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Killer mermaids, gender swapping, and a devilish little sister with the power to end the world—four more unforgettable short stories that reveal the starting point of Tatsuki Fujimoto, the twisted mastermind behind Chainsaw Man.

A horror manga featuring new twists on urban legends and campfire stories! A boy sits in a room. Alone. Telling tales of horror. One by one. Night by night. The shadows breed terror. Shall we begin? One day, an elementary school child named Yuuma tries to jump to his death out of his classroom window. His classmate Hina stops him and, in a bid to stall for time, asks him, “Do you know the round of a hundred ghost stories?” Hina tells Yuuma about a ritual where, if you tell a hundred ghost stories, you’ll see ghosts afterward. Learning this gives Yuuma a new lease on life. Chapter by chapter, he shares ghost stories with the reader, slowly but surely inching his way toward one hundred…

Winston Smith toes the Party line, rewriting history to satisfy the demands of the Ministry of Truth. With each lie he writes, Winston grows to hate the Party that seeks power for its own sake and persecutes those who dare to commit thoughtcrimes. But as he starts to think for himself, Winston can’t escape the fact that Big Brother is always watching...--back cover

With the ink still wet on his diploma, the twenty-five-year-old Dr Mikhail Bulgakov was flung into the depths of rural Russia which, in 1916-17, was still largely unaffected by such novelties as the motor car, the telephone or electric light. How his alter-ego copes (or fails to cope) with the new and often appalling responsibilities of a lone doctor in a vast country practice - on the eve of Revolution - is described in Bulgakov''s delightful blend of candid realism and imaginative exuberance.

When the youngest daughter objects, she is cut out of his will. This sets off a chain of events that brings dark truths to light and explodes long-suppressed emotions. Ambitiously conceived and stunningly written, A Thousand Acres reveals the beautiful yet treacherous topography of humanity.

At a Manhattan planetarium in 1965, ten-year-old Enzo is whisked away from his young adoptive aunt, Mala. His abductor turns out to be a blood relative: his great-uncle Junius Samax, a wealthy former gambler who lives in a converted Las Vegas hotel surrounded by a priceless art collection and a host of fascinating, idiosyncratic guests. In Samax’s magical world, Enzo receives a unique education and pieces together the mystery of his mother’s life and the complicated history of his adoption. Back in New York, Mala only knows that Enzo has disappeared. After a yearlong search proves fruitless, she enlists in the Navy Nursing Corps and on a hospital ship off Vietnam falls in love with a wounded B-52 navigator, who disappears on his next mission. Devastated again, Mala embarks on a restless, adventurous journey around the world, hoping to overcome the losses that have transformed her life.

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Akira Tachibana. 17 years old, high school junior. Akira, awkward when it comes to expressing her feelings, finds herself secretly falling for the manager of the family restaurant where she works, one Masami Kondo, age 45. The curtain rises on the small love story that begins to unfold between Akira, stuck standing on the crossroads of adolescence, and Kondo, at the turning point of his own life...

Akira’s feelings toward her boss grow more intense, and Kondo, in the face of such unwavering attention, finds that emotions he thought he’d lost long ago are welling up once again, and he meets up with an old college classmate. Meanwhile, Akira clashes with her best friend Kiyan, as she feels the distance between them has grown too much. And so the summer of Akira’s 17th year passes by...

The blunt question, even though it was asked innocently, shakes Akira’s heart. As Christmas draws closer, Akira resolves to do a certain something for Kondo, and Yui, Yoshizawa and Kase grapple with secret feelings of their own…

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Under Cancún’s hard blue sky, a beach boy provides a canvas for tourists’ desires, seeing deep into the world’s underbelly. An enigmatic encounter in Copenhagen takes an IT consultant down a rabbit hole of speculation that proves more seductive than sex. The collapse of a love triangle in London leads to a dangerous, hypnotic addiction. In the Nevada desert, a grieving man tries to merge with an unearthly machine.

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Every night, a young man hears children playing outside his boarding house—but the alley below his window is fenced off from the world. Then, when a young woman’s family starts acting strangely at the same time she begins having bizarre dreams, she decides to stay with her aunt, but the town she heads for has neither addresses nor roads… Also, an all-you-can-eat ice cream bus that’s more sinister than sweet!

Includes index. Originally published: London : Mitchell Beazley, 2013.

This is the only complete, authoritative account of the most brilliantly successful espionage operation of the twentieth century: the notorious Communist spy ring headed by Dr. Richard Sorge, whose cover was that of senior German journalist in Tokyo during World War II. Ozaki Hotsumi, the second-ranking member of the ring, was also a prominent journalist, a leading authority on China, and a consultant to the Konoye cabinet.

Includes bibliographical references.

