The last decades of the nineteenth century were a violent period in China’s history marked by humiliating foreign incursions and domestic rebellion, ultimately ending in the demise of the Ch’ing dynasty. The only constant during this tumultuous time was the power wielded by one person, the resilient, ever-resourceful Tzu Hsi, Lady Yehonala -- or Empress Orchid, as readers came to know her in Anchee Min’s critically acclaimed novel covering the first part of her life.
The Last Empress is the story of Orchid’s dramatic transition from a strong-willed, instinctive young woman to a wise and politically savvy leader who ruled China for more than four decades. Moving from the intimacy of the concubine quarters into the spotlight of the world stage, Orchid must face not only the perilous condition of her empire but also a series of devastating personal losses, as first her son and then her adopted son succumb to early death. Yearning only to step aside, and yet growing constantly into her role, only she—allied with the progressives, but loyal to the conservative Manchu clan of her dynasty—can hold the nation’s rival factions together.
Anchee Min offers a powerful revisionist portrait based on extensive research of one of the most important figures in Chinese history. Viciously maligned by the western press of the time as the “Dragon Lady,” a manipulative, blood-thirsty woman who held onto power at all costs, the woman Min gives us is a compelling, very human leader who assumed power reluctantly, and who sacrificed all she had to protect those she loved and an empire that was doomed to die. Views: 755
In these five stories, Gaines returns to the cane fields, sharecroppers' shacks, and decaying plantation houses of Louisiana, the terrain of his great novels A Gathering of Old Men and A Lesson Before Dying. As rendered by Gaines, this country becomes as familiar, and as haunted by cruelty, suffering, and courage, as Ralph Ellison's Harlem or Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha County.
STORIES INCLUDE:
A Long Day in November
The Sky Is Gray
Three Men
Bloodline
Just Like a Tree Views: 754
The Carolinas, 1699: The citizens of Fount Royal believe a witch has cursed their town with inexplicable tragedies, and they demand that beautiful widow Rachel Howarth be tried and executed for witchcraft. Presiding over the trial is traveling magistrate Issac Woodward, aided by his astute young clerk, Matthew Corbett. Believing in Rachel's innocence, Matthew will soon confront the true evil at work in Fount Royal.
After hearing damning testimony, magistrate Woodward sentences the accused witch to death by burning. Desperate to exonerate the woman he has come to love, Matthew begins his own investigation among the townspeople. Piecing together the truth, he has no choice but to vanquish a force more malevolent than witchcraft in order to save his beloved Rachel and free Fount Royal from the menace claiming innocent lives. Views: 753
Newbery medalist Karen Cushman assembles a cast of unforgettable characters in a fascinating and pungent setting: the medical quarter of a medieval English Village. To Blood and Bone Alley, home of leech, barber-surgeon, and apothecary, comes Matilda, raised by a priest to be pious and learned, and now destined to assist Red Peg the Bonesetter. To Matilda's dismay, her work will not involve Latin or writing, but lighting the fire, going to market, mixing plasters and poultices, and helping Peg treat patients. Appalled by her new surroundings, Matilda yearns for the days at the manor when all she did was study and pray. Lonely and misunderstood, she seems destined for a fate as tragic as that of any of the sharp-toungued saints she turns to for advice.
Filled with a witty dialogue, Matilda Bone is a compelling comic novel about a girl who learns to see herself and others clearly, to laugh, and to live contentedly in this world. Views: 752
In her new novel, perennial bestseller Anne Rice fuses her two uniquely seductive strains of narrative -- her Vampire legend and her lore of the Mayfair witches -- to give us a world of classic deep-south luxury and ancestral secrets. Welcome to Blackwood Farm: soaring white columns, spacious drawing rooms, bright, sun-drenched gardens, and a dark strip of the dense Sugar Devil Swamp. This is the world of Quinn Blackwood, a brilliant young man haunted since birth by a mysterious doppelgänger, “Goblin,” a spirit from a dream world that Quinn can’t escape and that prevents him from belonging anywhere. When Quinn is made a Vampire, losing all that is rightfully his and gaining an unwanted immortality, his doppelgänger becomes even more vampiric and terrifying than Quinn himself. As the novel moves backwards and forwards in time, from Quinn’s boyhood on Blackwood Farm to present day New Orleans, from ancient Athens to 19th-century Naples, Quinn seeks out the legendary Vampire Lestat in the hope of freeing himself from the spectre that draws him inexorably back to Sugar Devil Swamp and the explosive secrets it holds. A story of youth and promise, of loss and the search for love, of secrets and destiny, Blackwood Farm is Anne Rice at her mesmerizing best.From the Hardcover edition. Views: 752
The Witcher returns in this action-packed sequel to The Tower of Swallows, in the New York Times bestselling series that inspired The Witcher video games.
