Aphra Behn: A Secret Life

Aphra Behn: A Secret Life

Janet Todd

Literature & Fiction / Women & Gender Studies / Philosophy

Fascinating scholarship. Todd conveys Behn's vivacious character and the mores of the time' New York Times'All women together ought to let flowers fall upon the tomb of Aphra Behn; for it was she who earned them the right to speak their minds,' said Virginia Woolf. Yet that tomb, in Westminster Abbey, records one of the few uncontested facts about this Restoration playwright, poet of the erotic and bisexual, political propagandist, novelist and spy: the date of her death, 16 April 1689. For the rest secrecy and duplicity are almost the key to her life. She loved codes, making and breaking them; writing her life becomes a decoding of a passionate but playful woman.In this revised biography, Janet Todd draws on documents she has rediscovered in the Dutch archives, and on Behn's own writings, to tell a story of court, diplomatic and sexual intrigue, and of the rise from humble origins of the first woman to earn her living as a professional...
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Mistress of the Game

Mistress of the Game

Sidney Sheldon

Literature & Fiction / Mystery & Thrillers / Children's Books

The spellinbinding sequel to Sidney Sheldon's Master of the Game. One of most glamorous and suspenseful tales ever told! It began with Jamie MacGregor, stealing diamonds in Africa. It continued with his daughter, the powerful Kate Blackwell who grew her father's company into a world wide conglomerate, Now the story passes to the next generation. Spanning the decades and picking-up exactly where Sidney Sheldon's bestselling Master of the Game finished, Mistress of the Game follows the Blackwell family as they, Love, and lose, scheme and murder through the 80's up until the present day. Heart-stopping and glamorous, tense and provactive, Mistress of the Game is the sequel that Sheldon fans have been waiting for!
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The Sandcastle Sister

The Sandcastle Sister

Lisa Wingate

Literature & Fiction / Historical Fiction / Fiction

I want to be like this stretch of freshly cleared shore. At times I think, I'm ready. Let the waves wash over me. But then I catch myself running from the tide just before it happens . . .New York editor Jen Gibbs knew when she bought Evan Hall's next blockbuster book, it would change her career. She didn't know it would change her life. But after being sent along on the European book tour, at Evan's request, she has made a promise she's not sure she can keep—she's crossed professional lines and accepted Evan's surprising engagement proposal. Now she's scared to death. In Jen's family, marriage represents the death of every dream a woman holds for herself.Can the revelation of her mother's long-held secret open the doors to Jen's future and change her beliefs about life and love?
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Vital Parts

Vital Parts

Thomas Berger

Literature & Fiction / Mystery & Thrillers

A bitterly comic novel of middle-aged angst and middle-class American life in the 1960s, by the acclaimed author of Little Big Man It is the late sixties in suburbia, and Carlo Reinhart's life is a mess. He's fat, broke, middle aged, and unemployed. His anarchist son hates him, and his wife has taken a younger lover and thrown Carlo out of the house. In fact, the only one who doesn't consider him contemptible and ridiculous seems to be Carlo's adoring, overweight daughter, who is almost as pathetic as he is. Even his affair with a twenty-two-year-old nymphomaniac is strangely unsatisfying. Then, just as he's reaching his lowest point, the self-styled Ultimate Human Irrelevancy is offered a golden opportunity to grab a piece of the American Dream, thanks to the reappearance of his old school chum Bob Sweet. Bob, who has a gift for success, is inviting Reinhart to get in on the ground floor of his latest venture: cryonics. But while Carlo loves...
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Short Stories for Children

Short Stories for Children

Walter De la Mare

Children's Books / Literature & Fiction / Poetry

The publication of Short Stories for Children celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of Walter de la Mare's death. It is also the culmination of a major literary enterprise. For many people, Walter de la Mare (1873-1956) is as great a writer of fiction as of poetry. But, the majority of his short stories, of which there are a hundred, have long been unavailable. Short Stories brings them all together in three volumes in the first comprehensive collection to be published. The third and last volume, Short Stories for Children, starts with Broomsticks and Other Tales of 1925, with its twelve stories, and continues with The Lord Fish of 1933 with seven stories. It includes three distinctive stories, 'Pigtails, Ltd', 'The Thief' and 'A Nose', that have never been reprinted since they originally appeared in Broomsticks. Quirky, disparate, unpredictable, acutely observed, sometimes frightening, and often preoccupied with states of mind and personal identity, these stories have much in...
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Return of Little Big Man

Return of Little Big Man

Thomas Berger

Literature & Fiction / Mystery & Thrillers

Jack Crabb is back with another gleeful romp through the Old WestJack Crabb is now 112 years old, and he isn't done spinning yarns. In this sequel to Berger's beloved novel Little Big Man, one of literature's wiliest survivors continues his breathtaking tall tales of the Old West. Crabb claims to have witnessed most of the great historical events of the western frontier: hiding behind a wagon after a drunken Doc Holliday provokes the shootout at the OK Corral; joining Buffalo Bill Cody and Annie Oakley on tour with their international Wild West show; even taking tea with Queen Victoria when she came out of seclusion after a quarter century. No matter where Crabb lays his hat, he keeps his wizened, wry, and sharp commentary at the ready. The Return of Little Big Man is a sidesplitting novel of surprising emotional depth. This ebook features an all-new introduction by Thomas Berger, as well as an illustrated biography of the author including rare images and never-before-seen...
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Irish Eyes

