万本电子书0元读

万本电子书0元读

Breakwater Bay
Breakwater Bay
Noble, Shelley
¥84.16
An abandoned baby, a glorious old Newport mansion, and awakening romance swirl the glittering waters of Breakwater Bay . . . Preservationist Meri Hollis loves her latest project, restoring one of Newport's forgotten Gilded Age mansions. And with summer approaching, she'll be able to spend more time with her grandmother on the Rhode Island shore. She has a great job, a loving family, and she's pretty sure her boyfriend is going to propose on her thirtieth birthday.But everything Meri believes about family, happiness, truth, and love is shattered when her family's darkest secret is exposed. Thirty years before, Meri's neighbor and friend, Alden Corrigan, took his father's dinghy out to fish. In a sudden storm, he rushed to help a woman stranded on the breakwater. She was just a girl . . . a very pregnant girl who disappeared soon after they reached safety—but not before she left behind a special gift. Now that the truth is out, life will change for everyone in Breakwater Bay, and Meri and Alden will have to make decisions that could ensure their future together . . . or separate them for good.
Whisper Beach
Whisper Beach
Noble, Shelley
¥90.51
When a group of friends reunite in the idyllic beach town where they grew up, they must reevaluate their loyalty to one another or lose their friendship foreverTwelve years ago, Vanessa "Van" Moran fell in love and lost her virginity—but not to the same boy. She fled Whisper Beach desperate and pregnant, never telling a soul about her secret. Now a professional Manhattan organizer, she must return home for the first time to attend the funeral of her best friend's husband. Van intends to only stay for a weekend, but her plans fall by the wayside as the troubles of this coastal town draw her in.Dorie, the owner of the pier's infamous Blue Crab Restaurant where Van and her friends worked as teenagers, enlists Van's help to save the nearly bankrupt eatery. While Van throws herself into this new task, the man she once loved reenters her life, willing to pick up where they left off.As the restaurant begins to thrive and Van reconnects with old friends, trouble comes from an unexpected source and she realizes she must face the decisions of her past or sacrifice this new life she has so carefully built.For Van, this summer will test the meaning of friendship and trust—and how far love can bend before it breaks.
Night of the Living Deb
Night of the Living Deb
McBride, Susan
¥49.05
The fourth fun installment in the Debutante Dropout series finds ex-debutante Andy Kendricks following a cold lead into a hot Dallas strip club.Renegade rich girl Andy Kendricks isn't the belle of any Dallas ball—and that's just the way the debutante dropout likes it! She's got a good life and a great man: her defense attorney boyfriend, Brian Malone. Brian's such a straight arrow that he had to be dragged kicking and screaming to a close friend's bachelor party at a sleazy local "gentlemen's club."So why is the groom-to-be saying that Brian left the bacchanal arm-in-arm with the hottest body in the Lone Star StateAnd what was that hot body doing stone-cold dead in the trunk of Brian's carAnd where is Brian, anywayThe cops are looking for Andy's allegedly unfaithful/possibly homicidal beau, who hasn't been seen since the party. But Andy can't believe her upstanding lover is a murdering fool, and she's determined to prove it—though she may end up with a lot more broken than just her heart.
The Lone Star Lonely Hearts Club
The Lone Star Lonely Hearts Club
McBride, Susan
¥49.05
Andy Kendricks is back in the third sassy and irresistible installment in Susan McBride's Debutante Dropout series … and this time she's teaming up with her high-society mama to catch a killer who's targeting rich, lonely widows. Wealthy Texas widows need loving too … which is why Bebe Kent joined a dating service for "discriminating" seniors soon after relocating to the swanky Belle Meade retirement community. Unfortunately, Bebe didn't even live long enough to meet "Mr. Right." And though doctors declared her death totally natural, extravagant blue-blooded Dallas socialite Cissy Blevins Kendricks believes her old friend's demise was hastened—and she's ready to check herself into Belle Meade incognito to prove it. Cissy's rebellious, sometimes-sleuthing daughter, Andrea, wants no part of her mother's crazy schemes—yet she's anything but pleased that Cissy is going off on her own, playing a highbrow Miss Marple. So she has no choice but to join her mom in search of the truth—especially when more well-heeled widows start turning up dead …
The Norfolk Mystery
The Norfolk Mystery
Sansom, Ian
¥48.91
Love Miss MarpleAdore Holmes and WatsonProfessor Morley's guide to Norfolk is a story of bygone England: quaint villages, eccentric locals—and murder …It is 1937, and disillusioned Spanish Civil War veteran Stephen Sefton is broke. So when he sees a mysterious advertisement for a job where "intelligence is essential," he eagerly applies.Thus begins Sefton's association with Professor Swanton Morley, an omnivorous intellect. Morley's latest project is a history of traditional England, with a guide to every county.They start in Norfolk, but when the vicar of Blakeney is found hanging from his church's bell rope, Morley and Sefton find themselves drawn into a rather more fiendish plot. Did the reverend really take his own life, or is there something darker afoot?A must-read for fans of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, and Charles Todd, this novel includes plenty of murder, mystery, and mayhem to confound.
