On a cold, quiet day between Christmas and the New Year, a man's body is found in an abandoned apartment. His friends look on, but they're dead, too. Their bodies found in squats and sheds and alleyways across the city. Victims of a bad batch of heroin, they're in the shadows, a chorus keeping vigil as the hours pass, paying their own particular homage as their friend's body is taken away, examined, investigated, and cremated.All of their stories are laid out piece by broken piece through a series of fractured narratives. We meet Robert, the deceased, the only alcoholic in a sprawling group of junkies; Danny, just back from uncomfortable holidays with family, who discovers the body and futiley searches for his other friends to share the news of Robert's death; Laura, Robert's daughter, who stumbles into the junky's life when she moves in with her father after years apart; Heather, who has her own place for the first time since she was a teenager; Mike, the Falklands War vet; and all the others. Theirs are stories of lives fallen through the cracks, hopes flaring and dying, love overwhelmed by a stronger need, and the havoc wrought by drugs, distress, and the disregard of the wider world. These invisible people live in a parallel reality, out of reach of basic creature comforts, like food and shelter. In their sudden deaths, it becomes clear, they are treated with more respect than they ever were in their short lives.Intense, exhilarating, and shot through with hope and fury, Even the Dogs is an intimate exploration of life at the edges of society--littered with love, loss, despair, and a half-glimpse of redemption. From Publishers WeeklyThis mercifully short third novel from McGregor (If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things) is told from the various perspectives of a loosely connected band of down-and-outers linked by Robert, a hopeless alcoholic whose wife has taken their daughter and left him alone in his flat, which has since become a gathering place for the members of McGregor's cast. Robert's death sets in motion the novel's events—it would be misleading to call it a plot—starting with the police taking away his body. For the most part, we're with Danny, whose past gradually comes to light via an expletive-laced narration that verges on incoherence: his foster home upbringing; his relationship with Robert's daughter, Laura, whom Danny is trying to contact; and of course, his heroin addiction, which provides much of the novel's subject matter. In the process, we learn about the group that frequented Robert's flat, a motley crew who provide plenty of sordid stories. But the central mystery—how did Robert die?—goes nowhere, and the spliced-in set pieces that describe the stages Robert's body undergoes on its way to eventual cremation don't do any favors for this misfire. (Feb.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From BooklistIn his third novel, two-time Booker nominee McGregor follows a band of ghostly drug addicts, who act as a Greek chorus as they witness their friend Robert’s body being carted out of his squalid apartment and taken to the morgue. Among them is Danny, an abused victim of the foster-care system; Steve, a traumatized war vet; and Heather, a once-popular groupie now an aging wreck. Robert himself gave into alcoholism years ago after his wife left him, taking their young daughter with her. Paralyzed by their desertion, he continued to drink himself into oblivion while serving as the toastmaster to neighborhood addicts, who, in turn, exhaust themselves in an endless round of scoring, eating, scrounging up money, and scoring again. With its complex flashback structure, fractured inner monologues, and grim characters, this novel makes for dense reading. Yet McGregor succeeds in paying homage to the dispossessed and the hopeless, who live and die on the margins of society. --Joanne Wilkinson Views: 5
An original, funny and poignant story about those things in life that you just can’t plan for...‘A very modern fairytale, full of Claudia’s trademark wit and humour.’ Sheila O’FlanaganEloise Elliot is one of the youngest newspaper editors in the country. Respected and revered by her peers, she’s at the top of her game.But, on the eve of her thirtieth birthday, finding herself surrounded by some pathetic looking balloons and mangy sandwiches in The Daily Post’s conference room, Eloise is hit but a long sharp pang of loneliness.Suddenly, and with dazzling clarity, she realises what she wants to make her life more complete. A baby.One successful trip to the sperm bank and almost three years later and she is the adoring mother of a gorgeous little girl, Lily. Juggling a high-powered job with motherhood is not easy and when she finds herself without childcare she sends an SOS to her sister Helen. Yet it’s when Lily starts asking about her ‘daddy’ that Eloise really starts to panic. What will she tell her?So Eloise decides there’s nothing for it – she’s going to find Lily’s father. After all, she chose the perfect donor so surely there won’t be any surprises. Except that there are plenty, and Eloise gets a lot more than she bargained for. Views: 4
Romance,
sports Romance,
Boxing,
Boxing romance Views: 4
