Christmas comes but once a year--which is too bad, because the stories in this dazzling collection are fun to read anytime. They put a speculative spin on the holiday, giving fans of acclaimed author Connie Willis a welcome gift and a dozen reasons to be of good cheer. Brimming with Willis's trademark insights and imagination, these heartwarming tales are full of humor, absurdity, human foibles, tragedy, joy, and hope. They both embrace and send up many of the best Christmas traditions, including the Christmas newsletter, Secret Santas, office parties, holiday pageants, and Christmas dinners (both elaborate and spare). There are Rockettes, the best and worst Christmas movies, modern-day Magi, Ghosts of Christmases Past, Present, and Yet to Come--and the triumph of generosity over greed. Like the timeless classics we return to year after year, these stories affirm our faith in love, magic, and the wonder of the season.Stories included:- Miracle- All About Emily- Inn- All Seated on the Ground- In Coppelius's Toyshop- Adaptation- deck.halls@bought/holly- Cat's Paw- Now Showing- Newsletter- Epiphany- Just Like the Ones We Used to Know

    There’s one catch: they have to wait six weeks to become “residents.” Many of these wealthy, soon-to-be divorcees flock to the Flying Leap, a dude ranch that caters to their every need. Twenty-four-year-old Ward spent one year at Yale before his family lost everything in the Great Depression; now he’s earning an honest living as a ranch hand at the Flying Leap. Admired for his dashing good looks—“Cary Grant in cowboy boots”—Ward thinks he’s got the Flying Leap’s clients all figured out. But two new guests are about to upend everything he thinks he knows: Nina, a St Louis heiress and amateur pilot back for her third divorce, and Emily, whose bravest moment in life was leaving her cheating husband back in San Francisco and driving herself to Reno.A novel about divorce, marriage, and everything that comes in between (money, class, ambition, and opportunity), Better Luck Next Time is a hilarious yet poignant examination of the ways friendship can save us, love can destroy us, and the family we create can be stronger than the family we come from.

    Well, at least on the surface. Recently engaged to Seattle’s most loved congressman, Michael Brenner, they are two kids and a yellow Lab short of becoming the picture-perfect family. That is, minus her haunted past and growing dissatisfaction with their relationship. Things get more complicated when she has a chance encounter with an old flame. One that was never extinguished. Psychiatrist and best-selling author William Debroux is one of the only people who know about Ava’s traumatic upbringing, and has always understood her in a way no one else has. Despite the six years that have passed without seeing one another, her heart soars when she lays eyes on him again. She suddenly finds herself longing for the blossoming romance they shared when she was just a silly college girl at NYU, her mind rushing with memories of when she first wandered into his office as a patient. If she wasn’t already conflicted enough, things get even more strange when she finds out that her fiancé has recently befriended William. As their lives start to become more intertwined, and William begins hinting that he intends on winning her back, she begins to ask herself...Is my heart really behind this upcoming marriage? Or was it already stolen in New York all those years ago?Warning: Contains explicit sexual content. Recommended only for readers 18+.

     One mistake and seventeen-year-old Shake LeCasse lost everything. Now there’s no going back and no way to move forward. The once-popular Varsity hockey captain is living in the basement of a grandmother he barely knows, ditching school, avoiding friends and working hard on self-destruction. She’s the girl nobody sees. Cleo Lee survives however she can. Lie, cheat, steal, whatever it takes, and saving Mr. Popular isn’t part of the plan. Telling him the truth about the night that destroyed his life is downright dangerous. She needs to keep quiet, be smart and let the guy she’s been half in love with since middle school throw away a future she’d do anything to have. Too bad she sucks at playing it safe.

    Change can be even worse. But there comes a time in life when there's nothing else to do… Big-city newscaster Ashley Lanovan never envisioned herself divorced and unemployed by thirty-eight. She agrees to housesit a friend's property in small town USA, but rapidly realizes she's a fish out of water. Learning to adapt has never been her strong point, but the neglected community is friendly and needs her business savvy. A computer hack has put CIA agent Mark Garmund's life in danger, so he takes a few days refuge with friends in Nature's Crossing. His career secrets are dangerous and changing professions has been foremost in his thoughts lately. He realizes it's time to make a choice when a chance encounter with the woman his friends introduced him to years ago, leads to more than hello. But first, he has to make sure their future will be safe. Mark figures earning Ashley's trust may not be easy. He should have called her years ago…

    Then Orla meets Floss ― a striving wannabe A-lister ― who comes up with a plan for launching them both into the high-profile lives they dream about. So what if Orla and Floss's methods are a little shady and sometimes people get hurt? Their legions of followers can't be wrong.Thirty-five years later, in a closed California village where government-appointed celebrities live every moment of the day on camera, a woman named Marlow discovers a shattering secret about her past. Despite her massive popularity ― twelve million loyal followers ― Marlow dreams of fleeing the corporate sponsors who would do anything to keep her on-screen. When she learns that her whole family history is based on a lie, Marlow finally summons the courage to run in search of the truth, no matter the risks.Followers traces the paths of Orla, Floss and Marlow as they wind through time toward each other, and toward a cataclysmic event that sends America into lasting upheaval. At turns wry and tender, bleak and hopeful, this darkly funny story reminds us that even if we obsess over famous people we’ll never meet, what we really crave is genuine human connection.

