When King Eggnog rashly offers the hand of his daughter Princess Miranda in marriage, Sir Bigwart sets out on a daring quest with his faithful squire Toby in tow. The quest is to bring back a tooth of the Ogre of Ghastly Fell, a fearsome, flesh-eating giant whose breath is so bad it can knock you at a hundred paces and whose two heads are constantly squabbling with each other.Sir Bigwart's real talent is for empty boasting so he's going to need a lot of help from his resourceful squire on the way - which is a little awkward since Toby is secretly in love with Princess Miranda himself. To make matters more complicated, Miranda is bored of embroidering her dad's coat of arms on cushions - she's coming along for the ride and anyone who tries giving her orders had better watch out. Views: 42
Thomas Pichon seems forever at a crossroads, often choosing the path of least resistance, or the most tempting. In this, the third Thomas Pichon novel, his life remains more complicated than he wishes. He encounters highwaymen on a country road, succumbs to a tempting tryst in the spa town of Bath, squanders a new love in London and longs for the higher social station he once enjoyed. Returning to Paris, Thomas's work life initially stalls, but a new lover offers help. He is given the best position he has ever had, one that requires him to go overseas. The crossing is a voyage neither he nor anyone aboard will soon forget. Views: 42
Lillian Hellman was a giant of twentieth-century letters and a groundbreaking figure as one of the most successful female playwrights on Broadway. Yet the author of The Little Foxes and Toys in the Attic is today remembered more as a toxic, bitter survivor and literary fabulist, the woman of whom Mary McCarthy said, "Every word she writes is a lie, including 'and' and 'the.'" In A Difficult Woman, renowned historian Alice Kessler-Harris undertakes a feat few would dare to attempt: a reclamation of a combative, controversial woman who straddled so many political and cultural fault lines of her time.Kessler-Harris renders Hellman's feisty wit and personality in all of its contradictions: as a non-Jewish Jew, a displaced Southerner, a passionate political voice without a party, an artist immersed in commerce, a sexually free woman who scorned much of the women's movement, a loyal friend whose trust was often betrayed, and a writer of memoirs who repeatedly... Views: 42
Charlotte is cleaning out the basement of Bedford Community Church when she comes across a tattered and yellow newspaper article. The clipping, published more than a century ago, implicates her great-great-grandfather in the loss of funds intended to help finish building the church. Charlotte has heard stories about the incident through the years, but now it seems the past has come back to haunt her. Is it just her imagination or are people treating her differently now that they think she's descended from a crook? Will Charlotte be able to clear the family name once and for all? Views: 42
Operation Detachment, the invasion of Iwo Jima, on 19 February 1945 was the first campaign on Japanese soil and it resulted in some of the fiercest fighting of the Pacific campaign. United States Marines supported by the US Navy and Air Force fought the Japanese both over and underground on the island of volcanic ash, in a battle which was immortalised by the raising of the Stars and Stripes above Mount Suribachi. It was a battle that the Japanese could not win but they were determined to die trying; of the 18,000-strong garrison, only 200 were taken prisoner. The Americans lost more in the 35 day battle but at the end they had possession of three airfields in range of the Japanese mainland. This book gives a clear, concise account of those dramatic days in 1945, supported by a timeline of events and orders of battle. Over fifty photographs illustrate the events during this momentous battle. Views: 42
Joe Gunther and the VBI team are investigating a murder and an arson case—both potentially related to an outbreak of ebola.When the dead body of a young woman is found near a trail at one of Vermont's popular ski mountains, the case falls to Joe Gunther and his team at the Vermont Bureau of Investigation (VBI). They quickly have a suspect, who confesses, but the whole squad isn't convinced—the evidence is thin at best. At the same time, a local firm is being targeted with acts of sabotage—a warehouse fire, a vandalized truck, a massive cooling system destroyed—resulting in loss of life. Mick Durocher, the same man who confessed to the murder of the young woman, was briefly an employee at the company being targeted.These two puzzling cases—possibly connected—are complicated by the sidelining of one of the key members of VBI, Willy Kunkle, who undergoes surgery at a hospital which appears to be having an outbreak of... Views: 42
