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
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
Set during the Napoleonic wars at a time of national economicstruggles, Shirley is an unsentimental yet passionatedepiction of conflict among classes, sexes, and generations.Struggling manufacturer Robert Moore considers marriage to thewealthy and independent Shirley Keeldar, yet his heart lies withhis cousin Caroline. Shirley, meanwhile, is in love with Robert’sbrother, an impoverished tutor. As industrial unrest builds to apotentially fatal pitch, can the four be reconciled?
Nicholas Nickleby,a gentleman's son fallen upon hard times,must set out to make his way in the world.Along the way various older,money-grubbing villains attempt to injure him.Eventually,with the assistance of kind patrons,he and his family achieve economic security and a happy home.Sounds rather trite,doesn't it? Not with characters written by Dickens(Hard Times,Audio Reviews,LJ 5/1/98).Schoolmaster Squeers would make a fine poster boy for child abusers.Ralph Nickleby's initial desire to injure Nicholas gradually develops into a full-blown obsession.Then there are the kind Cheeryble brothers,the gentle,much-abused Smike,and a host of other friends who provide comic relief.Martin Jarvis does an outstanding job of reading this book.His ingenues sound young(a frequent problem area for male readers)while his villains are deliciously evil.The only problems are with the abridgment.In several places,choppy editing has left brief,disconnected scenes and/or character cameos without relevance to the abridged tale.Still
Calvino shows that the novel, far from being a dead form, iscapable of endless mutations. If on a winter's night a travelerturns out to be not one novel but ten, each with a different plot,style, ambience, and author. Translated by William Weaver. A Helenand Kurt Wolff Book
In an Arizona desert a man wanders in a daze, speaking wordsthat make no sense. Within twenty-four hours he is dead, his bodyswiftly cremated by his only known associates. Halfway around theworld archaeologists make a shocking discovery at a medieval site.Suddenly they are swept off to the headquarters of a secretivemultinational corporation that has developed an astoundingtechnology. Now this group is about to get a chance not to studythe past but to enter it. And with history opened to the present,the dead awakened to the living, these men and women will soon findthemselves fighting for their very survival--six hundred years ago.. . .
Seventeenth-century pirate genius William Dampier sailedaround the world three times when crossing the Pacific was a majorfeat, was the first explorer to visit all five continents, andreached Australia eighty years before Captain Cook. His exploitscreated a sensation in Europe. Swift and Defoe used his experiencesin writing Gulliver's Travels and Robinson Crusoe. Darwinincorporated his concept of "sub-species" into the theory ofevolution. Dampier's de*ion of breadfruit was the impetus forCaptain Bligh's voyage on the Bounty. He was so influential thattoday he has more than one thousand entries in the Oxford EnglishDictionary, including such words as chopsticks, barbecue, andkumquat. Anthropologists still use his work.
Roland the Gunfighter and his two companions continue the quest for the tower at the portal of all the worlds...in this third volume in the epic that continues to dominate the bestseller lists.
#1 "New York Times" bestselling author Nora Roberts invitesreaders to the wedding event of the year #1 "New York Times"bestselling author Nora Roberts presents her first trade original-anovel of love, friendship, and family-Book One in the BrideQuartet. Wedding photographer Mackensie "Mac" Elliot is most athome behind the camera, but her focus is shattered moments beforean important wedding rehearsal when she bumps into thebride-to-be's brother...an encounter that has them both seeingstars. A stable, safe English teacher, Carter Maguire is definitelynot Mac's type. But a casual fling might be just what she needs totake her mind off bridezillas. Of course, casual flings can turninto something more when you least expect it. And Mac will have toturn to her three best friends-and business partners-to see her wayto her own happy ending.
Frank, no ordinary sixteen-year-old, lives with his fatheroutsIde a remote Scottish village. Their life is, to say the least,unconventional. Frank's mother abandoned them years ago: his elderbrother Eric is confined to a psychiatric hospital; and his fathermeasures out his eccentricities on an imperial scale. Frank hasturned to strange acts of violence to vent his frustrations. In thebizarre daily rituals there is some solace. But when news comes ofEric's escape from the hospital Frank has to prepare the ground forhis brother's inevitable return - an event that explodes themysteries of the past and changes Frank utterly. Iain Banks'celebrated first novel is a work of extraordinary originality,imagination and horrifying compulsion: horrifying, because itenters a mind whose realities are not our own, whose values of lifeand death are alien to our society; and compulsive, because thehumour and compassion of that mind reach out to us all.
Dickens' final novel, left unfinished at his death in 1870, is a mystery story much influenced by the 'Sensation Novel' as written by his friend Wilkie Collins. The action takes place in an ancient cathedral city and in some of the darkest places in Victorian London. Drugs, disappearances, sexual obsession, disguise and a possible murder are among the themes and motifs. A sombre and menacing atmosphere, a fascinating range of characters and Dickens' usual command of language combine to make this an exciting and tantalising story. Also included in this volume are a number of unjustly neglected stories and sketches, with subjects as different as murder , guilt and childhood romance.
