Book picks similar to
Airships & Automatons by Gary CubaChristine Purcell


steampunk
signed
anthologies
anthologies-short-stories-essays

The Birthday Party


Elvi Rhodes - 2000
    As she prepares to welcome them, she thinks of her life - to her tough childhood in Yorkshire, to her mother, to her three husbands and to Alun, the great love of her life. Yet her family don't realize the life she's led.

Right Cross: A Dan Reno Novel (Dan Reno Novels Book 7)


Dave Stanton - 2019
    The client paid in cash, used a phony name, and his claim to be searching for his missing nephew didn’t add up. It doesn’t take Reno long to do the math, and once he puts two and two together, he tries to return the money to the client. And that’s when things go awry.The new D.A. in South Lake Tahoe has already drawn conclusions and wants Reno imprisoned. Out on bail, Reno has two weeks to uncover the client’s true identity and motivations, or else. With his fiancée Candi at home pregnant, the stakes are higher than ever. When Reno’s partner Cody Gibbons hears what’s going on, he suspects his and Reno’s history in San Jose is at play. But the clues lead in the opposite direction, to Miami, and then to the Caribbean. Reno’s in uncharted territory, and now he’ll learn just how far he’s willing to go to save himself. But Gibbons only know one way to play it. And that doesn’t bode well for their enemies.

Paragon Place


Harry Bowling - 1990
    But it's taken its toll on a hard-working and tight-knit community. Despite going through the very worst of times - the never-ending fight against poverty, rationing and bombs - the residents of Paragon Place have been brought closer together by laughter and tears in the face of despair. There is Sally Brady, who is torn between two men, local drunk Alf Porter, the prim Carey sisters, the gossips and the villains. After surviving the horror of the war, they face new dramas as they rebuild their lives together...

8 Hours (Numbers)


Upendra Namburi - 2017
    The multi-billion dollar hotels to steel conglomerate, founded by her mercurial father, liquor baron Madhusudhan Reddy, has many suitors, all of them plotting a hostile takeover. Aratrika’s estranged husband, Siddhartha is one of them. His inside knowledge is the real ace up his sleeve. The Rathores, the Reddys’ arch-rivals are looking to buy ARYA too and thereby settle old scores. Aratrika has to weave her way through a litany of lawyers, politicians, bankers, bureaucrats, investors, power brokers and her dreaded family. Behind the scenes, Jagannath Rao, her wily uncle, is playing a dangerous double game of manipulation. Her father Madhusudan is furiously pulling the strings from behind the scenes. To add to the confusion, overseeing the whole sale process is her old flame, Peter. Over the course of a single night, 8 Hours to be precise, Aratrika must fight the demons at the gates of her company and those within. It’s a fight to the bitter end. A fight that Aratrika does not want to lose…

The Red Line


Tanmay Dubey - 2019
    The exciting story witnesses the journey of an honest cop to discover his true dharma and a brave women army officer’s selfless service for her country.

13:55 Eastern Standard Time


Nick Alexander - 2007
    13:55 EST makes - she counts on her fingers - about 6pm in Berlin. He'll be on his way home. Alice settles into the armchair and dials the number...If Alice hadn't bumped into Will then she would probably never have phoned that afternoon. And if Alice hadn't called, then Michael, poor Michael, might still be alive today...In a digital age of world-spanning communications and easy travel these stories explore how interconnected and yet fragmented our lives have become, and how - no matter where we live or what we do, no matter how different our lifestyles - the universal desires for love and happiness draw us ever onward.Both short story collection and novel, 13:55 Eastern Standard Time finds Nick Alexander at his best. Sometimes disturbing, sometimes funny, these are stories of lives that cross and collide in life-ending drama, or simply run peacefully alongside for a few hours - lives filled with characters who are attracted and repelled, hopeless and yet inspired. Narrated in Alexander's trademark tense prose, these interwoven stories explore the ripples emanating from our every act, ripples that alter distant destinies, and occasionally bounce back, catching us from behind to haunt or inspire.13:55 Eastern Standard Time repeats the success of Alexander's first novel, 50 Reasons to Say Goodbye because again, as with life itself, the whole is mysteriously greater than the sum of the parts.

Gutmouth


Gabino Iglesias - 2012
    An obnoxious, toothy, foul-mouthed, pig of a mouth. Luckily, his girlfriend doesn't seem to mind. Marie, the one-legged stripper and cyber-prostitute love of his life is very accepting of it. And then a little too accepting. What would you do if your girlfriend cheated on you with the voracious yapper under your belly button? If you live in Gutmouth's world-a bleak city where gruesome, spontaneous mutations are no big deal, klepto-roaches take anything not tied-down, drugs turn pain into pleasure, consumers are tortured for growing food, and your best friend is a misogynistic rat-man-you might do something crazy. And what if you got caught?

