Anita Desai's new book, hailed as "unsparing, yet tender and funny,"brilliantly confirms her place among today's foremost Indian writers. FASTING, FEASTING takes on Desai's greatest theme: the intricate, delicate web of family conflict. It tells the moving story of Uma, the plain older daughter of an Indian family, tied to the household of her childhood and tending to her parents' every extravagant demand, and of her younger brother, Arun, across the world in Massachusetts, bewildered by his new life in college and the suburbs, where he lives with the Patton family. Published in Britain to rave reviews, FASTING, FEASTING is "rich in the sensuous atmosphere, elegiac pathos, and bleak comedy at which the author excels" (The Spectator). From the overpowering warmth of Indian culture to the cool center of the American family, it captures the physical — and emotional — fasting and feasting that define two distinct cultures.(Times Literary Supplement) Views: 5
They have one summer to find what was lost long ago."Never settle for less than the truth," she told him. But when you don't even know your real name, the truth gets a little complicated. It can nestle so close to home it's hard to see. It can even flourish inside a lie. And as Chase Walker discovered, learning the truth about who you are can be as elusive––and as magical––as chasing fireflies on a summer night. A haunting story about fishing, baseball, home cooking, and other matters of life and death. Views: 5
It's a hot day in Virginia during the Great Depression, when a bus breaks down on a lonely backwoods road. The passengers are told the repairs will take till tomorrow, so... What will they do tonight? Good fortune strikes! Just down the road, there's a carnival! The passengers exit the bus: a pregnant British tart, three low-life fishermen on their way back to Florida, and various other disheartened souls hoping to find greener pastures elsewhere. But the last man off is a writer and sightseer from Rhode Island, a man named Howard Phillips Lovecraft... O'SLAUGHNASSEY'S TRAVELLING SHOW! RIDES! CONCESSIONS! ODDITIES OF NATURE! COME ONE, COME ALL!A carnival sounds like the perfect cure to a boring night, and Howard embarks with vigor. A genuine mermaid! A living cadaver! A man with three eyes! Why, there's even a girl with hands for feet! Howard knows that such "spectacles" are all too often frauds, but...what's he got better to do? What Howard doesn't realize is this: the carnival's frolicky fun will quickly degrade into a waking nightmare of unspeakable carnal depravity and sick-in-the-head violence beyond anything he could ever conceive. And when he finally flees the wretched scene... Something awaits him a thousand times worse. Views: 5
It was the 1950s, a time of calm, a time when all things were new and everything seemed possible. A few years before, a noble war had been won, and now life had returned to normal. For one little boy, however, life had become anything but "normal." To all appearances, he and his family lived an almost idyllic life. The father was a respected professor, the mother a witty and elegant lady, someone everyone loved. They were parents to three bright, smiling children: two boys and a girl. They lived on a sunny street in a small college town nestled neatly in a leafy valley. They gave parties, hosted picnics, went to church—just like their neighbors. To all appearances, their life seemed ideal. But it was, in fact, all appearances. Lineage, tradition, making the right impression—these were matters of great importance, especially to the mother. But behind the facade this family had created lurked secrets so dark, so painful for this one... Views: 5
God let Rachel Westing down. For twenty-six years she’s done everything by the book; she figures He should have her back. But then she learns her fiancé is cheating on her. Her parents are getting a divorce. And her Christian mentor has a pill addiction. Where is God in all this? Nowhere, as far as Rachel can see. Wounded, bitter, and with a shattered faith, she quits her job and goes across the country to live with Daphne—her childhood best friend whose soul Rachel once thought she was meant to save.Confident, successful, fun-loving Daphne sets about helping Rachel reinvent herself, and for a while it’s exciting. But when another tragedy shakes Rachel to the core, what little bit of self-possession she has left begins to unravel. A true-to-life story that will draw you in and keep you biting your nails until the end.About the AuthorAlison Strobel, whose father, award-winning author Lee Strobel, instilled her with a love of stories at a young age, lives in Colorado with her husband and two daughters. Alison writes women’s fiction (Worlds Collide, Violette Between) and authors a blog. Views: 5
