Selden Edwards, apparently, took 35 years to write this dismal piece of drivel. He started writing at age 25, but I suspect that he conceived the idea at the age of 15. How else to explain the wholly un-ironic adoption of the puerile schoolboy nickname for the main character's guru - the Venerable Haze, a.k.a. the Haze - throughout the book? On page 6, Mr Edwards employs the word 'momentarily' to mean 'in a moment' - when in fact it means 'for a moment'. I would say that if it is English teaching that he has recently retired from, then it is just as well that he has retired. Time travel, I can (only just) live with, but the plot is contrived, and the story wholly devoid of humour, takes itself far too seriously, and employs tortured coincidences to allow the hero to make his way through life in 19th Century 'fin de siecle' (he loves that term!) Vienna. I managed 36 pages of this rubbish, and then gave up in disgust. I trust that Mr Edwards, if he ever does write another novel, will again take 35 years t
In the 8th century AD Ibn al′Arabi, the Moorish governor of Barcelona, bestowed a magnificent gift upon Charlemagne, Holy Emperor of half of the known world: a chess set with the power to transform the course of history. New York City, 1970. Catherine ′Cat′ Velis, a computer expert working for one of the world′s largest accountancy firms, is sent on a dangerous assignment to retrieve an object of immeasurable value from somewhere in the remote reaches of Algeria. Montglane Abbey, France 1790, Mireille de Remy and her cousin Valentine are young novices at the fortress-like Montglane Abbey. With France aflame in revolution, the two girls burn to rebel against constricted convent life - and their means of escape is at hand. Buried deep within the abbey are pieces of the Montglane Chess Service, once owned by Charlemagne. Whoever reassembles the pieces can play a game of unlimited power. But to keep the game a secret from those who would abuse it, the two young women must scatter the pieces throughout t
World-renowned Harvard symboligist Robert Langdon is summoned to a Swiss research facility to analyze a cryptic symbol seared into the chest of a murdered physicist. What he discovers is unimaginable: a deadly vendetta against the Catholic Church by a centuries-old underground organization - the Illuminati. Desperate to save the Vatican from a powerful time bomb, Langdon joins forces in Rome with the beautiful and mysterious scientist Vittoria Vetra. Together they embark on a frantic hunt through sealed crypts, dangerous catacombs, deserted cathedrals, and the most secretive vault on earth . . . the long-forgotten Illuminati lair. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Maybe it was a grandparent, or a teacher, or a colleague.Someone older, patient and wise, who understood you when you wereyoung and searching, helped you see the world as a more profoundplace, gave you sound advice to help you make your way throughit. For Mitch Albom, that person was Morrie Schwartz, his collegeprofessor from nearly twenty years ago. Maybe, like Mitch, you lost track of this mentor as you made yourway, and the insights faded, and the world seemed colder. Wouldn'tyou like to see that person again, ask the bigger questions thatstill haunt you, receive wisdom for your busy life today the wayyou once did when you were younger? Mitch Albom had that second chance. He rediscovered Morrie in thelast months of the older man's life. Knowing he was dying, Morrievisited with Mitch in his study every Tuesday, just as they used toback in college. Their rekindled relationship turned into one final"class": lessons in how to live. Tuesdays with Morrie is a magical chronicle of their t
"The third and fourth novel in John Updike's acclaimed quartetof Rabbit books-now in one marvelous volume."RABBIT IS RICHWinnerof the American Book Award andthe National Book Critics CircleAward "Dazzlingly reaffirms Updike's place as master chronicler ofthe spiritual maladies and very earthly pleasure of theMiddle-American male."-"Vogue ""A splendid achievement "-"The NewYork Times "RABBIT AT RESTWinner of the Pulitzer Prize andtheNational Book Critics Circle Award "Brilliant . . . It must beread. It is the best novel about America to come out of America fora very, very long time."-"The Washington Post Book World" "Powerful. . . John Updike with his precision's prose and his intimatelyattentive yet cold eye is a master."-"The New York Times BookReview"
The surprise New York Times bestseller, from an author who delivers American storytelling at its best. The story of marriage, family, and forgiveness that has become not just a bestseller but an instant classic Their story begins with one letter on their wedding night, a letter from the groom, promising to write his bride every week for as long they both shall live. Thirty-nine years later, Jack and Laurel Cooper die in each others arms. And when their grown children return to the family B&B to arrange the funeral, they discover thousands of letters. The letters they read tell of surprising joys and sorrows. They also hint at a shocking family secret and ultimately force the children to confront a life-changing moment of truth
