Scars and Voices: And Other Stories


Adam Carpenter Welles - 2019
    In this collection of his stories (each of which has a story behind it), you'll read about two retired spiritual leaders who experience a miracle in their nursing home, a gay relationship that must end between an American man and a Thai student, the astonishing adventures of an early mid-life failure, the thrilling chase one gay man undertakes for another intriguing, confusing, mysterious man, and a mind-blowing time-travel misadventure involving a man and a dog, as well as a few other surprises. This genre bending collection will captivate you. You might even enjoy the stories. Adam Carpenter Welles works in media in a major city in the Southeastern United States.

Verity


Colleen Hoover
    Jeremy Crawford, husband of bestselling author Verity Crawford, has hired Lowen to complete the remaining books in a successful series his injured wife is unable to finish.Lowen arrives at the Crawford home, ready to sort through years of Verity's notes and outlines, hoping to find enough material to get her started. What Lowen doesn't expect to uncover in the chaotic office is an unfinished autobiography Verity never intended for anyone to read. Page after page of bone-chilling admissions, including Verity's recollection of what really happened the day her daughter died.Lowen decides to keep the manuscript hidden from Jeremy, knowing its contents would devastate the already grieving father. But as Lowen's feelings for Jeremy begin to intensify, she recognizes all the ways she could benefit if he were to read his wife's words. After all, no matter how devoted Jeremy is to his injured wife, a truth this horrifying would make it impossible for him to continue to love her.

The Sight of Demons


Darin C. Brown - 2017
    The terrifying shadows engulf him and everyone he knows—yet nobody else notices their presence.Hunter can’t escape them, so he sets out to understand them. Why do they follow him? What are they trying to tell him?In this first installment of the Master of Perceptions series, pre-teen Hunter discovers that every sensation the demons produce—whether it be sight, sound, texture, flavor, or smell—has a different meaning, and that by breaking this code, he just might be able to harness their power.

The Boys from Brazil


Ira Levin - 1976
    Josef Mengele gathers a group of former colleagues for a horrifying project—the creation of the Fourth Reich. Barry Kohler, a young investigative journalist, gets wind of the project and informs famed Nazi hunter Ezra Lieberman, but before he can relay the evidence, Kohler is killed. Thus Ira Levin opens one of the strangest and most masterful novels of his career. Why has Mengele marked a number of harmless aging men for murder? What is the hidden link that binds them? What interest can they possibly hold for their killers: six former SS men dispatched from South America by the most wanted Nazi still alive, the notorious "Angel of Death"? One man alone must answer these questions and stop the killings—Lieberman, himself aging and thought by some to be losing his grip on reality. At the heart of The Boys from Brazil lies a frightening contemporary nightmare, chilling and all too possible.

Pink Slips


Beth Aldrich - 2017
    A compelling and gripping debut Suspense Urban Thriller filled with unexpected twists that will keep you page-turning and rooting for Betsy Ryan until the early hours. Perfect for fans of Fractured and Gone Girl. “Aldrich’s book delivers a solidly structured and detail-filled plot that starts with a skillful, early buildup of suspense. Like an Agatha Christie novel, the novel makes efficient use of misdirection while adding several suspicious suspects to the mix. The Characters are vividly drawn and believable. The story features an appealing and creative narrative voice.” ~BlueInk Review "Top notch storytelling and an exceptional fiction debut, Pink Slips proves a must read and one that raises high expectation for future releases from Aldrich. It is recommended without reservation." –Book Viral Reviews “Beth Aldrich’s Pink Slips is a psychological thriller that sustains a sense of mystery throughout, told from the point of view of pregnant suburban chef Betsy Ryan. The first-person perspective helps build suspense and heightens the action through the story’s many twists and turns.” ~4-Star Foreword Clarion Reviews “Not since Rosemary’s Baby has a book revealed how vulnerable women are when pregnant… Aldrich has Raymond Chandler’s (The Lady in the Lake), gift for portraying violent scenes, but has a woman’s insight into the especially serious consequences it could have for pregnant women.” ~5-Star, Indie Reader Review “Atmospheric and chilling with a feisty and relatable EveryMom heroine, Pink Slips will keep you in suspense until the gripping climax.” ~Eve Adamson, nine-time New York Times bestselling collaborator Betsy Ryan is pregnant with her third child, and receiving threatening notes from an anonymous person. During what should be a joyful time in her life, she’s forced to face a decade old memory, and relive one of the most devastating nights of her life In order to uncover the mystery behind the threats, she enlists the help of an unlikely, but oddly reliable source, her dog Barney. As the menacing notes continue to arrive, her husband is called out of town for work, and she struggles to keep her composure while shielding her two young sons from danger. She trusts no one except her parents, best friend Misty, and her extraordinary dog—who has proven to literally understand everything she says. Is this person out to harm her? And how do they have so much personal information about Betsy? She can’t help but think it’s the same person who attacked her at the train station almost a decade ago, and changed the course of her life forever. To save herself and her unborn child—Betsy must face her fears and find her strength, to reveal who is after her and most importantly…why.

