Download or read book You Are a Miserable Excuse for a Hero written by Bob Powers and published by St. Martin's Griffin. This book was released on 2010-07-01 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why Do All the Nice Girls End Up Getting Kidnapped and Held for Ransom? In this book, YOU, the reader, are a thirtysomething part-time actor/full-time waiter suddenly caught up in a kidnapping. Julia, the girl you went out with last night, has been TAKEN HOSTAGE. What will you do? Will you go to the police and ask for help? Will you burst into the hideout, killing everyone in sight, then tell Julia that she shouldn't misinterpret this as some sort of big commitment? Or will you unplug your phone and just get really, really drunk? The choice is yours! You awake to the sound of the phone ringing. "Hello?" You hear a man's voice. It is muffled. "We've got Julia." "Wait, what do you mean?" "We have kidnapped your girlfriend. If you ever want to see her again---" "Whoa, she's not my girlfriend," you say. "I just met her. I mean, I had a good time with her and all, but I wanna take it slow with this one, I think." "We understand," the voice says. "But she's new to the city, and presently, you're all she has. Give us fifty thousand dollars by tomorrow or we'll blow her head off." If you want to go and ask your parents if you can borrow fifty thousand dollars, go to page 173. If you want to have sex with your ex-girlfriend, consider getting back together with her, then think better of it, go to page 183. BE VERY CAREFUL! You're directing the story and the CHOICES you make can result in MURDER, GRADUATE SCHOOL ENROLLMENT, TORTURE, MARRIAGE, POST-APOCALYPTIC SLAVERY, UNWANTED PREGNANCY, even TEMPING! It's YOUR STORY and YOUR LIFE. All you've got to do is decide which page you want to turn to. JUST MAKE A CHOICE!

Download or read book No Excuse No Denial written by Derek C. Davis and published by iUniverse. This book was released on 2000-11-29 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On July 11, 2054, in the capital city of the new world government, someone murdered the governors wife. Although absolutely certain that the young man currently sweating bullets on Death Row for the crime is innocent, the governor has no solid evidence. Powerless to stop the execution without incriminating his son, the governor turns to the only person he can trust. Nick Trevor, on his first case as a private investigator, has a scant seventy-two hours to save an innocent man. With the clock ticking, Nick forms an impromptu alliance with his old friend, Detective Gabriel MacDougal, who is investigating the sudden disappearance of one of the wealthiest men on the planet. Overcoming countless setbacks during their joint investigations, Nick and Gabe realize that both cases are intimately linked. As they plow their way through the seedy criminal underground and into the lifestyles of the incredibly rich and powerful, they unveil myriad shrouds of truth. While discovering that solving his case is merely the prelude to a complex tale of deception and betrayal, Nick Trevors ultimate reward is rediscovering several pieces of himself that he honestly believed had vanished forever.

Download or read book Risk in Children s Adventure Literature written by Elly McCausland and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2024-05-31 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Risk in Children’s Adventure Literature examines the way in which adults discuss the reading and entertainment habits of children, and with it the assumption that adventure is a timeless and stable constant whose meaning and value is self-evident. A closer enquiry into British and American adventure texts for children over the past 150 years reveals a host of complexities occluded by the term, and the ways in which adults invoke adventure as a means of attempting to get to grips with the nebulous figure of ‘the child’. Writing about adventure also necessitates writing about risk, and this book argues that adults have historically used adventure to conceptualise the relationship between children and risk: the risks children themselves pose to society; the risks that threaten their development; and how they can be trained to manage risk in socially normative and desirable ways. Tracing this tendency back to its development and consolidation in Victorian imperial romance, and forward through various adventure texts and media to the present day, this book probes and investigates the truisms and assumptions that underlie our generalisations about children’s love for adventure, and how they have evolved since the mid-nineteenth century.

