In this timeless survival story, four indentured servants escape their Russian Alaska work camp in a stolen canoe, only to face a harrowing journey down the Pacific Northwest coast. Battling unrelenting high seas and fierce weather from New Archangel, Alaska, to Astoria, Oregon, the men struggle to avoid hostile Tlingit Indians, to fend off starvation and exhaustion, and to endure their own doubt and distrust. Based on an actual incident in 1853, The Sea Runners is a spare and awe-inspiring tale of the human quest for freedom. Views: 46
Over 200,000 copies sold! Now with a newly refreshed design, this classic mathematical folktale tells the story of a clever farmer who outwits the Emperor of China and becomes the wealthiest man in the world—all starting with one grain of rice.When a humble farmer named Pong Lo asks for the hand of the Emperor's beautiful daughter, the Emperor is enraged. Whoever heard of a peasant marrying a princess? But Pong Lo is wiser than the Emperor knows. And when he concocts a potion that saves the Princess's life, the Emperor gladly offers him any reward he chooses—except the Princess.Pong Lo makes a surprising request. He asks for a single grain of rice, doubled every day for one hundred days. The baffled Emperor obliges—only to discover that if you're as clever as Pong Lo, you can turn a single grain of rice into all the wealth and happiness in the world!Praise for A Grain of Rice:"Gracefully illustrated. . . . This original... Views: 46
A career criminal with OCD tendencies and a savant-like genius for bringing order to his crime scenes, Martin considers himself one of the best in the biz. After all, he’s been able to steal from the same people for years on end—virtually undetected. Of course, this could also be attributed to his unique business model—he takes only items that will go unnoticed by the homeowner. After all, who in their right mind would miss a roll of toilet paper here, a half-used bottle of maple syrup there, or even a rarely used piece of china buried deep within a dusty cabinet?Even though he's never met these homeowners, he's spent hours in their houses, looking through their photo albums and reading their journals. In essence, Martin has developed a friendship of sorts with them and as such, he decides to interfere more in their lives—playing the part of a rather odd guardian angel—even though it means breaking many of his twitchy neurotic rules. Along the way Martin not only improves the lives of others, but he also discovers love and finds that his own life is much better lived on the edge (at least some of the time) in this hilarious, suspenseful and often profound novel about a man used to planning every second of his life, suddenly forced to confront chaos and spontaneity. From the Hardcover edition.Amazon.com ReviewAmazon Exclusive: Alan Bradley Reviews *Something Missing* Alan Bradley is the author of The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, the first mystery in the Flavia de Luce series, and one of Amazon's Best of the Month picks. The next book in the series, The Weed That Strings the Hangman’s Bag, will be published in 2010. Read his exclusive Amazon guest review of Something Missing: I once knew a man who thought in precisely the same way that Martin Railsback does. Even the drabbest of tasks, such as going for groceries, or putting out the trash, had to be planned with the utmost strategy and cunning. I found out later that my friend was a retired safecracker.Martin Railsback, Jr., if you haven’t already heard, is the protagonist of Matthew Dick’s first novel, Something Missing: the story of an obsessive-compulsive housebreaker whose every waking moment is jam-packed with finicky clockwork ritual--the kind of intense micro-planning that might have made even Napoleon back off.Martin’s only problem is that, after years of undetected crime, he’s recently begun to think of himself as a sort of guardian angel who watches over his victims, or “clients,” as he prefers to call them. Conscience rears its ugly head.Up until now, Martin has always played life as if it were a game of chess: by thinking a dozen moves ahead of everyone else, he will always come out ahead of the game.And so he does, until the day he accidentally knocks Sophie Pearl’s electric toothbrush into the toilet bowl while stealing a single one (don’t ask!) of her diamond earrings.Thus begins a series of events that play out like a cross between Raymond Chandler and a Keystone Cops two-reeler.Like Jeff Lindsay, whose Dexter series has so brilliantly explored the underside of the underside, Matthew Dicks has created an unforgettable character that will have you torn between wanting to throttle him--or adopt him.