La má del rei


George R.R. Martin - 1986
    When the cyborg arrives, she senses a worthy and dangerous opponent--one that's been dead for 800 years...

The Sleep Of The Dead


Tom Bradby - 2001
    But these are not the only scars that have resolutely refused to heal. Shortly afterwards, Colonel Mitchell Havilland sacrificed himself on a Falklands hillside in an act of characteristic - but baffling - heroism. When Julia comes home from China fifteen years later, it is to a place of ghosts. Whilst she awaits the outcome of the enquiry that seems destined to end her short but spectacular career in military intelligence, Julia is drawn back across the landscape of the past, to find that it is not just the tortured image of her much-loved father that returns to haunt her. Everything she has ever believed in and lived for has suddenly been called into question, and unless she confronts her demons, she will not survive. For there have been other deaths, and the dead will not sleep... At once a race-against-the-clock thriller and a complex psychological drama where the memories of the past conflict with knowledge of the present, The Sleep of the Dead is a stunning read on any level and more than confirms Tom Bradby as one of this country's foremost thriller writers. Praise for Shadow Dancer: 'Quite exceptional...Tom Bradby succeeds in creating real characters. Far too many novels take refuge in cliché and caricature - Bradby refuses to. The language, the tension, the fear - all are portrayed vividly and correctly...A taut, compelling story of love and torn loyalties'Daily Telegraph 'A remarkable first novel...Bradby handles the tension with skill to produce a gripping tale'The Times 'The best book on the northern conflict since Harry's Game...An excellent read on any level. It scores heavily as a thriller and as an accurate unblinking look at what is happening right now'Irish Independent

Holes: A Play


Louis Sachar - 2015
    This winner of the Newbery Medal and the National Book Award features Stanley Yelnats, a kid who is under a curse. A curse that began with his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather and has since followed generations of Yelnats. Now Stanley has been unjustly sent to a boys' detention center, Camp Green Lake, where the warden makes the boys "build character" by spending all day, every day, digging holes five feet wide and five feet deep. It doesn't take long for Stanley to realize there's more than character improvement going on at Camp Green Lake: the warden is looking for something. Stanley tries to dig up the truth in this inventive and darkly humorous tale of crime and punishment-and redemption..

Merry Wrath Mysteries Boxed Set Vol. I


Leslie Langtry - 2016
    Instead of black bag drops in Bangkok, she now spends her time leading a young Girl Scout troop. But Merry's new simple life turns not-so-simple when an enemy agent shows up dead at scout camp. Suddenly Merry is forced to deal with her former life in order to preserve her future one. It doesn't help matters that the CIA sends in her former, sexy handler to investigate…or that the hot new neighbor across the street turns out to be the local detective in charge of her case. And when Merry is forced to take on a roommate in the voluptuous form of a turned KGB agent/bimbo, things become trickier than wet work in Waukegan or cookie sales in the spring. Nothing in the CIA or Girl Scouts' training manuals has prepared her for what comes next… Mint Cookie Murder (book #2) Ex-CIA agent turned suburban scout leader, Merry Wrath, is just trying to live a normal, quiet life. But all that goes out the window when a convicted traitor (who’s inconveniently not in his prison cell) dies on her doorstep, and an obese cat, who bears a disturbing resemblance to Hitler, decides to move in. To make things worse, it’s time for the annual troop cookie sale, her new boyfriend’s old college flame shows up to win him back, and someone’s shooting at Merry in the frozen foods section of the grocery store. Is the assassin after her or the cat? Is Riley, her hot former CIA handler, hitting on her? Is Rex, her boyfriend, going to dump her? Will she sell enough cookies to take her troop to Winter Sniper Camp? If Merry doesn't find answer to these questions soon, it may be too late! Marshmallow S'More Murder (book #3) What could be better for former CIA agent turned Girl Scout leader Merry Wrath than taking twelve little girls to Washington DC for a bit of summer fun? Almost anything. Unfortunately, between her girls terrorizing the Secret Service and "accidentally" destroying the hotel pool, Merry has her hands full with this troop. And when her former handler, Riley, is kidnapped Merry has to turn to an old friend from her spy days and her parents, Senator and Mrs. Czrgy, to help her wrangle the troop and rescue the man she once briefly called her boyfriend. Armed only with a perpetually AWOL parent, stalked by a runaway King Vulture, and plagued by a mysterious death from her past, Merry's mayhem weaves a wacky trail from moonshiners in the Blue Ridge Mountains, to the bowels of the Japanese Embassy, to the ductwork of the International Spy Museum. With things heating up with current boyfriend, Detective Rex Ferguson, can Merry decipher clues from her past to find ex¬-boyfriend Riley and finally solve the murder of Yakuza boss, Midori Ito, before the target on her back is filled with lead?