After walking through the portal in the Tower of Swallows while narrowly escaping death, Ciri finds herself in a completely different world... an Elven world. She is trapped with no way out. Time does not seem to exist and there are no obvious borders or portals to cross back into her home world.
But this is Ciri, the child of prophecy, and she will not be defeated. She knows she must escape to finally rejoin the Witcher, Geralt, and his companions - and also to try to conquer her worst nightmare. Leo Bonhart, the man who chased, wounded and tortured Ciri, is still on her trail. And the world is still at war.
Witcher novels
Blood of Elves
The Time of Contempt
Baptism of Fire
The Tower of Swallows
Lady of the Lake
Witcher collectionsThe Last WishSword of Destiny
The Malady and Other Stories: An Andrzej Sapkowski Sampler (e-only)
Translated from original Polish by David French Views: 752
A collection of whimsical poetry, which have been performed at the Mackay Writers Poets in the Pub functions each year.Nine-year-old Neil never expects to have an adventure. He likes studying science from a safe distance – by himself, on his computer, in his room. Suddenly, he’s not alone. Two tiny wizards, Hye and Jynx, pop out of his rubber plant and need his help. They don’t have enough magic to get home and must travel to the ten natural wonders of the world to find more enchantment. They need Neil as an anchor when they travel in Magic-Time because his room is the only way back to their world. He reluctantly agrees to go with them. Their first quest is traveling to the Grand Canyon. Interrupted mid-spell by Neil’s younger sister, all four arrive in the Grand Caymen Islands instead of the Grand Canyon, thousands of miles from their destination. Neil resents being changed into a green sea turtle and being in a flash flood and being stranded in Magic-Time. He wonders if he and his sister are going to get back home. Views: 751
Weaving a tapestry of fact and fiction, Sara Donati's epic novel sweeps us into another time and place...and into the heart of a forbidden affair between an unconventional Englishwoman and an American frontiersman.
It is December of 1792. Elizabeth Middleton leaves her comfortable English estate to join her family in a remote New York mountain village. It is a place unlike any she has ever experienced. And she meets a man unlike any she has ever encountered - a white man dressed like a Native American, Nathanial Booner, known to the Mohawk people as Between-Two-Lives. Determined to provide schooling for all the children of the village, she soons finds herself locked in conflict with the local slave owners as well as her own family.
Interweaving the fate of the Mohawk Nation with the destiny of two lovers, Sara Donati's compelling novel creates a complex, profound, passionate portrait of an emerging America. Views: 751
Ernest J. Gaines's new novella revolves around a courthouse shooting that leads a young reporter to uncover the long story of race and power in his small town and the relationship between the white sheriff and the black man who "whipped children" to keep order.
