In the words of its title character, this novel is set in "the hermetic world of the old-fashioned black bourgeoisie--a group largely unknown to other Americans, which has carried on with cautious pomp for years in eastern cities and suburbs, using its considerable funds to attempt poignant imitations of high society, acting with genuine gallantry in the struggle for civil rights, and finally producing a generation of children educated in newly integrated schools and impatient to escape the outworn rituals of their parents." Views: 44
Nothing in Elias' measured life, in his whole career as a teacher of
literature, in his marriage to the 'indescribably beautiful' Eva,
foreshadowed the events of that apparently ordinary day. He makes sure
he has his headache pills and leaves for work as he has done every
morning for the past twenty-five years.He is only
too familiar with his pupils' hostile attitude both to his lectures and
to himself, but today he feels their impatience, their oafishness, more
painfully than ever before and, after their ritually dismissive and
bored response to his passionate lecture on Ibsen's The Wild Duck, he reaches a point of crisis.Shyness and Dignity
is the story of a man's awakening to a world that no longer recongises
what he has always stood for or his talent. Dag Solstad is Norway's
leading author, an icon among Scandinavian writers and a leading figure
of the political left. This novel, in Sverre Lyngstad's fine
translation, is one of Solstad's major works. Views: 44
Two Turtle Doves is the story of a life spent making things. Growing up in 1970s Suffolk in a crumbling giant of a house with wild, tangled gardens, Alex Monroe was left to wreak havoc by invention. Without visible parental influence, but with sisters to love him and brothers to fight for him, he made nature into his world. Creation became a compulsion, whether it was go-carts and guns, cross-bows and booby-traps, boats, bikes or scooters. And then, it was jewellery. From full-out warfare waged against the local schoolboys to the freedom found in daredevil Raleigh bike antics to the delicacies of dress-making and the most intricate designs for jewellery, Two Turtle Doves traces the intimate journey of how an idea is transformed from a fleeting thought into an exquisite piece of jewellery. It is about where we find our creativity, how we remember and why we make the things we do. Views: 44
Haunted Fields follows teenager Freddie Forster as he navigates the unexpected events in a very different summer break. Having planned to spend the holidays partying, Freddie is disappointed when his step-mum refuses to fund his lifestyle and he finds himself banished from the family home. He travels north, and comes across a farm on the outskirts of a secret rural community. Freddie soon learns that fear and rumours surround the village, and that there have been sightings of a ghost. Freddie's involvement in helping to save the struggling farm, as well as uncovering the truth about the haunted fields, gains him both friends and enemies. As he discovers more secrets about his own family as well as the village, Freddie has to fight to rise above the paranoia and lies. Dan Moore has crafted a brilliant tale of a seventeen-year-old boy forced from his comfort zone into a community haunted by the secrets of its past. Haunted Fields is an examination of its... Views: 44
It is called zero point energy, and it really exists — a state of energy contained in all matter everywhere, and thus all but unlimited. Nobody has ever found a way to tap into it, however — until one scientist discovers a way. Or at least he thinks he has. The problem is, his machines also cause great earthquakes, even fissures in tectonic plates. One machine is buried deep underground; the other is submerged in a vast ocean trench. If Kurt Austin and Joe Zavala and the rest of the NUMA team aren’t able to find and destroy them, and soon, the world will be on the threshold of a new era of earth tremors and unchecked volcanism. Now, that can’t be good. Views: 44
"WE WANT TO HEAR THE MUSIC BEFORE HIS THROAT IS SLIT."
Those were Nick Carter's orders. Translated, they meant that Nick had to find Rico Corelli before the Syndicate killers did.
Corelli had been controlling the international drug chain from Corsica for years. But when the Mob found that their profits were slipping and Corelli's were mounting, the heat was on and Corelli was on the run.
If Killmaster got to him first, Corelli could be made to talk and the drug chain would drop in AXE's lap. If the Mafia did, there'd be one more bloody name on the Mob's death list.
Armed only with a beautiful female narc and a flimsy cover, AXE's chief agent begins the hunt. But the Mafia's enforcers are with him all the way. And the first corpse is a ringer for the man Nick Carter is supposed to impersonate…
In a tense, bloody race against time, Killmaster stalks a man he's never seen, a ruthless unphotographed killer running for his life from the men who know him best! Views: 44
Do the Right Thing meets The Bonfire of the Vanities, in this "thrilling debut novel about marriage, gentrification, parenthood, race, and the dangerous bargains we make with ourselves" (Ann Packer, New York Times bestselling author) set over the course of one cataclysmic day when riots erupt in a rapidly gentrifying Brooklyn neighborhood.Aaron, a disgraced rabbi turned Wall Street banker, and Amelia, his journalist girlfriend, live with their newborn in Bedford-Stuyvesant, one of the most dynamic and volatile neighborhoods in New York City. The infusion of upwardly mobile professionals into Bed-Stuy's historic brownstones belies the tension simmering on the streets below. But after a cop shoots a boy in a nearby park, conflict escalates to rioting—with Aaron and his family at its center. Pulled into the riot's vortex are Antoinette, devout nanny to Aaron and Amelia's son; Jupiter, the single father who lives on their block with his son,... Views: 44
'Some readers are drawn to the promise inherent in a novel, and it's true that the longer form can offer a slow and seductive immersion, but the short story offers pleasure of another kind – the quick fix, a shot of adrenaline to the mind and heart.'—Amanda LohreyIn The Best Australian Stories 2015, Amanda Lohrey, winner of the Patrick White Award and author of the acclaimed novel A Short History of Richard Kline, curates twenty pieces of exceptional short fiction. In this wide-ranging collection, there are stories that will surprise, unsettle and beguile readers. Familiar subjects are examined from new perspectives: a teenage girl sneaks into a famous film director's study and steals his diaries; the life of Picasso is reimagined in miniature vignettes. And new life is breathed into the most universal of experiences: birth, death, love and loss. The mother of a girl with hearing difficulties watches her child grow into increasing... Views: 44
The untold story of a quirky and important subculture: The world of 78rpm records and the insular community that celebrates them—by acclaimed music critic and author Amanda Petrusich, who contributes regularly to Pitchfork, The Oxford American, and The New York Times. Before MP3s, CDs, and cassette tapes, even before LPs or 45s, the world listened to music on 78rpm records—those fragile, 10-inch shellac discs. While vinyl records have enjoyed a renaissance in recent years, good 78s are exponentially harder to come by and play. A recent eBay auction for the only known copy of a particular record topped out at $37,100. Do Not Sell at Any Price explores the rarified world of the 78rpm record—from the format's heyday to its near extinction—and how collectors and archivists are working frantically to preserve the music before it's lost forever. Through fascinating historical research and beguiling visits with the... Views: 44
Rakmen Cannon's life is turning out to be one sucker punch after another. His baby sister died in his arms, his parents are on the verge of divorce, and he's flunking out of high school. The only place he fits in is with the other art therapy kids stuck in the basement of Promise House, otherwise known as support group central. Not that he wants to be there. Talking doesn't bring back the dead.When he's shipped off to the Canadian wilderness with ten-year-old Jacey, another member of the support group, and her mom, his summer goes from bad to worse. He can't imagine how eight weeks of canoeing and camping could be anything but awful.Yet despite his expectations, the vast and unforgiving backcountry just might give Rakmen a chance to find the way back from broken . . . if he's brave enough to grab it.Amber J. Keyser's debut novel is a wrenching and brutally honest story of adversity and hope. Views: 44
