The Raconteurs Commonplace Book

In this standalone mystery set in the world of the New York Times bestselling Greenglass House by an Edgar Award–winning author, a group of strangers trapped in an otherworldly inn slowly reveal their secrets, proving that nothing is what it seems and there's always more than one side to the story. The rain hasn't stopped for a week, and the twelve guests of the Blue Vein Tavern are trapped by flooded roads and the rising Skidwrack River. Among them are a ship’s captain, tattooed twins, a musician, and a young girl traveling on her own. To pass the time, they begin to tell stories—each a different type of folklore—that eventually reveal more about their own secrets than they intended. As the rain continues to pour down—an uncanny, unnatural amount of rain—the guests begin to realize that the entire city is in danger, and not just from the flood. But they have only their stories, and one another, to save them. Will it be enough? "Will dazzle seasoned Milford fans and kindle new ones." (Publishers Weekly starred review)

A rambling old smuggler's inn, a strange map, an attic packed with treasures, squabbling guests, theft, friendship, and an unusual haunting mark this smart mystery in the tradition of the Mysterious Benedict Society books. Illustrations.

Discusses the representation/role of the supernatural or the "fantastic" in the construction of Japanese modernism in late 19th and early 20th century Japan.

During the heyday of McCarthyism, the Chicago Tribune, offended by something he had written, contemptuously dismissed Paul Boller as "an obscure professor" - he was then teaching at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. Some forty-five years later, reflecting on the incident, Boller wrote an essay on what it was like to be an obscure professor at one of America's less publicized campuses in a conservative community during the late 1950s and early 1960s. That essay became the foundation for this collection of autobiographical selections reflecting the interests and pursuits of a man who gained national recognition, both inside the academic community and beyond, but still values his obscurity. Whether it is a study of the much-maligned Calvin Coolidge or an account of his Navy service as a translator of Japanese during World War II, Boller brings to his writing a fresh approach and a lively and wry wit.

"A quest story to find the three pieces of a magical engine which can either win the War of 1812 ... or stop it altogether"--

The 120 Days of Sodom by Marquis de Sade relates the story of four wealthy men who enslave 24 mostly teenaged victims and sexually torture them while listening to stories told by old prostitutes. The book was written while Sade was imprisoned in the Bastille and the manuscript was lost during the storming of the Bastille. Sade wrote that he "wept tears of blood" over the manuscript's loss. Many consider this to be Sade crowing acheivement.

No one talks to the cops. Everyone talks to the bartender. On the run from her life in L.A., Avalon Nash has a drink while waiting to change trains in the Olympic town of Tranquility, NY, when she discovers the freshly-murdered bartender at MacTavish's. A bartender herself, she's offered the position with the warning he wasn't the first MacTavish's bartender to meet a violent end. Death in Tranquility offers chills, laughs, and 30 of the best drink recipes ever imbibed.

Reproduction of the original.

"Set in the seedy underworld of nineteenth-century Coney Island during the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge, two orphans are determined to stop evil forces from claiming the city of New York"--

Presents the current understanding of the nature of time and space, and an approachable explanation of Einstein's theory of special relativity; then goes on to connect these to possible time travel along with the accompanying paradoxes involved.