Введите сюда краткую аннотацию Views: 46
*Listen to what I tell you, son, every word is trueThe sisters haunt the night, and might fight over youNothing can steal your soul and stamp it in the mudLike being the new play-pretty for the girls with the games of blood . . .*The old song warns of the beautiful Bolade sisters, Patience and Prudence, whose undying rivalry was said to stretch even beyond the grave. But Count Rudolfo Vladimir Zginski has never heard the song. A suave Continental vampire, staked to death more than sixty years ago, he has risen to stalk the Southern nights of Memphis, Tennessee, circa 1975. Although new to the modern world, he has quickly developed a taste for its hot blood, willing women, and high-speed automobiles.Yet the seventies are not without their perils, even for so cunning and ruthless a predator. Zginski’s insistent pursuit of a cherry 1973 Mach 1 Ford Mustang soon brings him into conflict with a legendary redneck sheriff with a short temper and a big baseball bat. His dangerous fascination with an enticing undead chanteuse and her equally seductive sister, threatens not only his own ageless existence, but that of the small group of modern-day vampires he has grudgingly taken under his wing. Zginski has already escaped limbo once, but can he free himself from the tangled web of the girls who play games of blood?Alex Bledsoe, author of Blood Groove, returns to he world of the undead with a tale of fast cars and vengeance that never dies. . . .At the publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management software (DRM) applied.From Publishers WeeklyBledsoe captures Tennessee's seamy side in this sordid, oppressive sequel to 2009's Blood Groove. Baron Rudolfo Vladimir Zginski stalks 1970s Memphis after 60 years in limbo. The unrepentantly racist, misogynist vampire sinks his fangs into a new obsession: a 1973 Mach I Mustang he buys from Zeb Crabtree, whose nubile white daughter, Clora, catches the eye of black vampire Leonardo Jones, Zginski's sidekick. Waitress Fauvette (an anti–Sookie Stackhouse) meets undead singer Patience Bolade at Zginski's club, the Ringside (an anti-Merlotte's), and tries to learn Patience's secret to surviving without drinking blood, while Prudence, Patience's estranged vampire sibling, hopes for vengeance over a love triangle with a Civil War colonel. Zginski rates as one of the genre's most repulsive protagonists, and Bledsoe's polished prose can't make up for the shock tactics he uses to propel the plot. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From BooklistThe sequel to Blood Groove (2010) finds vampire count Rudolfo Zginski, staked in 1915 and resurrected in 1975, in Memphis, Tennesee, with two young vampires he befriended in the first book. There is an old song from that era warning against the Bolade sisters, whose rivalry in love lasted well beyond their deaths. Listen to what I tell you, son, and every word is true / The sisters haunt the night, and they might fight over you; so run the lyrics. The count knows nothing of the song. He’s fallen in love with fast cars, and is in the area to buy a 1973 cherry Mustang. The purchase brings him into conflict with a short-tempered former sheriff who also covets the vehicle. Then Rudolfo becomes fascinated with an undead chanteuse, who turns out to be one of the Bolade sisters. This brings him into their undying feud. Bledsoe has admirably resurrected the Memphis of 35 years ago for this story. The intricate plot is peopled with fully developed characters. Definitely one of the better vampire novels lately. --Frieda Murray Views: 46
Review"Bethany McLean and Joe Nocera methodically reconstruct the 30 years that culminated in the Great Recession, years in which Wall Street's relentless greed and Washington's delusional regulators jointly built a time bomb - and thwarted any attempt to disarm it.... The depth of reporting is enormous." -_Time_ "Not for a page do the authors let any political theory or party off the hook as they deftly weave arguments, refutations and facts upon facts in this gripping account." -_The Associated Press_ "_All the Devils Are Here_ is the best business book of 2010.... They put numbers and nuances into a human drama and wrote a business book that is as riveting as an adventure novel. I thought the financial crisis had been completely covered with great books by great writers and there wasn't anything else left to say. McLean and Nocera were able to build on the story and trace the crisis back, 30 years ago, to its roots." -_The Huffington Post_ "Veteran journalists Bethany McLean and Joe Nocera slam dunk this difficult project. The authors turn CDOs into something that makes sense, CEOs into the fallible humans they are, and even transform the government into a place readers can picture.... I followed the financial crisis while it was happening, and frankly always felt like pieces were missing. The books that I read after the financial crisis covered certain bits in detail, but I still had no bird's-eye view. Finally, All the Devils Are Here provided it." -_Business Pundit_ "The authors succeed in pulling the jumbled pieces of the financial crisis together and showing how it flowed from human foibles." -_Bloomberg BusinessWeek_ "Two of our finest business journalists have written a thorough account of the origins of the financial crisis. More than offering just a backward look, it helps explain the most troubling business headlines of the moment, as well as those that are certain to come." -_The New York Times Book Review_ Product Description"Hell is empty, and all the devils are here." -Shakespeare, The Tempest As soon as the financial crisis erupted, the finger-pointing began. Should the blame fall on Wall Street, Main Street, or Pennsylvania Avenue? On greedy traders, misguided regulators, sleazy subprime companies, cowardly legislators, or clueless home buyers? According to Bethany McLean and Joe Nocera, two of America's most acclaimed business journalists, the real answer is all of the above-and more. Many devils helped bring hell to the economy. And the