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

PTA meetings at Tarver Elementary School can get prettyheated. But after parent Sam Helmstetter is strangled in his carfollowing a meeting, mom and PTA secretary Beth Kennedy and herbest friend Marina fear there may be a cold-blooded killer in thegroup. Meanwhile, rumors spread that Beth's newest employee at erchildren's bookstore is the murderer. Yvonne served time for asimilar crime, but DNA evidence eventually proved her innocent. Asthe new PTA vice president organizes a boycott of the bookstore andthe real killer roams the streets of Rynwood, Wisconsin, Bethrealizes she'll need to stick her own neck out to catch an elusivestrangler...

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.

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

In this literary tour de force, novelist Arthur Golden enters a remote and shimmeringly exotic world. For the protagonist of this peerlessly observant first novel is Sayuri, one of Japan's most celebrated geisha, a woman who is both performer and courtesan, slave and goddess. We follow Sayuri from her childhood in an impoverished fishing village, where in 1929, she is sold to a representative of a geisha house, who is drawn by the child's unusual blue-grey eyes. From there she is taken to Gion, the pleasure district of Kyoto. She is nine years old. In the years that follow, as she works to pay back the price of her purchase, Sayuri will be schooled in music and dance, learn to apply the geisha's elaborate makeup, wear elaborate kimono, and care for a coiffure so fragile that it requires a special pillow. She will also acquire a magnanimous tutor and a venomous rival. Surviving the intrigues of her trade and the upheavals of war, the resourceful Sayuri is a romantic heroine on the order of Jane Eyre and

Maxwell and King, D.C. PIs, step on the toes of everyone, including the FBI and the Secret Service. They even manage to bruise the ego of First Lady Jane Cox, who hires them after her 12-year-old niece is kidnapped following a birthday party at Camp David. Baldacci excels at making the improbable believable as one obsessed man, 62-year-old Sam Quarry, takes on the best security the U.S. can muster from his Alabama redoubt. Even more impressive than Quarry's determined campaign is the ingeniousness with which Baldacci manages to disguise both Quarry's precise motivation and aims. Meanwhile, Maxwell has to deal with her mother's death and a host of other personal issues. Baldacci's careful plotting and confidant depictions of national security procedures make this a thinking man's thriller.

Worldwide No.1 bestseller John Grisham takes you into the heart of America's Deep South with a collection of stories connected by the life and crimes of Ford County: a place of harsh beauty where broken dreams and final wishes converge. From a hard-drinking, downtrodden divorce lawyer looking for pay-dirt, to a manipulative death row inmate with one last plea, "Ford County" features a vivid cast of attorneys, crooks, hustlers, and convicts. Through their stories he paints a unique picture of lives lived and lost in Mississippi. Completely gripping, frequently moving and always entertaining, "Ford County" brims with the same page-turning quality and heart-stopping drama of his previous bestsellers, and is proof once more why John Grisham is our most popular storyteller.

Welcome to Aunt Pat's barbecue restaurant, which serves upMemphis fun with a side order of murder. Recipes included. Named in honor of Lulu Taylor's great aunt, Aunt Pat's family-runMemphis restaurant is known for its ribs and spicy cornbread. Butnow the Taylor family will be known for murder... Rebecca Adrian came to Memphis to suss out the best local BBQ fora prominent Cooking Channel Show. Trouble is, a mystery ingredienthas killed her-and now all fingers are pointing to Aunt Pat'srestaurant. Horrified that her family is being accused of murder,Lulu fires up her investigative skills to solve the crime beforesomeone else gets skewered.

A LONELY MAN. Toby Temple is a super star and a super bastard,a man adored by his fans and plagued by suspicion anddistrust. A DISILLUSIONED WOMAN. Jill Castle came to Hollywood to be a star-- and discovered she had to buy her way with her body. A WORLD OF PREDATORS. Here they are bound to each other by a loveso ruthless, so strong, it is more than human -- and less...

In their youth, Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza fall passionately in love. When Fermina eventually chooses to marry a wealthy, well-born doctor, Florentino is devastated, but he is a romantic. As he rises in his business career he whiles away the years in 622 affairs--yet he reserves his heart for Fermina. Her husband dies at last, and Florentino purposefully attends the funeral. Fifty years, nine months, and four days after he first declared his love for Fermina, he will do so again.

