Greed. Envy. Sex. Property. In her subversively funny and genuinely moving new novel, Jane Smiley nails down several American obsessions with the expertise of a master carpenter.
Forthright, likable Joe Stratford is the kind of local businessman everybody trusts, for good reason. But it’s 1982, and even in Joe’s small town, values are in upheaval: not just property values, either. Enter Marcus Burns, a would-be master of the universe whose years with the IRS have taught him which rules are meant to be broken. Before long he and Joe are new best friends—and partners in an investment venture so complex that no one may ever understand it. Add to this Joe’s roller coaster affair with his mentor’s married daughter. The result is as suspenseful and entertaining as any of Jane Smiley’s fiction.
From the Trade Paperback edition. Views: 1 180
The new Richard Sharpe adventure
It is the spring of 1809 and a small British army is stranded when the French invade northern Portugal. Sharpe is cut off and tries to fight his way back to the British lines but instead is led into treacherous danger.
When the future Duke of Wellington arrives to take command, he immediately mounts his own counter-attack. Sharpe becomes he hunter instead of the hunted. Amidst the wreckage of a defeated army, in the storm lashed hills of he Portuguese frontier, Sharpe takes a terrible revenge.
Sharpe's Havoc* is a classic Sharpe story, with Richard Sharpe in fighting form in the company of Sergeant Patrick Harper, Captain Hogan and Sharpe's beloved Greenjackets.
Sharpe's Havoc is the best Sharpe novel for a long time and may even be the best of all - Evening Standard** Views: 1 178
Anakin Skywalker infiltrates an elite boarding school in this harrowing Jedi adventure.
Anakin Skywalker is not an average teen. He has spent his adolescence surrounded by other Jedi. But now the son of a Senator has gone missing, and Anakin must infiltrate an elite school in order to find out what's happened. What he discovers involves a conspiracy much bigger than anyone anticipates -- a conspiracy with repercussions for the whole galaxy. Views: 1 177
Princess Mia is dreaming about the prom - and contending with a hotel workers' strike - in the fifth, supremely hilarious episode of Meg Cabot's Princess Diaries. This time, Mia's in the pink about the upcoming Albert Einstein H.S. prom, and she's crossing her fingers that Michael will ask her to go. (They're in love, so why wouldn't he ask her, right?) But during Seven Minutes in Heaven at her b-day party, Mia learns that Michael is not the prom-going type. Good grief, what's a princess to do?
To make matters worse, Grandmere has gotten a busboy fired due to a mishap with her pooch, Rommel, at a swanky restaurant, so when all of the city's busboys go on strike, it causes a chain of events that result in Grandmere crashing at Mia's mom's place, her pal Lilly Moscovitz picking up a picket sign, and the prom being brought to a screeching halt.
Thankfully, staunch yet boy-wise Grandmere has a plan to change Michael's mind and put everything back on track, making Mia the happiest "prom princess" on this side of the Atlantic - and readers more starry-eyed than Molly Ringwald in her prettiest pink frock.
Following up the brief Volume IV and a Half and introducing a new addition to Mia's family, this knee-slapping fifth volume makes the series glitter brighter than ever, placing yet another jewel in Cabot's crown. Views: 1 167
Someone is building a large, fancy house down the street from the Alden's--a house shielded by a tall stone wall. The only way to approach the house is through an iron gate decorated with huge black widow spiders! Benny is certain the new neighbors must be hiding something...but what could it be? The Boxcar children are determined to investigate. Views: 1 165
On the 10th anniversary of when UN peacekeepers landed in Rwanda, Random House Canada proudly publishes the unforgettable 1st-hand account of the genocide by the leader of the mission. Digging deep into shattering memories, Dallaire has written a powerful story of betrayal, naïveté, racism & international politics. His message is simple, undeniable: Never again.
When Lt-Gen. Roméo Dallaire was called to serve as force commander of the UN intervention in Rwanda in '93, he thought he was heading off on a straightforward peacekeeping mission. Thirteen months later he flew home from Africa, broken, disillusioned & suicidal, having witnessed the slaughter of 800,000 Rwandans in 100 days.