Summerlong
Summerlong
Bakopoulos, Dean
¥83.03
The author of Please Don't Come Back from the Moon and My American Unhappiness delivers his breakout novel: a deft and hilarious exploration of the simmering tensions beneath the surface of a contented marriage that explode in the bedrooms and backyards of a small town over the course of a long, hot summerIn the sweltering heat of one summer in a small Midwestern town, Claire and Don Lowry discover that married life isn't quite what they'd predicted.One night Don, a father of two, leaves his house for an evening stroll, only to wake up the next morning stoned and lying in a hammock next to a young woman he barely knows. Meanwhile, his wife, Claire, leaves the house to go on a midnight run—only to find herself bumming cigarettes and beer outside the all-night convenience store.As the summer lingers and the temperature rises, this quotidian town's adults grow wilder and more reckless while their children grow increasingly confused. Claire, Don, and their neighbors and friends find themselves on an existential odyssey, exploring the most puzzling quandaries of marriage and maturity. When does a fantasy become infidelityWhen does compromise incite resentmentWhen does routine become boring monotonyCan Claire and Don survive everything that befalls them in this one summer, forgive their mistakes, and begin again?Award-winning writer Dean Bakopoulos delivers a brutally honest and incredibly funny novel about the strange and tenuous ties that bind us, and the strange and unlikely places we find connection. Full of mirth, melancholy, and redemption, Summerlong explores what happens when life goes awry.
Green Girl
Green Girl
Zambreno, Kate
¥83.03
With the fierce emotional and intellectual power of such classics as Jean Rhys's Good Morning, Midnight, Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar, and Clarice Lispector's The Hour of the Star, Kate Zambreno's novel Green Girl is a provocative, sharply etched portrait of a young woman navigating the spectrum between anomie and epiphany.First published in 2011 in a small press edition, Green Girl was named one of the best books of the year by critics including Dennis Cooper and Roxane Gay. In Bookforum, James Greer called it "ambitious in a way few works of fiction are." This summer it is being republished in an all-new Harper Perennial trade paperback, significantly revised by the author, and including an extensive P.S. section including never before published outtakes, an interview with the author, and a new essay by Zambreno.Zambreno's heroine, Ruth, is a young American in London, kin to Jean Seberg gamines and contemporary celebutantes, by day spritzing perfume at the department store she calls Horrids, by night trying desperately to navigate a world colored by the unwanted gaze of others and the uncertainty of her own self-regard. Ruth, the green girl, joins the canon of young people existing in that important, frightening, and exhilarating period of drift and anxiety between youth and adulthood, and her story is told through the eyes of one of the most surprising and unforgettable narrators in recent fiction—a voice at once distanced and maternal, indulgent yet blackly funny. And the result is a piercing yet humane meditation on alienation, consumerism, the city, self-awareness, and desire, by a novelist who has been compared with Jean Rhys, Virginia Woolf, and Elfriede Jelinek.
Ballroom
Ballroom
Simpson, Alice
¥83.03
A beautiful debut, Ballroom follows a group of strangers, united by a desire to escape their complicated lives (if only for a few hours each week) at a New York City dance hall that's about to close its doors for good.The Ballroom used to be a place to see and be seen, but the years have taken their toll, and by the end of the 1990s this Manhattan dance hall, just off Union Square, is a husk of its former self. A small crowd of loyal patrons still makes its way to the worn parquet floor every Sunday evening: although they each have their private reasons for returning again and again to the Ballroom, they are united by a shared desire to seek solace from reality, if only for a few hours, within its walls—and in the magic of dance.Nearly forty and still single, Sarah Dreyfus is desperate for love and sure she'll find it with debonair Gabriel Katz, who seduces the women he meets at the Ballroom to distract himself from his crumbling marriage. Lonely bachelor Joseph believes that his yearning for a wife and family will be fulfilled—if he can only get Sarah to notice him and see that he is in love with her. Obsessed with his building superintendent's beautiful daughter, Maria Rodriguez, elderly dance instructor Harry Korn is convinced that together they will find the happiness that has eluded him throughout his life. And Maria, who—thanks in part to Harry's instruction and encouragement—is one of the stars of Sunday nights at the Ballroom along with her partner, Angel Morez, has a dream of her own that her brokenhearted father refuses to accept or understand.In this deeply felt debut, Alice Simpson deftly unfolds the lives of these men and women, entwining their stories into a profoundly human narrative about our instinc-tual longing to love and to be loved. As the rhythms of the Ballroom ebb and flow through her characters' hearts, their fates weave together both on and off the dance floor in touching, unexpected ways.
