A moving, funny, triumphant novel that exalts the quiet victories of the inconspicuous among us.
We are in the center of Paris, in an elegant apartment building inhabited by bourgeois families. Renée, the concierge, is witness to the lavish but vacuous lives of her numerous employers. Outwardly she conforms to every stereotype of the concierge: fat, cantankerous, addicted to television. Yet, unbeknownst to her employers, Renée is a cultured autodidact who adores art, philosophy, music, and Japanese culture. With humor and intelligence she scrutinizes the lives of the building's tenants, who for their part are barely aware of her existence.
Then there's Paloma, a twelve-year-old genius. She is the daughter of a tedious parliamentarian, a talented and startlingly lucid child who has decided to end her life on the sixteenth of June, her thirteenth birthday. Until then she will continue behaving as everyone expects her to behave: a mediocre pre-teen high on adolescent subculture, a good but not an outstanding student, an obedient if obstinate daughter.
Paloma and Renée hide both their true talents and their finest qualities from a world they suspect cannot or will not appreciate them. They discover their kindred souls when a wealthy Japanese man named Ozu arrives in the building. Only he is able to gain Paloma's trust and to see through Renée's timeworn disguise to the secret that haunts her. This is a moving, funny, triumphant novel that exalts the quiet victories of the inconspicuous among us. Views: 653
This book represents six years in the life of one woman diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. Her struggles against the possible effects of her tremor, her humanity in the face of a devastating diagnosis, and her sense of humour in the midst of it all will echo in the souls of middle aged readers everywhere. Each chapter reveals its own unique Reflections. Each one is touching and real. Those who sit down with this collection will laugh, cry, identify and question. This collection stands firm as a model to others. It shows how one person can achieve her goal, and share her philosophy, even in very challenging circumstances.Mirrors of my Soul contains 129 pages with an introduction by the poet. There is one Signature poem, and each chapter is entitled Reflections. There are Reflections on the Soul, Reflections on Middle Age, Reflections on Animals, Reflections on Illness, Reflections on Reflections, Reflections on Revelations, Reflections on Nature, Reflections on... Views: 652
The #1 "New York Times"-bestselling author of "Survivor in Death" has Lieutenant Eve Dallas walking a tightrope between her professional duties and her private demons.
Eve Dallas is one tough cop. She's got no problem dealing with a holiday reveler in a red suit who plunges thirty-seven stories and gives new meaning to the term "sidewalk Santa." But when she gets back to the station and Trudy Lombard shows up, it's all Eve can do to hold it together. Instantly, she's thrown back into the past, to the days when she was a vulnerable, traumatized girl-trapped in foster care with the twisted woman who now sits in front of her, smiling.
Trudy claims she just wanted to see how Eve was doing. But Eve's husband, Roarke, suspects otherwise-and his suspicions prove correct when Trudy arrives at his office, demanding money in exchange for keeping the ugly details of his wife's childhood a secret. Barely restraining himself, Roarke shows her the door-and makes it clear that she'd be wise to get out of New York and never bother him or his wife again.
But just a few days later, Trudy's found on the floor of her hotel room, a mess of bruises and blood. A cop to the core, Eve is determined to solve the case, if only for the sake of Trudy's bereaved son. Unfortunately, Eve is not the only one to have suffered at this woman's hands, and she and Roarke will follow a circuitous, dangerous path to find out who turned this victimizer into a victim. Views: 652
Martin Conway comes from a family filled with heroes and disgraces. His grandfather was a statesman who worked at the US Embassy in London during WWII. His father is an alcoholic who left his family. His sister is an overachieving Ivy League graduate. And Martin? Martin is stuck in between--floundering.
But during the summer after 7th grade, Martin meets a boy who will change his life forever. Jimmy Harker appears one night with a deceptively simple question: Will you help?
Where did this boy come from, with his strange accent and urgent request? Is he a dream? It's the most vivid dream Martin's ever had. And he meets Jimmy again and again--but how can his dreams be set in London during the Blitz? How can he see his own grandather, standing outside the Embassy? How can he wake up with a head full of people and facts and events that he certainly didn't know when he went to sleep--but which turn out to be verifiably real?
The people and the scenes Martin witnesses have a profound effect on him. They become almost more real to him than his waking companions. And he begins to believe that maybe he can help Jimmy. Or maybe that he must help Jimmy, precisely because all logic and reason argue against it.
This is a truly remarkable and deeply affecting novel about fathers and sons, heroes and scapegoats. About finding a way to live with faith and honor and integrity. And about having an answer to the question: What did you do to help?