Red Runs the Plain


W.R. Benton - 2007
    Army Scout'Escaping from the Oto Indians who brutally slaughtered his whole family, fifteen-year-old Jarel Wade runs aimlessly into a snowstorm. On the verge of death he's rescued by a pair of cantankerous old mountain men as rugged as the mountains off which they live. Taken under their wing, Jarel proves himself worthy of the trail, but something's coming; something far more sinister that will test every ounce of his newly earned skills and mettle. A rogue former British Army officer is systematically exterminating the free trappers. He wants to corner the fur trade for himself, and he commands a pack of thieves, murderers and outcasts who know the mountains as well as they know how to dig Jarel a grave."RED RUNS THE PLAIN is a crackerjack story written by a craftsman at the top of his form. A whirlwind of a tale that will keep you turning pages."— Matt Braun

And Then There Were None/The Secret Adversary/Towards Zero/N or M?


Agatha Christie - 1992
    

Batman: Arkham Knight (2015-) #1


Peter J. Tomasi - 2015
    Arkham City is closed. As a new day begins, Bruce Wayne finds himself in devastating pain, recovering from his injuries and questioning whether his role as Batman is still necessary to the city’s survival. But as the sun rises in Gotham City, dangerous new threats emerge from the shadows…and the Arkham Knight is just beginning. Don’t miss this in-continuity prequel comic set prior to the events of the brand-new video game Batman: Arkham Knight!

The Kristin Hannah Collection: Volume 1: Firefly Lane, True Colors, Fly Away


Kristin Hannah - 2014
    Includes:FIREFLY LANETo the people around them they were known as KateandTully or the Firefly Lane Girls. A single, inseparable unit. Best friends forever. On the surface they were as opposite as two people could be: Kate, doomed to be forever uncool, with a loving family who mortifies her at every turn. Tully, steeped in glamour and mystery, but with a secret home life that is destroying her. Yet they are best friends who swear they'll be there for each other, and for thirty years that promise holds strong—until events and choices in their lives make that promise impossible. More than a coming-of-age novel, this is the story of a generation of women who were both blessed and cursed by choices. It's about promises and secrets and betrayals. And ultimately, about the one person who really, truly knows you—and knows what has the power to hurt you and heal you.FLY AWAYKristin Hannah returns to the world of the unforgettable characters from FIREFLY LANE and asks the question: How do you hold yourself together when your world has fallen apart? This is the story of three women who have lost their way and need each other—plus a miracle—to transform their lives. An emotionally complex, heartwrenching novel about love, family, motherhood, loss, and redemption, it reminds us that where there is life, there is hope, and where there is love, there is forgiveness. Told with her trademark visceral storytelling and illuminating prose, Kristin Hannah reveals why she is one of the most beloved writers of our day.TRUE COLORSThe Grey sisters had only each other when their mother died years ago. Their stern, unyielding father gave them almost no attention. Winona, the oldest, needs her father's approval most of all. An overweight dreamer, she never felt at home on the sprawling horse ranch that had been in her family for three generations. Aurora, the middle, is the peacemaker. Vivi Ann, the youngest, is the undisputed star of the family. Everything comes easily to Vivi Ann, her father's love most of all. But when Vivi Ann makes a fateful decision to follow her heart, rather than take the route of a dutiful daughter, events are set in motion that will test the love and loyalties of the Grey sisters. They will be pitted against each other in ways none could have imagined. Secrets will be revealed, and a terrible, shocking crime will shatter both the family and their beloved town. With breathtaking pace and penetrating insight, Kristin Hannah's has written a novel that's about sisters, vengeance, jealousy, betrayal—and ultimately, what it truly means to be a family.

