Best of
Adult-Fiction

1987

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe


Fannie Flagg - 1987
    Threadgoode telling her life story to Evelyn, who is in the sad slump of middle age. The tale she tells is also of two women-of the irrepressibly daredevilish tomboy Idgie and her friend Ruth, who back in the thirties ran a little place in Whistle Stop, Alabama, a Southern kind of Cafe Wobegon offering good barbecue and good coffee and all kinds of love and laughter, even an occasional murder.

The Shell Seekers


Rosamunde Pilcher - 1987
    She has brought up three children - and learned to accept them as they are. Yet she is far too energetic and independent to settle sweetly into pensioned-off old-age. And when she discovers that her most treasured possession, her father's painting, The Shell Seekers, is now worth a small fortune, it is Penelope who must make the decisions that will determine whether her family can continue to survive as a family, or be split apart.

Skallagrigg


William Horwood - 1987
    And William Horwood's inspired, heart-rending story of rescue and redemptive love will undoubtedly touch your life too.

Crossing to Safety


Wallace Stegner - 1987
    Tracing the lives, loves, and aspirations of two couples who move between Vermont and Wisconsin, it is a work of quiet majesty, deep compassion, and powerful insight into the alchemy of friendship and marriage.

The Second Rumpole Omnibus


John Mortimer - 1987
    Instead, Rumpole settles for the beaded bubbles of Chateau Pommeroy's ordinary claret, and his role extraordinaire as Defender of the Faith: "Never Plead Guilty.""Mortimer has created one of the legendary fictional detectives . . . a barrister [who's] as much a detective as Sherlock Holmes or Hercule Poirot." -- The Boston Sunday Globe"Wonderfully amusing . . . full of pithy writing . . . witty and opinionated." -- The Wall Street Journal

Glittering Images


Susan Howatch - 1987
    Ashworth is helped to recovery, and to realise the source of his problems by Fr Jonathan Darrow, the Abbot of the Granchester Abbey of the Fordite Monks.An outstanding storyteller, Susan Howatch has created a novel of spirituality and morality where the loyalties and passions of four people are played out against their dedication to religion and the path of right. "Passionately eloquent...[A] tale of God, sex, love, self-analysis and forgiveness."THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER

Stranger at Stonewycke


Michael R. Phillips - 1987
    With Allison representing a new susceptibility to change and corruption, the family is once again the crossroads of destiny

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Radio Scripts: Tertiary, Quandary & Quintessential Phases


Douglas Adams - 1987
    This dramatisation of the last three books, Life, The Universe And Everything; So Long And Thanks For All The Fish and Mostly Harmless, features Douglas Adams himself, thanks to the wonders of digital technology, and includes new material written by him specially for the radio sequels. The original Hitchhiker's radio cast is returning; Simon Jones as Arthur Dent, Geoffrey McGivern as Ford Prefect, Susan Sheridan as Trillian, Mark Wing-davey as Zaphod Beeblebrox and Stephen Moore as Marvin The Paranoid Android. The late Peter Jones's great friend, William Franklyn, replaces him as The Voice Of The Book. Also involved are famous names such as Joanna Lumley, Richard Griffiths, Chris Langham, Fred Trueman and Henry Blofeld. The shows will be broadcast in two series in Sept. 2004 and spring 2005.

The Stonewycke Legacy


Michael R. Phillips - 1987
    Chronicles the turbulent marriage of Logan Macintyre and Allison MacNeil as they face unsettling changes and must work together to forge a lasting marriage and create a legacy for their family.

The Freedom Factor


Gerald N. Lund - 1987
    When Nathaniel Gorham, one of the original Founding Fathers, appears to him, he is transported into a world where the Constitution was never ratified. In this strange world of oppression and fear, Bryce begins to learn the true value of the Constitution and the price of freedom. But will he be able to pay that price? Or will it cost him the love of Leslie Adams and her politically powerful family? Fans of Gerald Lund everywhere will enjoy The Freedom Factor, a gripping novel of courage and love that goes to the heart of the political strategem and maneuvers of present-day Washington, D.C.

