"There's no way not to suffer. But you try all kinds of ways to keep from drowning in it." The men and women in these eight short fictions grasp this truth on an elemental level, and their stories, as told by James Baldwin, detail the ingenious and often desperate ways in which they try to keep their head above water. It may be the heroin that a down-and-out jazz pianist uses to face the terror of pouring his life into an inanimate instrument. It may be the brittle piety of a father who can never forgive his son for his illegitimacy. Or it may be the screen of bigotry that a redneck deputy has raised to blunt the awful childhood memory of the day his parents took him to watch a black man being murdered by a gleeful mob. By turns haunting, heartbreaking, and horrifying--and informed throughout by Baldwin's uncanny knowledge of the wounds racism has left in both its victims and its perpetrators--Going to Meet the Man is a major work by one of our most important writers. A collection of eight short stories that explore with devastating frankness the roots of love, hate, and racial conflict. By turns haunting, heartbreaking, and horrifying, this is a major work by one of America's quintessential writers. Views: 42
You saved the girl. Three hundred years after the bomb, that's still a thing people do. And you did it.Together you fought through wild animals, savage tribes, and hostile, technologically-advanced humans to find a cure for her seizures. You were bitten by giant lizards, shot by your own gun, and buried alive. You even made it back to the mountain refuge that's supported your people for three centuries. You met those long dead and those only dead in memory. You found friends and deadly enemies. What you didn't count on was them finding you.In the sequel to "A Girl Called Badger," the machinery beneath the mountain refuge begins to fail. The villagers face the rapid destruction of a centuries-old way of life as a hostile army approaches from the east.About the AuthorWanted on twelve systems for a crime he didn't commit, the author grew up watching anything and everything sci-fi: Battlestar Galactica, Doctor Who, Star Trek, Space: 1999, Star Wars, and The A-Team. Oh, and Airwolf. Author is elbowing me in the ribs painfully--I am to emphasize his love for Airwolf, and not screw it up by making it sarcastic or hipster-ironic like I always do. Author wishes he could fly a secret government helicopter with Ernest Borgnine behind him in the dickie seat? (That's what he said, trust me.) Author's early years were spent running from wastelanders in the hills of southern Ohio. After college he turned away glittering job offers in food service and insurance and worked for the post office. He taught Bad English in China and Germany, became a Master of Teaching English Thing, joined an internet startup for the free lunches, learned about the science of fire (this can't be a real thing), and worked on a 911 ambulance (he's still working there, trust me). In author's free time he stays one foot ahead of the federales and gives his assistant a raise of 20,000 kopecks and a car and Diner's Club. Author says to tell you his literary influences are Hemingway and Raymond Carver but I can see him through the basement window and he only reads garbage Star Trek fan-fic and that Alan Partridge biography over and over. Views: 42
Like the blues -- sweet, sad and full of truth -- this masterly work of fiction rocks us with powerful emotions. In it are anger and pain, but above all, love -- affirmative love of a woman for her man, the sustaining love of a black family. Fonny, a talented young artist, finds himself unjustly arrested and locked in New York's infamous tombs. But his girlfriend, Tish, is determined to free him, and to have his baby, in this starkly realisitic tale... a powerful endictment of American concepts of justice and punishment in our time. Views: 42
Captain Jack Carter and OSS Agent Lawson Grey are having a rough morning. Their mission was fairly straightforward: fly back in time and assassinate Adolph Hitler. However, their plane catches on fire, their co-pilot is lost, and instead of going backwards in time, Jack and Lawson find themselves thrust forward and stranded in the year 2015. And just when they thought it couldn't get any worse, they helplessly watch as two women purchase the last of their personal possessions as left behind in 1944.
Emily and Kimberliegh Mitchell are having a great morning. An estate sale of a deceased Navy admiral allows the women to find and purchase some interesting WWII era memorabilia. However, unbeknownst to the ladies, they have just bought the personal possessions of two time-stranded men...the only link to these men's past lives, their secret mission, and the only material left to prove their identities. But retrieving these important items from Emily and Kimber is a mission Jack and Lawson are determined to complete. Views: 42
Francis Cornish was always good at keeping secrets. From the well-hidden family secret of his childhood to his mysterious encounters with a small-town embalmer, a master art restorer, a Bavarian countess, and various masters of espionage, the events in Francis’s life were not always what they seemed. In this wonderfully ingenious portrait of an art expert and collector of international renown, Robertson Davies has created a spell-binding tale of artistic triumph and heroic deceit. It is a tale told in stylish, elegant prose, endowed with lavish portions of Davies’s wit and wisdom. Views: 42
A 90-year-old man is found dead in his bed, smothered with his own pillow.
