These are stories about friendships and relationships confused by unsettling tensions bubbling beneath the surface. A woman who plans to conceive ends up in the arms of her husband's best friend; a man who baby-sits a neglected four-year-old ends up questioning his own dysfunctional relationship; a chance encounter at a gala event causes a woman to remember when she volunteered for a nightmarish drug-testing clinic; another woman discovers that her best friend who is about to get married has just had an affair; a young teenager tries to escape from her controlling father and finds an unexpected lover on a bus ride home; a wife tries to overcome her dying mother-in-law's resistance to her marriage by revealing to her own strange aural stigmata; a friend tries to talk another friend out of dating her cheating ex-boyfriend; and a superstitious candle-maker confesses to a tempestuous relationship that implodes spectacularly. Sarah Selecky is a talented young writer who evokes a generation teetering on the shoals of consumerism and ambiguous mores. Reminiscent of early Atwood, with echoes of Lisa Moore and Barbara Gowdy, these absorbing stories are about love and longing, stories that touch us in a myriad of subtle and affecting ways."

    Born With A Tooth, Boyden's debut work of fiction, is a collection of thirteen beautifully written stories about aboriginal life in Ontario. They are stories of love, unexpected triumph, and a passionate belief in dreams. They are also stories of anger and longing, of struggling to adapt, of searching but remaining unfulfilled. The collection includes 'Bearwalker', a story that introduces a character who appears again in Boyden's novel Three Day Road. By taking on a new voice in each story, Joseph Boyden explores aboriginal stereotypes and traditions in a most unexpected way. Whether told by a woman trying to forget her past or by a drunken man trying to preserve his culture, each story paints an unforgettable and varied image of modern aboriginal culture in Ontario. An extraordinary first book, Born With A Tooth reveals why Joseph Boyden is a writer worth reading.

    He is certainly the perfect gentleman and everything her parents want: titled, handsome, respectable. His blindness only reinforces his quiet power and strength. But Philippa does not love him. Her heart is already taken and there is only one thing she can do: Thwart the matchmaking plans.Julian Crabbe is desperate to rescue the woman he fell in love with two years ago. Then, he was a reckless cub, justly earning Philippa’s parents’ scorn. Now, he is every inch a respectable suitor and determined to prove it before it is too late. Intrude on the viscount’s house party? Gladly. Interrupt the match of the season? Happily. For nothing can stop the power of a love that will not be denied.  Includes a preview of Mary Balogh’s new novel, The Arrangement.

    So when a cache of whisky labeled Bailey Brothers’ Best is unearthed during a local home renovation, Cassie hopes to find the answers she’s been searching for about the legendary family of bootleggers... 1918 Corporal Jeremiah Bailey of the 1st Canadian Tunnelling Company is tasked with planting mines in the tunnels beneath enemy trenches. After Jerry is badly wounded in an explosion, he finds himself in a Belgium field hospital under the care of Adele Savard, one of Canada’s nursing sisters, nicknamed “Bluebirds” for their blue gowns and white caps. As Jerry recovers, he forms a strong connection with Adele, who is from a place near his hometown of Windsor, along the Detroit River. In the midst of war, she’s a welcome reminder of home, and when Jerry is sent back to the front, he can only hope that he’ll see his bluebird again. By war’s end, both Jerry and Adele return home to Windsor, scarred by the horrors of what they endured overseas. When they cross paths one day, they have a chance to start over. But the city is in the grip of Prohibition, which brings exciting opportunities as well as new dangerous conflicts that threaten to destroy everything they have fought for. Pulled from the pages of history, Bluebird is a compelling, luminous novel about the strength of the human spirit and the power of love to call us home.

    A female officer who is attacked in the line of duty must protect her own husband from his worst impulses in this short story, first published in The Blue Religion (Michael Connelly, ed.) and recognized as one of 2009's Best American Mystery Stories (Jeffery Deaver, ed.).

    Follow the flailing escapades of maverick music manager Campbell Ouiniette at the Calgary Folk Festival, as he leaves a trail of empty liquor bottles, cigarette butts, bruised egos, and obliterated relationships behind him. His top headlining act has abandoned him for the Big Time. In a fit of self-delusion or pure genius (or perhaps a bit of both), Ouiniette devises an intricate scam, a last hurrah in an attempt to redeem himself in the eyes of his girlfriend, the music industry, and the rest of the world. He reveals his path of destruction in his own transparently self-justifying, explosive, profane words, with digressions into the Edmonton hardcore punk rock scene, the Yugoslavian Civil War, and other epicentres of chaos.

