A complex and compelling story of how one man, corrupted by greed, uses his power to take over the world. But he never counted on the little people--those stalwart men and women with heart and soul who made this country great in the beginning. Is this a scenario that could happen today? You decide. Views: 8
Snowden Nastiuk has gone to Russia after the time of the fall of Communism to bury himself, a loser in a loser nation in a world that wants only winners.Buried in a job working as a Document Controller in a Russian oil camp near Noyabrsk, Snow is – not happy, but at least content sitting out his life in a setting where he thinks he won’t have to feel any more pain. He has a job where he only has to interact with paper, not humans; a setting far from family and friends; and enough vodka to dull anything that threatens to get in past his defences.Until the woman walks into his life, literally. Magda Perskanski – physicist, gulag survivor, brothel madame, overseer of the Deficit Exchange Club, psychic capable of reading people’s pasts, mathabeautician – simply barges into his porta-cabin one day when Snow refuses to answer her knocking and kicks the legs out the crutches he’s come to depend on; she recognizes something deep inside the chuzhie that she knows is inside herself and refuses to let another human being suffer the same way as she has done.Little by little, Magda draws Snow out, first the story of what has caused him so much pain – the suicide of his mother when he was a young boy and the mindless death of his young girlfriend by a falling tree in the forest on a camping trip – then out of his torpor and the start of his first tentative steps back into the landmine-filled world of personal relationships. Not only is there Magda, there is Kolya, the unrepentant Communist who works with Snow in Document Control. And there is Pig –Porfiry Makahonic – the camp boss who rules everything in “his” oil camp with an iron fist, including his pet Doctor.There is also the mysterious sickness that keeps affecting and even killing the labourers in the oil camp’s pipeline/pigging system and laboratory, something which concerns Magda deeply, but which Snow doesn’t care about until Kolya ends up dead protecting the integrity of “his” documents against the crimes going on in camp.Crawling out of his vodka bottle long enough to go digging inside the day-to-day documents of the oil camp, Snow and Magda find evidence that Pig and the Doctor are hijacking radioactive cesium used in oil well-bore reading equipment and medical instruments and smuggling it out of the camp through the pig in the pipeline to terrorists who plan to use it in dirty bombs in Manhattan, Manchester and Mumbai. Before they can get the information to the authorities – no one is sure whom to trust in a still-reeling Russia run by the siloviki and absent rule of law – Snow is found half-frozen outside of his cabin on a cold winter’s night. Did somebody try and kill him or did he decide to follow his mother and ex-lover into death? In the end, Magda manages to bring Pig to justice and guide Snow back to a life he deserved all along. Views: 8
Eagles' Revenge is the thrilling second book in the best-selling Mouse Kingdom trilogy for children. The Rat-Kind are plotting to wipe out the Mouse Kingdom of Carminel. Only Rufus, a slave, can stop them. First, though, he must find the ancient treasures of the Lord of Light and enlist the help of the legendary eagles of Carminel. Pursued every step of the way by ruthless rat warriors, Rufus is tested to the limit. Is he brave, strong and fast enough to find the treasures before the rats get them... or will the rats get Rufus first? Views: 8
In the wake of the Tour de France's fallen heroes, the story of one of history's most legendary cyclists provides a much-needed antidote. In 1907 the world's most popular athlete was not Cy Young or Ty Cobb. Rather, he was a black bicycle racer named Major" Taylor.In his day, Taylor became a spiritual and athletic idol. He was the fastest man in America, and a champion who prevailed over unspeakable cruelty. The men who aided him were among the most colorful to emerge from the era. First there was Taylor's manager, pugnacious Irishman and famed Broadway producer William Brady. Then along came Arthur Zimmerman, an internationally famous bike racer, who gently mentored Taylor when some riders drew the color line and refused to race against him. When hotel and restaurant operators denied Taylor food and lodgings, forcing him to sleep in horse stables and race hungry, there was a benevolent racer-turned-trainer named Birdie Munger, who took Taylor under his wing and into... Views: 8
Zane Hendricks boards a train one winter night in Cape Town, and what should be a 24 minute ride home from the advertising agency where he works becomes a journey of terror.Some years earlier Zane crossed the railway line from his birthplace on the Cape Flats to a better life, but his murky past catches up with him forcing him to confront what he's been avoiding all of his young life - himself.Lena Valentine, having suffered abuse in her early teens, lacks self-esteem to the point of self-hatred. On the first night of the FIFA World Cup in Cape Town her simmering rage boils over when she tries to save an exotic, beautiful Thai girl from a gang of human traffickers, and what starts off as a mission of mercy ends in disaster.Hannibal Fortuin, leader of the Evangelicals gang, has declared God dead and embraced crime kingpin Jerome Sasman, aka the Gnome. But the Gnome disappoints him too. Twists and turns of fate bring Zane into Hannibal's sights once more, and Hannibal's obsession with revenge reaches new heights.Last Train to Retreat is a gritty thriller about a young man's courage and love in the face of irredeemable evil, set against a backdrop of a dystopian Cape Flats and its Coloureds - people forcibly relocated to a barren piece of earth because of their skin colour, and still trapped today, with a police force that knows it can never beat the gangs and the drugs."It was like going back to his past as Zane made his way down the dusty street. It was a street from his childhood that he had walked for so many years. Now there was a sense of high noon about it - men with hard eyes watching him come into town, the streets ominously clear of ordinary people. Down the road to the house imprinted on his mind since the day Chantal had told him about the crystal meth explosion, aware with each step he took that he was staking his sister's life, Lena's, and his own on the next few hours." Views: 8
