Halley's Comet night at Winterscombe in 1910 ends with a violent death which throws a giant shadow over three generations of the Cavendish dynasty. At the centre of events is the beautiful and dangerous Constance, who casts a spell - which may be a curse - on all the sons of the family. Following the destruction of two World Wars - and the passions, deceits and hatreds of the intervening peace - it is the coruscating power of Constance's personality, and the sinister secret at the heart of her life, which will determine if Victoria, last of the Cavendishes, is to inherit happiness or misery. Views: 121
As a vicar's daughter, quiet Penelope Carlisle is accustomed to living on the thin edge of poverty. She's content with her small home and a friendly village—until a cloaked and crippled Beast rides into her orchard. Badly scarred in heart and soul, Viscount Graham Trevelyan has no use for love. He has a need for revenge and a child to protect. The compassionate innocent who doesn't flee his fierce visage is the perfect mother his silent daughter needs. Penelope understands the wisdom of a marriage of convenience to save her home. But how can she protect her heart from the gruff man who shows her kindness, only to keep her at a distance? And how long can Graham stay away from a courageous woman who dares tell him when he's wrong—and threatens to desert him should he continue down his dangerous path? Views: 105
Hanumān, the red-faced monkey chief and ninth grammarian of Hindu mythology, is the protagonist of this dazzling narrative--a mind-journey to the temple city of Galta in India and the occasion for Octavio Paz, the celebrated Mexican poet and essayist, to explore the origin of language, the nature of naming and knowing, time and reality, and fixity and decay. *Selected Review:The very concept of grammar - a system in which language can be fixed, structured and therefore transformed - is one of the great achievements of Indian culture. In the past 50 years philosophers and linguists have devoted enormous intellectual energies to the investigation of how the concept was developed among the thinkers of ancient India, for whom the idea became a central problem in their philosophical tradition. Was language, our faculty for naming objects, given by God or did man invent it, either on his own or with powers borrowed from the divine realm? Through a species of time-space journey akin to Hanuman's, Octavio Paz explores this dilemma: ''What is language made of,'' he asks, ''and most important of all, is it already made, or is it something that is perpetually in the making?'' (New York Times)*About the Author:Octavio Paz (1914-1998) was born in Mexico City. He wrote many volumes of poetry, as well as a prolific body of remarkable works of nonfiction on subjects as varied as poetics, literary and art criticism, politics, culture, and Mexican history. He was awarded the Jerusalem Prize in 1977, the Cervantes Prize in 1981, and the Neustadt Prize in 1982. He received the German Peace Prize for his political work, and finally, the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1990.About the Translator:Helen Lane was the preeminent translator of French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian fiction. Among the long list of authors she translated are Augusto Roa Bastos, Jorge Amado, Luisa Valenzuela, Mario Vargas Llosa, Marguerite Duras, Nélinda Piñon, and Curzio Malaparte. Views: 100
Admirers of The Spanish Temper, Marching Spain and his wonderfully evocative books on London, Dublin and New York will need no reminding that V.S. Pritchett is one of the very great travel writers of our time, possessed of an astonishingly accurate eye and a marvellous ability to conjure up the essence of a place, and of the people who live there.Written for the most part in the 1950s and 1960s, the essays brought together in At Home and Abroad cover South and North America, Spain, Ireland, Portugal, London, Greece, the Pyrenees, Germany, the English countryside and, above all, the Mediterranean: first published in book form in 1990, the year of Sir Victor's ninetieth birthday, they are a delight in themselves and a timely reminder of—or introduction to—this most subtle and perceptive of writers. Views: 88
In this stunning novel, Dori Sanders tells a story of black-white relationships like no other ever written, as seen through the eyes of a ten-year-old girl who is bound to become one of the most apppealing and memorable characters in literature. Views: 72
IN THE DESOLATE REACHES OF NEVADA, ONE MAN GUARDS A BRUTAL SECRET...AND HE'LL KILL FOR IT. AT A PLUSH MOUNTAIN RETREAT, LIFE IS A PLEASURE. THE PRICE IS MURDER. The Deer Creek Condos are delightfully secluded, an ultra-luxury development nestled in the mountains above Las Vegas's garish, billion-dollar carnival. There are only nine apartments, one to a floor. The owners are rich, successful and cultured, enjoying the finest of everything, with the best security money can buy... Now a violent winter avalanche has trapped them in the wilderness. And the residents of Deer Creek are dying, in fatal accidents that add up to homicide. Only a handful of them are left--neighbors, friends, lovers--and a old, obsessive killer. Someone whose job is death. Someone who knows every way there is to snuff a human life... cover art Ron Barbagallo Views: 71
When the Viking lander on the planet Minerva was destroyed, sending back one last photo of a strange alien being, scientists on Earth were flabbergasted. And so a joint investigation was launched by the United States and the Soviet Union, the first long-distance manned space mission, and a symbol of the new peace between the two great rivals. Humankind's first close encounter with extraterrestrials would be history in the making, and the two teams were schooled in diplomacy as well as in science. But nothing prepared them for alien war -- especially when the Americans and the Soviets found themselves on opposite sides... Views: 71
Lyndell Markham’s stepbrother used her money to purchase a country inn, but she knew he wasn’t guilty of spying. So she disguised herself as the innkeeper with the intention of trapping the real traitor. Unfortunately, the Marquis of Cheyne, her guest at the inn, could ruin her if he discovered her identity. Regency Romance by Barbara Metzger; originally published by Fawcett Views: 71
MERCS, MAGIC, AND MURDER--
In the world of the future, reality has shifted. It is a time where supercorporations are the true rulers, and their corporate wars, power games, and espionage missions all too often rampage out of control. The nation is divided into megaplexes, sprawling urban centers peopled by everything from true humans to elves, dwarves, orks, trolls, were-folk, mages, and the occasional upwardly mobile dragon.
