万本电子书0元读

万本电子书0元读

Love in the Time of Taffeta
Love in the Time of Taffeta
Olson, Eugenie
¥84.16
At age 30, Iley Gilbert is thoroughly sick of trying to make it in the photo biz, and disenchanted after putting in stints at a Boston-area newspaper, a photography gallery, and even a pathetic frame shop. When she abruptly quits the frame shop, she's ready to give up for good, until she spots a compelling ad in the paper. A photographer who shoots high school prom photos is looking for an assistant. Not only that, He's willing to pay top dollar to someone who would give up Friday and Saturday nights to help take pre-prom pictures of high-school kids dressed in their finery and candid shots during the dance. William Jasper, Prom Photographer, is not the brand of aging, greasy wedding photographer she was expecting. Rather, He's 35, strikingly handsome, and sharp-witted. Iley is instantly attracted to him and gets the sense the feeling is mutual. But William isn't everything He's made himself out to be that is, he's not single. He's got a permanently out-of town wife-he doesn't need a girlfriend. But Iley has lost her way, and she-ll need her friends and her photos and a lot of bad proms before she can find her way back on track, away from the sleezeball, and into a life that-s a little more picture-perfect.
A Hat Full of Sky
A Hat Full of Sky
Pratchett, Terry
¥61.52
The second in a series of Discworld novels starring the young witch Tiffany Aching.Something is coming after Tiffany. . . .Tiffany Aching is ready to begin her apprenticeship in magic. She expects spells and magic—not chores and ill-tempered nanny goats! Surely there must be more to witchcraft than this!What Tiffany doesn't know is that an insidious, disembodied creature is pursuing her. This time, neither Mistress Weatherwax (the greatest witch in the world) nor the fierce, six-inch-high Wee Free Men can protect her. In the end, it will take all of Tiffany's inner strength to save herself . . . if it can be done at all.
Johnny and the Bomb
Johnny and the Bomb
Pratchett, Terry
¥95.39
Twelve-year-old Johnny Maxwell has a knack for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. This has never been more true than when he finds himself in his hometown on May 21, 1941, over forty years before his birth!An accidental time traveler, Johnny knows his history. He knows England is at war, and he knows that on this day German bombs will fall on the town. It happened. It's history. And as Johnny and his friends quickly discover, tampering with history can have unpredictable—and drastic—effects on the future. But letting history take its course means letting people die. What if Johnny warns someone and changes historyWhat will happen to the futureIf Johnny uses his knowledge to save innocent lives by being in the right place at the right time, is he doing the right thingMixing nail-biting suspense with outrageous humor, Terry Pratchett explores a classic time-travel paradox in Johnny Maxwell's third adventure.
Johnny and the Dead
Johnny and the Dead
Pratchett, Terry
¥88.56
Post-life citizensBreath challengedVertically disadvantaged(buried, not short)Johnny Maxwell's new friends not appreciate the term "ghosts," but they are, well, dead.The town council wants to sell the cemetery, and its inhabitants aren't about to take that lying down! Johnny is the only one who can see them, and and the previously alive need his help to save their home and their history. Johnny didn't mean to become the voice for the lifeless, but if he doesn't speak up, who will?In Johnny Maxwell's second adventure, Carnegie Medalist Terry Pratchett explores the bonds between the living and the dead and proves that it's never too late to have the time of your life -- even if it is your afterlife!
Mediator #5: Haunted
Mediator #5: Haunted
Cabot, Meg
¥49.79
Suze is used to trouble, but this time she's in deep: Ghostly Jesse has her heart, but Paul Slater, a real flesh—and—blood guy, is warm for her form. And mediator Paul knows how to send Jesse to the Great Beyond. For good. Paul claims he won't do anything to Jesse as long as Suze will go out with him. Fearing she'll lose Jesse forever, Suze agrees. But even if Suze can get Jesse to admit his true feelings for her, what kind of future can she have with a guy who's already dead?
Only You Can Save Mankind
Only You Can Save Mankind
Pratchett, Terry
¥44.25
The alien spaceship is in his sights. His finger is on the Fire button. Johnny Maxwell is about to set the new high score on the computer game Only You Can Save Mankind.Suddenly:We wish to talk.HuhWe surrender.The aliens aren't supposed to surrender -- they're supposed to die! Now what is Johnny going to do with a fleet of alien prisoners who know their rights under the international rules of war and are demanding safe-conductIt's hard enough trying to save Mankind from the Galactic Hordes. It's even harder trying to save the Galactic Hordes from Mankind.But it's just a game, isn't itIsn't it?Master storyteller Terry Pratchett leaves readers breathless -- with laughter, and with suspense -- in a reality-bending tale of virtual heroism.
