Description from the inside sleeve: This scintillating, disturbing, and altogether outrageous collection of stories introduces to these shores a young writer already being called "the Scottish Celine of the 1990s" (Guardian) and "a mad postmodern Roald Dahl" (Weekend Scotsman). Using a range of approaches from bitter realism to demented fantasy, Irvine Welsh is able to evoke the essential humanity, well hidden as it is, of his generally depraved, lazy, manipulative, and vicious characters. He specializes particularly in cosmic reversals--God turns a hapless footballer into a fly; an acid head and a newborn infant exchange consciousnesses with sardonically unexpected results--always displaying a corrosive wit and a telling accuracy of language and detail. Irvine Welsh is one hilariously dangerous writer and he is bound to create a sensation. Includes the following stories: "The Shooter" "Eurotrash" "Stoke Newington Blues" "Vat '96" "A Soft Touch" "The Last Resort on the Adriatic" "Sexual Disaster Quartet" "Snuff" "A Blockage in the System" "Wayne Foster" "Where the Debris Meets the Sea" "Granny's Old Junk" "The House of John Deaf" "Across the Hall" "Lisa's Mum Meets the Queen Mum" "The Two Philosophers" "Disnae Matter" "The Granton Star Cause" "Snowman Building Parts for Rico the Squirrel" "Sport for All" "The Acid House" A Smart Cunt: a novella

Dawn's California baby-sitting club is perfect for her. The We Love Kids Club holds informal meetings, they eat healthy snacks, and they don't keep records. And now, after being interviewed by the local newspaper and TV station, the We Love Kids Club is famous! But fame is not easy for Dawn and her friends. Their laid-back club is swamped with business. And Dawn's father has just sprung a gigantic - and awful - surprise on her. Dawn thought that moving back to California was going to be a good thing. But now there's not one good thing about it.

Stacey's vacation is full of mishaps when she tells one litle lie which leads to another and another and another.

The year is 1966, a time of innocence, possibility, and freedom. And for Atlanta, the country, and one woman making her way in a changing world, nothing will be the same ... After an airless childhood in Savannah, Smoky O'Donnell arrives in Atlanta, dazzled and chastened by this hectic young city on the rise. Her new job as a writer with the city's Downtown magazine introduces her to many unforgettable people and propels her into the center of momentous events that will irrevocably alter her heart, her career, and her world.

Note: This is a conversion of the HTML to EPUB.In the three novels that make up the Fionavar Tapestry trilogy collected in this omnibus edition (The Summer Tree, The Wandering Fire, and The Darkest Road), five University of Toronto students find themselves transported to a magical land to do battle with the forces of evil. At a Celtic conference, Kimberley, Kevin, Jennifer, Dave, and Paul meet wizard Loren Silvercloak. Returning with him to the magical kingdom of Fionavar to attend a festival, they soon discover that they are being drawn into the conflict between the dark and the light as Unraveller Rakoth Maugrim breaks free of his mountain prison and threatens the continued existence of Fionavar. They join mages, elves, dwarves, and the forces of the High King of Brennin to do battle with Maugrim, where Kay's imaginative powers as a world-builder come to the fore. He stunningly weaves Arthurian legends into the fluid mix of Celtic, Nordic, and Teutonic, creating a grand fantasy that sweeps readers into a heroic struggle that the author makes all the more memorable because of the tributes he pays to past masters.The trilogy is a grand homage to J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, but while the echoes of Tolkien's masterwork are very real, the books offer the wonderful taste of a new fantasy writer cutting his teeth at the foot of a master. Kay has a very real connection to Tolkien--as Christopher Tolkien's assistant, Kay was invaluable in helping to wrestle Tolkien's posthumous The Silmarillion into shape for publication. Kay is undoubtedly one of the Canadian masters of high fantasy, and The Fionavar Tapestry is one of his most enduring works. Readers, however, should also check out Kay's Tigana, A Song for Arbonne, The Lions of Al-Rassan, and The Sarantine Mosaic to truly experience a master at work. --Jeffrey Canton

