Moby-Dick is perhaps the greatest of the Great American Novels, yet its length and esoteric subject matter create an aura of difficulty that too often keeps readers at bay. Fortunately, one unabashed fan wants passionately to give Melville's masterpiece the broad contemporary audience it deserves. In his National Book Award- winning bestseller, In the Heart of the Sea, Nathaniel Philbrick captivatingly unpacked the story of the wreck of the whaleship Essex, the real-life incident that inspired Melville to write Moby- Dick. Now, he sets his sights on the fiction itself, offering a cabin master's tour of a spellbinding novel rich with adventure and history. Philbrick skillfully navigates Melville's world and illuminates the book's humor and unforgettable characters-finding the thread that binds Ishmael and Ahab to our own time and, indeed, to all times. A perfect match between author and subject, Why Read Moby-Dick? gives us a renewed appreciation of both Melville and the proud seaman's town of Nantucket that Philbrick himself calls home. Like Alain de Botton's How Proust Can Change Your Life, this remarkable little book will start conversations, inspire arguments, and, best of all, bring a new wave of readers to a classic tale waiting to be discovered anew. Views: 1 083
“A full master of the epic fantasy.”—Tulsa WorldOne of the world’s most acclaimed fantasists, New York Times bestselling author Robin Hobb returns to the world of her popular “Tawny Man” trilogy with Dragon Haven—the second book, following Dragon Keeper (“Imaginative, literate, and compassionate from first page to last” —Booklist) in an epic adventure about the resurgence of dragons in a world that both needs and fears them. Hobb, whose Soldier Son Trilogy (Shaman’s Crossing, Forest Mage, Renegade’s Magic) has won raves from critics, fans, and peers alike, returns to the Rain Wilds with Dragon Haven, and readers of Raymond Feist, Terry Brooks, and Lois McMaster Bujold will eagerly follow. Views: 1 083
It seemed like a good idea. Tired of everyday life ashore, Farley Mowat would find a sturdy boat in Newfoundland and roam the salt sea over, free as a bird. What he found was the worst boat in the world, and she nearly drove him mad. The Happy Adventure, despite all that Farley and his Newfoundland helpers could do, leaked like a sieve. Her engine only worked when she felt like it. Typically, on her maiden voyage, with the engine stuck in reverse, she backed out of the harbour under full sail. And she sank, regularly.
How Farley and a varied crew, including the intrepid lady who married him, coaxed the boat from Newfoundland to Lake Ontario is a marvellous story. The encounters with sharks, rum-runners, rum and a host of unforgettable characters on land and sea make this a very funny book for readers of all ages. Views: 1 082
In WAR Sebastian Junger gives breathtaking insight into the truths of war -- the fear, the honor, and the trust among men. His on-the-ground account follows a single platoon through a 15-month tour of duty in the most dangerous outpost in Afghanistan's Korengal Valley. Through the experiences of these young men at war, he shows what it means to fight, to serve, and to face down mortal danger on a regular basis. Views: 1 077
To the delight of Mowat fans, the literary lion returns with an unexpected triumph.
Eastern Passage marks a return to the feisty Mowat of old. In it, he throws down the gauntlet and answers the doubters and naysayers who have dogged his writing life, breaking the stubborn silence he has kept since the notorious "Saturday Night" article that appeared over a decade ago. Here, too, he relates the story of a sail down the St. Lawrence that brought him face to face with one of Canada's more shocking secrets, one most of us still don't know today. Eastern Passage is the last piece of the Mowat puzzle: the years from his return from the north in the late 1940s to his discovery of Newfoundland and his love affair with the sea in the 1950s. In this time, he writes his first books and weathers his first storm of controversy as the northern establishment tries to deny the plight of the Barrenground Inuit by discrediting Farley and his first book, People of the Deer. This sets a trail that leads straight to the character assassination he suffers 40 years later in "Saturday Night."
By the 1950s, Farley's career is taking off but his first marriage is crumbling. He jumps at the chance to sail with his father down the St. Lawrence. As they approach the Saguenay River, they notice the paucity of sea life and alarming signs of disease in a beluga who swims beside their boat. From the locals, Farley hears the shocking story of the American B-50 bomber forced to ditch its Fat Boy bomb in the river a few years before. The resulting megaton explosion killed almost all riparian life in the area. It took 30 years for the area to recover.
This horror forges the final tempering of Mowat the activist. By the end of the book, Farley Mowat, the writer and outraged activist we know so well, has emerged complete.