full story, in all of its complexity and detail, is like the legend of the blind men and the elephant. Almost everyone has missed the big picture. Almost no one has put all the pieces together. All the Devils Are Here goes back several decades to weave the hidden history of the financial crisis in a way no previous book has done. It explores the motivations of everyone from famous CEOs, cabinet secretaries, and politicians to anonymous lenders, borrowers, analysts, and Wall Street traders. It delves into the powerful American mythology of homeownership. And it proves that the crisis ultimately wasn't about finance at all; it was about human nature. Among the devils you'll meet in vivid detail: • Angelo Mozilo, the CEO of Countrywide, who dreamed of spreading homeownership to the masses, only to succumb to the peer pressure-and the outsized profits-of the sleaziest subprime lending. • Roland Arnall, a respected philanthropist and diplomat, who made his fortune building Ameriquest, a subprime lending empire that relied on blatantly deceptive lending practices. • Hank Greenberg, who built AIG into a Rube Goldberg contraption with an undeserved triple-A rating, and who ran it so tightly that he was the only one who knew where all the bodies were buried. • Stan O'Neal of Merrill Lynch, aloof and suspicious, who suffered from "Goldman envy" and drove a proud old firm into the ground by promoting cronies and pushing out his smartest lieutenants. • Lloyd Blankfein, who helped turn Goldman Sachs from a culture that famously put clients first to one that made clients secondary to its own bottom line. • Franklin Raines of Fannie Mae, who (like his predecessors) bullied regulators into submission and let his firm drift away from its original, noble mission. • Brian Clarkson of Moody's, who aggressively pushed to increase his rating agency's market share and stock price, at the cost of its integrity. • Alan Greenspan, the legendary maestro of the Federal Reserve, who ignored the evidence of a growing housing bubble and turned a blind eye to the lending practices that ultimately brought down Wall Street-and inflicted enormous pain on the country. Just as McLean's The Smartest Guys in the Room was hailed as the best Enron book on a crowded shelf, so will All the Devils Are Here be remembered for finally making sense of the meltdown and its consequences. Views: 46
Imagine a young boy who has never had a loving home. His only possesions are the old, torn clothes he carries in a paper bag. The only world he knows is one of isolation and fear. Although others had rescued this boy from his abusive alcoholic mother, his real hurt is just begining -- he has no place to call home. This is Dave Pelzer's long-awaited sequel to A Child Called "It". In The Lost Boy, he answers questions and reveals new adventures through the compelling story of his life as an adolescent. Now considered an F-Child (Foster Child), Dave is moved in and out of five different homes. He suffers shame and experiences resentment from those who feel that all foster kids are trouble and unworthy of being loved just because they are not part of a "real" family. Tears, laughter, devastation and hope create the journey of this little lost boy who searches desperately for just one thing -- the love of a family. Views: 46
'Like all good comic writers Mr Burgess lives his creations as much as he writes them. First class'ObserverAnthony Burgess was an officer in the Colonial Service. In The Malayan Trilogy - Time for a Tiger, The Enemy in the Blanket and Beds in the East - he satirises the dog days of colonialism. Victor Crabbe is a well meaning, ineffectual English man in the tropics, keen to teach the Malays what the West can do for them. Through Crabbe's rise and fall and a series of wonderfully colourful characters, Burgess lays bare racial and social prejudices of post-war Malaya during the upheaval of Independence. Views: 46
We all have a dream of how we would like our life to be, but most of us compromise and settle for far less. I was guilty of the doing the same. Stuck in a rut. A burnt out and washed up police detective who drinks and smokes too much and was just letting life pass me by, hoping one day it would all change and life would get better.
On little more than an impulse I decide to leave my well paid job in England, register my rather dull profile on a Thai internet dating site, sell my house, leave all my family and friends behind and go to live in Thailand. I must be mad, it’s a crazy gamble to risk everything but I was prepared to do it.
I met Jee, a girl half my age. She comes from Udon Thani, a place that I had never heard of in an area I knew nothing about, the Isaan area in the Northeast of Thailand, a girl who seemed to be everything that I was looking for and more. A strong quiet character who was prepared to give this old farang another chance at life.
But, and it’s a big but, I know I am experiencing a culture shock. I feel lonely, bored and unable to communicate. I’m often confused and misunderstandings are an everyday occurrence. I don’t know what I’m doing here and I think I’ve made a big mistake. The problem is I really quite like Jee.
I find out things about myself as well as Jee. I start to embrace a Thai culture that I hadn’t previously noticed as a tourist and have an understanding of ‘sanuk’ (fun) and ‘mai pen rai’ (never mind).
I know it’s going to take me longer to come to terms with some other everyday things in Thai culture, like eating frogs, snails, insects and bugs. Squatter type toilets that I’m too scared to use because I don’t know how. Driving on roads when everyone seems to know the rules except me.
This is the story of stumbling upon and overcoming many cultural differences that face any Farang / Thai relationship, but it’s also about discovering and embracing a Thai culture away from the bars, beaches and bright lights of Phuket and Pattaya. This is a love story, but as any farang in a relationship with a Thai lady will know, it’s not just about two people, it’s about a whole family and the community around them. Views: 46
