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books tagged “contemporary”
books tagged “contemporary”
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Amber Beachby Elizabeth LowellISBN 0380775840 (0-380-77584-0)
Softcover, Harpercollins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Amber Beach'Book summary:From highly-acclaimed New York Times best selling author Elizabeth Lowell comes a novel of contemporary intrigue, treacherous liaisons and consuming passion; all in the pursuit of a lost treasure that was once the Russian Czar's exquisite, world-renowned Amber Room.
In a family dominated by men, Honor Donovan is a woman struggling for recognition. Then her favorite brother, Kyle, vanishes, along with a fortune in stolen amber. The rest of the Donovan males seem all too eager to ignore the situation, so Honor heads off on her own to the San Juan Islands to find her brother.
To help her on her quest, she hires Jake Mallory to run her boat and be her guide. But what she doesn't know is that Jake has been brokering amber deals for Donovan International, and he now suspects that he's been set up to take the fall for Kyle's crimes.
Alone at sea, Joke and Honor pursue the stubborn mystery of the Amber Room. In an adventure that sets them against ruthless enemies from around the globe, they finally learn to let go of the dangerous secrets that keep them apart and discover a love that could be their greatest treasure. [via]
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Arrow of Godby Chinua AchebeISBN 0385014805 (0-385-01480-5)
Softcover, Bantam Dell Pub Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Arrow of God'Book summary:Set in the Ibo heartland of eastern Nigeria, one of Africa's best-known writers describes the conflict between old and new in its most poignant aspect: the personal struggle between father and son. [via]
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Asking for Troubleby Elizabeth YoungISBN 0380818973 (0-380-81897-3)
Softcover, Harpercollins
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Azazelby Isaac AsimovISBN 038524410X (0-385-24410-X)
Hardcover, Bantam Dell Pub Group
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Baby Loveby Catherine AndersonISBN 0380799375 (0-380-79937-5)
Softcover, Harpercollins
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Beautyby Sheri S. TepperISBN 0385419406 (0-385-41940-6)
Softcover, Bantam Dell Pub Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Beauty'Book summary:With the critically acclaimed novels The Gate To Women's Country, Raising The Stones, and the Hugo-nominated Grass, Sheri Tepper has established herself as one of the major science fiction writers of out Time. In Beauty, she broadens her territory even further, with a novel that evokes all the richness of fairy tale and fable. Drawing on the wellspring of tales such as "Sleeping Beauty," Beauty is a moving novel of love and loss, hope and despair, magic and nature. Set against a backdrop both enchanted and frightening, the story begins with a wicked aunt's curse that will afflict a young woman named Beauty on her sixteenth birthday. Though Beauty is able to sidestep tragedy, she soon finds herself embarked on an adventure of vast consequences. For it becomes clear that the enchanted places of this fantastic world--a place not unlike our own--are in danger and must be saved before it is too late.
From the Paperback edition. [via] 
Bedroom Eyesby Hailey NorthISBN 0380798956 (0-380-79895-6)
Softcover, Harpercollins
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Black and Blueby Anna QuindlenISBN 0385333137 (0-385-33313-7)
Softcover, Delta
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Black and Blue'Book summary:Oprah Book Club® Selection, April 1998: "The first time my husband hit me I was nineteen years old," begins Fran Benedetto, the broken heroine of Anna Quindlen's Black and Blue. With one sweeping sentence, the door to an abused and tortured world is swung wide open and the psyche of a crushed and tattered self-image exposed. "Frannie, Frannie, Fran"--as Bobby Benedetto liked to call her before smashing her into kitchen appliances--was a young, energetic nursing student when she met her husband-to-be at a local Brooklyn bar. She was instantly captivated by his dark, brooding looks and magnetic personality, but her fascination soon solidified into a marital prison sentence of incessant abuse and the destruction of her own identity. After an especially horrific beating and rape, Fran realizes that the next attack could be the last. Fearing her son would be left alone with Bobby, she escapes one morning with her child. Fran's salvation comes in the form of Patty Bancroft and Co., a relocation agency for abused women that touts better service than the witness protection program. Armed only with a phone number, a few hundred dollars, and the help of several anonymous volunteers, Fran begins a new life. The agency relocates her to Florida, where she becomes Beth Crenshaw, a recently divorced home-care assistant from Delaware. Fran and her son adapt, meeting challenges with unexpected resilience and resolve until their past returns to haunt them. Quindlen renders the intricacies of spousal abuse with eerie accuracy, taking the reader deep within the realm of dysfunctional human ties. However, her vivid descriptions of abuse, emotional disintegration, and acute loneliness at times numb the reader with their realism. [via]
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Blood and Chocolateby Annette Curtis KlauseISBN 0385323050 (0-385-32305-0)
Hardcover, Random House Children's Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Blood and Chocolate'Book summary:Characterizing the adolescent experience as monstrous is not exactly a new idea. M.T. Anderson's woefully confused teen vampire in Thirsty and Jean Thesman's reluctant young witch in The Other Ones serve as excellent examples of this metaphor set to fiction. But no one really captures how our hormones make us howl as well as Annette Curtis Klause. Blood and Chocolate chronicles the longings and passions of one Vivian Gandillon, teenage werewolf. Her pack family, recently burned out of their West Virginia home by suspicious neighbors, has resettled in a sleepy Maryland suburb. At her new school, Viv quickly falls for sensitive heartthrob Aiden, a human--or "meat-boy," as her pack calls him. Soon she is trying to tame her undomesticated desires to match his more civilized sensibilities. "He was gentle. She hadn't expected that. Kisses to her were a tight clutch, teeth, and tongue... His eyes were shy beneath his dark lashes, and his lips curved with delight and desire--desire he wouldn't force on her... he was different." But Vivian's animal ardor cannot be stilled, and she must decide if she should keep Aiden in the dark about her true nature or invite him to take a walk on her wild side.
