Wednesday, July 31, 2024

Archie Giant Comics Frenzy, 480 pages

 Archie Giant Comics Frenzy collects 480 pages of iconic Archie tales in one amazing volume!


Follow America's favorite red-head as he navigates the pressures of the American teenager in the awkward, charming, and hilarious way you've come to know and love.





Katy Keene, 224 pages

 Since the 1940s, fashion model supreme Katy Keene has enthralled audiences with her own self-titled series as well as Katy Keene Pin-Up Parade and Katy Keene Fashion Book Magazine . Readers have followed her adventures on the runway as well as her intriguing romances. Best of all, Katy Keene was one of the first interactive comic book series, inviting readers to send in fashion suggestions of their own that were turned into pin-ups and paper dolls that they could cut out and keep! This fully-colored edition features her high-fashion-hijinx!


Katy Keene, model/actress/singer extraordinaire, has been an inspiration for the fashion-conscious for years! Now, Archie Comics is pleased to bring you a collection of some of Katy's most wonderful stories! Katy certainly has her hands full with the Hollywood lifestyle she has. Glitz and glamour, famous boyfriends and runway rivals make for quite a balancing act! Can she keep it together and keep her fans wowed?



Betty and Veronica Double Digest #318, 182 pages

 TWO BRAND NEW STORIES! First, Betty and Veronica help the Web unmask criminals on Halloween! Then, Ginger Snapp's freaked out after watching the new "Melanie" horror movie—even more so when she sees Jellybean dressed up as the Melanie doll for Halloween!




Dreadful by Caitlin Rozakis, 349 pages

 It’s bad enough waking up in a half-destroyed evil wizard’s workshop with no eyebrows, no memories, and no idea how long you have before the Dread Lord Whomever shows up to murder you horribly and then turn your skull into a goblet or something.

It’s a lot worse when you realize that Dread Lord Whomever is… you.
Gav isn’t really sure how he ended up with a castle full of goblins, or why he has a princess locked in a cell. All he can do is play along with his own evil plan in hopes of getting his memories back before he gets himself killed.
But as he realizes that nothing – from the incredibly tasteless cloak adorned with flames to the aforementioned princess – is quite what it seems, Gav must face up to all the things the Dread Lord Gavrax has done. And he’ll have to answer the hardest question of all – who does he want to be?
Dread Lord Gavrax has had better weeks.



Monday, July 29, 2024

Vane Pursuit by Charlotte MacLeod, 185 pages

The weather vanes of the famous craftsman Praxiteles Lumpkin are one of the great cultural treasures of rural Massachusetts. Helen Shandy, librarian at Balaclava Agricultural College, is roaming the countryside, camera in hand, capturing images of these lovely copper sculptures, trying to give them the attention they deserve. But each time she takes a picture, the featured vane vanishes. Could there be a gang of breezy-minded burglars on her tail?

 
The night after Helen photographs the vane atop the famous Lumpkin soap works, the building burns to the ground. With the help of her husband, Peter, she tries to track the thieves-turned-arsonists. But when the things take a dangerous turn, Helen doesn’t need a weather vane to see that a deadly wind is blowing.



Thursday, July 25, 2024

The Best of Archie Musical Madness, 256 pages

 You've got front row tickets to the concert of the year with this special edition volume of Archie's all-time best-selling THE BEST OF ARCHIE COMICS graphic novel series, celebrating over 80 years of musical stories!


The Archies are the hottest band of the last century, with tours that have taken them around the world, the catchiest hit singles, and a dedicated fanbase all over the globe. And now you've got an all-access look at what makes The Archies—as well as many of their musically-minded friends—just so fun and appealing! Get ready for mirth, merriment, and plenty of melodies!



