The Soul is Not a Smithy


David Foster Wallace - 2014
    "[David Foster] Wallace sent it to us as a way of wishing Godspeed—it was an act of kindness, one that we have since done everything we could to try to deserve. There is no flash summary possible, no shortcut I can offer through the bramble of it. I can only testify, as so many others have, that it is vintage Wallace, breaking expectation, compelling devoted attention, repaying in the way that the best art does: by letting us feel at the end that something has been rearranged and at a deep level." About the author: David Foster Wallace was born in Ithaca, New York, in 1962 and raised in Illinois, where he was a regionally ranked junior tennis player. He received bachelor of arts degrees in philosophy and English from Amherst College and wrote what would become his first novel, The Broom of the System, as his senior English thesis. He received a masters of fine arts from University of Arizona in 1987 and briefly pursued graduate work in philosophy at Harvard University. His second novel, Infinite Jest, was published in 1996. Wallace taught creative writing at Emerson College, Illinois State University, and Pomona College, and published the story collections Girl with Curious Hair, Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, Oblivion, the essay collections A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again, and Consider the Lobster. He was awarded the MacArthur Fellowship, a Lannan Literary Award, and a Whiting Writers' Award, and was appointed to the Usage Panel for The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. He died in 2008. His last novel, The Pale King, was published in 2011. About the Guest Editor: Like so many other ventures that first saw light in the counter-culture era, AGNI (founded in 1972 by Askold Melnyczuk) set itself up as an alternative to the status quo, a fly in whatever was the going ointment. Though much has changed and evolved, and though captains and crews have grown a bit older, we like to think that the founding spirit survives. Not so much as a politics, more as a feisty eclecticism, a welcoming of spirits from all parts of the world (we prize fine translation), and as an insistent celebration of the literature that represents the thorny complexity, the complex thorniness, of making a self in a world become “hyper” in so many respects. We look for language that gets our moment, that achieves excellence through the integration of perspectives, that strikes the note of the new. Our avatar is the Vedic god of fire, our goal is literary combustion. About the Publisher: Electric Literature is an independent publisher working to ensure that literature remains a vibrant presence in popular culture. Electric Literature’s weekly fiction magazine, Recommended Reading, invites established authors, indie presses, and literary magazines to recommended great fiction. Once a month we feature our own recommendation of original, previously unpublished fiction, accompanied by a Single Sentence Animation. Single Sentence Animations are creative collaborations: the author chooses a favorite sentence and we commission an artist to interpret it. Stay connected with us through email, Facebook, and Twitter, and find previous Electric Literature picks in the Recommended Reading archives.

Subterranean Scalzi Super Bundle


John Scalzi - 2012
    Subterranean Press bundles together all of their John Scalzi titles into one easy-to-buy special this November:How I Proposed To My Wife: An Alien Sex StoryAn ElectionJudge Sn Goes GolfingQuestions for a SoldierThe Sagan DiaryThe Tale of the WickedThe God EnginesYou're Not fooling Anyone When You Take Your Laptop to the Coffee Shop

The Michael Crichton Collection: Jurassic Park / The Lost World / The Andromeda Strain


Michael Crichton - 2000
    These three audios are offered at 40% off the indivial retail price. ANDROMEDA STRAINRead by Chris North The Andromeda Strain sets forth the story of Project Wildfire - the crash mobilization of the nations highest scientific and medical resources when an unmanned research satellite returns to earth mysteriously and lethally contaminated. Four American scientists are summoned under conditions of total news blackout and utmost urgency to Wildfire's secret laboratory five stories below the Nevada desert. There - surrounded by the most sophisticated computer equipment, and sealed off from the outside world - they work against the threat of a worldwide epidemic. Step by step they begin to unravel the puzzle of the Andromeda Strain until, terrifyingly, their microbacterial adversary ruptures the hypersterile seal of the lab and their already desperate search for a biomedical answer becomes a split second race against time. JURASSIC PARKRead by John Heard A shroud of secrecy covers a privately-owned island off the coast of the Dominican Republic where an American bioengineering firm is quietly building a resort theme park. Even the expert consultants on the project don't know exactly what it is. And local doctors are mystified when an injured park worker arrives at the hospital with gashes on his body, as if he's been mauled by an animal of monstrous proportions. A year later, when the first invited guests to "Jurassic Park" attend a 4-day preview, the amazement, the shock, and finally, the terror they experience there offer a horrifying solution to this disturbing puzzle. Riveting scientific detail ad a driving, suspenseful narrative make this an unforgettable story - one of advanced technology versus prehistoric monsters . . . and of an extraordinary good idea gone extraordinary bad. THE LOST WORLDRead by Anthony Heald The sequel to Michael Crichton's bestselling "Jurassic Park." It is now six years since the secret disaster at Jurassic Park: six years since that extraordinary dream of science and imagination came to a crashing end - the dinosaurs destroyed, the part dismantled, the island indefinitely closed to the public. There are rumors that something has survived.

Zombie Survival Manual: From the dawn of time onwards


Sean T. Page - 2013
    Accompanied by illustrations, maps, diagrams and step-by-step instructions, this manual will be essential reading for those interested in protecting themselves, their families and society at large from the living dead.

Conspiracy


Dana Stabenow - 2011
    Living together in the state of chaotic disarray that is the bachelor's birthright, they little suspect the fate that others are preparing for them.

