He didn't expect Darlene Johnson to walk into his office with her chocolate box. And certainly didn't expect what followed. . Book One of the Detectives That Don't Fit Series.

    Pretentious web designers, reality show wannabes, and hipster party girls are among the characters populating a seemingly ordinary world teetering on the brink of chaos.

    The bitter misunderstandings and brutal clashes of cultures that resulted ultimately shaped the nation we know today. In seven classic western tales, the New York Times-bestselling Grand Master re-creates a world of violence, deception, vengeance, and strange beauty with the same peerless storytelling power that distinguishes his acclaimed suspense fiction.

    A new leader tries to pull the country out of a terrible recession—only to face a devilish plot from inside his own party. David Frum's darkly comic satire PATRIOTS is not only a warning about the future of American politics. It is a scorching, intimate explanation of why the U.S. political system has so badly failed the American people over the years just past.PATRIOTS tells the story of Walter Schotzke, the aimless young heir to America's largest mustard fortune. Walter is sent by his tough-minded grandmother to work in the office of a distinguished U.S. Senator. She hopes her otherwise worthless only grandchild might find purpose, and even appreciation for his country, from political service. Perhaps the job will also help Walter overcome the tragic loss of both his parents—especially that of his famous father, a genuine American hero, whose example Walter can't ever hope to live up to.

    This is a world of lost fathers and redemptive con men, of meth tweakers on desperate odysseys and men committing suicide by fishing.In "Thief," an aluminum worker turns unlikely detective to solve the mystery of which of his kids is stealing from the family vacation fund. In "We Live in Water," a lawyer returns to a corrupt North Idaho town to find the father who disappeared thirty years earlier. In "Anything Helps," a homeless man has to "go to cardboard" to raise enough money to buy his son the new Harry Potter book. In "Virgo," a local newspaper editor tries to get back at his superstitious ex-girlfriend by screwing with her horoscope. Also included are the stories "Don't Eat Cat" and "Statistical Abstract of My Hometown, Spokane, Washington," both of which achieved a cult following after publication online.

    The companion volume to Seek!, Rucker's selected nonfiction, Gnarl! brings together three dozen of the writer's best science fiction short stories. His first major story collection in 17 years, the volume includes a number of previously unanthologized stories, including tales cowritten with Marc Laidlaw, Paul Di Filippo, and Bruce Sterling. Classics such as "The Fifty-Seventh Franz Kafka," a timely meditation on the paradoxes of cloning, are side by side with works of pseudomemoir like "The Indian Rope Trick Explained." The Rucker formula - cutting-edge physics, a wild but perversely logical imagination, and a decidedly punk attitude - illuminates this new collection.

    That's until her boyfriend dumps her, and she's forced out of her job and her home.When she starts a new job at The Gazette, Danique experiences an instant connection to her colleague Jenna. As they work closer together investigating a tragedy in the local community, Danique finds herself even more drawn to Jenna and begins to question her own sexuality.Can Danique overcome her fears of starting a new relationship? Or will she hide her true feelings at the expense of her happiness?

    Meet the man who vacuums bewildered prairie dogs out of their burrows; a frustrated werewolf who roams the streets of Soho getting mistaken for Brian Blessed; a smug carbon-neutral eco-couple; a teenage girl who invites 45,000 MySpace friends to a house party; the author of a business book entitled Highly Successful Secrets to Standing on a Corner Holding Up a Golf Sale Sign and a man whose attempts to teach softball to a group of indolent British advertising executives sparks an international crisis.

    In death, he becomes really aggravating. In a farewell gesture to his three scattered offspring, he bequeaths each one of them a tarnished jewel from his declining empire.The slothful and duplicitous Ben receives the thriving auto parts plant that he already oversees. He immediately sets his sights on acquiring all three companies. Reality-challenged Ethan gains ownership of a failing distillery. Their sister, the independent Kick, reluctantly assumes the reins of Great North, a small publishing company and sometime music producer.The trio learn from the will's executor—former NHL-er turned farmer Will Montgomery—that the departing Everett has seen fit to challenge them with a series of codicils. Ben is required to fulfill a major parts contract while Ethan has to get the whisky plant back in the black. And Kick—a chronically impoverished documentary film-maker with a project on the go in Wyoming—is dismayed to learn that she is required to produce a “back tax” album with a fading country music star. The singer, Jonah Peck, proves to be every bit as cantankerous and difficult as Everett Eastman himself. Which means that Kick is out of the frying pan.And into the fire.

    What happens when a man lives his life backwards, or a family owns a diamond as big as the Ritz Hotel?How can a boring girl become more popular, a careless young woman become more sensible, or a cut-glass bowl destroy a married woman's life?What does a young man do to save the girl that he likes from an evil ghost, or to forget old feelings for a woman when she marries another man?Read this collection of short stories by one of America's finest storytellers to find out.

    With her only connection to London broken, she moves home to York to be near her family and to begin to build a new life. Taking a job at the antique shop she has always admired, she finds herself crossing paths with two very different men. Will, who has recently become the guardian to his niece after the tragic death of her parents. And Ciaran, who she enlists to help solve the mystery of an Egyptian antique. Two men who represent two different happy endings. But can she trust herself to choose the right man? And will that bring her everything she really needs? The brand new series from Holly Hepburn, author of Coming Home to Brightwater Bay.

    Contents:Introduction: The Song of the Soul (1971) essayI Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream (1967)The Discarded (1959)Deeper Than the Darkness (1957)Blind Lightning (1956)All the Sounds of Fear (1962)The Silver Corridor (1956)"Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman (1965)Bright Eyes (1965)

    Traditional resources—home, parents, lovers, friends, even willpower—are not dependable. And so the characters in these short, compelling stories have learned to depend on small triumphs of wit, irony, and spirit.A widow, surrounded by a small menagerie, comes to terms with her veterinarian husband's death; a young woman entertains her dying friend with trivia and reaffirms her own life; in the aftermath of an abortion, a woman compulsively knits a complete wardrobe for a friend's baby. Buffeted by rude shocks, thwarted by misconnections, the characters recognize that anything can finally become a reason to live.

    Nothing was unusual that day. Until in the evening when the boy does not return. and a friend tells her mom that the boy never went to play that day. A frantic search begins with the neighbours and the boy’s friends pulling in all their resources. Does the boy return? Where did he go? Where was he taken? What happens at the end? Some Reviews: One of the most amazing short stories I have read in recent times – Rahul Bhatt A joy ride of read. A great beginning and an eventful ending, just loved the short story – Priyanka Sharma What a lovely story this is, it reminded me of my childhood – Sourav Mohanty

    The famous Gibbsville stories, more than fifty of theminclude such stunners as "The Doctor's Son," "Imagine Kissing Pete," "Fatimas and Kisses," "The Cellar Domain," and "The Bucket of Blood." Again, O'Hara's Pennsylvania Protectorate, as he called itin reality, the coal region of his hometown, Pottsville, in Schuylkill Countycomes to socially and sexually complicated life. Here are the miners in the company towns, the country club set, the shopkeepers, the bartenders, the barbers, and the collegians. It is a world as varied, vibrant, and complete as Faulkner's Yoknapatawphna County or Thomas Wolfe's Altamount. Presented in this Book-of-the-Month Club Selection are four decades of the best work by the author who Bennett Cerf declared one of America's most underrated writers."