Hayley Campbell

Slight wear on dust jacket but in excellent condition. It was never opened. Did the audio instead. 

Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

Texas

From Embalmers to Executioners, an Exploration of the People Who Have Made Death Their Life's Work

A deeply compelling exploration of the death industry and the people--morticians, detectives, crime scene cleaners, embalmers, executioners--who work in it and what led them there.

We are surrounded by death. It is in our news, our nursery rhymes, our true-crime podcasts. Yet from a young age, we are told that death is something to be feared. How are we supposed to know what we're so afraid of, when we are never given the chance to look?

Fueled by a childhood fascination with death, journalist Hayley Campbell searches for answers in the people who make a living by working with the dead. Along the way, she encounters mass fatality investigators, embalmers, and a former executioner who is responsible for ending sixty-two lives. She meets gravediggers who have already dug their own graves, visits a cryonics facility in Michigan, goes for late-night Chinese with a homicide detective, and questions a man whose job it is to make crime scenes disappear.

Through Campbell's incisive and candid interviews with these people who see death every day, she asks: Why would someone choose this kind of life? Does it change you as a person? And are we missing something vital by letting death remain hidden? A dazzling work of cultural criticism, All the Living and the Dead weaves together reportage with memoir, history, and philosophy, to offer readers a fascinating look into the psychology of Western death.

All the Living and the Dead

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Caitlin Doughty

Light Hardcover (1 lb or less)

Big Questions from Tiny Mortals about Death

Best-selling author and mortician Caitlin Doughty answers real questions from kids about death, dead bodies, and decomposition.

Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs?

4ce5b56f-0305-43b8-b5c4-08d61f4b7e59-1

Cristina Morató

Paperback (1 to 2 lbs)

A True Story of Scandal and Celebrity

An enthralling biography about one of the most intriguing women of the Victorian age: the first self-invented international social celebrity. Lola Montez was one of the most celebrated and notorious women of the nineteenth century. A raven-haired Andalusian who performed her scandalous "Spider Dance" in the greatest performance halls across Europe, she dazzled and beguiled all who met her with her astonishing beauty, sexuality, and shocking disregard for propriety. But Lola was an impostor, a self-invention. Born Eliza Gilbert, the beautiful Irish wild child escaped a stifling marriage and reimagined herself as Lola the Sevillian flamenco dancer and noblewoman, choosing a life of adventure, fame, sex, and scandal rather than submitting to the strictures of her era. Lola cast her spell on the European aristocracy and the most famous intellectuals and artists of the time, including Alexandre Dumas, Franz Liszt, and George Sand, and became the obsession of King Ludwig I of Bavaria. She then set out for the New World, arriving in San Francisco at the height of the gold rush, where she lived like a pioneer and performed for rowdy miners before making her way to New York. There, her inevitable downfall was every bit as dramatic as her rise. Yet there was one final reinvention to come for the most defiant woman of the Victorian age--a woman known as a "savage beauty" who was idolized, romanticized, vilified, truly known by no one, and a century ahead of her time.

Divine Lola

acd5c852-f6d4-4e2d-85a4-0c287cc3e03a-1

Ivy Owens

Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

A one-night stand between two old childhood friends turns into something more, but when a scandal threatens to tear them apart, they must decide how hard to fight for love--a steamy romance debut perfect for fans of Tessa Bailey and Kennedy Ryan .

Exhausted and on deadline with a story that could make or break her career, investigative journalist Georgia Ross is on the verge of a meltdown when a cancelled flight leaves her stuck in the airport overnight. But when a familiar face appears--the older brother of her childhood friend--and offers help, Gigi seems to have caught a break.

Alec Kim is handsome, humble, and kind--exactly the sort of man that Gigi has forgotten existed after her own painful heartbreaks. An evening of reconnection followed by a night of no-strings-attached passion with Alec feels like a gift--that is, until Gigi finally realizes that their childhood connection isn't the only reason he seems so familiar to her.

