She's had the same best friend, the same good relationship with her mother, the same boyfriend, for as long as anyone can remember. But when her fiance, Mike is paralyzed by a tragic accident, Carrie has to question everything she thought she knew about herself and about the meaning of home. Ann Packer has written a morally complex, deeply satisfying novel about the desire to live fully and the conflict between who we want to be to others and who we must be for ourselves. A magnificent debut from a remarkable new talent.

    But Eddie sees through the disguise, takes an unexpected ride, and demonstrates it to his boss at a failing cable TV network. Through a series of adventures, the time machine becomes damaged, friends become stranded, and history gets changed in many ways—some dangerous, all humorous. Two romances—one quite unconventional—blossom along the way. Back to You is a hilarious science fiction romp in the tradition of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

    Activated by unreadable cards, it could create a can of soup - - or an explosive grenade that looks like a can of soup. The U-10 is a guessing game of life or death.A top-secret paramilitary agency wants the U-10 and its gadgets, the guy who has the U-10 wants to keep it, and the alien who lost the U-10 wants it back. A death squad is dispatched to retrieve the U-10 and will stop at nothing, including the destruction of Earth, to accomplish their mission. Using the U-10 to heal battle wounds produces unexpected results.What good is a U-10 survival kit that has just three options?(A) Saves you. (B) Kills you. (C) Turns you into an alien?

    

    Enormously likable and a habitual screw-up, Eric Mercer has settled into a sometimes raucous, underachieving life in his one-stoplight hometown—a life cobbled together from his part-time activities as bartender at the American Legion, assistant mortician, and father to his beloved 5-year-old daughter, Tess. Tess seems to be the main reason smart, talented, twenty-four-year-old Eric is staying in town, though her mom, a centerfold-quality beauty, would have it otherwise. When Jill, the lost love of his life, returns to Pinely in the same week that the town goes nuts in preparation for the high school football team's Big Game, life unexpectedly shifts into high gear, and Eric must blunder his way toward enlightenment—fast. Authentic and refreshingly unpredictable, Small Town Odds is written with an acute sense of place and character reminiscent of Richard Russo.

    It is August 1974, and a mysterious tightrope walker is running, dancing, leaping between the towers, suspended a quarter mile above the ground. In the streets below, a slew of ordinary lives become extraordinary in bestselling novelist Colum McCann’s stunningly intricate portrait of a city and its people.Let the Great World Spin is the critically acclaimed author’s most ambitious novel yet: a dazzlingly rich vision of the pain, loveliness, mystery, and promise of New York City in the 1970s.Corrigan, a radical young Irish monk, struggles with his own demons as he lives among the prostitutes in the middle of the burning Bronx. A group of mothers gather in a Park Avenue apartment to mourn their sons who died in Vietnam, only to discover just how much divides them even in grief. A young artist finds herself at the scene of a hit-and-run that sends her own life careening sideways. Tillie, a thirty-eight-year-old grandmother, turns tricks alongside her teenage daughter, determined not only to take care of her family but to prove her own worth.Elegantly weaving together these and other seemingly disparate lives, McCann’s powerful allegory comes alive in the unforgettable voices of the city’s people, unexpectedly drawn together by hope, beauty, and the “artistic crime of the century.” A sweeping and radical social novel, Let the Great World Spin captures the spirit of America in a time of transition, extraordinary promise, and, in hindsight, heartbreaking innocence. Hailed as a “fiercely original talent” (San Francisco Chronicle), award-winning novelist McCann has delivered a triumphantly American masterpiece that awakens in us a sense of what the novel can achieve, confront, and even heal.

    There is kind, handsome Willem, an aspiring actor; JB, a quick-witted, sometimes cruel Brooklyn-born painter seeking entry to the art world; Malcolm, a frustrated architect at a prominent firm; and withdrawn, brilliant, enigmatic Jude, who serves as their center of gravity. Over the decades, their relationships deepen and darken, tinged by addiction, success, and pride. Yet their greatest challenge, each comes to realize, is Jude himself, by midlife a terrifyingly talented litigator yet an increasingly broken man, his mind and body scarred by an unspeakable childhood, and haunted by what he fears is a degree of trauma that he’ll not only be unable to overcome—but that will define his life forever.

    But only the secret holder is fooled in the long run, as Lenny discovered in a dark alley in the Wall Street neighborhood. Michael McKaybees is a private investigator working in New York’s five boroughs. He specializes in money crimes like insurance fraud, with the occasional cheating spouse (his partner’s favorite since she thinks all cheaters should be flogged in public). Now, however, he has been forced to expand his investigative work to include homicide. Implicated in his best friend Lenny’s death, Michael finds himself entangled in a web carefully woven by someone who wants to destroy him—and there’s no doubt he’s up to his neck in shit. Then there’s his father, Marlowe Black, who has decided now is the right time to show up after an absence of more than three decades. Hell, Michael didn’t even know he was still alive. Marlowe’s reputation as a combat-hardened PI is well-known among the City’s criminal element, making him a hated man. And he, too, is a suspect in Lenny’s murder. When McKaybees discovers the body of Lenny’s wife, Jill—Michael’s childhood sweetheart—hidden in his apartment, murder becomes seriously personal and the need for vengeance demanding.