“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

Intelligence: high. Body: hard. Mission: what no oneelse can do. It's been a year since ex-Navy SEALEthan Kelly saw his wife Rachel alive. Now he's received ananonymous phone call claiming Rachel is alive. To find her, Ethanwill have to doge bullets, cross a jungle, and risk falling captiveto a deadly drug cartel that threatens his own demise.

In Los Angeles in 1988, a sixteen-year-old girl disappearedfrom her home and was later found dead of a gunshot wound to thechest. The death appeared at first to be a suicide-but some of theevidence contradicted that scenario, and detectives came to believethis was in fact a murder. Despite a by-the-book investigation, noone was ever charged. Now Detective Harry Bosch is back with theLAPD with the sole mission of closing unsolved cases, and thisgirl's death is the first he's given. A DNA match makes the casevery much alive again, and it turns out to be anything but cold.The ripples from this death have destroyed at least two otherlives, and everywhere he probes, Bosch finds hot grief, hot rage,and a bottomless well of betrayal and malice. And it's not just thegirl's family and friends whose lives Bosch is stirring up afresh.With each new development, Harry Bosch finds increasing resistancefrom within the police force itself. Old enemies are close at hand.Even as he pushes relentlessly to find the truth,

Anyone who has read J.D. Salinger's New Yorker stories ?particularly A Perfect Day for Bananafish, Uncle Wiggily inConnecticut, The Laughing Man, and For Esme ? With Love andSqualor, will not be surprised by the fact that his first novel isfully of children. The hero-narrator of THE CATCHER IN THE RYE isan ancient child of sixteen, a native New Yorker named HoldenCaulfield. Through circumstances that tend to preclude adult,secondhand de*ion, he leaves his prep school in Pennsylvaniaand goes underground in New York City for three days. The boyhimself is at once too simple and too complex for us to make anyfinal comment about him or his story. Perhaps the safest thing wecan say about Holden is that he was born in the world not juststrongly attracted to beauty but, almost, hopelessly impaled on it.There are many voices in this novel: children's voices, adultvoices, underground voices-but Holden's voice is the most eloquentof all. Transcending his own vernacular, yet remaining marvelouslyfaithful to it, he issue

There are brick houses, stick houses, tall houses, thin houses,but the best houses of all are those where your friends live. Youngreaders will enjoy the bouncing rhythm and catchy rhyme in thisdelightful look at people's homes throughout the world.

The arms dealer betrayed them. Now the survivors want revenge.SOMETIMES, surviving a war can almost seem worse than dying in it. In a Croatian village near Vukovar, no one who survived will ever forget the night they waited for the weapons they needed to make a last-ditch fight against the advancing Serbs. The promised delivery never came, and the village was overrun. Eighteen years later, a body is unearthed from a field, and with it the identity of the arms dealer who betrayed them. Now the villagers can plot their revenge. In leafy England, arms dealer Harvey Gillott regards himself as a man of his word. There is only one blemish on his record, and that was long ago. But Gillott, his family, his friends and his enemies are about to be pitched into a sequence of events that will unfold across Europe with breath-taking drama and almost biblical power. Harvey Gillott is about to find out what happens when the hand of the past suddenly reaches out to the present - and it's holding a gun.

A mercitess kitter.with a unique weapon is ready to strike.Etectricity is as tethat as it is vitat, and it onty takes onespark of genius to generate panic and death.

Goethe's Faust is a classic of European literature. Based on the fable of the man who traded his soul for superhuman powers and knowledge, it became the life's work of Germany's greatest poet. Beginning with an intriguing wager between God and Satan, it charts the life of a deeply flawed individual, his struggle against the nihilism of his diabolical companion Mephistopheles. Part One presents Faust's pact with the Devil and the harrowing tragedy of his love affair with the young Gretchen. Part Two shows Faust's experience in the world of public affairs, including his encounter with Helen of Troy, the emblem of classical beauty and culture. The whole is a symbolic and panoramic commentary on the human condition and on modern European history and civilisation. This new translation of both parts of Faust preserves the poetic character of the original, its tragic pathos and hilarious comedy. In addition, John Williams has translated the Urfaust, a fascinating glimpse into the young Goethe's imagination, and a se