Staff Picks for November 2000

New! Customer Picks for November 2000
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Andrew's November Picks

White Jazz by James Ellroy

The heat's on and LAPD lieutenant Dave Klein is sizzling in the Fed's frying pan. It's 1958, and Klein not only works the mean streets, he helped make them that way. Murder, bribery, scams, beatings, shakedowns-Klein's done it all in the line of duty. Suddenly the Feds are stalking blue corruption, crooked cops, and Klein's hung out as bait. Big fish leap at his throat-racketeers, narcotics kings, fat-cat politicos, LAPD brass, scum with skeletons they'd kill to keep hidden. So it's pay-up time for Klein. Big time. He plunges into a nightmare world of greed, blood, fists, and twisted sin. A monstrous world he created. But now the monster has turned on its creator.

$5.99

My Favorite Horror Story Edited by Mike Baker and Martin Greenberg

Who do today's top horror writers read -- and why? This was the question posed to some of the most influential authors in the field today. This book is their answer. Here are fifteen of the most memorable stories in the genre, each one personally selected by a well-known writer, and each prefaced by that writer's explanation of his or her choice. Here's your chance to enjoy familiar favorites, and perhaps to discover some wonderful treasures. In each case, you'll have the opportunity to see the story from the perspective of a master of the field.

$6.99

Heed the Thunder by Jim Thompson

Old Lincoln Fargo has spent his life engaging in almost every vice imaginable-and his only regret is that he once stole a horse. His son Grant, a shiftless dandy with a resemblance to Edgar Allan Poe, is conducting an affair with his voluptuous and volatile cousin. And behind everyone's back, Grandmother Pearl has just signed the family property over to the Almighty. In the literature of the American prairie, few families are as brawling, as benighted, or as outrageously vital as the Fargoes of Verdon, Nebraska. And when Jim Thompson chronicles their life and times, the result suggests Willa Cather steeped in rotgut-and armed with a .45.

$11.00

Jason's Picks

The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara: Isle Witch by Terry Brooks

When the mutilated body of a half-drowned elf is found floating in the seas of the Blue Divide, an old mystery resurfaces. Thirty years ago, the elven prince Kael Elessedil -- brother to the current king -- led an expedition in search of a legendary magic said to be more ancient, more powerful, than any in the world. Of all those who set out on that ill-fated voyage, not one ever returned...

Until now. For the rescued elf carries a map covered with mysterious symbols only one man has the skill to decipher. That man is Walker Boh, the last of the Druids. But someone else understands the map's significance, someone dark and ruthless: The Ilse Witch, a beautiful but twisted young woman who wields a magic as potent as his own. She will stop at nothing to possess the map - and the magic it leads to. To stop her, Walker must find the magic first.

So begins the voyage of the Jerle Shannara. Aboard the sleek, swift airship are an elven prince; A Rover girl; a monstrous creature part man, part enigma; and a young man named Bek Rowe, who may unknowingly hold the key to the success of the mission -- or to its cataclysmic failure. Now, as old secrets come to light, sowing seeds of mistrust and suspicion among the crew, the Jerle Shannara flies into the face of unknown terrors while the Ilse Witch and her dark allies follow, waiting to strike...

$29.95 before 25% new release discount

Guilty Pleasures by Laurell K. Hamilton

"I don't date vampires. I kill them." ... Anita

Her name is Anita Blake. Vampires call her The Executioner. What she calls them isn't repeatable.

Ever since the Supreme Court granted the undead equal rights, most people think vampires are just ordinary folks with fangs. Anita knows better. She has seen their victims. She carries the scars...

But now a serial killer is murdering vampires - and the most powerful bloodsucker in town wants her to find the killer...

$6.99

A Storm of Swords (Song of Fire and Ice book #3) by George R. R. Martin

Of the five contenders for power, one is dead, another in disfavor, and still the wars rage as violently as ever, as alliances are made and broken. Joffrey, of House Lannister, sits on the Iron Throne, the uneasy ruler of the land of the Seven Kingdoms. His most bitter rival, Lord Stannis, stands defeated and disgraced, the victim of the jealous sorceress who holds him in her evil thrall. But young Robb, of House Stark, still rules the North from the fortress of Riverrun. Robb plots against his despised Lannister enemies, even as they hold his sister hostage at King's Landing, the seat of the Iron Throne.

Meanwhile, making her way across a blood-drenched continent is the exiled queen, Daenerys, mistress of the only three dragons still left in the world. Filled with the stench of death and decay from the destructive dynastic war, Daenerys is gathering allies and strength for an assault on King's Landing, hoping to win back the crown she believes is rightfully hers.

