Teetering marriages, collapsing relationships and other calamities of the heart drive these 10 compact, unsettling stories by respected writer Salter (A Sport and a Pastime, etc.). The title story is especially impressive—when Walter Much and his seriously ill wife, Marit, agree that he will assist in her suicide, Marit insists that Susanna, a mutual friend, come over to keep them company in her final moments. Nothing goes as planned, however, and Walter's double betrayal of his wife ushers in the haunting conclusion. The reunion stories are equally compelling: in "Palm Court," a man who initially failed to marry the love of his life meets her years later after her divorce only to find himself overwhelmed and distraught by the mixed feelings she rouses in him. "Bangkok" offers a different take on the reunion angle, as a woman tries to tempt an old flame into joining her and her female traveling companion on a sexually adventurous, last-second trip to the Far East, despite his being happily married and claiming to be satisfied with his sedate, settled life. The reserved, elegiac nature of Salter's prose and his mannered, well-bred characters lend the collection a distanced tone, but at their best these are stirring stories, worthy additions to a formidable body of work. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From Bookmarks MagazineCritics call novelist and short-story writer Salter a writer’s writer. These stories (some previously published in Esquire and The New Yorker) also confirm that he’s "a reader’s writer" in his exploration of universal themes (Rocky Mountain News). Reviewers unanimously applaud Salter’s gleaming, precise prose and haunting retrospection, which reinforce complex and sophisticated characters and themes. "You can practically smell the cigarette smoke and hear the booze-scratched timbre of Salter’s characters’ voices," notes the San Francisco Chronicle. Despite his characters’ dubious exploits—they drink, sin, and tempt others—they occupy an emotional, ambiguous middle ground. A few stories seem truncated, and various points of view within individual stories caused some confusion. But Last Night is as good as any place to start to appreciate Salter’s genius.Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc. Views: 62
In this classic crack-up of a book, Dave Barry gives his wacky perspective on sex, childbirth, parenting and other forms of slow, cruel torture. In Babies and Other Hazards of Sex , Dave exposes natural childbirth for what it is: a pop phenomenon of the 1960s that, along with paisley bell-bottoms and creative sideburns, deserves a rest. He examines the new federal law requiring prospective fathers to free themselves from their self-made macho prisons—to laugh, cry, love and just generally behave like certified wimps. Dave also reveals, for the first time in print, the secret chant for painless childbirth. Then learn why no secret chant could possibly take a woman’s mind off the fact that she is in such pain that she wants a gigantic comet to crash into the earth and kill her and her husband and the doctor and the nurses and everyone else in the world. Views: 62
Paul Chavasse makes his living running arms and intelligence from Italy to the oppressive communist country of Albania. But when the Albanian government begins a religious purge, he finds himself in a deadly race to recover a priceless relic that has protected the faithful for generations. Now he must outrun – and outwit – an entire army to save the lives of thousands of believers. Views: 62
Dairy farmer Ruth Willmarth struggles with a mad cow plague, a squatter family of volatile Irish Travellers, a beautiful runaway woman--and Murder. According to Kirkus Reviews: “The masterfully evoked terror of Mad Cow makes Ruth's fifth her most sharply focused yet.” Mystery by Nancy Means Wright; originally published by St. Martin’s Minotaur Views: 62
Tamika Sykes, AKA Mik, is hearing impaired and way too smart for her West Bronx high school. She copes by reading lips and selling homework answers, and looks forward to the time each day when she can be alone in her room drawing. She's a tough girl who mostly keeps to herself and can shut anyone out with the click of her hearing aid. But then she meets Fatima, a teenage refugee who sells newspapers, and Jimmi, a homeless vet who is shunned by the rest of the community, and her life takes an unexpected turn. Views: 62
'The tale seems very improbable,' Gil Cunningham said. 'How should the Devil enter a religious house and carry off one of its members?'How indeed? But Arnold Fleming, the widely dislike pensioner, or corrodian, lodged in the Dominican's house in Perth, has vanished from a chamber, and a local knight and his mistress claim to have seen the Devil abroad that very same night. Three of the friars are accused by their fellows of involvement, documents found in Fleming's lodgings suggest he was blackmailing somebody, and when Gil is called in to investigate, he reveals theft, ancient murder - and more recent secrets.Then a body turns up - then a second one. Are these deaths connected to Fleming's disappearance, or to the victim of his blackmailing activities? Gil's questioning uncovers some of the truth, but it is Alys who discovers the answer, with the help of the Dominicans' redoubtable lay-brothers and the priory kitchens.Praise for Pat Macintosh:'Will do for Glasgow in the fifteenth... Views: 62
Book 1 in the When Sparks Fly series. Anna Leslie's pyrotechnic creations might light up the skies on the Fourth of July, but her research and development skills are not lighting up her private nights. Her hard-working, good-girl approach to life isn't doing much for her outside the bedroom, either. When an ultimatum from her boss pushes her out of her lab, Anna decides it's time to let loose and start creating fireworks of a more personal nature. Jay Whitman can't believe the fiery bombshell in red is Frontier Fireworks' resident genius. He's convinced that her passion for rockets disguises a very earthy passion for the phallic, forget the symbol. To encourage her in a new line of research, he volunteers to give his body to science. It's an offer she can't refuse, but Anna quickly realizes this is one experiment that can't be controlled or predicted. They're caught up in an attraction that defies all the laws of chemistry and physics, and she discovers that falling in love isn't rocket science-it's a whole lot more complicated. Views: 62
"Compelling, important, and completely engrossing—it will change the way you look at the world."—Hank Phillippi Ryan, Mary Higgins Clark Award Winning authorOfficer Nora Khalil is a strong independent woman used to navigating different terrains. As an American-born Muslim, she loves her country and tries to honor the traditions of her people, but feels that she must constantly confront those who think she is alien.Assigned to the FBI office in Erie, Pennsylvania, she tries to fit into small-town America after a childhood growing up in the bustle of Philly's dark streets. A series of horrific acts of violence are committed by a well-connected group of domestic terrorists eager to spark a national revolution. The town erupts in chaos and the eyes of the nation are on these events. In turn, this heats up the debate about the fabric of our nation...and how those who feel disenfranchised by our new multiculturalism are determined to take back their... Views: 62
National-award-winning poet Lorna Crozier's new collection of poems are peopled by the seasons and their elements, her beloved prairies, sorrow, joy, and the dead. Central to their themes are revisitations of family and marriage, and the land-death that is drought. Universal, deeply moving, crowded with breathtaking imagery, these are darkly resonant poems of middle age: alert to the beauty in loss, cherishing the humanity that is whetted on that stone. This is Lorna Crozier, one of Canada's most highly celebrated poets, at the top of her form.From the Trade Paperback edition. Views: 62
