Fatherhood: Does Kenneth have what it takes? And what is "it," anyway? The story of a modern American dad.What does it mean to be a man and a dad in America today? Climb up in the treehouse for a look. Views: 540
Witches are real, and to be blunt, they’re all black-hearted, and evil. Charged with stopping the witches, taking whatever measures necessary are the witch-hunters, all reporting to the Malleus Maleficarum Council. The best the MMC has to offer, the talented seventh-generation witch-hunting Hunter Astley has his own part to play. In his own way.Witches are real, and to be blunt, they’re all black-hearted, and evil. These are not wiccans; witches are a different breed that use magic with devastating effect. Charged with stopping the witches, taking whatever measures necessary, there are witch-hunters, all reporting to the Malleus Maleficarum Council (MMC). For hundreds of years witches have been persecuted and when the powerful Shadow Witch rises again, they have their opportunity for revenge. The best the MMC has to offer, the talented seventh-generation witch-hunting Hunter Astley has his own part to play. In his own way. Views: 540
Small-time private investigator Ray Lovell veers between paralysis and delirium in a hospital bed. But before the accident that landed him there, he'd been hired to find Rose Janko, the wife of a charismatic son of a traveling Gypsy family, who went missing seven years earlier. Half Romany himself, Ray is well aware that he's been chosen more for his blood than his investigative skills. Still, he's surprised by the intense hostility he encounters from the Jankos, who haven't had an easy past. Touched by tragedy, they're either cursed or hiding a terrible secret-whose discovery Ray can't help suspecting is connected to Rose's disappearance. . . . Views: 540
A family of five invites their good neighbour over for dinner. Things get ugly as someone decides to teach them a lesson they will never forget.Every kid wishes for magic, but not Miriam Mermelstein. She wished for something real, but what turned out to be real, was not what she expected.Magic Sucks is a humorous middle-grade fantasy about miscommunication between young people and adults. Not all of the adults in this story are human.Mom was beaming. “I hate shopping,” she said with passion. “Hmmm. How about a tube of ultra marine blue.” I reached into my sampo and pulled out a tube of ultra marine blue watercolor. Mom took it into her cupped hands, hugging it to her chest. “Paint!” she whispered reverently.“Miriam,” Dad said. He didn’t sound too thrilled about the shopping thing. “Take out a hundred dollar bill.”I did.“My god.” Mom blanched. “The mortgage.”“Not the mortgage, Rose. A ten-year old with an unlimited supply of hundred dollar bills.”“Maybe they’re counterfeit?”“Worse. A ten year old with an unlimited supply of counterfeit hundred dollar bills.” They stopped talking and just stared at each other.“I guess you don’t want to see what else they gave me,” I said.“What!” they both shouted at me.This is a story about a girl, her cat, her parents...and the entire kingdom of Ardu, which is located in the SE corner of Fairyland. Views: 540
No secrets are safe in the gilding of dawn. Join Tahnner as he explores the world of the Threads and all they contain.Tahnner grew up removed from the empire’s war. Ilyia was of little consequence until his father switched their allegiance and dragged him before the king, offering him up as a token of their newfound loyalty.Indentured to the mysterious ravellers guild, home of the notorious Thread Readers, his life goes from privilege to drudgery, except for at Rising and Setting, where no secrets can hide. He has to work to prove himself as a raveller, not only for the king he is to serve, but also for the family he is loyal to.First though, he must learn what the Threads are and why everyone fears them.No secrets are safe in the gilding of dawn. Views: 540
Stop what you're doing. Look around. Is this it? Snap out of it. Check your watch. Get back to work. Do not attempt to be different. Blend in. Buy something. The cycle must continue ... or does it? One man has broken free. Join him in his search for enlightenment, inner peace, and a really good pair of trousers.Stop what you're doing. Look around. Is this it? Snap out of it. Check your watch. Get back to work. Do not attempt to be different. Blend in. Buy something. The cycle must continue ... or does it?One man has broken free. Join him in his search for enlightenment, inner peace, and a really good pair of trousers. Witness his struggle to remain innocent in a world gone mad. Thrill to his rebellion against common sense. Laugh at his playful disregard for convention. Cry as layer after layer of modern life is peeled away like an onion.That man's name is Anthony Zen. Write that name down - that's "Zen" with a "Z". Now get back to work. Act normal. Check your watch. Do not attract attention. Buy something. Look both ways. Listen. No one is watching. Now is your chance. Diverge from the norm. Enter the wild world of "The Surreal Adventures of Anthony Zen". Escape. Laugh. Wonder. Check your watch. Sleep well and dream."The Surreal Adventures of Anthony Zen" is now available as a FREE eBook serial. Be sure to join us every two weeks for a thrilling episode!"Reminded me of ‘Rhinoceros’ - Ionesco."