WThen an infected bolt of cloth carries plagae from London toan isolated mountain viilage, a housemaid named Anna' Frith emergesas an unlikely heroine and healer. ThroUgh Anna s eyes we followthe story" of the plague vear, I666, as her fellow viliagers makean extraordinan choice: convinced by a visionary young, ministerthey elect to quarantine themselves within the village boundariesto arrest the spread of the disease. But as death reaches intoevery household.faith flays. When villagers turn from prayers tomurderous witch-hunting, Anna must confront the deaths of family,,the disintegration of her community, and the lure of illicit love.As she struggles to survive, a year of plague becomes instead arumsmirabilis, a year of wonders."
There was a new shop in town. Run by a stranger. Needful Things, the sign said. The oddest name. A name that caused some gossip and speculation among the good folks of Castle Rock, Maine, while they waited for opening day. Eleven-year-old Brian Rusk was the first customer and he got just what he wanted, a very rare 1956 Sandy Koufax baseball card. Signed. Cyndi Rose Martin was next. A Lalique vase. A perfect match for her living room decor. Something for everyone. Something you really had to have. And always at a price you could just about afford. The cash price that is. Because there was another price. There always is when your heart's most secret, true desire is for sale ...
In the fourth powerful novel in Stephen King's bestselling fantasy quest, The Dark Tower beckons Roland, the Last Gunslinger, and the four companions he has gathered along the road. And, having narrowly escaped one world, they set out on a terrifying journey across the scarred urban wasteland to brave a new world where hidden dangers lie at every junction: a malevolent computer-run monorail hurtling towards self-destruction, Roland's relentlessly cunning old enemy, and the temptation of the wizard's diabolical glass ball, a powerful force in Roland's first love affair. A tale of long-ago love and adventure involving a beautiful and quixotic woman named Susan Delgado. And the Tower is closer...
Balram Halwai is a complicated man. Servant. Philosopher. Entrepreneur. Murderer. Over the course of seven nights, Balram tells us the terrible and transfixing story of how he came to be a success in life--having nothing but his own wits to help him along. And with a charisma as undeniable as it is unexpected, Balram teaches us that religion doesn't create virtue, and money doesn't solve every problem--but decency can still be found in a corrupt world, and you can get what you want out of life if you eavesdrop on the right conversations. Amoral, irreverent, deeply endearing, and utterly contemporary, this novel is an international sensation--and a startling, provocative debut.
It begins in Geneva. There American lawyer Joel Converse meets aman he hasn't seen in twenty years, a covert operative who diesviolently at his feet, whispering words that hand Converse astaggering legacy of death: " THE GENERALS...THEY'REBACK...AQUITAINE " Suddenly Converse is running for his life, alonewith the world's most shattering secret. Pursued by anonymousexecutioners to the dark corners of Europe, he is forced to play agame of survival by blood rules he thought he'd long left behind.One by one, he traces each thread of a deadly progression to thehear of every major government-- a network of coordinated globalviolence that no one believes possible. No one but Converse and thewoman he once loved and lost. The only two people on earth who canwrest the world from the iron grasp of Aquitaine.
To the children, the town was their whole world. To the adults, knowing better, Derry Maine was just their home town: familiar, well-ordered for the most part. A good place to live. It was the children who saw - and felt - what made Derry so horribly different. In the storm drains, in the sewers, IT lurked, taking on the shape of every nightmare, each one's deepest dread. Sometimes IT reached up, seizing, tearing, killing ...The adults, knowing better, knew nothing. Time passed and the children grew up, moved away. The horror of IT was deep-buried, wrapped in forgetfulness. Until they were called back, once more to confront IT as IT stirred and coiled in the sullen depths of their memories, reaching up again to make their past nightmares a terrible present reality.
