New York Times bestselling author T. J. English, the acclaimed master chronicler of the Irish Mob in America, offers a front-row seat at the trial of one of the most notorious gangsters of all—Whitey Bulger—and pulls back the veil to expose a breathtaking history of corruption and malfeasanceWhitey Bulger was, following the death of Osama bin Laden, the number-one fugitive on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list; he remained at large for sixteen years. One of the most prominent mobsters in Boston's criminal underworld from the 1970s until his disappearance in 1995, Bulger was sometimes romanticized as a Robin Hood–esque thief and protector who looked out for his South Boston neighborhood.But the truth was much more complicated—and infinitely more sordid—as his trial on racketeering charges revealed in alarming detail. Throughout the era in which Bulger was a crime boss, he was also a Top Echelon Informant (TE) for the FBI, supposedly... Views: 14
SUMMARY: Archangel is a remarkably literate novel--and simultaneously a gripping thriller--that explores the lingering presence of Stalin amidst the corruption of modern-day Russia. Robert Harris (whose previous works include Enigma and Fatherland) elevates his tale by choosing a narrator with an outsider's perspective but an insider's knowledge of Soviet history: Fluke Kelso, a middle-aged scholar of Soviet Communism with a special interest in the dark secrets of Joseph Stalin. For years, rumors have circulated about a notebook that the aging dictator kept in his final years. In a chance encounter in Moscow, Kelso meets Papu Rapava, a former NKVD guard who claims that he was at Stalin's deathbed and says that he assisted Politburo member Beria in hiding the black oilskin notebook just as Stalin was passing. Before Kelso can get more details, Rapava disappears, but the scholar is energized by the evidence Rapava has provided. As Kelso begins to pursue his historical prize, however, his investigation ensnares him in a living web of Stalinist terror and murder. It soon becomes clear that the notebook is the key to a doorway hiding many secrets, old and new. Harris's understanding of Soviet and modern Russian is impressive. The novel rests on a seamless blend of fact and fiction that places real figures from Soviet history alongside Kelso and his fictional colleagues. Especially disturbing are the transcripts from interrogations and the excerpt from Kelso's lectures on Stalin; the documents provide chilling evidence to support Kelso's claim: "There can now be no doubt that it is Stalin rather than Hitler who is the most alarming figure of the twentieth century." --Patrick O'Kelley Views: 14
Tragedy had hit Teri Manders and her brother Jon at the same time, when Jon's wife ran away with Teri's fiance. So the unexpected offer to Jon of a farm in the Transvaal couldn't have come at a better moment. It would give Jon a chance to build a new life for himself and his little daughter, while Teri could look after them both and forget about men for a long, long time. Brand Royce must be avoided from now on, Teri decided firmly. He was becoming far more authoritative. Besides, she had changed in some indefinable way, so that she found it difficult to ignore Brand's compelling personality. "All men aren't the same, Teri," he said. "You must get that idea out of your mind." But Teri wasn't sure she was really ready to trust a man again. Views: 14
Alice Aigner is successful, independent and a confirmed serial dater - but at her ten-year school reunion she has a sudden change of heart. Bored rigid by her married, mortgaged and motherly former classmates, Alice decides to prove that a woman can have it all: a man, marriage, career, kids and a mind of her own. She sets herself a goal: meet the perfect man and marry him before her thirtieth birthday, just under two years away. Together with her best friends Dannie, Liza and Peta, Alice draws up a ten-point plan. Then, with a little help from her mum, her dad, her brothers, her colleagues and her neighbour across the hall, she sets out to find Mr Right. Unfortunately for Alice, it's not quite as easy as she imagines ... Who could not fall in love with our Koori heroine as she dates (among others): Renan, whose career goal is to be the world's best moonwalker and male hula dancer; Tufu the commitment-phobic Samoan football player; scary Simon the one-night stand; and Paul -... Views: 14
This discursive and absorbing travel-book offers, as the author says in his new Foreword, "a picture of a way of living that exists no longer." Hot Countries tells of a series of journeys in the Far East, the West Indies and the South Sea Islands when he was a young and light-hearted novelist seeking colour, romance and adven-ture, and when foreign travel was not hedged by to-day's restrictions. Tahiti provides the colour, with its idyllic scenery and its lovely girls joyously offering to keep house for visiting bachelors; Martinique recalls the devastating eruption of Mont Pelee; in Siam (now called Thailand) he amusingly describes the worship of a baby white elephant, and the problem of the white man's relations with brown women; in Ceylon occurs a ludicrous episode of native misunderstanding of the Westerner. After discussing " The Englishman in the Tropics " Mr. Waugh glances at the New Hebrides and then transports us to the Black Republic of Haiti (describing the... Views: 14
