The Colossus

The Colossus

Sylvia Plath

Poetry / Biographies & Memoirs / Literature & Fiction

With this startling, exhilarating book of poems, which was first published in 1960, Sylvia Plath burst into literature with spectacular force. In such classics as "The Beekeeper's Daughter," "The Disquieting Muses," "I Want, I Want," and "Full Fathom Five," she writes about sows and skeletons, fathers and suicides, about the noisy imperatives of life and the chilly hunger for death. Graceful in their craftsmanship, wonderfully original in their imagery, and presenting layer after layer of meaning, the forty poems in The Colossus are early artifacts of genius that still possess the power to move, delight, and shock. From the Trade Paperback edition.
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Letters Home

Letters Home

Sylvia Plath

Poetry / Biographies & Memoirs / Literature & Fiction

Letters Home represents Sylvia Plath's correspondence from her time at Smith College in the early fifties, through her meeting with, and subsequent marriage to, the poet Ted Hughes, up to her death in February 1963. The letters are addressed mainly to her mother, with whom she had an extremely close and confiding relationship, but there are also some to her brother Warren and her benefactress Mrs Prouty. Plath's energy, enthusiasm and her passionate tackling of life burst onto these pages, providing us with a vivid and intimate portrait of a woman who has come to be regarded as one of the greatest of twentieth-century poets. In addition to her capacity for domestic and writerly happiness, however, these letters also hint at Plath's potential for deep despair, which reached its crisis when she holed up in a London flat for the terrible winter of 1963.
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Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams: And Other Prose Writings

Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams: And Other Prose Writings

Sylvia Plath

Poetry / Biographies & Memoirs / Literature & Fiction

From her mid-teens Sylvia Plath wrote stories, at first easily and successfully, but then with increasing difficulty as the demands of her real vision complicated her growing ambition to make a career as a conventional storywriter. When the first edition of Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams appeared, Margaret Walters said of it in the Guardian, 'the book does offer . . . new insight into her development as a writer, suggesting how even her mistakes and dead ends contributed to the formation of an original and pathfinding talent'. This second edition contains the thirteen stories included in the first edition together with five pieces of her journalism, as well as a few fragments from her journal; and a further nine stories selected from the Indiana archive.
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Crossing the Water

Crossing the Water

Sylvia Plath

Poetry / Biographies & Memoirs / Literature & Fiction

Crossing the Water and Winter Trees contain the poems written during the exceptionally creative period of the last years of Sylvia Plath’s life. Published posthumously in 1971, they add a startling counterpoint to Ariel, the volume that made her reputation. Readers will recognise some of her most celebrated poems – ‘Childless Woman’, ‘Mirror’, ‘Insomniac’ – while discovering those still overlooked, including her radio play Three Women. These two extraordinary volumes find their place alongside The Colossus and Ariel in the oeuvre of a singular talent.
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Off the Page

Off the Page

Jodi Picoult

Literature & Fiction / Parenting & Families

From #1 New York Times bestselling authors Jodi Picoult and Samantha van Leer, OFF THE PAGE is a tender and appealing YA novel filled with romance, humor, and adventure. Delilah and Oliver shouldn’t be together. But they are together. And just as they’re getting used to the possibility that happily ever after may really, truly be theirs, the universe sends them a message they can’t ignore: they won’t be allowed to rewrite their story. Delilah and Oliver must decide how much they’re willing to risk for love and what it takes to have a happy ending in a world where the greatest adventures happen off the page.   “Off the Page is just so sweet and magical. In high school, I would have given ANYTHING to crawl inside one of my favorite books to escape the real world. I wish!”—SARAH DESSEN, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Saint Anything
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Between the Lines

Between the Lines

Jodi Picoult

Literature & Fiction / Parenting & Families

Delilah is a bit of a loner who prefers spending her time in the school library with her head in a book—one book in particular. Between the Lines may be a fairy tale, but it feels real. Prince Oliver is brave, adventurous, and loving. He really speaks to Delilah. And then one day Oliver actually speaks to her. Turns out, Oliver is more than a one-dimensional storybook prince. He’s a restless teen who feels trapped by his literary existence and hates that his entire life is predetermined. He’s sure there’s more for him out there in the real world, and Delilah might just be his key to freedom. A romantic and charming story, this companion novel to Off the Page will make every reader believe in the fantastical power of fairy tales.
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Leaving Time

