Could the horses that brought them together pull them apart?Best friends Lisa Atwood, Carole Hanson, and Stevie Lake couldn't be more different—except for the fact that they all love horses. Lisa is back from her summer in California and has just received some unwelcome news about her favorite horse, Prancer. Worse, she's not being totally honest with her boyfriend, Alex—Stevie's twin brother. Carole is spending all of her time at Pine Hollow Stables and is neglecting her friends and even her secret crush, Ben Marlow. And Stevie is busy with her boyfriend, Phil, trying to stop his best friend, A.J., from making a horrible mistake.As secrets threaten to shatter old and new relationships, will Lisa, Carole, and Stevie be able to go back to the way things were? Views: 42
Bennie Ford, a fifty-three-year-old failed poet turned translator, is traveling to his estranged daughter’s wedding when his flight is canceled. Stuck with thousands of fuming passengers in the purgatory of O’Hare International Airport, he watches the clock tick and realizes that he will miss the ceremony. Frustrated, irate, and helpless, Bennie does the only thing he can: he starts to write a letter.But what begins as a hilariously excoriating demand for a refund soon becomes a lament for a life gone awry, for years misspent, talent wasted, and happiness lost. Bennie’s writing is infused with a sense of remorse for the actions of a lifetime—and made all the more urgent by the fading hope that if he can just make it to the wedding, he might have a chance to do something right.A margarita blend of outrage, humor, vulnerability, intelligence, and regret, Dear American Airlines gives new meaning to the term "airport novel" and announces the emergence of a major new talent in American fiction.Amazon.com ReviewElizabeth Gilbert on *Dear American AirlinesElizabeth Gilbert's first three books, Pilgrims, Stern Men, and the National Book Award nominee The Last American Man, received awards and acclaim, but her fourth, Eat, Pray, Love, a chronicle of her spiritual search and redemption following a difficult divorce, has put her on the bedside tables of millions of readers across the world. Her next book, Weddings and Evictions*, a memoir about her unexpected journey into second marriage, will be published in 2009. I'm one of those readers who can't get enough of Martin Amis novels, since Amis--a savage misanthrope who sometimes writes, it seems, with a drill bit--is a guilty pleasure of mine from way back. So it's no wonder that I fell so hard for the bitter, hilarious, dark, twisted, and wonderfully written delights of Dear American Airlines--the most Amis-like novel I've ever read. Jonathan Miles is a first-time novelist (and--full disclosure--friend of mine) whose journalism I've long admired for its clear, humane prose. I never suspected that he had a book like this in him, and--frankly--now that I do know, I'm a little worried for his mental state (even as I'm totally impressed with his writing.)The novel relays the tale of Bennie Ford, a man who is marinating like a cocktail olive in the sour middle-aged juices of his own mistakes, but who has decided to redeem himself completely by attending the wedding of his estranged daughter. Now, as some of us have learned from painful personal experience, it's not always easy to redeem a lifetime of screw-ups in one weekend, but that doesn't deter Bennie from heading to the airport to fly off to what he has decided is the most important event in his life. (The fact that he doesn't seem to notice that the wedding should actually be the most important event in his DAUGHTER'S life, not his, is an early clue of his particular breed of hilarious narcissism.) But at the airport is where his troubles begin, as American Airlines cancels his flight and thus--as far as he is concerned--destroys his life. What follows is a complaint letter raised to the level of high narrative art. I have never before encountered a novel written in the form of a complaint letter, and we can safely assume there will never be another such after this one, just because Miles has created an inimitable story here--one which, despite all the dark wit of its narrator--leaves room in the sad margins for real heartbreak, real feeling, real life. (This is something Amis himself wasn't able to do until many years into his career.) This is the most entertaining first novel I've read in a long while, as well as a searing cautionary tale. Bring it to the airport with you next time you fly somewhere to change your life...*From Publishers WeeklyThis crisp yowl of a first novel from Miles, who covers books for Men's Journal and cocktails for the New York Times, finds despairing yet effusive litterateur Benjamin Ford midair in midlife crisis. Bennie is en route from New York, where he shares a cramped apartment with his stroke-disabled mother and her caretaker, to L.A., where he will attend his daughter Stella's wedding. He gets stranded at O'Hare when his connecting flight—along with all others—is unaccountably canceled. In the long, empty hours amid a marooned crowd, Bennie's demand for a refund quickly becomes a scathing yet oddly joyful reflection on his difficult life, and on the Polish novel he is translating. Bennie writes lightly of his dark years of drinking, of his failed marriages, about his mother's descent into suicidal madness and about her marriage to Bennie's father, a survivor of a Nazi labor camp. Bennie's father recited Polish poetry for solace during Bennie's childhood, inadvertently setting Bennie's life course; Bennie's command of language as he describes his fellow strandees and his riotous embrace of his own feelings will have readers rooting for him. By the time flights resume, Miles has masterfully taken Bennie from grim resignation to the dazzling exhilaration of the possible. (June) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Views: 42
