Originally designed for teaching English as a foreign language, the series' combination of high interest level and low reading age makes it suitable for both English-speaking teenagers with limited reading skills and students of English as a second language. Many titles in the series also provide access to the pre-20th century literature strands of the National Curriculum English Orders. "Penguin Readers" are graded at seven levels of difficulty, from "Easystarts" with a 200-word vocabulary, to Level 6 (Advanced) with a 3000-word vocabulary. In addition, titles fall into one of three sub-categories: "Contemporary", "Classics" or "Originals". At the end of each book there is a section of enjoyable exercises focusing on vocabulary building, comprehension, discussion and writing. Some titles in the series are available with an accompanying audio cassette, or in a book and cassette pack. Additionally, selected titles have free accompanying "Penguin Readers Factsheets" which provide stimulating exercise material for students, as well as suggestions for teachers on how to exploit the Readers in class.

    She didn't want to be beautiful. And she wasted time doing mad things--like eating and sleeping...This story was the basis for a classic episode of "The Twilight Zone" TV show!

    But he's keeping a secret that may unlock a darker destiny. FINAL REPORT “Entry One has been breached. Time to get this show on the road. They have no idea the kind of Hell I've prepared for them. May God have mercy on my soul.” MY FATHER’S SON A Delta Green agent with a mysterious past may learn more than he ever wanted to know when his current case leads where he never dared to go. THE DARK ABOVE In the face of madness and horror, two lonely Delta Green agents reach out to each other. Can they really afford such fragile bonds when the secrets of the night surf roll in? THE RULES OF ENGAGEMENT An agent’s disappearance pulls a Delta Green team into a vortex of horror in this novel of personal apocalypse. The secrets they uncover threaten to ignite a war between the Delta Green conspiracy and its bitterest enemy, Majestic-12 — secrets buried within time itself. Foreword by Kenneth Hite.

    The lone survivor of a hellish Interstate pile-up follows an otherworldly sound to its source. A father desperate to cure his daughter’s condition uncovers a multinational corporation’s unspeakable plan for solving world hunger. In these eleven stories, Cody Goodfellow explores the bizarre and the deeply human, using the kaleidoscopic language only he is capable of.

    Bartlett, author of Gateways to Abomination, is back with The Witch-Cult in Western Massachusetts. A cross between Roberto Bolaño’s Nazi Literature in the Americas and Gardinel’s Real Estate by Orrin Grey and M.S. Corley, this slender volume consists of 13 bite-sized fictional biographies, each accompanied by a chilling illustration by the masterful Alex Fienemann. Meet Stanley Malanson, who had a curious rapport with felines. Meet Abrecan Geist, who endeavored to take revenge on a capricious God. Meet Minerva LaBrie, who abandoned Wicca in favor of a dark and blasphemous alternative. Meet Jebediah Blackstye, who crossed a line with his beloved familiar, a toad with revolting powers. These are but four of the practitioners of black magic who have made their homes in the cities and towns of Western Massachusetts. Read of sumptuous feasts gone to rot, of a corrupted priest who dared unleash his venomous platitudes over the common airwaves, of a powerful sorcerer born at the intersection of Blood and Stone. Open your hearts to the Witch-Cult in Western Massachusetts.

    Here the commonplace wind is personified as a sinister kind of monster who tracks its victims to the ends of the earth and sucks away their lives.

    Darius Darke and other "legends" of the Old West are called upon to fight a band of brain-eating bandits in a three-dimensionally-challenged box canyon. This story is a prequel to David Bain's forthcoming weird Western novel RIDERS WHERE THERE ARE NO ROADS. David Bain is the author of DEATH SIGHT, the first novel in the Will Castleton psychic detective series, GRAY LAKE: A NOVEL OF CRIME AND SUPERNATURAL HORROR and several short story collections. He teaches writing at a community college in Indiana.

     Plagued by nightmares of torture and intense violence, a writer suffering from trauma-induced memory loss seeks to solve the mystery of his missing past. The only clue is a single page of an unfinished manuscript found in an old manual typewriter, in a fleabag motel, in a small West Virginian town called Luntville. It is here that the writer will seek answers, believing that if he finishes the book he was writing, his memories will return. But Luntville is not just some bumfuck town in the sticks. It is a place where the locals make extra cash by filming necro porn, a place where vigilantes practice a horrifying form of justice they call dead-dickin', a place haunted by the ghosts of serial killers, occult demons, and a monster called the Bighead. And as the writer attempts to make sense of the town and his connection to it, he will be challenged in ways that test the very limit of his sanity. Deadite Press is proud to present White Trash Gothic, the first book in a series of highly anticipated novels for fans of redneck nightmares and backwoods terror which invokes Edward Lee's many classic gross-outs while exploring even more revolting and disturbing new directions.

