The Skolian Empire rules a third of the civilized galaxy through its mastery of faster-than-light communication. But war with the rival empire of the Traders seems imminent, a war that can only lead to slavery for the Skolians or the destruction of both sides. Destructive skirmishes have already occurred, and a desperate attempt must be made to avert total disaster.When Sauscony Valdoria, linked to the powerful Skolian Web, and the Aristo heir to the evil Trader Empire of Tarnth li...

A fond, funny Southern-fried memoir about growing up a proper young lady...or not.How does a North Carolina native go from being a tomboy with catfish guts on her overalls to becoming the next Scarlett O'Hara? Turns out, it's not so easy. Too smart, too tall, too fat, too different...Anna Fields was a dud at debbing.From tea parties to teased hair to where to hide mini bottles of liquor inside poufy crinoline ballgowns, Anna reveals all-in a hilarious, behi...

"Weeping" is an arson investigator's term, as well as the usual state that befalls a fire's grief-stricken survivors. So it's with some surprise and suspicion that New York arson investigator Fritillary "Tilly" Quilter meets the seemingly unconcerned Faith Browning, whose sister Dorsey has just burned to death in their family home. When Faith puts in a quick claim without giving the insurance company a chance to look around, the company calls Tilly. Tilly teams up with the arson pro Isaak ...

This complete and unabridged original tale, which provided us with the best-loved classic movie starring Judy Garland, stands on its own as a great modern-day fairy tale.This is the story of a little girl, Dorothy, and her dog, Toto, who are whisked away on a cyclone from their drab Kansas home to a land of adventure and achievement, inhabited by such creatures as a Cowardly Lion, a Tin Woodman, an animate Scarecrow, witches, munchkins, and the Wizard himself.Join them on t...

Elsie Dinsmore is an endearing eight-year-old girl with several bewildering problems. She has never known her mother, who died when Elsie was a baby, and she longs for a close, loving relationship with her father. He, however, has sent her off to be raised at Roselands, his brothers’ Southern plantation, where her teacher, Miss Day, harshly criticizes her and her cousins tease her relentlessly.As Elsie learns to handle her problems, she begins to learn more about herself. And as he...

A national bestseller, Broken for You is the story of two women in self-imposed exile whose lives are transformed when their paths intersect.Elderly Margaret Hughes is living alone in a mansion in Seattle, with only a massive collection of antiques for company, when she meets Wanda Schultz, a young woman with a broken heart who has come to Seattle to search for her wayward boyfriend. Both women are guarding dark secrets and have spent years building up protective armor aga...

In 1903, over three hundred Indian children from across America lived at the Fort Shaw Indian Boarding School in a remote, isolated valley in Montana. Among the children were a handful of teenage girls, many who had only lived in tepees. They quickly learned to play basketball and resoundingly crushed all opponents, including men’s and women’s university teams. After the games, the girls recited Shelley and Longfellow, played mandolins and violins, sang, danced, and pantomimed.Less...

Set in New York in the 1920s, The Glimpses of the Moon details the romantic misadventures of Nick Lansing and Susy Branch, two high-society hangers-on with the right connections but a lack of funds. To maintain their status, they decide to marry and spend a year or so sponging off their wealthy friends, honeymooning in their mansions and villas. Both agree that they're free to dissolve the marriage if either one of them meets someone who can advance them socially. How their scheme...

In the prettiest part of Kentucky, an old Southern family is torn apart by tragedy. When his beloved daughter married a Yankee, the Old Colonel disowned her and has not spoken a word to her or even laid eyes on his granddaughter. The old man’s heart turned hard as stone and children fear him. Hard times have befallen his daughter, and there is talk of her “goin’ to the the poorhouse.” But she would rather die than go to him for help.One day, by accident, he meets a little girl who ...

In December 1937, one of the most brutal massacres in the long annals of wartime barbarity occurred in the capital of China. The Japanese army swept into Nanking and not only looted and burned the defenseless city but systematically raped, tortured, and murdered half of the city’s remaining population, some 300,000 Chinese civilians. Amazingly, the account of this atrocity was denied by the Japanese government.The Rape of Nanking tells the story from three perspectives: th...

They summon and she travels: Snake, the healer. Through the blasted landscape of a post-holocaust world, she carries her three serpents. From the venom of two, she distills her medicines; but it is the third, the alien dreamsnake—whose bite can ease the fear and pain of death—that is the most valued.When the dreamsnake is killed by those she has come to help, her powers as a healer are all but lost. Her only hope now lies in the treacherous journey to far-off Center City, where Sna...

Set among the elegant brownstones and opulent country houses of turn-of-the-century upper-class New York, Edith Wharton’s first great novel is a precise, satiric portrayal of what the author herself called “a society of irresponsible pleasure-seekers.”Her brilliantly complex characterization of the doomed Lily Bart, whose stunning beauty and dependence on marriage for economic survival reduce her to a decorative object, is an incisive commentary on the status of wo...