Fishbowl


Bradley Somer - 2015
    He's longed for adventure, so when the opportunity arises, he escapes from his bowl, clears the balcony railing and finds himself airborne. Plummeting toward the street below, Ian witnesses the lives of the Seville on Roxy residents.There's the handsome grad student, his girlfriend, and the other woman; the construction worker who feels trapped by a secret; the building's super who feels invisible and alone; the pregnant woman on bed rest who craves a forbidden ice cream sandwich; the shut-in for whom dirty talk, and quiche, are a way of life; and home-schooled Herman, a boy who thinks he can travel through time. Though they share time and space, they have something even more important in common: each faces a decision that will affect the course of their lives. Within the walls of the Seville are stories of love, new life, and death, of facing the ugly truth of who one has been and the beautiful truth of who one can become.Sometimes taking a risk is the only way to move forward with our lives. As Ian the goldfish knows, "An entire life devoted to a fishbowl will make one die an old fish with not one adventure had."

London Stories


Jerry WhiteMaeve Binchy - 2013
    Its roll call of storytellers includes cultural giants like Shakespeare, Defoe, and Dickens, and an innumerable host of writers of all sorts who sought to capture the essence of the place. Acclaimed historian Jerry White has collected some twenty-six stories to illustrate the extraordinary diversity of both London life and writing over the past four centuries, from Shakespeare’s day to the present. These are stories of fact and fiction and occasionally something in between, some from well-known voices and others practically unknown. Here are dramatic views of such iconic events as the plague, the Great Fire of London, and the Blitz, but also William Thackeray’s account of going to see a man hanged, Thomas De Quincey’s friendship with a teenaged prostitute, and Doris Lessing’s defense of the Underground. This literary London encompasses the famous Baker Street residence of Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes and the bombed-out moonscape of Elizabeth Bowen’s wartime streets, Charles Dicken’s treacherous River Thames and Frederick Treves’s tragic Elephant Man. Graham Greene, Jean Rhys, Muriel Spark, and Hanif Kureishi are among the many great writers who give us their varied Londons here, revealing a city of boundless wealth and ragged squalor, of moving tragedy and riotous joy.(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed)

Billy Liar


Keith Waterhouse - 1959
    It tells the story of Billy Fisher, a Yorkshire teenager unable to stop lying - especially to his three girlfriends. Trapped by his boring job and working-class parents, Billy finds that his only happiness lies in grand plans for his future and fantastical day-dreams of the fictional country Ambrosia.

Murder in Midsummer: Classic Mysteries for the Holidays


Cecily GayfordJulian Symons - 2019
    On Cornish sea-fronts, happy children grip melting ice-creams. In the south of France, sunlight filters through leaves as families picnic in the shade. And in the fashionable resorts of the Mediterranean, the beautiful people sun themselves on picture-postcard beaches.And in those long, hot summer nights ... murder walks abroad. Away from familiar surroundings, and as the temperature rises, old grudges come to the surface, new hatreds reach boiling point - and clever minds start to make dangerous plans. These ten classic mysteries, from some of the finest crime writers, prove that no matter where you travel to - there's no rest for the wicked.

Sweep: Volume 3


Cate Tiernan - 2011
    . . a power that some will stop at nothing to obtain. Though she knows she has much still to learn, magick has brought her more than she could ever have imagined: the love of her soul mate. Yet her dreams uncover something else - a dark force threatening her entire world. As the darkness closes in, Morgan realizes that she must make a choice - light or dark; hatred or love. Is she strong enough to make the sacrifice and discover her true nature, or will the darkness consume all she holds dear?

Shelley's Poetry and Prose


Percy Bysshe Shelley - 1977
    All headnotes are new or updated, and many footnotes have been added, replaced, or revised. Criticism reflects the recent renaissance in Shelley studies, the greatest renaissance since 1870-92. All twenty-three essays are new to the Second Edition; among them are the work of Harold Bloom, Stuart Curran, Annette Wheeler Cafarelli, Michael Ferber, James Chandler, and Susan J. Wolfson. A Chronology, an updated Selected Bibliography, and an Index of Titles and First Lines are included.

