In 1880s England, Dr. Caspian and his wife Bronwen both have genuine psychic abilities, which they keep secret. Even so, they've gained a reputation as investigators of so-called psychic phenomena, exposing a number of fraudulent mediums. In their latest adventure, they're consulted by prominent politician Joseph Hinde, whose beautiful daughter Laura has become strangely withdrawn. Her secret assignations have led him to suspect that she might be attending séances in an attempt to contact her dead mother, whom she had adored. Asked to rescue her from the clutches of evil charlatans, the Caspians uncover a tangled trail of people dying in strange and horrible circumstances. Dr. Caspian suddenly realizes that not only is Laura's life in danger from an age-old spirit...but Bronwen's as well. Another first-rate novel of horror by a masterful storyteller!
Fans of Chasing Vermeer will love this clever mystery about art, artifice, and the power of community. WATCHER. SHADOW. FUGITIVE.Harlem is home to all kinds of kids. Jin sees life passing her by from the window of her family's bodega. Alex wants to help the needy one shelter at a time, but can't tell anyone who she really is. Elvin's living on Harlem's cold, lonely streets, surviving on his own after his grandfather was mysteriously attacked.When these three strangers join forces to find out what happened to Elvin's grandfather, their digging leads them to an enigmatic artist whose missing masterpieces are worth a fortune-one that might save the neighborhood from development by an ambitious politician who wants to turn it into Harlem World, a ludicrous historic theme park. But if they don't find the paintings soon, nothing in their beloved neighborhood will ever be the same . . .In this remarkable tale of daring and danger, debut novelist Natasha Tarpley explores the way a community defines itself, the power of art to show truth, and what it really means to be home.
Cassie is fed up with online dating, but just when she’s finally decided to give up, firefighter Jett Bentley takes her on an amazing first date. But when they both go home and find three children dropped in their laps—each—they independently decide to do the right and mature thing: hide the kids from each other while sorting it all out. What could go wrong? Cassie Everson is an expert at escaping bad first dates. And, after years of meeting, greeting, and running from the men who try to woo her, Cassie is almost ready to retire her hopes for a husband—and children—altogether. But fate has other plans, and Cassie’s online dating profile catches the eye of firefighter Jett Bentley. In Jett’s memory, Cassie Everson is the unreachable girl-of-legend from their high school days. Nervously, he messages her, setting off a chain of events that forces a reluctant Cassie back into the dating game. No one is more surprised than Cassie when her first date with Jett is a knockout—but when Cassie finds herself caring for three sisters in an emergency foster placement, she decides to hide them from Jett to avoid scaring him off. When Jett’s sister’s addiction issues land her three children at his home, he decides the last thing Cassie needs to know about is his family drama. Neither dares to tell the other about their unexpected and possibly permanent family members for fear of scaring away their potential soulmate, especially since they both listed "no kids” on their profiles! With six children between them and secrets mounting, can Cassie and Jett find a way forward? Melissa Ferguson’s warmhearted debut reminds us that love can come in very small packages—and that sometimes our best-laid plans aren’t nearly as rewarding and fun as the surprises that come our way. Praise for The Dating Charade: “Melissa Ferguson is a sparkling new voice in contemporary rom-com. Though her novel tackles meaningful struggles—social work, child abandonment, adoption—it’s also fresh, flirty, and laugh-out-loud funny. Ferguson is going to win fans with this one!”—Lauren Denton, bestselling author of The Hideaway and Glory Road “The Dating Charade will keep you smiling the entire read. Ferguson not only delights us with new love, with all its attendant mishaps and misunderstandings, but she takes us deeper in the hearts and minds of vulnerable children as Cassie and Jett work out their families—then their dating lives. An absolute treat!”—Katherine Reay, bestselling author of The Printed Letter Bookshop Stand-alone contemporary romance Full-length novel (76,000 words) Includes discussion questions for book clubs
"In this book, Gene A. Plunka argues that the most important single element that solidifies all of Genet's work is the concept of metamorphosis. Genet's plays and prose demonstrate the transition from game playing to the establishment of one's identity through a state of risk taking that develops from solitude. However, risk taking per se is not as important as the rite of passage. Anthropologist Victor Turner's work in ethnography is used as a focal point for the examination of rites of passage in Genet's dramas." "Rejecting society, Genet has allied himself with peripheral groups, marginal men, and outcasts--scapegoats who lack power in society. Much of their effort is spent in revolt or direct opposition in mainstream society that sees them as objects to be abused. As an outcast or marginal man, Genet solved his problem of identity through artistic creation and metamorphosis. Likewise, Genet's protagonists are outcasts searching for positive value in a society over which they have no control; they always appear to be the victims or scapegoats. As outcasts, Genet's protagonists establish their identities by first willing their actions and being proud to do so." "Unfortunately, man's sense of Being is constantly undermined by society and the way individuals react to roles, norms, and values. Roles are the products of carefully defined and codified years of positively sanctioned institutional behavior. According to Genet, role playing limits individual freedom, stifles creativity, and impedes differentiation. Genet equates role playing with stagnant bourgeois society that imitates rather than invents; the latter is a word Genet often uses to urge his protagonists into a state of productive metamorphosis. Imitation versus invention is the underlying dialectic between bourgeois society and outcasts that is omnipresent in virtually all of Genet's works." "Faced with rejection, poverty, oppression, and degradation, Genet's outcasts often escape their horrible predicaments by living in a world of illusion that consists of ceremony, game playing, narcissism, sexual and secret rites, or political charades. Like children, Genet's ostracized individuals play games to imitate a world that they can not enter. Essentially, the play acting becomes catharsis for an oppressed group that is otherwise confined to the lower stratum of society." "Role players and outcasts who try to find an identity through cathartic game playing never realize their potential in Genet's world. Instead, Genet is interested in outcasts who immerse themselves in solitude and create their own sense of dignity free from external control. Most important, these isolated individuals may initially play games, yet they ultimately experience metamorphosis from a world of rites, charades, and rituals to a type of "sainthood" where dignity and nobility reign. The apotheosis is achieved through a distinct act of conscious revolt designed to condemn the risk taker to a degraded life of solitude totally distinct from society's norms and values." --Book Jacket.
