Everything is going pretty well for Dave Raymond. He's 31, but he still feels young. He's playing guitar with the Wishbones, a New Jersey wedding band, and while it isn't exactly the Big Time, it is music. He has a roof over his head...well, it's his parents' roof, but they don't hassle him much. Life isn't perfect, but it isn't bad. Not bad at all. But then he has to blow it all by proposing to his girlfriend. Views: 875
Imagine that there are American MIAs who chose to remain missing after the Vietnam War.
Imagine that there is a family in which four generations of strong, alluring women have shared amysterious connection to an outlandish figure from Japanese folklore.
Imagine just those things (don't even try to imagine the love story) and you'll have a foretaste of TomRobbins's eighth and perhaps most beautifully crafted novel--a work as timeless as myth yet as topical as the latest international threat.
On one level, this is a book about identity, masquerade and disguise--about "the false mustache of the world"--but neither the mists of Laos nor the smog of Bangkok, neither the overcast of Seattle nor the fog of San Francisco, neither the murk ofthe intelligence community nor the mummery of the circus can obscure the linguistic phosphor that illuminates the pages of Villa Incognito.
A female fan once wrote to Tom Robbins:
"Your books make me think, they make me laugh, they make me horny and they make me aware of the wonder of everything in life."
Villa Incognito willsurely arouse a similar response in many readers, for in its lusty, amusing way it both celebrates existence and challenges our ideas about it.
To say much more about a novel as fresh and surprising asVilla Incognito would run the risk of diluting the sheer fun of reading it. As his dedicated readers worldwide know full well, it's best to climb aboard the Tom Robbins tilt-a-whirl, kisspreconceptions and sacred cows goodbye and simply enjoy the ride. "From the Hardcover edition." Views: 875
Ned Kelly would never have imagined shrinking his size in order to escape the dreary hospital bed where he’s recovering from appendicitis. But, that’s exactly what Apis, his new friend (who happens to be a bee), helps him do with the aid of a special gold liquid. At apian size, Ned flies off with Apis and Nancy Clancy (who speaks only in rhyme) to try life in the hive. Although he questions some of their practices, like disposing of old drones who can’t work anymore, Ned soon makes friends with the bees, including Romeo, a drone lovesick for the Queen, Basil, a drone-rights activist, and even the haughty Queen herself. Views: 875
Eugene is remembering the summer of 1938 in Frenchtown, a time when he began to wonder "what I was doing here on the planet Earth." Here in vibrant, exquisite detail are his lovely mother, his aunts and uncles, cousins and friends, and especially his beloved, enigmatic father. Here, too, is the world of a mill town: the boys swimming in a brook that is red or purple or green, depending on the dyes dumped that day by the comb shop; the visit of the ice man; and the boys' trips to the cemetery or the forbidden railroad tracks. And here also is a darker world-the mystery of a girl murdered years before. Robert Cormier's touching, funny, melancholy chronicle of a vanished world celebrates a son’s connection to his father and human relationships that are timeless. "From the Paperback edition." Views: 875
“Now you young twerps want a new name for your generation? Probably not, you just want jobs, right? Well, the media do us all such tremendous favors when they call you Generation X, right? Two clicks from the very end of the alphabet. I hereby declare you Generation A, as much at the beginning of a series of astonishing triumphs and failures as Adam and Eve were so long ago.â€
— Kurt Vonnegut, Syracuse University commencement address May 8, 1994
A brilliant, timely and very Couplandesque novel about honey bees and the world we may soon live in. Once again, Douglas Coupland captures the spirit of a generation….
In the near future bees are extinct — until one autumn when five people are stung in different places around the world. This shared experience unites them in a way they never could have imagined.
Generation A mirrors 1991’s Generation X. It explores new ways of looking at the act of reading and storytelling in a digital world. Views: 875
Like his novel, Snow Falling On Cedars, for which he received the PEN/Faulkner Award, Guterson's beautifully observed and emotionally piercing short stories are set largely in the Pacific Northwest. In these vast landscapes, hunting, fishing, and sports are the givens of men's lives. With prose that stings like the scent of gunpowder, this is a collection of power.
From the Trade Paperback edition. Views: 875
Twelve-year-old September lives in Omaha, and used to have an ordinary life, until her father went to war and her mother went to work. One day, September is met at her kitchen window by a Green Wind (taking the form of a gentleman in a green jacket), who invites her on an adventure, implying that her help is needed in Fairyland. The new Marquess is unpredictable and fickle, and also not much older than September. Only September can retrieve a talisman the Marquess wants from the enchanted woods, and if she doesn’t . . . then the Marquess will make life impossible for the inhabitants of Fairyland. September is already making new friends, including a book-loving Wyvern and a mysterious boy named Saturday.
