All the Assholes in the World and Mine


Charles Bukowski
    There may be numerous typos or missing text. There are no illustrations or indexes. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. You can also preview the book there.

Darjeeling Inheritance


Liz Harris - 2021
    She learns that her beloved father died a couple of days earlier and that he left her his estate. She learns also that it was his wish that she marry Andrew McAllister, the good-looking younger son from a neighbouring plantation. Unwilling to commit to a wedding for which she doesn’t feel ready, Charlotte pleads with Dan Fitzgerald, the assistant manager of Sundar, to teach her how to run the plantation while she gets to know Andrew. Although reluctant as he knew that a woman would never be accepted as manager by the local merchants and workers, Dan agrees. Charlotte’s chaperone on the journey from England, Ada Eastman, who during the long voyage, has become a friend, has journeyed to Darjeeling to marry Harry Banning, the owner of a neighbouring tea garden. When Ada marries Harry, she’s determined to be a loyal and faithful wife. And to be a good friend to Charlotte. And nothing, but nothing, was going to stand in the way of that.

Election


Tom Perrotta - 1998
    Scheduled for release as a feature film in 1998, starring Matthew Broderick.Who really cares who gets elected President of Winwood High School? Nobody -- except Tracy Flick. Tracy's one of those students of boundless energy and ambition who somehow finds the time to do everything -- edit the school paper, star in the musical, sleep with her favorite teacher. Her heart is set on becoming President of Winwood, and what Tracy wants, Tracy gets. With weeks to go before election day, her victory is nearly a foregone conclusion.And that's just the problem, according to Mr. M -- a.k.a. Jim McAllister, faculty, advisor to the Student Government Association and a popular Winwood history teacher. In the name of democracy -- not to mention a simmering grudge against Tracy Flick -- Mr. M recruits the perfect opposition candidate. Paul Warren is a golden boy, a football hero with a brain and a heart, eager to bulk up his meager resume.As Winwood High experiences election fever, Mr. M is distracted by a sudden attraction to his wife's best friend. The two dramas he has created -- one personal and private, the other public and political -- unfurl simultaneously, with all the players sharing in a life-altering conclusion.Part satire, part soap opera, Election is an uncommon look at an ordinary American high school, and the extraordinary people who inhabit it.

Second Wind


Alison Henderson - 2019
    She lands a job in an art gallery in picturesque Carmel-by-the-Sea and begins a new life.After her ex’s body washes up on the beach, Laurel finds herself dragged into a scheme involving money-laundering Russians, a pair of amiable biker gang members, and a good-looking government number-cruncher who’s more comfortable in a T-shirt and shorts than a suit.As a forensic accountant for the FBI, Jake Carlson is used to nailing bad guys by following the money trail. His current investigation is floundering until he meets Laurel McDowell, a young woman with connections to an alarming number of his suspects. Is she a witness, an accomplice, or a victim? All he has to do is to keep her alive long enough to find out.

When a Lady Says I Do


Bridget Barton - 2021
    Nevertheless, she has little hope of finding true love, as it seems that no one truly appreciates her golden heart and boundless intelligence. Fate smiles on her though when she meets a dashing lord, whose presence will give her butterflies. Little did she know that her own sister would be jealous of her sweet romance...Will the imperfectly perfect Lady capture the charming Lord’s heart?Lord Lovell Trenowden is a man who cares deeply for his family. When their lives are falling apart along with their estate, Lovell accepts that he has no choice but to marry for money. Luckily for him, Lady Grace not only has wealth, but also the most beautiful soul from all women he has ever met. When she accepts his marriage proposal, he feels he is the luckiest man in the world. However, what Lovell hasn’t confessed to Grace, is that finding a wealthy wife was his only option...Will Lord Lovell manage to both save his family estate and marry the woman of his dreams?The more time they spend together, the more Lovell and Grace's romance blossoms into something neither was expecting. Everything crashes down though the moment Grace’s spiteful sister tells her that Lovell was on the hunt for a wife to merely secure a fortune. When Grace calls off the engagement, will Lovell manage to convince her that she is the love of his life? In the end, will Grace and Lovell follow the truth of their hearts, defying anything that comes between them?"When a Lady says I Do" is a historical romance novel of approximately 80,000 words. No cheating, no cliffhangers, and a guaranteed happily ever after.

Summer Crossing


Truman Capote - 2005
    Left to her own devices, Grady turns up the heat on the secret affair she's been having with a Brooklyn-born Jewish war veteran who works as a parking lot attendant. As the season passes, the romance turns more serious and morally ambiguous, and Grady must eventually make a series of decisions that will forever affect her life and the lives of everyone around her.

The Obstacle Course


J.F. Freedman - 1994
    F. Freedman presents The Obstacle Course, a coming-of-age story that recounts the adventures of a colorful, profane, street-smart, and appealing fifteen-year-old boy growing up in 1957 on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Roy Poole has to be smart because he is almost always on his own. His father is a drinker, womanizer, and wife-beater. His mother can't cope with her husband or her children; Roy copes by running with his own gang, whose escapades sometimes border on the criminal. And this young man is eminently available when the girls come after him, which is often. But there is another side to Roy. He builds model ships and regularly hitchhikes to Annapolis to run the Naval Academy's grueling obstacle course. For Roy Poole's one ambition in life, his consuming dream, is to become a midshipman. One day, like a gift from heaven, Roy meets a retired admiral who also builds model ships. The admiral is immediately attracted to the youngster, and he becomes almost a second father to the boy. Admiral Wells arranges for Roy to be admitted to a military prep school that sends most of its graduates to the Naval Academy. And then, suddenly, Roy's innocence brings about an explosion in this exotic world he has entered. Embittered and lost, Roy strikes out blindly for parts unknown. And on that adventure, particularly in an encounter with members of a black church, people that he, a Southerner in the fifties, has never known except as stereotypes, he begins the process of understanding that offers him a chance for his own redemption. This powerful and gritty coming-of-age novel will evoke memories of Holden Caulfield and Huck Finn. It also bears comparison to the novels of Pat Conroy. Best of all, The Obstacle Course confirms Freedman's talent for telling a compelling story in a full and rich original voice that marks him as a novelist with a limitless future.

