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The Biography of J. R. R. Tolkien, Architect of Middle-Earth
by Daniel GrottaA biography of J.R.R. Tolkien, the author of the Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, and many more!
The Biopolitics of Gender in Science Fiction: Feminism and Female Machines (Routledge Studies in Speculative Fiction)
by Emily Cox-Palmer-WhiteQuestioning essentialist forms of feminist discourse, this work develops an innovative approach to gender and feminist theory by drawing together the work of key feminist and gender theorists, such as Judith Butler and Donna Haraway, and the biopolitical philosophy of Giorgio Agamben and Gilles Deleuze. By analysing representations of the female cyborg figure, the gynoid, in science fiction literature, television, film and videogames, the work acknowledges its normative and subversive properties while also calling for a new feminist politics of selfhood and autonomy implied by the posthuman qualities of the female machine.
The Birchbark House (Birchbark House #1)
by Louise ErdrichA fresh new look for this National Book Award finalist by Pulitzer Prize–winning novelist Louise Erdrich! This is the first installment in an essential nine-book series chronicling one hundred years in the life of one Ojibwe family and includes charming interior black-and-white artwork done by the author.She was named Omakakiins, or Little Frog, because her first step was a hop.Omakakiins and her family live on an island in Lake Superior. Though there are growing numbers of white people encroaching on their land, life continues much as it always has.But the satisfying rhythms of their life are shattered when a visitor comes to their lodge one winter night, bringing with him an invisible enemy that will change things forever—but that will eventually lead Omakakiins to discover her calling.By turns moving and humorous, this novel is a breathtaking tour de force by a gifted writer.The beloved and celebrated Birchbark House series by Louise Erdrich includes The Birchbark House, The Game of Silence, The Porcupine Year, Chickadee, and Makoons, with more titles to come.
The Bird Hotel: A Novel
by Joyce MaynardEnter the magical world of La Llorona with New York Times bestselling author Joyce Maynard. After a childhood filled with heartbreak, Irene, a talented artist, finds herself in a small Central American village where she checks into a beautiful but decaying lakefront hotel called La Llorona at the base of a volcano. The Bird Hotel tells the story of this young American who, after suffering tragedy, restores and runs La Llorona. Along the way we meet a rich assortment of characters who live in the village or come to stay at the hotel. With a mystery at its center and filled with warmth, drama, romance, humor, pop culture, and a little magical realism, The Bird Hotel has all the hallmarks of a Joyce Maynard novel that have made her a leading voice of her generation. The Bird Hotel is a big, sweeping story spanning four decades, offering lyricism as well as whimsy. While the world New York Times bestselling author Joyce Maynard brings to life on the page is rendered from her imagination, it&’s one informed by the more than twenty years of which she has spent a significant amount of her time in a small Mayan indigenous village in Guatemala. As the New York Times said, "[Maynard] has an unswerving eye, a sharply perked ear, and the ability to keep her readers hanging on her words." People Magazine said of her: "Maynard&’s spare prose packs a rich emotional punch.&”
The Bird King: A Novel
by G. Willow WilsonOne of NPR’s 50 Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Books of the Decade: A fifteenth-century palace mapmaker must hide his powers in the time of the Inquisition . . .Award-winning author G. Willow Wilson’s debut novel Alif the Unseen was an NPR and Washington Post Best Book of the Year and established her as a vital American Muslim literary voice. Now she delivers The Bird King, an epic journey set during the reign of the last sultan in the Iberian peninsula at the height of the Spanish Inquisition.Fatima is a concubine in the royal court of Granada, the last emirate of Muslim Spain. Her dearest friend, Hassan, the palace mapmaker and the one man who doesn’t leer at her with desire, has a secret—he can draw maps of places he’s never seen and bend the shape of reality. When representatives of the newly formed Spanish monarchy arrive to negotiate the sultan’s surrender, Fatima befriends one of the women, not realizing that she will see Hassan’s gift as sorcery and a threat to Christian Spanish rule. With their freedoms at stake, what will Fatima risk to save Hassan and escape the palace walls? As the two traverse Spain with the help of a clever jinn to find safety, The Bird King asks us to consider what love is and the price of freedom at a time when the West and the Muslim world were not yet separate.