Sookie Stackhouse is a small-time cocktail waitress in small-town Louisiana. She's quiet, keeps to herself, and doesn't get out much - not because she's not pretty - she's a very cute bubbly blonde - or not interested in a social life. She really is ...but Sookie's got a bit of a disability. She can read minds. And that doesn't make her too dateable. And then along comes Bill: he's tall, he's dark and he's handsome - and Sookie can't 'hear' a word he's thinking. He's exactly the type of guy she's been waiting all her life for. But Bill has a disability of his own: he's fussy about his food, he doesn't like suntans and he's never around during the day ...Yep, Bill's a vampire. Worse than that, he hangs with a seriously creepy crowd, with a reputation for trouble - of the murderous kind. And then one of Sookie's colleagues at the bar is killed, and it's beginning to look like Sookie might be the next victim ...
Featuring a stunning Introduction by popular author of The Ice Storm and Demonology Rick Moody, this special edition of The Mayor of Casterbridge is a tie-in to the AandE Television Network adaptation of Thomas Hardy's critically acclaimed novel. In a surprisingly personal essay, Moody names the saga "the first great novel about alcoholism," and delivers penetrating insight into the character of Michael Henchard and the crippling deficiencies that foretell his ruin. The Mayor of Casterbridge opens with an act of such heartlessness and cruelty that it still shocks readers today. Michael Henchard, an out-of-work hay-trusser, gets drunk at a fair and for five guineas sells his wife and child to a sailor. When the horror of his act sets in the following morning, the wretched Henchard swears he will not touch alcohol for twenty-one years. Through hard work and acumen, he becomes rich, respected, and eventually the mayor of Casterbridge. Eighteen years pass before Henchard's fateful oath comes back to claim its due
A rich, authoritative look at a material that plays anessential role in human culture Wood has been a central part of human life throughout the world forthousands of years. In an intoxicating mix of science, history, andpractical information, historian and woodworker Harvey Greenconsiders this vital material's place on the planet. What makes onewood hard and one soft? How did we find it, tame it? Where does itfit into the histories of technology, architecture, andindustrialization, of empire, exploration, and settlement? Spanningthe surprising histories of the log cabin and Windsor chair, thedeep truth about veneer, the role of wood in the AmericanRevolution, the disappearance of the rain forests, the botanybehind the baseball bat, and much more, Wood is a deep andsatisfying look at one of our most treasured resources.
In the sprawling, half-timbered mansion in the affluent suburb of Swinly Dean, Aristide Leonides lies dead from barbiturate poisoning. An accident? Not likely. In fact, suspicion has already fallen on his luscious widow, a cunning beauty fifty years his junior, set to inherit a sizeable fortune, and rumored to be carrying on with a strapping young tutor comfortably ensconced in the family estate. But criminologist Charles Hayward is casting his own doubts on the innocence of the entire Leonides brood. He knows them intimately. And he's certain that in a crooked house such as Three Gables, no one's on the level... 作者简介： AGATHA CHRISTIE is the world's best known mystery writer. Her books have sold over a billion copies in the English language and another billion in 44 foreign languages. She is the most widely published author of all time in any language, outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare.
In commemoration of the one-hundredth anniversary of hisbirth, Ansel Adams at 100 presents an intriguing new look at thisdistinguished photographer's work. The legendary curator JohnSzarkowski, director emeritus of the Department of Photography atNew York's Museum of Modern Art, has painstakingly selected what heconsiders Adams' finest work and has attempted to find the singlebest photographic print of each. Szarkowski writes that "AnselAdams at 100 is the product of a thorough review of work thatAdams, at various times in his career, considered important. Itincludes many photographs that will be unfamiliar to lovers ofAdams' work, and a substantial number that will be new to Adamsscholars. The book is an attempt to identify that work on whichAdams' claim as an important modern artist must rest." Ansel Adamsat 100-the highly acclaimed international exhibition and the book,with Szarkowski's incisive critical essay-is the first seriouseffort since Adams' death in 1984 to reevaluate his achievement asan a
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.