The Goddess Legacy


Aimee Carter - 2012
    Now Aimée Carter pulls back the curtain on how they became the powerful, petty, loving and dangerous immortals that Kate Winters knows.Calliope/Hera represented constancy and yet had a husband who never matched her faithfulness....Ava/Aphrodite was the goddess of love and yet commitment was a totally different deal....Persephone was urged to marry one man, yet longed for another....James/Hermes loved to make trouble for others - but never knew true loss before....Henry/Hades's solitary existence had grown too wearisome to continue. But meeting Kate Winters gave him a new hope.... Five original novellas of love, loss and longing and the will to survive throughout the ages. Contents:The Goddess QueenThe Lovestruck GoddessGoddess of the UnderworldGod of ThievesGod of Darkness

Beautiful Sorrows


Mercedes M. Yardley - 2012
    Boys have wings, monsters fall in love, women fade into nothingness, and the bones of small children snap like twigs. Darkness will surely devour you--but it will be exquisitely lovely while doing so.Mercedes M. Yardley’s Beautiful Sorrows is an ephemeral collection encompassing twenty-seven short tales full of devastation, death, longing, and the shining ribbon of hope that binds them all together.

The Time Traveler's Almanac


Ann VanderMeer - 2013
    Gathered into one volume by intrepid chrononauts and world-renowned anthologists Ann and Jeff VanderMeer, this book compiles more than a century's worth of literary travels into the past and the future that will serve to reacquaint readers with beloved classics of the time travel genre and introduce them to thrilling contemporary innovations.This marvelous volume includes nearly seventy journeys through time from authors such as Douglas Adams, Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, William Gibson, Ursula K. Le Guin, George R. R. Martin, Michael Moorcock, H. G. Wells, and Connie Willis, as well as helpful non-fiction articles original to this volume (such as Charles Yu's "Top Ten Tips For Time Travelers").In fact, this book is like a time machine of its very own, covering millions of years of Earth's history from the age of the dinosaurs through to strange and fascinating futures, spanning the ages from the beginning of time to its very end. The Time Traveler's Almanac is the ultimate anthology for the time traveler in your life.

Trevennor’s Will


Gloria Cook - 1994
    

The Arcade


Judy Turner - 1992
    But a terrible event changes everything for her. Marj cooks and waits tables at the wine bar, under the watchful eye of Martin, a chef of undoubted genius, despite his passion for women. Why has he never noticed Marj, though?As the shopkeepers struggle to make a living, each of them finds their life changing over the course of one eventful year.

Touch of Tantra: Complete Series


Liv Morris - 2014
    Completely and utterly blissed. That's really what separates the men from the boys, Mr. Kingsley. Sex as an art form versus f**king for a release." ~ Kathryn. NYC playboy Adam Kingsley is a man who lives for himself until he meets Kathryn Delcour a beautiful socialite he can't live without. Adam tells their love story in his own words. The lure of ancient sexual practices and a former business partner seeking a deadly revenge mix with Adam's dark past in this page-turning erotic romance."Kathryn's mesmerized me with some kind of tantric magic. I'm bewitched without an ounce of fight left within me. She knows my dilemma, my hesitancy to surrender and loosen the grip I have on my past, and she's won." ~Adam Kingsley(Recommended for mature readers)

Invitation to Bid


Angela Seals - 2019
    NOW IT'S TIME FOR THEM TO PAY IT FORWARD. When Nicholas Brown gets a call from Mama Peaches to come back home for a neighborhood bachelor auction, he doesn’t want to do it. But who can say no to Mama Peaches? As a surgeon known for taking calculated risks for big rewards, he lives his life fast, crazy and on the edge. To save himself from the claws of women placing bids at the auction, this bachelor comes up with a scheme… Despite how things ended, Nick has always held a torch for his beautiful, former high school sweetheart, Raina Lawson. So, who better to bid on him than a woman he trusts? She’s a safe bet, which makes her the best bet! After high school graduation, Nick left her high and dry without any real explanation. And now, the impressive doc wants her help. As a social worker, she’s great at helping others, so when she learns more about Nick’s reasons for coming home, she can’t help but sympathize with him. However, despite her best efforts, she’s still bitter about the break-up and to rub it in even more, Nick seems to have only gotten sexier with age. Getting played sucks but ignoring their chemistry sucks more. Only this time, she isn’t blinded by his charm. This time, he’s playing by her rules.