From Publishers WeeklyThe ethnically diverse New York borough of Queens is the setting for this solid entry in Akashic's noir anthology series (Brooklyn Noir, etc.). Rather than featuring big name authors only loosely connected to Queens, Knightly has brought in a crew of local writers that includes many unknowns. The result is a satisfying if unspectacular volume, with protagonists ranging from a young woman out for revenge (Denis Hamill's Under the Throgs Neck Bridge) to a trigger-happy cop protecting her cousin from an abusive ex-husband (Stephen Solomita's Crazy Jill Saves the Slinky). The husband-and-wife team writing as Tori Carrington (Sofie Metropolis) weighs in with a gritty whodunit set in a Greek diner in Last Stop, Ditmars. The standout by far is Hollywood Lanes by Megan Abbott (The Song Is You), a bleak and masterful story of passion and betrayal set in a Forest Hills bowling alley. There's plenty to enjoy here for Akashic completists and anyone who's ever cheered (or jeered) the Mets. (Jan.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Product DescriptionAll-new stories by: Denis Hamill, Maggie Estep, Megan Abbott, Robert Knightly, Liz Mart'nez, Jill Eisenstadt, Mary Byrne, Tori Carrington, Shailly P. Agnihotri, k.j.a. Wishnia, Victoria Eng, Alan Gordon, Beverly Farley, Joe Guglielmelli, and Glenville Lovell.Queens used to be dismissed as the "bedroom of Manhattan"--daily disgorging its sons and daughters by elevated rail and the Queensboro Bridge to their jobs in "New York" (as Manhattan was known to us in the outer boroughs). By 2007, Queens had become the borough of immigrants--2.2 million residents, forty-eight percent of whom are foreign-born, the vast majority of them Asian. In fifty-plus distinct neighborhoods, speaking 140 different languages, reside: Chinese, Koreans, Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Guyanese, Jamaicans, Haitians, Trinidadians, Colombians, Ecuadorians, Dominicans, Mexicans, Filipinos, not to mention Greeks.Queens county is the largest borough accommodating two beaches, two airports, Aqueduct Racetrack, three elevated train structures, and Shea Stadium. Queens Noir has set twenty original crime stories in the neighborhoods and at the "Big A," Shea Stadium, JFK Airport, Rockaway Beach, and aboard the elevated Flushing 7 subway line. Views: 46
Lowell works in a flower shop. Or... well, he did. Until he met Marka. A young girl covered in weird tattoos who came from underground while having a massive fight with a giant demon monster. Weird, right? Not really the sort of thing you want to get mixed up in. Well, Lowell did. Views: 46
"In a work of outstanding clarity and sheer brilliance Steven Pinker banishes forever fears that a biological understanding of human nature threatens humane values" - Helena Cronin, author of THE ANT and THE PEACOCK."A mind blowing, mind openingexposé. Pinker's profoundly positive arguments for the compatibility of biology and humanism are unrivalled for their scope and depth and should be mandatory, if disquieting, reading"Patricia Goldman-Rakic - Past President of the Society for Neuroscience. Views: 46
"I'm going to tell you a story you've never heard before, because no one knows this story the way I know it."The opening line of "If I Did It: Confessions of A Killer" In 1994, Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson were brutally murdered at her home in Brentwood, California. O.J. Simpson was tried for the crime in a case that captured the attention of the American people, but was ultimately acquitted of criminal charges. The victims' families brought a civil case against Simpson, which found him liable for willfully and wrongfully causing the deaths of Ron and Nicole committing battery with malice and oppression. In 2006, HarperCollins announced the publication of a book in which O.J. Simpson told how he hypothetically would have committed the murders. In response to public outrage that Simpson stood to profit from these crimes, HarperCollins canceled the book. A Florida bankruptcy court awarded the rights to the Goldmans in August 2007 to satisfy the civil judgment in part.... Views: 46
In Geneva Holliday's latest novel of lust and revenge, Seduction works both ways.Mildred Johnson is the last woman on earth that gorgeous Tony Landry would dare to be seen with. That is, until Tony wants to pull a scam on the company where she works. In order to keep Mildred signing phony documents, Tony gives Mildred a taste of romance and keeps raising the stakes until he's eventually forced to propose. But when the big day arrives he skips town with the money he's stolen.Heartbroken, Mildred takes a trip to Barbados where her "vacation" turns out to be a boot-camp style weight loss clinic! Soon she discovers a goddess that had been hiding beneath her homely exterior. And when she runs into Tony on the island, he doesn't even recognize the sexy fox standing before him. Little does he know that this fox has a plan for revenge that will leave him whimpering with his tail between his legs for a good, long time. Views: 46
