For Charlie Plato, managing a country-western nightclub presents one adventure after another, especially when former TV heartthrob Zack Hunter runs for political office. When Zack's opponent turns up dead--in Zack's car trunk--Charlie does some sleuthing and finds a picture that's far from pretty.

“Compelling . . . Nobody writes a chase better than [Thomas] Perry.”—The Washington Post Book World Jane Whitefield is the patron saint of the pursued, a Native American “guide” who specializes in making victims vanish. Calling on the ancient wisdom of the Seneca tribe and her own razor-sharp cunning, she conjures up new identities for people with nowhere left to run. She's as quick and quiet as freshly fallen show, and she covers a trail just as completely. But when a calculating killer stalks an innocent eight-year-old boy, Jane faces dangerous obstacles that will put her powers—and her life—to a terrifying test. . . . Praise for Dance for the Dead “Spellbinding . . . Terrific . . . Jane Whitefield may be the most arresting protagonist in the 90s thriller arena. . . . Thrillers need good villains, and this one has a formidable SOB who is cold-blooded enough to satisfy anybody's taste.”—Entertainment Weekly “A terse thriller . . . Perry starts the story with a bang.”—San Francisco Chronicle “One of the most engaging heroines in contemporary suspense.”—The Flint Journal

Dorais and Lajeunesse analyse the adverse ways being stigmatized as homosexual affects personality and behaviour, discerning four types of reaction: the 'perfect boy,' whose perfectionism and asexuality are an attempt to minimize the difference between how he is perceived and what he is supposed to be; the 'chameleon,' who attempts to keep everyone from suspecting his secret but constantly feels like an impostor; the 'token fag,' who serves as a scapegoat to his peers, especially at school, and suffers a consequent rejection and lack of self-esteem; and the 'rebel,' who actively rejects any stigma based on his sexual orientation and non-conformity. They show that those who are heterosexual but suspected of being homosexual are most at risk of suicide and make recommendations for suicide prevention.

Challenging conventional understandings of time and memory, Christopher T. Nelson examines how contemporary Okinawans have contested, appropriated, and transformed the burdens and possibilities of the past. Nelson explores the work of a circle of Okinawan storytellers, ethnographers, musicians, and dancers deeply engaged with the legacies of a brutal Japanese colonial era, the almost unimaginable devastation of the Pacific War, and a long American military occupation that still casts its shadow over the islands. The ethnographic research that Nelson conducted in Okinawa in the late 1990s—and his broader effort to understand Okinawans’ critical and creative struggles—was inspired by his first visit to the islands in 1985 as a lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps. Nelson analyzes the practices of specific performers, showing how memories are recalled, bodies remade, and actions rethought as Okinawans work through fragments of the past in order to reconstruct the fabric of everyday life. Artists such as the popular Okinawan actor and storyteller Fujiki Hayato weave together genres including Japanese stand-up comedy, Okinawan celebratory rituals, and ethnographic studies of war memory, encouraging their audiences to imagine other ways to live in the modern world. Nelson looks at the efforts of performers and activists to wrest the Okinawan past from romantic representations of idyllic rural life in the Japanese media and reactionary appropriations of traditional values by conservative politicians. In his consideration of eisā, the traditional dance for the dead, Nelson finds a practice that reaches beyond the expected boundaries of mourning and commemoration, as the living and the dead come together to create a moment in which a new world might be built from the ruins of the old.

“Spectacular . . . [Norman Mailer] makes every word count, like a master knife thrower zinging stilettos in a circle around your head.”—People Norman Mailer peers into the recesses and buried virtues of the modern American male in a brilliant crime novel that transcends genre. When Tim Madden, an unsuccessful writer living on Cape Cod, awakes with a gruesome hangover, a painful tattoo on his upper arm, and a severed female head in his marijuana stash, he has almost no memory of the night before. As he reconstructs the missing hours, Madden runs afoul of retired prizefighters, sex addicts, mediums, former cons, a world-weary ex-girlfriend, and his own father, old now but still a Herculean figure. Stunningly conceived and vividly composed, Tough Guys Don’t Dance represents Mailer at the peak of his powers. Praise for Tough Guys Don’t Dance “As brash, brooding and ultimately mesmerizing as the author himself . . . [Mailer strikes a] dazzling balance between humor and horror.”—New York Daily News “A first-rate page-turner of a murder mystery . . . full of great characters, littered with dead bodies and replete with plausible suspects.”—Chicago Tribune “[Tough Guys Don’t Dance] has that charming Mailer bravado.”—The New York Times

