Maria M. Book 1


Book Description

In the first book of two, Gilbert Hernandez cartoons a meta “movie adaptation” of his Poison River storyline (complete with drug lords, “shady guardian angels,” torrid affairs and more) starring Fritz as her mother. A woman comes to the U.S. from Latin America to escape her shady past, only to fall into a new shady life. After a go at the adult entertainment business, Maria marries a drug lord and her dangerous past is nothing compared to her new life in America. The drug lord’s son, Gorgo, secretly falls in love with her and he watches over her like a guardian angel. Danger and corruption (and of course sex) drive the first half of this love story. Long-time Love and Rockets readers will find the storyline familiar... and that’s because, in an Adaptation-style meta twist, Maria M. is actually the B-movie film adaptation of the life story of Luba’s mother Maria, as previously seen in its “real” version in the classic graphic novel Poison River (available in the Beyond Palomarcollection) ― starring Maria’s own daughter playing her own mother. Confused? Don’t be! Maria M. will work perfectly on its own terms as the kind of violent, sexy pulp tale that Gilbert Hernandez has proven so adept at these past several years, and the “source material” for the story will just provide an extra layer of delight for the cognoscenti.




The Story of M


Book Description

After nine years Kate broke the one and only rule she and her boss, M, made—don’t fall in love. But the weekends away, the sweet nothings whispered in her ear, and the secret rendezvous at work functions all got to her. He was her biggest weakness, and she would do anything he asked. But then he started pulling away. It got worse when the new intern, Chelsea, was promoted. Her revealing clothes and flirtatious nature made Kate instantly dislike her, and M seemed to need Kate less and less. And then the unthinkable happened. It wasn’t just that she’d woken up alone the morning after telling M she loved him or that he hadn’t even texted her in the days after. No. It was M kissing Chelsea on New Year’s Eve. Kate struggles to forget the past, tries to get over M, but she can’t get him out of her head. She moves away, starts a new life, but nothing seems to work. She finally sees a glimmer of hope when she meets a handsome new man on her way to her sister’s wedding. But when M re-enters her life she needs to make a choice: keep pining after M or move on with her life.




Poison Study


Book Description

From New York Times Bestselling Author Maria V. Snyder Choose: a quick death… or slow poison… Locked deep in the palace dungeon for killing her abuser, Yelena knows she’ll never be free again. The laws in Ixia are strict, and murderers must be executed, no matter the reason. But just as she’s resigned herself to her fate, she’s offered an extraordinary reprieve. As the food taster, Yelena will eat the best meals, have rooms in the palace—and risk assassination by anyone trying to kill the Commander of Ixia. To make matters worse, the chief of security deliberately feeds her Butterfly’s Dust, and only by appearing for her daily antidote will she delay an agonizing death from the poison. As Yelena tries to escape her new dilemma, disasters keep mounting. Rebels plot to seize Ixia and Yelena develops magical powers she can’t control. Her life is threatened again, and in order to survive, she must unravel the secrets behind the past she’s been running from. The Chronicles of Ixia Series by Maria V Snyder Book One: Poison Study Book Two: Magic Study Book Three: Fire Study Book Four: Storm Glass Book Five: Sea Glass Book Six: Spy Glass Book Seven: Shadow Study Book Eight: Night Study Book Nine: Dawn Study




Maria in the Moon


Book Description

'Quirky, darkly comic, but always heartfelt, this original and sad story has wonderful characters and will linger long in your memory' Sunday Mirror 'A Stirring novel, beautifully written' Irish Times A devastating memory emerges ... that changes everything, in this dark and moving novel by the bestselling author of How To Be Brave and The Lion Tamer Who Lost 'Like a cold spider, the memory stirred in my head and spun an icy web about my brain. Someone else crawled in. I remembered' Thirty-one-year-old Catherine Hope has a great memory. But she can't remember everything. She can't remember her ninth year. She can't remember when her insomnia started. And she can't remember why everyone stopped calling her Catherine-Maria. With a promiscuous past, and licking her wounds after a painful breakup, Catherine wonders why she resists anything approaching real love. But when she loses her home to the devastating deluge of 2007 and volunteers at Flood Crisis, a devastating memory emerges ... and changes everything. Dark, poignant and deeply moving, Maria in the Moon is an examination of the nature of memory and truth, and the defences we build to protect ourselves, when we can no longer hide... 'Part psychological thriller, part love story and fans of Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine will love it' Red Magazine 'A beautiful and compassionate read' Prima Magazine 'Beech's exploration of the effects of childhood trauma keeps the reader intrigued until the end' Mary Ellen Quinn, Booklist 'As heartbreaking as the book ends up being, it's a title worth wading into and rolling with' Book Riot 'Beautifully constructed, laugh-out-loud funny in places, and achingly sad in others. It's such a beautifully told story of loss and gain. Equal parts Victoria Wood, Alan Bennett and John Irving, all rolled up into an emotive, heart-breaking story. I completely fell in love' John Marrs 'A beautiful, and heart-achingly touching read' LoveReading




I'm 3! Look What I Can Do


Book Description

Lists all of the accomplishments of a child who has turned three, from drinking out of a cup to riding a tricycle.