The Saga of the Witcher: Blood of Elves, Time of Contempt, Baptism of Fire, The Tower of the Swallow and The Lady of the Lake


Andrzej Sapkowski - 2020
    These five novels make up the bestselling series that inspired the Witcher video games and a major Netflix show.Geralt of Rivia is a Witcher, a man whose magic powers and lifelong training have made him a brilliant fighter and a merciless assassin.Yet he is no ordinary killer: he hunts the vile fiends that ravage the land and attack the innocent.But not everything monstrous-looking is evil; not everything fair is good . . . and in every fairy tale there is a grain of truth.Read the epic Witcher saga now with this eBook boxset, which contains all five novels in the ground-breaking series.Blood of Elves translated by Danusia Stok.Time of Contempt, Baptism of Fire, The Tower of the Swallow, The Lady of the Lake translated by David French.Andrzej Sapkowski, winner of the World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement award, started an international phenomenon with his Witcher series. The Last Wish is the perfect introduction to this one-of-a-kind fantasy world.

The Cave Girl/The Cave Man


Edgar Rice Burroughs - 2011
    Waldo’s bookish education hasn’t prepared him to cope with such surroundings ... in short, he’s a coward — he’s terrified when he encounters primitive, violent men, ape-like throwbacks in mankind's evolutionary history! Edgar Rice Burroughs’ “The Cave Girl” was serialized in The All-Story magazine in 1913; his sequel, “The Cave Man,” followed in 1917. This edition contains both texts.

Double the 007: Casino Royale and Live and Let Die


Ian Fleming - 2012
    They are easier to fight for than principles'In Casino Royale, the first of Fleming's 007 adventures, a game of cards is James Bond's only chance to bring down the desperate SMERSH agent Le Chiffre. But Bond soon discovers that there is far more at stake than money.Live and Let Die'You start to die the moment you are born'Live and Let Die, Ian Fleming's second 007 novel, takes Bond from Harlem to Jamaica in a frenzied hunt for the deadly gangster Mr Big and his macabre network of associates.

Hornblower and His Majesty


C.S. Forester - 1940
    For his first command after escaping from France, Hornblower is given charge of the royal yacht - and he soon requires all his skill and instinct to prevent disaster!

The Verger


W. Somerset Maugham
    

Nora Ephron Collected


Nora Ephron - 1991
    Paperback: 216 pages Publisher: Avon Books (P) (February 1991) Language: English ISBN-10: 0380712539 ISBN-13: 978-0380712533

Sabbat Worlds: Of Their Lives in the Ruins of Their Cities


Dan Abnett - 2011
    On Voltemand, long before they gain fame and glory as Gaunt’s Ghosts, the Tanith are a broken unit. Crippled by doubt and hating their commander for his part in the death of their world, they are fractious and undisciplined. Leading a patrol into no-man’s-land, Gaunt is ambushed. The Tanith must rally around and protect their new leader, or be consigned to history.A short story from the Sabbat Worlds Anthology.

The Market Arcanum


Margaret Dunlap - 2015
     When a mysterious invite arrives in the mail and Father Menchu responds by whisking Sal off to Lichtenstein, the former cop is left on very new ground as she gets more than a glimpse at the broader world of magic users. Unfortunately, they are immediately confronted by a wealthy business man who is less upset about them blowing up his boat two episodes ago, as he is about them stealing his (sludge-demon releasing) book. When the three remaining Team members back in Rome suddenly find themselves under attack, Sal and Menchu are left scrambling for how to help and have to turn to the peculiar techno-cultists whose computers run on seahorses and have a pointed interest in the cop sister of their acquaintance Perry. Welcome to the Market Arcanum. This episode is brought to you by team-writer Margaret Dunlap who shows us that the Society is far from the only fish in the magic-hunting sea—and certainly isn’t the biggest. "Bookburners is sheer enormous fun! Energetic, intense, vivid prose. More soon please." --Naomi Novik, author of Uprooted and the New York Times bestselling Temeraire series "Bookburners is the breathless, hallucinogenic love child of Torchwood, the Librarians, and the Laundry Files. More soon, please." --Ian Tregillis, author of The Mechanical and Bitter Seeds "Bookburners is an exciting new take on urban fantasy. Love the premise, love the characters, love the unique (and sometimes wonderfully disturbing) spin on the dangers of magic!" --Cassandra Rose Clarke, author of The Assassins Curse "Bookburners has everything I want from episodic storytelling - strong writing, a rich premise, and memorable characters that will keep me coming back week after week." --Mike Underwood, author of the Ree Reyes Geekomancy series "Bookburners satisfies my craving for pulpy, demonic chaos with sharp writing, deliciously sinister magic, stellar black humor, and a kick-ass cast. The serialized story perfectly suits a sorcerer’s codex of baddies while the plucky Sal digs for deeper truths in her work with the Black Archives squad." --Lindsay Smith, author of the Sekret Series

TT Races


J.C. Williams - 2018
     With time a dwindling commodity, Frank decides it’s time to do something he wants to do. With a little encouragement from his oldest friend, Stan, the first destination for his ‘bucket-list’ is the Isle of Man TT Races. They were content to just spectate, but fate had other ideas.

Trout Magic


Robert Traver - 1974
    Traver recounts the story of a mysterious "dancing fly, " speaks pointedly about "kiss-and-tell" fishermen, debunks fly fishermen as the "world's greatest snobs, " lets us in on the fishing story Life missed, and takes us along on his strangest fishing trip. We meet the unforgettable Danny McGinnis, guide, and other choice characters and events from his anything-but-ordinary fishing trips. Traver even has some new angles on women anglers and does a free piece of tongue-in-cheek literary sleuthing into Ernest Hemingway's story "Big Two-Hearted River."There's enough trout magic here to rub off on every reader -- man, woman, or child -- as Robert Traver weaves his inimitable storytelling spell. Trout Magic is a marvelous catch of wit, wisdom, and anecdote sure to delight everyone who enjoys a master storyteller who just happens to write here about his wonderful world of trout fishing.