The Drama Queen Is A Bookworm

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

2009-12-11T22:43:00.001+08:00

Four mysterious letters change Miranda's world forever.

By sixth grade, Miranda and her best friend, Sal, know how to navigate their New York City neighborhood. They know where it's safe to go, like the local grocery store, and they know whom to avoid, like the crazy guy on the corner.

But things start to unravel. Sal gets punched by a new kid for what seems like no reason, and he shuts Miranda out of his life. The apartment key that Miranda's mom keeps hidden for emergencies is stolen. And then Miranda finds a mysterious note scrawled on a tiny slip of paper:

I am coming to save your friend's life, and my own.
I must ask two favors. First, you must write me a letter.

The notes keep coming, and Miranda slowly realizes that whoever is leaving them knows all about her, including things that have not even happened yet. Each message brings her closer to believing that only she can prevent a tragic death. Until the final note makes her think she's too late.

Read "WHEN YOU REACH ME" here

Prophecy of the Sisters by Michelle Zink

2009-12-11T22:40:00.000+08:00

An ancient prophecy divides two sisters-

One good...

One evil...

Who will prevail?

Twin sisters Lia and Alice Milthorpe have just become orphans. They have also become enemies. As they discover their roles in a prophecy that has turned generations of sisters against each other, the girls find themselves entangled in a mystery that involves a tattoo-like mark, their parents' deaths, a boy, a book, and a lifetime of secrets.

Lia and Alice don't know whom they can trust.

They just know they can't trust each other.

Debut novelist Michelle Zink takes readers on an unforgettable journey where one sister's fateful decision could have an impact of Biblical proportion.

Read "PROPHECY OF THE SISTERS " here

Dull Boy by Sarah Cross

2009-12-11T22:38:00.000+08:00

What do you do if you can deadlift a car, and you spend your nights flying to get away from it all? If you're fifteen-year-old Avery Pirzwick, you keep that information to yourself. When you're a former jock turned freak, you can't afford to let the secret slip.

But then Avery makes some friends who are as extraordinary as he is. He realizes they're more than just freaks - together, maybe they have a chance to be heroes. First, though, they have to decide whether to trust the mysterious Cherchette, a powerful wouldbe mentor whose remarkable generosity may come at a terrible price.

Read "DULL BOY" here

Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

2009-12-11T22:33:00.001+08:00

There were no surprises in Gatlin County.
We were pretty much the epicenter of the middle of nowhere.
At least, that's what I thought.
Turns out, I couldn't have been more wrong.
There was a curse.
There was a girl.
And in the end, there was a grave.

Lena Duchannes is unlike anyone the small Southern town of Gatlin has ever seen, and she's struggling to conceal her power and a curse that has haunted her family for generations. But even within the overgrown gardens, murky swamps and crumbling graveyards of the forgotten South, a secret cannot stay hidden forever.

Ethan Wate, who has been counting the months until he can escape from Gatlin, is haunted by dreams of a beautiful girl he has never met. When Lena moves into the town's oldest and most infamous plantation, Ethan is inexplicably drawn to her and determined to uncover the connection between them.

In a town with no surprises, one secret could change everything.

Read "BEAUTIFUL CREATURES" here

Save the Date by Tamara Summers

2009-11-03T20:52:00.000+08:00

Victoria Finnegan to marry Kevin Ork in the Rose Bower of Cynthia Flair Botanical Gardens
Sunday, June 17, 3 p.m.

Dress: very flowery.

Yay.

Paris Finnegan is marrying Jiro Kuan on the beach at Huntsville National Park
Saturday, August 11, 1 p.m.

Dress: Um . . . she's not really making me wear overalls, right???

Hideous bridesmaid dress fitting #6

Calm Victoria down

Try not to kill Paris

Try not to think about wedding planner's hot son

Do not date wedding planner's hot son

Stop kissing wedding planner's hot son!!!

Read "SAVE THE DATE" here

Once Was Lost

2009-11-01T19:42:00.000+08:00

Samara Taylor used to believe in miracles. She used to believe in a lot of things. As a pastor's kid, it's hard not to buy in to the idea of the perfect family, a loving God, and amazing grace. But lately, Sam has a lot of reason to doubt. Her mother lands in rehab after a DUI and her father seems more interested in his congregation than his family. When a young girl in her small town is kidnapped, the local tragedy overlaps with Sam's personal one, and the already-worn thread of faith holding her together begins to unravel.

Read "ONCE WAS LOST" here

Sweet Valley High Series by Francine Pascal

2009-10-11T13:56:00.001+08:00

Double Love
(The first book in the Sweet Valley High series)
(1983)

WELCOME TO SWEET Valley High—a world of good girls and bad girls, hot boys with fast cars, perfect tans and natural highlights . . . all under the Southern California sun.
Twin girls, identical in every way—yet they couldn’t be more different. Jessica Wakefield is used to getting what she wants—at school, with her friends, and especially with boys—and she’ll stop at nothing to get it. Elizabeth Wakefield is used to letting her twin sister have her way. There’s not much that’s worth fighting her over—lost earrings can be replaced, petty problems can be resolved, and rampant rumors can be doused like a fire. But when it comes to Todd Wilkins, Liz isn’t so sure she should step aside and make way for Jessica. This time, Jessica Wakefield is going to have some competition—from her own sister.

Read "DOUBLE LOVE" here

Secrets
(The second book in the Sweet Valley High series)
(1983)

WELCOME TO SWEET Valley High—a world of good girls with big secrets, bad girls with no remorse, rich boys in stunning tuxedos, and shimmering California sunsets.

Jessica Wakefield only wants two things: to be chosen homecoming queen, and to dance in the spotlight with Bruce Patman. But there’s one girl standing in her way—Enid Rollins, her twin sister Elizabeth’s best friend.

When Jessica discovers Enid’s deepest, darkest secret, she has a choice to make: be nice and keep quiet, or reveal it to the entire school and clinch the crown for herself.

The queen will be breathtaking. But the quest for royalty is never pretty.

Read "SECRETS" here

Playing With Fire

(The third book in the Sweet Valley High series)
(1983)

JESSICA WAKEFIELD DEMANDS attention in any crowd, from every boy. After obsessing over him for weeks, she finally lands the perfect guy: Bruce Patman. And she falls hard and fast. There’s nothing she won’t do for him. . . .But Elizabeth soon notices a change in her twin. Jessica’s usual charm,determination, and attitude are gone. She’s a ghost of her old self. And Liz wonders just how far her sister will go for love.

Read "PLAYING WITH FIRE" here

Power Play

(The fourth book in the Sweet Valley High series)
(1983)

JESSICA WAKEFIELD IS used to setting off sparks. But when she starts a new, highly selective club—the Sweet Valley High Beautification Committee—she begins a war with her twin sister.

Elizabeth knows that Jessica has more on her mind than simply cleaning up the SVH campus. It’s obvious that the Beauties are out to become the most elite group of girls at school, even if it means walking all over those they deem less worthy. Only one Wakefield can reign supreme. And Liz is determined to show Jessica that the final say on beauty won’t come from a committee vote.

Read "POWER PLAY" here

All Night Long

(The fifth book in the Sweet Valley High series)
(1983)

Jessica Wakefield has charmed many guys in her lifetime. But she’s never met a challenge like Scott Daniels. And she’s determined to prove that she may be a junior in high school, but not when it comes to love. But when Elizabeth discovers that Jessica never came home from an all-night party, she panics. There’s only one way out—for Liz to pretend to be her twin. But she has no idea what she is getting herself into.

Read "ALL NIGHT LONG" here

Dangerous Love

(The sixth book in the Sweet Valley High series)
(1983)

Elizabeth Wakefield has never had a problem with rules. But when Todd gets a new motorcycle, Liz is torn. Her parents have forbidden her from ever getting on a bike. But everyone else is ecstatic over Todd’s new ride—especially the girls. As her jealousy threatens to consume her, Liz has a big decision to make—either put her trust in Todd’s love, or break the rules and take the ride of her life.

Read "DANGEROUS LOVE" here

Dear Sister
(The seventh book in the Sweet Valley High series)
(1984)

Sweet Valley is stunned by the news: Beautiful young Elizabeth Wakefield lies in a coma, on the brink of death after a horrible motorcycle accident.

Elizabeth's boyfriend Todd is consumed by guilt; he was driving and escaped unharmed. He feels totally helpless. All he can do is wait for a change in Elizabeth's condition—a change that might mean the loss of the only girl he's ever loved.

But no one is more shattered than Elizabeth's twin, Jessica. As she keeps watch over the silent body of her sister, she's overwhelmed by despair. Without Elizabeth, can life go on?

Read "DEAR SISTER" here

Heartbreaker
(The eighth book in the Sweet Valley High series)
(1984)

Catch a wave.

The surf's up in Sweet Valley, and gorgeous Jessica Wakefield is making a big splash with Bill Chase, the hottest surfer in town. But after she tricks him into falling madly in love with her, she ignores him completely.

To complicate matters, shy, quiet DeeDee Gordon is also after Bill. But Jessica has the upper hand. If Bill even looks at DeeDee, Hurricane Jessica blows him off his board and back into her arms. Can Bill escape Jessica's undertow, or is he in over his head?

Read "HEARTBREAKER" here

Racing Hearts
(The ninth book in the Sweet Valley High series)
(1984)

Love on the run...

Roger Barrett has always had a hopeless crush on glamorous, wealthy Lila Fowler. The only attention Lila ever pays to him, though, is to make fun of him in front of her friends. But why shouldn't she, he thinks. After all, he's clumsy and shy and works secretly as a janitor after school.

When Roger wins the qualifying heat for a big race, he becomes a school celebrity overnight. And to his surprise, even Lila starts to chase after him. But Roger knows if he runs in the race finals, he'll lose his job. Will Lila still notice him when he's no longer a star?

Read "RACING HEARTS" here

Wrong Kind of Girl
(The tenth book in the Sweet Valley High series)
(1984)

Jessica's at it again!

