Quest
Characters on a journey with a specific goal
5 items found

Shana, the Christmas Squirrel!
by Michelle Luise
Shana isn’t just any squirrel—she’s a spunky, bilingual, Puerto Rican squirrel on a mission to become a famous Christmas squirrel! With quirky friends and wild adventures along the way, Shana is sure she knows exactly who she is and who she's meant to be … until she discovers a truth that changes everything. A joyful holiday story about identity, belonging, and the magic of embracing who you are.

Notes on the Trouble Line
by Marco Velos
*Notes on the Trouble Line* is a literary crime novel about a streetwise young horseracing handicapper who becomes entangled with rival race-fixing mobsters. In the summer of 1982, twenty-one-year-old Michael Kipness claims he won big just in time to flee New York City. The truth: he stole money from his grandfather's mob associates. With enough cash for a stake and a cross-country train ticket, Michael heads west seeking refuge with his friend and mentor, Alfred, who is dying of AIDS. Alfred sees Michael clearly - a troubled young man whose gifts as a handicapper (attention to detail, memory, imagination, disciple) make him a brilliant storyteller. He challenges Michael to pursue his passion for the races and to tell his story honestly. At Seattle's Longacres racetrack Michael discovers his gift for reading horses makes him valuable to dangerous men. A notorious race-fixer wants Michael’s help fixing races. A local gangster with a taste for violence claims Michael’s expertise for himself. Back in New York the men Michael stole from want their money and revenge. The FBI wants him to inform against them all. The danger Michael faces is both physical and moral. He must use his nerve and his ability to read a trouble line to outmaneuver the men who are determined to control his destiny. Along the way, he meets Lisa, an intuitive counterpart who sees Michael is ways he is yet to see himself. Caught between loyalty, survival and the longing to make one clean bet, he must discover what honesty means in a world built on secrets and bad odds. My first novel, *Gloria*, was published by Simon and Schuster and several foreign houses, including Rizzoli, Belfond, MacMillan and Goldman. It received praise from the *New York Times*, *Washington Post*, and the *Los Angeles Times*, among many others. I’ve won several literary awards, including the Rinehart Prize for Fiction from George Mason University. *Notes on the Trouble Line* is set in the authentic world of 1980s horse racing. It will appeal to readers of Stewart O'Nan's *City of Secrets*, Frederick Exley's *A Fan's Notes*, and Don DeLillo’s *Underworld.*

Sleeping Dragon
by Kevin Konzen
*A sweeping historical portal fantasy of prophecy, dragons, and the destiny of medieval Ireland.* What if a stroke didn’t end a man’s life—but sent him back to medieval Ireland, where prophecy says he must ride a dragon and save a hidden kingdom? Kristopher Knight was months away from retirement when a sudden stroke changes everything. He wakes in 14th-century Ireland, trapped in the body of a young Anglo-Norman nobleman, John de la Roche. The land is divided by conquest and fragile alliances. When he is kidnapped by Donal MacCarthy, the Irish King of Desmond, Kristopher soon discovers his arrival was no accident. The king’s daughter pulls him into the hidden realm of Agartha, a world on the brink of war. An ancient prophecy speaks of a man out of time—and of a dragon that must be awakened. To save a kingdom – and perhaps a nation – Kristopher must embrace a destiny he never sought if he ever hopes to return to the life he once knew.

Moby Dick
by Herman Melville
Narrated by the sailor Ishmael, the story follows the Pequod and its captain, Ahab, on a perilous voyage. It is a profound meditation on obsession, fate, and the indomitable power of the natural world.
Are Relationships For Suckers, or Can You Really Nurture Love for a Lifetime?
by Belle Gayer