Maggie and Killian have to lie low now that the queen knows Killian is alive. But an escape to wine country reveals a nest of vampires drunk on power and a Medusa who would like to see anyone who opposes Mad King Cole stoned... as in, transformed into stone marble statues. The natural balance is out of whack and as they say: If Mother Nature ain't happy, ain't nobody happy. A whole lot of shaking is about to go on... WARNING: This book contains cussing, brawling, and unladylike behavior. Proceed with caution.
A new holiday classic to add to your collection, this gorgeous wordless picture book by esteemed author-illustrator Elly MacKay celebrates the magic of theater and The Nutcracker as seen through the eyes of a young girl and her grandmother. It is a cold and rainy evening when Gran gives her granddaughter something special: tickets to the ballet. Her granddaughter is reluctant to go. The weather is terrible and they have to wear fancy, uncomfortable clothes. But as the curtains rise on The Nutcracker, the girl's eyes light up as she's introduced to the magic of the theater. The bright costumes, the intricate dances, the magical music, and a new friend all combine to captivate the girl and to bring color to an otherwise dreary evening. Waltz of the Snowflakes is Elly MacKay at her finest, mixing her acclaimed paper-cut artwork with vibrant colors in this whimsical, dreamlike, and inspiring wordless picture book. A must-have for any ballet- and theater-obsessed reader and the perfect gift to be shared during the holidays or any time of year when the world outside needs a little bit of color and vibrancy.
When monsters appear on Earth, Maggie MacKay is on the job. No one is better at hauling the creepy crawlies back where they belong. No one, that is, except Maggie's dad, who vanished in the middle of an assignment. Now, an elf named Killian has shown up with a gig. Seems Maggie's uncle teamed up with the forces of dark to turn Earth into a vampire convenience store, serving bottomless refills on humans. Ah, family... The only hope for survival lies in tracking down two magical artifacts and a secret that disappeared with Maggie's dad. WARNING: This book contains cussing, brawling, and unladylike behavior. Proceed with caution.
Creatures with sharp teeth who crawl beneath the earth. Relentless brutes who control the seasons with shadows... It can mean only one thing. Groundhogs. Here to make sure spring never arrives. Fortunately Maggie MacKay and Killian of Greenwold are on the job to save this Groundhog Day from rodent monsters burrowing where they don't belong. Maggie MacKay Holiday Specials are fun, fluffy ~40-page paranormal stories meant to give you a little more time with all your favorite characters. They have no greater purpose other than to give you a little joy and are total popcorn reads. These urban fantasy adventures can be read in any order and wherever you are in the series.
Someone wicked this way comes... Things are not right at the World Walkers Association. Sure, Maggie and Killian torched Hollywood, but that's never been a problem before. Unfortunately, Maggie's new boss is a stickler for the rules and when heads roll, this time it will be literal. On the run, Maggie and Killian have to take matters into their own hands and they fall into a web of ancient Roman artifacts, elfin smuggling rings, and double crosses. Bounty hunters are on their tail. World Walkers are disappearing right and left. And who let the Medusa out? This is just the opportunity the bad guys were looking for. Is a greater evil now at work? Or is it just another lousy day at M&K Tracking? Book Five in the Maggie MacKay: Magical Tracker series. WARNING: This book contains cussing, brawling, and unladylike behavior. Proceed with caution.
Night after night jostling crowds clamour for entry to Edinburgh’s Theatre Royal with one name on their lips: the Real Mackay. But who is he? The answer leaps off the page in this meticulously researched historical novel which plunges the reader into the weird and wonderful golden era of Scottish national drama, seen through the eyes of Charles Mackay and his family. Walter Scott’s favourite comedian dazzles and delights packed audiences across nineteenth-century Scotland for decades, bringing laughter to thousands, including the king. But behind his hilarious stage antics is a man grieving for the women he loses, all of them dying tragically young – his mother, his wife, his daughter. In the grip of unstoppable momentum, his extraordinary popularity casting long shadows over those he loves, will he be forced to choose between fame and family?
“A monumentally researched biography of one of the nineteenth century’s wealthiest self-made Americans…Well-written and worthwhile” (The Wall Street Journal) it’s the rags-to-riches frontier tale of an Irish immigrant who outwits, outworks, and outmaneuvers thousands of rivals to take control of Nevada’s Comstock Lode. Born in 1831, John W. Mackay was a penniless Irish immigrant who came of age in New York City, went to California during the Gold Rush, and mined without much luck for eight years. When he heard of riches found on the other side of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in 1859, Mackay abandoned his claim and walked a hundred miles to the Comstock Lode in Nevada. Over the course of the next dozen years, Mackay worked his way up from nothing, thwarting the pernicious “Bank Ring” monopoly to seize control of the most concentrated cache of precious metals ever found on earth, the legendary “Big Bonanza,” a stupendously rich body of gold and silver ore discovered 1,500 feet beneath the streets of Virginia City, the ultimate Old West boomtown. But for the ore to be worth anything it had to be found, claimed, and successfully extracted, each step requiring enormous risk and the creation of an entirely new industry. Now Gregory Crouch tells Mackay’s amazing story—how he extracted the ore from deep underground and used his vast mining fortune to crush the transatlantic telegraph monopoly of the notorious Jay Gould. “No one does a better job than Crouch when he explores the subject of mining, and no one does a better job than he when he describes the hardscrabble lives of miners” (San Francisco Chronicle). Featuring great period photographs and maps, The Bonanza King is a dazzling tour de force, a riveting history of Virginia City, Nevada, the Comstock Lode, and America itself.
Like if Terry Pratchett and GALAVANT got together and had an idiotic love-child George is just your normal peasant, with parents who abandoned him to join up with pirates and a terrible family secret he carries around his neck. But when a wandering knight scoops him up to carry all his heavy stuff, George feels like his dreams are coming true! Except the knight dies. And now George is in trouble. Will donning the knight's armor and taking his place solve his problems? What about when a dragon terrorizes the kingdom and George is expected to fight it? Things are about to get complicated... Chase away the darkness with George and his friends in this hilarious rollicking riff on George and the Dragon by USA TODAY bestselling author, Kate Danley. These dragons aren't going to slay themselves! Search Terms: Dragons, knights, fantasy, YA, funny, humorous, fantasy, medieval, historical, George and the Dragon, happy
Why doesn't self-help help? Cultural critic Micki McGee puts forward this paradoxical question as she looks at a world where the market for self-improvement products--books, audiotapes, and extreme makeovers--is exploding, and there seems to be no end in sight. Rather than seeing narcissism at the root of the self-help craze, as others have contended, McGee shows a nation relying on self-help culture for advice on how to cope in an increasingly volatile and competitive work world. Self-Help, Inc. reveals how makeover culture traps Americans in endless cycles of self-invention and overwork as they struggle to stay ahead of a rapidly restructuring economic order. A lucid and fascinating treatment of the modern obsession with work and self-improvement, this lively book will strike a chord with its acute diagnosis of the self-help trap and its sharp suggestions for how we can address the alienating conditions of modern work and family life.
