I knew I was also in the presence of the brillian voice and sensibility of a major new American writer. This is an important novel by a true artist."--Robert Olen Butler"Dedra Johnson has caught something wonderful in Sandrine's Letter to Tomorrow. She writes brilliantly about childhood, New Orleans, the intricacies of a vexed family life. Sandrine is a remarkable debut novel that will catch your heart."--Frederick BarthelmeDespite being a straight-A student and voracious reader, eight-year old Sandrine Miller is treated as little more than a servant by her mother, who forces Sandrine to clean house, do chores and take care of her younger half sister, Yolanda. On top of the despair of her life at home, Sandrine must confront growing up against the harshness of life in 1970s-era New Orleans, where men in cars follow her home from school and she is ostracized because she is a light-skinned black girl. The only refuge Sandrine has against her bleak world is spending summers with her beloved grandmother, Mamalita. After Mamalita’s death, Sandrine realizes that she must escape from her mother, from New Orleans, from everything she has known, if she is to have any kind of future. In the tradition of Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye and Alice Walker's The Color Purple, Sandrine's Letter to Tomorrow is a brilliant debut from an important new African-American voice in literary fiction.A native and current resident of New Orleans, Dedra Johnson received her MFA from the University of Florida, where she was a finalist for the Hurston/Wright Award for College Writers. Sandrine's Letter to Tomorrow was a runner-up for the William Faulkner-William Wisdom Award in 2006.

    Get Out. ⁠⠀Keep to the task.⁠⠀Leave no trace. ⁠⠀⁠⠀Ash Yang dreamed of being a starfighter pilot. But when she crashes out of her final test – literally – she somehow lands the most powerful job in the universe. As Guardian of the Infinity Files she must secretly planet-hop through the galaxies, stealing or returning treasures that have the power to stop wars...or start them.⁠⠀⁠⠀But when her home planet is the one at war, can she get the job done?⁠⠀

    So they vote to secede, rename themselves America in memory of their former country, and happily set themselves up to receive tourists from their closest neighbor: America. Couldn't happen? Well, it might, and so it goes in the thirteen stories in Matthew Baker's brilliantly illuminating, incisive, and heartbreaking collection Why Visit America.The book opens with a seemingly traditional story in which the speculative element is extremely minimal--the narrator has a job that doesn't actually exist--a story that wouldn't seem much out of place in a collection of literary realism. From there the stories get progressively stranger: a young man breaks the news to his family that he is going to transition--from an analog body to a digital existence. A young woman abducts a child--her own--from a government-run childcare facility. A man returns home after committing a great crime, his sentence being that his memory--his entire life--is wiped clean.As the book moves from universe to universe, the stories cross between different American genres: from bildungsroman to rom com, western to dystopian, including fantasy, horror, erotica, and a noir detective mystery. Read together, these parallel-universe stories create a composite portrait of the true nature of the United States and a Through the Looking-Glass reflection of who we are as a country.

    There's Lila, the landlady of the forest who shoulders a terrible guilt; the young, beautiful and carefree Violette, who bears deep childhood scars, and the boy Jeremy, who whispers his confessions to the frogs and ants in the forest. There's Claire, who writes murder scenes, and Simon, who cares for his brother's son while pining for various women.Each character has come to this forgiving Eden to escape some private trauma; forced to interact through loneliness and proximity, they learn each others� secrets, with stunning consequences.Told from the perspective of each character, shifting between the past and the present, Wildlives takes the reader on a fantasy ride of intrigue and character exploration. With its existential mystery, evocation of unspoiled nature and spectacular characters, the novel brings to mind Paul Auster, Henry David Thoreau and Isabelle Allende.

    In fact, he loves the Acadia National Park. What he can’t stand is Oren. Oren is the boyfriend of his best friend and the bane of his existence. As much as Michelle tries to force them to be friends, Oren is not someone Alden wants to spend any time with. So when he finds himself tricked into a hiking trip in Acadia with Oren, he knows he is not going to have a great time. When Oren fucks off and abandons him, that guess is proven correct. Alden finds himself lost in the dense woods and soon he has no idea where he is and his surroundings just get stranger and stranger...Tiernan Byrne is the First, the leader of the DeDanann tribe, a group of vampiric dark fae. He feels the disruption in the magics of his realm before he lays eyes on the beautiful human creature who has stumbled unknowingly into his world. Humans don’t come to the Fae realm, so he is mystified by Alden’s presence. Soon he realizes why fate has allowed this human to come here, he is Tirenan’s fated mate. The Dark Fae vampires of Tiernan’s tribe are wary of humans, and there are mysteries to this new world Alden doesn’t even know the first thing about. Can Tiernan convince Alden that he is safe and this is his rightful home? Will Alden say, yes?

    They call themselves the Kronians, after the Greek name for Saturn. Operating without the hidebound restrictions of bureaucratic Earth, the colony is a magnet, attracting the best and brightest of the home world, and has been making important new discoveries. But one of their claims -- that they have found proof that the Solar System has undergone repeated cataclysms, and as recently as a few thousand years ago -- flies in the face of the reigning dogma, and is under attack by the scientific establishment. Then the planet Jupiter emits a white-hot protoplanet as large as the Earth, which is hurtling sunwards like a gigantic comet that will obliterate civilization....