Klause poetically describes the violence and sensuality of the pack lifestyle, creating a hot-blooded heroine who puts the most outrageous riot grrrls to shame. Blood and Chocolate is a masterpiece of adolescent angst wrapped in wolf's clothing, and its lovely, sensuous taste is sure to be sweet on the teenage tongue. (Ages 13 and older) --Jennifer Hubert [via]
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Bloodsucking Fiends : A Love Storyby Christopher MooreISBN 0380728133 (0-380-72813-3)
Softcover, HarperCollins Publishers
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The Book of Ruthby Jane HamiltonISBN 0385265700 (0-385-26570-0)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Book of Ruth'Book summary:Oprah Book Club® Selection, November 1996: The Book of Ruth is a virtuoso performance and that's precisely why it can be excruciating to read. Author Jane Hamilton leads us through the arid life of Ruth Grey, who extracts what small pleasures and graces she can from a tiny Illinois town and the broken people who inhabit it. Ruth's prime tormentor is her mother May, whose husband died in World War II and took her future with him. More poor familial luck has given Ruth a brother who is a math prodigy; Matt sucks up any stray attention like a black hole. Ruth is left to survive on her own resources, which are meager. She struggles along, subsisting on crumbs of affection meted out by her Aunt Sid and, later, her screwed-up husband Ruby. Hamilton has perfect pitch. So perfect that you wince with pain for confused but fundamentally good Ruth as she walks a dead-end path. The book ends with the prospect of redemption, thank goodness--but the tale is nevertheless much more bitter than sweet. [via]
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The Book Thiefby Markus ZusakISBN 0375831002 (0-375-83100-2)
Hardcover, Alfred a Knopf Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Book Thief'Book summary:Its just a small story really, about among other things: a girl, some words, an accordionist, some fanatical Germans, a Jewish fist-fighter, and quite a lot of thievery. . . .
Set during World War II in Germany, Markus Zusaks groundbreaking new novel is the story of Liesel Meminger, a foster girl living outside of Munich. Liesel scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she cant resistbooks. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement before he is marched to Dachau.
This is an unforgettable story about the ability of books to feed the soul.
From the Hardcover edition. [via] -
Boy Meets Boyby David LevithanISBN 0375832998 (0-375-83299-8)
Softcover, Random House Childrens Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Boy Meets Boy'Book summary:In this delightful young adult novel for readers 12 and up, high school sophomore Paul says, "There isnt really a gay scene or a straight scene in our town. They got all mixed up a while back, which I think is for the best." And, as he observes at the end of the story, "It's a wonderful world." Paul has both gay and straight friends, and they all hang out together at terrific bookstores and concerts, and advise one another on the sometimes troubled progress of their various romances. Paul is smitten with Noah, and they are beginning a serious relationship when Kyle, Pauls ex, complicates things by deciding that all is forgiven. Joni is going out with Chuck, who dominates her, much to her friends' disapproval. Tonys conservative parents refuse to acknowledge that he is gay, so the others must bone up on Bible verses all week so they can pretend Saturday night is a study group. And then there's Infinite Darlene, football quarterback and Homecoming Queen, who deserves a whole romance novel of her own. Life in their town is gloriously accepting of differences and only occasionally verges on magic realism, in this first novel in which same sex preference is not the problem. --Patty Campbell [via]
Brazzaville Beachby William BoydISBN 0380780496 (0-380-78049-6)
Softcover, Harpercollins
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Bride for a Nightby Patti BergISBN 038080736X (0-380-80736-X)
Softcover, HarperCollins Publishers
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Bride for a Night'Book summary:The Marriage Lasted Just One Glorious Day . . . Cairo McKnight never wanted to see Duncon Kincaid again! Once upon a time, the daring and oh-so-irresistible adventurer filled her with soul-searing passion, which led to exactly one day of wedded bliss before he disappeared without a word. Now, with a precocious son in desperate need of a father, Cairo's reluctantly decided to find the man who walked out on her. The moment she sees Duncan again, she realizes he's as tempting as ever, but Cairo's sure she can't trust him with their son-or her heart...
...And One Passionate Night!Duncan was born with adeventure in his blood, but nothing-and no one- ever challenged him like smart, sassy Cairo. Her curvy body and sweet luscious lips had haunted him for years...and her refusal to listen to his side of the story has brought him nothing but frustration. Still, Duncan's not a man to give up easily and he's determined to rekindle their fiery romance. But how can he convince this stubborn beauty that she was destined to be his bride not just for one night...but for every night to come? . . . [via]More editions of Bride for a Night:
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The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup: My Encounters With Extraordinary Peopleby Susan OrleanISBN 0375758631 (0-375-75863-1)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup: My Encounters With Extraordinary People'Book summary:Susan Orlean, New Yorker staff writer and author of The Orchid Thief, has always been drawn to the extraordinary in the ordinary, so when her Esquire editor asked her to profile the child actor Macaulay Culkin using the title "The American Man at Age Ten," she insisted instead on writing about a "typical" kid. The result--one of the 20 profiles drawn from magazines such as Esquire, The New Yorker, and Rolling Stone for this collection--is a vivid window into the life of an ordinary and endearing boy from New Jersey who grapples with girls, environmental destruction, and the magical childhood landscape "that erodes from memory a little bit every day." Orlean has two tricks up her sleeve that make her profiles irresistible. First, she's got a mean hook. Take this lead: "Of all the guys who are standing around bus shelters in Manhattan dressed in nothing but their underpants, Marky Mark is undeniably the most polite." Second, she has an uncanny way of drawing her subjects. Bill Blass "is a virtuoso of the high-pitched eyebrow and the fortissimo gasp," while a boxer (the dog kind) wears "the earnest and slightly careworn expression of a small-town mayor."
