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"The Picture of Dorian Gray and Other Stories" by Oscar Wilde

From BarnesandNoble.com:

Celebrated novel traces the moral degeneration of a handsome young Londoner from an innocent fop into a cruel and reckless pursuer of pleasure and, ultimately, a murderer. As Dorian Gray sinks into depravity, his body retains perfect youth and vigor while his recently painted portrait reflects the ravages of crime and sensuality. Mesmerizing tale of horror and suspense ranks among the classic achievements of its kind.

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"Down the Fairway" by Robert T. Jones, Jr and O.B. Keeler

From BarnesandNoble.com:


Originally published in 1927, Bobby Jones's Down the Fairway has become what Sports Illustrated calls "an incontestable classic." Part memoir, part golf instructional, part golf history—and including wonderful vintage photographs—Down the Fairway is a must read for all who care about this most fascinating sport. Amazingly, Bobby Jones—along with sports journalist O.B. Keeler—wrote this book when he was only 24 years old. His thinking was that, having just become the first golfer ever to win both U.S. and British Open titles in one year (1926), he would never perform at such a high level again. It seemed a good time, then, to tell his story.

In an age of big money, lucrative endorsements, TV contracts, and pouting millionaires, this ernest volume comes as a breath of fresh air. Infused with Jones's deep knowledge of and pure passion for the game, it evokes a long-ago time when an amateur could be the best in the world.

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"Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls" by David Sedaris

From BarnesandNoble.com:


A guy walks into a bar car and...

From here the story could take many turns. When the guy is David Sedaris, the possibilities are endless, but the result is always the same: he will both delight you with twists of humor and intelligence and leave you deeply moved.

Sedaris remembers his father's dinnertime attire (shirtsleeves and underpants), his first colonoscopy (remarkably pleasant), and the time he considered buying the skeleton of a murdered Pygmy. The common thread? Sedaris masterfully turns each essay into a love story: how it feels to be in a relationship where one loves and is loved over many years, what it means to be part of a family, and how it's possible, through all of life's absurdities, to grow to love oneself.

With LET'S EXPLORE DIABETES WITH OWLS, David Sedaris shows once again why he is widely considered the "the funniest writer in America" (O, the Oprah Magazine).

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"Nest" By Terry Goodkind

From BarnesandNoble.com:


Kate Bishop thought she was an ordinary woman living and working in Chicago. But when she unexpectedly finds herself in the middle of a police investigation into a brutal murder, Kate makes a shocking discovery: she has the ability to identify killers just by looking into their eyes.

Trying to grasp the implications of this revelation, Kate is drawn deep into a world of terror. She is tracked down by Jack Raines, a mysterious author with shadowy connections to those who share her ability. He tells Kate that her unique vision also makes her a target, and only he can help her.

Now, hot on Jack and Kate’s heels are a force of super-predators, vicious and bloodthirsty killers who will stop at nothing until Kate is dead. But even as she fights for her life, Kate still isn’t sure if Jack is really her salvation, or another killer coming to slaughter her.

An explosive mix of action and suspense, Nest is a landmark new novel from worldwide bestselling author Terry Goodkind, and a complete reinvention of the contemporary thriller. Travel with Goodkind on a dangerous journey to the back alleys of the darknet, to the darkest corners of our minds, and to the very origins of what it is to be human.

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"Things I've Learned From Watching the Browns" by Terry Pluto

From BarnesandNoble.com:


Here's a question for any Browns fan: Why?

Why, more than four long decades after your team’s last championship . . . despite a relentless pattern of heartbreak, teasing, and more heartbreak . . . capped with a decade of utter futility . . . do you still stick with the Cleveland Browns?

Veteran sportswriter Terry Pluto gets a daily barrage of email from fans letting their hearts bleed out orange and brown. So he decided to ask his readers: Just what is it about this team that makes you love them, hate them, and still keep coming back for more?

A thousand fans responded—in detail. Their stories—along with interviews with former players and Pluto’s own expert analysis—deliver the answer. Answers, actually. Because like any intense relationship, it’s a little complicated . . .

