Licence Renewed

Licence Renewed

John Gardner

Literature & Fiction

Bond is back and he's better than ever… but the 1980's have reached the department as well. Political restraints are squeezing in on the Service. The elite Double-O status, for example, conveying its authority to kill, is being abolished…
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(2007) Chasing Fireflies - A Novel of Discovery

(2007) Chasing Fireflies - A Novel of Discovery

Charles Martin

Literature & Fiction

From Publishers WeeklyIn his fifth novel, Martin (Maggie; When Crickets Cry) offers the same brand of sentimental Southern storytelling that has endeared him to readers. Just before T-boning her Impala into a train, a woman on a suicide run kicks her horrifically abused little boy, known only as Snoot—or to the state, John Doe 117—out of the car. Chase Walker, a reporter for the Brunswick Daily in Glen County, Ga., is assigned to follow up on the boy, whose abandonment mirrors Chase's own haunted past. The little boy, apparently mute, is an artistic prodigy who excels at chess and quickly works his way into Chase's heart. Martin's strength is in his memorable characters, especially Uncle Willie, whose fresh quips ("as out of place in South Georgia as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs"), penchant for Krispy Kreme doughnuts and mysterious past keep readers engrossed. Here, as in some of his other novels, Martin can't resist piling on unnecessary tragedies; his characters and their issues are enough to keep the pages turning. Although the plot needs fine-tuning, Martin's prose is lovely, and the flashback parallel stories of a grown man abandoned as a child and the neglected boy will ensure readers keep the Kleenex handy. (June) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Product DescriptionThey have one summer to find what was lost long ago."Never settle for less than the truth," she told him. But when you don't even know your real name, the truth gets a little complicated. It can nestle so close to home it's hard to see. It can even flourish inside a lie. And as Chase Walker discovered, learning the truth about who you are can be as elusive--and as magical--as chasing fireflies on a summer night. A haunting story about fishing, baseball, home cooking, and other matters of life and death.
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Doors Open

Doors Open

Ian Rankin

Literature & Fiction / Mystery & Thrillers / Crime

For the right man, all doors are open... Mike Mackenzie is a self-made man with too much time on his hands and a bit of the devil in his soul. He is looking for something to liven up the days and perhaps give new meaning to his existence. A chance encounter at an art auction offers him the opportunity to do just that as he settles on a plot to commit a 'perfect crime'. He intends to rip-off one of the most high-profile targets in the capital - the National Gallery of Scotland. So, together with two close friends from the art world, he devises a plan to a lift some of the most valuable artwork around. But of course, the real trick is to rob the place for all its worth whilst persuading the world that no crime was ever committed. But soon after he enters the dark waters of the criminal underworld he realises that it's very easy to drown...
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A Curse on Dostoevsky