Orlean is a New Yorker herself, and most of her subjects hail from the Big Apple, including such unique personas as a real estate broker who can describe the inside of almost any apartment in the city ("Walking down a Manhattan street with her is a paranormal experience"); Nat, the new tailor at Manhattan Valet; her hairdresser; the city's most popular clown; an Ashanti king who drives a taxi; and the owner of the only buttons-only store in America. The author is keenly observant and always tries to walk in her subject's shoes, even when it's a show dog ("If I were a bitch, I'd be in love with Biff Truesdale"). When she does tackle the rich and famous, she uses these same talents to create portraits so intimate and zesty they're unlike any other. Orlean writes that her only justification for choosing a story is that she cares about it, and it shows. Her fondness for her subjects rubs off as she draws us into the tight and exquisite focus of their mundane and fascinating lives. --Lesley Reed [via]
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Christmas Knightby Christina SkyeISBN 0380800225 (0-380-80022-5)
Softcover, HarperCollins Publishers
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Dave Barry's Bad Habits: A 100% Fact-free Bookby Dave BarryISBN 0385189540 (0-385-18954-0)
Hardcover, Bantam Dell Pub Group
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Eldestby Christopher PaoliniISBN 0375840400 (0-375-84040-0)
Softcover, Alfred a Knopf Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Eldest'Book summary:Surpassing its popular prequel Eragon, this second volume in the Inheritance trilogy shows growing maturity and skill on the part of its very young author, who was only seventeen when the first volume was published in 2003. The story is solidly in the tradition (some might say derivative) of the classic heroic quest fantasy, with the predictable cast of dwarves, elves, and dragons--but also including some imaginatively creepy creatures of evil.
The land of Alagaesia is suffering under the Empire of the wicked Galbatorix, and Eragon and his dragon Saphira, last of the Riders, are the only hope. But Eragon is young and has much to learn, and so he is sent off to the elven forest city of Ellesmera, where he and Saphira are tutored in magic, battle skills, and the ancient language by the wise former Rider Oromis and his elderly dragon Glaedr. Meanwhile, back at Carvahall, Eragon's home, his cousin Roran is the target of a siege by the hideous Ra'zac, and he must lead the villagers on a desperate escape over the mountains. The two narratives move toward a massive battle with the forces of Galbatorix, where Eragon learns a shocking secret about his parentage and commits himself to saving his people.
The sheer size of the novel, as well as its many characters, places with difficult names, and its use of imaginary languages make this a challenging read, even for experienced fantasy readers. It is essential to have the plot threads of the first volume well in mind before beginning--the publisher has provided not only a map, but a helpful synopsis of the first book and a much-needed Language Guide. But no obstacles will deter the many fans of Eragon from diving headfirst into this highly-awaited fantasy. (Ages 12 and up) --Patty Campbell
Meet Author Christopher Paolini
Christopher Paolinis abiding love of fantasy and science fiction inspired him to begin writing his debut novel, Eragon, when he graduated from high school at age 15.
"Writing is the heart and soul of my being. It is the means through which I bring my stories to life. There is nothing like putting words on a page and knowing that they will summon certain emotions and reactions from the reader. In my writing, I strive for a lyrical beauty somewhere between Tolkien at his best and Seamus Heaneys translation of Beowulf." --Christopher Paolini
The Eragon/Eldest Boxed Set
Want to learn more about the series? Check out our review of Eragon: Here's a great big fantasy that you can pull over your head like a comfy old sweater and disappear into for a whole weekend. Christopher Paolini began Eragon when he was just 15, and the book shows the influence of Tolkien, of course, but also Terry Brooks, Anne McCaffrey, and perhaps even Wagner in its traditional quest structure and the generally agreed-upon nature of dwarves, elves, dragons, and heroic warfare with magic swords. Read more
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Learn the Lingo
Our quickie pronunciation guide will help you get to know some of the names and places in the Inheritance series.
Ajihad AH-zhi-hod The Leader of the Varden Argetlam ARE-jet-lahm Elven word to describe Dragon Riders meaning "silver hand" Arya AR-ee-uh A powerful elf who is both beautiful and a master swordswoman Eragon EHR-uh-gahn A Dragon Rider from Carvahall Ra-zac RAA-zack Evil creatures Saphira suh-FEAR-uh Eragons dragon *Art copyright © 2004 John Jude Palencar
More editions of Eldest:
- Eldest: ISBN 037582670X (0-375-82670-X)
Hardcover, Random House Childrens Books - Eldest: ISBN 0375840605 (0-375-84060-5)
Hardcover, Random House Childrens Books - Eldest: ISBN 0375926704 (0-375-92670-4)
Hardcover, Random House Childrens Books - Eldest: ISBN 037594060X (0-375-94060-X)
Hardcover, Alfred a Knopf Inc - Eldest: ISBN 0375840400 (0-375-84040-0)
Softcover, Alfred a Knopf Inc
Equusby Peter ShafferISBN 0380003570 (0-380-00357-0)
Softcover, Harpercollins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Equus'Book summary:An explosive play that took critics and audiences by storm, "Equus" is Peter Shaffer's exploration of the way modern society has destroyed our ability to feel passion. Alan Strang is a disturbed youth whose dangerous obsession with horses leads him to commit an unspeakable act of violence. As psychiatrist Martin Dysart struggles to understand the motivation for Alan's brutality, he is increasingly drawn into Alan's web and eventually forced to question his own sanity. "Equus" is a timeless classic and a cornerstone of contemporary drama that delves into the darkest recesses of human existence. [via]
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Eragonby Christopher PaoliniISBN 0375826696 (0-375-82669-6)
Softcover, Alfred a Knopf Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Eragon'Book summary:Here's a great big fantasy that you can pull over your head like a comfy old sweater and disappear into for a whole weekend. Christopher Paolini began Eragon when he was just 15, and the book shows the influence of Tolkien, of course, but also Terry Brooks, Anne McCaffrey, and perhaps even Wagner in its traditional quest structure and the generally agreed-upon nature of dwarves, elves, dragons, and heroic warfare with magic swords.
Eragon, a young farm boy, finds a marvelous blue stone in a mystical mountain place. Before he can trade it for food to get his family through the hard winter, it hatches a beautiful sapphire-blue dragon, a race thought to be extinct. Eragon bonds with the dragon, and when his family is killed by the marauding Ra'zac, he discovers that he is the last of the Dragon Riders, fated to play a decisive part in the coming war between the human but hidden Varden, dwarves, elves, the diabolical Shades and their neanderthal Urgalls, all pitted against and allied with each other and the evil King Galbatorix. Eragon and his dragon Saphira set out to find their role, growing in magic power and understanding of the complex political situation as they endure perilous travels and sudden battles, dire wounds, capture and escape.