The World Of Pat Conroy: The Great Santini/The Lords Of Discipline/The Prince Of Tides/The Water Is Wide


Pat Conroy - 1987
    

News from Lake Wobegon


Garrison Keillor - 1987
    Funny and touching, these 20 stories from original live broadcasts of A Prairie Home Companion follow the seasons in Lake Wobegon.Contents:Spring: Me and Choir; A Day in the Life of Clarence Bunsen; Letter from Jim; FictionSummer: The Living Flag; The Tollefson Boy Goes to College; Tomato Butt; Chamber of Commerce; Dog Days of August; Mrs. Berge and the Schubert Carillon PianoFall: Giant Decoys; Darryl Tollerud's Long Day; Hog Slaughter; Thanksgiving; The Royal FamilyWinter: Guys on Ice; James Lundeen's Christmas; The Christmas Story Re-told; New Year's from new York; Storm Home

American Short Story Masterpieces: A Rich Selection of Recent Fiction from America's Best Modern Writers


Raymond Carver - 1987
    With a bias toward realism editors Raymond Carver and Tom Jenks have selected fiction that “tells a story”–and tells it with a masterful handling of language, situation, and insight.But what is so special about this volume is that it mirrors our age, our concerns, and our lives. Whether it’s the end of a marriage, as in Bobbie Ann Manson’s “Shiloh,” or the struggle with self-esteem and weight in Andre Dubus’s “The Fat Girl,” the 36 works included her probe issues that give us that “shock of recognition” that is the hallmark of great art—wonderful, absorbing fiction that will be read and reread for decades to come.

Classics of the Macabre


Daphne du Maurier - 1987
    This sumptuous volume celebrates the 80th birthday of one of the best-known and most-loved storytellers in the English language today, Daphne du Maurier.Here are six masterpieces of the imagination, illustrated in glowing color by prize-winning artist, Michael Foreman.Don't Look Now, a classic story of the macabre, opens the collection, followed by The Apple Tree, The Blue Lenses, The Birds, The Alibi and Not After Midnight.

Jamie MacLeod: Highland Lass


Michael R. Phillips - 1987
    Jamie MacLeod: Pondering the mystery of her father's death, watching the emotional pain of another's rejection, stretching for the elusive dreams that led her on, discovering the chance for love--all of this is JAMIE MACLEOD.

Time and Tide: A Novel of World War II (Thomas Fleming Library)


Thomas Fleming - 1987
    She has deserted her sister ships at the Battle of Savo Island - the worst naval defeat in U.S. history.The Jefferson City's captain, Kansas-born Arthur McKay, has relieved his best friend and Annapolis roommate, Captain Winfield Scott Schley Kemble, and must decide whether to protect his friend's reputation against the Navy's determination to blame him for the Savo disaster or root out the truth.McKay's tough-minded wife Rita wants him to destroy Kemble, a man she once loved and now loathes. But Rita's fragile, seemingly innocent sister Lucy is the secret commander of McKay's soul.McKay's struggle anchors the lives and fate of the officers and men aboard the Jefferson City - from the corrupt Executive Officer Daniel Boone Parker to the doubt-tormented Chaplain Emerson Bushnell to Jack Peterson, the arrogant fire controlman, compelled by his sailor's code to be unfaithful to every woman who loves him.Through these stories and many more, we follow the war: We are aboard the Jefferson City as she steams into the terrifying night battles off Guadalcanal, with Japanese shells thundering out of the darkness. From the Solomon Islands to the Bering Sea to the kamikaze-ridden skies of Okinawa, the Jefferson City provides a prism through which the Navy's Pacific war is brilliantly reflected as her captain and crew search for the meaning of such words as shipmate, honor, faith.Time and Tide is a passionate love story, a compelling war story, an epic of Americans on the cutting edge of history.

