Promises - A Short Story

Promises - A Short Story

Jason J. Cross

Literature & Fiction / Entertainment / Religion & Spirituality

When Julie realizes that she can no longer carry on after her break up with Rob she decides to do something drastic. Can an old friend help her out of her despair or will this be the end for Julie?The Root of the Trouble is Our Will. The struggle to surrender our will to God—to fight against self, selfishness, and self-preservation—is the fiercest battle that we will ever fight. The human will of Jesus was no different. It shrunk from God’s will as decidedly as ours. Without total submission to His Father, the fallen nature He inherited from Adam would have overcome Him as surely as it overcomes us. This book portrays the battle Jesus fought each day on earth. It paints a picture of his tortured steps, a blueprint of the journey that each one of us must take back to God’s will. How do we win this war against our souls? Only a closer look at Jesus can show us how, a closer look explored within these pages.
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Overprotected

Overprotected

Jennifer Laurens

Young Adult / Romance / Entertainment

Ashlyn: A lonely society princess living in New York City.Daddy hired you to be my bodyguard.Colin: Childhood enemy, now her protector.Daddy thought I'd be safe. He thought I'd never fall in love. He thought he could keep me forever.Charles: obsessed with keeping her safe, keeping her his, he hires the one person he knows she could never fall in love with: Colin.Daddy was wrong.
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More Baths Less Talking: Notes From the Reading Life of a Celebrated Author Locked in Battle With Football, Family, and Time

More Baths Less Talking: Notes From the Reading Life of a Celebrated Author Locked in Battle With Football, Family, and Time

Nick Hornby

Literature & Fiction / Entertainment

"Read what you enjoy, not what bores you," Nick Hornby tells us. That simple, liberating, and indispensable directive animates each installment of the celebrated critic and author's monthly column in the Believer. In this delightful and never-musty tour of his reading life, Hornby tells us not just what to read, but how to read. Whether tackling a dismayingly bulky biography of Dickens while his children destroy something in the next room, or getting sucked into a serious assessment of Celine Dion during an intensely fought soccer match featuring his beloved Arsenal, or devouring an entire series of children's books while on vacation, Hornby's reviews are rich, witty, and occasionally madcap. These essays capture the joy and ire, the despair and exhilaration of the book-lover's life, and will appeal equally to both monocle-wearing salonnieres and people, like him, who spend a lot of time thinking about Miley Cyrus's next role.
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The Great Shark Hunt

The Great Shark Hunt

Hunter S. Thompson

Nonfiction / Entertainment / Gonzo Journalism

The first volume in Hunter S. Thompson's bestselling Gonzo Papers offers brilliant commentary and outrageous humor, featuring a new introduction from award-winning author and editor John Jeremiah Sullivan.Originally published in 1979, the first volume of the bestselling "Gonzo Papers" is now back in print. The Great Shark Hunt is Dr. Hunter S. Thompson's largest and, arguably, most important work, covering Nixon to napalm, Las Vegas to Watergate, Carter to cocaine. These essays offer brilliant commentary and outrageous humor, in signature Thompson style. Ranging in date from the National Observer days to the era of Rolling Stone, The Great Shark Hunt offers myriad, highly charged entries, including the first Hunter S. Thompson piece to be dubbed "gonzo"—"The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved," which appeared in Scanlan's Monthly in 1970. From this essay, a new journalistic movement sprang which would...
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See Through Me

See Through Me

Kevin Brooks

Young Adult / Entertainment

THE STUNNING NEW NOVEL FROM MULTIPLE AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR, KEVIN BROOKS When fifteen-year-old Kenzie wakes up in hospital in a darkened room, she's in the dark about what has happened to her too. The doctors break the devastating news that she has been struck down by a rare genetic condition that makes her skin has become transparent, revealing everything inside of her - and Kenzie feels repellent to look at. But when a medical photo of her is leaked and goes viral, the press attention is massive. How can Kenzie live like this, when she doesn't want to be seen at all? Can a boy who can't even see her, be the only one to help her to find the answers. . . ? Kevin Brooks was born in Exeter and studied in Birmingham and London. He has worked in a crematorium, a zoo, a garage and a post office, before - happily - giving it all up to write books. Kevin is the author of many acclaimed award-winning young adult novels, including Martyn Pig,...
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Assassination Vacation

