The Second Chronicles of Amber


Roger Zelazny - 1978
    All others are Shadows, playthings for Amber's royal family -- sibling rivals who vault between worlds using tarot-like Trump cards and walk the labyrinthine Pattern, which confers the power to manipulate reality. Far removed from his native land, Merlin, son of Corwin of Amber and Dara of Chaos, has tried to build himself a normal Earthly life -- a life free of the cabals, vendettas and feuds that have torn his family apart. And he's done quite well for himself. . . except when it comes to April 30th. Because on that day, every year for the past eight years, someone -- or something -- has tried to kill him. Gunshots. Fires. Gas leaks. Car accidents. This year's attempt comes in the form of a huge, dog-like beast that tears his former girlfriend to bits -- and tries to do the same to him. Somebody must have it in for him, but who?

The Garden of Last Days


Andre Dubus III - 2008
    April, a stripper, has brought her daughter to work at the Puma Club for Men. There she encounters Bassam, a foreign client both remote and too personal and free with his money. Meanwhile, another man, AJ, has been thrown out of the club, and he’s drunk, angry, and lonely. From these explosive elements comes a relentless, raw, and page-turning narrative that seizes the reader by the throat with psychological tension, depth, and realism.

101 Great American Poems


The American Poetry and Literacy ProjectCarl Sandburg - 1998
    S. Eliot, Marianne Moore, many other notables.

The Italian


Ann Radcliffe - 1797
    But his haughty and manipulative mother is against the match and enlists the help of her confessor to come between them. Schedoni, previously a leading figure of the Inquisition, is a demonic, scheming monk with no qualms about the task, whether it entails abduction, torture - or even murder. The Italian secured Ann Radcliffe's position as the leading writer of Gothic romance of the age, for its atmosphere of supernatural and nightmarish horrors, combined with her evocation of sublime landscapes and chilling narrative.

Around The World In 80 Days


Jules Verne
    Phileas Fogg of London and his newly employed French valet Passepartout attempt to circumnavigate the world in 80 days on a £20,000 wager set by his friends at the Reform Club.

The Minister's Wooing


Harriet Beecher Stowe - 1859
    Mary Scudder lives in a modest farmhouse with her widowed mother and their boarder, Samuel Hopkins, a famous Calvinist theologian who preaches against slavery. Mary is in love with the passionate James Marvyn, but Mary is devout and James is a skeptic, and Mary’s mother opposes the union. James goes to sea, and when he is reportedly drowned, Mary is persuaded to become engaged to Dr. Hopkins.With colorful characters, including many based on real figures, and a plot that hinges on romance, The Minister’s Wooing combines comedy with regional history to show the convergence of daily life, slavery, and religion in post-Revolutionary New England.For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Mutant Message Down Under


Marlo Morgan - 1990
    An underground bestseller in its original self-published edition, Marlo Morgan's powerful tale of challenge and endurance has a message for us all.Summoned by a remote tribe of nomadic Aborigines to accompany them on walkabout, the woman makes a four-month-long journey and learns how they thrive in natural harmony with the plants and animals that exist in the rugged lands of Australia's bush. From the first day of her adventure, Morgan is challenged by the physical requirements of the journey—she faces daily tests of her endurance, challenges that ultimately contribute to her personal transformation.By traveling with this extraordinary community, Morgan becomes a witness to their essential way of being in a world based on the ancient wisdom and philosophy of a culture that is more than 50,000 years old.

Go Set a Watchman


Harper Lee - 2015
    Maycomb, Alabama. Twenty-six-year-old Jean Louise Finch—"Scout"—returns home from New York City to visit her aging father, Atticus. Set against the backdrop of the civil rights tensions and political turmoil that were transforming the South, Jean Louise's homecoming turns bittersweet when she learns disturbing truths about her close-knit family, the town and the people dearest to her. Memories from her childhood flood back, and her values and assumptions are thrown into doubt. Featuring many of the iconic characters from To Kill a Mockingbird, Go Set a Watchman perfectly captures a young woman, and a world, in a painful yet necessary transition out of the illusions of the past—a journey that can be guided only by one's conscience. Written in the mid-1950s, Go Set a Watchman imparts a fuller, richer understanding and appreciation of Harper Lee. Here is an unforgettable novel of wisdom, humanity, passion, humor and effortless precision—a profoundly affecting work of art that is both wonderfully evocative of another era and relevant to our own times. It not only confirms the enduring brilliance of To Kill a Mockingbird, but also serves as its essential companion, adding depth, context and new meaning to an American classic.

