There's Rob, Bob, Tom, Paul, Ralph, and Phil; Siegfried, the sculptor in burning steel; blind Albert and ninety-three-year-old Hiram; Foster, the New Age psychoanalyst; and Maxwell, the tropical botanist, who, since returning from the rain forest, has seemed a little screwed up somehow.  When PEN/Faulkner Award finalist Donald Antrim brings them and their eighty-nine equally eccentic kinsmen together in the decaying library of their family estate for cocktails, a light supper, and a little ritual sacrifice, the result suggests a high-speed collision between The Brothers Karamazov and the Brothers Marx.  Moving swiftly from slapstick to horror and back, The Hundred Brothers establishes Antrim as one of our most mordantly and satanically playful young writers, whose insights into the agonies of kinship are as serious as they are hilarious.

    But their dreams are abruptly shattered by a brutal Indian raid upon the Johnsons' settlement while Britt is away establishing a business. Returning to find his friends and neighbors slain or captured, his eldest son dead, his beloved and severely damaged Mary enslaved, and his remaining children absorbed into an alien society that will never relinquish its hold on them, the heartsick freedman vows not to rest until his family is whole again. A soaring work of the imagination based on oral histories of the post-Civil War years in North Texas, Paulette Jiles's The Color of Lightning is at once an intimate look into the hearts and hopes of tragically flawed human beings and a courageous reexamination of a dark American history.

    She is the one constant in their lives, the inspiration, sexually and emotionally generous, at once a muse and a whore.According to Thomas, "This novel emerged out of fascination with Russian poets and particularly Anna Akhmatova. I wanted a generic figure, a woman who preserved the truth of the word, while chaos reigned all around her. I didn't want to individualise the characters too much, so there is very little dialogue in this novel."

    The cycle of narratives that includes the title work of this collection, for instance, introduces readers to a freakish community of artists who encounter demonic perils that ultimately engulf their lives. These are selected examples of the forbidding array of persons and places that compose the mesmerizing fiction of Thomas Ligotti.

    . . . Here, said I, in wild proclamation, is one for history and a half."— Gordon LishFirework is the story of a man who, though ill-equipped to help himself, attempts to help someone else, and the beautifully rendered, perhaps necessary catastrophe that results. Unequaled in intensity and often blackly humorous, it is also an exhilarating expression of the all-too-human impulse to become more than what we seem to be.Eugene Marten is the author of In the Blind and Waste.

    And when boy meets b*#%$, nothing can keep the two of them apart. Penn Hamilton is young, brilliant, beautiful, and ready to take on the world and claim his rightful place in the midst of celebrity. As a Writer. Rapper. Model. God. Unfortunately, the world is not quite ready for him. When Penn writes what he believes to be the "Great American Literary Blockbuster," he's rebuffed at every turn. Faced with ridicule, rejection, and mounting resentment, he decides to fight back using his assets -- rock-star looks, genius IQ, and killer charm.Beryl Unger is a rising star in the publishing world, editor to literati and glitterati alike. Single, plain, obsessive, a bit on the dreamy side, she's a train wreck waiting to happen, and easy prey for a beautiful man with a seductive plan. When Penn meets Beryl, sparks fly. And sparks fly even higher when he meets the breathtaking superstar romance author Sharlyn Tate.Two women, one man. A man with no boundaries, who will stop short at nothing -- even brutal, vicious murder -- to fulfill his desperate ambition. Lolita Files is the author of the bestselling Child of God, which has been optioned as a feature film by Kanye West. Files has a degree in broadcast journalism and lives outside of Los Angeles, where she is currently developing projects for television and film.

    Howard's stories about Conan the Barbarian.These stories were originally published in Weird Tales magazine between 1933 and 1936.The Conan stories included in the collection are:1. The Frost Giant's Daughter (Gods of the North)2. The Tower of the Elephant3. Rogues in the House4. Shadows in the Moonlight (Iron Shadows in the Moon)5. Black Colossus6. Queen of the Black Coast7. The Slithering Shadow (Xuthal of the Dusk)8. A Witch Shall Be Born9. The Devil in Iron10. The People of the Black Circle11. Shadows in Zamboula (Man-Eaters of Zamboula)12. The Pool of the Black One13. Beyond the Black River14. Red Nails15. Jewels of Gwahlur (The Teeth of Gwahlur)16. The Phoenix on the Sword17. The Scarlet Citadel18. The Hour of the Dragon (Conan the Conqueror)As an added bonus, also included in the set are:Cimmeria—A PoemThe Hyborian Age—Conan's World (This is Howard's background essay on the world of Conan)For ease of navigation, the anthology includes an interactive table of contents. The stories in this collection are ordered roughly in chronological order from Conan's first adventures as a young mercenary adventurer and thief to his final epic clashes as a king and are based on the Rippke chronology.About Conan:Conan the Barbarian (also known as Conan the Cimmerian) is a fictional sword and sorcery hero who originated in pulp fiction magazines and has since been adapted to books, comics, several films (including Conan the Barbarian and Conan the Destroyer), television programs (cartoon and live-action), video games, role-playing games and other media. The character was created by writer Robert E. Howard in 1932 via a series of fantasy stories published in Weird Tales magazine.Conan the Character:Conan is a Cimmerian. From Robert E. Howard's writings (The Hyborian Age among others) it is known that the Cimmerians were based on the Celts or Gaels. He was born on a battlefield and is the son of a village blacksmith. Conan matured quickly as a youth and, by age fifteen, he was already a respected warrior who had participated in the destruction of the Aquilonian outpost of Venarium. After its demise, he was struck by wanderlust and began the adventures chronicled by Howard, encountering skulking monsters, evil wizards, tavern wenches, and beautiful princesses. He roamed throughout the Hyborian Age nations as a thief, outlaw, mercenary, and pirate. As he grew older, he began commanding larger units of men and escalating his ambitions.