    The artifact seems to defy fundamental laws of physics, and it is at least three billion years old. In an attempt to learn more about the artifact, NASA launches the most advanced spacecraft ever built, crewed by the most qualified men and women in the astronaut corps. But they are not alone in their endeavor. A being from the dawn of human history with a mysterious connection to the enigmatic aliens has been awakened and he will stop at nothing to reach the artifact and claim its power for himself. And what they discover will be greater than anything they could have imagined.

    Or at least, she was up until Jade came waltzing back into town. She spent the last six years trying to get over her older brother's best friend. And how does one get over the love of their life? Emotionless sex of course. But now that she's faced with the woman that broke her heart into a million pieces, she's not so sure that she can keep pretending to be over Jade.Jade Summers came back to Willow Creek for one reason and one reason only. Her ex-girlfriend Brianna. She knew that she wasn't going to receive a warm welcoming from the younger woman, but she didn't expect what she came back to. Brianna wasn't the shy, quiet girl she left behind. She was a fierce woman that wanted absolutely nothing to do with Jade now.Jade is now faced with a dilemma. Should she forget this whole thing and go back to New York, giving up on finding true love with Brianna? OR should she stay in Willow Creek and try to move on from the woman that would forever own her heart?

    It’s the granddaddy of all hits—to be carried out on Christmas Eve, no less. Missi knows she has only one chance at success, so she enlists the help of her cousins Gin, Dakota, and Coney. Together the Bombay cousins come out of retirement to stamp out the world’s most evil cabal. Armed with four enormous, prehistoric-looking birds and Missi’s quirky inventions, will these Bombays succeed before their window of opportunity closes for good?

    He did it three years in a row (only two others have scored 50 since) before being unceremoniously stripped of his captaincy and traded out of town, and he did it for a promising team that was nonetheless largely stuck at the bottom of the standings. So why isn't his number 22 hanging from the rafters of the Leafs' rink and his name as revered in Leafs lore as Gilmour, Sundin and Clark?You could blame it on a team that lost far more than it won. You could blame Harold Ballard and his erratic ownership. You could blame the fans, the media...Rick Vaive doesn't blame anybody. Sometimes, life just doesn't go your way. He'd know. Growing up in a household plagued by alcoholism, the gifted young hockey player took shelter in the company of his grandmother and a blind and severely disabled uncle. Rick learned quickly that there are more valuable things in life than hockey. Even after his promising coaching career stopped dead when it ran into Don Cherry in Mississauga--one of the worst seasons in Ontario junior hockey history--he still doesn't point fingers. Life is too sweet for regrets, but learning that lesson can be one hell of a ride.

    But somehow, since they started teaching at Serenity Landing Elementary II, he’s managed to worm his way into her life and make himself indispensable. Vince Roberts has loved Samantha since their first date, though he hasn’t done the best job of showing it. Spending time together is one reason he volunteered both of them to plan the staff Christmas party. They work together to take care of one of their own, dealing with the recent death of her husband in a house fire. As they plan the party, Samantha tries to keep Vince from finding his way into her heart. Will she admit the feelings that have been growing for so many years or walk away from Gifts of Love?

    ask your mother to stop pointing the gun at your head. Steven is a writer, by all accounts of self-proclamation. But no artist can be expected to work under serious pressure, especially not when the pressure consists of his own mother indenting his tender skull with the muzzle of the pistol held in her hand. Suddenly, it's write or die for Steven. He better tap away on that typewriter or expect to be extracted from the land of the living before he's had the opportunity to finish anything he's ever written. Not to mention that his recently departed Father lying on the floor beside him should supply enough motivation. When Steven manages to frustrate his murderous mother to no end, his wish made under duress actually comes true. Mother's vanished... along with all evidence of the foregoing incident ever having taken place. Is his beloved father really dead? Is his own mother now a criminal on the run? Can he truly never cure his lifetime disease of writer's block? Only one person can uncover the truth and set the world to rights again. That would be Tim, Steven's much more successful, though younger, brother. If only Tim would actually believe Steven's retelling of the frightful situation he's just managed to survive. Someone's got to fix the latest family faux pas. And everyone in the family knows it can't be Steven. In the dead of night, two brothers battle sibling rivalry, serious mother issues, one heinous surprise after another, and a lifetime of family strife to get to the bottom of it all and uncover what's been lying beneath all along. Start Reading Now... What are you waiting for? chuckle-worthy dark comedy, murder mystery, delicious sibling rivalry and family issues, the cure for writer's block, and so much more await you. About the Author Justine Avery Is a Genre-Breaker, a Writer of Delicious Story Above All Else Justine Avery is an avid reader of all genres, weaves her own stories among them all, and sets out to surprise her readers at every opportunity. She's an acutely observant introvert with an insatiable yearning to explorer, a risk-taker who's based in reality, a wanderer with a mission, and a grownup blessed with childlike wonder at the world. Her stories reflect the same, and readers can't get enough of them. Avery writes genre-breaking fiction with universal appeal, emphasizing enticing story above all else. She writes powerful, affecting stories accessible to all readers, regardless of what your own favorite genres happen to be. She writes the tales all readers are drawn to, the stories capable of changing your view of the world around you, the narratives that will become a part of you. Go ahead—take a peek. Use the Look Inside feature above, and start reading Point Blank now.

