This classic tale of shipwreck and survival is reprinted in a new edition, with essays that provide a historical perspective and trace the sources from which Kenneth Roberts (1885-1957) drew his tale. A native Mainer, Roberts, whose historical novels include Northwest Passage and Arundel, was intrigued by the story of the December 1710 wreck of the Nottingham. After running aground a dozen miles offshore, the ship broke up, stranding her crew with minimal tools, scant shelter, and a few pieces of cheese. The men survived nearly a month of screeching gales, sub-freezing temperatures, and driving snowstorms. During their ordeal they resorted to cannibalism and were finally rescued after one of them made it ashore on a crude raft. Included here are contemporary accounts from crew members, offering dramatically different versions of the true-life traumatic event and a fascinating counterpoint to Roberts' fictionalized version. A bestseller when published in 1956, Boon Island is a story of the ways that crisis can inspire the best - and worst - in human nature. Views: 111
In hedonistic 1960s London, a police detective investigates the unexpected connections between two suspicious deaths: a call girl and a rock star. It's the summer of '69, and the hard-living rock stars of the British Invasion still rule London. When former Rolling Stone Brian Jones turns up dead, floating in the pool of his palatial home while the party continues around him, Detective Sargeant Cathal Breen is called away from his former partner, now girlfriend—who quit the force when she became pregnant with his child—to take the case.Breen's investigation soon uncovers another body spat out by the hedonistic '60s party scene: a young woman, a call-girl for the rich and famous, a girl they called Julie Teenager. Her client list is thick and full of suspects—all rich, powerful, and protected. When Breen gets too close to fingering a financier with ties to Russia—and gets a phone call from MI6 warning him to watch his back—the... Views: 111
In this prizewinning portrait of a time and place -- Montana in the 1930s -- that at once inspires and fulfills a longing for an explicable past, Ivan Doig has created one of the most captivating families in American fiction, the McCaskills.The witty and haunting narration, a masterpiece of vernacular in the tradition of Twain, follows the events of the Two Medicine country's summer: the tide of sheep moving into the high country, the capering Fourth of July rodeo and community dance, and an end-of-August forest fire high in the Rockies that brings the book, as well as the McCaskill family's struggle within itself, to a stunning climax. It is a season of escapade as well as drama, during which fourteen-year-old Jick comes of age. Through his eyes we see those nearest and dearest to him at a turning point -- "where all four of our lives made their bend" -- and discover along with him his own connection to the land, to history, and to the deep-fathomed mysteries of one's kin and one's self. Views: 111
Meredith Duran returns with another witty, humorous and smart romance in the third book of her Rules for the Reckless series. Fans of Julia Quinn, Jane Feather and Eloisa James will delight in Meredith's trademark headstrong heroine, cunning hero and tale of deep emotional intensity!Born to a family of notorious criminals, Lilah Marshall has long abandoned her past. A hostess at Everleigh's, London's premier auction house, she leads a virtuous life of art and culture. Lilah has almost transformed into the perfect lady - until an enigmatic viscount catches her in the act of one last, reluctant theft.Christian 'Kit' Stratton, Viscount Palmer, is society's most dashing war hero. But his charming façade masks a dark secret: he's haunted by a madman's vow to destroy anyone he loves. When Kit catches Lilah red-handed, he strikes a bargain she can't refuse. Their attraction is instant, but as their very lives hang in the balance, one tempting touch could be their undoing... Want more Rules for the Reckless? Don't miss That Scandalous Summer or *Fool Me Twice.*** Views: 110
THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERLEE SMITHAuthor of News of the SpiritTHE LAST GIRLSA Novel“Wise and insightful . . . The Last Girls deserves to be shared, pondered, and treasured.”–The Dallas Morning News“[A] GENIAL, THOUGHTFUL, FUNNY NOVEL, WRITTEN WITH THE WIT AND ASSURANCE OF A BORN STORYTELLER.”–The Hartford Courant“RICH AND DELICIOUS . . . THE STORY OF FOUR WOMEN . . .Years ago, they were girls, not women–the last generation of American females to be called ‘girls’–who traveled down the Mississippi River . . . on a makeshift raft while they were on summer vacation . . . There were twelve of them on that trip; now there are these four, brought together by tragedy. One of their classmates . . . has died in an automobile wreck (was it really an accident?), and her husband has asked the old friends to re-create the river journey and scatter her ashes at the mouth of the Mississippi. . . . It’s a reunion of classmates with all of the in-between revealed in intimate detail, as only a skilled and classy storyteller can do it.”–The Boston Globe“AN HONEST PORTRAIT OF INTELLIGENT, WELL-ROUNDED SOUTHERNERS is always refreshing, and The Last Girls delivers. The book may be influenced by Twain, but Smith proves she has a voice all her own.”