A moving account of Dillard’s own experiences while writing her works, The Writing Life offers deep insight into one of the most mysterious professions.

    After his life spirals out of control, a young man navigates a world of juggalos, transients, and petty criminals with Shane, an enigmatic small-time drug dealer with a penchant for body modification.

    She is hurt and frightened. The man and woman who live there take her in. But their decency is utterly unequipped to deal with the Woman in the Dark, or with the designs of the men who want her.First published in installments in Liberty magazine [in 1933] and now rediscovered after many years, Woman in the Dark shows Dashiell Hammett at the peak of his narrative powers. With an introduction by Robert B. Parker, the author of the celebrated Spenser novels.A one-time detective and a maser of deft understatement, Dashiell Hammett virtually invented the hard-boiled crime novel.

    The author of Big Deal takes his game on the worldwide tournament circuit once more to see if his famed card skills can hold up against the vastly changed world of poker in the 21st century.

    In it a daughter reflects on the complicated and volatile love she and her father shared. Shirley Jean Abbott grew up in Hot Springs, Arkansas, in the 1940s and 50s and was the beloved daughter of Alfred Bemont Abbott, affectionately known as “Hat.” Hat wasn’t a bookmaker in the literary sense, even though he allowed Shirley’s mother to believe as much while they were dating. Rather, his craft was gambling, and his business was horse racing.Despite the corruption, which put food on the table and rabbit coats in the closet, Abbott remembers the kind and attentive father who spent nights reading to her. He alone is responsible for opening the door to a world of language and literature for her. And she ran with it. Against her father’s wishes, after graduation she headed for New York City. In the end, the girl he had nurtured into an independent and intelligent young woman had outgrown the small town where she grew up. The Bookmaker’s Daughter was originally published by Ticknor and Fields in 1992 and was a Book of the Month Club selection.

    With every touch and word between us, I ache to possess her.I have no business thinking about Devon as anything other than a family friend. No business craving her.Just when I think I've pushed my inappropriate lust to the side, she falls under a vicious attack, tarnishing her reputation and putting her dreams of a future in music at risk.If they think they can go after what's mine... they're going to have to answer to me.I have no right to take an sweet and pure light like Devon.But after just one taste, the professor in me takes over and refuses to ignore this lesson in lust.And she's about to be educated.***** Author's note: All of Colleen's heroes and heroines are of legal age to consent. Educated is a steamy, long, age-gap novella by USA Today Bestselling Author, Colleen Charles, about a sexy professor who can't stop himself from falling for his best friend's daughter. It's the second book in the Taboo Tales series and is a standalone with all the steam and feels you're looking for, along with an emotional HEA.

    The battle hardened former Marine lives to protect his hometown, Mason, Texas and the people who live and love there. Abigail Williams did a bad, bad thing. Trapped in a dangerous situation with no end in sight, Abigail made a difficult choice and now she is living with the consequences, and those consequences are a life on the run—a new name in a new town.

    Burroughs reveals another, gentler side in The Cat Inside. Originally published as a limited-edition volume, this moving and witty discourse on cats combines deadpan routines and dream passages with a heartwarming account of Burroughs's unexpected friendships with the many cats he has known. It is also a meditation on the long, mysterious relationship between cats and their human hosts, which Burroughs traces back to the Egyptian cult of the "animal other." With its street sense and whiplash prose, The Cat Inside is a genuine revelation for Burroughs fans and cat lovers alike.

    The Roolands' home is an island of colour, good humour and easy living in drab 1950s Léopoldville, and soon Louise is working there as a maid. But once she is under her new employers' roof their model life starts to fall apart - painful secrets from their past emerge, cracks in their relationship appear and a dark obsession begins to grow, which will end in murder... Frédéric Dard (1921-2000) was one of the best known and loved French crime writers of the twentieth century. Enormously prolific, he wrote more than three hundred thrillers, suspense stories, plays and screenplays, under a variety of noms de plume, throughout his long and illustrious career, which also saw him win the 1957 Grand prix de littérature policière for >em>The Executioner Weeps, forthcoming from Pushkin Vertigo. Dard's Bird in a Cage, The Wicked Go to Hell and The Gravediggers' Bread are also available or forthcoming from Pushkin Vertigo.