The Complete Cosmicomics


Italo Calvino - 1997
    Exploring natural phenomena and the origins of the universe, these beloved tales relate complex scientific concepts to our common sensory, emotional, human world.Now, The Complete Cosmicomics brings together all of the cosmicomic stories for the first time. Containing works previously published in Cosmicomics, t zero, and Numbers in the Dark, this single volume also includes seven previously uncollected stories, four of which have never been published in translation in the United States. This “complete and definitive collection” (Evening Standard) reconfirms the cosmicomics as a crowning literary achievement and makes them available to new generations of readers.

Oddjobs


Heide Goody - 2016
    Incomprehensible horrors from beyond are going to devour our world but that’s no excuse to get all emotional about it. Morag Murray works for the secret government organisation responsible for making sure the apocalypse goes as smoothly and as quietly as possible. In her first week on the job, Morag has to hunt down a man-eating starfish, solve a supernatural murder and, if she’s got time, prevent her own inevitable death. The first book in a new comedy series by the creators of ‘Clovenhoof’, Oddjobs is a sideswipe at the world of work and a fantastical adventure featuring amphibian wannabe gangstas, mad old cat ladies, ancient gods, apocalyptic scrabble, fish porn, telepathic curry and, possibly, the end of the world before the weekend.

Oz: The Complete Collection


L. Frank Baum - 1900
    Frank Baum has been captivating the hearts of the young, and not so young, for over a hundred years.This delightful compilation includes all fifteen books written by L. Frank Baum:The Wonderful Wizard of OzThe Marvelous Land of OzOzma of OzDorothy and the Wizard in OzThe Road to OzThe Emerald City of OzThe Patchwork Girl Of OzLittle Wizard Stories of OzTik-Tok of OzThe Scarecrow Of OzRinkitink In OzThe Lost Princess Of OzThe Tin Woodman Of OzThe Magic of OzGlinda Of OzPerhaps there is no better, or fitting, introduction one could give to this compilation than the author's note that Baum himself writes in his very first book, "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz." Here he reveals the true intention of his work. Folklore, legends, myths and fairy tales have followed childhood through the ages, for every healthy youngster has a wholesome and instinctive love for stories fantastic, marvelous and manifestly unreal. The winged fairies of Grimm and Andersen have brought more happiness to childish hearts than all other human creations. Yet the old time fairy tale, having served for generations, may now be classed as "historical" in the children's library; for the time has come for a series of newer "wonder tales" in which the stereotyped genie, dwarf and fairy are eliminated, together with all the horrible and blood-curdling incidents devised by their authors to point a fearsome moral to each tale. Modern education includes morality; therefore the modern child seeks only entertainment in its wonder tales and gladly dispenses with all disagreeable incident. Having this thought in mind, the story of "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" was written solely to please children of today. It aspires to being a modernized fairy tale, in which the wonderment and joy are retained and the heartaches and nightmares are left out.

Mercy Watts Box Set, Books 0.5-3


A.W. Hartoin - 2015
     Coke with a Twist (A Mercy Watts Short) Mercy Watts' P.I. father ropes her into another investigation, this time to find the truth behind a young woman's attack. The case takes her from a dive bar to sorority row to the gutter, and unless she solves it fast, the case will be her last. A Good Man Gone (Mercy Watts Mysteries Book 1) It’s summer in St. Louis and Mercy Watts is on vacation from her parents. The great detective and his nosy wife are on a cruise and Mercy thinks she’s off the hook for doing any investigating for them. But when a family friend has a fatal heart attack, Dad has one of his famous feelings and orders Mercy to look into it. Mercy tries not to get sucked in. She really does, but she’s her father’s daughter. Soon Gavin’s death leads to a more grisly one, the death of a bride on her wedding day. Can the two be connected? Was Gavin murdered? Now Mercy can’t stop. You do for family. That’s all there is to it. Diver Down (Mercy Watts Mysteries Book 2) A sunny place for shady people. Vacations can be murder, especially when you’re Mercy Watts. She’s trying to get away from it all, including her godmother’s lawsuit and a certain situation with the mafia. So she heads to Roatan, Honduras, a place known for scuba diving and lawlessness. Mercy’s on the island less than twenty-four hours when she discovers that she hasn’t gotten away from anything. Her problems hitched a ride and increased tenfold. The deeper she dives, the more dangerous her vacation becomes. She must stop a murder or she’ll be the next on the hit list. Double Black Diamond (Mercy Watts Mysteries Book 3) Commit a crime. Save a child. Mercy Watts is off to Colorado for a ski trip with her boyfriend and his parents. She thinks her biggest problem will be pretending to be a normal girlfriend. A girlfriend that doesn’t know how to pick locks and absolutely never gets her face on the national news. But a desperate friend asks a favor that cannot be refused. Mercy figures she can fit it in between trips up the lift and dips in the hot tub. Simple, right? Not quite. Before she has a chance to do much of anything a brutal crime is committed and Mercy becomes a suspect. Before she knows it she’s saddled with a pint-sized partner, a stalker, and a ticking clock. All she has to do is solve a crime in order to commit a crime. A child’s life hangs in the balance. No pressure.

