We put an end to the war with the Dark Faction, but still humanity's problems are far from over. More than half of the game's promised tong of safety has elapsed, and yet humankind is no closer to forming a unified front. We've just begun building one of the twelve planetary shield generators necessary to give Earth complete protection, but we don't have enough construction materials, players or time. Should we ask the parallel magocratic world for help? After all, an invasion from outer space would hurt them just as bad. The mages, though, have plenty of problems of their own.What options does Gnat even have here? All he can truly count on are his own strength and his personal Relict faction. Should we put all our eggs in one basket and look for help in deep space? Might technology from ancient, long vanished races allow humanity to grow strong enough to turn back the onslaught before it's too late? Views: 560
A short story about a donkey with an attitude who hassles a small town and shakes the authority of Church and State.Born the daughter of a gentleman but now an innkeeper's niece, Lily loses hope that her true love, an officer in His Majesty's Navy, will return to claim her as his bride. When his ship returns home, she must choose between risking shame and ridicule by running to him, or waiting like a lady for him to come to her...if he still wants her. Views: 560
With *Gertrude*, Herman Hesse continues his lifelong exploration of the irreconcilable elements of human existence. In this fictional memoir, the renowned composer Kuhn recounts his tangled relationships with two artists--his friend Heinrich Muoth, a brooding, self-destructive opera singer, and the gentle, self-assured Gertrude Imthor. Kuhn is drawn to Gertrude upon their first meeting, but Gertrude falls in love with Heinrich, to whom she is introduced when Kuhn auditions them for the leads in his new opera. Hopelessly ill-matched, Gertrude and Heinrich have a disastrous marriage that leaves them both ruined. Yet this tragic affair also becomes the inspiration for Kuhn's opera, the most important success of his artistic life. Views: 560
A pick in Amazon's Cookbooks, Food & Wine Best Books of February categoryOne of Booklist's Must Read Nonfiction picks of 2019The acclaimed author of A Replacement Life shifts between heartbreak and humor in this gorgeously told, recipe-filled memoir. A family story, an immigrant story, a love story, and an epic meal, Savage Feast explores the challenges of navigating two cultures from an unusual angle. A revealing personal story and family memoir told through meals and recipes, Savage Feast begins with Boris's childhood in Soviet Belarus, where good food was often worth more than money. He describes the unlikely dish that brought his parents together and how years of Holocaust hunger left his grandmother so obsessed with bread that she always kept five loaves on hand. She was the stove magician and Boris' grandfather the master black marketer who supplied her, evading at least one firing squad on the way. These spoils... Views: 560
George Orwell was a tireless and lively correspondent. He communicated with family members, friends and newspapers, figures such as Henry Miller, Cyril Connolly, Stephen Spender and Arthur Koestler, and strangers who wrote to him out of the blue. This carefully selected volume of his correspondence provides an eloquent narrative of Orwell's life, from his schooldays to his final illness.
Orwell's letters afford a unique and fascinating view of his thoughts on matters both personal, political and much in between, from poltergeists, to girls' school songs and the art of playing croquet. In a note home to his mother from school, he reports having 'aufel fun after tea'; much later he writes of choosing a pseudonym and smuggling a copy of *Ulysses *into the country.
We catch illuminating glimpses of his family life: his son Richard's developing teeth, the death of his wife Eileen and his own illness. His talent as a political writer comes to the fore in his descriptions of Barcelona during the Spanish Civil War, his opinions on bayonets, and on the chaining of German prisoners. And of course, letters to friends and his publisher chart the development and publication of some of the most famous novels in the English language, providing unparalleled insight into his views on his own work and that of his contemporaries.
*A Life in Letters* features previously unpublished material, including letters which shed new light on a love that would haunt him for his whole life, as well as revealing the inspiration for some of his most famous characters. Presented for the first time in a dedicated volume, this selection of Orwell's letters is an indispensible companion to his diaries. Views: 560
Being 12 years old, dubbed the school weirdo and threatened daily, is about all James can take, or so he thought until he is dragged through his bathroom mirror into the darkness of the shadow underworld. Why? To retrieve what was stolen from him…the light behind his eyes.James Spicer is a 12 year old boy in his first year of secondary school. Everyone thinks James is weird, even his parents worry because he draws and paints such dark pictures. James has a fertile imagination and loves to create paintings of werewolves, vampires, dragons, witches, and all kinds of unbelievable creatures. At school James is bullied and labelled as one of the weirdo kids. The only person who doesn’t think James is weird is his grandpa and he died two years earlier.James is desperate to fit in but his incredible imagination involving dark creatures is not easily accepted by anyone. Daily he faces bullying at school. After one particularly dreadful day James catches his shadow stealing the light from behind his eyes. James is pulled through his bathroom mirror into an incredible fantasy underworld. There James’ journey takes him through fantastical realms of strange creatures, culminating in his meeting the King of Shadows. James’ quest is successful and he returns with a new found confidence and readiness to face life’s challenges. However once again he comes face to face by the bullies. This time, however, James is equipped with his newly honed skills to deal with his problems. Views: 560