Jessica Wakefield has sworn never to allow Annie Whitman onto the Sweet Valley High cheering squad. Annie may have the beauty, talent, and spirit to be a cheerleader, but she also has the worst reputation in school. She goes out with a different boy every night, and all the kids call her "Easy Annie" behind her back. Jessica's pulling every devilish trick to keep Annie from ruining the cheerleaders' image.

Only Elizabeth, Jessica's twin, knows what Annie's really like. But can she change her sister's mind before Jessica shatters Annie's dreams?

Read "WRONG KIND OF GIRL" here

Too Good To Be True
(Book 11 in the Sweet Valley High series)
(1984)

A devil in disguise.

The Wakefield twins are wild with excitement. Glamorous, sophisticated Susan Devlin is coming to Sweet Valley from New York City. For two weeks, Elizabeth will show her around town while Jessica has the time of her life in New York.

At first, Suzanne seems to be the most perfect girl in the world. She's beautiful and friendly and not the least bit stuck-up. All the boys of Sweet Valley are absolutely crazy about her. But when Suzanne accuses Mr. Collins of trying to seduce her, Elizabeth knows there's more to Suzanne than meets the eye.

Read "TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE" here

When Love Dies
(Book 12 in the Sweet Valley High series)
(1984)

The end of romance...

The Wakefield twins' older brother, Steven, is heartbroken. His girlfriend, Tricia Martin, no longer seems interested in him. She breaks their dates and doesn't return his calls. Steven can't understand why Tricia's feelings have changed so suddenly.

Jessica is thrilled that Steven isn't dating Tricia anymore. She sees it as the perfect oppotunity to pair him with her best friend, Cara Walker. Elizabeth, Jessica's twin, thinks that scheming, gossipy Cara is all wrong for Steven. She's determined to find out the reason for Tricia's strange behavior--and horrified when she discovers the awful truth.

Read "WHEN LOVE DIES" here

Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder

2009-10-11T13:36:00.000+08:00

Sophie Amundsen (Sofie Amundsen in the Norwegian version) is a fourteen year old girl living in Norway in 1990. She lives with her cat Sherekan, her goldfish, a tortoise, two budgerigars and her mother. Her father is a captain of an oil tanker, and is away for most of the year. He does not appear in the book.

Sophie's life is rattled as the book begins, when she receives two anonymous messages in her mailbox (Who are you? Where does the world come from?), as well as a post card addressed to 'Hilde Møller Knag, c/o Sophie Amundsen'. Shortly afterwards she receives a packet of papers, part of a correspondence course in philosophy.

With these mysterious communications, Sophie becomes the student of a fifty-year-old philosopher, Alberto Knox. He starts out as totally anonymous, but as the story unfolds he reveals more and more about himself. The papers and the packet both turn out to be from him, although the post card is not; it is addressed from someone called Albert Knag, who is a major in a United Nations peacekeeping unit stationed in Lebanon.

Alberto teaches her about the history of philosophy. She gets a substantive and understandable review from the Pre-Socratic Greeks through Jean-Paul Sartre. Along with the philosophy lessons, Sophie and Alberto try to outwit the mysterious Albert Knag, who appears to have God-like powers, which Alberto finds quite troubling.

Sophie learns about medieval philosophy while being lectured by Alberto, dressed as a monk, in an ancient church, and she learns about Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir in a French café. Various philosophical questions and methods of reasoning are put before Sophie, as she attempts to work them out on her own. Many of Knox's philosophic packets to her are preluded by more short questions, such as "Why is Lego the most ingenious toy in the world?".

Alberto takes Sophie from Hellenism to the rise of Christianity and its interaction with Greek thought and on into the Middle Ages. Over the course of the book, he covers the Renaissance, Baroque, Enlightenment and Romantic periods, and the philosophies that stemmed from them. (from Wikipedia)

Read "SOPHIE'S WORLD" here

Heaven, Texas by Susan Elizabeth Phillips

2009-09-27T14:54:00.003+08:00

Come heck or high water, Gracie Snow is determined to track down the legendary ex-jock Bobby Tom Denton and drag him back home to Heaven, Texas, to begin shooting his first motion picture. But taming an egotistical cowboy in a '57 T-Bird might be more than this prim Ohio wallflower can handle.

Despite his dazzling good looks and killer charm, Bobby Tom has reservations about being a movie star--and no plans to cooperate with the bossy little virgin whom he can't get off his mind or out of his life. Instead, the hellraising playboy decides to make her over from plain Jane to Texas wildcat.

But nothing's more dangerous than a wildcat with an angel's heart in a town too small for a bad boy to hide. And all hell breaks loose when two unforgettable people discover love, laughter, passion--and a match that can be made only in Heaven.

Read "HEAVEN, TEXAS" here

It Had To Be You by Susan Elizabeth Phillips

2009-09-27T14:46:00.002+08:00

The windy city isn't quite ready for Phoebe Somerville-the trendy, outrageous and curvaceous New York knockout who has just inherited the Chicago Stars football team. And Phoebe is definitely not prepared for the Stars' head coach Dan Celbow - an Alabama-born former gridiron legend and blond barbarian.

Calebow is everything Phoebe abhors - a sexist, jock taskmaster with a one-track mind. The beautiful new boss is everything Dan despises - a meddling bimbo whos doesn't know pigskin from a pitcher's mound, So why is he drawn to the shameless sexpot like a heat-seeking missile? And why does Dan's good ol'boy charm leave cosmopolitan Phoebe feeling awkward, tongue-tied and frightened to death?

Read "IT HAD TO BE YOU" here

Mirror, Mirror by Gregory Maguire

2009-09-26T23:49:00.001+08:00

The year is 1502, and seven-year-old Bianca de Nevada lives perched high above the rolling hills and valleys of Tuscany and Umbria at Montefiore, the farm of her beloved father, Don Vicente. But one day a noble entourage makes its way up the winding slopes to the farm — and the world comes to Montefiore.
In the presence of Cesare Borgia and his sister, the lovely and vain Lucrezia — decadent children of a wicked pope — no one can claim innocence for very long. When Borgia sends Don Vicente on a years-long quest, he leaves Bianca under the care — so to speak — of Lucrezia.
She plots a dire fate for the young girl in the woods below the farm, but in the dark forest salvation can be found as well ...
A lyrical work of stunning creative vision, Mirror Mirror gives fresh life to the classic story of Snow White — and has a truth and beauty all its own.

Read "MIRROR, MIRROR" here

Eternal Series by Ann Lory

2009-09-21T21:39:00.002+08:00

Dimitri Alexios lives alone in his San Francisco mansion, if one could call loathing what he is and hating his maker living. Until he beholds the mortal woman who appears on his doorstep. Her gentleness brings light to his darkness, and her innocence calls to him. Yet she knows nothing of his world, or the dangerous predator that constantly rages within him.

Museum curator Cassie Stephens, sent to catalog antiques at the Alexios estate, is surprised to discover Dimitri is anything but the old man she expected. He’s handsome and darkly mysterious, not the sort who’s usually attracted to her girl-next-door looks. Yet she’s ensnared by his irresistible charm—which makes it all the more crushing when he suddenly pushes her away.

Dimitri knows he’s doing the right thing, but it’s too late. Cassie’s passion has touched a heart he thought no longer capable of love. Now he must turn his strength to a deadly task: a battle to save the woman he loves from the maker who would love nothing more than to rip her away from him…

Read "ETERNAL EMBRACE" here

Read "ETERNAL OBSSESS" here

Read "ETERNAL SURRENDER" here

Perfume by Patrick Süskind

2009-09-20T20:42:00.002+08:00

Patrick Süskind's first novel, Perfume (Das Parfum) tells the horrific story of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, an orphan born in Paris in 1738. When Grenouille's abandoned body is found in the garbage, he is taken to an orphanage, where everyone who comes into contact with him finds something about him to be revulsive.   What they are unaware of is that Grenouille's body does not have any aroma, a distinction which is so subtle that nobody can place their finger on it, but which colors Grenouille's entire life. Grenouille's strange relationship to odors is further highlighted by his own extremely sharp sense of smell, caused, perhaps, by the lack of necessity to sense past his own smell.

When he comes of age, Grenouille manages to apprentice himself to a perfumer and shows a strong aptitude for mixing strange and exotic perfumes. This skill leads him to his desire to cover his own lack of smell and a quest to create the most unique perfume the world has ever known.

By following Grenouille from his birth, when his mother abandoned him to death among the discarded fish guts through his childhood when he discovered how different he was to his apprenticeship, Süskind is able to evoke several different emotions from the reader, ranging from sympathy for the young orphan to curiosity to disgust and hatred.   Grenouille's lack of aroma can be seen as representative of his lack of morals in a world in which the amoral and the ethical were struggling to find a new common ground.

Part horror, part mystery, part historical fiction, it offers insight into the mind of the criminally insane while speculating on the role the sense of smell plays in our lives.

Read "PERFUME" here

By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept by Paulo Coelho

2009-09-20T20:17:00.002+08:00

Rarely does adolescent love reach its full potential, but what happens when two young lovers reunite after eleven years? Time has transformed Pilar into a strong and independent woman, while her devoted childhood friend has grown into a handsome and charismatic spiritual leader. She has learned well how to bury her feelings . . . and he has turned to religion as a refuge from his raging inner conflicts.

Now they are together once again, embarking on a journey fraught with difficulties, as long-buried demons of blame and resentment resurface after more than a decade. But in a small village in the French Pyrenees, by the waters of the River Piedra, a most special relationship will be reexamined in the dazzling light of some of life's biggest questions.

Read "BY THE RIVER PIEDRA I SAT DOWN AND WEPT" here

Eleven Minutes by Paulo Coelho

2009-09-20T20:06:00.002+08:00

The book tells the story of Maria, a young girl from a Brazilian village, whose first innocent brushes with love leave her heartbroken. At a tender age, she becomes convinced that she will never find true love, instead believing that "Love is a terrible thing that will make you suffer . . ." A chance meeting in Rio takes her to Geneva, where she dreams of finding fame and fortune. Instead, she ends up working as a prostitute.

