These are the hidden stories of the team that laid the foundation of a mutant dynasty! Featuring Sue Storm, the Fantastic Four's Invisible Girl; the Incredible Hulk; mutant-hunting Sentinels; and more! Collecting X-MEN: FIRST CLASS (2007) #1, #5-7 and #10 ‚Äî plus cartoonist Colleen Coover takes on Xavier's five in the backup strips from issues #3, #5-6, #9 and #11-15; and the X-MEN: FIRST CLASS SPECIAL (2007).

    Many of the trees have been cleared, but connection with the wildwood remains. It is a place of danger, adventure and transformation, where anything could happen. Here is a collection of traditional folk tales of oak, ash and thorn, hunting forests and rebellion, timber and triumph in battle, wild ghosts and woodwoses. Lisa Schneidau retells some of the old stories and relates them to the trees and forests in the landscape of our islands today. These stories are essential reading for all those who feel a pull towards the wild in the landscape, and at the edge of our lives.

    Raif is a stalled academic, as uncertain of the past as he is the future, whose girlfriend is about to move in. They meet by chance, nothing important is said, yet Iris turns away and starts to run. She is running from what this encounter has woken in her. In the City of Love's Sleep is a contemporary fable about what it means to fall in love in middle age. It charts the steps two people take towards one another and what it means to have taken those steps before.

    The magazine published twenty stories by this stellar group of writers over the course of the summer. They are now collected for the first time in one volume.The range of voices is extraordinary. There is the lyrical realism of Nell Freudenberger, Philipp Meyer, C. E. Morgan, and Salvatore Scibona; the satirical comedy of Joshua Ferris and Gary Shteyngart; and the genre-bending tales of Jonathan Safran Foer, Nicole Krauss, and Téa Obreht. David Bezmozgis and Dinaw Mengestu offer clear eyed portraits of immigration and identity; Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, ZZ Packer, and Wells Tower offer voice-driven, idiosyncratic narratives. Then there are the haunting sociopolitical stories of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Daniel Alarcón, and Yiyun Li, and the metaphysical fantasies of Chris Adrian, Rivka Galchen, and Karen Russell.Each of these writers reminds us why we read. And each is aiming for greatness: fighting to get and to hold our attention in a culture that is flooded with words, sounds, and pictures; fighting to surprise, to entertain, to teach, and to move not only us but generations of readers to come. A landmark collection, 20 Under 40 stands as a testament to the vitality of fiction today.Birdsong / Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie --The warm fuzzies / Chris Adrian --Second Lives / Daniel Alarcón --The train of their departure / David Bezmozgis --The Erlking / Sarah Shun-lien Bynum --The pilot / Joshua Ferris --Here we aren't, so quickly / Jonathan Safran Foer --An arranged marriage / Nell Freudenberger --The entire northern side was covered with fire / Rivka Galchen --The young painters / Nicole Krauss --The science of flight / Yiyun Li --An honest exit / Dinaw Mengestu --What you do out here, when you're alone / Philipp Meyer --Twins / C.E. Morgan --Blue water djinn / Téa Obreht --Dayward / ZZ Packer --The dredgeman's revelation / Karen Russell --The kid / Salvatore Scibona --Lenny hearts Eunice / Gary Shteyngart --The landlord / Wells Tower

    With an irresistible client who won’t take “no” for an answer, if the job doesn’t get him killed, she just might.HOLLYWOOD PHARAOHS has been described as a fast-paced love child of The Big Lebowski and Indiana Jones.

    Keeping her end up while seven grown-up children tear about the fecking place like the eejits haven't got a home to go to.Packed with Mammy's tips for keeping a perfect family, or at least a family, as well as contributions from her children, neighbours and other hangers on, Mrs Brown's Family Handbook dispenses advice in her own inimical fecking style. You'll learn:• why every mammy's secret weapon is the tea towel• the dos and don't of cleaning up Granddad • what Dermot doesn't know about farting (not much)• what Winnie knows about seks (not enough)• all about the Five-Sausages-A-Day Diet (hint: contains sausages)• from Maria all about pain relief in child birth (if its free, take it)The perfect gift for anyone in a large family - it's one present and cheap - or with no family at all (seeing what they're missing might cheer the miserable feckers up), Mrs Brown's Family Handbook is also ideal for anyone sick and tired of giving out bloody DVDs for Christmas.Brendan O'Carroll is an Irish writer, producer, comedian, actor, director and author. He is best known for playing Agnes Brown in Mrs Brown's Boys, which won the best sitcom BAFTA in 2012. He has written four films and nine comedy shows, including The Course (1995), The Last Wedding (1999) and last year saw the release of his DVD for the live tour Good Mourning Mrs Brown. He has also published seven novels, including The Mammy, The Scrapper and The Young Wan - a number of which have been translated into 12 languages.