The prequel series to The Ghost King comes to an explosive end! Cadderly journeys home to the Edificant Library, hoping to rebuild his shattered life--but the chaos curse has one last surprise in store for him. Failure means the loss of his beloved Danica, success might usher in a new era for the followers of Denier.

nancy is headed to emerson college for a week of relaxlation during sweetheart week, an emerson tradition. Nancy is in for a surprise when rosie lopez, whose is the queen of the week, gets a nasty knock on the head, but theres more to follow

“If my people ever met Gifford’s, they’d get along great.” —ELMORE LEONARDBarry Gifford, the author of Wild at Heart and Sailor’s Holiday, writes of what Tennessee Williams called “something wild in the country/that only the night people know.” In Night People, America’s most “irresistibly gritty” (Washington Post) storyteller draws his characters from the shadows of the Deep South, where they confront rape, religious fanaticism, sexual confusion, racial discrimination, AIDS, child abuse, poverty—all the chaotic horror of the United States at the end of the twentieth century.“Strange and original... gory and deviant... stylishly and humorously told.” —JON ELSEN, The New York Times“A careening, half-hilarious, half-harrowing ride through the American South.” —MICHAEL HAINEY, Details“Barry Gifford is a voice chuckling in the wilderness. You read him gleefully, with a terrified grin, fearful of becoming demented yourself.” —PHILIP KAUFMAN, filmmaker, Henry and June“Gifford’s night people are pure American... pure in their madness... in their evil... and to read about... pure pleasure.” —ALAN CHEUSE, “All Things Considered,” National Public Radio

If fate suddenly made you more beautiful than you ever dreamed possible, would it be the beginning of a fairy tale, or your worst nightmare? The brutal attack should have killed anybody, but Nell Calder did more than survive. She emerged a woman transformed, with an exquisite beauty found only in fairy tales. Nell Calder deserved a happy ending. Instead, her descent into terror has just begun. Her attacker is still on the hunt, determined to finish what he's started. And Nell, protected by a new face, is just as determined to fight back and take her revenge. But to catch her prey, she will have to expose herself—even if it makes her a killer's prime target.

Colette had zero intention of ever going back to her tiny hometown in Maine, until her friend Farrah proposes a month-long vacation—and Farrah is a hard person to say no to. All Collette needs to do is keep her head down and avoid as many people as possible. It's all going well until she runs into her high school ex's little sister, Quinn, who isn't so little anymore. Even though Colette has an instant attraction to her, where would it even go? Quinn is settled in Castleton and Colette is only there for a few weeks.Quinn can't believe that Colette is back in town. She'd had the biggest crush on her older sister's girlfriend back in the day and now they're both grown, and Colette looks better than ever. She can't believe it when Colette shows interest in her and they end up falling into bed together, but Colette insists it's a one-time thing and will not be repeated.Except that it happens again. And again. And again...

In a top-secret government installation near the small town of Two Rivers, Michigan, scientists are investigating a mysterious object discovered several years earlier. Late one evening, the local residents observe strange lights coming from the laboratory. The next morning, they awake to find that their town was literally cut off from the rest of the world...and thrust into a new one! Soon the town is discovered by the bewildered leaders of this new world—at which point, the people of Two Rivers realize that they've arrived in a rigid theocracy. The authorities, known as the Bureau de la Covenance Religieuse, have ordered Linneth Stone, a young ethnologist, to analyze the arrivals and report her findings to the Lieutenant in charge. What Linneth finds will challenge the philosophical basis of her society and lead inexorably to a struggle for power centering on the mysterious object that Two Rivers' government scientists were studying when the town slipped between worlds. In Mysterium, Robert Charles Wilson "blends science, religion, philosophy and alternate history into an intelligent, compelling work of fiction" (Publishers Weekly).