The discovery that changed our history and destroyed our future. Views: 20
A. J. Cronin’s latest novel is a devastating one—more realistic than any he has ever written. In The Judas Tree , the author of The Stars Look Down , The Citadel , The Keys of the Kingdom and The Green Years tells an engrossing story of a man beset by a supreme egoism which affects his entire life—particularly his relations with women. Rich, charming and accomplished, David Moray is a man especially attractive to women. From the depths of poverty he has risen to dazzling financial success and at a comparatively young age retired to Switzerland to enjoy its rewards. Detached from the dangers and anxieties of the world in the luxury of his beautiful estate, he is prepared to exist in perfect happiness. Without the slightest premonition of impending disaster, in a chance conversation at a party he is dramatically confronted with a situation which for years has caused him a deep sensation of guilt. When a young and impecunious medical student, he had fallen in love with a young Scottish girl and had committed himself to marry her, only to abandon her for another woman who could advance his career. With the highest intentions, he starts out to make good the damage of his first step in self advancement. Will he succeed? Views: 20
Celia Frost is a freak. At least that's what everyone thinks. Her life is ruled by a rare disorder that means she could bleed to death from the slightest cut, confining her to a gloomy bubble of "safety". No friends. No fun. No life. But when a knife attack on Celia has unexpected consequences, her mum reacts strangely. Suddenly they're on the run. Why is her mum so scared? Someone out there knows – and when they find Celia, she's going to wish the truth was a lie... A buried secret; a gripping manhunt; a dangerous deceit: what is the truth about Celia Frost? A page-turning thriller that's impossible to put down. Views: 20
Differences between Contemporary and Old Order Mennonite Church Communities Views: 20
Amazon.com Review
New Yorker and in his books River Town, Oracle Bones, and now the superb
Country Driving, he's observed the past 15 years of change with the patience
and perspective--and necessary good humor--of an outsider who expects to be
there for a while. In Country Driving, Hessler takes to the roads, as so
many Chinese are doing now for the first time, driving on dirt tracks to the
desert edges of the ancient empire and on brand-new highways to the
mushrooming factory towns of the globalized boom. He's modest but intrepid--
having taken to heart the national philosophy that it's better to ask for
forgiveness than permission--and an utterly enjoyable guide, with a humane and
empathetic eye for the ambitions, the failures, and the comedy of a country in
which everybody, it seems, is on the move, and no one is quite sure of the
rules. --_Tom Nissley_
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. In his latest feat of penetrating social reportage, New
Yorker writer Hessler (_Oracle Bones_) again proves himself America's keenest
observer of the New China. Hessler investigates the country's lurch into
modernity through three engrossing narratives. In an epic road trip following
the Great Wall across northern China, he surveys dilapidated frontier outposts
from the imperial past while barely surviving the advent of the nation's
uniquely terrifying car culture. He probes the transformation of village life
through the saga of a family of peasants trying to remake themselves as
middle-class entrepreneurs. Finally, he explores China's frantic
industrialization, embodied by the managers and workers at a fly-by-night bra-
parts factory in a Special Economic Zone. Hessler has a sharp eye for
contradictions, from the absurdities of Chinese drivers' education courses
—low-speed obstacle courses are mandatory, while seat belts and turn signals
are deemed optional—to the leveling of an entire mountain to make way for the
Renli Environmental Protection Company. Better yet, he has a knack for finding
the human-scale stories that make China's vast upheavals both comprehensible
and moving. The result is a fascinating portrait of a society tearing off into
the future with only the sketchiest of maps. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All
rights reserved.
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SUMMARY: From two of our most fiercely moral voices, a passionate call to arms against our era's most pervasive human rights violation: the oppression of women and girls in the developing world. With Pulitzer Prize winners Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn as our guides, we undertake an odyssey through Africa and Asia to meet the extraordinary women struggling there, among them a Cambodian teenager sold into sex slavery and an Ethiopian woman who suffered devastating injuries in childbirth. Drawing on the breadth of their combined reporting experience, Kristof and WuDunn depict our world with anger, sadness, clarity, and, ultimately, hope. They show how a little help can transform the lives of women and girls abroad. That Cambodian girl eventually escaped from her brothel and, with assistance from an aid group, built a thriving retail business that supports her family. The Ethiopian woman had her injuries repaired and in time became a surgeon. A Zimbabwean mother of five, counseled to return to school, earned her doctorate and became an expert on AIDS. Through these stories, Kristof and WuDunn help us see that the key to economic progress lies in unleashing women's potential. They make clear how so many people have helped to do just that, and how we can each do our part. Throughout much of the world, the greatest unexploited economic resource is the female half of the population. Countries such as China have prospered precisely because they emancipated women and brought them into the formal economy. Unleashing that process globally is not only the right thing to do; it's also the best strategy for fighting poverty. Deeply felt, pragmatic, and inspirational, "Half the Sky" is essential reading for every global citizen. Views: 20
A book that will move hearts and open minds, Jeffrey McGowan's memoir is the first personal account of a gay man's silent struggle in the don't-ask-don't-tell military, from a cadet who rose to the rank of major, left as a decorated Persian Gulf hero, and whose same-sex marriage was the first on the East Coast.Love of country and personal love combine in this groundbreaking memoir of one gay man's life in the military--and beyond. In Major Conflict, Queens-born Jeffrey McGowan tells how he enlisted in the army in the late 1980s and served with distinction for ten years. But McGowan had a secret: he was gay. In the don't-ask-don't-tell world of the Clinton-era army, being gay meant automatic expulsion. So, at the expense of his personal life and dignity, he hid his sexual identity and continued to serve the army well. Major Conflict is a moving account of his years in the military, the homophobia he encountered there, and his life afterward. McGowan... Views: 20
A murder in Istanbul is entangled with international politics and deadly secrets when an embassy official is shot trying to swim the Dardanelles Straits. Special Branch officer Seymour's investigation ranges through Istanbul's graveyards, box shops, and crowded coffee houses, leading to the heart of Topkapi Palace.From the Trade Paperback edition. Views: 20
