[close] A CIA agent's two-year-old child was stolen in the night as a brutal act of vengeance. Now, eight years later, the torment of Catherine Ling's missing child is something she awakens to every day. Her friends, family, and colleagues tell her to let go, move on, accept that her son is never coming back. But she can't. And won't. Ever. Catherine needs to find someone as driven and obsessed as she is to help her. And that person is Eve Duncan. She knows that Eve shares her nightmare, since closure is also something that eludes Eve after the disappearance of her daughter Bonnie. Now, Eve must use he talents as a forensic sculptor to use age progression as a way to help Catherine find her child. As Eve gets drawn further into Catherine's horror, she must face the looming demons of her own. Bonnie's killer is still out there. And a new killer is taunting Eve and Catherine at every turn. Is Catherine's son alive? Sometimes the killer indicates no. And sometimes, more horrifying, his answer is "yes…" As two women face the worst than any mother can face, Iris Johansen's latest thrill ride is a gut-wrenching journey into the darkest places of the soul
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[close] THE WEIGHT OF SILENCE
It happens quietly one August morning. As dawn’s shimmering light drenches the humid Iowa air, two families awaken to find their little girls have gone missing in the night.

Seven-year-old Calli Clark is sweet, gentle, a dreamer who suffers from selective mutism brought on by a tragedy that pulled her deep into silence as a toddler. Petra Gregory is Calli’s best friend, her soul mate and her voice. But neither Petra or Calli has been heard from since their disappearance was discovered.

Now these families are tied by the question of what happened to their children. And the answer is trapped in the silence of unspoken family secrets.
[close]

[close] Deborah Fallows has spent much of her life learning languages and traveling around the world. But nothing prepared her for the surprises of learning Mandarin, China’s most common language, or the intensity of living in Shanghai and Beijing. Over time, she realized that her struggles and triumphs in studying the language of her adopted home provided small clues to deciphering the behavior and habits of its people,and its culture’s conundrums. As her skill with Mandarin increased, bits of the language—a word, a phrase, an oddity of grammar—became windows into understanding romance, humor, protocol, relationships, and the overflowing humanity of modern China.

Fallows learned, for example, that the abrupt, blunt way of speaking that Chinese people sometimes use isn’t rudeness, but is, in fact, a way to acknowledge and honor the closeness between two friends. She learned that English speakers’ trouble with hearing or saying tones—the variations in inflection that can change a word’s meaning—is matched by Chinese speakers’ inability not to hear tones, or to even take a guess at understanding what might have been meant when foreigners misuse them.

In sharing what she discovered about Mandarin, and how those discoveries helped her understand a culture that had at first seemed impenetrable, Deborah Fallows’s Dreaming in Chinese opens up China to Westerners more completely, perhaps, than it has ever been before.
[close]

[close] Meet Garrett: 30-year-old computer geek, master of irrational optimism, and serial-kisser of women who (it turns out) don't like him that way. After three blurry years of business travel and inadvertent celibacy, Garrett is so ready for a serious relationship that he's a little bit dangerous.

Inspired by a romantic near-miss on a flight home to Seattle, Garrett hurls himself into the deep end of the dating pool, determined to find happiness no matter how miserable it makes him. Too bad the women he falls for don't share his sense of urgency: Froot Loop sculptress April worries she's warping his personality, cynical attorney Corinne suspects he likes her too much, and upstairs neighbor Meryl just wants to be friends.

Garrett refuses to give up though... well, at least until he does. But sometimes, after you've finally abandoned hope, you find that someone else hasn't given up on you.

"With wit, heart and intelligence, Derek Gentry's Here Comes Your Man reminds readers that you never know what is around the next corner or on the next page. Those who enjoy Nick Hornby will devour this book."

-Eileen Cook, author of Getting Revenge on Lauren Wood [close]

[close] The go to resource for how to use Excel dashboards and reports to better conceptualize data

Many Excel books do an adequate job of discussing the individual functions and tools that can be used to create an “Excel Report.” What they don’t offer is the most effective ways to present and report data. Offering a comprehensive review of a wide array of technical and analytical concepts, Excel Reports and Dashboards helps Excel users go from reporting data with simple tables full of dull numbers, to presenting key information through the use of high-impact, meaningful reports and dashboards that will wow management both visually and substantively.

