A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE FROM ALEX GARLAND, STARRING NATALIE PORTMAN AND OSCAR ISAAC The Southern Reach Trilogy begins with Annihilation, the Nebula Award-winning novel that "reads as if Verne or Wellsian adventurers exploring a mysterious island had warped through into a Kafkaesque nightmare world" (Kim Stanley Robinson). Area X has been cut off from the rest of the continent for decades. Nature has reclaimed the last vestiges of human civilization. The first expedition returned with reports of a pristine, Edenic landscape; the second expedition ended in mass suicide; the third expedition in a hail of gunfire as its members turned on one another. The members of the eleventh expedition returned as shadows of their former selves, and within weeks, all had died of cancer. In Annihilation, the first volume of Jeff VanderMeer's Southern Reach trilogy, we join the twelfth expedition. The group is made up of four women: an anthropologist; a surveyor; a psychologist, the de facto leader; and our narrator, a biologist. Their mission is to map the terrain, record all observations of their surroundings and of one another, and, above all, avoid being contaminated by Area X itself. They arrive expecting the unexpected, and Area X delivers—they discover a massive topographic anomaly and life forms that surpass understanding—but it's the surprises that came across the border with them and the secrets the expedition members are keeping from one another that change everything.

What transforms a person into a killer? Can it be something as small as a suggestion? Turn this page, and you may forfeit your entire life. With My Annihilation, Fuminori Nakamura, master of literary noir, has constructed a puzzle box of a narrative in the form of a confessional diary that implicates its reader in a heinous crime. Delving relentlessly into the darkest corners of human consciousness, My Annihilation interrogates the unspeakable thoughts all humans share that can be monstrous when brought to life, revealing with disturbing honesty the psychological motives of a killer.

How did a powerful concept in international justice evolve into an inequitable response to mass suffering? For a term coined just seventy-five years ago, genocide has become a remarkably potent idea. But has it transformed from a truly novel vision for international justice into a conservative, even inaccessible term? The Politics of Annihilation traces how the concept of genocide came to acquire such significance on the global political stage. In doing so, it reveals how the concept has been politically contested and refashioned over time. It explores how these shifts implicitly impact what forms of mass violence are considered genocide and what forms are not. Benjamin Meiches argues that the limited conception of genocide, often rigidly understood as mass killing rooted in ethno-religious identity, has created legal and political institutions that do not adequately respond to the diversity of mass violence. In his insistence on the concept’s complexity, he does not undermine the need for clear condemnations of such violence. But neither does he allow genocide to become a static or timeless notion. Meiches argues that the discourse on genocide has implicitly excluded many forms of violence from popular attention including cases ranging from contemporary Botswana and the Democratic Republic of Congo, to the legacies of colonial politics in Haiti, Canada, and elsewhere, to the effects of climate change on small island nations. By mapping the multiplicity of forces that entangle the concept in larger assemblages of power, The Politics of Annihilation gives us a new understanding of how the language of genocide impacts contemporary political life, especially as a means of protesting the social conditions that produce mass violence.

Favorite characters, situations, and locales from R.S. Salvatore's "Dark Elf trilogy" return in a volume that chronicles a devastating civil war that threatens the drow civilization.

There are two things Charlie Bennett despises: bullies and vampires. Which in her experience, is really the same thing. After the battle with the Quorum, she's left with no other option. The vampire's rule must end. But when more shocking secrets are uncovered Charlie wonders if she'll be alive long enough to follow through with her plan.

The world is at war - and the Transformers are at the forefront of the battle! This is not Independence Day. Even though the nations of Earth face their greatest threat, the issues that have divided mankind for centuries destroy any true hope of global unity against the invaders. Cities and governments fall, and the giant titans of Cybertron fight one another as often as they clash with the attacking aliens - a race of techno-organic giants that not even the heroic Optimus Prime or the villainous Megtron can hope to defeat! But what neither side knows is that the invaders are being controlled by a shadowy and far more dangerous race, one that awaits its opportunity to claim the Earth for itself.

From the international best-selling author with more than two million books sold worldwide in six different languages! p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #454545} Description: After one hellish year in which their lives nearly were claimed by a madman—and with a new baby on the way in just a matter of weeks—Jennifer and Alex decide to spend this particular holiday season in Manhattan with their extended family of friends, if only so Jennifer can be close to her doctor. With that decision made and no travel plans on the horizon, one would think that this holiday should be a breeze, right? Not even close. First, Blackwell and Lisa butt heads over who’s the best choice to throw Jennifer’s baby shower. As infamously strong-willed as Blackwell is, she’s soon rattled to find out that Lisa is no pushover. In fact, she’s hellbent on proving that she can stand up to Blackwell with ideas of her own…in ways that might leave the reader howling. Second, there’s Cutter and Daniella, who are headed straight for a break-up due to Daniella’s insistence that they move in together Will they be kissing under the mistletoe after weeks of not speaking? After Blackwell has a heart-to-heart talk with her daughter, readers might be surprised by the outcome… Third—and perhaps most dire in this book—is the appearance of Ava Kent, Jennifer’s abusive and cunning drunk of a mother, who suddenly crashes back into Jennifer’s life in ways that are so corrosive and toxic, it sends an already fragile Jennifer literally to her breaking point. In Annihilate Them: Holiday, expect all the romance, love, sexy times and laughs that you’ve come to expect from Christina Ross, but also expect much more drama, especially when it comes to Ava. When she dares to threaten Jennifer with one mother of a deception that sheds new insight into Jennifer’s past, she does so with a fierceness that darkens these holidays in the coldest of ways. Note: Make sure to read “Annihilate Them” before you read “Annihilate Them: Holiday.”