The Black Sheep Knitters -- Maggie, Lucy, Dana, Suzanne, and Phoebe -- meet once a week without fail, sharing the varied and colorful skeins of their lives as much as knitting tips, recipes, and small-town gossip, and creating an intricate, durable pattern of friendship. Now a shocking murder has peaceful Plum Harbor, Massachusetts, in knots -- and the Black Sheep women must herd together to protect one of their own from a scandalous frame-up. Views: 21
When childcare worker Shane Dunphy meets Jason in 1991, he is a tiny, frightened five-year-old who has stopped speaking and terrorizes even the older children in the care home with his angry, violent behaviour. Eleven years later, Shane is shocked to find Jason's file on his desk again. Jason has committed some horrendous crimes and is facing a life of incarceration. Can Shane rebuild what had been a delicate friendship, and help Jason to face up to who he is, where he has come from, and what he has done? Views: 21
Four lost souls on a collision course with either disaster or redemption. A random community of Faces in the Fire.Meet Kurt, a truck–driver–turned–sculptor with no memory of his past. Corinne, an e–mail spammer whose lymphoma isn't responding to treatment. Grace, a tattoo artist with an invented existence and a taste for heroin. And Stan, a reluctant hit man haunted by his terrifying gift for killing.They don't know each other, at least not yet. But something––or someone––is at work in the fabric of their lives, weaving them all together. A catfish, a series of numbers scribbled on a napkin, a devastating fire, and something mysterious. Something that could send them hurtling down the highway to disaster––or down the road to redemption. But they won't know which is which until they've managed to say yes to the whispers in their souls. Views: 21
EDITORIAL REVIEW: In 1922, the British archaeologist Henry Carter opened King Tutankhamun’s tomb, illuminating the glories of an ancient civilization. And while the world celebrated the extraordinary revelation that gave Carter international renown and an indelible place in history, by the time of his death, the discovery had nearly destroyed him. Now, in a stunning feat of narrative nonfiction, Daniel Meyerson has written a thrilling and evocative account of this remarkable man and his times.Carter began his career inauspiciously. At the age of seventeen–unknown, untrained, untried–he was hired as a copyist of tomb art by the brash, brilliant, and boldly unkempt father of modern archaeology, W. F. Petrie. Carter struck out on his own a few years later, sensing that something amazing lay buried beneath his feet, waiting for him to uncover it.But others had the same idea: The ancient cities of Egypt were crawling with European adventurers and their wealthy sponsors, each hoping to outdo the others with glittering discoveries–even as growing nationalist resentment against foreigners plundering the country’s most treasured antiquities simmered dangerously in the background.Not until Carter met up with the risk-taking, adventure-loving occultist Lord Carnarvon did his fortunes change. There were stark differences in personality and temperament between the cantankerous Carter and his gregarious patron, but together they faced down endless ridicule from the most respected explorers of the day. Seven dusty and dispiriting years after their first meeting, their dream came to astonishing life. But there would be a price to pay for this partnership, their discovery, and the glory and fame it brought both men–and the chain of events that transpired in the wake of their success remains fascinating and shocking to this day.An enthralling story told with unprecedented verve, **In the Valley of the Kings** is a tale of mania and greed, of fame and lost fortune, of history and its damnations. As he did in **The Linguist and the Emperor,** Daniel Meyerson puts his exciting storytelling powers on full display, revealing an almost forgotten time when past and present came crashing together with the power to change–or curse–men’s lives. Views: 21
A heartfelt middle grade companion to Marshfield Dreams that captures the boyhood years of twelve-year-old Ralph Fletcher in relatable episodes of everyday disappointments and triumphs.As the oldest of nine kids, Ralph was often cast as another parent to his siblings rather than as an older brother; teetering between these two conflicting roles, Ralph longed to be home alone on a sick day, but hated the emptiness of feeling left behind. He loved to play sports with his neighborhood friends but resented the skillful victories of his younger brother. Thrust into the expectations of impending adolescence, Ralph was curious about girls, but embarrassed to take part in the school square dance. This satisfying memoir offers a snapshot of those pivotal moments between grade school and high school, all while tracing the roots of Ralph Fletcher's acclaimed storytelling.A Christy Ottaviano Book Views: 21
Internationally acclaimed novelist Robert Drewe returns to the short-story territory he has made his own. Set against the backdrop of the Australian coast, as randomly and imminently violent as it is beautiful, The Rip reveals the fragility of relationships between husbands and wives, children and parents, friends and lovers.You will find yourself set down in a modern Garden of Eden with a disgraced Adam seeking his Eve; sharing the fears of a small boy in a coastal classroom as a tsunami approaches; in an English gaol cell with an Australian surfer on drug charges; and witnessing a middle-ages farmer contemplating murdering the hippie who stole his wife.Written in a variety of moods, always compassionate, wry and razor sharp, these dazzling stories are crafted by Drewe's incisive wit and passion.'You will read the powerful short stories in this collection with your heart in your mouth. They are the stories of a writer at the top of... Views: 21
In his prize-winning memoir, The Russian Album, Michael Ignatieff chronicled the fortunes of his father's family in Russia and in Canada. Now, in True Patriot Love, Ignatieff turns to his mother's family, the Grants. Over three generations the Grants conducted a spirited public argument about what Canada was and should be. True Patriot Love is both a tribute to and a reckoning with that inheritance. In 1872, the author's great-grandfather George Monro Grant, set out with Sandford Fleming to map out the railway line that would link Canada from ocean to ocean. His grandfather William Lawson Grant fought at the Somme in World War I and came home believing that Canada had earned the right to call itself a fully independent nation. His son George Grant, author of Lament for a Nation, believed that Canada had gone from colony to nation and back to colonyżof the United States. Michael Ignatieff retells the history of his ancestors as a story of one family's search for Canada. He has turned a family memoir into a history of their love of country. Views: 21
Here are poems to take you on a journey from the 'suddenly' of love at first sight to the 'truly, madly, deeply' of infatuation and on to the 'eternally' of love that lasts beyond the end of life, along the way taking in flirtation, passion, fury, betrayal and broken hearts. Bringing together the greatest love poetry from around the world and through the ages, ranging from W. H. Auden to William Shakespeare, John Donne to Emily Dickinson, Robert Browning to Roger McGough, this new anthology will delight, comfort and inspire anyone who has ever tasted love – in any of its forms. Views: 21
The Company by KJ Parker
Published by Orbit UK, October 2008
448 Pages
So: the war’s over, the soldiers return home – what happens next?
