To American soldiers in Vietnam, "back in the world" meant America and safety. To Tobias Wolff's characters, Back in the World is where lives that have veered out of control just might become normal again. Unfortunately, the men and women in these gripping, pungent, and wonderfully skewed stories have only the vaguest notion of what normal is. A gentle priest finds himself in a Vegas hotel with a hysterical, sun-burned stranger. A show-biz hopeful undergoes a dubious audition in a hearse speeding across the California desert. An aging soldier is distracted from a night of philandering by a gun-toting neighbor and a suicidal enlisted man. As he moves among these unfortunates, Wolff observes the disparity between their realities and their dreams, in ten stories of exhilarating lucidity and grace.
Stories included are: "The Missing Person," "Say Yes," "The Poor Are Always With Us," "Sister," "Soldier's Joy," "Desert Breakdown," "Our Story Begins," "Leviathan," and "The Rich Brother."
"Terrific...The magic of his fiction cannot be explained. It is the ancient art of the master storyteller."--Tim O'Brien
From the Trade Paperback edition. Views: 1 181
For Davita Chandal, growing up in the New York of the 1930s and '40s is an experience of joy and sadness. Her loving parents, both fervent radicals, fill her with the fiercely bright hope of a new and better world. But as the deprivations of war and depression take a ruthless toll, Davita unexpectedly turns to the Jewish faith that her mother had long ago abandoned, finding there both a solace for her questioning inner pain and a test of her budding spirit of independence.
From the Paperback edition. Views: 1 171
This eBook includes the full text of the novel plus the following additional content:
• An exclusive preview chapter from Jean M. Auel’s The Land of Painted Caves, on sale in hardcover March 29, 2011
• An Earth’s Children® series sampler including free chapters from the other books in Jean M. Auel’s bestselling series
• A Q&A with the author about the Earth’s Children® series
Ayla, the independent heroine of The Clan of the Cave Bear and The Valley of Horses, sets out from the valley on Whinney, the horse she tamed. With her is Jondalar, the tall, handsome, yellow-haired man she nursed back to health and came to love. Together they meet the Mamutoi--the Mammoth Hunters--people like Ayla. But to Ayla, who was raised by the Clan of the Cave Bear, they are “the Others.” She approaches them with mixed feelings of fear and curiosity.
Talut, a powerful bear of a man with bright red hair, a booming laugh, and a gentle heart, and his tall, dark-haired sister, Tulie, are the leaders of the Lion Camp of the Mamutoi. It is here that Ayla finds her first women friends, but some among the Mamutoi dislike Ayla because she was raised by “flatheads,” their name for the people of the Clan. Ayla is haunted by her memories of the Clan because Rydag, a child of mixed parentage living with the Mamutoi, bears so strong a resemblance to her own son, Durc.
It is the Mamutoi master carver of ivory--dark-skinned Ranec, flirtatious, artistic, magnetic--who fascinates Ayla. She finds herself drawn to him. Because of her uncanny control over animals, her healing skills, and the magic firestone she discovered, Ayla is adopted into the Mammoth Hearth by Mamut, the ancient shaman of the Great Earth Mother.
Ayla finds herself torn between her strong feelings for Ranec and her powerful love for the wildly jealous and unsure Jondalar. It is not until after the great mammoth hunt, when Ayla’s life is threatened, that a fateful decision is made.
Set in the challenging terrain of Ice Age Europe that millions of Jean Auel’s readers have come to treasure, The Mammoth Hunters is an epic novel of love, knowledge, jealousy, and hard choices--a novel certain to garner Jean Auel even greater acclaim as a master storyteller of the dawn of humanity. Views: 1 169
In a city bracing for a cataclysm, two remarkable women cross paths and find their lives forever changed
Rae Perry has been in love with Jessup since high school. Two weeks before her eighteenth birthday, they ran away from Boston together and have been moving ever since—five states in seven years. Now they are in Southern California in what they call “earthquake weather,” a time when anything can happen, and Jessup is restless again. This time, Rae fears, he plans to leave without her.
Lila Grey is a fortune-teller. More than a quarter century ago, on a cold and icy night in New York City, she gave birth to a daughter she never saw again. Lila is determined to find her lost child, even if it means an end to her happy life with Richard, the loving husband she refuses to let into her past.
It is Lila who tells Rae she is pregnant—but the other symbol she reads in the Rae’s tea leaves, she refuses to reveal. From that moment forward, their fates are inextricably linked. While Rae searches for the strength to navigate an uncertain future alone, Lila sets out to resolve her history once and for all.
