When Michael Collins decides to become a surgeon, he is totally unprepared for the chaotic life of a resident at a major hospital. A natural overachiever, Collins' success, in college and medical school led to a surgical residency at one of the most respected medical centers in the world, the famed Mayo Clinic. But compared to his fellow residents Collins feels inadequate and unprepared. All too soon, the euphoria of beginning his career as an orthopedic resident gives way to the feeling he is a counterfeit, an imposter who has infiltrated a society of brilliant surgeons. This story of Collins' four-year surgical residency traces his rise from an eager but clueless first-year resident to accomplished Chief Resident in his final year. With unparalleled humor, he recounts the disparity between people's perceptions of a doctor's glamorous life and the real thing: a succession of run down cars that are towed to the junk yard, long weekends moonlighting at rural... Views: 5
Product DescriptionSarah Jane Smith and her friend Jamie Fitzoliver investigate a strange New Age cult. Business as usual for investigative journalists. But what is less usual is the demon-like creature the cultists worship. When the Doctor and UNIT arrive to investigate they discover a plot involving government ministers, alien narcotics, and an official cover-up. As an evil scheme develops on a remote island in the Indian Ocean, the Doctor enlists the help of the Royal Navy to investigate. But can the Doctor and his friends uncover the truth in time to avert disaster?
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William Cody (1846—1917), a.k.a. Buffalo Bill, was the most famous American of his age. A child of the frontier Great Plains, Cody was renowned as a Pony Express rider, prospector, trapper, Civil War soldier, professional buffalo hunter, Indian fighter, cavalry scout, horseman, dime-novel hero, and actor. But Buffalo Bill’s greatest success was as impresario of the Wild West show, the traveling company of cowboys, Indians, Mexican vaqueros, and others, numbering in the hundreds, with which he toured North America and Europe for more than three decades. As Louis S. Warren reveals, the show company came to represent America itself, its dazzling mix of races sprung from a frontier past, welded into a thrilling performance, and making their way through the world via the modern technologies of railroad, portable electrical generator, telephones, and brilliantly colored publicity–an entrancing vision of the frontier-born, newly mechanized, polyglot United States in the Gilded Age.Biographers have long disputed whether Cody was a hero or a charlatan. As Warren shows, the question already preoccupied critics and spectators during Cody’s own lifetime. In fact, the savvy entertainer encouraged the dispute by mingling fictional exploits with his not inconsiderable achievements to construct the persona of an ideal frontiersman, a figure who was more controversial than has been commonly understood. At the same time, his show provided a means for rural westerners, including cowboys, cowgirls, and especially Lakota Sioux Indians, to claim a new future for themselves by reenacting a version of the past.The most comprehensive critical biography of William Cody in more than forty years, Buffalo Bill’s America places America’s most renowned showman in the context of his cultural worlds in the Far West, in the East, and in Europe. A rich and revealing biography and social history of an American cultural icon. Views: 5
When Ann Leary and her husband, then unknown actor-comedian Denis Leary, flew to London in the early nineties for a brief getaway during Ann's second trimester of pregnancy, neither anticipated the adventure that was in store for them. The morning after their arrival, Ann's water broke as they strolled through London's streets. A week later their son, Jack, was born weighing only two pounds, six ounces, and it would be five long months before mother and son could return to the States.In the meantime, Ann became an unwitting yet grateful hostage to Britain's National Health Service -- a stranger in a strange land plunged abruptly into a world of breast pumps and midwives, blood oxygen levels, mad cow disease, and poll tax riots. Desperately worried about the health of her baby, Ann struggled to adapt to motherhood and make sense of a very different culture. At once an intimate family memoir, a lively travelogue, and a touching love story, An Innocent, a Broad is utterly engaging and unforgettable.Amazon.com ReviewJust 26 weeks into her first pregnancy, Ann Leary's water broke--an event she sardonically refers to as "the PROM" (doctor-speak for "premature rupture of membranes). Unfortunately for her, the "PROM" took place while she was strolling along Oxford Street during a weekend trip to London, where her (then-unknown) husband Denis Leary was booked to perform a BBC comedy show. Forbidden to return home and placed on total bed rest, Ann gets "knackered" from the medications pumped into her body to prevent