No Sparkles. Serious Snark.REVIEW: "Honestly, this is one of the best books that I've read this year and certainly a new series that I will be following." —Black Lagoon ReviewsBOOK ONE: HARD DAY’S KNIGHTChildren are missing. The police are stumped. Halloween is coming, and an ancient evil is on the horizon. The vampires are the good guys. This is not your ordinary fall weekend in Charlotte, North Carolina. Vampire private detectives Jimmy Black and Greg Knightwood have been hired to save a client from being cursed for all eternity, but end up in a bigger mess than they ever imagined. Suddenly trapped in the middle of a serial kidnapping case, Jimmy and Greg uncover a plot to bring forth an ancient evil. Soon, they’ve enlisted the help of a police detective, a priest, a witch, a fallen angel and a strip club proprietor to save the world. This unlikely band of heroes battles zombies, witches, neuroses and sunburn while cracking jokes and looking for the perfect bag of O-negative.BOOK TWO: BACK IN BLACKVampire detectives Jimmy Black and Greg Knightwood investigate a series of assaults plaguing the alleys of Charlotte, North Carolina. The string of hate crimes becomes personal when Jimmy’s just-maybe-main-squeeze Detective Sabrina Law’s cousin is attacked. Helping a lady out could get the boys killed when they end up in Faerie. Before long, they’re up to their butts in trolls, dark fae and a grand battle royale. The odds are against them, but to the boys, this is just another day on the night shift—if the night shift included a steel cage match of supernaturals.BOOK THREE: KNIGHT MOVESEt tu, Vampire? The boys discover they may be tied to a string of serial killings at the college and that they suddenly aren’t the only vampire game in town.The vampire count in Charlotte is at least three. Or more. As far as the unhappy boys are concerned, anything more than two is a crowd not to be tolerated. While tracking down the killer and the competition, they encounter coeds, booby traps (not related to the coeds) and a hirsute bounty hunter with a moon fetish and a bad attitude. To catch the killer, Jimmy will have to survive a dive headfirst into the great unwashed horde of Dorkdom (game night at the local comic shop).What’s a red-blood-drinking vampire to do? His job. Again. Praise for the Black Knight Chronicles—"This is another great book in what will hopefully be a large and successful series. I know I will be eagerly awaiting the next installment." — Indie Book Blog"I love this book. It makes me happy in a way that hasn't happened in a long, long time." —Keryl Raist, Author of Sylvianna

    It also shines a light on topics such as the origins of scalping, the famous Lincoln County War, the grim medical reality of Western gunfights, cowboy jargon, and the first rodeo.

    It takes what I call the Art of Tough and I've had to do it all my life." -- Senator Barbara Boxer Barbara Boxer has made her mark, combining compassionate advocacy with scrappiness in a political career spanning more than three decades. Now, retiring from the Senate, she continues the work to which she's dedicated 30 years in Congress. Her memoir, The Art of Tough, shares her provocative and touching recollections of service, and cements her commitment to the fight for women, families, quality, environmental protection, all in a peaceful world. Sometimes lauded, sometimes vilified, but always standing tough, Boxer has fought for what is right even when her personal convictions conflicted with her party or the majority rule.

    And it turns out that resting in peace isn't really a thing.

    short stories! Including the 3 previously published shorts: Dearly Departed, Hair of the Hellhound, and Season's Reapings, PLUS 3 all-new shorts: Pre-Mortem (set in the 1700s), Post-Mortem (set in the 2300s), and Death or Something Like It, a crossover short story with Jesse Sullivan, the heroine of Kory M. Shrum's Dying for a Living series.

    Witch Central goes to Costa Rica for summer vacation.

    Pat of Silver Bush (1933) is a novel written by Lucy Maud Montgomery, noted for her Anne of Green Gables series. It portrays a girl named Patricia Gardiner, who hates changes of any kind and loves her home, Silver Bush, more than anything else in the world. She is very devoted to her family: her father and mother, her brothers Joe and Sid, and her sisters Winnie and Rachel. The book begins when Pat is 7 years old and ends when she is 18.This book has a sequel, Mistress Pat (1935), which describes Patricia Gardiner's life in her twenties and early thirties, during which she remained single and took care of her beloved home, Silver Bush. Pat hated changes as much as ever, and found in Silver Bush a refuge where she was shielded from them, but changes happened nevertheless. In the course of eleven years, new servants, new neighbors and new lovers came and went, her brothers and sisters all got married, and life at Silver Bush was no longer as pleasant as before, but Pat clung to her love of it desperately. It was only in the face of horrible disasters that Pat found where her heart belonged for the rest of her life. Lucy Maud Montgomery (1874 – 1942), was a Canadian author best known for a series of novels beginning with Anne of Green Gables. Montgomery went on to publish 20 novels as well as 530 short stories, 500 poems, and 30 essays.

    Patna Hall is as beautiful and timeless as India itself, ruled over firmly and wise by proprietor Auntie Sanni. For Mary it feels strangely like home.In a week that will change the young couple's destiny, election fever grips the Southern Indian state and Mary falls under the spell of the people, the country - and Krishnan, godlike candidate for the Root and Flower party . . .