In spite of the engrossing action, this is not a book for the casual fantasy reader. There are 65 names of people, horses, and dragons to be remembered and lots of pseudo-Celtic places, magic words, and phrases in the Ancient Language as well as the speech of the dwarfs and the Urgalls. But the maps and glossaries help, and by the end, readers will be utterly dedicated and eager for the next book, Eldest. (Ages 10 to 14) --Patty Campbell [via]
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The Family of Pascual Duarteby Camilo Jose CelaISBN 0380011751 (0-380-01175-1)
Softcover, Harpercollins
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The Fifth Elephantby Terry PratchettISBN 0385409958 (0-385-40995-8)
Hardcover, Doubleday Uk
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Fifth Elephant'Book summary:Terry Pratchett has a seemingly endless capacity for generating inventively comic novels about the Discworld and its inhabitants, but there is in the hearts of most of his admirers a particular place for those novels that feature the hard-bitten captain of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch, Samuel Vimes. Sent as ambassador to the Northern principality of Uberwald where they mine gold, iron, and fat--but never silver--he is caught up in an uneasy truce between dwarfs, werewolves, and vampires in the theft of the Scone of Stone (a particularly important piece of dwarf bread) and in the old werewolf custom of giving humans a short start in the hunt and then cheating.
Pratchett is always at his best when the comedy is combined with a real sense of jeopardy that even favorite characters might be hurt if there was a good joke in it. As always, the most unlikely things crop up as the subjects of gags--Chekhov, grand opera, the Caine Mutiny--and as always there are remorselessly funny gags about the inevitability of story:
They say that the fifth elephant came screaming and trumpeting through the atmosphere of the young world all those years ago and landed hard enough to split continents and raise mountains.
No one actually saw it land, which raised the interesting philosophical question: when millions of tons of angry elephant come spinning through the sky, and there is no one to hear it, does it--philosophically speaking--make a noise?
As for the dwarfs, whose legend it is, and who mine a lot deeper than other people, they say that there is a grain of truth in it.
All this, the usual guest appearances, and Gaspode the Wonder Dog. --Roz Kaveney, Amazon.co.uk [via]
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First Comes Loveby Christie RidgwayISBN 0380818957 (0-380-81895-7)
Softcover, HarperCollins Publishers
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Fluke, Or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Singsby Christopher MooreISBN 0380978415 (0-380-97841-5)
Hardcover, Harpercollins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Fluke, Or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings'Book summary:In his entertaining adventure-in-whale-researching, Fluke, or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings, Nathan Quinn, a prominent marine biologist, has been conducting studies in Hawaii for years trying to unravel the secret of why humpback whales sing. During a typical day of data gathering, Nate believes his mind is failing: the subject whale has "Bite Me" scrawled across its tail. Events become even stranger as the self-proclaimed "action nerds," Nate, photographer Clay, their research assistant Amy, and Kona, a white Rasta (a Jewish kid from New Jersey), encounter sabotage to their data and equipment. They also observe increasingly bizarre whale behavior, including a phone call from the whale to their wealthy sponsor to ask that Nate bring it a hot pastrami and Swiss on rye, and discover both a thriving underwater city and the secret to what happened to Amelia Earhart.
Thoughtful, irreverent, and often hilarious, Moore has crafted a tale that contains a bit of the saga of declining whale populations due to hunting and habitat destruction, as well as his over-the-top, decadent wit as applied to scientific methodology and professional jealousies. Moore notes a pasty, rival scientist "looked like Death out for his after-dinner stroll before a busy night of e-mailing heart attacks and tumors to a few million lucky winners," and that killer whales (which are all named Kevin), are "just four tons of doofus dressed up like a police car." Smart, sincere, and a whale of a story, Fluke is terrific. --Michael Ferch [via]
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Forever Afterby Catherine AndersonISBN 0380791048 (0-380-79104-8)
Softcover, Avon Books
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The Giant's Houseby Elizabeth McCrackenISBN 0385340893 (0-385-34089-3)
Softcover, Dial Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Giant's House'Book summary:An unlikely love story about a lonely spinster librarian and a younger man, forced into loneliness because of his monstrous size. Peggy Cort, the reclusive librarian in a small Cape Cod town falls for a boy 14 years her junior -- one who grows to be 8 feet 7 inches and 415 pounds. Though initially attracted out of sympathy, Peggy soon finds she has much in common with this sensitive, albeit enormous man. A romance ensues, but the unique connectedness they share -- something neither has ever felt before -- is cruelly interrupted by tragedy. [via]
The Glass Books of the Dream Eatersby Gordon DahlquistISBN 0385340354 (0-385-34035-4)
Hardcover, Bantam Dell Pub Group
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Her Man Fridayby Elizabeth BevarlyISBN 0380800209 (0-380-80020-9)
Softcover, HarperCollins Publishers
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His Dark Materialsby Philip PullmanISBN 0375823360 (0-375-82336-0)
Softcover, Alfred a Knopf Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'His Dark Materials'Book summary:In the epic trilogy His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman unlocks the door to worlds parallel to our own. Dæmons and winged creatures live side by side with humans, and a mysterious entity called Dust just might have the power to unite the universes--if it isn't destroyed first. The three books in Pullman's heroic fantasy series, published as trade paperbacks, are united here in one dazzling boxed set that includes The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass. In these new editions, each chapter opens with artwork by Pullman himself, along with chapter quotations from the likes of Milton, Donne, Black, Byron, and the Bible that did not appear in earlier editions. Join Lyra, Pantalaimon, Will, and the rest as they embark on the most breathtaking, heartbreaking adventure of their lives. The fate of the universe is in their hands. (Ages 13 and older) [via]
His Dark Materials Omnibus: The Golden Compass / the Subtle Knife / the Amber Spyglassby Philip PullmanISBN 0375847227 (0-375-84722-7)
Softcover, Alfred a Knopf Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'His Dark Materials Omnibus: The Golden Compass / the Subtle Knife / the Amber Spyglass'Book summary:In the epic trilogy His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman unlocks the door to worlds parallel to our own. Dæmons and winged creatures live side by side with humans, and a mysterious entity called Dust just might have the power to unite the universes--if it isn't destroyed first. The three books in Pullman's heroic fantasy series, published as trade paperbacks, are united here in one dazzling boxed set that includes The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass. In these new editions, each chapter opens with artwork by Pullman himself, along with chapter quotations from the likes of Milton, Donne, Black, Byron, and the Bible that did not appear in earlier editions. Join Lyra, Pantalaimon, Will, and the rest as they embark on the most breathtaking, heartbreaking adventure of their lives. The fate of the universe is in their hands. (Ages 13 and older) [via]
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The Horse Whisperer: A Novelby Nicholas EvansISBN 0385315236 (0-385-31523-6)
Hardcover, Bantam Dell Pub Group
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I am The Messengerby Markus ZusakISBN 0375836675 (0-375-83667-5)
Softcover, Alfred a Knopf Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'I Am the Messenger'Book summary:Meet Ed Kennedyunderage cabdriver, pathetic cardplayer, and useless at romance. He lives in a shack with his coffee-addicted dog, the Doorman, and hes hopelessly in love with his best friend, Audrey. His life is one of peaceful routine and incompetence, until he inadvertently stops a bank robbery. Thats when the first Ace arrives. Thats when Ed becomes the messenger. . . .