As Farley ages, his courage continues to grow. This is an amazing book, funny, astute, and moving. "From the Hardcover edition." Views: 1 076
It was 1994 when Xinran, a journalist and the internationally acclaimed author of The Good Women of China, received a telephone call asking her to travel four hours to meet a woman who had just crossed the border from Tibet into China.
Xinran made the trip and met the woman, called Shu Wen, who recounted the story of her thirty-year odyssey in the vast landscape of Tibet. In Sky Burial, Xinran has re-created Shu Wen’s journey, painting an extraordinary portrait of a woman and a land, each at the mercy of fate and politics. It is an unforgettable, ultimately uplifting tale of love, loss, loyalty, and survival.
From the Trade Paperback edition. Views: 1 073
The sequel to The Lady Elizabeth
Their affair is the scandal of Europe. From the time of her accession in 1558, the young Elizabeth I – already reinventing herself as the Virgin Queen – and her dashing but married Master of Horse, Lord Robert Dudley, cast caution to the winds in pursuing their passion for each other. Many believe them to be lovers in the fullest sense, and Elizabeth soon becomes aware of rumours that she is no virgin at all, and that she has secretly borne Lord Robert children.
The young Queen is regarded by most of Christendom as a bastard, a heretic and a usurper, yet many princes seek her hand in marriage. Knowing her hold on her throne to be desperately insecure, Elizabeth encourages them in order to keep them friendly towards England. And thus she plays what becomes known as ‘the marriage game’, appearing seriously to entertain these suitors while holding them off indefinitely. The truth is that she has no inclination to marry, bear children or render herself subservient to any man. The prospect of marriage is anathema to her, and she has deep and compelling psychological reasons for wishing to avoid it. It is the game of love that is the breath of life to her - the thrill of the chase, the lure of forbidden fruit. She plays this dangerous, tantalising game with Lord Robert Dudley – but it is a game, she realises - almost too late, that could ultimately cost her the throne.
For Robert is the son and grandson of traitors, and his growing intimacy with Elizabeth makes him deeply unpopular: he is distrusted by her more sober ministers – notably William Cecil - and resented by her courtiers, who think him inordinately ambitious, unscrupulous – and worse.
The notorious affair between Dudley and the Queen quickly gives rise to rampant speculation throughout Christendom that she is determined to marry him, and even that they are plotting the murder of Robert's sick wife, Amy. There is universal shock when Amy is found dead, lying at the foot of a staircase with her neck broken.
In telling the captivating, tempestuous, often hilarious and ultimately poignant story of this most extraordinary love affair, and the political intrigues and marriage negotiations that surrounded it, I have delved into the various mysteries that encompass Elizabeth’s relationship with Dudley.
Did they or didn`t they? Rivers of ink have been spilt in determining the answer to this question, and as a historian I have my own strong views about it – not necessarily those that prevail in The Lady Elizabeth! In The Marriage Game, Elizabeth has reinvented herself as the Virgin Queen, but Robert Dudley is determined to overcome her fears of intimacy and become her lover, if not her husband. The other crucial issue is, of course, the fate of Amy Robsart, and this novel offers a dramatised version of my own theory.
It is a book packed with all the colour and splendour of the Tudor court – and a story played out amidst the most famous events of the Elizabethan age, culminating with the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots and the defeat of the Spanish Armada. It is a poignant tale of love and loss, focusing on the highs and lows of Elizabeth`s long affair with Dudley and the dynamics that enabled it to last for so long. A wealth of source material has enabled me to bring Elizabeth, that feisty, formidable, witty and mercurial woman, to life – and to get inside her head and relive this most extraordinary and controversial of royal love affairs. Views: 1 069
Bosque Mar, the source of dark magic in Andrea Cremer's New York Times bestselling Nightshade series, enters our world for the first time in Rift. This short story chronicles what happens when he--and his wraiths--arrive in the village of Dorusduain, a village that disappears in Rift. Views: 1 069
Robert E. Howard is one of the most famous and influential pulp authors of the twentieth century. Though largely known as the man who invented the sword-and-sorcery genre-and for his iconic hero Conan the Cimmerian-Howard also wrote horror tales, desert adventures, detective yarns, epic poetry, and more. This spectacular volume, gorgeously illustrated by Jim and Ruth Keegan, includes some of his best and most popular works.
