From The New York Times best-selling author of Paris to the Moon and beloved New Yorker writer, a memoir that captures the romance of New York City in the 1980s. When Adam Gopnik and his soon-to-be-wife, Martha, left the comforts of home in Montreal for New York, the city then, much like today, was a pilgrimage site for the young, the arty, and the ambitious. But it was also becoming a city of greed, where both life's consolations and its necessities were increasingly going to the highest bidder. At the Stranger's Gate builds a portrait of this particular moment in New York through the story of this couple's journey—from their excited arrival as aspiring artists to their eventual growth into a New York family. Gopnik transports us to his tiny basement room on the Upper East Side, and later to SoHo, where he captures a unicorn: an affordable New York loft. He takes us through his professional meanderings, from graduate... Views: 35
Thirteen year-old Hattie Moore doesn't actually know who her dad is – but that's the least of her problems. Trying to embark on a mission to become a TOTAL HOTNESS GODDESS isn't easy when Miss Gorgeous Knickers at school hates her and NO ONE FANCIES HER. Things aren't helped by her family. Her unbelievably annoying older brother is threatening to reveal to the world everything embarrassing that has ever happened to her. She has a mum who just doesn't get her or why she might want to find out about her real dad and a gran who is a TOTAL mental and who may be texting rude jokes to just about EVERYONE in in the world EVER. Including dentists. Hattie's diary of this tumultuous year is an absolutely hilarious account of the ups and downs of teenage life, including a dating bogey phobia, near death from biscotti and a home-made breast-growing machine. Views: 35
• Inside a legendary American family: Allegra Huston was the third child of John Huston’s fourth wife, the beautiful ballet dancer Ricki Soma. In this graceful, penetrating memoir, Allegra takes us into the world of a child unmoored by her mother’s sudden death and sent on an odyssey which took her from John Huston’s fabulous estate in Ireland, to the American suburbs, to a hidden paradise in Mexico—and, at the side of her older sister Anjelica, into the hilltop retreats of Jack Nicholson, Ryan O’Neal, and Marlon Brando. Allegra paints a vivid, caring, and affecting portrait of her parents and the luminous circle of friends, acquaintances, lovers, and artists who were a part of family life. . • A revelatory twist and family connection: At the age of twelve Allegra Huston discovered her biological father to be the British aristocrat and historian John Julius Norwich. Suffused with a quiet intensity of emotion, Love Child explores family secrets and family bonds, and the unreliable certainties of memory—and ends with an unexpected triumph..** Views: 35
The True Story of the Remarkable Bond Between
Two Friends and a Lion In 2008 an extraordinary two-minute film clip appeared on YouTube and immediately became an international phenomenon. It captures the moving reunion of two young men and their pet lion Christian, after they had left him in Africa with *Born Free’s* George Adamson to introduce him into his rightful home in the wild.
*A Lion Called Christian* tells the remarkable story of how Anthony “Ace” Bourke and John Rendall, visitors to London from Australia in 1969, bought the boisterous lion cub in the pet department of Harrods. For several months, the three of them shared a flat above a furniture shop on London’s King’s Road, where the charismatic and intelligent Christian quickly became a local celebrity, cruising the streets in the back of a Bentley, popping in for lunch at a local restaurant, even posing for a fashion advertisement. But the lion cub was growing up—*fast*—and soon even the walled church garden where he went for exercise wasn’t large enough for him. How could Ace and John avoid having to send Christian to a zoo for the rest of his life? A coincidental meeting with English actors Virginia McKenna and Bill Travers, stars of the hit film *Born Free*, led to Christian being flown to Kenya and placed under the expert care of “the father of lions” George Adamson. Incredibly, when Ace and John returned to Kenya to see Christian a year later, they received a loving welcome from their lion, who was by then fully integrated into Africa and a life with other lions. Originally published in 1971, and now fully revised and updated with more than 50 photographs of Christian from cuddly cub in London to magnificent lion in Africa, *A Lion Called Christian* is a touching and uplifting true story of an indelible human-animal bond. It is is destined to become one of the great classics of animal literature Views: 35
Ride shotgun with a "James Bond–of-the-supernatural"* as the Secret Histories Novels take you careering through an alternate London where around every corner a new kind of danger awaits....My name is Eddie Drood, aka Shaman Bond, the very secret agent. And I am a dead man walking.I've been poisoned by Dr. DOA. There is no cure, no treatment, no chance of a last-minute miracle. So all that is left to me and my love, Molly Metcalf, is to track down my killer and stop him before he can murder anyone else.So whether that means fighting a secret army on another world; or searching for a forgotten weapon in the Museum of Unattached Oddities; or facing off against Grendel Rex, the Unforgiven God, in the hidden heart of the Moon, for the terrible secret that is Moonbreaker...I will do whatever it takes, while I still can. Because the game isn't over till I say it's over—and I still have one last card to play.*SFRevu Views: 35
It's 1989 and Rae is a fat, boy-mad 17-year-old girl, living in Stamford, Lincolnshire with her mum and their deaf white cat in a council house with a mint off-green bath suite and a larder Rae can't keep away from. This is the hilarious and touching real-life diary she kept during that fateful year - with characters like her evil friend Bethany, Bethany's besotted boyfriend, and the boys from the grammar school up the road (who have code names like Haddock and Battered Sausage). My Fat, Mad Teenage Diary evokes a vanished time when Charles and Di are still together, the Berlin wall is up, Kylie is expected to disappear from the charts at any moment and it's £1 for a Snakebite and Black in the Vaults pub. My Fat, Mad Teenage Diary will appeal to anyone who's lived through the 1980s. But it will also strike a chord with anyone who's ever been a confused, lonely teenager who clashes with their mother, takes themselves VERY seriously and has no idea how hilarious they are. Views: 34
"Singapore, with its great wealth and great poverty existing amid ethnic, linguistic, and cultural tensions, offers fertile ground for bleak fiction, as shown by the 14 tales in this solid Akashic noir anthology...Tan has assembled a strong lineup of Singapore natives and knowledgeable visitors for this volume exploring the dark side of a fascinating country."—Publishers Weekly"Singapore Noir is another fine addition to the Akashic's Noir series. Under Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan's tutelage, the stories puncture the stereotypes associated with Singapore and push the genre in new directions."—Chicago Center for Literature and PhotographyIncluded in Recent Books of Note, Toronto Star"Singapore Noir is for the Noir fiction lover."—A Bibliophile's ReverieLaunched with the summer '04 award-winning best seller Brooklyn Noir, Akashic Books continues its groundbreaking series of original... Views: 34
Captured by his sworn enemies the Brotherhood of the Lamb, Casca is forced to undertake a mission on their behalf when they threaten to kill his woman, Ayesha, unless he agrees. Left with no choice, Casca seeks to recover the holy of holies, the Spear of Longinus - his spear - from the Persians. But first their armies must be defeated in the war with the Byzantine Empire, so Casca joins the army led by the Emperor Heraclius, and takes part in the marches and battles of a war that will only end with utter defeat of one or the other. And Casca knows that should the Persians be beaten and the way left open to recover the Spear, the Brotherhood cannot be trusted to keep their word. So he must devise a plan to not only get the Spear, but to also rescue Ayesha and keep the fanatics of the Brotherhood at arms length Views: 34