Chosen to care, he makes his way through town helping and hurting (when necessary), until only one question remains: Whos behind Eds mission?
Winner of the 2003 Childrens Book Council Book of the Year Award in Australia, I Am the Messenger is a cryptic journey filled with laughter, fists, and love. [via]Inheritance: 3-book Setby Christopher PaoliniISBN 0375836586 (0-375-83658-6)
Hardcover, Random House Childrens Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Inheritance: 3-book Set'Book summary:In the #1 New York Times bestselling novels Eragon and Eldest, fifteen year-old Eragon discovers his destiny as a Dragon Rider. With only an ancient sword and the advice of an old storyteller for guidance, Eragon and his dragon must navigate the dangerous terrain and dark enemies of an Empire ruled by a king whose evil knows no bounds. This beautiful boxed set includes books I and II in the Inheritance trilogy. [via]
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Intuitionby Allegra GoodmanISBN 0385336101 (0-385-33610-1)
Softcover, Bantam Dell Pub Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Intuition'Jailbird: A Novelby Kurt VonnegutISBN 0385333900 (0-385-33390-0)
Softcover, Delta
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Jailbird: A Novel'Book summary:Jailbird takes us into a fractured and comic, pure Vonnegut world of high crimes and misdemeanors in governmentand in the heart. This wry tale follows bumbling bureaucrat Walter F. Starbuck from Harvard to the Nixon White House to the penitentiary as Watergates least known co-conspirator. But the humor turns dark when Vonnegut shines his spotlight on the cold hearts and calculated greed of the mighty, giving a razor-sharp edge to an unforgettable portrait of power and politics in our times. [via]
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Kaaterskill Fallsby Allegra GoodmanISBN 0385323905 (0-385-32390-5)
Softcover, Bantam Dell Pub Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Kaaterskill Falls'Book summary:Allegra Goodman's remarkable first novel intertwines the stories of three Orthodox Jewish families, each of whom is tugged between religious tradition and the secular world. The story takes place in the upstate New York town of Kaaterskill, summer Mecca for the tightly knit Kirshner sect. Model wife and mother Elizabeth Shulman pictures her community as a sort of Mont-Saint-Michel, an island both joined and separated from the outside world as if by rising and falling tides. Fascinated with what lies on the spiritual mainland, she hides behind the reassuring rhythms of religious observance, though she's inspired with a "desire, as intense as prayer," to create something all her own.
Despite her pious husband's doubts, she does, in the form of a store catering to Kaaterskill's "summer people"--a community Goodman brings memorably to life. The Shulmans' neighbor Andras Melish, a Hungarian who fled World War II and a vanished world of assimilated European Jewry, struggles to understand his young Argentinian wife Nina, whose need for tradition grows with each passing year. The ailing Rav Kirshner must decide which son will carry on in his shoes: dutiful but plodding Isaiah or his brilliant but secular brother Jeremy. Andras and Nina's daughter befriends an Arab girl, while Elizabeth and Isaac's daughter dreams in secret of Israel. Meanwhile, the town's year-round residents observe the Orthodox newcomers with bewilderment and occasional dismay.
As she proved in a warm and funny 1996 collection of stories, The Family Markowitz, Goodman is an unparalleled observer of human nature. Here, she charts with quiet assurance the daily rhythms of Kaaterskill: the meals prepared and eaten, the Holy Days observed, the ebb and flow of married life. Goodman gets all the important details right; her children's dialogue, for instance, is unerring. Above all, however, she brings to the subject of religious life a seriousness and subtlety rarely found in recent fiction. Wise was the word used again and again to describe The Family Markowitz. Applied to Kaaterskill Falls, it is no less apt. [via]
The Last Septemberby Elizabeth BowenISBN 038047977X (0-380-47977-X)
Softcover, Harpercollins
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Lover in the Roughby Elizabeth LowellISBN 0380767600 (0-380-76760-0)
Softcover, Harpercollins
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Lucy Sullivan Is Getting Marriedby Marian KeyesISBN 0380796104 (0-380-79610-4)
Softcover, Harpercollins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Lucy Sullivan Is Getting Married'Book summary:Lucy Sullivan is getting married -- or is she? Lucy doesn't even have a boyfriend. (To be honest, she isn't that lucky in love.) But Mrs. Nolan -- a local psychic -- has read her tarot cards and predicted that Lucy will be walking down the aisle within the year.
Lucy's roommates, Karen and Charlotte, are appalled at the news. If Lucy leaves it could disrupt their wonderful lifestyle of eating take-out, drinking too much wine, bringing men home and never vacuumming. They might even have to -- God forbid-clean up the apartment to lure in a new roommate. Lucy reassures them that she's far too busy arguing with her mother and taking care of her irresponsible father to get married.
And there's the small matter of no boyfriend. But then Lucy meets Gus, gorgeous, unreliable Gus. And she starts to wonder if he could be the future Mr. Lucy Sullivan. Or could it be handsome Chuck? Or Daniel, the world's biggest flirt? Or even cute Jed, the new boy at work?
Maybe the idea of Lucy Sullivan getting married isn't so unlikely, after all.
