Is there a problem at the behavioral science lab? No one is responding. Has something gone terribly wrong? Or have some of the subjects received a long overdue and richly deserved freedom? It may depend on your perspective. Animal lovers may rejoice at this...then again---maybe not.Is there a problem at the behavioral science lab? No one is responding. Has something gone terribly wrong? The ownership has sent Jason Brentwood to find out. What he finds is hard to describe. Has everyone gone a little crazy? Or have some of the subjects received a long overdue and richly deserved freedom? It may depend on your perspective. Animal lovers may rejoice at this...then again---maybe not.

At last it's Christmas and a magic tale awaits, Joe's Christmas, approved by Wonka and fully illustrated by Owner. In this Twelfth book in the series we meet Joe and his Mum again, but from Christmas past. There is Neddy rocking horse to take you through this magical tale and the mystery of the Returns Dept! Our Christmas gift from Us to You for wishes really do come true! Part one of three. xWonka and Owner bring you this special Christmas gift, the Twelfth in the #wonka series, the Story of Joe's Christmas (fully illustrated) in three parts. Wonka has given this story the once over and declared it fit for Christmas! and even approved all the illustrations too!! We meet Joe and his Mum from last year's tale, but now Joe is little and his Mum is struggling to bring him a fairy tale Christmas. This is our longest story yet, and we hope the magic of the Returns Dept , Neddy rocking horse, and the star in the little glass snowstorm bring you all the Christmas sparkle you deserve! With a sprinkle of stardust to make all those dreams come true, enjoy our special seasonal gift from Us to You! Let us begin.........

Miami is still freakin' humid. The nights are even hotter. And there's a body on ice. And that's just the beginning of this adrenaline-rush of a hot-wired ride from phenomenal number one New York Times bestselling author Janet Evanovich. A woman with a taste for speed and a talent for breaking the rules, Barney also knows a little too much about cheating. First there was Hooker and that salesclerk. Now she's convinced one of the competitors is up to no good on the track. Snooping to find evidence, Hooker and Barney "borrow" a NASCAR hauler. Turns out, the hauler is carrying two race cars and a dead guy. It looks like Barney and Hooker are facing multiple counts of grand theft auto and homicide. So buckle up as Barney, Hooker, a 150-pound bundle of Saint Bernard love named Beans, and the Super Cigar Ladies Felicia and Rosa shift into gear on a wild race around South Florida and Concord, North Carolina. Everything you always wanted to know about righteous indignation, stealing an eighteen-wheeler, and sex in the fast lane.

The Countess of Crisfield and the Baron of Bishopville stop at an inn in rural Eastern Shore during the Revolutionary era. They want rooms, ale and dozens of oysters.The beautiful Duchess of Dorchester arrives and also needs a room. There is only one room but the barn loft has clean hay.The Duchess finds a beautiful black pearl in her oyster. Everyone claims it, including Joanna, the innkeeperThe Countess of Crisfield and the Baron of Bishopville stop at an inn in rural Eastern Shore during the Revolutionary era. They want rooms, ale and dozens of oysters.The beautiful Duchess of Dorchester arrives and also needs a room. There is only one room but the barn loft has clean hay.The Duchess finds a beautiful black pearl in her oyster. Everyone claims it, including Joanna, the innkeeper.The Duchess leaves for the loft. Half and hour later, the Baron goes to the loft.

The idea originated with Bunch Jefferson. You can always count on Bunch having a few freak ideas in the belfry where he keeps his butterflies. Bunch and his wife, Alice, live out in Westchester County, about half a mile from Uncle Peter's bungalow, where friend wife and I are spending the winter. The fact that Uncle Peter and Aunt Martha had decided to give us a party was the inspiration for Bunch's brilliant idea. "Listen, John," he Macchiavellied; "not one of this push out here knows a thing about the Tango. Most of them have a foolish idea that it's a wicked institution invented by the devil, who sold his patent rights to the Evil-Doers' Association. Now, I'll tell you what we'll do, John: we'll put them wise. We'll take about two lessons from a good instructor in town and on the night of the party we'll make the hit of our lives teaching them all to Tango—are you James to the possibilities?"

The Boatswain's Mate

This Is Just to Say If you’re looking for a nice happy book put this one down and run away quickly Forgive me sweetness and good cheer are boring Inspired by William Carlos Williams’s famous poem ”This Is Just to Say,” Newbery Honor author Gail Carson Levine delivers a wickedly funny collection of her own false apology poems, imagining how tricksters really feel about the mischief they make. Matthew Cordell’s clever and playful line art lightheartedly captures the spirit of the poetry. This is the perfect book for anyone who’s ever apologized . . . and not really meant it.

Many malevolent menaces have imperiled the magical land of Xanth in its long and storied history. But none has been as despicably dangerous as the Dastard-a craven miscreant who sold his soul to a detestable demon for the power to erase events. Now the entire future of Xanth is at the mercy of his every whim. Only a young dragon-girl named Becka has the power to stop his devious deeds! Becka is a crossbreed-the daughter of Draco Dragon and a lovely human woman who met, by chance, at a Love Spring. Now fourteen, Becka is beginning to wonder where in Xanth she belongs-on the ground with her mother's people, or flying the skies with her father's kind. So she journeys to the Good Magician Humfrey to discover her True Purpose in life. Much to her astonishment and surprise, the Magician tells her that that a great Destiny awaits her-one that will affect the future of all of Xanth.