When you have all you could ever want, what's left to wish for?Vathek, the majestic and fierce ninth caliph of the Abassides, has the world at his feet, with pleasure palaces constructed solely to satisfy his every possible appetite. Both his anger and his intellect are legendary; possessed of an intense thirst for knowledge, he often invites scholars to converse with him, but imprisons those who cannot be persuaded via logic or bribes to his point of view. Nothing is beyond his grasp, until a hideous stranger sells him glowing swords with letters on them that cannot be translated even by experts—because the letters are ever changing as if by magic!Obsessed with obtaining the stranger's knowledge, Vathek undertakes a massive search of his kingdom. His journey becomes increasingly horrific as he ventures into the underworld, meeting demons and witches. Will love of Mohammed or country or a young woman he encounters be enough to turn him from his... Views: 560
It's hard to imagine that zombies could ever be good guys. Until, that is, they come into contact with the butchers who ran the Nazi extermination camp at Sobibor.On October 14, 1943, over 700 Jews carried out a daring escape from the Nazi extermination camp at Sobibor, Poland. The standard histories of the event, however, leave out a crucial detail about how they managed such a feat against overwhelming odds. It turns out that they got some outside help from a completely unexpected source. Views: 560
The fifth Mae Martin Psychic MysteryA visit to the Mescalero Apache reservation turns from vacation to turmoil for Mae Martin.Reno Geronimo has more money than a starving artist should. He’s avoiding his fiancée and his family. His former mentor, nearing the end of her life, refuses to speak to him and no one knows what caused the rift. Distressed and frustrated, Reno’s fiancée asks Mae to use her psychic gift to find out what he’s hiding. Love and friendship are rocked by conflict as she gets closer and closer to the truth.The Mae Martin SeriesNo murder, just mystery. Every life hides a secret, and love is the deepest mystery of all. Views: 559
Isao is a young, engaging patriot, and a fanatical believer in the ancient samurai ethos. He turns terrorist, organising a violent plot against the new industrialists, who he believes are threatening the integrity of Japan and usurping the Emperor’s rightful power. As the conspiracy unfolds and unravels, Mishima brilliantly chronicles the conflicts of a decade that saw the fabric of Japanese life torn apart. Views: 559
This Book which has 50 differently titled Poems , is actually part 3 of the Book titled – Hide and Seek – Rhyming & Non Rhyming Poems ( 702 pages ) .Parekh's earliest collection of verse. Written in unparallelled fervor, this collection is a delectable blend of topics from love to death, probing into countless infinitesimal aspects of existence which make a significant impact to it. The beauty of this compendium lies in its magical brevity at places and in the most mundane things of life around us brought to the fore like a magicians wand, in brilliant poetic flair by Parekh. Contains poems on topics impossible for one to envisage that a poem could be written about such an inconspicuous little thing-but Parekh evolves bountiful rhyme from the word go and coalesces vivacious color in the little tid-bits of the chapter called life to optimum effect. A must read for all those who find color, charm and significance in even the smallest things of life and are enthused by even the most mercurial bit of stray paper loitering around. A poetic tribute to the ordinary, projecting its colorful extraordinary bit to the planet with raw panache. This book tingles every living being's imagination to fantasize beyond the ordinary. Look at all those meaningful tid-bits around us which have a complete book written in each one of them. All those joyous and unfortunate anecdotes around us which make us blossom into the true spirit of existence; into the amazing celebration of omnipotent life. Views: 559
Paul Auster's most intimate autobiographical work to date
In the beginning, everything was alive. The smallest objects were endowed with beating hearts . . .
Having recalled his life through the story of his physical self in Winter Journal, internationally acclaimed novelist Paul Auster now remembers the experience of his development from within through the encounters of his interior self with the outer world in Report from the Interior.
From his baby's-eye view of the man in the moon, to his childhood worship of the movie cowboy Buster Crabbe, to the composition of his first poem at the age of nine, to his dawning awareness of the injustices of American life, Report from the Interior charts Auster's moral, political, and intellectual journey as he inches his way toward adulthood through the postwar 1950s and into the turbulent 1960s.
Auster evokes the sounds, smells, and tactile sensations that marked his early life—and the many images that came at him, including moving images (he adored cartoons, he was in love with films), until, at its unique climax, the book breaks away from prose into pure imagery: The final section of Report from the Interior recapitulates the first three parts, told in an album of pictures. At once a story of the times—which makes it everyone's story—and the story of the emerging consciousness of a renowned literary artist, this four-part work answers the challenge of autobiography in ways rarely, if ever, seen before.
A Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of 2013 Views: 559
Joseph Holly knows the truth: Work is rarely as dull as when you are eighteen years old and in love. ‘The Devil eats Coleslaw’ is a working day in Joe's life, which sees him trapped in a supermarket with strange customers, ex-teachers, daydreams, bad ideas, Sonic Youth, The Replacements, and an overwhelming need to see his girlfriend,Diane.Joseph Holly knows the truth: Work is rarely as dull as when you are eighteen years old and in love. ‘The Devil eats Coleslaw’ is a working day in Joe's life, which sees him trapped in a supermarket with strange customers, ex-teachers, daydreams, bad ideas, Sonic Youth, The Replacements, and an overwhelming need to see his girlfriend,Diane. It is a story about a young man's private battle with boredom and with keeping his head together, as he tries to get to the end of his shift. Views: 559
