Romance. 28721 words long.

After breaking up a fight between a man and his girlfriend in a shopping center parking lot, the college professor finds himself in possession of a very attractive, extremely thankful young woman, who has no place to go.

Late one day I hurried home,Stepping through the wood alone.It was deep and dim; I could barely see.But I thought brave thoughts to comfort me.A Young Skunk heads home through the woods--alone. Or maybe not...Could there be robbers, or pirates, or ghosts, or trappers in the woods? And is our hero brave enough to keep away? With bouncy rhymes, charming art, a subtle counting theme, and a surprise ending, this story will entertain and reassure any child who's ever been afraid.From the Hardcover edition.

A cream-of-the-crop selection of Murakami's brilliance and piercing wit. This collection shows sides of Ryu Murakami that even avid fans may not be expecting. The intriguing, somewhat disturbing stories that Topaz was based on are included here, as are three entertaining and revealing portraits of the artist as a young man back in the Transparent Blue period of the late sixties and early seventies. We hear tales told by four very different individuals living in eighties Tokyo, each with his or her own problems but all with a thing about a certain pro baseball player, and we meet a brokenhearted young woman who finds an unexpected moment of love in the nineties and a single mother who stumbles on a ray of hope in the hard times of the noughties. Mixed in there somewhere are three linked stories about desire and obsession, with the timeless, seductive rhythms of Cuban music in the background. This book contains explicit content and is not suitable for...

A great, untamed story about childhood, a summer holiday and a sinister tragedy that looms over everything. Introduction by Kate De Goldi.The terrible happenings take place at the abandoned meatworks in Calliope Bay, a forbidden and dangerous place, where the cries of animals being slaughtered can be heard in the wind. It's a place where Harry Baird finds himself drawn, a place where accidents happen. A place where people die.David Ballantyne is one of New Zealand's greatest writers, was born in Auckland in 1924. His first novel, The Cunninghams, was published to critical acclaim, in both the US and New Zealand, when he was twenty-three. His masterpiece Sydney Bridge Upside Down was published in 1968. He was beginning to struggle with alcoholism but continued to write, and was to produce seven books in all. Kate De Goldi was born in Christchurch. She is a regular radio and television book reviewer in New...

Immortality bites- new from the author of Accidentally Dead and The Accidental Werewolf. Wanda Schwartz is raking in the dough selling Bobbie-Sue Cosmetics-and she's a pro at recruiting new saleswomen. So, she's shocked when a man comes to one of her in-home parties-a very hot man. Heath Jefferson is sure to put some extra spin into a lot of women's color wheels. When Wanda is diagnosed with a terminal illness, it doesn't have to be a death sentence. With a werewolf and a vampire for best friends, she has options that most ordinary people wouldn't. As Wanda ponders what to do about her mortality, Heath reveals he has secrets, and one of them is that his former bloodlust has turned into an old-fashioned lust-for Wanda. And he's already given up too much to lose the love of his lifetimes.

From the best-selling author of The Obituary Writer, the stirring multigenerational story of an Italian-American family.An Italian Wife is the extraordinary story of Josephine Rimaldi—her joys, sorrows, and passions, spanning more than seven decades. The novel begins in turn-of-the-century Italy, when fourteen-year-old Josephine, sheltered and naive, is forced into an arranged marriage to a man she doesn't know or love who is about to depart for America, where she later joins him. Bound by tradition, Josephine gives birth to seven children. The last, Valentina, is conceived in passion, born in secret, and given up for adoption.Josephine spends the rest of her life searching for her lost child, keeping her secret even as her other children go off to war, get married, and make their own mistakes. Her son suffers in World War One. One daughter struggles to assimilate in the new world of the 1950s American suburbs, while another, stranded in England, grieves...

Editor and sleuth Claire Rawlings and her 12-year-old sidekick Meredith visit a cozy New England inn where murder is an unwanted guest.