    Without a refueling launch from the asteroid, the survival of the ship and its crew is uncertain. The safest course for the Ulysses? Abandon the mission and limp home.But Cal Scott, captain of the Ulysses, is an astronaut of the old school and failure is not an option. He has a plan: head straight for the asteroid belt and get their fuel—one way or another.

    But their mother’s death from cancer fifteen years ago tarnished their golden-hued memories, and the sisters drifted apart. Their one touchstone is their father, Bill Sweeney, an internationally famous literary lion and college professor universally adored by critics, publishers, and book lovers. When Bill dies unexpectedly one cool June night, his shell-shocked daughters return to their childhood home. They aren’t quite sure what the future holds without their larger-than-life father, but they do know how to throw an Irish wake to honor a man of his stature.But as guests pay their respects and reminisce, one stranger, emboldened by whiskey, has crashed the party. It turns out that she too is a Sweeney sister.When Washington, DC based journalist Serena Tucker had her DNA tested on a whim a few weeks earlier, she learned she had a 50% genetic match with a childhood neighbor—Maggie Sweeney of Southport, Connecticut. It seems Serena’s chilly WASP mother, Birdie, had a history with Bill Sweeney—one that has remained totally secret until now.Once the shock wears off, questions abound. What does this mean for William’s literary legacy? Where is the unfinished memoir he’s stashed away, and what will it reveal? And how will a fourth Sweeney sister—a blond among redheads—fit into their story?By turns revealing, insightful, and uproarious, The Sweeney Sisters is equal parts cautionary tale and celebration—a festive and heartfelt look at what truly makes a family.

    I was born under the banner of war. I'm ready to enlist, sign the contract to serve for ten years under the ally ranks. We're done, me and my friends are. We must leave this shit-hole country conquered by the totalitarians. I was born here. Now I'm ready to leave it behind. We're going to war.The world is being conquered by the Megachine, a totalitarian regime commanding more than a billion drones. They are strong. Undefeated. Unrivaled. They have wiped out the ally drone force and now they are moving in for the final blow. First they took Europe, then Asia. With the help of the Chavistas, they conquered Latin America. The world is about to fall. I have to--need to serve--to fight for whatever freedom is left!

    An emerging photographer, he’s running from the sudden death of his mother, a well-known abstract expressionist painter. Even far from New York, her legacy haunts Lucien. Sophie has just been cast as a lead in the upcoming performance of La Sylphide with the Los Angeles Ballet. She still waitresses during her off-hours at the Chateau Marmont, witnessing the recreational use of Mem pills among the Hollywood elite—people consuming memories not their own. One controlling, powerful regular’s obsession with Sophie spurs a series of events that threatens to unravel the life she has so carefully built. When Lucien and Sophie meet at The Center, founded by the ambitious yet conflicted Dr. Angelica Sloane as a way to treat patients who’ve abused Mem, they have no memory of how they got there—or why they feel so inexplicably drawn to one another. Is it attraction, or something they cannot remember from “before”? Set in a city that seems to have no memory of its own, The Shimmering State is a graceful meditation on the power of story and its creation. It masterfully explores memory and how it can elude us, trap us, or set us free.

    When a deadly non-viral agent intended for biowarfare spreads out of control, scientists must scramble to ensure the survival of the human race. They turn to their last resort, a plan to place genetically engineered children inside the cocoons of large-scale robots--to be incubated, birthed, and raised by machines. But there is yet one hope of preserving the human order--an intelligence programmed into these machines that renders each unique in its own right--the Mother Code. 

Kai is born in America's desert southwest, his only companion his robot Mother, Rho-Z. Equipped with the knowledge and motivations of a human mother, Rho-Z raises Kai and teaches him how to survive. But as children like Kai come of age, their Mothers transform too--in ways that were never predicted. When government survivors decide that the Mothers must be destroyed, Kai must make a choice. Will he break the bond he shares with Rho-Z? Or will he fight to save the only parent he has ever known?In a future that could be our own, The Mother Code explores what truly makes us human--and the tenuous nature of the boundaries between us and the machines we create.

    The world’s initial wonder and awe over the Alpha quickly turns ugly and paranoid and violent, and Lyric’s small town transforms into a military zone with humans on one side and Alpha on the other. When Lyric is recruited to help the crown prince, a boy named Fathom, assimilate, she begins to fall for him. But their love is a dangerous one, and there are forces on both sides working to keep them apart. Only, what if the Alpha are not actually the enemy? What if they are in fact humanity’s only hope of survival? Because the real enemy is coming. And it’s more terrifying than anything the world has ever seen.Action, suspense, and romance whirlpool dangerously in this cinematic saga, a blend of District 9 and The Outsiders.