-- Colette Stevenson"Your stories reminded me of a cross between Lewis Carroll and Richard Brautigan" -- Larry Logan SATIRE - THE JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY SATIRE"North American authors, with the exception of a few (Kurt Vonnegut Jr., et al.), have very little sense of the absurd, something you’ve been cultivating, I think."-- C.F. Kennedy DRIFT/NECESSARY PRESS"We like the character and the writing." -- The Editors BLOOD AND APHORISMS"I enjoyed reading all four of your submissions [including the Anthony Zen stories 'Anthony Has Some Fun' and 'Another Day at Work']. You obviously have a well-developed sense of humor." -- Lisa B. Neuberger AMAZING STORIES"I [found] your Anthony Zen stories funny. In fact, I really enjoyed them. You obviously have a flair for nonsense, and a knack for turning cliches on their heads. The ability to find comic potential in the everyday mundanities of life is pretty rare, and the stuff that good comic writers are made of. I think it's obvious you have this same type of funny bone." -- Tim Bowling FLASH MAGAZINE Views: 540
Greece in the age of heroes. Patroclus, an awkward young prince, has been exiled to the court of King Peleus and his perfect son Achilles. By all rights their paths should never cross, but Achilles takes the shamed prince as his friend, and as they grow into young men skilled in the arts of war and medicine their bond blossoms into something deeper - despite the displeasure of Achilles' mother Thetis, a cruel sea goddess. But then word comes that Helen of Sparta has been kidnapped. Torn between love and fear for his friend, Patroclus journeys with Achilles to Troy, little knowing that the years that follow will test everything they hold dear.
Profoundly moving and breathtakingly original, this rendering of the epic Trojan War is a dazzling feat of the imagination, a devastating love story, and an almighty battle between gods and kings, peace and glory, immortal fame and the human heart. Views: 539
Karl Hoffman has an adopted son like no other. Colin's mind is six years old, while his body is six feet underground. The child now exists in the electrical conduits of computers, cables and power lines. How do you raise a child who can only communicate via digital media? What kind of great service can such an intelligence render humanity? What kind of damage is he capable of?Switch Child 2 takes up the story of Colin Craft, a six year old child who suffered a catastrophic head trauma in the same boating accident that claimed both his parents. Karl Hoffman wants to live up to being Colin's adoptive father, but there are problems. Colin managed to extend his awareness into the city's electrical infrastructure at first, and became so adept at it that, when his body gave out, Colin became a permanent resident of computers, digital communication devices, and connecting conduits. Karl Hoffman is his only connection to the world he left behind, and Colin is the son he never had. Both realize that secrecy is paramount, for if the child's existence was ever revealed, there would be a world wide controversy. When the world learned of what Colin is capable of, controversy would escalate to a firestorm. Karl needs guidance and help, but who could he possibly turn to? The answer might be found in a most upsetting text message resulting from his interview with Detective Alice Roland. Views: 539
This collection opens with The Gate of the Hundred Sorrows, the first story Kipling published as a young journalist in india, and ends with an acknowledged masterpiece, The Gardener, written 50 years later in the aftermath of the great war. Views: 539
This novel won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award in 195. An allegorical story of World War I, set in the trenches in France and dealing ostensibly with a mutiny in a French regiment, it was originally considered a sharp departure for Faulkner. Recently it has come to be recognized as one of his major works and an essential part of the Faulkner oeuvre. Faulkner himself fought in the war, and his descriptions of it "rise to magnificence," according to The New York Times, and include, in Malcolm Cowley's words, "some of the most powerful scenes he ever conceived." Views: 539
Anton Chekhov's only full-length novel, this Penguin Classics edition of The Shooting Party is translated and edited by Ronald Wilks, with an introduction by John Sutherland.