K J Parker’s latest standalone novel examines such a situation, not often looked at but one clearly relevant in a Fantasy world: what happens to soldiers after the fighting is over?
The basic story here (though to be fair, KJ’s stories are rarely basic) deals with a company of men, skilled in their wartime efforts, who all (or nearly all) have gone back to their homes and their civilian lives. As you might expect, life outside the army is quite different. The impression given here is that after the war, despite the company’s heroism, non-combatants either know little or are unimpressed now that things are returning to normal seven years after. There is a return to the relative simplicity of civilian life and the mundane actions of small village communities. Bravery counts for little.
One of those returning, admittedly later than some of the others in this tale, is recently-retired Colonel (or at times General) Teuche Kunessin, commander of A Company. He has plans. Having leased the island of Sphoe upon his decommissioning, he plans to use the abandoned facilities there and create his own colony with all of his ex-comrades-in-arms. He returns to the village of his birth to recruit his compatriots – cattle farmer Kudei Gaion, defence school teacher Thouridos (nicknamed ‘Fly’) Alces, shopkeeper Aidi Proaipsen and tanner Muri Achaiois - and make good on a promise they made when in the army.
His compadres, realising the strength of the bonds of wartime friendship, rather conveniently drop everything, sell up, buy resources and get hitched in order to make their future life of self-sufficiency a reality. Unfortunately, despite Colonel Kunessin’s reputation for being methodical and meticulous, (and being a KJ Parker novel) things do not go as planned.
This is KJ Parker’s first standalone. For those who found The Engineer Trilogy too long and slow, this might be a better option. It has many of those signature touches of Parker – the slow delivery, the detached narrative, the details of how to make and build things, which this one does. It wouldn’t be a KJ Parker story unless it told us of such activities as how to build a boat, rebuild burnt-down buildings, go panning in a river, build cranes, herd cattle and smelt metal. As ever, KJ’s tale is an education as well as an entertainment, which can, in equal measures, intrigue and annoy.
It also has that slow, yet painstaking, unravelling of a dark tale which KJ has achieved so well in previous books. Again, here it starts slowly but builds cleverly to its conclusion. It is an unsettling story, one which deals with the basest of human actions rather than holds the moral high ground. To some extent the novel subverts the usual Fantasy clichés to suggest some enigmatic ideas that may make the unwary reader uncomfortable. Strangely, despite initial appearances, it is not a tale of heroism, though the protagonists are wartime ‘heroes’. Instead, being KJ Parker at the author’s most cynical, it deals more with the darker values of avarice, greed, snobbery, deception, murder, adultery and cowardice. Though it tells tales of bravery it is more about survival, both in wartime and peacetime.
We also see here another recurrent theme in Parker’s books, that of the importance of gender in this quasi-agrarian situation. There are very different roles for the sexes here, with wives that are bought and relationships are forged in a variety of logical yet rationally unemotional ways. The two are not always compatible. Without giving plot revelations away, their interactions and positions in this micro-society are an important part of this novel and Parker emphasises here how and why those differences between the soldiers and the soldier’s wives are important.
On the SFFWorld forums I’ve précis’ed the book as ‘imagine Lost meets The Italian Job’. At its simplest, it is a survivalist tale combined with a meticulously designed if not executed crime caper. Not all is what it appears to be and much of the fun is watching unexpected things unfold. Though not as extraordinary as some might suggest, it is a very good book, though Parker’s singular worldview may not be for all.
As has been said at times of Parker’s previous work, it is a bitter, dark, cynical tale, yet also a masterfully planned and executed book, one that builds on ever-revealing characterisation and back-story, leading slowly yet inexorably to its final conclusion. Many readers may not like the ending, and although you may not feel happy about it, it is, like Parker’s previous efforts, knowingly and coldly logical. Views: 21
'Use of magic by teacher strictly forbidden.'Poor Mr Majeika goes to the bottom of the class when the school inspector comes to call. Things don't get any easier when Mr Majeika turns himself into a lobster by mistake. Class Three somehow has to get Wilhemina Worlock to undo the spell... Views: 21
