He was wise, strong, and brave. His destiny was to be king. She was young, beautiful, a warrior princess. Her destiny was to love him. But when first they met, it was not as princess and king -- it was as man and woman only, consumed by a passion so sudden, so deep that the very world exploded with one kiss. Only later, with his touch still burning on her lips, did Jura discover that the knight of her secret tryst had been none other than the hated Prince Rowan! Rowan, who had returned from far-away England to usurp her brother's throne... Rowan, who vowed to unite the wild clans under his rule. Furious, Jura swore her enmity to the golden-haired prince whose glorious visage tormented her days and haunted her nights. But nothing would stop Rowan from ruling over the warring tribes... and nothing would stop him from winning the fierce and lovely Jura as his bride, his Queen, his love....

When Eugene Talmadge Biggs leaves rural Georgia to seek his fortune in the wider world, he finds that world at his feet almost too quickly. Eugene, it soon becomes clear, is a boxer of uncommon promise, an athlete of such natural grace, agility, and power that his rise to a championship seems almost unquestioned— until he discovers during a routine match that he has a glass jaw. That jaw is in fact so freak­ishly vulnerable that Eugene realizes he can punch himself unconscious, a skill that he begins to exploit publicly and that quickly brings him notoriety as The Knockout Artist.Harry Crews’s extraordinary new novel is the story of his hero’s career in the New Orleans underworld, whose regulars have long since checked their morals at the door, and where success is measured by how many people are under one’s control. Set loose in this arena, Eugene becomes a sensation, the perfect victim who decrees his own punishment over and over again. As his fame spreads, he is taken up by a mysterious trainer named Jake, a min­ion of a perverse tycoon named Oyster Boy; he is taken in as a lover by Charity, an earnest psychology graduate student for whom Eugene is the perfect subject; he finds himself drawn more tightly into the city’s poisonous orbit of tawdry sex clubs, fantastic deals, and private parties where every whim is indulged. The day comes, however, when Eugene must confront his self-respect, which arrives in the person of an immensely talented young Cajun fighter—an innocent in whom he recognizes something of what he had once been. When The Knockout Artist becomes a role he can no longer play, he sets out to claim his freedom, and wins it in an unforgettable climax.The Knockout Artist is virtuoso Crews—as mordantly funny as it is unflinching in the face of every foible of bedraggled humanity. And, remarkably, it is a story about love as only one of our great writers can present it: often misguided, sometimes destructive, but ultimately the only path toward values that are clear and true. From Publishers WeeklyCrews, one of the most inventive practitioners in modern American letters, returns to a milieu that has long fascinated him: the seedy world of fighters and musclemen. Eugene Talmadge Biggs, ex-farmboy and ex-boxer (he won 13 fights and lost the next four by knockouts), knows an amazing trickhe can knock himself out with one punch to the jaw. Abandoned by his manager, Crews's glass-jawed hero has to support himself by exhibiting his trick at parties. After 73 self-inflicted KO's, the routine gets a little wearing. Meanwhile, Eugene is taken up by Charity, a rich, all-but-the-dissertation Ph.D. candidate bent on constructing a thesis that relates every fact in the world to every other fact. She thinks Eugene and his prizefighting friends are a gold mine of information for this dubious project. A brilliant specialist in black humor, Crews delivers the goods once again. His deadpan prose style is uncannily effective in meshing the surreal and everyday life. While the characters are mainly freaks, they come across so directly, often with an affecting sweetness, that they acquire extraordinary vibrancy. Crews is a modernist all right, but he isn't a facile one. The moral here and elsewhere in his work is old-fashioned: to thine own self be true. Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library JournalA superbly crafted novel of deceptions and darkness, this look at the underside of a strange group in New Orleans moves inexorably toward a stunning climax. Eugene Gibbs, a failed boxer, becomes popular on the kinky circuit and is taken in hand by Charity, a wealthy girl who beds him. Eugene is drawn into the circle of another boxer, his addict girlfriend, a hooker/lesbian, and a wealthy businessman who gets his kicks by controlling people by day and being led about with a leash by night. Basically decent, Eugene is tormented because he is deceived and let down by everyone, except a young boxer he is training. Characterization, incidents, and tone are all beautifully sustained in this unusual book. R. H. Donahugh, Youngstown and Mahoning Cty. P.L., OhioCopyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Twelve-year-old Colin, brought up entirely by women, knows little about his father except that he must have fought in the war. His mother, gritty lively but totally absorbed in her boyfriend at the nightclub where she works, says nothing about him, and Colin turns to films for images of what that father might have been, and, when this fails, begins to imagine his own film, a drama set in occupied France. The characters are the people Colin knows — his mother, his teachers and classmates, and Bernard, who dresses like a woman. Weaving in and out of Colin’s real life, his film explores issues of loyalty and betrayal and searches for his twelve-year-old’s answer to the question ‘What is a man?’ But when the man in black, a character in his drama, appears in real life, the game of make-believe takes on a deadly urgency . Only by finding and confronting the ‘thing’ he has created can Colin begin to grow up.