Covering the Browns from 1964 through present day, this book does for Cleveland football what Pluto’s classic about the Indians, The Curse of Rocky Colavito, did for Cleveland baseball: It won’t make the pain go away, but it might help you remember why it’s worth enduring.

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"Thermopylae: The Battle That Changed the World" by Paul Cartledge

From BarnesandNoble.com:


In 480 B.C., the mighty Persian king Xerxes led a massive force to the narrow mountain pass called Thermopylae, anticipating no significant resistance in his bid to conquer Greece. But the Greeks, led by Leonidas and a small army of Spartan warriors, took the battle to the Persians and nearly halted their advance.

Paul Cartledge's riveting, authoritative account of King Leonidas and the legendary 300 illuminates this valiant endeavor that changed the way future generations would think about combat, courage, and death.

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"Naked" by David Sedaris

From BarnesandNoble.com:


In Naked, David Sedaris's message--alternately rendered in "Fakespeare," Italian, Spanish, and pidgin Greek--is the same: pay attention to me. Whether he's taking to the road with a thieving quadriplegic, sorting out the fancy from the extra-fancy in a bleak fruit-packing factory, or celebrating Christmas in the company of a recently paroled prostitute, this collection of memoirs creates a wickedly incisive portrait of an all-too-familar world. It takes Sedaris from his humiliating bout with obsessive behavior in "A Plague of Tics" to the title story, in which he is finally forced to face his naked self in the mirrored sunglasses of a lunatic. At this soulful and moving moment, he picks potato chip crumbs from his pubic hair and wonders what it all means.

This remarkable journey into his own life follows a path of self-effacement and a lifelong search for identity, leaving him both under suspicion and overdressed.

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"Cursor's Fury" by Jim Butcher

From BarnesandNoble.com:


In his acclaimed Codex Alera novels, bestselling author Jim Butcher has created a fascinating world in which the powerful forces of nature take physical form. But even magic cannot sway the corruption that threatens to destroy the realm of Alera once and for all.

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"Death by Black Hole: and Other Cosmic Quandaries" by Neil deGrasse Tyson

From BarnesandNoble.com:


Loyal readers of the monthly "Universe" essays in Natural History magazine have long recognized Neil deGrasse Tyson's talent for guiding them through the mysteries of the cosmos with clarity and enthusiasm. Bringing together more than forty of Tyson's favorite essays, 'Death by Black Hole' explores a myriad of cosmic topics, from what it would be like to be inside a black hole to the movie industry's feeble efforts to get its night skies right. One of America's best-known astrophysicists, Tyson is a natural teacher who simplifies the complexities of astrophysics while sharing his infectious fascination for our universe.

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"Apollo 13" by James Lovell and Jeffrey Kluger

From BarnesandNoble.com:


In April 1970, during the glory days of the Apollo space program, NASA sent Navy Captain Jim Lovell and two other astronauts on America's fifth mission to the moon. Only fifty-five hours into the flight of Apollo 13, disaster struck: a mysterious explosion rocked the ship, and soon its oxygen and power began draining away. Written with all the color and drama of the best fiction, APOLLO 13 (previously published as Lost Moon) tells the full story of the moon shot that almost ended in catastrophe. Minutes after the explosion, the three astronauts are forced to abandon the main ship for the lunar module, a tiny craft designed to keep two men alive for just two days. As the hours tick away, the narrative shifts from the crippled spacecraft to Mission Control, from engineers searching desperately for a way to fix the ship to Lovell's wife and children praying for his safe return. The entire nation watches as one crisis after another is met and overcome. By the time the ship splashes down in the Pacific, we understand why the heroic effort to rescue Lovell and his crew is considered by many to be NASA's finest hour.

