The Crystalline Crucible

The Crystalline Crucible

Adam Rowan

Adam Rowan

Enter the thrilling world of Maxwell Jacobs, a 21-year-old with a spirit as wild as his dreams. Unconventional and utterly obsessed with knights, Tetris, and the perfect cheese sandwich, Max harbors a burning desire—to establish himself as the unrivaled master of treasure hunting. As whispers of the extraordinary Crystal Contest reach his eager ears, promising unimaginable wealth and secrets hidden within the world, Max's heart skips a beat. Winning this unparalleled competition becomes an all-consuming mission—a chance to unlock an extraordinary destiny.Yet, fate seems intent on testing Max's resolve when he finds himself behind bars, arrested for a daring museum break-in. Confronted by his crippling fear of leaving the safety of his hometown and forever shackled by his perpetual clumsiness, Max is reminded of the insurmountable odds stacked against him. With only one true friend in his life—his math teacher, Rosie Shaw, who disapproves of his...
Read online
  • 646
Undead and Unemployed

Undead and Unemployed

MaryJanice Davidson

Literature & Fiction / Romance / Nonfiction

Nothing can make Betsy Taylor give up her shoe fetish - even dying and rising as the new Queen of the Vampires. Being royally undead isn't all it's cracked up to be - there are still bills to be paid. And Betsy is determined to live as normally as possible, even if it means getting a job. A "feet" she accomplishes with panache, landing her dream job selling designer shoes at Macy's. Things couldn't be better - except for her new friends, who keep pestering her while she's on the clock. As if she has time to socialize when there are deliciously sinful shoes to try on - and buy at a discount. It seems that vampires are being murdered in St. Paul, and they're all clamoring for Betsy to do something about it. The worse part is she's going to have to enlist the help of the one vamp who makes her blood boil: the oh-so-sexy Sinclair. Now, she's really treading on dangerous ground - high heels and all. . .
Read online
  • 646
A House of Tailors

A House of Tailors

Patricia Reilly Giff

Young Adult / Realistic Fiction / Fiction

SEWING! NO ONE could hate it more than Dina Kirk. Endless tiny stitches, button holes, darts. Since she was tiny, she’s worked in her family’s dressmaking business, where the sewing machine is a cranky member of the family. When 13-year-old Dina leaves her small town in Germany to join her uncle’s family in Brooklyn, she turns her back on sewing. Never again! But looking for a job leads her right back to the sewing machine. Why did she ever leave home? Here she is, still with a needle and thread—and homesick to boot. She didn’t know she could be this homesick, but she didn’t know she could be so brave either, as she is standing up to an epidemic or a fire. She didn’t know she could grow so close to her new family or to Johann, the young man from the tailor’s shop. And she didn’t know that sewing would reveal her own wonderful talent—and her future. In Dina, the beloved writer Patricia Reilly Giff has created one of her most engaging and vital heroines. Readers will enjoy seeing 1870s Brooklyn through Dina’s eyes, and share her excitement as she discovers a new world. From the Hardcover edition.
Read online
  • 646
The Dreams

The Dreams

Naguib Mahfouz

Literature & Fiction / Short Stories

In his final years, Egyptian Nobel Laureate Naguib Mahfouz distilled his storyteller's art to its most essential level. Written with the compression and power of dreams, these poetic vignettes, originally collected in two books, The Dreams and Dreams of Departure, here combined in one volume for the first time. These stories telescope epic tales into tersely haunting miniatures. A man finds his neighborhood has turned into a circus, but his joy turns to anger when he cannot escape it. An obscure writer finally achieves fame-through the epitaph on his grave. A group of friends telling jokes in an alley face the murderous revenge of an ancient Egyptian queen. Figures from Mahfouz's past-women he loved, men who inspired him, even fictional characters from his own novels-float through tales dreamed by a mind too fertile ever to rest, even in sleep. Translated by Raymond Stock From the Trade Paperback edition.
Read online
  • 644
Won By the Sword : a tale of the Thirty Years War