Download or read book Significant Objects written by Joshua Glenn and published by Fantagraphics Books. This book was released on 2012-08-06 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 100 EXTRAORDINARY STORIES ABOUT ORDINARY THINGS SIGNIFICANT OBJECTS: A Literary and Economic Experiment Can a great story transform a worthless trinket into a significant object? The Significant Objects project set out to answer that question once and for all, by recruiting a highly impressive crew of creative writers to invent stories about an unimpressive menagerie of items rescued from thrift stores and yard sales. That secondhand flotsam definitely becomes more valuable: sold on eBay, objects originally picked up for a buck or so sold for thousands of dollars in total — making the project a sensation in the literary blogosphere along the way. But something else happened, too: The stories created were astonishing, a cavalcade of surprising responses to the challenge of manufacturing significance. Who would have believed that random junk could inspire so much imagination? The founders of the Significant Objects project, that’s who. This book collects 100 of the finest tales from this unprecedented creative experiment; you’ll never look at a thrift-store curiosity the same way again. FEATURING ORIGINAL STORIES BY: Chris Adrian • Rob Agredo • Kurt Andersen • Rachel Axler • Rob Baedeker • Nicholson Baker • Rosecrans Baldwin • Matthew Battles • Charles Baxter • Kate Bernheimer • Susanna Breslin • Kevin Brockmeier • Matt Brown • Blake Butler • Meg Cabot • Tim Carvell • Patrick Cates • Dan Chaon • Susanna Daniel • Adam Davies • Kathryn Davis • Matthew De Abaitua • Stacey • D'Erasmo • Helen DeWitt • Doug Dorst • Mark Doty • Ben Ehrenreich • Mark Frauenfelder • Amy Fusselman • William Gibson • Myla Goldberg • Ben Greenman • Jason Grote • Jim Hanas • Jennifer Michael Hecht • Sheila Heti • Christine Hill • Dara Horn • Shelley Jackson • Heidi Julavits • Ben Katchor • Matt Klam • Wayne Koestenbaum • Josh Kramer • Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer • Neil LaBute • Victor LaValle • J. Robert Lennon • Jonathan Lethem • Todd Levin • Laura Lippman • Mimi Lipson • Robert Lopez • Joe Lyons • Sarah Manguso • Merrill Markoe • Tom McCarthy • Miranda Mellis • Lydia Millet • Maud Newton • Annie Nocenti • Stephen O’Connor • Stewart O’Nan • Jenny Offill • Gary Panter • Ed Park • James Parker • Benjamin Percy • Mark Jude Poirier • Padgett Powell • Bob Powers • Todd Pruzan • Dan Reines • Nathaniel Rich • Peter Rock • Lucinda Rosenfeld • Greg Rowland • Luc Sante • R.K. Scher • Toni Schlesinger • Matthew Sharpe • Jim Shepard • David Shields • Marisa Silver • Curtis Sittenfeld • Bruce Sterling • Scarlett Thomas • Jeff Turrentine • Deb Olin Unferth • Tom Vanderbilt • Matthew J. Wells • Joe Wenderoth • Margaret Wertheim • Colleen Werthmann • Colson Whitehead • Carl Wilson • Cintra Wilson • Sari Wilson • Douglas Wolk • John Wray

Download or read book Mouvar s Magic written by Piers Anthony and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 1993-05-15 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The concluding volume in the saga of Kelvin of Rud. The Prophesies of Mouvar, a great magician, have proven to be an accurate roadmap for the career of Kelvin and his children. But the evil wizards who strove against Kelvin in this universe and the parallel ones to which they can travel are not finished yet. Mouvar himself will be needed for this final challenge.

