From one of England's most celebrated writers, the author of the award-winningThe History Boys, a funny and superbly observed novella about the Queen of England and the subversive power of readingWhen her corgis stray into a mobile library parked near Buckingham Palace, the Queen feels duty-bound to borrow a book. Discovering the joy of reading widely (from J. R. Ackerley, Jean Genet, and Ivy Compton-Burnett to the classics) and intelligently, she finds that her view of the world changes dramatically. Abetted in her newfound obsession by Norman, a young man from the royal kitchens, the Queen comes to question the prescribed order of the world and loses patience with the routines of her role as monarch. Her new passion for reading initially alarms the palace staff and soon leads to surprising and very funny consequences for the country at large. Views: 45
Robin Romm's arresting and resonant stories take on the fundamental themes of the human condition: mortality, loyalty, and love. In fresh and irreverent prose, Romm captures the mo-ments before and after loss, mining the depths of grief with wit and grace.The stories in The Mother Garden are at once vividly realistic and infused with the bizarre -- a man uses a chicken egg to test whether he is ready for fatherhood; a daughter plants a garden of mothers to replace her own; a family's ghosts literally fall through the ceiling, disrupting daily life; a woman finds her father sleeping in the desert after twenty-six years of living without him. People stumble in relationships, start families, struggle with illness, learn to mourn -- and as in life, these acts are consuming, magical, and disorienting.Sharply funny and deeply moving, this extraordinary collection introduces a young writer of fierce originality and prodigious talent. Views: 45
Young Gav can remember the page of a book after seeing it once, and, inexplicably, he sometimes “remembers” things that are going to happen in the future. As a loyal slave, he must keep these powers secret, but when a terrible tragedy occurs, Gav, blinded by grief, flees the only world he has ever known. And in what becomes a treacherous journey for freedom, Gav’s greatest test of all is facing his powers so that he can come to understand himself and finally find a true home. Includes maps. Nebula Award for Best Novel (2008). Views: 45
Aprofessional criminologist, Rosalind works with a cranky private investigator named McBride--a long-time association that has led her from one sordid foray to another in the world of crime. Her passionate escape is theatre and her latest venture is with a company of out-of-work actors putting on an independent production of Hamlet. Shakespeare’s language is a fabulous distraction until the uncanny parallels between life and art begin to unnerve her. Peter King, a respected environmental lawyer working tirelessly to keep water in the public domain, dies suddenly. Is it murder? His son Daniel thinks so. And as Roz and McBride delve deeper into the case, it becomes all too clear that there are those who will stop at nothing to ensure their foul deeds stay buried. Views: 45
To most, Jessica Cantrell has it all. While it might be partly true, little do they know about Jessica's traumatic past that has left her scarred forever and incapable of trusting anyone with her heart again. When she encounters the dashing billionaire Steven Hart, she can only dream of being in his arms forever. His mere touch ignites a passion in her that she cannot control or avoid! Views: 45
"HOW MANY SEEDs in a pumpkin?" Mr. Tiffin asks his class as they gather around the big, medium, and small pumpkins on his desk. Robert, the biggest kid, guesses that the largest one has a million seeds; Elinor, sounding like she knows what she's talking about, guesses the medium one has 500 seeds; and Anna, who likes even numbers better than odd ones, guesses that the little one has 22. Charlie, the smallest boy in the class, doesn't have a guess. Counting pumpkin seeds is messy business, but once the slimy job is done, to everyone's surprise, the smallest pumpkin has the most seeds! As Charlie happily exclaims, "Small things have a lot going on inside of them."From the Hardcover edition. Views: 45
A woman is brutally murdered in Avignon's Papal PalaceSix hundred years before the Germans conquered Paris, the pope came to Avignon to rule the Roman Church from afar. In January 1943, Jean-Louis St-Cyr and Hermann Kohler visit the former Papal Palace—not as tourists, but as detectives. Where once the pope spoke to God, a woman has had her throat cut.Her corpse seems to have appeared from out of the past. Despite the strictures of wartime rationing, she died in finery, costumed in the ermine and silk of a Renaissance courtier. She appears to have been killed with a scythe, pulled across her neck in one swift stroke, like a shepherd slaughtering a sheep. Wartime Avignon is a small city, steeped in the jealousy that occupation encourages. As St-Cyr and Kohler dig into the city's past, they find motives for murder that predate the Nazis by centuries. Views: 45
An interrupted phone call and a mysterious disappearance bring a family's secret past crashing into the present...1969: Small-town girl Faith Taylor leaves her family home in Willow Tree Bend and lands a job at the Angel—Melbourne's most infamous nightclub. While Faith relishes her new-found freedom, she can't help noticing that some things about the club don't add up. So when a policeman reveals that a former waitress was murdered, Faith realises she must help to bring down the shadowy owner behind the club's activities.More than thirty years later, what happened at the Angel remains a closely held secret. When Faith disappears, her sister Hope—now a famous movie star—is left with an intriguing, though frustrating, pieceof the puzzle. But with a tell-all documentary film crew constantly by her side, how can she find where Faith is—and what she's hiding—while making sure her own secrets stay... Views: 45