Won By the Sword : a tale of the Thirty Years' War

G. A. Henty

Children's / Historical Fiction

In my preface to the Lion of the North I expressed a hope that I might some day be able to continue the history of the Thirty Years\' War. The deaths of Gustavus and his great rival Wallenstein and the crushing defeat of the Swedes and their allies at the battle of Nordlingen brought the first period of that war to a close. Hostilities, indeed, never ceased, but the Swedes no longer played the leading part on the Protestant side that they had hitherto occupied. Oxenstiern, the great chancellor of Sweden, saw that the only hope of eventual success lay in engaging France in the struggle, and he and the Duke of Weimar went to Paris and pointed out to Richelieu that unless France intervened, Austria must become the master of all Germany, and as the ally of Spain would have it in her power to completely dominate France. Richelieu perceived the opportunity, made a treaty with the Swedes and Weimar, and engaged to grant large subsidies to the former, and to send an army to cooperate with the latter. Then began the second period of this long and terrible struggle, France now taking the place that Sweden had hitherto occupied, and bearing the brunt of the conflict. She emerged triumphant with her territories largely increased, while Austria was crushed and humiliated, and Spain was dethroned from her position as the dominating power of Europe. The success of France was greatly due to the fact that her armies were led by two of the greatest military geniuses of all times, viz., Conde and Turenne, men of very different types, but equally great as commanders, and equally at the time of which we are speaking devoted to the cause of France. Both were men of extraordinary personal courage, and although one was as prudent and careful of the lives of his troops as the other was impetuous and careless at what cost he won his victories, they worked together with a harmony that could have hardly been expected among men so differently constituted. Although, in the subsequent wars of the Fronde they took different sides, their friendship, except during a short period of alienation, was never shaken, and their admiration for each other\'s genius never abated
Read online
  • 644
Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy

Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy

Gary D. Schmidt

Children's Books / Literature & Fiction

Not only is Turner Buckminster the son of the new minister in a small Maine town, he is shunned for playing baseball differently than the local boys. Then he befriends smart and lively Lizzie Bright Griffin, a girl from Malaga Island, a poor community founded by former slaves. Lizzie shows Turner a new world along the Maine coast from digging clams to rowing a boat next to a whale. When the powerful town elders, including Turner’s father, decide to drive the people off the island to set up a tourist business, Turner stands alone against them. He and Lizzie try to save her community, but there’s a terrible price to pay for going against the tide.
Read online
  • 643
The End of the World: A Love Story

The End of the World: A Love Story

Edward Eggleston

Fiction / History

The End of the World - A Love Story is presented here in a high quality paperback edition. This popular classic work by Edward Eggleston is in the English language, and may not include graphics or images from the original edition. If you enjoy the works of Edward Eggleston then we highly recommend this publication for your book collection.
Read online
  • 643
Weird Tales from Northern Seas

Weird Tales from Northern Seas

Jonas Lie

Fiction / Horror / Short Stories

“Folk-lore tales and legends replete with the superstitious beliefs and wild imaginings of the Norse fishermen.” -The Dial “The student of folk-lore will be delighted with these gloomy legends…All have a wildness and fierceness quite in keeping with the stormy coasts and seas they belong to, and are told with great effect, and without losing much in translation.” -The Spectator “Deserving of being styled a wonder-book among wonder-books, since it is composed of some of the wildest and most fantastic stories of sorceries and strange elemental creatures that Scandinavian literature contains…but the whole book is full of delightful imaginations, and in a congenial spirit.” -Saturday Review CHAPTER I. THE FISHERMAN AND THE DRAUG II. JACK OF SJÖHÖLM AND THE GAN-FINN III. TUG OF WAR IV. "THE EARTH DRAWS" V. THE CORMORANTS OF ANDVÆR VI. ISAAC AND THE PARSON OF BRÖNÖ VII. THE WIND-GNOME VIII. THE HULDREFISH IX. FINN BLOOD X. THE HOMESTEAD WESTWARD IN THE BLUE MOUNTAINS XI. "IT'S ME!"
Read online
  • 643
The Twilight Watch:

The Twilight Watch:

Sergei Lukyanenko

Science Fiction / Fantasy

Walking the streets of Moscow, indistinguishable from the rest of its population, are the Others. Possessors of supernatural powers and capable of entering the Twilight, a shadowy world that exists in parallel to our own, each owes allegiance either to the Dark or the Light. Night Watch Agent Anton Gorodetsky's holiday is abruptly shortened when an urgent call from Gesar - his boss and Night Watch head - forces him to return to work. Gesar has received an anonymous note, stating that an Other has revealed the full truth about their kind to a human, and intends to convert the human in an Other. The note has also been sent to the Day Watch, and to the Inquisition - but only the very highest-level Others know the addresses. So the Inquisition orders the cooperation of Night and Day Watch in an effort to unmask the culprit...
Read online
  • 643
The Bazaar of Bad Dreams

The Bazaar of Bad Dreams

Stephen King

Horror / Mystery / Literature & Fiction

A master storyteller at his best—the O. Henry Prize winner Stephen King delivers a generous collection of stories, several of them brand-new, featuring revelatory autobiographical comments on when, why, and how he came to write (or rewrite) each story.Since his first collection, Nightshift, published thirty-five years ago, Stephen King has dazzled readers with his genius as a writer of short fiction. In this new collection he assembles, for the first time, recent stories that have never been published in a book. He introduces each with a passage about its origins or his motivations for writing it. There are thrilling connections between stories; themes of morality, the afterlife, guilt, what we would do differently if we could see into the future or correct the mistakes of the past. “Afterlife” is about a man who died of colon cancer and keeps reliving the same life, repeating his mistakes over and over again. Several stories feature characters...
Read online
  • 642
Dark Fire

Dark Fire

C. J. Sansom

Historical Fiction / Mystery / Thriller

It is 1540, and Henry VIII has been on the throne for thirty-one years when Matthew Shardlake, the lawyer renowned as "the sharpest hunchback in the courts of England," is pressed to help a friend's young niece who is charged with murder.         Despite threats of torture and death by the rack, the girl is inexplicably silent. Shardlake is about to lose her case when he is suddenly granted a reprieve - one that will ensnare him again in the dangerous schemes of Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII's feared vicar general.          In exchange for two more weeks to investigate the murder, Shardlake accepts Cromwell's assignment to find a lost cache of Dark Fire, an ancient weapon of mass destruction. Cromwell, out of favor since Henry's disastrous marriage to Anne of Cleves, is relying on Shardlake's discovery to save his position at court, which is rife with conspiracy
Read online
  • 641
Ain't She Sweet?

Ain't She Sweet?

Susan Elizabeth Phillips

Literature & Fiction / Romance

Ain't She Sweet? Not exactly . . . The girl everybody loves to hate has returned to the town she'd sworn to leave behind forever. As the rich, spoiled princess of Parrish, Mississippi, Sugar Beth Carey had broken hearts, ruined friendships, and destroyed reputations. But fifteen years have passed, and life has taught Sugar Beth its toughest lessons. Now she's come home—broke, desperate, and too proud to show it. The people of Parrish don't believe in forgive and forget. When the Seawillows, Sugar Beth's former girlfriends, get the chance to turn the tables on her, they don't hesitate. And Winnie Davis, Sugar Beth's most bitter enemy, intends to humiliate her in the worst possible way. Then there's Colin Byrne. . . . Fifteen years earlier, Sugar Beth had tried to ruin his career. Now he's rich, powerful, and the owner of her old home. Even worse, this modern-day dark prince is planning exactly the sort of revenge best designed to bring a beautiful princess to her knees. But none of them have reckoned on the unexpected strength of a woman who's learned survival the hard way. While Sugar Beth's battered heart struggles to overcome old mistakes, Colin must choose between payback and love. Does the baddest girl in town deserve a second chance, or are some things beyond forgiving? Ain't She Sweet? is a story of courage and redemption. . . of friendship and laughter. . . of love and the possibility of happily-ever-after.
Read online
  • 640
183