* Details how to analyze large amounts of data and report the results in a meaningful, eye-catching visualization
* Describes how to use different perspectives to achieve better visibility into data, as well as how to slice data into various views on the fly
* Shows how to automate redundant reporting and analyses

Part technical manual, part analytical guidebook, Excel Dashboards and Reports is the latest addition to the Mr. Spreadsheet’s Bookshelf series and is the leading resource for learning to create dashboard reports in an easy-to-use format that’s both visually attractive and effective. [close]

[close] Read the whimsical book that everyone is talking about. Entertainment Weekly gives "The Tower, The Zoo, and The Tortoise" an A and People Magazine gives it 4/4 stars raving, “The Tower of London’s the center of this hilarious love story about Beefeater Balthazar, his wife, their tortoise and their eccentric friends. As Balthazar struggles to save his marriage, the rest of the cast carries on in a charming tangle, and when Balthazar is put in charge of a Tower zoo, hilarity
breaks out. Sprinkled with fascinating Tower lore, the book will steal your heart.” Your fellow Goodreads reviewers agree as well!

About the book: Balthazar Jones has lived in the Tower of London with his loving wife, Hebe, and his pet, the oldest living tortoise, for the past eight years. That's right; he’s a Beefeater (they really do live there). It's no easy job navigating the trials and tribulations that come with living and working in the largest tourist attraction in present-day London especially once Balthazar is tasked with opening an elaborate menagerie within the Tower walls to house the unusual animal gifts the queen is given by foreign dignitaries. Life at the Tower is about to get all the more interesting. In the tradition of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and Chocolat, Julia Stuart’s exquisite new novel is brimming with charm, whimsy, and wonder. [close]

[close] AUTHOR SIGNED COPY.
"These Brief Moments: a 2nd collection" is due out Fall 2010

A taste of greatness.

"These Brief Moments" is a promotional book of 40 poems and a two-chapter teaser for Katherine Marple's fourth book "The Dragon's Mouth."

Filled with awe-inspiring art and words filled with imagery, "These Brief Moments" is a must-buy for fans of Katherine Marple and poets alike-

"Her use of the narrative voice and first-person descriptions make readers feel as though they're reading her personal journal." - The Journal Inquirer

"Katherine Marple will be a name to look out for in the literary world for years to come." - Maria Savva (author of "A Time to Tell")

Katherine Marple is the author of three fiction novels. She crafts stories together and enhances them with her poetry.

Peek into a life filled with hope, despair, dreams, love, heartbreak and truth.

Be inspired. [close]

[close] I will give away three signed copies of PECKINPAH between now and my birthday.

COVER DESCRIPTION: Life in Dreamfield, Indiana, is a daily harangue of pigs, cornfields, pigs, fast food joints, pigs, Dollar Stores, motorcycles, pigs, and good old-fashioned Amerikan redneckery. The decidedly estranged yet complacent occupants of this proverbial smalltown go about their business like geriatrics in a casino ... until their business is interrupted by a sinister gang of outsiders. Angry, slick-talking, and ultraviolent to the core, Samson Thataway and the Fuming Garcias commit art-for-art’s-sake in the form of hideous, unmotivated serial killings. When an unsuspecting everyman’s wife is murdered by the throng, it is up to Felix Soandso to avenge her death and return Dreamfield to its natural state of absurdity.

BLURB: "A bludgeoning celluloid rush of language and ideas served from an action-painter's bucket of fluorescent spatter, PECKINPAH is an incendiary gem and very probably the most extraordinary new novel you will read this year." ALAN MOORE [close]

[close] Visit Amish Country during the fall as Lydia King attempts to make Charm, Ohio, feel like home after losing her husband. But is her heart ready to open back up to love when gifts appear on her porch from a mystery source? Could it be from the widowed father of four energetic boys, or is it from the man who has rejected romance to be his family’s caregiver? When life hands Lydia another challenge, will the gift giver be there to support her? [close]

[close] Butterflies of Alabama is a full-color, richly illustrated guide to the 84 known species of “true” butterflies (Papilionoidea) found within the state’s borders. For more than 14 years, the authors have made a close study of these showy, winged stars of the insect world, pursuing them in a great variety of habitats, rearing them, and photographing their remarkable life cycle stages—egg, larva (caterpillar), pupa (chrysalid or “cocoon”), and adult.



