The new novel in the transporting New York Times bestselling Inspector Montalbano mystery series Giovanni Trincanato has brought ruin to the shipyard he inherited from his father and when a worker he fires hangs himself on the construction site, Inspector Montalbano is called to the scene. In short order, the inspector loses his temper with the crass Giovanni, delivers a slap to his face, and unfortunately, it won’t be the last he sees of Trincanato. Meanwhile, a mysterious schooner called Halcyon shows up in the harbor, seemingly deserted except for just one man. With its presence comes even more mysteries, another death, and the arrival of the FBI. Alongside Sicilian-American Agent Pennisi, Montalbano and his team must attempt a suspenseful infiltration operation in this new, page-turning Inspector Montalbano mystery.
From the author of End Times and Point Hollow comes a new thriller, Rio Youers's Halcyon HALCYON is the answer for all Americans who want to escape, but paradise isn't what it seems. A beautiful island in the middle of Lake Ontario—a self-sustaining community made up of people who want to live without fear, crime, or greed. Halcyon is run by Valerie Kemp, aka Mother Moon, benevolent and altruistic on the outside, but hiding an unimaginable darkness inside. She has dedicated her life to the pursuit of Glam Moon, a place of eternal beauty and healing. And she believes the pathway there can only be found at the end of pleasure. On the heels of tragedy, Martin Lovegrove moves his family to Halcyon. A couple of months, he tells himself, to retreat from the chaos and grind. He soon begins to suspect there is something beneath Halcyon’s perfect veneer and sets out to discover the truth—however terrible it might be—behind the island and its mysterious founder, Mother Moon.
How to survive when the god of war wants to destroy you and everyone you've ever met? Probably hide, really really well. What did I do? Become head priest of the most beautiful, irritating, quick-thinking, mind-reading, mildly sarcastic goddess I could trip over in the woods, then tell the war god to his face that I was gonna wipe up the pantheon with his ugly mug. Now I'm seeking divine intervention from gods in neighboring cities, fending off a parade of unwanted guests, and racing to build this temple into a wallsy, towersy, fortressy, bad-ass city with defenses for days -- before the war god's newest recruits can blow this place to kingdom come. Thankfully, I have the girls to help me. They're the first family I've ever known, and I won't let the war god take them from me as long as I'm still alive. Which, I admit, may not be much longer... Warning!: This book has no gimmicky warnings, just non-stop save-the-world action, tons of cool new skills to unlock, and me working my ass off to keep my growing city full of beautiful women satisfied!
Rebecca Ross, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Divine Rivals, delivers a thrilling new romantasy about a girl who partners with an unlikely ally to save her sister’s life. Perfect for fans of Heartless Hunter, Dance of Thieves, and Warrior of the Wild. After eight years apart, Evadne can’t wait to see her older sister, Halcyon. But, when Halcyon returns from the queen’s army a day early, Eva knows something is terribly wrong. Halcyon is on the run and being chased by her commander after being charged with murder. Though Halcyon’s life is spared, her punishment is heavy— five years hard labor, five years imprisonment, and five years serving the house she has wronged. Suspicious of the circumstances, Eva volunteers to take part of Halcyon’s sentence. She’s sent to serve in the commander’s house, where she meets Damon, a handsome and intriguing mage. Eva must work with Damon on a potentially deadly mission to retrieve a powerful relic that could save the kingdom—and clear her sister’s name. But as the sisters continue to serve each of their sentences, they quickly learn that there are fates worse than death.
Winner of the Hemingway Foundation / PEN Award, this debut novel is "as funny as The Office, as sad as an abandoned stapler . . . that rare comedy that feels blisteringly urgent." (TIME) No one knows us in quite the same way as the men and women who sit beside us in department meetings and crowd the office refrigerator with their labeled yogurts. Every office is a family of sorts, and the Chicago ad agency depicted in Joshua Ferris's exuberantly acclaimed first novel is family at its best and worst, coping with a business downturn in the time-honored way: through gossip, elaborate pranks, and increasingly frequent coffee breaks. With a demon's eye for the details that make life worth noticing, Joshua Ferris tells an emotionally true and funny story about survival in life's strangest environment—the one we pretend is normal five days a week. One of the Best Books of the Year Boston Globe * Christian Science Monitor * New York Magazine * New York Times Book Review * St. Louis Post-Dispatch * Time magazine * Salon
What are the grand dynamics that drive the accumulation and distribution of capital? Questions about the long-term evolution of inequality, the concentration of wealth, and the prospects for economic growth lie at the heart of political economy. But satisfactory answers have been hard to find for lack of adequate data and clear guiding theories. In this work the author analyzes a unique collection of data from twenty countries, ranging as far back as the eighteenth century, to uncover key economic and social patterns. His findings transform debate and set the agenda for the next generation of thought about wealth and inequality. He shows that modern economic growth and the diffusion of knowledge have allowed us to avoid inequalities on the apocalyptic scale predicted by Karl Marx. But we have not modified the deep structures of capital and inequality as much as we thought in the optimistic decades following World War II. The main driver of inequality--the tendency of returns on capital to exceed the rate of economic growth--today threatens to generate extreme inequalities that stir discontent and undermine democratic values if political action is not taken. But economic trends are not acts of God. Political action has curbed dangerous inequalities in the past, the author says, and may do so again. This original work reorients our understanding of economic history and confronts us with sobering lessons for today.