After Brady Sims pulls out a gun in a courtroom and shoots his own son, who has just been convicted of robbery and murder, he asks only to be allowed two hours before he'll give himself up to the sheriff. When the editor of the local newspaper asks his cub reporter to dig up a "human interest" story about Brady, he heads for the town's barbershop. It is the barbers and the regulars who hang out there who narrate with empathy, sadness, humor, and a profound understanding the life story of Brady Sims--an honorable, just, and unsparing man who with his tough love had been handed the task of keeping the black children of Bayonne, Louisiana in line to protect them from the unjust world in which they lived. And when his own son makes a fateful mistake, it is up to Brady to carry out the necessary reckoning. In the telling, we learn the story of a small southern town, divided by race, and the black community struggling to survive even as many of its inhabitants head off northwards during the Great Migration. Views: 750
A Roman soldier, Marcellus, wins Christ's robe as a gambling prize. He then sets forth on a quest to find the truth about the Nazarene's robe-a quest that reaches to the very roots and heart of Christianity and is set against the vividly limned background of ancient Rome. Here is a timeless story of adventure, faith, and romance, a tale of spiritual longing and ultimate redemption. Views: 750
The journey was impossible. But they had no other choice. At the call of their prophet, they left well-established farms and businesses to strike out yet again into the untamed wilderness. A small band of men, women, and children formed the 1879 pioneer company. Their mission: stand as a buffer between lawlessness and civilization. Their road: only what they created themselves, blasting out a perilous trail over slick rock and through desolate cliffs. Their hearts: UNDAUNTED When it comes to creating spellbinding historical fiction, nobody does it quite like Gerald N. Lund. In The Undaunted, he transports readers first to the coal mines of Yorkshire, then across the ocean and the plains to the territory of Utah, where, even in 1879, there is pioneering to be done. A little- known and perhaps even less- appreciated chapter in the Church s history comes to life in this gripping story of a stalwart group of Saints called to create a settlement to serve as a buffer between the established communities of Utah and the lawless frontier of the Four Corners area. Their challenge will be enormous but the biggest part of it just may be getting there in the first place. Skillfully interweaving historical figures and events with fictional characters, Gerald Lund takes us through the Hole in the Rock and over miles of uncharted country that even today is impassable without all- terrain vehicles. His account of the adventure, romance, and sacrifices of these undaunted pioneers will resonate with readers who love a good story as well as those who want to better understand the incomparable legacy and unconquerable faith of those valiant Saints. Views: 750
Trying Not To Blink is the follow-up to Eric Nixon’s previous poetry collections, Anything but Dreams and Lost In Thought. After hearing Garrison Keillor read one of his poems on the public radio program, The Writer’s Almanac, Nixon was deeply inspired to write poetry again after a seven-year absence. Trying Not To Blink contains all 160 poems written in 2012, in his unique accessible style.Alaric and Everet have begun their journey across the desolate Oresian plains back to the border, where they'll continue on to the Vasque Capitole to meet with Veld Martiale Hadryan. But issues more personal and pressing than a stalled treaty and the Holds' futures must first be addressed, and as the fury of a coming storm begins to mount, so too do the tension and uncertainty between the pair. Views: 750
Some revelations by Dr Watson of hitherto undisclosed details in the resolution of this interesting case.Night Kings:Humans own the day and yet it’s the supernatural that lay claim to the night. Vampires, the oldest of night’s children, have at last found a home in Salem and it’s a home they’re unwilling to part from. Their mortal enemies, the werewolves, lurk not just in the vast forests that surround the city, but inside the very fabric of the community. Salem has always been able to weather the storm that brew between both factions, but they’re about to learn that they aren’t the only creatures that go bump in the night.The Lady in Red:The city of Salem has long held dark secrets within its ancient walls. Those secrets emerge into the daylight when the death of a reaper puts a whole city under the microscope. No one is going to be safe when the search heats up and forces vampires, werewolves, and witches alike to come out of hiding and take a side in the war to come.Please Note: Night Kings is a YA collection of episodic short stories based in the city of Salem. It is not intended to be read as a novel and should be noted before purchase that a single episode won’t take longer than a few hours to complete.Warning: This eBook contains graphic imagery and coarse language. Views: 749
The latest book in the Shardelake series Views: 749
A Prize Winning Short Story.An elderly woman is haunted by memories of her escape from the holocaust.But how reliable are painful memories that have been kept at bay for over sixty years?And at her time of life, what exactly is she searching for?Jack Noble. Assassin for hire. Thief. Spy. Described by his associates as a man who has no feelings, passes no judgement, and feels no remorse. So why the hell did he stop to help a lost child moments before he was to meet with one of the top crime bosses on the East coast? A simple decision that now places Jack in unfamiliar territory where he has become the hunted. Noble Intentions is a thrilling and suspenseful story of underworld crime, government secrets, and heart-pounding action. This is the first episode of Noble Intentions. It is a short novella of 15,000 worrds. New novella length episodes (20,000 to 30,000 words each) will be released every two to three weeks. Season One (Episodes 1 through 5) now complete. Warning: These stories depict realistic violence with real consequences. Some scenes might be too intense for the faint of heart. Views: 749
