"She has as much business keeping a stray dog as she would walking across Egyptwhich not so incidentally is the title of her favorite hymn. Shes Mattie Rigsbee, an independent, strong-minded senior citizen who, at seventy-eight, might be slowing down just a bit. When teenage delinquent Wesley Benfield drops in on her life, he is even less likely a companion than the stray dog. But, of course, the dog never tasted her mouth-watering pound cake."--Publisher....

Best friends Matt and Eric are hatching a plan for one big final adventure together before Eric moves away: during the marching band competition at a Giant Amusement Park, they will sneak away to a nearby comics convention and meet their idol--a famous comic creator. Without cell phones. Or transportation. Or permission. Of course, their final adventure together is more than just that-really, it's a way for the boys to celebrate their friendship,...

At Zephyr Holdings, no one has ever seen the CEO. The beautiful receptionist is paid twice as much as anybody else, but does no work. One of the sales reps uses relationship books as sales manuals, and another is on the warpath because somebody stole his donut. In other words, its an ordinary big company. Or at least, thats what everyone thinks. Until fresh-faced employee Jones starts investigating. Soon Jones uncovers the companys secret. It plunges...

Living with an old-world mother and rebellious sister, an urban New Jersey misfit dreams of becoming the next J. R. R. Tolkien and believes that a long-standing family curse is thwarting his efforts to find love and happiness.

Kate's desperate struggle to maintain her sanity forces her cousin Binx to relinquish his dreamworld

On his own for the first time in his life, Doug Anderson drifts further and further from his faith, worrying his family and his friend Christina, a young woman with growing feelings for him.

It is 1967 and two Viennese university students want to liberate the Vienna Zoo, as was done after World War II. But their good intentions have both comic and gruesome consequences, in this first novel written by a twenty-five year old John Irving, already a master storyteller.

Buddy is seven years younger than his brother, Lee, but they have always been close. After their praents die in a car crash, the two young men sell what is left of their dusty Oklahoma farm and travel north to Snake Junction, Idaho. There, while Lee sings in a bar, 17-year-old Buddy is at loose ends -- until he meets Irene. Beautiful, mysterious, and almost twice his age, Irene leads Buddy into manhood.

"When James Quinn and Vernor Stanton reunite at the scene of many a carefree childhood summer, Stanton marks the occasion by shooting his friend in the heart. The good news is that the bullet is made of wax. The bad news is that the Mephistophelian Stanton wants Quinn to help him wreak havoc upon this genteel enclave of weekend sportsmen: 'May I predict that this is not going to be the usual, boring, phlegmatic summer?'"--Cover p. [4].