    Kendell Summer, lead guitarist for Polly Urethane and the Strippers, has always been interested in the unexplained. So when she sets off on a paranormal research romp with Myles, a former classmate, to explore his skills in psychometry, she’s ready for a little adventure. But she gets more than she bargained for when her Lhasa apso, Cheesecake, is dognapped. Kendell will do whatever it takes to get her dog back. While rescuing the pup, Kendell and Myles learn that the touristy glitz of New Orleans’ voodoo shops hides a dark history few understand—a truth that some in the city plan to use for their own gain. Soon they uncover more than they ever wanted to know about New Orleans’ unsavory past and a curse that threatens to change everything. Only Kendell can prevent the evil they’ve uncovered from doing more damage, but she’ll need Myles’s support and psychometric abilities—and the vigilance of the ever-watchful Cheesecake.

    memory. In recent years, the culture wars over the way that slavery is remembered and taught have reached a new crescendo. From the argument about the display of the Confederate flag over the state house in Columbia, South Carolina, to the dispute over Thomas Jefferson's relationship with his slave Sally Hemings and the ongoing debates about reparations, the questions grow ever more urgent and more difficult.Edited by noted historians James Oliver Horton and Lois E. Horton, this collection explores current controversies and offers a bracing analysis of how people remember their past and how the lessons they draw influence American politics and culture today. Bringing together some of the nation's most respected historians, including Ira Berlin, David W. Blight, and Gary B. Nash, this is a major contribution to the unsettling but crucial debate about the significance of slavery and its meaning for racial reconciliation.Contributors: Ira Berlin, University of MarylandDavid W. Blight, Yale UniversityJames Oliver Horton, George Washington UniversityLois E. Horton, George Mason UniversityBruce Levine, University of IllinoisEdward T. Linenthal, University of Wisconsin-OshkoshJoanne Melish, University of KentuckyGary B. Nash, University of California, Los AngelesDwight T. Pitcaithley, New Mexico State UniversityMarie Tyler-McGraw, Washington, D.C.John Michael Vlach, George Washington University

    But that didn’t stop him.Ben Mattlin lives a normal, independent life. Why is that interesting? Because Mattlin was born with spinal muscular atrophy, a congenital weakness from which he was expected to die in childhood. Not only did Mattlin live through childhood, he became one of the first students in a wheelchair to attend Harvard, from which he graduated and became a professional writer. His advantage? Mattlin’s life happened to parallel the growth of the disability rights movement, so that in many ways he did not feel that he was disadvantaged at all, merely different. Miracle Boy Grows Up is a witty, unsentimental memoir that you won’t forget, told with engrossing intelligence and a unique perspective on living with a disability in the United States.

     There are no obvious clues to what happened, apart from the discovery of a large amount of cash concealed on her person. The brilliant, but lazy, Lieutenant Josef Slonský is put in charge of the case. With a wry sense of humour, a strong stubborn streak and a penchant for pastries, Slonský is not overly popular with the rest of the police force. But he is paired with the freshly-graduated, overly-eager Navrátil, whom he immediately takes under his wing. When fingers start to point inwards to someone familiar with police operations, Slonský and Navrátil are put in a difficult position. If what they suspect is true, how deep does the corruption run? Are they willing to risk their careers in their pursuit of the truth? Anyone could be lying - and others may be in danger of dying… LYING AND DYING is the first international crime thriller in the detective series featuring Lieutenant Josef Slonský: an atmospheric police procedural full of dark humour. JOSEF SLONSKÝ INVESTIGATIONS SERIES BOOK ONE: Lying and Dying BOOK TWO: Slaughter and Forgetting BOOK THREE: Coming Soon! *** LYING AND DYING WAS PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED AS THE OUTRAGEOUS BEHAVIOUR OF LEFT-HANDED DWARVES *** ***

    A sorcerer, sage, prophet, and teacher, Merlin’s mysterious life has inspired a vast array of classic works while giving rise to numerous conflicting legends. Here, award-winning author Jane Yolen, one of the most acclaimed fantasy writers of our time, retells Merlin’s tales as never before. Through a series of stories and poems ranging across centuries—from the days of Merlin’s childhood as a feral boy to the possible discovery of his bones in a much later era—Yolen reimagines both the glory and grimness of Camelot, recalling characters and events from Arthurian legend, while ingeniously inventing new myths and dark fables. Merlin’s Booke is a brilliant patchwork, made up of tales that explore the mysteries of King Arthur’s world and the terrible magic that pervaded it. This ebook features a personal history by Jane Yolen including rare images from the author’s personal collection, as well as a note from the author about the making of the book.

    And what we do know is colored by romance - safaris and treks and camel caravans, Solomon's mine and Tutankhamun's curse, the shores of Tripoli and the snows of Kilimanjaro. Yet the ancestor of all humankind may have lived in Africa. The world's longest-lived, literate civilization was African. Through the ages, great civilizations rose and fell in what was once called "darkest" Africa, leaving behind mysterious fortresses and splendid art. Christianity and Islam battled age-old beliefs - and each other. Traders on camels were followed by explorers in caravels and by a plague of invaders, hungry for ivory and diamonds and the "black gold" of slavery. In just the last half century, independence has swept away the old maps and colonial ways to jar the balance of the world. Here is Africa's story.