This luminous novel, a New York Times Notable Book, is an enthralling tribute to the profound mysteries of motherhood and childbirth from a writer who, in the words of Amy Tan, “takes seemingly ordinary lives and lets us see and feel extraordinary things.” Views: 1 169
Simon Winchester, struck by a sudden need to discover exactly what was left of the British Empire, set out across the globe to visit the far-flung islands that are all that remain of what once made Britain great. He traveled 100,000 miles back and forth, from Antarctica to the Caribbean, from the Mediterranean to the Far East, to capture a last glint of imperial glory.
His adventures in these distant and forgotten ends of the earth make compelling, often funny reading and tell a story most of us had thought was over: a tale of the last outposts in Britain's imperial career and those who keep the flag flying.
With a new introduction, this updated edition tells us what has happened to these extraordinary places while the author's been away. Views: 1 168
From world-renowed author Erich Segal comes a powerful and moving saga of five extraordinary members of the Harvard class of 1958 and the women with whom their lives are intertwined. Their explosive story begins in a time of innocence and spans a turbulent quarter century, culminating in their dramatic twenty-five reunion at which they confront their classmates--and the balance sheet of their own lives. Always at the center; amid the passion, laughter, and glory, stands Harvard--the symbol of who they are and who they will be. They were a generation who made the rules--then broke them--whose glittering successes, heartfelt tragedies, and unbridled ambitons would stun the world. Views: 1 160
This story of raging comedy and despair centers on the tempestuous marriage of an heiress and a Vietnam veteran. From their "carpenter gothic" rented house, Paul sets himself up as a media consultant for Reverend Ude, an evangelist mounting a grand crusade that conveniently suits a mining combine bidding to take over an ore strike on the site of Ude's African mission. At the still center of the breakneck action--revealed in Gaddis's inimitable virtuoso dialoge--is Paul's wife, Liz, and over it all looms the shadowy figure of McCandless, a geologist from whom Paul and Liz rent their house. As Paul mishandles the situation, his wife takes the geologist to her bed and a fire and aborted assassination occur; Ude issues a call to arms as harrowing as any Jeremiad--and Armageddon comes rapidly closer. Displaying Gaddis's inimitable virtuoso dialogue, and his startling treatments of violence and sexuality, Carpenter's Gothic "shows again that Gaddis is among the first rank of contemporary American writers" (Malcolm Bradbury, "The Washington Post Book World" ).
"An unholy landmark of a novel--an extra turret added on to the ample, ingenious, audacious Gothic mansion Gaddis has been building in American letters" --Cynthia Ozick, "The New York Times Book Review"
"Everything in this compelling and brilliant vision of America--the packaged sleaze, the incipient violence, the fundamentalist furor, the constricted sexuality--is charged with the force of a volcanic eruption. "Carpenter's Gothic" will reenergize and give shape to contemporary literature." --Walter Abish Views: 1 157
Know Scumbler in his poignant, hilarious life. Get mad at him and even cry with him. Here's Don Quixote, Santa Claus, and Faust rolled into one "thick shadow" of a man. A joyous sixty-year-old American street painter lives on the Left Bank in Paris, making a living by creating rentable apartments out of the most unlikely spaces. Mostly, however, he paints with utter delight in the creative act and discovers remarkable characters along his path: crafts-men, students, prostitutes, motorcyclists. He scumbles and fails. He digs twisting tunnels under Paris streets and builds nests: nature nests, rats' nests, birds' nests. He collects clocks and designs his own life from the "inside." Wanting to be true beyond honesty, visible past seeing to being, Scumbler scrambles, tumbles, rumbles, rambles through the ecstatic pleasure of creation and the pangs of ordinary existence. Views: 1 153
Nancy suspects that sabotage in a chain of West Coast shops selling imported art objects is connected with the theft of a valuable Eskimo sculpture. Views: 1 150
Barbara Taylor Bradford’s enthralling New York Times bestseller A Woman of Substance introduced a remarkable heroine and her rise to fame, power, and wealth. Now the triumphant story—and unpredictable heritage—of Emma Harte continues…**
A LEGACY TO SHARE
As the strong-willed force behind a thriving international business empire, Emma Harte built a life rooted in a single-minded purpose, one of unyielding determination and terrible sacrifice to achieve the stunning pinnacle of success. But the most difficult decision of her
hard-won life is yet to come…
*
*AN INHERITANCE TO PROTECT