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The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Coveby Christopher MooreISBN 0380792745 (0-380-79274-5)
Softcover, Harpercollins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove'Book summary:Reading a Christopher Moore novel is a little like eating a potato chip--it's hard to stop at just one. And you don't have to look beyond the titles to understand the allure; who could pass up a book called Practical Demonkeeping or Island of the Sequined Love Nun? Each of Moore's tales skewers a particular literary genre. In Coyote Blue he nailed New Age fascination with Native American religion; in Blood-Sucking Fiends: A Love Story he put a new twist on the classic vampire tale. The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove is a companion piece to his first novel, the hilariously twisted horror story Practical Demonkeeping, and readers of that book will recognize the setting, Pine Cove, California. In addition, Moore includes plenty of his patented weird sex, occasional gross-out death, several off-kilter but nonetheless affecting love stories, and some fabulous secondary characters such as Mavis Sand:
Mavis first began augmenting her parts in the fifties, first out of vanity: breasts, eyelashes, hair. Later, as she aged and the concept of maintenance eluded her, she began having parts replaced as they failed, until almost half of her body weight was composed of stainless steel (hips, elbows, shoulders, finger joints, rods fused to vertebrae five through twelve), silicon wafers (hearing aids, pacemaker, insulin pump), advanced polymer resins (cataract replacement lenses, dentures), Kevlar fabric (abdominal wall reinforcement), titanium (knees, ankles), and pork (ventricular heart valve).
In a nutshell, the plot revolves around a gigantic prehistoric lizard whose slumber deep beneath the ocean surface is interrupted by a radioactive leak from a nearby power plant. At the same time, a woman in Pine Cove hangs herself; the local psychiatrist (who has been prescribing antidepressants to everyone in town with gay abandon) decides the suicide was her fault and yanks everyone's medication; and an elderly black blues singer named Catfish Jefferson arrives to perform at the Head of the Slug saloon. Into this already strange brew mix one schizoid former B-movie starlet, a pot-head town constable, a bereaved local artist, a biologist tracking anomalous behavior in rats, a crooked sheriff, and a pharmacist with a bizarre sexual fixation on sea mammals, and you have a recipe for the kind of madness Moore does so well. --Alix Wilber [via]More editions of The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove:
Mother Nightby Kurt VonnegutISBN 0385334141 (0-385-33414-1)
Softcover, Bantam Dell Pub Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Mother Night'Book summary:From ratty attic to Auschwitz and back again, Mother Night is the confessions of Howard W Campbell Jr - an American, a notorious Nazi propagandist, and a US counter-spy - not a moral man. This mournful, macabre and diabolically funny tale of unsung heroism uses acrid humour to underline the horror of its themes. It is one of the blackest comedies ever. [via]
Off Limitsby Michele AlbertISBN 0380820560 (0-380-82056-0)
Softcover, Harpercollins
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One True Thingby Anna QuindlenISBN 0385319207 (0-385-31920-7)
Softcover, Dell Publishing
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› Find signed collectible books: 'One True Thing'Book summary:One True Thing is a film starring Meryl Streep as the cancer-stricken homemaker mother, Renee Zellweger as the daughter who quits her top-dog job to care for her, and William Hurt as the chilly professor who lets the women in the family do the heavy emotional lifting dying requires. But the real star of the project remains former New York Times everyday-life columnist Anna Quindlen, who quit her top-dog job to write novels (and who took time off from college to nurse her own dying mother).
Quindlen hit a nerve with One True Thing, which captures an experience seldom dealt with in popular culture. (One exception: the sensitive 1996 film with Streep and Leonardo DiCaprio of the play Marvin's Room.) Though the heroine of One True Thing, Ellen Gulden, is a golden girl with two brothers who'll lose her career the instant she steps off the fast track, society concurs with her dad, who says, "It seems to me another woman is what's wanted here."
The book is a mother-daughter tale that should please fans of, say, The Joy Luck Club. It's not flashy, but it has a deep feel for the way children often discover, just before it's too late, who their parents really are. "Our parents are never people to us," Ellen writes, "they're always character traits.... There is only room in the lifeboat of your life for one, and you always choose yourself, and turn your parents into whatever it takes to keep you afloat." The mercy-killing subplot isn't gripping, but the palpable sense of deepening family intimacy certainly is. --Tim Appelo [via]
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Raptureby Susan MinotISBN 0375727884 (0-375-72788-4)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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The Robber Brideby Margaret AtwoodISBN 0385260083 (0-385-26008-3)
Hardcover, Doubleday Publishing
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Robber Bride'Book summary:Exploring the paradox of female villainy, this tale of three fascinating women is another peerless display of literary virtuosity by the supremely gifted author of Cat's Eye and The Handmaid's Tale. [via]
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Season of Wishesby Christina SkyeISBN 0380782812 (0-380-78281-2)
Softcover, HarperCollins Publishers
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Seventh Heavenby Catherine AndersonISBN 0380799383 (0-380-79938-3)
Softcover, Harpercollins
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Shadow Danceby Susan AndersenISBN 0380819201 (0-380-81920-1)
Softcover, Avon Books
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The Sixteen Pleasuresby Robert HellengaISBN 0385314698 (0-385-31469-8)
Softcover, Bantam Dell Pub Group
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Slapstickby Kurt VonnegutISBN 0385334230 (0-385-33423-0)
Softcover, Bantam Dell Pub Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Slapstick'Book summary:Dr. Wilbur Daffodil-11 Swain, centenarian, the last President of the United States, King of Manhattan, and one-half (along with his sister, Eliza) of the most powerful intelligence since Einstein, is penning his autobiography. He occupies the first floor of a ruined Empire State Building and lives like a royal scavenger with his illiterate granddaughter and her beau. Buffeted by fluctuating gravity, the U.S. has been scourged by not one, but two lethal diseases: the Green Death and the Albanian Flu. Consequently, the country has fallen into civil war. (Super-intelligent, miniaturized Chinese watch the West self-destruct from the sidelines.) Swain stayed at the White House until there were no citizens left to govern, then moved to deserted New York City, where he writes a thoughtful missive before death.
In Slapstick, Vonnegut muses on war, man's hubris, and the awful, crippling loneliness humans are freighted with--but, miraculously, the book still manages to delight and amuse. Absurd, knowing, never depressing, Slapstick kindles hope--for the possibility of wisdom, perhaps; for human resiliency, surely.
