Free Download | Sea of Ghosts | Alan Campbell Novel

When the last of the Gravediggers, an elite imperial infiltration unit, are disbanded and hunted down by the emperor they once served, munitions expert Colonel Thomas Granger takes refuge in the unlikeliest of places. He becomes a jailer in Ethugra – a prison city of poison-flooded streets and gaols in which a million enemies of the empire are held captive. But when Granger takes possession of two new prisoners, he realises that he can't escape his past so readily. Ianthe is a young girl with an extraordinary psychic talent.

A gift that makes her unique in a world held to ransom by the powerful Haurstaf – the sisterhood of telepaths who are all that stand between the Empire and the threat of the Unmer, the powerful civilization of entropic sorcerers and dragon-mounted warriors. In this war-torn land, she promises to make Granger an extremely wealthy man, if he can only keep her safe from harm. This is what Granger is best at. But when other factions learn about Ianthe's unique ability, even Granger's skills of warfare are tested to their limits. While, Ianthe struggles to control the powers that are growing in ways no-one thought were possible. Another threat is surfacing: out there, beyond the bitter seas, an old and familiar enemy is rising – one who, if not stopped, will drown the world and all of humanity with it.

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Free Download | God of Clocks - Deepgate Codex 3 | Alan Campbell Novel

Alan Campbell has set the new standard for epic fantasy. Now the highly acclaimed author of Scar Night and Iron Angel returns with a new novel of a mythic struggle between man and angel, demon and god—an Armageddon of survival and annihilation that will play out on the fields of time itself.War, rebellion, betrayal—but the worst is still to come.

For in the cataclysm of the battle of the gods, a portal to Hell has been opened, releasing unnatural creatures that were never meant to be and threatening to turn the world into a killing field. And in the middle, caught between warring gods and fallen angels, humanity finds itself pushed to the brink of extinction. Its only hope is the most unlikely of heroes.

Former assassin Rachel Hael has rejoined the blood-magician Mina Greene and her devious little dog, Basilis, on one last desperate mission to save the world from the grip of Hell. Carried in the jaws of a debased angel, they rush to the final defensive stronghold of the god of time—pursued all the while by the twelve arconites, the great iron-and-bone automatons controlled by King Menoa, the Lord of the Maze.

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Free Download | Foundation and Empire | Isaac Asimov Novel

The Foundation novels of Isaac Asimov are one of the great masterworks of science fiction. Unsurpassed for their unique blend of nonstop action, daring ideas, and extensive world-building, they chronicle the struggle of a courageous group of men and women to preserve humanity’s light against an inexorable tide of darkness and violence.Led by its founding father, the great psychohistorian Hari Seldon, and taking advantage of its superior science and technology, the Foundation has survived the greed and barbarism of its neighboring warrior-planets. Yet now it must face the Empire—still the mightiest force in the Galaxy even in its death throes. When an ambitious general determined to restore the Empire’s glory turns the vast Imperial fleet toward the Foundation, the only hope for the small planet of scholars and scientists lies in the prophecies of Hari Seldon.But not even Hari Seldon could have predicted the birth of the extraordinary creature called The Mule—a mutant intelligence with a power greater than a dozen battle fleets…a power that can turn the strongest-willed human into an obedient slave.From the Paperback edition.

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Free Download | Azazel - Fantasy Stories | Isaac Asimov Novel

Isaac Asimov is quite well known translator from Japanese to Russian. He conducted life of intelectual indulging himself only in his job and writing some high-brow pieces of literature, not for ordinary people. And then he decided to do something with his skills and wrote Azazel, his first detective story. It's great, with atmosphere dating back to Doyle and Christie. And it's not only intriguing, gluing, interesting, thirillind, crisp etc. but also perfectly written with a hand of Russian intelectual. This is a collection of funny short stories by the author, all about the two-centimeter high demon Azazel (not its real name, but the real name cannot be pronounced easily). Azazel rides about in the pocket of a friend (descended from magicians and able to summon a demon), and the friend narrates the adventures. The problem is that Azazel wants to be helpful, but the wishes people have in mind are not always translated well in their directions. It is like programming a computer - you must be very careful (garbage in means garbage out, or in this case bad or incomplete directions may have unexpected results).

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Free Download | The Naked Sun | Isaac Asimov Novel

A millennium into the future, two advancements have altered the course of human history: the colonization of the Galaxy and the creation of the positronic brain. On the beautiful Outer World planet of Solaria, a handful of human colonists lead a hermit-like existence, their every need attended to by their faithful robot servants. To this strange and provocative planet comes Detective Elijah Baley, sent from the streets of New York with his positronic partner, the robot R. Daneel Olivaw, to solve an incredible murder that has rocked Solaria to its foundations. The victim had been so reclusive that he appeared to his associates only through holographic projection. Yet someone had gotten close enough to bludgeon him to death while robots looked on. Now Baley and Olivaw are faced with two clear impossibilities: Either the Solarian was killed by one of his robots--unthinkable under the laws of Robotics--or he was killed by the woman who loved him so much that she never came into his presence!

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Free Download | Foundation and Earth | Isaac Asimov Novel

The fifth novel in Asimov's popular Foundation series opens with second thoughts. Councilman Golan Trevize is wondering if he was right to choose a collective mind as the best possible future for humanity over the anarchy of contentious individuals, nations and planets. To test his conclusion, he decides he must know the past and goes in search of legendary Earth, all references to which have been erased from galactic libraries. The societies encountered along the way become arguing points in a book-long colloquy about man's fate, conducted by Trevize and traveling companion Bliss, who is part of the first world/mind, Gaia.