Optic Nerve


Book Description

"In this delightful autofiction―the first book by Gainza, an Argentine art critic, to appear in English―a woman delivers pithy assessments of world–class painters along with glimpses of her life, braiding the two into an illuminating whole." ―The New York Times Book Review, Notable Book of the Year and Editors' Choice The narrator of Optic Nerve is an Argentinian woman whose obsession is art. The story of her life is the story of the paintings, and painters, who matter to her. Her intimate, digressive voice guides us through a gallery of moments that have touched her. In these pages, El Greco visits the Sistine Chapel and is appalled by Michelangelo’s bodies. The mystery of Rothko’s refusal to finish murals for the Seagram Building in New York is blended with the story of a hospital in which a prostitute walks the halls while the narrator’s husband receives chemotherapy. Alfred de Dreux visits Géricault’s workshop; Gustave Courbet’s devilish seascapes incite viewers “to have sex, or to eat an apple”; Picasso organizes a cruel banquet in Rousseau’s honor . . . All of these fascinating episodes in art history interact with the narrator’s life in Buenos Aires―her family and work; her loves and losses; her infatuations and disappointments. The effect is of a character refracted by environment, composed by the canvases she studies. Seductive and capricious, Optic Nerve marks the English–language debut of a major Argentinian writer. It is a book that captures, like no other, the mysterious connections between a work of art and the person who perceives it.




Wawa


Book Description

Wawa has more than two hundred years of history in American business. Founded in 1803 and incorporated in 1865, Wawa has roots in the manufacture of cast-iron water pipes and decorative lampposts. Using the resources and surplus water power from the iron business, the family opened a cotton mill and began producing cotton piece goods, including Red Star diapers. The first Wawa milk plant opened in 1902; by the late 1950s, the Wawa Dairy had expanded its home delivery business to include over one hundred forty-five routes. The first Wawa Food Market opened on April 16, 1964. Today, the company is familiar to many as a chain of five hundred forty convenience stores in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia that offers a wide selection of fresh foods, coffee, and gasoline. Wawa contains vintage images documenting the evolution of the company as it adapted to changing economic and social conditions. From the early days of iron manufacture to the opening of the first store in Folsom, Pennsylvania, Wawa brings to life the many facets of one of America's top privately owned companies.




The Ten Thousand Things


Book Description

Set between Holland and a remote Indonesian island, this intimate magical realism novel offers “an offbeat narrative that has the timeless tone of a legend” (Time). “Dermoût’s sentences came at me like a soft knowing dagger, depicting a far-off land that felt to me like the blood of all the places I used to love.” —Cheryl Strayed, author of Wild The Ten Thousand Things is at once novel of shimmering strangeness—and familiarity. It is the story of Felicia, who returns with her baby son from Holland to the Spice Islands of Indonesia, to the house and garden that were her birthplace, over which her powerful grandmother still presides. There Felicia finds herself wedded to an uncanny and dangerous world, full of mystery and violence, where objects tell tales, the dead come and go, and the past is as potent as the present. First published in Holland in 1955, Maria Dermoût's novel was immediately recognized as a magical work, like nothing else Dutch—or European—literature had seen before. The Ten Thousand Things is an entranced vision of a far-off place that is as convincingly real and intimate as it is exotic, a book that is at once a lament and an ecstatic ode to nature and life.




Maria the Virgin Witch 1


Book Description

PURITY AND POWER As a war to determine the rightful ruler of medieval France ravages the land, it seems that the only hope for most, is protection from the heavens above through prayer. But deep in the forest outside of a small, bucolic village, the witch Maria will not stand idly by as men kill each other and commit horrendous acts in the name of God and glory. Using her powerful magic, she’ll summon various beasts and demons―even going as far as using a succubus to seduce soldiers into submission under the veil of night―all to stop the needless slaughter. However, Maria’s display of her magical might has drawn the ire of the Kingdom of Heaven and after the Archangel Michael puts an end to her meddling, he curses her to lose her powers if she ever gives up her virginity. Will she forgo the forbidden fruit of adulthood in order to bring an end to the merciless machine of war?




A Thousand Splendid Suns


Book Description

A riveting and powerful story of an unforgiving time, an unlikely friendship and an indestructible love