Each species account is accompanied by color photographs of live subjects in their natural habitats. Close-ups reveal fascinating details of camouflage, mimicry, coloration, and warning devices. The engaging text explains the highly evolved relationships between butterflies and the plants upon which they depend as well as the specialized adaptations that enable their survival within specific environmental niches. Included are range maps, flight times, caterpillar host plants, adult nectar sources, and identification tips—abundant information to tantalize budding as well as experienced butterfly watchers. In addition, pertinent conservation issues are addressed and appendices provide an annotated checklist of the state’s butterflies, a list of accidentals and strays, information on butterfly organizations, and recommended further reading.



With its non-technical language, simple format, and beautiful images, Butterflies of Alabama is accessible and appealing to anyone who appreciates Alabama’s amazing natural wealth.

Publication is supported in part by the Citizens of the City of Selma, Alabama's Butterfly Capital. [close]

[close] The year is 1930 and the British are in Arabia. Ivor Willoughby, a young orientalist, embarks on an ambitious quest to find his father, an officer abroad with the British Army. In all Ivor’s life, Robert has returned to England only once, bedraggled and wild-eyed with tales of As’ir, a land of sheikhs and white-turbaned bandits, where he is fighting alongside Captain Lawrence and is known by the name Ullobi.

After that single meeting, Robert is never heard from again. Ten years on, Ivor must find out what became of him. So he sets out on the journey of a lifetime. Traveling to Cairo to join the Locust Bureau, then circuitously to Abha, Yemen, and along the Red Sea coast, Ivor searches everywhere for clues about Ullobi, but no one appears to remember him. Or perhaps they are afraid to admit to it. Along the way Ivor hears whispers of a woman warrior called Na’ema who was once a slave. Her story seems tantalizingly connected with his father’s, and Ivor finds himself in the misty heights of Ayinah looking for an Abyssinian seer who was carried on the same slave ship as Na’ema in 1914 and might unlock the mystery.
[close]

[close] Meet the Patel-Joneses—Babo, Sian, Mayuri, and Bean—in their little house with orange and black gates next door to the Punjab Women’s Association in Madras. Babo grew up here, but he and Sian, his cream-skinned Welsh love, met in London. Babo’s parents disapproved. And then they disapproved unless the couple moved back to Madras. So here they are. And as the twentieth century creaks and croaks its way along, Babo, Sian, and the children navigate their way through the uncharted territory of a “hybrid” family: the hustle and bustle of Babo’s relatives; the faraway phone-line crackle of Sian’s; the eternal wisdom and soft bosom of Great-Grandmother Ba; the perils of first love, lost innocence, and old age; and the big question: What do you do with the space your loved ones leave behind?

Tishani Doshi, a prizewinning poet, plunges into fiction for the first time with this tender and uplifting debut. With rich feeling and dazzling language, Doshi evokes both Zadie Smith and Rohinton Mistry as she captures the quirks and calamities of one unusual clan in a story of identity, family, belonging, and all-transcending love.
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[close] Martin Lemelman’s elegiac and bittersweet graphic memoir Two Cents Plain collects the memories and artifacts of the author’s childhood in Brooklyn. The son of Holocaust survivors, Lemelman grew up in the back of his family’s candy store in Brownsville during the 1950s and ’60s, as the neighborhood, and much of the city, moved into a period of deep decline. In Two Cents Plain, Lemelman pieces together the fragments of his past in an effort to come to terms with a childhood that was marked by struggle both in and outside of the home. But his was not a childhood wholly without its pleasures. Lemelman’s Brooklyn is also the nostalgic place of egg creams and comic books, malteds and novelty toys, where the voices of Brownsville’s denizens—the deli man, the fish man, and the fruit man—all come to vivid life. Between the lingering strains of the Holocaust and the increasing violence on the city’s streets, Two Cents Plain reaches its dramatic climax in 1968, as Lemelman’s worlds explode, forcing him and his family to re-create their lives. Through his stirring narrative and richly rendered black-and-white drawings, family photographs, and found objects, Lemelman creates a lush, layered view of a long-lost time and place, the chronicle of a family and a city in crisis. Two Cents Plain is a wholly unique memoir and a reading experience not soon forgotten.
[close]

[close] The “left-handed designer,” Seymour Chwast has been putting his unparalleled take—and influence—on the world of illustration and design for the last half century. In his version of Dante’s Divine Comedy, Chwast’s first graphic novel, Dante and his guide Virgil don fedoras and wander through noir-ish realms of Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise, finding both the wicked and the wondrous on their way.

