Book picks similar to
Joy in Mudville by Gordon McAlpine
fantasy
literary-retelling
magical-realism
non-fiction-history
The Beginning
Ed Nelson - 2019
Starting in the summer before his freshman year it follows him through high school and beyond. He finds wealth as an inventor and fame in Hollywood as he searches for a girlfriend. Wealth and fame prove easier than girls. The first book titled, ‘The Beginning’ sees the handsome young Rick on a cross country trip, hitchhiking from a small Ohio town to California. Along the way there is a bank robbery, bull riding in the rodeo, a movie with John Wayne and rustlers among other events. After the summer his first year in High School starts. From the excitement of summer to the dullness of school Rick is followed as he proves that school need not be dull. For the young this is a coming of age adventure, for those who lived it a trip down memory lane, and for those with a search engine Easters Eggs galore. This tongue in cheek saga is all true, give or take a lie or two.
Lottery King
Eric Vall - 2022
And the perks just keep piling up: Money, cars, mansions, the finest cuisine, the most exotic beauties I’ve ever laid eyes on… you name it.I’m even expected to marry multiple paranormal women.But being the first human king of the Eternal Realm comes with its own challenges, and there’s plenty of species who’d like to see my head on a spike.It’s time to show my subjects exactly what kind of king I intend to be, because there’s no way I’m giving up the rich life now that I’ve finally gotten a taste of it.
The Magelands Epic (Books 5-8) An epic fantasy series
Christopher Mitchell - 2020
A War of Wizards: Book Five of the Blackwood Saga
Layton Green - 2021
Court of Thorns: A LitRPG Story (The Eternal Journey Book 5)
C.J. Carella - 2021
Dancing With Dragons: Book 4 of Sovereign of the Three Realms
Li Tian - 2021
Eldritch Lord
Jake Myles - 2020
A busty mercenary. A stuck-up blonde who will submit to me.I never planned to collect a harem, I swear. But when an elf with a secret lures me away from my family farm, I can’t stop racking up the ladies.The problem is our party starts to rack up enemies too. I’m cultivating as fast as I can, but danger and intrigue threaten us at every turn.What did I do to deserve the blood-thirsty beasts hunting me? Why does it feel like I’m more powerful every time I give it to my insatiable elf? And most importantly, am I going to live long enough to figure all this out?Warning: If you couldn’t tell, this book contains adult content. Read it only if you can handle explicit scenes featuring women, elves, demons, and all three at once.
The Cave Girl: Lost in Time: Book 1
Marilyn Foxworthy - 2019
The girl was new. She hadn’t been there for the past three days the way that everything else had. I was sitting under a tree looking out at the ocean. It was probably the Pacific Ocean. I didn’t know for sure. When she got closer, she called out, but not loudly. It sounded something like, “Aquilala soma towatsina.” Or something like that. I didn’t understand a word of it. It was a nice language though. I liked the sound of it. She looked like some kind of cave girl, fur bikini and everything. If she didn’t try to kill me, maybe I’d at least have some company. This was weird. I was calmly accepting, and maybe actually embracing the idea that I was stranded on the edge of a jungle with no way home. Maybe there was a village with a telephone on the other side of the trees. In a way, I hoped not. I felt happy to see her, but not exactly excited. It wasn’t like I thought, “Oh my gosh, I’m rescued!” It was more like, “Hey, she’s kind of cute. Nice bikini. Nice tan too.” When she was about 50 feet away I stood up and stepped onto the sand.
Book of Thrones:A Family History (Vol. 1)
Damien P. - 2014
Learn how the Targaryens originally took control of the Seven Kingdoms under their great King, Aegon the Conqueror, and how the Lannisters came to be masters of Casterly Rock. Chart the development of the Starks, first as Kings in the North then as king makers under their popular Lord, Eddard Stark. A perfect gift for fans of the T.V. series as well as the book cycle, A Song of Ice and Fire, Book of Thrones: A Family History serves both as an introduction and accompaniment to the existing media. If you want to find out how the world of ice and fire came to be, this is the place to start.
Quentin Cundick and The Web of Machinations
Alastair Pack - 2014
A quintessentially British comedy from author Alastair Pack. "I loved reading this book and had a smile on my face from the first page." - 4 out of 4 stars - onlinebookclub.org From the Back Cover Quentin, through no fault of his own, loses his home, his business and the only woman in his life... actually, it's entirely his own fault. He's a slacker. But no more! After briefly turning to crime, Quentin sets out to reverse his fortunes and becomes entangled in a Web of Machinations that includes a tramp suffering from Morgellons (those itchy, itchy Morgellons), a sinister group of computer hackers, a Tibetan boy claiming to be the Chosen One, a mysterious blonde woman and a duck called Stalin. Quentin may have set out to save his home, but now finds himself tasked with saving the world.