Black Sun
Black Sun
Abbey, Edward
¥83.92
Black Sun is a bittersweet love story involving an iconoclastic forest ranger and a freckle-faced "American princess" half his age. Like Lady Chatterley's lover, he initiates her into the rites of sex and the stark, secret harmonies of his wilderness. She, in turn, awakens in him the pleasure of love. Then she mysteriously disappears, plunging him into desolation. Black Sun is a singular novel in Abbey's repertoire, a romantic story of a solitary man's passion for the outdoors and for a woman who is seeing the natural world's true colors for the first time. "Like most honest novels, Black Sun is partly autobiographical, mostly invention, and entirely true. The voice that speaks in this book is the passionate voice of the forest," Abbey writes, "the madness of desire, and the joy of love, and the anguish of final loss."Edward Abbey spent most of his life in the American Southwest. He was the author of numerous works of fiction and nonfiction, including the celebrated Desert Solitaire, which decried the waste of America's wilderness, and the novel The Monkey Wrench Gang, the title of which is still in use today to describe groups that purposefully sabotage projects and entities that degrade the environment. Abbey was also one of the country's foremost defenders of the natural environment. He died in 1989.
Depraved Heart
Depraved Heart
Cornwell, Patricia
¥69.16
From the world's number one bestselling crime writer comes the haunting and irresistible new Dr. Kay Scarpetta novel—Depraved HeartDepraved Heart: "Void of social duty and fatally bent on mischief."—Mayes v. People, 806 III. 306 (1883)Dr. Kay Scarpetta is working a highly suspicious death scene in a historic home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, when an emergency alert sounds on her phone. A video link lands in her text messages, immediately begins playing . . . and seems to be from her niece Lucy. But how can it beIt's clearly a surveillance film of Lucy taken almost twenty years ago. As Scarpetta watches she comes to grips with frightening secrets about her niece, whom she loves like a daughter. That first clip and others sent soon after raise dangerous implications that increasingly isolate Scarpetta and leave her confused, alarmed, and not knowing where to turn. She doesn't know whom she can tell—not her FBI agent husband, Benton Wesley, or her investigative partner, Pete Marino. Not even Lucy. Cornwell launches these unforgettable characters on an intensely psychological odyssey that includes the bizarre death of a Hollywood mogul's daughter, wreckage on the bottom of the sea in the Bermuda Triangle, a grisly gift left in the back of a crime scene truck, and videos from the past that threaten to destroy Scarpetta's entire world and everyone she loves. The diabolical presence and singularly "depraved heart" behind what unfolds seems obvious—but strangely, not to the FBI. Certainly that's the message they send when they start harassing Lucy and begin building a case that could send her to prison for the rest of her life. In the latest novel in her bestselling series featuring medical examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta, Cornwell captivates readers again with the jolting twists, high-wire tension, and cutting-edge forensic detail for which she is renowned, proving yet again why she is the world's number one bestselling crime writer.
In the Shadow of the Master
In the Shadow of the Master
Connelly, Michael
¥83.03
Few have crafted stories as haunting as those by Edgar Allan Poe. Collected here to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Poe's birth are sixteen of his best tales accompanied by twenty essays from beloved authors, including T. Jefferson Parker, Lawrence Block, Sara Paretsky, and Joseph Wambaugh, among others, on how Poe has changed their life and work. Michael Connelly recounts the inspiration he drew from Poe's poetry while researching one of his books. Stephen King reflects on Poe's insight into humanity's dark side in "The Genius of 'The Tell-Tale Heart.'" Jan Burke recalls her childhood terror during late-night reading sessions. Tess Gerritsen, Nelson DeMille, and others remember the classic B-movie adaptations of Poe's tales. And in "The Thief," Laurie R. King complains about how Poe stole all the good ideas . . . or maybe he just thought of them first. Powerful and timeless, In the Shadow of the Master is a celebration of one of the greatest literary minds of all time.The Mystery Writers of America, founded in 1945, is the foremost organization for mystery writers and other professionals dedicated to the field of crime writing.