Assassination Vacation

Sarah Vowell

Nonfiction / Entertainment

Sarah Vowell exposes the glorious conundrums of American history and culture with wit, probity, and an irreverent sense of humor. With Assassination Vacation, she takes us on a road trip like no other -- a journey to the pit stops of American political murder and through the myriad ways they have been used for fun and profit, for political and cultural advantage. From Buffalo to Alaska, Washington to the Dry Tortugas, Vowell visits locations immortalized and influenced by the spilling of politically important blood, reporting as she goes with her trademark blend of wisecracking humor, remarkable honesty, and thought-provoking criticism. We learn about the jinx that was Robert Todd Lincoln (present at the assassinations of Presidents Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley) and witness the politicking that went into the making of the Lincoln Memorial. The resulting narrative is much more than an entertaining and informative travelogue -- it is the disturbing and fascinating story of how American death has been manipulated by popular culture, including literature, architecture, sculpture, and -- the author's favorite -- historical tourism. Though the themes of loss and violence are explored and we make detours to see how the Republican Party became the Republican Party, there are all kinds of lighter diversions along the way into the lives of the three presidents and their assassins, including mummies, show tunes, mean-spirited totem poles, and a nineteenth-century biblical sex cult.
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What Happens When You Don't Play Ball

What Happens When You Don't Play Ball

Janice Daugharty

Literature & Fiction / Historical Fiction / Entertainment

Miss Faye is recovering from a broken hip. Sick of the physical therapy session, in which a bunch of old people are tossing a big yellow ball, she wheels her chair from the room, and keeps wheeling it till she is sitting outside the hospital. Not her fault that a cab driver named Stinker mistakes her for his fare. A whole day with Stinker teaches her what happens when you don't play ball.Fourteen-year-old Emily Adams has special powers she doesn’t want, a spiteful aunt she can’t escape, and a primeval legacy she knows nothing about. But when an otherworldly being materializes, Emily discovers the true purpose of her magical blood and of the danger that threatens to annihilate her world.Dormant for over a thousand years, an ancient evil has arisen. This time, it will destroy anyone – or anything – that stands in its way.With her two best friends by her side, Emily risks everything and embarks on a dangerous journey to Ireland and beyond where she unlocks the secrets of her Celtic ancestors. As the hour of world annihilation draws near, the fate of her friends, her family and her world lies in her hands.Can a teenage girl without hero credentials save the world? And will Emily find the courage to face her true self in Emily’s House?Join the Journey ...Gary Smails of BubbleCow Editing said:"I have THOROUGHLY enjoyed reading (and this is a rare comment to type!) this full manuscript. Overall a strong character-led narrative, one that is engaging, original and current."
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Late Night With Andres

Late Night With Andres

Debra Anastasia

Entertainment / Romance / Humor

Rising-star blogger Milla Kierce knows she's arrived when she sees the swag basket in her dressing room on the night of her late-night television debut. But before she can bite into the muffin that symbolizes her success, gunfire echoes through the TV studio. She's just hidden herself (mostly in plain sight) when the door flings open. Instead of a gunman, there stands one of the world's most popular rock stars, Gage Daxson, looking for his own way out of danger. Thrown together, they'll battle a venomous man seeking revenge and his own sexual pleasure, but they may never leave the building again. Distracted by fear, fame, and infamy, can these two somehow find their way to each other? Equal parts horrifying and hilarious, Debra Anastasia's Late Night With Andres offers more than a few twists and turns—and, of course, enough heat to keep things interesting.
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Slipping

Slipping

Shandy L. Kurth

Young Adult / Literature & Fiction / Entertainment

I think I'm losing my mind. The alternative would be I'm seeing ghosts. If I'm going crazy, I should check myself into a nuthouse as soon as possible. But if I'm not... if she's really a ghost, listening to her could mean the difference between life and death.Can a shy artist gain the upper hand in a face-off against her domineering twin?Will paint cans fly as two teams from vastly different backgrounds butt heads?Will a fun-loving volunteer find the courage to carve his own path?Follow three teens as they grapple with issues of love, loss, friendship, identity, and harbored prejudices in a race against time to complete their artwork in the 2nd Annual National High School Fresco Painting Competition.
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Fire Down Below