The Shooting Party centers on Olga, the pretty young daughter of a drunken forester on a country estate, and her fateful relationships with the men in her life. Adored by Urbenin, the estate manager, whom she marries to escape the poverty of her home, she is also desired by the dissolute Count Karneyev and by Zinovyev, a magistrate, who knows the secret misery of her marriage. When an attempt is made on Olga's life in the woods, it seems impossible to discover the perpetrator in an impenetrable web of lust, deceit, loathing and double-dealing. One of Chekhov's earliest experiments in fiction combines the classic elements of a gripping mystery with a short story of corruption, concealed love and fatal jealousy.
Ronald Wilks's brilliant new translation of this work is the first in over seventy years. It brilliantly captures the immediacy of the dialogue that Chekhov was later to develop into his great dramas. This edition also includes an introduction by John Sutherland, suggestions for further reading and explanatory notes.
Anton Chekhov (1860-1904) was born in Taganrog, a port on the sea of Azov. In 1879 he travelled to Moscow, where he entered the medical faculty of the university, graduating in 1884. During his university years, he supported his family by contributing humorous stories and sketches to magazines. He published his first volume of stories, Motley Tales, in 1886, and a year later his second volume In the Twilight, for which he received the Pushkin Prize. Today his plays, including 'Uncle Vanya', 'The Seagull', and 'The Cherry Orchard' are recognised as masterpieces the world over.
If you enjoyed The Shooting Party, you might like Chekhov's Plays, also available in Penguin Classics. Views: 539
Primo Levi, the Italian-born chemist once described by Philip Roth as that “quicksilver little woodland creature enlivened by the forest’s most astute intelligence,” has largely been considered a heroic figure in the annals of twentieth-century literature for If This Is a Man, his haunting account of Auschwitz. Yet Levi’s body of work extends considerably beyond his experience as a survivor. Now, the transformation of Levi from Holocaust memoirist to one of the twentieth century’s greatest writers culminates in this publication of The Complete Works of Primo Levi. This magisterial collection finally gathers all of Levi’s fourteen books—memoirs, essays, poetry, and fiction—into three slip-cased volumes. Thirteen of the books feature new translations, and the other is newly revised by the original translator. Nobel laureate Toni Morrison introduces Levi’s writing as a “triumph of human identity and worth over the pathology of human destruction.” The appearance of this historic publication will occasion a major reappraisal of “one of the most valuable writers of our time” (Alfred Kazin).
The Complete Works of Primo Levi features all new translations of: The Periodic Table, The Drowned and the Saved, The Truce, Natural Histories, Flaw of Form, The Wrench, Lilith, Other People’s Trades, and If Not Now, When?—as well as all of Levi’s poems, essays, and other nonfiction work, some of which have never appeared before in English. Views: 539
Set in the days of the Empire, with the British ruling in Burma, Burmese Days describes both indigenous corruption and Imperial bigotry, when 'after all, natives were natives - interesting, no doubt, but finally only a 'subject' people, an inferior people with black faces'. Against the prevailing orthodoxy, Flory, a white timber merchant, befriends Dr Veraswami, a black enthusiast for Empire. The doctor needs help. U Po Kyin, Sub- divisional Magistrate of Kyauktada, is plotting his downfall. The only thing that can save him is European patronage: membership of the hitherto all-white Club. While Flory prevaricates, beautiful Elizabeth Lackersteen arrives in Upper Burma from Paris. At last, after years of 'solitary hell', romance and marriage appear to offer Flory an escape from the 'lie' of the 'pukka sahib pose'. Views: 539