In Geneva, Maria drifts further and further away from love as she develops a fascination with sex. Eventually, Maria's despairing view of love is put to the test when she meets a handsome young painter. In this odyssey of self-discovery, Maria has to choose between pursuing a path of darkness, sexual pleasure for its own sake, or risking everything to find her own "inner light" and the possibility of sacred sex, sex in the context of love.

Read "ELEVEN MINUTES" here

Brida by Paulo Coelho

2009-09-20T19:56:00.002+08:00

Brida, a young Irish girl, has long been interested in various aspects of magic but is searching for something more. Her search leads her to people of great wisdom. She meets a wise man who dwells in a forest, who teaches her to trust in the goodness of the world, and a woman who teaches her how to dance to the music of the world. As Brida seeks her destiny, she struggles to find a balance between her relationships and her desire to become a witch.

Read "BRIDA" here

The Witch of Portobello by Paulo Coelho

2009-09-20T19:44:00.002+08:00

This is the story of Athena, or Sherine, to give her the name she was baptised with. Her life is pieced together through a series of recorded interviews with those people who knew her well or hardly at all -- parents, colleagues, teachers, friends, acquaintances, her ex-husband. The novel unravels Athena's mysterious beginnings, via an orphanage in Romania, to a childhood in Beirut. When war breaks out, her adoptive family move with her to London, where a dramatic turn of events occurs! Athena, who has been dubbed 'the Witch of Portobello' for her seeming powers of prophecy, disappears dramatically, leaving those who knew her to solve the mystery of her life and abrupt departure.

Read "THE WITCH OF PORTOBELLO" here

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

2009-09-20T19:35:00.002+08:00

The Alchemist is subtitled "A Fable About Following Your Dreams." Fables are cautionary tales that have a point to make. The universal point this story makes is that everyone has a special destiny, and yet not everyone resolves to attain it because it takes hard work. Reaching one's destiny requires leaving behind familiar surroundings. It also demands persistence, the ability to change when appropriate and the willingness to respond to omens that point the way.

Read "THE ALCHEMIST" here

Me & Emma by Elizabeth Flock

2009-09-13T22:51:00.002+08:00

The title characters in Me & Emma are very nearly photographic opposites--8-year-old Carrie, the raven-haired narrator, is timid and introverted, while her little sister Emma is a tow-headed powerhouse with no sense of fear. The girls live in a terrible situation: they depend on an unstable mother that has never recovered from her husband's murder, their stepfather beats them regularly, and they must forage on their own for food.

Stop here and you have a story told many times before, as fiction and nonfiction in tales like Ellen Foster, or I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings --stories in which a young girl reveals the horrors of her childhood. Me & Emma differentiates itself with a spectacular finish, shocking the reader and turning the entire story on its head. Through several twists and turns the reader learns that things are not quite the way our narrator led us to believe and everything crescendos in a way that (like all good thrillers) immediately makes you want to go back and read the whole book again from the start. --Victoria Griffith

Read "ME and EMMA" here

Boy Heaven by Laura Kasischke

2009-09-13T18:37:00.005+08:00

They were seventeen, with perfect tans and perfect bodies. They planned on a joyride in a convertible on a hot summer day. They planned on skinny-dipping in a beautiful, secluded lake. They planned on making it back to camp before anyone noticed they were gone. What they didn't plan on was being followed by two guys in a beat-up station wagon. . . .

Their day soon takes a drastic turn -- all because Kristy Sweetland smiled at the wrong time, in the wrong place, at the wrong boys.

Now the girls feel prying eyes on them all the time -- during pep practice, on the path through the woods, outside the window of their cabin. The boys are stalking them, leaving threatening notes on their beds, and watching their every move.

Boy Heaven is a provocative, page-turning mystery, and a must-read for anyone who loves an urban legend.

Read "BOY HEAVEN" here

The Woman on the Bus by Pauline McLynn

2009-09-12T22:59:00.003+08:00

The bus from Dublin to Limerick has never meant much to the inhabitants of Kilbrody, until a woman steps off it, marches into the pub and drinks herself into oblivion. When she finally wakss up, several days later, it is to discover that Charlie Finn (who put her to bed); the local garda and indeed the whole village are talking about her. Who is the woman on the bus? The question is, will she tell them?

Read "THE WOMAN ON THE BUS" here

Fat Free and Fatal by G. A. McKevett

2009-09-12T22:54:00.005+08:00

When curvy P.I. Savannah Reid signs on to guard the newly svelte body of a star on the comeback trail, she finds herself rubbing elbows with the rich, famous--and deadly. Getting the skinny on the killer soon has Savannah starring in a real-life murder mystery that gives "location shoot" a whole new meaning... There's nothing like a makeover story to get people hooked, and America is certainly addicted to the weight-loss saga of once celebrated actress Dona Papalardo. Savannah's no exception although she can't imagine wanting to shed her own hourglass figure by undergoing gastric bypass surgery like Dona did. After Dona's personal assistant is shot dead in the star's mile-long driveway, Savannah becomes her bodyguard. The victim was wearing one of Dona's fur coats, indicating that Dona was the target. And when Dona's hunky gardener takes a bullet between the eyes, Savannah and Detective Sergeant Dirk Coulter know they must act quickly to find the killer. Knocking around Dona's palatial estate gives Savannah plenty of opportunity to hobnob with A-list celebrities and compile a list of suspects that proves some people can never be too rich, too thin, or too vindictive. There's the resentful best friend whose dream of shared singing stardom crumbled when Dona made it big as an actress instead; the loyal boyfriend who loved Dona through thick and thin but now lacks luster next to the hotties beating a path to her door; and the most potentially dangerous jiltee of all: Dona's litigious former agent. But just when Savannah's sure she's had her fill of the macabre, the shooter strikes again, and this time Savannah is nearly caught in the crossfire. Now, as the case turns ever more personal, Savannah's determined to find the truth. After all, it's pretty hard to enjoy fifteen minutes of fame--or a double chocolate brownie--from six feet under...

Read "FAT FREE AND FATAL" here

The Devil and Miss Prym by Paulo Coelho

2009-09-12T21:26:00.005+08:00

In a small village Viscos, everyone was satisfied with their lives working hard and fulfilling their dreams. Then one day, a stranger (figuratively, the Devil) visits this quiet village and hides 11 golden bars in the mountain of Viscos. He brings Miss Prym to the buried site and tells her that he needs to do an experiment to test whether or not all human beings are good or evil. The stranger is looking forward to involve all the villagers into his experiment, but Miss Prym is feeling extremely uncomfortable to realize that she is now responsible to save the village and herself. Unfortunately, all of the people in Viscos get involved in this Devil's game and are confused whether to keep up their village history of being moral and honest or to sacrifice one villager to achieve the gold for the good sake of the its future.
This modern fiction questions all readers about one of the most basic questions: are human beings good or evil? With its additional introduction before each chapter, the book further sets the ground for the later story. Throughout the book, all of the village residence and the stranger seek the true meaning of human life by introducing different anecdotes to villagers and the readers and justifying human evilness.

Read "THE DEVIL AND MISS PRYM" here

The Manual of the Warrior of Light by Paulo Coelho

2009-09-12T21:12:00.005+08:00

Do you look at life and the universe with the wonder of a child? Do you accept failure with equanimity? Do you believe in fighting for your dreams? These are some of the questions raised by Paulo Coelho’s Manual of the Warrior of Light.

Read "THE MANUAL OF THE WARRIOR OF LIGHT" here

Life of Pi by Yann Martel

2009-09-09T22:27:00.005+08:00

Pi Patel is an unusual boy. The son of a zookeeper, he has an encyclopedic knowledge of animal behavior, a fervent love of stories, and practices not only his native Hinduism, but also Christianity and Islam. When Pi is sixteen, his family emigrates from India to North America aboard a Japanese cargo ship, along with their zoo animals bound for new homes.

The ship sinks. Pi finds himself alone in a lifeboat, his only companions a hyena, an orangutan, a wounded zebra, and Richard Parker, a 450-pound Bengal tiger. Soon the tiger has dispatched all but Pi, whose fear, knowledge, and cunning allow him to coexist with Richard Parker for 227 days lost at sea. When they finally reach the coast of Mexico, Richard Parker flees to the jungle, never to be seen again. The Japanese authorities who interrogate Pi refuse to believe his story and press him to tell them "the truth." After hours of coercion, Pi tells a second story, a story much less fantastical, much more conventional-but is it more true?

Read "LIFE OF PI" here

The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis

2009-09-09T22:10:00.005+08:00

Journeys to the end of the world, fantastic creatures, and epic battles between good and evil -- what more could any reader ask for in one book? The book that has it all is the lion, the witch and the wardrobe, written in 1949 by C. S. Lewis. But Lewis did not stop there. Six more books followed, and together they became known as The Chronicles of Narnia. For the past fifty years, The Chronicles of Narnia have transcended the fantasy genre to become part of the canon of classic literature. Each of the seven books is a masterpiece, drawing the reader into a world where magic meets reality, and the result is a fictional world whose scope has fascinated generations.

Read here:
The Chronicles of Narnia 01-The Magician's Nephew
The Chronicles of Narnia 02-The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe
The Chronicles of Narnia 03-The Horse and His Boy
The Chronicles of Narnia 04-Prince Caspian
The Chronicles of Narnia 05-The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
The Chronicles of Narnia 06-The Silver Chair
The Chronicles of Narnia 07-The Last Battle

Where Rainbows End by Cecelia Ahern

2009-09-08T20:10:00.004+08:00

From naughty children to rebellious teenagers, Rosie and Alex have stuck by each other through thick and thin. But just as they're discovering the joys of teenage nights on the town and dating disasters, they're separated. Alex's family moves from Dublin to America – and Alex goes with them. For good. Rosie's lost without her best friend. But on the eve of her departure to join Alex in Boston, Rosie gets news that will change her life forever – and keep her at home in Ireland. Their magical connection sees them through the ups and downs of each other's lives but neither of them knows whether their friendship can really survive the years and miles – as well as new relationships. And at the back of Rosie's mind is whether they were meant to be more than just good friends all along. Misunderstandings, circumstances and sheer bad luck have kept them out of each others' arms, but when presented with the ultimate opportunity, will they gamble everything – including their friendship – for true love? Destiny, Alex and Rosie discover, is a funny thing and fate isn't quite done with them yet…

Read "WHERE RAINBOWS END" here

The Deadly Series by Brenda Joyce

2009-09-08T19:49:00.004+08:00

Read here:
Deadly Love
Deadly Pleasure
Deadly Affairs
Deadly Desire
Deadly Caress
Deadly Promise
Deadly Illusions

Th1rteen R3asons Why by Jay Asher

2009-09-08T19:39:00.004+08:00

Clay Jensen returns home from school to find a mysterious box with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers several cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker--his classmate and crush--who committed suicide two weeks earlier. On tape, Hannah explains that there are thirteen reasons why she decided to end her life. Clay is one of them. If he listens, he'll find out how he made the list.