“Wilson has a deft hand with myth and with magic, and the kind of smart, honest writing mind that knits together and bridges cultures and people.” —Neil Gaiman, author of Norse Mythology“A triumph . . . one of the best fantasy writers working today.” —BookPage“A treasure-house of a novel, thrilling, tender, funny, and achingly gorgeous. I loved it.” —Lev Grossman, author of the Magicians trilogy
The Bird Shaman: Holy Ground Book 3
by Judith MoffettOccupation of Earth is now in its 27th year, and relations between humanity and the dictatorial Hefn have never seemed shakier. The aliens mission is to save the planet from its human abusers; and the Baby Ban imposed by mass hypnosis has made Earth a cleaner, wilder, less crowded place. But the Ban has now lasted so long, and provoked such hatred, that when a spark is struck the situation explodes into worldwide riots on one side and retaliatory mindwipings on the other. Years of effort by the eco-spiritual Gaians, who mediate between humans and Hefn, have been destroyed. While the Gaians regroup and brainstorm frantically in an atmosphere of doubt and danger, one obsessed Hefn and one young woman begin a radical experiment. Pam Pruitt has discovered a growing ability to acquire information by non-rational means. Childhood suffering has empowered her, in a way once understood by hunting and gathering peoples - an understanding lost with that lost lifeway - to communicate with mysterious forces through strong dreaming: to function as a shaman on behalf of her community, the human race.
The Bird Shaman: Holy Ground Book 3
by Judith MoffettOccupation of Earth is now in its 27th year, and relations between humanity and the dictatorial Hefn have never seemed shakier. The aliens mission is to save the planet from its human abusers; and the Baby Ban imposed by mass hypnosis has made Earth a cleaner, wilder, less crowded place. But the Ban has now lasted so long, and provoked such hatred, that when a spark is struck the situation explodes into worldwide riots on one side and retaliatory mindwipings on the other. Years of effort by the eco-spiritual Gaians, who mediate between humans and Hefn, have been destroyed. While the Gaians regroup and brainstorm frantically in an atmosphere of doubt and danger, one obsessed Hefn and one young woman begin a radical experiment. Pam Pruitt has discovered a growing ability to acquire information by non-rational means. Childhood suffering has empowered her, in a way once understood by hunting and gathering peoples - an understanding lost with that lost lifeway - to communicate with mysterious forces through strong dreaming: to function as a shaman on behalf of her community, the human race.
The Bird and the Blade
by Megan BannenA sweeping and tragic debut novel perfect for fans of The Wrath and the Dawn and Megan Whalen Turner.The Bird and the Blade is a lush, powerful story of life and death, battles and riddles, lies and secrets from author Megan Bannen. Enslaved in Kipchak Khanate, Jinghua has lost everything: her home, her family, her freedom . . . until the kingdom is conquered by enemy forces and she finds herself an unlikely conspirator in the escape of Prince Khalaf and his irascible father across the vast Mongol Empire.On the run, with adversaries on all sides and an endless journey ahead, Jinghua hatches a scheme to use the Kipchaks’ exile to return home, a plan that becomes increasingly fraught as her feelings for Khalaf evolve into an impossible love.Jinghua’s already dicey prospects take a downward turn when Khalaf seeks to restore his kingdom by forging a marriage alliance with Turandokht, the daughter of the Great Khan. As beautiful as she is cunning, Turandokht requires all potential suitors to solve three impossible riddles to win her hand—and if they fail, they die. Jinghua has kept her own counsel well, but with Khalaf’s kingdom—and his very life—on the line, she must reconcile the hard truth of her past with her love for a boy who has no idea what she’s capable of . . . even if it means losing him to the girl who’d sooner take his life than his heart.
