★★★★★ POWERFUL! Paula Knight creates an intensely romantic world for young and old alike. A place where there is darkness and light, love and hope, and if you dare to go there you will never want to leave. Views: 14
After a freak accident, Douglas's twin brother is dead, and his family's fragmentation begins. His mother packs up their home in Cape Town and takes him to a tiny backwater town in the semi-desert Karoo region, where she withdraws into her painting. Douglas, a city kid in an insular community, makes only two friends: a beautiful girl named Marika, with her adventurous spirit and tyrannical father; and an old garage worker named Moses, with his junkyard Volvo and dreams of driving away to Cape Town. Against the backdrop of the bitter conflict of 1970s South Africa, Douglas develops a clearer insight into himself and his place in the world, a world where dreams and reality meet in a surprising twist. Blazing with color and light, Karoo Boy offers a sensuous and lyrical evocation of South Africa that leaves a lasting impression and ultimately ends on a note of hope.From Publishers WeeklyDeath divides a Cape Town family in Blacklaws's evocative but frustrating debut. The story, set in 1976 but narrated in a terse, foreboding and sometimes baffling present tense, begins with 14-year old Douglas Thomas's father accidentally killing his other son, Marsden (Douglas's twin), with an errant cricket pitch. Family disintegration follows: Douglas's father announces that he is "going away," and his mother decides that they're moving to Karoo—a "foreign, far, flat and bleak" place. In Karoo, Douglas befriends Moses, an old black man who works at the gas station and who cannot leave the area because his papers have been stolen. Between italicized flashbacks to Marsden and Sundays with Moses retooling a broken-down Volvo (they both dream of driving back to the ocean), Douglas falls for a girl named Marika. The novel zigzags between vivid descriptive passages and sudden bursts of violence that recall the social and political nightmare that was 1970s South Africa. The historical realities feel out of focus, however, and the characters' motives are often unclear. Though this is a coming-of-age tale, readers will be startled to learn that Douglas, when he finally returns to the seaside alone, is 18; this, along with the other narrative hinges in the story, feels sloppily handled for the sake of a rather ersatz lyrical style. (Sept.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From BooklistReaders familiar with South African idiom will feel right at home in this first-person, present-tense story of a white boy's coming-of-age at the height of apartheid in the 1970s. But even those who don't know the meaning of kaffirboetie, tackies, and hambawill recognize the aching personal truth and political horror. When Dad kills Douglas' twin in a freak accident with a cricket-ball on the beautiful Cape Town beach, Dad disappears, and Mom takes Douglas and her maid, Hope, into "exile" in a tiny town in Karoo, where the landscape is largely dust and thorn. Douglas finds love with a classmate and a father in Moses, a Xhosa ex-miner, also in exile without an official pass. The newspaper headlines are about the distant Soweto riots, but the vicious racism is part of daily life even in the hinterland. The story is in the details in this first novel: the exquisite sense of place, the tender intimacy, and the casual cruelty, from murder to being forced to use separate utensils. Hazel RochmanCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved Views: 14
From Sara Rider, a fresh new voice in contemporary romance, Keeping Score is a fast-paced, sizzling sequel in the Perfect Play series that'll leave everyone needing a cool down...Professional soccer player Jaime Chen is used to hearing the word "no"—she's just not used to listening to it. Despite her tiny frame, she's won two Olympic medals and earned the title of Assistant Captain of the Seattle Falcons. And when Sport Fitness magazine decides it wants her for the cover of its annual Bodies of Sport issue, she finally has the chance to prove to the world that she truly is a top-class athlete. But when a lingering ankle injury forces the team's physiotherapist to bench her, Jaime's top-ranking dreams start to slip through her fingers. In his career as a pro sports physiotherapist, Alex Martinez's instincts have never steered him wrong. But he's also never met someone as obstinate and frustrating as the snarky Jaime Chen. With their spot in the... Views: 14
