On January 15, 1947, the torture-ravished body of a beautifulyoung woman is found in a Los Angeles vacant lot. The victim makesheadlines as the Black Dahlia-and so begins the greatest manhunt inCalifornia history.Caught up in the investigation are BuckyBleichert and Lee Blanchard: Warrants Squad cops, friends, andrivals in love with the same woman. But both are obsessed with theDahlia-driven by dark needs to know everything about her past, tocapture her killer, to possess the woman even in death. Their questwill take them on a hellish journey through the underbelly ofpostwar Hollywood, to the core of the dead girl's twisted life,past the extremes of their own psyches-into a region of totalmadness.
Thinner' - the old gypsy man barely whispers the word. Billy feels the touch of a withered hand on his cheek. Billy Halleck, prosperous if overweight citizen, happily married, shuddered then turned angrily away. The old woman's death had been none of his fault. The courts had cleared him. She'd just stumbled in front of his car. Now he simply wanted to forget the whole messy business. Later, when the scales told him he was losing weight, it was what the doctor ordered. His wife was pleased - as she should have been. But . . . 'Thinner' - the word, the old man's curse, has lodged in Billy's mind like a fattening worm, eating at his flesh, at his reason. And with his despair, comes violence.
Generally considered to be F. Scott Fitzgerald's finest novel, The Great Gatsby is a consummate summary of the 'roaring twenties' and a devastating expose of the 'Jazz Age'. Through the narration of Nick Carraway, the reader is taken into the superficially glittering world of the mansions which lined the Long Island shore of the American seaboard in the 1920s, to encounter Nick's cousin Daisy, Jay Gatsby and the dark mystery which surrounds him. The Great Gatsby is an undisputed classic of American literature from the period following the First World War and is one of the great novels of the twentieth century .
?" Quand j'ai compris que Mario était mort, tous les détailsme sont revenus. Les gens racontaient cela en long et en large à magrand-mère. Mario traversait le champ, un peu plus haut, à lasortie du village. Il cachait la bombe dans un sac, il courait.Peut-être qu'il s'est pris les pieds dans une motte de terre, et ilest tombé. La bombe a explosé. On n'a rien retrouvé de lui. C'étaitmerveilleux. C'était comme si Mario s'était envolé vers un autremonde, vers Ourania. Puis les années ont passé, j'ai un peu oublié.Jusqu'à ce jour, vingt ans après, où le hasard m'a réuni avec lejeune homme le plus étrange que j'aie jamais rencontré. " C'est ainsi que Daniel Sillitoe, géographe en mission au centre duMexique, découvre, gr?ce à son guide Rapha?l, la république idéalede Campos, en marge de la Vallée, capitale de la terre noire duChernozem, le rêve humaniste de l'Emporio, la zone rouge quiretient prisonnière Lili de la lagune, et l'amour pourDahlia.? J.M.G. Le Clézio. --Ce
Twenty years ago, four teenagers at summer camp walked into thewoods at night. Two were found murdered, and the others were neverseen again. Four families had their lives changed forever. Now, twodecades later, they are about to change again. For Paul Copeland,the county prosecutor of Essex, New Jersey, grief at the loss ofhis sister has only recently begun to subside. Cope, as he isknown, is now dealing with raising his 6-year old daughter aloneafter his wife has died of cancer. Balancing family life and arapidly ascending career as a prosecutor distract him from his pasttraumas, but only for so long. When a homicide victim is found withevidence linking him to Cope, the well-buried secrets of theprosecutor's family are threatened. Is this body one of the camperswho disappeared with his sister? Could his sister be alive? Copehas to confront so much he left behind that summer 20 years ago:his first love, Lucy, his mother who abandoned the family, and thesecrets that his parents might have been hiding even fro
In this classic collection of four novellas, the grand master takes you on irrestistible journeys into the far reaches of horror, heartache and hope. Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption is the story of two men convicted of murder - one guilty, one innocent - who form the perfect partnership as they dream up a scheme to escape from prison. In Apt Pupil a golden schoolboy entices an old man with a past to join in a dreadful union. The Body sees four young boys venture into the woods and find life, death ...and the end of innocence. The Breathing Method is the tale of a doctor who goes to his club and discovers a woman determined to give birth - no matter what.