Book 3 of 3 in the Amazon Top 100 Best-Selling Plain Fame TrilogyOnly weeks after being married, Amanda is back at her parents' farm in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania to tend to her ailing father while Alejandro is back on the road performing for his adoring fans. How will time and distance impact their relationship? Will the demands of his fans overshadow his love for Amanda? And how will the Amish community react to Amanda's presence (along with the return of the paparazzi) in their community?An Amish Christian Romance that will leave you breathless and wanting more. Sarah Price, bestselling author of Amish Christian Romances, brings her twenty-five years of experience living among the Amish and from growing up Mennonite to the pages of her novels and novellas, in order to present a truly authentic Amish experience just for her readers. Views: 8
All your favourite DANCE ACADEMY characters are back... But will they survive Second Year? Ages: 9+ When tara is expelled from the Academy, it seems her dream of becoming a world-class ballerina is finally over. But tara is a fighter - and it's not long before she's back at the barre, with the biggest challenges of her life looming ahead of her. Will they make her or break her? Ages: 9+ Views: 8
The fourth in the Strangers and Brothers series begins with the dying Master of a Cambridge college. His imminent demise causes intense rivalry and jealousy amongst the other fellows. Former friends become enemies as the election looms. Views: 8
One night of pleasure led to the positive pregnancy test that she held in her hand. Maria Watson succumbed to the most passionate night in her life in the arms of Lieutenant Brody Gillis. While Ivy was celebrating her wedding night with her new husband Rafe. Maria was in his best friends arms and what a night it was. Now as she stared at the positive pregnancy test, her dismayed thought was, merciful heaven what do I do now?Maria didn’t know if she wanted a relationship but she did know she was keeping her baby. She was burned by a soldier before and wasn’t looking for a repeat with a playboy like Brody. Yet he kept coming around and sending her flowers after that one night. When she told him she was pregnant, he vowed to be the best father to their child and boyfriend to her. Maria wanted to believe all the sweet words that Brody whispered in her eyes. But once burned, twice shy and when it seemed Brody’s playboy ways surface once again. Would it end up that she’d be raising her baby alone? Views: 8
Lighten up and laugh your way through the 9-to-5 grind with this mix of hilarious wisecracks, uproarious one-liners, full-color cartoons, and quotations from famous (and not-so-famous) wits. The hundreds of jokes and quips in Laughter the Best Medicine @ Work have been collected from more than eight decades' worth of Reader's Digest magazines and are guaranteed to brighten up your workday. You'll find everything from outrageous resumes to creative excuses for calling in sick. So whether you suffer from an e-mail gone wrong, an irritating coworker, or a dreadful boss, you'll see that laughter is the best medicine for all your work woes.A survey sent out to our contractors posed the question, "What motivates you to come to work every day?" One guy answered, "Probation officer."—E. HewittOne of the less difficult blanks to fill in on our job-agency application is "Position Wanted." One job seeker wrote "Sitting."—Flo Traywick, Lynchburg,... Views: 8
In 1792, when he was forty-seven, the Spanish painter Francisco de Goya contracted a serious illness that left him stone deaf. In this extraordinary book, Julia Blackburn follows Goya through the remaining thirty-five years of his life. It was a time of political turmoil, of war, violence, and confusion, and Goya transformed what he saw around him into visionary paintings, drawings, and etchings. These were also years of tenderness for Goya, of intimate relationships with the Duchess of Alba and with Leocadia, his mistress, who accompanied him to the end. Blackburn's singular distinction as a biographer is her uncanny ability to create a kaleidoscope of biography, memoir, history, and meditation--to think herself into another world. In Goya she has found the perfect subject. Visiting the towns Goya frequented, reading the revelatory letters that he wrote for years to a boyhood friend, investigating the subjects he portrayed, Julia Blackburn writes about the elderly... Views: 8
The Honeywood Settlement is the sequel to The Honeywood File, the richly comic classic first published in England in the 1920s and published by Academy Chicago in 2000. The Honeywood Settlement, like its predecessor, is an epistolary novel and deals with the painful aftermath of clearing up the defects in the building of Sir Leslie Brash's large country house and his haggling over the bill. The cast of characters are the same: Sir Leslie Brash, the client, and his "good lady"; James Spinlove, the architect, and a host of builders, contractors and sub-contractors, such as Nibnose and Rasper; Reaker and Smith; Beddy and Tinge; as well as a variety of solicitors.
". . . recommended to the earnest study of all young architects and all those temerarious enough to desire to build their own houses."––The Burlington Magazine Views: 8