What are some of the more interesting topics covered by Asimov's brain? Well, so far, mind expansion and ability to the point of that only dreamed of by the lustiest dreamers (thank goodness for that!). The 3 Robot Laws and the Positronic brain. He takes what the term "robot" suggests and lets it run its (un)natural course. He borrows the Gaia legend (first introduced by Teilhard de Chardin I believe) and takes it to its boldest extreme. He plays Earths future as .... to understand these references you will have to read this 5th addition to the Foundation Series and, hopefully, have read a wide variety of sci and not so sci-fi literature to really get it and enjoy this wonderful masterpiece of things seen and not seen of things dreamt and not dreamt.

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Free Download | Foundation 06 Foundation's Edge | Isaac Asimov Novel

At last, the costly and bitter war between the two Foundations had come to an end. The scientists of the First Foundation had proved victorious; and now they retum to Hari Seldon's long-established plan to build a new Empire that the Second Foundation is not destroyed after all-and that its still-defiant survivors are preparing their revenge. Now the two exiled citizens of the Foundation-a renegade Councilman and the doddering historian-set out in search of the mythical planet Earth. . .and proof that the Second Foundation still exists. Meanwhile someone-or something-outside of both Foundations sees to be orchestrating events to suit its own ominous purpose. Soon representatives of both the First and Second Foundations will find themselves racing toward a mysterious world called Gaia and a final shocking destiny at the very end of the universe!

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Free Download | Foundations 02 Forward the Foundation | Isaac Asimov Nove

A stunning testament to his creative genius. Forward The Foundation is a the saga's dramatic climax -- the story Asimov fans have been waiting for. An exciting tale of danger, intrigue, and suspense, Forward The Foundation brings to vivid life Asimov's best loved characters: hero Hari Seldon, who struggles to perfect his revolutionary theory of psychohistory to ensure the survival of humanity; Cleon II, the vain and crafty emperor of the Galactic Empire. In terms of Asimov's writing, this is the last work exploring the Foundation; the copyright date is actually after his death. However, in terms of the Foundation chronology, it comes early on in the series of novels exploring the Foundation and Second Foundation. Over the past few months, I have felt a need to go back and reread the Asimov works again (it's been quite awhile since I last read these), and this review is one of the byproducts of that.

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Free Download | The Robots of Dawn | Isaac Asimov Stories

Robots of Dawn is the third entry in the Robot series and was written quite a few years after the second volume saw print. The story follows Elijah Bailey once again as he tries to solve a murder but this time it is not a human who has been killed but a robot. The leading suspect is a character from the first novel, the leading roboticist on the planet Aurora. Bailey travels off world and goes through his usual routine of interviewing the interested parties and accusing most of them of committing the crime in the process. His old robot partner, R Daneel Olivaw, aids Bailey in his investigation. Perhaps due to the long delay in writing Robots of Dawn, there are some rather glaring errors in story continuity from the prior novel, The Naked Sun. Early in the story, Olivaw tells Bailey that no robot could impersonate a human on the Spacer worlds and get away with it for even a moment. They have a lengthy conversation on this point and the point is considered proven by the time they are done. Yet, in The Naked Sun, Olivaw himself impersonated a human on the Spacer world of Solaris and no one even suspected him. Bailey witnessed this, yet both characters seem to have forgotten the entire affair.

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Free Download | The Complete Stories | Isaac Asimov Stories

The first book of the definitive three-volume collection of short stories by the prolific Isaac Asimov, whose tales have delighted countless fans for over half a century--a must for every science fiction bookshelf.

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Free Download | Dandelion Wine (Earthlight) | Ray Bradbury Novel

World-renowned fantasist Ray Bradbury has on several occasions stepped outside the arenas of horror, fantasy, and science fiction. An unabashed romantic, his first novel in 1957 was basically a love letter to his childhood. (For those who want to undertake an even more evocative look at the dark side of youth, five years later the author would write the chilling classic Something Wicked This Way Comes.) Dandelion Wine takes us into the summer of 1928, and to all the wondrous and magical events in the life of a 12-year-old Midwestern boy named Douglas Spaulding. This tender, openly affectionate story of a young man's voyage of discovery is certainly more mainstream than exotic. No walking dead or spaceships to Mars here. Yet those who wish to experience the unique magic of early Bradbury as a prose stylist should find Dandelion Wine most refreshing.

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Free Download | A Graveyard for Lunatics - Another Tale of Two Cities | Ray Bradbury Novel

Bradbury, no stranger to the land of the fantastic, takes us to the bizarre world of Hollywood and its myriad movie sets in A Graveyard for Lunatics. Bradbury writing about the fantasy world of Hollywood is a very natural coupling, and gives Bradbury an amazing canvas unto which he can paint his complex, interesting characters. There is a constant battle for attention between the place and the characters, a tension that helps rather than hinders the story. The plotting is not Bradbury's best. The central mystery of the novel is rather translucent. However this is more than made up for by Bradbury's lyrical writing, his characterization, and the magic that runs like an electrical pulse through the novel. If this is your first foray into Bradbury's work, I would recommend you read The Martian Chronicles or Farenheit 451 or The Illustrated Man instead. If you know and love Bradbury, dive right in.

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Free Download | Cities In Flight (Gollancz S.F.) | James Blish Novel

I first read "Cities in Flight" back in the 70s. I agree with some of the other reviewers that the plot, characterization, and consistency of the novels was flawed--so I won't rehash those points here. Despite this, I thought Blish came up with a rather novel and breathtaking vision of the future. I was also struck by the political forces that created the Okie culture. Specifically, I was intrigued by the idea that the pressures of the Cold War was slowly forcing the US to become as totalitarian as the Soviet Union. This political transformation would serve as a prelude to the creation of a world-wide, Bureaucratic (socialist) state. According to Blish, this global entity resulted in repression and permanent economic depression. The only way to gain freedom was to use spaceflight to leave Earth behind. As a result, the State deemed spaceflight technology because it provided an escape route. Despite these restrictions, the technology was rediscovered and whole cities took the opportunity to literally lift off into space. Eventually, this trend caused the Bureaucratic State to collapse of its own weight. With the Soviet's losing the Cold War and democracy breaking out all over in the 80s & 90s, it seemed like Blish's political predictions would remain in the realm of fiction.