premature labor. In some of the book's funniest passages, she makes great efforts to prevent her many hospital roommates from discovering she's American, lest they suspect she's freeloading off the National Health Service. (Don't let the bad pun of the book's title put you off; Ann's sense of humor is often as biting and gritty as her husband's).Despite the doctors' best efforts, baby Jack is born two weeks later, while Denis is back in the U.S. working at comedy clubs (and trying to keep the couple from being evicted from their apartment). Jack is in relatively good shape, but Ann's mental state is at risk, as sleep deprivation, anxiety, and loneliness get the best of her. Among her postpartum goofs is befriending another woman whose baby is also in intensive care; she mistakes her for a slim, serene Earth Mother instead of the heroin-addict she really is. So, An Innocent, A Broad is not so much a drama of Jack's survival as much as it is a chuckle-fest at the expense of both Ann's predicament and of the Brits in general, whose overwrought sense of propriety is mocked non-stop. Beware if you think this might seem a perfect gift for a pregnant woman; the belly laughs are constant and likely to cause any expectant woman's water to break. --Erica JorgensenFrom Publishers WeeklyWhile pregnant, Leary, a television and film writer, fantasized about the birth of her son: it would include a home birth ("I would realize that there was no time to make it to the hospital"), an easy delivery (an "evening on our bed, laboring and breathing"), and, of course, a healthy child ("a beautiful, plump baby that my husband would triumphantly slide onto my bare belly"). This fantasy, Leary admits, occasionally included "a handsome fireman who was called upon in a moment of panic." Needless to say, it didn't happen that way. On a weekend trip with her husband, comedian Denis Leary (who was still relatively unknown at the time), to London in 1990 during her second trimester, Leary's water broke. No home birth, no healthy baby, no fireman. With a light touch and comic flair, Leary recounts the five months in London surrounding her son Jack's birth (they had to wait until Jack was more developed to travel back to the U.S.). Forgoing the gory medical details, Leary focuses on her life in and around the hospital and her naïveté about childbirth and parenting. Her cultural observations are especially droll, as Leary sorts out that "tea" is actually a meal and tries to prove that Americans aren't stupid: "I tried to look intelligent, but... I had nothing to read or even to look at, so I narrowed my eyes and stared at my fingernails, in what I hoped was a thoughtful way." Oddly, the one thing missing from the narrative is her husband, who plays a surprisingly small role. Still, this memoir is an easy read that finds the humor in this trying time in Leary's life. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Views: 5
In The Destruction of the Books, the Vault of All Known Knowledge was destroyed and its learned caretaker abducted , leaving the forces against darkness without resource and leadership. The world as they know it and all that is good are now threatened by the same shadows that have oppressed the continent beyond the sea. The only hope for enlightenment and salvation lies in a lowly librarian adventurer named Juhg who unknowingly brought about the cataclysm. He now must save the day by seeking out his master and another store of knowledge that has been held in secret. In doing so, Juhg will unlock the mysteries of the past so as to allow the emergence of a new guardian.... The Lord of the Libraries. At the publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management software (DRM) applied.From Publishers WeeklyIn Odom's winsome Tolkienesque fantasy, the third in a series that began with The Rover (2001), a month has passed since the near eradication of the Vault of All Known Knowledge and the disappearance of its chief librarian, Grandmagister Edgewick "Wick" Lamplighter, in The Destruction of All Books (2004). Now First Level Librarian Jugh, a small halfling and former slave, and his old friend, the wizard Craugh, go in search of Wick, who was last seen in hot pursuit of The Book of Time, a dangerously powerful tome that has been broken into four pieces for the world's safety. Joined by brave elves, dwarves and humans, Jugh and Craugh fight against tremendous odds in an effort to rescue Wick from evil Aldhran Khemphus. They must also discover another mysterious library and find the key to release the vault of true knowledge to all. While the series is best read in order, readers can enjoy this third volume on its own because of Odom's fluid mastery of establishing lovable characters and interweaving prime plot points from earlier books. (July 13) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From BooklistThe third in a series that began with The Rover (2002) takes up where The Destruction of the Books (2004) left off. The Vault of All Known Knowledge has been all but destroyed in the battle