One of the most distinctive volumes of American weird fiction, all of which were based on nightmares of the author, a classics teacher in the Baltimore area and a longtime sufferer from migraine ("sick headaches," as he called them) who killed himself after the death of his beloved wife. White wrote fiction in the summer to supplement his income, his most successful work being the solid but now rather dull works of historical fiction. Another motive, for the stories, was to get them out of his system. All of the stories in this collection have an unforced strangeness to them that is emblematic of their origins. The title story, anthologized twenty-three times according to Ashley and Contento, is fairly well known, but all of the others are worth reading as well. There is nothing else quite like this stuff. It is doubly unusual for its period, when American fiction underwent a divorce between the slicks and the pulps. White's nightmare stories were too grotesque for the slicks, and too "literary" for the pulps. Like the work of many another genius they turned out to be better suited for posterity than for his own time. Views: 18
Watch your step...It was meant to be an easy mission, a walk in the park. But SG-1’s first trip off-world after Colonel O’Neill’s return from Edora (STARGATE SG-1: One Hundred Days) proves to be anything but easy.Tapped for a covert assignment, O’Neill must conceal the truth from his team at all costs. So when Dr Daniel Jackson is injured and the mission begins to go awry, tensions quickly reach a breaking point. Stranded on a hostile planet, and desperate to find a way home before it’s too late, O’Neill leads his fractured team on a desperate journey across a barren and forsaken world.Faced with an enemy more vicious than anything they’ve encountered before, only SG-1’s strength as a unit will keep them alive — if the secret O’Neill is hiding doesn’t tear them apart first...Hostile Ground “You know,” Sam said, “these Amam could just be the Jaffa of a new System Lord who’s come in here and wiped out whoever used to be in charge.”“That’s what I was thinking.” Daniel turned toward her, his glasses glinting in the faint light seeping around the door. “They’re probably Jaffa mythologized into ‘undead’ creatures by whatever Goa’uld first ruled this world. Perhaps they’ve even taken on the persona of Amam?”“And don’t forget the sarcophagus,” Sam added. “I mean, talk about rising from the dead...”“Yes! I think we can say we’re not dealing with real live – or is that real undead? – zombies.”“I hope you’re right,” the colonel said, “because Night of the Living Dead spooked the hell outa Teal’c.”“It did not, O’Neill.”“He’s just saying that. He was watching through his fingers.”Sam grinned, she couldn’t help herself. “At least one thing’s clear, sir. Whoever these ‘Devourers’ are, they can use the Stargate network. And that means there’s a way home.”“My thoughts exactly, Carter.” He scrubbed a hand through his hair. “I can’t believe I’m about to say this, but it looks like tracking down the flesh-eating-snakehead-zombies is actually our best chance of getting off this rock.” Views: 18
From Guardian writer Paula Cocozza, a debut novel of the breakdown of a marriage, suburbian claustrophobia, and a woman's unseemly passion for a foxOne summer's night, Mary comes home from a midnight ramble to find a baby lying on her back door step. Has Mary stolen the baby from next door? Has the baby's mother, Mary's neighbor, left her there in her acute state of post-natal depression? Or was the baby brought to Mary as a gift by the fox who is increasingly coming to dominate her life?So opens How to Be Human, a novel set in a London suburb beset by urban foxes. On leave from work, unsettled by the proximity of her ex, and struggling with her hostile neighbors, Mary has become increasingly captivated by a magnificent fox who is always in her garden. First she sees him wink at her, then he brings her presents, and finally she invites him into her house. As the boundaries between the domestic and the wild blur, and the neighbors set out to... Views: 18
Though unquestionably one of the greatest and best-loved of all composers, George Frideric Handel (1685--1759) had received little attention from biographers before Jonathan Keates's masterful Handel: The Man and His Music appeared in 1985. This fully updated and expanded edition -- published to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the composer's death -- charts in detail Handel's life, from his youth in Germany, through his brilliantly successful Italian sojourn, to the opulence and squalor of Georgian London. For over two decades Handel was absorbed in London's heady but precarious operatic world. But even his phenomenal energy and determination could not overcome the public's growing indifference to Italian opera in the 1730s, and he turned finally to oratorio, a genre which he made peculiarly his own and in which he created some of his finest works, such as Saul, Messiah, and Jeptha. Jonathan Keates writes with sympathy and penetration about this... Views: 18
3 erotic short stories, all published individually buy them together for one-stop shopping, non-stop reading, lower price. MARKED DICKED TYED Views: 18
‘There are
already far too many books about the pilgrimage to Santiago, but Jack Hitt’s is
different, and indispensable. It is funny, shrewd, honest and wise. Whether you
have walked the Camino, or are thinking of doing so, or are just curious about
why other people do it, this is the book.’