The Bird of Time
by George Alec EffingerFar into the future, Hartstein's graduation present from his grandparents was a wonderful trip…into the past. He had a long future in the doughnut industry to look forward to but this trip was the icing on the cake. It had been a long time since that first experiment in time travel was successfully pulled off, although not without its flaws. Now, in the future, time travel was a lucrative tourist industry. But the time travel industry was keeping one little fact to itself: two percent never came back. This cover-up was the work of the Agency. The Agency knew what others did not: that the past wasn't really the past but a complicated dynamic of individual perceptions of what the past might have been. The past isn't real and reality becomes a state of mind. While selling their particular brand of escapist entertainment and vacation packages, the Agency didn't bother to tell its clients or the populace in general that a war was going on--a time war. The Agency was spending its time in a neck-and-neck battle with the Temporary Underground. The battlefield was none other than the space-time continuum, the weapons were time-shifts and theoretical mathematics. Hartstein had no idea what his trip would be or where it would take him.
The Bird of the River
by Kage BakerIn this new standalone story set in the world of The Anvil of the World and The House of the Stag, two teenagers join the crew of a huge river barge after their mother drowns. The girl and her half-breed younger brother try to make the barge their new home. As the great boat proceeds up the long river, we see a panorama of cities and cultures, and begin to perceive patterns in the pirate attacks that happen so frequently in the river cities. Eliss, the girl, becomes a sharp-eyed spotter of obstacles in the river for the barge, and more than that, one who perceives deeply. A young boy her age, Krelan, trained as a professional assassin, has come aboard, seeking the head of a dead nobleman, so that there might be a proper burial. But the head proves as elusive as the real explanation behind the looting of cities, so he needs Eliss's help. And then there is the massive Captain of the barge, who can perform supernatural tricks, but prefers to stay in his cabin and drink.
The Birds And Other Stories (Virago Modern Classics #10)
by Daphne Du MaurierFROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF REBECCA'How long he fought with them in the darkness he could not tell, but at last the beating of the wings about him lessened and then withdrew . . . 'A classic of alienation and horror, 'The Birds' was immortalised by Hitchcock in his celebrated film. The five other chilling stories in this collection echo a sense of dislocation and mock man's sense of dominance over the natural world. The mountain paradise of 'Monte Verità' promises immortality, but at a terrible price; a neglected wife haunts her husband in the form of an apple tree; a professional photographer steps out from behind the camera and into his subject's life; a date with a cinema usherette leads to a walk in the cemetery; and a jealous father finds a remedy when three's a crowd . . .
The Birds And Other Stories (Vmc Ser. #535)
by Daphne Du MaurierFROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF REBECCA'How long he fought with them in the darkness he could not tell, but at last the beating of the wings about him lessened and then withdrew . . . 'A classic of alienation and horror, 'The Birds' was immortalised by Hitchcock in his celebrated film. The five other chilling stories in this collection echo a sense of dislocation and mock man's sense of dominance over the natural world. The mountain paradise of 'Monte Verità' promises immortality, but at a terrible price; a neglected wife haunts her husband in the form of an apple tree; a professional photographer steps out from behind the camera and into his subject's life; a date with a cinema usherette leads to a walk in the cemetery; and a jealous father finds a remedy when three's a crowd . . .
The Birds Don't Care if You're Pretty
by Ava CaldwellValeria Garcia seemed to have it all. She was one of the rich kids from Cascabel Road, she was beautiful, and Luke Nichols was her boyfriend. Not only that, someday she would lead the coven of witches that had lived in town for more than a century. Then, without warning, the trees in the forest along Cascabel Road all died, Valeria's mother and the other adult witches lost their magical powers, and Luke Nichols left Valeria for shy, ragged Gwen Foster. It's up to Valeria and her friends to prevent the fulfillment of a promise going back five generations, a promise that would give power to witches with malevolent magic. And where does Gwen Foster fit into all of this? In alternating chapters Valeria and Gwen tell the story of powers lost and found and a friendship salvaged from the ashes.
