Fiction. WATT was the beginning of Samuel Becket's post-war literary career, the fruition of the years in hiding in the Vaucluse mountains from the Gestapo, which also largely inspired WAITING FOR GODOT. But it remains, unlike the work that followed it, extremely Irish, a philosophical novel full of the grim humour that was already his trade-mark in such earlier fictions as MORE PRICKS THAN KICKS and MURPHY. The perambulations of WATT, especially in the home of the eccentric Mr. Knott, and the sketching of logic to elicit meaning, must be among the most comic inventions of modern literature. First published by the libertine Olympia Press in 1953 it has established itself as one of the most quoted and best-loved of Becket's novels. The typographical oddities and omissions are as Beckett left the text. Views: 701
**Douglas Coupland's gloriously filthy, side-splittingly funny and unforgettable new novel, his first full-length work of fiction in four years.
Worst. Person. Ever. is a deeply unworthy book about a dreadful human being with absolutely no redeeming social value. Raymond Gunt, in the words of the author, "is a living, walking, talking, hot steaming pile of pure id." He's a B-unit cameraman who enters an amusing downward failure spiral that takes him from London to Los Angeles and then on to an obscure island in the Pacific where a major American TV network is shooting a Survivor-style reality show. Along the way, Gunt suffers multiple comas and unjust imprisonment, is forced to reenact the "Angry Dance" from the movie Billy Elliot and finds himself at the centre of a nuclear war. We also meet Raymond's upwardly failing sidekick, Neal, as well as Raymond's ex-wife, Fiona, herself "an atomic bomb of pain."
Even though he really puts the "anti" in anti-hero, you may find Raymond Gunt an oddly likeable character. Views: 701
Why does disaster so often follow success?
This is the question that Philippa Talbot asks herself repeatedly in the dark days that follow her triumph at Covent Garden.
On that evening she sees her husband in conversation with Elizabeth Rusman, a young violinist from the orchestra. She discovers that they were once lovers, and she and Nicholas have a jealous quarrel.
But by morning Elizabeth is dead and Nicholas in custody, accused of her murder. As the evidence builds up against him, Philippa begins the fight to prove his innocence - a fight which gradually exposes her to terrible danger . . . Views: 701
Richard Adams, the author of *Watership Down*, creates a lyrical and engrossing tale, a remarkable journey into the hearts and minds of two canine heroes, Snitter and Rowf.
After being horribly mistreated at a government animal research facility, Snitter and Rowf escape into the isolation, and terror, of the wilderness. Aided only by a fox they call ''the Tod,'' the two dogs must struggle to survive in their new environment. When the starving dogs attack some sheep, they are labeled ferocious man-eating monsters, setting off a great dog hunt that is later intensified by the fear that the dogs could be carriers of the bubonic plague. Views: 700
Where do heroes come from? In his first work of nonfiction, Lee Child traces the origins of the hero, from the Stone Age, to the ancient Greeks, to Robin Hood and the inventor of heroin. Through this radical journey Lee Child celebrates a savage, feral, cunning, loving, storytelling species: mankind. And he explores how we have been shaped and sustained by our deep love of story. Heroes are protectors and defenders, but they are not always good. They are figures who have suffered and endured for a greater purpose. They are complicated individuals and they have always been at the centre of our story telling. The story of the hero is also the story of the human. It includes, vanity, failure, aggression, survival and love. Taking in everything from the Old Stone Age to the modern day, Lee Child, the creator of Jack Reacher, approaches the history, the challenge and the comfort that lies in the hero. And he explores how our understanding of these figures can help us all to triumph. Views: 700
As the old gods awaken, the Chromeria is in a race to find its lost Prism, the only man who may be able to stop catastrophe, Gavin Guile. But Gavin's enslaved on a galley, and when he finally escapes, he finds himself in less than friendly hands. Without the ability to draft which has defined him . . .
Meanwhile, the Color Prince's army continues its inexorable advance, having swallowed two of the seven satrapies, they now invade the Blood Forest. Andross Guile, thinking his son Gavin lost, tasks his two grandsons with stopping the advance. Kip and his psychopathic half-brother Zymun will compete for the ultimate prize: who will become the next Prism. Views: 700
From the acclaimed author of the international best seller Einstein’s Dreams, here is a stunning, lyrical memoir of Memphis from the 1930s through the 1960s that includes the early days of the movies and a powerful grandfather whose ghost remains an ever-present force in the lives of his descendants.
Alan Lightman’s grandfather M.A. Lightman was the family’s undisputed patriarch: it was his movie theater empire that catapulted the Lightmans to prominence in the South, his fearless success that both galvanized and paralyzed his children and grandchildren. In this moving, impressionistic memoir, the author chronicles his return to Memphis in an attempt to understand the origins he so eagerly left behind forty years earlier. As aging uncles and aunts begin telling family stories, Lightman rediscovers his southern roots and slowly recognizes the errors in his perceptions of both his grandfather and his father, who was himself crushed by M.A. The result is an unforgettable family saga that extends from 1880 to the present, set against a throbbing century of Memphis—the rhythm and blues, the barbecue and pecan pie, the segregated society—and including personal encounters with Elvis, Martin Luther King Jr., and E. H. “Boss” Crump. At the heart of it all is a family haunted by the memory of its domineering patriarch and the author’s struggle to understand his conflicted loyalties.
(With black-and-white illustrations throughout.)
From the Hardcover edition. Views: 700
This powerful novel of a nation in social and moral crisis was first published by New Directions in 1956.Set in the early postwar years, it probes the destructive effects of war and the transition from a feudal Japan to an industrial society. Views: 700
It's been months since anyone at the Committee has had any contact from the O'Connell family or their pack members, and they are not happy. Suspicious of the activities that took place in D.C. and determined to find out what the wolves are up to, the Committee recruits one of their newest residents, Doctor Matthew Dietrich, to play the part of neighbor and infiltrate the family.