From the Hardcover edition. Views: 652
They are five ordinary people, forced to do battle on the most terrifying field imaginable - the landscape of nightmares. They are the Night Warriors and only they can defeat the evil that has invaded our world through our dreams. Two of the cruelest and most horrific apparitions ever seen are attempting to destroy our world by entering the dreams of expectant mothers. They bring with them armies of nightmare creatures, horrible beings that could only spring from someone’s worst fear. It is against these demons, in an unreal world of terror, that the five Night Warriors must prepare to fight the...Night Wars
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"Got a gun?"With those words, David Allen Crockett, a retired police officer who simply wanted to be left alone, finds his seclusion shattered by his friend, therapist Ruby LaCost. At Ruby's request, Crockett agrees to teach one of her clients, Rachael Moore, how to defend herself with a handgun.During the course of those lessons, Crockett and Rachael begin an intimate relationship. When Rachael is found dead from an apparent suicide, Crockett is devastated and tries to slink back into his self-imposed seclusion. But things get complicated when Crockett is contacted by Rachael's aunt, who believes the suicide was staged and claims she has the name of the murderer. Together, Crockett and Ruby begin an investigation that leads them into a world of treachery, deceit, and death. Views: 650
From its founding in the aftermath of World War II, the Central Intelligence Agency has been discovered in the midst of some of the most crucial-and most embarrassing-episodes in United States relations with the world. Safe for Democracy for the first time places the story of the CIA's covert operations squarely in the context of America's global quest for democratic values and institutions. National security historian John Prados offers a comprehensive history of the CIA's secret wars that is as close to a definitive account as is possible today. Views: 650
Two-time Anthony Award-winning author William Kent Krueger has "moved to the head of the crime fiction class" ("Chicago Sun-Times") with his gripping series featuring Sheriff Cork O'Connor. In "Copper River," Cork is running for his life -- and straight into a murderous conspiracy involving teenage runaways. Desperately avoiding the clutches of professional hit men who have already put a bullet in his leg, Cork finds sanctuary outside the small Michigan town of Bodine. But while he's hiding out in an old resort owned by his cousin Jewell DuBois, a bitter widow with a fourteen-year-old son named Ren, the body of a young girl surfaces along the banks of the Copper River -- and then another teenager vanishes. Instead of thwarting his assassins, Cork focuses on tracking a ring of killers who prey on innocent children -- before anyone else falls victim. But as his deadly followers close in, Cork realizes he's made an error any good man might make -- and it may be his last. Views: 648
SUMMARY:A volatile U.S. ally has fallen prey to the terrorist beast. India is the target of radical Islamic jihadists, and the world watches breathlessly as tensions escalate between the uneasy giant and its longtime nemesis Pakistan—with China waiting in the wings, eager to flex its military might. A nuclear showdown seems inevitable, unless the masterminds at Dreamland can get to the mysterious source of the terror and end it, swiftly and permanently. Every technological wonder the military possesses must be employed to avert an all-out Apocalypse—from an awesome new hybrid Navy destroyer to robot Flighthawks. But the fate of the region and the world will depend on the newest brainchild of the Dreamland team: an unproven instrument of ultimate power code-named End Game. Views: 648
This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. This text refers to the Bibliobazaar edition. Views: 648
H. Beam Piper was a prolific science fiction. He is well known for both his Terro-Human Future History series, and his Paratime series. Views: 648
Surprise Golem and her beloved husband, Umlaut, were more than delighted when, after a most delicious and delightful honeymoon, the stork arrived with their long-awaited baby boy. But their delight turned to consternation when the stork, a rookie named Stymie, refused to deliver him! He disqualified Surprise on a technicality, claiming she was too young, just because she had been five years old when she herself had been delivered.
Before Surprise could protest, Stymie absconded with her little one, setting off in search of a more suitable set of parents. But when Surprise attempted to track them down, she found they had vanished without a trace! Anxious and outraged, she took her problem to the Good Magician Humfrey. To her utter astonishment, he refused her request, choosing instead to pair her up with Che Centaur, who was also looking for a lost one—the all-wise bird called the Simurgh, who watched over the universe.
And to make matters worse, Surprise was required to take an odd group of companions along on her quest, including the two half-demon children of the Demoness Metria—Demon Ted and DeMonica—a foul-mouthed fowl known as the Pet Peeve, and an ageless infant known as Woe Betide.
After much investigation, Surprise and Che discovered the terrible truth. Their misplaced charges had each fallen through a freakish fissure into an alternate universe, a parallel Xanth where everything was just slightly different. And the only means to locate them was the fabled Reality Mask, which could sift and sort through the infinity of all possible worlds. But the Mask was in the custody of Pyra, a fiery nymph on Lion Mountain, protected by marauding monsters.
To reach their goal, they were forced to traverse a treacherous Love Spring that caused anyone who waded in it to have amorous thoughts. Torn between their desperate longing for one another and their solemn vows to those they loved, Surprise and Che continued their quest through a host of alternate Xanths, despite unseen forces that were determined to lead them into temptation. Views: 648
Imriel de la Courcel's blood parents are history's most reviled traitors, but his adoptive parents, the Comtesse Phèdre and the warrior-priest Joscelin, are Terre d'Ange's greatest champions. Stolen, tortured, and enslaved as a young boy, Imriel is now a Prince of the Blood, third in line for the throne in a land that revels in art, beauty, and desire. It is a court steeped in deeply laid conspiracies . . . and there are many who would see the young prince dead. Some despise him out of hatred for his birth mother Melisande, who nearly destroyed the realm in her quest for power. Others because they fear he has inherited his mother's irresistible allure - and her dangerous gifts. And as he comes of age, plagued by dark yearnings, Imriel shares their fears. At the royal court, where gossip is the chosen poison and assailants wield slander instead of swords, the young prince fights character assassins while struggling with his own innermost conflicts. But when Imriel departs to study at the famed University of Tiberium, the perils he faces turn infinitely more deadly. Searching for wisdom, he finds instead a web of manipulation, where innocent words hide sinister meanings, and your lover of last night may become your hired killer before dawn. Now a simple act of friendship will leave Imriel trapped in a besieged city where the infamous Melisande is worshiped as a goddess; where a dead man leads an army; and where the prince must face his greatest test: to find his true self. Views: 647