Barbara W. Tuchman, the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of the classic The Guns of August, turns her sights homeward with this brilliant, insightful narrative of the Revolutionary War.   In The First Salute, one of America’s consummate historians crafts a rigorously original view of the American Revolution. Barbara W. Tuchman places the Revolution in the context of the centuries-long conflicts between England and both France and Holland, demonstrating how the aid to the American colonies of both these nations made the triumph of independence possible. She sheds new light on the key role played by the contending navies, paints a magnificent portrait of George Washington, and recounts in riveting detail the decisive campaign of the war at Yorktown. By turns lyrical and gripping, The First Salute is an exhilarating account of the birth of a nation. Praise for The First Salute “Nothing in a novel could be more thrilling than the moment in this glorious history when French soldiers arrive [to] see a tall, familiar figure: George Washington. . . . It is only part of Tuchman’s genius that she can reconstitute such scenes with so much precision and passion.”—People   “Tuchman writes narrative history in the great tradition. . . . A persuasive book, which brings us entertaining pictures, scenes and characters.”—Chicago Tribune  * “[A] tightly woven narrative, ingeniously structured.” —The Christian Science Monitor * From the Trade Paperback edition.

Epub (my conversion)Time can dim the star of many a man, but not these hombres whose legacy will burn brightly in the western sky forever

A Robert E. Howard pastiche that draws on the legend of the missing 9th Legion and the Cthulhu Mythos.Set in the earliest days of Britain, Legion from the Shadows chronicles the efforts of Bran Mak Morn, King of the Picts, to hold the land against Roman invaders. But soon Bran Mak Morn must lead his folk not only against the Romans but also against the dreaded People of the Dark.

Roommates Bruno and Boots find obstacles in their way as they attempt to lead the Macdonald Hall Zucchini Warriors to a victorious football season and earn the reward of a new recreation center.

Shantih, Jinny's chestnut Arab mare, has to wait in a field until Jinny arrives back on the school bus and rides her back to Finmory. Fit and bored, she jumps out. What, thinks Jinny, can she do to keep her horse interested? And what can she do to try and save the Wilton museum, where she painted the mural of the glorious golden horses? It is to be demolished. Miss Tuke tells Jinny all about a long distance ride, ideally suited to Shantih, for Arabs are the best type of horse for endurance. But Clare Burnley, Jinny's nemesis from a few summers ago, is back in the area, with a brand new horse bought just to take part in the endurance event. Clare is just as dismissive of Jinny as she was when they first met; just as rude about Shantih. Jinny is determined to show Clare just how good Shantih is. And in the end, she finds a way to save the golden horses.

The Robin Hood legend comes thrillingly alive in Robin McKinley's reimagining of the classic adventure Young Robin Longbow, subapprentice forester in the King's Forest of Nottingham, must contend with the dislike of the Chief Forester, who bullies Robin in memory of his popular father. But Robin does not want to leave Nottingham or lose the title to his father's small tenancy, because he is in love with a young lady named Marian—and keeps remembering that his mother too was gentry and married a common forester. Robin has been granted a rare holiday to go to the Nottingham Fair, where he will spend the day with his friends Much and Marian. But he is ambushed by a group of the Chief Forester's cronies, who challenge him to an archery contest . . . and he accidentally kills one of them in self-defense. He knows his own life is forfeit. But Much and Marian convince him that perhaps his personal catastrophe is also an opportunity: an opportunity for a few stubborn Saxons to gather together in the secret heart of Sherwood Forest and strike back against the arrogance and injustice of the Norman overlords.