- David
Lodge
‘The story
of Hitt’s pilgrimage as it evolves from a solitary meditative adventure into
the sack of Santiago de Compostela by a wine-sodden army of shaggy blistered
tourists is quite brilliantly told. Hitt plots the downward curve of his book’s
narrative arc with the control and precision of a good novelist, and he has a
remarkable gift for being deadly serious and very funny all in the same breath.
His point of view in this book is unusually complex and self-aware; it has many
shades and tones, ranging from earnest inquiry to waspish mockery (much of the
satire in Off the Road is directed, refreshingly, at the narrator
himself), but one never loses the sense that this is one voice. Travelling with
him as a reader, I found him a fascinating companion — always intelligent,
disconcertingly observant, satisfyingly hard to second-guess....
‘I do hope
the book enjoys the success it deserves. It came to me out of the blue. I don’t
know the author. But it strikes me as a glistening original in the shopworn and
cliche-infected world of the modern travel book.’
- Jonathan
Raban
ISBN 1-85410-306-7
this
irreverent
and ruminative adventure, Jack Hitt sets out to walk the 500 miles
along the pilgrim’s route from France to Santiago de Compostela, Spain.
He had just reached the Dantean age of thirty-five. What better way to
serve out his coming
mid-life crisis than on a pilgrimage? After all, in its simplest form, a
pilgrimage was nothing more than a long walk; ‘stripped down, a pilgrim
was a
guy out for some cosmically serious fresh air’. Little did he know.
Off the
Road
charts the serendipitous encounters of an innocent abroad, as Jack Hitt
undergoes the rigorous traditions of Europe’s oldest form of packaged tour. The
result is a comic yet sympathetic attempt to understand the vanishing role of
religion in modern life.
Following
in the footsteps of millions of medieval pilgrims, this is an unforgettable
tour of the sites that people believe God once touched: the strange fortress
said to hold the Holy Grail; the miraculous chickens whose descendants still
dance in the church of Santo Domingo; the places associated with the murderous
monks known as the Knights Templar; and the churches filled with relics such as
chunks of bread left over from the Last Supper.
Along the
way, in small-town shelters or lost among Spanish mountains, our hero finds
himself bunking down with countless pilgrims — a Flemish film crew, a drunken
gypsy, a draconian Dutch air force officer, a one-legged walker, and a Welsh
family with a mule. Pilgrims don’t constitute a school of thought but a
condition.
Allegiances
and acquaintances come and go; friendships are made and broken, all in the
course of a day or a casual remark. Exhausted travellers meet for a lively talk
about what they know best — basic human suffering generally, blisters
specifically.
Off the
Road
rediscovers the warm hilarity that underlies the solemn rituals of the past. In
the day-to-day grind of walking under the hot Spanish sun, Jack Hitt and his
smelly companions not only find occasional good meals or dry shelter, but also
stumble upon some fresh ideas about old-time zealotry and modern belief. Anyone
disturbed by the sense of a disposable past will relish the way this offbeat
journey through history turns into a provocative rethinking of the present.
Jack Hitt is a contributing editor at Harper's
Magazine and Lingua Franca. He writes regularly for The New York
Times Sunday Magazine. He is from Charleston, South Carolina.
