Just Who Does He Think He Is?When Abby Lee strides into the office of cool, collected business mogul Ethan Maddux begging for his help, he agrees to give her ten minutes out of his oh-so-busy day -- and not a second more. Abby certainly knows that time is money -- but this is ridiculous! Ethan might be sexy and he might run a huge corporation, but if he does everything this fast, well, it's no wonder he's still single.Ethan knows he's the only man who can rescue Abby's boss from financial ruin, and he makes it clear he's not going to be easily won over. What he's confused about is how he could be losing his heart to this pesky, annoying ... utterly adorable... woman. And when Abby is threatened, Ethan realizes that there might be more to life than business ... and more to love than a mere merging of worldly goods! Views: 28
The sequel to Tears of the Moon - a favourite for all Di Morrissey readers.The Kimberley - from the red desert to the remote town of Broome - is the backdrop for Kimberley Sun. This is the enthralling story of modern relationships and the unbreakable ties we all have to the past. Lily Barton is beautiful, adventurous and 50-something. She is looking for a complete life change. Sami, her daughter, is 30, driving alone through the outback and finally, reluctantly, confronting her family roots. Together they are swept into a world where legends, myths and reality start to converge. Those who come into their orbit bring stories that change each of them. From Farouz, the old Afghan camel driver, to Bobby, the Chinese/Aboriginal man who is tangled in the murder of a German tourist, to Biddy, the survivor from Captain Tyndall and Olivia's era... and who is the mysterious artist hiding in the desert? All have a secret and all have a story to tell... Views: 28
From the #1 internationally bestselling author comes a sweeping epic that chronicles the history of the world through the destiny of a mysterious blue stone.Millions of years ago, a meteorite fell to earth and shattered, revealing a beautiful blue stone. One hundred thousand years ago, a girl named Tall One found the crystal on the African plain, and it formed her destiny—as well as the destiny of generations to come. From ancient Israel to Imperial Rome, medieval England to fifteenth-century Germany, the eighteenth-century Caribbean, and the nineteenth-century American West, the destiny of the stone and the history of the world unfold. Each story is full of the betrayals and obsessions of the human heart, and the quests of the human spirit. In The Blessing Stone, Barbara Wood has both told the intimate details of her characters’ lives and created a sense of the epic sweep of human history.From Publishers WeeklyWood (Perfect Harmony) pulls off an unlikely feat with this sweeping epic about the history of humanity, from the first Homo sapiens to 20th-century Californians. At the novel's center is a blue crystal, a fragment from a meteorite that fell to earth some three million years ago. The crystal is first discovered by a girl on the African plain 100,000 years ago; when the "water stone" seems to save her mother from illness, the girl's stature in her community changes and so does the fate of her descendants. As the crystal is passed down through the generations, Wood crafts vivid sketches of ordinary women who triumph over a prescribed destiny. A Roman noblewoman disobeys her husband and finds her own salvation; an 11th-century English prioress struggles against an abbot to save her monastery; a girl from a 16th-century German hamlet heads to the Near East to find her father and becomes part of the sultan's harem; a plantation wife in 18th-century Martinique saves her estate from marauding pirates. At last sighting, the blue stone is "in a place called Woodstock, wired into the handle of a marijuana roach clip owned by a hippy [sic] named Argyle." Some stories are predictable, but Wood packs them with historical details that should keep readers interested ("When her brothers came to visit, they greeted her, as all Roman male relatives greeted their kinswoman, by kissing her on both cheeks. This was not a gesture of affection, but rather a covert way to detect wine on a woman's breath"). Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library JournalIn her latest book, Wood, who is well known in Europe for her epic novels (The Prophetess), chronicles human development by following the passage of a precious stone throughout history. The stone, a striking blue meteorite that fell to Earth three million years ago, is first found by early humans in Africa when they are just learning to plan for the future. They attribute this new understanding to the discovery of the stone. Thus begins the legend of the stone as it passes through history from ancient Israel, to Imperial Rome, to medieval England, to the colonial Caribbean and finally the American West. In each episode, the individuals who come into contact with the stone are captivated by its beauty, influenced by the powers instilled in it, and often involved in significant human cultural developments. In each era, Wood creates genuine, engaging characters whose stories are fascinating although a bit uneven in the later episodes. This novel should earn Wood the larger audience in the United States that she deserves. Recommended for all public libraries.Karen T. Bilton, Somerset Cty. Lib., Bridgewater, NJCopyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. Views: 28