Now, thirty years after the launch of the mission, Jim Lovell and coauthor Jeffrey Kluger add a new preface and never-before-seen photographs to Apollo 13. In their preface, they offer an incisive look at America's waxing and waning love affair with space exploration during the past three decades, culminating only recently when the Apollo 13 spacecraft itself, long consigned to an aviation museum outside Paris, was at last returned to its rightful home in the United States. As inspiring today as it was thirty years ago, the story of Apollo 13 is a timeless tribute to the enduring American spirit and sparkling individual heroism.

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"Ghosts of the Titanic" by Charles Pellegrino

From BarnesandNoble.com:

In 1996, Charles Pellegrino published Her Name, Titanic, a riveting account of the most famous disaster in American history. The book became a New York Times bestseller, garnering superb praise from both readers and the pres. Now Pellegrino, expert oceanographer and a member of the original team that discovered the wreck two-and-one-half miles below the surface of the sea, has written the ultimate book on the sinking of the Titanic. Using the latest technology to penetrate the ship's watery grave—where low oxygen levels and a water temperature only two degrees above freezing have kept many of the ship's artifacts from even mild decay—Ghosts of the Titanic recreates those last, horrifying moments on board the doomed ship, and uncovers fascinating secrets about ocean life. Filled with new discoveries about the ship's fate and history, it reveals:

• The surprising fate of the Grand Stairway
• Why the lookout never saw the iceberg before it was too late, and why the Titanic was much closer to the iceberg than previously thought
• Who was looting cabins as the ship went down
• Diaries and letters from passengers, perfectly preserved at the bottom of the ocean

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"We Don't Need Roads: Tha Making of the Back to the Future Trilogy" by Caseen Gaines

From BarnesandNoble.com:


Long before Marty McFly and Doc Brown traveled through time in a flying DeLorean, director Robert Zemeckis, and his friend and writing partner Bob Gale, worked tirelessly to break into the industry with a hit. During their journey to realize their dream, they encountered unprecedented challenges and regularly took the difficult way out.

For the first time ever, the story of how these two young filmmakers struck lightning is being told by those who witnessed it. We Don’t Need Roads includes original interviews with Zemeckis, Gale, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Huey Lewis, and over fifty others who contributed to one of the most popular and profitable film trilogies of all time.

With a focus not only on the movies, but also the lasting impact of the franchise and its fandom, We Don’t Need Roads is the ultimate read for anyone who has ever wanted to ride a Hoverboard, hang from the top of a clock tower, travel through the space-time continuum, or find out what really happened to Eric Stoltz after the first six weeks of filming. So, why don’t you make like a tree and get outta here – and start reading! We Don’t Need Roads is your density.

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"Cavs: From Fitch to Fratello" by Joe Menzer and Burt Graeff

From Alibris.com:


The Cleveland Cavaliers hold the special distinction of being the only franchise in NBA history to have the Commisioner's Office require player transactions to be pre-approved by the league office before ownership could make any deals. This high level of ineptitude, and the franchise's later climb to respectibility, is chronilcled in CAVS fro... m Fitch to Fratello by two authors who were on the scene from the start of the franchise through the date the book was published. It is adequately written and is an easy read. Although it is not particularly revealing or critical of many of the more well known people it dicusses, it is worth reading for any fan of 1970's and 1980's professional basketball and gives some interesting insight into players and coaches of the era.

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"Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim" by David Sedaris

From BarnesandNoble.com:


Playwright and National Public Radio commentator David Sedaris lifts the corner of ordinary life, revealing the absurdity teeming below its surface. His world is alive with obscure desires and hidden motives - a world where forgiveness is automatic and an argument can be the highest form of love. Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim is another unforgettable collection from one of the wittiest and most original writers at work today.

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"Napoleon Wasn't Short (& St Patrick Wasn't Irish): When History Gets it Wrong" by Andrea Barham

From BarnesandNoble.com:


After falling for one historical misconception too many, the time is now right to launch a spirited fightback to set the record straight, once and for all. Leading the way in this modern crusade comes this lighthearted guide that reveals the many myths, fabrications, and ambiguities found in the annals of world history. For example, Winston Churchill was not born in a ladies' toilet, Lucrezia Borgia was not an infamous poisoner, and Abraham Lincoln did not write the Gettysburg Address on the back of an envelope. Written with wit and fascinating insight, and covering numerous subjects—royalty to religion, saints to statesmen, inventors and explorers, and the lives of famous characters throughout history—this book is guaranteed to astonish, inform, amuse, and entertain.