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Free Download | Odyssey Science Fiction | Keith Laumer Novel

This collection includes some of Laumer's best work. If you like space opera in the "down-and-out earth guy kicks galactic but" vein, you'll love Galactic Odyssey.Other selections include the Twilight Zone-like "A Trip to the City", the Bolo story "Combat Unit", the awesome time travel paradox novel "Dinosaur Beach", and a couple of others that are incredibly enjoyable but less easily categorized. "Once There Was a Giant" is one of the most powerful fiction pieces I've ever read, and it never fails to choke me up. But I'm a softy. If you like good SF (and who doesn't?) you'll enjoy this collection. Thanks to Baen for bringing Laumer back into print!When I first read this book about 40 years ago I remember thinking that no government could be so spineless. Today when I see the way politicans are acting it is enough to make me wonder if Keith Laumer had a crystal ball or just a lot of experience with governments. I enjoyed this book immenselly when I was 16 and enjoyed re-reading it today. The adventures of Billy Danger as he wonders thru the Galaxy are fun reading.

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Free Download | Tau Zero | Poul Anderson Novel

This is a quite good novel dealing with a hard science fiction situation and handling the characters' reactions to said situation. As summarized elsewhere, a crew sets out on a spaceship to another star and likely habitable planet. They need to reach a significant fraction of the speed of light to do so, and on the way they suffer an accident that prevents them from decelerating. Due to their speed, time moves faster in the universe than it does for them, and how they attempt to save the situation and cope with the psychological issues is well done. Anderson manages the unusual for me, in that I felt as though I were on the ship itself, and went through the ups and downs emotionally as the crew did. There are some poignant moments, exceptional writing, and awe inspiring imagery. I also found some of the technology to be interesting in that it seems just as likely today as it did when the book was written: specifically the 'Dream Chambers' (or whatever they were called, I forget) which provide the viewer with alternate realities as psychotherapy/recreation.

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Free Download | 24 Declassified: Vanishing Point | Marc Cerasini Novel

Area 51: America's top-secret advanced military testing ground, hidden away in the Nevada desert, where the awesome weapons of tomorrow are being developed. But a mole inside the impregnable facility has been leaking highly advanced killing technology to America's worst enemies . . . who intend to turn its destructive power on an unsuspecting nation before the day is out. Agent Jack Bauer has a mere twenty-four hours to derail a horrific plot, as a deadly endgame takes shape in the neon glare of nearby Las Vegas. But to do so, the rogue CTU operative will have to lead an impossible assault on Area 51 itself—and expose a lethal string of betrayal and corruption that leads from the terrorists to the underworld and all the way into the heart of the U.S. government.

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Free Download | O'Hara's Choice | Leon Uris Novel

After the Civil War, stalwart warriors struggle to keep the Marine Corps alive. Their one hope may lie in Zachary O'Hara, the son of their hero, Paddy. But Zachary is haunted by a secret - one that may force him to choose between a career in the Corps or a life with a woman who fulfils his desires. You can't tell a book by its cover. The synopsis sounded good and the book started out in grand epic style by introducing a host of characters. The interest stopped there. The characters were undeveloped and the lapses in time were confusing. Dialogue was stilted and love scenes were sappy. There did not seem to be much craft used in developing the plot. It appeared that the author had done his historical research and then needed to share that learning through the dialogue of his characters. Writing in hindsight the author had material the characters would never have known. Nevertheless, the information was inelegantly expressed through the words of the speakers who sounded too prophetic and preachy to be real. I did learn something of the origins of the Marines but the price of the knowledge was too high. Don't bother.

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Free Download | Homeplace | Anne Rivers Siddons Novel

Free Download | Homeplace | Anne Rivers Siddons Novel | After twenty-one years Micah (Mike) Win ship is making the big move--she's going home for a visit. She hasn't been back since 1963, when her father threw her out, but now he is dying and asking for her. And although she is armed with her successful journalism career and the strength found after her divorce, she is nearing forty and her sophisticated urban lifestyle is falling apart. Heading home, Mike is unprepared for a past that has lain in wait for her--one that includes an old love, a spoiled sister, and a plot to seize her family's land. And in trying to understand her long-forgotten self, she learns at last those lessons best learned early about love and loss, family and forgiveness, and the undeniable need for a place called home.

This one is about Micah Win ship Singer also known as Mike. She was born and her birth killed her mother, her father's one and only true love. She grows up in a house filled with silence and anger and mothered by her oldest sister, Dee Dee. After an angry confrontation with her father, Mike packs up and runs away from home. She manages to stay away for 22 years till her sister calls begging her to come home and help with their father, who is dying.

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Free Download | The Miracles of Prato | Laurie Albanese, Laura Morowitz

Italy, 1456. The Renaissance is in glorious bloom, an age of unbridled creativity, commerce, art, and innovation. One of the most colorful men of this astonishing time is Fra Filippo Lippi, equally revered as a painter and reviled as a rogue. A great artist, he serves Cosimo de' Medici and the Catholic Church, creating masterpieces in celebration of God and His glory. A Carmelite monk, he acts as chaplain to the nuns of the Convent Santa Margherita—and it is here, behind the cloister walls, that he encounters the greatest temptation of his life. Penniless and beautiful, young Lucrezia Buti has been driven to Santa Margherita more by poverty than piety. Mesmerized by Lucrezia's flawless features, Lippi sees in her face the inspiration for countless Madonnas. With the help of his powerful friends and an unscrupulous prioress, he draws upon favors that will lead to dangerous consequences, and brings the young woman to his studio to serve as his model.

