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– Dokąd – warknął kierowca.

Wzrok Ashcrofta znowu zatrzymał się na dymiących kratach.

– Sluag Side – rzucił odruchowo.

– A gdzie to do cholery jest?!

Ashcroft spojrzał w zaczerwienione oczy taksówkarza. Potem roześmiał się cicho.

– Nie wiem. Naprawdę nie wiem.

Pewien znajomy pisarz przyznał mi się, że okropnie wstydzi się swoich książek sprzed piętnastu lat. Wiele by dał, aby nigdy się nie ukazały i do dzisiaj żałuje, iż ich oryginały nie pozostały na zawsze w szufladzie jego biurka. Czy autorzy Nostalgii… myślą podobnie? Szczerze mówiąc – nie wiem.

Niewielkie miasteczko na południu Stanów nawiedza fala brutalnych morderstw. Ten, kto spodziewa się w tym ręki niewidzialnego i niesłychanie przebiegłego mordercy, srodze się zawiedzie. Przyczyny całego zamieszania usatysfakcjonowałyby nawet najbardziej ortodoksyjnych zwolenników serialu z literką iks w tytule. Nie chcąc zdradzać zbyt wiele, powiem tylko, że korzenie intrygi sięgają starożytnych legend perskich. W całą sprawę uwikłane są rząd i wojsko, a wszystko odbywa się w atmosferze toczącej się kampanii wyborczej. Wielki spisek zatacza coraz szersze kręgi, gra toczy się o nadspodziewanie wielką stawkę. Całości dopełnia próba przejęcia kontroli nad narodem za pomocą modyfikujących geny tabletek.

Uwaga, to jeszcze nie koniec! Wielbiciele równie wiekowego jak powieść systemu RPG Dungeons Dragons – to lektura dla was. Tytułowe Sluag Side to ogromne podmiejskie kanały. Przemykające w mroku sylwetki, szepty i czająca się w powietrzu tajemnica czynią z nich miejsce nie mniej ciekawe od niejednej smoczej jaskini. Dodatkową atrakcją jest pewna, notabene nieszkodliwa, sekta podstarzałych satanistów.

Całości obrazu dopełniają piękne, aczkolwiek niebezpieczne, kobiety. Nie zabrakło szybkich samochodów, a ciekawostką jest pościg… helikopterowy. Detaliczne wręcz opisy broni, będącej na wyposażeniu armii amerykańskiej, zadowolą prawdziwych koneserów.

Książka, mimo swoich niewielkich rozmiarów, przytłacza ilością wątków. Coraz to nowe sekrety i smaczki atakują z częstotliwością ckm-u. Wartka akcja może sprawić, że, osoba bez zacięcia detektywistycznego zginie w otchłani fabuły. Główni bohaterowie sprawiają całkiem niezłe wrażenie. Para detektywów – Ashcroft i Layne – mimowolnie kojarzą się ze słynną dwójką z Baker Street. Kapitanowi nie można zarzucić braku wyrazistości. Jego specyficzny styl bycia i poczucie humoru mogą się podobać. Layne zaś, niczym filmowy Shrek, jak cebula ujawnia swoje nowe talenty, by w finale odkryć swą największą tajemnicę.

Podsumowując, Nostalgię za Sluag Side traktowałbym bardziej jako ciekawostkę niż lekturę obowiązkową. Ze względu na swoją nikłą dostępność może być dla fanów twórczości Andrzeja Ziemiańskiego ciekawym elementem domowej biblioteki. Reszta narodu powinna ją sobie z czystym sumieniem podarować.

