Frank A. Warner wrote this popular book that continues to be widely read today despite its age. Views: 103
When the Prizzi family decides to enter politics, Charley Partanna tries to turn legit If Charley Partanna is lucky, he can go a few months without falling in love. During these stretches, he's able to focus on his job as chief executioner for the Prizzi family. But once romance strikes, Partanna—a criminal manager who still commits the odd murder for old time's sake—is lost to the world. So he knows there will be trouble when he meets his latest infatuation at an orgy. She's clothed from neck to ankles, but she's the sexiest woman Partanna has ever seen, and she hits his heart hard. His latest affair may be consuming Partanna body and soul, but he'll have to make sure it doesn't interfere with the Prizzi family's latest venture: politics. And with the Prizzis' sights set on the White House, Partanna will discover the campaign trail is a bloody one indeed. Prizzi's Glory is the 3rd book in the Prizzi series, but you may... Views: 103
Second in a brand new action adventure series starring 14-year-old Jack Courtney - a hero to rival Alex Rider - from worldwide bestselling author Wilbur Smith.Jack and his friends Amelia and Xander are in Zanzibar diving for lost treasure to support Jack's mother's coral protection project. Going further than usual on their last day, their dive boat is lured into a trap and captured by Somali pirates. Determined that his mother shouldn't pay a ransom for their release, Jack won't give up his attempts to escape. Transferred to a militia training camp for boy soldiers, the trio's only hope is the resourceful Somali boy Mo who befriends them. Can they outwit the ruthless General Sir and his merciless troops in the second gripping adventure from the authors of Cloudburst?Praise for Cloudburst:Unputdownable conservation themed action and adventure.' - LoveReading4kids'An exciting and realistic story, full of bandits, poachers and amazing... Views: 103
Bound by honor, Ehomba has traveled through many exotic and perilous lands on a quest to save a beautiful princess he has never met from the hands of the evil Hymneth the Possessed. Through all their travels Ehomba has ignored the warnings he has heard from seers and psychics, foretelling of disaster and death if the quest was completed. Now that Ehomba and his traveling party have finally reached the destination of their epic journey, the kingdom ruled by Hymneth, will they be able to defend themselves against Hymneth's powerful and evil magic? Will they be able to rescue the princess and bring her safely home with their lives intact? Views: 103
It's the start of a luminous Scandinavian summer, and Elsa, the matriarch of an eminent Helsinki family, is dying.Her family members gather around to support her, but their hidden struggles come, too. There's Elsa's granddaughter Anna, lost in her own world and concealing an unhappy affair that will not heal; Martti, Elsa's loving husband, whose dreams are haunted by the spectre of another woman; and Elsa's adult daughter Eleonoora, anxiously trying to deal with her mother's illness. As Elsa's existence becomes more fragile, the anchors of Eleonoora's childhood memories begin to slip away, and the foundations upon which the family has built its life for forty years start to shift.One afternoon, Anna discovers a secret that goes to the very heart of her family — a secret that takes her back to the restlessness and change of the 1960s, a Europe in the throes of a social revolution, and a stranger named Eeva who entered her family's lives, changing them... Views: 103
An omnibus collection featuring some of the finest works of a master of weird fiction One of the preeminent writers of weird fiction, Robert Aickman is celebrated for his unsettling and often ambiguous "strange stories," but he once wrote that "those, if any, who wish to know more about me, should plunge beneath the frivolous surface of he Late Breakfasters," his only novel, originally published in 1964. In he Late Breakfasters, young Griselda de Reptonville is invited by Mrs. Hatch to a house party at her country estate, Beams (which, incidentally, is haunted). There, amidst an array of eccentric characters and bizarre happenings, she will meet the love of her life, Louise. But when their short-lived relationship is cruelly cut short, Griselda must embark on a quest to recapture the happiness she has lost. Never before published in the United States and long unobtainable, Aickman's odd and whimsical novel is joined in this omnibus... Views: 103
