The black raven

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Paco Roca

"Francisco, a wounded, despairing sixteen-year-old Republican guard in the Spanish Civil War, is trying to flee to freedom by crossing the French border. In his escape, he encounters an old remote lighthouse, far from the warring factions. He is granted shelter by Telmo, the aging operator of the lighthouse. As Francisco recuperates, Telmo's tales of epic adventurers who sailed the lost seas and discovered worlds unknown reignite the spark of life in the young soldier. By one of the most brilliant new talents in comic art in Spain, author of the world-wide bestseller Wrinkles."

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edited and with an introduction by Harold Bloom

This book, a collection of contemporary criticism on J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings," contains essays by Michael Moorcock, Jane Chance, Michael N. Stanton, Mark T. Hooker, Jared Lobdell, Marjorie Burns, Andrew Lynch, Sue Zlosnik, Verlyn Flieger, Mary R. Bowman, and Nancy Enright.

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Robert Skimin

A biographical novel of Ulysses S. Grant. It begins with his West Point days and the Mexican War, chronicles his role as a general in the Civil War and closes with his political career and his two terms as president of the U.S. By the author of Chikara.

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Laura Lebow

"In 1786 Vienna, Lorenzo Da Ponte is the court librettist for the Italian Theatre during the height of the enlightened reign of Emperor Joseph II. This exalted position doesn't mean he's particularly well paid, or even out of reach of the endless intrigues of the opera world. In fact, far from it. One morning, Da Ponte stops off at his barber, only to find the man being taken away to debtor's prison. Da Ponte impetuously agrees to carry a message to his barber's fiance;e and try to help her set him free, even though he's facing pressures of his own. He's got one week to finish the libretto for The Marriage of Figaro for Mozart before the opera is premiered for the Emperor himself. Da Ponte visits the house where the barber's fiancee works--the home of a nobleman, high in the Vienna's diplomatic circles--and then returns to his own apartments, only to be dragged from his rooms in the middle of the night. It seems the young prote;ge; of the diplomat was killed right about the time Da Ponte was visiting, and he happens to be their main suspect. Now he's given a choice--go undercover into the household and uncover the murderer, or be hanged for the crime himself. Brilliantly recreating the cultural world of late 18th century Vienna, the epicenter of the Enlightenment, Lebow brings to life some of the most famous figures of music, theatre, and politics"--