7881 books

How Beautiful the Ordinary by Michael Cart (2009)

A girl thought to be a boy steals her sister's skirt, while a boy thought to be a girl refuses to wear a cornflower blue dress. One boy's love of a soldier leads to the death of a stranger. The present takes a bittersweet journey into the past when a man revisits the summer school where he had "an accidental romance." And a forgotten mother writes a poignant letter to the teenage daughter she hasn't seen for fourteen years.Poised between the past and the future are the stories of now. In nontraditional narratives, short stories, and brief graphics, tales of anticipation and regret, eagerness and confusion present distinctively modern views of love, sexuality, and gender identification. Together, they reflect the vibrant possibilities available for young people learning to love others-and themselves-in today's multifaceted and quickly changing world.

The Rembrandt Affair (Gabriel Allon #10) by Daniel Silva (2010)

Severing his ties with the Office to care for his traumatized wife after a violent showdown with Ivan Kharkov, Gabriel is reluctantly drawn into a case involving a murdered art restorer and discovers unsettling links between the killers and a recently discovered Rembrandt.

Bearwalker by Joseph Bruchac (2007)

As a member of the Mohawk Bear Clan, Baron has always been fascinated by bears — their gentle strength and untamed power. But the Bearwalker legend, passed down by his ancestors, tells of a different kind of creature — a terrible mix of human and animal that looks like a bear but is really a bloodthirsty monster. The tale never seemed to be more than a scary story. Until now.During a class camping trip deep in the Adirondacks, Baron comes face-to-face with an evil being that is all too real. Although he knows how the story ends in the legend, Baron must overcome this Bearwalker on his own terms.

Pandora's Daughter by Iris Johansen (2007)

When Dr. Megan Blair was 15, her mother was murdered for using her extraordinary psychic powers to bring down the son of a brutal criminal. Sheltered from the truth by CIA operative Neal Grady, Megan finally finds out when someone atempts to murder her.

Down the rabbit hole by Peter Abrahams (2005)

Welcome to Echo Falls, home of a thousand secrets.Ingrid is in the wrong place at the wrong time. Or at least her shoes are. And getting them back will mean getting tangled up in a murder investigation as complicated as the mysteries solved by her idol, Sherlock Holmes. With soccer practice, schoolwork, and the lead role in her town's production of Alice in Wonderland, Ingrid is swamped. But as things in Echo Falls keep getting curiouser and curiouser, Ingrid realizes she must solve the murder on her own -- before it's too late!

April Shadows by V. C. Andrews (2005)

**April had always felt like an outsider.** Her older sister Brenda was tall, athletic, competitive, and sure of herself. But April Taylor was short, sensitive, and overweight -- and she couldn't bounce back from their father's cutting criticisms the way Brenda did. April didn't know why their once-loving dad had become a coldhearted monster, but she was sure it had something to do with her. And she could see how his cruel behavior was tearing away at her gentle mother. But a glimmer of happiness returns when Brenda brings home her college roommate: beautiful, bewitching Celia. And April wonders if she might not be so different from Brenda after all....

Killing Johnny Fry by Walter Mosley (2006)

Cuando Cordell Carmel encuentra a su novia con otro hombre practicando sexo como nunca había hecho con él, los límites y fronteras de este traductor neoyorquino se resquebrajan. Para él empieza un camino hacia experiencias desconocidas, una exploración de su propio cuerpo y deseo a través de relaciones con varias mujeres que entrarán y saldrán de su vida. Inicia así su propia redención sexual, guiado por la extraña protagonista de un DVD porno en un iniciático viaje por el Nueva York más erótico. Carmel ansiará vengarse y matar al amante de su novia, pero también querrá mucho más. Excitante y oscura, Matar a Johnny Fry es la respuesta de un hombre de mediana edad frente a la infidelidad. Un impacto que le hará ser consciente de la vacuidad de su vida y que le empuja hacia una explícita odisea sexual y búsqueda existencial. Walter Mosley, autor de algunas de las mejores novelas negras de las últimas décadas, sorprende y atrapa con esta nueva y provocadora obra sobre la liberación de un hombre.

