The Nine Hundred

On March 25, 1942, nearly a thousand young, unmarried Jewish women boarded a train in Poprad, Slovakia. Filled with a sense of adventure and national pride, they left their parents' homes wearing their best clothes and confidently waving good-bye. Believing they were going to work in a factory for a few months, they were eager to report for government service. Instead, the young women-many of them teenagers-were sent to Auschwitz. Their government paid 500 Reichsmarks (about 160) apiece for the Nazis to take them as slave labour. Of those 999 innocent deportees, only a few would survive.The facts of the first official Jewish transport to Auschwitz are little known, yet profoundly relevant today. These were not resistance fighters or prisoners of war. There were no men among them. Sent to almost certain death, the young women were powerless and insignificant not only because they were Jewish-but also because they were female. Now, acclaimed author Heather Dune Macadam reveals their poignant stories, drawing on extensive interviews with survivors, and consulting with historians, witnesses, and relatives of those first deportees to create an important addition to Holocaust literature and women's history.

"Here at last are the finest of Lafferty's shorter works, stories about: a man who found one day that he knew absolutely everyone in the world; a race who kept their most ancient ancestors on shelves in the basements; a speeded-up world where a man could earn and lose a dozen fortunes a night; a friendly bearlike creature named Snuffles who said he was God ... In all, twenty-one immensely enjoyable stories that will continue to delight you long after you've finished reading them."--Page 1

'Books such as this are essential: they remind modern readers of events that should never be forgotten' - Caroline Moorehead On March 25, 1942, nearly a thousand young, unmarried Jewish women boarded a train in Poprad, Slovakia. Filled with a sense of adventure and national pride, they left their parents' homes wearing their best clothes and confidently waving good-bye. Believing they were going to work in a factory for a few months, they were eager to report for government service. Instead, the young women-many of them teenagers-were sent to Auschwitz. Their government paid 500 Reichsmarks (about £160) apiece for the Nazis to take them as slave labour. Of those 999 innocent deportees, only a few would survive. The facts of the first official Jewish transport to Auschwitz are little known, yet profoundly relevant today. These were not resistance fighters or prisoners of war. There were no men among them. Sent to almost certain death, the young women were powerless and insignificant not only because they were Jewish-but also because they were female. Now, acclaimed author Heather Dune Macadam reveals their poignant stories, drawing on extensive interviews with survivors, and consulting with historians, witnesses, and relatives of those first deportees to create an important addition to Holocaust literature and women's history.

For the members of the bar band Raw Deal, it was their love of the music led them into the clubs and eventually onto the stage. The bonds that were formed as they lived with their days and nights reversed were never broken and left a lasting mark on all who were part of it. Gradually the band's cover songs gave way to original material and an offer from a record company, but as often happens, reality intervened. In his second novel, Nick Apuzzo pulls us into the lives of a New York/New Jersey bar band. From uncertain beginnings spent auditioning for that elusive 'chemistry', to the weekend chaos and mayhem of crowded nightclubs, Nick takes us on a wild and often hilarious ride that is the live music scene.

"Inspired by actual events . . . inspiring and enlightening!" - Ann B. "A heart-wrenching but inspiring tale of courage, resilience, and human survival. Beautifully written." - Jane R. "A must read! Tammy refuses to surrender and no matter what they do to her, her spirit is not broken." - Rachel M. "The suspense is intense. A sad story, but extremely well written." - Marie C. "This book really took me by surprise. It's fundamentally a horror story, a fascinating psychological study of what slavery does to the victim—and to her owners. An unflinching look at human trafficking carried out with finesse and grace." - Kristin W. "I stayed up reading this book until five a.m., then called in sick so I could finish it. I simply could not put it down. Best book by far I have ever read." - Chad K. "A fantastic book on a terrifying topic. I just wanted to curl up somewhere and keep reading. Fell in love with the gutsy heroine." - Doug H. "I didn't want to put this book down even long enough to eat. A revealing and restrained treatment of an explosive topic. Riveting!" - John H. "This book made me cry and shook me to the core. I was moved beyond words." - Leigh "I simply could not put this book down and polished it off in one day. The heroine's amazing strength of character and good heart shine through on every page." - Cathy D.

A giraffe and a boa constrictor go to sea in a small boat and are swallowed by Solomon Leviathan, the ancient whale who swallowed Jonah and Pinocchio.

I am the Emperor of the Nine Layered Heavens of the Myriad Domain! My decree is so vast that in this world, there is no one who dares to disobey it! This was the story of an ordinary boy like Lin Dong growing up to become the Nine Heavens Emperor! Experts were as numerous as the clouds, and they could also be seen how Lin Dong managed to carve a path through countless geniuses and powerhouses! If a beauty falls in love, how could the main character choose?

Three novellas filled with “gallows humor and a sense of real peril,” by the acclaimed author of The Book of Strange New Things (The New York Times). The bestselling author of The Crimson Petal and the White “draws his characters with assured comic efficiency” (The Guardian), using “evocative language” to offer up “intriguing glimpses of unfamiliar worlds” (Los Angeles Times), in these acclaimed novellas. In “The Courage Consort,” an a cappella vocal ensemble is sequestered in a Belgian château to rehearse a monstrously complicated new piece, but competing artistic temperaments and sexual needs create as much discordance as the avant-garde music. In “The Hundred and Ninety-Nine Steps,” a lonely woman joins an archaeological dig at Whitby Abbey and unearths a mystery involving a long-hidden murder. And in “The Fahrenheit Twins,” strange children, identical in all but gender, are left alone at the icy zenith of the world by their anthropologist parents to create their own ritual civilization. From a wildly inventive author whose novel The Book of Strange New Things was named one of 2014’s best reads by everyone from the New Yorker to io9, The Courage Consort is an eclectic collection of well-told tales, in which Michel Faber “marches on, establishing himself as one of the most versatile fiction writers working today” (Kirkus Reviews). “Readers will again be immersed in the intense worlds he creates.” —Publishers Weekly