Painter and muse are soon united in an exhilarating whirl of artistic discovery. As weeks and months pass, a passionate love develops between the irascible artist and the young nun, resulting in a scandalous romance that threatens to destroy them even as it fuels some of Lippi's greatest work. Their affair sparks anger, envy, and vengeance . . . and it will take a miracle of undying faith, unsurpassed beauty, and unfathomable love to save all that Lippi and Lucrezia cherish. A gorgeous novel that brings together real and imagined characters from Italy's rich history, The Miracles of Prato is a moving and unforgettable tale of desire and devotion, both sensual and spiritual, set in an extraordinary time and place when beauty, faith, and art were celebrated above all.

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Free Download | Wild Heart: A Life: Natalie Clifford Barney and the Decadence of Literary Paris | Suzanne Rodriguez

Born in 1876, Natalie Barney -- beautiful, charismatic, brilliant, and wealthy -- was expected to marry well and lead the conventional life of a privileged society woman. But Natalie had no interest in marriage and made no secret of the fact that she was attracted to women. Brought up by a talented and rebellious mother -- the painter Alice Pike Barney -- Natalie cultivated an interest in poetry and the arts. When she moved to Paris in the early 1900s, she plunged into the city's literary scene, opening a famed Left Bank literary salon and engaging in a string of scandalous affairs. For the rest of her long and controversial life, Natalie Barney was revered by writers for her generous, eccentric spirit and reviled by high society for her sexual appetite. In the end, she served as an inspiration and came to know many of the greatest names of twentieth-century arts and letters -- including Marcel Proust, Colette, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Isadora Duncan, Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, and Truman Capote.

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Free Download | Wild Ginger | Anchee Min Novel

At once a coming-of-age tale and a heart-rending love story, Wild Ginger explores the devastating experience of the Cultural Revolution, which defined Anchee Min’s youth. The beautiful, iron-willed Wild Ginger is only in elementary school when she is singled out by the Red Guards for her foreign-colored eyes.” Her classmate Maple is also a target of persecution.

The novel chronicles the two girls’ maturing in Shanghai in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when Chairman Mao ruled absolutely and his followers took up arms in his name. Wild Ginger grows up to become a model Maoist, but her love for a man soon places her in an untenable position and ultimately in mortal danger.

This slim and powerful novel examines the fragile sensibilities and emotions of an entire generation of Chinese youth” (Washington Post) and brilliantly delineates the psychological and sexual perversion of those times.

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Free Download | Foreign Affairs | Alison Lurie Novel

Virginia Miner, a fifty-something, unmarried tenured professor, is in London to work on her new book about children’s folk rhymes. Despite carrying a U.S. passport, Vinnie feels essentially English and rather looks down on her fellow Americans. But in spite of that, she is drawn into a mortifying and oddly satisfying affair with an Oklahoman tourist who dresses more Bronco Billy than Beau Brummel.Also in London is Vinnie’s colleague Fred Turner, a handsome, flat broke, newly separated, and thoroughly miserable young man trying to focus on his own research. Instead, he is distracted by a beautiful and unpredictable English actress and the world she belongs to. Both American, both abroad, and both achingly lonely, Vinnie and Fred play out their confused alienation and dizzying romantic liaisons in Alison Lurie’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel.

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Free Download | Out of Range (A Joe Pickett Novel) | C. J. Box Novel

Mr. Box knows how to construct a great story. In this book, Joe Pickett is uprooted from his normal setting and forced to go fill in for a ranger in upscale Jackson Hole, Wyoming. His predecessor committed suicide, and Pickett soon finds himself drawn into a web of intrigue that surrounds an exclusive land development. Animal rights activists, unethical hunters, and a seductress also bedevil the stalwart ranger. The characters are drawn with intelligence and sensitivity, the plot moves at a ripping pace, and the story has actual meat on it. This is the second Joe Pickett novel that I've read, along with "Trophy Hunt." From these reads, I've learned that Mr. Box likes to end his stories with an O. Henry, "Tales of the Unexpected" twist. Obviously most readers love this, given the success of the series. For me it destroys the reality that this fine author has spent a couple hundred pages constructing. I wished the realness of Joe's world could have lasted through the last 10 pages of the book. With that reservation, a skillfully written and enjoyable read. Reviewer: Elizabeth Clare, co-author of the historical novel "To the Ends of the Earth: The Last Journey of Lewis & Clark"

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Free Download | The Game (Mary Russell Novel) | Laurie R. King Novel

Laurie R. King’s bestselling mystery series featuring Mary Russell and her husband and partner, Sherlock Holmes, is beloved by readers and acclaimed by critics the world over. Now the illustrious duo returns for their most dangerous exploit yet, in a rich and atmospheric tale that takes them to India to save the life of one of literature’s most fabled heroes. It’s the second day of the new year, 1924, and Mary Russell is settling in for a much-needed rest with her husband, Sherlock Holmes. But the fragile peace will be fleeting—for a visit with Holmes’s gravely ill brother, Mycroft, brings news of an intrigue that is sure to halt their respite. Mycroft, who has ties to the highest levels of the government, has just received a strange package. The oilskin-wrapped packet contains the papers of a missing English spy named Kimball O’Hara—indeed, the same Kimball who served as the inspiration for Rudyard Kipling’s famed Kim. An orphaned English boy turned loose in India, Kim long used his cunning to spy for the Crown. But after inexplicably withdrawing from the “Great Game” of border espionage, he’s gone missing and is feared taken hostage—or even killed.