Solway Tide


Andy Jarvis - 2014
    Outspoken, sassy and determined to make it up through the ranks, she's assigned to follow the case of a body found in the sea only to find herself the one being pursued. Far from being a run-of-the-mill murder tale this gripping page turner takes the genre by the horns throwing it in a totally new direction. A nightmare of a tale that challenges the very philosophy and motivation behind genetic experimentation and what possibly could be the 'hidden agenda' behind modern medical research. A setting on the remote west coast of Cumbria provides an eerie, atmospheric, heath land backdrop to this imaginative, twisting story of murder, corruption and the darker side of human nature.

Before The Fall


Juliet West - 2014
    Wicked or not, I can't be sorry. How can I be sorry when I feel like this, as if my life has started up brand new, sharp and colourful, a swirl of terror and bliss . . .1916. Across the channel, the Great War rages; in London's East End, with her husband away fighting, Hannah Loxwood struggles to hold everything together. But when Hannah takes a job in a cafe, she discovers a glimpse of freedom away from her needy young children, her spiteful sister and desperately ill father.While the conflict drags on, Hannah battles with the overwhelming burden of 'duty'. She has sacrificed so much for a husband who left her behind, a husband who may never come home. Then, when she meets Daniel - thoughtful, intelligent, quietly captivating - Hannah finds herself faced with the most dangerous of temptations.As the war grips tighter and bombs fall down upon the streets, the stakes for the couple are raised ever higher. Soon Hannah and Daniel will realize just how precarious their happiness is, as their destiny rushes towards them . . .Beautifully wrought, utterly compelling and with a twist that will leave you breathless, Before The Fall, inspired by a true story, hurls you into a London torn apart by the First World War and paints a vivid and haunting portrait of one woman's struggle.

Knitorious Murder Mysteries Books 1 - 3


Reagan Davis - 2020
    I’m an almost-ex-wife, and former full-time mom who works part-time at the local yarn store. The biggest mystery I’ve ever solved is finding a missing knitting needle tucked behind my ear after spending all morning looking for it. Someone in Harmony Lake is trying to stitch me up for murder.In a small town where everyone has a secret they want to keep hidden, no one is talking to the out-of-town cop who’s been brought in to solve the case. So, armed with everything I’ve learned from watching murder mysteries on TV, and a little help from my friends, it’s up to me to find the real killer and clear my name. Can I knit the clues together and expose the killer before they unravel and kill again? I hope so, because knitting needles aren't allowed in prison, and I look horrible in orange.If you like your cozy mysteries with a bit of humour, small town Canadian life, a hint of romance, a close circle of quirky, lovable characters that you wish you knew in real life, dogs and cats, and free knitting patterns, there's something in this series for you.Clean read: no graphic violence, sex, or strong language.Each ebook includes a link to a free knitting pattern at the end of the book.Included stories: Knit One Murder Two, Killer Cables, and Murder & MerinoDownload The Knitorious Murder Mystery Books 1 - 3 and start unravelling the mysteries in three entertaining cozy mysteries today!Read FREE on Kindle Unlimited

Don Juan


Molière - 1665
    One of Molière's best-known plays, Don Juan was written while Tartuffe was still banned on the stages of Paris, and shared much with the outlawed play. Modern directors transformed Don Juan in every new era, as each director finds something new to highlight in this timeless classic. Richard Wilbur's flawless translation will be the standard for generations to come, as have his translations of Molière's other plays. Witty, urbane, and poetic in its prose, Don Juan is, most importantly, as funny now as it was for audiences when it was first presented.About the translator:Richard Wilbur, National Book Award winner, is one of America's great living poets. He has won every major literary award (including two Pulitzer Prizes) and has a devoted poetry following, and is anthologized in every important volume on the subject. He is a member of the American Institute of Arts and Letters, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Academy of American Poets. He has written, translated, and/or edited twenty-five books.