There are many things that Rory would like to forget about his childhood growing up in rural Arkansas. Sometimes, he'd even like to forget about Joe, his mentally challenged older brother, both his closest friend and biggest problem. But when a young girl named Sylvia shows up, claiming to be a Valkyrie sent by the Norse god Odin to deliver Rory to Valhalla, he will have to face the past he's tried to lock away.
Marine explorer Dirk Pitt must rely on the nautical lore of Jules Verne to stop a ruthless oil baron with his sights set on political power in this #1 New York Times-bestselling series. In the middle of its maiden voyage, a luxury cruise ship using revolutionary new engines suddenly catches fire and sinks. Its alarms stay silent; its sprinkler system remains inactive. Nearby NUMA special projects director Dirk Pitt notices smoke and races to the rescue. He's too late to save the engineer behind the ship's new technology, but helps the man's daughter, Kelly Egan, escape with her father's work in a leather briefcase. While Ms. Egan strives to uncover the hidden value in her father's inventions, Pitt is hired on by maritime insurers to investigate the wreckage. Neither are prepared for the mechanical marvels they'll soon be forced to confront. The machines could only be the stuff of legend, described in the tales of Viking explorers or the accounts of Jules Verne. And they may be Pitt and Egan's only hope when an oil tycoon with a plan of his own appears on the scene. Before journey's end, Pitt will take on a power-mad millionaire, tread upon territory previously known only to Verne's illustrious Captain Nemo, and make shocking discoveries about his own past.
When the Sudanese civil war reaches his village in 1985, 11-year-old Salva becomes separated from his family and must walk with other Dinka tribe members through southern Sudan, Ethiopia and Kenya in search of safe haven. Based on the life of Salva Dut, who, after emigrating to America in 1996, began a project to dig water wells in Sudan. By a Newbery Medal-winning author.
It's a humid summer night in August 1997 and LudoCarre is nervous. He hasn't seen or spoken to his ex, Arlo Quinonez since he wasfifteen. Now, he's returning home to be reunited with the one person he made aconnection with in his youth. The night before he arrives, Ludo gives her aphone call. Big laughs and a familiar cadence in Arlo's voice don't justinstantly calm him down -- they make him excited to see her. That excitementonly hurts him more when they show up the next day and find out Arlo has beenmissing...for the last week. Determined to find her, Ludo takes things into hisown hands, but the further he gets into his investigation, the more he questionshow well everyone on base, in town, and even he himself really knew her. Gonewithout a trace, the girl he once knew everything about has now become amystery. Where is his best friend - and who is she, aswell?
Color Version: Step into the dark future where creatures of myth clash in the back alleys of an uncaring city run by all-powerful corporations. Will Valhalla Steel rise to prominence or will they join the untold millions in anonymity? This is a collection of short stories following the members of Valhalla Steel, a gun-running clan of Vikings guided by their leader, Angus Jarlson. Caught in a turf war with chem-dealing Fae, Angus desires only two things: a future for his people and bloody vengeance against his foes.
With the Crystal healed and the Skeksis banished, Kensho and Thurma return to their separate worlds to enjoy the peace they fought so hard to ensure. But when Kensho arrives at the Crystal Castle, the Gelfling look to him to take the place of Jen and Kira as leader of Thra. Unsure if he, or anyone, is fit to rule, Kensho sets out into the wild to rectify the sins of the past and better understand the world he saved. Meanwhile, Thurma strives to rebuild the realm of Mithra as the newly-crowned Ember Queen. But her own quest to decide the future of her land is thrown into question when a Fireling from a noble bloodline makes a claim as the true heir to the throne. Written by Adam Smith (Long Walk to Valhalla) and gorgeously illustrated by Alexandria Huntington, Beneath the Dark Crystal Volume One dives deep into the worlds of the Gelfling and Firelings and examines the burden of responsibility that comes with heroism.
Hannah is the strong one. The one who cares for her brothers and sisters; the one who's kept the family together. But now, everything is changing. Her father is more distant, and her siblings are starting lives of their own. That's when Hannah decides to make a quilt. A quilt of fabrics from people who are special to the family; people they trust. And when the sisters are separated, Hannah makes sure they each have a piece of the quilt. The quilt she hopes will bring her family together again.
At the start of the hellish, fiery Australian summer of 2019/20, Walkley Award-winning journalist and suburban dad Anthony Sharwood set off on a journey. Abandoning his post on a busy news website to clear his mind, he solo-trekked the Australian Alps Walking Track, Australia's most gruelling and breathtakingly beautiful mainland hiking trail, which traverses the entirety of the legendary High Country from Gippsland in Victoria to the outskirts of Canberra. The journey started in a blizzard and ended in a blaze. Along the way, this lifelong lover of the mountains came to realise that nothing would ever be the same - either for him or for the imperilled Australian Alps, a landscape as fragile and sensitive to the changing climate as the Great Barrier Reef.
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER More than ONE MILLION copies sold A TODAY Show Read with Jenna Book Club Pick A New York Times Notable Book, and Chosen by Oprah Daily, Time, NPR, The Washington Post, Bill Gates and Barack Obama as a Best Book of the Year “Wise and wildly entertaining . . . permeated with light, wit, youth.” —The New York Times Book Review “A classic that we will read for years to come.” —Jenna Bush Hager, Read with Jenna book club “Fantastic. Set in 1954, Towles uses the story of two brothers to show that our personal journeys are never as linear or predictable as we might hope.” —Bill Gates “A real joyride . . . elegantly constructed and compulsively readable.” —NPR The bestselling author of A Gentleman in Moscow and Rules of Civility and master of absorbing, sophisticated fiction returns with a stylish and propulsive novel set in 1950s America In June, 1954, eighteen-year-old Emmett Watson is driven home to Nebraska by the warden of the juvenile work farm where he has just served fifteen months for involuntary manslaughter. His mother long gone, his father recently deceased, and the family farm foreclosed upon by the bank, Emmett's intention is to pick up his eight-year-old brother, Billy, and head to California where they can start their lives anew. But when the warden drives away, Emmett discovers that two friends from the work farm have hidden themselves in the trunk of the warden's car. Together, they have hatched an altogether different plan for Emmett's future, one that will take them all on a fateful journey in the opposite direction—to the City of New York. Spanning just ten days and told from multiple points of view, Towles's third novel will satisfy fans of his multi-layered literary styling while providing them an array of new and richly imagined settings, characters, and themes. “Once again, I was wowed by Towles’s writing—especially because The Lincoln Highway is so different from A Gentleman in Moscow in terms of setting, plot, and themes. Towles is not a one-trick pony. Like all the best storytellers, he has range. He takes inspiration from famous hero’s journeys, including The Iliad, The Odyssey, Hamlet, Huckleberry Finn, and Of Mice and Men. He seems to be saying that our personal journeys are never as linear or predictable as an interstate highway. But, he suggests, when something (or someone) tries to steer us off course, it is possible to take the wheel.” – Bill Gates