From the moment he rescues the beautiful, passionate Maud Fallon from the icy waters of the Hudson one wintry day in 1849, Daniel Quinn is thrust into a bewildering, adventure-filled journey through the tumult of nineteenth-century America. As he quests after the beguiling and elusive Maud, Daniel will witness the rise and fall of great dynasties in upstate New York, epochal prize fights, exotic life in the theatre, visitations from spirits beyond the grave, horrific battles between Irish immigrants and the "Know-Nothings," vicious New York draft riots, heroic passages through the Underground Railroad, and the bloody despair of the Civil War. Filled with Dickensian characters, a vivid sense of history, and a marvellously inventive humor, Quinn's Book is an engaging delight by an acclaimed modern master.

THE FINAL ENGAGEMENT...The minions of Maximilian Liao are about to deliver a crippling blow to the forces of Prince Hanse Davion—discovering a way to use Hanse's own technology against him.Half a galaxy away, assassins stalk Hanse's wife, Melissa Steiner, and her mother, Archon Katrina Steiner, in the passageways of their own palace.Invasion is imminent. The only 'Mech force capable of stopping that invasion—the Kell Hounds mercenary unit—is trapped in a game of search and destroy with the most fearsome Kurita unit ever created. Even if they come back in time...how many would make it?In a world where ten-meter-tall war machines are the soul of battle, assassins are state policy, and a spy's loyalty is always for sale, the only thing certain is death. Who can you trust? And in the bitter end, how will you be betrayed?

Bombs are exploding in the streets of London, but life seems to have planted more subtle booby-traps for Miles Flint. Miles is a spy. His job is to watch and to listen, then to report back to his superiors, nothing more. The job, affording glimpses into the most private lives of his victims, appeals to Miles. He doesn't lust after promotion, and he doesn't want action. He wants, just for once, not to botch a case. Having lost one suspect - with horrific consequences - Miles becomes too involved with another, a young Irishwoman. His marriage seems ready to crumble to dust. So does his home. But Miles is given one last chance for redemption - a trip to Belfast, which quickly becomes a flight of terror, murder and shocking discoveries. But can the voyeur survive in a world of violent action?

All is not as it seems as a daring undercover agent and an unconventional southern belle mix business with pleasure in this classic story of romance and suspense from New York Times bestselling author Kay Hooper. Kelsey has come to the idyllic southern town of Pinnacle to investigate a shady company called Meditron, which has a ruthless way of getting what it wants—or so claims the desperate caller who contacts the FBI. The locals won’t talk about Meditron. But Kelsey is an expert interrogator, prepared to use his seductive charms to his every advantage. He just hadn’t counted on falling for the beautiful witness at the center of his investigation. Elizabeth Conner is too proud to ask for any sort of assistance. She never needed help raising her three willful younger sisters. But now her family is in serious trouble, and Elizabeth’s stubborn independence is a deadly liability. And then Kelsey sweeps her up—and into his arms—like a force of nature, promising to protect Elizabeth and her sisters from a relentless enemy. Elizabeth never imagined letting any man get too close, let alone one who can’t even disclose his full name. But daring to trust this tempting stranger is a danger she must embrace. From the Paperback edition.

Lee Ofsted just makes the cut for the Pacific Western Woman's Pro-Am golf tournament. She's never hit the ball better - but for some reason, her drives keep slicing. But this isn't the only mystery - soon Lee discovers the body of the tour's star at the bottom of the course lake. Enter Lieutenant Graham Sheldon. He's charming, handsome, and determined to capture the killer - as well as Lee's heart. But the murder has triggered buried anger and jealousy among the players, and with a diabolical killer on the loose, Lee finds that making par is the least of her problems.

The Farrells are a middle-class family living in a small New England town. Ivan Farrell is an astronomer, wife Polly a photographer, eight-year-old Charlie a budding biologist and 11-year-old Amanda a talented gymnast. And then one day, unimaginable tragedy strikes.