Savage Cultivator: A Xianxia Cultivation Series (Broken Path Book 1)
Burt Wrenlaw - 2020
But while his mother can walk the Path of Verdure (to make plants grow faster) and his grandfather the Path of Ash (to move the earth around), Hei Louw is just unable to cultivate Qi in his core and has to make do with his limited abilities. And so the three of them are tending the fields one afternoon, bickering as usual, when they see a black fog descend upon them from the sky. They try to protect themselves from this thing, but the dark miasma kills everything it comes in contact with. As it turns out, every living organism—be it animal, plant or man—that was able to cycle the ambient Qi is slain on the spot. Now alone on his mountain, in a strange world that keeps on mutating, Hei Louw the Qi-cripple has to fend for himself and use his knowledge of plants to survive. Taking it one day at a time, he manages to build a small hut and slowly recreate some semblance of normalcy. However, one night, as he’s eating by the fire, he’s attacked by some monstrosity that seems to have been affected in disturbing ways by what he has come to call the ‘Blight’. Right away he knows that he will be no match for the corrupted beast which is larger, stronger and much more fearsome than the dog it used to be. His life hanging by a thread, Hei Louw decides to go for broke: he opens up his core to the Blight and lets the foul poison fill him up. That suffices to grant him enough power to best the beast. And thanks to his condition as a Qi-cripple, he manages to eject the Blight from his core before it has a chance to reduce him to a pile of rotting meat. That night, Hei Louw makes a promise to himself; he will turn that former weakness of his into absolute power. And so he embarks on a journey to test and master this new ability. He will use the Blight just like former cultivators used Qi, and learn to walk a new, Broken Path. But if the corrupted dog was only one of many dangerous beasts lurking within the mountains, and Hei Louw sets on a mission to hunt them down, he must beware. The mutated creatures are not the sole threat to his existence. Not only can the Blight kill him if he’s not cautious, the vile substance has a tendency to infest the mind and turn people crazy. That will reveal to be all the more problematic when Hei Louw finally stumbles upon other survivors…
Kidnapping Phoenixes and Other Ways to Die - The Complete Series: An Urban Fantasy Action Adventure
Ramy Vance - 2021
Not the name you’d expect from someone on the run from the paranormal mob.You know, ogres with machine guns, kind of mob.But when the unborn ashes of the Phoenix ask for help, well, what’s a girl gonna do? I stole her urn from the mob and went on the run.Now I'm hiding in small town Indiana, where I work as a medic for fantasical beasts. I should be safe here, right?But the mob aren’t the only ones looking for the Phoenix.An ancient evil is searching for her in hopes to usher in Armageddon.Now I have a choice to make: abandon the Phoenix and run, or stop these supernatural bullies and beasts from harnessing the Phoenix’s magic for evil.Like I said, what’s a girl gonna do?Meet Frances, the latest hero in the GoneGod World. Frances a paranormal medic, treating the mythical creatures who now walk among us. If you love Mercy Thompson, Buffy or Katrina Darling, then you’ll absolutely love this unexpected heroine.
Wings and Shadows
Dominika Pindor - 2021
Unbeknownst to her, the use of magic reveals her location to the Qroes, a sadistic association intent on stealing the powers of individuals like her. With her ability far too new to control, she is caught, beaten, and thrown into a cell.She believes the metal lock has sealed her fate... until a winged boy appears outside her cell in the dead of night, whisking her away to Soratia—a world ruled by magic and roamed by griffin-human hybrids. To Lucianne, Soratia soon becomes home.When the Qroes land their hands on the Soratia’s most powerful asset, shattering the tranquility that had rested over the land, Lucianne takes it upon herself to stop them from wreaking more havoc onto her new home. But her powers are unreliable, and as more and more teens her age keep disappearing into the enemy’s clutches, Lucianne must make a decision: go after the enemy and risk death, or run away and hide, leaving thousands of lives to perish.
Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball
Harvey Frommer - 1992
Frommer paints Shoeless Joe as a baseball natural ("Joe Jackson hit the ball harder than any man ever to play baseball"-Ty Cobb), an illiterate hick (his table untemsils consisted of knife and fingers), and an innocent man snared by the greatest scandal in baseball history.
THE WARNING A Novel of America in the Last Days (SECOND TERM SERIES)
John Richard Price - 2013
As a result of the Supreme Court upholding the McAlister Hate Speech and Hate Weapons Elimination Act, over half of America’s guns are turned over to the government. Though it is a felony to own a gun, over seventy million firearms are retained by Americans. A confidential memo goes viral on the internet revealing that the White House, mainstream media, the entertainment industry and many in Congress are in fact Marxists, actively changing their country from capitalism to Communism. Americans nervously watch the President to see what will happen next.Car bombs explode near federal buildings across the U.S. The President accuses religious and Tea Party zealots of trying to overthrow the government. A U.S. Senator learns from his brother, a CIA official, that the bombings were a ‘false flag’, concocted by the DHS as an excuse to arrest, imprison and re-educate conservatives, veterans and Christians. Pastors are arrested. Blood is shed.Patriots and veterans from across the country secretly organize are an armed attack on the White House to remove the President from office. At the same time, Russia and Iran move military equipment and troops to the northern border of Israel and covertly install nuclear devices in U.S. cities. Will the President honor America’s treaty obligation to defend Israel from attack? Are these events tomorrow's headlines? Will ancient prophecies of the fall of a rich, powerful and influential end times nation come to pass? WE'VE BEEN WARNED!