Adult

The year is 1779, and Carlo Morelli, the most renowned castrato singer in Europe, has been invited as an honored guest to Eszterháza Palace. Already at Eszterháza is Charlotte von Steinbeck, the very proper sister of Prince Nikolaus Esterházy's mistress. Charlotte has retreated to the countryside to mourn her husband's death. Now, she must overcome the ingrained rules of her society in order to uncover the dangerous secrets lurking within the palace's golden walls. Music, magic and blackmail mingle in a plot to assassinate the Habsburg Emperor and Empress --- a plot that can only be stopped if Carlo and Charlotte can see through the masks worn by everyone they meet.

Maia and her family raise dragons for the political war machine. But her peaceful life is shattered when the Summer Dragon --- one of the rare and mythical High Dragons --- makes an appearance in her quiet valley. The Summer Dragon is an omen of change, but no one knows for certain what kind of change he augurs. Political factions vie to control the implied message, each to further their own agendas. And so Maia is swept into an adventure that pits her against the deathless Horrors and a faceless creature drawn from her fears. In her fight to preserve everything she knows and loves, she uncovers secrets that challenge her understanding of her world and of herself.

Navy helicopter pilot Lt. Alison Malone has been assigned to a search and rescue team based at Naval Air Station Fallon, Nevada, near the rugged peaks of the Sierra Nevada, and far from her former elite H-60 squadron. Alison's defenses start to slip when she meets mountain guide Will Cavanaugh during a particularly dicey mission. Will introduces her to a wild, beautiful world of adventure that she has never known before. Stranded on a mountain during a sudden dangerous blizzard, Alison questions every truth she thought she knew about herself. When Will braves the storm to save her life, she must confront the fact that she has been living a lie. But is it too late to change course?

SOBER STICK FIGURE is a memoir from stand-up comedian Amber Tozer, chronicling her life as an alcoholic and her eventual recovery --- starting with her first drink at the age of seven --- all told with the help of childlike stick figures. Amber writes and illustrates the crazy and harsh truths of being raised by alcoholics, becoming one herself, stagnating in denial for years, and finally getting sober.

Lady Georgina Hawthorne has always known she must marry well. With money and powerful business connections but no title, Colin McCrae is invited everywhere but accepted nowhere. He intends to marry someday, but when he does, it will not be to a shallow woman like Lady Georgina, whose only concerns appear to be status and appearance. But beneath her flawless exterior, Georgina's social aspirations stem from a shameful secret she is desperately trying to keep hidden --- and that Colin is too close to discovering.

Journalist Amy Haimerl and her husband had been priced out of their Brooklyn neighborhood. Seeing this as a great opportunity to start over again, they decide to cash in their savings and buy an abandoned house for $35,000 in Detroit, the largest city in the United States to declare bankruptcy. As she and her husband restore the 1914 Georgian Revival, Amy finds a community of Detroiters who, like herself, aren’t afraid of a little hard work or things that are a little rough around the edges. Amy writes evocatively about the charms and challenges of finding her footing in a city whose future is in question.

Kim Addonizio is used to being exposed. As a writer of provocative poems and stories, she has encountered success along with snark: one critic dismissed her as “Charles Bukowski in a sundress.” (“Why not Walt Whitman in a sparkly tutu?” she muses.) Now, in this utterly original memoir in essays, she opens up to chronicle the joys and indignities in the life of a writer wandering through middle age.

Jack McCann is a high-stakes Wall Street trader who sneaks into his office early one morning to try and clear out his things and get out of Dodge; he knows he’s in trouble, deep legal trouble. Outside his office window, he hears a booming sound, and then the worst noise imaginable. He works in the World Trade Center, and it's September 11, 2001. His wife, Diane, is visited the next day by a grief counselor, and then the mob. She learns that Jack owes them $750,000; their personal bank accounts have been emptied, and she's totally broke. Lost in grief and shock, Diane soon discovers that her husband was not the loving spouse he appeared to be.

Struggling to come to terms with the suicide of her teenage son, Ellie lives in the shadows of the Forth Road Bridge, lingering on its footpaths and swimming in the waters below. One day she talks down another suicidal teenager, Sam, and sees for herself a shot at redemption, the chance to atone for her son's death. But even with the best intentions, she can't foresee the situation she's falling headlong into --- a troubled family, with some very dark secrets of their own.

Cold Hand in Mine stands as one of Aickman's best collections and contains eight stories that show off his powers as a 'strange story' writer to the full, being more ambiguous than standard ghost stories. Throughout the stories the reader is introduced to a variety of characters, from a man who spends the night in a Hospice to a German aristocrat and a woman who sees an image of her own soul. There is also a nod to the conventional vampire story ('Pages from a Young Girl's Journal') but all the stories remain unconventional and inconclusive, which perhaps makes them all the more startling and intriguing.