On his desk the police find newspaper cuttings about a murder case dating from the Second World War, when a young woman was found strangled behind Reykjavík’s National Theatre.
Konrád, a former detective, is bored with retirement and remembers the crime. He grew up in ‘the shadow district’, a rough neighbourhood bordered by the National Theatre and an abattoir. Why would someone be interested in that crime now? He starts his own unofficial enquiry.
Alternating between Konrád’s investigation and the original police inquiry, we discover that two girls had been attacked in oddly similar circumstances. Did the police arrest the wrong man? How are these cases linked across the decades? And who is the old man?
A deeply compassionate story of old crimes and their consequences, The Man from Manitoba is the first in a thrilling new series of novels by the worldwide bestseller Arnaldur Indridason.
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As the 20th century dawns, the world is transformed in dizzying ways. But nestled in North Carolina's Blue Ridge Mountains is a place, and a family, out of time—where one young girl will grow to face the challenges of each generation before her—and discover whether she has the strength to overcome them... The eldest surviving daughter of Anna Guinn, Rachel rarely ventures far from her home in the Appalachians, aside from an occasional trip into town to trade a penny for a peppermint stick. Sometimes she yearns for more, but as much as she fears her mother's unstable mind, she is anchored by the strength of her grandmother, Willa. Freed from an abusive marriage, Willa holds the family together through hardship, all the while fulfilling her role as keeper of her neighbors' carefully guarded secrets—the most painful of which may be her own. In this isolated, eccentric world where people depend on moonshine to put food on the table,... Views: 42
Every book tells a story . . . And the 70 titles in the Pocket Penguins series are emblematic of the renowned breadth and quality that formed part of the original Penguin vision in 1935 and that continue to define our publishing today. Together, they tell one version of the unique story of Penguin Books. When Penguin published Melissa Bank's debut The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing in 1999, it was an immediate bestseller and was garlanded with praise by critics for its unique, honest and appealing voice. In this piece, Jane tells us about her relationship with a man who will never use her name. Views: 42
It's all fun and games - until someone falls in love! Focused on
building her toy company, Erin O'Brien didn't have time to think about
romance, let alone act on it. Until she met handsome attorney Steve Kendall - and
suddenly, pleasure became much more enticing than business! But she soon learned that
the sexy lawyer had a second job - as a family man! A widower, Steve was willing to do
anything to reconnect with his son. And the school Career Day was a perfect
opportunity…and a fateful one. A certain quirky blonde toy designer
instantly won the students' affection - and Steve's interest. Soon he finds
himself wanting only one special woman in his life. But is it for his son's
benefit, or to heal his own heart? Views: 42
Meet Angel Tungaraza - Kigali's very favourite cake baker. Angel bakes cakes for every occasion, giving comfort and good advice to her friends and neighbours; but she also hides a painful secret. Can she finally admit the truth about her children?Angel Tungaraza is a very special somebody, a business-woman, mother and grandmother, known throughout Kigali for her mouth-watering celebration cakes. Over hot sweet tea and plates of fondant morsels, Angel takes down her customers' orders, listens to their stories - for she is cake maker, confidante and councel - and busies herself around the details of their lives. But Angel hides her own secrets - a darkness clouds her eyes when she thinks about the deaths of her two children, Joseph and Vinas."Baking Cakes in Kigali" is a charming and soulful story of a country in recovery, where heartbreak lives alongside hope for the future. Views: 42
Five years ago, Jane's marriage to Demetri Souvakis ended. Devastated and betrayed, she left him and started a new life.Now Demetri needs an heir and demands a divorce. But they have one last night together—for old times' sake....However, that one last loving has dramatic results. How can Jane tell her soon-to-be-ex-husband that she's pregnant with his child? Views: 42
