EDITORIAL REVIEW: ***From the author of the sensational bestselling Sophie Kinsella novels and the *New York Times *bestsellers *The Wedding Girl *and *Sleeping Arrangements, *comes a wicked comedy of adultery, angst, and modern marriage ***The asking price for this house includes a stunning renovation of hearts and dreams....Liz and Jonathan Chambers were stuck with two mortgages, mounting debts, and a miserable adolescent daughter. Then realtor Marcus Witherstone came into their lives—and it seemed he would solve all their problems. He knew the perfect tenants from London who would rent their old house: a glamorous PR girl, Ginny, and her almost-famous husband, Piers. But soon Liz is lost in blissful dreams of Marcus, Jonathan is left to run their business, and neither of them has time to notice that their teenage daughter is developing an unhealthy passion for the tenants, Piers and Ginny. Everyone is tangled up with everyone else, and in the most awkward possible way. As events close in, they all begin to realize that some deceptions are just a bit too close to home. *A Desirable Residence *is sure to continue the phenomenal success of the Sophie Kinsella/Madeleine Wickham franchise. Views: 65
Halloween is more than haunted in this superscary superspecial addition to Spotlight’s popular tween horror series.When Ashley McDowell’s parents first told her they were moving from the big city to a one-stoplight farm town, she was convinced that she was going to hate living in Heaton Corners. But to Ashley’s surprise, she loves it. Everyone is super welcoming, especially her new friends. Plus, it’s October and there’s the town’s Harvest Festival, and, of course, Halloween. But when Ashley starts making plans for Halloween night, she is shocked to find out that her new friends are forbidden to go trick-or-treating. Ashley convinces them to sleep over at her house and go trick-or-treating anyway, but she soon discovers that Halloween in Heaton Corners isn’t like Halloween anywhere else. For one thing, everything seems so much more real...too real. Ashley can’t help but think that maybe Heaton Corners doesn’t need... Views: 65
Nurdin Lalani and his family, Asian immigrants from Africa, have come to the Toronto suburb of Don Mills only to find that the old world and its values pursue them. A genial orderly at a downtown hospital, he has been accused of sexually assaulting a girl. Although he is innocent, traditional propriety prompts him to question the purity of his own thoughts. Ultimately, his friendship with the enlightened Sushila offers him an alluring freedom from a past that haunts him, a marriage that has become routine, and from the trials of coping with teenage children. Introducing us to a cast of vividly drawn characters within this immigrant community, Vassanji is a keen observer of lives caught between one world and another. Views: 65
From the hilarious opening to the satisfying final conflagration, Fay Weldon's Worst Fears is a taut, scathing revelation of the nature of marital intimacy. When Alexandra returns from her stint on the London stage to find her husband mysteriously dead of a heart attack and her female friends ominously invested in smoothing out all the complications of the tragedy, she begins to be suspicious. At first she attributes this to grief, then to paranoia. But she soon finds herself starting to crack, crank-calling her friends' psychiatrist, attacking people with kitchen chairs and breaking into their houses, searching furiously for evidence to confirm her husband's rampant adultery and her own worst fears. "A snappy whodunit of the heart....one of Weldon's best novels yet." -- The New York Times Book Review; "With a dash of murder mystery and a wink at Isben's grim tales of ruined marriages, this splendid and spiteful novel shows Fay Weldon to be in as fine form as ever." -- The Philadelphia Inquirer; "A hundred years hence, if people can still read, Weldon's books will likely have the unblunted edge of Jane Austen, an unsentimental Baedeker guide to sexual manners in an ill-mannered age. Fay Weldon breaks taboos like tape at a marathon, and she hasn't stopped running yet." -- Los Angeles Times.Amazon.com ReviewThe 21st novel by the "quintessential anti-romance novelist" Fay Weldon, Worst Fears focuses on Alexandra Ludd, a minor actress whose seemingly idyllic life in the West Country in England is turned upside-down when her husband Ned dies of a heart attack. Alexandra learns that not only was her marriage a sham, but that her friends and family are not as loyal as they seemed. When at the funeral her husband's mistress, Jenny, receives more sympathy than Alexandra and even her dog, Diamond, snubs her, Alexandra realizes it is she who has been shallow and vain, and embarks on a journey to discover what really sustains romantic love. From Publishers WeeklyIn Weldon's fictional universe, a character's worst fears are often not the half of it: the horrific reality of the situations in which her protagonists find themselves often go beyond anything they could have imagined. This is certainly true of Alexandra Ludd, a successful stage actress who is performing in Ibsen's A Doll's House when her husband, Ned, a theater critic, dies in their country house. Alexandra takes a leave of absence from the London production, only to find that her friends in the country all seem to be engaged in some kind of cover-up regarding the circumstances of Ned's death. It gradually becomes clear to Alexandra that her husband lived a very different and more promiscuous life than she'd ever suspected. As always, Weldon's fast-paced black comedy is as compulsively readable as it is unpleasant, but Alexandra's utter failure to have perceived any hint of her husband's real nature makes her remarkably unobservant, and her treatment of their son, Sascha, makes her seem outright cold-blooded, while those around her are malicious and spiteful to the point of sadism. The plot, which essentially adheres to Murphy's law with only a couple of unpredictable detours, lacks the cleverness or complexity to be found in such previous Weldon books about women scorned as The Lives and Loves of a She-Devil and Trouble. But even average Weldon is full of delights, and admirers of her witty malevolence will find much here to enjoy loathing. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. Views: 65
