Advance praise for Farewell, My Subaru
“Fine is Bryson Funny.” ——Santa Cruz Sentinel
“Fine is an amiable and self-deprecating storyteller in the mold of Douglas Adams. If you're a fan of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy-style humor -- and also looking to find out how to raise your own livestock to feed your ice-cream fetish -- Farewell may prove a vital tool.” —— *The Washington Post *
“Fine is an eco-hero for our time..” —— Miami Herald
“An afterward offers solid advice and sources for learning more.” —— On Earth Magazine, Natural Resources Defense Fund
“This is Green Acres for the smart set—: a witty and educational look at sustainable living. Buy it, read it, compost it.”
–A. J. Jacobs, author of The Year of Living Biblically
“The details of Doug Fine’s experiment in green living are great fun——but more important is the spirit, the dawning understanding that living in connection to something more tangible than a computer mouse is what we were built for. It’ll make you want to move!”
–Bill McKibben, author of Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future
Like many Americans, Doug Fine enjoys his creature comforts, but he also knows full well they keep him addicted to oil. So he wonders: Is it possible to keep his Netflix and his car, his Wi-Fi and his subwoofers, and still reduce his carbon footprint?
In an attempt to find out, Fine up and moves to a remote ranch in New Mexico, where he brazenly vows to grow his own food, use sunlight to power his world, and drive on restaurant grease. Never mind that he’s never raised so much as a chicken or a bean. Or that he has no mechanical or electrical skills.
Whether installing Japanese solar panels, defending the goats he found on Craigslist against coyotes, or co-opting waste oil from the local Chinese restaurant to try and fill the new “veggie oil” tank in his ROAT (short for Ridiculously Oversized American Truck), Fine’s extraordinary undertaking makes one thing clear: It ain’t easy being green. In fact, his journey uncovers a slew of surprising facts about alternative energy, organic and locally grown food, and climate change.
Both a hilarious romp and an inspiring call to action, Farewell, My Subaru makes a profound statement about trading today’s instant gratifications for a deeper, more enduring kind of satisfaction.
From the Hardcover edition. Views: 11
Superfly He's big. He's black. He's bad. And he ain't afraid of no DDT. The Lord of the Killer Flies was a buggy billionaire, out to liberate oppressed vermin everywhere. He didn't include people in that category. The Destroyer did. Still, he thought the world was worth saving. Feisty little species, though. Even for a two-man SWAT team like Remo and Chiun. There were computers to humiliate, bombs to beat, and terrorists to terminate. And an honest-to-God fly hotel, where the Destroyer checked in to help the other guests check out...permanently. Views: 11
Family is complicated. Love isn't.Acclaimed artist Elaine Gordon can't believe her loving husband is gone. After a lifetime spent utterly devoted to her soul mate and their marriage, Elaine is now tetherless, faced with widowhood and all the decisions that come with it, not least of which is what to do with her rambling, now-empty family home.Anxious to console their mother in her time of grief, Elaine's four grown children urge her to put everything on hold and spend some healing time with them. But visiting each unique and complicated child opens Elaine's eyes to the fact that the children she raised have become adults she hardly knows: Sarah, who abandoned Western life for an orthodox enclave in Jerusalem; Lisa, Sarah's accomplished twin and polar opposite, who will do anything for a child of her own; Peter, trapped in a hollow marriage in California; and Denis, the youngest, who just wants Elaine to accept his gay lifestyle.As... Views: 11
Terrified. Abused. Who do you trust when the world is against you?Hope is in short supply for Kelsey Brand...Abandoned by her mother and placed in care, 14-year-old Kelsey - along with her younger sisters - is just another forgotten child of the state. Unable to cope with the care home's harsh regimes, Kelsey attempts to take her own life, leaving her horrifically scarred - and mute. Days later, the body of Kelsey's mother Grace - a known prostitute and heroin addict - is found butchered on a notorious Luton council estate. And Kelsey becomes a suspect...Enter Lilly Valentine. A tough-talking Yorkshire lawyer with a heart of gold and a will of iron, Lilly has forsaken a glittering career to move south and help vulnerable kids escape the system. Determined to prove Kelsey's innocence, Lilly ventures into the heart of a dark city with as many secrets as problems. Prostitution, paedophilia, drugs and blackmail: Lily must put her own life at risk to save a silent, terrified child and find the real killer... Views: 11
The masters of astonishing military technology that enables them to deploy almost instantaneously to any part of the Earth, the Dreamland team must now stop a dangerous revolution in the making in Eastern Europe where a mysterious group of insurgents has blown up an essential pipeline, thereby disrupting Europe's gas supply. With NATO and the EU paralyzed by the crisis, it falls to Dreamland's best and brightest to keep the world from the brink of another Cold War. But the secret hand of an old enemy is pulling the strings from the shadows, hoping to reap the rewards of chaos. And the devastating results could erupt with intense, white-hot fury. Views: 11
One night The Great Freddie, a young ventriloquist, is possessed by a dybbuk.A what?A Jewish spirit. A scrappy demon who glows as if spray-painted by moonlight.The dybbuk is revealed to be the ghost of a twelve-year-old boy named Avrom Amos, a victim of the Nazis during World War II. In a plucky scheme to seek revenge, he commandeers The Great Freddie's stage act and entraps the entertainer in the postwar ashes of Germany. Behind the footlights, the dybbuk lights up the terrible fate of a million and a half Jewish children, including Avrom himself.What tricks does the dybbuk have up his ghostly sleeve? Prepare to be astonished. . . . Views: 11
The Award-Winning Stories of Harlan Ellison. Views: 11