There’s only one way for Emma to ensure the promise of Harte Enterprises—by relinquishing control of the mighty empire to her beloved granddaughter, Paula McGill Fairley, a woman with her own dreams, and her own resolve to make them come true. But for Paula, with an extraordinary opportunity comes the professional and personal challenges of a lifetime…
*
*A DREAM TO HOLD
Supported and encouraged by a lifelong friend, Paula strives to be all that her grandmother was. But victory comes with a price, and Paula is put to the ultimate test as devastating greed and jealousy, scandalous lies, and flesh and blood betrayals threaten the very foundation of her future and a grand and true love that has flourished in silence and secret… Views: 1 142
Tomorrow's America is a cold and ravaged place, a nation devastated by despair and enduring winter. In a small New England city, senior government official Dr. Judith Carriol finds the man she has been seeking: a deliverer of hope in a hopeless time who can revive the dreams of a shattered people; a magnetic, compassionate idealist whom Judith can mold, manipulate and carry to undreamed-of heights; a healer who must ultimately face damnation through the destructive power of love. Views: 1 138
One of Koontz's best-loved novels of psychological suspense, The Door to December takes readers into the darkest recesses of the human mind-and into the tempest of a father's obsession. #1 New York Times bestselling author Dean Koontz takes readers into the darkest recesses of the human mind—and into the tempest of a father's obsession.A call in the middle of the night summoned psychiatrist Laura McCaffrey out into the rain-swept streets of Los Angeles. The police had found her husband-beaten to death. But what of her daughter, Melanie, whom he had kidnapped six years earlier? At the brutal murder scene, the police lead Laura into her husband's makeshift lab—and open the door to a rising tide of terror that has trapped Melanie in its midst... Views: 1 136
The Crystal CaveWHO WAS MERLIN? Was the famed magician of Camelot and King Arthur's court really a sinister, all-powerful being from another world? Was he truly a Prince of Darkness? Or was he a man with the passions of other mortals? A man with unique intelligence and unusual gifts? Why was he so feared? How did he come by his occult powers? Why was the crystal cave so important to him? Mary Stewart's novel brings to vibrant life one of the world's great legends and sheds a fascinating new light on the turbulence and mystery of 5th-century Britain. In this enthralling work, Mary Stewart once more shows her own great wizardry. Again she reveals those qualities of suspense and romantic adventure which have made her one of the world's most widely read novelists.The Hollow HillsThe spellbinding, suspenseful story of how Merlin, the Enchanter, helped Arthur become king of all Britain--a magnificent novel set in a time when no life is safe, no law stable. The prophetic voice of Merlin communicates not only the bristling atmosphere of the story's ancient setting but also its profound relevance to our own time. Once again, as she did in her bestselling THE CRYSTAL CAVE, Mary Stewart provides a glowing re-creation of pre-Camelot England.The Last EnchantmentArthur is King! But while he is unchallenged on the battlfield, sinister powers plot to destroy him in his own Camelot. When the rose-gold witch Morgause, Arthur's half-sister, ensnares him into an incestuous liaison -- and bears his son, Mordred, to use to her own evil ends -- a fatal web of love, betrayal and vengeance begins.... Seen through the eyes of Arthur's prophetic protector, Merlin -- whose own mysterious powers are in dire danger -- here is a tale rich with the majesty and turbulence of the magnificent legend it tells....resplendent with Mary Stewart's own special magic.The Wicked DayYoung Mordred was born of an incestuous relationship between King arthur and his half sister, that evil sorceress, the witch queen Morgause. He was reared in secrecy by fisher folk who knew little of the truth. When events called Mordred to Camelot, he learned of his true parentage. He also became King Arthur's most trusted counselor, setting in motion the Fates and leading to the "wicked day of destiny." Views: 1 134
A photograph called "Fire and Hemlock" that has been on the wall since her childhood. A story in a book of supernatural stories -- had Polly read it before under a different title? Polly, packing to return to college, is distracted by picture and story, clues from the past stirring memories. But why should she suddenly have memories that do not seem to correspond to the facts?
Fire and Hemlock is an intricate, romantic fantasy filled with sorcery and intrigue, magic and mystery, all background to a most unusual and thoroughly satisfying love story. Views: 1 131
An enchanting love story set in the Amazon, by the award-winning and bestselling author of JOURNEY TO THE RIVER SEA. Views: 1 127