Inside, readers will discover (or rediscover) such gems as "The Shadow Kingdom," featuring Kull of Atlantis and considered by many to be the first sword-and-sorcery story; "The Fightin'est Pair," part of one of Howard's most successful series, chronicling the travails of Steve Costigan, a merchant seaman with fists of steel and a head of wood; "The Grey God Passes," a haunting tale about the passing of an age, told against the backdrop of Irish history and legend; "Worms of the Earth," a brooding narrative featuring Bran Mak Morn, about which H. P. Lovecraft said, "Few readers will ever forget the hideous and compelling power of [this] macabre masterpiece"; a historical poem relating a momentous battle between Cimbri and the legions of Rome; and "Sharp's Gun Serenade," one of the last and funniest of the Breckinridge Elkins tales.
These thrilling, eerie, compelling, swashbuckling stories and poems have been restored to their original form, presented just as the author intended. There is little doubt that after more than seven decades the voice of Robert E. Howard continues to resonate with readers around the world. Views: 1 066
This first published work lays bare the early brilliance and philosophical conflicts of Andr� Gide, a towering figure in French literature Nobel Prize-winning writer Andr� Gide lays bare his adolescent psyche in this early work, first conceived and published as part of his novel The Notebooks of Andr� Walter, completed when he was just twenty years old. This profoundly personal work draws heavily on his religious upbringing and private journals to tell the story of a young man who, like the author, pines for his forbidden love, cousin Emmanuelle. This unique portrait of Gide as a young man presents the passions and conflicts, temptations and anguish he would explore in maturity. Views: 1 063
Soren's sister, Eglantine, is falling under the spell of a strange nightly dream. Then, just as Soren notices her trancelike state, Eglantine disappears, and the dreams become a deadly waking nightmare that puts the Great Tree of Ga'Hoole in terrible danger. Soren must lead the Chaw of Chaws to rescue his sister. Thus begins the next battle between the owls of Ga'Hoole and the evil Pure Ones, deep in the treacherous territory known as The Beaks, where a raging forest fire will prove the greatest danger to the rescuers-and their best hope for victory. Views: 1 058
The third book in Robert Kirkman's New York Times bestselling series:* The Walking Dead: The Fall of the Governor – Part One!
The Walking Dead original novel series, set in the universe of Robert Kirkman's iconic comic book, continues with The Fall of the Governor – Part One. From co-authors Kirkman, creator of the Eisner Award-winning comic as well as executive producer of AMC's blockbuster TV series, and Jay Bonansinga, Stoker Award-finalist and internationally acclaimed author, comes the gripping third novel in this richly woven, page-turning literary saga, which began with The Walking Dead: Rise of the Governor*.
In Rise of the Governor, uber-villain Philip Blake journeyed from his humble beginnings directly into the dark heart of the zombie apocalypse, and became the self-proclaimed leader of a small town called Woodbury. In The Road to Woodbury, an innocent traveler named Lilly Caul wound up in the terrifying thrall of Phillip Blake’s twisted, violent dictatorship within Woodbury’s ever tightening barricades.
And now, in The Fall of the Governor – Part One, the Governor’s descent into madness finally erupts in a tour de force of action and horror. Beloved characters from the comic book, including Rick, Michonne and Glenn, finally make their entrance onto this nightmarish stage, and fans of The Walking Dead will see these characters in a whole new light. Simmering grudges boil over into unthinkable confrontations, battle lines are drawn, and unexpected twists seal the fates of the innocent and guilty alike. Views: 1 057
"Leo Africanus is a beautiful book of tales about people who are forced to accept choices made for them by someone else...It relates, petically at times and often imaginatively, the story of those who did not make it to the New World."--New York Times Book Review Views: 1 049
More than four hundred years ago, seven people - five of them women - were beheaded in the Tower of London. Three had been queens of England. The others were found guilty of treason. Why were such important people put to death?
Alison Weir's gripping book tells their stories: from the former friend betrayed by a man set on being king, to the young girl killed after just nine days on the throne. Through her vivid writing, Alison Weir brings history alive. Views: 1 048
Edited by Joseph O'Connor (author of Star of the Sea and Ghost Light) New Irish Short Stories is a stunning collection from a fascinating variety of writers, both new and established. Featuring, among many others, William Trevor and Roddy Doyle, Rebecca Miller and Richard Ford, Christine Dwyer Hickey and Colm Toibin, it shows the short story to be a vibrant, thriving form and one that should continue to be celebrated and encouraged.
This collection follows the two acclaimed editions David Marcus edited for Faber in 2004-5 and 2006-7. Views: 1 048