Dante Alighieri wrote his epic poem The Divine Comedy from 1308 to 1321 while in exile from his native Florence. In the work’s three parts (Inferno, Purgatory, and Paradise), Dante chronicles his travels throughthe afterlife, cataloging a multitude of sinners and saints—many of them real people to whom Dante tellingly assigned either horrible punishment or indescribable pleasure—and eventually meeting both God and Lucifer face-to-face.

In his adaptation of this skewering satire, Chwast creates a visual fantasia that fascinates on every page: From the multifarious torments of the Inferno to the host of delights in Paradise, his inventive illustrations capture the delirious complexity of this classic of the Western canon.
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[close] In just a few days it will be Christmas-and Sally Connors will turn nine years old. Sally has a secret wish she discloses only to Santa. Her parents, John and Amanda, are separated, and life seems disappointing... until a mysterious orphan boy named Horace Helfin, who suffers from a strange malady and only speaks in rhyme except when angry or sad, comes into their lives- and changes them forever. Horace proves to be a wonderful companion, despite the fact that he's a living terror, effortlessly generating havoc and chaos wherever he goes. His cyclonic presence disrupts the complacency of the Connors' lives and leads to a whole series of hilarious misadventures. But when Sally suffers a serious accident, Horace seemingly sacrifices everything to save her...
It is a Christmas story that will entertain the whole family. [close]

[close] In just a few days it will be Christmas-and Sally Connors will turn nine years old. Sally has a secret wish she discloses only to Santa. Her parents, John and Amanda, are separated, and life seems disappointing... until a mysterious orphan boy named Horace Helfin, who suffers from a strange malady and only speaks in rhyme except when angry or sad, comes into their lives- and changes them forever. Horace proves to be a wonderful companion, despite the fact that he's a living terror, effortlessly generating havoc and chaos wherever he goes. His cyclonic presence disrupts the complacency of the Connors' lives and leads to a whole series of hilarious misadventures. But when Sally suffers a serious accident, Horace seemingly sacrifices everything to save her...
It is a Christmas story that will entertain the whole family. [close]

[close] The "Sunset over the Hermes" is a young adult mystery novel set on the gorgeous island of Bermuda. The main character, Detective Scott Mathias finds himself trying to solve a puzzle that pulls him from one end of the island to the other. As the novel unfolds, Detective Mathias is also drawn into a romantic relationship that he tries to explore while attempting to keep his personal and professional lives separate. Dangerously, the two lives find themselves ultimately intertwined. [close]

[close] It is 1805. After Captain James Matthew Hauke of the Royal Navy ship of the line Man of War chases Napoleon's navy across the Atlantic he is left by Admiral Horatio Nelson to defend the Caribbean English colony of Dominica from French forces. The Captain is joined by an Irish Missionary, Father Pádraig Smye, who has left his duties in the war torn revolutionary nation of Haiti to replenish his faith in New Orleans. Together they attempt the daring rescue of a young girl; the daughter of a wealthy plantation owner kidnapped by pirates. Their destination; an island that has no name, one designated on an ancient map only by a dire warning: Never land. Their mission goes terribly wrong once the sun sets and the secret denizens of this lost island come out to play. They are very old... and very hungry. [close]

[close] Sarah Matell's a whiz at tuning race engines and winning races. Winning Craig, the local drag race hero, proves more difficult. He only has eyes for gorgeous women who are hot in the sack, not grubby tomboys. Sarah’s world gets an overhaul when her father hires Gordon Devine. Soon she’s torn not only between two men she wants, but between the drag race winner she is and the woman she feels pressured to become.

