An analysis of the novels of Maturin, Gogol, Dostoevsky, Mann, Lovecraft and Pelevin through the prism of their interest in investigating the nature of the nightmare reveals the unstudied features of the nightmare as a mental state and traces the mosaic of coincidences leading from literary experiments to today’s culture of nightmare consumption.

The gifting of animals with human speech is scarcely an unique idea; the idea of a talking horse goes back at least to the siege of Troy, for certainly there must have been some dialogue amongst the Greek warriors enclosed in the wooden horse's belly. But we think you'll agree that Miss Smith's filly has something special. Incubus won every race but one. Yet though in this respect she matched Man o' War's record she wasn't actually a horse at all.

An overnight camping trip! Not Harold's idea of fun. Too many mosquitoes, ticks and cockleburs. But when the Monroe family set out, their faithful dog Harold was with them, mostly because he remembered that camping could also bring s'mores and toasted marshmallows. Howie, the other family dog, and Chester the cat were also included in the trip. Only Chester thought the idea was completely insane. The woods, he informed Harold, were not only full of cockleburs and ticks, but of spirits, evil spirits who prey on the innocent. And on this, the worst night of the year -- St. George's Eve, when all spirits are set loose -- who knew what could happen. What Harold knew was that Chester was a well read, over-stimulated cat, full of weird ideas. He did not take Chester's worries too seriously. He had s'more to think about. But then, the Monroes set up camp near two strange men and their even stranger dog, and things began to happen that made even Harold wonder. Could Chester be right? This begins a long night, full of terrors and alarms, full of Chester's horrifying tale of how Bunnicula, the vampire bunny, was born and came to America, full of storms and a total sense of danger; and at the end came surprises that even Chester could not have predicted. Once again, the Monroe family may be the victims of evil forces or only of Chester's strange imagination. But whichever, the result is suspenseful and very, very funny.

This was Angela Cassiel's last year in high school. She had planned to spend the last year smoothly and welcomed her she-wolf when she turned 18. She may even find her mate. But she didn't expect her bully, Leo Miller to come back. Leo had always bullied Angela since they met in middle school. Leo kept bullying Angela, because Angela's father was the reason his mother and sister died. And he wanted Angela to pay for her father's mistake. Angela had no idea of this. She just knew Leo hated her to the guts. She tried to fight against Leo several times, but she was no match for him. Two Years ago, Leo transferred to another school because of family issues. Angela was glad to get rid of the bully bandage. And she thought they would probably never see each other. But her peaceful life was shattered, again, by Leo Miller's return. What would happen next? Would Angela fight against Leo bravely this time? What can you do if you are mated to the nightmare of your life?

Fresh, stylish new translations of Gogol's greatest short stories collected in a beautiful edition 'One of the most profound, and influential, writers Russia has ever produced, he is probably also the funniest' Guardian 'The most morally complete writer: baffled, outraged, reverent, mock-didactic, mocking, all at once. He honours life by feeling no one way about it' GEORGE SAUNDERS No writer has captured the absurdity of the human condition as acutely as Nikolai Gogol. In a lively new translation by Oliver Ready, this collection contains his great classic stories - 'The Overcoat', 'The Nose' and 'Diary of a Madman' - alongside lesser known gems depicting life in the Russian and Ukranian countryside. Together, they reveal Gogol's marvellously skewed perspective, moving between the urban and the rural with painfully sharp humour and scorching satire. Strikingly modern in his depictions of society's shambolic structures, Gogol plunders the depths of bureaucratic and domestic banalities to unearth moments of dark comedy and outrageous corruption. Defying categorisation, the stories in this collection range from the surreal to the satirical to the grotesque, united in their exquisite psychological acuteness and tender insights into the bizarre irrationalities of the human soul. Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol (1809-1852) was born in Ukraine and moved to St Petersburg after his studies in 1828 to work, at first, in various government departments. His first collection of stories, Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka (1831), brought him widespread fame, and he went on to write further collections of stories, as well as the play The Government Inspector. The first part of his great, and only, novel Dead Souls appeared in 1842. In his later life he was increasingly tormented both physically and psychologically and he repeatedly burned his manuscripts, including the second part of Dead Souls. After the final burning in February 1852, he stopped eating and died in great pain ten days later.

Whitley Johnson's dream summer with her divorce dad has turned into a nightmare. She's just met his new fiancee and her kids. The fiancee's son? Whitley's one-night stand from graduation night. Just freakin' great. Worse, she totally doesn't fit in with her dad's perfect new country-club family. So Whitley acts out. She parties. Hard. So hard she doesn't even notice the good things right under her nose: a sweet little future stepsister who is just about the only person she's ever liked, a best friend (even though Whitley swears she doesn't "do" friends), and a smoking-hot guy who isn't her stepbrother...at least, not yet. It will take all three of them to help Whitley get through her anger and begin to put the pieces of her family together. Filled with authenticity and raw emotion, Whitley is Kody Keplinger's most compelling character to date: a cynical Holden Caulfield-esque girl you will wholly care about.

