When the paths of a runaway teenage boy, an old hobo, and a rich girl intersect in an abandoned train yard, each carries their own personal baggage. Over early mornings, long walks, and cheap coffee they discover, no matter how big or small, that it is the simple gifts in life that really make a difference. This special reissue of a bestselling and award-winning Australian classic is a life-affirming look at humanity, generosity, and love.

Pickles are mentioned in the Bible. Cleopatra ate them as a beauty regimen. Shakespeare put them in his plays. Mason designed jars for bottling them. So did Ball. Did Mason and Ball fight over the King of the Pickle Jars title? I don't know. I did know this much: I used pickles to keep fear, pride, and my love of Jay Wakefield behind a door I would not risk opening again. Even now. Wakefields take what they want. MacBrides never surrender. For nearly a hundred years, a battle of wills between these two deeply-rooted Appalachian families has ended in defeat and heartache—most often, for MacBrides. Now the MacBride name is barely more than a legend, and it's up to Gabby MacBride to deal with the pain of her childhood memories and also the challenge of a MacBride legacy she's only beginning to understand. That will mean coming to terms with her bittersweet love for Jay Wakefield, the lonely rich boy who became her soul mate when they were kids, before the dark demands of his...

From critically acclaimed author Willo Davis Roberts comes an Edgar Award–winning classic mystery about a twelve-year-old girl on the run with her family.Pack up and leave? Tonight? When Megan has just one week of school left before summer vacation? Something doesn't seem right. Megan is used to moving. After all, she's moved a dozen times in her twelve years. But this time, something is different. They're leaving in the middle of the night, and Megan doesn't even have a chance to say good-bye to her best friend. What's worse, Megan can tell her mother is frightened. It's almost as if they're running away from something. But from what?

Blending mystery, romance, and urban fantasy with a dash of horror, this witty New Adult novel follows four quirky friends on a cross-country, paranormal investigation. Sadie Smith was absolutely certain of three things: (1) ghosts were indisputably real; (2) she and her three friends were some of the best (though not the most successful) ghost hunters in Oregon; (3) her teammate Jefferson Parrish was always the scariest thing in the room. But ghosts—unsurprisingly—can't help pay the rent. So when Sadie and her friends are offered an undisclosed sum of money from an anonymous client to find a link between four historical haunted locations, it's an easy sell. During their investigation, Sadie finds herself forgetting about Jefferson's macabre tendencies and falling for his sweetness, even if his idea of a love letter reads more like a note from a serial killer. As Sadie's feelings get more tangled up with Jefferson, their group puts together the final pieces of a...

A collection of stories giving a new voice to three characters from Megan Crewe's Fallen World trilogy, and a glimpse of life beyond THE WORLDS WE MAKE. Carry the Earth - When Kaelyn's news about the vaccine stirs up unrest at the artists' colony, Tessa struggles to protect the sanctuary she's carefully constructed. Trial by Fire - Drew tackles a new assignment that not only puts him at odds with his most vicious colleague and his life on the line, but may also determine the entire future of the Wardens. Water Song - After he convinces a boy to leave his sick mother, Leo commits to helping the now hostile kid settle into life with the surviving islanders while confronting his own self-doubts.

The first book of Kate Elliott's epic Novels of the Jaran, set in an alien-controlled galaxy where a young woman seeks to find her own life and love, but is tied to her brother's revolutionary fateIn the future, Earth is just one of the planets ruled by the vast Chapalii empire. The volatility of these alien overlords is something with which Tess Soerensen is all too familiar. Her brother, Charles, rebelled against them at one time and was rewarded by being elevated into their interstellar system—yet there is reason to believe they murdered his and Tess's parents.Struggling to find her place in the world and still mending a broken heart, Tess sneaks aboard a shuttle bound for Rhui, one of her brother's planets. On the ground, she joins up with the native jaran people, becoming immersed in their nomadic society and customs while also attempting to get to the bottom of a smuggling scheme she encountered on her journey there. As she grows ever closer to the charismatic jaran...

A fast paced international thriller - sure to delight fans starved of WallanderWhen archaeologist Louise Cantor's son Henrik is found dead in his flat, she refuses to believe it was suicide. Clues that only a mother could detect lead her to believe something more sinister took place.Henrik had kept many things back from her and she is shocked to learn he had contracted HIV. While looking through his bundles of papers, she discovers he was obsessed with the conspiracy theory that JFK's brain disappeared prior to the autopsy – along with the vital evidence regarding bullet exit wounds. The only lead is a letter and photograph from Henrik's girlfriend in Mozambique.Louise's quest to unravel the mystery surrounding her son's death takes her to Africa; a continent rife with disease, poverty and corruption. Struggling to cope with sickness and the oppressive heat, Louise sees fear in every face, even unexpectedly in the patients at the clinics set up by an American...

