Contains a sneak preview of Meera Syal's brand new novel, THE HOUSE OF HIDDEN MOTHERS There's no such thing as a happy ending , is there ...? Sunita - perfect housewife - is married to Akash, but is her marriage what it seems? Chila - warm, loveable - has married with great fanfare the entrepreneur Deepak. But are they really in love? Tania - beautiful, rebellious - has rejected her traditional upbringing for a top television career. But is she really as tough as she says? As Tania uncovers a devastating truth, are the three friends about to learn the hardest life lesson of all ...? MEERA SYAL, CBE, is one of our most acclaimed actors and writers. She starred in the hit series The Kumars at No. 42 and recently in the BBC film of David Walliams' The Boy in the... Views: 70
Venice, 1734. Singer Tito Amato has let fame go to his head. Neglecting his vocal practice for dubious pleasures, Tito finds himself demoted to secondary roles and overshadowed by a visiting star. When the murder of scene painter Luca Cavalieri threatens to close the opera house, Tito jumps at the chance to regain his worth by finding the killer. Strained relations between Venice’s Jewish and Christian inhabitants throw suspicion on members of a Jewish ghetto family that produces masks for the theater. But a mysterious veil that Tito finds in Luca’s lodging leads him in a different direction. Assisted by Augustus Rumbolt, an Englishman making his Grand Tour, Tito is soon on the trail of Dr. Palantinus, a masked figure who heads a secret society that charges exorbitant fees to partake of its enticing rituals. Who wears the mask of Palantinus? The director who guides Tito to operatic triumph, the fastidious nobleman charged with making the theater profitable, a fiery contralto, or the stage manager who hides a double life? The hunt pierces the treacherous depths of the city, one dedicated to masquerade and pleasure. A city where ancient hatreds thrive and cultures uneasily coexist—a city where opera is the stuff of daily life.From Publishers WeeklyStarred Review. Set in 1730s Venice, Myers's second baroque mystery skillfully guides the reader past the dangers of fame to the nature of music and love, fulfilling the promise of her well-received debut, Interrupted Aria (2004). At the Teatro San Marco, soprano castrato Tito Amato is struggling with his demotion to lesser roles when the strangled body of Luca Cavalieri, a talented if unscrupulous set designer and painter, turns up in a canal. Suspicion points to his lover, Liya Del'Vecchio, a "Jewess" whom Tito falls for on sight. When the opera company director asks Tito to investigate Cavalieri's murder, he's only too glad to comply. Accompanied by Augustus "Gussie" Rumbolt, a younger son of English nobility on the grand tour, he explores the first European ghetto. All foreigners are suspect and restricted in the fading sun of Venetian trading pre-eminence, but only Jews are locked up at night in the old ironworks. When a rabble-rousing, pseudonymous pamphlet accuses Liya's cousin of the murder and poisoning wells, Tito gets mixed up in necromancy and secret societies as well. Myers provides an insightful and tender look at how those who are different—castrati, women, Jews—were treated at the time, as well as a wonderful view of elegant, decadent, nothing-is-as-it-seems-from-behind-the-masque Venice. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From BooklistMyers' second Baroque mystery returns readers to eighteenth-century Venice, where castrato soprano Tito Amato is again preparing for an opera role at Teatro San Marco--but not the lead. After a bout of diva excess, Tito is replaced as the star by famous visiting castrato, Francesco Florio, an even bigger diva. Humbly taking responsibility for his own actions, Tito begins working hard to get his voice back in top shape while gracefully dodging the taunts of Florio. Meanwhile, scene-painter Luca Cavalieri goes missing, and theater-director Torani asks Tito to investigate. Jumping at the chance to restore the maestro's faith in him, Tito sets off with his new English friend, Gussie Rumbolt, to find Luca. Along the way, Myers exposes readers to a dark side of Venice: prejudice. Often a victim of ridicule himself, Tito's heart aches for the Jews, who are forced to live in a locked ghetto and treated with contempt. Like a grand opera, Myers' story transports readers to a fascinating world of glamour, deceit, intrigue, and passion. Bravo! Jenny McLarinCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved Views: 70
From Publishers WeeklyLancaster (_Bitter Is the New Black_) is a plus-sized, downwardly mobile Republican. She makes fun of disabled people. She cracks nasty about Anna Nicole Smith (granted, she was still alive at the time). She annotates her text with footnotes cheering herself on. When she's feeling particularly mean, she writes in her own "pidgin Spanish." But in spite of all her politically incorrect rantings, there are times when Lancaster is just too on-target to ignore. People who worry about Bush imposing the Christian lifestyle on everyone, for instance, should take heart from how he's raised his daughters—those "twins are but a Jell-O shot away from starring in the presidential edition of Girls Gone Wild." Even if readers can't altogether sympathize when Lancaster has to downscale her shopping "Holy Trinity" from Bloomingdale's, Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus to IKEA, Target and Trader Joe's—they know what she means when she talks about the relentlessly cheerful sales staff at Trader Joe's, the tough-love staff at Target or how IKEA's going to take over America by keeping us all busy with Allen wrenches. Her humor is a bit like junk food—something you can enjoy when no one is looking. (May) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Product DescriptionJen Lancaster hates to burst your happy little bubble, but life in the big city isn't all it's cracked up to be. Contrary to what you see on TV and in the movies, most urbanites aren't party-hopping in slinky dresses and strappy stilettos. But lucky for us, Lancaster knows how to make the life of the lower crust mercilessly funny and infinitely entertaining. Whether she's reporting rude neighbors to Homeland Security, harboring a crush on her grocery store clerk, or fighting-and losing-the Battle of the Stairmaster- Lancaster explores how silly, strange, and not-so-fabulous real city living can be. And if anyone doesn't like it, they can kiss her big, fat, pink, puffy down parka. Views: 70