The Indian School
The Indian School
Whelan, Gloria
¥27.94
When shy, ten-year-old Lucy comes to live with her aunt and uncle at their mission school, she's surprised at the number of harsh rules and restrictions imposed on the children. Why, she wonders, should the Indians have to do all the changingAnd why is her aunt so strict with themThen a girl called Raven runs away in protest, and Lucy knows she must overcome her timidity and stand up to her aunt—no matter what the consequences. Once again Gloria Whelan has taken a chapter from our past and transformed it into gripping, accessible, historically accurate fiction.
Summer of the War
Summer of the War
Whelan, Gloria
¥98.08
It's the summer of 1942. At her grandparents' island cottage in Michigan, 14–year–old Belle excitedly awaits the arrival of her exotic older cousin, Carolyn. Belle's expecting worldly sophistication and French style. But Carolyn brings much more than that: she carries the troubling reality of the World War that is ravaging her home. Turtle Island will never be the same again. Set against the backdrop of breezy island cottages, this heartrending tale from National Book Award medalist Gloria Whelan is the story of a beautiful place and a special friendship–and how events thousands of miles away shaped them both.
Fairy Blossoms #4: Marigold and the Missing Firefly
Fairy Blossoms #4: Marigold and the Missing Firefly
Williams, Suzanne
¥65.37
Marigold's new pet firefly, Flash, is the perfect companion. He's sweet and affectionate and just the right size to cuddle with. All the students at Mistress Lily's Fairy School soon grow to love him. But when Flash goes missing, Marigold is heartbroken! Will she ever find him?
Princess Power #3: The Awfully Angry Ogre
Princess Power #3: The Awfully Angry Ogre
Williams, Suzanne
¥65.37
Princess Tansy knows that whenever something terrible occurs in her kingdom, the ogre gets the blame. Yet anyone who challenges him is turned to stone! Tansy's two oldest brothers have been forbidden to fight the ogre, but they're determined to try. Can Tansy and her friends save the boys from a horrible fate?
The Family Tree
The Family Tree
Tepper, Sheri S.
¥52.48
THE ONCE FERTILE EARTH OF DORA HENRY'S CHILDHOOD HAS BEEN UNDERVALUED AND OVERDEVELOPED. NOW NATURE, APPARENTLY, HAS DECIDED TO FIGHT BACK. Police officer Dora Henry is investigating the bizarre murders of three geneticists. Meanwhile, strange things are happening everywhere she turns. Weeds are becoming trees; trees are becoming forests. Overnight, a city is being transformed into a wild and verdant place. And, strangest of all, Dora can somehow communicate with the rampaging flora. A potential civilization-ending catastrophe is in the making. The bearer Dora gets to a murderer--and to the truth--the more seemingly disparate events begin to entwine. And the answers she seeks today to the salvation of humankind may lie in afar distant future. . .one which is suddenly much closer than anyone imagines. An exhilarating and enchanting novel that deftly combines fantastic invention with insight and a social conscience, from one of the most lyrical and important voices in contemporary speculative fiction.THE ONCE FERTILE EARTH OF DORA HENRYS CHILDHOOD HAS BEEN UNDERVALUED AND OVERDEVELOPED. NOW NATURE, APPARENTLY, HAS DECIDED TO FIGHT BACK.Police officer Dora Henry is investigating the bizarre murders of three geneticists. Meanwhile, strange things are happening everywhere she turns. Weeds are becoming trees; trees are becoming forests. Overnight, a city is being transformed into a wild and verdant place.And, strangest of all, Dora can somehow communicate with the rampaging flora.A potential civilization-ending catastrophe is in the making. The bearer Dora gets to a murderer--and to the truth--the more seemingly disparate events begin to entwine. And the answers she seeks today to the salvation of humankind may lie in afar distant future. . .one which is suddenly much closer than anyone imagines.An exhilarating and enchanting novel that deftly combines fantastic invention with insight and a social conscience, from one of the most lyrical and important voices in contemporary speculative fiction.
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.
