Charles Blakey is a young black man whose life is slowly crumbling. His parents are dead, he can't find a job, he drinks too much, and his friends have begun to desert him. Worst of all, he's fallen behind on the mortgage payments for the beautiful home that's belonged to his family for generations. When a stranger - a white man - offers him $50,000 in cash to rent out his basement for the summer, Charles needs the money too badly to say no. He knows that the stranger must want something more than a basement view. Sure enough, he has a very particular - and bizarre - set of requirements, and Charles tries to satisfy him without getting lured into the strangeness. But he sees an opportunity to understand the secrets of the white world, and his summer with a man in his basement turns into a dark game of power and manipulation.

Alexander Masters tripped over his first book subject on a Cambridge sidewalk, and the result was the multi-award-winning bestseller Stuart: A Life Backwards. His second, he’s found under his floorboards. One of the greatest mathematical prodigies of the twentieth century, Simon Norton stomps around Alexander’s basement in semidarkness, dodging between stalagmites of bus timetables and engorged plastic bags, eating tinned kippers stirred into packets of Bombay mix. Simon is exploring a theoretical puzzle so complex and critical to our understanding of the universe that it is known as the Monster. It looks like a sudoku table—except a sudoku table has nine columns of numbers. The Monster has 808017424794512875886459904961710757005754368000000000 columns. But that’s not the whole story. What’s inside the decaying sports bag he never lets out of his clutches? Why does he hurtle out of the house in the middle of the night? And—good God!—what is that noxious smell that creeps up the stairwell? Grumpy, poignant, comical—more intimate than either the author or his quarry intended—Simon: The Genius in My Basement is the story of a friendship and a pursuit. Part biography, part memoir, and part popular science, it is a study of the frailty of brilliance, the measures of happiness, and Britain’s most uncooperative egghead eccentric.

"Don't do this! Watch out for that!" Marco's mom thinks the whole world is a danger zone. She won't even let Marco play softball.But Marco just wants to have fun. So he sneaks off to a game. And that's when it happens. He gets hit in the head with a baseball bat.Now things are getting really fuzzy. Really scary. Because when Marco gets home he gets the strangest call. From someone who says he lives in Marco's basement...

A powerful, disturbing thriller reissued in The Originals series of classic teenage fiction. Martha is twelve - and very different from other kids, because of her parents. Strict members of a religious group - the Brethren - their rules dominate Martha's life. And one rule is the most important of all: she must never ever invite anyone home. If she does, their shameful secret - Abomination - could be revealed. But as Martha makes her first real friend in Scott, a new boy at school, she begins to wonder. Is she doing the right thing by helping to keep Abomination a secret? And just how far will her parents go to prevent the truth from being known? The Originals are the pioneers of fiction for young adults. From political awakening, war and unrequited love to addiction, teenage pregnancy and nuclear holocaust, The Originals confront big issues and articulate difficult truths

"Mournful, insightful, and mystical...Mosley's best work of fiction." —Elle New York Times bestselling author Walter Mosley introduces us to Socrates Fortlow, an "astonishing character" (Los Angeles Times Book Review) in this acclaimed collection of linked stories. "I either committed a crime or had a crime done to me every day I was in jail. Once you go to prison you belong there." Socrates Fortlow has done his time: twenty-seven years for murder and rape, acts forged by his own two rock-breaking hands. Now, he has come home to a new kind of prison: two battered rooms in an abandoned building in Watts. Working a dead-end job at the supermarket and moving perilously close to invisibility, Socrates seeks inner truth and redemption amid the violence and hopelessness of South Central Los Angeles. In fourteen intertwining tales, Socrates grapples with situations that are never easy as he attempts to hold on to a job and offer a lifeline to a young man on his same bloodstained path. In Socrates's battle-scarred wisdom, there is hope of turning the world around in this "powerful, hard-hitting, unrelenting, poignant short fiction" (Booklist).

The lighthearted tale of a 12-year-old Jewish boy who befriends a British policeman in 1947 Israel, a friendship which leads his comrades to accuse him of treason. The boys have formed a secret liberation army to throw out the British.

There's a monster in Dave's basement! His name is Howard and he's very hungry. Howard invites Dave to dinner. But will Dave eat dinner or BE dinner? The thought makes Dave shake a little bit, shake a little bit, shake, shake, shake, shake, shake. Has Dave made a big mistake? This heartwarming story about friendship and first impressions began as a song. The music and lyrics are included in the book, and a QR code invites readers to join the author in a rousing rendition of the clever song that gets kids up and shake-shake-shaking!

Political intrigue, fueled by arrogance and lust for power, propel a Civil War nightmare. Historical reality is twisted into an emotional and dramatic allegory, drawn from today's international headlines. No reader will finish this novel without forever wondering who actually makes the decisions coming from the White House; the person we call president, or some shadowy figure lurking in the background

Stanley Carter was a self made man who came from nothing. Through hard work and creativity he became a billionaire, but loved to dominate, control and manipulate women. Over the course of his career he gave over two hundred million to charity, yet had a fetish for women less than half his age. He was an inspirational speaker on the level of Dr. King or Malcolm X, but would go to abnormal levels to feed his desire and ego. Stanley would even break the law and codes of morality if necessary.Stanley became obsessed with a local waitress, inviting her to dinner at his home with ulterior motives. Deja, his victim, would be chained to a metal pole in his extravagant basement, a place that looked more like a crash pad, than a hostage destination. In the end it was no more than a comfortable cage, and a place his victim couldn't leave. Not until she loved him. This would be a carefully planned process he would work on daily until she became used to her new lifestyle and fell into submission. Along the way we meet the wife who left him due to control, anger, and womanizing issues and the teenage daughter who did the same. We learn what transformed Stanley from what used to be a decent man into a monster.Will Stanley be found out? How will this impact the family he already has? What happens if a victim falls in love with their abuser? Will a man who is emotionally disturbed become well? Will a family that is emotionally disturbed ever be at peace?These questions and more are answered in The Girl Chained in my Basement, an intense look at obsession, sex, power, and people who are emotionally disturbed.The author is quoted as saying, "This isn't about a woman being sexually molested and tortured in a basement. I didn't want to write the expected. I wanted to write about how people who are emotionally disturbed became that way and the events that led to them being that way. It looks like an exploitation novel on the surface. As you read you will see there is more going on. God bless.

Milo won't fall asleep because he things the monsters in the basement are gonna get him. And, if he can't get to sleep, no one will. Mom and Dad better hope his wild imagination doesn't get the best of him.