Not too far from now, in a world very like our own, the oppressors have changed places with the oppressed. After their defeat in the Yellow War, the white people of America are thrust into a brutally altered reality. They are hunted like wild beasts and drive like cattle, transported in reeking ships and sold to their conquerors as field hands and house slaves. Robbed of their old names and their old language, treated with a mixture of cruelty and condescension by their Chinese masters, whites take on new identities and new strategies of survival. Some, like Nose, plunge into dissipation. Others, like Top Man, become imitation Yellows. And some, like White Lotus, rebel. In this mesmerizing book John Hersey creates an alternate history that casts a harsh radiance on our own. It has some of the stateliness of Exodus, along with the power of oral narratives of slavery. It has heroes and victims—and villains who turn out to be victims of another color. At once a... Views: 609
Calla has always welcomed war.
But now that the final battle is upon her, there's more at stake than fighting. There's saving Ren, even if it incurs Shay's wrath. There's keeping Ansel safe, even if he's been branded a traitor. There's proving herself as the pack's alpha, facing unnamable horrors, and ridding the world of the Keepers' magic once and for all. And then there's deciding what to do when the war ends. If Calla makes it out alive, that is. In this remarkable final installment of the Nightshade trilogy, international bestselling author Andrea Cremer crafts a dynamic novel with twists and turns that will keep you breathless until its final pages. Views: 609
Love can drive you crazy... in more ways than one! When Abby met Simon, a drink in the uni bar lead to keeping in touch, late-night phone calls and intimate catch-ups. It was the start of something special, a love Abby believed would last a lifetime. A wedding, two daughters and fifteen years later, Abby's world is falling apart. Having discovered Simon has had an affair, her normally ordered mind is spiralling out of control. Crushed by the betrayal and shocked by her own reaction, she knows she needs to get herself together; she's just not sure where to start. With Simon on a mission to win her back and a close friend hiding a secret that could push her further over the edge, Abby finds strength and support where she least expects it. But as she attempts to gain control of her life and make decisions about her future, it may be more than the limits of Abby's mind that are put to the test! Crazy Over You is a refreshingly honest portrayal of a woman's reaction to her husband's infidelity while also being a touching story of friendship and love. It is a novel for all those who have experienced a break-up and know that living happily ever after is not quite as simple as meeting your man! ** Views: 608
A foundling baby is washed ashore in a lonely Cornish cove, and as he grows up his fate is strangely linked to the sea. When he meets a young woman who is escaping her past, he longs to pledge his heart to her... without realising that his heart was lost beneath the jealous waves, long ago.Arabella tries to escape the entanglements of love, and flees to the countryside to find her sense of self. But she soon meets a handsome young Cornishman whose mysterious history draws her in against her will. He was a foundling baby, washed ashore in a lonely cove, and she comes to realise that his fate is strangely linked to the sea. But as she prepares to risk her heart one more time, she little realises that his heart was longsince lost beneath the jealous waves. Views: 608
"Hold on, there!" came a sharp challenge from the stairs behind and below me. "What are you doing? And what's that picture doing?" It was one of the Museum's guards. "I was going to ask somebody that same question," I told him as austerely as I could manage. "What about this picture? I thought there was a Böcklin hanging here." The guard relaxed. "Oh, I beg your pardon, sir. I thought you were somebody else--the man who brought that thing." He nodded at the picture. "Personally, I think it's plain beastly." "And the Museum has accepted it at last?" I asked. He shook his head. "Oh, no, sir." I, too, came close. There was no plate beneath the painting. But in the lower left-hand corner of the canvas were sprawling capitals, pale paint on the dark, spelling out the word GOLGOTHA. Beneath these, in small, barely readable script: I sold my soul that I might paint a living picture. Views: 607
In this gripping portrait of war and its aftermath from bestselling author Lynn Austin, a young woman searches for the truth her childhood friend won't discuss after returning from World War II, revealing a story of courage, friendship, and faith.Peggy Serrano couldn't wait for her best friend to come home from the war. But the Jimmy Barnett who returns is much different from the Jimmy who left, changed so drastically by his experience as a medic in Europe that he can barely function. When he attempts the unthinkable, his parents check him into the VA hospital. Peggy determines to help the Barnetts unravel what might have happened to send their son over the edge. She starts by contacting Jimmy's war buddies, trying to identify the mysterious woman in the photo they find in Jimmy's belongings.Seven years earlier, sensing the rising tide against her people, Gisela Wolff and her family flee Germany aboard the passenger ship St. Louis, bound for Havana, Cuba.... Views: 606
Night fell. The red waters of the swamp grew sinister and sullen. The tall pines lost their slimness and stood in wide blurred blotches all across the way, and a great shadowy bird arose, wheeled and melted, murmuring, into the black-green sky. The boy wearily dropped his heavy bundle and stood still, listening as the voice of crickets split the shadows and made the silence audible. A tear wandered down his brown cheek. They were at supper now, he whispered—the father and old mother, away back yonder beyond the night. They were far away; they would never be as near as once they had been, for he had stepped into the world. And the cat and Old Billy—ah, but the world was a lonely thing, so wide and tall and empty! And so bare, so bitter bare! Somehow he had never dreamed of the world as lonely before; he had fared forth to beckoning hands and luring, and to the eager hum of human voices, as of some great, swelling music. Views: 606
A Canadian icon gives us his final book, a memoir of the events that shaped this beloved writer and activist.