Monsters of the Midwest by Jessica Freeburg & Natalie Fowler, 134 pages

 Read 23 chilling stories, from two paranormal investigators, about reportedly true encounters with monsters in the Midwest. A mysterious snake grows to frightening proportions. A slimy, clawed, green-scaled beast terrorizes swimmers from the bottom of a lake. Two enormous birds try to prey upon farm animals—and children. The Midwest’s history includes several unimaginable encounters with legendary creatures. This collection of “ghost stories” presents the creepiest, most surprising tales of monsters in the states of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. Authors Jessica Freeburg and Natalie Fowler are active paranormal investigators with a shared fascination for things that go bump in the night. The professional writers spent countless hours combing the region for the strangest and scariest run-ins with the unexplained. Horror fans and history buffs will delight in these 23 terrifying tales. They’re based on reportedly true accounts, proving that the Midwest is the setting for some of the most unsettling monster tales ever told. The short stories are ideal for quick reading, and they are sure to captivate even the most reluctant of readers. Share them with friends around a campfire, or try them alone at home—if you dare.




An Irish Country Girl by Patrick Taylor, 501 pages

Presents the story of the early life of Kinky Kincaid, once known as Maureen O'Hanlon, a farmer's daughter growing up in the hills and glens of 1920s County Cork, Ireland, who had a gift for seeing fairies, spirits, and the dreaded banshee.




Tuesday, July 23, 2024

P.S. You're Intolerable by Julia Wolf, 394 pages

 My boss, Elliot Levy is intolerable, and I tell him so everyday…in the little notes I write and then hide in the back of my desk.


I can’t exactly say to his face that I’m convinced he’s a cyborg, considering I'm about to become a single mother and I really need to keep my job as his assistant.

Elliot never looks at me, so he doesn’t even notice I’m pregnant until I’m seven months along. The first thing he asks is if I’m planning to come back to work once I have the baby.

Not unexpected.

What is unexpected is Elliot coming to my rescue when I need a place to stay after my daughter is born. While living with him, I get to see a whole other side of him…especially when he walks around his house without a shirt on.

Which he does, ALL. THE. TIME.

I shouldn’t look, but I can’t help it. He’s gorgeous in a suit, but out of one? Devastating.

Elliot shows me he isn’t the heartless robot I once thought. It’s still terrifying to take a chance on him, even when he holds my baby like she’s precious to him, and he touches me like he’s been longing to for ages.

Now that he has me, he isn’t letting me go without a fight.

And Elliot Levy didn’t get where he is in business without learning a few underhanded tricks. What will he do to keep me? To keep us?

P.S. I think I’m falling for you.



The Moonstone Castle Mystery by Carolyn Keene, 178 pages

 When Nancy Drew receives a valuable moonstone as a gift from an unknown person, she is amazed and puzzled. But it is only the first of several startling events in this complex mystery that challenge the ingenuity of the pretty sleuth.Why are the Bowens – a missionary couple who recently returned to the United States – having so much trouble finding their missing seventeen-year-old granddaughter, Joanie Horton? Nancy and her friends travel to Deep River, the town where the young Jonie lived. From the motel where Nancy and her friends stay, they can see an intriguing castlelike structure with a drawbridge. Gossipy Mrs. Hemstead at the village tearoom insists that Moonstone Castle is haunted. Curious, the three girls attempt to explore the abandoned castle, but an ominous voice warns them away.Other strange happenings in Deep River convince Nancy that there is a connection between Moonstone Castle and the mysterious moonstone gift. But what is the significance? And where does the baffling disappearance of Joanie Horton fit into the intricate puzzle?




Sunday, July 21, 2024

Twenty Years At Hull House by Jane Addams, 320 pages

 Twenty Years at Hull-House is Jane Addams' graphic account of her famed settlement house in Chicago's West Side slums. Covering the years 1889-1909, a time when America was fired with fear of subversives and suspicion of foreigners, this book stands as the immortal testament of a woman who lived and worked among the immigrant settlers, the sweatshop toilers, the unwed mothers, the hungry, the aged, the sick, to show them in practice what others merely preached: the true concept of American democracy.