A sharp, witty and hugely entertaining debut novel, The DevilWears Prada is The Nanny Diaries set in the world of high fashion.Welcome to the dollhouse, baby! When Andrea first sets foot in theplush Manhattan offices of Runway she knows nothing. She's neverheard of the world's most fashionable magazine, or its feared andfawned-over editor, Miranda Priestly. But she's going to beMiranda's assistant, a job millions of girls would die for. A yearlater, she knows altogether too much: That it's a sacking offenceto wear anything lower than a three-inch heel to work. But thatthere's always a fresh pair of Manolos for you in the accessoriescupboard. That Miranda believes Hermes scarves are disposable, andyou must keep a life-time supply on hand at all times. That eightstone is fat. That you can charge cars, manicures, anything at allto the Runway account, but you must never, ever, leave your desk,or let Miranda's coffee get cold. And that at 3 a.m. on a Sunday,when your boyfriend's dumping you because you're always
For years, readers wrote asking if Richard Bachman was really world-bestselling Stephen King writing under another name. Now the secret is out - and so, brought together in one volume, are these three spellbinding stories of future shock and suspense. The Long Walk: A chilling look at the ultra-conservative America of the future where a gruelling 450-mile marathon is the ultimate sports competition. Roadwork: An immovable man refuses to surrender to the irresistible force of progress. The Running Man: TV's future-favourite game show, where contestants are hunted to death in the attempt to win a $1 billion jackpot.
Drawing from decades of work, travel, and research in Russia,Robert Alexander re-creates the tragic, perennially fascinatingstory of the final days of Russian monarchs Nicholas and Alexandraas seen through the eyes of the Romanov's young kitchen boy,Leonka.
“After Dark is a streamlined, hushed ensemble piece. …Standing above the common gloom, Murakami detects phosphorescence everywhere, but chiefly in the auras around people, which glow brightest at night and when combined.” The New York Times Book Review A sleek, gripping novel of encounters set in Tokyo during the spooky hours between midnight and dawn, by an internationally renowned literary phenomenon. Murakami’s trademark humor, psychological insight, and grasp of spirit and morality are here distilled with an extraordinary, harmonious mastery. Combining the pyrotechnical genius that made Kafka on the Shore and The Wind-up Bird Chronicle international bestsellers, with a surprising infusion of heart, Murakami has produced one of his most enchanting fictions yet. “Murakami is masterful with symbolism.. . . Night. . . can’t blacken the ever-shifting shutter speeds of Murakami’s cockeyed Kodak.. . . It is straight- ahead jazz with a quiet grace.” The Los Angeles Times
The Stephen King Amusement Park - an unnerving experience, with rides every which way to hell . . . and a few to glory. A solitary finger pokes out of a drain. Novelty teeth turn predatory. The Nevada desert swallows a Cadillac. Meanwhile, the legend of Castle Rock returns . . . and grows on you. What does it all mean? What else could it mean? Stephen King is here with a powerful collection of stories - a vast, many-chambered cave of a volume. The long reach of Stephen King's imagination will take you on a roller coaster to places you've never been before. You will lose sleep. But Stephen King, writing to beat the devil, will do your dreaming for you.
Book De*ion About Dean Koontz's Frankenstein Dean Koontz's Frankenstein is the collective title of a series ofnovels co-written by Dean Koontz. Though technically of the mysteryor thriller genres, the novels also feature the trappings ofhorror, fantasy, and science fiction. From the celebrated imagination of Dean Koontz comes a powerfulreworking of one of the classic stories of all time. If you thinkyou know the story, you know only half the truth. Get ready for themystery, the myth, the terror, and the magic of… Dean Koontz's Prodigal Son Every city has secrets. But none as terrible as this. His name isDeucalion, a tattooed man of mysterious origin, asleight-of-reality artist who’s traveled the centuries with asecret worse than death. He arrives as a serial killer stalks thestreets, a killer who carefully selects his victims for thehumanity that is missing in himself. Detective Carson O’Connor iscool, cynical, and every bit as tough as she looks
Philip Schultz, winner of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for poetry,has been celebrated for his singular vision of the Americanimmigrant experience and Jewish identity, his alternately fierceand tender portrayal of family life, and his rich and riotousevocation of city streets. His poems have found enthusiasticaudiences among readers of Garrison Keillor's "Writer's Almanac,""Slate," "The New Yorker," and other publications. His willingnessto face down the demons of failure and loss, in his previous bookparticularly, make him a poet for our times, a poet who can write"If I have to believe in something, I believe in despair." Yet heremains oddly undaunted: "sometimes, late at night, we, myhappiness and I, reminisce, lifelong antagonists enjoying eachother's company.""The God of Loneliness," a major collection ofSchultz's work, includes poems from his five books ("Like Wings,""Deep Within the Ravine," "The Holy Worm of Praise," "Living in thePast," "Failure") and fourteen new poems. It is a volume tocherish, fro
A delightfully pointed m?lange of fictional pieces from one ofthe world’s most acclaimed and incisive authors, The Tent isa sparkling addition to Margaret Atwood’s always masterfulwork.Here Atwood pushes form once again, with meditations onwarlords, pet heaven, and aging homemakers. She gives a sly peptalk to the ambitious young; writes about the disconcertingexperience of looking at old photos of ourselves; and examines theboons and banes of orphanhood. Accompanied by her own playfulillustrations, Atwood’s droll humor and keen insight make eachpiece full of clarity and grace. Prescient and personal, delectableand tart, The Tent reflects one of our wittiest authors ather best.
