Valentino's Kiss


Tia Didmon - 2019
    Too bad she feels like a complete fraud. Failing sections of her training didn’t stop the P.I.A. from passing her, because no one has a talent like hers. Unfortunately, it’s killing her.Valentino Moretti forsake his race long ago. On the brink of extinction, with his demon long gone from the world he welcomes his death. He feels nothing. When his brother is assassinated and the P.I.A. is called in to investigate, Valentino vows to avenge his murder before seeking his death but the new agent sent in to interview him changes everything. With his demon awakening for a woman that shouldn’t exist and an unseen foe seeking his destruction. Can this predator tame the beast within long enough to ensnare the heart of the only human alive that can save him?

New to Big: How Established Businesses Can Grow Like Startups


David S. Kidder - 2019
    But Immelt, rather than being angry or offended at the interruption, candidly said to his teams, "That was the most important question in the thirty-seven years of this conference." The fact is, as Kidder shows in The Growth OS, entrenched thinking and outdated bureaucracy is at war with new ideas. Yet, of the top five companies by market cap in 2001, only Microsoft remains in 2016. Traditional companies have tumbled off the list. To think like a scaled startup, companies today need to look for markets that haven't been discovered or created yet.They need to identify a customer problem and work backward from the outside in to discover a business model for that solution. The Growth OS is designed to instill the mindsets, methods, and tools that veteran venture investors and experienced entrepreneurs use to discover the future in the face of the unknowable. But even most bets placed by VC's fail, more than 80 percent of the time. That is why you need a portfolio of investments and a growth board to measure the progress of each business, only continuing to fund those that show validated progress.

Granta 108: Chicago


John Freeman - 2009
    The eight-hour work day, the Ponzi scheme and the rhythm and blues have risen from its streets. But Chicago is not just a city of the past. In this dynamic issue, GRANTA brings the one-time industrial hub to life through the eyes of exciting new writers, from home grown stars like George Saunders and Dave Eggers, to immigrants who have come to the city from Bosnia, China and Ethiopia.In this issue, Aleksandar Hemon plays football with Italians and Tibetans along Lake Shore Drive. Chicago born MacArthur 'genius' grant-winning photographer Camilo José Vegara captures the demolition of the city's massive public housing estates. Richard Powers recollects the flood of 1992. Don DeLillo remembers Nelson Algren. Alex Kotlowitz explores the cost of urban violence and Dinaw Mengestu describes moving back home to run his dying father’s messenger business. Plus a sneak preview of Peter Carey's new novel.Finally, Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka meditates on the meaning of the city's most visible son, Barack Obama. Out of these stories, which will be wrapped in a beautiful cover by Chris Ware, will arise a vivid portrait of a city remaking itself: a city shredded by violence but poised for a new future; a city that once again has a legitimate claim to being the home of the world's best writers.

Magna Carta


J.C. Holt - 1976
    The book is now published with many corrections and additions, including a new chapter on justice and jurisdiction that provides a fresh approach to the legal provisions of the Charter that were to prove so enduring, along with new appendices on matters as varied as vernacular translations of the Charter and grants of liberties in perpetuity.

Imperfect


Tina Chan - 2013
    She's the only Accident living in a world of Perfects. More often than not, she feels like a blemish on an otherwise utopian society. And her life is about to get worse. The government has arrested her adoptive parents and her brother goes missing. To top things off, Kristi somehow gets dragged into the mess and now she's a wanted fugitive...Troop is less than he seems. Teachers love him. Colleges want him. Students revere him. There's even a hot girl after him. Life couldn't get any better than this, right? So, why does she feel like he's a devil in disguise as an angel?

Click: One Novel, Ten Authors


David AlmondLinda Sue Park - 2007
    Gee traveled from Ireland to Russia, Japan to Australia, taking pictures of people at work, at war, in sports, and at play. Now Jason receives Gee's photographs and camera--though he has no idea what to do with them. And Gee leaves Maggie with the puzzle of the seven shells--one that might take her whole life to solve. As Maggie and Jason use these gifts, they will discover all the people their grandfather was...and all the people they might yet become. Ten bestselling, award-winning authors unite for a novel of brilliant writing, global adventure, and constant surprise.

Drop Dead Crime: Mystery and Suspense from the Leading Ladies of Murder


Lisa Regan - 2019
    Five sublime authors of crime fiction. One stunning book. Gripping thrillers, packed with deviously executed crimes and in-depth investigations are some of the most popular reads available on traditional and virtual book shelves today. Now, you can sample some of the best female writers of crime fiction, in Drop Dead Crime, a collection of novellas packed with the twisted plotlines and memorable characters that excite readers and leave them demanding more. Lisa Regan, Leslie Wolfe, Colleen Helme, Amy Vansant, and Julie Smith are among the most skilled and prolific writers of the genre today, and each one knows exactly how to tease a story to maximum effect. Their use of strong female leads, combined with delicately balanced plots, means suspense is always kept at a fever pitch—ready to boil over at any second. Lisa Regan’s Over The Edge is guaranteed to keep you up at night. When P.I. Jocelyn Rush witnesses a young mother jump from a bridge, she is determined to solve the mystery of why, and what she finds is a complex web of secrets and lies so shocking it could destroy the people left behind. Leslie Wolfe introduces FBI Agent Tess Winnett in Not Really Dead, a fast-paced, intense thriller about a serial killer who makes a terrible mistake. Colleen Helme stuns with Behind Blue Eyes. A grisly murder along with a new client hiding a deadly secret is just the beginning for Shelby Nichols, mind reader extraordinaire. Don't miss this exciting thriller! In Amy Vansant’s exclusive novella Parental Kilt, the stars of her "Kilty" romantic suspense series, Catriona Phoenix and Brochan the Highlander, find themselves trapped in a serial killer's maze during a movie wrap-party gone wrong. The serial killer was supposed to be dead, but the bodies are piling up... Julie Smith brings a dazzling story of suspense, The Big Crazy. Detective Skip Langdon, NOPD, while navigating a world of chaos and betrayal after Hurricane Katrina, takes on a gang of rogue cops who may be acting as self-appointed executioners. Get a copy of Drop Dead Crime today and sample some of the best crime fiction writing, from some of the best female crime writers around!