EDITORIAL REVIEWS

From Booklist:

Sarah Matell isn't a run-of-the-mill romance heroine. She works as a technician in her father's California automotive speed shop, dresses and acts like a guy, and lives for drag racing. Anything female, from makeup to chick flicks, is an anathema to her. Sarah's one concession is her years-long crush on a fellow race-car driver, Craig Keller. Although they are only good friends, she fantasizes that one day she'll outrace him and he'll magically look at her as the love of his life. Meanwhile, Sarah is the apple of her father's eye, but things change when he hires Gordon Devine. Gordon has big plans, and he and Sarah do not get along. Despite the friction, Gordon asks Sarah to drive a prototype he's developed. She'll do anything to win, and soon everything begins to spiral out of control. Impulsive and spoiled, Sarah is both enjoyable and annoying, and readers will sympathize with Gordon in this atypical, up-to-the-minute contemporary romance.
-- Maria Hatton, (Booklist)

REVIEWS

"This is a well-developed and unusual romance story. Each character seems so authentic that you could imagine going down to the shop and actually meeting them. The background of cars and racing is written with detail and enthusiasm so that one begins to feel bitten by the bug, too. This is quite the feat considering that yours truly is severely technically challenged and has no penchant for speed... Let me tell you now that the fun is in the THRILL OF THE CHASE."
-- Lil, Love Romances and More: 5 Hearts [close]

[close] BOOK #1- ARRINGTON SERIES:

From the time Lillian Arrington was born in 1862, she lived an isolated life on a remote lighthouse station with her father Garrett and her young mother Amelia. But Lillian has wishes and dreams far beyond her years. When her father is transferred to a new station, Lillian is anxious to meet the assistant keepers and their two sons, Heath and Ayden. She had never met children her own age, had playmates, or made a friend. Heath, the handsome teenage boy who desires to become a doctor someday, welcomes Lillian. However, his younger brother, Ayden, doesn't like her and she struggles to win him over. Before long, a secret bond between the three is forged and to Lillian's delight, they become close friends. After so many years, Lillian's childhood is beginning to resemble that of a normal girl. No longer is she lonely and isolated from the rest of the world by over-protective parents. Instead, she experiences new adventures, attends school, and falls in love for the first time. However, her glorious days on Jasper Island are short-lived as her beautiful young mother begins a tragic descent into insanity and passes away. Lillian is left in the care of her sinister grandmother Eugenia Arrington, who, since the end of the Civil War, continues to steadfastly hold onto the once glorious Georgia plantation known as Sutton Hall. It is there that the immoral secrets of Lillian's parents are revealed, and she is left to pick up the pieces of her scandalous past, and somehow, find her long way home.(less) [close]

[close] *Book #2--The Arrington Series*

It is the year 1878, and at last, Lillian, now a young woman, is free from the prison called Sutton Hall and the evil grandmother who ruled.
After years locked away far from her beloved lighthouse on Jasper Island, she finds her only escape through sheer luck and the generosity of one man, Richard Parker, an aspiring commercial illustrator. Though Lillian is shamed by the sins of her parents and the unspeakable act committed by Warren Stone, she entrusts her life to the charismatic, though married, Richard, until it is safe to return home. However life, as unpredictable as the sea, has other plans for Lillian. Not long after leaving, she is caught up in an adult world of money, greed, drugs, and sinful pleasures, turning her life upside down once again. It is only when Lillian discovers the shocking truth to Richard's cruel years of deception that she finally returns to her lighthouse, desperate to recapture her lost years, and most of all, lost love. But fate has one more devastating surprise in store, leaving Lillian with incomprehensible choices, and ultimately, tearing her beautiful new world apart [close]

[close] If you’ve never read Darrell Bain before, then now is the time to consider picking up one of his books. Darrell is without shadow of a doubt a natural storyteller. His individual, highly creative style of writing, often humorous, flows at a natural reading pace that has you drawn into a story before you know it.

Multiple awards under his belt from Fictionwise, EPIC, and Dream Realm, give testimony to the fact that Darrell Bain is a huge talent, his skills producing everything from short stories to novels. His inspiration comes from almost everyday things and occurrences in life. Who else could write the story (Bark!) of Tonto, an ADHD-afflicted, one-testicled little canine, who turns out to be the only thing that can prevent an unintentional invasion from aliens? Darrell also writes in partnership with other authors, with none other than Travis S. Taylor being one of them.

