Before there was Lois Lowry’s The Giver or M. T. Anderson’s Feed, there was Robert Cormier’s I Am the Cheese, a subversive classic that broke new ground for YA literature.
A boy’s search for his father becomes a desperate journey to unlock a secret past. But the past must not be remembered if the boy is to survive. As he searches for the truth that hovers at the edge of his mind, the boy—and readers—arrive at a shattering conclusion.
“An absorbing, even brilliant job. The book is assembled in mosaic fashion: a tiny chip here, a chip there. . . . Everything is related to something else; everything builds and builds to a fearsome climax. . . . [Cormier] has the knack of making horror out of the ordinary, as the masters of suspense know how to do.”—The New York Times Book Review
“A horrifying tale of government corruption, espionage, and counter espionage told by an innocent young victim. . . . The buildup of suspense is terrific.”—School Library Journal, starred review
An ALA Notable Children’s Book
A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year
A Horn Book Fanfare
A Library of Congress Children’s Book of the Year
A Colorado Blue Spruce Young Adult Book Award Nominee
From the Trade Paperback edition. Views: 630
From her mid-teens Sylvia Plath wrote stories, at first easily and successfully, but then with increasing difficulty as the demands of her real vision complicated her growing ambition to make a career as a conventional storywriter.
When the first edition of Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams appeared, Margaret Walters said of it in the Guardian, 'the book does offer . . . new insight into her development as a writer, suggesting how even her mistakes and dead ends contributed to the formation of an original and pathfinding talent'.
This second edition contains the thirteen stories included in the first edition together with five pieces of her journalism, as well as a few fragments from her journal; and a further nine stories selected from the Indiana archive. Views: 630
"The first collection in seven years from one of America's most celebrated and admired writers--ten wonderful short (and long) stories that allow us to explore and enjoy once again the many facets of John Gardner's unique fictional world. Here are enchanting tales about queens and kings and princesses in magical, timeless lands; marvelously warm and funny stories that move, amuse, and enlighten us as they probe the mysterious and profound relation between art and life." This is a hardcover edition of The Art of Living and Other Stories, written by John Gardner and published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1981. It is a self-stated First Printing, with stunning woodcuts by Mary Azarian. Views: 629
The first installment in the "Marina's Tales" series, "Between The Land And The Sea" is a sweet romantic suspense. After she discovers a mermaid lurking in the deep waters off the California coast, Marina survives one dangerous adventure after another. Along the way she finds first love, discovering just how strong and brave she really is as she uncovers shocking secrets about her unusual past.Marina is a privileged girl who’s had an unusual upbringing. Traveling the world with her scientist father, doted on by her wealthy and glamorous neighbor Evie, Marina’s life seems perfect.Everything changes in the summer of her sixteenth year when she is sent to live with her Aunt Abby and Cousin Cruz in the lovely seaside town of Aptos, California.Only a few weeks after arriving, sixteen year-old Marina has nearly drowned twice, enchanted the hottest guy in high school, and discovered a supernatural creature. If she can manage to survive some increasingly dangerous encounters with unpredictable mermaids, she might be able to unlock the mystery of her past and appease the mysterious forces that want something from her...And maybe even find true love along the way. Views: 629
Perfect Happiness is the fifth novel by Booker Prize winning author Penelope Lively Frances, happily married for many years, and suddenly plunged into mourning. Her international celebrity husband Steve has died leaving her unprepared and vulnerable. At first she is completely submerged in her own loss until, shocked into feeling by the unexpected revelations and private sufferings of others, she is drawn agonizingly into new life - not into perfect happiness but into the sunlight of new hope. Penelope Lively's moving and beautifully observed novel illuminates two terrifying taboos of the twentieth-century - death and grief.
'A triumph' Spectator Views: 629
"In the Irish, Bengali and Ethopian famines, ideology, mindsets of governments, racial preconceptions and administrative incompetence were more lethal than the initiating blight, the loss of potatoes or rice or the grain named teff."--Dust cover. Views: 629
For all fans eagerly awaiting Marian Keyes' new novel The Mystery of Mercy Close - featuring Helen Walsh and out in September - here is a laugh-out-loud ebook-only short guide to everyone's favourite dysfunctional Irish family, Mammy Walsh's A-Z of the Walshes.