Review“The Miss Marple of Botswana.” –_The New York Times Book Review “Smart and sassy . . . Precious’ progress is charted in passages that have the power to amuse or shock or touch the heart, sometimes all at once.” –Los Angeles Times_ “I haven’t read anything with such unalloyed pleasure for a long time.” –Anthony Daniels, The Sunday TelegraphProduct DescriptionPrecious Ramotswe is the eminently sensible and cunning proprietor of the only ladies’ detective agency in Botswana. In Tears of the Giraffe she tracks a wayward wife, uncovers an unscrupulous maid, and searches for an American man who disappeared into the plains many years ago. In the midst of resolving uncertainties, pondering her impending marriage to a good, kind man, Mr. J. L. B. Matekoni, and the promotion of her talented secretary (a graduate of the Botswana Secretarial College, with a mark of 97 per cent), she also finds her family suddenly and unexpectedly increased by two. Views: 5
Shawn "Enzo" Banks and Bianca "Angel" Smith are back with a plan enveloped in vengeance. After dealing with Micah Tems, a man who was bent on turning Enzo into a monster, both Angel and Enzo were forcefully thrust into the seedy corrupt world of the streets again, effectively falling into Micah's plan. With time ticking away and Enzo's desire to keep his career and family intact, he will fall into darkness and embrace what he fought so hard not to be: the son of the Devil. Can Angel keep him from turning into the very thing she ran from? Can Shawn's family keep both Angel and Enzo safe while going head to head with Micah? When fame, money, and status are what they need to survive, just how far will they go to keep hell in their rear view? Step back into the world of the Hood Misfits, because in war, sometimes blood is all that can save you. Welcome to the endgame. Views: 5
From USA Today bestselling author Camilla Chafer...When her fiancé is shot in an apparent assassination attempt, private investigator Lexi Graves' world is thrown into chaos and turmoil. With the list of suspects growing by the minute, and the hit man still on the loose, there's no way Lexi can sit idly by Solomon's bedside and hope he survives when she could be out hunting for the person or persons responsible.After taking charge of Solomon's private detective agency, Lexi enlists the help of her friends and family in her effort to bring the perpetrator to justice. Investigating, however, will lead Lexi into some areas of Solomon's life that he purposefully left behind and unveil some startling revelations about the man she loves. With the situation becoming increasingly dangerous, Lexi has no choice but to unravel his past and ask a surprising source for help in her quest to discover why Solomon was targeted. Yet with her successive questions come some shocking answers and a... Views: 5
They have the power to hold you spellbound, to captivate your senses, and to keep you forever in their control. Forever enthralled… #1 New York Times bestselling author Lora Leigh returns to her sensual world of the Breeds… as one stubborn Breed meets her match, and can no longer deny her mate—or the fierce desires of her own heart. New York Times bestselling author Alyssa Day introduces the League of the Black Swan… and the dangerous game one woman plays when her family's curse dooms her to kill the man she loves. New York Times bestselling author Meljean Brook delivers a new story in her steampunk world of the Iron Seas… as a man who's lost everything returns home to find that not only is his marriage in jeopardy, but he must now fight air pirates who intend to steal his one remaining treasure—his wife. And Lucy Monroe, national bestselling author of the Children of the Moon novels… unleashes the feral passions of a werewolf on the body, mind, and soul of his prey, his lover, his lifemate. Views: 5
In a return to the British setting of his much loved novel All Souls, Javier Marias embarks on a remarkable 'novel in parts', set in the murky world of surveillance and espionage. Fever and Spear is the first volume. In it Marias begins to weave a web of intrigue, both narrative and intellectual, that will entice the reader to follow him into the labyrinth of the novel's future books. Recently divorced, Jacques Deza moves from Madrid to London in order to distance himself from his ex-wife and children. There he picks up old friendships from his Oxford University days, particularly Sir Peter Wheeler, retired don and semi-retired spy. It is at an Oxford party of Wheeler's that Jacques is approached by the enigmatic Bertram Tupra. Tupra believes that Jacques has a talent: he is one of those people who sees more clearly than others, who can guess from someone's face today what they will become tomorrow. His services would be of use to a mysterious group whose aims are unstated but whose day-to-day activities involve the careful observation of people's character and the prediction of their future behaviour. The 'group' may be part of MI6, though Jacques will find no reference to it in any book; he will be called up to report on all types of people from politicians and celebrities, to ordinary citizens applying for bank loans. As Deza is drawn deeper into this twilight world of observation, Marias shows how trust and betrayal characterise all human relationships. How do we read people, and how far can the stories they tell about themselves be trusted when, by its very nature, all language betrays? Moving from the intimacy of Jacques' marriage to the deadly betrayals of the Spanish Civil War, Your Face Tomorrow is an extraordinary meditation on our ability to know our fellow human beings, and to save ourselves from fever and pain. Views: 5