Carrying Albert Home
Carrying Albert Home
Hickam, Homer
¥90.51
The long-awaited prequel to the #1 New York Times bestselling memoir Rocket Boys—the basis for the movie October SkyElsie Lavender and Homer Hickam Sr.—the future parents of Homer Hickam Jr.—were high school classmates in the West Virginia coalfields, graduating just as the Great Depression began. When Homer asked for her hand, Elsie instead headed to Orlando where she sparked with a dancing actor named Buddy Ebsen (yes, that Buddy Ebsen). But when Buddy headed for New York, Elsie's dreams of a life with him were crushed and eventually she found herself back in the coalfields, married to Homer.Unfulfilled as a miner's wife, Elsie was reminded of her carefree days in Florida every day because of Buddy's unusual wedding gift: an alligator named Albert who lived in the only bathroom in their little house. Eventually Homer gave Elsie an ultimatum: "Me or the alligator!" After giving it some thought, Elsie concluded there was only one thing to do—carry Albert home.Carrying Albert Home tells the sweet, funny, and sometimes heartbreaking tale of a young couple and their special pet on a crazy 1,000-mile journey. Told with the warmth and down-home charm that made Rocket Boys a beloved bestseller, Homer Hickam's rollicking novel is truly a testament to that strange and marvelous emotion we call love.
The Code of the Hills
The Code of the Hills
Allen, Nancy
¥56.07
To uncover the truth, she'll have to break the code of the hills …In the Missouri Ozarks, some things aren't talked about … even abuse. But prosecutor Elsie Arnold is determined to change that.When she is assigned to prosecute a high-profile incest case in which a father is accused of abusing his three young daughters, Elsie is ready to become the Ozarks' avenging angel.But as Elsie sinks her teeth into the case, everything begins to turn sour. The star witness goes missing; the girls refuse to talk about their father, who terrorizes the courtroom from the moment he enters; and Elsie begins to suspect that their tough-as-nails mother has ulterior motives. To make matters worse, Elsie receives gruesome threats from local extremists, warning her to mind her own business.While Elsie swears not to let a sex offender walk, she realizes the odds—and maybe the town—are against her, and her life begins to crumble. But amidst all of the conflict, the safety of three young girls hangs in the balance ...A powerful debut, with the haunting atmosphere of Winter's Bone and the page-turning suspense of Alafair Burke's thrillers.
Wildalone
Wildalone
Zourkova, Krassi
¥84.16
In this darkly imaginative debut novel full of myth, magic, romance, and mystery, a Princeton freshman is drawn into a love triangle with two enigmatic brothers and discovers terrifying secrets about her family and herself—a bewitching blend of Twilight, The Secret History, Jane Eyre, and A Discovery of WitchesFor every world, there is an underworld. Arriving at Princeton for her freshman year, Thea Slavin finds herself alone, a stranger in a strange land. Away from her family and her Eastern European homeland for the first time, she struggles to adapt to unfamiliar American ways and the challenges of college life—including a young man whose brooding good looks and murky past intrigue her. Drawn to the elusive Rhys and his equally handsome and mysterious brother, Jake, she ventures into a sensual mythic underworld as irresistible as it is dangerous.In this shadow world that seems to evoke Greek mythology and the Bulgarian legends of the samodivi, or "wildalones"—forest witches who beguile and entrap men—Thea will discover a family secret bound to transform her forever . . . if she can accept that dead doesn't always mean gone, and love doesn't always distinguish between the two.Mesmerizing and addictive, Wildalone is a thrilling blend of the modern and the fantastical. Krassi Zourkova creates an atmospheric world filled with rich characters as compelling as those of Diana Gabaldon, Deborah Harkness, and Stephenie Meyer.
Goldengrove
Goldengrove
Prose, Francine
¥78.55
At the center of Francine Prose's profoundly moving new novel is a young girl facing the consequences of sudden loss after the death of her sister. As her parents drift toward their own risky consolations, thirteen-year-old Nico is left alone to grope toward understanding and clarity, falling into a seductive, dangerous relationship with her sister's enigmatic boyfriend.Over one haunted summer, Nico must face that life-changing moment when children realize their parents can no longer help them. She learns about the power of art, of time and place, the mystery of loss and recovery. But for all the darkness at the novel's heart, the narrative itself is radiant with the lightness of summer and charged by the restless sexual tension of teenage life.Goldengrove takes its place among the great novels of adolescence, beside Henry James's The Awkward Age and L. P. Hartley's The Go-Between.