    Launch of a new thriller series by an author who has been there and done it

    My boyfriend’s best friend. He was never supposed to be anything more—until he was. When my college boyfriend betrayed me and left, breaking my heart, Jay picked a side. He chose me. He stayed, and for the past six years, he’s been my rock, my anchor, my compass…Now we’ve grown up, finished school, and have careers. Me as a nurse practitioner; Jay as a doctor. He’s been everything I needed, but now I want more. I can’t stop thinking about him, and I’m done hiding it.   It’s time to find out if he wants me, too. 
JAY

A friend. Not a lover. That’s who Mia Waters is to me. I’ve tried damn hard to make sure our relationship stays that way. I’m the shoulder she leans on, the last one to talk to her before she goes to sleep at night… And after six years, she means more to me than my own family.The moment I met her, I wanted her. But she belonged to someone else, so I pushed the need down. I didn’t take what I wanted. I’m not that guy. Her happiness meant more.  Until now. Until she asks me a question that shatters our unspoken boundaries. Have you ever thought about having sex with me? Six years of keeping her at arm’s length, and I can feel myself starting to give in and lose control with her.I can’t let it happen. There are reasons I didn’t get close. She hasn’t let go of her ex-boyfriend, not really. And she has no idea about the lies I’ve told her.What if she finds out about me? What if she finds out who I really am?And what will she do when I leave?

    Love fiercely. For all else is dust.Every child of Glasnith learns the last words of Aillira, the god-gifted mortal whose doomed love affair sparked a war of gods and men, and Lira of clan Stone knows the story better than most. As a descendant of Aillira and god-gifted in her own right, she has the power to read people's souls, to see someone's true essence with only a touch of her hand.When a golden-haired warrior washes up on the shores of her homeland--one of the fearful marauders from the land of the Frozen Sun--Lira helps the wounded man instead of turning him in. After reading his soul, she realizes Reyker is different than his brethren who attack the coasts of Glasnith. He confides in her that he's been cursed with what his people call battle-madness, forced to fight for the warlord known as the Dragon, a powerful tyrant determined to reignite the ancient war that Aillira started.As Lira and Reyker form a bond forbidden by both their clans, the wrath of the Dragon falls upon them and all of Glasnith, and Lira finds herself facing the same tragic fate as her ancestor. The battle for Lira's life, for Reyker's soul, and for their peoples' freedom has only just begun.

    Dr. Manheimer describes the plights of twelve very different patients--from dignitaries at the nearby UN, to supermax prisoners at Riker's Island, to illegal immigrants, and Wall Street tycoons.Manheimer was not only the medical director of the country's oldest public hospital for over 13 years, but he was also a patient. As the book unfolds, the narrator is diagnosed with cancer, and he is forced to wrestle with the end of his own life even as he struggles to save the lives of others.