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Free Download | My Antonia (Barnes & Noble Classics) | Willa Cather, Gordon Tapper

My Antonia,by Willa Cather, is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of Barnes & Noble Classics: All editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest.Barnes & Noble Classics pulls together a constellation of influences--biographical, historical, and literary--to enrich each reader's understanding of these enduring works. "No romantic novel ever written in America . . . is one half so beautiful asMy Antonia."--H. L. MenckenWidely recognized asWilla Cather's greatest novel,My Antoniais a soulful and rich portrait of a pioneer woman's simple yet heroic life. The spirited daughter of Bohemian immigrants, Antonia must adapt to a hard existence on the desolate prairies of the Midwest. Enduring childhood poverty, teenage seduction, and family tragedy, she eventually becomes a wife and mother on a Nebraska farm. A fictional record of how women helped forge the communities that formed a nation,My Antoniais also a hauntingly eloquent celebration of the strength, courage, and spirit of America's early pioneers. Gordon Tapperis Assistant Professor of English at DePauw University. He is the author ofThe Machine That Sings: Modernism, Hart Crane, and the Culture of the Body, from Routledge.

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Free Download | Cleopatra 7.2 | Elizabeth Ann Scarborough Novel

Archeologist Leda Hubbard and her unlikely companion, Cleopatra (yes, that Cleopatra, the product of an experimental procedure "blending" the dead queen's DNA with Leda's), have become partners in Scarborough's cheerful sequel to Channeling Cleopatra (2002), despite Leda's "low birth" and Cleo's tendency to plot the murder of every potential rival. Leda and the scientists behind the discovery of blending find themselves dumped by Nucor Helix, the company that owns the technology, just as fellow archeologist Dr. Gabriella Faruk blends her DNA with another sample of Cleopatra's DNA to create a second modern-day Cleopatra to assist in translating the scrolls and papyri from Cleo's tomb. Both Cleos want Egypt to regain its former wealth and glory, and urge Leda to resurrect Marc Antony, using a lock of his hair in a locket interred with Cleo's mummy. Meanwhile, Helix has other plans, which include licensing the blending technique to anyone willing to pay. Scarborough keeps the story moving at a breathless pace through the distinctive voices of Leda and her Cleopatra. With its humorous tone and optimistic heroines and heroes, this science fantasy should appeal to fans of Anne McCaffrey and Mercedes Lackey.

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Free Download | The Five People You Meet in Heaven | Mitch Albom Novel

Part melodrama and part parable, Mitch Albom's The Five People You Meet in Heaven weaves together three stories, all told about the same man: 83-year-old Eddie, the head maintenance person at Ruby Point Amusement Park. As the novel opens, readers are told that Eddie, unsuspecting, is only minutes away from death as he goes about his typical business at the park. Albom then traces Eddie's world through his tragic final moments, his funeral, and the ensuing days as friends clean out his apartment and adjust to life without him. In alternating sections, Albom flashes back to Eddie's birthdays, telling his life story as a kind of progress report over candles and cake each year. And in the third and last thread of the novel, Albom follows Eddie into heaven where the maintenance man sequentially encounters five pivotal figures from his life (a la A Christmas Carol). Each person has been waiting for him in heaven, and, as Albom reveals, each life (and death) was woven into Eddie's own in ways he never suspected. Each soul has a story to tell, a secret to reveal, and a lesson to share. Through them Eddie understands the meaning of his own life even as his arrival brings closure to theirs.

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Free Download | To Defy a King | Elizabeth Chadwick Novel

A story of huge emotional power set against the road to Magna Carta and the fight to bring a tyrant king to heel.The privileged daughter of one of the most powerful men in England, Mahelt Marshal-s life changes dramatically when her father is suspected by King John. Her brothers become hostages and Mahelt is married to Hugh Bigod, heir to the earldom of Norfolk. Adapting to her new life is hard, but Mahelt comes to love Hugh deeply; however, defying her father-in-law brings disgrace and heartbreak. When King John sets out to subdue the Bigods, Mahelt faces a heartbreaking battle, fearing neither she, nor her marriage, is likely to survive the outcome .

I do love Elizabeth Chadwick's novels; her writing really takes her reader back in time. But for some reason, I just didn't love this one quite as much. Maybe because there's so much less known about Mahelt than about her father, her character seems a lot sketchier here. Still, I thought Chadwick did a wonderful job of trying to ring her and Hugh to life. Hahelt matures as a character, but it's too abrupt; at one point she's running off to meet her brother in secret, the next she's a responsible young chatelaine. Maybe having children made her more mature and responsible, but it happened too suddenly for me.

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Free Download | Sprawl: A Compact History | Robert Bruegmann Story

As anyone who has flown into Los Angeles at dusk or Houston at midday knows, urban areas today defy traditional notions of what a city is. Our old definitions of urban, suburban, and rural fail to capture the complexity of these vast regions with their superhighways, subdivisions, industrial areas, office parks, and resort areas pushing far out into the countryside. Detractors call it sprawl and assert that it is economically inefficient, socially inequitable, environmentally irresponsible, and aesthetically ugly. Robert Bruegmann calls it a logical consequence of economic growth and the democratization of society, with benefits that urban planners have failed to recognize.

In his incisive history of the expanded city, Bruegmann overturns every assumption we have about sprawl. Taking a long view of urban development, he demonstrates that sprawl is neither recent nor particularly American but as old as cities themselves, just as characteristic of ancient Rome and eighteenth-century Paris as it is of Atlanta or Los Angeles. Nor is sprawl the disaster claimed by many contemporary observers. Although sprawl, like any settlement pattern, has undoubtedly produced problems that must be addressed, it has also provided millions of people with the kinds of mobility, privacy, and choice that were once the exclusive prerogatives of the rich and powerful.

