Shin-ah, a loyal shadow beast, is one day transformed into a human being. By a turn of fate, she is discovered by her once master, Ryu. As she discovers more about her own form and the emotions developing toward the one she never would have looked at before, evil lurks. The people of their clan are being stolen, and Ryu has run out to stop them. Is there a greater danger than the risk of her heart and body, or is there a more sinister plan at work? One that could throw all that she has known and grown to love into peril?
New York Times bestselling author Joyce Carol Oates’s strongest and most unsparing novel yet—an always engrossing, often shocking evocation of female rage, gallantry, and grit. The time is the 1950s. The place is a blue-collar town in upstate New York, where five high school girls join a gang dedicated to pride, power, and vengeance on a world that seems made to denigrate and destroy them. Here is the secret history of a sisterhood of blood, a haven from a world of male oppressors, marked by a liberating fury that burns too hot to last. Above all, it is the story of Legs Sadovsky, with her lean, on-the-edge, icy beauty, whose nerve, muscle, hate, and hurt make her the spark of Foxfire: its guiding spirit, its burning core. At once brutal and lyrical, this is a careening joyride of a novel—charged with outlaw energy and lit by intense emotion. Amid scenes of violence and vengeance lies this novel’s greatest power: the exquisite, astonishing rendering of the bonds that link the Foxfire girls together. Foxfire reaffirms Joyce Carol Oates’s place at the very summit of American writing.
Shin-ah, a loyal shadow beast, is one day transformed into a human being. By a turn of fate, she is discovered by her once master, Ryu. As she discovers more about her own form and the emotions developing toward the one she never would have looked at before, evil lurks. The people of their clan are being stolen, and Ryu has run out to stop them. Is there a greater danger than the risk of her heart and body, or is there a more sinister plan at work? One that could throw all that she has known and grown to love into peril?
One winter long ago, Tavian Kimura watched his mother—a kitsune, or Japanese fox-spirit—leave him in the snow for the dogs. But that’s a memory buried beneath eleven years, and he has lived most of his life in America with his adoptive family and his girlfriend, Gwen. Now he’s back. All it took was an invitation to spend New Year’s with his grandparents, and Tavian finds himself in Tokyo with Gwen by his side. It should be a time of celebration, but it becomes a time of nightmares. A faceless ghost haunts Tavian, warning him that “she” is coming. A gang of inugami—fiercely loyal dog-spirits—wants him dead. Why? The inugami believe he strongly resembles one of their most hated enemies, a kitsune named Yukimi. Is Yukimi the mother who abandoned him? Tavian never knew her true name. He doesn’t even know his own true name, the key to a kitsune’s magic. And soon his untrained magic threatens to kill him, straining his half-human body. Tavian realizes that finding his mother might be the only way to find answers, before it’s too late.
After Lieutenant Commander August Micholson loses his first ship in battle, he is offered a second chance. His new mission is to take the ironclad gunboat USS James B. Eads on a mission to destroy a hidden rebel boat yard. However, there are more forces at play than the Conferate army. On the Yazoo River, the lieutenant and crew become involved with a slave and his master who planning to use African fire spirits to destroy the Federal armies. Micholson must choose between saving the lives of every American or merging his soul with a demon.
Fox is a woman as feisty as they come. Once the most sought-after scout west of the Rockies, she led folks through wild, unexplored terrain ́until a gunshot wound ended her guiding career. She ́s living a calmer life when a handsome stranger appears with an urgent request to take him to Denver immediately. The gold coins he offers catch Fox ́s eye ́and so do his sharp good looks. Fox can ́t resist the chance to guide again, and can ́t ignore the fire that burns in her body whenever she sees this oh-so tempting man. Matthew Tanner has received a startling telegraph: His father is being held for ransom in Denver. With time running out, Matthew must find the best scout money can buy. When the best turns out to be a woman with gritty good looks and a wild mane of red hair, Matthew is both shocked and intrigued. Can Matthew and Fox ́s mutual desire and growing love survive the perils of their journey, or will their secrets destroy each other?
He’s undead, overweight, and can’t get a date Vampire, nosferatu, creature of the night—whatever you call him—Jules Duchon has lived (so to speak) in New Orleans far longer than there have been drunk coeds on Bourbon Street. Weighing in at a whopping four hundred and fifty pounds, swelled up on the sweet, rich blood of people who consume the fattiest diet in the world, Jules is thankful he can’t see his reflection in a mirror. When he turns into a bat, he can’t get his big ol’ butt off the ground. What’s worse, after more than a century of being undead, he’s watched his neighborhood truly go to hell—and now, a new vampire is looking to drive him out altogether. See, Jules had always been an equal opportunity kind of vampire. And while he would admit that the blood of a black woman is sweeter than the blood of a white man, Jules never drank more than his fair share of either. Enter Malice X . Young, cocky, and black, Malice warns Jules that his days of feasting on sisters and brothers are over. He tells Jules he’d better confine himself to white victims—or else face the consequences. And then, just to prove he isn’t kidding, Malice burns Jules’s house to the ground. With the help of Maureen, the morbidly obese, stripper-vampire who made him, and Doodlebug, an undead cross-dresser who (literally) flies in from the coast—Jules must find a way to contend with the hurdles that life throws at him . . . without getting a stake through the heart. It’s enough to give a man the blues.
New York Times bestseller • Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize • One of the Washington Post's 10 Best Books of the Year “It’s no exaggeration to say that Behave is one of the best nonfiction books I’ve ever read.” —David P. Barash, The Wall Street Journal "It has my vote for science book of the year.” —Parul Sehgal, The New York Times "Immensely readable, often hilarious...Hands-down one of the best books I’ve read in years. I loved it." —Dina Temple-Raston, The Washington Post From the bestselling author of A Primate's Memoir and the forthcoming Determined: A Science of Life Without Free Will comes a landmark, genre-defining examination of human behavior and an answer to the question: Why do we do the things we do? Behave is one of the most dazzling tours d’horizon of the science of human behavior ever attempted. Moving across a range of disciplines, Sapolsky—a neuroscientist and primatologist—uncovers the hidden story of our actions. Undertaking some of our thorniest questions relating to tribalism and xenophobia, hierarchy and competition, and war and peace, Behave is a towering achievement—a majestic synthesis of cutting-edge research and a heroic exploration of why we ultimately do the things we do . . . for good and for ill.