Read "TH1RTEEN R3ASONS WHY" here

Bridget Jones The Edge of Reason by Helen Fielding

2009-09-07T20:57:00.004+08:00

Lurching from the cappuccino bars of Notting Hill to the blissed-out shores of Thailand, everyone's favorite Singleton Bridget Jones begins her search for The Truth in spite of pathetically unevolved men, insane dating theories, and Smug Married advice.

Read "BRIDGET JONES, THE EDGE OF REASON" here

Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding

2009-09-07T20:50:00.004+08:00

Bridget Jones's Diary portrays a year in the life of 30-something, career-minded Bridget Jones. Bridget is a self-involved woman concerned with her weight, appearance and securing a boyfriend. The book is written as a diary and tracks Bridget's life during a twelve-month span, beginning with her New Year's Resolutions. Her resolutions include quitting smoking, drinking less, losing weight, finding a boyfriend, getting a better career, and not dating emotionally unavailable men.

Read "BRIDGET JONES'S DIARY" here

The Pilgrimage by Paulo Coelho

2009-09-06T14:20:00.005+08:00

Here Paulo Coelho details his journey across Spain along the legendaryroad of San Tiago, which pilgrims have travelled since Middle Ages. On this contemporary quest, he encounters a Chaucerian variety of mysterious guides and devilish opponents and learns to understand the nature of truth through the simplicity of life. The Pilgrimage holds an important place in Paulo Coelho's literary canon.His first book, it not only paved the way for his phenomenal novel The Alchemist , but it also fully expresses his humanist philosophy and the depth of his unique search for meaning.

Read "THE PILGRIMAGE" here

The Zahir by Paulo Coelho

2009-09-06T14:17:00.004+08:00

The narrator of The Zahir is a bestselling novelist who lives in Paris and enjoys all the privileges money and celebrity bring. His wife of ten years, Esther, is a war correspondent who has disappeared along with a friend, Mikhail, who may or may not be her lover.
Was Esther kidnapped, murdered, or did she simply escape a marriage that left her unfulfilled? The narrator doesn't have any answers, but he has plenty of questions of his own. Then one day Mikhail finds the narrator and promises to reunite him with his wife. In his attempt to recapture a lost love, the narrator discovers something unexpected about himself.

Read "THE ZAHIR" here

Saving Zoe by Alyson Noel

2009-09-03T22:26:00.005+08:00

In Alyson Noël's newest teen novel, one sister's secrets save the other's life--in more ways than one. Meet fifteen-year-old Echo, a typical teen trying to survive high school without being totally traumatized by boy trouble, friend drama, and school issues. As if she didn't have enough on her plate, Echo is also still dealing with the murder of her sister Zoë. Although it's been over a year, Echo is still reeling from tragedy that changed everything. Beautiful and full of life, Zoë was the glue that held her family together, and although the two sisters were as different as night and day, they still had a bond that Echo can't let go of. When Zoë's old boyfriend Marc shows up one day with Zoë's diary, Echo doesn't think there's anything in there she doesn't already know. But as she gives in to curiosity and starts reading, she learns that her sister led a secret life that no one could have guessed--not even Echo.

Read "SAVING ZOE" here

Calling Romeo by Alexandra Potter

2009-09-01T20:49:00.004+08:00

Juliet can't help wishing she had more romance in her life. She loves her boyfriend Will, but after living together for two and a half years, she's come to realise that thirtysomething monogamy isn't all it's cracked up to be. Will used to whisk her off to candlelit restaurants. Now his idea of a perfect evening is a video and vindaloo. He used to leave post-it notes saying 'I love you' on the bathroom mirror. Now the only things she finds are his dirty socks on the bathroom floor. So, when Juliet meets a sexy, dark-eyed Adonis from a rival London advertising agency she is sorely tempted. And when he invites her away for an illicit, no-expense-spared weekend in Verona it's almost impossible to resist. Her very own Romeo. But does she want to risk losing Will and all they have shared together? Juliet must work out what's really important in life and whether romance really is all about sexy lingerie and red roses.

Read "CALLING ROMEO" here

In The Blood by Adrian Phoenix

2009-09-01T20:41:00.003+08:00

Weeks have passed since the tumultuous events of A Rush of Wings, and Heather and Dante are each coping in their own ways. In Seattle, Heather is determined to solve the mystery surrounding her mother's death. In New Orleans, Dante has cut all ties with his father Lucien, even as he struggles to understand his past. When Dante and Heather cross paths again, they learn that dangerous forces are plotting to use Dante for their own ends, with mysterious powers that rival Dante's own supernatural abilities. They'll stop at nothing until Dante is theirs to control...

Read "IN THE BLOOD" here

A Rush of Wings by Adrian Phoenix

2009-09-01T20:38:00.004+08:00

Bienvenue to dark streets where nightkind hunt, and above in the star-pricked skies one hears the rush of wings...
Begin the journey with A RUSH OF WINGS.

HIS NAME IS DANTE.

Dark. Talented. Beautiful. Star of the rock band Inferno. Rumored owner of the hot New Orleans nightspot called Club Hell. Born of the Blood, then broken by an evil beyond imagination.

HIS PAST IS A MYSTERY.

FBI Special Agent Heather Wallace has been tracking a sadistic serial murderer known as the Cross Country Killer...and the trail has led her to New Orleans, Club Hell, and Dante. But the dangerously attractive musician not only resists her investigation, he claims to be nightkind: in other words, a vampire. Digging into his past for answers reveals little. A
juvenile record a mile long. No social security number. No known birth date. In and out of foster homes for most of his life before being taken in by a man named Lucien De Noir, who appears to guard mysteries of his own.

HIS FUTURE IS CHAOS.

What Heather does know about Dante is that something links him to the killer -- and she's pretty sure that link makes him the CCK's next target. Heather must unravel the truth behind this sensual, complicated, vulnerable young man -- who, she begins to believe, may indeed be a vampire -- in order to bring a killer to justice. But what Heather doesn't know is that Dante's past holds a shocking secret, and once it is revealed not even Heather will be able to protect him from his destiny...

Read "A RUSH OF WINGS" here

Bite Me by Parker Blue

2009-08-30T17:07:00.004+08:00

Having decided that half-demon Val is a bad influence on her little human sister, Val's parents kick her out of the house on her 18th birthday. Val's luck isn't all bad though. She befriends a telepathic hellhound and a cute vampire hunter. As a half-demon, Val is specially equipped to hunt vampires so she joins the special forces team and starts to make a life of her own. All that is threatened when the vampires target her little sister.

Read "BITE ME" here

Prom Nights From Hell, an Anthology

2009-08-30T16:44:00.003+08:00

What does having a prom night from hell mean to you? Maybe you tear your dress on the way out of the limo so everyone sees your underwear. Or you spend the entire evening smiling for your friends' cameras with lipstick on your teeth. Perhaps you even get dumped on what is supposed to be one of the most important nights of your life. All of these things surely can add up to a prom night from hell, but at least you didn't have the prom night from Hell.

Five of your favorite teen authors have teamed up to produce a set of short stories about proms gone supernaturally, horribly wrong. While you're concerned about shoes matching your purse, the girls in these stories are worried about crossbows and vampires, zombie dates who've been dead for weeks, and a devil in a red dress who causes chaos by snapping high heels and breaking up couples.

Michele Jaffe (BAD KITTY) gives scary a twist of humor in her story "Kiss and Tell," in which Miranda, blessed (or maybe cursed) with superpowers, takes it upon herself to protect a 14-year-old chauffering charge named Sibby. Sarcasm and a roller derby outfit, however, might not be enough for Miranda to keep Sibby safe from a potential murder.

If you're a fan of Stephenie Meyer's TWILIGHT, then you'll love "Hell on Earth." What looks like your normal prom becomes a jumbled mess of broken jewelry, ripped dresses and destroyed romances thanks to the new girl, Sheba, who's really a 186-year-old demon in disguise. But will Sheba's meddling older sister keep the prom from being anything less than perfectly hellish?

If you love the classic horror stories, then flip straight to "The Corsage" by Lauren Myracle (RHYMES WITH WITCHES), a retelling of W.W. Jacobs's "The Monkey's Paw." Frankie wishes for Will to ask her to the prom while holding a corsage she bought from a Juicy Couture-clad fortune teller. You know how the saying goes, though: Be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it. Frankie's wish comes true, and now Will is just dying to ask her to the prom.

For a twist on the Grim Reaper tale, look at "Madison Avery and the Dim Reaper" by Kim Harrison (A FISTFUL OF CHARMS). It's bad enough that Madison's date only takes her to the prom out of pity, but then the guy she leaves with kills her and completely botches her death. Now she's somewhere between human and ghost, relying on a stolen amulet to keep her solid.

And for those of you who are diehard vampire fans, open to page one and start reading "The Exterminator's Daughter" by Meg Cabot (AVALON HIGH). Vampires are alive, well, living in New York and taking Mary's best friend Lila to the prom. Mary, a vampire exterminator with her very own crossbow, is determined to save Lila. With Dracula in disguise at her high school, will Mary's prom completely suck?

Enter a world where Death and demons meet sequins and tuxedos. Whether you prefer a slow, detailed story or a tale that's funny and fast-paced, you'll find something here to enjoy. Your prom may not be as exciting as some of the ones in this book, but at least you won't have to worry about the new boy wielding a scythe.