With exquisite illustrations by acclaimed artist Ana Juan, Fairyland lives up to the sensation it created when the author first posted it online. For readers of all ages who love the charm of Alice in Wonderland and the soul of The Golden Compass, here is a reading experience unto itself: unforgettable, and so very beautiful. Views: 874
A dark, quasi-detective novel, Cosmos follows the classic noir motif to explore the arbitrariness of language, the joke of human freedom, and man’s attempt to bring order out of chaos in his psychological life.
Published in 1965, Cosmos is the last novel by Witold Gombrowicz (1904–1969) and his most somber and multifaceted work. Two young men meet by chance in a Polish resort town in the Carpathian Mountains. Intending to spend their vacation relaxing, they find a secluded family-run pension. But the two become embroiled first in a macabre event on the way to the pension, then in the peculiar activities and psychological travails of the family running it. Gombrowicz offers no solution to their predicament.
Cosmos is translated here for the first time directly from the Polish by Danuta Borchardt, translator of Ferdydurke. Views: 874
Attorney Michael O’Meara’s dogged belief that Lee Roy Sears was innocent of murder has paid off. The lawyer has not only gotten the convicted inmate released from death row at Connecticut State Prison, but also procured an artist’s residency in Mount Orion, New Jersey, for the rehabilitated Vietnam vet upon his parole.
Sears is adapting nicely. He’s selling his sculptures. He’s eating well. He has ingratiated himself into Michael’s home; is eternally grateful for Michael’s benevolent motives, however mysterious their origin; and is thriving on the town’s liberal patronage and attention—especially that of Michael’s adulterous wife, Gina.
But as Michael’s picture-perfect family begins to show signs of cracking, his suspicions about Sears become violent obsessions. Now, the dreams and secrets of two men are about to collide in a nightmare. And before long, the lines between guilt and innocence, lies and truth, trust and betrayal are bound to go up in flames.
Snake Eyes is in an astute and suspenseful story by the National Book Award–winning author of them, We Were the Mulvaneys, The Gravedigger’s Daughter, and many other acclaimed novels.
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Beneath the kitchen floor is the world of the Borrowers -- Pod and Homily Clock and their daughter, Arrietty. In their tiny home, matchboxes double as roomy dressers and postage stamps hang on the walls like paintings. Whatever the Clocks need they simply "borrow" from the "human beans" who live above them. It's a comfortable life, but boring if you're a kid. Only Pod is allowed to venture into the house above, because the danger of being seen by a human is too great. Borrowers who are seen by humans are never seen again. Yet Arrietty won't listen. There is a human boy up there, and Arrietty is desperate for a friend. Views: 873
Portia Kane is having a meltdown. After escaping her ritzy Florida life and her cheating pornographer husband, she finds herself transported back to South Jersey, where things remain largely unchanged from her unhappy childhood. In need of saving herself, she sets out to find and resurrect a beloved high school English teacher who has retired after a horrific scandal. Will a sassy nun, an ex-heroin addict, a metal-head little boy, and her hoarder mother help or hurt Portia's chances in this bid for renewed hope in the human race? This is a story of the great highs and lows of existence: the heartache and daring choices it takes to become the person you know (deep down) you are meant to be. Views: 873
After nine years of separation from his native country because of the First World War, Louis finally sets foot in Austria and meets the woman he had been in love with. Previously divided by class and wealth, both are now married, and they must find out whether their love could survive the hardships, betrayals and the lapse of time. Views: 873
This collection of literature attempts to compile many of the classic works that have stood the test of time and offer them at a reduced, affordable price, in an attractive volume so that everyone can enjoy them. Views: 873
As World War I comes to a close, George Boswell looks back on how his fate was inextricably tied to that of his sleepy English hometown As a young man, George Boswell knew he had greater prospects ahead than those offered by his native mill town in the north of England. A respected lawyer and civic leader, he possessed the skill and charisma to shine on the national stage. But ambition is not without a cost. When Boswell must choose between the promise of a bright future or staying behind for the people who have come to depend on him, his decision comes at a shocking price. "So Well Remembered" is a story of a people pulled reluctantly toward modernity amid the farms and factories of Lancashire, and a celebration of the steadfast character of the common English village. Views: 873