Jacket
design and illustration by Mary Lynn Blasutta
Aurum Press Ltd
25 Bedford Avenue
London WC1B 3 AT
ISBN 1 85410
306 7
£14.95
Views: 18
From #1 bestselling author Lora Leighcomes the thrilling Brute Force series—packed with powerful men, steely women,and explosive passion.SHE'S NOTHING BUT TROUBLERiordan Malone ismore than a bodyguard. As an Elite Ops agent, he's ripped, raged, and ready torumble—a true warrior, inside and out. But no war zone can compare to thebattle in Rory's heart when he lays eyes on the only woman he's ever loved—and thought he had lost forever. . . HE'S EVERYTHING SHE NEEDS As the daughter ofa crime lord, Amara Resnova has endured the cruelty of her father's enemies—and has tried to escape that world ever since. Now,she must reach out to the one man who saved her life, even if she's neverforgiven him for breaking her heart. But Amara istougher today than she was then. She's also more desirable to Rory—anddangerous to love. Can he protect her from her father's enemies withoutsurrendering to his own... Views: 18
A stubborn nobleman and a willful young woman are at the heart of bestselling author Amelia Grey's newest love story. HE THINKS LOVE IS MUCH ADO. Adam Greyhawke is through with marriage. After losing his wife at a young age, he's more interested in carousing and gambling at the Heirs' Club than taking another trip to the altar. When his obligations as the Earl of Greyhawke thrust him into the heart of Society, he dreads the boredom that only a ballroom can inspire in a roguish scoundrel. That is, until he meets a bewitching young woman who captures his curiosity—and reminds him just how delicious desire can be. IS SHE READY TO SAY I DO? Miss Katherine Wright is accustomed to men interested only in her generous dowry. Adam's attraction is far more powerful—he tests her wits and her courage at every turn, until she finds herself longing to fulfill an everlasting passion she never imagined was possible. But the... Views: 18
Scott and Joan Bolzan tell their unique, harrowing true story—the story of a 46-year-old man whose accident at the workplace resulted in permanent amnesia, erasing all memories of his past, his wife and children, his likes and dislikes, and how to navigate the accelerated pace of the 21st century. But, in the vein of Lee and Bob Woodruff's In an Instant and Jill Bolte Taylor's My Stroke of Insight, Scott Bolzan's story is not a memoir of loss but rather a tale of hope, perseverance, and optimism—an inspirational recollection of confronting an unimaginable crisis and learning to start over. Views: 18
Retta Barre's not the first 12-year-old girl to travel the Oregon Trail. And she won't be the last. But for something that's supposed to be the grandest adventure of her life, the long, slow days sure are dull. Thick dust, irritating bugs, and picking up buffalo chips are not the stuff of the action-packed penny novels she loves to read. When things change in Retta's life, they change fast. A simple trip into the prairie brings both adventure and big time trouble. Soon Retta is the talk of the wagon train and her friends don't want to miss her next caper. To be sure, she won't let them down. Views: 18
David Fisher is an EPA agent, assigned to investigate possible leaking from the Devonshire dump site, in part because of an increase of birth defects in the surrounding area. The most devastating birth defect is aphysica, being born without a soul. In this world the Other Side is very real and all the religions have their actual spiritual counterpart. The gods and whatnot need adoration to survive, so sometimes religions that lose adherents became endangered, and artificial temples and worshippers are made to save the entity. Fisher gets deeper and deeper into what turns into a plot to revive one of the most evil spirits in both Worlds. Views: 18
When factory owner Bernard Morton fires him from his first job, Harry Glass protests by impulsively going off with Morton's car and the intriguing Mrs Morton. Shocked out of the life she has been living, Mrs Morton forms a bond with Harry as they are pursued from one city to another by the Morton brothers. Bernard wants his wife back; Norman is more concerned with the contents of a briefcase left in the car boot. When Harry and Mrs Morton are given shelter in a remote house in the Highlands, it seems they have found refuge. But by the time the Morton brothers find them they have been caught up in a world of sexual perversity and fantasy. "My Life as a Man" begins with a nation in the grip of anti-war fever, and ends with an old man's discovery that life can still surprise him. Views: 18