with attacking evil forces. Juhg, apprentice to Edgewick Lamplighter, the vault's grandmagister, once again is the protagonist. Accompanied by companions who include the wizard Craugh, Juhg, who would prefer to attempt to rescue the grandmagister from his Goblinkin captors, reluctantly embarks on the task set him by the grandmagister--to find and reunite the four hidden sections of The Book of Time and keep it out of the hands of the dark forces. The quest for the sections is fraught with danger as the companions travel to the far reaches of the land in their search. The story's fast pace, violent action, camaraderie among the companions, and leavening humor add up to a hard-to-put-down page-turner. Sally EstesCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved Views: 5
EDITORIAL REVIEW: Okay, so maybe hiring a centerfold stud to remodel my home was crazy. But I, Marty Owens, practical bookstore owner, was a desperate woman, and contractor Cole Stevens was a man with muscles and strong hands and a seductive voice promising me he could get the job done fast. It made perfect sense for him to move in so he could work days *and* nights. But no logic can explain my wild fantasies about getting cozy with Cole in every room in the house—the bedroom, the shower, the kitchen.... Ladies, I'm in over my head with the man upstairs, but can I tempt him to repair his heart and build a home for *us*? Views: 5
Sister Conchita, the young nun with a flair for detection, is immersed in another Solomon Islands investigation when an islander who claims to be a reincarnation of Noah is drowned outside his ark. To make matters worse, Conchita suspects that the murderer might be a Japanese soldier, still prowling the jungle fifteen years after the end of World War II. Once again she enlists the aid of her friend Sergeant Ben Kella of the Solomon Islands Police Force. Together they try and track down the malevolent Killman, a professional assassin who is introducing a reign of terror to the beautiful but dangerous island of Malaita that they both love so much. This time their perilous quest takes them as far as the wild Polynesian island of Tikopia, the almost legendary tiny island of the four kingdoms. Views: 5
When Isabel Burley returns home to care for her mother, who is suffering from Alzheimer's, she finds a bemused, angry old woman, prey to the dangers of failing memory, the inability to run her household--and the local villains who are eyeing her isolated home. But as the locals close in, Isabel finds herself struggling with her own emotions. She thinks she has come home to do some good, but is she really looking for the affection she lacked as a child? Alienated by her mother's growing eccentricity, Isabel becomes locked in a relationship of love, conflict, and simmering violence, with roots that go deep into the past. Views: 5
Austin is tall. He’s cute, funny as heck, and so far he’s behaving like the perfect gentleman. A hopeless romantic, he keeps calling Bethany up. He’s obviously in love with her, but he’s also too shy to ask—but Bethany has a plan. The stakes are very high when love is in the cards. A short story. Views: 5
For travel escort Emily Andrew and her fellow Iowans, aloha means 'hello' to all the sun, surf, and scrumptious cuisine their Hawaiian cruise has to offer. But for Professor Dorian Smoker, a renowned expert on the legendary Captain Cook, aloha also means 'good-bye' - as in 'man overboard.' Sure, it could have been an accident. But Emily wonders if some guest with a grudge might have knocked off the opinionated professor. Or maybe it had something to do with that missing journal Nana's friend lent him - the one with the mysterious treasure map. Emily figures the map is probably a fake. But when another copy turns up, she and her friends take off, rafting down rivers and plunging through jungles to find the treasure themselves. Unfortunately, Professor Smoker's killer just might have the same idea. And this tropical heat wave could quickly turn into a crime wave... Views: 5
WARRIOR WITH A CAUSEHeld captive in a Malaysian prison, Brian Welkins was ready to make his escape, when a beautiful wrench was thrown in his plans: hostage Audrey Benedict. And now, honor demanded that he rescue them both....Once free, though, it took all the cunning and skills Brian had to outmaneuver the deadly guerrillas on their trail. But leaving Audrey behind, to become the lone pawn in a dangerous conspiracy, was not an option. For being with her made Brian remember what it felt like to be human, and alive. Still, would their hazardous run through the jungle lead them home...or into the arms of an unknown—and unseen—enemy? Views: 5
With Joe Gunther and his Vermont Bureau of Investigation team spread
thin on assignment everywhere, from the remote dairy county of Northwest
Vermont to the slums of Newark, NJ, they're pushed to their absolute
limit when a string of serial arsons across the Green Mountain State
evolve into the most shocking series of murders the bucolic region has
ever known. Views: 5