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Kou Ichinomiya, a young man born with a silver spoon in his mouth and raised with the mantra “never owe anyone” suddenly finds himself deeply indebted to a young homeless woman, Nino, who lives on the Arakawa river bank and claims to originally be from the planet Venus. When Nino rejects all of Kou’s mundane offers of money or housing, Kou is at a loss for how to repay his debt, until Nino suddenly asks him to teach her about love. A daunting task, but the over-achieving Kou is determined to return Nino’s favor. And so begins Kou’s life under the bridge, along with a band of eccentric characters who have formed their own little community outside the boundaries of typical Tokyoite life…

Rec, insulted by the insinuation that he has nothing to contribute to the community under the bridge, decides to start a school. Rec’s secretaries from his company in the outside world investigate his current situation, reports of which are sent back to his father, who then targets the river bank for redevelopment, threatening the idyllic lifestyle of the river bank denizens...

In 2020, a large creature rampages through Tokyo, destroying everything in its path. In 1959, Asa Asada, a spunky young girl from a huge family in Nagoya, is kidnapped for ransom—and not a soul notices. When a typhoon hits Nagoya, Asa and her kidnapper must work together to survive. But there’s more to her kidnapper and this storm than meets the eye.

Asa and Kasuga see the tail of a giant creature rise from the water. In a jungle, explorers discover massive claw marks in a tree trunk. And years later in 1964, a mysterious military man appears asking all the wrong questions.

With the Olympics around the corner, the Japan Defense Forces have their hands full. So Jissoji enlists Asa and Kasuga’s help to find, identify and deal with the mysterious creature that decimated Asa’s hometown.

Asa reluctantly agrees to accompany Yone to an audition at an entertainment agency. However, before they can leave, Mr. Jissoji shows up with news—the mysterious creature has been spotted! With Kasuga nowhere to be found, Asa prepares to take flight to identify the creature. But before she can, Nakaido runs in claiming to have found its weakness, earning himself a seat in Asa’s plane as they take to the skies.

Asa and Nakaido fly out to take a closer look at the mysterious creature that has appeared off the coast of Japan. As the creature threatens them with its sharp teeth and spiky tail, Nakaido works to decipher his mentor’s notes and find its weakness. But their attempts to take down the beast are in vain when it makes its way for land!

After driving away “that thing” that appeared off the coast of Japan, Asa returns home to questions and speculation from her siblings and friends and a warning from Kinuyo—no more dangerous flying! Meanwhile, Jissoji goes to the hospital to visit the prime minister, who not only knows about Asa—he believes the fate of Japan rests on her shoulders! At the prime minster’s insistence, Asa is told to be ready to spring into action at any time.

The mysterious creature appears in Tokyo Bay and takes a chunk out of a self-defense forces vessel. Asa is called into action, but she has trouble reaching the airfield due to the Olympic crowds. Meanwhile, Shota arrives at the same beach as the creature. Asa and Kasuga finally get up in the air and do a flyby, but the creature damages their plane, causing them to lose altitude. Will Asa be able to regain control?

Using a stage name, Yone auditions for several record companies before seemingly getting her big break from Shibahama Music Factory, but she later learns fame can come with a cost. Meanwhile, Shota becomes obsessed with spotting the sea monster so he can use the drug to fight it again. Later, Asa and Nakaido discover an interesting clue in Professor Yodogawa’s belongings that brings them one step closer to uncovering the mystery behind the monster.

Told in three distinct and uniquely compelling sections, Asymmetry explores the imbalances that spark and sustain many of our most dramatic human relations: inequities in age, power, talent, wealth, fame, geography, and justice. The first section, “Folly,” tells the story of Alice, a young American editor, and her relationship with the famous and much older writer Ezra Blazer. A tender and exquisite account of an unexpected romance that takes place in New York during the early years of the Iraq War, “Folly” also suggests an aspiring novelist’s coming-of-age. By contrast, “Madness” is narrated by Amar, an Iraqi-American man who, on his way to visit his brother in Kurdistan, is detained by immigration officers and spends the last weekend of 2008 in a holding room in Heathrow. These two seemingly disparate stories gain resonance as their perspectives interact and overlap, with yet new implications for their relationship revealed in an unexpected coda.

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It's blood and gore, swords and magic. Join Guts and Puck as they spill the guts of countless evil forces and maybe learn to like each other in the process.

Tracker is known far and wide for his skills as a hunter: "He has a nose," people say. Engaged to track down a mysterious boy who disappeared three years earlier, Tracker breaks his own rule of always working alone when he finds himself part of a group that comes together to search for the boy. The band is a hodgepodge, full of unusual characters with secrets of their own, including a shape-shifting man-animal known as Leopard.