    The fastest growing firm on Wall Street, and I had been lucky enough to land a job there right out of college. Despite being the youngest woman on the floor, I quickly made waves in the company. Even the CEO, Carter Winthrow, took notice of my mathematical skills. When he came to meet me personally, he also took notice of my body as well. Within days, I was promoted to Carter's personal assistant, second guessing his stock moves and checking his managers' work. While the job itself was fantastic, the best part was getting to work with Carter himself. The suave and sexy billionaire playboy managed to exude charm and confidence every time we spoke. And as I proved myself great at the job again and again, he became more and more comfortable with me. As I saw him giving to charities and holding his niece, I realized he was the ultimate alpha male. Those strong, chiseled abs and huge arms was all that the “Sexiest Bachelor” lists saw, but I saw the real man. A family man, just waiting for someone to give him that family. I knew that what I wanted, more than this job, more than a career, more than life itself, was Carter's to give. I would do anything to get Carter to give it to me. And I had a feeling that he felt the same way. He wanted to give me something that would keep us together for the rest of our lives. A baby.

    Beautiful. Smart. Curves to die for.Just one look at those banging curves makes me crave her with raging lust. Now, I’ll just have to convince her. Oh, and believe me, I will. I always get what the F@ck I want. Yep. I’m used to coming out on top. What I didn’t count on? I just can’t get enough. She sends my animal instincts into a frenzy. She is my new obsession, my addiction.I took her body. But one moment can change everything. One moment and she steals my heart.

    And they thrive best in Seattle, hometown of mysterious bear shifters and the lucky women strong enough to love them. If only it were that easy... When curvy chocolatier Amy loses her storefront, she knows a fresh start is right around the corner. What she doesn't know is that her elusive landlord-to-be is a billionaire bear shifter--and she is his fated mate. Once vandals target Amy, she must rely on Zach for protection. But will she ever learn to really trust him? Grizzly bear shifter Zach doesn't have time to court Amy the way she deserves. He's too busy protecting his billionaire family from vicious thugs attacking their properties across the Pacific Northwest. He knows she wants him, and he helped her business, so why won't she trust that he's serious about her? Zach is a shifter who knows how to get what he wants, but convincing Amy of his love might be the biggest challenge he's ever faced.

    It had always been her dream to open a cafe on the beach and it was finally becoming a reality - until her husband disappeared into thin air. No calls, notes or clues as to where he went. Now days before the cafe’s opening, a private investigator notifies Jaymee that her husband's disappearance isn’t by mistake and the cafe, along with her life, is part of something much bigger. As more dark secrets start coming to light, Jaymee must act fast to uncover truths and figure out how to save her dream, family and the cafe.With the help of her loving daughter and a handsome investigator, ideas start coming together and the journey to save the cafe begins.Unexpected secrets, new romances and faith create an adventure Jaymee never could have dreamed of. Before the time Spring ends, relationships are strengthened, truths are discovered, and love is renewed in more ways than one.

    It’s the judges who have the heavy lift: they are the ones who have to make the ultimate decisions, many of which have profound consequences on the lives of the people standing in front of them.In Tough Cases, judges from different kinds of courts in different parts of the country write about the case that proved most difficult for them to decide. Some of these cases received international attention: the Elián González case in which Judge Jennifer Bailey had to decide whether to return a seven-year-old boy to his father in Cuba after his mother drowned trying to bring the child to the United States, or the Terri Schiavo case in which Judge George Greer had to decide whether to withdraw life support from a woman in a vegetative state over the wishes of her parents, or the Scooter Libby case about appropriate consequences for revealing the name of a CIA agent. Others are less well-known but equally fascinating: a judge on a Native American court trying to balance U.S. law with tribal law, a young Korean American former defense attorney struggling to adapt to her new responsibilities on the other side of the bench, and the difficult decisions faced by a judge tasked with assessing the mental health of a woman who has killed her own children.Relatively few judges have publicly shared the thought processes behind their decision making. Tough Cases makes for fascinating reading for everyone from armchair attorneys and fans of Law and Order to those actively involved in the legal profession who want insight into the people judging their work.

    In response to a reader's letter, Burnett reminisces about her love of English robins -- and one in particular that changed her life forever.