Download or read book The Hero Laughs While Walking the Path of Vengeance a Second Time Vol 7 light novel written by Nero Kizuka and published by Yen Press LLC. This book was released on 2024-08-20 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NO GOOD DEED GOES UNPUNISHEDAfter successfully coming back to the other world, Kaito happens upon Leticia, only to discover that she doesn’t recognize him. From there, he and his two newest accomplices, Mai and Yuuto, travel to the town of Zolkia and start climbing the ranks at the Adventurers Guild. Don’t think they’ve turned over a new leaf, however—it’s all in service of drawing the attention of their next targets: a prince of the beast lands named Leon and Leticia’s elder sister Lilia. In the past, this accomplished duo betrayed Kaito out of a conviction that it would save their realm. But Kaito couldn’t care less about their motivations; the only thing he’s concerned with is returning the pain they inflicted on him, a thousand times over.

Download or read book Wizard s Crystal written by Paul E. Otteson and published by Baker's Plays. This book was released on 1990 with total page 84 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Hero De Facto written by Suzan Harden and published by Angry Sheep Publishing. This book was released on 2019-12-10 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: SUPER-SIZED FIRST EDITION! Canyon Pointe city attorney Harri Winters hates supers. They sure hadn’t been around to save her parents when she was a kid. She never dreamed she’d change her mind… Until the day a new superhero rescues her from Professor Venom’s attack at City Hall. The mayor accuses her of conspiring with the supervillain and fires her. But the attack wasn’t some random occurrence. The more she digs into the event, the more she discovers things aren’t what she always thought. Can she bring down the real bad guys with the help of an inexperienced superhero, a supervillain desperately trying to go straight, and a middle-aged vigilante way over his prime? Or will her law partner and staff only be more casualties in the war between good and evil? The Law Offices of Winters & Franklin, where the only thing more dangerous than a superhero is his attorney.

Download or read book A Mighty Shield written by Robert Hagan and published by Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.. This book was released on 2020-08-11 with total page 393 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Never a Straight Path written by Frank Kolondra and published by Trafford Publishing. This book was released on 2004 with total page 454 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "No book takes both sides of the story, as this one does, with such a healthy conviction. The story itself is unique. It flows with uninterrupted zeal, full of healthy satire and heartfelt drama. A highly entertaining sequence of events covers the span of time years before the Second World War and up to the Korean War. The main character, referring to himself as "Yours Truly", and his grandmother, live in the fairytale land of Silesia, which at this time, was split between Germany, Poland and Czechoslovakia. A long time ago it was governed by Queen Maria Theresa. The Grandmother teaches the main character how to stay young in appearance, physical condition and spirit, and that the long-sought Fountain of Youth is found by a simple wash in cold water, with a little twist of time and place. The world goes topsy-turvy for "Yours Truly", who stumbles from one adventure to another, with a battery of uncommon but distinctive stories and style. The writer's sentence structure does imply his European background. The entire story is a convocation of light prose, and follows a honest path diverting only in cases of self defense. Then those, intent on harm, better beware. The author doesn't let the reader read about the innumerable hardships, the way most novels are written, and only on the last page does the hero achieve the happiness he deserves. The uniqueness comes from the approach to the book. The author lets the story alternate with the hardships and happiness with success making the story much more enjoyable, until the story ends with a positive outcome. Who wants to read a book where for 499 pages the hero gets beat up, suffers unbelievable tortures, and on the last page, when by some unforeseeable luck the hero is victorious, the book ends? The highly informative and resourceful story is written for readers who care for the trials and tribulations of an individual who stumbles but always confronts the realities of life and finds his way. The story is at once humorous, then changes to dramatically desperate, but always flows interestingly from one adventure to another, as the scenario changes from one encounter to the next. This book is not filled with incalculable crimes and murders but clings to hope for the Straight Path. As life deals "Yours Truly" some serious blows, he bends like a willow in a storm to come out on top. World War II finds him in High School, from the freedom of the old Czechoslovak Republic, through the occupation by the medieval, horse drawn, Polish army, to the attacks by the German Stuka bombers. He spends the war on a German Kriegsmarine ship of war, sailing from the Bay of Helgoland to Norway's Arctic Circle. He describes the seamy hovels of Hamburg's Reperbahn, and the attacks of the English Spitfires on the warship with equal zeal. His mandate is survival and he does live to tell about it. After the war he returns home, and finds his homeland changed beyond recognition. He fights, with the Czech youth by resisting the Communists indoctrination, but the forces of the new ideology overpower him and many others with him. He escapes the horrors of the socialist system, by risking the crossing of mine fields, the bullets of the border guards, prison, or outright deportation to the Gulags in Siberia. The search for his soul and new life, forces him to explore many countries. He strives to find his place and even schemes with considerable luck until he finds his final destination. This novel follows the life of the young man, from childhood to young adulthood. It is a very interesting story with numerous exciting adventures. These take the reader from Europe to Brazil to the United States. It can also be considered a social, historical and political study, as well as an adventure and search for an anchor where he can find safe heaven. Many facets of European life and culture a

