Grendel's Curse

Grendel's Curse

Alex Archer

Science Fiction & Fantasy / Literature & Fiction / Mystery & Thrillers

A sword of legend in the hands of an extremist... Skalunda Barrow, Sweden, has long been rumored to be the final resting place of the legendary Nordic hero Beowulf. And there's something of Beowulf's that charismatic and zealous right-wing politician Karl Thorssen wants very badly. Intent on getting his hands on the mythical swords Hrunting and Nægling, Sweden's golden-boy politico puts together a team to excavate the barrow. A team that American archaeologist Annja Creed manages to finagle her way onto. She wouldn't miss this possible discovery for anything. With Nægling at his side, Thorssen could be invincible - a Nordic King Arthur. What his followers don't know - and Annja is beginning to suspect - is just how far Thorssen will go to achieve his rabid amibitions. When Thorssen marks Annja for death, she quickly realizes that this is much more than a political game. And the only way to survive is to match Thorssen's sword with her own.
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Voyager

Voyager

Russell Banks

Literature & Fiction / Nonfiction

The acclaimed, award-winning novelist takes us on some of his most memorable journeys in this revelatory collection of travel essays that spans the globe, from the Caribbean to Scotland to the HimalayasNow in his mid-seventies, Russell Banks has indulged his wanderlust for more than half a century. In this compelling anthology, he writes that since childhood he has "longed for escape, for rejuvenation, for wealth untold, for erotic and narcotic and sybaritic fresh starts, for high romance, mystery, and intrigue." The longing for escape has taken him from the "bright green islands and turquoise seas" of the Caribbean islands to peaks in the Himalayas, the Andes, and beyond. In Voyager, Russell Banks, a lifelong explorer, shares highlights from his travels: interviewing Fidel Castro in Cuba; motoring to a hippie reunion with college friends in Chapel Hill, North Carolina; eloping to Edinburgh to marry his fourth wife, Chase; driving a sunset-orange metallic Hummer...
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The Summer I Dared: A Novel

The Summer I Dared: A Novel

Barbara Delinsky

Literature & Fiction

On Big Sawyer island, life is as steady as the routine of the lobstermen who leave with the tide each morning and return with their haul each night. But for forty-year-old New Yorker Julia Bechtel, life and what's important in it are about to be forever altered when she survives a terrible boat accident en route to the island. Now, in the company of her aunt and daughter, Julia finds herself feeling strangely connected to the tragedy's other survivors -- Noah, a divorced lobsterman, and Kim, a young woman rendered mute since her rescue -- and newly outraged at the state of her marriage to a domineering man. Seeing the world with new eyes, Julia vows to embrace life with all of its joys and uncertainties. And the journey begins on Big Sawyer....From BooklistEver prolific and popular Delinsky has often considered the phenomena of near-death experiences granting second chances in life, but rather than rely on hackneyed notions of heroes rising Phoenix-like from the ashes to triumph over adversity, Delinsky grounds her characters in the here-and-now and presents them with dilemmas more familiar than fanciful. Such is the case in her latest work, a tale of three people quite literally thrown together following a boating accident off the Maine coast that spares them while taking the lives of nine others. At 40 Julia is an obedient wife, dutiful daughter, and devoted mother, and has planned a visit to her aunt Zoe to reflect on her obligation to herself versus her ties to her family. Rescued by fellow passenger Noah Prine, Julia feels connected to him by virtue of their shared tragedy while also being drawn to Kim Colella, the other survivor, whose whereabouts at the time of the crash provide a shadowy subplot. As a gentle romance blossoms between Julia and Noah, each evaluates who they were before the accident and who they hope to become in its aftermath. Once again, Delinsky excels at combining a compelling mystery with an insightful portrayal of captivating people facing challenges both ordinary and dramatic. Carol HaggasCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reservedReview"Delinsky may be as adept at chronicling contemporary life in New England as any writer this side of John Updike." -- Times Union (Albany, NY)
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Martin John

Martin John

Anakana Schofield

Literature & Fiction

Martin John's mam says that she is glad he is done with it. But is Martin John done with it? He says he wants it to stop, his mother wants it to stop, we all want it to stop. But is it really what Martin John wants? He had it in his mind to do it and he did it. Harm was done when he did it. Harm would continue to be done. Who will stop Martin John? Will you stop him? Should she stop him?From Anakana Schofield, the brilliant author of the bestselling Malarky, comes a darkly comic novel circuiting through the mind, motivations and preoccupations of a character many women have experienced but few have understood quite so well. The result confirms Schofield as one of the bravest and most innovative authors at work in English today.Anakana Schofield is an Irish-born writer, who won the Amazon.ca First Novel Award and the Debut-Litzer Prize for Fiction in 2013 for her debut novel Malarky.
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Music at Long Verney

Music at Long Verney

Sylvia Townsend Warner

Literature & Fiction / Biographies & Memoirs / Poetry

The 20 stories in this collection, which have been freshly assembled from Sylvia Townsend Warner's archives, have never before been published in book form. They are, therefore, an exceptional and wholly unexpected treasure trove.In these stories the author of the classic Lolly Willowes is at her most witty and beguiling. Written over five decades, from 1929 to 1977, they are crowded with vivid, irrepressible characters -- from the nymph hunting chorister to the garrulous mother warding off her daughter's unwanted suitors -- and equally animated objects and incidents. There are tales of romantic love, of the mysteries of marriage, of gardens and houses, of possessions and those that fancy they own them. The centerpiece of the collection is a series of five linked episodes concerning one singular establishment, the Abbey Antique Galleries, its eccentric proprietor, Mr Edom and his erratic staff, clientele and wares.With a foreword by William...
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The Last Debutante