When her home is destroyed in a bombing raid over London, Miranda Beddoes is forced to take refuge with her grandparents down on the Dorset coast. With both her parents doing their duty for king and country, Miranda longs to do the same. She joins the WAAF and is soon working hard to help win the war. Despite her determination to dedicate herself to her work, Miranda falls for charismatic fighter pilot Gil Maddern -- a man known for his recklessness and passion for flying. As the battle rages in the skies above them and she learns that Gil's plane has been hit, it is only the friendship of her fellow girls in blue that keeps Miranda going as she waits for news... Views: 11
Bond is back. With a vengeance. Devil May Care is a masterful continuation of the James Bond legacy–an electrifying new chapter in the life of the most iconic spy of literature and film, written to celebrate the centenary of Ian Fleming’s birth on May 28, 1908.An Algerian drug runner is savagely executed in the desolate outskirts of Paris. This seemingly isolated event leads to the recall of Agent 007 from his sabbatical in Rome and his return to the world of intrigue and danger where he is most at home. The head of MI6, M, assigns him to shadow the mysterious Dr. Julius Gorner, a power-crazed pharmaceutical magnate, whose wealth is exceeded only by his greed. Gorner has lately taken a disquieting interest in opiate derivatives, both legal and illegal, and this urgently bears looking into. Bond finds a willing accomplice in the shape of a glamorous Parisian named Scarlett Papava. He will need her help in a life-and-death struggle with his most dangerous adversary yet, as a chain of events threaten to lead to global catastrophe. A British airliner goes missing over Iraq. The thunder of a coming war echoes in the Middle East. And a tide of lethal narcotics threatens to engulf a Great Britain in the throes of the social upheavals of the late sixties. Picking up where Fleming left off, Sebastian Faulks takes Bond back to the height of the Cold War in a story of almost unbearable pace and tension. Devil May Care not only captures the very essence of Fleming’s original novels but also shows Bond facing dangers with a powerful relevance to our own times.Amazon.com Review10 THINGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT JAMES BOND & IAN FLEMINGA QuizQ: Although James Bond is regarded by many as the quintessential English hero, he is actually not English. What is his nationality in the books?A: He is half Scottish and half Swiss. He also hates that most English of drinks, tea--and describes it as 'mud'! Q: Bond has had many famous incarnations on the big screen but, prior to these, he was first played on the radio by which British actor and game show host?A: Bob Holness of Blockbusters fameQ: Which Bond villain shares a birthday with his creator? A: Ernst Stavro Blofeld. On Her Majesty's Secret Service reveals that Blofeld was born on 28 May 1908. Ian Lancaster Fleming entered the world on the same day at 7 Green Street in London.Q: Which American President was a big fan of the Fleming novels?A: President John F. Kennedy. Kennedy was known to be a big fan of Fleming and listed From Russia With Love as one of his top 10 favourite books. Bizarrely, both Kennedy and his assassin Lee Harvey Oswald are believed to have been reading Bond novels the night before Kennedy was killed.Q: Which famed children’s author helped Ian Fleming adapt his children's adventure story Chitty Chitty Bang Bang for the big screen?A: Roald DahlQ: Where did Fleming write all his Bond books?A: At Goldeneye, his Jamaican home. Although now part of a luxurious holiday resort, the house was very basic in Fleming's time--so much so that his friend and neighbour Noel Coward referred to it as Goldeneye, Nose and Throat!Q: Although Ursula Andress wears the most famous bikini in cinema history in her iconic performance in Doctor No, in Fleming's novel of the same name the character Honeychile Rider wears even less. What does she wear?A: She is naked save for a knife-belt.Q: The first Bond novel, Casino Royale, originally had a different title when it was published in the US. Under what title was it initially published here?A: The initial title here was You Asked For It.Q: What is James Bond’s favorite meal?A: Breakfast. He has a particular penchant for scrambled eggs, and the short story 007 in New York even includes his own recipe for them.Q: Who is Miss Moneypenny named for? A: Miss Moneypenny was named after a character in an unpublished novel written by Ian Fleming's brother, the travel writer Peter Fleming. From Publishers WeeklyWith a delivery as cool and dry as a vodka martini, Tristan Layton brings numerous international locals and characters to life in Faulks' homage to Ian Fleming's greatest creation, James Bond. It's 1967 and agent 007 is on a forced rest leave, but it isn't long before a new threat to the British Empire and the world has M dragging him back into action. Evil genius Dr. Julius Gorner is out to destroy Britain by flooding England with heroin. He also has an even more diabolical plan waiting in the wings. Faulks follows Fleming's traditional framework, but it's Layton's performance that keeps the rather slow storyline moving. His reading nicely enhances Faulks's prose and his proper English intonation provides the perfect stage from which his rich, multi-accented characters can project. It is a smooth, easy performance that elevates the material. A Doubleday hardcover (reviewed online). (June) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Views: 11
Arcadia Greentree confronts her past – and her future. In Book 1, sixteen-year-old Arcadia discovered she was adopted and that her development had been shaped and monitored by her "parents" together with the headmaster of her school. The discovery resulted in a tragedy as her father was murdered and her mother put in a coma. In Book 2, Arcadia tries to locate the "professor" whom she believes to be ultimately responsible for her situation. A series of bomb threats lead her to Oxford University and a confrontation with her enemy—but all is not as it seems. The pieces of Arcadia's life are slowly falling into place when her estranged sister returns to scatter them once more. Arcadia must now choose whether to trust her nemesis as they uncover the dark secret of their birth. Views: 11
