The Buying of the President 2004 reveals how the process of choosing a president has moved from the voting booth to the auction block, and highlights the special interests that heavily invest in the politicians seeking the nation's highest office. Lewis and his team reveal and investigate the sponsors and the known and not-so-known conflicts of interest entangling each of the aspirants to the White House. This is the only book of its kind, containing investigative profiles and personal histories of the major presidential candidates. Here you will find answers to questions like Which candidate was paid by a pharmaceutical firm to give speeches while running for the Senate? Who turned the Homeland Security Act into a bonanza for the biotech industry? Which candidate proposed 32 separate tax breaks for big businesses that support his campaign? Who is the "go-to guy" for the insurance industry?

A gargantuan, mind-altering comedy about the Pursuit of Happiness in America Set in an addicts' halfway house and a tennis academy, and featuring the most endearingly screwed-up family to come along in recent fiction, Infinite Jest explores essential questions about what entertainment is and why it has come to so dominate our lives; about how our desire for entertainment affects our need to connect with other people; and about what the pleasures we choose say about who we are. Equal parts philosophical quest and screwball comedy, Infinite Jest bends every rule of fiction without sacrificing for a moment its own entertainment value. It is an exuberant, uniquely American exploration of the passions that make us human - and one of those rare books that renew the idea of what a novel can do.

THENEVER-BEFORE-SEENHISTORYOFWESTEROSANDTHELANDSBEYOND?WITHHUNDREDSOFPAGESOFALL-NEWMATERIALFROMGEORGER.R.MARTIN Ifthepastisprologue,thenGeorgeR.R.Martin’smasterwork—themostinventiveandentertainingfantasysagaofourtime—warrantsonehellofanintroduction.Atlonglast,ithasarrivedwith TheWorldofIceandFire . Thislavishlyillustratedvolumeis acomprehensivehistoryoftheSevenKingdoms,providingvividlyconstructedaccountsoftheepicbattles,bitterrivalries,anddaringrebellionsthatleadtotheeventsofASongofIceandFireandHBO’s GameofThrones .Inacollaborationthat’sbeenyearsinthemaking,MartinhasteamedwithElioM.García,Jr.andLindaAntonsson,thefoundersoftherenownedfansiteWesteros.org—perhapstheonlypeoplewhoknowthisworldalmostaswellasitsvisionarycreator. Collectedhereisalltheaccumulatedknowledge,scholarlyspeculation,andinheritedfolktalesofmaestersandseptons,maegiandsingers.ItisachroniclewhichstretchesfromtheDawnAgetotheAgeofHeroes;fromtheComingoftheFirstMentothearrivalofAegontheConqueror;fromAegon’sestablishmentoftheIro

From the acclaimed - and controversial - Chinese novelist,"Brothers" is a big-spirited comedy of society running amok inmodern China. When Baldy Li's mother marries Song Gang's fathertheir lives become entangled. Then when both their parents die,Song Gang swears never to forsake his younger brother. In theevent, though, both are undone by their love for one woman.Sprawling, rambunctious, energetic and brutal, Brothers is adizzying rollercoaster ride through life in a newly capitalistworld. 'Yu Hua has long been considered one of China's mostimportant novelists' - Nell Freudenberger. 'This is modern Chinacoming to terms with itself in a mixture of gore, laughter andself-mockery' - "Independent". '"Brothers" gives us contemporaryChina with a picaresque panache that Western critics have beenquick to call Rabelaisian, but which is actually Chinese all theway' - "Financial Times". 'Yu Hua effortlessly moves from thegrotesque to the tragic and from the ironic to the dramatic...There is Hemingway in Yu Hua, certain

TheriseofBarackObamaisoneofthegreatstoriesofthiscentury:adefiningmomentforAmerica,andonewithtrulyglobalresonance.Thisisthebookofhisphenomenaljourneytoelection.Throughextensiveon-the-recordinterviewswithfriendsandteachers,mentorsanddisparagers,familymembersandObamahimself,DavidRemnickhasputtogetheranuanced,unexpectedandmasterlyportraitofthemanwhowasdeterminedtobecomethefirstAfrican-AmericanPresident.Mostimportantly,"TheBridge"arguesthatObamaimaginedandfashionedanidentityforhimselfagainsttheepicdramaofraceinAmerica.InawaythatObama'sownmemoirscannot,itexaminesboththepersonalandpoliticalelementsofthestory,andgivesshapenotonlytoadecisiveperiodofhistory,butalsotothewayitcruciallyinfluenced,animatedandmotivatedagiftedandcomplexman.'Speakingtohundredsoffriendsandcolleagues,RemmickinvestigatesandcorrectsObama'sownaccoutofhislifewithanassuredandeleganttonethatclarifiesratherthanaccusesorunmasks...600masterlypages'-"DailyTelegraph".'Thepublishingeventoftheyear'-"Observer".

There was music from my neighbour's house through the summer nights. In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars'. Everybody who is anybody is seen at the glittering parties held i

The Awakening: Elena Gilbert is used to getting what she wantsand she wants mysterious new boy, Stefan. But Stefan is hiding adeadly secret - a secret that will change Elena's life for ever...The Struggle: Elena is torn between her boyfriend, Stefan, andhis brother, Damon. But these brothers hide dark secrets and atragic past that threatens them all. Damon wants to lead Elenaastray - and he'd rather kill Stefan than let him possess her...