In this world where magic and technology coexist, and where both have become far too advanced for comfort, the shadowrunners survive by the quickness of their wits, the sharpness of their fangs and blades, and their skill at riding the computer Matrix. And if the price is right, or the need is great enough, they'll sell their services to any bidder. These are their stories. Views: 71
MR. MARCH Man: Rand Marshall Motto: Commitment? What's that? Secret Identity: Brick Lawson, writer of bestselling action thrillers. Greatest Challenge: Jamie Saraceni, irresistible librarian--definitely the marrying kind. Sexy spitfire Jamie Saraceni knew exactly how to turn down Rand's best lines--and make him like it. But he was starting to like her--far too much. Rand knew his sizzling overtures were driving Jamie wild, and it was only a matter of time before she gave in. But did he want to be a wolf in sheep's clothing all his life? Or was he ready to be domesticated by Jamie's tender love? Views: 71
From Publishers WeeklyThriving on juicy, well-meaning gossip, the residents of an old-fashioned English country village conspire to rescue one another in this rambling, gently humorous novel by the pseudonymous author of more than 30 books about Thrush Green. Tongues start wagging when new headmaster Alan Lester hesitates to move into a house, vacated by retired teachers Dorothy and Agnes, that will put him closer to the neighbors. (His wife, it turns out, is overly fond of drink.) Three elderly sisters living in a cottage crammed with antiques rouse concern when one shoplifts scones from the local sweet shop, steals from friends and threatens to bequeath her sisters' belongings to the church. Rumors of matrimony jeopardize the status quo: lonely old Percy Hodge woos flighty servant girls and stirs the derision of his pub companion, a shuffling sexton; the schoolteachers return from the seaside for a visit, disclosing that Dorothy may run off with the blind gentleman to whom she reads. Human nature, the kind intervention of friends and the devotion of the rector and his wife put all to rights. Goodall's pen-and-ink sketches are cozily apt for the story's heartwarming simplicity. Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Kirkus ReviewsMiss Read's 34th Thrush Green idyll, illustrated as always by the gentle sketches of genteel chaps and aging lassies of John S. Goodall. What's new now in that English never-never land of secure, truly decent (albeit with a handful of manageable exceptions) country men and women, where no one lacks help or a haven in tribulation? Well, there's a new neighbor, the incoming schoolmaster and his mysteriously perennially ill wife. Mysterious, until it's general knowledge that she has a, uh, problem. Poor Violet Lovelock, youngest of the three antique Lovelock sisters, is in a highly nervous state since eldest sister Beatrice has been discovered popping scones at the Fuchsia Bush tea shop and has moved a considerable number of articles in her bedroom. And lonely farmer Percy (you remember he was disagreeable when schoolteacher Dorothy hit--not fatally--his dog with her new car) is quietly courting, and everyone thinks he's after young Doreen Lilly, who's home with mother and Doreen's fatherless tot. The vicar, the doctor, and all the good people rally round and things seem to be set right. Oh, yes, the retired schoolteachers, Dorothy and Agnes, visit now and then, and on one visit Agnes reveals the shocking news that Dorothy may have more than kindly inclinations toward elderly Teddy in their new village. Agnes fears the worst. More of the soothing same. Take a chapter or two before bedtime. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. Views: 70
In the Pacific — Off Koreans east cost, 185 miles south of the DMZ, six Russian-made TU-22M backfires come in low, carrying two seven-hundred-pound cluster bombs, three one-thousand-pound “iron” bombs, ten one-thousand-pound concrete-piercing bombs, and fifty-two-hundred-pound FAEs. In Europe — Twenty Soviet Warsaw Pact infantry divisions and four thousand tanks begin to move. They are preceded by hundreds of strike aircraft. All are pointed toward the Fulda Gap. And World War III begins… Views: 70