A Curse on Dostoevsky

Atiq Rahimi

Literature & Fiction / Poetry / Politics

Reading Dostoevsky in Afghanistan becomes “crime without punishment” Rassoul remembers reading Crime and Punishment as a student of Russian literature in Leningrad, so when, with axe in hand, he kills the wealthy old lady who prostitutes his beloved Sophia, he thinks twice before taking her money or killing the woman whose voice he hears from another room. He wishes only to expiate his crime and be rightfully punished. Out of principle, he gives himself up to the police. But his country, after years of civil war, has fallen into chaos. In Kabul there is only violence, absurdity, and deafness, and Rassoul’s desperate attempt to be heard turns into a farce. This is a novel that not only flirts with literature but also ponders the roles of sin, guilt, and redemption in the Muslim world. At once a nostalgic ode to the magic of Persian tales and a satire on the dire reality of now, A Curse on Dostoevsky also portrays the resilience and wit of Afghani women, an aspect of his culture that Rahimi never forgets.Review“Rahimi turns his attention to Crime and Punishment and juxtaposes literature against the Muslim world in Kabul, the themes of civil war, chaos, sin, guilt and redemption for Afghani women again being the theme. ‘Crime without punishment?’” —Electric Literature "A darkly comic meditation on life in a lawless land…In restrained prose, Rahimi explores both the personal and the political; it’s both in dialogue with a classic and is daringly outspoken." —Publishers Weekly “Atiq Rahimi brilliantly re-imagines Crime and Punishment and, in a daring feat of creative panache, transplants Dostoevsky’s classic morality tale to modern-day Afghanistan. This is easily Rahimi’s most imaginative and complex work yet, and should cement his reputation as a writer of great and unique vision.” —Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns "In a rare imaginative feat, Rahimi renews many of Dostoevsky’s original psychological insights and opens piercing new ones.  Unforgettable." —Booklist (Starred) Review “Atiq Rahimi, like the great story tellers of Afghanistan, is a master of using a small moment to tell the sweeping story of the pain and loss of war.  In A Curse on Dostoevsky he yet again imprints images in the memory, as he captures both the unspeakable absurdity of the Afghan civil war and the ingenious ways Afghans have found to move beyond it.” —Qais Akbar Omar, author of A Fort of Nine Towers: An Afghan Family Story "Rahimi does a masterful job both in echoing Dostoevsky and in updating the moral complexities his protagonist both creates and faces." —Kirkus “Here, Atiq Rahimi sings an incandescent, raging story, which dissects, in a highly sensitive way, the chaos of his homeland and the contradictions of his people.” —L’Express“In the light of the Russian writer, [Rahimi] describes his country so that we may understand it like we never have before. His latest novel isn’t only breathless, beautiful, and strong, it is indispensable…He dared—and succeeded.” —Le PointAbout the AuthorAtiq Rahimi was born in Afghanistan in 1962 and fled to France in 1984, where he has become an award-winning author (2008 Prix Goncourt) and filmmaker (2004 Prix un certain regard, Cannes). The film adaptation of his novel The Patience Stone, which he co-wrote and directed, was selected as the Afghan entry for the 2012 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. In recent years, he has returned to Afghanistan many times to set up a writers’ house in Kabul and offer support and training to young writers and filmmakers. He lives in Paris. Polly McLean is a freelance translator from Oxford, England. Winner of the 2009 Scott Moncrieff Prize, she has translated titles by Catherine Deneuve and Sylvia Kristel, as well as the award-winning Secret by Philippe Grimbert.
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Failure As a Way of Life

Failure As a Way of Life

Andersen Prunty

Literature & Fiction / Horror / Thriller

Ryan Noman is stuck in a house on a dead end street in a dying city, a loveless relationship, and a job where the owner challenges his employees to fights in the parking lot. He also has a mystery rash. When Ryan’s best friend, Gus, convinces him they need to contaminate the source of the artisanal bottled water facility where they work, Ryan goes along with it because, hey, what else is he going to do? This proves to be another bad choice in an increasingly lengthening list of bad choices in Ryan’s life. It changes everything, leaving both Ryan and Gus transformed. Thus begins Ryan’s oddly comic stumbling through his dark night of the soul in a book best described as “self-help for the helpless.”
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Note of Peril

Note of Peril

Hannah Alexander

Literature & Fiction / Romance / Suspense

When local entertainer Grace Brennan starts receiving threatening gifts and notes, it isn't long before her career, health and relationships all start to crumble. As the situation worsens, Grace realizes that musician Michael Gold is the only person she can trust...with her life!
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What He's Poised to Do

What He's Poised to Do

Ben Greenman

Short Stories / Literature & Fiction

Ben Greenman is a writer of virtuosic range and uncanny emotional insight. As Darin Strauss has noted, "Like Bruno Schulz, George Saunders, Donald Barthelme, and no one else I can think of, Greenman has the power to be whimsical without resorting to whimsy." The stories in this new collection, What He's Poised to Do , showcase his wide range, yet are united by a shared sense of yearning, a concern with connections missed and lost, and a poignant attention to how we try to preserve and maintain those connections through the written word. From a portrait of an unfaithful man contemplating his own free will to the saga of a young Cuban man's quixotic devotion to a woman he may never have met; and from a nineteenth-century weapons inventor's letter to his young daughter to an aging man's wistful memory of a summer love affair in a law office—each of these stories demonstrates Greenman's maturity as a chronicler of romantic angst both contemporary and timeless, and as an explorer of the ways our yearning for connection informs our selves and our souls.
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A Devil Under the Skin (Kiszka & Kershaw, Book 3)

A Devil Under the Skin (Kiszka & Kershaw, Book 3)