Zbiór opowiadań:

1. Człowiekiem jestem

2. Ocalenie

3. Zapomniany przez ludzi

4. Zabawa w strzelanego

5. Samodzielna decyzja

6. Epidemia

7. Ich dwudziestu

8. W próżni nie słychać twego krzyku

9. Nieśmiertelny

Le Schmilblick d'intérieur peut-il servir à la campagne ? La houille dormante est-elle l'avenir de la France ? Pourquoi le peuple s'effrite-t-il lorsque le salsifis frit décroît ? Comment réussir à coup sûr la confiture de nouilles ? Questions essentielles auxquelles le « maître soixante-trois » de l'humour loufoque répond sans détours. Littérature, philosophie, discours officiels, courrier du cœur, petites annonces, recettes de cuisine… Ici, tout est prétexte à dérision, détournement de sens, dérapage verbal incontrôlé… Mais le rire cède la place à l'émotion dans ces textes de Radio-Londres, lorsque Pierre Dac, « Français parlant aux Français », rappelle à tous que la liberté n'a pas de prix… L'indispensable anthologie des meilleurs textes de Pierre Dac. Et réciproquement !<

A Zoo in My Luggage by British naturalist Gerald Durrell is the story of Durrell’s 1957 animal collecting trip to British Cameroon, the northwestern corner of present day Cameroon.<

Haden Lord, the disgraced prince of the Underrealm, has been sent to the mortal world to entice a girl into returning with him to the land of the dead. Posing as a student at Olympus Hills High—a haven for children of the rich and famous—Haden must single out the one girl rumored to be able to restore immortality to his race.

Daphne Raines has dreams much bigger than her tiny southern Utah town, so when her rock star dad suddenly reappears, offering her full tuition to Olympus Hills High’s prestigious music program, she sees an opportunity to catch the break she needs to make it as a singer. But upon moving into her estranged father’s mansion in California, and attending her glamorous new school, Daphne soon realizes she isn’t the only student in Olympus who doesn’t quite belong.

Haden and Daphne—destined for each other—know nothing of the true stakes their fated courtship entails. As war between the gods brews, the teenagers’ lives collide. But Daphne won’t be wooed easily and when it seems their prophesied link could happen, Haden realizes something he never intended—he’s fallen in love. Now to save themselves, Haden and Daphne must rewrite their destinies. But as their destinies change, so do the fates of both their worlds.

April Frost is a compassionate young woman with a steady job and ambitious goals. But the harder she runs away from her past, the more it threatens to destroy her. When three strangers enter her life, April is forced to face her demons and it's a battle she may not win.

Private investigators in the Breed world are men who take risks, and Reno Cole is no exception. As a Shifter, he's expected to control his inner animal. But lately his wolf has been venturing dangerously close to the city, and he's about to discover why. When Reno is reintroduced to a family friend, the attraction is immediate. April captivates him with her secretive eyes and resilient spirit. She's also in trouble, and despite the fact she's a human, Reno can't turn his back on her.

April is caught between two worlds: One that threatens to bury her dreams and another that could fulfill them. Can she trust the wolf at her door and find the courage to overcome her demons?

When I met Kiersten, time stood still. It was as if every cell in my body screamed HER. I couldn't look away, I couldn't walk away, I couldn't even move. My other half, my soul mate, was staring right at me. I had to have her. I had to make her mine. But I felt selfish doing that--knowing that I may not have endless amounts of time to give her...and even now that every things' over with and I've been given that time back.

Nothing is ever certain in this life.

Which is why I'm about to do something crazy, impulsive, daring.

After all, what type of person would I be if I didn't take my own advice?

I'm jumping off the cliff, I'm living fearlessly.

This is the continuation of Wes and Kiersten's story.

Everyone has a secret...

Gabe Hyde is on borrowed time. He's been hiding his identity for over four years-hidden from the world that used to adore him--obsess over him--driven to the edge of insanity by one poor choice.

But that one choice, altered the course of his life forever.

Pretending isn't all it's cracked up to be, especially when pretending means hiding your real self from the people that care about you the most. But if anyone ever discovered the truth it wouldn't just be his life at risk--but hers.

Saylor doesn't hate men.

Just Gabe.

Only Gabe.

He's a reckless, happy-go-lucky, silver spoon fed pain in her ass. Everything about him makes her more and more confused. Unfortunately they both donate time at the same Group Home. If she wasn't afraid of flunking, she'd be long gone. She hates that she's attracted to him almost as much as he hates that he's attracted to her--and she can tell, especially since their first encounter ended up making her knees so weak she couldn't form coherent sentences for weeks afterwards. But the closer she gets to him, the more confused she becomes. He isn't who he says he is, and he's hiding something big.