Farley Mowat has been beguiling readers for fifty years now, creating a body of writing that has thrilled two generations, selling literally millions of copies in the process. In looking back over his accomplishments, we are reminded of his groundbreaking work: He single-handedly began the rehabilitation of the wolf with Never Cry Wolf. He was the first to bring advocacy activism on behalf of the Inuit and their northern lands with People of the Deer and The Desperate People. And his was the first populist voice raised in defense of the environment and of the creatures with whom we share our world, the ones he has always called The Others.
Otherwise is a memoir of the years between 1937 and the autumn of 1948 that tells the story of the events that forged the writer and activist. His was an innocent childhood, spent free of normal strictures, and largely in the company of an assortment of dogs, owls, squirrels, snakes, rabbits, and other wildlife. From this, he was catapulted into wartime service, as anxious as any other young man of his generation to get to Europe and the fighting. The carnage of the Italian campaign shattered his faith in humanity forever, and he returned home unable and unwilling to fit into post-war Canadian life. Desperate, he accepted a stint on a scientific collecting expedition to the Barrengrounds. There in the bleak but beautiful landscape he finds his purpose — first with the wolves and then with the indomitable but desperately starving Ihalmiut. Out of these experiences come his first pitched battles with an ignorant and uncaring federal bureaucracy as he tries to get aid for the famine-stricken Inuit. And out of these experiences, too, come his first books.
Otherwise goes to the heart of who and what Farley Mowat is, a wondrous final achievement from a true titan. Views: 605
In illuminating detail, Winchester, bestselling author of The Professor & the Madman ("Elegant & scrupulous"—NY Times Book Review) & Krakatoa ("A mesmerizing page-turner"—Time) tells the story of Joseph Needham, the Cambridge scientist who unlocked the most closely held secrets of China, long the world's most technologically advanced country.
No cloistered don, this tall, married Englishman was a freethinking intellectual. A nudist, he was devoted to quirky folk dancing. In 1937, while working as a biochemist at Cambridge, he fell in love with a visiting Chinese student, with whom he began a lifelong affair. His mistress persuaded him to travel to her home country, where he embarked on a series of expeditions to the frontiers of the ancient empire. He searched for evidence to bolster a conviction that the Chinese were responsible for hundreds of humankind's most familiar innovations—including printing, the compass, explosives, suspension bridges, even toilet paper—often centuries before others. His journeys took him across war-torn China, consolidating his admiration for the Chinese. After the war, he determined to announce what he'd discovered & began writing Science & Civilisation in China, describing the country's long history of invention & technology. By the time he died, he'd produced, almost single-handedly, 17 volumes, making him the greatest one-man encyclopedist ever.
Epic & intimate, The Man Who Loved China tells the sweeping story of China thru Needham's life. Here's a tale of what makes men, nations & humankind great—related by one of the world's best storytellers.
