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High drama and ancient history combine in this novel of the early life of Egypt's infamous queen, at once a beautiful seductress, brilliant politician, and the most powerful ruler of her time. Views: 117
From the National Book Award–winning and bestselling author of Let the Great World Spin comes an epic novel rooted in the real-life friendship between two men united by loss."Staggering . . . Writing at the top of his game, Colum McCann brings us a book that we sorely need."—Elizabeth Strout Colum McCann's most ambitious work to date, Apeirogon—named for a shape with a countably infinite number of sides—is a tour de force concerning friendship, love, loss, and belonging. Bassam Aramin is Palestinian. Rami Elhanan is Israeli. They inhabit a world of conflict that colors every aspect of their daily lives, from the roads they are allowed to drive on, to the schools their daughters, Abir and Smadar, each attend, to the checkpoints, both physical and emotional, they must negotiate. Their worlds shift irreparably after ten-year-old Abir is killed by a rubber bullet and thirteen-year-old Smadar becomes the victim of... Views: 116
THE MEETING OF BOSEPHUS AND HORATIO "Oh, \'twas down in the woods of the Arkansaw,And the night was cloudy and the wind was raw, And he didn\'t have a bed and he didn\'t have a bite,And if he hadn\'t fiddled he\'d a travelled all night." BOSEPHUS paused in his mad flight to listen. Surely this was someone playing the violin, and the tune was familiar. He listened more intently. "But he came to a cabin and an old gray man,And says he, \'Where am I going? Now tell me if you can——\'" It was the "Arkansaw Traveller" and close at hand. The little boy tore hastily through the brush in the direction of the music. The moon had come up, and he could see quite well, but he did not pause to pick his way. As he stepped from the thicket out into an open space the fiddling ceased. It was bright moonlight there, too, and as Bosephus took in the situation his blood turned cold. In the center of the open space was a large tree. Backed up against this tree, and looking straight at the little boy, with fiddle in position for playing, and uplifted bow, was a huge Black Bear! Bosephus looked at the Bear, and the Bear looked at Bosephus. "Who are you, and what are you doing here?" he roared. "I—I am Bo-se-Bosephus, an\' I—I g-guess I\'m l-lost!" gasped the little boy. "Guess you are!" laughed the Bear, as he drew the bow across the strings. "An-an\' I haven\'t had any s-supper, either." "Neither have I!" grinned the Bear, "that is, none worth mentioning. A young rabbit or two, perhaps, and a quart or so of blackberries, but nothing real good and strengthening to fill up on." Then he regarded Bosephus reflectively, and began singing as he played softly:— "Oh, we\'ll have a little music first and then some supper, too,But before we have the supper we will play the music through." "No hurry, you know. Be cool, please, and don\'t wiggle so." But Bosephus, or Bo, as he was called, was very much disturbed. So far as he could see there was no prospect of supper for anybody but the Bear. "You\'ll forget all about supper pretty soon," continued the Bear, fiddling. "You\'ll forget about your supper—you\'ll forget about your home—You\'ll forget you ever started out in Arkansaw to roam." "My name is Horatio," he continued. "Called Ratio for short. But I don\'t like it. Call me Horatio, in full, please." "MAYBE YOU CAN PLAY IT YOURSELF." "Oh, ye-yes, sir!" said Bo, hastily. "See that you don\'t forget it!" grunted the Bear. "I don\'t like familiarity in my guests. But I am clear away from the song I was singing when you came tearing out of that thicket. Seems like I never saw anybody in such a hurry to see me as you were. "Now the old man sat a-fiddling by the little cabin door,And the tune was pretty lively, and he played it o\'er and o\'er;And the stranger sat a-list\'ning and a-wond\'ring what to do,As he fiddled and he fiddled, but he never played it through." Bo was very fond of music, and as Horatio drew from the strings the mellow strains of "The Arkansaw Traveller" he forgot that both he and the Bear were hungry.... Views: 116
E. R. Braithwaite, the acclaimed author of To Sir, With Love, poignantly recounts his time as a social worker dedicated to London's abandoned minority childrenDespite his Cambridge education and a sterling record with the British Royal Air Force during World War II, E. R. Braithwaite, a black man, was unable to find employment as an engineer in post-war London. Instead he accepted a position as a teacher in a tough East End school and wrote of his experiences in his classic bestseller To Sir, With Love. Nine years later, Braithwaite once again found himself assuming an unfamiliar professional role as a social worker charged with finding homes for London's orphaned, abused, or abandoned "coloured" children. While he lacked formal training, Braithwaite possessed qualities essential for the job: compassion, determination, and a deep, abiding understanding and love for the helpless, lost, and disregarded.In Paid Servant, E. R. Braithwaite... Views: 115
The inimitable Nancy Mitford's account of Voltaire's sixteen-year affair with the comely Marquise du Châtelet--in her own right a renowned mathematician and original expositor of Newtonian ideas--is a spirited romp in the company of two extraordinary individuals as well as an erudite and gossipy guide to French high society during the Enlightenment. The lusty and algebra-obsessed marquise, it so happens, was also in love with another mathematician, Maupertuis, and devoted to gambling besides. She had a rival for Voltaire's affections in the future Frederick the Great of Prussia, and later in the scampish philosophe's own niece. There was, at least, no jealous husband to contend with; the Marquis du Châtelet, the author assures us, always behaved perfectly. It was in fact the couple's Parisian contemporaries who reacted the worst, not so much with sexual jealously as at the thought of their brilliant conversation wasted on the windswept hills of Champagne,... Views: 115
West is a high school senior who has everything going for him until an accident leaves him paralyzed. Strapped down in his hospital bed, slipping in and out of consciousness, West is terrified and alone. Until he meets Olivia. *She's the girl next door-sort of. A patient in the room next to his, only Olivia can tell what West is thinking, and only Olivia seems to know that the terrible dreams he's been having are not just a result of his medication. Yet as West comes to rely on Olivia-to love her, even-certain questions pull at him: Why has Olivia been in the hospital for so long? And what does it mean that she is at the center of his nightmares? But the biggest question of all comes when West begins to recover and learns that the mysterious girl he's fallen in love with has a secret he could never have seen coming.*About the AuthorCYLIN BUSBY is the author of several teen books and non-fiction articles as well as the acclaimed young adult memoir, The Year We Disappeared. A former editor with Teen magazine, she now lives in Los Angeles with her family. *www.cylinbusby.com* Views: 114
William Manchester met Winston Churchill on January 24, 1953. Their encounter on the Queen Mary sparked an intense curiosity in Manchester that would eventually result in his classic three-volume magnum opus The Last Lion. In this, the first volume, we follow Churchill from his birth to 1932, when he began to warn against the remilitarization of Germany. Born of a lovely, wanton American mother and a gifted but unstable son of a duke, his childhood was one of wretched neglect. He sought glory on the battlefields of Cuba, Sudan, India, South Africa and the trenches of France. In Parliament he was the prime force behind the creation of Iraq and Jordan, laid the groundwork for the birth of Israel, and negotiated the independence of the Irish Free State. Yet, as Chancellor of the Exchequer he plunged England into economic crisis, and his fruitless attempt to suppress Gandhi's quest for Indian independence brought political chaos to... Views: 114