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"I'm Dreaming of a Black Christmas" by Lewis Black

From BarnesandNoble.com:


Christmas is supposed to be a time of peace on earth and goodwill toward all. But not for Lewis Black.

He says humbug to the Christmas tradtitions and trappings that make the holiday memorable. In I'm Dreaming of a Black Christmas, his hilarious and sharply observed book about the holiday, Lewis lets loose on all things Yule. It's a very personal look at what's wrong with Christmas, seen through the eyes of "the most engagingly pissed-off comedian ever."*

From his own Christmas rituals—which have absolutely nothing to do with presents or the Christmas tree or Rudolph—to his own eccentric experiences with the holiday (from a USO Christmas tour to playing Santa Claus in full regalia), I'm Dreaming of a Black Christmas is classic Lewis Black: funny, razor-sharp, insightful, and honest.

You'll never think of Christmas in the same way.

*Stephen King

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"Different Seasons" by Stephen King

From Thriftbooks.com:


Different Seasons (1982) is a collection of four novellas, markedly different in tone and subject, each on the theme of a journey. The first is a rich, satisfying, nonhorrific tale about an innocent man who carefully nurtures hope and devises a wily scheme to escape from prison. The second concerns a boy who discards his innocence by enticing an old man to travel with him into a reawakening of long-buried evil. In the third story, a writer looks back on the trek he took with three friends on the brink of adolescence to find another boy's corpse. The trip becomes a character-rich rite of passage from youth to maturity.


These first three novellas have been made into well-received movies: "Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption" into Frank Darabont's 1994 The Shawshank Redemption (available as a screenplay, a DVD film, and an audiocassette), "Apt Pupil" into Bryan Singer's 1998 film Apt Pupil (also released in 1998 on audiocassette), and "The Body" into Rob Reiner's Stand by Me (1986).


The final novella, "Breathing Lessons," is a horror yarn told by a doctor, about a patient whose indomitable spirit keeps her baby alive under extraordinary circumstances. It's the tightest, most polished tale in the collection.

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"Academ's Fury" by Jim Butcher

From BarnesandNoble.com:


For centuries, the people of Alera have harnessed the furies—elementals of earth, air, fire, water, wood, and metal—to protect their land from aggressors. But no fury can save them from the dangers they face within. A mysterious attack from across the sea has weakened the First Lord. Should he fall, a bloody civil war is inevitable. The responsibility of fending off assassination attempts and treachery within the First Lord’s circle of spies falls on Tavi, the one man with no fury to call…

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"Born With Teeth" by Kate Mulgrew

From BarnesandNoble.com:


Raised by unconventional Irish Catholics who knew "how to drink, how to dance, how to talk, and how to stir up the devil," Kate Mulgrew grew up with poetry and drama in her bones. But in her mother, a would-be artist burdened by the endless arrival of new babies, young Kate saw the consequences of a dream deferred. Determined to pursue her own no matter the cost, at 18 she left her small Midwestern town for New York, where, studying with the legendary Stella Adler, she learned the lesson that would define her as an actress: "Use it," Adler told her. Whatever disappointment, pain, or anger life throws in your path, channel it into the work.


It was a lesson she would need. At twenty-two, just as her career was taking off, she became pregnant and gave birth to a daughter. Having already signed the adoption papers, she was allowed only a fleeting glimpse of her child. As her star continued to rise, her life became increasingly demanding and fulfilling, a whirlwind of passionate love affairs, life-saving friendships, and bone-crunching work. Through it all, Mulgrew remained haunted by the loss of her daughter, until, two decades later, she found the courage to face the past and step into the most challenging role of her life, both on and off screen.