    As victims of political action, powerless to initiate change, what can they do? How do they live and survive?Frank McGuinness explores the daily crisis endured by hostages whose strength comes from communication, both subtle and mundane, from humour, wit and faith.Someone Who'll Watch Over Me premiered at the Hampstead Theatre, London, in 1992 before transferring to the West End. On Broadway, it was awarded the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Foreign Play and nominated for the Tony Award for Best Play in 1993.

    An exhausted single dad omega. A little girl who unites them both. Jarrett finds himself dreaming about an omega he mated with several years ago. Were they fated mates? Maybe he's just doomed to be alone. Too bad he never knew the omega's name. Brent is an omega father to his alpha daughter, Emery. It isn’t easy, but he does his best and loves her fiercely.. He remembers the night she was conceived and wishes, beyond everything else, that he had that alpha there to help out. He's about to get his wish, in a backhanded sort of way. Jarrett and Brent are back in action, ready to capture your heart once again. Follow them as they struggle to figure out who the other is, and what it may mean for the Furbitten Falls pack. This mpreg wolf shifter tale is rife with passionate scenes and should not be purchased by minors. No one under the age of 18, please. Get the full Furbitten Falls Alpha's Series + a bonus book of Pick Of the Litter today!

    These 11 profoundly moving and finely crafted stories encapsulate wildly divergent themes of love and loss, containment and exclusion. In the title story, a parks & rec worker faces an assailant who does not leave the altercation intact. A medical researcher and his claustrophobic fiancée are locked in the trunk of their car after a failed carjacking (the thief can't drive standard). A young woman enters a pharmaceutical trial in the outer reaches of suburbia and slips between sleeping and waking with increasingly alarming ease. Pairing the cultural acuity of Lost in Translation with the compassion and reach of The World According to Garp, Heighton breathes new life into the short story, a genre that is finally coming into its own.

    Science Fiction by Women from the 1970s to the 1990s — A companion volume to 'The Classic Years', dispelling the notion that women don't write "real" science fiction, showcasing recent science fiction by women. Here are Octavia E. Butler, Pat Cadigan, Angela Carter, Nancy Kress, and Connie Willis, among others.Contents: Introduction and Bibliography by the Editor. Cassandra / C.J. Cherryh; The Thaw / Tanith Lee; Scorched Supper on New Niger / Suzy McKee Charnas; Abominable / Carol Emshwiller; Bluewater Dreams / Sydney J. Van Scyoc; The Cabinet of Edgar Allan Poe / Angela Carter; The Harvest of Wolves / Mary Gentle; Bloodchild / Octavia E. Butler; Fears / Pamela Sargent; Webrider / Jayge Carr; Alexia and Graham Bell / Rosaleen Love; Reichs-Peace / Sheila Finch; Angel / Pat Cadigan; Rachel in Love / Pat Murphy; Game Night at the Fox and Goose / Karen Joy Fowler; Tiny Tango / Judith Moffett; At the Rialto / Connie Willis; Midnight News / Lisa Goldstein; And Wild For To Hold / Nancy Kress; Immaculate / Storm Constantine; Farming in Virginia / Rebecca Ore.

    Eat, sleep, draw, and geek out over anime and manga with his small circle of friends. So when one of those friends suggested engaging in some cosplay for an upcoming Comicon as some of their favorite anime characters, it sounded like the perfect summer activity. That was until he found out just which character he was supposed to be. What started as a fun idea quickly turned into a mixture of inner conflict and self-discovery that Ray had never known even existed and served as the root for one of the most dramatic and uncertain changes in his young life. The question was, would this rollercoaster be a fun-filled thrill-ride, or a complete derailment of everything in his life.

    This novel by two bestselling sci-fi authors details the wrenching changes wrought by such a scientific feat--with nothing less than global peace at stake.

    At least not until he was abandoned by his partner of fifteen years and suddenly thrust into a dating scene with men half his age and no discernible trace of love handles. But this unexpected hole in his life inspires Joel's search for a 1964 edition ofan Esquire-like magazine that contained a swimsuit ad that obsessed and haunted him throughout his youth. Determined to find out what happened to the model shown in the ad, Joel slowly begins to understand what has happened to his own life. Sexy, smart, and deftly observed, Man About Town is a new twist on the idea that the personal is political and a must read for anyone who's ever wondered what happened to that first crush.

    The full story behind the origin of X-23; who she is, where she came from, and the exact nature of her relationship to Wolverine. You think you know, but you have no idea. Pick up this first issue today!

    Ten years after leaving the childrens home he was raised in, Matt is forced to sell his body to make ends meet.A chance encounter with a handsome stranger spins his world off its axis.Declan is everything Matt has ever wanted - Kind, caring & incredible sexy.But, he is a man of God, sworn to live his life according to the Bible's teachings.Torn in half, he has to make the ultimate decision.Is his love for Matt stronger than his love for the church?Matt refuses to force Declan into a decision, loving him enough to walk away, but Declan isn't willing to give in so easily and embarks upon a secret relationship wth the man he loves.Will the church discover Declan's deception, and will they let him go so easily?Will their forbidden love prevail, or will the secret Declan is keeping blow their world apart?