Seiichi's mother loves him very much, and his days pass with placid regularity. School, friends, even the attention of his attractive classmate Fukiishi. Until one terrible summer day, that all changes...

His mother has done the unthinkable...and now Seiichi must decide if he will be complicit. But before he can even catch his breath, what remains of his sense of self is smashed to pieces by her next shocking act..

Seiichi's family begins to fall apart in the wake of his cousin's "accident," but nothing compares to the mental and emotional torture he undergoes as he tries to maintain some sense of self in the face of his mother's manipulations. Torn by his love for her, Seiichi is pushed to the breaking point and finds himself unable to speak, both literally and figuratively.

Unable to process the horrifying events of the past few months, Seiichi’s anger, fear, and frustration boil over. But even as he is haunted by the memory of his mother’s hands around his throat, he finds his voice again thanks to his classmate Fukiishi. Their puppy love provides a tenderness he has been missing, but it quickly comes under threat from his mother’s insane jealousy...

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In an autobiographical account about love in the time of AIDS, Frederik meets Cati and falls in love, but the two face many obstacles to happiness because Cati is HIV positive, just like her three-year-old son, in a deeply personal graphic memoir.

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From modern craft cocktails to old standbys, prepare to shake, stir, and just plain pour your way through some of the best wax ever pressed. Wickedly designed and featuring photography throughout, Booze & Vinyl is organized by mood, from Rock to Chill, Dance, and Seduce. Each entry has liner notes that underscore the album's musical highlights and accompanying "Side A" and "Side B" cocktail recipes that complement the music's mood, imagery in the lyrics, or connect the drink to the artist. This is your guide to a rich listening session for one, two, or more.

A quiet convenience store at the crossroads between life and death. Its faint glow in the darkness draws in transient souls, pulling them closer to the final purchase they’ll ever make. Prepare for shadowy creatures, strange employees, and an air of dread in this delightfully creepy supernatural tale.

A convenience store lingers at the boundary between life and death. Its faint glow in the darkness draws in unsuspecting souls, pushing them closer to the final purchase they’ll ever make. Yet for the quirky employees who work there, it’s a job much like any other, if undeniably more strange. Now, the time has come for the past of the store’s enigmatic and supernaturally gifted manager to be revealed…

The convenience store at the boundary between life and death is beset by hordes of darkness and the staff is in a crisis. The humans return to the world of the living to try to bring back their abducted coworker Motoha, whose body was snatched away. Can they save their friend?

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Whether we love them or hate them, think they’re sexy, think they’re strange, consider them too big, too small, or anywhere in between, humans have a complicated relationship with butts. It is a body part unique to humans, critical to our evolution and survival, and yet it has come to signify so much more: sex, desire, comedy, shame. A woman’s butt, in particular, is forever being assessed, criticized, and objectified, from anxious self-examinations trying on jeans in department store dressing rooms to enduring crass remarks while walking down a street or high school hallways. But why? In Butts: A Backstory, reporter, essayist, and RadioLab contributing editor Heather Radke is determined to find out.

Cane is a highly recommended surprising collection of prose, poetry, and drama. Toomer's descriptions of black America in the 1920s is lyrical, full of beauty and darkness- a great example of American modernist literature.

Back in the day, Takebe was a tough-as-nails delinquent who could throw hands with anyone. But right when she finally decides to leave her old ways behind, Takebe has a surprise reunion with her old rival, the “Bloody Cardigan” Soramori. After all these years, she still wants a piece of Takebe-but not in the way anyone expected! Her proposal: If Soramori can beat Takebe in a fight, they have to start dating?!

Soramori has always helda torch for her old highschool rival, Takebe. Now, thanks to one mean shoulderthrow, the two former (?) delinquents have started going out. But Soramori has a couple problems...For one thing, what’s a“proper” date supposed to look like anyway? And what if she’s not the only one with a thing for Takebe? Love’s a battle in more ways than one!

Takebe and Soramori, her old high school rival turned girlfriend (by force), are finally getting used to each other’s company. But while Takebe’s eager to leave her delinquent past behind, Soramori has other ideas… and their relationship suddenly faces its greatest challenge yet. With the help of their friends Maria and Miharu, their confrontation reaches a boiling point, as Takebe seeks to convey her feelings in the only way she knows how—with her fists!

After throwing some hands like back in the old days, Takebe and Soramori’s relationship is finally back on track. But the more Takebe tries to care for her girlfriend, the more she wonders if their feelings aren’t quite the same…And if there’s anything harder than taking Soramori down, it’s getting her to open up. That won’t stop Takebe from trying, though! The ex-delinquent couple’s tale comes to a close in this heartwarming finale.

It was love at first sight.

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