sees Jacobs again – a showman on stage, creating dazzling ‘portraits in lightning’ – and their meeting has profound consequences for both men. Their bond becomes a pact beyond even the Devil’s devising, and Jamie discovers that revival has many meanings. Because for every cure there is a price…
This rich and disturbing novel spans five decades on its way to the most terrifying conclusion Stephen King has ever written. It’s a masterpiece from King, in the great American tradition of Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allan Poe.
Rock star, crowdfunding pioneer, and TED speaker Amanda Palmer knows all about asking. Performing as a living statue in a wedding dress, she wordlessly asked thousands of passersby for their dollars. When she became a singer, songwriter, and musician, she was not afraid to ask her audience to support her as she surfed the crowd (and slept on their couches while touring). And when she left her record label to strike out on her own, she asked her fans to support her in making an album, leading to the world's most successful music Kickstarter.
Even while Amanda is both celebrated and attacked for her fearlessness in asking for help, she finds that there are important things she cannot ask for-as a musician, as a friend, and as a wife. She learns that she isn't alone in this, that so many people are afraid to ask for help, and it paralyzes their lives and relationships. In this groundbreaking book, she explores these barriers in her own life and in the lives of those around her, and discovers the emotional, philosophical, and practical aspects of The Art of Asking.
Part manifesto, part revelation, this is the story of an artist struggling with the new rules of exchange in the twenty-first century, both on and off the Internet. The Art of Asking will inspire readers to rethink their own ideas about asking, giving, art, and love.
All six books in the #1 New York Times bestselling Mortal Instruments series, now available in a collectible hardcover boxed set.
Enter the secret world of the Shadowhunters with this handsomely packaged boxed set that includes City of Bones, City of Ashes, City of Glass, City of Fallen Angels, City of Lost Souls, and City of Heavenly Fire.
The Mortal Instruments books have more than five million copies in print, and this collectible set of six hardcover volumes is a perfect gift for newcomers to the series and for loyal fans alike.
You would think after helping save her boyfriend from an eternity in Hell that things would go back to normal. Well, as normal as life can be when you can see souls and your boyfriend is Death. But for Pagan Moore, things are just getting weirder.
The high school quarterback and reigning heartthrob, Leif Montgomery, is missing. While the town is in a frenzy of worry, Pagan is a nervous wreck for other reasons. Apparently good ‘ol Leif isn’t your average teenage boy. He isn’t even human. According to Death, Leif doesn’t have a soul.
The quarterback may have skipped town but he’s still showing up in Pagan’s dreams... uninvited. Dank has known from the beginning Leif wasn’t human. But he hadn’t worried about a simple soulless creature. Now, he realizes he made a grave mistake. Pagan’s soul has been marked since birth as a restitution, to a spirit so dark not even Death walks near it.
Dank knows saving Pagan’s soul won’t be easy but Pagan is his. And he’s already proven he’ll defy Heaven to keep her. If Hell wants a piece of him too, then bring it on.