In the world of Justice Wing, heroes and villains have contended with one another for decades spanning four eras. Now, with the heroes in nadir, Super-archer Broadhead, one of the first prosahuman heroes (meaning he possesses no special powers) struggles to maintain his edge with a failing body. This struggle is compounded by a well deserved reputation for being a butthole (though usually not using the word 'butt') and for an incident that cost him his partnership with his sidekick and the respect of his peers many years before. And yet, through it all he continued to both fight to protect the innocent (admittedly usually while insulting them) and to continue to improve both his skills and his gear, under the basic ethos he always lived by: Plan your projects, create and test a prototype, produce the final result, then continually perfect the design with new models. Now, ten years after a worldwide disaster caused by a mad god's desperate attempt to destroy not just the world but the entire multiverse, Broadhead keeps himself held together with medication and black market super science. But, with a young super-archer named Darkhood coming up, continued estrangements, haunted by his past, and finally benched for his own safety and health, Broadhead finds himself plunging into increasingly vivid memories spanning all four eras -- the Emergence of the heroes, their Halcyon Days, the horrifying Apocalypse Agenda, and now Justice Wing In Nadir, reliving his worst mistakes. Seeking validation, he desperately watches a television program that tests and debunks super-feats in hopes they will prove Darkhood's greatest arrow-shot was impossible... only to have the one person he never thought would support Darkhood show up. After a life of pushing prosahuman heroes to train and prepare for all situations instead of grandstanding and making it up as they go along, Broadhead's last remaining legacy seems ready to crumble... along with his very life. Content Warning: This story contains adult language, allusions to and discussions of verbal and emotional abuse, and (brief and entirely undetailed) references to physical abuse of a child.
The second book in the Sirian Revelations Trilogy explores the wisdom ancient Atlantis can offer contemporary seekers. The lost continent of Atlantis has existed in the collective consciousness of humankind for eons—contemplated as early as 355 BC by Plato and echoing in the modern mind. In this controversial book, author Patricia Cori provides compelling, often startling insights into this lost culture and the lessons it holds for us as both a high civilization and a metaphor for our current world situation, earth changes, growing extraterrestrial phenomena, and government conspiracy theories. Only by embracing and recognizing what Atlantis can teach us, says Cori, can we expect to heal and uplift our own increasingly threatened civilization.
A New York Times best-selling call to arms from Nobel Prize–winning economist Paul Krugman. The Great Recession is more than four years old—and counting. Yet, as Paul Krugman points out in this powerful volley, "Nations rich in resources, talent, and knowledge—all the ingredients for prosperity and a decent standard of living for all—remain in a state of intense pain." How bad have things gotten? How did we get stuck in what now can only be called a depression? And above all, how do we free ourselves? Krugman pursues these questions with his characteristic lucidity and insight. He has a powerful message for anyone who has suffered over these past four years—a quick, strong recovery is just one step away, if our leaders can find the "intellectual clarity and political will" to end this depression now.
My skill set brings all the girls to the yard. And by yard, I mean, the temple of a young goddess who's using me to build a fortified city around herself before the god of war can finish slaying every deity in the heavens. He'd better not find us before we're ready. Spoiler: We're far from ready. But hey, I get a cool skill out of it. The goddess allows me to view anyone's strength, vivacity, and other attributes as though they were numbers on a menu, and then use their life experiences to make them stronger. I can unlock their special skills too, and it's all stuff no one else can see. Hence the girls: A beastkin builder, a negotiatrix made of slime, a half-elf gypsy that charms snakes -- and more -- seeking safe refuge and a place to belong. Think our ragtag group can survive a divine onslaught of apocalyptic proportions? I know what I think. Come on in and find out.