It's best to end with a quote from the prologue wherein the author discourses on The Meaning of It All, or at least This Book: "Love is where you find it. I think it is foolish to go off looking for it, and I think it can often be poisonous.
I wish that people who are conventionally supposed to love each other would say to each other, when they fight, 'Please--a little less love, and a little more common decency.'"
Amen. [via]
Slapstick or Lonesome No More!by Kurt VonnegutISBN 0385289448 (0-385-28944-8)
Hardcover, Bantam Dell Pub Group
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Smilla's Sense of Snowby Peter Hoeg, Tiina NunnallyISBN 0385315147 (0-385-31514-7)
Softcover, Bantam Dell Pub Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Smilla's Sense of Snow'Book summary:In this international bestseller, Peter Høeg successfully combines the pleasures of literary fiction with those of the thriller. Smilla Jaspersen, half Danish, half Greenlander, attempts to understand the death of a small boy who falls from the roof of her apartment building. Her childhood in Greenland gives her an appreciation for the complex structures of snow, and when she notices that the boy's footprints show he ran to his death, she decides to find out who was chasing him. As she attempts to solve the mystery, she uncovers a series of conspiracies and cover-ups and quickly realizes that she can trust nobody. Her investigation takes her from the streets of Copenhagen to an icebound island off the coast of Greenland. What she finds there has implications far beyond the death of a single child. The unusual setting, gripping plot, and compelling central character add up to one of the most fascinating and literate thrillers of recent years. [via]
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The Sourceby James A. MichenerISBN 0375760385 (0-375-76038-5)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Source'Book summary:In his signature style of grand storytelling, James Michener sweeps us back through time to the Holy Land, thousands of years ago. By exploring the lives and discoveries of modern archaeologists excavating the site of Tell Makor, Michener vividly re-creates life in and around an ancient city during critical periods of its existence, and traces the profound history of the Jews, including that of the early Hebrews and their persecution, the impact of Christianity on the Jewish world, the Crusades, and the Spanish Inquisition. Michener weaves his epic tale of love, strength, and faith until at last he arrives at the founding of Israel and the modern conflict in the Middle East. The Source is not only a compelling history of the Holy Land and its people but a richly written saga that encompasses the development of Western civilization and the great religious and cultural ideas that have shaped our world. [via]
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Stuck on Youby Patti BergISBN 0380820056 (0-380-82005-6)
Softcover, HarperCollins Canada, Limited
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Subtle Knifeby Philip PullmanISBN 0375823468 (0-375-82346-8)
Softcover, Random House Childrens Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Subtle Knife'Book summary:With The Golden Compass Philip Pullman garnered every accolade under the sun. Critics lobbed around such superlatives as "elegant," "awe-inspiring," "grand," and "glittering," and used "magnificent" with gay abandon. Each reader had a favorite chapter--or, more likely, several--from the opening tour de force to Lyra's close call at Bolvangar to the great armored-bear battle. And Pullman was no less profligate when it came to intellectual firepower or singular characters. The dæmons alone grant him a place in world literature. Could the second installment of his trilogy keep up this pitch, or had his heroine and her too, too sullied parents consumed him? And what of the belief system that pervaded his alternate universe, not to mention the mystery of Dust? More revelations and an equal number of wonders and new players were definitely in order.
The Subtle Knife offers everything we could have wished for, and more. For a start, there's a young hero--from our world--who is a match for Lyra Silvertongue and whose destiny is every bit as shattering. Like Lyra, Will Parry has spent his childhood playing games. Unlike hers, though, his have been deadly serious. This 12-year-old long ago learned the art of invisibility: if he could erase himself, no one would discover his mother's increasing instability and separate them.
As the novel opens, Will's enemies will do anything for information about his missing father, a soldier and Arctic explorer who has been very much airbrushed from the official picture. Now Will must get his mother into safe seclusion and make his way toward Oxford, which may hold the key to John Parry's disappearance. But en route and on the lam from both the police and his family's tormentors, he comes upon a cat with more than a mouse on her mind: "She reached out a paw to pat something in the air in front of her, something quite invisible to Will." What seems to him a patch of everyday Oxford conceals far more: "The cat stepped forward and vanished." Will, too, scrambles through and into another oddly deserted landscape--one in which children rule and adults (and felines) are very much at risk. Here in this deathly silent city by the sea, he will soon have a dustup with a fierce, flinty little girl: "Her expression was a mixture of the very young--when she first tasted the cola--and a kind of deep, sad wariness." Soon Will and Lyra (and, of course, her dæmon, Pantalaimon) uneasily embark on a great adventure and head into greater tragedy.
As Pullman moves between his young warriors and the witch Serafina Pekkala, the magnetic, ever-manipulative Mrs. Coulter, and Lee Scoresby and his hare dæmon, Hester, there are clear signs of approaching war and earthly chaos. There are new faces as well. The author introduces Oxford dark-matter researcher Mary Malone; the Latvian witch queen Ruta Skadi, who "had trafficked with spirits, and it showed"; Stanislaus Grumman, a shaman in search of a weapon crucial to the cause of Lord Asriel, Lyra's father; and a serpentine old man whom Lyra and Pan can't quite place. Also on hand are the Specters, beings that make cliff-ghasts look like rank amateurs.