In Oops!, Darrell gathers together a collection of brilliant short stories which includes: Oops! When Cupid and a Gremlin bump heads, the sparks fly in a rare fantasy story by the author. Others stories in the collection include. A Simple Idea, an almost ludicrously simple method of eliminating corruption and idiocy from the political process, one that has been around for centuries but gone unrecognized. Cure for an Ailing Alien finds a nurse who must come up with a cure for an alien, one whose bodily processes are completely unknown. You’ll be amazed at her cure! Retribution is the story of unexpected consequences when alien meets human. Robyn’s Rock is partially based on a happening in the author’s life during a walk with his granddaughter.

The collection is completed by: Coyote Scare, A Steel Trap Mind, The Furniture Formula, Golden Years, Why Read an eBook on Your Computer?, PSI Ability, Another Furniture Formula, The Jack Daniels Bug, Math Madness, The Naughty Bed, and Samantha’s Talent [close]

[close] Eleven-year-old Roger is trying to make sense of his classmate Robert "Yummy" Sandifer's death, but first he has to make sense of Yummy's life. Yummy could be as tough as a pit bull sometimes. Other times he was as sweet as the sugary treats he loved to eat. Was Yummy some sort of monster, or just another kid?

As Roger searches for the truth, he finds more and more questions. How did Yummy end up in so much trouble? Did he really kill someone? And why do all the answers seem to lead back to a gang—the same gang Roger's older brother belongs to?

Yummy: The Last Days of a Southside Shorty is a compelling dramatization based on events that occurred in Chicago in 1994. This gritty exploration of youth gang life will force readers to question their own understandings of good and bad, right and wrong. [close]

[close] IN THE END WE ALL FADE TO BLACK. Pink-haired Hilda and oddball loner Benji are not your typical teenagers. Instead of going to parties or hanging out at the mall, they comb the city streets and suburban culs-de-sac of Los Angeles for sites of celebrity murder and suicide. Bound by their interest in the macabre, Hilda and Benji neglect their schoolwork and their social lives in favor of prowling the most notorious crime scenes in Hollywood history and collecting odd mementos of celebrity death. Hilda and Benji’s morbid pastime takes an unexpected turn when they meet Hank, the elderly, reclusive tenant of a dilapidated Echo Park apartment where a silent movie star once stabbed himself to death with a pair of scissors. Hilda feels a strange connection with Hank and comes to care deeply for her paranoid new friend as they watch old movies together and chat the sweltering afternoons away. But when Hank’s downstairs neighbor Jake, a handsome screenwriter, inserts himself into the equation and begins to hint at Hank’s terrible secrets, Hilda must decide what it is she’s come to Echo Park searching for . . . and whether her fascination with death is worth missing out on life. [close]

[close] Enter to win a copy of this Sandra Brown audio collection and a signed publicity folder.

[close] The Dare Ring is an incendiary action-packed thriller about a passionate but troubled young man searching for redemption in extreme ways... Ways which may destroy him and everyone he cares about in the process.

Charlie's world is turned upside-down when his father dies in a car crash and he himself is diagnosed with cancer. Desperate to escape his demons and find meaning in the few months he has left, he discovers that he feels most alive when putting himself in danger.

He and a friend start The Dare Ring, an extreme thrill-seeking club for restless young people. His pregnant girlfriend is against it but he is convinced he's onto something important. Charlie and his friends embark on progressively more dangerous stunts. Then his friend's glamorous girlfriend joins the gang and things spiral out of control... [close]

[close] Don't tell your mommy: Zack's school has a zombie.

The Anthony and Agatha award winning Haunted Mystery series continues with a spinetingling tale of middle school, zombies in the janitor's closet, and hidden confederate gold. THE SMOKY CORRIDOR is the third book in the series that started with THE CROSSROADS and THE HANGING HILL [close]

[close] A chronicle of growing up in New York's Alphabet City in the 70s and 80s, LOST LUSTRE recaptures a New York siezed by soaring crime yet ablaze with creative energies. The author shares a fascinating personal narrative of these tumultuous times, including the punk rock scene through the prism of the Lustres, a band that played venues that lauched the likes of The Talking Heads and the Ramones. (n.b.: please go to the publisher's website to hear some of the Lustres songs: www.tatrapress.com [close]

[close] "Trancelike and often hilarious…reminiscent of early Douglas Coupland, or early Bret Easton Ellis, but there is also something going on here that is more profoundly peculiar, even Beckettian…deliciously odd.”
—The Guardian [close]

[close] Darel Ericson of the Dahanavar clan is a rarity among his vampire brethren: he’s an empath, strong enough to occasionally read thought as well as emotion. For centuries, his power has given the Dahanavar a significant advantage against the machinations of the other vampire families, an advantage which makes Darel both a powerful tool and a highly visible target.

