Showing results by narrator "Graham Halstead" in All Categories

Taking its inspiration from Great Expectations, this novel teases us with the question of what Pip might have been like had he grown up in the American South of the 1960s and 1970s. A guilty encounter with an escaped felon, a summer spent working for an eccentric man with a mysterious past, conflicted erotic feelings for his employer’s niece and nephew—these events set the stage for a journey of sexual and moral discovery that takes Newt Seward to New England, Rome, and Paris—all before returning home to confront his life’s many expectations and disappointments.

Trying to escape the shambles her con-man father has made of their reputation, Lucinda Curtis arrives in West Point, New York, determined to land a husband from the military academy. Campbell Conklin is first in his class and preparing to embark upon a storied career in the US Army. Lucinda thinks Campbell will make the perfect husband...as long as he does not find out about her father. Seth Westcott also has taken a liking to Lucinda.

The fast and furious hedonistic world of the jet-set commuting between the glamour centres of Europe is the setting for this famous novel by one of the twentieth century’s most remarkable writers. Philip Warren is a personable young American who moves amongst the international demi-gods of wealth and status in search of himself and a future, which will satisfy his part cynical, part romantic outlook.

Adelaide - heiress to the wealthiest man in the Ceithren Empire - has felt a void since her sister's death. Just as she's resigned herself to the empty life her father chose for her, a relic from a world that shouldn't exist plunges her into chaos. Clark - son of the greatest terrorist the empire has ever known - is still reeling from his father's death. Since then, his life has boiled down to two things: his brothers and his next mission. When his mission to bring back a mystical artifact goes awry, he's forced to choose between getting the job done and saving the life of a socialite.

Gamer vs Player. Some girls have a dream guy, but Suzie's ideal boyfriend is totally real. He’s just...virtual. Suzie doesn't need to see her online gaming buddy to know that he’s her perfect match. The problem lies in reality, AKA high school. Ever since a humiliating photo of her surfaced on the first day of senior year, she hasn't been able to escape the attention of Luke Warner. Suzie thinks he doesn’t know her at all, and she seems convinced that she doesn’t like him. But what if she knew that he was her online BFF? That would change everything.

For more than four decades, Thomas McGuane has been heralded as an unrivaled master of the short story. Now the arc of that achievement appears in one definitive volume. Set in the seedy corners of Key West, the remote shore towns of the Bahamas, and McGuane's hallmark Big Sky country, with its vast and unforgiving landscape, these are stories of people on the fringes of society, whose twisted pasts meddle with their chances for companionship.

Kelley Moore's tragic home life should make him a survivor. But when he's uprooted yet again, his plans for a better future seem impossible. Being a player on and off the football field is all he knows, until Lenora Wells. The beautiful town princess makes him feel and want things he never thought he could have. Lenora will do anything to get out of her town, even if it means dating the wrong guy. There's one problem: she can't stop thinking about the gorgeous, complicated boy with the unusual eyes.

In this installment of the Ask the Experts series, Chemistry, our professors, scientists, and researchers tackle reader questions about the substances that compose all matter, their properties, and how they interact and change. Queries range from elementary questions, such as why some elements change color over a flame, to how chemistry works in everyday life, to how certain substances affect the body and more.

When designer Amber Wyatt gets the opportunity to project manage a lucrative contract with The August Room, an exclusive and glamorous private members' club, she can't wait to get started. That is, until she meets handsome managing director Finn Hawthorne. Finn has no respect for her hard work, continuously undermines her, and, worst of all, has the uncanny ability to charm everyone he meets. Everyone except her.

Chance Abbot is cocky. Sexy. Gorgeous. A player in every sense of the word. He broke my heart once, and I swore he'd never get a second chance. But when he smiles at me, flashing those irresistible dimples or looks at me like I'm the best thing he's ever seen, I forget I shouldn't fall for his charms again.