Daisy Dooley Does Divorce by Anna Pasternak (2007)

For Daisy Dooley, the only thing worse than being 39 and single is being 39 and divorced. A self-professed self-help addict, Daisy leaves the marriage she thought would forever rescue her from the angst of will he or won't he call, coping with painful setups from well-meaning friends, and lonely Saturday nights, only to return to the painful--and painfully funny--world of dating. Supported by her two best friends, one commitment-phobic single serial dater and one picture perfect happy wife and mother of two whose marriage sets the standard in happy marriages--at least from the outside--Daisy must find her way back through the awkward mating rituals that accompany relationships with the post-divorcee rebound man, and the passionate tweny-something eager to date a "mature woman," and battle the longing to be with the one true love who eluded her years before.In the end, Daisy Dooley does date who she deserves, and delivers a lot of laughs and lessons along the way.

Razor Girl by Carl Hiaasen (2016)

"When Lane Coolman's car is bashed from behind on the road to the Florida Keys, what appears to be an innocent accident is anything but. Behind the wheel of the offending car is Merry Mansfield--the eponymous Razor Girl--so named for her unique, eye-popping addition to what might be an otherwise unexciting scam. But this is only the very beginning of a situation that's going to spiral crazily out of control while gathering in some of the wildest characters Hiaasen has ever set loose on the page. There's the owner of Sedimental Journey--the company that steals sand from one beach to restore erosion on another...Dominick "Big Noogie" Aeola, the NYC mafia capo with a taste for the pinkest of sands...Zeto, the small-time hustler who gets electrocuted trying to charge a Tesla...Nance Buck, native Wisconsinite who's nonetheless the star of the red neck reality TV show, "Bayou Brethren"...a psycho who goes by the name of Blister and who's more Nance Buck than Buck could ever be...the multimillionaire product liability lawyer who's getting dangerously--and deformingly--hooked on the very product he's litigating against...and Andrew Yancy--formerly Detective Yancy, busted to Key West roach patrol after he beat up his then-lover's husband with a Dustbuster--who's convinced that if he can just solve one more murder on his own, he'll get his detective badge back. That the Razor Girl may be the key to his success in this deeply ill-considered endeavor will be as surprising to him as anything else he encounters along the way--including the nine-pound Gambian pouched rats getting very used to the good life in the Keys... "-- When Lane Coolman's car is bashed from behind on the road to the Florida Keys, what appears to be an innocent accident is anything but. Behind the wheel of the offending car is Merry Mansfield-- the eponymous Razor Girl-- so named for her unique, eye-popping addition to what might be an otherwise unexciting scam. Among the characters sucked in as the situation spins out of control is Andrew Yancy, a former detective now busted down to the Health Department, and looking for a way to win back his police badge.

The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers (2021)

The great scholar, W. E. B. Du Bois, once wrote about the Problem of race in America, and what he called “Double Consciousness,” a sensitivity that every African American possesses in order to survive. Since childhood, Ailey Pearl Garfield has understood Du Bois’s words all too well. Bearing the names of two formidable Black Americans—the revered choreographer Alvin Ailey and her great grandmother Pearl, the descendant of enslaved Georgians and tenant farmers—Ailey carries Du Bois’s Problem on her shoulders. Ailey is reared in the north in the City but spends summers in the small Georgia town of Chicasetta, where her mother’s family has lived since their ancestors arrived from Africa in bondage. From an early age, Ailey fights a battle for belonging that’s made all the more difficult by a hovering trauma, as well as the whispers of women—her mother, Belle, her sister, Lydia, and a maternal line reaching back two centuries—that urge Ailey to succeed in their stead. To come to terms with her own identity, Ailey embarks on a journey through her family’s past, uncovering the shocking tales of generations of ancestors—Indigenous, Black, and white—in the deep South. In doing so Ailey must learn to embrace her full heritage, a legacy of oppression and resistance, bondage and independence, cruelty and resilience that is the story—and the song—of America itself. ([source](https://www.harpercollins.ca/9780062942968/the-love-songs-of-w-e-b-du-bois/))

Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson (2022)

Charmaine Wilkerson’s debut novel is a story of how the inheritance of betrayals, secrets, memories, and even names can shape relationships and history. Deeply evocative and beautifully written, *Black Cake* is an extraordinary journey through the life of a family changed forever by the choices of its matriarch.

