Songs and Portobellos is a magical story that captures the creativity and clarity of perception that young people possess.The book centres on the development of teenagers Conor and Melanie during the summer of 1967 and explores the influences that bring them to understand their uniqueness.By the end of the summer they have transcended the ordinary, discovered who they are and determined what they stand for.

    Talented, troubled, and self-centered, Jane Braithwaite makes her well-meaning upper-middle-class family miserable, enmeshing them in the complicated lives of a homeless family, a poor teenager with no family, and a would-be family foundering on childlessness. When catastrophe finally threatens, all their dilemmas are resolved by the same stunning and unexpected means.All the while, the Braithwaites involve old and new friends in their struggles–a lovesick clergyman, a lonely doctor and his baby-obsessed wife, a libertarian billionaire, a money-loving philosopher, and a hard-bitten but sexy poverty activist. Their social and political clashes provide entertainment both comic and serious.

    From transporting illegal merchandise and stealing cars to breaking safes, he's done it all. But now, in his fortieth year, he's ready to retire. So when Udham Kumar, a crooked politician from Uttar Pradesh, commissions the Captain to track down and steal Poppy Flowers, a Vincent van Gogh's painting that has been smuggled into India after it went missing in a museum in Egypt in 2010, the Captain knows that he's found his last, and biggest case. But the painting is now in possession of a dangerous gangster, and the Captain is being followed by Udham Kumar's ruthless associates, greedy for both money and power. As the odds against him begin to stack up, the Captain realizes that his last heist might not be as easy as he'd imagined.

    If you're interested in how a writer works, or new information about Harper Lee, or a personal struggle with mental illness, you might enjoy my book. I had a life-long fascination with Harper Lee and Mockingbird because I grew up 40 miles from her hometown of Monroeville in south Alabama. She knew my parents. Her fame convinced me to become a writer and I joyously reported for 10 years at The Birmingham News. I began on the copy desk, going to work at 4 a.m. Later, as education reporter I delved into stories with a passion that veered toward the edge of sanity. After I left The News to become a stay-at-home mom, my interest in Ms. Lee became an obsession with tracing her path to fame. I take readers on a (literally) manic romp to New York where, in the archives of the public library, I read notes she had written, and to Monroeville, where I got locked in the famed courthouse. I spent weeks of frantic calls and faxes to set up a phone call with Gregory Peck, who rarely granted interviews, about his most-loved part. When this project had brought me to a point of near exhaustion, my schizophrenic brother, in a mental institution’s halfway house, was diagnosed with lung cancer at 48. I desperately tried to find a place for him to die in peace. I succeeded, but at a terrible price. As he gasped his last breath it was as though he had put his hand on my arm and said, “It’s your turn to be crazy now.” Madness quietly took me into his world of delusions and paranoia. I plunged into depression then soared into mania. I landed on a locked ward, facing my own commitment hearing. Antipsychotic drugs pulled me back to reality – twice. And what if side effects of high cholesterol and diabetes develop? My psychiatrist said, "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it."

    

    

    As the new clubhouse attendant for the Aberdeen IronBirds, a Minor League affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles, Larson assumed he’d entered a familiar world. He thought wrong. He quickly discovered the bizarre rituals of life in the Minors: fights between players, teammates quitting in the middle of the games, doomed relationships, and a negligent parent organization. All the while, Larson, fresh out of college, harbored a secret wish. Despite the team’s struggles and his own lack of baseball talent, he yearned to join the exclusive fraternity of professional ballplayers.   Instead, Larson fell deeper into his madcap venture as the scheming clubbie. He moved into the clubhouse equipment closet, his headquarters to swing deals involving memorabilia, booze, and loads of cash. By his second season, Larson had transformed into a deceptive, dip-spitting veteran, now fully part of a system that exploited players he considered friends. Like most Minor Leaguers, the gravitational pull of baseball was still too strong for Larson—even if chasing his private dream might cost him his girlfriend, his future, and, ultimately, his love of the game. That is, until an unlikely shot at a championship gives Larson and the IronBirds one final swing at redemption.Clubbie is a hilarious behind-the-scenes tale of two seasons in the mysterious world of Minor League Baseball. With cinematic detail and a colorful cast of characters, Larson spins an unforgettable true story for baseball fans and nonfans alike. An unflinching look at the harsh experience of professional sports, Clubbie will be a touchstone in baseball literature for years to come.

