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Previous Staff Picks
Staff Picks for
March/April 2008
Sam's Staff Picks
The Twits by Roald Dahl
"Mr. and Mrs. Twit hate everything, including their trained monkeys, the Muggle-Wumps, who now want revenge."
$5.99
Magic Kingdom For Sale by Terry Brooks
"After Ben Holiday purchased Landover, he discovered the magic kingdom had some problems. The Barons refused to recognize a king and the peasants were without hope. To make matters worse, Ben learned that he had to duel to the death with the Iron Mask, the terrible lord of the demons--a duel which no human could hope to win...."
$7.99
In the Garden of Iden by Kage Baker
"In the 24th century, the Company preserves works of arts and extinct forms of life. It recruits orphans from the past, renders them all but immortal, and trains them to serve the Company. Mendoza is sent to Elizabethan England to collect samples from the garden of Sir Walter Iden. Her quest is jeopardized by Nicholas Harpole, who stirs unfamiliar emotions within her about her future--with a man she will long outlive."
$14.95
The Great Book of Amber by Roger Zelazny
"All ten of Roger Zelzany's classic Amber fantasy novels in one book! Join Corwin, Merlin and the others in wild adventures in the lands of Amber, Earth, and the Courts of Chaos, where the powers of Amber and Chaos constantly battle for supremacy through intrigue and adventure. Revisit Amber, the land of mystery, adventure and romance. Amber, the one true world. All other worlds, including our Earth, are merely Shadows."
$22.95
Skippyjon Jones by Judy Schachner
"SkippyjonJones is a Siamese kittenboy who, while having a time-out in his room, resorts to his imagination and takes on the superhero persona of the great Spanish sword fighter, Skippito."
$15.99
Andrew's Staff Picks
Backstabber by Tim Cockey
"Hitchcock Sewell is at it again and better than ever--welcome back to Charm City, where the corpses are cold, the undertaker is hot, and the fun never stops. It's getting worse. This time in Tim Cockey's new mystery "Backstabber, Hitch has actually been called to the scene of a murder even before the police. Why? Well, his friend Sisco was hoping that maybe Hitch would do him a favor...scoop up the body and take it away, maybe slip it into a grave somewhere when no one was looking. But Hitch is no fool. He's not about to get dragged into this mess. The usual cast of characters is on hand. Billie, Julia, Alcatraz, the return of good old police lieutenant Kruk--as well as a whole new crowd, including the listless magician, Mr. Wow; the antique lesbians, Scotty and Nance; rival undertakers, George and Happy Fink; and a hearse full of others. You'll laugh till you stop."
$6.99
Liquor by Poppy Z. Brite
"New Orleans natives Rickey and G-man are lifetime friends and down-and-out line cooks desperate to make a quick buck. When Rickey concocts the idea of opening a restaurant in their alcohol-loving hometown where every dish packs a spirited punch, they know they're on their way to the bank. With some wheeling and dealing, a slew of great recipes, and a few lucky breaks, Rickey and G-man are soon on their way to opening Liquor, their very own restaurant. But ?rst they need to pacify a local crank who doesn't want to see his neighborhood disturbed, sidestep Rickey's deranged ex-boss, rein in their big-mouth silent partner before he runs amok, and stay afloat in a stew of corruption in a town well known for its bottom feeders.
A manic, spicy romp through the kitchens, back alleys, dive bars, and drug deals of the country's most sublimely ridiculous city, author Poppy Z. Brite masterfully shakes equal parts ambition, scandal, ?le powder, cocaine, and murder, and serves Liquor straight up, with a twist."
$13.95
A Diet Of Treacle by Lawrence Block
"Anita Carbone was a good girl-and it bored her. Thats why she took the long subway ride down to Greenwich Village, home of the Beats and the stoners, home to every kind of misfit and dropout and free spirit you could imagine. It was where she met Joe Milani, the troubled young war veteran with the gentle touch. But it was also where she met his drug-dealing roommatea man whose unnatural appetites led to murder..."
$6.99
Blaze by Stephen King (writing as Richard Bachman)
"Once upon a time, a fellow named Richard Bachman wrote "Blaze" on an Olivetti typewriter, then turned the machine over to Stephen King, who used it to write "Carrie," Bachman died in 1985 ("cancer of the pseudonym"), but this last gripping Bachman novel resurfaced after being hidden away for decades -- an unforgettable crime story tinged with sadness and suspense. Clayton Blaisdell, Jr., was always a small-time delinquent. None too bright either, thanks to the beatings he got as a kid. Then Blaze met George Rackley, a seasoned pro with a hundred cons and one big idea. The kidnapping should go off without a hitch, with George as the brains behind their dangerous scheme. But there's only one problem: by the time the deal goes down, Blaze's partner in crime is dead. Or is he? Includes a previously uncollected story, "Memory" -- the 'riveting opening to Stephen King's new Scribner hardcover novel, "Duma Key."