Two women on a vacation that turns deadly face down one of nature's most ruthless killers—and find themselves falling in love.Refusing to allow her absent lover to ruin her vacation in an exotic corner of Thailand, Emily Stone determines to set her private disappointment aside and enjoy herself—until a natural disaster strikes and turns her world upside down. Major Hayden Caldwell plans to escape the restrictions of her job for a rare few days of freedom when she and Emily are forced into the fight of their lives. Together, Hayden and Emily face death, disease, despair, and imminent death, and find in themselves and each other the strength to deny the tsunami two more victims. But can their intense bond survive outside of the extreme situation in which it was forged?Uncharted Passage is the story of two women who face one of life's deadliest challenges and find their hearts forever changed. Views: 42
When King Eggnog rashly offers the hand of his daughter Princess Miranda in marriage, Sir Bigwart sets out on a daring quest with his faithful squire Toby in tow. The quest is to bring back a tooth of the Ogre of Ghastly Fell, a fearsome, flesh-eating giant whose breath is so bad it can knock you at a hundred paces and whose two heads are constantly squabbling with each other.Sir Bigwart's real talent is for empty boasting so he's going to need a lot of help from his resourceful squire on the way - which is a little awkward since Toby is secretly in love with Princess Miranda himself. To make matters more complicated, Miranda is bored of embroidering her dad's coat of arms on cushions - she's coming along for the ride and anyone who tries giving her orders had better watch out. Views: 42
In a world where magic walks and demons ride, you can't always play by the rules. Jayné Heller thinks of herself as a realist, until she discovers reality isn't quite what she thought it was. When her uncle Eric is murdered, Jayné travels to Denver to settle his estate, only to learn that it's all hers – and vaster than she ever imagined. And along with properties across the world and an inexhaustible fortune, Eric left her a legacy of a different kind: his unfinished business with a cabal of wizards known as the Invisible College. Led by the ruthless Randolph Coin, the Invisible College harnesses demon spirits for their own ends of power and domination. Jayné finds it difficult to believe magic and demons can even exist, let alone be responsible for the death of her uncle. But Coin sees Eric's heir as a threat to be eliminated by any means – magical or mundane – so Jayné had better start believing in something to save her own life. Aided in her mission by a group of unlikely companions – Aubrey, Eric's devastatingly attractive assistant; Ex, a former Jesuit with a lethal agenda; Midian, a two-hundred-year-old man who claims to be under a curse from Randolph Coin himself; and Chogyi Jake, a self-styled Buddhist with mystical abilities – Jayné finds that her new reality is not only unexpected, but often unexplainable. And if she hopes to survive, she'll have to learn the new rules fast – or break them completely… Views: 42
Jill Kismet. Dealer in Dark Things. Spiritual Exterminator. Demon Slayer.
Not everyone can take on the things that go bump in the night.
Not everyone tries.
But Jill Kismet is not just anyone.
She's a Hunter, trained by the best - and in over her head.
Welcome to the night shift... Views: 42
Madame Pamplemousse is the story of Madeleine, forced to work in her unpleasant uncle's horrible restaurant, The Squealing Pig. By chance she comes across the most marvellous shop, run by Madame Pamplemousse, which is quiet, discreet, yet full of delicious and otherworldly 'edibles' - Pterodactyl Bacon, Scorpion Tails in Smoked Garlic Oil, and Great Squid Tentacle in Jasmine-Scented Jelly. A quiet comradeship develops between Madeleine, Madame Pamplemousse, and Madame's cat, Camembert. And together they create some wonderful culinary magic. Exquisite, beautifully formed prose that has echoes of Angela Carter belies a narrative that is full of pace. A wonderful fairy tale that will appeal to both adults and children. An exquisite "foodie" fairy tale about a girl in Paris with an evil uncle. Ratatouille meets Chocolat! This is Rupert Kingfisher's first book although he is working on another. His favourite authors as a child were Roald Dahl, Susan Cooper and Ursula le Guin. He... Views: 42
