A fond, funny Southern-fried memoir about growing up a proper young lady...or not.How does a North Carolina native go from being a tomboy with catfish guts on her overalls to becoming the next Scarlett O'Hara? Turns out, it's not so easy. Too smart, too tall, too fat, too different...Anna Fields was a dud at debbing.From tea parties to teased hair to where to hide mini bottles of liquor inside poufy crinoline ballgowns, Anna reveals all-in a hilarious, behi...

In December 1937, one of the most brutal massacres in the long annals of wartime barbarity occurred in the capital of China. The Japanese army swept into Nanking and not only looted and burned the defenseless city but systematically raped, tortured, and murdered half of the city’s remaining population, some 300,000 Chinese civilians. Amazingly, the account of this atrocity was denied by the Japanese government.The Rape of Nanking tells the story from three perspectives: th...

Despite her misgivings, child psychologist Lynn McLeod can’t ignore the plea to help ten-year-old Jilly Asche, the daughter of her ex-husband, Stephen. But immediately upon her return to Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains, Lynn is drawn subtly into the lives of everyone in the secluded household: Stephen, now an enigmatic stranger; Julian, a mesmerizing family friend who challenges Lynn’s ideas of life and death; and Jilly, the beautiful lost child burdened by a terrifying and deadly secret.

The Skolian Empire rules a third of the civilized galaxy through its mastery of faster-than-light communication. But war with the rival empire of the Traders seems imminent, a war that can only lead to slavery for the Skolians or the destruction of both sides. Destructive skirmishes have already occurred, and a desperate attempt must be made to avert total disaster.When Sauscony Valdoria, linked to the powerful Skolian Web, and the Aristo heir to the evil Trader Empire of Tarnth li...

Elsie Dinsmore is an endearing eight-year-old girl with several bewildering problems. She has never known her mother, who died when Elsie was a baby, and she longs for a close, loving relationship with her father. He, however, has sent her off to be raised at Roselands, his brothers’ Southern plantation, where her teacher, Miss Day, harshly criticizes her and her cousins tease her relentlessly.As Elsie learns to handle her problems, she begins to learn more about herself. And as he...

In the prettiest part of Kentucky, an old Southern family is torn apart by tragedy. When his beloved daughter married a Yankee, the Old Colonel disowned her and has not spoken a word to her or even laid eyes on his granddaughter. The old man’s heart turned hard as stone and children fear him. Hard times have befallen his daughter, and there is talk of her “goin’ to the the poorhouse.” But she would rather die than go to him for help.One day, by accident, he meets a little girl who ...

Winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award • Winner of the Orange Prize • National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist • New York Times Readers’ Pick: Top 100 Books of the 21****st Century""Bel Canto is its own universe. A marvel of a book."" —Washington Post Book WorldNew York Times bestselling author Ann Patchett’s spellbinding novel about love and opera, and the unifying ways people learn...

Set in New York in the 1920s, The Glimpses of the Moon details the romantic misadventures of Nick Lansing and Susy Branch, two high-society hangers-on with the right connections but a lack of funds. To maintain their status, they decide to marry and spend a year or so sponging off their wealthy friends, honeymooning in their mansions and villas. Both agree that they're free to dissolve the marriage if either one of them meets someone who can advance them socially. How their scheme...

Jennifer vividly remembers the day when, momentarily distracted, she left her three-year-old daughter, Debbie, unattended in a grocery cart. When she turned back, the child had vanished. For seven years, there was no sign of Debbie. Then one day, Jennifer receives a mysterious phone call from the wealthy Corinthia Arles, claiming that she has found her daughter.But when Jennifer arrives at Mrs. Arles’ luxurious estate on Vancouver Island, the mystery of her lost daughter only deepe...

Catherine Asaro, a physicist who combines believable hard science with first-rate storytelling, exploded onto the science fiction scene with her stellar debut novel, Primary Inversion. Now, she brings us the third tale of the Skolian Empire, which AudioFile calls "a classic tale of power and conflict, with a twist."When Kelric, a scion of the imperial family of Skolia, crash-lands his fighter on the off-limits planet of Coba, he figures it will be only a short tim...

Lacey Elliot has been a woman without a past since the day her mother whisked her off to Charlottesville, refusing for thirty years to speak of her father, her family or her history. But when Lacey intercepts a desperate letter from an aunt in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, she sees her chance to confront the past that has terrified her mother and to fill in the gaps in her own life.Against the charm and the colorful, turbulent history of the picturesque town, the violent history of...

“Like all the best suspense novels, Alone will leave you shaken. . . . You can't wait to see what happens next.”—PeopleWho can you turn to when you’re at your most vulnerable?State Trooper Bobby Dodge watches a tense hostage standoff through the scope of his sniper rifle. Dodge has only one second to react, or a woman and her child may die.Where can you hide when this killer comes?The woman at the other en...