Friday, July 19, 2024

The Murder on the Links by Agatha Christie, 228 pages

Belgian detective Hercule Poirot is summoned to France after receiving a distressing letter with a urgent cry for help. Upon his arrival in Merlinville-sur-Mer, the investigator finds the man who penned the letter, the South American millionaire Monsieur Renauld, stabbed to death and his body flung into a freshly dug open grave on the golf course adjoining the property. Meanwhile the millionaire's wife is found bound and gagged in her room. Apparently, it seems that Renauld and his wife were victims of a failed break-in, resulting in Renauld's kidnapping and death.There's no lack of his wife, whose dagger served as the weapon; his embittered son, who would have killed for independence; and his mistress, who refused to be ignored - and each felt deserving of the dead man's fortune. The police think they've found the culprit. But Poirot has his doubts. Why is the dead man wearing an overcoat that is too big for him? And who was the impassioned love-letter in the pocket for? Before Poirot can answer these questions, the case is turned upside down by the discovery of a second, identically murdered corpse...







Betty & Veronica Spectacular, 224 pages

 BETTY & VERONICA SPECTACULAR VOL. 1 is the first of a chronological collection featuring the magazine-format series spotlighting Riverdale's iconic duo. This is presented in the new higher-end format of Archie Comics Presents, which offers 200+ pages at a value while taking a design cue from successful all-ages graphic novels.Betty & Veronica take on the world in this series of once-quarterly stories! See how B&V tackle the world of fashion, prep for the red carpets of Hollywood and still have time to finish their homework!




Sincerely, Your Inconvenient Wife by Julia Wolf, 375 pages

 I have this thing about saying ‘yes’. I do it frequently, and with abandon.

Skydiving on a whim? Yes.
A last minute getaway to Ireland? Yes!
Agreeing to a marriage of convenience with sexy and arrogant Luca Rossi for two years? Um…yes?

It should have been a simple arrangement. Luca needs a wife to clean up his image as the new CEO of Rossi Motors, and I need my mother to stop trying to fix me up on terrible dates. In two years, we’ll part amicably, no attachments or hard feelings.

Anything that happens between us will be outside the confines of our arrangement.
And by anything, I mean falling into Luca’s bed. Which I also do frequently and with abandon.

But nothing is ever as simple as it seems. It isn’t long before I fall for my motorcycle-riding, dirty-talking, sexy-as-sin husband.

I know I should be careful. This is just temporary, after all, and Luca and I want completely different futures.

The thing is, when I’m with Luca, all I want to do is say, ‘yes’, no matter how reckless that would be.



Archie Showcase Digest #4, A Jughead in the Family, 181 pages

 We’re continuing Archie Comics’ landmark 80th Anniversary celebration with another special showcase digest! This time, we revisit the hilarious never-before-reprinted “A Jughead in the Family” Jughead gets into a fight with his dad and moves out—but who’s willing to take him in? Join in on the hilarity as Jughead moves from place to place, living with the families of Archie, Ethel, Moose, Trula Twyst, and even Reggie!




Tuesday, July 16, 2024

Chicken Every Sunday by Rosemary Taylor, 307 pages

 One of the boarders who ate Mother's chicken every Sunday summed it up when he said, "I was told that in your house I'd have good food and some fun." They all had fun, and they all became part of the family -- Jeffrey, who lost his front teeth and won his independence, Rita Vlasak, who loved anything in pants, including Father, Miss Sally, who loved Miss Sally and cold cream, the Lathams, who bought a mine, and even the hell-bent-for-heaven Woolleys, who were sure God had sent the skunk to hide under the house because the family didn't go to church on Sunday. If you have room for some fun and old-fashioned enjoyment, Mother's sure to have room for you.




Monday, July 15, 2024

Just For the Summer by Abby Jimenez, 418 pages

 Justin has a curse, and thanks to a Reddit thread, it's now all over the internet. Every woman he dates goes on to find their soul mate the second they break up. When a woman slides into his DMs with the same problem, they come up with a plan: They'll date each other and break up. Their curses will cancel each other’s out, and they’ll both go on to find the love of their lives. It’s a bonkers idea… and it just might work.