We know Kate Mulgrew for the strong women she's played—Captain Janeway on Star Trek; the tough-as-nails "Red" on Orange is the New Black. Now, we meet the most inspiring and memorable character of all: herself. By turns irreverent and soulful, laugh-out-loud funny and heart-piercingly sad, BORN WITH TEETH is the breathtaking memoir of a woman who dares to live life to the fullest, on her own terms.

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"Dante's Invention" by James Burge

From BarnesandNoble.com:


The young Dante Alighieri was a love-sick poet who concentrated on writing rarefied, intellectual verse about Beatrice, the girl he had loved since they were both children. He studiously ignored his own innate talent for narrative horror, and behaved as if he was entirely unaware of the increasingly violent political turmoil that had gripped his city. Fate had to work very hard to make him write the Divine Comedy—this is the story of how it did so. A succession of increasingly painful personal experiences broadened the scope of his vision. When Dante found himself condemned to death in his absence, he could no longer ignore the real world. The result was the epic three-part fantasy that took him the rest of his life to write. The Divine Comedy really does deal with life, the universe, and everything, as Dante recounts the story of his fictional travels across the universe, from Hell to Heaven.

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"The Night Manager" by John le Carre

From BarnesandNoble.com:


Enter the new world of post Cold War espionage. Penetrate the secret world of ruthless arms dealers and drug smugglers who have risen to unthinkable power and wealth. The sinister master of them all is an untouchable Englishman named Roper. Slipping into this maze of peril is a former British soldier, Jonathan Pine, who knows Roper well enough to hate him more than any man on earth. Now Personal vengeance is only part of why Pine is willing to help the men at Whitehall try to bring Roper down....

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"Furies of Calderon" by Jim Butcher

From BarnesandNoble.com:


For a thousand years, the people of Alera have united against the aggressive and threatening races that inhabit the world, using their unique bond with the furies - elementals of earth, air, fire, water, and metal. But now, Gaius Sextus, First Lord of Alera, grows old and lacks an heir. Ambitious High Lords plot and maneuver to place their Houses in positions of power, and a war of succession looms on the horizon." "Far from city politics in the Calderon Valley, the boy Tavi struggles with his lack of furycrafting. At fifteen, he has no wind fury to help him fly, no fire fury to light his lamps. Yet as the Alerans' most savage enemy - the Marat - return to the Valley, he will discover that his destiny is much greater than he could ever imagine." Caught in a storm of deadly wind furies, Tavi saves the life of a runaway slave named Amara. But she is actually a spy for Gaius Sextus, sent to the Valley to gather intelligence on traitors to the Crown, who may be in league with the barbaric Marat horde. And when the Valley erupts in chaos - when rebels war with loyalists and furies clash with furies - Amara will find Tavi's courage and resourcefulness to be a power greater than any fury - one that could turn the tides of war.

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"Golf in the Kingdom" by Michael Murphy

From BarnesandNoble.com:


When a young man en route to India stops in Scotland to play at the legendary Burningbush golf club, his life is transformed. Paired with a mysterious teacher named Shivas Irons, he is led through a round of phenomenal golf, swept into a world where extraordinary powers are unleashed in a backswing governed by "true gravity." A night of adventure and revelation follows, and leads to a glimpse of Seamus MacDuff, the holy man who haunts a ravine off Burningbush's thirteenth fairway - the one they call Lucifer's Rug.

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"Second Foundation" by Isaac Asimov

From BarnesandNoble.com:


After years of struggle, the Foundation lies in ruins—destroyed by the mutant mind power of the Mule. But it is rumored that there is a Second Foundation hidden somewhere at the end of the Galaxy, established to preserve the knowledge of mankind through the long centuries of barbarism. The Mule failed to find it the first time—but now he is certain he knows where it lies.

The fate of the Foundation rests on young Arcadia Darell, only fourteen years old and burdened with a terrible secret. As its scientists gird for a final showdown with the Mule, the survivors of the First Foundation begin their desperate search. They too want the Second Foundation destroyed…before it destroys them.