Fire Down Below

Debra Anastasia

Entertainment / Romance / Humor

Dove Glitch is embarrassed about everything above her knees and below her belly button. When she has to fill a delicate, embarrassing prescription the last thing she needs is a sexy-as-hell (and brand spanking new) pharmacist behind the counter. Johnson Fitzwell’s first day of his dream career also happens to coincide with the exact moment Dove needs her feminine meds filled. His glorious voice is way too loud–as in, he should be counting down the hits with Ryan Seacrest kind of loud. Thanks to Johnson’s handsome face and gorgeous jaw line, Dove dives headlong into her waking nightmare and asks for a vagina-scented cream. How could she not fall for him? Dove's only active goal now is to get Johnson to kiss her right on the lips. Either set. However, his horrible girlfriend is one of many obstacles preventing her from making that fantasy a reality. When Dove defends Johnson in the most unhygienic, unconventionally gross way in the middle of a crowded restaurant, their tender, slightly tantric relationship is off to a galloping, farting start. Each print copy of this book will be dipped in holy water by my mom, and glared at by my father as he purses his lips. Neither will help. So, drop your pants and turn to the left and cough. I hope you're not allergic to latex, because it’s time to fill your prescription. Anally.
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Blood and Stone

Blood and Stone

Alan Jones

Humor / Entertainment

Jennifer Ormiston, a lively and controversial local radio presenter, is found dead in an antique bath in her upmarket flat, an apparent suicide.Three weeks earlier, we meet a number of very different characters, all of whom are connected in some way to Jennifer Ormiston: the mother of a traumatised child, her husband and brother-in-law, both respected professionals, a newly-appointed Catholic priest and a woman with a troubled past, recovering in a secure psychiatric hospital.A series of threatening letters, dark memories from the past and fraught relationships play their part in the inquiry by Detective Sergeant Tim Laughland into a mysterious disappearance and what turns out to be the murder of Jennifer Ormiston, all the while navigating his own relationship with his on-off partner and fellow officer. As the possible suspects mount up, Laughland and his superior officer are plunged into a fast-moving investigation, the conclusion of which is both...
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Unfamiliar Fishes

Unfamiliar Fishes

Sarah Vowell

Nonfiction / Entertainment

From the bestselling author of The Wordy Shipmates, an examination of Hawaii, the place where Manifest Destiny got a sunburn. Many think of 1776 as the defining year of American history, when we became a nation devoted to the pursuit of happiness through self- government. In Unfamiliar Fishes, Sarah Vowell argues that 1898 might be a year just as defining, when, in an orgy of imperialism, the United States annexed Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and Guam, and invaded first Cuba, then the Philippines, becoming an international superpower practically overnight. Among the developments in these outposts of 1898, Vowell considers the Americanization of Hawaii the most intriguing. From the arrival of New England missionaries in 1820, their goal to Christianize the local heathen, to the coup d'état of the missionaries' sons in 1893, which overthrew the Hawaiian queen, the events leading up to American annexation feature a cast of beguiling, and often appealing or tragic, characters: whalers who fired cannons at the Bible-thumpers denying them their God-given right to whores, an incestuous princess pulled between her new god and her brother-husband, sugar barons, lepers, con men, Theodore Roosevelt, and the last Hawaiian queen, a songwriter whose sentimental ode "Aloha 'Oe" serenaded the first Hawaiian president of the United States during his 2009 inaugural parade. With her trademark smart-alecky insights and reporting, Vowell lights out to discover the off, emblematic, and exceptional history of the fiftieth state, and in so doing finds America, warts and all.
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Number City

Number City

Ahmad Amani

Literature & Fiction / Fantasy / Entertainment

Warning:To all dear numbers of the city:Beware! A minus, called Lying Line, is prowling about. Stay away from him! You will change to zero if he should find you! Oh yes, being zero is equal to your death. This minus is armed with cold and hot weapons, including a sharp knife and a loaded gun!Monster Number was grossly overweight and had a shaggy body, like a mammoth. In the beginning, Monster Number could not walk very well. Though he swayed a little, tottering and often falling, my father trained him for detecting and killing. After a few days, we attacked Math City.Math City was bombarded, the doors and the walls shaking while the dark shade of the Monster Number came down, covering the city. Monster Number threw big stones, one after another; and like repulsive ghoul crashed through any barrier.Then, after many horrible explosions, Monster Number entered the city, and we followed him. He smashed countless numbers as he put down his steps on the earth.
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