Throughout, Pullman is in absolute control of his several worlds, his plot and pace equal to his inspiration. Any number of astonishing scenes--small- and large-scale--will have readers on edge, and many are cause for tears. "You think things have to be possible," Will demands. "Things have to be true!" It is Philip Pullman's gift to turn what quotidian minds would term the impossible into a reality that is both heartbreaking and beautiful. --Kerry Fried [via]
Take Me, I'm Yoursby Elizabeth BevarlyISBN 0380819600 (0-380-81960-0)
Softcover, HarperCollins Publishers
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Texas! Luckyby Sandra BrownISBN 0385414064 (0-385-41406-4)
Hardcover, Doubleday Publishing
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Texas! Sageby Sandra BrownISBN 0385415818 (0-385-41581-8)
Hardcover, Doubleday Publishing
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There Are No Children Hereby Alex KotlowitzISBN 0385265565 (0-385-26556-5)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'There Are No Children Here'Book summary:There Are No Children Here, the true story of brothers Lafeyette and Pharoah Rivers, ages 11 and 9 at the start, brings home the horror of trying to make it in a violence-ridden public housing project. The boys live in a gang-plagued war zone on Chicago's West Side, literally learning how to dodge bullets the way kids in the suburbs learn to chase baseballs. "If I grow up, I'd like to be a bus driver," says Lafeyette at one point. That's if, not when--spoken with the complete innocence of a child. The book's title comes from a comment made by the brothers' mother as she and author Alex Kotlowitz contemplate the challenges of living in such a hostile environment: "There are no children here," she says. "They've seen too much to be children." This book humanizes the problem of inner-city pathology, makes readers care about Lafeyette and Pharoah more than they may expect to, and offers a sliver of hope buried deep within a world of chaos. [via]
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This Perfect Kissby Christie RidgwayISBN 0380812568 (0-380-81256-8)
Softcover, Harpercollins
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This Time Loveby Elizabeth LowellISBN 0380789949 (0-380-78994-9)
Softcover, Avon Books
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To the Ends of the Earthby Elizabeth LowellISBN 0380767589 (0-380-76758-9)
Softcover, Avon Books
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The Truthby Terry PratchettISBN 0380818191 (0-380-81819-1)
Softcover, Harpercollins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Truth'Book summary:Terry Pratchett's acclaimed Discworld novels have been number one bestsellers in England for more than a decade. In fact, this prolific author sold more hardcover books in the United Kingdom during the 1900's than any other living novelist. Critically recognized as one of the most celebrated practitioners of satire and parody -- in the company of Kurt Vonnegut, Douglas Adams, and Carl Hiaasen -- Pratchett, with his unique brand of irreverent humor, is at last being embraced across America.
In this, his twenty-fifth Discworld novel, Pratchett turns his pen on, well, the pen. Or, rather, the press, and its power to disseminate and create the truth. The lesser son of one of Ankh most privileged families, William de Worde a struggling scribe, hits on the brilliant idea of producing his upper-crust newsletter with a newfangled printing press.
Truer to the family motto, Le Mot juste, than his disapproving father can ever realize, de Worde soon finds that his Ankh-Morpork Times is a success. So big, in fact, that certain nefarious factions would like nothing better than to put him out of business. They begin their own rival Ankh-Morpork Inquirer--full of salacious bits -- to do just that. Soon, though, de Worde has more than just the competition to fret over. Lord Vetinari, the Patrician of Ankh-Morpork, is accused of a serious crime in a seemingly airtight case. But William de Worde knows that facts aren't always the truth. Along with a much too prim and proper assistant, a roving photographer vampire with a nasty reaction to his flashgun, and a talking dog who holds the key to the mystery, William de Worde will stop at nothing to get the truth.
And that's the truth.
A dead-on look at the revered fifth estate, the nature of news, and bareknuckled political intrigue, The Truth shall make you free. From everything else you'd be doing instead of enjoying it, that is. [via]
The Twenty-Seventh Cityby Jonathan FranzenISBN 038070840X (0-380-70840-X)
Softcover, Harpercollins
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Vagina Monologuesby Eve EnslerISBN 0375756981 (0-375-75698-1)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Vagina Monologues: The V-Day Edition'Book summary:"I say vagina because I want people to respond," says playwright Eve Ensler, creator of the hilarious, disturbing soliloquies in The Vagina Monologues, a book based on her one-woman play. And respond they do--with horror, anger, censure, and sparks of wonder and pleasure. Ensler is on a fervent mission to elevate and celebrate this much mumbled-about body part. She asked hundreds of women of all ages a series of questions about their vaginas (What do you call it? How would you dress it?) that prompt some wondrous answers. Standouts among the euphemisms are tamale, split knish, choochi snorcher, Gladys Siegelman--Gladys Siegelman?--and, of course, that old standby "down there." "Down there?" asks a composite character springing from several older women. "I haven't been down there since 1953. No, it had nothing to do with [American president] Eisenhower." Two of the most powerful pieces include a jagged poem stitched together from the memories of a Bosnian woman raped by soldiers and an American woman sexually abused as a child who reclaims her vagina as a place of wild joy. [via]
Watermelonby Marian KeyesISBN 0380796090 (0-380-79609-0)
Softcover, Harpercollins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Watermelon'Book summary:At twenty-nine, fun-loving, good-natured Claire has everything she ever wanted: a husband she adores, a great apartment, a good job. Then, on the day she gives birth to her first baby, James visits her in the recovery room to inform her that he's leaving her. And he hasn't even had the decency to leave her for someone glamorous; just the frumpy woman who lives in the apartment downstairs...
Claire is left with a beautiful newborn daughter, a broken heart, and a body that she can hardly bear to look at in the mirror. Until quite recently especially when wearing a green maternity jumper that was the only thing left that fit her--she felt she bore an uncomfortable resemblance to a popular summer fruit.)
So, in the absence of any better offers, Claire decides to go home to her family in Dublin. To her gorgeous man-eating sister Helen, her soap-watching mother, her bewildered father. And there, sheltered by the love of an (albeit quirky) family, she gets better.
A lot better.
In fact, so much better that when James slithers back into her life, he's in for a bit of a surprise.
In this very funny, very fresh, very wise novel, Marian Keyes delivers an unforgettable debut--and a heroine so irresistible that she feels like a new best friend. [via]
Wish You Were Hereby Christie RidgwayISBN 038081255X (0-380-81255-X)
Softcover, Hearst Book Group of Canada, The
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Wish You Were Here'Book summary:As unofficial matchmaker for beautiful Abrigo Island, Zoe Cash practices her own form of no-risk romance. And when Yeager Gates arrives in town for a little R & R, Zoe decides that he'll be her latest project. But the secure world Zoe's created for herself is turned upside-down when she finds herself falling for the sexy fighter pilot.
Yeager's flying days might be over, but spending time on Mother Earth with tantalizing Zoe is putting him back on solid ground. Yeager makes no secret of the fact that his island stay is temporary, but when the time comes will he really be able to leave Zoe behindfor good?
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