Hung Out to Die
Hung Out to Die
Short, Sharon
¥49.05
There's no fun in dysfunctionalSmall-town laundress Josie Toadfern has her own fair share of dirty laundry—namely the Toadfern clan! Ostracized from the family unit ever since her parents dumped eight-year-old Josie in a local orphanage, the stain-busting dynamo's stunned to find herself invited to crabby old family matriarch "Mamaw" Toadfern's Thanksgiving celebration—and too curious to refuse.But an even bigger shock is waiting for her there: Josie's long lost mom and pop, blandly unapologetic and full of new—probably illegal—get-rich-quick schemes. And when a dead body is tossed into the already explosive chaos of bitter feelings, intra-family feuding, and incinerated turkey meat, Josie finds herself in the most uncomfortable position of having to prove her disreputable dad innocent of murder. But cleaning up messes is Josie's business. And sometimes blood is thicker than cranberry sauce—and a much more difficult stain to eliminate.
The Story of Land and Sea
The Story of Land and Sea
Smith, Katy Simpson
¥88.56
Set in a small coastal town in North Carolina during the waning years of the American Revolution, this incandescent debut novel follows three generations of family—fathers and daughters, mother and son, master and slave—characters who yearn for redemption amid a heady brew of war, kidnapping, slavery, and love. Drawn to the ocean, ten-year-old Tabitha wanders the marshes of her small coastal village and listens to her father's stories about his pirate voyages and the mother she never knew. Since the loss of his wife, Helen, John has remained land-bound for their daughter, but when Tab contracts yellow fever, he turns to the sea once more. Desperate to save his daughter, he takes her aboard a sloop bound for Bermuda, hoping the salt air will heal her.Years before, Helen herself was raised by a widowed father. Asa, the devout owner of a small plantation, gives his daughter a young slave named Moll for her tenth birthday. Left largely on their own, Helen and Moll develop a close but uneasy companionship. Helen gradually takes over the running of the plantation as the girls grow up, but when she meets John, the pirate turned Continental soldier, she flouts convention and her father's wishes by falling in love. Moll, meanwhile, is forced into marriage with a stranger. Her only solace is her son, Davy, whom she will protect with a passion that defies the bounds of slavery.In this elegant, evocative, and haunting debut, Katy Simpson Smith captures the singular love between parent and child, the devastation of love lost, and the desperate paths we travel in the name of renewal.
Sworn Secret
Sworn Secret
Jennings, Amanda
¥32.73
A stunning domestic thriller in the vein of Kimberly McCreight's Reconstructing Amelia.When Lizzie Thorne's charismatic older sister Anna is killed in a tragic fall from the roof of her school, everyone is devastated. A year later, grief still has its icy grip on the Thorne family.Mrs. Thorne has retreated from her life and is desperate to find someone to blame for her daughter's death. Mr. Thorne is doing his best to care for his family, but the stress of holding his marriage together is pushing him to the breaking point. Lizzie just wants to leave her sister's ghost in the past and find happiness again.But then a shattering revelation begins to raise questions about what really happened the night Anna died. Lizzie finds herself speeding headfirst into a passionate but forbidden love affair, while at the same time trying to grapple with her dead sister's emerging secrets.
Like Clockwork
Like Clockwork
Orford, Margie
¥21.80
When a beautiful young woman is found murdered on Cape Town's Sea Point promenade, journalist and part-time police profiler Dr. Clare Hart is drawn into the web of a brutal serial killer. As more bodies are discovered, Clare is forced to revisit the brutal rape of her twin sister and the gang ties that bind Cape Town's dark crime rings. Is her investigation into human trafficking linked to the murders, or is the killer just playing a sick game with her?Like Clockwork is a dark and compelling crime story that will thrill fans of Deon Meyer and Tess Gerritsen.
Gallows Hill
Gallows Hill
Orford, Margie
¥68.04
How far would you go?Dr. Clare Hart is summoned to investigate a building site where hundreds of centuries-old skeletons have been found—beneath Gallows Hill, where Cape Town's notorious execution grounds once stood. But she discovers that a woman, recently dead, is hidden among these long-buried bones. Who was the woman in the green silk dressWho wanted her deadWho interred her body beside the ancient gravesAs Clare gets closer to revealing the truth about Gallows Hill, she becomes entangled with a fascinating but vulnerable young woman and is drawn into a world of art, desire, and destructive jealousy. Against a backdrop of corporate corruption and seething political tensions, Clare and Riedwaan's complex relationship remains as explosive as ever—and their very lives are at risk, for those who guard the secret of the woman in the silk dress will stop at nothing to keep the truth buried.Gallows Hill is a suspenseful and compelling thriller that will captivate fans of Tess Gerritsen and Deon Meyer.