Read "PROM NIGHTS FROM HELL" here

Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume

2009-08-30T16:35:00.004+08:00

Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret. is a 1970 book by Judy Blume, typically categorized as a young adult novel, about a preteen girl in sixth grade who grew up with no religion. Margaret's mother is Christian and her father is Jewish, and the novel explores her quest for a single religion.

Read "ARE YOU THERE GOD? IT'S ME, MARGARET" here

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

2009-08-30T16:03:00.004+08:00

An incredibly accurate portrayal of early adolesence, this book consists of letters written by Charlie to an unidentified person during his freshman year of high school. Prone to depression, shy, introverted, on the fringes in everything, Charlie is a wallflower who, with the help of friends Samantha and Patrick, comes to terms with life and learns to interact. Although Perks covers just about every tough issue known to teen, the book has its moments of humor, and the tragic aspects are handled so well that it comes off as realistic rather than melodramatic or soap-operatic. A masterful book.

Read "THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER" here

My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult

2009-08-30T15:58:00.004+08:00

Anna is not sick, but she might as well be. By age thirteen, she has undergone countless surgeries, transfusions, and shots so that her older sister, Kate, can somehow fight the leukemia that has plagued her since childhood. The product of preimplantation genetic diagnosis, Anna was conceived as a bone marrow match for Kate - a life and a role that she has never questioned… until now. Like most teenagers, Anna is beginning to question who she truly is. But unlike most teenagers, she has always been defined in terms of her sister - and so Anna makes a decision that for most would be unthinkable… a decision that will tear her family apart and have perhaps fatal consequences for the sister she loves. My Sister's Keeper examines what it means to be a good parent, a good sister, a good person. Is it morally correct to do whatever it takes to save a child's life… even if that means infringing upon the rights of another? Is it worth trying to discover who you really are, if that quest makes you like yourself less?

Read "MY SISTER'S KEEPER" here

Roswell High by Melinda Metz

2009-08-30T15:43:00.004+08:00

The 10-book series chronicles the adventures of three teen aliens and their human friends, who attend the fictional Ulysses F. Olsen High in Roswell, New Mexico. The Roswell High books served as inspiration for the television series Roswell 1. The Outsider 2. The Wild One 3. The Seeker 4. The Watcher 5. The Intruder 6. The Stowaway 7. The Vanished 8. The Rebel 9. The Dark One 10. The Salvation

Read "ROSWELL HIGH" here

Alex Rider Series by Anthony Horowitz

2009-08-30T15:09:00.005+08:00

The first book opens with 14-year-old orphan Alex Rider, the title character of the series, learning that his legal guardian and uncle, Ian Rider, has died in a car accident. Suspicious about the circumstances of his uncle's death, Alex decides to investigate and discovers that Ian was assassinated while working for MI6. MI6 recruit Alex and place him in a gruelling SAS training camp, before sending him undercover to continue his uncle's investigation of Herod Sayle, a Lebanese businessman. Successful in this mission, MI6 continually find new ways to blackmail Alex into working for them, and other intelligence agencies. MI6 always insist they only want him to gather intelligence, but Alex usually learns too much and has to fight his way out. Alex, during his missions, discovers that several members of his family have worked for MI6, including his father, his uncle, and his godfather. Alex also works for the CIA and ASIS.

Read here:
Stormbreaker
Point Blanc
Skeleton Key
Eagle Strike
Scorpia
Ark Angel
Snakehead

The Illuminatus! Trilogy by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson

2009-08-30T14:55:00.003+08:00

The Illuminatus! Trilogy is a series of three novels written by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson first published in 1975. The trilogy is a satirical, postmodern, science fiction-influenced adventure story; a drug-, sex- and magic-laden trek through a number of conspiracy theories, both historical and imaginary, which hinge around the authors' version of the Illuminati. The narrative often switches between third and first person perspectives and jumps around in time. It is thematically dense, covering topics like counterculture, numerology and Discordianism.

The trilogy comprises The Eye in the Pyramid, The Golden Apple and Leviathan.

Read "THE ILLUMINATUS! TRILOGY" here

Katie Chandler Series by Shanna Swendson

2009-08-30T14:15:00.005+08:00

Katie Chandler had always heard that New York is a weird and wonderful place, but this small-town Texas gal had no idea how weird until she moved there. Everywhere she goes, she sees something worth gawking at and Katie is afraid she's a little too normal to make a splash in the big city. Working for an ogre of a boss doesn't help.

Then, seemingly out of the blue, Katie gets a job offer from Magic, Spells, and Illusions, Inc., a company that tricks of the trade to the magic community. For MSI, Katie's ordinariness is an asset.Lacking any bit of magic, she can easily spot a fake spell, catch hidden clauses in competitor's contracts, and detect magically disguised intruders. Suddenly, average Katie is very special indeed.

She quickly learns that office politics are even more complicated when your new boss is a real ogre, and you have a crush on the sexy, shy, ultra powerful head of the R&D department, who is so busy fighting an evil competitor threatening to sell black magic on the street that he seems barely to notice Katie. Now it's up to Katie to pull off the impossible: save the world and - hopefully - live happily ever after.

Read here:
Enchanted, Inc.
Once Upon Stilettos
Damsel Under Stress
Don't Hex with Texas

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

2009-08-29T22:37:00.005+08:00

The Book Thief is set in Nazi Germany. Beginning in 1939, it focuses on a German girl, Liesel, who is sent by her mother to live with foster parents in a small town near Munich. As Liesel learns to cope with her new environment, all the pains she has endured, and the extreme unhappiness of pre-war and wartime Germany, she yearns to escape via reading. Her foster father Hans helps her learn to read, and Liesel finds books here and there — in a snowy graveyard, in a Nazi book-burning, and inside the local mayor's house. She has a few friends; first her neighbor and classmate, Rudy, and later the son of a soldier her foster father knew in WWI, Max, a Jew whom her new family must hide in their basement. While the toll of WWII, Allied bombing, and Nazi brutality increases, Liesel's world starts to crumble, but words and reading sustain her.

Read "THE BOOK THIEF" here

Fade by Lisa McMann

2009-08-29T22:23:00.005+08:00

For Janie and Cabel, real life is getting tougher than the dreams. They're just trying to carve out a little (secret) time together, but no such luck. Disturbing things are happening at Fieldridge High, yet nobody's talking. When Janie taps into a classmate's violent nightmares, the case finally breaks open--but nothing goes as planned. Not even close. Janie's in way over her head, and Cabe's shocking behavior has grave consequences for them both.

Worse yet, Janie learns the truth about herself and her ability. And it's bleak. Seriously, brutally bleak. Not only is her fate as a Dream Catcher sealed, but what's to come is way darker than she'd even feared...

Read "FADE" here

Wake by Lisa McMann

2009-08-29T22:18:00.005+08:00

For seventeen-year-old Janie, getting sucked into other people's dreams is getting old. Especially the falling dreams, the naked-but-nobody-notices dreams, and the sex-crazed dreams. Janie's seen enough fantasy booty to last her a lifetime.

She can't tell anybody about what she does -- they'd never believe her, or worse, they'd think she's a freak. So Janie lives on the fringe, cursed with an ability she doesn't want and can't control.

Then she falls into a gruesome nightmare, one that chills her to the bone. For the first time, Janie is more than a witness to someone else's twisted psyche. She is a participant....

Read "WAKE" here

A Certain Slant Of Light by Laura Whitcomb

2009-08-29T22:13:00.004+08:00

In the class of the high school English teacher she has been haunting, Helen feels them: For the first time in 130 years, human eyes are looking at her. They belong to a boy, a boy who has not seemed remarkable until now. And Helen--terrified, but intrigued--is drawn to him. The fact that he is in a body and she is not presents this unlikely couple with their first challenge. But as the lovers struggle to find a way to be together, they begin to discover the secrets of their former lives and of the young people they come to possess.

Read "A CERTAIN SLANT OF LIGHT" here

Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause

2009-08-29T22:09:00.004+08:00

Having fallen for a human boy, a beautiful teenage werewolf must battle both her packmates and the fear of the townspeople to decide where she belongs and with whom.

Read "BLOOD AND CHOCOLATE" here

Veronika Decides To Die by Paulo Coelho

2009-08-29T01:38:00.004+08:00

Veronika seems to have everything she could wish for. She is young and pretty, has plenty of attractive boyfriends, goes dancing, has a steady job, a loving family. Yet Veronika is not happy; something is lacking in her life. On the morning of November 11th, 1997, she decides to die. She takes an overdose of sleeping pills, only to wake up some time later in Villette, the local hospital. There she is told that although she is alive now her heart is damaged and she has only a few days to live.

Read "VERONIKA DECIDES TO DIE" here

The Vampire Diaries by L.J. Smith

2009-08-29T01:23:00.004+08:00

Elena: the golden girl, the leader, the one who can have any boy she wants.

Stefan: brooding and mysterious, he seems to be the only one who can resist Elena, even as he struggles to protect her from the horrors that haunt his past.

Damon: sexy, dangerous, and driven by an urge for revenge against Stefan, the brother who betrayed him. Determined to have Elena, he'd kill to possess her.

The Vampire Diaries, the tale of two vampire brothers and the beautiful girl torn between them.

Read here:
The Vampire Diaries - The Awakening - Book #1
The Vampire Diaries - The Struggle - Book #2
The Vampire Diaries - The Fury - Book #3
The Vampire Diaries - The Dark Reunion - Book # 4

The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides

2009-08-24T20:23:00.006+08:00

The story, which is set in Grosse Pointe, Michigan during the 1970s, centers around the suicides of five sisters. The Lisbon girls' suicides fascinate their community as their neighbors struggle to find an explanation for the acts.