The Spuddy


Lillian Beckwith - 1974
    The fishermen call him The Spuddy. The only person to care for him is Andy, a young dumb boy. For both of them their meeting brings friendship after loneliness. But when they become friends with Jake, skipper of the Silver Crest, events take an unexpected turn...

Big Fish


Daniel Wallace - 1998
    He saved lives, tamed giants. Animals loved him. People loved him. Women loved him (and he loved them back). And he knew more jokes than any man alive.Now, as he lies dying, Edward Bloom can't seem to stop telling jokes -or the tall tales that have made him, in his son's eyes, an extraordinary man. Big Fish is the story of this man's life, told as a series of legends and myths inspired by the few facts his son, William, knows. Through these tales -hilarious and wrenching, tender and outrageous- William begins to understand his elusive father's great feats, and his great failings.

Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk


Kathleen Rooney - 2017
    While she strolls, Lillian recalls a long and eventful life that included a brief reign as the highest-paid advertising woman in America—a career cut short by marriage, motherhood, divorce, and a breakdown.A love letter to city life—however shiny or sleazy—Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk by Kathleen Rooney paints a portrait of a remarkable woman across the canvas of a changing America: from the Jazz Age to the onset of the AIDS epidemic; the Great Depression to the birth of hip-hop.

The Gravedigger's Daughter


Joyce Carol Oates - 2007
    Here the father—a former high school teacher—is demeaned by the only job he can get: gravedigger and cemetery caretaker. When local prejudice and the family's own emotional frailty give rise to an unthinkable tragedy, the gravedigger's daughter, Rebecca heads out into America. Embarking upon an extraordinary odyssey of erotic risk and ingenious self-invention, she seeks renewal, redemption, and peace—on the road to a bittersweet and distinctly “American” triumph.

The Duke Meets His Match: A Steamy Historical Regency Romance Novel


Violet Hamers - 2021
    Only...Just as her terrible uncle announces her betrothal to a very lecherous Earl, Lady Ivy Marple knows that her life cannot get any worse. And due to the tragic loss of her family, she stopped believing in miracles long ago...Burdened with an impossible task by his late friend, Charles Landon, the Duke of Nelson, has to ensure Lady Ivy is happy. The problem? How does a man with an illegitimate child save a damsel in distress?Just as he approaches her with his preposterous plan, Ivy is certain her brother’s friend has no moral qualms. But if she has to choose to become a governess over her upcoming nuptials, then that she will. Even if she is sure to lose more than her reputation in the process...

Sinner, Saint or Serpent


John Anthony Miller - 2021
    Especially when there’s a murderer in their midst.Investigative reporter, ‘Justice’ Harper stumbles into a fresh murder scene of a hated businessman. Justice’s mere presence at the scene soon adds him to the list of suspects. Along with three other local citizens. Each one with a unique motive. Blaze Barbeau, a wealthy woman, married to a local business man and rumoured to be having an affair with the victim. Lucinda Boyd, a generous widow, heavily involved in charity events, whose business was recently conned out of her control by the victim obtaining majority shares by dubious means. And Belladonna Dede, a Voodoo Queen whose wares were found at the crime scene. Justice is determined to find out the truth regarding the demise of this wealthy man which leads him into some uncertain situations. He must be getting close when the threats start arriving. He will not stop. He’s close. Who committed this crime? The Sinner? The Saint? Or the Serpent? Fast paced, with plot twists bursting from every page, Sinner, Saint or Serpent will keep you on the edge of your seat until the shocking end.

Heartburn


Nora Ephron - 1983
    For in this inspired confection of adultery, revenge, group therapy, and pot roast, the creator of Sleepless in Seattle reminds us that comedy depends on anguish as surely as a proper gravy depends on flour and butter.Seven months into her pregnancy, Rachel Samstat discovers that her husband, Mark, is in love with another woman. The fact that the other woman has "a neck as long as an arm and a nose as long as a thumb and you should see her legs" is no consolation. Food sometimes is, though, since Rachel writes cookbooks for a living. And in between trying to win Mark back and loudly wishing him dead, Ephron's irrepressible heroine offers some of her favorite recipes. Heartburn is a sinfully delicious novel, as soul-satisfying as mashed potatoes and as airy as a perfect soufflé.

Some Luck


Jane Smiley - 2014
    Moving from post-World War I America through the early 1950s, Some Luck gives us an intimate look at this family's triumphs and tragedies, zooming in on the realities of farm life, while casting-as the children grow up and scatter to New York, California, and everywhere in between-a panoramic eye on the monumental changes that marked the first half of the twentieth century. Rich with humor and wisdom, twists and surprises, Some Luck takes us through deeply emotional cycles of births and deaths, passions, and betrayals, displaying Smiley's dazzling virtuosity, compassion, and understanding of human nature and the nature of history, never discounting the role of fate and chance. This potent conjuring of many lives across generations is a stunning tour de force.