A classic of Canadian literature by the great Quebecoise writer, Kamouraska is based on a real nineteenth-century love-triangle in rural Quebec. It paints a poetic and terrifying tableau of the life of Elisabeth d'Aulnieres: her marriage to Antoine Tassy, squire of Kamouraska; his violent murder; and her passion for George Nelson, an American doctor. Passionate and evocative, Kamouraska is the timeless story of one woman's destructive commitment to an ideal love. Translated into seven languages, Kamouraska won the Paris book prize and was made into a landmark feature film by Claude Jutra. Views: 52
A poet in search of reality finds a world of hookers, street preachers, blue-collar workers, and small-time hoods that changes him and his outlookPhiladelphia's South Street is a world of contradiction. The hardscrabble neighborhood is filled with prostitutes and gangsters; Working stiffs mingle with winos at Lightnin' Ed's bar. But the streetwalkers are nearing retirement, the gangsters are unemployed, and a community is thriving in and around a place written off by officials and politicians as blighted.Black poet Adlai Stevenson Brown makes his way to South Street in search of authenticity in the form of a neighborhood to save. But the world of South Street—beyond its grit and danger—is more than the cultured young fish out of water ever expected . . . and a lot more than he can handle.PEN/Faulkner Award–winner David Bradley's marvelous debut novel is riotously funny and keenly insightful in equal measure. South Street is a magnificent evocation not... Views: 52
From Library JournalDeath of a Doxy, considered a Stout classic, opens with the death of Isabel Kerr, found dead in her lavish bedroom. Was her boyfriend, her "sugar daddy," or someone else responsible? Nero Wolfe puts himself and his side-kick, Archie Goodwin, to work to unravel the mystery and the tangle of relationships as this vintage Wolfe detective story unfolds. Michael Prichard's reading enhances the twists and turns. Recommended.Denise A. Garofalo, Astor Home for Children, Rhinebeck, NY Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. ReviewOrrie Cather, a private eye who had occasionally worked for Nero Wolfe, finds himself in jail for the murder of young Isabel Kerr who was obviously being kept and who was equally noticeably pregnant. Archie as legman must cope with Isabel's sister and brother-in-law who don't want Isabel scandalized in the paper, her rich benefactor who doesn't need publicity, her girlfriend - a nightclub singer in the know, and prime suspect Orrie. Wolfe uses math and memory to solve this one. Not his best but good enough for the Stout-hearted. (Kirkus Reviews) Views: 52
Jordan Maddox has so disciplined his own emotions that he has, in reality, little contact with life: indifferent, he no longer responds to the signs of love-even of desperation- from those who are close to him.Suddenly he finds himself accused of murder.At first he reacts calmly. It seems to him an absurd, almost an amusing, mistake. To his Wife, his friends, his very lack of passion is proof of his innocence. But to the police, Maddox is the guilty man. At their hands he is relentlessly stripped of his invulnerability.Imprisoned, alone, ignoring the insistent demands of his own defense, he sets out to find his way back to life. In the memories of his childhood and in the act of death and violence of which he stands accused, Maddox submits himself to a far more crucial, far more agonizing trial than the one in which he appears every day as the defendant. For his real trial is that of a man attempting, for the first time, perhaps too late, to accept the... Views: 52
Reprint of the 1st ed. published by Little, Brown, Boston Views: 52
A man always at war. He learned how in the Civil War, and never stopped after that war ended. Except to remember. Now he’s remembering the summer of 1863. There was a great train robbery. There were Chinese bandits and a village of innocent woman. There was a betrayal – cross and double cross – for no more than a handful of dollars. And there was death. Always death, when Edge was there. They all came together at a small town called Wounded Knee. Views: 52