It does exactly what it says on the tin but here's a brief word from its author, Mammy Walsh herself:
'There's this woman I know from bridge, Mona Hopkins, a lovely woman she is, even if I must admit I'm not that keen on her myself, and she said a great thing the other day. I was expecting her to say "Two no trumps," but instead she comes out with a saying about her children. She says, "Boys wreck your house and girls wreck your head." Isn't that a marvellous bit of wisdom - "Boys wreck your house and girls wreck your head!" And God knows it's the truest thing I've heard in a long time. I should know. I have five girls. Five daughters. And let me tell you, my head is wrecked from them.
Although, now that I think of it, so is my house . . .'
It's the perfect re-introduction to the Walsh family and Marian's new novel, The Mystery of Mercy Close. Views: 629
?A liltingly moving piece of writing from a wonderfully fruity romancerOCO - Financial Times Where Darcy departing Dublin descends on his darkly decrepit desmesne, skint as a boiled bone. There to ponder his leaking, bat-ridden birthright, devilishly diverted by sexy Miss von B and readily rolled up by Ronald Rashers. And Sees Leila. Lovely, lissome Leila ? who tells him no. A definite negative. So Darcy is back to Dublin and the noisome stews to dream of the one bright star in his eternal darkness ? As ThereOCOs foolOCOs gold at the end of every Irish rainbow, and tarnished silver linings in every cloud, so thereOCOs a shimmer on the far horizon for this particular broth of a boy. His future is disastrous, his present indecent, his past divine. He is Darcy Dancer, youthful squire of Andromeda Park, the great gray stone mansion inhabited by Crooks, the cross eyed butler, and the sexy, aristocratic Miss Von B. This sequel to The Destinies of Darcy Dancer, Gentleman finds our hero falling in with decidedly low company ? like the dissolute Dublin poet, Foxy Slattery, and Ronald Rashers, who absconds with the family silver ? before falling head over heels in love with the lissome Leila. " Views: 629
Washington Post Top Memoir of 1999An extraordinary evocation of a grown daughter's attachment to her mother, and of both women's strength and resiliency. "I Remain in Darkness" recounts Annie's attempts first to help her mother recover from Alzheimer's disease, and then, when that proves futile, to bear witness to the older woman's gradual decline and her own experience as a daughter losing a beloved parent. "I Remain in Darkness" is a new high water mark for Ernaux, surging with raw emotional power and her sublime ability to use language to apprehend her own life's particular music. Views: 629
Arthor has achieved the impossible - pulling the sword Excalibur from the stone. He is now king of all Britain. But the tribal chieftains are not willing to accept a beardless 15-year-old lad as their ruler. Arthor must take his frail power and win the pledges of loyalty from his subjects. Views: 628
An international bestseller and French publishing sensation "Consolation" is a dazzling, heartbreaking tale of one man, two remarkable women and an unforgettable transvestite.
Charles Balanda is forty-seven; a successful architect, he is constantly on the move. But from the moment he hears about the death of the woman he once loved - Anouk, the tragically big-hearted mother of a childhood friend - his life begins to unravel until, one day, he finds himself on a Paris pavement covered in blood. But fate brings him one final chance to be happy in Kate, an enchanting young woman, herself damaged but fearless and in love with life.
The resulting story is a triumphant, spellbinding and ultimately consoling novel about the power of a second chance. Views: 628
The long life and powerful personality of England's beloved Virgin Queen
have eternal appeal, and popular historian Alison Weir depicts both
with panache. She's especially good at evoking the physical texture of
Tudor England: the elaborate royal gowns (actually an intricate assembly
of separate fabric panels buttoned together over linen shifts), the
luxurious but unhygienic palaces (Elizabeth got the only "close stool";
most members of her retinue relieved themselves in the courtyards), the
huge meals heavily seasoned to disguise the taste of spoiled meat.
Against this earthy backdrop, Elizabeth's intelligence and formidable
political skills stand in vivid relief. She may have been autocratic,
devious, even deceptive, but these traits were required to perform a
45-year tightrope walk between the two great powers of Europe, France
and Spain. Both countries were eager to bring small, weak England under
their sway and to safely marry off its inconveniently independent queen.
Weir emphasizes Elizabeth's precarious position as a ruling woman in a
man's world, suggesting plausibly that the single life was personally
appealing as well as politically expedient for someone who had seen many
ambitious ladies--including her own mother--ruined and even executed
for just the appearance of sexual indiscretions. The author's
evaluations of such key figures in Elizabeth's reign as the Earl of
Leicester (arguably the only man she ever loved) and William Cecil (her
most trusted adviser) are equally cogent and respectful of psychological
complexity. Weir does a fine job of retelling this always-popular story
for a new generation. Views: 628
