Big two-hearted river --
A way you'll never be --
In another country. Views: 947
At her death in 1964, O'Connor left behind a body of unpublished essays and lectures as well as a number of critical articles that had appeared in scattered publications during her too-short lifetime. The keen writings comprising Mystery and Manners, selected and edited by O'Connor's lifelong friends Sally and Robert Fitzgerald, are characterized by the directness and simplicity of the author's style, a fine-tuned wit, understated perspicacity, and profound faith.The book opens with "The King of the Birds," her famous account of raising peacocks at her home in Milledgeville, Georgia. Also included are: three essays on regional writing, including "The Fiction Writer and His Country" and "Some Aspects of the Grotesque in Southern Fiction"; two pieces on teaching literature, including "Total Effect and the 8th Grade"; and four articles concerning the writer and religion, including "The Catholic Novel in the Protestant South." Essays such as "The Nature and Aim... Views: 946
Considered by critics to be Barth's masterpiece, The Sot-Weed Factor has acquired the status of a modern classic. Set in the late 1600s, it recounts the wildly chaotic odyssey of hapless, ungainly Ebenezer Cooke, sent to the New World to look after his father's tobacco business & to record the struggles of the Maryland colony in an epic poem. On his mission, Cooke experiences capture by pirates & Indians; the loss of his father's estate to roguish impostors; love for a farmer prostitute; stealthy efforts to rob him of his virginity, which he's almost determined to protect; & an extraordinary gallery of treacherous characters who continually switch identities. A hilarious, bawdy tribute to all the most insidious human vices, The Sot-Weed Factor has lasting relevance for all readers. Views: 946
Stephen Rojack is a decorated war hero, a former Congressman, and a certified public intellectual with his own television show. He is also married to the very rich, very beautiful, and utterly amoral Deborah Caughlin Kelly. But one night, in the prime of his existence, he hears the moon talking to him on the terrace of a fashionable New York high-rise, and it is urging him to kill himself. It is almost as a defense against that infinitely seductive voice that Rojack murders his wife.In this wild battering ram of a novel, which was originally published to vast controversy in 1965, Norman Mailer creates a character who might be a fictional precursor of the philosopher-killer he would later profile in The Executioner's Song. As Rojack runs amok through the city in which he was once a privileged citizen, Mailer peels away the layers of our social norms to reveal a world of pure appetite and relentless cruelty. Sensual, horrifying, and informed by a vision that is one part Nietzsche, one part de Sade, and one part Charlie Parker, An American Dream grabs the reader by the throat and refuses to let go. Views: 946
Rosie loves her children very much, but now they are all grown up, isn't it time they left home?
Rosie moved out when she got married, but it didn't work out, so now she is back with her parents. Helen is a teacher and doesn't earn enough for a place of her own. Anthony writes songs and is just waiting for the day when someone will pay him for them. Until then, all three are happy at home. It doesn't cost them anything, and surely their parents like having a full house?
Then there is a crisis, and Dee decides things have to change for the whole family... whether they like it or not. Views: 946
Ischiano Scalo. A place where even the main road out to the nearest big town gives up after a couple of miles, where escape from a life of boredom and emptiness is almost impossible. Forced into crimes he never wanted to commit, Pietro reaches crisis point when his parents ignore his pleas for help and his schoolteacher turns her back on him - in desperation, he reaches out for attention, and finds instead a terrible revenge. Escape from Ischiano Scalo comes at a price. Life there will never be the same again. Views: 945
A revolver shot rings through a Whitehall office one hot afternoon in the middle of an English summer. A Government official has apparently shot himself, but the circumstances are questionable – prompting Octavian Gray, head of the department in which the dead man worked, to investigate.