Clotel: or, The President's Daughter


William Wells Brown - 1853
    The story begins with the auction of his mistress, here called Currer, and their two daughters, Clotel and Althesa. The Virginian who buys Clotel falls in love with her, gets her pregnant, seems to promise marriage—then sells her. Escaping from the slave dealer, Clotel returns to Virginia disguised as a white man in order to rescue her daughter, Mary, a slave in her father’s house. A fast-paced and harrowing tale of slavery and freedom, of the hypocrisies of a nation founded on democratic principles, Clotel is more than a sensationalist novel. It is a founding text of the African American novelistic tradition, a brilliantly composed and richly detailed exploration of human relations in a new world in which race is a cultural construct.

The Portable Beat Reader


Ann Charters - 1992
    Featuring: Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, Gary Snyder, Neal Cassady, Gregory Corso, Diane Di Prima, Bob Dylan, Ken Kesey, Charles Bukowski, Michael McClure, and more.

The Cranes Dance


Meg Howrey - 2012
    At every turn she is haunted by her close relationship with her younger sister, Gwen, a fellow company dancer whose career quickly surpassed Kate’s, but who has recently suffered a breakdown and returned home.Alone for the first time in her life, Kate is anxious and full of guilt about the role she may have played in her sister’s collapse.  As we follow her on an insider tour of rehearsals, performances, and partners onstage and off, she confronts the tangle of love, jealousy, pride, and obsession that are beginning to fracture her own sanity. Funny, dark, intimate, and unflinchingly honest, The Cranes Dance is a book that pulls back the curtains to reveal the private lives of dancers and explores the complicated bond between sisters.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies / Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls


Seth Grahame-Smith - 2011
    Jane Austen's classic story about love and money is updated in this imaginative series with a little bit of blood, a touch of mayhem, and a whole bunch of zombies! 2 Book Set.

Rescuing Lily (Guardian Hostage Rescue Specialists, #5)


Ellie Masters - 2021
    With dangerous missions, heroic rescues, nail-biting suspense, and sizzling romance, it's an addictive adrenalin rush._________________Name: Lily FreemanJob: DEA Field Operative.Assignment: Undercover.Target: Knox Wilder (alleged drug runner).Objective: Get close to Wilder. Infiltrate his organization. Tear it down from the inside.Obstacles: Knox Wilder isn’t what he seems, and while I’m supposed to be the one seducing him, he’s the one fulfilling the filthy fantasies I keep hidden from myself.Working undercover doesn’t come without risk, but there are some benefits. I can sleep with Knox without guilt. It’s all for God and country, and dang it if I’m not a patriot._________________Name: Knox WilderJob: Guardian, an elite, ex-military, special forces expert.Position: Alpha-Six.Assignment: Undercover.Target: Tomas Benefield’s Human trafficking organization.Objective: Rescue a dozen women before they disappear forever.Obstacles: The op is going well, a near-flawless execution until a DEA Taskforce screws everything up. They think I’m involved in transporting drugs, and I’ve got no time to set the beautiful agent straight.I shouldn’t let my guard down. I shouldn’t let her get close. There’s a whole lot I shouldn’t do with the beautiful blonde, but there’s something about her I can’t resist.I’ll protect her from any threat, but what happens when my enemies set their sights on her? When the biggest threat to her safety is me?___________________________Rescuing Lily is book five of The Guardians: Hostage Rescue Specialists series. It’s a fast-paced, steamy, contemporary, military, romantic suspense that will tug at your heartstrings and leave your heart racing. If you love over-the-top protective military men that like to take charge, steamy couples, and happily ever afters, Rescuing Lily is for you.Each book is a contemporary standalone, steamy military romantic suspense, with a protective, arrogant, male hero and the smart, feisty heroine who steals his heart.Although the books in the series are standalone, much is gained by reading them all in order as the story of the Guardians is ongoing throughout the series. Grab your copy today and let the binge-reading begin!

Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me


Richard Fariña - 1966
    Scott Fitzgerald captured the Jazz Age. The hero, Gnossus Pappadopoulis, weaves his way through the psychedelic landscape, encountering-among other things-mescaline, women, art, gluttony, falsehood, science, prayer, and, occasionally, truth.

The Bear's Perfect Match


Lisa Cullen - 2020
    I was on the run when I met Gage.I had no idea who he was.All I knew… was that he was mine.Gage rescued me when I was trying to escape my abusive ex.I thought that was the end of my troubles.But the nightmare had only begun.The law of the forest had declared us married.Yes, I was married to Gage.A man I knew nothing about.Not even the fact that he was a bear shifter.And the king of the clan.This may have come as a shock to me.But it does make me his queen.A queen who cannot be touched by anyone else.One who only belongs to her king.So, when Gage’s brother comes after me, I know it means war.And I know that he’ll save me again… no matter what.