I Am the Messenger


Markus Zusak - 2002
    He's pathetic at playing cards, hopelessly in love with his best friend, Audrey, and utterly devoted to his coffee-drinking dog, the Doorman. His life is one of peaceful routine and incompetence until he inadvertently stops a bank robbery.That's when the first ace arrives in the mail.That's when Ed becomes the messenger.Chosen to care, he makes his way through town helping and hurting (when necessary) until only one question remains: Who's behind Ed's mission?

Boo's Shoes - A Rabbit and Fox Story: Learn To Tie Shoelaces


Sybrina Durant - 2021
    He doesn’t want to learn to tie them. He has plenty of shoes for every occasion and none of them have laces or strings. So, what’s the point of learning to tie? His friend, Farah Fox, convinces him that it’s a skill he can use. . . and one that might make him happier, too.This book is meant to be a parent-child activity. Youngsters can read Boo’s story and their parents can help with the how-to-tie instruction pages. A fun shoelace-themed “I Did It” badge is included at the back of the book to give in celebration of conquering this difficult task.Exercises in manual dexterity build self-esteem in children. Knowing how to tie shoe-strings, scarves and more into a bow is a useful and rewarding skill.“Teach a child a useful skill. Build confidence and self-esteem that lasts a lifetime.”Author, Sybrina DurantOther books in the “Learn To Tie With The Rabbit and the Fox” series are the book with that name in English, Spanish and Tagalog plus a special little book to gift to boys in a wedding party. “Nellie Knows How To Knot A Neck Scarf”, “Ned Knows How To Knot A Neck Tie” and "Cleo Can Tie A Bow" are also part of the series.

Teenagers War: Vietnam 1969


Michael Zboray - 2019
     The buses pull out of the holding station every hour. They are headed for Travis Air force base just north of the city, filled with a seemingly endless supply of young men who are themselves filled with doubts and fears. Of course, the doubt and fear is not allowed out in the open. It is instead tucked neatly away in a very private place. A place it can hide and grow, like a virus, as the journey continues.

The Lion's Tail


Luna Miller - 2018
     Gunvor Strom may be in her sixties, her hands might be too shaky to perform operations and her body complains every time she works out. But her mind is as sharp as her scalpel. And she embraces change. After the divorce, she moved from a well-heeled Stockholm satellite to the far-from idyllic, inner suburb of Fruängen. It gets a little lively, but she likes being in the middle of things. She’s smart, experienced and innocent-looking – all qualities appreciated by a detective agency. As the agency’s rookie, she gets a surveillance job. A straightforward case, they say. Typical domestic. A wife suspects infidelity. Just track the husband. But when the husband is attacked and viciously beaten, his wife calls off the assignment. Too late. Gunvor is on the trail. The agency aren’t paying her, but her free time is her own business. After intervening in an incident of bullying, Gunvor finds herself with two unlikely allies. David is a young, jobless waster who hangs about Fruängen tube station. 19-year-old Elin is shy and introverted, after spending too long in her bedroom hiding from her parents’ fights. Out of curiosity, the pair join forces with Gunvor. Who’s going to notice two young people and an elderly lady slinking around the Stockholm streets? Only someone who’s watching their every move, biding his time, waiting to pounce. Curiosity can be deadly. A story of violence, madness, passion and bravery. A cat-and-mouse game of life and death. Never play with the lion’s tail.