The all-time Classic schoolroom drama - as relevant as today's headlines ... He shamed them, wrestled with them, enlightened them, and - ultimately - learned to live them. Mr. Braithwaite, the new teacher, had first to fight the class bully. Then he taught defiant, hard-bitten delinquents to call him "Sir," and to address the girls who had grown up beside them in the gutter as "Miss". He taught them to wash their faces and to read Shakespeare. When he took all forty six to museums and to the opera, riots we predicted. But instead of a catastrophe, a miracle happened. A dedicated teacher had turned hate into love, teenage rebelliousness into self-respect, contempt into into consideration for others. A man's own integrity - his concern and love for others - had won through. The modern classic about a dedicated teacher in a tough London school who slowly and painfully breaks down the barriers of racial prejudice. It is the story of a man's own integrity winning through against the odds. "A book that the reader devours quickly, ponders slowly, and forgets not at all." - The New York Times "Infinitely more rewarding than The Blackboard Jungle." - John Barkham Views: 52
Aliens of uncertain density visits earth Views: 52
A young astronaut has returned from an expedition tasked with collecting resources from Mars. He suffers through visits with the grieving families in order to deliver the letters of his dead comrades; always, he lies to the families about the manner of their loved ones’ deaths. Although he wishes to tell the families the grim truth — that Mars is often unheroic, senseless, gruesome, and that their loved ones died in exactly that manner — he realizes that it would be futile. The people need heroes, something to believe in. They also need the resources of Mars to provide the power for the luxuries to which they’ve become accustomed. His own homecoming in Ohio is a farce. He stands before the hopeful crowd, essentially the entire town, studying their eager faces. Although he wants to chastise them for sacrificing good men for their comfort, he gives them what they want. He knows that he will always feel alienated from society, always feel old. Views: 52
The anthropologist's dream... Monte Stewart was an extremely intelligent, somewhat contentious anthropologist with a sense of humor and a nonconformist approach to life. As an expert in his field, he was chosen to approach the first apparently human-like form of life ever to be encountered on another planet. Here was the chance he had been waiting for all his life --- an opportunity to make contact, to investigate, to ascertain the facts about an altogether new man-like species, with the added knowledge that the peace of the worlds depended upon the establishment of friendly relations. But Stewart and his team of experts couldn't get to first base. They tried for weeks --- then vicious unreasoned tragedy struck their camp. What had gone wrong? Who were these 'people'? Why had they attacked the humans? Stewart had failed in his mission; but for his own peace of mind he had to discover the answers, and he had to do it alone. Views: 52
Mary Rose was proud to be named after her aunt, because her aunt had been a heroine, saving the lives of everyone in the apartment building—before dying in the fire. But not everyone thought the first Mary Rose was a heroine. Young Mary Rose overheard her uncle’s remembrance of the events of that dramatic day—and they weren’t at all what she expected. Juvenile fiction by Marilyn Sachs; originally published by Doubleday Views: 52
Clement’s Mission of Gravity was the engaging tale of the adventures of Barlennan, a sea captain among his caterpillar-like people, on the high-gravity world of Mesklin. In Star Light Barlennan and his sailors go with humans to the even stranger world of Dhrawn, a “crusted star” of the type mentioned by Harlow Shapley. Dhrawn circles the feeble red star Lalande 21185, which actually exists (although the planet is fictionalized). Most of the book is the story of a huge landship crossing Dhrawn’s solid surface crewed by these nonhuman sailors, amidst bizarre dangers, and trying to keep Barlennan’s strange plan secret from humans. The characters, despite being mostly from Barlennan’s world, Mesklin, are well drawn and the setting is well realized. Readers bewildered by the melting and freezing of Dhrawn’s ammonia-water hydrosphere will do well to consult a phase diagram.
Nominated for Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1971. Views: 52
She is certainly shocking. It is September 1815, three months after Waterloo, and Hyde Park is the parade of Fashion, everyone who matters and hundreds who do not, all of them restless after the years of war. Some have been away too long, and Anice Anstey is something they have dreamed about. She bursts upon them suddenly, driving her sleek fast curricle, primrose and lavender, with a spanking pair of greys, and they give her a boisterous welcome. She openly calls herself a Cyprian, but no one is deterred by that! Views: 52