In Shake Hands with the Devil, he takes readers with him on a return voyage into hell, vividly recreating the events the international community turned its back on. This book is an unsparing eyewitness account of the failure by humanity to stop the genocide, despite timely warnings. Woven thru the story of this disastrous mission is his own journey from confident Cold Warrior, to devastated UN commander, to retired general engaged in a painful struggle to find a measure of peace, hope & reconciliation.
This book is a personal account of his conversion from a man certain of his worth & secure in his assumptions to one conscious of his own weaknesses & failures & critical of the institutions he'd relied on. It might not sit easily with standard ideas of military leadership, but understanding what happened to him & his mission to Rwanda is crucial to understanding the moral minefields peacekeepers are forced to negotiate when we ask them to step into dirty wars. Views: 1 165
Librarian note: an alternate cover for this edition can be found here.
Nick Gentry is reputed to be the most skillful lover in all England. Known for solving delicate situations, he is hired to seek out Miss Charlotte Howard. He believes his mission will be easily accomplished - but that was before he met the lady in question.
For instead of a willful female, he discovers one in desperate circumstances, hiding from a man who could destroy her very soul. So Nick shockingly offers her a very different kind of proposition - one he has never offered before.
He asks her to be his bride.
And he knows that this will be much more than a union in name only. For he senses what Charlotte does not yet know - that her appetite for sensuality matches his own. But what Nick learns surprises him. For while London's most notorious lover might claim Charlotte's body, he quickly discovers it will take much more than passion to win her love Views: 1 164
The Light of Day combines a powerful love story and a narrative of intense suspense into a brilliant and tender novel about what drives people to extremes of emotion. As in his Booker-winning novel Last Orders, Swift transforms ordinary lives through extraordinary storytelling.
This new novel from Graham Swift -- his first since the Booker Prize-winning Last Orders -- is the work of a master storyteller. The Light of Day is a luminous and gripping tale of love, murder and redemption.
George Webb is a divorced ex-policeman turned private investigator, a man whose prospects seemed in ruins not so long ago. Following the course of a single, dazzling day in George’s life, the novel illuminates not only his past but his now all-consuming relationship with a former client.
Intimate and intricate in its evocation of daily existence, The Light of Day achieves a singular intensity and almost unbearable suspense. Tender and humorous in its depiction of life’s surface, Swift explores the depths and extremities of what lies within us and how, for better or worse, it’s never too late to discover what they are.
Excerpt from *The Light of Day
Two years ago and a little more. October still, but a day like today, blue and clear and crisp. Rita opened my door and said, “Mrs. Nash.”
I was already on my feet, buttoning my jacket. Most of them have no comparisons to go on -- it’s their first time. It must feel like coming to a doctor. They expected something shabbier, seedier, more shaming. The tidy atmosphere, Rita’s doing, surprises and reassures them. And the vase of flowers.
White chrysanthemums, I recall.
“Mrs. Nash, please have a seat.”
I could be some high-street solicitor. A fountain-pen in my fingers. Doctor, solicitor -- marriage guidance counsellor. You have to be a bit of all three.
The usual look of plucked-up courage, swallowed-back hesitation, of being somewhere they’d rather not be.
“My husband is seeing another woman.”* Views: 1 164
#1 New York Times bestselling author Christine Feehan plunges readers into the darkest recesses of the mind as a man and a woman discover the terrifying power—and the forbidden passion—that could destroy them both in the first novel in the GhostWalker series. The brainchild of renowned scientist Peter Whitney and his brilliant daughter, Lily, the GhostWalker experiment was created to enhance the psychic abilities of an elite squadron, transforming their natural telekenetic powers into a unique military weapon. But something has gone wrong... In the isolated underground, the men have been dying, victims of bizarre accidents. Captain Ryland Miller knows he is next. When Dr. Whitney himself is murdered, Ryland has only one person left to trust: the beautiful Lily. Possessed of an uncanny sixth sense herself, Lily shares Ryland’s every new fear, every betrayal, every growing suspicion, and every passionate beat of the heart. Together, they will be drawn deeper into the labyrinth of her father’s past...and closer to a secret that someone would kill to keep hidden. Views: 1 162
Life at the prestigious Q High School for Girls in Tokyo exists on a precise social axis: a world of insiders and outsiders, of haves and have-nots. Beautiful Yuriko and her unpopular, unnamed sister exist in different spheres; the hopelessly awkward Kazue Sato floats around among them, trying to fit in.Years later, Yuriko and Kazue are dead — both have become prostitutes and both have been brutally murdered.