Declan Lynch recalls the great moments—Packie's save and his leap into immortality, Pavarotti's "Nessun Dorma" and U2's "Put 'Em Under Pressure'," Kevin Sheedy's sweet strike, and all that drinking. Days of Heaven is full of hilarious accounts of how the Irish abandoned reality in that glorious time called Italia 90. Views: 46
The weirdness never stops!It's Pee Wee Football season, and A.J.'s new coach is crazy. She wants the boys to do push-ups in the mud. She wants them to pick up a car. And worst of all, she wants to put girls on the team! You'll never believe in a million hundred years what happens in the big game. Views: 46
Set in the town of Gruel, South Carolina, this first novel by George Singleton, master of the comic short story, is the tale of a young man named Novel (his brother's name is James; his sister's is Joyce), a professional snake handler who stumbles across strange doings while he sits in a motel room writing his autobiography. As he struggles to recount his life story, he uncovers-and finds himself starring in-a decades-old town secret, one that can blow him and his fellow citizens sky-high. Funny as only George Singleton can be, full of Southern mischief and wit, Novel is a crazed and crazy fictional whirlwind of drinking, motel-living, art-forgery-committing, pool-playing redneck charm. Views: 46
The ruthlessly engrossing and beautifully rendered story of the Brodskys, a family of artists who realize, too late, one elemental truth: Creation's necessary consequence isdestruction. Each member of the mercurial clan in Adam Mansbach's bold new novel faces the impossible choice between the people they love and the art that sustains them. TristanBrodsky, sprung from the asphalt of the depression-era Bronx, goes on to become one of the swaggering Jewish geniuses who remakes American culture while slowly suffocating his poet wife, who harbors secrets of her own.Nina Hricek, a driven young Czech photographer escapes from behind the Iron Curtain with a group of black musicians only to find herself trapped yet again, this time in a doomed love affair. And finally, Tris Freedman, grandson of Tristan and lover of Nina, a graffiti artist and unanchored revolutionary, cannibalizes his family history to feed his muse. In the end, their stories converge and the survival of each requires the sacrifice ofanother. "The End of the Jews" offers all the rewards of the traditional family epic, but Mansbach's irreverent wit and rich, kinetic prose shed new light on the genre. It runs on itsown chronometer, somersaulting gracefully through time and space, interweaving the tales of these three protagonists who, separated by generation and geography, are leading parallel lives. Views: 46
Seventeen-year-old Fern has not had many breaks in life. She struggles at school and lives with her mother in a roach-infested apartment. Then, suddenly, her mother has a heart attack and dies, and Fern is devastated. But she's a survivor, and she's not afraid of hard work. Sidestepping social services, she quits school and sets out to look after herself. With a little luck and ingenuity and a lot of determination, she manages to live rent-free by becoming a janitor in a crummy apartment building. When she runs out of toothpaste she gets freebies from dentists' offices. Then she tries to juggle two other shift jobs, including one in a restaurant kitchen, so she has access to leftover food. But despite her resourcefulness and resolve, the exhaustion and stress eventually take their toll, until Fern discovers that she is not really on her own after all. Views: 46
Meet the Beacon Street Girls... They're real, they're fun - they're just like you! A family history project for school is giving the Beacon Street Girls a lot to think about -- especially Avery. She's got three families: her mother and brothers at home, her father in Colorado, and the birth mother she never really knew. But family is an uncomfortable subject for Maeve. Her parents have just separated, and she doesn't want to talk about it to anyone, not even her best friends in the world, the BSG. Can a bundle of old letters make Maeve see her family in a new light and give her something to share with the Beacon Street Girls? Views: 46
