Disclosure by Michael Crichton

From the Publisher

"Expertly crafted, ingenious and absorbing." The Philadelphia Inquirer.
The #1 Bestseller by the author of "Jurassic Park." As he did in "Rising Sun," Crichton focuses on a topic as close as today's newspaper headlines: sexual harassment.
Tom Sanders is an up-and-coming executive at the computer firm DigiCom. When his new boss turns out to be a woman who is both his former lover and a business rival, Sanders determines to be professional. But after a closed-door meeting, the woman accuses him of sexual harassment. It's her word against his, and suddenly Sanders finds himself caught in a nightmarish web of deceit in which he is branded as the villian. As he scrambles to save his career and his reputation, Sanders uncovers an electronic trail into DigiCom's secrets . . . and the cynical scheme devised to bring him down.

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Magyk by Angie Sage

From the Publisher

The seventh son of the seventh son, aptly named Septimus Heap, is stolen the night he is born by a midwife who pronounces him dead. That same night, the baby's father, Silas Heap, comes across a bundle in the snow containing a new born girl with violet eyes. The Heaps take this helpless newborn into their home, name her Jenna, and raise her as their own. But who is this myster ious baby girl, and what really happened to their beloved son Septimus?

The first book in this enthralling new series by Angie Sage leads readers on a fantastic journey filled with quirky characters and magykal charms, potions, and spells. magyk is an original story of lost and rediscovered identities, rich with humor and heart.

Child Magazine

Listen up, all Harry Potter fans (especially the younger ones): A new wizard has come to town. Actually, the arrival of Septimus Heap, the "seventh son of a seventh son," is a tad unusual. He is stolen at birth and pronounced dead all in the first chapter. That same night, his wizard family finds and takes in another child, Jenna, who grows into a plucky young heroine with an enigmatic heritage of her own. Rest assured, though, the boy wizard is alive and kicking-as is this first book in a suspenseful new series full of intrigue, medieval atmosphere, light humor, and a fresh take on the world of magic. (ages 8 to 12)
Child magazine's Best Children's Book Awards 2005

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The Farthest Shore by Ursula Le Guin

From the Publisher

DARKNESS THREATENS to overtake Earthsea. As the world and its wizards are losing their magic, Ged -- powerful Archmage, wizard, and dragonlord -- embarks on a sailing journey with highborn young prince, Arren. They travel far beyond the realm of death to discover the cause of these evil disturbances and to restore magic to a land desperately thirsty for it.

With millions of copies sold, Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea Cycle has earned a treasured place on the shelves of fantasy lovers everywhere. Complex, innovative, and deeply moral, this quintessential fantasy sequence has been compared with the work of J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, and has helped make Le Guin one of the most distinguished fantasy and science fiction writers of all time. She lives in Portland, Oregon.

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The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula Le Guin

Book Two of Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea Cycle Now a SCI FI Original Miniseries!

When young Tenar is chosen as high priestess to the ancient and nameless Powers of the Earth, everything is taken away from her-home, family, possessions, even her name. She is now known only as Arha, the Eaten One, guardian of the labyrinthine Tombs of Atuan, shrouded in darkness. When a young wizard, Ged Sparrowhawk, comes to steal the Tombs' greatest hidden treasure, the Ring of Erreth-Akbe, Tenar's rightful duty is to protect the Tombs. But Ged also brings with him the light of magic and tales of a brighter world Tenar has never known. Will Tenar risk everything to escape the darkness that has become her domain?

With millions of copies sold worldwide, Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea Cycle has earned a treasured place on the shelves of fantasy lovers everywhere, alongside the works of such beloved authors as J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis.

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A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin

The Barnes & Noble Review

Ursula K. Le Guin's 1968 classic fantasy A Wizard of Earthsea, a coming-of-age tale about a boy destined to become the greatest sorcerer in the world, has been heralded as one of the most pedagogical and beautifully written children's novels ever penned. Born in the realm of Earthsea, a much-storied world dominated by an extensive archipelago, Ged is a poor blacksmith's son born with an innate understanding of magic. But after he is sent to Roke Island to study the craft, he lets his arrogance and antipathy for another student lead him into a disastrous mistake -- unleashing an evil spirit bent on devouring Ged's essence!

A Wizard of Earthsea -- and the other novels in Le Guin's Earthsea sequence (The Tombs of Atuan, The Farthest Shore, et al.) -- has been called "one of the most deeply influential of all 20th-century fantasy texts" by The Encyclopedia of Fantasy. Enchanting, lyrical, and almost subliminally profound ("Only in silence the word, only in dark the light, only in dying life…"), this novel is a must-read for fantasy fans of all ages. Long before Harry Potter and the Hogwarts School were ever conceived by J. K. Rowling, there was Le Guin's Ged and the school for wizards on Roke Island. In a word: archetypal. Paul Goat Allen

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Baudolino by Umberto Eco

It is April 1204, and Constantinople, the splendid capital of the Byzantine Empire, is being sacked and burned by the knights of the Fourth Crusade. Amid the carnage and confusion, one Baudolino saves a historian and high court official from certain death at the hands of the crusading warriors and proceeds to tell his own fantastical story.

Born a simple peasant in northern Italy, Baudolino has two major gifts-a talent for learning languages and a skill in telling lies. When still a boy he meets a foreign commander in the woods, charming him with his quick wit and lively mind. The commander-who proves to be Emperor Frederick Barbarossa-adopts Baudolino and sends him to the university in Paris, where he makes a number of fearless, adventurous friends.

Spurred on by myths and their own reveries, this merry band sets out in search of Prester John, a legendary priest-king said to rule over a vast kingdom in the East-a phantasmagorical land of strange creatures with eyes on their shoulders and mouths on their stomachs, of eunuchs, unicorns, and lovely maidens.

With dazzling digressions, outrageous tricks, extraordinary feeling, and vicarious reflections on our postmodern age, this is Eco the storyteller at his brilliant best.

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