American master Erskine Caldwell's powerful classic stories of anger, humor, insight, and hope for the South Author of some of the most widely banned fiction of the twentieth century, Erskine Caldwell had a talent for striking a nerve. In this collection of nearly one hundred stories, the full depth and scope of his talent is on display, including his trademark biting satire as well as his skill at rendering deeply moving portraits of his native South. In a career that spanned over six decades, Caldwell produced stories that serve to document a changing society, from the dehumanizing trials of the Great Depression through the transformative battle to desegregate the South. Taken together, his short fiction reveals a voice that remains essential for readers hoping to understand the American experience. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Erskine Caldwell including rare photos and never-before-seen documents courtesy of the Dartmouth College Library. Views: 103
A new collection of stories by one of America’s most beloved and admired short-story writers, her first in fifteen years, since Birds of America (“Fluid, cracked, mordant, colloquial . . . Will stand by itself as one of our funniest, most telling anatomies of human love and vulnerability.” —The New York Times Book Review, cover). These eight masterly stories reveal Lorrie Moore at her most mature and in a perfect configuration of craft, mind, and bewitched spirit, as she explores the passage of time and summons up its inevitable sorrows and hilarious pitfalls to reveal her own exquisite, singular wisdom. In “Debarking,” a newly divorced man tries to keep his wits about him as the United States prepares to invade Iraq, and against this ominous moment, we see—in all its irresistible wit and darkness—the perils of divorce and what can follow in its wake . . . In “Foes,” a political argument goes grotesquely awry as the events of 9/11 unexpectedly manifest themselves at a fund-raising dinner in Georgetown . . . In “The Juniper Tree,” a teacher visited by the ghost of her recently deceased friend is forced to sing “The Star-Spangled Banner” in a kind of nightmare reunion . . . And in “Wings,” we watch the inevitable unraveling of two once-hopeful musicians, neither of whom held fast to their dreams nor struck out along other paths, as Moore deftly depicts the intricacies of dead-ends-ville and the workings of regret . . . Here are people beset, burdened, buoyed; protected by raising teenage children; dating after divorce; facing the serious illness of a longtime friend; setting forth on a romantic assignation abroad, having it interrupted mid-trip, and coming to understand the larger ramifications and the impossibility of the connection . . . stories that show people coping with large dislocation in their lives, with risking a new path to answer the desire to be in relation—to someone . . . Gimlet-eyed social observation, the public and private absurdities of American life, dramatic irony, and enduring half-cracked love wend their way through each of these narratives in a heartrending mash-up of the tragic and the laugh-out-loud—the hallmark of life in Lorrie-Moore-land. From the Hardcover edition.ReviewPraise for Lorrie Moore’sBARK“Gaunt, splendid…What an irresistible bunch of characters she conjures up…We still need Lorrie Moore to work hard at making us laugh, to remind us that we’re frauds, we’re all just acting. To unzip words for us and let their sounds and meanings and pun potentialities jingle out like coins. To point out the silver linings…She never lies to us. She never tells us the water’s fine. She says, Dive in anyway, “swim among the dying” while you can. Learn how to suffer in style.” -Parul Seghal, Bookforum“The short form is her true forte. Her talent is best exhibited in the collection’s longest stories (each around 40 pages); her comfort with that length is indicated by her careful avoidance of overplotting, which, of course, dulls the effect of an expansive short story, and by not allowing the stories to seem like the outlines of novels that never got developed.” -Booklist (Starred Review)“One of the best short story writers in America resumes her remarkable balancing act, with a collection that is both hilarious and heartbreaking, sometimes in the same paragraph…In stories both dark and wry, Moore wields a scalpel with surgical precision.” -Kirkus (Starred Review)“These stories are laugh-out-loud funny, as well as full of pithy commentary on contemporary life and politics.” -Publisher’s Weekly (Starred Review)“Moore once again brings her acute intelligence and wit to play….The language has a fizzy rhythm that will have the reader turning the pages. Smart, funny, and overlaid with surprising metaphor…Highly recommended.” -Library Journal (Starred Review) About the AuthorLorrie Moore, after many years as a professor of creative writing at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, is now Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor of English at Vanderbilt University. Moore has received honors for her work, among them the Irish Times International Prize for Literature, a Lannan Foundation fellowship, as well as the PEN/Malamud Award and the Rea Award for her achievement in the short story. Her most recent novel, A Gate at the Stairs, was shortlisted for the 2010 Orange Prize for Fiction and for the PEN/Faulkner Award. Views: 103