The Ladies' Lending Library
The Ladies' Lending Library
Keefer, Janice Kulyk
¥90.77
It is August of 1963, the year of the Taylor/Burton film epic Cleopatra, showcasing a passion too grand to be contained on the movie screen. The women of the Kalyna Beach cottage community gather for gin and gossip, trading the current racy bestsellers among themselves as they seek a brief escape from the predictable rhythms of children and chores. But dramatic change is coming this summer as innocence falters and the desire for change reaches a boiling point, threatening to disrupt the warm, sweet, heady days and the lives of parents and children, family and friends, forever.
Like a Dog With a Bone
Like a Dog With a Bone
Kelley, Lee Charles
¥48.91
Returning to Maine after a blissful honeymoon in Mexico, kennel owner Jack Field and his smart and sexy bride, chief medical examiner Dr. Jamie Cutter, are ready to fulfill a promise made to a new friend they met there. The daughter of retired general Lamar MacLeary asked dog expert Jack to help her father "rewire" his wired wire-haired fox terrier, Molly, whose incessant digging is driving the general crazy. But Jack arrives to find Molly's most recent excavation has unearthed something nobody expected: the bones of a human hand belonging to the general's wife, who supposedly ran off to Mexico twenty years ago.The police think the distraught World War II hero killed her in a jealous rage, but Jack and Jamie aren't so sure. And in their dogged determination to dig up the truth, the newlyweds begin unearthing hints of corporate fraud, high-level corruption, the terrifying return of a cold-blooded killer, and some buried MacLeary family skeletons that could lead to more death . . . Jack's and Jamie's included.
The Miracles of Prato
The Miracles of Prato
Albanese, Laurie
¥84.16
Italy, 1456. The Renaissance is in glorious bloom. A Carmelite monk, the great artist Fra Filippo Lippi acts as chaplain to the nuns of the Convent Santa Margherita. It is here that he encounters the greatest temptation of his life, beautiful Lucrezia Buti, who has been driven to holy orders more by poverty than piety. In Lucrezia's flawless face Lippi sees the inspiration for countless Madonnas and he brings the young woman to his studio to serve as his model. But as painter and muse are united in an exhilarating whirl of artistic discovery, a passionate love develops, one that threatens to destroy them both even as it fuels some of Lippi's greatest work.
Noise
Noise
Wild, Peter
¥85.05
For more than twenty-five years, the antimelodic “noise” of Sonic Youth has assaulted us, exhilarated us, inspired us. Why?Katherine Dunn says it's because they operate in the foggy world between the real and the surreal. Mary Gaitskill says that Sonic Youth caught her, years ago, when she was falling. J. Robert Lennon says it's because Sonic Youth rip it apart. Emily Maguire was hooked because once she was in love with chaos. Their sound is caustic, elemental, nihilistic—and quite unlike any other cult band ever to achieve rock godhood. In Noise, twenty-one great literary voices offer short fiction based on or inspired by songs from Sonic Youth—a raucous coupling of music and literature featuring marrow-colored goo, severed hands and abandoned babies, Patty Hearst watching the apocalypse on TV, and other unruly images of the Zeitgeist.Contributors Hiag Akmakjian Christopher Coake Katherine Dunn Mary Gaitskill Rebecca Godfrey Laird Hunt Shelley Jackson J. Robert Lennon Samuel Ligon Emily Maguire Tom McCarthy Scott Mebus Eileen Myles Catherine O'Flynn Emily Carter Roiphe Kevin Sampsell Steven Sherrill Matt Thorne Rachel Trezise Jess Walter Peter Wild
On a Raven's Wing
On a Raven's Wing
Kaminsky, Stuart
¥90.77
Twenty contemporary writers commemorate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Edgar Allan Poe with chilling stories inspired by the master himself.Nearly two centuries after they were penned, Edgar Allan Poe's macabre tales are still working their eerie magic on readers of every stripe—thrill-seekers, filmmakers, even fellow writers of suspense. Collected here to honor and celebrate Poe's genius are original stories by some of the best mystery writers at work today.A son attempts to connect with his dying father in Thomas H. Cook's "Nevermore." John Lutz's "Poe, Poe, Poe" combines elements from several of Poe's stories in a twisted tale of madness and mayhem. "Poe, Jo, and I," by Don Winslow, examines the curious bond literature can form between the most unlikely of friends. And in Jon L. Breen's "William Allan Wilson," getting even has never felt so good.With contributions by Mary Higgins Clark, Jeremiah Healy, Peter Lovesey, P. J. Parrish, Daniel Stashower, and Angela Zeman, among others, On a Raven's Wing is a fitting tribute to the one and only Edgar Allan Poe. The Mystery Writers of America, founded in 1945, is the foremost organization for mystery writers and other professionals dedicated to the field of crime writing. Don't miss In the Shadow of the Master, a new collection of Poe's stories, edited by Michael Connelly and featuring essays from Stephen King, Sue Grafton, and others.