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Free Download | Every Day in Tuscany: Seasons of an Italian Life | Frances Mayes Novel

"The Bard of Tuscany" (New York Times) is back and better than ever. Two decades have passed since the purchase of Bramasole, Frances Mayes’s first Italian adventure into the meaning of home, made famous in Under the Tuscan Sun and Bella Tuscany. In Every Day in Tuscany, her third beautifully rendered memoir, Mayes generously serves up another delicious helping. She continues to contemplate the satisfaction of a life created by one’s own hard work, but also celebrates the joys of the piazza, reminisces on her South Georgia roots, reveals her love of architecture and painting, and is especially hungry to follow the trail (which she has generously mapped out for us) of Renaissance painter Luca Signorelli.

After transforming Bramasole, you’d think that Mayes would have had enough of repairs and renovations, but she expands the idea of belonging with the purchase of a mountainside cottage. One day, as she and husband, Ed, are picking blackberries on a rugged slope above Cortona, Mayes writes of being "fatally attracted" to a "lonesome beauty," a partially collapsed stone-roof cottage. This new home becomes a place of comfort, especially when something shifts, when "one glorious summer evening at Bramasole," Mayes writes, "something unexpected intruded on this paradise."

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Free Download | The Seamstress | Frances De Pontes Peebles Novel

As seamstresses, the young sisters EmÍlia and Luzia dos Santos know how to cut, mend, and conceal—useful skills in the lawless backcountry of Brazil, where ruthless land barons feud with bands of outlaw cangaceiros, trapping innocent residents in the crossfire. EmÍlia, a naive romantic, dreams of falling in love with a gentleman and escaping to a big city. Quick-tempered Luzia also longs for escape, finding it in her craft and secret prayers to the saints she believes once saved her life. But when Luzia is abducted by cangaceiros led by the infamous Hawk and EmÍlia stumbles into a marriage with the son of a wealthy and politically powerful doctor, the sisters' quiet lives diverge in ways they never would have imagined. This book has all the qualities I love to read-fiction and yet there is a historical accurateness to it.I compare it to Water for Elephants, the author takes us on a journey to Brazil, just before WWII. Prior to reading this book, I knew very little about the history of Brazil. Now I feel like I have been there. I must say, however, that the brutality and the gore could have been left out.After reading about the behaviors of the bandits in close detail, there were times when I needed to skim over parts, to avoid becoming sickened.I feel it is disturbing that the need for shocking the reader has become a part of literature, even though implied torture would have worked out just as well for me.

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Free Download | Tails of Wonder and Imagination | Ellen Datlow Novel

From legendary editor Ellen Datlow, Tails of Wonder collects the best of the last thirty years of science fiction and fantasy stories about cats from an all-star list of contributors. The Stephen King Story is UNCOLLECTED, and has not been in print since the Horrorstory III anthology.

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Free Download | The Big Bamboo | Tim Dorsey Novel

A vacation isn't a vacation without bringing Serge Storms along. Tim Dorsey's The Big Bamboo is a novel that continues the lively Florida-centric antics of your favorite serial killer, Serge, and his always intoxicated sidekick, Coleman. While Dorsey usually keeps Serge in Florida, in this installment, he makes his way to Hollywood, with the usual hilarious results. Serge has gotten it into his head that Florida needs to retake the movie making crown from Hollywood, and attempts to write a screenplay that will once again make Florida the center of the movie industry. But the screenplay is a work in progress, as Serge continues to revise it to match his adventure, or the novel changes to match Serge's screenplay. I am not sure which. As Serge is writing, and rewriting, his screenplay, he finds time to get himself mixed up with an unscrupulous nursing home owner, Japanese mafia, "redneck" mafia, a group of retirees running a scam, his grandfather (not quite as "eccentric" as Serge), and a couple of Hollywood movie makers. As with all of Serge's adventures, this one does not lack for characters or laughs.

This novel takes Serge out of his precious Florida, and with that, it seems that a little something was missing. And yet, it was an extremely enjoyable read. While most of the people with whom Serge interacts never know quite what to expect, putting him in Hollywood gives Dorsey ample opportunity to raise the bar, adding unique California characters and situations. Further, readers familiar with Serge, know that he can't sit still long. Placing him on an airplane for the trip to California was one of the highlights of the book. You may think that you have had bad flights, but they will pale in comparison to one described in the book. Finally, Dorsey pulls all of the characters together in an excellent climax, one that may require you to reread, as so many things occur, with great effect. Unusual in that the action does not occur exclusively in Florida, The Big Bamboo is a very good addition to the Serge Storms novels.

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Free Download | A Fierce Radiance | Lauren Belfer Novel

Claire Shipley is a single mother haunted by the death of her young daughter and by her divorce years ago. She is also an ambitious photojournalist, and in the anxious days after Pearl Harbor, the talented Life magazine reporter finds herself on top of one of the nation's most important stories. In the bustling labs of New York City's renowned Rockefeller Institute, some of the country's brightest doctors and researchers are racing to find a cure that will save the lives of thousands of wounded American soldiers and countless others—a miraculous new drug they call penicillin. Little does Claire suspect how much the story will change her own life when the work leads to an intriguing romance.

Though Claire has always managed to keep herself separate from the subjects she covers, this story touches her deeply, stirring memories of her daughter's sudden illness and death—a loss that might have been prevented by this new "miracle drug." And there is James Stanton, the shy and brilliant physician who coordinates the institute's top secret research for the military. Drawn to this dedicated, attractive man and his work, Claire unexpectedly finds herself falling in love. But Claire isn't the only one interested in the secret development of this medicine. Her long-estranged father, Edward Rutherford, a self-made millionaire, understands just how profitable a new drug like penicillin could be. When a researcher at the institute dies under suspicious circumstances, the stakes become starkly clear: a murder has been committed to obtain these lucrative new drugs. With lives and a new love hanging in the balance, Claire will put herself at the center of danger to find a killer—no matter what price she may have to pay.