What happen when two worlds collide? Two worlds that never should have met in the first place? Some secrets are too big to be hidden forever--the only question? Will his destroy everyone he loves? Or finally bring about the redemption he's been craving for the past four years?

Everyone has a secret...What's yours

When it came to playing games, my lover Jax was a master strategist. He pulled strings behind the closed doors of D.C.’s most powerful political players, and somehow still found time to nearly sideline my career. What he didn’t know was that when I didn’t like the rules, I threw them out and made my own. I wasn’t going to let Jax get away with it. I wasn’t going to let him get away at all.

I loved Jax enough that it was impossible to give up. Jax loved me enough that giving up was the only end he’d consider. He didn’t think I could swim with the sharks. It was entirely my pleasure to show him that I’d already dived in…

Ava, a teenage girl living aboard the male-dominated, conservative deep space merchant ship Parastrata, faces betrayal, banishment, and death. Taking her fate into her own hands, she flees to the Gyre, a floating continent of garbage and scrap in the Pacific Ocean.

This is a sweeping and harrowing novel about a girl who can't read or write or even withstand the forces of gravity. What choices will she make? How will she build a future on an earth ravaged by climate change?

Named by the American Booksellers Association as a Spring 2014 Indies Introduce Pick.

In sunny Southern California, seventeen-year-old Ruby Rose is known for her killer looks and her killer SAT scores. But ever since her dad, an LAPD SWAT sergeant, died, she's also got a few killer secrets.

To cope, Ruby has been trying to stay focused on school (the top spot in her class is on the line) and spending time with friends (her Jimmy Choos and Manolo Blahniks are nothing if not loyal). But after six months of therapy and pathetic parenting by her mom, the District Attorney, Ruby decides to pick up where her dad left off and starts going after the bad guys herself.

When Ruby ends up killing a murderer to save his intended victim, she discovers that she's gone from being the huntress to the hunted. There's a sick mastermind at play, and he has Ruby in his sights. Ruby must discover who's using her to implement twisted justice before she ends up swapping Valentino red for prison orange.

With a gun named Smith, a talent for martial arts, and a boyfriend with eyes to die for, Ruby is ready to face the worst. And if a girl's forced to kill, won't the guilt sit more easily in a pair of Prada peep-toe pumps?

When sixteen-year-old Kyra Agnew wakes up behind a Dumpster at the Gas ’n’ Sip, she has no memory of how she got there. With a terrible headache and a major case of déjà vu, she heads home only to discover that five years have passed . . . yet she hasn’t aged a day.

Everything else about Kyra’s old life is different. Her parents are divorced, her boyfriend, Austin, is in college and dating her best friend, and her dad has changed from an uptight neat-freak to a drunken conspiracy theorist who blames her five-year disappearance on little green men.

Confused and lost, Kyra isn’t sure how to move forward unless she uncovers the truth. With Austin gone, she turns to Tyler, Austin’s annoying kid brother, who is now seventeen and who she has a sudden undeniable attraction to. As Tyler and Kyra retrace her steps from the fateful night of her disappearance, they discover strange phenomena that no one can explain, and they begin to wonder if Kyra’s father is not as crazy as he seems. There are others like her who have been taken . . . and returned. Kyra races to find an explanation and reclaim the life she once had, but what if the life she wants back is not her own?

Reliable, trustworthy, loyal to a fault - Sawyer is the kind of man other men want to be; a real man's man. But behind the facade of a his tough exterior and deadly silence hides a strong, tortured man with dark secrets. Always content to be in the shadows, now is the time of his sexual awakening.

When Sawyer realized that there were women who unabashedly wanted to be dominated and controlled, and there was a world that embraced such things as domination and submission - everything seemed to fall into place. Tired of pretending to be someone he wasn't and suppressing his dominant tendencies, he takes the leap into the world of BDSM under the guidance of his friend and mentor, never to look back.

But the dark past and his heinous actions are hard to forget and even more difficult to leave behind. Will he be able to move forward and become the man he yearns to be?