Emma hadn't planned that her next assignment as a traveling nurse would be in Minnesota, but she and her best friend agree that dating Justin is too good of an opportunity to pass up, especially when they get to rent an adorable cottage on a private island on Lake Minnetonka.

It's supposed to be a quick fling, just for the summer. But when Emma's toxic mother shows up and Justin has to assume guardianship of his three siblings, they're suddenly navigating a lot more than they expected–including catching real feelings for each other. What if this time Fate has actually brought the perfect pair together?



Sunday, July 14, 2024

Unto a Good Land by Vilhelm Moberg, 416 pages

 Considered one of Sweden's greatest 20th-century writers, Vilhelm Moberg created the characters Karl Oskar and Kristina Nilsson to portray the joys and tragedies of daily life for early Swedish immigrants in America. His consistently faithful depiction of these humble people's lives is a major strength of the Emigrant Novels.

Moberg's extensive research in the papers of Swedish emigrants in archival collections enabled him to incorporate many details of pioneer life. First published between 1949 and 1959 in Swedish, these four books were considered a single work by Moberg, who intended that they be read as documentary novels. These reprint editions contain introductions written by Roger McKnight of Gustavus Adolphus College, and they restore Moberg's bibliography not included in earlier English editions.

The second book in the series, Unto a Good Land opens in the summer of 1850 as the emigrants disembark in New York City. Their journey to a new home in Minnesota Territory takes them by riverboat, steam wagon, Great Lakes steamship, and oxcart to Chisago County.






Thursday, July 11, 2024

World of Betty and Veronica Jumbo Comics #33, 186 pages

 BRAND NEW STORY! Betty and Veronica will do anything to get the attention of heartthrob Dr. Masters while he is filming his new medical series on Riverdale Beach. It’s the battle at the beach with Betty vs Veronica.






Big Bosses: A Working Girl's Memoir of Jazz Age America by Althea McDowell Altemus, 220 pages

 Sharp, resourceful, and with a style all her own, Althea Altemus embodied the spirit of the independent working woman of the Jazz Age. In her memoir, Big Bosses, she vividly recounts her life as a secretary for prominent (but thinly disguised) employers in Chicago, Miami, and New York during the late teens and 1920s. Alongside her we rub elbows with movie stars, artists, and high-profile businessmen, and experience lavish estate parties that routinely defied the laws of Prohibition.

Beginning with her employment as a private secretary to James Deering of International Harvester, whom she describes as “probably the world’s oldest and wealthiest bachelor playboy,” Altemus tells us much about high society during the time, taking us inside Deering’s glamorous Miami estate, Vizcaya, an Italianate mansion worthy of Gatsby himself. Later, we meet her other notable employers, including Samuel Insull, president of Chicago Edison; New York banker S. W. Straus; and real estate developer Fred F. French. We cinch up our trenchcoats and head out sleuthing in Chicago, hired by the wife of a big boss to find out how he spends his evenings (with, it turns out, a mistress hidden in an apartment within his office, no less). Altemus was also a struggling single mother, a fact she had to keep secret from her employers, and she reveals the difficulties of being a working woman at the time through glimpses into women’s apartments, their friendships, and the dangers—sexual and otherwise—that she and others faced. Throughout, Altemus entertains with a tart and self-aware voice that combines the knowledge of an insider with the wit and clarity of someone on the fringe.

Anchored by extensive annotation and an afterword from historian Robin F. Bachin, which contextualizes Altemus’s narrative, Big Bosses provides a one-of-a-kind peek inside the excitement, extravagances, and the challenges of being a working woman roaring through the ’20s.