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...
The writer with a claim to being the world' s foremostliterary escape artist is back, with an intoxicating novel aboutthe business and pleasure of wine, set in his beloved Provence. MaxSkinner has recently lost his job at a London financial firm andjust as recently learned that he has inherited his late uncle' svineyard in Provence. On arrival he finds the climate delicious,the food even better, and two of the locals ravishing.Unfortunately, the wine produced on his new property is swill. Whythen are so many people interested in it? Enter a beguilingCalifornian who knows more about wine than Max does- and may have abetter claim to the estate. Fizzy with intrigue, bursting withlocal color and savor, A Good Year is Mayle at his mostentertaining.
In his most brilliant and powerful novel, Pat Conroy tells thestory of Tom Wingo, his twin sister, Savannah, and the dark andviolent past of the family into which they were born. Set in NewYork City and the lowcountry of South Carolina, the novel openswhen Tom, a high school football coach whose marriage and careerare crumbling, flies from South Carolina to New York after learningof his twin sister's suicide attempt. Savannah is one of the mostgifted poets of her generation, and both the cadenced beauty of herart and the jumbled cries of her illness are clues to thetoo-long-hidden story of her wounded family. In the paneled officesand luxurious restaurants of New York City, Tom and SusanLowenstein, Savannah's psychiatrist, unravel a history of violence,abandonment, commitment, and love. And Tom realizes that trying tosave his sister is perhaps his last chance to save himself. Withpassion and a rare gift of language, the author moves from presentto past, tracing the amazing history of the Wingos from Wo
After a sniper opens fire at an elementary school in an L.A.suburb, LAPD Detective Milo Sturgis calls in his friend, childpsychologist Alex Delaware (seen last in Silent Partner ). None ofthe children is hurt, but the shooter, a young woman named HollyBurden, is killed by the bodyguard of one of two politicos visitingthe school. While helping the kids overcome the trauma of theshooting, Delaware becomes involved with the edgy, dedicatedprincipal, Linda Overstreet. He also agrees to Holly's father'srequest to do a "psychological autopsy" to clear his daughter'sname. As racist-motivated vandalism at the school accelerates, Milodiscovers that a black friend of Holly's was recently killed bypolice; then one of the politicians is gunned down. Alex's life isthreatened as he traces events to a revival of the German AmericanBund and an unexpected political alliance with roots in anexplosion of 20 years earlier, echoed in the fiery resolution here.Kellerman's meticulously constructed thriller, while leaning hardon th
Filled with exciting tales of the frontier, the chronicle ofthe Sackett family is perhaps the crowning achievement of one ofour greatest storytellers.In The Warrior's Path, Louis L'Amourtells the story of Yance and Kin Sackett, two brothers who are thelast hope of a young woman who faces a fate worse than death. WhenYance Sackett's sister-in-law is kidnapped, he and Kin race northfrom Carolina to find her. They arrive at a superstitious town rifewith rumors--and learn that someone very powerful was behindDiana's disappearance. To bring the culprit to justice, one brothermust sail to the exotic West Indies. There, among pirates,cutthroats, and ruthless "businessmen," he will apply the skills helearned as a frontiersman to an unfamiliar world--a world where onefalse move means instant death.
Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger triggered a firestormwith the publication of Break Through, contending that the politicsthat dealt with acid rain and smog can't deal with globalwarming.The nations that ratified the Kyoto protocol have seentheir greenhouse gas emissions go up, not down. And the destructionof tropical rain forests, a key driver of global warming, hasaccelerated.What today's ecological crises demand, say the authors,is not that we constrain human power but rather unleash it.We mustgo beyond interest group environmentalism and liberalism to createa politics focused as much on uncommon greatness as on the commongood. "To win, Nordhaus and Shellenberger persuasively argue,environmentalists must stop congratulating themselves for their ownwillingness to confront inconvenient truths and must focus onbuilding a politics of shared hope rather than relying on apolitics of fear" (New York Times Book Review).Break Through is thefirst step in a new progressive movement that will influence the
Humbert Humbert——scholar,aesthete and romantic——has fallencompletely and utterly in love with Lolita Haze，his landlady'sgum—snapping，silkv-skinned twelve—year—old daughter．Reluctantlyagreeing to marry Mrs Haze justtO be close to Lohta，Humbert suffersviciously in thepursuit of romance；but when Lo herself startslook—ing for attention elsewhere，he will carry her off on adesperate cross—country misadventure，all in the name ofLove．Savagely hilarious，flamboyant，heart—breakingand full ofingenious word play,Lolita is an immaculate，unforgettablemasterpiece of obsession，delusion and lust．