Our Lives Are the Rivers
Our Lives Are the Rivers
Manrique, Jaime
¥78.32
Based on actual events, this sweeping novel tells the life story of a woman who was willing to risk it all for her country and her lover—in whose legacy lies the history of an entire continent.Our Lives Are the Rivers tells the story of beautiful young freedom fighter Manuela Sáenz, and the epic tale of her long love affair with liberator Simón Bolívar. A novel of intoxicating love, passion, and adventure, Jaime Manrique vividly captures a dynamic continent struggling for its own identity.
A Secret Affair
A Secret Affair
Bradford, Barbara Taylor
¥55.91
Seeking some much-needed rest and relaxation after a long stint as a TV-news war correspondent in Bosnia, 33-year-old Bill Fitzgerald travels to Venice. There he is struck by the dark beauty of a young American woman, Vanessa Stewart, a 27-year-old glass designer from New York.Unhappily married, she welcomes a no-strings friendship with Bill. Soon they embark on an illicit affair and find themselves desperately in love. They vow to see each other whenever and wherever they can. But on their third meeting, one of them does not show up.Once again, Barbara Taylor Bradford weaves a love story of uncompromising ardor, this time taking readers through secret trysts in Venice, Manhattan and Southampton. In A Secret Affair, she touches on subjects that will stir the hearts and minds of her readers -- unconditional love and devotion, loyalty and loss.
Spiral Hunt
Spiral Hunt
Ronald, Margaret
¥55.91
Some people have the Sight. Genevieve Scelan has the Scent.They call her "Hound," and with her unique supernatural sense Evie can track nearly anything—lost keys, vanished family heirlooms . . . even missing people. And though she knows to stay out of the magical undercurrent that runs beneath Boston's historic streets, a midnight phone call from a long-vanished lover will destroy the careful boundaries she has drawn. Now, to pay a years-old debt, Evie must venture into the shadowy world that lies between myth and reality, where she will find betrayal, conspiracies, and revelations that will shatter all she believes about herself and the city she claims as home.When the Hunt is on, the Hound must run . . .
The Girls' Almanac
The Girls' Almanac
Franklin, Emily
¥85.05
The Girls' Almanac chronicles the lives of Jenna and Lucy—two thirty-something women who desperately long for a true friend—as well as the lives of the women and men who have touched them: friends, lovers, parents, and neighbors. Set across the Northeast—through suburban neighborhoods, preppy camps, island resorts, and Ivy League colleges—as well as far flung locales like Ecuador and Iceland, The Girls' Almanac traces the friendships of women willing to risk both self-consciousness and intimacy, loss and betrayal, in pursuit of a proper best friend. Exploring the fascinating closeness and distance that female friendships encompass, The Girls' Almanac reveals the map of Jenna and Lucy's interconnected lives, and ultimately their pathways to each other.
Impossibly Tongue-Tied
Impossibly Tongue-Tied
Brown, Josie
¥84.16
All over Hollywood, men are dialing O—for orgasms. Her steamy naughty talk fills them with lust and longing, and helps them perform like the studs they claim to be.In truth, the industry's favorite "erotic phone operatrix" is Nina Harte, a struggling actress who has put her career on hold so that her husband, Nathan, can pursue his own dreams of stardom. When Nathan's career takes off, so does he, leaving Nina and their four-year-old son, Jake, for his diva costar, Katerina McPherson. Then "Kat 'n' Nat" are crowned the media's newest celebrity sweethearts, and Kat labels Nina an unfit mother in order to win custody of Jake, just so that she can have that highly-coveted celebrity accessory—an adorable child—sans any unsightly stretch marks. The one person who does care about Nina is Nathan's agent, Sam Godwin. In fact, he's in love with her. And because he has both a heart and a conscience, Sam feels guilty for having put Nat in Kat's path in the first place . . . Then again, how will he feel when he learns that Nina and O are one and the same?