Modern Fiction

In the frozen wastes north of Russia, a lone seaward vessel seeks the elusive Northwest Passage. Suddenly they sight a dog sled with a gargantuan figure in the shape of a man, driving the dogs northward to sure oblivion. The following day, they find another sled. This sled is filled with a European near death, and when asked what he is chasing, he simply replies, "to seek one who fled from me."

It's August in the Barsetshire village of Worsted, and Richard Tebben, just down from Oxford, is contemplating the gloomy prospect of a long summer in the parental home. But the numerous and impossibly glamorous Dean family - exquisite Rachel, her capable husband and six of their nine brilliant children - have come for the holidays, and their hostess, Mrs. Palmer, plans to rope everyone into performing in her disastrous annual play.

It all started with a chance encounter in the city with Blair, his late wife. Chris Matheson and the Geezer Squad, working under the guise of a book club, dig into the events surrounding his late wife’s supposed death halfway around the globe. A state department employee shoots himself in the back three times. A CIA operative goes missing. A woman is targeted by an international assassin three years after being declared dead in a terrorist attack overseas. Nothing is as it seems.  

Small-town Wisconsin cop Val Ryker is about to move in with her longtime firefighter boyfriend when her old boss asks for a favor. Former Chicago homicide lieutenant Jacqueline “Jack” Daniels needs Val to babysit for a few days. Val isn’t comfortable around toddlers, but she accepts. Then one baby becomes two, and some criminals from Jack’s past come calling with child abduction and arson on their agenda.

Drags, fags and trans-women were attracted to the Big Apple because they were able to find work as impersonators in a small number of Lower East Side clubs. Decades before Stonewall, they occupied the margins of society, determined to live as they pleased, despite of the attentions of the police. Sometimes reduced to stealing to get their costumes, these girls were unstoppable, fearless and fabulous. When a cache of their letters were discovered, these individuals were given a voice where they had traditionally been silenced.

Mimei Ogawa, a prolific author of short stories nearly 100 years ago, is considered to be one of the founding figures of modern Japanese children’s literature. He has also been called the Hans Christian Andersen of Japan because of how his works were influenced by Andersen. This collection contains a fresh, modern translation of one of Mimei Ogawa’s most famous works, "The Mermaid and the Red Candles", as well as several other stories that have never been translated and published in English before.

Petra and Henry’s marriage has gone flat. However, after a chance meeting with a new lover, Alain, Petra discovers a fresh side to her sexuality. With his encouragement she explores her feelings of dominance and begins to subject husband Henry to a regime of discipline and control.

It’s never too late, right? Did someone say it couldn’t be done? At age seventy-five, with no email, no Wi-Fi or computer, and only pencil and paper as his tools of the trade, from his one-bedroom apartment in Troy, New York, Mīchol started creating poems. Modern Poems seemed to take shape one poem at a time. Mīchol let his creativity flow as he crafted poems about holidays, seasons, and other themes. Putting his heart and mind to work, he discovered a poet living inside him, screaming to come out.

Ease the hearts and minds of children who have recently moved with this delightful modern twist on the classic Christmas story, which teaches kids that true joy doesn't come from getting gifts.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, unique tales inspired by traditional literary forms appeared frequently in socialist-leaning British periodicals, such as the Clarion, Labour Leader, and Social Democrat. Based on familiar genres, these stories were meant to entertain readers of all ages - and some challenged the conventional values promoted in children’s literature for the middle class. Acclaimed critic and author Michael Rosen brings together more than 40 of the best and most enduring examples of these stories in one beautiful volume.

I own the premier hunting and fishing lodge in Alaska. And I need a woman to help run it. I don't want an employee; I need a woman who knows how to take orders in and out of the bedroom. Delta's not what I expected. She wants an adventure, and may not be up for the challenge of running the lodge. But she's gonna need to learn if she wants to keep riding my cock.

Tal Neilson is slowly losing his mind. He’s convinced his dead father Geri has been murdered, but no one believes him. Geri’s voice in his head is screaming for revenge. Is the voice real or a product of Tal’s addiction? Can Tal ignore his widowed mother’s attraction to Geri’s business partner?

Python is a drifter, a vampire living his eternal life on the road and liking it that way. Beholden to nothing and certainly to no one. But such a lifestyle doesn’t come without creating enemies. Most notably, a pesky vampire hunter he cant seem to shake. When he stumbles upon a seemingly abandoned cabin the woods, Python sees the perfect escape and a place to hide.

In this captivating collection of stories by the author of Ballet Shoes, there are auditions on stage and antics on ice, trips to the pantomime, holiday adventures and laughter shared with family and friends. Charming, heartwarming and funny, this collection will bring joy to listeners of all ages. Originally written in the 1940s-'60s for annuals, magazines and the radio, these stories have never been collected before.

Jim Hardman was a mediocre Atlanta cop until he was wrongly accused of corruption and thrown off the force. Now he works as an unlicensed PI, trouble-shooter, and bodyguard...often partnered with his drinking buddy Hump Evans, a black ex-NFL player. Hardman is hired by The Man, a black mobster, to investigate the murder of his white girlfriend, a college student. It’s a case that plunges Hardman and Evans into the center of a violent street war that stretches from Atlanta’s seedy back alleys to the marbled corridors of power.

Detective Beth Young has just joined the Cumbrian major crimes team when a body is found posed in a ritualistic manner - arms spread and graceful wings attached - at a crumbling castle in the hills of the Lake District. The entire police force are on red alert. But Beth begins to feel she’s the only one who can follow the disturbing clues left by the twisted killer. Because she doesn’t think like everyone else. To Beth, crimes are puzzles she can solve. Even if real life is a little harder.

Ty Dawson, now the sheriff of Oregon's Meriwether County, is ready to put a trying year behind him, but he's afforded no such luck. In a country still coming to grips with the Vietnam War, Watergate, and Charles Manson, Ty's neck of the woods isn't safe from the turmoil-especially when a commune of young so-called hippies springs up out of nowhere . . .

This is a story from the Canterbury Tales II: Modern Verse Translation collection.

The inner circle of the philosophers of Pavi Bujdam are a close group of friends who include a renowned artist, a mathematician, musicians, dancers, theologians and an astrologer, who all live with the great philosophical question of what lies beyond the mere surrounding their almost trouble-free land. In their meetings together they are always exploring their philosophies, an exploration in which the listener is invited to share in the form of the entertainment of the story.

When a devastating flood takes out several homes in a small town, residents are shocked by the news of also a possible poison spill that kills many of the fish and neighbor's pets. Julia, the town's newest reporter, begins her investigation but realizes the story is much bigger and more dangerous than she thought! Julia and her husband find themselves on the run trying to save their lives while finishing the story of a lifetime! She never realized that being a reporter could be so dangerous.