Down Where My Love Lives is a bittersweet yet triumphant love story—a tale of one man's journey through the darkness of despair and into the light of hope. Together in one volume, read Dylan and Maggie’s love story in bestselling author Charles Martin’s debut novel and its sequel. The Dead Don’t Dance: In a sleepy rural town in South Carolina, Dylan and Maggie Styles are a young couple in love, preparing eagerly for the birth of their first son. But events take a tragic turn in the delivery room, and their child is delivered stillborn. When Maggie hemorrhages and slips into a coma, Dylan slips into what can only be described as a walking coma, holding vigil at his beloved wife’s bedside. Usually tough and self-reliant, an outdoorsman and a farmer, Dylan finds that everything he has known is suddenly thrown into doubt. Refusing to give up on Maggie’s recovery, a devastated Dylan takes a job as an English professor in order to pay for Maggie’s medical bills. Dylan connects with his students despite himself and offers hope to others amid his own disappointment and grief. As Dylan waits for some change in Maggie's condition, he reflects on his life and hers. Through friends and grace-filled moments of insight, Dylan slowly begins to heal, but it will take a second tragedy—and an anxious period of wrestling with God—to truly awaken him from his stupor and open him up to a new life. Maggie: Life began again for Dylan Styles when his beloved wife Maggie awoke from a coma. A coma brought on by the intense two-day labor that resulted in heartbreaking loss. In this poignant love story that is redolent with Southern atmosphere, Dylan and Maggie must come to terms with their past before they can embrace their future. Emotive Southern fiction New York Times bestselling author Charles Martin’s debut novel and sequel in one volume Contains the complete Awakening Series: The Dead Don’t Dance and Maggie

THE ACCLAIMED SEQUEL TO THE CHOSEN In desperation, the Ruling Lord Suth searches within the sacred walls of Osrakum for Carnelian, his son, and Osidian, the God Emperor elect. He suspects the Empress Ykoriana is behind their disappearance and knows that if they are not found soon it is her other son, Osidian's brother Molochite, who will rule - with fearful consequences for the Three Lands. Captive of the tribes of the Earthsky, Carnelian is - for the moment - safe, and succumbs readily to the seasonal rhythms of tribal life, he is convinced by unexpected discoveries that it is fate that has bought him there.He grows to love these simple people and hopes for sanctuary among them. But the dark forces Carnelian helped unleash in Osrakum begin to cast their shadow over his adopted home. He is witness to the awful oppression that the Masters - whom the tribesmen call the Standing Dead - have been inflicting on them for millennia. But even more terrible is the presence Carnelian has unwittingly brought with him. Potent and terrifying, it threatens everything he now holds dear in this new-found world. With The Standing Dead, Ricardo Pinto gives us a tumultuous new chapter in the Stone Dance of the Chameleon trilogy and confirms his place as one of fantasy's most singular and literate voices.

Fans of Louise Penny will love the Emily Kincaid mysteries by Elizabeth Kane Buzzelli! “Every woman who’s ever struggled with saying no, fitting in, and balancing independence against loneliness will adore first-timer Emily.” —Kirkus Reviews Following an ugly divorce and the death of her father, Emily Kincaid decides what she needs most is peace and quiet and time to think, so the part-time journalist and full-time struggling mystery writer relocates to a remote house in the woods of northern Michigan. When a severed head shows up in her garbage can, Emily knows she’s been singled out, and suddenly her peaceful solitude feels a lot like isolation and vulnerability. Discovering that the victim was a member of the Women of the Moon, a group of older local ladies who sing and dance around a bonfire in the woods late at night, Emily’s at a loss to know why anyone would want to hurt one of them. The women claim it’s a harmless act in praise of Mother Earth, a way to feel young again, but certain townspeople don’t see it that way. As Emily digs deeper, more of the women are turning up dead. Knowing she’ll have to root out a killer to save her peaceful paradise, Emily teams up with the cantankerous Deputy Dolly and begins navigating between eccentric town gossips and reclusive neighbors who would rather be left alone. When the killer gets too close for comfort, Emily knows she’ll have to put aside her fears before the natural life she’s chosen comes to a grisly and very unnatural end. Rave reviews for the Emily Kincaid Mysteries: Dead Dogs and Englishmen A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2011! “Buzzelli will have you packing your bags for a move to northern Michigan.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “Emily is a detective for our times: She can’t afford health care, but she can make flour out of cat tails and work three jobs at once.” —Christian Science Monitor Dead Sleeping Shaman “Buzzelli’s well-crafted third Emily Kincaid . . . [features] sharp prose and spirited characterizations.” —Publishers Weekly “The appeal of this third in the series comes both from Emily—a likable character forging a new life after her divorce—and the evocatively described, nicely detailed small-town setting.” —Booklist Praise for A Most Curious Murder: “Fans of [Lewis] Carroll will delight in Zoe’s flights of fancy, and the northern Michigan setting in all its splendor is a charmer . . . an entertaining series with a quirky premise and captivating characters.” —Library Journal “This quirky, clever cozy series launch . . . [is] hard to resist.” —Publishers Weekly “Quirky main characters, lyrical dialogue and a story sure to appeal to bookworms as well as cozy mystery fans are all elements that give this novel a distinctive voice. A clever mystery and intriguing supporting cast round out the mix.” —RT Book Reviews (four star review)

Dance Dance Dance—a follow-up to A Wild Sheep Chase—is a tense, poignant, and often hilarious ride through Murakami’s Japan, a place where everything that is not up for sale is up for grabs. As Murakami’s nameless protagonist searches for a mysteriously vanished girlfriend, he is plunged into a wind tunnel of sexual violence and metaphysical dread. In this propulsive novel, featuring a shabby but oracular Sheep Man, one of the most idiosyncratically brilliant writers at work today fuses together science fiction, the hardboiled thriller, and white-hot satire.