The Man Who Rode Midnight


Elmer Kelton - 1987
    The Man Who Rode Midnight. Garden City: Doubleday, 1987. First edition, first printing. Octavo. 261 pages. Aging cowboy and bronco-buster Wes Hendricks just wants to be left alone on his poor ranch, even when town developers offer him big money to sell it. Wes's grandson reluctantly tries to convince him to give up his home, but that was before he, too, succumbs to the ranch's--and a young cowgirl's--wild beauty.

The Sound of My Voice


Ron Butlin - 1987
    But Morris is also a chronic alcoholic, heading fast towards self-destruction. Morris is not hoping to meet Ms. Right and acquire the two kids that will straighten everything out. He already has all this and it hasn't kept him off the bottle. Ron Butlin's tale of one man's inner turmoil is haunting, harrowing, yet strangely uplifting; a masterpiece from a neglected Scottish writer.

Firefly Summer


Maeve Binchy - 1987
    Kate Ryan and her husband, John, have a rollicking pub in the Irish village of Mountfern... lovely twelve-year-old twins... and such wonderful dreams.... It was a summer of innocence... But all that is about to change this fateful summer of 1962 when American millionaire Patrick O'Neill comes to town with his irresistible charm and a pocketful of money... when love and hate vie for a town's quiet heart and old traditions begin to crumble away.... It was a summer of love that would never come again.... A time that has been captured forever in Maeve Binchy's compelling family drama... a novel you will never forget.

Savages


Shirley Conran - 1987
    But in their greedy rush to claim the prize, the men fail to take into account a general who takes control of the island and brutally executes all of them. Leaving their wives to fend for themselves in the jungle.

Twilight Whispers


Barbara Delinsky - 1987
    Police detective Robert Cavanaugh, working on a tip about dissension within the families, sets out to examine the mystique behind their wealth and power.Katia Morell is part of that mystique. Daughter of the Whyte’s housekeeper but now a successful advertising executive, she is drawn back into the home where she never quite belonged, and is forced to face her life-long, unrequited love for Jordan Whyte. As the police investigation uncovers secret after secret and, finally, boils to a shocking conclusion, Katia and Jordan are but two of the family members who face difficult choices in their search for happiness.

Blessed McGill


Edwin Shrake - 1987
    with some of the most memorable characters to be found in the literature of the Old West. Selected by A. C. Greene as one of THE 50 BEST BOOKS ON TEXAS. In the publisher's opinion, this is the best Western ever written. It is still used as part of the curriculum at the University of Texas' Life and Literature of the Southwest, the course first taught by the legendary J. Frank Dobie.

'Tis the Season


Debbie Macomber - 1987
    Two award winning authors invite you home for the holidays! These special holiday romances will definitely make your season bright.Includes:Christmas Masquerade (Debbie Macomber, 1985)Snowbound (Lisa Jackson, 1987)

Harpoon


C.W. Nicol - 1987
    — For a brave and noble samurai warrior like Sadayori, this confrontation between East and West means making a choice between the old and the new, and fighting to the death for it. — For a daring seaman like Jinsuke, it means entering the camp of the intruders to learn their ways, and being torn between the beautiful Japanese girl he has loved and left, and the American woman he connot resist.Here is the most magnificent saga since Shogun-an epic of the clas of cultures, alive with breathtaking adventure and riveting romance.

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (Modern Critical Interpretations)


Harold Bloom - 1987
    -- Presents the most important 20th-century criticism on major works from The Odyssey through modern literature-- The critical essays reflect a variety of schools of criticism-- Contains critical biographies, notes on the contributing critics, a chronology of the author's life, and an indexThe Pattern: Frankenstein and Austen to Conrad / George Levine --Frankenstein: Creation as Catastrophe / Paul Sherwin --My Monster/My Self / Barbara Johnson --Frankenstein's Fallen Angel / Joyce Carol Oates --"My Hideous Progeny": The Lady and the Monster / Mary Poovey --The Negative Oedipus: Father, Frankenstein, and the Shelleys / William Veeder --Bearing Demons: Frankenstein's Circumvention of the Maternal / Margaret Homans.