Winner of the 2012 Colby Award and the first Afghanistan memoir ever to be written by a Marine Harrier pilot, A Nightmare’s Prayer portrays the realities of war in the twenty-first century, taking a unique and powerful perspective on combat in Afghanistan as told by a former enlisted man turned officer. Lt. Col. Michael “Zak” Franzak was an AV-8B Marine Corps Harrier pilot who served as executive officer of VMA-513, “The Flying Nightmares,” while deployed in Afghanistan from 2002 to 2003. The squadron was the first to base Harriers in Bagram in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. But what should have been a standard six-month deployment soon turned to a yearlong ordeal as the Iraq conflict intensified. And in what appeared to be a forgotten war half a world away from home, Franzak and his colleagues struggled to stay motivated and do their job providing air cover to soldiers patrolling the inhospitable terrain. I wasn’t in a foxhole. I was above it. I was safe and comfortable in my sheltered cocoon 20,000 feet over the Hindu Kush. But I prayed. I prayed when I heard the muted cries of men who at last understood their fate. Franzak’s personal narrative captures the day-by-day details of his deployment, from family good-byes on departure day to the squadron’s return home. He explains the role the Harrier played over the Afghanistan battlefields and chronicles the life of an attack pilot—from the challenges of nighttime, weather, and the austere mountain environment to the frustrations of working under higher command whose micromanagement often exacerbated difficulties. In vivid and poignant passages, he delivers the full impact of enemy ambushes, the violence of combat, and the heartbreaking aftermath. And as the Iraq War unfolded, Franzak became embroiled in another battle: one within himself. Plagued with doubts and wrestling with his ego and his belief in God, he discovered in himself a man he loathed. But the hardest test of his lifetime and career was still to come—one that would change him forever. A stunning true account of service and sacrifice that takes the reader from the harrowing dangers of the cockpit to the secret, interior spiritual struggle facing a man trained for combat, A Nightmare’s Prayer brings to life a Marine’s public and personal trials set against “the fine talcum brown soot of Afghanistan that permeated everything—even one’s soul.”

Although the names have been changed in this stirring memoir, the author relives his painful childhood, which was filled with the worst type of abuse a child could live through. Lance Parker survived physical abuse, mental abuse, sexual abuse, as well as emotional abuse. He tells how to recognize the changes abused children could go through over a short period of time. He also shows how you can help a child being abused. Worst of all, these children suffer at the hands of those who are supposed to protect them. Don’t let another day go by without reading the timely book Unforgotten Dreams: This is the true story of a very Young Métis Boy who challenges the Demon that lurks in The shadows of darkness.

A MESSAGE TO TEACHERS AND PARENTS I am a reader. When I was very young, I was fortunate to have a wonderful primary teacher who recognized the reader in me and fed it with an unending stream of books. Though she is worthy of much more, this first book is dedicated to her. There was a delightful little library on Main Street in Salem, Virginia. It was quaint and inviting in its park-like setting, and I was privileged to spend many hours there. I remember, though, that the books did not jump off the shelves at me. Sometimes they sat there and put up a passive resistance, almost as if they were the enemy of my desire to read. Still, I persevered, and I found good books to enjoy. But I was motivated to read. What of the student who is not so motivated, who can take reading or leave it to spend time in other ways? Would we have that student spend time in those other ways, never to learn the joy of reading a good story or to experience the thrill of becoming lost in a good book? I hope not without a fight. So that is what "Nightmare at Indian Cave" is about. The title is chosen to jump off the shelf at the student. The book is deliberately short. I hope it will not intimidate even the most reluctant reader. The chapters are not overly long and hopefully they will keep the reader's attention. The subject matter should interest kids, especially those from the mountains and rural settings. The vocabulary is not difficult, though it is not without the occasional challenge. Dialogue is used extensively in the belief that it has a power to involve the reader. One university English professor called the book "a real page turner". I considered that a great compliment because that is exactly what I intended the book to be. I only hope he was right, but I won't know until the book is in your students' hands. Though this book is a fantasy, and is a fiction in every respect, I made some effort to be true to history. Daniel Boone is known to have been in what is now Scott County, Virginia at about this time. Benge was not. He came along a few years later. Our Benge is the product of a boy's nightmare, and though he may be based on the legend of "Chief" Robert Benge, he is fictional. The real Benge was probably Cherokee, though opinion on that is divided. The mention of beehive coke ovens may be noticed. They have been dormant for some time now, but I could not resist reviving them. Tony and Jon are unwilling participants when they find themselves transported back into the year 1774 with Billy. However it happened, they are trapped with Billy in a nightmare adventure. The monster, Hargus, a bear-like pioneer and Benge's partner, wants to kill Billy in a scheme for vengeance that transcends time and dimension. Only the strong pioneer girl, Emily, can save the boys. She doesn't understand how, but she knows that she and Billy must somehow save themselves together. As they are pursued by Hargus and Benge, the boys' knowledge of the mountainous area becomes a factor in the survival of the pioneer town and its inhabitants, and each of the boys and Emily are tested before they finally meet the evil Hargus in a fight to the death. Middle School students should enjoy this book. It was written for them; however, many older students and adults may find the story interesting. Not enough has been written about the history of the Appalachian Mountains and their place in America's history. The fascinating legend of the Melungeons is beginning to get some attention, but so far much of what is written about these mountain people is contradictory or negative. I don't attempt to throw light on that controversy. I simply want to point out that these people were here when the first pioneers came to the Virginia mountains, and they have a place in our history, as well as our fiction. The town of Guest's Crossing does not exist,