Road Trip! (SpongeBob SquarePants)


Adam Beechen - 2011
    SpongeBob and Patrick are on the ultimate road trip when they set out in the Krusty Krab Patty Wagon to save King Neptune's crown from Shell City! They will travel through a cavernous trench and meet a monstrous frogfish, see a stampede of sea horses, and meet a giant Cyclops!

A Study Guide to Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice


Jane Austen - 1994
    And certainly what Melville did for whaling Austen does for marriage--tracing the intricacies (not to mention the economics) of 19th-century British mating rituals with a sure hand and an unblinking eye. As usual, Austen trains her sights on a country village and a few families--in this case, the Bennets, the Philips, and the Lucases. Into their midst comes Mr. Bingley, a single man of good fortune, and his friend, Mr. Darcy, who is even richer. Mrs. Bennet, who married above her station, sees their arrival as an opportunity to marry off at least one of her five daughters. Bingley is complaisant and easily charmed by the eldest Bennet girl, Jane; Darcy, however, is harder to please. Put off by Mrs. Bennet's vulgarity and the untoward behavior of the three younger daughters, he is unable to see the true worth of the older girls, Jane and Elizabeth. His excessive pride offends Lizzy, who is more than willing to believe the worst that other people have to say of him; when George Wickham, a soldier stationed in the village, does indeed have a discreditable tale to tell, his words fall on fertile ground. Having set up the central misunderstanding of the novel, Austen then brings in her cast of fascinating secondary characters: Mr. Collins, the sycophantic clergyman who aspires to Lizzy's hand but settles for her best friend, Charlotte, instead; Lady Catherine de Bourgh, Mr. Darcy's insufferably snobbish aunt; and the Gardiners, Jane and Elizabeth's low-born but noble-hearted aunt and uncle. Some of Austen's best comedy comes from mixing and matching these representatives of different classes and economic strata, demonstrating the hypocrisy at the heart of so many social interactions. And though the novel is rife with romantic misunderstandings, rejected proposals, disastrous elopements, and a requisite happy ending for those who deserve one, Austen never gets so carried away with the romance that she loses sight of the hard economic realities of 19th-century matrimonial maneuvering. Good marriages for penniless girls such as the Bennets are hard to come by, and even Lizzy, who comes to sincerely value Mr. Darcy, remarks when asked when she first began to love him: "It has been coming on so gradually, that I hardly know when it began. But I believe I must date it from my first seeing his beautiful grounds at Pemberley." She may be joking, but there's more than a little truth to her sentiment, as well. Jane Austen considered Elizabeth Bennet "as delightful a creature as ever appeared in print". Readers of Pride and Prejudice would be hard-pressed to disagree. --Alix Wilber

F*ck Yes or No: A Counterintuitive Approach to Your Relationships and Maybe Your Life


Mark Manson - 2019
    

The Quantum Series: Box Set Books 1 - 3


Douglas Phillips - 2019
    The quantum world doesn't play by those rules. Daniel Rice is a government science investigator whose specialty is solving seemingly intractable problems through scientific inquiry.But Daniel's intellectual strength is sorely tested by the bizarre realities he finds in the quantum world. Extra dimensions of space trap the unwary, probability replaces cause and effect, and time isn't what anyone imagined. The other side of the mirror is a place full of dangers, but it's also somewhere a dedicated scientist can uncover secrets that connect humans with something greater. If you liked the authenticity of The Martian, the page-turning pace of Da Vinci Code, and the inspirational world views of Arthur C. Clarke and Carl Sagan, you'll love The Quantum Series. A mind-bending journey from the ultra-small to the vast stage of the Milky Way. Acclaim for The Quantum Series Awarded the indieBRAG Medallion for 2018"Dazzling tale of weird science" - Publisher's Weekly"I can't recall when I last enjoyed a hard science series as much as this one. The concepts were astounding, the characters were easily believable, and the action emotionally driven. Very hard to put down. It kept me reading half the night. You'll be thinking about the far out science ideas promulgated in this series for a long time." - Chuck Juzek"A great story, no hatred, no evil people trying to destroy others, just a wonderful adventure with a fantastic outcome." - Ric Mannen"Fermi's Paradox is finally explained." - PE Gwinn"An exciting plot that kept me glued to my chair instead of mowing the lawn." - PE Gwinn"Probably one of the most entertaining and intellectually stimulating stories I've read in a long time... and I read a LOT!" - Jason Blackford"Great story that proves the universe is indeed full of magic!" - Rand"The protagonists have an almost poetic underpinning that had me rooting for their success." - J. Kareski"BTW, all three books show respect and admiration for women scientists as well as men." - Robin C."Mr. Phillips is the only person who explained quantum physics to me in a way that was not only understandable but entertaining." - Edward L. Heins