    Tales of shadows and voices in the dark from the likes of H.P. Lovecraft, Edgar Allan Poe, Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker, Nathaniel Hawthorne and William Hope Hodgson are cast with previously unpublished stories by some of the best writers of horror today.A dazzling collection of the most gripping tales of horror, vividly told."Ecdysis", by Rebecca J. Alfred"The Damned Thing", by Ambrose Bierce"Beyond the Wall", by Ambrose Bierce"Mirror's Keeper", by Michael Bondies"The Watcher by the Threshold", by John Buchan"The Dying Art", by Glen Damien Campbell"The Yellow Sign", by Robert W. Chambers"Breach", by Justin Coates"The Dead Smile", by F. Marion Crawford"The Screaming Skull", by F. Marion Crawford"The Child's Story", by Charles Dickens"The Leather Funnel", by Arthur Conan Doyle"In Search of a New Wilhelm", by John H. Dromey"Leonora", by Elise Forier Edie"A Game of Conquest", by David A. Elsensohn"Thing in the Bucket", by Eric Esser"The Murdered Cousin", by Sheridan Le Fanu"The Grey Woman", by Elizabeth Gaskell"Worth the Having", by Michael Paul Gonzalez"Extraneus Invokat", by Ed Grabianowski"The Three Strangers", by Thomas Hardy"Young Goodman Brown", by Nathaniel Hawthorne"The Gateway of the Monster", by William Hope Hodgson"The Challenge From Beyond", by Robert E. Howard, Frank Belknap Long, H. P. Lovecraft, A. Merritt, and C. L. Moore"The Man in the Ambry", by Gwendolyn Kiste"Start With Color", by Bill Kte'pi"The Rocking-Horse Winner", by D. H. Lawrence"The Magnificat of Devils", by James Lecky"The Dunwich Horror", by H. P. Lovecraft"The Call of Cthulu", by H. P. Lovecraft"The Horia", by Guy de Maupassant"The Woman of the Wood", by A. Merritt"The Vampire", Jan Neruda"The Masque of the Red Death", by Edgar Allan Poe"The Premature Burial", by Edgar Allan Poe"Trial and Error", by Frank Roger"The Mortal Immortal", by Mary Shelley"The Body Snatcher", by Robert Louis Stevenson"Dracula's Guest", by Bram Stoker"Blessed Be the Bound", by Lucy Taylor"Dead End", by Kristopher Triana"Justified", by DJ Tyrer"Afterward", by Edith Wharton"Deep-sixed Without a Depth Gauge", by Andrew J. Wilson"The Dew of Heaven, Like Ashes", by William R. D. Wood

    She possesses an incredible gift: the ability to communicate with loved ones who have passed, convey messages of love and healing, and impart a greater understanding of our interconnectedness. Though her abilities are exceptional, they are not unique, and that is the message at the core of this book. Understanding "the secret language of the universe" is a gift available to all. As we learn to ask for and recognize signs from the other side, we will start to find meaning where before there was only confusion, and see light in the darkness. We may decide to change paths, push toward love, pursue joy, and engage with life in a whole new way.In Signs, Jackson is able to bring the mystical into the everyday. She relates stories of people who have experienced uncanny revelations and instances of unexplained synchronicity, as well as others drawn from her own experience. There's the lost child who appears to his mother as a deer that approaches her unhesitatingly at a highway rest stop; the name written on a dollar bill that lets a terrified wife know that her husband will be okay; the Elvis Presley song that arrives at the exact moment of Jackson's own father's passing; and many others. This is a book that is inspiring and practical, deeply comforting and wonderfully motivational, in asking us to see beyond ourselves to a more magnificent universal design.

    But one day she loses control and yells back. Terrified that she’ll be fired, she seeks out Isabel, the call center’s sage.      The advice she receives from her wise mentor changes her life:·         SODA (Stop. Observe. Decide. Act)—a sure-fire formula for remaining calm in any situation·         Unplugging—a centuries-old practice to reduce anxiety and promote creativity·         Aha!s—22 practical insights that become the framework for living a happy life      This modern-day fable shows us that the best way to reduce stress is to cultivate mindfulness. While we cannot control much of what happens, we can get better outcomes if we stop to see situations clearly and calmly.      This book serves as both a powerful resource for business professionals looking for practical, easy-to-use tools for dealing with difficult people and an inspirational tale for those who want better relationships and a happier life.

    Fans of the game will love these stories. Titles in this Collection include: Underworld, Unity, Black Flag, Forsaken, Revelations, The Secret Crusade, Brotherhood, Renaissance. The covert war between two secret organizations, the shadowy Templar Knights and the elite Order of Assassins, has been raging for millennia.Following the murder of his father and brothers, Ezio Auditore di Firenze is entrusted with an ancient Codex, the key to a conspiracy that goes back to centuries. Ezio must avenge the deaths of his kinsmen and in doing so fulfil his destiny, and live by the laws of the Assassin's Creed.Ezio's quest will test him to his limits. And in such treacherous times, conspiracy is everywhere, even within the ranks of the brotherhood itself . . . We work in the dark to serve the light. We are assassins.

    But when the slave-masters sought to get more production out of their plantations, they decided that they needed to kidnap a stronger group of slaves. When they kidnap the Bawss tribe, however; they realized that their bloodline was too dominant and too powerful.Can the slave-masters ever recover from the likes of the greatest and strongest bloodline that they have ever been introduced to? Or will America be forced to witness power on the grandest of all levels?