From the best-selling author of The Debt to Pleasure, a sweeping social novel set at the height of the financial crisis.Celebrated novelist John Lanchester (“an elegant and wonderfully witty writer”—New York Times) returns with an epic novel that captures the obsessions of our time. It’s 2008 and things are falling apart: Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers are going under, and the residents of Pepys Road, London—a banker and his shopaholic wife, an old woman dying of a brain tumor and her graffiti-artist grandson, Pakistani shop owners and a shadowy refugee who works as the meter maid, the young soccer star from Senegal and his minder—are receiving anonymous postcards reading “We Want What You Have.” Who is behind it? What do they want? Epic in scope yet intimate, capturing the ordinary dramas of very different lives, this is a novel of love and suspicion, of financial collapse and terrorist threat, of property values going up and fortunes going down, and of a city at a moment of extraordinary tension.Review“An exceptionally capacious and involving tale about disparate lives in turmoil on London’s Pepys Road…. Lanchester makes us care deeply about his imperiled characters and their struggles, traumatic and ludicrous, as he astutely illuminates the paradoxes embedded in generosity and greed, age and illness, financial crime and religious fanaticism, immigration, exile, and terror. A remarkably vibrant and engrossing novel about what we truly value.” (Donna Seaman - Booklist )“Searching, expert, on the money. I loved it.” (Joseph O’Neill, author of Netherland )“Effortlessly brilliant—gripping for its entire duration, hugely moving and outrageously funny.” (Observer (UK) )“Capital comes in a great tradition of novels which are filled with the news of now, in which the intricacies of the present moment are noticed with clarity and relish and then brilliantly dramatized. It is clear that its characters, its wisdom, and the scope and range of its sympathy, will fascinate readers into the far future.” (Cólm Toibín, author of Brooklyn )“Precise, humane and often hilarious, John Lanchester’s Capital teems with life. Its Dickensian sweep and its clear-eyed portrayal of the end of a strange era make this novel not only immensely enjoyable, but important, too.” (Claire Messud, author of The Emperor’s Children )“Searching, expert, on the money. I loved it.” (Joseph O’Neill, author of Netherland )“As enrapturing as it is psychologically acute… Capital portrays an authentic slice of contemporary life on the eve of change in a way that recalls Franzen—with a welcome touch of wry humor.” (Bookpage )“Brimming with perception, humane empathy and relish, its portrayal of this metropolitan miscellany is, in every sense, a capital achievement.” (Times on Sunday (UK) )“It is Lanchester’s gifts for observation and description that make Capital such a riveting read. It is a novel in which every few chapters a sentence will provoke an "I wish I had said that" reaction or, when it is a familiar thought, an: "I wish I had said that so well." … Above all, Lanchester should be applauded for a novel that is as readable as it is clever. He never attempts to prove his own intelligence, yet it oozes from every page.” (Evening Standard (UK) )“The book John Lanchester was born to write.” (The Guardian (UK) ) Review"Precise, humane and often hilarious, John Lanchester's Capital""teems with life. Its Dickensian sweep and its clear-eyed portrayal of the end of a strange era make this novel not only immensely enjoyable, but important, too." --Claire Messud "Strikingly original..." --"The Guardian" "Lanchester makes us care deeply about his imperiled characters....A remarkably vibrant and engrossing novel about what we truly value." --"Booklist" "Capital""[is] filled with the news of now, in which the intricacies of the present moment are noticed with clarity and relish and then brilliantly dramatized. It is clear that its characters, its wisdom, and the scope and range of its sympathy, will fascinate readers into the far future." --Colm Toibin Views: 72
In a small southern town Tom Weston ran outside with tears streaming down his face in the middle of the night. He collapsed in a heap on the red earth. She couldn't be gone. He wasn't ready to say goodbye. He closed his eyes and saw again the stiff corpse laying in the bed upstairs. This was not a dream. A tale of grief, faith, and hope, follows the life of teenager Tom Weston as he strives to make sense of his shattered world. Given an opportunity to escape Podunk Greenwood and his past, he finds himself at the gates of the highly prestigious Locklear University. With the comical Dr. Emory as his friend and mentor, Tom struggles to survive in this strange new world ruled by the despicable Dean of students. Tom and wealthy roommate, Charles Montgomery, are fatefully paired to tackle the pressures of school, family, and their impending futures as they join a mysterious secret society together. When blonde bombshell Julia Stine walks into the picture things only get more... Views: 72