Matthew has always been a keep-to-himself kind of person. Though idealistic and optimistic, he prefers to work in solitude, at night, while he researches the findings that he hopes will one day change the world. When he's approached by the executives of the Center, he has no idea why they'd choose him. And to say he is skeptical over the concept of men that can shift into wolves would be an understatement. Until he meets his new partner, the man that will play the part of his "husband" in the Committee's scheme, Doctor Gavin Strauss. Views: 700
"Vivid, gripping and actually riveting as the Red Danger takes a whole new meaning here. Loved it." —The Book SmugglersIt is the waning days of the Russian monarchy. A reckless man rules the land and his dragons rule the sky. Though the Tsar aims his dragons at his enemies—Jews and Bolsheviks—his entire country is catching fire. Conspiracies suffuse the royal court: bureaucrats jostle one another for power, the mad monk Rasputin schemes for the Tsar's ear, and the desperate queen takes drastic measures to protect her family.Revolution is in the air—and the Red Army is hatching its own weapons. Discover Russia's October Revolution re-imagined in flight by the acclaimed mother-and-son writing team of the Locus Award-winning novel, Pay the Piper, and the Seelie Wars series. Views: 700
Every Rose has its thorns... Rose Chance is a dedicated Portland physician who loves shoes, clothes and the finer things in life. Her colleagues call her Dr Vogue, and she won't even look at a man unless he's rich. And preferably titled. Her colleague Matt Vasilopolous is a Greek immigrant made good. He dresses like a schlep, always needs a shave and doesn't seem to own a comb. Rose can't stand a man who looks like a tramp. Matt loathes a woman who looks down at him. But when they're thrown together to save a life one day, and find themselves in the same wedding party the next, Rose and Matt can no longer deny the attraction between them. With an English baronet and his stately home in the offing, though, will Rose choose the man she's dreamed of her whole life or the one her heart craves? This is the fourth novel in the Take a Chance series of romantic comedies. All the books can be read independently, but are also connected. Views: 700
* Spies, poison, and curses surround her...
Is there anyone she can trust? *
The Kingmaker's Daughter is the gripping story of the daughters of the man known as the "Kingmaker," Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick: the most powerful magnate in fifteenth-century England. Without a son and heir, he uses his daughters, Anne and Isabel as pawns in his political games, and they grow up to be influential players in their own right. In this novel, her first sister story since The Other Boleyn Girl, Philippa Gregory explores the lives of two fascinating young women.
At the court of Edward IV and his beautiful queen, Elizabeth Woodville, Anne grows from a delightful child to become ever more fearful and desperate when her father makes war on his former friends. Married at age fourteen, she is soon left widowed and fatherless, her mother in sanctuary and her sister married to the enemy. Anne manages her own escape by marrying Richard, Duke of Gloucester, but her choice will set her on a collision course with the overwhelming power of the royal family and will cost the lives of those she loves most in the world, including her precious only son, Prince Edward. Ultimately, the kingmaker's daughter will achieve her father's greatest ambition. Views: 700
The final novel in the Cousins’ War series, the basis for the critically acclaimed Starz miniseries, The White Queen, by #1 New York Times bestselling author and “the queen of royal fiction” (USA TODAY) Philippa Gregory tells the fascinating story of Margaret Pole, cousin to the “White Princess,” Elizabeth of York, and lady-in-waiting to Katherine of Aragon.
Regarded as yet another threat to the volatile King Henry VII’s claim to the throne, Margaret Pole, cousin to Elizabeth of York (known as the White Princess) and daughter of George, Duke of Clarence, is married off to a steady and kind Lancaster supporter—Sir Richard Pole. For his loyalty, Sir Richard is entrusted with the governorship of Wales, but Margaret’s contented daily life is changed forever with the arrival of Arthur, the young Prince of Wales, and his beautiful bride, Katherine of Aragon. Margaret soon becomes a trusted advisor and friend to the honeymooning couple, hiding her own royal connections in service to the Tudors.
After the sudden death of Prince Arthur, Katherine leaves for London a widow, and fulfills her deathbed promise to her husband by marrying his brother, Henry VIII. Margaret’s world is turned upside down by the surprising summons to court, where she becomes the chief lady-in-waiting to Queen Katherine. But this charmed life of the wealthiest and “holiest” woman in England lasts only until the rise of Anne Boleyn, and the dramatic deterioration of the Tudor court. Margaret has to choose whether her allegiance is to the increasingly tyrannical king, or to her beloved queen; to the religion she loves or the theology which serves the new masters. Caught between the old world and the new, Margaret Pole has to find her own way as she carries the knowledge of an old curse on all the Tudors. Views: 700
-Santa Claws -Monster Love -There's No Such Thing as Werewolves -A Fiend in Need The queen of comic, erotic, other-species romance brings her best setups and hottest sex scenes to this four-novella party. Three of them feature the bad Wyndham werewolves, who find unanticipated love with often reluctant earthlings. In "Santa Claws," Alec Kilcurt, the most powerful werewolf in Europe, falls for Santa-clad Giselle Smith and wins her over with lots of oral sex and a heavy Scottish accent. In "Monster Love," bad-tempered Janet Lupo is kidnapped by a sexy werewolf. Then there's the story of Doctor Drake Dragon and his unusual encounter with Crescent. Finally, following the events of Undead and Unreturnable, a psychic werewolf, Antonia Wolfton, receives a vision to show up at Queen Betsy's Minneapolis home to help and falls hard for George, the fiend in the basement. It's all pure Davidson fun. Ginger Curwen Views: 700
