It didn't give you the date and it didn't give you specifics. It just spat out a sliver of paper upon which were printed, in careful block letters, the words DROWNED or CANCER or OLD AGE or CHOKED ON A HANDFUL OF POPCORN. It let people know how they were going to die." Machine of Death tells thirty-four different stories about people who know how they will die. Prepare to have your tears jerked, your spine tingled, your funny bone tickled, your mind blown, your pulse quickened, or your heart warmed. Or better yet, simply prepare to be surprised. Because even when people do have perfect knowledge of the future, there's no telling exactly how things will turn out. Featuring stories by: * Randall Munroe* Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw* Tom Francis* Camille Alexa* Erin McKean* James L. Sutter* Douglas J. Lane* and many others.Featuring illustrations by: * Kate Beaton* Kazu Kibuishi* Aaron Diaz* Jeffrey Brown* Scott C.* Roger Langridge* Karl Kerschl* Cameron Stewart* and many others

    Suspenseful and mysterious, this romantic suspense series will have you on the edge of your seat. This bundle contains four full-length novels and one novella: Wife Number Seven His Only Wife Mother Before Wife Just Keep Sweet Prophet Takes All Praise for The Compound Series: "The Compound series is a fresh, unique voice in the romance world and I soaked up every single minute of it. I can’t recommend this series enough!"- C, Prisoners of Print "Melissa Brown's talent shines bright in this unforgettable series. Prepare to be sucked in until the very last page." --USA Today Bestselling Author, Tiffany King "Extremely underestimated and brilliantly written, the Compound Series will take you on a journey. Now that this series is out as a whole, you owe it to yourself to read up on Melissa’s Compound world. Jumping in with an open mind and abandoning all thoughts of traditional romance will set you up for a reading adventure."- Pamela, The Book Avenue Synopsis of Wife Number Seven (Book 1 in the series) Lipstick. Bright, red lipstick. Nothing but lipstick. Even though it’s against our faith to wear a color that screams of sexual promiscuity and deviant behavior, I’m not allowed to protest. But, I want to. So badly. You see, there’s more to me than the braid that spills down my back. More to me than the layers of heavy fabric that maintain my modesty. And so much more than the oppressive wedding band that adorns my finger--the same band that each of my sister wives wear. So much more. To protest would be sinful. I must keep sweet, that is my duty. So I’ll wear the lipstick. I’ll do as I’m told. And I’ll do my best to silence the resistance within me, to push him from my mind. If only my heart would do the same.

     Hit the road with this anthology of trucking horror fiction!

    Destroyed oil rigs, mysteriously reborn, clamber from the sea and onto the land, driven by an obscure but violent purpose. An anatomy student cuts open a cadaver to discover impossibly intricate designs carved into a corpse's bones—designs clearly present from birth, bearing mute testimony to . . . what?Of such concepts and unforgettable images are made the twenty-eight stories in this collection—many published here for the first time. By turns speculative, satirical, and heart-wrenching, fresh in form and language, and featuring a cast of damaged yet hopeful seekers who come face-to-face with the deep weirdness of the world—and at times the deeper weirdness of themselves—Three Moments of an Explosion is a fitting showcase for one of our most original voices.

    ClubA Washington Post Notable BookAn NPR Great Read of 2013From the author of the novel Swamplandia!—a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize—comes a magical and uniquely daring collection of stories that showcases the author’s gifts at their inimitable best. Within these pages, a community of girls held captive in a Japanese silk factory slowly transmute into human silkworms and plot revolution; a group of boys stumble upon a mutilated scarecrow that bears an uncanny resemblance to a missing classmate that they used to torment; a family’s disastrous quest for land in the American West has grave consequences; and in the marvelous title story, two vampires in a sun-drenched lemon grove try to slake their thirst for blood and come to terms with their immortal relationship.Vampires in the lemon grove --Reeling for the Empire --Seagull army descends on Strong Beach, 1979 --Proving up --Barn at the end of our term --Dougbert Shackleton's rules for Antarctic tailgating --New veterans --Graveless doll of Eric Mutis

     Centuries after the Fall, the world is a different place than it used to be... When she suddenly becomes a Stray, Kara is forced to flee the relative safety of GateWide in order to avoid becoming a slave to the cruel Sovereign. Hunted deep into the wilds by the Sovereign's Enforcers, Kara must find a way to survive, relying only on her own scarce knowledge of the decimated wilderness outside the settlement's walls. Surrounded by mutated creatures in an unfamiliar environment, Kara soon realizes that many of the things that she thought she knew about the wilderness had been based on lies that had been taught to all the people of GateWide. Why have the people of the settlement been misled and how will she find the truth with only one small clue to guide her?