Leaving Time

Jodi Picoult

Literature & Fiction / Parenting & Families

Throughout her blockbuster career, #1 New York Times bestselling author Jodi Picoult has seamlessly blended nuanced characters, riveting plots, and rich prose, brilliantly creating stories that “not only provoke the mind but touch the flawed souls in all of us” (The Boston Globe). Now, in her highly anticipated new book, she has delivered her most affecting novel yet—and one unlike anything she’s written before. For more than a decade, Jenna Metcalf has never stopped thinking about her mother, Alice, who mysteriously disappeared in the wake of a tragic accident. Refusing to believe that she would be abandoned as a young child, Jenna searches for her mother regularly online and pores over the pages of Alice’s old journals. A scientist who studied grief among elephants, Alice wrote mostly of her research among the animals she loved, yet Jenna hopes the entries will provide a clue to her mother’s whereabouts. Desperate to find the truth, Jenna enlists two unlikely allies in her quest. The first is Serenity Jones, a psychic who rose to fame finding missing persons—only to later doubt her gifts. The second is Virgil Stanhope, a jaded private detective who originally investigated Alice’s case along with the strange, possibly linked death of one of her colleagues. As the three work together to uncover what happened to Alice, they realize that in asking hard questions, they’ll have to face even harder answers. As Jenna’s memories dovetail with the events in her mother’s journals, the story races to a mesmerizing finish. A deeply moving, gripping, and intelligent page-turner, Leaving Time is Jodi Picoult at the height of her powers. Praise for Jodi Picoult “Picoult writes with unassuming brilliance.”—Stephen King “It’s hard to exaggerate how well Picoult writes.”—Financial Times “Picoult writes with a fine touch, a sharp eye for detail, and a firm grasp of the delicacy and complexity of human relationships.”—The Boston Globe “Picoult is a master of the craft of storytelling.”—Associated Press** From the Hardcover edition.
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The Girl in a Swing

The Girl in a Swing

Richard Adams

Literature & Fiction / Science Fiction & Fantasy

A shy young man meets a beautiful woman in the company of a young girl. He finds himself swept off of his feet and married to her, bringing her with him to live in his family home. She is his erotic dream come true; she does everything she can to bind him to her and join him in his comfortable life. Soon, however, odd things begin to happen. Things in the house are strangely damp with what looks like seawater, bodies appear under the water that aren't really there. It all winds up to a horrifying conclusion.
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The Dragon in the Sea

The Dragon in the Sea

Frank Herbert

Science Fiction & Fantasy

Twenty subtugs had been lost attempting to bring back oil from the undersea fields on the enemy's borders. A brilliant psychologist-electronics expert is planted in the crew of the subtug Ram to discover the reason. And the reason becomes terrifying reality when, miles deep in the ocean, the minds of the crew begin to crack...
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Soul Catcher

Soul Catcher

Frank Herbert

Science Fiction & Fantasy

Soul Catcher (1972) is a novel by the science fiction writer Frank Herbert. Soul Catcher is about a Native American who kidnaps a young white boy and their journey together. It is a story of vengeance and sacrifice. In the conflicted anti-hero, one may see many truths to the feelings harbored by those who were conquered. Many Native American myths are touched upon; e.g. that the bee does not haphazardly sting its victim, rather it chooses that person. The book is committed to seeing the sacrifice through and the “lamb” must be an innocent to represent the many Native American innocents slaughtered. Therein lies the conflict with our tragic hero, that he may actually have found respect for his young white hostage, yet he knows what it is that he must do for his people.
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Direct Descent

Direct Descent

Frank Herbert

Science Fiction & Fantasy

Earth has become a library planet for thousands of years, a bastion of both useful and useless knowledge-esoterica of all types, history, science, politics-gathered by teams of "pack rats" who scour the galaxy for any scrap of information. Knowledge is power, knowledge is wealth, and knowledge can be a weapon. As powerful dictators come and go over the course of history, the cadre of dedicated librarians is sworn to obey the lawful government . . . and use their wits to protect the treasure trove of knowledge they have collected over the millennia.
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The Eyes of Heisenberg

The Eyes of Heisenberg

Frank Herbert

Science Fiction & Fantasy

A New World in Embryo Public Law 10927 was clear and direct. Parents were permitted to watch the genetic alterations of their gametes by skilled surgeons . . . only no one ever requested it. When Lizbeth and Harvey Durant decided to invoke the Law; when Dr. Potter did not rearrange the most unusual genetic structure of their future son, barely an embryo growing in the State's special vat-the consequences of these decisions threatened to be catastrophic. For never before had anyone dared defy the Rulers' decrees . . . and if They found out, it was well known that the price of disobedience was the extermination of the human race . . .
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The Godmakers

The Godmakers

Frank Herbert

Science Fiction & Fantasy

Godmakers explores concepts of war and peace, good government and religious belief. It can be seen as a bridging novel between the all-human Dune universe and the ConSentiency universe series. The novel expands four short stories: "You Take the High Road" in Astounding Science Fiction, May 1958; "Missing link" in Astounding Science Fiction, February 1959; "Operation Haystack" in Astounding Science Fiction, May 1959; & "The Priests of Psi" in Fantastic Science Fiction Stories, February 1960
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The Heaven Makers

The Heaven Makers

Frank Herbert

Science Fiction & Fantasy

Immortal aliens have observed Earth for centuries, making full sensory movies of wars, natural disasters, and horrific human activities . . . all to relieve their boredom. When they finally became jaded by ordinary, run-of-the-mill tragedies, they found ways to create their own disasters, just to amuse themselves. However, interfering with human activities was forbidden, and by the time Investigator Kelexel arrived to investigate, things were really getting out of hand. . . .
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