    A mysterious wall appears where none previously existed and something other than mere curiosity prompts a close-up examination, accidentally setting off a violent explosion which ruptures the barrier and sends all three hurtling into an alien, highly-dangerous world where skies are purple and vermilion forests endemic; home to a dreadful flying predator - not unlike the dragon of mythology - besides other, equally fearsome carnivores.Two of their number return leaving one behind, prisoner of an enormously strong but beautiful woman possessed of extraordinary powers. The escapees vow to re-enter, sworn to rescue their companion regardless of danger, but are eventually to discover another, preordained and vitally important reason for their presence. How will they survive and will they somehow manage to fulfil their destiny and ultimately return home...?

    He's been an unofficial CIA killer for the past twenty years and has decided to retire. There is no such thing as a truly perfect assassin and Gary was no exception. He was, however, very good. Gary left a wide trail of bodies behind him, over his long and productive career. Riddled with childhood insecurities and social awkwardness Gary desperately tries to move forward with his life after retirement. He quickly finds it is far easier to kill someone else than it is to kill the ghosts of the past. Gary soon learns that what is in the past doesn't always stay there. His greatest enemy... a man thought long dead... is back and seeking vengeance. Gary must now fight for not only his life, but everyone he holds dear and finally put this last ghost to rest. Gary will learn that the old saying You can't go home again isn't exactly true. You can go home again, but you shouldn't.

    His job bores him and his love is unrequited. Very few people pay attention to Michael, and that suits him fine. Then one day, he finds himself the winner of the largest lottery in the history of Europe – €190,000,000! Under the weight of his new found wealth and fame, Michael’s life spirals out of control until he is forced to make a decision. A decision that will capture the imagination of the entire world…

    And he never will be. But if he isn’t a real Avery, then who is he?Born out of wedlock to a teenage girl cast out from her rural Irish community and adopted by a well-to-do if eccentric Dublin couple via the intervention of a hunchbacked Redemptorist nun, Cyril is adrift in the world, anchored only tenuously by his heartfelt friendship with the infinitely more glamourous and dangerous Julian Woodbead.At the mercy of fortune and coincidence, he will spend a lifetime coming to know himself and where he came from – and over his three score years and ten, will struggle to discover an identity, a home, a country and much more.In this, Boyne's most transcendent work to date, we are shown the story of Ireland from the 1940s to today through the eyes of one ordinary man. The Heart's Invisible Furies is a novel to make you laugh and cry while reminding us all of the redemptive power of the human spirit.

    It is also the introduction of a bold and talented literary voice. Before considering reading this book, please see the BookBrowse note on the book jacket/review page.BookBrowse Note: January 9th 2006: An article in the Smoking Gun claimed that James Frey (author of A Million Little Pieces and My Friend Leonard) fabricated key parts of his books. They cited police records, court documents and interviews with law enforcement agents which belie a number of Frey's claims regarding criminal charges against him, jail terms and his fugitive status.In an interview with the Smoking Gun, Frey admitted that he had 'embellished central details' in A Million Little Pieces and backtracked on claims he made in the book.January 26th 2006. Frey's publisher stated that while it initially stood by him, after further questioning of the author, the house has "sadly come to the realization that a number of facts have been altered and incidents embellished." It will be adding a a publisher's note and author's note to all future editions of A Million Little Pieces.

    Two years ago, Gretchen kidnapped Archie and tortured him for ten days, but instead of killing him, she mysteriously decided to let him go. She turned herself in, and now Gretchen has been locked away for the rest of her life, while Archie is in a prison of another kind---addicted to pain pills, unable to return to his old life, powerless to get those ten horrific days off his mind. Archie's a different person, his estranged wife says, and he knows she's right. He continues to visit Gretchen in prison once a week, saying that only he can get her to confess as to the whereabouts of more of her victims, but even he knows the truth---he can't stay away. When another killer begins snatching teenage girls off the streets of Portland, Archie has to pull himself together enough to lead the new task force investigating the murders. A hungry young newspaper reporter, Susan Ward, begins profiling Archie and the investigation, which sparks a deadly game between Archie, Susan, the new killer, and even Gretchen. They need to catch a killer, and maybe somehow then Archie can free himself from Gretchen, once and for all. Either way, Heartsick makes for one of the most extraordinary suspense debuts in recent memory.

    Can a couple of rural coppers and a demoralised ragbag of accountant soldiers intercept the two boys, before they blunder into an old firing range infested with unexploded ordnance?Moira can at least rely on two unlikely allies; her estranged African friend Dahlila, and Social Worker Mildred Pierce. Even so, the beast has picked up her trail; as the double pursuit races toward a terrifying climax, Hardcastle will have to tap every ounce of his wavering resolve in order to halt an unstoppable madman. Yet even murderers have mothers, and ultimately, it is love that must prevail; thanks in no small part to the inexhaustible optimism and humanity of four remarkable women...