The sixth instalment of an epic science fiction series that tells of humanity's desperate struggle to survive against an overwhelming alien invasion.The counterattack into enemy territory proved the aliens were far stronger than the humans thought. Whilst many got on with their lives in the hope the aliens would not return, Colonel Mitch Taylor knew better. No longer seeking to occupy Earth, the enemy Lord Demiran wants revenge. This time he means to obliterate Earth with a new terrifying weapon of mass destruction that will mean extinction for the human race.With time running out, the fight must be taken to Demiran with everything Earth forces have to give in a desperate attempt to save humanity. But beyond the threat of the weapon, Taylor knows they must finish Demiran for good if they are to end the war and bring peace to the world.Battle Earth is a futuristic sci-fi action adventure series that chronicles vast bloody battles following humanity's first reach into the stars. Views: 4
From BooklistAkashic’s Noir series, which began in 2004, turns to Denmark. Edited by Danish book critic and editor Michaëlis, this volume features stories by authors whose names may be unfamiliar to American readers but whose themes are universal. The stories are organized into three broad categories: (Men and) Women, Mammon, and Corpses, all essential motifs in the noir world. Fans used to the watered-down noir now prevalent in America will notice immediately the much harder edge of these stories, which are much closer to the noir of the 1940s and ’50s. Translations effectively render the text in North American idiom while keeping the flavor of the original. --David Pitt Review"The indefatigable noir series of anthologies (Orange County Noir, Trinidad Noir, Brooklyn Noir 3, etc.) focuses in its 43rd volume on the home of Hans Christian Andersen. [...] Based on this collection, Copenhagen may be a great place to visit, but nobody seems to live there, at least not well or long." --Kirkus Reviews "Fans used to the watered-down noir now prevalent in America will notice immediately the much harder edge of these stories, which are much closer to the noir of the 1940s and '50s." --Booklist "[This] volume has grim, uncomfortable power." --Publishers Weekly "The latest entry in the publisher's series (41 and counting) proves the resilience of, and market for, these locale noirs. Editor Michaëlis, a Danish book critic, is both scholarly and insightful in the introduction and outlines how the stories reflect the greed and ennui of modern Denmark in contrast to the Danish idyll depicted in tourist brochures. [...] Although some stories veer from noir orthodoxy, there are fine examples of lyrical writing, noir sensibilities, and insight into the current Danish psyche. Overall, a very impressive anthology." --Library Journal Views: 4
Missy is suddenly an unwanted co-owner to Ocean View Stables by Florence, Oregon. Missy wants to start over somewhere new after her old boss burned her. She's jobless and has a wrongly ruined reputation, so this works out perfectly . . . until she meets the cowboy running the place. Views: 4
A sailor escapes from his ship while visiting the Marquesas Islands and joins the crew of a savage boat. Views: 4
When Noelle Stevenson saw the positive results of her pregnancy test, she didn't know what to do. The baby's father was gone, killed serving his country in Iraq. And nineteen-year-old Noelle was barely making ends meet putting herself through college and working part-time. So when her take-charge boss, Devlin Hunter, offered to marry her -- in a purely temporary business arrangement -- how could she possibly refuse? Dev wanted to do the right thing for a woman in need. But he didn't anticipate that his beautiful bride, wed in a marriage of convenience, would stir his hardened heart. This platonic partnership was rapidly headed down the road to romance.... Views: 4
“The president of the United States . . . is missing.”With these words, New York Times journalist J. B. Collins, reporting from the scene of a devastating attack by ISIS terrorists in Amman, Jordan, puts the entire world on high alert. The leaders of Israel and Palestine are critically injured, Jordan’s king is fighting for his life, and the U.S. president is missing and presumed captured.As the U.S. government faces a constitutional crisis and Jordan battles for its very existence, Collins must do his best to keep the world informed while working to convince the FBI that his stories are not responsible for the terror attack on the Jordanian capital. And ISIS still has chemical weapons . . .Struggling to clear his name, Collins and the Secret Service try frantically to locate and rescue the leader of the free world before ISIS’s threats become a catastrophic reality. Views: 4
SUMMARY:
She never ever thought Jake Barnes would know the truth. When he left town without any warning, Savannah couldn't tell him she was pregnant. He didn't give her the chance. So now—years later—because he's back and finds out he has a child, suddenly she's the villain.… How is that fair? Savannah Salinger raised her daughter and knows what's best for her own kid. But she can't seem to push Jake away, and having the infuriating man so close…so close to her…stirs up all those feelings she thought were buried as deep as the secret she swore she'd never tell. Views: 4