The Last Debutante

Julia London

Romance / Historical Fiction / Literature & Fiction

Who is the captive and who is the captor? When a sexy laird holds a spirited English lady for ransom, she turns the tables and steals his heart. The lush Scottish Highlands are a tempting setting for seduction in New York Times bestselling author Julia London’s sparkling new novel. The last person Daria Babcock expects to find in her grandmother’s home is a brawny, naked Highlander. She doesn’t buy Mamie’s explanation about finding the poor man shot in the woods. Nor does she trust the gorgeous laird, who insists his own memory fails him. But Daria came to Scotland looking for adventure and romance, and after the intriguing stranger kidnaps her, she gets her wish—and so much more. . . .
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Our Town

Our Town

Thornton Wilder

Literature & Fiction / Plays

This beautiful new edition features an eyeopening Afterword written by Tappan Wilder that includes Thornton Wilder's unpublished notes and other illuminating photographs and documentary material.Our Town was first produced and published in 1938 to wide acclaim. This Pulitzer Prize-winning drama of life in the small village of Grover's Corners, an allegorical representation of all life, has become a classic. It is Thornton Wilder's most renowned and most frequently performed play.
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The Matador's Crown

The Matador's Crown

Alex Archer

Science Fiction & Fantasy / Literature & Fiction / Mystery & Thrillers

A dead man. A stolen artifact. As something of an expert on the medieval period, archaeologist Annja Creed jumps at the invitation from the Museum of Cadiz to assess its acquisition of Egyptian coins. Andalucia, Spain, is a region rich in Moorish and Roman ruins, and this invite gives Annja the chance to join a dig across the Bay of Cadiz. There she unearths a bronze bull statue that makes the entire trip worth every minute to her. Until the day after her discovery, when she sees the same artifact in the hotel room down the hall from hers, in the possession of a Spaniard killed by the estocada, the final sword thrust used by bullfighters to bring down the bull. Whoever killed the man in the hotel room had left clear signs of having taken something. And yet the bronze bull remained. What was so valuable the murderer ignored a priceless artifact? With few leads and a growing body count, Annja's investigation takes her through the colorful world of flamenco and bullfighting to a renowned matador and an illegal - and deadly - collection of Visigoth votive crowns.
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The Time and the Place

The Time and the Place

Naguib Mahfouz

Literature & Fiction / Short Stories

Selected and translated by the distinguished scholar Denys Johnson-Daivies, these stories have all the celebrated and distinctive characters and qualities found in Mahfouz's novels: The denizens of the dark, narrow alleyways of Cairo, who struggle to survive the poverty; melancholy ruminations on death; experiments with the supernatural; and witty excursions into Cairene middle-class life.
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The Boy Next Door

The Boy Next Door

Meg Cabot

Literature & Fiction / Young Adult / Romance

To: You (you)From: Human Resources (human.resources@thenyjournal.com)Subject: This BookDear Reader,This is an automated message from the Human Resources Division of the New York Journal, New York City's leading photo-newspaper. Please be aware that according to our records you have not yet read this book. What exactly are you waiting for? This book has it all: Humor Romance Cooking tips Great Danes Heroine in peril Dolphin-shaped driftwood sculpturesIf you wish to read about any of the above, please do not hesitate to head to the checkout counter, where you will be paired with a sales associate who will work to help you buy this book.We here at the New York Journal are a team. We win as a team, and lose as one as well. Don't you want to be on the winning team? Sincerely, Human Resources...
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Inside, Outside

Inside, Outside

Herman Wouk

Literature & Fiction / Historical Fiction / Religion & Spirituality

A "truly enjoyable" journey through one man's Jewish American experience by the #1 New York Times-bestselling authorof Marjorie Morningstar (Newsday). Israel David Goodkind is a minor bureaucrat in the Nixon White House, killing time in the office by writing the story of four generations of his large, sprawling Russian-Jewish immigrant family. As he recounts his brief stint in show business, his torrid affair with a showgirl, and his encounters with a hassled and distracted President Nixon, Goodkind also witnesses historical events firsthand—the Watergate scandal, the Yom Kippur War—and eventually finds his way back to his Jewish faith. Combining Pulitzer Prize winner Herman Wouk's wildly comic streak with his deep respect for religious tradition, Inside, Outside is both one man's story and "a social comedy of Jewish-American life reaching from New York to Jerusalem and spanning much of the 20th century"...
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Shackling Water

Shackling Water

Adam Mansbach

Literature & Fiction

At the age of nineteen, saxophone prodigy Latif James-Pearson boards a bus to Manhattan to find his aging idol, the great Albert Van Horn. The centers of Latif's universe soon become a Harlem boarding house, where he spends his days practicing intensely, and the downtown club where Van Horn's group performs and Latif hides in the shadows, listening. There, he begins a complex affair with an older white painter named Mona, and starts working for Say Brother, a charismatic drug dealer. But as Latif's frustrations with his playing mount, and the demands of balancing artistry, hustling, and love push him toward crisis, he is forced to confront his music, his past, and himself. A virtuosic story told with lyrical intensity, Shackling Water heralds the arrival of an important new voice in American literature.From the Trade Paperback edition.
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