    P. Lovecraft, this stylish new collection of adventure stories fizzes with wit and invention. They can be enjoyed separately, but read them in one sitting and the pieces fit horribly together into a larger and more terrible nightmare. †These tales constitute David Hambling’s initial foray into the realm of Lovecraftian fiction. The fertility of imagination, the crisp character delineations, and the smooth-flowing prose that we find in these seven tales leave us wishing for more of the same, and Hambling will no doubt oblige in the coming years. For now, we can sit back and relish a brace of stories that not only evoke the shade of the dreamer from Providence, but which that dreamer himself would have enjoyed to the full. —S. T. Joshi(from his foreword)

    But something equally ancient keeps watch. Its dark energy disturbs psychic Claire Vanarvi, compelling her to visit an archaeological dig taking place on the purportedly cursed estate of Skendleby Hall, now set to become a sprawling commercial development.Blinded by greed, the Hall's new owner and his political cronies are blissfully unaware of the terrible evil that lies beneath the surface and only Claire, who no one will believe, can see it coming.Now only the tenacious psychic and her accomplice - the local self-loathing, agnostic vicar - stand in the way of a force which could put an end to Skendleby and disturb the fabric of existence.Skendleby is a tale of Christmas haunting, greed, faith, love and horror mixed with a pinch of quantum strangeness.

    A terrible secret discovered in a ruined city. Earth is no longer ruled by humans, but by the species they uplifted. Creatures called fleshdogs are their emissaries, and humanity must fight this implacable enemy or face extinction. Balzac must confront monsters and more trying to find his lover. And when he does find her, will the price be too great? This novella is part of Jeff VanderMeer’s cycle of far-future stories, which culminated with the critically acclaimed novel Veniss Underground. As an added bonus, this e-book also includes two extras: an incomplete story set during the same time period as “Balzac’s War” and VanderMeer’s original afterword to the UK edition of Veniss Underground, shedding light on the original creator of the creatures that take center stage in “Balzac’s War.”

    London’s creative square mile, a bedlam of business and backstabbing, where dreams are manufactured and office workers get off their faces. A place where being a celebrity means treating every day as your last.Movie executive Richard Tyler is strung out, stressed up and sinking fast. He owes money to film-freak thugs, thanks to debts stacked up by his card-charging girlfriend, who has been shagging his belligerent boss, who has just fired him.Could things get any worse?During one particularly hypertense evening, Richard drops dead in the middle of a fashionable Soho bar. What happens next mortifies his friends and horrifies his enemies, as Richard’s lifestyle of power-lunches and parties changes overnight into a fast-track trip into career hell…

    Dick is regarded as a major figure of twentieth-century fiction. In 2007, he became the first science fiction writer to be included in the Library of America Series. Investigating spiritual questions through science fiction imagery, these stories explore the boundaries of human consciousness as they entertain such themes as multiple realities, creating life, and man's relationship to God. This collection presents seven outstanding examples of Dick's shorter works: "Colony" read by Tom Weiner, "Upon the Dull Earth" read by William Hughes, "The Short Happy Life of the Brown Oxford" read by Tom Weiner, "Faith of Our Fathers" read by Paul Michael Garcia, "The Days of Perky Pat" read by Malcolm Hillgartner, "The Variable Man" read by Tom Weiner, and "I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon" read by Anthony Heald.

    And while Doctor Varanus has never found tranquility much to her taste, even she cannot deny that the peace and quiet make for a pleasant diversion following the chaos of her recent adventures in London. Having left the horrors of bloodshed and wellness behind her, Varanus has thrown herself headlong into the study of the Shashavani condition, determined to learn the secrets of their undying power.But all is not as it seems in the House of Shashava. As winter snow covers the Shashavani valley and chokes the mountain passes, sinister events are unfolding in the shadows. Whispers of conspiracy echo through the halls. Soon loyalties will be tested and friendships betrayed. Blood will flow. For upon the frozen steppe, an ancient evil stirs and turns its gaze toward the House of Shashava, hungering for power and revenge.As darkness descends, one question remains:Do you serve the Winter King?

    + New literature from South Korea: poetry by Hwang Byeong-seung and Moon Tae-jun, and fiction by Park Min-gyu and Kim Aeran, with an introduction by Jenny Wang Medina.+ Book Reviews: on Francesco Pacifico’s The Story of My Purity, Anne Carson’s Red Doc>, A. G. Porta’s The No World Concerto, Ray Amorisi’s Lazarus, Charles Bernstein’s Recalculating, and Nicolas Hundley’s The Revolver in the Hive.