He was told he had exactly eight days to live. By a blind psychic photographer. Okay, Wooly Cornell was plenty crazy-not to mention a huge asshole-but he asked me to help him. So I did. And as the countdown to his death began and I found myself facing threats, shootouts, a mysterious scarred woman and weird predictions that somehow managed to come true, I could only come to one conclusion: Fate is one strange thing to fight.

The author, a computer science professor diagnosed with terminal cancer, explores his life, the lessons that he has learned, how he has worked to achieve his childhood dreams, and the effect of his diagnosis on him and his family.

The Lit-Crit Take: A genre-bending, character-driven thriller about memory, identity and making peace with the past. The Pure Plot Pitch: Sure, we all know about arrogant, self-centered media executives. But how about one who served time as a teen for murdering her sister? And who suddenly believes she's possessed by the spirit of Indira Gandhi? And now, at the height of her power, a secret from her past is threatening to destroy her empire, while someone from that past is trying to take her life. Stop the damn presses!

Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

The Lit-Crit Take: A genre-bending, character-driven, word-burning thriller about politics, love and the haunting pain of memory. The Pure Plot Pitch: I didn't know-or care-much about the tight race for governor of New York until someone took a shot at one of the candidates and killed his wife instead. The main suspect, it turns out, was an anti-government crazy (and a devoted quilter-yes, you heard that right) I once did time with. Searching for the killer, hoping to stop another attack, I was suddenly sucked into the panicky heart of a closely fought election campaign, an affair with a troubled political operative and the dangerously surreal world of people who prefer casting their vote with a sniper's bullet.

Reproduction of the original. The publishing house Megali specialises in reproducing historical works in large print to make reading easier for people with impaired vision.

THE LIT-CRIT TAKE: A character-driven thriller, centering on the themes of terrorism, understanding and hope. THE PURE PLOT PITCH: Here's bad day: Guy sets out to rob a bank but ends up pulling a carjacking, and when he's arrested a body is found in the trunk. The victim is a Sunni community leader, and why was he killed? Who killed him? The search for answers takes me into the homegrown Islamic underground, into plots, counterplots, deceptions and love affairs, all leading to an attack on a major NYC landmark.