Keller's Homecoming


Lawrence Block - 2016
    He collects stamps. He used to have a dog, until the dog walker walked off with him. Then he soldiered on alone.It's his profession that sets him apart. He's a hit man. He kills strangers for a living.And he's a Guilty Pleasure for an ever-increasing number of readers. "I don't think I ought to like Keller," readers tell me. "But I can't help myself..." In the fourth Keller novel, HIT AND RUN, Keller's whole life in New York came to an abrupt end; by the time he'd sorted things out, he was married and living in New Orleans, with a kid on the way. And now, for the first time since the substance hit the fan, he's back in New York—once his home, and now the most dangerous place on the planet for him. And his job is impossible. He has to break into a monastery in the middle of Murray Hill and kill the abbott.Lots of luck, Keller...This edition of KELLER'S HOMECOMING (which was incorporated into the book Hit Me) includes as a bonus the opening sequence of another Keller adventure, KELLER'S DESIGNATED HITTER.

Bourbon Street Shorts


Deanna Chase - 2020
    The tree is decorated, the mistletoe is in place, and the crab puffs are to die for. Nothing can spoil this celebration…except for some wayward magic and a pesky ghost who crashes the party.SPIRITS OF BOURBON STREETIt’s Halloween on Bourbon Street, and white witch Jade Calhoun is ready to party. But when a sexy spirit traps everyone in the past, she’s forced to forgo the cocktails in order to save those she loves...again.A MIRACLE ON BOURBON STREETIt’s Christmas Eve and Jade Calhoun’s ready for a quiet, magical night with her husband Kane. But when Santa demons and energy-stealing elves start wreaking havoc, it’s going to take a miracle on Bourbon Street to save Christmas.A BOURBON STREET VALENTINEIt’s Valentine’s Day and magic’s in the air. Only Kat Hart never expected her handmade jewelry to be at the center of everything. So when her night out at Cupid’s Ball turns into a competition to be a handsome stranger’s wife, it’s up to her to break the spell…or she might get more than she bargained for.SPIRITS, HURRICANES, AND THE KREWE OF GHOULIt’s Halloween and Pyper Rayne’s all vamped up, ready to play the vampire bride. And so is Ida May, her resident ghost. But when the “vampires” they're partying with start to appear to be real, there’s more at stake than just a little bite.KISSED BY TEMPTATIONThe last place sex-witch Mati Ballintine wants to be is at a holiday sorority party. But when the high angel from the council orders her to protect a new angel recruit, she has no choice but to go and grit her teeth through the frat boys’ advances.
The night turns from bad to worse when a demon appears and is hell-bent on taking the angel to Hell. Mati and her incubus boyfriend Vaughn will need to combine forces to not only save the angel, but everyone else the demon leaves in his wake.

Sandra Brown Suspense Collection: The Switch, Envy, The Crush


Sandra Brown - 2003
    The next morning Gillain is found brutally butchered in her own bed. Determined to avenge the murder, Melina vows to stop at nothing to learn the truth. But soon she is on the run from police, the FBI, and the mastermind whose evil plot to engineer the perfect "switch" could result in disastrous consequences on a global scale."ENVY"Read by Victor SlezakBook editor Maris Matherly-Reed receives a tantalizing partial manuscript submitted by a writer identified only as P.M.E. Curiosity compels her to track down the author, Parker Evans, and work with him to complete the novel. But as the story unfolds, Maris becomes convinced it is more than just fiction. When someone close to her dies, the presence of evil looms even closer..."THE CRUSH"Read by Tom WopatWhile serving as a juror on a high-profile murder trial, Dr. Rennie Newton finds herself defending the inalienable rights of the accused -- even though there is considerable evidence of his guilt. When she arrives home, five dozen roses ominously await her. As she becomes the obsession of Lozada -- the accused murderer she helped acquit -- Rennie is drawn into a ferocious endgame with an embittered cop who wants Lozada -- by any means necessary.