“Excuse me, miss? Would you please marry me?” “Mister, we don’t even know each other! Don’t you think that you’re being a little too hasty and impulsive?” Although he was crippled, the man before her possessed the mannerism and looks that were certainly leagues ahead of those horrible men that she had been blind dating recently.Oh Vivian, hasn’t your sole aim for the past three months been to get married to a local resident as fast as you can? Now, the opportunity to do so is practically leaping into your arms!Why are you still hesitating? Conflicting emotions swirled within her. In the end, she bit her lip and firmed her resolve. The woman nodded in agreement. “Alright, I agree.”
That night, she had been framed and become his victim. From then on, she became his secret lover. Until one day, he accidentally married into a rich family and became their legal wife. Countless people were obsessed with the Dark Night. She used all kinds of methods to keep him here, but when his goddess returned, she actually managed to say, "You are just a substitute!"
One year—he'll be gone for one year and then we'll be together again and everything will be back to the way it should be. The day David left, I felt like my heart was breaking. Sure, any long–distance relationship is tough, but David was going to war—to fight, to protect, to put his life in danger. We can get through this, though. We'll talk, we'll email, we won't let anything come between us. I can be on army girlfriend for one year. But will my sweet, soulful, funny David be the same person when he comes home? Will I? And what if he doesn't come home at all...? "A tender and honest examination of love, longing, and loyalty in the face of modern war."—Laura Ruby, author of Bad Apple "While He Was Away is a wonderful love story with writing that is skillful and true."—Amy Timberlake, author of That Girl Lucy Moon
They say you can’t have your cake and eat it too. But who would want a cake they couldn’t eat? Just ask Emma Rae Travis about that. A baker of confections who is diabetic and can’t enjoy them. When Emma meets Jackson Drake, the escapee from Corporate America who is starting a wedding destination hotel to fulfill a dream that belonged to someone else, this twosome and their crazy family ties bring new meaning to the term "family circus." The Atlanta social scene will never be the same!
Recent West Point graduate Walt Tyler has nearly everything in life: respect as a successful quarterback, the affection of an attractive doctor, and a well laid-out military career. But Walt is plunged into the fight of his life when terrorists begin killing off the hidden network of Templar Knights, led by seven vital figures. Walt's grandfather, newly elected U.S. President Preston Tyler, one of the seven, holds the key to protecting the knights. He reveals to Walt the clandestine establishment intended to protect Christians during the last days. Having existed since the inception of the Knights Templar, the cryptic order of the Seven Knights has remained veiled for centuries. Brought up through history under the blanket of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, the Seven Knights maintain an exclusive membership of only seven men, powerful individuals including politicians, military leaders, corporate geniuses, and financiers from around the globe. The sudden attack on the knights can only mean one thing: the antichrist is coming. In Brian Cox's gripping novel, Walt and Preston's desperate escape leads them along a modern underground railroad through the long-established safe havens of the Biltmore and the Hermitage as they attempt to discover by whom their death is being sought and how their centuries-old secret has leaked. Can Walt and Preston stop the terrorists before all Seven Knights are murdered?
The Bonfire of the Vanities defined an era--and established Tom Wolfe as our prime fictional chronicler of America at its most outrageous and alive. With A Man in Full, the time the setting is Atlanta, Georgia--a racially mixed late-century boomtown full of fresh wealth, avid speculators, and worldly-wise politicians. Big men. Big money. Big games. Big libidos. Big trouble. The protagonist is Charles Croker, once a college football star, now a late-middle-aged Atlanta real-estate entrepreneur turned conglomerate king, whose expansionist ambitions and outsize ego have at last hit up against reality. Charlie has a 28,000-acre quail-shooting plantation, a young and demanding second wife--and a half-empty office tower with a staggering load of debt. When star running back Fareek Fanon--the pride of one of Atlanta's grimmest slums--is accused of raping an Atlanta blueblood's daughter, the city's delicate racial balance is shattered overnight. Networks of illegal Asian immigrants crisscrossing the continent, daily life behind bars, shady real-estate syndicates, cast-off first wives of the corporate elite, the racially charged politics of college sports--Wolfe shows us the disparate worlds of contemporary America with all the verve, wit, and insight that have made him our most phenomenal, most admired contemporary novelist. A Man in Full is a 1998 National Book Award Finalist for Fiction.
“I am a monster, Miss Hart. You wouldn’t want nor wish to see me...” He is mysterious and brilliant, wealthy and prominent, but no single person has seen him in person. Well, no one should see him—that's one of his many rules. No one can touch him either; that's also another rule. Except for me because I have broken every rule. Now I'm extremely drawn to him. His peculiarity is out of this world, and his beauty is beyond physical. But the Master has demons of his own and is being chased by his brutal past. Suddenly, we've become the reflection of each other's nightmares. I realize that the Master and I are not so different. Is this newly found bond just another uncertain fate that could deepen our wounds, or is it finally going to be our redemption?
When Gary Jackson, a bright academic student, suffers life changing injuries in a road traffic accident, his world begins to unravel. Having taught himself to lucid dream, he now spends considerable time in bed, living out fantasies in his own mind that he could never experience in the waking world. However, when a relative with dementia claims to have witnessed a murder he committed in a dream, Gary starts to question the nature of reality, and wonders if his actions in the dream world have real life consequences. Meanwhile, in another place, Physics student Gary Jackson finds himself in prison for a murder he has no memory of committing. Can the dreamer help the student get acquitted for a murder everyone saw him commit? Or will Gary spend his life in prison for someone else's crime?
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A memoir of leadership and success: The executive chairman of Disney, Time’s 2019 businessperson of the year, shares the ideas and values he embraced during his fifteen years as CEO while reinventing one of the world’s most beloved companies and inspiring the people who bring the magic to life. NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR Robert Iger became CEO of The Walt Disney Company in 2005, during a difficult time. Competition was more intense than ever and technology was changing faster than at any time in the company’s history. His vision came down to three clear ideas: Recommit to the concept that quality matters, embrace technology instead of fighting it, and think bigger—think global—and turn Disney into a stronger brand in international markets. Today, Disney is the largest, most admired media company in the world, counting Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm, and 21st Century Fox among its properties. Its value is nearly five times what it was when Iger took over, and he is recognized as one of the most innovative and successful CEOs of our era. In The Ride of a Lifetime, Robert Iger shares the lessons he learned while running Disney and leading its 220,000-plus employees, and he explores the principles that are necessary for true leadership, including: • Optimism. Even in the face of difficulty, an optimistic leader will find the path toward the best possible outcome and focus on that, rather than give in to pessimism and blaming. • Courage. Leaders have to be willing to take risks and place big bets. Fear of failure destroys creativity. • Decisiveness. All decisions, no matter how difficult, can be made on a timely basis. Indecisiveness is both wasteful and destructive to morale. • Fairness. Treat people decently, with empathy, and be accessible to them. This book is about the relentless curiosity that has driven Iger for forty-five years, since the day he started as the lowliest studio grunt at ABC. It’s also about thoughtfulness and respect, and a decency-over-dollars approach that has become the bedrock of every project and partnership Iger pursues, from a deep friendship with Steve Jobs in his final years to an abiding love of the Star Wars mythology. “The ideas in this book strike me as universal” Iger writes. “Not just to the aspiring CEOs of the world, but to anyone wanting to feel less fearful, more confidently themselves, as they navigate their professional and even personal lives.”