It started out as a drunken prank ... but when one man died and his fellow passengers aboard the Tucson-Tombstone stage were involved in a devastating crash, it was no laughing matter. Wells Fargo's top troubleshooter, Clay Nash, was dispatched to find the cowboys responsible, and uncovered a criminal enterprise that might otherwise have gone undetected. Those drunken pranksters were actually tough as nails and handy with their guns, and they were ready to fight him all the way to avoid paying for their crime.But Clay had an ally as he rode the slaughter trail ... a beautiful Mexican girl who wouldn't stop until she had her revenge on the men who'd killed her father! Views: 70
Tofu casseroles, communes, clothing-optional kindergarten, antiwar proteststhese are just a few of the hallmarks of a counterculture childhood. What became of kids who had been denied meat, exposed to free love, and given nouns for names? In Wild Child, daughters of the hippie generation speak about the legacy of their childhoods. The writers present a rearview mirror to contemporary culture; with an eye on the past they remind us that there is more than one path through the present. Contributors include Lisa Michaels (Split) and Ariel Gore (Hip Mama). Views: 70
Michael and Terra never thought that they would be the first human beings to set foot on an alien world. Twenty light-years away from civilization, what they discover forces them to re-examine their deepest, most unquestioned beliefs about the universe—and about what it means to be human. Views: 70
The monster has awakened After her escape from the Tower and from her father's experiments, Kat Bloodmayne wakes up to discover the dark power inside her has grown stronger. Now more than ever she needs to find the doctor who holds the key to healing her, but the only one who can help her find him is Stephen Grey, the very man who betrayed her. Though Stephen cannot change the past or what he did to Kat, he will do everything he can to help her now. But will Kat let him? Or will his transgression be too much to overcome? Kat and Stephen race against time as they travel with sky pirates through harrowing storms and across the war-torn country of Austrium in search of the doctor who can cure Kat. But can he cure what is broken inside of her? Or will the monster inside of Kat consume her soul? Views: 70
Armed with a lodestone and a magical sword, Lycanian enforcer Tristan Chevalier is after a Darkling. When he finds Isabel MacDougal, Tristan believes he’s discovered the perfect bait to draw his enemy out. Isabel “Izzy” MacDougal has always known monsters were real. When she runs into Tristan, Izzy believes her life is over. But for Tristan Chevalier and Izzy MacDougal the game is just beginning. Views: 70
From the moment Louisa first catches sight of the strange man who occupies a forbidden room on the thirty-third floor, she is determined to befriend him.Unbeknownst to Louisa, he is Nikola Tesla—inventor of AC electricity and wireless communication—and he is living out his last days at the Hotel New Yorker.Winning his attention through a shared love of pigeons, she eventually uncovers the story of Tesla’s life as a Serbian immigrant and a visionary genius: as a boy he built engines powered by June bugs, as a man he dreamed of pulling electricity from the sky.The mystery deepens when Louisa reunites with an enigmatic former classmate and faces the loss of her father as he attempts to travel to the past to meet up with his beloved late wife. Before the week is out, Louisa must come to terms with her own understanding of love, death, and the power of invention.The Invention of Everything Else immerses the reader in a magical mid-twentieth-century New York City thrumming with energy, wonder, and possibility. Views: 70
When a passenger plane goes down in the Appalachians, rescue teams start looking for survivors and discover that a five-year-old boy and a woman are missing. Twenty miles from the crash site, Deborah Sanborn has a vision of two survivors, cold, hurting and scared. Over the years she has learned to trust her gift, and she senses these strangers are in terrible danger. She sees a hunter, moving in for the kill.Four generations of O'Ryan men have gathered at the crash site, ready to search for the missing boy, Johnny O'Ryan. His forty-five-year-old grandfather Mike O'Ryan isn't sure what to make of Deborah, but with the snow coming down, sh's all they've got to lead them through the mountains. Because not only are they racing against time and the elements...they're up against a killer desperate to silence his only living witnesses to murder. Views: 70
Cottonwood (2004) was a huge step forward for the burgeoning king of noir Scott Phillips, and his dark and gritty take on the western earned him starred reviews and praise from crime masters Michael Connelly and George Pelecanos. That novel featured the Kansas town beginning in 1872 when it was just a small community of run down farms, dusty roads, and two-bit crooks. Saloon owner and photographer Bill Ogden thought it could be more and allied with wealthy developer Marc Leval to capitalize on the advent of the railroad and the cattle trail that soon turned Cottonwood into a wild boomtown. But problems followed the money and soon Bill was confronting both the wicked family of serial killers known as the Bloody Benders as well as his one-time friend Marc, having fallen into an affair with his beautiful wife Maggie. Bill then turned up alone in San Francisco in 1890, having to face a past from which he could not run.But what happened to him in those missing years? What... Views: 70