An old woman is awoken in the dead of night by knocks at her front door. She opens it to find her daughter, Doruntine, standing there alone in the darkness. She has been brought home from a distant land by a mysterious rider she claims is her brother Konstandin. But unbeknownst to her, Konstandin has been dead for years. What follows is chain of events which plunges an Albanian village into fear and mistrust. Who is the ghost rider? Based on the story of “The Ballad of Constantine and Doruntine”, an ancient tale that is known wherever Albanian is spoken and whose versions exist in every Balkan language and in several other European folk traditions. The legend tells of a brother, Kostandin, who rises from his grave to fulfil his promise of bringing his married sister Doruntine back from a far-off land to see their dying mother. Revised edition with many additions and title change of Doruntine, published many years ago.

Can't Ida Mueller walk to town without being harangued by rowdy railroad men? The formerly lovely town of Spring Creek, Texas, has been overtaken by saloons disorderly conduct. So when a hsome stranger arrives with plans to open a gambling hall next to her family's mercantile store, Ida makes plans of her own: to foil his! Someone has to save Spring Creek. since Ida's convinced marriage isn't in her future, the Lord's work will be! But after one look into Mick Bradley's eyes— heart—the plucky beauty might start hearing wedding bells!

The big school field trip to Mount Frost is finally here! You and your best friend, Heather, can't wait to hit the slopes, hang out in the lodge, and check out all the cute guys from the neighboring school . . . until the cool new girl, Molly, asks you to room with her. Which friend should you choose? And in between braving the Black Diamond run with an old crush and sipping a steamy cup of cocoa with a sweet younger guy, you've got snowball fights to win, a whole town to explore, and even-gulp!-karaoke night to attend. Will you ski your way to a sweetheart or be left out in the cold? It's all up to you in the third installment of the series that lets YOU decide your dating fate.

From Brittany's fog-shrouded forests to the elegant dark heart of Paris's royal court, one woman must challenge a country's destiny--and her own dangerous fate.France, 1585. She is the youngest and most powerful of the "Sisters of Faire Isle," women known far and wide for their extraordinary mystical abilities. Skilled in healing and able to forecast the future of those around her, Miri Cheney has returned to her ancestral home to take refuge from a land devastated by civil war--and to grieve for her family, driven to exile. But she cannot hide from the formidable new power threatening to seize control of France from the dread "Dark Queen," Catherine de Medici--a diabolical woman known only as the Silver Rose. Miri has no choice but to turn to the one man she distrusts as much as she desires: Simon Aristide, the charismatic witch-finder who is now himself the hunted, and who has reluctantly made an unholy pact with Catherine. Miri must defy throne and family to save all that she loves most--and command a future greater than she could ever imagine.Vibrant with stunning historical detail, alive with characters as richly passionate as they are compelling, The Silver Rose is a sweeping, exquisitely wrought tale from a mesmerizing storyteller.

If At First You Don't SucceedFor two years, Justice Turnbull has paced his room at Halo Valley Security Hospital, planning to escape. Justice has a mission-one that began with a vicious murder two decades ago. And there are so many others who must be sent back to the hell that spawned them...Kill...Laura Adderley didn't plan to get pregnant by her soon-to-be ex-husband, though she'll do anything to protect her baby. But now reporter Harrison Frost is asking questions about the mysterious group of women who live at Siren Song lodge. Harrison hasn't figured out Laura's connection to the story yet. But Justice knows. And he is coming...Then Kill Again...All her life, Laura has been able to sense approaching evil. But that won't stop a psychopath bent on destroying her. Justice has been unleashed, and this time, there will be no place safe to hide...Praise for Wicked Game"Chilling... Swift pacing and an intriguing plot make this a...

RetailBudd Schulberg's love affair with boxing began when he was twelve, when he saw his first bouts at the Hollywood Legion. Over the years, between novels, he was Sports Illustrated's first boxing editor and covered title fights for Playboy, Esquire, Newsday, and the New York Post. This new book collects the best of Mr. Schulberg's reportage on the Sweet Science, from Benny Leonard to Muhammad Ali to George Foreman. In addition to pieces on the great fights and great fighters of the last seventy-five years, Mr. Schulberg offers reflections on the social history of the fight game; the mystique of the heavyweight championship; the seamy side of the boxing business; and his own sparring match with Ernest Hemingway, when two aficionados of prizefighting had a verbal go at each other. Throughout, Mr. Schulberg is a pleasure to read and a passionate defender of an often maligned sport. "Boxing and civilization—any civilization—stand in delicate balance," he writes. "But if our civilization is indeed declining and if it finally falls, it will not be because Joe Louis clobbered Schmeling or took the measure of Billy Conn. Or because Ali made Bad Sonny Liston quit in his corner. Or because Joe Frazier landed a tremendous, humbling left hook on the controversial jaw of gallant braggadocio Muhammad Ali.”

If Mick Churchill thinks he can buy out half of Shelby Jackson's family-owned race team, she's got news for him. So what if Mick's the most famous soccer star on the globe--with cash, connections and charisma? Fuel line? Finish line? Shelby doubts the Brit knows the difference. Superstar Mick knew buying a NASCAR team was going to be tricky. The truth is the struggling team needs Mick's media savvy and team-building skills--even if Shelby can't admit it. Now, with Daytona just days away, Mick won't quit until he changes Shelby's mind. Any way he can.