Within an Inch of His Life by Emile Gaboriau Views: 539
Nothing in Lakshmi's childhood, running carefree and barefoot on the sun-baked earth amid the coconut and mango trees of Ceylon, could have prepared her for what life was to bring her. At fourteen, she finds herself traded in marriage to a stranger across the ocean in the fascinating land of Malaysia.
Duped into thinking her new husband is wealthy, she instead finds herself struggling to raise a family with a man too impractical to face reality and a world that is, by turns, unyielding and amazing, brutal and beautiful.
Giving birth to a child every year until she is nineteen, Lakshmi becomes a formidable matriarch, determined to wrest from the world a better life for her daughters and sons and to face every new challenge with almost mythic strength.
By sheer willpower Lakshmi survives the nightmare of World War II and the Japanese occupation -- but not unscathed. The family bears deep scars on its back and in turn inflicts those wounds on the next generation. But it is not until Lakshmi's great-granddaughter, Nisha, pieces together the mosaic of her family history that the legacy of the Rice Mother bears fruit. Views: 539
Life is tough for the Winter family in London, with little money and Dad out of work. Luckily Aunt Cora comes to the rescue with an invitation to live in California. From that moment on, talented Rachel and Tim dream of stardom in America. The family couldn't be more surprised when a movie producer picks plain peevish Jane for the lead part of Mary in The Secret Garden. No one's ever noticed Jane before. Could this be the chance of a lifetime?
Alternate Title: The Painted Garden Views: 539
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek is the story of a dramatic year in Virginia's Blue Ridge valley. Annie Dillard sets out to see what she can see. What she sees are astonishing incidents of "mystery, death, beauty, violence." Views: 539
*A Wind in the Door* is a fantastic adventure story involving Meg Murry, her small brother Charles Wallace, and Calvin O'Keefe, the chief characters of *A Wrinkle in Time*. The seed from which the story grows is a rather ordinary situation of Charles Wallace's having difficulty in adapting to school. He is extremely bright, so much so that he gets punched around a lot for being "different". He is also strangely, seriously ill (mitochondritis - the destruction of farandolae, minute creatures of the mitochondria in the blood). Determined to help Charles Wallace in school, Meg pays a visit to his principal, Mr. Jenkins, a dry, cold man with whom Meg herself has had unfortunate run-ins. The interview with Mr. Jenkins goes badly and Meg worriedly returns home to find Charles Wallace waiting for her. "There are," he announces, "dragons in the twins' vegetable garden. Or there were. They've moved to the north pasture now."
Dragons? Not really, but an entity, a being stranger by far than dragons; and the encounter with this alien creature is only the first step that leads Meg, Calvin, and Mr. Jenkins out into galactic space, and then into the unimaginable small world of a mitochondrion. And, at last, safely, triumphantly, home. Views: 539
A moving tale about middle age, divorce, modern love, and returning home by one of the great American storytellers.Asher's career as a Hollywood screenwriter has come to a humiliating end; so has his latest marriage. Returning to New York, where he grew up, he takes a room at a hotel and wonders what, well into middle age as he is, he should do next. It's not a question of money; it's a question of purpose, maybe of pride. In the company of an arch young poet, Michael, Asher revisits the streets and tenements of the Lower East Side where he spent his childhood, though little remains of THE past. Michael introduces him to Aurora, perhaps his girlfriend, who, to Asher's surprise, seems bent on pursuing him, too. Soon the older man and his edgy young companions are caught up in a slow, strange, almost ritualized dance of deceit and desire. The End of Me, a successor to In Love and Her Face for the World to See, can be seen as the final panel of a triptych in which... Views: 539
Betsy Taylor thought entering the world of the undead was a big adjustment. Being a new bride isn't much easier. The blush has only been on for two months, and Betsy has a lot to do: set up the new house, finish writing thank-you notes, and raise BabyJon, her half brother and legal ward. Just another happy American family adjusting to marital bliss. Betsy's husband, Sinclair, has been perusing the Book of the Dead, and Betsy's visited by a ghost who's even more insufferable, stubborn, and annoying in death than she was in life. She not only blames Betsy for her condition but insists she fix it. It's all just a prelude to the fun and games awaiting Betsy and Sinclair when a pack of formerly feral vampires, hungry for blood and power, pays a visit to the happy couple. Views: 539
A bolt of lightning inspires an incredible journey in this charming, magical realism adventure that takes four teens on an all-night journey through the streets of New York City.
Extraordinary things happen when we least expect them.
