Rats Saw God

Steve details his descent from bright star to burnout in this newly repackaged edition of the definitive, highly acclaimed novel from the creator of Veronica Mars and Party Down. Houston, sophomore year: Steve is on top of the world. He and his friends are the talk of the school. He’s in love with a terrific girl. He can even deal with “the astronaut”—a world-famous hero who happens to be his father. San Diego, senior year: Steve is bummed out, drugged out, flunking out. A no-nonsense counselor says he can graduate if he writes a 100-page paper. So Steve starts writing, and as the paper becomes more and more personal, he reveals how a National Merit Scholar has become an under-achieving stoner. And in telling how he got to where he is, Steve discovers how to get to where he wants to be.

Winner of two National Science Fairs for his work on plant life, thirteen-year-old Grady Jacobs isn't exactly Mr. Popularity. But he doesn't care. He's spending the summer with the famous botanist Dr. Phillip Carter in the Amazon jungle trying to save the rain forest with a new species of super trees. Although his duties are mostly relegated to kitchen patrol, Grady stumbles on a startling discovery: a binary system of sounds that enables him to control the movement of trees. Even as Grady discovers the tree language, he realizes that Carter's super trees aren't replenishing the Amazon's ecosystem -- they're killing it. When his unauthorized experiments are discovered, Grady flees from Carter's camp and finds refuge with the Urah-wau Indian tribe. but even with the tribe's help and the secret tree language, can Grady stop Carter's super trees? With his keen eye for popular culture now trained on the environment, award-winning author Rob Thomas tells a coming-of-age story bursting with action and adventure. Hanh on to that vine: It's going to be a wild ride.

Keene Davenport has called for a student walkout to protest his school’s annual “Slave Day” fundraiser, but it’s not exactly working. Shawn Greeley, the first African American student council president of Robert E. Lee High, continues to preside over the auctioning of student reps to serve as book-toters, chauffeurs, and lunch-fetchers for the day. So Keene chooses an alternative path of civil disobedience: Assuming that a day of degradation ought to open Shawn’s eyes, Keene decides to “buy” Shawn to be his slave, no matter what the cost—and launches a series of life-changing events in the process.

For six months in 1942, Stalingrad is the center of a titanic struggle between the Russian and German armies—the bloodiest campaign in mankind's long history of warfare. The outcome is pivotal. If Hitler's forces are not stopped, Russia will fall. And with it, the world.... German soldiers call the battle Rattenkrieg, War of the Rats. The combat is horrific, as soldiers die in the smoking cellars and trenches of a ruined city. Through this twisted carnage stalk two men—one Russian, one German—each the top sniper in his respective army. These two marksmen are equally matched in both skill and tenacity. Each man has his own mission: to find his counterpart—and kill him. But an American woman trapped in Russia complicates this extraordinary duel. Joining the Russian sniper's cadre, she soon becomes one of his most talented assassins—and perhaps his greatest weakness. Based on a true story, this is the harrowing tale of two adversaries enmeshed in their own private war—and whose fortunes will help decide the fate of the world.

Patrick Sheridan is experiencing technical difficulties... Patrick's thrilled to become a student reporter on a teen news show. But when he leaves his small Texas town for the bright lights of Los Angeles, everything changes. It doesn't take long before Patrick is mingling with the rich and famous and doing all kinds of things he never thought he would -- like cheating on his girlfriend, lying to his parents, and losing his best friend. And by the time he learns that it was his handsome face and not his writing that landed him his new job, he's left to pick up the pieces alone. Hollywood is already full of beautiful people with no talent; how can he prove that he's more? He'll have to start by convincing himself.

In "The Rats in the Walls" by H.P. Lovecraft, a man restores his ancestral estate in England, only to be haunted by mysterious noises within the walls. As he investigates, he uncovers horrifying secrets about his family's dark past and the ancient horrors lurking beneath the mansion.

New York Times bestselling author Carolyn Hart presents the story of a woman with a curious ability that drops her headfirst into a world of intrigue and murder. Since her fiancé’s death, Nela Farley has been plagued by a sixth sense: She understands the thoughts of cats. In desperate need of a distraction, Nela agrees to substitute for her sister, Chloe, at her job for a charitable foundation. Chloe has even arranged a place for her sister to stay. But when Nela encounters the previous tenant’s cat, she gets a flash of thought: “...dead and gone...She loved me...skateboard on the step...” Nela wants to ignore what the cat saw, but the idea that the death of former tenant Marian Grant wasn’t an accident is something she can’t ignore. And when a detective becomes suspicious of Nela’s sister and a second murder occurs, Nela realizes she’ll have to make the most of her unwanted ability before she meets her own untimely end...

New York City, 1845. Timothy Wilde, a 27-year-old Irish immigrant, joins the newly formed NYPD and investigates an infanticide and the body of a 12-year-old Irish boy whose spleen has been removed.

Arkady and Boris Strugatsky are widely known as the greatest Russian writers of science fiction, and their 1964 novel Hard to Be a God is considered one of the greatest of their works. It tells the story of Don Rumata, who is sent from Earth to the medieval kingdom of Arkanar with instructions to observe and to influence, but never to directly interfere. Masquerading as an arrogant nobleman, a dueler and a brawler, Don Rumata is never defeated but can never kill. With his doubt and compassion, and his deep love for a local girl named Kira, Rumata wants to save the kingdom from the machinations of Don Reba, the First Minister to the king. But given his orders, what role can he play? Hard to Be a God has inspired a computer role-playing game and two movies, including Aleksei German's long-awaited swan song. Yet until now the only English version (out of print for over thirty years) was based on a German translation, and was full of errors, infelicities, and misunderstandings. This new edition—translated by Olena Bormashenko, whose translation of the authors' Roadside Picnic has received widespread acclaim, and supplemented with a new foreword by Hari Kunzru and an afterword by Boris Strugatsky, both of which supply much-needed context—reintroduces one of the most profound Soviet-era novels to an eager audience.