The devil's punchbowl by Greg Iles (2009)

When he was a prosecuting attorney Penn Cage sent hardened killers to death row. But it is as mayor of his hometown, Natchez, Mississippi, that Penn will face his most dangerous threat. Urged by old friends to try to restore the town to its former glory, Penn has ridden into office on a tide of support for change. But in its quest for new jobs and fresh money, Natchez has turned to casino gambling. Five fantastical steamboats float on the river beside the old slave market like props from Gone With the Wind. But one boat isn't like the others. Rumour has it that the Magnolia Queen has found a way to pull the big players from Las Vegas. And with them comes an unquenchable taste for one thing: blood sport, and the dark vices that go with it. When a childhood friend of Penn's who brings him evidence of these crimes is brutally murdered, the full weight of Penn's failure to protect this city hits home. So begins his quest to find the men responsible. But it's a hunt he begins alone, for the local authorities have been corrupted by the money and power of his hidden enemy. With his family's life at stake, Penn realizes his only allies in his one-man war are those bound to him by blood or honour.

Blood kin by Ceridwen Dovey (2007)

Blood Kin is a clever novel about a military coup told by the ex-president's barber, chef, and portraitist.This novel is not set in any particular country, time or place. The characters have no identifying physical characteristics. They don't have names. We simply know them as the ex-president's barber, chef, and portraitist; men who perform essential tasks and try not to see what's happening around them. Our three men are held captive in the ex-President's Summer Palace as a military Commander destroys the old regime. All three men start to provide their services for the Commander, just as they did for the President before the coup, but before long, they question the Commander's authority and things begin to unravel. The mysterious connections between these men and their lovers come to the surface; and we discover that nobody is as innocent as he or she seems. Each one of them is attempting to atone for or cover up acts of cruelty, whether personal or political. In the end, who will manage to resist the corruptive force of power and who will give in?

The Deportees and Other Stories by Roddy Doyle (2007)

Roddy Doyle's first ever collection of stories.For the past few years Roddy Doyle has been writing stories for Metro Eireann, a newspaper started by, and aimed at, immigrants to Ireland. Each of the stories took a new slant on the immigrant experience, something of increasing relevance and importance in today's Ireland.The stories range from 'Guess Who's Coming to the Dinner', where a father who prides himself on his open-mindedness when his daughters talk about sex, is forced to confront his feelings when one of them brings home a black fella, to a terrifying ghost story, 'The Pram', in which a Polish nanny grows impatient with her charge's older sisters and decides - in a phrase she has learnt - to 'scare them shitless'.Most of the stories are very funny - in '57% Irish' Ray Brady tries to devise a test of Irishness by measuring reactions to Robbie Keane's goal against Germany in the 2002 World Cup, Riverdance and 'Danny Boy' - others deeply moving. And best of all, in the title story itself,Jimmy Rabbitte, the man who formed The Commitments, decides it's time to find a new band, and this time no White Irish need apply. Multicultural to a fault, The Deportees specialise not in soul music this time, but the songs of Woody Guthrie.

FURTHER UNDER THE DUVET by Marian Keyes (2005)

Slide Further Under the Duvet, get yourself comfortable and let Marian take you places you've never been before ...Places like the Irish air-guitar championships, a shopping trip to Bloomingdales with a difference and Cannes with a chronic case of Villa-itis. Along the way you'll encounter knicker-politics, fake tans, sticky-out ears and passionate love affairs both with make-up and Toblerones. And of course, agony aunt, Mammy Walsh is on hand to solve all your problems.Hilarious and poignant, down-to-earth and moving, Marian's long-awaited second volume of journalism and previously unpublished writing is the modern woman's perfect companion. So put the kettle on and grab that Kit Kat Chunky – everything else will wait.

Secret confessions of the Applewood PTA by Ellen Meister (2006)

Friends Maddie, Ruth, and Lisa take charge when the PTA decides to let the elementary school be used as the set for a George Clooney movie, but as they try to balance the needs of their children, the PTA, and their spouses, they find themselves giving into temptations that could destroy everything they are trying to hold together.