The Birdy Snatchers (Kung Pow Chicken #3)
by Cyndi MarkoEveryone’s favorite avian superhero takes on an evil villain creating mindless zombies in this action-packed, illustrated chapter book.Gordon Blue is not just a second grader. He is also a superhero named Kung Pow Chicken! When the smartest chickens in town start acting like zombies, this superhero gets cracking. He knows only a bad guy would steal brains! But does Kung Pow Chicken have the smarts to stop the evil birdbrain?Praise for Let’s Get Cracking!“A perfectly puntastic page-turner. Hybrids of comics and traditional pictures, the goofy all-color illustrations propel the fast-moving, high-interest story. “Ham and eggs!” —you don’t want to miss this!” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review “Just the thing for beginning readers.” —Publishers Weekly“Step aside, Captain Underpants! There is a new hero in town—this time, with feathers. . . . Fresh, funny, and packed with full-color illustrations, this new transitional series will be an instant hit with readers looking for silly fun and a touch of mystery.” —Booklist
The Birth of Flux & Anchor (Soul Rider #4)
by Jack L. ChalkerFor countless years, the strange and haunted place called World has been a land divided. Beyond the stability of Anchor lies the chaos of the Flux, a land of strange passions and near magic, where flesh is mutable, and reality yields to madness. This is the tale of the making of that World, of a brilliant scientist who discovered a universe where mind rules matter, and of the courageous men and women who battled treachery, rebellion and hellish alien forces to found a colony there...
The Birth of Flux and Anchor (Soul Rider)
by Jack L. ChalkerA science fantasy tale about a brilliant scientist who discovered a universe where mind rules matter, and the courageous men and women who battled treachery, rebellion and hellish alien forces, to found a colony there.
The Birthday Ball
by Lois Lowry Jules FeifferPrincess Patricia Priscilla is bored with her royal life and the excitement surrounding her sixteenth birthday ball. Doomed to endure courtship by three grotesquely unappealing noblemen, she escapes her fate-for a week. Disguised as a peasant, she attends the village school as the smart new girl, "Pat," and attracts friends and the attention of the handsome schoolmaster. Disgusting suitors, lovable peasants, and the clueless king and queen collide at the ball, where Princess Patricia Priscilla calls the shots. What began as a cure for boredom becomes a chance for Princess Patricia Priscilla to break the rules and marry the man she loves.
The Birthday Bear
by Holly DayFor more than a year, Gabe Callan has known Riley Irving is his mate, but Riley isn’t ready. He stumbled into Gabe’s bakery one night after having left his abusive ex, and he’s still dealing with what he’s been through. Gabe knows he needs time, but he doesn't know how much longer he can wait.All Riley wants is a safe, slow, boring life. He doesn’t want any adventures other than those he reads about in romance novels. But maybe he’s read too many paranormal books because he’s imagining the guys at the bakery growling, and sometimes he believes he sees their eyes shift color. Maybe he’s going insane.Gabe is scared to tell Riley the truth about what he is. If he waits too long, Riley will feel betrayed. If he tells him too soon, he will run away, and Gabe isn’t sure he can survive without Riley. How do you tell your skittish human mate you’re a bear shifter?
The Birthday Of The World and Other Stories
by Ursula K. Le Guin'Her most important book since ALWAYS COMING HOME and her most satisfactory collection since her first, the brilliant THE WIND'S TWELVE QUARTERS. A formidable and rewarding work, a prime candidate for best SF collection of the year. An essential book.' LOCUS Six of the eight piece are set in Le Guin's classic Hainish cycle. The title story, 'The Birthday of the World', stands alone and the final piece, 'Paradises Lost', is a new short novel original to the collection, a major addition to the generation starship subgenre of science fiction.
The Birthday Party of Dread (Fangbone! Third Grade Barbarian #3)
by Michael RexAs seen on Disney XD, a hilarious graphic novel perfect for fans of Captain Underpants!Fangbone and his friends are full of ideas for Eastwood Elementary's "Invention Convention." Unfortunately, Venomous Drool has ideas of his own--like sending a curse to crush Fangbone! But when the misdirected spell sends a terrifying monster to attack Bill at his birthday party instead, Fangbone must invent a way to save his best friend--and fast! The graphic novel series that boys go wild for!