–USA Today“BREEZILY WRITTEN AND DISPLAYING SMITH’S TRADEMARK PITCH-PERFECT EAR FOR DIALOGUE, funny but with the dark touches of all good comedy, the novel charts the course by which the ‘girls’ . . . seek love and self-fulfillment during the three decades approaching the end of the century. Call it Huckleberry Fin de Siècle.”–Time Out New York“SMITH’S COMIC GENIUS SPARKLES . . . Under Smith’s deft hand, these woman bloom exceptionally authentic.. . Using the premise that both a reunion and a riverboat provide good lookouts on the past, she details the passing terrain as she details each woman’s emotional history, from child to adult, from dates to love affairs, from silly shenanigans to tragic accidents. And what details! The book is filled with memorable scenes. . . . Smith adds a purely feminine, deeply southern twist to the Mark Twain tradition of humor and precision applied generously to the subject of human weakness.”–Richmond Times-Dispatch“Lee Smith’s genius is in her seamless weaving of the two stories, past and present, so that we realize what the stakes are for these women, and how they have arrived at the reunion as footsore pilgrims–a bit battered and bruised, but sailing on nevertheless. . . . Smith has that talent that all storytellers envy: the ability to dive deeply into the lives of her characters, to bring them to life in their rich fullness, warts and all. Each of these women could energize an entire book. Each brings something unique and captivating to a superb tale that will stay with you long after the reading is done. Together they compel each of us to ask what has brought us to the near shore, and how we set sail from here.”–The Boston GlobeAmazon.com ReviewIn the brisk and readable The Last Girls, acclaimed Southern writer Lee Smith reunites four college suitemates on a boat tour of the mighty Mississippi. Thirty-five years before, inspired by reading Twain's Huckleberry Finn in class (a detail not nearly revisited enough), the women floated down the same river on a manmade raft; now they are gathered at the request of their recently deceased ringleader's husband. The story unfolds through the eyes of each woman as the old friends weave college memories with their own dramas spanning the three decades since graduation. Harriet, Courtney, Catherine, and Anna come through muddily compared to their dead friend Baby. Even in death, Baby, a Sylvia Plath-like creature with voracious appetites for poetry, self-mutilation, and sex, nearly overwhelms her more reticent friends with past behaviors better suited to a mental institution than a dorm room. As the tour boat bobs along in the wake of these women's emotional crises, Smith offers up the contemporary female life experience, fivefold. At its heart, this is a book about how we never quite outgrow the past, even after plenty of chances to do otherwise. --Emily RussinFrom Publishers WeeklyThe Big Chill meets Huckleberry Finn in a moving novel inspired by a real-life episode. Thirty-six years ago, Smith (Oral History) and 15 other college "girls" sailed a raft down the Mississippi River from Kentucky to New Orleans in giddy homage to Huck. Here she reimagines that prefeminist odyssey, and then updates it, as four of the raft's alumnae take a steamboat cruise in 1999 to recreate their river voyage and scatter the ashes of one of their own. What results is an unsentimental journey back to not-quite-halcyon college days of the mid-1960s ("periods cramps boys dates birth babies the works") masterfully intercut with more recent stories of marriages, infidelities, health crises and career moves, all set firmly in the South. At first the characters threaten to be mere stereotypes: innocent, self-sacrificing Harriet; arty, maternal Catherine; brittle Southern belle Courtney; brassy romance novelist Anna. But Smith reveals surprising truths about each character, even as she suggests that the fate of their departed classmate-the wild, promiscuous, possibly suicidal Baby-may never be understood. The steamboat setting provides ample opportunities to skewer cruise ship tackiness and Southern kitsch, a witty counterpoint to the often troubled personal stories of the passengers. Readers who like their plots linear may be challenged by the tangle of tales, but those who agree that "there are no grown-ups," and that there's "no beginning and no end" to the "real story" of people's lives, will find this tender, generous, graceful novel a delight. Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. Views: 110
Silas Weir Mitchell was an American physician and writer known for his discovery of causalgia (complex regional pain syndrome) and erythromelalgia. Views: 110
When a World's Fair Guard and the woman doctor assigned to treat him square off in the White City, a storm is brewing...Hunter Scott is one of the elite. An 1893 Chicago World's Fair guard specifically chosen for his height, physique, character, and ability to serve and protect. When he is overcome with debilitating abdominal pain, Hunter stumbles to the Fair's infirmary only to discover the doctor is female--who ever heard of a female doctor? But even worse, she has the nerve to diagnose him, the toughest man west of any place east, with constipation--an unspeakable ailment in mixed company. What will happen when this tough Texan and attractive doctor face off? Either way, a tempest is brewing... Views: 110
