A deliciously satirical attack on a money-mad society, Vanity Fair, which first appeared in 1847, is an immensely moral novel, and an immensely witty one. Called in its subtitle “A Novel Without a Hero,” Vanity Fair has instead two heroines: the faithful, loyal Amelia Sedley and the beautiful and scheming social climber Becky Sharp. It also engages a huge cast of wonderful supporting characters as the novel spins from Miss Pinkerton’s academy for young ladies to affairs of love and war on the Continent to liaisons in the dazzling ballrooms of London. Thackeray’s forte is the bon mot and it is amply exercised in a novel filled with memorably wicked lines. Lengthy and leisurely in pace, the novel follows the adventures of Becky and Amelia as their fortunes rise and fall, creating a tale of both picaresque and risqué. Thackery mercilessly skewers his society, especially the upper class, poking fun at their shallow values and pointedly jabbing at their hypocritical “morals.” His weapons, however, are not fire and brimstone but an unerring eye for the absurd and a genius for observation of the foibles of his age. An enduring classic, this great novel is a brilliant study in duplicity and hypocrisy…and a mirror with which to view our own times.
** Views: 7 431
Mason Kade is not known to be nice. He is ruthless, manipulative, and unforgiving. Most will say that he is an a**hole and he is to those that cross him or cross his loved ones. However, he does not want to be who he is. He does not enjoy hurting others, but there is no limit to the lengths he will go to protect himself and his brother.This is the story of how he came to be and this is why so many love Mason Kade. Views: 7 412
Here is the novel that started it all- the first book in J.D. Robb's number-one New York Times-bestselling In Death series, featuring New York homicide detective Lieutenant Eve Dallas and Roarke.
It is the year 2058, and technology now completely rules the world. But New York City Detective Eve Dallas knows that the irresistible impulses of the human heart are still ruled by just one thing: passion.
When a senator's daughter is killed, the secret life of prostitution she'd been leading is revealed. The high-profile case takes Lieutenant Eve Dallas into the rarefied circles of Washington politics and society. Further complicating matters is Eve's growing attraction to Roarke, who is one of the wealthiest and most influential men on the planet, devilishly handsome... and the leading suspect in the investigation. Views: 7 392
They call me Rage. My real name is like a shadow, always close behind, but never quite able to catch up to me. I fly under the radar because no one ever suspects I’m capable of the kind of brutal violence I commit each and every day. You see, I’m a girl. I’m nineteen. And I\'m a killer. I look like a goddamn cheerleader, but can take out a man three times my size in more than as many ways, without hesitation. This life is all I know. It’s all I want to know. It keeps the shit buried that I need kept buried. It allows me to live without thinking too much. Without dwelling on the past. Until him. It all changes when an ordinary boy becomes my next target.And my first love. I have to choose. The only life I’ve ever known has to die, or he does. Either way, I’ll be the one pulling the trigger... Views: 7 376
Love. Lies. Murder. A lot can happen... COME SUNDOWNBodine Longbow loves to rise with the dawn. As the manager of her family\'s resort in Western Montana, there just aren\'t enough hours in the day - for life, for work, for loved ones. She certainly doesn\'t have time for love, not even in the gorgeous shape of her childhood crush Callen Skinner, all grown up and returned to the ranch. Then again, maybe Callen can change her mind, given time...But when a young woman\'s body is discovered on resort land, everything changes. Callen falls under the suspicion of a deputy sheriff with a grudge. And for Bodine\'s family, the murder is a shocking reminder of an old loss. Twenty-five years ago, Bodine\'s Aunt Alice vanished, never to be heard of again. Could this new tragedy be connected to Alice\'s mysterious disappearance?As events take a dramatic and deadly turn, Bodine and Callen must race to uncover the truth - before the sun sets on their future together. Views: 7 351
Dark. Mysterious. Gorgeous. Loved by all the girls. Respected by all the guys. ...that was Kian Maston. As the heir to a billion dollar empire, his future was promising until the day he saved my life. Everything changed for both of us, and there was one more word that could be used to describe him—dangerous. The nation fell in love with him while falling in hate with me. He was sent to prison, and as far as they were concerned, it was my fault. I was forced to go into hiding until today. Kian\'s being released from prison, and he should go back to being the golden boy he always was supposed to be. I should remain in hiding, living my life as normal as could be. That\'s what we should do... Views: 7 322
Middlesex tells the breathtaking story of Calliope Stephanides, and three generations of the Greek-American Stephanides family, who travel from a tiny village overlooking Mount Olympus in Asia Minor to Prohibition-era Detroit, witnessing its glory days as the Motor City and the race riots of 1967 before moving out to the tree-lined streets of suburban Grosse Pointe, Michigan. To understand why Calliope is not like other girls, she has to uncover a guilty family secret, and the astonishing genetic history that turns Callie into Cal, one of the most audacious and wondrous narrators in contemporary fiction. Lyrical and thrilling, Middlesex is an exhilarating reinvention of the American epic. Views: 7 315
Earthy, magical, and utterly charming, this tale of family life in tum-of-the-century Mexico became a best-selling phenomenon with its winning blend of poignant romance and bittersweet wit.