The NSA does not want you to read this book - it rips the cover from their use of abusive psychological evaluations.In this legal/espionage thriller, set in the heart of the United States intelligence community, a mole at the National Security Agency provides high-end American military technology to China. He covers his treason with a legal loophole which allows the intelligence community to label persons under their control as psychologically unfit, with no legal recourse.Samantha Pierce, a brilliant young computer scientist is killed when she discovers his treachery. Apparently, all evidence of murder is destroyed. With no clues left, authorities declare her death to be from nothing more than natural causes. However, her grieving parents, Nebraska farmers Harlan and Kathy Pierce, know their daughter was healthy and suspect something amiss. After a frustrating series of rejections, they hire bulldog Washington lawyer Kelly Hawkins with almost no time left to get into court.Kelly, who is herself a victim of random violence, discovers through hard work and determination that Samantha left enough information to file a case. But when she does, NSA explains it all away. The case appears hopeless, and even Kelly’s own firm abandons it. Yet the lawyer is dogged and executes a brilliant maneuver, filing and arguing an exotic motion to expose the whole sordid scheme, up to and including the identity of the mole.As the case explodes, the government realizes the extent of its own complicity, and must deal with all of the guilty parties who attempt to tie up their loose ends in the most violent and chaotic ways. The Chinese get word of the legal proceeding from the mole and dispatch their own agents to thwart the American effort. All at once, the government must engage in a risky venture to recover the technology, capture the mole, and protect the Pierces – with no time on the clock.A thriller in the tradition of Tom Clancy and John Grisham, Decency blends intimate knowledge of the law of American military and intelligence operations with a plot that keeps the reader’s eyes riveted to the page. It features an exposition on a little known feature of the NSA, and the intelligence community as a whole, that uses psychology guidelines as legal cover for a brutally enforced hierarchy.Through the machinations of mole and lawyer, computer scientists and intelligence specialists, Decency reveals the worldview that even in the midst of covert security operations, civility to others is key to the proper functioning of the world. Without trust, no real peace can ever be achieved. Decency draws on real world news headlines of secret Chinese spying on United States military technology to make it relevant and robust.Chilling and spine-tingling, Decency reveals how law and psychology conspire at the highest levels of national security intelligence to keep its members in lock-step order. Views: 72
Suspicious and determined never to fall into the love trap, security
specialist Cassandra James takes on a chase to recover files stolen right out
from under her nose. In an effort to prove to her father—also her boss—that she
is a capable woman, she follows the digital trail—a trail that leads her
directly into the arms of Trevor Bauer, an NSA analyst who appears to have more
secrets than she has scars...
Haunted by the mystery surrounding his parents' disappearance, Trevor Bauer's
dreams for his own life have been put on hold. But being confronted by Cassandra
James derails every one of his best laid plans to avoid a relationship until he
can find the closure he desperately seeks. When he accepts her request for help
in recovering the files she's hunting, they embark on an adventure that takes
them across the ocean and into a world of intrigue and violence. As things
between them begin to heat up, Trevor realizes that, if he is ever to win
Cassandra's heart and the future he craves, he has no choice but to reveal all
his secrets. Views: 72
"LOL. Completely lunatic!" What does a girl have to do to marry a prince? Fifty Shades of Kate is a fictitious parody about a young woman called Kate who wants to marry a charming prince called Willz.It is a funny, sexy, absurd fairy-tale romance about a burning love that crosses every divide. Kate Middlebum is a nice middle class girl swept up into the heavy pressures of royal life. We follow her initiation into the duties of a future princess. We follow Kate as she deals with the extraordinary demands of her future husband and the pains of celebrity in a rip-roaring tale which will have you laughing until it hurts.This book is entirely fictitious and in no way about any real people.Ann Abrams is the author of "An A to Z of Pregnancy" and "Mobius", which form books one and two of the "Fifty Shades Darker" series. Look out for the next installment! Views: 72
A compassionate story of workers in a shoe factory during the DepressionA thousand pairs a day...' - this is the rhythm ruling the lives of workers in a Melbourne shoe factory in the 1930s, a rhythm devouring their youth, their laughter, their hopes for the future.For those enmeshed in the life of the Modern Shoe Co. - the crippled accountant, the vindictive foreman, the inept management unable to stem the slide to financial disaster, the kind-hearted forewoman and the pathetically young girls in their first job - there is also a rhythm of love and camaraderie, of intrigue and hate, of exploitation and grinding poverty. Views: 72
Playing House; a game where love always wins.Bel and Max have an arrangement. Their busy lives leave little time for a 'real' relationship so they meet every few months, choosing to spend their time together exploring the sensual pleasures life has to offer.Bel left her emotionally abusive husband years before and never found the time to date. Max has trust issues because his wife had left him for his best friend. When they get together, the sexual chemistry can't be denied but their emotions have to be held at bay.A visit to Max's home has them Playing House and they spend their time doing things that other couples take for granted. Bel's increasing desire to spend more time with Max brings those hidden emotions to the surface and a choice must be made... Views: 72
This book will remind you why you love reading. Thestories included in Andrew Hood's sophomore collectionare messy, beautiful, gross, funny, personal. The Cloaca isa train wreck of awesomeness. It's your high school gymcoach, drunk and dishing dirt on all the other teacherson the cross-town bus—a stomach-turning spectaclethat'll make you laugh out loud now, feel bad later. Youwon't be able to put this book down or look away for anInstant. Views: 72