The epic of the Apollo missions told in the astronauts'own words and gorgeously illustrated with their photographs Andrew Chaikin's A Man on the Moon isconsidered the definitive history of the Apollo moonmissions-arguably the pinnacle of human experience. Now, usingnever-before-published quotes taken from his in-depth interviewswith twenty-three of the twenty-four Apollo lunar astronauts,Chaikin and his collaborator, Victoria Kohl, have created anextraordinary account of the lunar missions. In Voices from theMoon the astronauts vividly recount their experiences inintimate detail; their distinct personalities and remarkably variedperspectives emerge from their candid and deeply personalreflections. Carefully assembled into a narrative that reflects theentire arc of the lunar journey, Voices from the Moon captures the magnificence of the Apollo program like no other book.Paired with their own words are 160 images taken from NASA's newhigh-resolution scans of the photos the astronauts took during themis
In April 1992 a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. His name was Christopher Johnson McCandless. He had given $25,000 in savings to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet, and invented a new life for himself. Four months later, his decomposed body was found by a moose hunter....
If you’ve ever paid off one credit card with another，thrown out a bill before opening it，or convinced yourself that buying at a two-for-one sale is like making money，then this silly，appealing novel is for you。In the opening pages of Confessions of a Shopaholic，recent college graduate Rebecca Bloomwood is offered a hefty line of credit by a London bank。Within a few months，Sophie Kinsella’s heroine has exceeded the limits of this generous offer，and begins furtively to scan her credit-card bills at work，certain that she couldn’t have spent the reported sums。 In theory anyway，the world of finance shouldn’t be a mystery to Rebecca，since she writes for a magazine called Successful Saving。 Struggling with her spendthrift impulses，she tries to heed the advice of an expert and appreciate life’s cheaper pleasures： parks， museums， and so forth。Yet her first Saturday at the Victoria and Albert Museum strikes her as a waste。Why？ There’s not a price tag in sight
Salander is plotting her revenge - against the man who tried to kill her, and against the government institutions that very nearly destroyed her life. But it is not going to be a straightforward campaign. After taking a bullet to the head, Salander is under close supervision in Intensive Care, and is set to face trial for three murders and one attempted murder on her eventual release. With the help of journalist Mikael Blomkvist and his researchers at Millennium magazine, Salander must not only prove her innocence, but identify and denounce the corrupt politicians that have allowed the vulnerable to become victims of abuse and violence. Once a victim herself, Salander is now ready to fight back .
Since the series' inception in 1915, the annual volumes of TheBest American Short Stories have launched literary careers,showcased the most compelling stories of each year, and confirmedfor all time the significance of the short story in our nationalliterature. Now THE BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES OF THE CENTURYbrings together the best -- fifty-six extraordinary stories thatrepresent a century's worth of unsurpassed achievements in thisquintessentially American literary genre. This expanded editionincludes a new story from The Best American Short Stories 1999 toround out the century, as well as an index including every storypublished in the series. Of all the writers whose work has appearedin the series, only John Updike has been represented in each of thelast five decades, from his first appearance, in 1959, to his mostrecent, in 1998. Updike worked with coeditor Katrina Kenison tochoose the finest stories from the years since 1915. The result is"extraordinary . . . A one-volume literary history of thi
With amazing vividness,Nina Foch essays Henry James's earliest(1881)and perhaps most accessible masterpiece.A penniless American girl is brought to Europe where her beauty,ingenuousness,and na veté attract a variety of suitors.In spite of wanting to do everything right,everything comes out wrong in this perceptive,subtle,and multilayered psychological novel,which Foch plays like a musical instrument.A rather loud one——she hits all the notes correctly but coarsely.The effect is like a bordello pianist--albeit one with nimble fingers--playing Chopin on an old upright.A maladroit abridgment causes occasional confusion.
Generally regarded as the pre-eminent work of Conrads shorter fiction. Heart of Darkness is a chilling tale of horror which, as the author intended. is capable of many interpretations. Set in the Congo during the period of rapid colonial expansion in the nineteenth century, the story deals with the highly disturbing effects of economic.social and political exploitation on European and African societies and the cataclysrnic behaviour this induced in some individuals. The other two stories in this book-Youth and The End of the Tether - concern the sea and those who sail upon it, a genre in which Conrad reigns supreme.
Short Stories from the Nineteenth Century is a wonderful collection of classic stories specially selected and introduced by David Stuart Davies.These are tales from the golden age of the great storytellers presenting evocative snashots from that bygone era while at the same time providing engaging entertainment and stimulation for the modern reader. All emotions are catered for in these offerings by Charles Dickens,Oscar Wilde,H.G.Wells,Arthur Conan Doyle,Robert Louis Stevenson,Bram Stoker,Mrs Gaskell,O Henry,Anthony Trollope,Thomas Hardy,Wilkie Collins,Guy de Maupassant,Anton Chekhov,Charlotte Perkins Gillman and Charles Lamb.Through their words the rich pageant of yesterday springs to vibrant life.Each story has its own introduction and there is a set of informative notes.This volume is ideal reading for the student as well as those who relish a good tale well told.
