From Publishers WeeklyIn the latest-and possibly final-installment of the chronicles of the English village of Fairacre and its tiny school, the pseudonymous author and narrator Miss Read (Changes at Fairacre) begins the academic year anticipating few surprises. Two relatively minor but frightening strokes, however, force the stalwart headmistress to consider, and eventually opt for, early retirement. In the course of her final, lovingly described year at Fairacre school, Miss Read carries on her amiable feud with the school's grouchy cleaner, fends off marriage proposals from a handsome newcomer to town, keeps a watchful eye on the courtship of a newly widowed friend and continues her involvement in the pleasing minutiae of village life. Though Miss Read acknowledges the existence of the contemporary world, the village and its school remain resolutely old-fashioned: "More worldly children need videos and computers, but in Fairacre, we still enjoy pencils and paper, I am glad to say." Sensible, well read and acutely observant, the delightfully prim Miss Read continues to be very good company indeed. Line drawings. Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library JournalIn the finale to a series that began with Village School (1955), Miss Read's long teaching career in Fairacre is brought to a satisfactory close. This quintessential "gentle read" chronicles Miss Read's decision to retire as schoolmistress after a series of small strokes. Readers are also brought up-to-date on the lives of other inhabitants of the village who have appeared in scores of previous books: Mrs. Pringle, Miss Read's bullying cleaning lady; the newly widowed Henry Mawne; the Willet family; and her old friends Amy, Vicar Gerald Partridge and his wife, the Umbleditches, and the Annetts. Miss Read must also decide whether to resist the attentions of a handsome newcomer with a romantic interest in her. As soothing and warm as a cup of Earl Grey tea, this book will delight fans and newcomers to the series alike.Nancy Pearl, Washington Ctr. for the Book, SeattleCopyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Raised by a mad mother and a half-mad sister, abandoned by her father, Praxis Duveen is a master of the art of survival. Her life, indeed, has been full: two marriages, unsuccessful; a brief but profitable career as a prostitute; a little dabbling in incest; a mercy killing; and an inadvertent reign as both apostle and victim of the women's movement. Buffeted and battered by life, Praxis has survived with energy and humor intact. Her struggles with men and women, with mother and marriages, and most particularly, with herself, become, in Weldon's deft hands, a witty and trenchant commentary on what women want—and what they can actually get.Review"Weldon writes with elegance and drive, delivering sentences like pellets from a BB gun—wry, pithy, rapid-fire."—Newsweek "Dazzling—pointing up the mad underside of our sexual politics with a venomous accuracy for which wit is far too mild a word"—The New York Times Book Review "Weldon's most directly feminist novel … A narrative that convinces, horrifies, and entertains"—Library JournalAbout the AuthorFay Weldon was raised in a household of women in New Zealand, and produced four sons of her own, as if to balance the gender count. After taking degrees in economics and psychology at the University of Edinburgh, she survived a decade of odd jobs and hard times, then began writing film and television scripts and fiction. Among her eighteen novels and short-story collections are Trouble, Life Force, The Cloning of Joanna May, Darcy's Utopia, The Shrapnel Academy, The Life and Loves of a She-devil, Leader of the Band, Puffball, and The Heart of the Country, winner of the 1989 Los Angeles Times Fiction Award. Fay Weldon lives in London and Somerset.

This trilogy of novels was the culmination of Karel Capek’s career. The novels share neither characters nor events; instead, they approach the problem of knowing people—of mutual understanding—in a variety of ways. Detectives faced with a murder reconstruct the crime, but not the character of the man who was murdered. Three people tell stories about a dying pilot they know almost nothing about; each story is as full of truth as it is devoid of facts. And one man looks back on his life and discovers all the people he might have been. Together, these three short novels form a readable philosophical novel unique in world literature.

Publisher's WeeklyTerrible secrets lead basketball star David Baskin to fake his death while honeymooning in the tropics in this manipulative but otherwise engaging first novel. His bereaved bride, supermodel Laura Ayars, not sure that David's drowning was accidental, starts sleuthing--which proves dangerous when somebody begins killing people who may have the answers she wants. Meanwhile, David, fitted out with a new identity and appearance, tries out for his original team, the Boston Celtics, and ''replaces'' himself at his former position. Why he has faked his death is explained in the story's penultimate surprise. But why he risks playing in front of fans who know his style is never addressed. Crucial coincidences abound, such as the love affair of David's brother and Laura's sister--adults who, as kids 30 years before, just happen to have witnessed their parents' worst sins. Coben manufactures tension primarily by keeping key details out of his narrative, a method that eventually wears thin. The resolution comes as a relief, with less of a bang than its buildup promises. Library JournalDespite its fundamental implausibility, this is an engrossing suspense novel. A star pro basketball player, David Baskin, disappears on his honeymoon, and a mutilated, drowned body is assumed to be his. But strange things are happening to his beautiful widow. And a few months later, a total unknown startles the basketball world with a highly professional style of play exactly like Baskin's. The mystery has its origins in a murder 30 years earlier. The reader's suspicions about what actually happened to Baskin, and about the identity of the murderer, shift as layers of lies are stripped away. Despite the basketball, this is primarily great romantic suspense.-- Marylaine Block, St. Ambrose Univ. Lib., Davenport, Ia.School Library JournalWhen Laura Ayers and David Baskin secretly marry, it is a match made in heaven. She is a former model turned entrepreneur, while he is the Boston Celtics basketball sensation. But tragedy strikes on their Australian honeymoon when David never returns from a swim in treacherous waters. As Laura struggles with her grief, events unfold to make her question David's mysterious disappearance. She begins to uncover a conspiracy of past and present that slowly destroys all those involved. Coben weaves a delicate web of intrigue that throws alternating suspicion on each person Laura trusts. A fast-moving thriller with a rapidly twisting plot that keeps readers in suspense until the final page. --Katherine Fitch, Jefferson Sci-Tech, Alexandria, VA