Tiny, Lu, Will and Nathaniel used to be best friends. Then life-defining events the summer before high school tore them apart. Now, three years later, they hardly talk anymore. Nathaniel has become obsessed with winning the prestigious science scholarship that his genius older brother once won. Will has risen from anonymity to popular soccer star. Lu grew into a brash, impetuous actress. And shy, poetic Tiny has slowly been fading away.
But fate weaves their lives together again the night before the SATs, during a wild thunderstorm that threatens to shut down New York City. And lightning strikes.
Before they know what's hit them, the four teens embark on an epic all-night adventure to follow their dreams, fall in and out of love, reconcile the past, and overcome the fears that have been driving them since that one lost summer. And by the time the sun rises, odds are they’ll discover that there’s a fine line between science and magic, and that the mysteries of love and friendship can’t be explained. Views: 539
The final novel in the Cahokian story cycle, Star Path is an evocative tale about America's greatest pre-Columbian city by New York Times bestselling authors W. Michael and Kathleen O'Neal GearCan you say no to a living god? The answer for Blue Heron, former matron of the Four Winds Clan, is not really. She and the master thief Seven Skull Shield are sent to far off Cofitachequi, for an old threat has arisen on the other side of the great eastern mountains. Journeying down the Mississippi to the Tennessee, and then upstream to the Appalachians, Blue Heron's party must not only face the treacherous river, festering resentment in the newly formed colonies, and hostile barbarian tribes, but a more sinister threat travels among them. A man with his own agenda, and he will do anything to destroy Blue Heron. Star Path, the final book in the Gears' Morning Star series, takes the reader out of the great city of Cahokia... Views: 539
Jack Ryan, the former president of the United States, is out of office, but not out of the loop about his brainchild, the Campus, a highly effective, counter-terrorism organization that operates outside the Washington hierarchy. But what Ryan doesn't know is that his son, Jack Ryan, Jr., has joined his cousins, Brian and Dominic Caruso, at the shadowy Campus. While a highly effective analyst, young Ryan hungers for the action of a field agent.The Campus has now turned their sights on the Emir, the number one terrorist threat to western civilization. A reclusive figure and mastermind of vicious terrorist acts, the Emir has eluded capture by the world's law enforcement agencies. But now with the help of ex-CIA agent John Clark and pro Marine Colonel Ding Chavez the Campus is in on the hunt. The mission: to bring the Emir in dead or alive. Views: 539
SUGARPLUM TRIO includes three delicious Christmas romances that will get you in the mood for the holidays: THE CHRISTMAS GRANDMA RAN AWAY FROM HOME For every woman who's ever felt overwhelmed and under-appreciated at Christmas comes the story of a decent woman, a widowed grandmother, respected matriarch of a big, noisy family who snaps one holiday season and decides to run away for the holidays. Little does she realize what adventures are in store. Long time widow Sandy Forbes is breaking out this Christmas. In her 71 years on earth she has stuffed and cooked 55 Christmas turkeys, baked hundreds of pies, turned out thousands of shortbread cookies and hoisted enough pine trees in her living room to reforest the Amazon. Her family love her. They come to her for every occasion, eating, drinking, squabbling and then leaving her with a mass of dishes and a mountain of crumpled holiday wrap. But this is the year everything changes. When she wants someone... Views: 539
If ever a chill entered her soul, or the hope suddenly drained from her heart, she knew a bogle was to blame. Birdie McAdam, a ten-year-old orphan, is tougher than she looks. She's proud of her job as apprentice to Alfred the Bogler, a man who catches monsters for a living. Birdie lures the bogles out of their lairs with her sweet songs, and Alfred kills them before they kill her. On the mean streets of Victorian England, hunting bogles is actually less dangerous work than mudlarking for scraps along the vile river Thames. (See glossary!) Or so it seems—until the orphans of London start to disappear . . . Views: 539
"The emotional and moral complexity that [Jane Smiley] uncovers in the characters of these resonant novellas confirms [her] singular talent. ORDINARY LOVE & GOOD WILL is an extraordinary achievement."
THE WASHINGTON POST BOOK WORLD
ORDINARY LOVE
At a reunion with her grown children, a woman recalls the long-ago affair that ended her relationship with their father--and changed all their lives irrevocably.
GOOD WILL
Despite the carefully self-sufficient life he has designed for his small family, a man discovers that even the right choices have unexpected consequences--sometimes heart-breaking ones.
From the Paperback edition. Views: 539