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Free Download | Mother of the Believers: A Novel of the Birth of Islam | Kamran Pasha Novel

Deep in the heart of seventh-century Arabia, a new prophet named Muhammad has arisen. As his message of enlightenment sweeps through Arabia and unifies the warring tribes, his young wife Aisha recounts Muhammad's astonishing transformation from prophet to warrior to statesman. But just after the moment of her husband's greatest triumph -- the conquest of the holy city of Mecca -- Muhammad falls ill and dies in Aisha's arms. A young widow, Aisha finds herself at the center of the new Muslim empire and becomes by turns a teacher, political leader, and warrior. Written in beautiful prose and meticulously researched, Mother of the Believer is the story of an extraordinary woman who was destined to help usher Islam into the world. What a wonderful book.This is the story about the prophet Mohammad as told through the eyes of his second wife Aisha.The story spans over a 65 year period in which you as the reader are transformed back to the year 613AD.In this book you will see the beginning of the birth of a man who will change the world.War,love,diplomecy,courage,betrayl,compassion and much much more are all a turn of the page away.I stood up late every night until I finished this book (there aren't any slow parts it's all good).Also I want to thank you Karman for letting me see another side of the Muslim religon ....P.S. Faith is dynamite !!

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Free Download | The company | Robert Littell Novel

The historical events of that crucial period are well known to most of us. The end of World War II and the division of Germany into sectors by the Allies laid the groundwork for the Cold War and the rise of the OSS, a wartime branch of the American government, into one of the most powerful tools of intelligence. The involvement of that agency in the defection of Burgess and MacLean from Britain to the Soviet Union; the Suez Canal crisis, which ended Britain's role as a superpower; the Bay of Pigs fiasco and the Cuban Missile Crisis; the arming of rebels in Afghanistan to repel the encroaching Soviet forces; the Gulf War--all are well documented here. All these events, which had such major consequences for our own history and that of the world, were well known to, organized by, or played out with the full cooperation of the CIA. These, as well as such minor events as defections on both sides, are the backdrop to this novel which stars a large cast of characters who we get to know as young men and women recruited while still in college. Their personal and public lives are followed as they rise through the ranks of the Company, and we know that one of them is a mole. We don't know who it is any more than the CIA does, and it will take years to unmask the traitor. In the meantime, we have become involved not only with Littell's fictional characters, but also with some of the real people who inhabited that world: William F. Buckley Jr., G. Gordon Liddy, William Casey--and we are privy to conversations in both the Kennedy and Reagan Oval Offices. We also know by the end of this exciting story that the fight is not always the good fight. Compromises are made, mistakes happen, and pragmatism wins out over idealism. We do not live in a perfect world, but it's the only one we have and it is that way because of the events in this book. Don't let its size deter you. This is nothing less than a stunning historical document.

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Download : Island Beneath the Sea by Isabel Allende Novel

Island Beneath the Sea 1st

Born a slave on the island of Saint-Domingue, Zarité -- known as Tété -- is the daughter of an African mother she never knew and one of the white sailors who brought her into bondage. Though her childhood is one of brutality and fear, Tété finds solace in the traditional rhythms of African drums and in the voodoo loas she discovers through her fellow slaves.

When twenty-year-old Toulouse Valmorain arrives on the island in 1770, it's with powdered wigs in his baggage and dreams of financial success in his mind. But running his father's plantation, Saint Lazare, is neither glamorous nor easy. It will be eight years before he brings home a bride -- but marriage, too, proves more difficult than he imagined. And Valmorain remains dependent on the services of his teenaged slave.

Spanning four decades, Island Beneath the Sea is the moving story of the intertwined lives of Tété and Valmorain, and of one woman's determination to find love amid loss, to offer humanity though her own has been battered, and to forge her own identity in the cruelest of circumstances.

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Download : The Girl Who Chased the Moon | Sarah Addison Allen Novel

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In her latest enchanting novel, New York Times bestselling author Sarah Addison Allen invites you to a quirky little Southern town with more magic than a full Carolina moon. Here two very different women discover how to find their place in the world—no matter how out of place they feel.

Emily Benedict came to Mullaby, North Carolina, hoping to solve at least some of the riddles surrounding her mother’s life. Such as, why did Dulcie Shelby leave her hometown so suddenly? And why did she vow never to return? But the moment Emily enters the house where her mother grew up and meets the grandfather she never knew—a reclusive, real-life gentle giant—she realizes that mysteries aren’t solved in Mullaby, they’re a way of life: Here are rooms where the wallpaper changes to suit your mood. Unexplained lights skip across the yard at midnight. And a neighbor bakes hope in the form of cakes.

Everyone in Mullaby adores Julia Winterson’s cakes—which is a good thing, because Julia can’t seem to stop baking them. She offers them to satisfy the town’s sweet tooth but also in the hope of rekindling the love she fears might be lost forever. Flour, eggs, milk, and sugar . . . Baking is the only language the proud but vulnerable Julia has to communicate what is truly in her heart. But is it enough to call back to her those she’s hurt in the past? Can a hummingbird cake really bring back a lost love? Is there really a ghost dancing in Emily’s backyard? The answers are never what you expect. But in this town of lovable misfits, the unexpected fits right in.

