The Kite Runner
by Khaled Hosseini
from Riverhead Trade
In his debut novel, The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini accomplishes what very few contemporary novelists are able to do. He manages to provide an educational and eye-opening account of a country's political turmoil--in this case, Afghanistan--while also developing characters whose heartbreaking struggles and emotional triumphs resonate with readers long after the last page has been turned over. And he does this on his first try.
The Kite Runner follows the story of Amir, the privileged son of a wealthy businessman in Kabul, and Hassan, the son of Amir's father's servant. As children in the relatively stable Afghanistan of the early 1970s, the boys are inseparable. They spend idyllic days running kites and telling stories of mystical places and powerful warriors until an unspeakable event changes the nature of their relationship forever, and eventually cements their bond in ways neither boy could have ever predicted. Even after Amir and his father flee to America, Amir remains haunted by his cowardly actions and disloyalty. In part, it is these demons and the sometimes impossible quest for forgiveness that bring him back to his war-torn native land after it comes under Taliban rule. ("...I wondered if that was how forgiveness budded, not with the fanfare of epiphany, but with pain gathering its things, packing up, and slipping away unannounced in the middle of the night.")
Some of the plot's turns and twists may be somewhat implausible, but Hosseini has created characters that seem so real that one almost forgets that The Kite Runner is a novel and not a memoir. At a time when Afghanistan has been thrust into the forefront of America's collective consciousness ("people sipping lattes at Starbucks were talking about the battle for Kunduz"), Hosseini offers an honest, sometimes tragic, sometimes funny, but always heartfelt view of a fascinating land. Perhaps the only true flaw in this extraordinary novel is that it ends all too soon. --Gisele Toueg
The timely and critically acclaimed debut novel that's becoming a word-of-mouth phenomenon...
"Taking us from Afghanistan in the final days of the monarchy to the present, The Kite Runner is the unforgettable, beautifully told story of the friendship between two boys growing up in Kabul. Raised in the same household and sharing the same wet nurse, Amir and Hassan nonetheless grow up in different worlds: Amir is the son of a prominent and wealthy man, while Hassan , the son of Amir's father's servant, is a Hazara, member of a shunned ethnic minority. Their intertwined lives, and their fates, reflect the eventual tragedy of the world around them. When the Soviets invade and Amir and his father flee the country for a new life in California, Amir thinks that he has escaped his past. And yet he cannot leave the memory of Hassan behind him. The Kite Runner is a novel about friendship, betrayal, and the price of loyalty. It is about the bonds between fathers and sons, and the power of their lies. Written against a history that has not been told in fiction before, The Kite Runner describes the rich culture and beauty of a land in the process of being destroyed. But with the devastation, Khaled Hosseini also gives us hope: through the novel's faith in the power of reading and storytelling, and in the possibilities he shows for redemption."
Push Not the River
by James Conroyd Martin
from St. Martin's Griffin
Naughty Spanking Stories from A to Z
from Pretty Things Press
Have you ever felt the delicious thrill of lying across a lover's lap and getting spanked good and hard? Or been the one doing the spanking, enjoying the sting as your hand collides with your lover's ass? Or have you simply dreamed about the gorgeous heated generated by a truly perfect spanking? If so, this book's for you! Naughty Spanking Stories From A to Z has it ALL, from disobedient students and stern mistresses to kinky cops and naughty captives, to men and women who simply love getting spanked!
With stories by acclaimed writers such as Kate Dominic, Michael Hemmingson, Tsaurah Litzky, Bill Noble, Thomas Roche, Simon Sheppard, Lisabet Sarai, Sage Vivant, and Michele Zipp, plus a daring foreword by noted sex educator Violet Blue, this book will have you itching to bend over and bare your bottom!
Only Revolutions: A Novel
by Mark Z. Danielewski
from Pantheon
Mark Danielewski's first novel House of Leaves is a cult-favorite--experimental horror fiction in a gorgeous (and newly remastered) full-color package. His new book Only Revolutions takes the experiment 10 steps further in a story about teenage lovers Hailey and Sam: the book is printed on two sides--one side tells the story from Hailey's point of view, flip it over and you get Sam's side (literally). We caught a glimpse inside the mind-bending new novel--take a look for yourself below.
 Hailey's Story |  Covers |  Sam's Story |
Sam:
They were with us before Romeo & Juliet. And long after too. Because they’re forever around. Or so both claim, carolling gleefully:
We’re allways sixteen.
Sam & Hailey, powered by an ever-rotating fleet of cars, from Model T to Lincoln Continental, career from the Civil War to the Cold War, barrelling down through the Appalachians, up the Mississippi River, across the Badlands, finally cutting a nation in half as they try to outrace History itself.
By turns beguiling and gripping, finally worldwrecking, Only Revolutions is unlike anything ever published before, a remarkable feat of heart and intellect, moving us with the journey of two kids, perpetually of summer, perpetually sixteen, who give up everything except each other.
Hailey:
They were with us before Tristan & Isolde. And long after too. Because they’re forever around. Or so both claim, gleefully carolling:
We’re allways sixteen.
