It is autumn 1777, and the cradle of liberty, Philadelphia, has fallen to the British. Yet the true battle has only just begun.
On both sides, loyalties are tested and families torn asunder. The young Redcoat Sam Gilpin has seen his brother die. Now he must choose between duty to a distant king and the call of his own conscience. And for the men and women of the prosperous Becket family, the Revolution brings bitter conflict between those loyal to the crown and those with dreams of liberty.
Soon, across the fields of ice and blood in a place called Valley Forge, history will be rewritten, changing the lives and fortunes of these men and women forever. Views: 234
A vibrant portrayal of Amy Carmichael, the beloved Irish missionary to India. From the author of Passion and Purity. Views: 230
Yesterday's secrets are more dangerous than ever... For five years, anonymity has been Ashley Wakefield's refuge, ever since she and her twin brother, David, discovered they were the beneficiaries of a mysterious trust fund worth a fortune. Their lives forever changed, Ashley and David turned to the uncle who raised them for answers, but he couldn't—or wouldn't—help. Now down-to-earth Ashley tempts fate by laying claim to fabulous jewels that await her in a Swiss vault. A photograph of her wearing the stunning gems catches the attention of hard-driving Jeremy Carruthers, who has questions of his own. Jeremy and Ashley discover the gems have sparked vivid memories of a terrible night long ago, before she was born...a night that holds deadly secrets, and a shocking truth that threatens to shatter everything Ashley thought she knew about herself. Views: 223
Seven years before Richard Preston wrote about horrifying viruses in The Hot Zone, he turned his attention to the cosmos. In First Light, he demonstrates his gift for creating an exciting and absorbing narrative around a complex scientific subject--in this case the efforts by astronomers at the Palomar Observatory in the San Gabriel Mountains of California to peer to the farthest edges of space through the Hale Telescope, attempting to solve the riddle of the creation of the universe.
Richard Preston's name became a household word with The Hot Zone, which sold nearly 800,000 copies in hardcover, was on The New York Times's bestseller list for 42 weeks, and was the subject of countless magazine and newspaper articles. Preston has become a sought-after commentator on popular science subjects.
For this hardcover reprint of what has been called "the best popular account of astronomy in action," (Kirkus Reviews) he has revised the text and written a new introduction. Views: 215
In these eleven stories, Rohinton Mistry opens our eyes and our hearts to the rich, complex patterns of life inside Firozsha Baag, an apartment building in Bombay. Here are Jaakaylee, the ghost-seer, and Najamai, the only owner of a refrigerator in Firozsha Baag; Rustomji the Curmudgeon and Kersi, the young boy whose life threads through the book and who narrates the final story as an adult in Toronto. We see their passions, their worst fears, their betrayals, and their humorous acts of revenge. Witty and poignant, in turns, these intersecting stories create a finely textured mosaic of lives and illuminate a world poised between the old ways and the new. Views: 204
Dinah Sachs and Asa Thayer have had a love affair, conducted in afternoons stolen from the office of the magazine where they work. But now that the affair is over, Dinah, in an act of lingering passion, invents a narrative of Asa's youth, imagining the events that shaped the "happy, handsome man" who, in her words, "was born to stomp on my heart."
Witty and sexy, funny and immediate, Asa, As I Knew Him is a a seductive dialogue between love and memory, obsession and illusion.
From the Trade Paperback edition. Views: 201
The heartwarming debut that brought Per Petterson, the author of the highly acclaimed Out Stealing Horses, to prominence
Young Arvid Jansen lives on the outskirts of Oslo. It’s the early sixties; his father works in a shoe factory and his Danish mother works as a cleaner. Arvid has nightmares about crocodiles and still wets his bed at night, but slowly he begins to understand the world around him. Vivid images accompany each new event: A photo of his mother as a young woman makes him cry as he realizes how time passes, and the black car that comes to collect his father on the day Arvid’s grandfather dies reminds him of the passing of his bullfinch. And then, one morning, his teacher tells his class to pray because a nuclear war is looming. Ashes in My Mouth, Sand in My Shoes, Per Petterson’s debut, in which he introduces Arvid Jansen to the world, is a delicate portrait of childhood in all its complexity, wonder, and confusion that will delight fans of Out Stealing Horses and new readers alike. Views: 199
In early nineteenth-century America, a woman takes flight to protect a young boy—but love is about to catch up to her. Bethany Cole and her young charge, Peeto, are running for their lives, following the raging waters of the Mississippi to freedom, escaping the ruthless Luke Randall, Peeto's father. When Luke finds Bethany and his son gone, he immediately vows to track down the lovely "kidnapper." However, he isn't counting on Bethany's strength of will and determination. As she braves crossing the river and traversing the lawless lands of the frontier, Bethany shows him just what she's made of. Now, Luke finds his resolve weakening in the face of Bethany's beauty. She taunts and tantalizes him . . . but remains just out of reach, as a supreme battle of wills turns into a sweetly passionate surrender for the two adversaries. They began as enemies, but couldn't defy the overwhelming need that brought them together. Views: 192
Five Fabulous Sex Goddesses