Dive into adventure in the last unknown territory on Earth - the sea. Join Robby Hoenig and a cast of characters as unusual as any ever met on a distant planet… In the third Robby Hoenig adventure, Secret under the Caribbean, the key to a baffling puzzle - and the truth about a mysterious monster - are locked inside a sunken Spanish ship…

With his father’s mysterious disappearance and his brother Ronnie enlisting in the Vietnam War, 13-year-old TJ Crowley is left alone with his racist, unstable mother, Kate. The newly enforced Fair Housing Act results in the unthinkable for the Crowleys when a Black family, headed by the eminent Dr. Washington, crosses the racial red line and moves in next door. Kate is quick to warn TJ that their new neighbors are strictly off-limits and makes a panicked call to beg Ray, her old flame, to travel to their home in Wichita Kansas to help deal with “the problem next door.”

The forest of Broceliande, with its picturesque lakes and castles, is the last remnant of the fairy kingdom, if Breton lore is to be believed. Innumerable legends spanning thousands of years are set here, including the tale of King Arthur and the Round Table. It seems to be an appropriate destination for Commissaire Dupin and his team to take a late summer field trip. But when the body of a historian turns up, Dupin is called upon to investigate in the brutal murder case. Before too long, there are more victims.

Enter a dark world where magic wages war and romance is deadly. Attend mystical colleges, indulge in forbidden romances, tend to fantastic creatures, and cast incredible spells in this four-book omnibus. These stories depict themes of found family, disability representation, and love that creates miracles.

Meet seventeen-year-old Noah York, the narrator of Bart Yates's astonishing debut novel. With a mouth like a truck driver and eyes that see through the lies of the world, Noah is heading into a life that's only getting more complicated by the day. His dead father is fading into a snapshot memory. His mother, the famous psycho-poet, has relocated them from Chicago to a rural New England town that looks like a bad advertisement for small-town America. And now, the very house he lives in is coming apart at the seams—literally—torn down bit by bit as he and his mother renovate the old Victorian.

Addie and Clark have just defeated one evil, only to have another closer to home than they thought possible. They thought they were finally safe, but Spectrum has been waiting for them. And this time, there are more lives at stake than anyone could've imagined. Will they be able to work together to stop the spread of RyLand's forces? Or will they have to sacrifice everyone they've ever loved for the sake of the rest of the world?

Clark thought he knew what grief was. Addie thought she understood the dangers of the Tempest Sea. They couldn't have been more wrong. When their only chance at survival lands them on opposite ends of an island that shouldn't exist, they will both be forced to contend with the consequences of their latest mistakes—and each other's. Will they be able to keep the promises they made one another, even as loss and circumstance morphs them into the very people they never thought they would be? Or will their relationship be the next casualty in this never-ending battle?

It’s the late 1980s, and Matthew Carnap is awake most nights, afflicted by a potent combination of insomnia and undiagnosed ADHD. Sometimes he gazes out his bedroom window into the dark; sometimes he wanders the streets of his small Southern Minnesota town. But more often than not, he crosses the hall into his stepfather Russ’ roller rink to spend the sleepless hours lost in music. Russ’s record collection is as eclectic as it is extensive, and he and Matthew bond over discovering new tunes and spinning perfect skate mixes. Then Matthew’s mother divorces Russ.

Georges Blanchard is revered in the small French town of Mireville both as a master serinette maker and for a miraculous incident in his childhood that earned him the title "The Sun-Bringer". As his firstborn son, Henri Blanchard is expected to follow in his footsteps, but Henri would rather learn to make lace than music boxes. When Henri discovers a stash of American letters in his father's drawer, he learns he's not the firstborn son of Georges Blanchard at all: Henri has an older half-brother born to one of Georges' American customers.

A striking collection of stories, poems, letters, travel essays, journal entries, excerpts from three novels, and more—including the complete text of The Sheltering Sky—from one of the most revered authors of the twentieth century.