Read "THE VIRGIN SUICIDES" here

The Undomestic Goddess by Sophie Kinsella

2009-08-24T00:28:00.003+08:00

Workaholic attorney Samantha Sweeting has just done the unthinkable. She's made a mistake so huge, it'll wreck any chance of a partnership. Going into utter meltdown, she walks out of her London office, gets on a train, and ends up in the middle of nowhere. Asking for directions at a big, beautiful house, she's mistaken for an interviewee and finds herself being offered a job as housekeeper. Her employers have no idea they've hired a lawyer-and Samantha has no idea how to work the oven. She can't sew on a button, bake a potato, or get the #@%# ironing board to open. How she takes a deep breath and begins to cope-and finds love-is a story as delicious as the bread she learns to bake. But will her old life ever catch up with her? And if it does…will she want it back?

THE UNDOMESTIC GODDESS

Can You Keep A Secret? by Sophie Kinsella

2009-08-24T00:22:00.005+08:00

Emma is sitting on a turbulent plane. She's always been a v. nervous flyer. She really thinks that this could be her last moment. So, naturally enough, she starts telling the man sitting next to her - quite a dishy American, but she's too frightened to notice -all her innermost secrets. How she scans the backs of intellectual books and pretends she's read them. How she does her hair up like Princess Leia in her bedroom. How she's not sure if she has a G-spot, and whether her boyfriend could find it anyway. How she feels like a fraud at work - everyone uses the word 'operational' all the time but she hasn't a due what it means. How the coffee at work is horrible. How she once threw a troublesome client file in the bin. If ever there was a bare soul, it's hers. She survives the flight, of course, and the next morning the famous founding boss of the whole mega corporation she works for is coming for a look at the UK branch. As he walks around, Emma looks up and realizes... It's the man from the plane. What will he do with her secrets? He knows them all - but she doesn't know a single one of his. Or... does she?

Read "CAN YOU KEEP A SECRET?" here

Shopaholic Series by Sophie Kinsella

2009-08-24T00:06:00.005+08:00

Meet Rebecca Bloomwood. She's a journalist. She spends her working life telling others how to manage their money. She spends her leisure time...shopping. Retail therapy is the answer to all her problems. She knows she should stop, but she can't. She tries Cutting Back, she tries Making More Money. But neither seems to work. The stories she concocts become more and more fantastic as she tries to untangle her increasingly dire financial difficulties. Her only comfort is to buy herself something - just a little something... Can Becky ever escape from this dream world, find true love, and regain the use of her Switch card? The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic... The perfect pick me up for when it's all hanging in the (bank) balance.

Read here:
Confessions of a Shopaholic
Shopaholic Takes Manhattan
Shopaholic Ties the Knot
Shopaholic & Sister
Shopaholic & Baby

The Host by Stephenie Meyer

2009-08-24T00:03:00.003+08:00

Melanie Stryder refuses to fade away. The earth has been invaded by a species that take over the minds of their human hosts while leaving their bodies intact, and most of humanity has succumbed. Wanderer, the invading "soul" who has been given Melanie's body, knew about the challenges of living inside a human: the overwhelming emotions, the too vivid memories. But there was one difficulty Wanderer didn't expect: the former tenant of her body refusing to relinquish possession of her mind. Melanie fills Wanderer's thoughts with visions of the man Melanie loves--Jared, a human who still lives in hiding. Unable to separate herself from her body's desires, Wanderer yearns for a man she's never met. As outside forces make Wanderer and Melanie unwilling allies, they set off to search for the man they both love.

Read "THE HOST" here

Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer

2009-08-23T23:57:00.006+08:00

Isabella Swan's move to Forks, a small, perpetually rainy town in Washington, could have been the most boring move she ever made. But once she meets the mysterious and alluring Edward Cullen, Isabella's life takes a thrilling and terrifying turn. Up until now, Edward has managed to keep his vampire identity a secret in the small community he lives in, but now nobody is safe, especially Isabella, the person Edward holds most dear. The lovers find themselves balance precariously on the point of a knife -- between desire and danger.

Read here:
Twilight
New Moon
Eclipse
Breaking Dawn

Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk

2009-08-23T01:38:00.005+08:00

The rise of a terrorist organization, led by a waiter who enjoys spitting in people's soup. He starts a fighting club, where men bash each other, and the club quickly gains in popularity. It becomes the springboard for a movement devoted to destruction for destruction's sake.

Read "FIGHT CLUB" here

Dragonlance by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman

2009-08-23T01:06:00.005+08:00

The world of Krynn is on the precipice of a dark age. As a massive army led by the evil Verminaard prepares its final onslaught, paranoia and fear grips the populace. Only a small band of companions can save Krynn. But with even former friends ready to betray them, salvation may be impossible. Friendships will be tested. Lovers will be separated. And sacrifices will be demanded...

Read "THE DRAGONLANCE SERIES" here

Star Wars by George Lucas

2009-08-23T00:55:00.004+08:00

Star Wars is an epic space opera franchise initially conceived by George Lucas.
The Star Wars film series has spawned other media including books, television series, video games, and comic books.

Read "STAR WARS" here

Star Trek by Gene Roddenberry

2009-08-23T00:42:00.005+08:00

Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment series and media franchise. The Star Trek fictional multiverse created by Gene Roddenberry is the setting of six television series, including the original 1966 Star Trek, and eleven feature films. The franchise also includes dozens of computer and video games, hundreds of novels and instances of fan fiction, several fan-created video productions, as well as a themed attraction in Las Vegas.

Read "STAR TREK" here

Animorphs by K.A. Applegate

2009-08-23T00:12:00.005+08:00

Five humans and one alien obtain the ability to morph into any animal they touch; they name themselves "Animorphs". Using their ability, they battle a secret alien infiltration of Earth. It is told in first person, with a different narrator in every book. Applegate cycles through the six protagonists, telling their story of the secret war through each of their perspectives. By using this, she explores many of the dark aspects of the human condition.

1: The Invasion 2: The Visitor 3: The Encounter 4: The Message 5: The Predator 6: The Capture 7: The Stranger 8: The Alien 9: The Secret 10: The Android 11: The Forgotten 12: The Reaction 13: The Change 14: The Unknown 15: The Escape 16: The Warning 17: The Underground 18: The Decision 19: The Departure 20: The Discovery 21: The Threat 22: The Solution 23: The Pretender 24: The Suspicion 25: The Extreme 26: The Attack 27: The Exposed 28: The Experiment 29: The Sickness 30: The Reunion 31: The Conspiracy 32: The Separation 33: The Illusion 34: The Prophecy 35: The Proposal 36: The Mutation 37: The Weakness 38: The Arrival 39: The Hidden 40: The Other 41: The Familiar 42: The Journey 43: The Test 44: The Unexpected 45: The Revelation 46: The Deception 47: The Resistance 48: The Return 49: The Diversion 50: The Ultimate 51: The Absolute 52: The Sacrifice 53: The Answer 54: The Beginning

Read "THE ANIMORPHS SERIES" here

Good Omens by Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett

2009-08-19T23:25:00.004+08:00

Good Omens is the story of An angel and a demon who are both trying to do their jobs that are part of the Great Plan. Although Aziraphale and Crowley are adversaries by nature and profession, their relationship develops into a friendship merely because of the time spent together over thousands of years. In this unlikely pairing, compromises are made between the two of them so that they can both appear to be accomplishing their missions without overcoming the other too much. When the birth of the Antichrist occurs, they agree to work together and try to see if their influences on the child have any effect. By the time they locate the correct child, it is almost too late as Armageddon is about to begin. Events unfold and the world is saved.

Read "GOOD OMENS" here

Stardust by Neil Gaiman

2009-08-19T23:24:00.004+08:00

In the tranquil fields and meadows of long-ago England, there is a small hamlet that has stood on a jut of granite for 600 years. Just to the east stands a high stone wall, for which the village is named. Here, in the hamlet of Wall, young Tristran Thorn has lost his heart to the hauntingly beautiful Victoria Forester. And here, one crisp October eve, Tristran makes his love a promise -- an impetuous vow that will send him through the only breach in the wall, across the pasture ... and into the most exhilarating adventure of his life.

Read "STARDUST" here

Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman

2009-08-19T23:21:00.004+08:00

In the deft hands of Neil Gaiman, magic is no mere illusion...and anything is possible. In this, Gaiman's first book of short stories, his imagination and supreme artistry transform a mundane world into a place of terrible wonders — a place where an old woman can purchase the Holy Grail at a thrift store, where assassins advertise their services in the Yellow Pages under "Pest Control," and where a frightened young boy must barter for his life with a mean-spirited troll living beneath a bridge by the railroad tracks. Explore a new reality — obscured by smoke and darkness, yet brilliantly tangible — in this extraordinary collection of short works by a master prestidigitator. It will dazzle your senses, touch your heart, and haunt your dreams.

Read "SMOKE AND MIRRORS" here

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

2009-08-19T23:20:00.003+08:00

Richard Mayhew is a plain man with a good heart — and an ordinary life that is changed forever on a day he stops to help a girl he finds bleeding on a London sidewalk.From that moment forward he is propelled into a world he never dreamed existed — a dark subculture flourish in abandoned subway stations and sewer tunnels below the city — a world far stranger and more dangerous than the only one he has ever known...Richard Mayhew is a young businessman with a good heart and a dull job. When he stops one day to help a girl he finds bleeding on a London sidewalk, his life is forever altered, for he finds himself propelled into an alternate reality that exists in a subterranean labyrinth of sewer canals and abandoned subway stations below the city. He has fallen through the cracks of reality and has landed somewhere different, somewhere that is Neverwhere.

Read "NEVERWHERE" here

Coraline by Neil Gaiman

2009-08-19T23:18:00.003+08:00

In Coraline's family's new flat are twenty-one windows and fourteen doors. Thirteen of the doors open and close. The fourteenth is locked, and on the other side is only a brick wall, until the day Coraline unlocks the door to find a passage to another flat in another house just like her own. Only it's different. At first, things seem marvelous in the other flat. The food is better. The toy box is filled with wind-up angels that flutter around the bedroom, books whose pictures writhe and crawl and shimmer, little dinosaur skulls that chatter their teeth. But there's another mother, and another father, and they want Coraline to stay with them and be their little girl. They want to change her and never let her go. Other children are trapped there as well, lost souls behind the mirrors. Coraline is their only hope of rescue. She will have to fight with all her wits and all the tools she can find if she is to save the lost children, her ordinary life, and herself. Critically acclaimed and award-winning author Neil Gaiman will delight readers with his first novel for all ages.