Life is good for Joanna Brady in the small desert community of Bisbee. She has Jenny, her adored nine-year-old daughter, and solid, honest, and loving husband, Andy, a local lawman who's running for Sheriff of Cochise County. But her good life explodes when a bullet destroys Andy Brady's future and leaves him dying beneath the blistering Arizona sun. The police brass claim that Andy was dirty-up to his neck in drugs and smuggling-and that the shooting was a suicide attempt. Joanna knows a cover-up when she hears one…and murder when she sees it. But her determined effort to track down an assassin and clear her husband's name are placing herself and her Jenny in serious jeopardy. Because, in the desert, the truth can be far more lethal than a rattler's bite. Views: 14
Featuring appalling rock overhangs, horrifying chasms, and waterfalls flanked by near-vertical precipices, this tale of travel through the wildest regions of the Andes is no Caribbean cruise story. The Panama Canal and the coasts of Columbia, Peru, and Bolivia are all described in a fast, furious fashion by a seasoned travel writer who survives a car ride along a mountain pass that claims an average of one vehicle a week. Also included are adventures to the last hideaway of the Incas, Machu Picchu, and a sail down the Amazon to the center of Brazil.About the AuthorLydia Laube is a travel writer and the author of Behind the Veil: An Australian Nurse in Saudi Arabia. Views: 14
One night, on the dance floor, and with a fire burning deep inside her, Chloé meets Kevin. And Louis, his life partner. Together, will they be able to tame this beauty? Views: 14
7205 A.D. Hawk Hunter's most perilous mission ever is to find the one man who can stop the Solar Guards from seizing the source of all power in the Milky Way-and plunging the galaxy into a catastrophic Dark Age. Views: 14
This is the unauthorized, uncensored and unbelievable true story behind the making of a pop culture phenomenon. The original Star Trek series debuted in 1966 and has spawned five TV series spin-offs and a dozen feature films, with an upcoming one from Paramount arriving in 2016. The Fifty-Year Mission is a no-holds-barred oral history of five decades of Star Trek, told by the people who were there. Hear from the hundreds of television and film executives, programmers, writers, creators and cast as they unveil the oftentimes shocking story of Star Trek's ongoing fifty-year mission -a mission that has spanned from the classic series to the animated show, the many attempts at a relaunch through the beloved feature films. Make no mistake, this isn't just a book for Star Trek fans. Here is a volume for all fans of pop culture and anyone interested in the nuts and bolts of a television touchstone. Views: 14
The secret… On leave from the Australian Army, Alex Lawson has arrived in the little country town seeking answers from generously-curved Harly Bentley. She’s kept a secret from him for years, but he’s here now, he’s furious, and nothing is going to stop him from getting the truth. But will the results be what he expected? Views: 14
In a clash of heroes, the kingdom is born.
At the end of the ninth century, King Alfred of Wessex is in ill health; his heir, an untested youth. His enemy, the Danes, having failed to conquer Wessex, now see their chance for victory. Led by the sword of savage warrior Harald Bloodhair, the Viking hordes attack. But Uhtred, Alfred's reluctant warlord, proves his worth, outwitting Harald and handing the Vikings one of their greatest defeats.
For Uhtred, the sweetness of victory is soon overshadowed by tragedy. Breaking with Alfred, he joins the Vikings, swearing never again to serve the Saxon king. Instead, he will reclaim his ancestral fortress on the Northumbrian coast. Allied with his old friend Ragnar—and his old foe Haesten—he aims to invade and conquer Wessex itself.
Yet fate has different plans. The Danes of East Anglia and the Vikings of Northumbria are plotting the conquest of all Britain. When Alfred's daughter pleads with Uhtred for help, he cannot refuse her request. In a desperate gamble, he takes command of a demoralized Mercian army, leading them in an unforgettable battle on a blood-soaked field beside the Thames.