The Birthgrave
by Tanith LeeI am Karrakaz, the Soulless One, who sprang from the evil of your race . . . There is no escape from Karrakaz now . . . "The steps beyond the altar lead upward and out into the world. But if you go, you are cursed, and carry a curse with you; there will be no happiness. The civilization which bred you is dead uncountable years. "Your palaces are in ruins. "The lizards sun themselves in the dried- up fountains and the fallen courts. "And you--I will show you to yourself. Recollect, you should have been powerful, a magician who ruled the elements, the stars, the seas, the deep fires of the earth. All things might have done your bidding. The power of flight was yours, the chameleon art, the art of invisibility--and beauty. "Let me show you what you are."
The Birthgrave (Gateway Essentials #489)
by Tanith LeeShe woke from a sleep of countless years, reborn from the heart of a raging volcano. Her body was a masterpiece all men desired, her face a monstrosity that must go masked. Warrior, witch, goddess and slave, she was doomed to travel through a world of barbaric splendour, helped and betrayed by her lovers, searching for escape from the taint of her forgotten race, and the malice of the demon that haunted her.
The Birthgrave (The Birthgrave Trilogy #1)
by Marion Zimmer Bradley Tanith LeeA mysterious woman awakens in the heart of a dormant volcano. She comes forth into a brutal ancient world transformed by genocidal pestilence, fierce beauty, and cultural devastation. She has no memory of herself, and she could be anyone--mortal woman, demoness lover, last living heir to a long-gone race, or a goddess of destruction. Compelled by the terrifying Karrakaz to search for the mysterious Jade that is the answer to her secret self, she embarks on a journey of timeless wonder.Rediscover this realm of brilliant cruel beauty and seductive immortal ruins, of savage war and grand conquest, of falling stars and silver gods.This 40th anniversary edition of legendary fantastist Tanith Lee's debut novel includes its original introduction by Marion Zimmer Bradley.
The Bishop's Heir (The Histories of King Kelson #1)
by Katherine KurtzA powerful cleric plots the ultimate treason against a medieval realm&’s young king in Katherine Kurtz&’s breathtaking return to the fantasy world of the Deryni For centuries, a powerful faction of the Holy Church in Gwynedd has been at war with the Deryni, the mysterious race whose magic is despised and feared by those who lack their remarkable arcane abilities. The bloodshed ended with the coronation of the popular young King Kelson Haldane, himself a possessor of Deryni magic—but the peace is short-lived. Dark rumblings of secession are coming from northern Meara as support strengthens for Caitrin Quinnell, the cunning and ruthless pretender queen. But an even greater threat is emerging from the shadows of orthodoxy. The treacherous Edmund Loris, onetime Archbishop of Valoret and the Deryni&’s most virulent foe, has escaped from confinement—and, with a cabal of like-minded conspirators, is preparing to undertake an act of blackest treason: the craven murder of Gwynedd&’s rightful liege. With the first book in the Histories of King Kelson trilogy, acclaimed fantasist Katherine Kurtz continues her sweeping and magnificent history of a feudal society on an alternate medieval Earth—a complex world of war, political intrigue, faith, romance, and magic, where the courageous and enlightened are called upon to take up arms against the entrenched forces of ignorance and intolerance.
The Bite
by Z.W. TaylorA page-turning paranormal suspense novel about a woman fighting for a new life—and the bite that shifts everything."A deeply satisfying tale . . . werewolf fans should check this out." —Publishers WeeklyTo escape her violent ex, Charlotte flees her home in the middle of the night with nothing but the cash in her pocket and a paper map leading her north to Alaska. She sheds her old self along the way: dyeing her hair, scrubbing off her fake California tan, and pawning all her jewelry. None of it is worth anything if she can’t stay alive.Alone in the wilderness, Charlotte feels safe at last. Even if she’s lost, even if she’s only got a burner phone that lost its last bar miles ago, and even if she missed her turn and can’t find the cabin she was promised by a friend. Tucked into a sleeping bag in the back seat of her ancient truck, she’s finally living life on her own terms.But that feeling is short-lived. In the middle of the woods, Charlotte’s attacked, brutally, unforgivingly—and something bites her leg. And it’s a bite that will change her life forever.