--Alan Bradley(Photo © Jeff Bassett) From Publishers WeeklyAn expert thief unexpectedly finds himself aiding his victims in Dicks's charming if rambling debut. During his hours off, barista Martin Railsback burgles the houses of folks he calls his clients, taking only what they won't notice is missing: for instance, three boxes of long grain rice... two rolls of toilet paper (in Martin's estimation, the Gallos had excellent taste in toilet paper), three cups of olive oil and, on occasion, something really valuable. The system works beautifully until the day Martin drops a client's toothbrush into the toilet and feels compelled to replace it. This act of simple decency sets him on an entirely different course, and pretty soon he's breaking into houses to improve the lives of their occupants. Martin's own life starts looking up, too, with the possibility of romance and a new avocation, but the specter of real peril looms. Dicks struggles with digression and repetition—Martin's obsessive allegiance to the rules of his pastime becomes exasperating—but he's created a winning hero in Martin, a crook with a heart of gold. (July) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Views: 46
Hours of great reading await, with tales from some of the 19th and 20th century's most renowned horror and dark fantasy authors! Explore the uncanny world of mummies, ancient egypt, and dark sorcery, with these 20 stories. Views: 46
In A TRACE OF MURDER, Keri Locke, Missing Persons Detective in the Homicide division of the LAPD, remains haunted by the abduction of her own daughter. Encouraged by the new lead that has landed, the first in years, she pursues it with all that she has, determined to find her daughter and bring her back alive.Yet Keri, at the same time, receives a phone call from a frantic husband, a famed Beverly Hills plastic surgeon, who reports that his wife has been missing for two days. A wealthy socialite with no enemies and little reason to leave her life, he fears the worst has become of his wife.Keri takes on the case, assigned a new partner whom she hates, as Ray still recovers in the hospital. Her investigation leads her deep into the elite Beverly Hills world of the idle rich, to encounters with lonely housewives, and those with shopping-addicted, empty lives. Keri, in over her head in this world, becomes increasingly puzzled by the conflicting signals: did this woman, with a stalker and a lurid, secret past, run away, or was she abducted?Or did something far more sinister happen? Views: 46
A multicultural nexus, Toronto hosts Indian, Portuguese, African, Italian, and Chinese communities that provide fertile backdrops for Toronto Noir’s corrosive exposés.Features brand-new stories by: RM Vaughan, Nathan Sellyn, Ibi Kaslik, Peter Robinson, Heather Birrell, Sean Dixon, Raywat Deonandad, Christine Murray, Gail Bowen, Emily Schultz, Andrew Pyper, Kim Moritsugu, Mark Sinnet, George Elliott Clarke, Pasha Malla, and Michael Redhill. Views: 46
What would you do if you could write the story of your life? After battling a brain tumour twenty-nine year old Emma thinks she is in the clear, but her world comes crashing down around her when she is told her fight was in vain, and there is nothing more the doctors can do. Realising that she won't now have time to achieve the things she dreamed of, Emma decides to write her perfect life in a story. She imagines all the things she would have done, the places she would have seen, the husband she would have shared her life with and the family they would have raised.And, mysteriously, as she writes her story, she starts to notice that some of her dreams seem to be coming true. Now with a real love in her life, and her fading hope burning brighter, reality and fiction start to become blurred. As she writes their life-long love story Emma dares to believe that anything is possible, but can she really change her fate? Amanda Brooke is a single mum in her forties who lives in Liverpool with her teenage daughter Jessica. It was only when her young son was diagnosed with cancer that Amanda began to develop her writing, recording her family's journey in a journal and through poetry. When Nathan died in 2006 at just three years old, Amanda was determined that his legacy would be one of inspiration not devastation. Her debut novel Yesterday's Sun was inspired by her experiences of motherhood and her understanding of how much a mother would be willing to sacrifice for the life of her child. Views: 46
