Concentration

Are Women Human? by Dorothy L. Sayers

One of the first women to graduate from Oxford University, Dorothy Sayers pursued her goals whether or not what she wanted to do was ordinarily understood to be "feminine." Sayers did not devote a great deal of time to talking or writing about feminism, but she did explicitly address the issue of women's role in society in the two classic essays collected here. Central to Sayers's...

China Marine by E. B. Sledge

China Marine is the extraordinary sequel to E.B. Sledge's memoir, With the Old Breed, which remains the most powerful and moving account of the U.S. Marines in World War II. Sledge continues his story where With the Old Breed left off and recounts the compelling conclusion of his Marine career. After Japan's surrender in 1945, Sledge and his company were sent to China to maintain...

In the South Seas by Robert Louis Stevenson

The first experience can never be repeated. The first love, the first sunrise, the first South Sea island, are memories apart and touched a virginity of sense. On the 28th of July 1888 the moon was an hour down by four in the morning. In the east a radiating center of brightness told of the day; and beneath, on the skyline, the morning bank was already building, black as ink. We have...

It's Raining Cupcakes by Lisa Schroeder

Twelve year old Isabel is dying to get out of Willow, Oregon (population 39, 257) and experience something other than her small town. It seems that everyone gets to travel except Isabel - even her best friend, Sophie. When Isabel's mother decides to open up a cupcake shop across town, Isabel is once again stuck in Willow for the summer as she tries to help her mom get the shop up and...

No Matter What... They'll Call This Book Racist by Harry Stein

In the Age of Obama, the ugly charge of racism is more prevalent than ever. Why? Because telling the truth about racial profiling, crime, the social fallout of single parent homes, and the ways racial preferences distort the very meaning of equity and justice would mean facing up to the soul-destroying pathologies of urban black culture. Instead, black leaders and their guilty white...

The Courts of Babylon by Peter Bodo

A true insider's book, this sly, irreverent expose of the personalities, politics, intrigue, and innuendo surrounding the greed-and-ego fueled world of pro tennis leaves no player untouched, from John McEnroe and Steffi Graf to Jimmy Connors, Andre Agassi, and Martina Navratilova.

The Gunslinger - The Little Sisters of Eluria by Stephen King

Near death from an attack by Slow Mutants, Roland Deschain is taken in by a group of Sisters who specialize in anything but the healing arts. These hideous, corpse-like creatures known as the Little Sisters of Eluria have murder on their twisted minds. And in his current, wounded condition, there's almost nothing the last gunslinger can do to prevent their tender mercies from taking...

The Hard Goodbye by Frank Miller

It's a lousy room in a lousy part of a lousy town. But Marv doesn't care. There's an angel in the room. She says her name is Goldie. A few hours later, Goldie's dead without a mark on her perfect body, and the cops are coming before anyone but Marv could know she's been killed. Somebody paid good money for this frame... With a new look generating more excitement than ever before...

The Prisoner of Heaven by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

Barcelona, 1957. It is Christmas, and Daniel Sempere and his wife, Bea, have much to celebrate. They have a beautiful new baby son named Julian, and their close friend Fermin Romero de Torres is about to be wed. But their joy is eclipsed when a mysterious stranger visits the Sempere bookshop and threatens to divulge a terrible secret that has been buried for two decades in the city's...

The Seven Dials Mystery by Agatha Christie

Gerry Wade had proved himself to be a champion sleeper, so the other houseguests decided to play a practical joke on him. Eight alarm clocks were set to go off, one after the other, starting at 6:30 a. m. But when morning arrived, one clock was missing and the prank then backfired, with tragic consequences. For Jimmy Thesiger in particular, the words "Seven Dials" were to take on a...

War Is Not Over When It's Over by Ann Jones

In 2007, the International Rescue Committee (IRC), which brings relief to countries in the wake of war, wanted to understand what really happened to women in post-conflict zones. Answers came through the point and click of digital cameras. On behalf of the IRC, Jones spent a year traveling through Africa, East Asia, and the Middle East, lending cameras to women who had no other means...

What Never Dies by Jules Amédée Barbey d'Aurevilly

A love affair between a young man and an older noblewoman.