The Case of the Missing Books by Ian Sansom, 336 pages

 Israel Armstrong is a passionate soul, lured to Ireland by the promise of an exciting new career. Alas, the job that awaits him is not quite what he has in mind. Still, Israel is not one to dwell on disappointment, as he prepares to drive a mobile library around a small, damp Irish town. After all, the scenery is lovely, the people are charming--but where are the books? The rolling library's 15,000 volumes have mysteriously gone missing, and it's up to Israel to discover who would steal them...and why. And perhaps, after that, he will tackle other bizarre and perplexing local mysteries--like, where does one go to find a proper cappuccino and a decent newspaper?




Thinly Veiled by Monica Ross, 356 pages

 THINLY VEILED is equally sexy and smart. It’s about making your own happiness in a world eager to find fault with you, and embracing family, even when they piss you off.

Big boobs, tiny waist, wide hips, and long legs. That’s definitely me, Zelda Gordon.

I don’t care if the world calls me plus-sized, and I’ve learned to stop caring if my sister calls me flawed.

Because I’m about to call those sexy, loving fellas, Drew and Aithan, my husbands.

When I look in the mirror, I finally see the beautiful woman my men love. We’ve survived a hellish year, and we're on track for happiness. Until greed slithers from the dark corners of Drew's past, and pride tries to drive a wedge between Aithan and me.

That monster, Spite, brought along its wicked cousins, Avarice and Scorn. They're crafting thinly veiled threats, but our unconventional family is ready to tear them apart. Because nothing will stand in our way. Nothing will ruin our happiness. Nothing.



Monday, July 8, 2024

At First Spite by Olivia Dade, 386 pages

 When Athena Greydon's fiancé ends their engagement, she has no choice but to move into the Spite House she recklessly bought him as a wedding gift. This is a problem, for several reasons: The house, originally built as a brick middle finger to the neighbors, is only ten feet wide. Her ex's home is attached to hers. And Dr. Matthew Vine the Freaking Third (aka the uptight, judgmental jerk who convinced his younger brother to leave her) is living on the other side, only a four-foot alley away.

If she has to see Matthew every time she looks out her windows, she might as well have some fun with the situation--by, say, playing erotic audiobooks at top volume with the windows open. A woman living in a Spite House is basically obligated to get petty payback however she can, right?

Unfortunately, loathing Matthew proves more difficult than anticipated. He helps her move. He listens. And he's kind of...hot? Dammit.



Sunday, July 7, 2024

Thick as a Brick by Monica Ross, 155 pages

 THICK AS A BRICK is a story of desire and denial. It’s about friend-zoning someone, even when you wanna jump his bones. Because he calls you perfect, but you know he’s a threat to your heart.

Tattoos, boyish charm, a million-dollar bank balance, and a faulty filter between his brain and his mouth? That’s romance author, Drew Katterman.

Big boobs, tiny waist, wide hips, and a painful case of self-consciousness? That’s me, up-and-coming audiobook narrator, Zelda Gordon.

Drew’s fans call him brilliant. His detractors call him a playboy.

My reviewers call me talented. My enemies call me opportunistic.

Drew? He calls me perfect. And I call him a threat to my heart because he’s flirtatious, fun, and rich. He also has a gorgeous girlfriend, and I want only a professional relationship with him to prove my detractors wrong. Right?

So why do his sexy smile and kind words inspire ideas that have nothing to do with a microphone and a manuscript?

My competitors may be wrong about me sleeping my way to success, but they’re correct about one thing: I’m in this business to succeed. Screwing with Drew Katterman can only break my heart and prove the competition right.







Mrs. Pollifax on Safari by Dorothy Gilman, 223 pages

 Now the incredible Mrs. Pollifax has been sent on a safari to smoke out a very clever international assassin whose next target is the president of Zambia.

“Just take a lot of pictures of everyone on that safari,” the CIA man told her. “One of them has to be our man.”

It sounded simple enough. But it wasn’t. Because shortly after Mrs. Pollifax started taking pictures, someone stole her film. And right after that she was kidnapped by Rhodesian terrorists. And right after that—well, read for yourself....



