The bestselling author of Turtle Moon and Practical Magic tells her most seductive and mesmerizing tale yet--the story of March Murray, who returns to her small Massachusetts hometown after nineteen years, encountering her childhood sweetheart...and discovering the heartbreaking and complex truth about their reckless and romantic love. Views: 65
International bestselling author Douglas Coupland delivers a real-time, five-hour story set in an airport cocktail lounge during a global disaster. Five disparate people are trapped inside: Karen, a single mother waiting for her online date; Rick, the down-on-his-luck airport lounge bartender; Luke, a pastor on the run; Rachel, a cool Hitchcock blonde incapable of true human contact; and finally a mysterious voice known as Player One. Slowly, each reveals the truth about themselves while the world as they know it comes to an end.In the tradition of Kurt Vonnegut and J. G. Ballard, Coupland explores the modern crises of time, human identity, society, religion, and the afterlife. The book asks as many questions as it answers, and readers will leave the story with no doubt that we are in a new phase of existence as a species — and that there is no turning back. From Publishers WeeklyIn Coupland's real-time near-apocalyptic novel, a recovering alcoholic, a divorcée, a church-fund embezzler, a beautiful android-like woman, and a man who is distinguished by his prickly demeanor converge in an airport cocktail lounge at the precise moment when oil prices begin to rise and society begins to unravel around them. Such an intriguing premise could have lead to explorations of the nature of chaos and human resilience, but the author relies instead on cursory philosophizing, allowing his characters to ramble. The players emerge as near-caricatures who are forced to contend with each other's weaknesses and a small cast of strangers, from a sniper to a "false prophet" selling the Leslie Freemont Power Dynamics program. In one man's brusque assessment, the others are "a depressing grab bag of pop culture influences and cancelled emotions, driven by the sputtering engine of the most banal form of capitalism," words which reveal both the book's vivid style and an apt critique of modern consciousness. Though the book at times feels more like television than a richly conceived world, painting aspects of adults in crisis perhaps too broadly, it is redeemed an ending that allows some of them to survive. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved. FromThe past, present, and future blend together like paint on a canvas in Coupland’s kaleidoscopic novel, which transpires over the course of five real-time hours. At the onset of a worldwide catastrophe, four strangers, each trying to escape a dire reality, become trapped together in a Toronto airport cocktail lounge. Lonely single-mother Karen has flown in to meet an online acquaintance. Rick the bartender, a reformed alcoholic, gives his savings away to an infomercial hack in the hope of buying a better life. Luke is a minister who recently lost his faith and ran away with his church’s renovation fund. And the beautiful but automaton-like blond, Rachel, simply craves personal connection. As each restless soul unfolds his or her thoughts on God, faith, personality, and human emotion, their alternating stories increasingly reveal the mysteries of interaction and coincidence. And then there’s the elusive Player One, whose omniscient commentary seems to govern everyone’s actions. A taut and scintillating exploration of time, Coupland’s tale is both smart and suspenseful while simultaneously questioning the meaning of narration. --Jonathan Fullmer Views: 65
A secretive child by nature, Susanna makes a covert list of everything she knows about her absent father, determined that one day she will find him. Unable and unwilling to adapt to life in her mother's unsympathetic household, she distances herself as much as possible.When she finally discovers her father's whereabouts and seeks him out, in the free and unconventional atmosphere of 1970s Chelsea, she conceals her identity, beginning an illicit affair that can only end in disaster.Repeat it Today with Tears is in many ways a traditional love story, as well as a skilful evocation of radical times and desires. It is a fever dream that examines our need to be loved and accepted and a piercing portrait of madness. Anne Peile is a striking new voice in fiction. Views: 65
Perpetual Autumn is a short story about a couple who transition into space-time 6. They have all the time in the universe together. And yet...there is despair. Views: 65
Richard A. Clarke warned America once before about the havoc terrorism would wreak on our national security—and he was right. Now he warns us of another threat, silent but equally dangerous. Cyber War is a powerful book about technology, government, and military strategy; about criminals, spies, soldiers, and hackers. It explains clearly and convincingly what cyber war is, how cyber weapons work, and how vulnerable we are as a nation and as individuals to the vast and looming web of cyber criminals. This is the first book about the war of the future—cyber war—and a convincing argument that we may already be in peril of losing it.Every concerned American should read this startling and explosive book that offers an insider’s view of White House ‘Situation Room’ operations and carries the reader to the frontlines of our cyber defense. Views: 65
Tristan Satorin, the once fearsome Admiral of his Majesty's North Fleet, has accepted command of a private submersible venture on a mission to recover the treasures buried in the sunken Temple of the Oracle, on the deserted island of Delphia. When the floundering sub is swept into an underwater cave system, he quickly discovers that the island is far from deserted, and the beautiful woman sent to meet him has a mission of her own. Jia has never seen an outsider, much less a man. She has lived as a hunter and a guardian of the Oracle, her life spent fishing the reef and observing the ancient rituals of her culture. Like all of the Oracle 'psychic daughters', she expects to venture into the modern world and choose a temporary mate for the rite of procreation. She does not expect to have that mate chosen for her by the Oracle herself, or for him to appear in the island's watery caves as a broad-shouldered soul of war, still reeling from the tragedies of his past. As she pursues her sacred imperative, she realizes that Tristan is much more than the Oracle would have her believe, and that she desires not only the strength of his body, but his heart. To save his life, she will betray her own people. To save his soul, she will kindle his fierce passion and match it with her own. Views: 65