Alec is determined to prove to Gigi that he is truly the man she thinks he is, even if it means coming clean about his fame--and his family's connection to the story Gigi's been working so hard to break. But as their feelings for each other grow deeper, Gigi and Alec must navigate a new reality...one where both of their hard-won careers are put directly in the path of an international scandal.

Scandalized

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One page was dog eared when moving, other than that brand new and signed. Part of dangerous romance club. 

Two books in one

Dark Devotion

Penelope Ward

From New York Times bestselling author Penelope Ward, comes a new standalone novel.

The beginning of my sophomore year in college was off to a rough start.
On the first day of orientation, I had an altercation with an infuriating British dude in a campus bathroom.
(The ladies' room was out of order. So, I used the men's room. Don't judge.)
I got home later that night and realized that the foreign student we were expecting to rent a room in my parents' house was allergic to our cat.
So, the spare room went to someone else: Caleb--the British guy from the men's room.
And so it began...my love-hate story with Caleb Yates. Or was it hate-love in that order?

The guy knew how to push every one of my buttons.
Sometimes I'd email him to express my aggravation and disdain.
He'd actually rewrite my own words and send them back to me.
That was the type of infuriating person Caleb was.
So frustrating.
And...
Sometimes incredibly funny and endearingly sweet.
And hot.

He eventually grew on me, and Caleb soon became one of my best friends that year.
Too bad he was headed back to England soon, so nothing could happen between us--for so many reasons.
I definitely couldn't fall in love with him, especially since all we had was just one year.

Just One Year

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Ann Rule

The Real Story of the Green River Killer--America's Deadliest Serial Murderer

In her most personal and provocative book to date, the #1 bestselling master of true crime presents "her long-awaited definitive narrative of the brutal and senseless crimes that haunted the Seattle area for decades" (Publishers Weekly). This is the extraordinary true story of the most prolific serial killer the nation had ever seen -- a case involving more than forty-nine female victims, two decades of intense investigative work...and one unrelenting killer who not only attended Ann Rule's book signings but lived less than a mile away from her home.

Green River, Running Red

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Tony Platt

Brand new never read. Section of photos in the middle 

Rethinking Crime and Punishment in the United States

“You should definitely read this book... What really struck me in reading Beyond These Walls was that Tony Platt had very seriously and carefully considered the contributions of social movements—feminist, queer, disability, and labor.” —Angela Davis Beyond These Walls is an ambitious and far-ranging exploration that tracks the legacy of crime and imprisonment in the United States, from the historical roots of the American criminal justice system to our modern state of over-incarceration, and offers a bold vision for a new future. Author Tony Platt, a recognized authority in the field of criminal justice, challenges the way we think about how and why millions of people are tracked, arrested, incarcerated, catalogued, and regulated in the United States. Beyond These Walls traces the disturbing history of punishment and social control, revealing how the criminal justice system attempts to enforce and justify inequalities associated with class, race, gender, and sexuality. Prisons and police departments are central to this process, but other institutions – from immigration and welfare to educational and public health agencies – are equally complicit. Platt argues that international and national politics shape perceptions of danger and determine the policies of local criminal justice agencies, while private policing and global corporations are deeply and undemocratically involved in the business of homeland security. Finally, Beyond These Walls demonstrates why efforts to reform criminal justice agencies have often expanded rather than contracted the net of social control. Drawing upon a long tradition of popular resistance, Platt concludes with a strategic vision of what it will take to achieve justice for all in this era of authoritarian disorder.

Beyond These Walls

371d052d-143c-43b3-92f8-47da11d22136-0

Stephen King

First edition. 
There’s a tiny bit of leaf from a pressed flower I didn’t want to scratch off but it’s still very much legible as seen in the pic 🖤 

Heavy Hardcover (2 to 4 lbs)

Plagued by vivid nightmares of the summer house he had shared with his late wife, grieving widower Mike Noonan returns to his former Maine getaway, only to find a town in the grip of a ruthless millionaire and tormented by a series of ghostly visitations. 1,750,000 first printing. BOMC Main.