Appearing as a bonus story on Sherrilyn's web site and at the back of early editions of Sins of the Night, it can now be found in print form in its entirety in the novel Acheron in the Dark-Hunter series. This is a short story written years ago by Sherri as an intro to the Dark-Hunter world. The Beginning was originally published as a short story in a small press magazine called The Voice in 1990. The Beginning,is also in the back of Sins of the Night early print editions (St. Martin's Press, 2005) NOTE: This short story appears as a chapter in Acheron, located in Part I-Greece, 7382 BC

Daughter of immigrants, child of the footlights, San Francisco seamstress Katie McBride has never known a day without work. Her industry finds its rewards when she's hired to sew the trousseau for the Nob Hill wedding of the 1905 season.Former Rough Rider and gold miner, Wyoming rancher Quentin Sterling hopes to find a suitable bride among the debutantes at his sister's wedding. But when calamity strikes, Quentin sees that a strong woman like Katie is what he needs at his side.It's a gamble for happiness, but Katie embraces a new beginning. She believes in the generosity of the land, of setting down roots, in her courage and Quentin's strength . . . and in the stirrings of a young love as fresh as the spring breezes that sweep the vast and glorious Wyoming plains.

A sequel to "Orion" and "Vengeance of Orion". At the end of the Cretaceous Period, Earth is in the grip of the dinosaurs. Their leader is a reptile, worshipped by the Egyptians as a powerful god for thousands of years. His mission is to destroy the Creators - Orion's masters - and rule the planet.

No one captures the drama of war as brilliantly as bestselling author W.E.B. Griffin. The Corps is his multi-volume portrait of the Marine Corps, the brave men and women who fought, loved and died in the sweeping turmoil of WW II.COUNTERATTACK, the third book in the series, highlights America's first bold counterstrike against the Japanese: Guadalcanal. Bitterly resisted by Japanese troops, the U.S. Marines fought a close, bloody and gruelling battle to its successful conclusion."The Corps combines the best elements of military history and the war story -- the telling detail and political tangle of one mated to the energy and sweep of another." (Publishers Weekly)

When Jessica MacAllister takes time off from her career to move to the suburbs and become a full time wife and mother, it’s not all Ozzie and Harriet. Then her cigar-chomping real-estate agent is murdered, and she can’t resist investigating. Jessica teams up with the victim’s charming – and surprisingly attentive – younger brother, meanwhile wrestling with her own ambivalence about her new role. Contemporary mystery by Cynthia Baxter writing as Cynthia Blair; originally published by Ballantine

In The War of the Ring Christopher Tolkien takes up the story of the writing of The Lord of the Rings with the Battle of Helm's Deep and the drowning of Isengard by the Ents. This is followed by an account of how Frodo, Sam and Gollum were finally brought to the Pass of Kirith Ungol, at which point J.R.R. Tolkien wrote at the time: 'I have got the hero into such a fix that not even an author will be able to extricate him without labour and difficulty'. Then comes the war in Gondor, and the book ends with the parley between Gandalf and the ambassador of the Dark Lord before the Black Gate of Mordor. In describing his intentions for The Return of the King J.R.R. Tolkien said that 'It will probably work out very differently from this plan when it really gets written, as the thing seems to write itself once it gets going'; and in The War of the Ring totally unforeseen developmenst that would become central to the narrative are seen at the moment of their emergence: the palantir bursting into fragments on the stairs of Orthanc, its nature as unknown to the author as to those who saw it fall, or the entry of Faramir into the story ('I am sure I did not invent him, though I like him, but there he came walking into the woods of Ithilien').The book is illustrated with plans and drawings of the changing conceptions of Orthanc, Dunharrow, Minas Tirith and the tunnels of Shelob's Lair.

SUMMARY: Desperate circumstances forced Lunzie Mespil, Healer (a combination of doctor and psychiatrist) to abandon the starship on which she was a passenger. Since she made it to a lifeboat, Lunzie is not too worried; she will spend a month or two in cryogenic stasis awaiting inevitable rescue, and then proceed with her life. Only it's not a month or two. Lunzie waits for sixty-two years before she is finally picked up. How Lunzie deals with being reborn to a world she never made, a world that has grown strangely dark and dangerous during her long sleep, is the story of The Death of Sleep.

Detective Chief Inspector Kate Maddox, off-duty and watching a Polo match, is vexed when expected to help when local celebrity Sir Noah Kimberley hasn’t turned up to present the trophies. A missing husband isn’t a police matter! But her reluctant enquiries turn into a complex double-murder investigation. Meanwhile, her friendship with newspaper proprietor Richard Gower grows to romance. British Mystery by Nancy Buckingham writing as Erica Quest; originally published by Doubleday for the Crime Club