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.

For every young Chinese woman in 1930s Shanghai, following thepath of duty takes precedence over personal desires For Feng, that means becoming the bride of a wealthy businessmanin a marriage arranged by her parents. In the enclosed world of theSang household—a place of public ceremony and privatecruelty—fulfilling her duty means bearing a male heir. The life that has been forced on her makes Feng bitter andresentful, and she plots a terrible revenge. But with the passingyears comes a reckoning, and Feng must reconcile herself with thesacrifices and terrible choices she has made in order to assure herplace in the family and society—even as the violent, relentlesstide of revolution engulfs her country. Both a sweeping historical novel and an intimate portrait of onewoman’s struggle against tradition, All the Flowers in Shanghaimarks the debut of a sensitive and revelatory writer. Show More Show Less

Awomaniskilledbyapoisoneddartintheenclosedconfinesofacommercialpassenegerplane…FromseatNo.9,HerculePoirotwasideallyplacedtoobservehisfellowairpassengers.Overtohisrightsataprettyyoungwoman,clearlyinfatuatedwiththemanopposite;ahead,inseatNo.13,sataCountesswithapoorly-concealedcocainehabit;acrossthegangwayinseatNo.8,adetectivewriterwasbeingtroubledbyanaggressivewasp.WhatPoirotdidnotyetrealizewasthatbehindhim,inseatNo.2,sattheslumped,lifelessbodyofawoman.

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".

《堂吉诃德》，全名《匪夷所思的拉曼查绅士堂吉诃德》，是伟大的西班牙作家塞万提斯的传世经典。作者以一位因误信骑士小说而毅然自号堂吉诃德的没落绅士人世行侠为主线，通过描写堂吉诃德大战风车、英勇救美、恶斗群羊、贸然释囚、挑战雄师、地穴探险、爵府奇遇等等荒诞故事，热烈地讴歌了真善美、无情地挞伐了假恶丑，充分表现出了盛行于当时的人文精神。《堂吉诃德》不愧为世界文学史上具有划时代意义的杰作，问世后四百年来，仅流传于各国的译本就有一千多种，成为世界人民的共有精神财富，泽及一代又一代杰出作家，堂吉诃德这一形象也作为耽于幻想、脱离实际的代表人物融入了现今社会生活的各个领域之中。据挪威诺贝尔学会透露，全世界五十多个国家的一百位作家在2002年上半年经过投票，评选出《堂吉诃德》为世界小说。

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

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?

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The author of Damaged tells the story of the Dawn, a sweet and seemingly well-balanced girl whose outward appearance masks a traumatic childhood of suffering at the hands of the very people who should have cared for her. Dawn was the first girl Cathy Glass ever fostered. Sweet and seemingly well balanced girl, Dawn's outward appearance masked a traumatic childhood so awful, that even she could not remember it. During the first night, Cathy awoke to see Dawn looming above Cathy's baby's cot, her eyes staring and blank. She sleepwalks—which Cathy learns is often a manifestation in disturbed children. It becomes a regular and frightening occurrence, and Cathy is horrified to find Dawn lighting a match while mumbling it's not my fault in her sleep one night. Cathy discovers Dawn is playing truant from school, and struggling to make friends. More worryingly she finds her room empty one night, and her pillow covered in blood. Dawn has been self-harming in order to release the pain of her past. When Dawn attempts

When Barry Fairweather dies unexpectedly in his early forties, the little town of Pagford is left in shock. Pagford is, seemingly, an English idyll, with a cobbled market square and an ancient abbey, but what lies behind the pretty fa?ade is a town at war. Rich at war with poor, teenagers at war with their parents, wives at war with their husbands, teachers at war with their pupils…. Pagford is not what it first seems. And the empty seat left by Barry on the town’s council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has yet seen. Who will triumph in an election fraught with passion, duplicity and unexpected revelations? Blackly comic, thought-provoking and constantly surprising, The Casual Vacancy is J.K. Rowling’s first novel for adults. 英国作家、“哈利·波特之母”J.K.罗琳第一本为成人创作的小说《偶发空缺》将于9月27日在全球发售。这部黑色幽默小说的将背景设在一座看似诗情画意实则暗藏争斗的英国小镇，它讲述了

The recent Strigoi attack at St. Vladimir’s Academy was the deadliest ever in the school’s history, claiming the lives of Moroi students, teachers, and guardians alike. Even worse, the Strigoi took some of their victims with them . . . including Dimitri. He’d rather die than be one of them, and now Rose must abandon her best friend, Lissa—the one she has sworn to protect no matter what—and keep the promise Dimitri begged her to make long ago. But with everything at stake, how can she possibly destroy the person she loves most?

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

Thisisarecordingof"TheLittlePrincess",byFrancesHodgsonBurnett,andisoneinaseriesofchildren'sclassicsselectedinconjunctionwith"SHE"magazine. --Thistextreferstoanoutofprintorunavailableeditionofthistitle.