Fortunately for Darel, it is more useful for the heads of the other clans to maintain the centuries-long peace between the houses than to remove him. But, the cunning and violent head of the House of Nachterret is tired of the truce, and of hiding his presence in the world. The Nachterret would like nothing more than have free reign over the helpless human cattle upon which they feed.

Darel, and the human woman he loves, become central to the Nachterret’s scheme to plunge the Houses into all out war. Darel is ultimately forced to face the question: is one young woman’s life too high a price to pay for peace? [close]

[close] "Let me make it in time. Let me meet Shadow. The guy who paints in the dark. Paints birds trapped on brick walls and people lost in ghost forests. Paints guys with grass growing from their hearts and girls with buzzing lawn mowers."

It’s the end of Year 12. Lucy’s looking for Shadow, the graffiti artist everyone talks about.

His work is all over the city, but he is nowhere.

Ed, the last guy she wants to see at the moment, says he knows where to find him. He takes Lucy on an all-night search to places where Shadow’s thoughts about heartbreak and escape echo around the city walls.

But the one thing Lucy can’t see is the one thing that’s right before her eyes. [close]

[close] POEMS FROM THE HEART is an honest, sincere, and deeply touching collection of poems that chronicle the important events and special times in one man's life.

[close] If you love "The Sound of Music" and "Pride and Prejudice," prepare to be enchanted by "Must've Done Something Good!"

Sylvie O'Rourke, "The Sound of Music" devotee and born procrastinator, is about to die. Well, she thinks she is, anyway, and so attempts a last-ditch bargain with God for her life.

"You guys are my witnesses," she tells her sisters somewhere over Connecticut. "If we get out of this plane alive, I promise to do something good with my life."

Back on firm ground, Kate and Meg won't let their sister forget her promise, and with their years of practice hitting just the right chords of guilt ("What kind of person lies to God?" Meg wants to know), Sylvie finally caves.

A teaching position at the broken-down St. Matthew's High School appears to be Sylvie's perfect opportunity to do some good. That is, until she's snubbed by a fellow teacher on the first day of school.

Whether she's becoming a bit too invested in the students' fall fundraiser or directing the school's sure-fire musical disaster, Sylvie's charmingly irreverent style gets her called down to the principal more often than her students. Can Sylvie keep her promise and make it through the year, dignity and sanity intact? [close]

[close] Snarky Responses to Yahoo! Answers, is a four-month excursion into the bowels of the Internet, otherwise known as Yahoo! Answers.

Comic writer Matthew Cory wastes four months of his life answering questions on Yahoo! Answers with unhelpful but hilarious responses. This book is a collection of those responses.

From helping teenage girls determine what a smile means, to giving baby-naming advice to a parent-to-be, to helping a user who wants to know how to use his zipper, Matthew is quick with a sarcastic response or a clever quip. Every once in a while, Matthew will dispense advice that may actually be useful…but don’t count on it.

Yahoo! Answers is one of the most popular websites on the Internet. The site generates millions of hits per day from users seeking answers from complete strangers to the burning questions of life, such as “Where did emimen grow up? the raper?” This book is required reading for anyone with a sense of humor, a functioning brain, and an Internet connection. [close]

[close] A world-renowned authority on the history, uses, and power of dreaming, Robert Moss guides neophyte and experienced adventurers alike to open their own dreamgates. Through these gates await otherwise inaccessible realms of reality as well as soul remembering — the “recovering of knowledge that belonged to us before we came into this life experience.” Exercises, meditations, and the mesmerizing tales of fellow dream travelers outline Moss’s Active Dreaming technique, a kind of shamanic soul-flight that offers “frequent flyers” a passport between worlds. In this world beyond physical reality, Moss points to wellsprings of healing, creativity, and insight. As readers move into these different ways of seeing and knowing, they may also communicate with spiritual guides and departed loved ones in ways that transform their everyday lives. [close]

[close] ARC/Galley for review

Two of the most trusted reviewers in the field join with top authors, illustrators, and critics in a definitive guide to choosing books for children—and nurturing their love of reading.