Based on a horrendous true crime, IN THE FOREST si the story of Mich O'Kane -- 'not all there in the head' it's said -- who shoots three people dead in the woods of Ireland. Edna O'Brien traces the events that lead to such horror.Mich O'Kane hears voices; he cannot stop mourning the death of his mother. Theft and other crimes lead him to a Christian Brothers borstal, then to a British prison. By the time he returns home, he is an institutionalised criminal incapable fo telling the truth even to himself.Single mother Eily lives with her you son Maddie in a house Mich camped out in after his mother's death. One night Mich drags them out of the house and orders Eily to drive to the forest. The third death is that of a priest he entreats to come to the murder site.This tragic an starkly terrible story is told from various points of view, including Eily's, Mich's granny, a priest, but the core of it is Mich, born to fail. Can there be any hope for him?Amazon ReviewIrish novelist Edna O'Brien is again the centre of controversy with her latest novel In the Forest. Forty years ago her first six novels were banned but times have changed. She also wrote The Country Girls in 1962 and was vilified in Ireland. Taking as her subject matter the actual murders of a young mother, her toddler son and a priest in 1994 in County Clare, she is accused of exploiting grief, of gross insensitivity, of being motivated only by financial gain and of portraying Ireland as timeless and primitive. Her comeback is that "the novelist is the psychic and moral historian of his or her society. So it's about that part of Ireland I know very well...and the darkness that still prevails".Not surprisingly this "true crime" novel makes for sombre and uncomfortable reading. O'Brien is unquestionably skilled at deploying language to create a highly charged atmosphere: even Cloosh Wood, where much of the action unfolds, takes on its own sinister personality where "the light [becomes] darker and darker into the chamber of non-light". In tightly written chapters each with a change of narrator--the murderer himself, his sister and father, the murdered young woman, Eily Ryan, her sister, the priest, Father John, neighbours, the police--the effect is of accumulating tension and foreboding, despite our knowing (or because we know?) the terrible outcome. But in making the voices of her numerous characters so fragmented as to suggest a society in the grip of terror, O'Brien fails to make them resonate as individuals, except for the killer, the young psychotic, Mich. Brutalised at home, abused by his priests and his peers, he becomes the feared "kindershcreck". In his late teens he is released from jail for a string of crimes, and returns to his old turf. Stalked by the brutality of his past, he in turn stalks Eily Ryan, a hippy-ish figure, living with her three-year-old son in a ramshackle cottage that Mich had seen as his own lair. Eily becomes to him "all-mothering, all-sinning. She-devil...Now the ultimate flood of rage that has been waiting is loosed from the wrenched and bloodied sockets of his fucked life as he tears her clothing in an ecstasy of hate, as though tearing limb from limb all womankind". With these terrible deaths and the hunting down of Mich, O'Brien suggests that the crimes are not Mich's alone: fear, bigotry, misogyny, repression and silence permeate the culture. And out of this, such evils come. --Ruth PetrieReviewThis is still number 4 in Ireland, which is wonderful news. Edna is attending the Edinburgh Festival on 16 August. Just to remind you of the fantastic reviews the book has received over here: 'The writing is very well judged, for the most part, and is sometimes exceptional'Tom Dunne, The TLS 'The triumph of this book lies in its evocation of the violent adolescent boy... O'Brien isvery accomplished in her portrayal of his crazy scattergun speech.'Barbara Trapido, THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY 'This is a frightening, disconcerting and unforgettable piece of work.'Elizabeth Buchan, THE DAILY MAIL 'Nothing I have read since Blake Morrison's account of the James Bulger Case, AS IF, comes close to O'Brien's insights into the complex web of causes and contexts that make up the 'whys' of murder.'Laurence Warening, The HERALD 'By fictionalising her account, Ms O'Brien allows herself an imaginative freedom which gives thestory a new life, sharpening the sense of horror and the lost opportunity, while at no point allowing us to forget its truth.'The ECONOMIST 'O'Brien's portrayal of a community united in unease is faultless.'Claudia Fitzhebert, THEDAILY TELEGRAPH 'IN THE FOREST is one of her most powerful and effective novels, a model of its kind.'David Robson, THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH 'IN THE FOREST is a hauntingly sympathetic depiction of evil.... For O'Brien this is a Greek tragedy 'that needed to be written'. Fortunately her writing is poetic enoughfor you to feel that, yes, however painful, it also needs to be written.'VivGroksop, THE EXPRESS 'IN THE FOREST is a magnificent book, haunting, instinctive and shocking.... When art is this good, it cannot be afraid to speak out.'Louise Rimmer, SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY 'A spare, compelling and compassionate novel. IN THE FOREST was not just a worthwhile enterprise, but a necessary and successful one.'Ronan Bennett, THE GUARDIAN 'This is an ambitious, important book, dealing with difficult subjects directly and courageously.'Jonathan Heawood, THE OBSERVER 'O'Brien constructs a narrative of the peculiar combination of emotional simplicity and complexity that characterises a successful fairy story.'Jane Shilling, THE TIMES 'IN THE FOREST is a sort of fictionalised inner exploration of an outer horror, beautifully written, but yes, dark.'MaryKenny, THE SPECTATOR 'I read it avidly. O'Brien had done us a service, without diminishing the dead.'Melanie McDonagh, THE EVENING STANDARD 'This novel, splintered in its form but coherent in its potency, is a persuasive representation of a desperado, of one who has despaired.'Lucy Hughes-Hallett, THE SUNDA Views: 28