Lawyer John Ducane is charged with the task, interviewing other civil servants by day, and by night attempting repeatedly — and unsuccessfully — to break up with his mistress. When Ducane travels to Gray’s Dorset home everything becomes even more mysterious and nothing is quite as it seems. Views: 945
You’ll find every type of crime and all manner of detectives in this dip-in volume of 16 short stories. Meet Cass Nova, who just can’t separate his personal and professional life. Go back to the 19th century with Marmaduke Grey; experience the battle of different detection methods in Hard Cop, Soft Cop; and as for The Matilda Chronicles … please forgive me, Agatha.This short story anthology is comprised of eight suspenseful and horrifying tales, composed for a special one-week fiction event on the blog, "The Leaky Pencil". These stories centre around the theme of Madness. Not one of the stories approaches this theme in the same way, and each has something unique to say.Features eight outstanding new tales by: Laurita Miller, Richard Godwin, Angel Zapata, Benjamin Sobieck, Sean Patrick Reardon, Erin Cole, Lily Childs, and Chris Allinotte. Views: 945
Why on earth, in the Year of Our Lord 1807, was he in Egypt fighting the Turks? Like many a soldier before him and after, Private Thomas Keith of the 78th Highlanders had very little idea of why and his comrades were about to be thrown into battle against superior forces, far away on a foreign field.
And later, lying wounded and a prisoner in a village headman’s house, one of a pitiful handful of survivors, he could have had no idea at all that he was at the start of an extraordinary series of adventures that would see him rise to become Emir of the holy Islamic city of Medina….
Based on a true story Views: 945
Numbers.
They complete me.
Nothing makes sense without them, the building blocks of logic.
A math teacher by day, a statistics doctorate student at night, my obsession to solve problems is constantly fed.
I'm exactly where I want to be in life, no unknown variables or unsolved formulas.
Until I meet her.
Lyra.
The woman beyond the numbers.
How can I stay away, when everything about her draws me in?
But how can I fall in love, when she won't promise me eternity? Views: 945
Twelve-year-old Catherine just wants a normal life. Which is near impossible when you have a brother with autism and a family that revolves around his disability. She's spent years trying to teach David the rules-from "a peach is not a funny-looking apple" to "keep your pants on in public"-in order to stop his embarrassing behaviors. But the summer Catherine meets Jason, a paraplegic boy, and Kristi, the next-door friend she's always wished for, it's her own shocking behavior that turns everything upside down and forces her to ask: What is normal? Views: 945
Is it possible to die a happy death?This is the central question of Camus's astonishing early novel, published posthumously and greeted as a major literary event. It tells the story of a young Algerian, Mersault, who defies society's rules by committing a murder and escaping punishment, then experimenting with different ways of life and finally dying a happy man. In many ways A Happy Death is a fascinating first sketch for The Outsider, but it can also be seen as a candid self-portrait, drawing on Camus's memories of his youth, travels and early relationships. It is infused with lyrical descriptions of the sun-drenched Algiers of his childhood - the place where, eventually, Mersault is able to find peace and die 'without anger, without hatred, without regret'. Views: 944
In mid-19th century England, an era full of celebrated novelists, Anthony Trollope was one of the most popular and critically acclaimed of them all. Even today, his Chronicles of Barsetshire series is widely read, as are his other novels, many of which deal with criticisms of English culture at the time, from its politics to its customs and norms. Views: 944
Kurma and Santino lives will be changed dramatically.Santino is transformed into a carnivorous Phantom who feeds on humans.Kurma is transformed into a Raptor, a blue-winged creature that feeds on Phantoms.Both must come to terms with their new identity, and quickly. Only one species can come out on top.During the first seven days will Santino stand in Kurma's way and dominate over all?Two new species, Raptors and Phantoms, have been released upon the Mega-City of Alexandria and only one of them can come out on top of the food chain.Santino, an outgoing, handsome eighteen year old, is transformed into a flesh eating Phantom, who feeds on humans...decreasing the human population—one person at a time.In response to the new species that is now rampant and rapidly taking over Alexandria, Kurma, an insecure yet ambitious seventeen year old, is transformed into a Raptor, a blue winged creature that feeds on Phantoms. In the first seven days while Santino does the dirty work of eliminating the human species, Kurma is intent on building a race of Raptors that will have complete domination over the city of Alexandria.Kurma's old life is over and she has the opportunity to be someone that she never dared to dream about. Is Kurma overcompensating or will her ambitious attitude take her to the top? Will Santino stand in her way or simply be a mere stepping stone? Views: 943