Jude the Obscure created storms of scandal and protest for the author upon its publication. Hardy, disgusted and disappointed, devoted the remainder of his life to poetry and never wrote another novel. Today, the material is far less shocking. Jude Fawley, a poor stone carver with aspirations toward an academic career, is thwarted at every turn and is finally forced to give up his dreams of a university education. He is tricked into an unwise marriage, and when his wife deserts him, he begins a relationship with a free-spirited cousin. With this begins the descent into bleak tragedy as the couple alternately defy and succumb to the pressures of a deeply disapproving society. Hardy's characters have a fascinating ambiguity: they are victimized by a stern moral code, but they are also selfish and weak-willed creatures who bring on much of their own difficulties through their own vacillations and submissions to impulse. The abridgment speeds Jude's fall to considerable dramatic effect, but it also deletes th
This is the story of a man named Charley who loses his job, leaves his family, and decides, one night, to end his life. Somewhere between this world and the next, he encounters his mother, who died years ago, and he spends one last day with her - a day he never had on earth. This 'ordinary' day covers the whole of their existence, and reveals how Charley, like many children, was constantly forced to choose between his mother and his father. He gets the chance many of us yearn for - to ask the questions never asked while our parents are alive. In the end, Charley learns how little he really knew about his mother, how her love saved their family, and how deeply he wants the chance to save his own.
Theodore Boone is back in a new adventure, and the stakes arehigher than ever. When his best friend, April, disappears from herbedroom in the middle of the night, no one, not even Theo Boone -who knows April better than anyone - has answers. As fear ripplesthrough his small hometown and the police hit dead ends, it's up toTheo to use his legal knowledge and investigative skills to chasedown the truth and save April. Filled with the page-turningsuspense that made John Grisham a number one internationalbestseller and the undisputed master of the legal thriller,Theodore Boone's trials and triumphs will keep readers guessinguntil the very end.
Edgar Roy-an alleged serial killer held in a secure,fortress-like Federal Supermax facility-is awaiting trial. He facesalmost certain conviction. Sean King and Michelle Maxwell arecalled in by Roy's attorney, Sean's old friend and mentor TedBergin, to help work the case. But their investigation is derailedbefore it begins-en route to their first meeting with Bergin, Seanand Michelle find him murdered. It is now up to them to ask the questions no one seems to wantanswered: Is Roy a killer? Who murdered Bergin? With help from somesurprising allies, they continue to pursue the case. But the morethey dig into Roy's past, the more they encounter obstacles,half-truths, dead-ends, false friends, and escalating threats fromevery direction. Their persistence puts them on a collision coursewith the highest levels of the government and the darkest cornersof power. In a terrifying confrontation that will push Sean andMichelle to their limits, the duo may be permanently parted.
'The world has teeth and it could bite you with them anytime it wanted. Trisha McFarland discovered this when she was nine years old. Lost in the woods.' Trisha has only veered a little way off the trail. But in her panic to get back to the path, Trisha takes a turning that leads into the tangled undergrowth. Deeper and deeper in the terrifying woods. At first it's just the bugs, midges and mosquitoes. Then comes the hunger. For comfort she tunes her Walkman into broadcasts of the Red Sox baseball games and the performances of her hero Tom Gordon. As darkness begins to fall, Trisha realises that she is not alone. There's something else in the woods - watching. Waiting ...
The Fortress of Solitude is the story of Dylan Ebdus growingup white and motherless in downtown Brooklyn in the 1970s. It's aneighborhood where the entertainments include muggings along withgames of stoopball. In that world, Dylan has one friend, a blackteenager, also motherless, named Mingus Rude. As Lethem follows theknitting and unraveling of their friendship, he creates anoverwhelmingly rich and emotionally gripping canvas of race andclass, superheros, gentrification, funk, hip-hop, graffiti tagging,loyalty, and memory. The Fortress of Solitude" "is the first greaturban coming of age novel to appear in years.