A FAMILY OF READERS is the definitive resource for parents interested in enriching the reading lives of their children. It’s divided into four sections:

1. Reading to Them:
Choosing and sharing board books and picture books with babies and very young children.
2. Reading with Them:
Launching the new reader with easy readers and chapter books.
3. Reading on Their Own:
Exploring what children read—and how they read—by genre and gender.
4. Leaving Them Alone:
Respecting the reading privacy of the young adult.

Roger Sutton knows how and why children read. He must, as the editor in chief of THE HORN BOOK, which since 1924 has been America’s best source for reviews of books for young readers. But for many parents, selecting books for their children can make them feel lost. Now, in this essential resource, Roger Sutton and Martha V. Parravano, executive editor at the magazine, offer thoughtful essays that consider how books are read to (and then by) young people. They invite such leading authors and artists as Maurice Sendak, Katherine Paterson, Margaret Mahy, and Jon Scieszka, as well as a selection of top critics, to add their voices about the genres they know best. The result is an indispensable readers’ companion to everything from wordless board books to the most complex and daring young adult novels. [close]

[close] Boy #1 is a blessing. Boy #2 is a joy. But what happens with boy #3? And what if there is a #4? Or more? Suddenly, Mom is outnumbered. Throw Dad into the mix, and you have enough testosterone to chase Mom out the front door and keep her on the run from dawn to dusk.

A father can tell you a lot about raising boys. Researchers and psychologists can give you a lot of statistics and advice. Other parenting books can generalize. But only a mom of all boys can really explain what life is like when you are surrounded by men. From one "boy-mom" to another, I’m Outnumbered! offers sound advice and encouragement for every mom who has more than one son, even if there's a girl in the mix. Author Laura Lee Groves has raised four redheaded boys and has lived—in fact loves—to tell about it. Her strategy of intentional parenting (guiding moms to see their role as proactive parents) has been gleaned from her own experience, from other boy-moms, and from parenting experts. Her combination of personal anecdotes and authoritative research will show boy-moms how to


-handle sibling rivalry
-foster leadership and teamwork
-combat conflict
-stay organized
-love them unconditionally
-and much more

Laced with touching and humorous stories, this practical manual provides encouragement, inspiration, and information—especially for the outnumbered mom.
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[close] From a desperately poor village in northeast China, to a career that took him across the world, this is the incredible story of Li Cunxin—a story that almost vanished, like so many other peasants’ lives, amid revolution and chaos. At age eleven, Li was chosen by Madame Mao’s cultural delegates to be taken from his rural home and brought to Beijing, where he would study ballet. In 1979, the young dancer arrived in Texas as part of a cultural exchange, wary of class enemies and prepared to “serve glorious communism.” It didn’t take long for him to fall in love with America—and with an American woman. Two years later, through a series of events worthy of the most exciting cloak-and-dagger fiction, he defected to the United States, where he quickly became known as one of the greatest ballet dancers in the world. This is the remarkable story of his journey—a “heartening rags-to-riches story [and] a fascinating glimpse into the history of Chinese-U.S. relations and the dissolution of the Communist ideal in the life of one fortunate individual” (Publishers Weekly). [close]

[close] End of Summer Giveaway! If 1000+ entries are received by closing, book two in the Harmony of the Othar Saga, Animus of Hauden, will also be included!

[close] Sensitive but practical, Charlotte Tradescome has come to accept the reticence of her older, work-obsessed husband Henry. Still, she hopes to create a life for their three-year-old daughter. So when Henry inherits a home on Cape Cod, she, Henry, and little Fiona move from their Manhattan apartment to this seaside community. Charlotte sells off part of Tradescome Point, inadvertently fueling the conflict between newcomers and locals. Many townspeople easily dismiss Charlotte as a "washashore." A rare exception is Darryl Stead, an oyster farmer with modest dreams and an open heart, with whom Charlotte feels the connection she's been missing. Ultimately he transforms the way she sees herself, the town, and the people she loves...

"Expertly explores the complexities of domestic life and the tug of forbidden love." -Elizabeth Strout, New York Times bestselling author of Olive Kitteridge [close]