Bag of Bones

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Kate Brian

There’s yellowing on the outside but the inside pages are in great shape as pictured 

After escaping from the Brenda T. Trumball Correctional Facility for Women and stealing the identity of rich socialite, Ariana Osgood finally thought she was on the path she always believed she deserved. But her past caught up with her and she is forced right back to her old ways, making everything she wants seem further out of reach. And some familiar faces are back to make things even worse for her.

The Privilege series comes to and end with all the suspense, romance, drama and, wherever Ariana is concerned, murder you'd expect.

Cruel Love

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Abigail Owen

"An addictive, action-packed, scorcher of a read!" --#1 New York Times bestselling author Alyson Noël

Some shadows protect you...others will kill you in this dazzling new fantasy series from award-winning author Abigail Owen.

Everything about my life is a lie. As a hidden twin princess, born second, I have only one purpose--to sacrifice my life for my sister if death comes for her. I've been living under the guise of a poor, obscure girl of no standing, slipping into the palace and into the role of the true princess when danger is present.

Now the queen is dead and the ageless King Eidolon has sent my sister a gift--an eerily familiar gift--and a proposal to wed. I don't trust him, so I do what I was born to do and secretly take her place on the eve of the coronation. Which is why, when a figure made of shadow kidnaps the new queen, he gets me by mistake.

As I try to escape, all the lies start to unravel. And not just my lies. The Shadowraith who took me has secrets of his own. He struggles to contain the shadows he wields--other faces, identities that threaten my very life.

Winter is at the walls. Darkness is looming. And the only way to save my sister and our dominion is to kill Eidolon...and the Shadowraith who has stolen my heart.

The Liar's Crown

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Sarah Weinman

How a Convicted Murderer Persuaded the Women Who Loved Him, the Conservative Establishment, and the Courts to Set Him Free

From the author of The Real Lolita and editor of Unspeakable Acts, the astonishing story of a murderer who conned the people around him--including conservative thinker William F. Buckley--into helping set him free In the 1960s, Edgar Smith, in prison and sentenced to death for the murder of teenager Victoria Zielinski, struck up a correspondence with William F. Buckley, the founder of National Review. Buckley, who refused to believe that a man who supported the neoconservative movement could have committed such a heinous crime, began to advocate not only for Smith's life to be spared but also for his sentence to be overturned. So begins a bizarre and tragic tale of mid-century America. Sarah Weinman's Scoundrel leads us through the twists of fate and fortune that brought Smith to freedom, book deals, fame, and eventually to attempting murder again. In Smith, Weinman has uncovered a psychopath who slipped his way into public acclaim and acceptance before crashing down to earth once again. From the people Smith deceived--Buckley, the book editor who published his work, friends from back home, and the women who loved him--to Americans who were willing to buy into his lies, Weinman explores who in our world is accorded innocence, and how the public becomes complicit in the stories we tell one another. Scoundrel shows, with clear eyes and sympathy for all those who entered Smith's orbit, how and why he was able to manipulate, obfuscate, and make a mockery of both well-meaning people and the American criminal justice system. It tells a forgotten part of American history at the nexus of justice, prison reform, and civil rights, and exposes how one man's ill-conceived plan to set another man free came at the great expense of Edgar Smith's victims.

Scoundrel

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Tasha Suri

A nobleman's daughter with magic in her blood. An empire built on the dreams of enslaved gods. Empire of Sand is Tasha Suri's captivating, Mughal India-inspired debut fantasy. The Amrithi are outcasts; nomads descended of desert spirits, they are coveted and persecuted throughout the Empire for the power in their blood. Mehr is the illegitimate daughter of an imperial governor and an exiled Amrithi mother she can barely remember, but whose face and magic she has inherited. When Mehr's power comes to the attention of the Emperor's most feared mystics, she must use every ounce of will, subtlety, and power she possesses to resist their cruel agenda -- and should she fail, the gods themselves may awaken seeking vengeance... Empire of Sand is a lush, dazzling fantasy novel perfect for readers of City of Brass and The Wrath & the Dawn.