$9.99
The Somnambulist by Jonathan Barnes
"Be warned. This book has no literary merit whatsoever. Needless to say, I doubt you'll believe a word of it. Once the toast of good society in Victoria's England, the extraordinary conjurer Edward Moon no longer commands the respect or inspires the awe that he did in earlier times. Despite having previously unraveled more than sixty perplexing criminal puzzles (to the delight of a grateful London constabulary), he is considered something of an embarrassment these days. Still, each night without fail, he returns to the stage of his theatre to amaze his devoted, albeit dwindling audience with the same old astonishments--aided by his partner, the silent, hairless, hulking, surprisingly placid giant who, when stabbed, does not bleed . . . and who goes by but one appellation: The Somnambulist.
On a night of roiling mists and long shadows, in a corner of the city where only the most foolhardy will deign to tread, a rather disreputable actor meets his end in a most bizarre and terrible fashion. Baffled, the police turn once again in the direction of Edward Moon--who will always welcome such assignments as an escape from ennui. And, in fact, he leads the officers to a murderer rather quickly. Perhaps too quickly. For these are strange, strange times in England, with the strangest of sorts prowling London's dank underbelly: sinister circus performers, freakishly deformed prostitutes, sadistic grown killers in schoolboy attire, a human fly, a man who lives backwards. And nothing is precisely as it seems. Which should be no surprise to Moon, whose life and livelihood consists entirely of the illusionary, the unexpected, the seemingly impossible. Yet what is to follow willshatter his increasingly tenuous grasp on reality--as death follows death follows death in the dastardly pursuit of poetry, freedom, utopia . . . and Love, Love, Love, and Love.
Remember the name Jonathan Barnes, for, with "The Somnambulist," he has burst upon the literary scene with a breathtaking and brilliant, frightening and hilarious, dark invention that recalls Neil Gaiman, Susanna Clarke, and Clive Barker at their grimly fantastical best . . . with more than a pinch of Carl Hiaasen-esque outrageousness stirred into the demonically delicious brew. Read on . . . and be astonished!"
$23.95 prior to 25% new hardcover discount
Lelia's Staff Picks
Year Zero by Jeff Long
"In Jerusalem, an American archaeologist working on Project Year Zero -- the search for the historical Jesus -- crosses the line between science and theft when he helps plunder an old Roman landfill beneath the crucifixion grounds known as Golgotha. Nathan Lee Swift's crime will have devastating consequences. When an ancient relic is opened on the black market, a two-thousand-year-old plague is unleashed -- and the dying begins.
As the pestilence threatens to wipe out humanity, he finds a chance for redemption -- by finding the cure. Skirting the edges of civilization, Nathan Lee sets out to find his younger daughter and travels to Los Alamos, where a desperate tactic has been adopted: the use of human lab rats cloned from Project Year Zero remains. Now Nathan Lee will come face-to-face with one special cloned human who may hold the key to salvation -- in more ways than one. Patient Zero claims to remember who he is....
And his name is Jesus Christ."
$7.99
The Man with a Load of Mischief by Martha Grimes
"Two murders in two pubs bring Scotland Yard Detective Chief Inspector Richard Jury to the village of Long Piddleton. While the villagers look outside for the killer, only one, Melrose Plant, points Jury toward the darkest parts of his neighbors' hearts."
$7.99
Stinger by Robert R. McCammon
"In the remote Texas town of Inferno, a creature of evil beyond anything the world has ever encountered descends. He traps the town and ravages the land with grisly executions and horrible mutations . . . until the people rise up in a final, desperate battle."
$7.25 (used)
The Secret of the Old Clock by Carolyn Keene
"Nancy, unaided, seeks to find a missing will, and the search not only tests her keen mind but also leads her into a thrilling adventure---an exact replica of the Original Nancy Drew Mystery Series from the 1930s."
$17.95
8.4 by Peter Hernon
"The stories are the stuff of legend, and they are all true. In 1811 and 1812, three earthquakes measuring 8 on the Richter scale ruptured an area spanning twenty-four states and a third of the land mass of the United States. Lakes formed in Tennessee, church bells rang in Boston, and the mighty Mississippi ran backward.
But today it is all a distant memory. Until the underground force reawakens. Kentucky farmers say animals are acting strange: cows butt each other with unheard-of aggression and a few hundred rats race across a road in broad daylight. In the Ozark Mountains, leaking subterranean gases flash bursts of red and green across the midnight sky. Suddenly the earth beneath a sleepy Tennessee town "liquifies" in a fountain of mud and foul-smelling water.
A man and a woman, both seismologists, find themselves in a race against the clock to convince the world that their daring mission is the only way to stop the last monstrous earthquake to come. History is about to repeat itself. It's Mother Nature calling."
$6.99