Download or read book Righteous Indignation written by Andrew Breitbart and published by Grand Central Publishing. This book was released on 2011-04-15 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Brash, funny, fiery, and irreverent." -- Rush Limbaugh Known for his network of conservative websites that draws millions of readers everyday, Andrew Breitbart has one main goal: to make sure the "liberally biased" major news outlets in this country cover all aspects of a story fairly. Breitbart is convinced that too many national stories are slanted by the news media in an unfair way. In Righteous Indignations, Breitbart talks about how one needs to deal with the liberal news world head on. Along the way, he details his early years, working with Matt Drudge, the Huffington Post, and how Breitbart developed his unique style of launching key websites to help get the word out to conservatives all over. A rollicking and controversial read, Breitbart will certainly raise your blood pressure, one way or another.

Download or read book Tigerman written by Nick Harkaway and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2014-07-29 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the award-winning author of The Gone-Away World and Angelmaker—a novel at once heartfelt and thrilling about parenthood, friendship and secret identities, about heroes of both the super and the everyday kind. “An irresistible delight, something like Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand as played by James Bond.” —The Washington Post Sergeant Lester Ferris is a good man in need of a rest. After a long career of being shot at, he's about to retire. The mildly larcenous, backwater island of Mancreu, a former British colony in legal limbo, belching toxic clouds of waste and facing imminent destruction by an international community afraid for their own safety, is the ideal place to serve out his time. There is an illicit Black Fleet lurking in the bay: spy stations, arms dealers, offshore hospitals, drug factories and torture centers. Lester's brief, however, is to sit tight and turn a blind eye, so he drinks tea and befriends a brilliant, Internet-addled street kid with a comic-book fixation. When Mancreu’s fragile society erupts in violence, Lester must be more than just an observer: he has no choice but to rediscover the man of action he once was, and find out what kind of hero the island—and the boy—will need.

Download or read book Bluestocking Battalion Series written by Maggie Dallen and published by Maggie Dallen. This book was released on 2022-02-16 with total page 723 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Raised by their retired naval captain father in their sheltered seaside town, these sisters know much about battle tactics and strategic maneuvers. But pirates? Well, that's another matter. The five Jones sisters are about to meet their match in this collection of lighthearted, swoonworthy romps where love is powerful, family is everything, and secrets are treasures just waiting to be unburied... Miss Minerva's Pirate Mishap A mysterious pirate claims he needs Minerva's help. But what if this thief ends up stealing her heart? Miss Abigail's Beastly Beau Miss Abigail has the heart of an angel and the patience of a saint. But what if what she wants...is the love of a pirate? Miss Sally's Unsuitable Soldier Miss Sally has never run from anything...except love. Luckily, her soldier is up for the chase. Miss Rebecca's Rebellious Viscount For once the most obedient Jones sister means to cause trouble. She'd likely succeed, too...if only a certain overprotective viscount would get out of her way. Miss Hattie's Reluctant Hero Hattie has always longed for an adventure. She just didn't expect to find one at sea. And she definitely hadn't imagined her knight in shining armor would be a pirate in disguise.