'So it's final then, you're not taking James to Melbourne?' Liza asked. 'Are you kidding? Taking a man to Melbourne would be like taking a sandwich to a smorgasbord.' Peta Tully has found her Mr Right - the only trouble is, she's not sure she's ready to settle down. Not just yet, anyway - so when she's offered a twelve-month contract interstate which just might win her the job of her dreams, she puts her Sydney life on hold, packs her bags and jumps on a plane, leaving her doting boyfriend behind. Peta takes a voluntary vow of celibacy, but sticking to it proves harder than she imagines ... This is Anita Heiss's second book about Peta, Alice, Liza and Dannie, four deadly, desirable and dynamic thirty-something chicks from Sydney's eastern beaches. Views: 14
July 20, 1894. The German Military Attache in Paris. Colonel Maximillien von Schwarzkoppen received a visit from a seedy-looking middle-aged Frenchman who would not give his name. He told Schwarzkoppen that he was a French army officer serving on the General Staff; that he was in desperate need of money; and was therefore prepared to sell military secrets to the Germans.Captain Alfred Dreyfus, then aged 35, was a high-flying career artillery officer. Shy, reserved, sometimes awkward, but intelligent and ambitious, Dreyfus had everything he might have hoped for: a wife, two enchanting children, plenty of money and a post on the General Staff. However, Dreyfus' rise in the army had not made him friends. Many of them came from the impoverished Catholic aristocracy and disliked Dreyfus because he was rich, bourgeois and, above all, a Jew.On October 13, Captain Dreyfus was summoned by the General de Boisdeffre to the Ministry of War. Despite minimal evidence against... Views: 14
Set in a shadowy world of magic and mystery, a fantasy novel in which a young man sets off on a wild ride in pursuit of the lover whose death and resurrection he witnessed. From the author of THE LAST UNICORN and A FINE AND PRIVATE PLACE. Views: 14
The guide of choice for anyone who plans to die someday--are YOU ready for the AFTERLIFE?To find out, take this simple quiz:1. Like Earth, the Afterlife has celebrities, outcasts, deadheads, losers, and busybodies. TrueFalse2. Is there an Afterlife after the Afterlife? Yes No3. When you first arrive on "the Other Side," you will be given: a) a set of wings b) a toaster c) a copy of A Newcomer's Guide to the AfterlifeDon't worry if you're not sure how to respond. A Newcomer's Guide to the Afterlife has answers to these questions and more--and if you're lucky, some of them may turn out to be right!An irreverent, one-of-a-kind compendium from the award-winning author of Ishmael, A Newcomer's Guide to the Afterlife can be read as a parable, an allegory, a work of fiction--or exactly what it claims to be: a helpful handbook for the recently deceased. It is filled with... Views: 14
The Hours is both an homage to Virginia Woolf and very much its
own creature. Even as Michael Cunningham brings his literary idol back
to life, he intertwines her story with those of two more contemporary
women. One gray suburban London morning in 1923, Woolf awakens from a
dream that will soon lead to Mrs. Dalloway.
In the present, on a beautiful June day in Greenwich Village,
52-year-old Clarissa Vaughan is planning a party for her oldest love, a
poet dying of AIDS. And in Los Angeles in 1949, Laura Brown, pregnant
and unsettled, does her best to prepare for her husband's birthday, but
can't seem to stop reading Woolf. These women's lives are linked both
by the 1925 novel and by the few precious moments of possibility each
keeps returning to. Clarissa is to eventually realize:
There's just this for consolation: an hour here or there when our lives
seem, against all odds and expectations, to burst open and give us
everything we've ever imagined.... Still, we cherish the city, the
morning; we hope, more than anything, for more. As
Cunningham moves between the three women, his transitions are seamless.
One early chapter ends with Woolf picking up her pen and composing her
first sentence, "Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself."
The next begins with Laura rejoicing over that line and the fictional
universe she is about to enter. Clarissa's day, on the other hand, is a
mirror of Mrs. Dalloway's--with, however, an appropriate degree of
modern beveling as Cunningham updates and elaborates his source of
inspiration. Clarissa knows that her desire to give her friend the
perfect party may seem trivial to many. Yet it seems better to her than
shutting down in the face of disaster and despair. Like its literary
inspiration, The Hours is a hymn to consciousness and the
beauties and losses it perceives. It is also a reminder that, as
Cunningham again and again makes us realize, art belongs to far more
than just "the world of objects." Views: 14
Jack Terrington, the nation's most prolific serial killer, returns to the scene of his first murders, a small town he'd escaped only by dumb luck. Jack has an aptitude for getting away with murder; he's been doing it for twenty years. He's a drifter, leaving a trail of fear and death from coast to coast. And though he's always avoided capture, he's haunted by the memory of Liberty, Virginia—Jack had escaped capture only by dumb luck. And that's always bothered him. Now, before he retires for good, he's returning to the small town to settle the score. Meanwhile, David Beaumont couldn't wait to leave Liberty—he was tired of listening to the endless stories about what a great man his father had been, how he had saved Liberty from a killer, sacrificing his own life. David's starting a new life, but when the killings start again, David's the only one that can stop them. Should he return to the town he despises? And if he does, will he end up like his father—dead? Views: 14