Sightings


Susan Trott - 1987
    Her husband, a famous philosopher, has run off with their daughter's best friend. Their daughter,Sunny, having met and fallen in love with the mysterious and charismatic Masefield, is in Paris when she gets the news of her parents' disappearances. She returns to California. Masefield promises to follow when he can. Her first love,Buster, stays loyally by her to help unravel the mystery. Sunny searches for her mother on the bay and hopes to hear from her father and friend,while always waiting for Masefield. With Buster she tries to unravel the mystery of what has led everyone, including themselves to behave as they have and what it all means. In the end it is only Masefield who understands."Sightings is full of symbolism, of history nearly repeating itself, of magical revelations. There is love, despair, pathos, and powerful writing that will leave the reader breathless. Characters are so rich, so finely drawn and fascinating that the plot never fails and the pace never drags. Sightings is a deliciously tantalizing enigma that invites everyone to get involved." -- RIchmond Times Dispatch

Mr. Fox


Barbara Comyns - 1987
    When a woman and her young daughter are deserted at the start of World War II, he offers them a roof over their heads, and a shared, if dubious future.

Walking Across Egypt


Clyde Edgerton - 1987
    She’s Mattie Rigsbee, an independent, strong-minded senior citizen who, at seventy-eight, might be slowing down just a bit. When teenage delinquent Wesley Benfield drops in on her life, he is even less likely a companion than the stray dog. But, of course, the dog never tasted her mouth-watering pound cake. Wise and witty, down-home and real, Walking Across Egypt is a book for everyone.

River Dogs: Stories


Robert Olmstead - 1987
    Robert Olmstead's stories transport readers into the raw, uncompromising landscape of rural New Hampshire, where simple survival is always complicated by desperate acts or murderous accidents: boys drowning a bagful of puppies, men buried alive under a mountain of corn silage, suicide on a foreclosed farm.

Jory


Milton R. Bass - 1987
    For a lot of tough hombres there wasn't a place in the West where they could run or hide from this avenger.

Copernick's Rebellion


Leo Frankowski - 1987
    By 1999 they had made huge fortunes in the field of medical instrumentation. But Heiny and his Uncle Martin weren't just filthy rich, they were also the world's best gene engineers. And their latest inventions could free Humanity from want and oppressive governments forever. At least, that was the plan. Imagine: Free homes with all the furnishings and utilities! Free food! Even free babysitters! Heiny and Uncle Martin even thought they should give their inventions away. Free. That's when their troubles began.

Fire Get


Cheryl J. Franklin - 1987
    Reissue.

Rock Star


Jackie Collins - 1987
    Music was their business - pleasure was their game.Rock Star blows the lid off the hard-driving lifestyles of today's music superstars.Kris Phoenix - The legendary and wildly sexy guitar hero,Bobby Mondella - Black soul superstar with a past,Rafealla - An exotically beautiful girl who comes between them with a vengeance.Rock Star takes you on a dangerous trip through the jungle of broken dreams and blackmail, hit records and hit men...a jungle of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll.Rock Star is a love story that burns.Feel the heat...

The Bloodworth Orphans


Leon Forrest - 1987
    As Toni Morrison has said, "All of Forrest's novels explore the complex legacy of Afro-Americans. Like an insistent tide this history . . . swells and recalls America's past. . . . Brooding, hilarious, acerbic and profoundly valued life has no more astute observer than Leon Forrest." All of that is on display here in a novel that give readers a breathtaking view of the human experience, filled with humor and pathos.

Scandinavia, Living Design: Living Design


Elizabeth Gaynor - 1987
    400 full-color photographs.

Saddle Shoe Blues


Carroll Hofeling Morris - 1987
    Growing up in the 1950's, a young Mormon girl copes with a reading disability and becomes friends with a girl from a poor family.