Download or read book Miss Minerva s Pirate Mishap written by Maggie Dallen and published by Maggie Dallen. This book was released on 2021-02-16 with total page 185 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Is this pirate a villain...or the hero she's been waiting for? Miss Minerva leads a perfectly predictable life in her quiet, seaside town. Or she did...until she came upon a pirate while exploring in a cave. The brute takes her captive, but lets her go when he realizes she's a gently bred lady. But when Minerva goes to warn her father that there's thieves on their shores, she finds the very same pirate. In her home. Wearing a suit. "Ah, there she is." His smile is wicked. "Just the lady I was hoping to see." She's not certain what stolen goods this thief is after, but one thing is clear. If she's not careful, the charming, mysterious rogue may wind up stealing her heart. Miss Minerva's Pirate Mishap is a clean, sweet regency romance and the start of a five-book series of standalone novels.

Download or read book Sweet England written by Steve Weiner and published by New Star Books. This book was released on 2010-11-15 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Steve Weiner's harrowing portrayal of post-Thatcher England follows a man of no known origin and unstable personality and his efforts to re-enter society after a long and unexplained absence. The reader sees events through Jack's mostly uncomprehending eyes as he negotiates the margins of a London that resembles the city of memory and story only in incidental details. Replete with episodes of manic religion and delusions, the world in Sweet England is hard, dark, and dangerous. Exploitation and violence provide a steady background glow that illuminates Jack's relationship with Brenda, with whom he is living, drinking, brawling, and loving. Weiner's London is equally a protagonist of his story. Dirty, sombre, the city is a palimpsest, the contemporary curry houses and mosques reinscribing the landscape dotted with old churches, monuments and graveyards that invoke old England's Christian saints and glorious past. Phantasmagoric and allegorical, and told largely through dialogue, Sweet England's vision will haunt the reader long after they put down this compelling book.

Download or read book Caprice written by George Bowering and published by New Star Books. This book was released on 2010-11-15 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: WITH A FOREWORD BY ARITHA VAN HERK It's the mid 1890s in Kamloops, British Columbia. Two men argue over a bottle of whisky and in the struggle Frank Spencer, an American outlaw-turned-farmhand, kills Pete Foster, a French-Canadian and fellow farmhand. Enter Caprice: a vision and a brain. Almost six feet tall, with flaming red hair and long legs, and toting a lethal bullwhip, she sets out to avenge her brother's murder. Travelling with her beloved black Spanish stallion, Caprice trails her brother's murderer to Mexico and back. Determined and headstrong as she is smart, she leaves an impression on the people she encounters in her journey: Gert, the whore with a heart of gold; Gert's son, for whom she provides affi rmation, and not the least Frank Smith, her lover, a teacher and amateur baseball player who wants her to leave the law enforcement to the professionals and marry him. Caprice finally comes face to face with her brother's murderer at Deadman's Falls. First published in 1987 and based on actual events in BC's history, Caprice is a witty, adventurous and colourful recreation of a Canadian heroine's quest in avenging her brother's murder, a woman well ahead of her times, who refused to be pigeonholed into a stereotype, who questioned authority and did so with unflinching resolve. Caprice is a companion to Bowering's Burning Water and Shoot!, reissued by New Star in 2007 and 2008.

Download or read book It s Kind of a Funny Story written by Ned Vizzini and published by Disney Electronic Content. This book was released on 2010-09-25 with total page 452 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Like many ambitious New York City teenagers, Craig Gilner sees entry into Manhattan's Executive Pre-Professional High School as the ticket to his future. Determined to succeed at life—which means getting into the right high school to get into the right college to get the right job—Craig studies night and day to ace the entrance exam, and does. That's when things start to get crazy. At his new school, Craig realizes that he isn't brilliant compared to the other kids; he's just average, and maybe not even that. He soon sees his once-perfect future crumbling away.