    Jonathan Gates could not have anticipated that his student studies would lead him to uncover the secret history of the movies—a tale of intrigue, deception, and death that stretches back to the 14th century. But he succumbs to what will be a lifelong obsession with the mysterious Max Castle, a nearly forgotten genius of the silent screen who later became the greatest director of horror films, only to vanish in the 1940s, at the height of his talent. Now, 20 years later, as Jonathan seeks the truth behind Castle's disappearance, the innocent entertainments of his youth—the sexy sirens, the screwball comedies, the high romance—take on a sinister appearance. His tortured quest takes him from Hollywood's Poverty Row into the shadowy lore of ancient religious heresies. He encounters a cast of exotic characters, including Orson Welles and John Huston, who teach him that there's more to film than meets the eye, and journeys through the dark side of nostalgia, where the Three Stooges and Shirley Temple join company with an alien god whose purposes are anything but entertainment.

    Inexplicably, four men and one woman are having heart-stopping nightmares revolving around the dark and forbidding houses where each of them were born. When recent terrifying events occur, they are each drawn to their identical childhood homes, only to confront a sinister supernatural presence which has pursued them all their lives, and is now closer than ever to capturing their souls....

    But her passion for investigative journalism scares him no end. She is calling while reporting from a crime scene and promising to switch to anchoring when he hears a gunshot. Will she be able to fulfil her promise?Dhruv can do anything to please Vratika, for he seems bound to her for life. They have been going steady for a while and he feels she brings smiles and light to his life like no other. Can one misunderstanding in a moment of anger finish it all?For Aamir, little Dhruv is the best gift life has given him. More than just brothers, they are the beginning and end of their family. After years, struggles and pain are slowly fading away in the face of happier times. But one phone call changes their entire life. Life throws Aamir and Dhruv in a vortex of pain, loss and guilt. While Dhruv wanders for redemption, he meets Sachi. She reads his heart, soothes his soul and brings him face to face with his real self. I Still Think About You is a story of love, brotherhood, passion, dedication, pain and the depths to which a heart can go to win back lost love.

    The narrative offers hope even in difficult places, challenges our attitudes toward others and shows how God can work in the most unexpected ways through the most unlikely, unloved people.Denise George is an internationally popular writer and speaker best known for creative Biblical application. Denise is married to Dr. Timothy George, executive editor of Christianity Today and founding Dean of Beeson Divinity School in Birmingham, Alabama."A tale of pathos and need, of joy and pain, of poverty and glorious abundance."Dr Calvin Miller ~ author, poet, artist."The deep things in this simple story tug hard at the heart."J I Packer ~ Board of Governors' Professor of Theology, Regent College, Vancouver, Canada

    These poems explore a more emotional side of Charles Bukowski.

    You could say we're the #1 nation at being the best at greatness.But as perfect as America is in every single way, America is broken! And we can't exchange it because we're 236 years past the 30-day return window. Look around--we don't make anything anymore, we've mortgaged our future to China, and the Apologist-in-Chief goes on world tours just to bow before foreign leaders. Worse, the L.A. Four Seasons Hotel doesn't even have a dedicated phone button for the Spa. You have to dial an extension! Where did we lose our way?!It's high time we restored America to the greatness it never lost!Luckily, AMERICA AGAIN will singlebookedly pull this country back from the brink. It features everything from chapters, to page numbers, to fonts. Covering subject's ranging from healthcare ("I shudder to think where we'd be without the wide variety of prescription drugs to treat our maladies, such as think-shuddering") to the economy ("Life is giving us lemons, and we're shipping them to the Chinese to make our lemon-flavored leadonade") to food ("Feel free to deep fry this book—it's a rich source of fiber"), Stephen gives America the dose of truth it needs to get back on track.

    A middle-aged man recounts in meticulous detail a gruesome act of violence he committed as a child with the passive consent of his victim, an incident that may have only happened in his imagination.

    Set in the Midwest, where Florida represents a faraway paradise, this novel tells the story of Alice Fivey. Fatherless since she was seven, Alice is left in the care of her relatives at the age of ten, when her mother, whose "toenails winked in the foil bed we knew for Florida," is institutionalized. Alice is moved from place to place, remaining still while others try to mold her into someone different from her mother. She consoles herself with books and becomes a storyteller herself as she moves into adulthood, ever further from the desolation of her mother's actions and closer to the meaning of her own experience. Told in brief scenes of spare beauty, Florida is a graceful and gripping tale of family, forgiveness, and creation of the self.