In *The Burning Land*, Bernard Cornwell, "the reigning king of historical fiction" (*USA Today*), delivers a rousing saga of Anglo-Saxon England—an irresistible new chapter in his thrilling Saxon Tales, the epic story of the birth of England and the legendary king who made it possible. Views: 14
After his wife's mysterious death, Ethan Harrison was a man living under suspicion. With two young sons to shield from gossip and lies, Ethan decided to move to the town of Devil's Cove, where no one knew about his past. But he never planned on opening his heart to love again -- till he met the indomitable Hannah Brennan. Hannah's job was to turn the grounds of Ethan's new home into lush gardens, but she soon found herself falling for the handsome yet enigmatic widower. When Hannah's life was suddenly in danger, could she trust him to tell her the truth about his past -- and their future? Views: 14
From 1884 to 1939, the Great Porter Circus makes the unlikely choice to winter in an Indiana town called Lima, a place that feels as classic as Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio, and as wondrous as a first trip to the Big Top. In Lima an elephant can change the course of a man's life-or the manner of his death. Jennie Dixianna entices men with her dazzling Spin of Death and keeps them in line with secrets locked in a cedar box. The lonely wife of the show's manager has each room of her house painted like a sideshow banner, indulging her desperate passion for a young painter. And a former clown seeks consolation from his loveless marriage in his post-circus job at Clown Alley Cleaners.In her astonishing debut, Cathy Day follows the circus people into their everyday lives, bringing the greatest show on earth to the page.From Publishers WeeklyDay's debut collection spins graceful, elegant circles around the inhabitants of Lima, Ind.—especially the acrobats, clowns and circus folk of the Great Porter Circus who spent their winters there from 1884 to 1939. The poignant opening tale reveals how Wallace Porter, distraught by the death of his beloved wife, came to own his eponymous menagerie. The second, "Jennie Dixianna," introduces the dazzling, tricky Jennie, who wears her wound from her Spin of Death act "like a talisman bracelet, a secret treasure" and plots her way into Wallace's heart. Other stories tell of the young black man who plays at being an African pinhead; the son of a trainer killed by his circus elephant; the flood that devastated the circus. Thanks to finely observed details and lovely prose, each of these stories is a convincing world in miniature, filled with longing and fueled by doubt. Day, who grew up in a town like Lima and descends from circus folk herself, uses family stories, historical research and archival photographs to weave these enchantments. Though her stories often contain tragedy and violence—death in childbirth or from floodwater, cancer, circus mishap—they're also full of beauty. In "The Bullhook," Ollie, a retired clown, spends long decades with his frigid wife, waiting, armed with his father's bullhook, for death to come for him. In "Circus People," Ollie's granddaughter reflects on her fellow itinerant academics, "my latest circus family," and muses about people all over America who leave the place they grew up: "when the weather and the frequency are just right, we can all hear our hometowns talking softly to us in the back of our dreams." B&w illus. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From BooklistThe secret lives and loves of circus people and their descendants are revealed in these 11 linked short stories. From 1884 to 1939, the small town of Lima, Indiana, hosts the Great Porter Circus during the winter months. Wallace Porter buys the circus on the eve of his beloved wife's death, claiming he has "seen the elephant." He never remarries but has a secret affair with Jennie Dixianna, the erotic acrobat who seduces men and keeps their secrets locked in a cedar box. Bascomb Bowles and his wife, Pearly, recount their sideshow adventures as "pinheads," and the tales are handed down to their son, Gordon. Gordon becomes an expert on elephants and witnesses a horrific accident involving his favorite elephant and the trainer. Ollie Hofstadter, son of the elephant trainer, leaves a career as a clown after the murder of his best friend. Years later Gordon tells Ollie the true story of his father's death. A fascinating period in American history inhabited by colorful characters and told in a lively manner. Kaite MediatoreCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved Views: 14
Jim Harper resurfaced from years of silence seeking a relationship with his daughter, Willa. But is he worth it? Willa is about to find out when secret justice is finally revealed and she has no choice. Or does she? Views: 14