Abraham Kasir has properties scattered across Birmingham, but the ones on Cullom Street hold a special place in his heart. So does his newest tenant, Landon Cooper, a transplant from one of the city's ritzier suburbs. Landon's a psychologist managing her own mental illness in the face of divorce and downsizing. Her upstairs neighbor, Abi, is a country girl trying to shake her rural roots even as her father's illness pulls her back home. Across the street, Jet is a former prostitute reeling from an uncovered truth about her birth mother. Jet has a crush on her neighbor Sam, a weed dealer paying his way through college and wrestling with his dreams for the future. Mr. Kasir acts not just as a landlord but as a father figure to each of them—and most of all to his grandson, Jason. Fresh out of high school, Jason is trying to follow in his grandfather's footsteps while his own father struggles with drug addiction. These are the voices in Once in a Blue Moon, Vicki... Views: 28
Sometimes you need to keep a few secrets.Frankie knows she'll be in big trouble if Dad discovers she secretly posted a dating profile for him online. But she's determined to find him a wife, even if she ends up grounded for life. Frankie wants what she had before Mom died. A family of three. Two is a pair of socks or the wheels on a bicycle or a busy weekend at the B&B where Frankie and Dad live. Three is a family. And Frankie's is missing a piece.But Operation Mom is harder to pull off than Frankie expects. None of the Possibles are very momish, the B&B's guests keep canceling, Frankie's getting the silent treatment from her once best friend, and there's a maybe-ghost hanging around. Worst of all, Gram and Dad are definitely hiding secrets of their own. If a smart cookie like Frankie wants to save the B&B and find her missing piece, she's going to have to figure out what secrets are worth keeping and when it's time to let go. Views: 28
An enchanting seventeenth-century epic of grand passion and adventure, this debut novel tells the captivating story of one of India's most legendary and controversial empresses -- a woman whose brilliance and determination trumped myriad obstacles, and whose love shaped the course of the Mughal empire. She came into the world in the year 1577, to the howling accompaniment of a ferocious winter storm. As the daughter of starving refugees fleeing violent persecution in Persia, her fateful birth in a roadside tent sparked a miraculous reversal of family fortune, culminating in her father's introduction to the court of Emperor Akbar. She is called Mehrunnisa, the Sun of Women. This is her story. Growing up on the fringes of Emperor Akbar's opulent palace grounds, Mehrunnisa blossoms into a sapphire-eyed child blessed with a precocious intelligence, luminous beauty, and a powerful ambition far surpassing the bounds of her family's station. Mehrunnisa first encounters young Prince Salim on his wedding day. In that instant, even as a royal gala swirls around her in celebration of the future emperor's first marriage, Mehrunnisa foresees the path of her own destiny. One day, she decides with uncompromising surety, she too will become Salim's wife. She is all of eight years old -- and wholly unaware of the great price she and her family will pay for this dream. Views: 28
When Skye Fargo comes across a dead man near the town of Cawthorne, he figures he'll bring the body to town for burial. But he learns soon enough that dying has been real easy to do in Cawthorne lately. Someone in town has developed a taste for murder-and the Trailsman might just be the next course... Views: 28
James Lee Burke has frequently been praised for the superb writing and strong suspense of his Dave Robicheaux mysteries. Now in this powerful new novel, he enters the front ranks of contemporary ficiton writers and mainstream bestsellers. When a Nazi submarine is discovered off the coast of Louisiana it soon becomes clear that the dark forces it represents are alive and all too well. Neo Nazi's are on the march in New Orleans and their leader, icy psychopath Will Buchalter, will stop at nothing to get his hands on the submarines mysterious cargo. Only detective Dave Robicheaux and his family stand between Buchalter and his terrifying ambitions. Views: 27
The new Stanley Hastings mystery caper, which takes the ever-loquacious private detective on safari in Zambia . . . What could possibly go wrong?Stanley Hastings on safari? I don't think so. Neither did Stanley, until Alice's small inheritance—coupled with scrimping on a few luxuries like food and rent—allowed them to book a group trip to Zambia. Now the New York PI is hiking with lions, canoeing with hippos, and having close encounters with elephants and giraffes.It's a dangerous safari. The leader is a reckless, gung-ho, great white hunter who delights in leaping from the jeep with a hearty "Come on, gang, let's see where this lion is going!" And a series of bizarre accidents quickly dwindles the group's numbers. Why was the guide's young spotter foolish enough to walk under a sausage fruit tree . . . just as one of the huge sausage fruits fell? How did the leaves of a poisonous plant wind up in a tourist's salad? Are these really accidents?A stabbing... Views: 27