From the Trade Paperback edition. Views: 7 287
Scotland, 1745. Against the bloody background of the Battle of Culloden, another war was waged and won the price was honor, the victory, love.Scottish beauty Serena MacGregor\'s hatred of all English began as a child when she watched as a band of Englishmen attacked her mother. Her brother\'s friend Brigham Langston was no exception to Serena\'s loathing despite his supposed loyalty to the Scottish causeand his good looks.Although Brigham eventually proves himself worthy of the MacGregor family\'s respect, Serena is still reluctant to abandon her hatred for him and his heritage. But Brigham has other plans. Serena has captivated him with her beauty, her passion for life and commitment to her beliefs and he refuses to let her antagonistic attitude keep him from winning her. And Serena must learn to open her mind as Brigham opens his heart to see the true love awaiting her. Views: 7 284
Jude the Obscure, the last completed of Thomas Hardy's novels, began as a magazine serial in December 1894 and was first published in book form in 1895. Its protagonist, Jude Fawley, is a working-class young man, a stonemason, who dreams of becoming a scholar. The other main character is his cousin, Sue Bridehead, who is also his central love interest. The novel is concerned in particular with issues of class, education, religion and marriage. The novel tells the story of Jude Fawley, who lives in a village in southern England (part of Hardy's fictional county of Wessex), who yearns to be a scholar at "Christminster", a city modelled on Oxford. As a youth, Jude teaches himself Classical Greek and Latin in his spare time, while working first in his great-aunt's bakery, with the hope of entering university. But before he can try to do this the naïve Jude is seduced by Arabella Donn, a rather coarse and superficial local girl who traps him into marriage by pretending to be pregnant. The marriage is a failure, and they separate by mutual agreement, and Arabella later emigrates to Australia, where she enters into a bigamous marriage. By this time, Jude has abandoned his classical studies. Views: 7 253
Dani’s survived a lot of sh*t storms.Her mother died. Her two sisters loathed her. One aunt hated her. The other was strangely distant, but the worst storm—being dumped by her childhood best friend/high school boyfriend/first love for her younger sister.There went the one person who was hers and with that, the main reason she stuck around. So, she left for ten years. But now she’s back, and nothing’s the same.With help from Jonah Bannon, a reformed—kind of—bad boy she remembers from high school, Dani uncovers family secrets that have spanned generations. And along with those, she’s about to face the biggest sh*t storm of her life.Only this time, she may not survive. Views: 7 213
The historians can’t seem to settle whether to call this one "The Third Space War" (or the fourth), or whether "The First Interstellar War" fits it better. We just call it “The Bug War." Everything up to then and still later were "incidents," "patrols," or "police actions." However, you are just as dead if you buy the farm in an "incident" as you are if you buy it in a declared war...
In one of Robert A. Heinlein’s most controversial bestsellers, a recruit of the future goes through the toughest boot camp in the Universe—and into battle with the Terran Mobile Infantry against mankind’s most alarming enemy. Views: 7 164
“I give you the mausoleum of all hope and desire. . . . I give it to you not that you may remember time, but that you might forget it now and then for a moment and not spend all of your breath trying to conquer it. Because no battle is ever won he said. They are not even fought. The field only reveals to man his own folly and despair, and victory is an illusion of philosophers and fools.” —from The Sound and the Fury
The Sound and the Fury is the tragedy of the Compson family, featuring some of the most memorable characters in literature: beautiful, rebellious Caddy; the manchild Benjy; haunted, neurotic Quentin; Jason, the brutal cynic; and Dilsey, their black servant. Their lives fragmented and harrowed by history and legacy, the character’s voices and actions mesh to create what is arguably Faulkner’s masterpiece and one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century.
From the Trade Paperback edition. Views: 7 103
Sensual. Heartbreaking. Passionate. Overwhelming. Maddening. That’s the love Finn and I share.It\'s the kind you can never recover from. The kind you never WANT to recover from. That\'s why we\'ll do everything and anything to protect it. When my past chases me all the way to Outskirts, we have to make a choice. Let the lies destroy our chance at future together or...bury them deep in the swamp where they belong. Got a shovel? Views: 7 008