Save Yourself


Kelly Braffet - 2013
    His father is in jail, he works the midnight shift at a grubby convenience store, and his brother's girlfriend, Caro, has taken their friendship to an uncomfortable new level. On top of all that, he can't quite shake the attentions of Layla Elshere, a goth teenager who befriends Patrick for reasons he doesn't understand and doesn't fully trust. The temptations these two women offer are pushing him to his breaking point.Meanwhile, Layla's little sister, Verna, is suffering through her first year of high school. She's become a prime target for her cruel classmates, not just because of her strange name and her fundamentalist parents: Layla's bad-girl rep proves to be too huge a shadow for Verna, so she falls in with her sister's circle of outcasts and misfits whose world is far darker than she ever imagined.Kelly Braffet's characters, indelibly portrayed and richly varied, are all on their own twisted paths to finding peace. The result is a novel of unnerving power-darkly compelling, addictively written, and shockingly honest.

The Threat Below


Jason Latshaw - 2015
    Now, a small remnant – the descendants of the few survivors who were able to escape the massacre below – lives above the clouds, on the top of a Mountain. When they discover that their water supply is being poisoned Down Below, an expedition, including seventeen year-old girl Icelyn Brathius, must descend and face the monsters, the Threat Below, that wiped out civilization centuries ago. Icelyn quickly learns that all is not what it seems as she uncovers secrets hundreds of years old and struggles to stay alive in a world where no human is fit to survive.

The Ways of Autumn


William Graney - 2017
    Her ten-year journey will include a new relationship, a trek to the highest summit in the contiguous United States, and a poignant hospice experience that will challenge her to rise from the ashes of despair. Catherine decides to leave Boston when a company from the Silicon Valley presents an offer for her very successful website design company. After accepting the buyout, she signs a contract with a Los Angeles based health care corporation to work as a consultant and thus begins her decade-long stay on the west coast. As time passes in her sunny new environment, Catherine grows increasingly homesick despite the thrill of falling in love and her passion for hiking the Southern California trails. Conflicts arise when the desire to return to her native New England dominates her thoughts and she meets Kenny, a young man who is facing his final days. As Catherine sits at Kenny's bedside, she helps him work through his struggles to understand love and devotion while facing the fear of a completed life's journey. Their conversations inspire her to reflect deeply upon her own life, the decisions she has made, and the path she must follow.

Extreme


Joan Gelfand - 2020
    When Hope joins FearToShred, a Silicon Valley extreme gaming startup, Hope's mission is to groom the scrappy company for prime time. Enter Doug Wiser, her very married ex. While the two work in tandem, nefarious forces are at work behind the scenes. Adding to the excitement of this thriller are the stars and heroes of surfing and skateboarding. With a keen eye on women in tech, business ethics and dangerous stunts, "Extreme" will leave you breathless.Winner of the Cervena Barva and Chaffin Fiction Awards, Joan's work has appeared in The Huffington Post, Vanity Fair, Rattle, Pank! The Meridien Anthology of Contemporary Poetry, The Los Angeles Review of Books, Chicken Soup for the Soul and over 200 literary journals, blogs and magazines.A member of the National Book Critics Circle, Joan has worked for California Poets in the Schools, Poetry Out Loud, Chiat/Day Advertising and other Bay Area companies. She currently coaches writers and teaches in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Watchers


Dean Koontz - 1987
    One is a magnificent dog of astonishing intelligence. The other, a hybrid monster of a brutally violent nature. And both are on the loose…Bestselling author Dean Koontz presents his most terrifying, dramatic and moving novel: The explosive story of a man and a woman, caught in a relentless storm of mankind’s darkest creation…

Retrieving for All Occasions


Elsa Blomster - 2015
    Retrieving for All Occasions could have been called "Retrieving for Fun and Function", referring to the fact that this way of training dogs works for fun and activation on your everyday walks or when you want to raise your ambitions to competitions and field trials. This accessible and inspiring book describes an approach to gun dog training that uses the clicker training philosophy and method in your gun dog training. With over 100 exercises to train for introductory field trial work for spaniels and retrievers this book is also useful for good all-around obedience and teamwork training for all sporting dog breeds as well as a fun activity to do with any companion pet dog.