Anya Lipska

Mystery & Thrillers / Literature & Fiction / Historical Fiction

The third Kiszka and Kershaw crime thriller. Things are looking up for Janusz Kiszka, big-hearted 'fixer' to London's Poles. His girlfriend/the love of his life, Kasia, is finally leaving her no-good husband to make a new life with him, and he's on the brink of a deal to ensure their financial security for years to come. Then Kasia vanishes – and the big Pole's world is torn apart. Convinced she's been abducted, he must swallow his pride and seek the help of an old contact – maverick cop Natalie Kershaw, who's been suspended following a fatal shooting. But the search swiftly takes an even darker turn... What connects Kasia's disappearance and a string of brutal East End murders? And who is the mysterious and murderous enforcer stalking the streets of London? Meanwhile, time is running out for Kasia. To reach her, Kiszka must confront a gut-wrenching dilemma that will shape the rest of his life.
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French Twist

French Twist

James Patterson

Literature & Fiction / Mystery Thriller / Young Adult

Who is killing New York's most beautiful women? Gorgeous women are dropping dead at upscale department stores in New York City. Detective Luc Moncrief and Detective Katherine Burke are close to solving the mystery, but looks can be deceiving....BookShotsLIGHTNING-FAST STORIES BY JAMES PATTERSON Novels you can devour in a few hours Impossible to stop reading All original content from James Patterson
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Serafina's Stories

Serafina's Stories

Rudolfo Anaya

Literature & Fiction / Children's Books / Nonfiction

This innovative novel combines Spanish folktales with Native American legends to create a captivating Southwestern version of The Arabian Nights Like Scheherezade, who ensured her survival by telling her royal husband stories, the title character in Rudolfo Anaya's creative retelling of The Arabian Nights must entertain the recently widowed governor with legends of Nueva Mexicana, or she and her fellow captives will die. With fresh snow covering the high peaks of Sangre de Cristo, a group of native dissidents prepare for revolt. In seventeenth-century Santa Fe, insurrection against a colony of the king of Spain is punishable by death. A Spaniard loyal to the governor names twelve conspirators. One of them is a young woman. Raised in a mission church, fifteen-year-old Serafina speaks excellent Spanish and knows many of her country's traditional folktales. She and the governor strike a bargain: Each evening, she will tell him a...
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Kenny Wright

Kenny Wright

James Patterson

Literature & Fiction / Mystery Thriller / Young Adult

Kenny Wright is a sixth grade 'Grandma's Boy' in a tough inner city school, struggling with bullies, schoolwork and keeping his detentions secret from his 'G-ma'. Though in his active imagination he's a world-famous superhero, Stainlezz Steel, who fights crime, saves lives and rescues helpless animals. But now Kenny's neighbourhood need him – can he step up in his real life and help his 'G-ma' save the best School Principal he's ever had?
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Bradbury Speaks

Bradbury Speaks

Ray Bradbury

Literature & Fiction / Science Fiction & Fantasy / Horror

He is an American treasure; a clear-eyed fantasist without peer; a literary icon who has created wonder for the better part of seven decades. He has a moon crater named after him and a star on Hollywood Boulevard's Walk of Fame. He has been showered with accolades and honored with prizes galore, everything from an Emmy Award to the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. He has inspired generations of readers to dream, think, invent, believe, and fly. When Ray Bradbury speaks, it pays dividends in gold to everyone who listens.Collected between these covers are memories, ruminations, opinions, prophecies, and philosophies from one of the most influential and admired writers of our time: indelible boyhood experiences that molded the man, as well as his eye-opening, sometimes hilarious true adventures in the realm of the famous and adored; insightful, piquant, often biting, always fascinating reflections on humankind's past and...
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Witch Me (Blood Chord Book 3)

Witch Me (Blood Chord Book 3)

Alex Owens

Science Fiction & Fantasy / Horror / Literature & Fiction

They say no good can come with digging up the past. Well, those bastards were right and Claire is finding it out the hard way. With the lives of everyone she loves hanging in the balance, Claire must bring her A-game, or lose one of them forever.  Her daughter, ex-husband, best friend, or one of her lovers; which one will it be? Even using both her magical gifts and vampire abilities, saving most of them is a long shot. But there's no way that Claire can save them all... Witch Me (Blood Chord #3), by Alex Owens, is the final book her sexy adult paranormal suspense series. Be forewarned, this is not your daughter's paranormal.
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