But as opposing forces maneuver for the final titanic showdown, an army of barbaric wildlings bent on overwhelming the Seven Kingdoms arrives from the outermost line of civilization. In their vanguard is a horde of mythical Others- a supernatural army of the living dead whose animated corpses are unstoppable. And as the future of the land hangs in the balance, no one will rest in the quest for victory until the Seven Kingdoms have exploded in a veritable storm of swords...

$26.95 before 25% new release discount

Lelia's November Picks

Wysard by Carolyn Kephart

Ryel Mirai, The Lord of Markul, embarks on a mystical journey filled with danger and witchcraft as he battles to free his kinsman's spirit from the terrifying abyss known as the Void. To free Edris, Ryel must somehow reverse the powerful curse cast by the malignant sorcerer, Dagar. Ryel soon realizes that he must not only wage war against the formidable Dagar for Edris's soul, he must also prevent the wicked sorcerer from ruling Markul.

$11.95 signed copy available

Hangman's Root by Susan Wittig Albert

A prominent animal researcher has been hanged. And suspicion has fallen on the Cat Lady -- a local biology professor whose obsession with rescuing strays makes her, in some people's minds, capable of murder in defense of animals. But China is a friend of the Cat Lady, and she doesn't agree. This may have been an act of pure human aggression...

$5.99

The Angel And The Detective by Lina K. Pinto

Recovering from a gunshot wound received in the line of duty, reclusive Molly Mason is pleased to have time at home with her animal family on her small farm. Pressured by a childhood friend, she reluctantly agrees to investigate the disappearance of a beautiful, but troubled movie star. State Police and the FBI have ruled Christine Kelsey's disappearance as voluntary, but her husband and a mysterious visitor urge Molly to look deeper. As the investigation unfolds, Molly forms an extraordinary relationship with the mysterious visitor...

$11.00 signed copy available

Annie's Picks

Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein

Name: Valentine Michael Smith
Ancestry: Human
Origin: Mars

Here is Heinlein's masterpiece - the brilliant, spectacular, and incredibly popular novel that grew from a cult favorite to a bestseller to a classic in a few short years. It is the story of Valentine Michael Smith, the man from Mars who taught humankind grokking and watersharing. And love.

$7.99

The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan

The Wheel of Time turns and Ages come and go, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth returns again. In the Third Age, an Age of Prophecy, the World and Time themselves hang in the balance. What was, what will be, and what is, may yet fall under the Shadow.

$6.99

Flights of Fantasy edited by Mercedes Lackey

Falcons, eagles, hawks, owls...griffins, firebirds, phoenix - real or imaginary, they have fascinated humanity for millennia. These ruthless predators appeared on the walls of Egyptian tombs, in ancient Persian and Indian miniatures, on the illuminated pages of medieval manuscripts, and topped the standards of Roman legions.

In literature and mythology raptors abound, from the Native American Thunderbird to the Arabian roc -- a bird of prey so large it carried off elephants -- to m'lady's "pet" falcon, a concept which has no basis in reality. No other animal has so captured the imagination of humankind. Now best-selling author and licensed wild bird rehabilitator Mercedes Lackey continues this ancient tradition in "Flights of Fantasy," an all-original collection of stories of fantastic flying creatures, whether they be birds of prey or imaginary winged beings.

$6.99

Customer Picks for November 2000

Picked by Pamela

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

Four seekers have come to the ugly, abandoned old mansion: Dr. Montague, an occult scholar looking for solid evidence of the psychic phenomenon called haunting; Theodora, his lovely and lighthearted assistant; Eleanor, a lonely, homeless girl well acquainted with poltergeists; and Luke, the adventurous future heir of Hill House. At first, their stay seems destined to be merely a spooky encounter with inexplicable noises and self-closing doors, but Hill House is gathering its powers and will soon choose one of them to make its own...

$11.95

We Have Always Lived In The Castle by Shirley Jackson

Merricat Blackwood lives on the family estate with her sister Constance and her uncle Julian. Not long ago there were seven Blackwoods -- until a fatal dose of arsenic found its way into the sugar bowl one terrible night. Acquitted of the murders, Constance has returned home, where Merricat protects her from the curiosity and hostility of the villagers. Their days pass in happy isolation until cousin Charles appears. Only Merricat can see the danger, and she must act swiftly to keep Constance from his grasp.

$10.95

Picked by Bill

Forever War by Joe Haldeman

Private William Mandella is a hero in spite of himself -- a reluctant conscript drafted into an elite military unit, and propelled through space and time to fight in a distant thousand-year conflict. He never wanted to go to war, but the leaders on Earth have drawn a line in the interstellar sand--despite the fact that their fierce alien enemy is unknowable, unconquerable, and very far away. So Mandella will perform his duties without rancor and even rise up through the military ranks. . .if he survives. But the true test of his mettle will come when he returns to Earth. Because of the time dilation caused by space travel the loyal soldier is aging months, while his home planet is aging centuries--and the difference will prove the saying: you never can go home. . .

$6.99