Infinite Detail


Tim Maughan - 2019
    Ten years in, it's become a center of creative counterculture. But it's fraying at the edges, radicalizing from inside. How will it fare when its chief architect, Rushdi Mannan, takes off to meet his boyfriend in New York City--now the apotheosis of the new techno-utopian global metropolis?AFTER: An act of anonymous cyberterrorism has permanently switched off the Internet. Global trade, travel, and communication have collapsed. The luxuries that characterized modern life are scarce. In the Croft, Mary--who has visions of people presumed dead--is sought out by grieving families seeking connections to lost ones. But does Mary have a gift or is she just hustling to stay alive? Like Grids, who runs the Croft's black market like personal turf. Or like Tyrone, who hoards music (culled from cassettes, the only medium to survive the crash) and tattered sneakers like treasure.

The Wild Birds: Six Stories of the Port William Membership


Wendell Berry - 1986
    Now in paperback for the first time, Berry's popular collection of six interconnected stories traces his Port William characters through the Depression up to the 1950s.

How to Be Brilliant: Change Your Ways in 90 Days


Michael Heppell - 2002
    We want to make the very best we can out of our lives - to achieve all we can achieve and be the best we can be. We want to be Brilliant. This book will give you tools to find out what point you are at now, understand where it is you want to get and develop strategies and powerful methods to get you there. As quickly as possible and as economically as possible with as much fun as possible. The book uses many clear examples and stories to show you how to overcome barriers that hold you back. You'll learn how to develop a clear vision for a brilliant future and communicate with your friends, family and colleagues at a higher level.

Captain Riley


Fernando Gamboa - 2014
    Riley and his crew of deep-sea treasure hunters believe they’re setting off on yet another adventure—to find a mysterious artifact off the coast of Morocco for an enigmatic millionaire with questionable motives. Part-time smugglers, world travelers, and expats who have fought causes both valiant and doomed, Riley and his crew soon find themselves in the crosshairs of a deal much more dangerous than the one they bargained for. From Spain to Morocco to an Atlantic crossing that leads to Washington, DC, Captain Riley must sail his ship, the Pingarrón, straight through the eye of a ruthless squall and into a conspiracy that goes by the name Operation Apokalypse—a storm that only he and his crew can navigate.

Random Acts


Taylor Smith - 1998
    After children start disappearing, it's up to the FBI's best to stop a killer. — Criminal profiler Laurel Madden is at the top of her field. But being the best comes at a price. Brilliant, beautiful and aloof, Agent Madden has a dark side and even darker secrets. Maybe that's why she understands the criminal mind so well.Sent to cover the disappearance of the children, reporter Claire Fillespie arrives in California with another, more personal agenda: to rip away the veil of secrecy that surrounds and protects Madden. Claire has evidence that Madden committed murder...and got away with it. Until now. And Claire won't rest until there's justice for the victim - someone she cared about.Between these two determined woman stands veteran FBI agent Dan Sprague - torn by duty, loyalty to one woman and an intense attraction to the other that's as unwelcome as it is irresistible.As the balance shifts dangerously between thse three, one thing becomes clear: hunting killers is a dangerous game.

Absolute Zero


James Patterson - 2017
    Short, fast-paced, high-impact entertainment.Fear the man who has nothing left to lose…Cody Thurston is working his usual shift at the rough East London pub he calls home. When a group of out-of-towners walk in looking for trouble, Thurston sends them on their way using some not-so-gentle persuasion.As a former special forces operative in the Australian military, Thurston can handle trouble. But these men are more dangerous than he realises, and the actions they take will leave Thurston homeless, alone and seeking revenge.

Goat In The Snow


Emily Pettit - 2012
    

Early Color


Saul Leiter - 2006
    Although Edward Steichen had exhibited some of Leiter's color photography at The Museum of Modern Art in 1953, it remained virtually unknown to the world thereafter. Leiter moved to New York in 1946 to become a painter, but through his friendship with Richard Pousette-Dart he quickly recognized the creative potential of photography. Leiter continued to paint, exhibiting with Philip Guston and Willem de Kooning, but the camera remained his ever-present means of recording life in the metropolis. None of Leiter's contemporaries, with the partial exception of Helen Levitt, assembled a comparable body of work: subtle, often abstract compositions of lyrical, eloquent color.