Irish Eyes

Andrew M. Greeley

Mystery & Thrillers / Literature & Fiction / Religion & Spirituality

Nuala Anne McGrail, that beautiful Irish spitfire, now lives in Chicago with her husband, Dermot, and their new baby, Nellliecoyne. As Nuala fans may suspect, Nelliecoyne is no ordinary baby: she is fey like her mother, and can see into the past as well as the future. Both Nuala and her daughter have had strange vibrations from a place on the lake where a shipload of Irish-Americans lost their lives a hundred years ago. In the course of their investigation, Nuala and Dermot make some dangerous enemies, and eventually have to solve a murder and find a buried treasure. Will Nuala survive the attacks of a sleazy DJ, and a dangerous run-in with the Balkan Mafia? And how does the diary of a young Irish woman at the turn of the century play into these events? Once again, Andrew M. Greeley—that master of the human heart—creates an engaging, charming story that will delight fans young and old.
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Digging to Australia

Digging to Australia

Lesley Glaister

Literature & Fiction / Thriller / Psychology

A lonely twelve-year-old fantasizes about escaping her dysfunctional family by digging a tunnel to the other side of the world Shy, lonely Jennifer Maybee lives with her weird, left-wing parents in a house where daily morning exercises are done in the buff and television is forbidden. She has few friends and spends most of her time alone. Her favorite book is Alice in Wonderland. A story about a distant ancestor who was transported to Australia on a convict ship for stealing a peacock sets her imagination humming, and soon Jennifer is digging a tunnel in her garden to burrow through to that exotic country. But a shocking revelation will shatter everything she believed about her parents—and herself. Desperate to escape her unhappy life, Jennifer makes a new friend, Brownyn Broom, whose father was murdered. But it's her encounter with a strange-eyed man in an abandoned church that sets Jennifer hurtling headlong into Alice's "topsy-turvy...
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BoneMan's Daughters

BoneMan's Daughters

Ted Dekker

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

They call him BoneMan, a serial killer who's abducted six young women. He's the perfect father looking for the perfect daughter, and when his victims fail to meet his lofty expectations, he kills them by breaking their bones and leaving them to die. Intelligence officer Ryan Evans, on the other hand, has lost all hope of ever being the perfect father. His daughter and wife have written him out of their lives.Everything changes when BoneMan takes Ryan's estranged daughter, Bethany, as his seventh victim. Ryan goes after BoneMan on his own.But the FBI sees it differently. New evidence points to the suspicion that Ryan is BoneMan. Now the hunter is the hunted, and in the end, only one father will stand.
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The Island House

The Island House

Nancy Thayer

Literature & Fiction / Women & Gender Studies

Weaving the trials and uncertainty of real life into a tapestry of passion, hope, and courage, The Island House is a beautifully told story about the ties that bind us—and how the blessings of love and family heal us in ways we never dream possible. Courtney Hendricks will never forget the magical summers she spent on Nantucket with her college roommate, Robin Vickerey, and Robin's charismatic, turbulent, larger-than-life family, in their gorgeous island house. Now a college English professor in Kansas City, Courtney is determined to experience one more summer in this sun-swept paradise. Her reason for going is personal: Courtney needs to know whether Robin's brother James shares the feelings she's secretly had for him. Time with the Vickerey family always involves love and laughter, and this season is no different. Vivacious matriarch Susanna Vickerey is celebrating her sixtieth birthday, but beneath the merriment, trouble is brewing....
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The Hill of Evil Counsel

The Hill of Evil Counsel

Amos Oz

Literature & Fiction / Nonfiction

"Sensuous prose and indelible imagery." — New York Times Three stories in which history and imagination intertwine to re-create the world of Jerusalem during the last days of the British Mandate. Refugees drawn to Jerusalem in search of safety are confronted by activists relentlessly preparing for an uprising, oblivious to the risks. Meanwhile, a wife abandons her husband, and a dying man longs for his departed lover. Among these characters lives a boy named Uri, a friend and confidant of several conspirators who love and humor him as he weaves in and out of all three stories. The Hill of Evil Counsel is "as complex, vivid, and uncompromising as Jerusalem itself" (Nation).
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Christmas Waltz

Christmas Waltz

Josh Lanyon

Mystery & Thrillers / Gay & Lesbian / Literature & Fiction

In 2012 I began a holiday tradition of writing holiday codas for some of my — and your — favorite stories. I ran the codas on my blog and left them up there for readers to enjoy all year round.At the request of readers, I collected the codas in an expanded and edited edition which I published in 2015 as Merry Christmas, Darling.Since then I've written an additional twenty-one codas, so it seems about time to do another collection. As before, I'm including recipes for cocktails and dishes that are either featured in the original works or seem to add some final comment or insight into the era or the characters or their relationship.
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