THE RANKINS OF PRATT COUNTY In 1982, teenager Russell Rankin is viewed as smart and mature beyond his years until an impulsive and faulty decision brought on by a family crisis lands him in police custody. While lodged in juvenile detention, Russell is impacted by unexpected personal loss. As part of the Juvenile Court's disposition, he agrees to temporarily relocate from the urban Midwest to a small town nestled in North Carolina's Blue Ridge Mountains. A highly religious widowed grandmot...

From the highly acclaimed author of Pure Slaughter Value comes this latter-day literary noir about an ex-pat in Cambodia eager to get home but taking all the wrong turns.Asher went to Cambodia to get away from Julie, his Harvard grad ex-girlfriend currently tending bar in a topless joint in New York. But when his UNESCO work cleaning bat dung from Khmer statues is finished, and he decides on a dicey heroin scheme as his means to get home with plenty of money to spa...

In his extraordinary debut collection, Pure Slaughter Value, Robert Bingham tracks the conscience of a generation that grew up educated, privileged, and starved for meaning. Bingham's strange sense of morbid fancy collides with a gutsy realism; the result is splendid wreckage: a young man is seduced by his first cousin (or maybe it's the other way around) at her brother's wake ("The Other Family"); a bored couple plot to kill a man during their ski-resort honeymoon ("Marriage Is M...

In Back to the Dance Itself, Sondra Fraleigh edits essays that illuminate how scholars apply a range of phenomenologies to explore questions of dance and the world; performing life and language; body and place; and self-knowing in performance. Some authors delve into theoretical perspectives, while others relate personal experiences and reflections that reveal fascinating insights arising from practice. Collectively, authors give particular consideration to the interactive lif...

Laser-Plasma Interactions and Applications covers the fundamental and applied aspects of high power laser-plasma physics. With an internationally renowned team of authors, the book broadens the knowledge of young researchers working in high power laser-plasma science by providing them with a thorough pedagogical grounding in the interaction of laser radiation with matter, laser-plasma accelerators, and inertial confinement fusion.The text is organised such that the theoret...

Another graphic novel in this fun series spin-off of The Baby-sitters Club, featuring Kristy's little stepsister!Karen has to get glasses! She doesn't want them, especially because school pictures are going to be taken soon. But she picks out some pretty pink ones and thinks she looks very grown-up.Then Yicky Ricky at school starts calling her names, like Owl Girl and Googly Eyes. If Karen wears her glasses for the school picture, Ricky will make fun of her...

A routine personal injury case leads a lawyer into a decade-old murder mystery: "[A] superb legal thriller . . . Wonderfully diverting reading" ( Booklist).Ben Kincaid's air-conditioner is on the fritz, his staff is on half-pay, and his sister has just disappeared, leaving him holding her baby. He needs fast money, and a quick-and-dirty personal injury suit could do the job. But what looks like a sure-fire case turns out to be something far more complicate...

Prosecutor Elsie Arnold loves her small-town home in the Ozark hills, but she's been waiting for a murder to come along and make her career. So when a body is found under a bridge, throat cut, Elsie jumps at the chance to work on the case, even if it's alongside the brash new chief assistant, Chuck Harris—and her latest flame, Detective Bob Ashlock.But when the investigation reveals that the deceased woman was driving a school bus, and the police locate the vehicle, its interior co...

Another graphic novel in this fun series spin-off of The Baby-sitters Club, featuring Kristy's little stepsister!Karen feels like an ugly duckling. She already has to wear glasses, and now her baby teeth are starting to come out, too. Fortunately, she knows exactly what will make her look glamorous -- a new haircut.But the beauty parlor lady cuts Karen's hair all wrong! Karen is devastated and worried about what the kids at school will say. Can Karen get ba...

The police say Kaylene Adams was a murderer—but Emilie Wesley will stop at nothing to clear her client’s name and protect the innocent daughter Kaylene left behind.To the world it seems obvious: Kaylene Adams killed her daughter before taking her own life. Attorney Emilie Wesley knows a different story: Kaylene would never hurt anyone and was looking for a way out of a controlling, abusive relationship. Her death shakes Emilie’s belief that she can make a differenc...

A deep dive into the murder of Air Force Sergeant Michael Severance, from the acclaimed true crime author seen on 20/20 , 48 Hours , Snapped , and more.By the age of twenty-four, Air Force Staff Sergeant Mike Severance had already survived a series of missions in Afghanistan and Iraq. But his life back at home, in Texas, would prove a ...

New York Times best-selling author Cynthia Leitich Smith turns to realistic fiction with the thoughtful story of a Native teen navigating the complicated, confusing waters of high school — and first love.When Louise Wolfe’s first real boyfriend mocks and disrespects Native people in front of her, she breaks things off and dumps him over e-mail. It’s her senior year, anyway, and she’d rather spend her time with her family and friends and working on the scho...