Natsuo Kirino, celebrated author of Out, seamlessly weaves together the stories of these women’s struggles within the conventions and restrictions of Japanese society. At once a psychological investigation of the pressures facing Japanese women and a classic work of noir fiction, Grotesque is a brilliantly twisted novel of ambition, desire, beauty, cruelty, and identity by one of our most electrifying writers.
From the Trade Paperback edition. Views: 1 162
Tensions run high in this thrilling installment of the best-selling Jedi Quest series
Masters and apprentices must trust one another. But that is not the case with Anakin Skywalker and his Master, Obi-Wan Kenobi. A rift is building between them. When they are separated during a rescue mission on a dangerous planet, their conflict reaches a new high -- and shows signs of things to come. Views: 1 155
Lean, edgy former police detective Jack LaCroix had forty-eight hours to clear his name and keep his freedom. To do it, the escaped prisoner needed attorney Landis McAllister--the woman he'd once thought would share his life. The woman who thought he'd betrayed her.
Landis had just pulled her life together. Now Jack was back, compelling her to believe in him despite the damning evidence, proving with a touch that the ashes of their fiery past still smoldered. With the law on their heels and bullets flying at their backs, could they rekindle their trust in each other and find the proof Jack needed before time ran out? Views: 1 154
Tracy Kidder is a winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the author of the bestsellers The Soul of a New Machine, House, Among Schoolchildren, and Home Town. He has been described by the Baltimore Sun as the “master of the non-fiction narrative.” This powerful and inspiring new book shows how one person can make a difference, as Kidder tells the true story of a gifted man who is in love with the world and has set out to do all he can to cure it.
At the center of Mountains Beyond Mountains stands Paul Farmer. Doctor, Harvard professor, renowned infectious-disease specialist, anthropologist, the recipient of a MacArthur “genius” grant, world-class Robin Hood, Farmer was brought up in a bus and on a boat, and in medical school found his life’s calling: to diagnose and cure infectious diseases and to bring the lifesaving tools of modern medicine to those who need them most. This magnificent book shows how radical change can be fostered in situations that seem insurmountable, and it also shows how a meaningful life can be created, as Farmer—brilliant, charismatic, charming, both a leader in international health and a doctor who finds time to make house calls in Boston and the mountains of Haiti—blasts through convention to get results.
Mountains Beyond Mountains takes us from Harvard to Haiti, Peru, Cuba, and Russia as Farmer changes minds and practices through his dedication to the philosophy that "the only real nation is humanity" - a philosophy that is embodied in the small public charity he founded, Partners In Health. He enlists the help of the Gates Foundation, George Soros, the U.N.’s World Health Organization, and others in his quest to cure the world. At the heart of this book is the example of a life based on hope, and on an understanding of the truth of the Haitian proverb “Beyond mountains there are mountains”: as you solve one problem, another problem presents itself, and so you go on and try to solve that one too.
“Mountains Beyond Mountains unfolds with the force of a gathering revelation,” says Annie Dillard, and Jonathan Harr says, “[Farmer] wants to change the world. Certainly this luminous and powerful book will change the way you see it.” Views: 1 141
The office of the public defender is not known as a training ground for bright young litigators. Clay Carter has been there too long and, like most of his colleagues, dreams of a better job in a real firm. When he reluctantly takes the case of a young man charged with a random street killing, he assumes it is just another of the many senseless murders that hit D. C. every week. As he digs into the background of his client, Clay stumbles on a conspiracy too horrible to believe. He suddenly finds himself in the middle of a complex case against one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, looking at the kind of enormous settlement that would totally change his life—that would make him, almost overnight, the legal profession’s newest king of torts… Views: 1 139
The year is 1985. Brian Jackson, a working-class kid on full scholarship, has started his first term at university. He has a dark secret—a long-held, burning ambition to appear on the wildly popular British TV quiz show University Challenge—and now, finally, it seems the dream is about to become reality. He's made the school team, and they've completed the qualifying rounds and are limbering up for their first televised match. (And, what's more, he's fallen head over heels for one of his teammates, the beautiful, brainy, and intimidatingly posh Alice Harbinson.) Life seems perfect and triumph inevitable—but as his world opens up, Brian learns that a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing. Views: 1 138
