Until the day James Carlson Sweatt--the "over tall" eleven-year-old boy who's the talk of the town--walks into her library and changes her life forever. Two misfits whose lonely paths cross at the circulation desk, Peggy and James are odd candidates for friendship, but nevertheless they soon find their lives entwined in ways that neither one could have predicted. In James, Peggy discovers the one person who's ever really understood her, and as he grows--six foot five at age twelve, then seven feet, then eight--so does her heart and their most singular romance. The Giant's House is an unforgettably tender and quirky novel about learning to welcome the unexpected miracle, and about the strength of choosing to love in a world that gives no promises, and no guarantees.

    Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

    Considered one of the greatest modern writers, Kafka wrote tales that brilliantly explore the anxiety, futility, and complexity of modern life.The stories in this volume are "The Metamorphosis" (thought by many critics to be Kafka's most perfect work), "The Judgment," "In the Penal Colony," "A Country Doctor," and "A Report to an Academy." Along with the original German texts, Stanley Applebaum has provided accurate English translations on facing pages, affording students an ideal opportunity to read some of Kafka's finest stories in the original, to discover the passion and profundity of this extremely important figure in modern European literature, and to upgrade their German language skills.

    Known as Saddam Hussein's "Jackal," his bloody hit list includes the 1972 Israeli Olympic athletes, the South Yemen cabinet, and the 20,000 slaughtered citizens of Hamma, Syria.             Now Assad-Sheriff has been called upon for his most vicious task, acquiring and transporting nuclear technologies for Iraq.  When this psychopath takes the life of Sharazad Razmarah, an American citizen working with the German Secret Service, Federal investigator Walter Roemer is set on his trail. Roemer soon discovers that the clandestine operations of the nuclear industry hold many well-guarded secrets, which cannot ever see the light of day. Roemer finds himself battling not only the crazed Assad-Sherif but the German Secret Service, and the clock is ticking: on Assad-Sherif's orders, Iraqi terrorists are heading for Germany's largest nuclear facility . . . with suicidal detonation plans.

    There’s Arturo the Aquaboy, who has flippers for limbs and a megalomaniac ambition worthy of Genghis Khan . . . Iphy and Elly, the lissome Siamese twins . . . albino hunchback Oly, and the outwardly normal Chick, whose mysterious gifts make him the family’s most precious—and dangerous—asset.As the Binewskis take their act across the backwaters of the U.S., inspiring fanatical devotion and murderous revulsion; as its members conduct their own Machiavellian version of sibling rivalry, Geek Love throws its sulfurous light on our notions of the freakish and the normal, the beautiful and the ugly, the holy and the obscene. Family values will never be the same.

    It is a tale of two generations of characters brought jarringly together by the tragic sweep of war, where personal lives - the struggle to survive, raise a family, find happiness - are inextricable from the history playing out around them.Propelled by the same storytelling instinct that made The Kite Runner a beloved classic, A Thousand Splendid Suns is at once a remarkable chronicle of three decades of Afghan history and a deeply moving account of family and friendship. It is a striking, heart-wrenching novel of an unforgiving time, an unlikely friendship, and an indestructible love - a stunning accomplishment.--front flap

    A grand miasma of doom and foreboding weaves over the sterile rituals of the castle. Villainous Steerpike seeks to exploit the gaps between the formal rituals and the emotional needs of the ruling family for his own profit.

    

    Now he returns with a beautiful, haunting novel about the family we love and the chances we miss.For One More Day is the story of a mother and a son, and a relationship that covers a lifetime and beyond. It explores the question: What would you do if you could spend one more day with a lost loved one? As a child, Charley "Chick" Benetto was told by his father, "You can be a mama's boy or a daddy's boy, but you can't be both." So he chooses his father, only to see the man disappear when Charley is on the verge of adolescence. Decades later, Charley is a broken man. His life has been crumbled by alcohol and regret. He loses his job. He leaves his family. He hits bottom after discovering his only daughter has shut him out of her wedding. And he decides to take his own life.He makes a midnight ride to his small hometown, with plans to do himself in. But upon failing even to do that, he staggers back to his old house, only to make an astonishing discovery. His mother, who died eight years earlier, is still living there, and welcomes him home as if nothing ever happened..What follows is the one "ordinary" day so many of us yearn for, a chance to make good with a lost parent, to explain the family secrets, and to seek forgiveness. Somewhere between this life and the next, Charley learns the astonishing things he never knew about his mother and her sacrifices. And he tries, with her tender guidance, to put the crumbled pieces of his life back together.Through Albom's inspiring characters and masterful storytelling, readers will newly appreciate those whom they love and may have thought they'd lost in their own lives. For One More Day is a book for anyone in a family, and will be cherished by Albom's millions of fans worldwide.

    Now, two years later, it is time for her to come to terms with marriage, career, family, parenthood, and Kevin's horrific rampage in a series of startlingly direct correspondences with her estranged husband, Franklin. Uneasy with the sacrifices and social demotion of motherhood from the start, Eva fears that her alarming dislike for her own son may be responsible for driving him so nihilistically off the rails.

     It’s been ten years since FBI agent Sean Reilly and retired Justice Department operative Cotton Malone got dragged around the globe on their separate Templar adventures. They’d never worked on a case together—until now. Something bizarre is afoot in London, England. "American specialists" have gone missing, and intel chatter points to a major terrorist plot in the works. And a familiar keyword links to both Reilly and Malone. The two agents are sent to London where they discover a plot that’s more personal, unusual and surprising than they could have possibly imagined (and one that may involve a couple of writerly characters new to fiction whom you might recognise). Fast, furious and funny, Shadow Tag is NOT like the Reilly and Malone thrillers you've grown to love. Instead, it's something different: a playful, lighthearted read that combines reality and fiction. And we hope it's like nothing you've read before. Includes exclusive sneak peeks at Raymond Khoury’s next Reilly novel, THE END GAME, and Steve Berry’s next Cotton Malone novel, THE 14th COLONY.

    A sandhog, he burrows beneath the East River, digging the tunnel that will carry trains from Brooklyn to Manhattan. In the bowels of the riverbed, the sandhogs—black, white, Irish, Italian—dig together, the darkness erasing all differences. Above ground, though, the men keep their distance until a spectacular accident welds a bond between Walker and his fellow sandhogs that will both bless and curse three generations.

    This volume is produced from digital images created through the University of Michigan University Library's preservation reformatting program.

    This short novel about a wedding was written in 1932 by a niece of Lytton Strachey and first published by The Hogarth Press.

    He wanders through the Indian countryside among other animals, enjoying a sense of freedom, belonging to nobody. The holidays approach, Diwali, the Festival of Lights; the monsoon season, when the skies go pitch dark and the rains come, has arrived. At a time when everyone is eager to be home with family and friends, Billi is alone--and lonely.Walking into a village, Billi gazes through windows and sees a cozy fire, a content dog, and a happy family with children. Inspired, an untamed soul begins the transformative journey to a new life of warmth and togetherness in a world of interconnectedness. With his inimitable storytelling gifts and his unparalleled ability to penetrate the feline psyche, Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson captures Billi's inner world, his aloofness, mischievousness, and ultimately his new perspective on the deep connection shared by humans and their feline friends.