Prologue
The barbarian & the celestial
Bringing fuel in snowy weather
The discovering of China
The rewards of restlessness
The making of his masterpiece
Persona non grata: the certain fall from grace
The passage to the gate Views: 604
Ever find yourself in a dead-end with no future? Years after graduating from college with an art degree, Bugsy finds himself on a treadmill to nowhere and wonders how everything went wrong in the first place.Bugsy first appears in my short story "East Village" as a 16-year-old runaway living near Tompkins Square Park in 1967. Here we meet him again exactly one decade later and his circumstances have changed dramatically. If you don't set a course in life, you begin to drift, which has good and bad aspects. This story takes place in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, twin-cities dominated by the biggest university in Illinois. Many graduates hang around town for a few years after graduation trying to figure out a next move. Views: 603
The 2013-2014 Ebola epidemic was the deadliest ever—but the outbreaks continue. Now comes a gripping account of the doctors and scientists fighting to protect us, an urgent wake-up call about the future of emerging viruses—from the #1 bestselling author of The Hot Zone, soon to be a National Geographic original miniseries.In the taut and suspenseful Crisis in the Red Zone, Preston chronicles the recent Ebola epidemic of 2013-2014—the worst outbreak of hemorrhagic fever in history, where we saw for the first time the specter of Ebola jumping continents, crossing the ocean, and killing people in America. Rich in characters and conflict—physical, emotional, and ethical—Crisis in the Red Zone is a total immersion into one of the great medical calamities of our time.Preston writes of doctors and nurses in the field putting their own lives on the line, government bureaucrats and NGO administrators moving, often fitfully,... Views: 603
The conquistador Hernán Cortés is hell-bent on conquering Mexico for the Aztecs’ gold. Having destroyed the Maya at Potonchan, Cortés now marches on Tenochtitlan, the Golden City of the Aztecs, wrapped in the aura of a returning, vengeful god.
His small force of just five hundred men will have to defeat the psychotic emperor Moctezuma and the armies of hundreds of thousands he commands. Cortés expects that the warlike Tlascalans, hereditary enemies of the Aztecs, will join him, but instead finds himself locked in a deadly struggle and a fight for his life. Even as Cortés risks all in the bloody campaign against the Tlascalans, he plays mind games with Moctezuma, aiming to dismantle the Aztec emperor’s confidence and defeat him psychologically before ever having to face him on the battlefield.
The supernatural and compelling rich history combine in this tale of love, brutal courage and triumphs. War God: Return of the Plumed Serpent is a story of staggering magnificence.
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Revised VersionRosa Lee Almaida lived a sheltered and carefree life growing up until she and her mother experienced a horrific ordeal on the seas and in the middle of Africa when she was four years old. The only joy came after she met her adoptive father, a man honored by all sailors on sea and land for his bravery and unconditional love.Growing up sheltered, Rosa Lee Almaida lived a carefree life after both she and her mother experienced a horrific ordeal on the seas, and in the middle of Africa, when she was only four years. Meeting her adoptive father was the only joyful and good experience as a result thereof; the man honored by all sailors on land and sea for his bravery and unconditional love. He was her hero, and a model for her future husband-to-be. Now, twenty years later, she is forced to return to the seas that claimed the lives of many, including her birth father.Abducted from her parents’ castle in Portugal, Rosa Lee became the Falcon’s ransom―a brutal pirate king on the island of Madagascar―in exchange for her younger brother Pedro’s life. It was here she met the Falcon’s son, Roberto de Ville, a man equally fierce, albeit with a hidden agenda. Reliving her past during the voyage, she found herself admiring the pirate for his leadership and skills, but would she be able to look past his exterior to see the man for who he really was? Through the inscriptions her parents left in their diaries, she made a choice to save her life. But in an unexpected turn of events, she had to trust him unconditionally, believing that her life would be spared when she gave herself over to the love and intimacy for the man she craved.Taking Rosa Lee from Portugal, Roberto takes her to the Falcon on the Isle of St. Mary. From stories recounted by her brother, he came to one conclusion; she would be his. Throughout their time together, he came to admire Rosa Lee for her bravery during a daring escape, which reinforced his belief that she was the woman he’d waited for all his life. Roberto was more than willing to set his life as a pirate aside, but first a plan had to be set in motion―one that would change his live forever. However, he could trust only one man, Pierre, his second in command, to assist him in seeing his plan to the end.Ultimately, the end result shocked Rosa Lee, and an important lesson was learned: Never judge a book by its cover.Author’s note: A Pirate’s Wife contains love scenes and foul language, due to its portrayal of both real events and people. Parental guidance of 16 is advised. Views: 603