This is Sawyer's journey into becoming Dominant, Master, .

“As burns this saint, so burns my soul. I enter alive, and I will have to get out dead.”

Chase Winter let the love of his life slip through his fingers and into the hands of his best friend and mafia boss of the Abandanato family. Now that he's been given a second chance to right a wrong--he refuses to let his own selfishness stand in the way. The only problem? He's not fully in possession of his heart, so when Mil De Lange, the girl who's innocence he stole, and heir to the worst of the worst mafia families in the US, asks him for a favor. He actually says yes, not realizing that that one yes has the power to destroy them all.

Mil's been in love with Chase as long as she can remember, but as the years went by, the love turned to hate, and now that he's agreed to help her, she's wondering if she made a fatal error. Because Chase isn't a teenager anymore. He's a hot blooded male, bent on owning every part of her body and soul, and willing to kill anyone in his path who dares stand in the way.

It's time for secrets to finally be revealed...but make no mistake, it's going to take a lot of bloodshed for those truths to be discovered.

You've never read a New Adult Mafia story like this before...loyalties will be tested, lovers reunited, and friendships obliterated. Welcome to the Family. Blood in--No out.

In his first novel, Elect Mr. Robinson For a Better World, Donald Antrim demonstrates all of the skill that critics have hailed in his subsequent work: the pitch-perfect ear, the cunning imagination, and the uncanny control of a narrative at once familiar and incandescently strange.

In Pete Robinson’s seaside suburban town, things have, well, fallen into disrepair. The voters have de-funded schools, the mayor has been drawn and quartered by an angry mob of townsmen, and Turtle Pond Park is stocked with claymore mines. Pete Robinson, third grade teacher with a 1:32 scale model of an Inquisition dungeon in his basement, wants to open a new school, and in his effort to do so he stumbles upon another idea: he needs to run for mayor. Uniquely hilarious, this novel is a horrifyingly insightful tale of a world not so very different from the one in which we live.

Portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio in the Martin Scorsese movie , Howard Hughes is legendary as a playboy and pilot—but he is notorious for what he became: the ultimate mystery man. is the bestselling exposé of Hughes’s hidden life, and a stunning revelation of his “megalomaniac empire in the emperor’s own words” ().

At the height of his wealth, power, and invisibility, the world’s richest and most secretive man kept what amounted to a diary. The billionaire commanded his empire by correspondence, scrawling thousands of handwritten memos to unseen henchmen. It was the only time Howard Hughes risked writing down his orders, plans, thoughts, fears, and desires. Hughes claimed the papers were so sensitive—“the very most confidential, almost sacred information as to my innermost activities”—that not even his most trusted aides or executives were allowed to keep the messages he sent them. But in the early-morning hours of June 5, 1974, unknown burglars staged a daring break-in at Hughes’s supposedly impregnable headquarters and escaped with all the confidential files. Despite a top-secret FBI investigation and a million-dollar CIA buyback bid, none of the stolen secret papers were ever found—until investigative reporter Michael Drosnin cracked the case.

In , Drosnin reveals the true story of the great Hughes heist—and of the real Howard Hughes. Based on nearly ten thousand never-before-published documents, more than three thousand in Hughes’s own handwriting, is far more than a biography, or even an unwilling autobiography. It is a startling record of the secret history of our times.

At issue is what will become of this grand edifice. We built it up and into the sky in the hopes of reaching heaven and now as it crumbles down around us we find that this great distance we thought we'd traveled can close in an instant. So what now? Because a person flung backward by adversity can run away in the direction flung, meekly stay put, or slowly, grudgingly, inch-by-inch until foot-by-foot begin the journey back whence he came to resume the struggle.

— from Personae

The thirty-four stories in this seminal collection powerfully display what have become Lydia Davis’s trademarks — dexterity, brevity, understatement, and surprise. Although the certainty of her prose suggests a world of almost clinical reason and clarity, her characters show us that life, thought, and language are full of disorder. is Davis at her best. In the words of Jonathan Franzen, she is “a magician of self-consciousness.”<