Hailey & Sam, powered by an ever-rotating fleet of cars, from Shelby Mustang to Sumover Linx, careen from the Civil Rights Movement to the Iraq War, tearing down to New Orleans, up the Mississippi River, across Montana, finally cutting a nation in half as they try to outrace History itself.
By turns enticing and exhilarating, finally breathtaking, Only Revolutions is unlike anything ever conceived before, a remarkable feat of heart and intellect, moving us with the journey of two kids, perpetually of summer, perpetually sixteen, who give up everything except each other.
Naughty Spanking Stories from A to Z, volume 2
from Pretty Things Press
Calling all spanking lovers! Get your hands on the latest, hottest, and sexiest book of spanking erotica around! That's right, Naughty Spanking Stories from A to Z is back with a second volume that's even bigger, bolder and full of more intense, heated, no-holds-barred spanking!
Edited by renowned erotic writer Rachel Kramer Bussel, with a racy foreword by Marketplace series author and BDSM speaker Laura Antoniou, Naughty Spanking Stories from A to Z Volume 2 will turn you on from the very first page. Starting with Marilyn Jaye Lewis's daring couple who spy on a spanking in "After Hours," through to Radclyffe's "Zocalo Dare," in which another very public spanking leaves a woman whimpering for more, these stories take you on a blistering ride through every permutation of bare-bottomed spanking fun you can have. Spankings with hands, paddles, whips and even shoes! Spankings by strippers, husbands, wives, lovers, strangers, teachers, exes, and bosses. Spanking in public, private, underground, at work, at school and in places you can't even imagine. Spanking as sex, love, punishment, communication, celebration. Spankings that leave the spankee with much more than a sore, tender bottom, giving them new relationships, feelings and discoveries about their deepest desires.
Featuring 30 stories (all of the letters of the alphabet with 4 bonus stories) by such talented authors as Thomas Roche, Simon Sheppard, Kate Dominic, Michele Zipp, Sacchi Green, Tsaurah Litzky, Stan Kent, Brooke Stern, Ashley Lister, Debra Hyde, Gwen Masters, L. Elise Bland, Shanna Germain, Greta Christina and more, Naughty Spanking Stories from A to Z Volume 2 is a masterpiece of modern erotic fiction with a special kinky twist.
Walden and Civil Disobedience (Barnes & Noble Classics)
by Henry David Thoreau
from Barnes & Noble Classics
Alphabet Weekends: Love on the Road from A to Z
by Elizabeth Noble
from Harper Paperbacks
Natalie and Tom have been best friends forever, but Tom wants them to be much more. When Natalie's longtime boyfriend walks out on her just when she thinks he's going to propose, Tom offers her a different and wildly romantic proposition. He suggests that they spend twenty-six weekends together, indulging in twenty-six different activities from A to Z, and at the end of that time Tom's convinced they'll be madly in love. Natalie, however, is not so sure.
As Natalie's touring the alphabet with Tom, her mother's going through her own romantic crisis—while Tom's unhappily married sister-in-law, Lucy, struggles with temptation. And over the course of six amazing months, three generations of passionate dreamers are going to discover that, no matter how clever they are, love—and life—is never as easy as A, B, C . . .
Antediluvian Tales
by Poppy Z. Brite
from Subterranean Press
New Stories from the South: The Year's Best, 2008 (New Stories from the South)
by Z. Z. Packer
from Algonquin Books
This year, acclaimed short-story writer ZZ Packer chooses twenty distinctive stories representing the great number of voices and narratives coming out of the South. Some of the youngest and freshest talents on the literary horizon—Bret Anthony Johnston, Kevin Brockmeier, Holly Goddard Jones—accompany well-known Southern stalwarts, including Pinckney Benedict, Clyde Edgerton, and Ron Rash. Their stories tell of life as it is now, a life not seen in romanticized Southern fiction, one where existence—both urban and rural—is as raw and risky as it is alluring. The energy of this collection courses through every one of Packer's edgy, funny, and gritty selections.
Soul Kitchen: A Novel
by Poppy Z. Brite
from Three Rivers Press
If you can't stand the heat...Get the hell out of New Orleans!
Liquor has become one of the hottest restaurants in town, thanks in part to chefs Rickey and G-man’s wildly creative, booze-laced food. At the tail end of a busy Mardi Gras, Milford Goodman walks into their kitchen—he’s spent the last ten years in Angola Prison for murdering his boss, a wealthy New Orleans restaurateur, but has recently been exonerated on new evidence and released. Rickey remembers him as an ingenious chef and hires him on the spot.
When a pill-pushing doctor and a Carnival scion talk Rickey into consulting at the restaurant they’re opening in one of the city’s “floating casinos,” Rickey recommends Milford for the head chef position and stays on to supervise. But soon Rickey finds himself medicating a kitchen injury with the doctor’s wares, and G-man grows tired of holding down the fort at Liquor alone. As the new restaurant moves toward its opening, Rickey learns that Milford’s past is inextricably linked with one of the project’s backers, a man whose intentions begin to seem more and more sinister.
Full of the flavor of one of America’s greatest cities, Soul Kitchen is a sharp commentary on race relations in pre-Katrina New Orleans and a fast ride through the dark side of haute cuisine.
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