A reporter comes upon a forbidding looking structure while traveling through the Southwestern United States.Look around you. Do you like what you see? Are you satisfied with our political leadership, with the business class, with all those who have their hands on the levers of power? Are you content with the current order of the world? Perhaps you aren't. Perhaps you are quite definitely not satisfied. In fact, when you think about the myriad of serious problems that humanity currently faces-- climate change and the ongoing wholesale destruction of nature, economic stagnation, growing inequality and disenfranchisement, ethnic and social discord, armed conflicts and the nationalistically-fueled threat of greater bloodshed to come-- you are filled with despair, and anger. Despair, because with every passing day these issues seem to be growing more grave, more intractable, more pressing. Anger, because those who are responsible for guiding us toward a better, more sustainable world, for creating the conditions in which justice, prosperity, and opportunity might flourish...are not. Our leaders are failing us, of this can be no doubt. But beyond their failure lies an even greater burden of accountability. Like it or not, this the world we have made. In the future its achievements and missteps will be laid at our doorstep and no one else's. So if we don't care for the direction things seem to be heading in, it is up to us, the people, to change it. That's what this story is about: people taking the reins of the world back into their own hands to create a better society, one strong enough to last our time, and worthy of bequeathing to our children. And yes, the story is also about dragons, as well as a very special kind of magic! Read this tale if you cannot help but feel that somehow,somewhere, civilization-- the whole kit and caboodle-- has taken a wrong turn. Read it if you believe that neither the system we live under now nor its human proxies will ever be capable of putting us back on a truly democratic, sustainable path. And read "The Dragons" if, despite the undeniable gravity of the challenges facing us, you still have hope, and wouldn't mind coming by just a tad more.

From Connie Willis, winner of multiple Hugo and Nebula Awards, comes a comedic romp through an unpredictable world of mystery, love, and time travel... Ned Henry is badly in need of a rest. He's been shuttling between the 21st century and the 1940s searching for a Victorian atrocity called the bishop's bird stump. It's part of a project to restore the famed Coventry Cathedral, destroyed in a Nazi air raid over a hundred years earlier. But then Verity Kindle, a fellow time traveler, inadvertently brings back something from the past. Now Ned must jump back to the Victorian era to help Verity put things right—not only to save the project but to prevent altering history itself.

Of Superior Design is the sequel to The Wolves of Third Clan. Heaven had a plan for Werewolves and Vampires, they were seeded on Earth for a reason; an answer to the Hellion Hoard. Beings designed with perfection and allowed to evolve until the intended product emerged; a superior Superior.It arrived with Daemon alongside a worrisome thought.If he were Heaven's answer what would become of them?With the birth of Daemon a new breed emerged and Heaven's question answered. They had been warring with Hell since the beginning of time using surrogate soldiers in their stead. Earth was an experiment; a testing ground to see if Mother Nature could improve on Heavenly technology.Designed with cellular perfection, the need to dominate and an absence of fear the Superiors were the solution; the answer to Hell's Hoard. The family of LeTorque had taken control of Third Clan, preparing to fulfill their destiny and unite all. They were led by a Vampire mated to a Wolf who had a unique problem; he was under a death sentence issued by his murderous twin, the ruler of Second Clan, Yin. Yang was twin in name only for he was a supplicant; an Inferior who had given all superior traits to his brother in order to survive birth. He was a Cloak. His blood hid his scent from others of his kind and if any bonded with him they too recieved his talent. In the world of Superiors scent reigned supreme for it seperated them from the other dominant species on the planet; the physically inferior but numerically superior Humans. When Daemon was born a question emerged. If he was the answer, what was their purpose? What use were they when the solution had been found?

New York Times bestselling author Carl Hiaasen serves up a humorous helping of "taut, fast-paced action...crisp and hot" After dispatching a pistol-packing intruder from his home with the help of a stuffed Marlin head, Mick Stranahan can't deny that someone is out to get him. His now-deceased intruder carries no I.D., and as a former Florida state investigator, Stranahan knows there are plenty of potential culprits. His long list of enemies includes an off point hit man, a personal injury lawyer of billboard fame, a notoriously irritating TV journalist, and a fumbling plastic surgeon.Now, if he wants to keep fishing into his golden years, Stranahan has no choice but to come out of retirement to close this one last case...

Do you know: A good reason to be phobic about oysters and olives? How shutting your mouth can help you avoid brain surgery? How to survive in the winter wilderness with only a fishing pole and a sausage?

"A life by inference is better than no life at all." Dunn pushes his propensity for quirky to the limit, creating a full-length novel entirely upon the margins of a fictitious biography of Jonathan Blashette, a three-legged circus performer-cum entrepreneur and humanitarian. When his editor loses the manuscript of this biography, he offers to publish the only text left: his footnotes. Dunn holds up a funhouse mirror to the pedestaled residents of the twentieth century and has a laugh at the expense of the events and luminaries of an era that perhaps took itself just a little too seriously.