    W. Schultz (1859–1947) was an author, explorer, and historian known for his historical writings of the Blackfoot Indians in the late 1800s, when he lived among them as a fur trader. In 1907, Schultz published My Life as an Indian, the first of many future writings about the Blackfeet that he would produce over the next thirty years. Schultz lived in Browning, Montana. This Plains veteran's book "In the Great Apache Forest " was published in 1920 and is “real stuff,” vivid and exciting, with the value that comes from firsthand knowledge. Considered one of the best of Schultz' Indian stories, "In the Great Apache Forest," is the true story of 17-year-old George Crosby who being too young to serve his country in France becomes a member of the forest service in Arizona, where he encounters troublesome outlaws and helps to rout them. This book satisfies the reader's love of a struggle for he is fighting not merely the forest fires but real flesh and blood villains. The book introduces incidentally considerable interesting information about the Hopi Indians and a plea for fairer treatment of them. It is while at his lookout station high up on a hilltop that Crosby is visited by a group of Hopi Indians. One of these, trained in an American school, tells of the Indian customs. It is with these Indians' help he is able to protect the forest from a group of left-wing "fire bug" activists seeking to burn it down (members of the Industrial Workers of the World). Other antagonists include a giant grizzly and an Army deserter---both intent on causing havoc. A bit of mystery adds to the interest. The geography on which this adventure unfolds is Apache National Forest which covered most of Greenlee County, Arizona southern Apache County, Arizona, and part of western Catron County, New Mexico. Here is a high country; the altitude of Greer is 8500 feet, and south of it there is a steady rise for eleven miles to the summit of the range, Mount Thomas, 11,460 feet. And here, covering both slopes of the White Mountains, is the largest virgin forest that we have outside of Alaska, the Apache National Forest. It is about a hundred miles wide, and more than that in length, and contains millions of feet of centuries-old Douglas fir, white pine, and spruce. The great forest still harbors an abundance of game animals and birds, and its cold, pure streams are full of trout. Here the sportsman could still find in 1918 grizzly bears, some of them of great size. There were black bears, also, and mule deer and Mexican whitetail deer, and of wild turkeys and blue grouse great numbers. Cougars, wolves, coyotes, and lesser prowlers of the night were quite numerous and in most of the streams the beavers were ever at work upon their dams and lodges. Of Crosby and his home range, Schultz writes: "George Crosby was born and has lived all of his seventeen years, in Greer, a settlement of a halfdozen pioneer families located on the Little Colorado River, in the White Mountains, Arizona, The settlers of Greer are a hardy people. Theirs is one continuous struggle with Nature for the necessities of life. It was then, at the opening of the war, that George Crosby considered what he could do for the good cause. Came the summer of 1918, and the Supervisor of the Apache National Forest found himself woefully short of men, and the dreaded fire season coming on. The most of his rangers, fire lookouts, and patrols had gone to the war, and he could not find enough men of the right sort to take their places. . . . With this introduction, I let George tell his story, a story that I found exciting enough. "

    Don’t miss this special release from New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, Stephanie McAfee.

     After first contact, which had not ended as the Earthlings expected, all traces of the visitors were lost in space, seemingly forever. But soon after, scientists noticed a mysterious gravitational anomaly not far from the Solar System as it journeyed around the centre of the Milky Way. To find out more, and perhaps discover the aliens’ secret, a research expedition fitted out with state-of-the-art scientific and military equipment sets out...