Read "CORALINE" here

Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman

2009-08-19T23:09:00.005+08:00

God is dead. But just wait till you meet the kids... When Fat Charlie's dad named something, it stuck. Like calling Fat Charlie "Fat Charlie." Even now, twenty years later, Charlie Nancy can't shake that name, one of the many embarrassing "gifts" his father bestowed — before he dropped dead on a karaoke stage and ruined Fat Charlie's life. Mr. Nancy left Fat Charlie things. Things like the tall, good-looking stranger who appears on Charlie's doorstep, who appears to be the brother he never knew. A brother as different from Charlie as night is to day, a brother who's going to show Charlie how to lighten up and have a little fun...just like Dear Old Dad. And all of a sudden, life starts getting very interesting for Fat Charlie. Because, you see, Charlie's dad wasn't just any dad. He was Anansi, a trickster god, the spider-god. Anansi is the spirit of rebellion; he is able to overturn the social order, create wealth out of thin air, baffle the devil, and cheat Death himself. Exciting, scary, and deeply funny, Anansi Boys is a kaleidoscope journey deep into myth, a wild adventure, and a fierce and unstoppable farce, as Neil Gaiman shows us where gods come from, and how to survive your family.

Read "ANANSI BOYS" here

Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling

2009-08-19T22:10:00.004+08:00

The novels revolve around Harry Potter, an orphan who discovers that he is a wizard. Wizard ability is inborn, but children are sent to wizarding school to learn the magical skills necessary to succeed in the wizarding world. Harry is invited to attend the boarding school called Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Each book chronicles one year in Harry's life, and most of the events take place at Hogwarts. As he struggles through adolescence, Harry learns to overcome many magical, social and emotional hurdles.

Read here:
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Tall, Dark & Hungry by Lynsay Sands

2009-08-18T22:48:00.004+08:00

New York hotels cost an arm and a leg, and Terri had flown from England to help plan her cousin's wedding. The new in-laws offered lodging. But they were a weird bunch. There was the sometimes-chipper-sometimes-brooding Lucern, and the wacky stage-actor, Vincent. (She couldn't imagine Broadway casting a hungrier singing-and-dancing Dracula.). And then there was Bastien. Just looking into his eyes, Terri had to admit she was falling for him - someone even taller, darker and hungrier than the other two. She was feeling a mite peckish herself. And if she stayed with him, those bloodsucking hotel owners wouldn't get her!

Read "TALL, DARK and HUNGRY" here

Falling Angel by Anne Stuart

2009-08-18T22:45:00.004+08:00

Emerson MacVey was a ruthless, womanizing, corporate raider that hadn't thought twice about destroying Angel Falls. But suddenly, Emerson received the gift of a second chance at love. He became his own alter ego, Gabriel Falcone. Without divulging his identity, could Emerson--the new Emerson--right his wrongs and claim the one woman he should have loved?

Read "FALLING ANGEL" here

A Bite to Remember by Lynsay Sands

2009-08-18T22:42:00.004+08:00

Rule #1: Never get involved with someone who won't be there for you when the sun comes up.

Once bitten, twice shy, and sexy PI Jackie Morrisey wasn't going there again. Vincent Argeneau may be the hottest guy she's ever met, living or dead, but she's here to stop a killer from turning this vampire into dust, not to jump into bed with him.

Rule #2: Never kiss a vampire . . . it can be a pain in the neck.

Okay, so Vincent's had four hundred years to perfect his kissing skills, and he does look rather tempting when he runs around the house shirtless. He's also charming, protective . . . did we mention he can kiss? Jackie needs to be on her guard, or else she'll have to come up with a new rule: If you're going to fall in love with a vampire, make sure it's a bite to remember.

Read "A BITE TO REMEMBER" here

Dreamland by Sarah Dessen

2009-08-16T21:11:00.005+08:00

Rogerson Biscoe, with his green eyes and dark curly hair, is absolutely seductive. Before long, sixteen-year-old Caitlin finds herself under his spell. And when he starts to abuse her, she finds she's in too deep to get herself out...

Read "DREAMLAND" here

Just Listen by Sarah Dessen

2009-08-16T21:05:00.005+08:00

Annabel Greene looked like the perfect girl, the one who had everything. She was a model, a popular girl, with the perfect family. It all begins to fall apart when her sister Whitney almost dies from anorexia. Then, when Annabel's best friend Sophie accuses Annabel of trying to sleep with her boyfriend, when he really tried to rape her, things change forever.

Read "JUST LISTEN" here

On the Couch by Alisa Kwitney

2009-08-16T21:02:00.004+08:00

Marlowe Riddle is a wealthy but lonely psychotherapist who hasn’t had much luck with love or sex. It’s the age old problem – if the men are smart enough for her, she’s not attracted to them, but if they’re good-looking there’s usually not enough going on upstairs to keep her interested. So when she gets a call from a guy named Joe who seems to think she’s a high-priced prostitute, she can’t quite bring herself to tell him that he has the wrong number. NYPD Detective Joseph Kain is in a personal and professional slump. He’s still hung up on his ex-wife, who is having an affair with a famous actor, and he was recently demoted because of a disagreement with his supervisor. Once a member of an elite task force on organized crime, his latest case is nothing more exciting than a middle-aged man who apparently suffocated by accident during a kinky masturbatory act. But for some reason, Joe wants to pursue the case to see if foul play was involved, especially when he finds a listing for escort services next to the body. When Joe calls the number last dialed from the man’s cell phone, he starts a heavy flirtation with the woman who answers. The unusual call girl who quotes Swinburne and calls herself Marlowe is interesting and sexy, but sounds strangely reluctant to keep talking. Joe isn’t sure after a while if he’s pursuing her because she might be a link to his case or because he’s personally intrigued by her. But after a few phone calls, he knows that he has to meet this woman in person and see where the attraction takes them.

Read "ON THE COUCH" here

Flirting in Cars by Alisa Kwitney

2009-08-16T21:01:00.003+08:00

An accomplished journalist, Zoë Goren can't drive and she doesn't cook. But that's never been a problem in Manhattan, where the streets are filled with taxis and takeout restaurants, and a busy single mother can find everything she needs right at her fingertips. In fact, Zoë can't imagine living or working anyplace else. But when Zoë's daughter is diagnosed with dyslexia, she decides to make the ultimate sacrifice, moving two hours from Manhattan in order to enroll Maya in an excellent school for children with learning differences. Stranded in a rural paradise, Zoë must grapple with isolation, coyote howls, and the lack of good delivery services. But when she decides to overcome her fear of driving and take lessons, she meets Mack, an unnervingly attractive townie, back from the war in Iraq and trying to adjust to civilian life. With a budding new romance and a reporting gig for the local paper, Zoë just might survive in the wilderness of small-town America after all.

Read "FLIRTING IN CARS" here

Does She or Doesnt She? by Alisa Kwitney

2009-08-16T20:59:00.004+08:00

Delilah Levine is a part-time soap opera writer, whose husband, Jason, has taken to yelling at her when he's not simply ignoring her. Her only joys are her daughter, Sadie, and the elaborate fantasies that she has about her plumber, Ford. Jason is a corporate lawyer, in charge of a new product, an aphrodisiac called Biosensual. However, the drug is known to have some strange side affects. When Delilah accidentally sends her new soap opera script with some of Jason's notes on the back, the television station thinks that Delilah is proposing a plot about Biosensual. Delilah lets them go ahead, thinking that this will be good publicity for Jason, but when he learns about what Delilah has done, he is furious. Then attempts on Delilah's life begin. Delilah learns that Ford is not a plumber at all, but rather an FBI agent sent undercover to investigate Jason. As Delilah and Ford grow closer, their mutual attraction reaches a point where it cannot be ignored. But before they can be together, Delilah and Ford must learn what Jason is up to and who is trying to kill her

Read "DOES SHE OR DOESN'T SHE?" here

Castaways of the Flying Dutchman by Brian Jacques

2009-08-16T20:51:00.004+08:00

A boy and dog trapped aboard the legendary ship, the Flying Dutchman, are sent off on an eternal journey by an avenging angel, roaming the earth throughout the centuries in search of those in need. Their travels lead them to Chapelvale, a sleepy nineteenth-century village whose very existence is at stake. Only by discovering the buried secrets and solving the dust-laden riddles of the ancient village can it be saved. This will take the will and wile of all the people-and a very special boy and dog! Brian Jacques turns from Redwall to a very different sort of story, and succeeds admirably.

Read "CASTAWAYS OF THE FLYING DUTCHMAN" here

The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy

2009-08-16T20:45:00.004+08:00

The story of the tragic decline of an Indian family whose members suffer the terrible consequences of forbidden love, The God of Small Things is set in the state of Kerala, on the southernmost tip of India. Armed only with the invincible innocence of children, the twins Rahel and Esthappen fashion a childhood for themselves in the shade of the wreck that is their family -- their lonely, lovely mother, Ammu (who loves by night the man her children love by day), their blind grandmother, Mammachi (who plays Handel on her violin), their beloved uncle Chacko (Rhodes scholar, pickle baron, radical Marxist, bottom-pincher), their enemy, Baby Kochamma (ex-nun and incumbent grandaunt), and the ghost of an imperial entomologist's moth (with unusually dense dorsal tufts).

When their English cousin and her mother arrive on a Christmas visit, the twins learn that Things Can Change in a Day. That lives can twist into new, ugly shapes, even cease forever. The brilliantly plotted story uncoils with an agonizing sense of foreboding and inevitability. Yet nothing prepares you for what lies at the heart of it.

Read "THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS" here

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupéry

2009-08-16T20:40:00.003+08:00

The narrator's point of view is interleaved in the first nine chapters and changes from third person to first person. In the first eight days of the narrator being stranded in the desert, the prince has been telling these stories to the narrator. The prince asks the narrator to draw a sheep. Not knowing how to draw a sheep, the narrator shows the prince a picture that he had previously drawn; a boa with an elephant in its stomach, a drawing which previous viewers mistook for a hat. "No! No!", exclaims the prince. "I don't want a boa constrictor from the inside or outside. I want a sheep!...". He tries a few sheep drawings, which the prince rejects. Finally he draws a box, which he explains has the sheep inside. The prince, who can see the sheep inside the box just as well as he can see the elephant in the boa, says "That's perfect".