Saturday, July 6, 2024

A Novel Love Story by Ashley Poston, 384 pages

 Eileen Merriweather loves to get lost in a good happily-ever-after. The fictional kind, anyway. Because at least imaginary men don’t leave you at the altar. She feels safe in a book. At home. Which might be why she’s so set on going to her annual book club retreat this year—she needs good friends, cheap wine, and grand romantic gestures—no matter what.

But when her car unexpectedly breaks down on the way, she finds herself stranded in a quaint town that feels like it’s right out of a novel…

Because it is.

This place can’t be real, and yet… she’s here, in Eloraton, the town of her favorite romance series, where the candy store’s honey taffy is always sweet, the local bar’s burgers are always a little burnt, and rain always comes in the afternoon. It feels like home. It’s perfect—and perfectly frozen, trapped in the late author’s last unfinished story.

Elsy is sure that’s why she must be here: to help bring the town to its storybook ending.

Except there is a character in Eloraton that she can’t place—a grumpy bookstore owner with mint-green eyes, an irritatingly sexy mouth and impeccable taste in novels. And he does not want her finishing this book.

Which is a problem because Elsy is beginning to think the town’s happily-ever-after might just be intertwined with her own.



Friday, July 5, 2024

The Corpse in Oozak's Pond by Charlotte MacLeod, 184 pages

 On Groundhog Day, Professor Peter Shandy digs into the past, bizarre circumstances around a century-old corpse. Peter is helped mostly by Ottermole and Cronk, with appearances from Grace and Phil Porble.




World of Archie Jumbo Comics #140, 183 pages

 BRAND NEW STORY! It’s the first annual Riverdale Amateur Wrestling Rumble, a royal rumble for charity. No one can beat the masked wrestlers. Who is this mystery trio? And can they be beat?




Betty and Veronica Jumbo Comics #324, 183 pages

 BRAND NEW STORY! Veronica wants to prove Powerteen is the best superhero, but will dooming Riverdale really do the trick?




Tuesday, July 2, 2024

Archie Jumbo Comics Digest #350, 186 pages

 BRAND NEW STORY! Celebrate 350 issues of Archie Jumbo Comics Digest with a party! Moose is having a BBQ party, and everyone is reflecting on their relationship with the big guy… for better or worse!




Hell Put to Shame: The 1921 Murder Farm Massacre and the Horror of America's Second Slavery by Earl Swift, 419 pages

 On a Sunday morning in the spring of 1921, a small boy made a grim discovery as he played on a riverbank in the cotton country of rural Georgia: the bodies of two drowned men, bound together with wire and chain and weighted with a hundred-pound sack of rocks. Within days a third body turned up in another nearby river, and in the weeks that followed, eight others. And with them a deeper horror: all eleven had been kept in virtual slavery before their deaths. In fact, as America was shocked to learn, the dead were among thousands of Black men enslaved throughout the South in conditions nearly as dire as those before the Civil War.

Hell Put to Shame tells the forgotten story of that mass killing and of the revelations about peonage, or debt slavery, that it placed before a public self-satisfied that involuntary servitude had ended at Appomattox more than fifty years before.

By turns police procedural, courtroom drama, and political exposé, Hell Put to Shame also reintroduces readers to three Americans who spearheaded the prosecution of John S. Williams, the wealthy plantation owner behind the murders, at a time when white people rarely faced punishment for violence against their Black neighbors. The remarkable polymath James Weldon Johnson, newly appointed the first Black leader of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, marshaled the organization into a full-on war against peonage. Johnson’s lieutenant, Walter F. White, a light-skinned, fair-haired, blue-eyed Black man, conducted undercover work at the scene of lynchings and other Jim Crow atrocities, helping to throw a light on such violence and to hasten its end. And Georgia governor Hugh M. Dorsey won the statehouse as a hero of white supremacists—then redeemed himself in spectacular fashion with the “Murder Farm” affair.

The result is a story that remains fresh and relevant a century later, as the nation continues to wrestle with seemingly intractable challenges in matters of race and justice. And the 1921 case at its heart argues that the forces that so roil society today have been with us for generations.