Sometimes, to save the world, a guy must just take on the cheerleaders. John Divine had a vision of the end of the world, a world ruled by cheerleaders, a world he didn't want to live in. He had no choice. He had to stop them. Views: 65
Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce (1842-1914) was an American editorialist, journalist, short-story writer and satirist, today best known for his The Devil's Dictionary (1911). He wrote some of his books under the pseudonyms Dod Grile and J. Milton Sloluck. Bierce's lucid, unsentimental style has kept him popular when many of his contemporaries have been consigned to oblivion. His dark, sardonic views and vehemence as a critic earned him the nickname, "Bitter Bierce. " Such was his reputation that it was said his judgment on any piece of prose or poetry could make or break a writer's career. His short stories are considered among the best of the 19th century, providing a popular following based on his roots. He wrote realistically of the terrible things he had seen in the war in such stories as An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, Killed at Resaca, and Chickamauga. His works include: The Fiend's Delight (1873), Cobwebs from an Empty Skull (1874), Black Beetles in Amber (1892), Fantastic Fables (1899), Shapes of Clay (1903), A Son of the Gods, and A Horseman in the Sky (1907), Write It Right (1909) and A Cynic Looks at Life (1912). Views: 65
Tuk the bighorn sheep is told he will be the one to save his herd, but he is young and would rather play with his bandmates than figure out why the herd needs saving. As humans encroach further and further into their territory, there is less room for the sheep to wander, food becomes scarce, and the herd's very survival is in danger. Tuk and his friends set out to find Blue Mountain, a place that Tuk sometimes sees far in the distance and thinks might be a better home. The journey is treacherous, filled with threatening pumas and bears and dangerous lands, leading Tuk down a path that goes against every one of his instincts. Still, Tuk perseveres, reaching Blue Mountain and leading his herd into a new, safe place. Views: 65
In the penultimate chapter of the saga of Titus Pullus, Legionary of Rome, Titus has been promoted to the newly formalized post of Camp Prefect, by Gaius Octavianus Caesar, who will become known as Augustus. Sent to the wild province of Pannonia, Titus, Sextus Scribonius, Quintus Balbus and Titus' nephew and heir Gaius Porcinus, take part in a campaign by the grandson of the former Triumvir Marcus Licinius Crassus. Meanwhile, Titus experiences both the pain of advancing age and personal loss as tragedy shakes his faith for the last time.Not only must Titus and his friends survive the rigors of combat against the wild tribes that inhabit the region that now makes up the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, and Romania, but they must worry about the political undercurrents as Augustus consolidates his power. Will Titus and his friends become casualties in Gaius Octavianus Caesar's relentless pursuit of total control of Rome?Marching With Caesar-Rise of Augustus is the fifth in the Marching... Views: 65
AD 1193. England lies uneasy, a land without a king. Richard the Lionheart has not returned from Crusade, his brother John conspires to usurp the crown. On the throne, in the Lionheart's stead, sits Eleanor of Aquitaine. She is determined to prevent the outbreak of civil war, but there are few she can trust. Justin de Quincy - a man without title or land - is one of the few.December: As the Queen's man, de Quincy has already encountered Prince John's murderous intrigues. But now the King's brother has asked for his aid. John tells of a document implicating him in a plot to kill his brother. Despite his hunger for the crown, John swears he is innocent. He must find the forger and prove the document false before the Lionheart hears of it.It takes more than John's sly charms to persuade Justin, but the welfare of the Queen is also at stake. This concession will take him to a bloody chamber on Mont-Saint-Michel, a deadly encounter in a Paris cemetery, and, ultimately, to the unraveling of a conspiracy that might have changed the course of history. Sharon Kay Penman is the author of eight critically acclaimed historical novels: The Sunne in Splendour, Here be Dragons, Falls the Shadow, The Reckoning, When Christ and his Saints Slept, Time and Chance, Devil's Brood and Lionheart. Views: 65
Maxwell Maitland is willing to travel to Scotland if that's where the next big development project takes him, but when he gets to the site—a majestic Highland castle—nothing goes according to plan. Single mom Jeannie Brodie is on hand to smooth out problems with the locals, but she creates utter chaos in Max's highly organized, schedule-driven heart. Max is has always gone wherever the job takes him, but this time, he'll have to choose between the lady and the castle. Views: 65
Nurse Sinead Thomas rescues the hospital's handsome architect Austin Riordan from a life-threatening situation. She accepts his offer to be his private nurse over the Christmas holidays, but gets more than she bargained for as they grow ever closer. A young widow, she never wants to go through the torment of being in love again. But Austin is nothing if not persistent. Can they fight the demons from her past, to secure their hearts' desire? Views: 64
