The Homecoming Masquerade Girls Wearing Black

In a posh suburb of the nation’s capital, at the most exclusive high school in the world, the vampires who secretly run the government have created a game for America’s daughters of privilege. Show up to Homecoming in a black dress and you’ve entered yourself in a contest where the winner becomes a vampire, and the loser becomes the winner’s first victim. Only the wealthiest, most connected students can hope to win, so when new girl Nicky Bloom wears a black dress to Homecoming, everyone assumes she has a death wish. They don’t know that Nicky has her own agenda. As the dance continues into the night, they will find out that Nicky Bloom is far more than she seems.

In a posh suburb of the nation's capital, at the most exclusive high school in the world, the vampires who secretly run the government have created a game for America's daughters of privilege. Show up to Homecoming in a black dress and you've entered yourself in a contest where the winner becomes a vampire, and the loser becomes the winner's first victim.Only the wealthiest, most connected students can hope to win, so when new girl Nicky Bloom wears a black dress to Homecoming, everyone assumes she has a death wish. They don't know that Nicky has her own agenda. As the dance continues into the night, they will find out that Nicky Bloom is far more than she seems.

It is a new semester at Thorndike Academy, and a time for new beginnings. For Daciana Samarin, it is a time to take control of the school after a lengthy absence. Eager to inject some excitement into a contest that has one girl far ahead of the others, Daciana rolls out a relic from her past, and invites the girls wearing black to explore its mysteries. For Jill Wentworth, it is a time to evaluate priorities, and determine if the potential rewards of her assignment at Thorndike are worth the risks. Ever the rationalist, Jill believes Washington has become too hot for the mission to continue. But with a changing of the guard atop the clan, there are new opportunities for the Network to explore, including one that just might keep Jill in town, despite the danger. For Nicky Bloom, it is a time of discovery. Having learned the truth about her family, and the memories that drew her across the ocean, she is prepared to face the truth about herself, and what she wants most in life. When she was in Italy, she had a chance to kill Sergio Alonzo and she didn’t take it. Now it is time for her find out why. The fourth and final book of Girls Wearing Black follows the seniors of Thorndike Academy in their final semester, when they will conclude the contest that will see one of them become a vampire, and another the vampire’s first victim.

Still reeling from the events of the Homecoming Masquerade, Nicky Bloom must prepare for the second event of the Coronation contest: The Festival of the Moon. A week-long celebration of the immortals and the girls vying to become one, the Festival of the Moon begins with a wild party in the woods and ends with a date auction, where all the boys of the Thorndike senior class bid for the right to wine and dine one of the girls wearing black. With help from Jill Wentworth and the rest of the Network, Nicky dives headfirst into the world of lust, gossip, and intrigue that is Thorndike Academy. And as she and the other girls wearing black struggle for position, Nicky must keep her true identity a secret, not only from the other students at school, but from the vampire who is watching her every move.

Relieved that the Date Auction was a success for Nicky, Jill Wentworth already has a plan for the next event in the Coronation contest: The Rose Ransom. A strange ritual with a sordid history, The Rose Ransom sends the entire class on a hunt for a girl who has been kidnapped. Jill is certain she knows which girl will be taken and how she can locate her once she’s gone. But minutes after she sets her plan in motion, Jill gets an alert that something strange has happened at the Bloom mansion. Hacking into the mansion’s security cameras, she finds a horrible scene of carnage. Three agents and one vampire were murdered during the Date Auction. With Nicky on the other side of the world and the entire mission in jeopardy, Jill uncovers a conspiracy that could tear the Samarin clan apart, and learns that for this year’s class, The Rose Ransom is much more than a game.

Twenty-five years after Jesus’ Son, a haunting new collection of short stories on mortality and transcendence, from National Book Award winner and two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist Denis Johnson NATIONAL BESTSELLER • NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Dwight Garner, The New York Times • Maureen Corrigan, NPR’s Fresh Air • Chicago Tribune • Newsday • New York • AV Club • Publishers Weekly “Ranks with the best fiction published by any American writer during this short century.”—New York “A posthumous masterpiece.”—Entertainment Weekly NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review • The Washington Post • NPR • The Boston Globe • New York Public Library • Kirkus Reviews • Bloomberg The Largesse of the Sea Maiden is the long-awaited new story collection from Denis Johnson. Written in the luminous prose that made him one of the most beloved and important writers of his generation, this collection finds Johnson in new territory, contemplating the ghosts of the past and the elusive and unexpected ways the mysteries of the universe assert themselves. Finished shortly before Johnson’s death, this collection is the last word from a writer whose work will live on for many years to come. Praise for The Largesse of the Sea Maiden “An instant classic.”—Newsday “Exceptional luminosity . . . hits a powerful vein.”—The New York Times Book Review “Grace and oblivion are inextricably yoked in these transcendent stories. . . . [Johnson’s] gift is to extract the beauty in all that brokenness.”—The Wall Street Journal “Nobody ever wrote like Denis Johnson. Nobody ever came close. . . . We’re just left with this miraculous book, these perfect stories, the last words from one of the world’s greatest writers.”—NPR

Canadian makeup and mixed media artist Lyle Reimer has nearly 125,000 Instagram followers who visit his account @Lylexox to experience the fantasy and undeniable creativity of his self-portrait personas, which fuse facial sculpture, makeup, and found objects, accompanied by hilarious fictional backstories. Lyle Reimer has captivated Instagram fans with his strangely beautiful self-portraits where his face serves as a blank canvas for decorative facial collages that bring his otherworldly online personas to life. His love of makeup, fashion, and storytelling is evident in his Instagram posts where he styles the makeup, wigs, and assembles his elaborate facial sculptures made up of found and recycled objects. Always pushing the boundaries of beauty, Reimer explores a multiplicity of characters à la Cindy Sherman, combined with the subversive edge of performance artist Leigh Bowery, and the glamorous theatrics of Moulin Rouge! In his debut book, designed by the renowned art director Fabien Baron, Reimer has curated a collection of his favorite Instagram personas. For Reimer's spectacular facial collages, inspiration comes from the most quotidian things--from feathers, soy sauce packets, Pellegrino water labels, bleached turkey bones, and mattress foam to ripped pages from Vogue and deconstructed Gucci purses--to create beautiful pieces of facial art. Truly a must-have for makeup and beauty aficionados and those interested in online popular culture, this one-of-a-kind volume captures Reimer's work as he breaks the boundaries of beauty, embraces self-expression, and celebrates the ever-changing nature of an individual's sense of style.

Joey Hamilton makes a mistake on a simple wrestling maneuver during his World Title competition, and his botched scripted match is televised nationally. With Joey injured, other professional wrestlers engage in violence, drug use, back-stabbing, and desperation as they try to earn the top spot.