• Home
  • Books for 2012 year

You'd Better Not Die or I'll Kill You

Bestselling writer Jane Heller thought she'd found her dream man—until he turned out to be a "frequent flier," the term doctors and nurses use to refer to patients who land in the E.R. more often than the average person goes to Starbucks. Here, Jane shares her experiences of looking after her chronically ill husband with Nora Ephron–like wit, and offers practical guidance for handling it all without drowning. With advice on staying healthy while caring for a loved one and learning to communicate with medical staff, plus wisdom from other caregivers and experts, this is a personal and invaluable tool kit that also manages to prompt laughter and inspire. For the more than 65 million caregivers in the US alone, this book couldn't be more timely or important.
Views: 30

My Cross to Bear

For the first time, rock music icon Gregg Allman, one of the founding members of The Allman Brothers Band, tells the full story of his life and career in My Cross to Bear. No subject is taboo, as one of the true giants of rock 'n' roll opens up about his Georgia youth, his long struggle with substance abuse, his string of bad marriages (including his brief union with superstar Cher), the tragic death of brother Duane Allman, and life on the road in one of rock's most legendary bands.
Views: 30

The Fat Years

Banned in China, this controversial and politically charged novel tells the story of the search for an entire month erased from official Chinese history. Beijing, sometime in the near future: a month has gone missing from official records. No one has any memory of it, and no one could care less--except for a small circle of friends, who will stop at nothing to get to the bottom of the sinister cheerfulness and amnesia that have possessed the Chinese nation. When they kidnap a high-ranking official and force him to reveal all, what they learn--not only about their leaders, but also about their own people--stuns them to the core. It is a message that will astound the world.A kind of Brave New World reflecting the China of our times, The Fat Years is a complex novel of ideas that reveals all too chillingly the machinations of the postmodern totalitarian state, and sets in sharp relief the importance of remembering the past to protect the...
Views: 30

The Last Leaves Falling

A teen grapples with ALS and his decision to die in this devastatingly beautiful debut novel infused with the haunting grace of samurai death poetry and the noble importance of friendship.Abe Sora is going to die, and he’s only seventeen years old. Diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease), he’s already lost the use of his legs, which means he can no longer attend school. Seeking a sense of normality, Sora visits teen chat rooms online and finally finds what he’s been longing for: friendship without pity.As much as he loves his new friends, he can’t ignore what’s ahead. He’s beginning to lose the function of his hands, and soon he’ll become even more of a burden to his mother. Inspired by the death poems of the legendary Japanese warriors known as samurai, Sora makes the decision to leave life on his own terms. And he needs his friends to help him.
Views: 30

The Second Empress

National bestselling author Michelle Moran returns to Paris, this time under the rule of Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte as he casts aside his beautiful wife to marry a Hapsburg princess he hopes will bear him a royal heir After the bloody French Revolution, Emperor Napoleon’s power is absolute. When Marie-Louise, the eighteen year old daughter of the King of Austria, is told that the Emperor has demanded her hand in marriage, her father presents her with a terrible choice: marry the cruel, capricious Napoleon, leaving the man she loves and her home forever, or say no, and plunge her country into war.Marie-Louise knows what she must do, and she travels to France, determined to be a good wife despite Napoleon’s reputation. But lavish parties greet her in Paris, and at the extravagant French court, she finds many rivals for her husband’s affection, including Napoleon’s first wife, Joséphine, and his sister Pauline, the only woman as ambitious as the emperor himself. Beloved by some and infamous to many, Pauline is fiercely loyal to her brother. She is also convinced that Napoleon is destined to become the modern Pharaoh of Egypt. Indeed, her greatest hope is to rule alongside him as his queen -- a brother-sister marriage just as the ancient Egyptian royals practiced. Determined to see this dream come to pass, Pauline embarks on a campaign to undermine the new empress and convince Napoleon to divorce Marie-Louise. As Pauline’s insightful Haitian servant, Paul, watches these two women clash, he is torn between his love for Pauline and his sympathy for Marie-Louise. But there are greater concerns than Pauline’s jealousy plaguing the court of France. While Napoleon becomes increasingly desperate for an heir, the empire’s peace looks increasingly unstable. When war once again sweeps the continent and bloodshed threatens Marie-Louise’s family in Austria, the second Empress is forced to make choices that will determine her place in history -- and change the course of her life. Based on primary resources from the time, The Second Empress takes readers back to Napoleon’s empire, where royals and servants alike live at the whim of one man, and two women vie to change their destinies.
Views: 30