Read "THE LITTLE PRINCE" here

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

2009-08-16T20:36:00.004+08:00

The previous books of this author (Devil of a State -- 1962 -- The Right to an Answer -- 1961) had valid points of satire, some humor, and a contemporary view, but here the picture is all out -- from a time in the future to an argot that makes such demands on the reader that no one could care less after the first two pages. If anyone gest beyond that -- this is the first person story of Alex, a teen-age hoodlum, who, in step with his times, viddies himself and the world around him without a care for law, decency, honesty; whose autobiographical language has droogies to follow his orders, wallow in his hate and murder moods, accents the vonof human hole products. Betrayed by his dictatorial demands by a policing of his violence, he is committed when an old lady dies after an attack; he kills again in prison; he submits to a new method that will destroy his criminal impulses; blameless, he is returned to a world that visits immediate retribution on him; he is, when an accidental propulsion to death does not destroy him, foisted upon society once more in his original state of sin. What happens to Alex is terrible but it is worse for the reader.

Read "A CLOCKWORK ORANGE" here

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

2009-08-16T20:31:00.003+08:00

The astonishing novel Brave New World, originally published in 1932, presents Aldous Huxley's vision of the future -- of a world utterly transformed. Through the most efficient scientific and psychological engineering, people are genetically designed to be passive and therefore consistently useful to the ruling class. This powerful work of speculative fiction sheds a blazing critical light on the present and is considered to be Aldous Huxley's most enduring masterpiece.

Read "BRAVE NEW WORLD" here

The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice

2009-08-15T20:06:00.003+08:00

Lestat. The vampire hero of Anne Rice’s enthralling novel is a creature of the darkest and richest imagination. Once an aristocrat in the heady days of pre-revolutionary France, now a rock star in the demonic, shimmering 1980s, he rushes through the centuries in search of others like him, seeking answers to the mystery of his eternal, terrifying existence. His is a mesmerizing story–passionate, complex, and thrilling.

Read "THE VAMPIRE LESTAT" here

The Claiming Of Sleeping Beauty by Anne Rice

2009-08-15T20:00:00.005+08:00

In the traditional folk tale "Sleeping Beauty" the spell cast upon the lovely young princess and everyone in her castle can only be broken by the kiss of a Prince. Anne Rice's retelling of the Beauty story probes the unspoken implications of this lush, suggestive tale by exploring its undeniable connection to sexual desire.

Read "THE CLAIMING OF SLEEPING BEAUTY" here

Of Love And Other Demons by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

2009-08-15T19:54:00.004+08:00

From the Nobel Prize-winning author of One Hundred Years of Solitude and Love in the Time of Cholera comes an extraordinary reading experience, the story of a doomed love affair between a twelve-year-old girl and a bookish priest, three times her age, who's been sent to oversee her exorcism.

Read "OF LOVE AND OTHER DEMONS" here

Love In The Time Of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

2009-08-15T19:50:00.004+08:00

From the Nobel Prize-winning author of "One Hundred Years of Solitude" comes a masterly evocation of an unrequited passion so strong that it binds three people's lives together for more than fifty years. In the story of Florentino Ariza, who waits more than half a century to declare his undying love to the beautiful Fermina Daza, whom he lost to Dr. Juvenal Urbino so many years before, Garcia Marquez has created a vividly absorbing fictional world, as lush and dazzling as a dream and as real and immediate as our own deepest longings.

Read "LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA" here

The Queen Of The Damned by Anne Rice

2009-08-15T19:26:00.005+08:00

A feat of mesmerizing storytelling, a chilling entertainment, THE QUEEN OF THE DAMNED unleashes Akasha, the Queen herself, who has risen from a six-thousand year sleep to let loose the powers of the night. Akasha has a marvelously devious plan to "save" mankind and destroy Lestat--in this extraordinarily sensual novel of the complex, erotic, electrifying world of the undead.

Read "THE QUEEN OF THE DAMNED" here

Horror Audiobooks

2009-08-08T11:18:00.013+08:00

The Beast With Five Fingers

by William F. Harvey

download

The Doom That Came To Sarnath

by H.P. Lovecraft

download

Captain Murderer

by Charles Dickens

download

A Dreadful Night

by Edwin Lester Arnold

download

Nyarlathotep

by H. P. Lovecraft

download

The Terrible Old Man
by H.P. Lovecraft

download

Heiress For Hire by Erin McCarthy

2009-08-08T10:30:00.004+08:00

Chicago ex-socialite Amanda Delmar's father has cut her off, and now she must do the unthinkable-work. Single father Danny Tucker hires her to babysit his daughter, not knowing that this debutante might just find a place in his heart.

Read "HEIRESS FOR HIRE" here

PS I Love You by Cecelia Ahern

2009-08-08T10:22:00.005+08:00

A young married couple, Holly and Gerry, have a joke between them: If anything ever happened to him, he’d have to write her a list or else she’d never be able to cope without him. “The List” grew to encompass advice for any eventuality, a joke all their friends shared. When Gerry’s severe headache is diagnosed as brain cancer and Holly tragically loses him in a few short months, she is devastated and unmoored. She hasn’t just lost her husband, she’s lost her very identity. And then it arrives: a package marked “The List.” Gerry has kept his promise, and inside this package are ten envelopes to be opened over a period of ten months. Each letter offers specific instructions to guide Holly through grief, and ultimately grant her permission to return to life. Of course each letter ends with PS, I Love You.

Read "PS, I LOVE YOU" here

She Went All The Way by Meg Cabot

2009-08-08T09:51:00.003+08:00

Success hasn't spoiled screenwriter Lou Calabrese -- it's just given her a taste for luxury. And it's put her in some bizarre situations -- like in a helicopter en route to the wilds of Alaska, sharing too-close quarters with the last man she wants to be with: Jack Townsend! Once a sexy nobody whom Lou helped make a somebody, Jack's just been dumped by a high-profile Hollywood airhead -- who's eloped with Lou's longtime love! So what else could go wrong?

Well...

Their pilot could try to shoot the most adored man in America. They could crash land in the icy, mountainous middle of nowhere. And at the worst possible moment, when survival should be their only consideration, Jack could start wondering if maybe he wasn't a wee bit too hasty for not giving this sexy screenwriter a second look -- while Lou could start noticing how superstar Jack is kind of hot after all ...

Read "SHE WENT ALL THE WAY" here

Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

2009-08-06T22:10:00.005+08:00

When we first meet Susie Salmon, she is already in heaven. As she looks down from that strange new place she tells us, in the fresh and spirited voice of a fourteen-year-old, a tale that is both haunting and full of hope. Susie watches life continuing after her brutal death: her loved ones holding out hope she'll be found, her killer covering his tracks. As months pass without leads, she sees her family contorted by loss. With compassion, longing, and a growing understanding, she sees them face the worst -- then, in time, pass through grief and begin to mend.

Read "LOVELY BONES" here

Snow, Glass, Apples by Neil Gaiman

2009-06-05T23:25:00.003+08:00

Once upon a time there lived a young princess with skin as white as snow, with hair as black as coal, with lips redder than blood. Most people think they know what happens to this young unfortunate girl. Most people are wrong.

"Snow, Glass, Apples", by Neil Gaiman, is a retelling of one of the most popular fairytales, Snow White. The story is written from the point of view of Snow White's "evil" stepmother the Queen.

The story includes themes of vampirism, pedophilia and necrophilia.

I like fairytale retellings because they show the other side of the story, not the happily-ever-after side.

This one is a good retelling. I first encountered the piece when a friend shared it to me in college. It was one of their required readings for Communication 1 (or was it 2) in U.P. From that day on, I never saw Snow White the same way again.

When I was doing my college thesis in my senior year about children's book, I made my research an excuse to read this story again though you really woudln't categorize it under children's reading because of it's dark nature.

The story "Snow, Glass, Apples" is included in Gaiman's collection Smoke and Mirrors. It's a great finale for a series of fascinating short stories.

Read "SNOW, GLASS, APPLES" here

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

2009-05-01T23:24:00.004+08:00

Synopsis: Released from prison, Shadow finds his world turned upside down. His wife has been killed; a mysterious stranger offers him a job. But Mr. Wednesday, who knows more about Shadow than is possible, warns that a storm is coming -- a battle for the very soul of America . . . and they are in its direct path.

Gaiman is a writing god. Enough said.

Read "AMERICAN GODS" here

Confessions Of An Ugly Stepsister by Gregory Maguire

2009-04-29T23:13:00.003+08:00

"Set against the backdrop of 17th century Holland, "Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister" tells the story of Iris, an unlikely heroine who finds herself swept from the lowly streets of Haarlem to a strange world of wealth, artifice and ambition. Iris's path quickly becomes intertwined with that of Clara, the mysterious and unnaturally beautiful girl destined to become her sister. While Clara retreats to the cinders of the family hearth, Iris seeks out the shadowy secrets of her new household--and the treacherous truth of her former life."

The story of Cinderella has always been my favorite fairytale, but after reading "Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister" I will never view Cinderella's story the same way again.

This book is not your typical retelling of the cinder girl's story. It's not your generic fall-in-love-and-marry-the-prince-happily-ever-after. In here, we're not even sure if the prince and Clara, a.k.a. as Cinderella, really fell in love with each other.

In this story, it's not all about the girl thrown to slavery, it's about her family and another family, composed of a mother, who would do anything to survive and move up society's ladder, and her two daughters, one as dull as a lamp on the brink of being extinguished and the other as bright as a star on a clear night.

This is a tale that's not about pumpkins turning into carriages and mice turning into escorts nor about a glass slipper left behind. It's about our preoccupation with physical beauty and human weaknesses.

Read "CONFESSIONS OF AN UGLY STEPSISTER" here