Their careers span the history of motion pictures. The life of each has been touched by the legendary agent (and lover) Frankie Adano. From Babe, the outrageous honky-tonk blonde who becomes an eternal box-office draw ... to April, the classy beauty who never wanted to act, let alone be a star ... Claire, Star of Stars, quintessential Hollywood Movie Queen, who's lasted the longest yet still looks back unforgivingly at her incredible life—they're dominated by exalted success, desperate failure, excess, and illusion ... royal lives ruled by All That Glitters. Views: 187
When luckless Raymond Jardine becomes Sean Delancey's eleventh-grade-English project partner, he persuades Sean's grandfather to pose as a long-deceased, obscure Canadian poet, in an effort to pass the course and win a vacation to a luxurious Greek island. Views: 186
In this sequel to her first novel, "Daggerspell", the author returns to the extraordinary world of Deverry and to the three enchanting characters whose poignant love transcends the boundaries of time and even death. Views: 184
Teenage heir Hal Colson has been kidnapped, and Nancy knows it will take $475,000 to get him back. Lance Colson, Hal’s handsome uncle and guardian, is convinced that the punk rockers Hal hangs out with are responsible. Nancy gets nervous when she and George are caught casing one of the punk rockers and taken to their hideout—especially when one pulls a gun. But are the punk rockers to blame? Views: 183
A splendid new novel that probes the psyche and antics of Duffy Deeter, a lawyer with violent tendencies who suffers from alienation.All We Need of Hell plunges us once again into the irresistible unpredictability of Harry Crews’s tough and touching world. Funny, mordant, and tender all at once, All We Need of Hell spits right in the eye of America’s worst traits - violence, materialism, self-absorption, and the drive to dominate - and shows how they lead not to a sense of power but to despair. Add several ounces of Crews’s wry humor, plus a wonderful cast of eccentric, entertaining characters, and suddenly a deranged world becomes one in which miracles are possible—and sometimes even happen. At the heart of the book is Duffy Deeter, obsessed with physical fitness and images of death, and aware that his life is coming apart at the seams. Losing his hold on imself, his wife, and his son, he struggles desperately to hang on. just when everything is as bad as it could possibly be, a man who once tried to maul Duffy in a vicious handball match steps forward to help him. A virtuoso blending of despair and hope, All We Need of Hell is a provocative book by one of America’s finest Southern storytellers. From Publishers WeeklyCrews's 10th novel describes the frustrated rage that possesses inept lawyer Duffy Deeter, who seeks heart's ease through a bizarre physical fitness regimen. His life is further complicated by a gum-chewing mistress, once a Woodrow Wilson Fellow; a wife with naturally silver hair who is as glacial as the North Pole; an overweight adolescent son; a law partner who has been making time with Mrs. Deeter; a mother whose belfry doesn't have 12 chimes for midnight; and a black professional athlete. What binds these aberrant types together in a compelling narrative is a remarkable gift for incisive language: Duffy's father, a World War II fighter pilot, "bit the big bagel"; "gold was good, a commodity that always gave the same answer"; and, "In the nation of the heart, there's war enough for everybody." That Duffy finds salvation is the most surprising twist of all. From Library JournalCrews once wrote in Playboy about the joys of getting beaten up. Now comes Duffy Deeter, also of Gainesville, Florida, also husband and father, also believing "there was nothing so refreshing as getting your ass kicked." Deeter's athleticism would seem to offer little prospect of reconciling him with his distracted mother, his boy ("a huge, soft, white slug"), or his wife, who has become frigid (except with Deeter's law partner). Luckily, Deeter gets into a fight with black pro-footballer Tump Walker; they become fast friends and Walker is soon putting things to rights in the Deeter household. Crews and Deeter are to be congratulated for their suspicion that there might be a better way to live, but sincerity undermines satire and slapstick. The result is not likely to please Crews's old audience nor find him a new one.From Kirkus ReviewsCrews' first novel in ten years (The Gypsy's Curse, 1974; A Feast of Snakes, 1976), and for the first half he's at his weird, wacky best; but the book thereafter degenerates into sentimentality and antic posturing. Duffy Deeter, a 40-year-old Gainesville, Florida, lawyer, is a physical fitness nut to end all physical fitness nuts--a karate expert who can mn a 4:37 mile and ride his "handmade Gitane Tour de France ten-speed touring machine" 40 miles an hour: "His hard supple ankles rolled delicately under pointed calves that melded in a single flow of muscle to thighs that could do ten deep squats with three hundred pounds, exactly twice his body weight." But to his wife, Tish, and fat, lazy son Felix, he's a petty dictator, a kind of Great Santini. When he forces Felix to spend a grueling hour on the Nautilus machine, Tish kicks him out of the house and clears out his bank accounts--it turns out she's been having an affair with his law partner, a pompous ex-footballer named Jeff McPhester. Duffy gets his revenge by sneaking into his own bedroom one night and whacking McPhester on the butt with a fraternity paddle, but is saved from further violence by his friend, huge, black Tump Walker, "the baddest-assed running back in the NFL." Tump invites Jeff, Tish, Felix, and Duffy to his palatial condo for a tiresome comedy of errors, which ends in Tish and Duffy's reunion and his stunned realization that Felix really isn't such a slobby kid after all (Duffy just wasn't paying attention). Duffy is a classic Crews character, but he's wasted in this pointless novel, with its contrived happy ending. Crews can do, and has done, a lot better. Views: 180