Alice-Miranda in Japan 9

Travel, treasure and trickery in bustling Tokyo. When Alice-Miranda, Millie and Jacinta travel to Japan during the school holidays, they are in for a fascinating treat. Dolly Oliver, the family cook, has been invited to speak at a conference in Tokyo on her Just Add Water (JAW) food creation. But she is even more interested in her newest invention, and vows to try it out while overseas. Alice-Miranda becomes embroiled in an elaborate missing persons hunt when a gift from her father confuses the authorities. Things come to a head when Alice-Miranda and her friends are invited to dinner at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo, and the plans of a jealous sister begin to unravel, with startling consequences.
Views: 30

The Unmarried Husband

Almost at the altar! Anthony Newman was beginning to look a lot like the perfect man. When Jessica Hirst had problems with her teenage daughter, Anthony knew just how to help. When Jessica realized she missed having a man in her life -- and her bed -- Anthony had more than enough sex appeal to keep her happy! In fact, he was fast becoming Jessica’s unofficial husband, and being around Anthony was as exciting as any honeymoon! Or would the real thing be even better? They both loved their independence: were they ready to say, ‘I do’?
Views: 30

The Birthday Scandal

The wealthy Duke of Weybridge knows that everyone loves a good surprise…and a good scandal. He has bounteous amounts of both for the guests—particularly for his nieces and nephew, Emily, Isabel, and Lucien—at his extravagant seventieth birthday ball. They think his promise to improve their lives means a generous stipend. But he’s got different gifts in mind: finding them the perfect matches. His task won’t be easy, because the Arden siblings have given up on love. Bachelor Lucien spends more time merrymaking than looking for a proper wife. His sister Emily, broken-hearted when her betrothal ended in disgrace, committed herself to an early spinsterhood. And Isabel’s marriage has been troubled from the moment it began—with a terrible betrayal on her wedding night. Though witty and strong-willed, the siblings are no match for their uncle’s wily machinations. And as the celebration approaches, his romantic scheming ignites illicit liaisons and irresistible temptations, sparking enough rumors to keep the ton abuzz until his next birthday.Review"Readers will enjoy every minute of the shenanigans at the duke's estate, and the three ensuing love stories, in this enchanting Regency. Both humorous and poignant, emotions mount as everyone discovers their true partner. There's an amusing conspiracy afoot that will delight readers." - RT Book Reviews, 4 stars (HOT)About the AuthorLeigh Michaels is the award-winning author of more than eighty romance novels, which have been translated and published in 120 countries, and in more than twenty-five languages. She was born and raised in rural Iowa and was only a teenager when she wrote her first romance novel (which she subsequently burned, along with the next five books she would write). Since then, six of her novels have been finalists for RITA awards, and she received two Reviewer’s Choice awards from Romantic Times. She is also the 2003 recipient of the Johnson Brigham Award. In addition to her prolific writing career, Leigh also teaches romance writing, and is the author of On Writing Romance, which has been called the definitive guide to writing romance novels. Leigh currently resides in Ottumwa, Iowa, where she and her photographer husband enjoy watching white-tailed deer and wild turkeys that visit their property.
Views: 30

Summer Lies

From Bernhard Schlink, the internationally best-selling author of The Reader, come seven provocative and masterfully calibrated stories. A keen dissection of the ways in which we play with truth and less-than-truth in our lives. Summer Lies brims with the delusions, the passions, the outbursts, and the sometimes irrational justifications people make within a mélange of beautifully rendered relationships. In "After the Season," a man falls quickly in love with a woman he meets on the beach but wrestles with his incongruous feelings of betrayal after he learns she's rich. In "Johann Sebastian Bach on Ruegen," a son tries to put his resentment toward his emotionally distant father behind him by proposing a trip to a Back festival but soon realizes, during his efforts to reconnect, that it wasn't his father who was the distant one. A philandering playwright is accused to infidelity by his wife in "The Night in Baden-Baden," but he sees her accusations as...
Views: 30