"An uproarious, sprawling masterpiece by a grand Yiddishstoryteller." -O, The Oprah Magazine Translated in full for the first time, one hundred years afterits original publication, the acclaimed epic love story set in thecolorful world of the Yiddish theater. Wandering Stars spans tenyears and two continents, relating the adventures of Reizel andLeibel, young shtetl dwellers in late nineteenth-century Russia whofall under the spell of a traveling acting company. Together theyrun away from home to become entertainers themselves, and then tourseparately around Europe, ultimately reuniting in New York.Wandering Stars is an engrossing romance, a great New York story,and an anthem for the magic of the theater.
Hailed as a classic upon its first publication in 1934, TheValleys of the Assassins firmly established Freya Stark as oneof her generation's most intrepid explorers. The book chroniclesher travels into Luristan, the mountainous terrain nestled betweenIraq and present-day Iran, often with only a single guide and on ashoestring budget. Stark writes engagingly of the nomadic peoples who inhabit theregion's valleys and brings to life the stories of the ancientkingdoms of the Middle East, including that of the Lords of Alamut,a band of hashish-eating terrorists whose stronghold in the ElburzMountains Stark was the first to document for the RoyalGeographical Society. Her account is at once a highly readabletravel narrative and a richly drawn, sympathetic portrait of apeople told from their own compelling point of view. This edition includes a new Introduction by Jane FletcherGeniesse, Stark's biographer.
When the Good Friday peace accords are shattered by threesavage acts of terrorism, Northern Ireland is blown back into thedepths of conflict. And after his father-in-law is nominated tobecome the new American ambassador to London, retired CIA agentMichael Osbourne is drawn back into the game. He soon discoversthat his father-in-law is marked for execution. And that he himselfis once again in the crosshairs of a killer known as October, oneof the most merciless assassins the world has ever known...
For fifty years, Anna Schlemmer has refused to talk about herlife in Germany during World War II. Her daughter, Trudy, was onlythree when she and her mother were liberated by an American soldierand went to live with him in Minnesota. Trudy's sole evidence ofthe past is an old photograph: a family portrait showing Anna,Trudy, and a Nazi officer, the Obersturmfuhrer of Buchenwald. Driven by the guilt of her heritage, Trudy, now a professor ofGerman history, begins investigating the past and finally unearthsthe dramatic and heartbreaking truth of her mother's life. Combining a passionate, doomed love story, a vivid evocation oflife during the war, and a poignant mother/daughter drama, ThoseWho Save Us is a profound exploration of what we endure tosurvive and the legacy of shame.
Prefaced by the famous "Atlantic Monthly" essay of the samename, in which he argues the virtues of the hard-boiled detectivenovel, this collection mostly drawn from stories he wrote for thepulps demonstrates Chandler's imaginative, entertaining facilitywith the form.
A dead man is brought back to life so he can support hisfamily in "The Happy Man"; occasionally he slips into a zombielikestate while his soul is tortured in Hell. In "Vanilla Dunk," futurebasketball players are given the skills of old-time stars likeMichael Jordan and Wilt Chamberlain. And in "Forever, Said theDuck," stored computer personalities scheme to break free of theirowners. In these and other stories in this striking collection,Jonathan Lethem, author of "The Fortress of Solitude" and"Motherless Brooklyn," draws the reader ever more deeply into hisstrange, unforgettable world--a trip from which there may be noeasy return.