Download : The Girl Who Chased the Moon | Sarah Addison Allen Novel

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Free Download | The Tiger's Wife | Tea Obreht Novel

Weaving a brilliant latticework of family legend, loss, and love, Téa Obreht, the youngest of The New Yorker’s twenty best American fiction writers under forty, has spun a timeless novel that will establish her as one of the most vibrant, original authors of her generation.In a Balkan country mending from years of conflict, Natalia, a young doctor, arrives on a mission of mercy at an orphanage by the sea. By the time she and her lifelong friend Zóra begin to inoculate the children there, she feels age-old superstitions and secrets gathering everywhere around her. Secrets her outwardly cheerful hosts have chosen not to tell her. Secrets involving the strange family digging for something in the surrounding vineyards. Secrets hidden in the landscape itself.But Natalia is also confronting a private, hurtful mystery of her own: the inexplicable circumstances surrounding her beloved grandfather’s recent death. After telling her grandmother that he was on his way to meet Natalia, he instead set off for a ramshackle settlement none of their family had ever heard of and died there alone. A famed physician, her grandfather must have known that he was too ill to travel.

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Free Download | The Truth of Valor | Tanya Huff Novel

The "rousing military adventure"(Locus) continues with a brand-new Valor novel. Former Marine Gunnery Sergeant Torin Kerr is attempting to build a new life with salvage operator Craig Ryder on his ship, the Promise. Turns out civilian life is a lot rougher than she'd imagined-salvage operators are losing both cargo and lives to pirates. And when they attack the Promise, Craig is taken prisoner and Torin is left for dead. When Torin finds out why the pirates needed Craig, she calls in the Marines to get him back-and to stop the pirates from changing the balance of power in known space.

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Free Download | The Paris Wife | Paula McLain Novel

Paula McLain on The Paris Wife Most of us know or think we know who Ernest Hemingway was -- a brilliant writer full of macho swagger, driven to take on huge feats of bravery and a pitcher or two of martinis -- before lunch. But beneath this man or myth, or some combination of the two, is another Hemingway, one we’ve never seen before. Hadley Richardson, Hemingway’s first wife, is the perfect person to reveal him to us -- and also to immerse us in the incredibly exciting and volatile world of Jazz-age Paris. The idea to write in Hadley’s voice came to me as I was reading Hemingway’s memoir, A Moveable Feast, about his early years in Paris. In the final pages, he writes of Hadley, “I wished I had died before I ever loved anyone but her.” That line, and his portrayal of their marriage -- so tender and poignant and steeped in regret -- inspired me to search out biographies of Hadley, and then to research their brief and intense courtship and letters -- they wrote hundreds and hundreds of pages of delicious pages to another! I couldn’t help but fall in love with Hadley, and through her eyes, with the young Ernest Hemingway. He was just twenty when they met, handsome and magnetic, passionate and sensitive and full of dreams. I was surprised at how much I liked and admired him -- and before I knew it, I was entirely swept away by their gripping love story. I hope you will be as captivated by this remarkable couple as I am -- and by the fascinating world of Paris in the 20’s, the fast-living, ardent and tremendously driven Lost Generation. A Look Inside The Paris Wife Ernest and Hadley Hemingway, Chamby, Switzerland, winter 1922 Ernest and Hadley Hemingway on their wedding day, 1921 Ernest, Hadley, and Bumby, Schruns, Austria, 1925 The Hemingways and friends at a cafe in Pamplona, Spain.

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Free Download | The Lady Elizabeth | Alison Weir Novel

Following the tremendous success of her first novel, Innocent Traitor, which recounted the riveting tale of the doomed Lady Jane Grey, acclaimed historian and New York Times bestselling author Alison Weir turns her masterly storytelling skills to the early life of young Elizabeth Tudor, who would grow up to become England’s most intriguing and powerful queen.Even at age two, Elizabeth is keenly aware that people in the court of her father, King Henry VIII, have stopped referring to her as “Lady Princess” and now call her “the Lady Elizabeth.”

Before she is three, she learns of the tragic fate that has befallen her mother, the enigmatic and seductive Anne Boleyn, and that she herself has been declared illegitimate, an injustice that will haunt her. What comes next is a succession of stepmothers, bringing with them glimpses of love, fleeting security, tempestuous conflict, and tragedy.

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Free Download | The Lost Symbol: Special Illustrated Edition | Dan Brown Novel

The most explosive bestseller of 2009 . . . Over 5 million copies sold . . . Now available in a beautifully illustrated gift edition just in time for the holidays! Dan Brown’s record-breaking novel The Lost Symbol weaves a breathtaking trail through the hidden artwork, chambers, tunnels, and temples of our nation’s capital. Now the fascinating visuals appear right before your eyes, making for a sumptuous reading experience that brings alive Robert Langdon’s heart-stopping race through a little-known Washington, D.C. Revealing a world of ancient mysteries, stunning history, and secret societies, this Special Illustrated Edition unveils a whole new level of intrigue and fascination within The Lost Symbol. Over one hundred full-color images are featured throughout this lavishly illustrated gift edition—an essential companion to the original. WHAT WAS LOST WILL BE FOUND...Washington DC: Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is summoned at the last minute to deliver an evening lecture in the Capitol Building. Within moments of his arrival, however, a disturbing object - gruesomely encoded with five symbols - is discovered at the epicentre of the Rotunda. It is, he recognises, an ancient invitation, meant to beckon its recipient towards a long-lost world of hidden esoteric wisdom. When Langdon's revered mentor, Peter Solomon - philanthropist and prominent mason - is brutally kidnapped, Langdon realizes that his only hope of saving his friend's life is to accept this mysterious summons and follow wherever it leads him. Langdon finds himself quickly swept behind the facade of America's most historic city into the unseen chambers, temples and tunnels which exist there. All that was familiar is transformed into a shadowy, clandestine world of an artfully concealed past in which Masonic secrets and never-before-seen revelations seem to be leading him to a single impossible and inconceivable truth. A brilliantly composed tapestry of veiled histories, arcane icons and enigmatic codes, The Lost Symbol is an intelligent, lightning-paced thriller that offers surprises at every turn. For, as Robert Langdon will discover, there is nothing more extraordinary or shocking than the secret which hides in plain sight...

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