The place: England; the time: the 1880s. Sir Mortimer Brobury dies suddenly, and his son David inherits his title. With his new wife Judith, he moves into Ladygrove Manor, the ancestral home. At first their lives are untroubled--until Judith falls pregnant. Suddenly there's a sinister change in the atmosphere at Ladygrove. An invisible presence prevents Judith from entering the Maze in the Manor gardens--where previously she had wandered freely. And the ruins of the old chapel seem haunted by some evil spirit. Judith becomes frightened, recalling her late father-in-law's warning not to have her first son born at Ladygrove. David calls in his friend, Dr. Alexander Caspian, the famous occult investigator. Caspian and his wife Bronwen eventually uncover a terrifying ancient mystery--but will they be in time to save Judith and her child? The third stunning entry in this great historical horror series.
Black hair and band hoodies had a lot to answer for. Eleven years ago, when Gothboy mooched into their business studies class for the very first time, Krissi had taken one look at him and thought, What a freak. He’s so cool! Now in their mid-twenties, Krissi Johansson and Jay Meyer are successful businesspeople and still best friends. But while one is moving forward with their life, the other is sliding ever backwards…revisiting the past and wallowing in regret. Between career commitments, unresolved family matters and friends springing unwelcome surprises, Krissi and Jay have more than enough drama to contend with, and not all of their own making. On top of all that, it’s Christmas. Yay. * * * * * This is a stand-alone story—the first in Front of House—featuring ‘the next generation’ of Hiding Behind The Couch characters. For those reading the main series, this story follows (more or less) chronologically from Reunions (Season Seven).
This vibrant, superbly crafted novel explores the elusive boundaries between existence and imagination, memory and truth. From the subtropical lushness of Queensland's Tamborine rainforest to the claustrophobic bedroom of a Boston physicist, Hospital's characters breathe an atmosphere of passion and suspense. Charade Ryan, an enigmatic story-spinning scheherazade, searches for a way to unravel the long-hold secrets of her family origins.
"The new edition of The Tragic Black Buck: Racial Masquerading in the American Literary Imagination offers a fresh perspective on this trail blazing scholarship, and the singular importance of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby as a challenge to the racial hegemony of biological white supremacy. Fitzgerald convincingly and boldly shows how racial passing by light-skinned Black individuals becomes the most fascinating literary trope associated with democracy and the enduring desire for the American Dream"--
This book is a significant contribution to existing research on the themes of race and slavery in the founding literature of the United States. It extends the boundaries of existing research by locating race and slavery within a transnational and 'oceanic' framework. The author applies critical concepts developed within postcolonial theory to American texts written between the national emergence of the United States and the Civil War, in order to uncover metaphors of the colonial and imperial 'unconscious' in America's foundational writing. The book analyses the writings of canonized authors such as Charles Brockden Brown, James Fenimore Cooper, Edgar Allan Poe, and Herman Melville alongside those of lesser known writers like Olaudah Equiano, Royall Tyler, Frederick Douglass, Martin Delany, and Maxwell Philip, and situates them within the colonial, and 'postcolonial', context of the slave-based economic system of the Black Atlantic. While placing the transatlantic slave trade on the map of American Studies and viewing it in conjunction with American imperial ambitions in the Pacific, Fictions of the Black Atlantic in American Foundational Literature also adds a historical dimension to present discussions about the 'ambivalence' of postcoloniality.