Empire of Sand

9e188166-7cf3-48fa-afcc-8d1a4306f40a

Tami Hoag

Regular shelf wear. Pages are still in great condition. 

A thrilling novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Tami Hoag, “one of the most intense suspense writers around” (Chicago Tribune). Dana Nolan was a promising young TV reporter until a notorious serial killer tried to add her to his list of victims. Nearly a year has passed since she survived her ordeal, but the physical, emotional, and psychological scars run deep. Struggling with the torment of post-traumatic stress syndrome, plagued by flashbacks and nightmares, Dana returns to her hometown in an attempt to begin to put her life back together. But home doesn’t provide the comfort she expects. Dana’s harrowing story and her return to small-town life have rekindled police and media interest in the unsolved case of her childhood best friend, Casey Grant, who disappeared without a trace the summer after their graduation from high school. Terrified of truths long buried, Dana reluctantly begins to look back at her past. Viewed through the dark filter of PTSD, old friends and loved ones become suspects and enemies. Questioning everything she knows, refusing to be defined by the traumas of her past, Dana seeks out a truth that may prove too terrible to be believed...

Cold Cold Heart

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Allison van Diepen

In great condition for being a prior library book 

What if the characters in a vampire novel left their world--and came into yours?

Amy is in love with someone who doesn't exist: Alexander Banks, the dashing hero in a popular series of vampire novels. Then one night, Amy meets a boy who bears an eerie resemblance to Alexander. In fact, he IS Alexander, who has escaped from the pages of the book and is in hot pursuit of a wicked vampire named Vigo. Together, Amy and Alexander set out to track Vigo and learn how and why Alexander crossed over. But when she and Alexander begin to fall for each other, Amy wonders if she even wants him to ever return to the realm of fiction.

The Vampire Stalker

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Melissa Bashardoust

A captivating and utterly original fairy tale about a girl cursed to be poisonous to the touch, and who discovers what power might lie in such a curse... There was and there was not, as all stories begin, a princess cursed to be poisonous to the touch. But for Soraya, who has lived her life hidden away, apart from her family, safe only in her gardens, it’s not just a story. As the day of her twin brother’s wedding approaches, Soraya must decide if she’s willing to step outside of the shadows for the first time. Below in the dungeon is a demon who holds knowledge that she craves, the answer to her freedom. And above is a young man who isn’t afraid of her, whose eyes linger not with fear, but with an understanding of who she is beneath the poison. Soraya thought she knew her place in the world, but when her choices lead to consequences she never imagined, she begins to question who she is and who she is becoming...human or demon. Princess or monster.

Shawna K

@modernbookmom

Books Listed

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Hayley Campbell

All the Living and the Dead

Caitlin Doughty

Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs?

Cristina Morató

Divine Lola

Ivy Owens

Scandalized

Mink

Dark Devotion

Penelope Ward

Just One Year

Ann Rule

Green River, Running Red

Tony Platt

Beyond These Walls

Stephen King

Bag of Bones

Kate Brian

Cruel Love

Abigail Owen

The Liar's Crown

Sarah Weinman

Scoundrel

Tasha Suri

Empire of Sand

Tami Hoag

Cold Cold Heart

Allison van Diepen

The Vampire Stalker

Melissa Bashardoust

Girl, Serpent, Thorn

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Hayley Campbell

All the Living and the Dead

Caitlin Doughty

Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs?

Cristina Morató

Divine Lola

Ivy Owens

Scandalized

Mink

Dark Devotion

Penelope Ward

Just One Year

Ann Rule

Green River, Running Red

Tony Platt

Beyond These Walls

Stephen King

Bag of Bones

Kate Brian

Cruel Love

Abigail Owen

The Liar's Crown

Sarah Weinman

Scoundrel

Tasha Suri

Empire of Sand

Tami Hoag

Cold Cold Heart

Allison van Diepen

The Vampire Stalker

Melissa Bashardoust

Girl, Serpent, Thorn

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