     “Entertaining.” –Publishers Weekly. WINNER 2016 IBPA Benjamin Franklin Gold Medal for Science Fiction & Fantasy. Morgan le Fay, sixth-century Queen of Gore and the only major character not killed off by Mark Twain in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, vows revenge upon the Yankee Hank Morgan. She casts a spell to take her to 1879 Connecticut so she may waylay Sir Boss before he can travel back in time to destroy her world. But the spell misses by 300 miles and 200 years, landing her in the Washington, DC, of 2079, replete with flying limousines, hovering office buildings, virtual-reality television, and sundry other technological marvels. Whatever is a time-displaced queen of magic and minions to do? Why, rebuild her kingdom, of course—two kingdoms, in fact: as Campaign Boss for the reelection of American President Malory Beckham Hinton, and as owner of the London Knights world-champion baseball franchise. Written as though by the old master himself, King Arthur’s Sister in Washington’s Court by Mark Twain as channeled by Kim Iverson Headlee offers laughs, love, and a candid look at American society, popular culture, politics, baseball… and the human heart. CONTENTS List of Illustrations Preface A Word of Explanation Chapter I: Crownsville Chapter II: King Henry’s Court Chapter III: Knights of Crownsville Chapter IV: Sir Kay and the Man Who Would Be Boss Chapter V: An Inspiration Chapter VI: The Eclipse Chapter VII: The Tower Chapter VIII: The Boss Chapter IX: The Tournament Chapter X: Beginning to Change Civilization Chapter XI: The Queen in Search of a Baseball Club Chapter XII: Slow Torture Chapter XIII: Free Agents! Chapter XIV: Defend the Banner! Chapter XV: Sandy’s Statistics Chapter XVI: Morgan le Fay Chapter XVII: A Baseball Banquet Chapter XVIII: In the Queen’s Dungeons Chapter XIX: Baseball as a Trade Chapter XX: The Ogres’ Stadium Chapter XXI: The Pilgrims Chapter XXII: The Crocodiles Chapter XXIII: Restoration of the Team Chapter XXIV: A Rival Player Chapter XXV: A Competitive Examination Chapter XXVI: The President in the Newspaper Chapter XXVII: The President and the Queen Travel Cognito Chapter XXVIII: Drilling the President Chapter XXIX: The Smallpox Hut Chapter XXX: The Tragedy of the Big House Chapter XXXI: Marco Chapter XXXII: Dowley’s Humiliation Chapter XXXIII: Twenty-first Century Political Economy Chapter XXXIV: Slavery as a Career Chapter XXXV: A Pitiful Incident Chapter XXXVI: An Encounter in the Dark Chapter XXXVII: An Awful Predicament Chapter XXXVIII: Sandy and the Lawyers to the Rescue Chapter XXXIX: The Knights’ Fight with the Yankees Chapter XL: Three Years Later Chapter XLI: The Dictum Chapter XLII: War! Chapter XLIII: The Battle on the Salisbury Plain Chapter XLIV: A Postscript by the Scribe Final P.S. by C.C.

    After swallowing her pride and purchasing a subscription to the dating service that’s rumored to be powered by the same benevolent artificial intelligence that runs the huge station, Kelly decides to give love a shot. But as her dates go from bad to worse, she can only hope that the supposedly omniscient AI is planning a happy ending.

    Theresa Marshall of Fifth Avenue and Southampton, Long Island, has done the unthinkable: she's fallen in love with her young paramour, Captain Octavian Rofrano, a handsome aviator and hero of the Great War. An intense and deeply honorable man, Octavian is devoted to the beautiful socialite of a certain age and wants to marry her. While times are changing and she does adore the Boy, divorce for a woman of Theresa's wealth and social standing is out of the question, and there is no need; she has an understanding with Sylvo, her generous and well-respected philanderer husband.But their relationship subtly shifts when her bachelor brother, Ox, decides to tie the knot with the sweet younger daughter of a newly wealthy inventor. Engaging a longstanding family tradition, Theresa enlists the Boy to act as her brother's cavalier, presenting the family's diamond rose ring to Ox's intended, Miss Sophie Fortescue—and to check into the background of the little-known Fortescue family. When Octavian meets Sophie, he falls under the spell of the pretty ingénue, even as he uncovers a shocking family secret. As the love triangle of Theresa, Octavian, and Sophie progresses, it transforms into a saga of divided loyalties, dangerous revelations, and surprising twists that will lead to a shocking transgression ... and eventually force Theresa to make a bittersweet choice.Full of the glamour, wit and delicious twists that are the hallmarks of Beatriz Williams' fiction and alternating between Sophie's spirited voice and Theresa's vibrant timbre, A Certain Age is a beguiling reinterpretation of Richard Strauss's comic opera Der Rosenkavalier, set against the sweeping decadence of Gatsby's New York.