    Demacia is mourning. And in the eyes of Garen Crownguard, it’s his fault.But can he rise to the challenge when Demacia needs him again?While on a peacetime expedition beyond the borders of Demacia, Garen, Quinn, and the Dauntless Vanguard uncover a plot that threatens to destroy long-standing alliances. As the knight-ranger Quinn tries to get word back to Demacia, Garen and his comrades make a desperate last stand. How long can they last, and at what cost?

     INDIVIDUALLY, THEY ARE GREAT. TOGETHER, THEY ARE UNBEATABLE. When a group of renegade Venezuelan soldiers seize control of the no-man’s land in the middle of the Amazonian Jungle, the Ghosts are tapped to get the US citizens being held hostage there out safely. Newly promoted to team lead, Nomad finds himself going in-country with two new squadmates, little preparation, dubious intel and no backup. Still, they have no choice but to go in half blind as time is running short for the captives. And when faced with a difficult choice deep in enemy territory, the Ghosts must learn to stand together as a team, or fail. Action-packed and intense from beginning to end, this novel sets the stage for the upcoming video game Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands.

    And by the time he finds out, it may be already too late...for one nation under siege.

    He’s a successful pillar of the community. She is a beautiful young wife devoted to him. From the outside, their life appears perfect. But on the inside, she is constantly on edge, trying to keep him happy so she won’t suffer scathing words that hurt just as much as the occasional sharp blow from him. Then she snaps. In the blink of an eye, she becomes a widow and finds herself inextricably entwined in the web of lies he wove in the months before his death. When a blackmailer threatens to expose her as a murderer, she must piece together her husband’s life to find the key to her own freedom. Fatal Impulse is the first in an intriguing new series, where each widow faces challenges that threaten to destroy her just as she begins to find her strength.

    This is the brilliant short story that featured in the back of the special edition ebook of CONN IGGULDEN’S bestselling novel EMPEROR: BLOOD OF GODS.As the effects of age creep up on Augustus Caesar, he is left with the whispers of his wife Livia in one ear and the echoes of his youthful dreams in the other, as he tries to come to the rescue of his beloved grandson, Marcus.

    In this compelling, all--original anthology, the masters of suspense take you into the, darkest depths of terror as they explore both sides of the human hunt. These 19 chilling tales of horror and suspense will leave pulses pounding long after the last page has been turned.

    A fierce guardian of justice who uses Cincinnati’s forgotten underground—abandoned since the 1920’s—to wreak havoc on the city's most violent criminals.Now the predators have become his prey... As The White Wolf, JD Ward is pulled back into a world every bit as deadly as the one he'd left behind in the military. He finds himself hunted by a homicidal clan, a street gang, and a federal task force, forcing him to step out of the shadows to save Cincinnati from a cunning plan of revenge and total devastation. And the conspiracy turns out to be more treacherous than JD could have imagined, and more savage than he may be able to survive.

    By the age of fourteen, she has spent her entire life training as a "Ranger," ready for the day when she will be among the first humans ever to set foot on an alien world & build a new civilization.When Dandelion suffers an emergency toward the end of its journey, Amber & her fellow young rangers are evacuated & land on the planet Newhome years ahead of schedule. While the adults left behind on Dandelion slow the ship & turn it around to come back---in eight years---Amber & her friends must build lives for themselves amid revelations that will change Humankind's destiny forever.Meanwhile, aboard the ship, secrets that were buried over three hundred years ago finally come to light...