Originally conceived of by its Argentinian editors in 1937, and now published in English for the first time, this unusual and provocative volume is an omnibus collection. In addition to stories by Ballard, Poe, Saki, Max Beerbohm, Ray Bradbury, May Sinclair, de Maupassant and Julio Cortazar, there are shorter pieces, anecdotes, folkloric fragments, dreamlike moments. Most of the 79 selections are only a paragraph or two long, giving us brief passage into magical visions of the world culled from the work of an international array of authors of the past three centuries, including less well-known authors such as Santiago Dabove, Edwin Morgan and Niu Chiao. The keynote tale may well be Borges's own "Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius" in which an imaginary world, conjured up by manufactured documentation, ends up eroding our reality: reality is malleable, and imagination necessarily subverts and alters it. Views: 15
Astrid Jones desperately wants to confide in someone, but her mother's pushiness and her father's lack of interest tell her they're the last people she can trust. Instead, Astrid spends hours lying on the backyard picnic table watching airplanes fly overhead. She doesn't know the passengers inside, but they're the only people who won't judge her when she asks them her most personal questions . . . like what it means that she's falling in love with a girl.As her secret relationship becomes more intense and her friends demand answers, Astrid has nowhere left to turn. She can't share the truth with anyone except the people at thirty thousand feet, and they don't even know she's there. But little does Astrid know just how much even the tiniest connection will affect these strangers' lives--and her own--for the better.In this truly original portrayal of a girl struggling to break free of society's definitions, Printz Honor author A.S. King asks readers to question everything--and offers hope to those who will never stop seeking real love.From School Library JournalGr 10 Up-Astrid Jones is a high-school senior in a small, Pennsylvania town. She's a top student and loves philosophy. (She gives Socrates a first name-Frank.) Her favorite pastime is to lie on the picnic table she and her father built in the backyard and send her love to passengers in the airplanes as they pass overhead. The teen sends her love off to strangers, because she has no use for it at home. She has an agoraphobic, type-A mother who wears business suits and heels when she works from home. While emotionally unavailable to her first born, she regularly plans boozy "Mommy and Me" nights with Astrid's younger sister. Her mother also has a texting relationship with Astrid's best friend. Astrid's father is underemployed and smokes pot all the time. Her sister just wants to fit in with small-town life. And Astrid herself is ambivalent about her sexuality and is being pressured by her lesbian work friend to come out. Her school friends, members of the homecoming court, are pretending to be a couple but are actually gay. The townspeople are small-minded and gossipy. Astrid's overwhelming need to send messages of love to anonymous passengers sometimes appears to touch those passengers, who are also leading lives of quiet desperation. And, sometimes, maybe they can send love to Astrid. King's thoughtful, sad, funny, and frank book is finally about paradox and will appeal to any mature teen resisting the pressure to conform or rebel; anyone who wants to define herself on her own terms; and anyone whose family life belies the 1950s sitcom myth.-Nina Sachs, Walker Memorial Library, Westbrook, MEα(c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. From BooklistStarred Review Astrid has a lot of love to give, and she gives it freely to schoolmates, friends, and even her dysfunctional family. But most of all, she sends her love to the passengers in the planes whizzing high above her small, gossipy, intolerant town: “Because if I give it all away, no one can control it.” But she does love her coworker Dee and her best friend Christina, whose biggest secret she keeps. Printz Honor Book author King (Please Ignore Vera Dietz, 2010) continues to expertly plumb the lovely numbness of a young person struck by emotional paralysis. Afraid to come out, afraid to be boxed in, and afraid to fall under the scrutiny of her town, Astrid lives a rich inner life, which King depicts with deft magical realist conventions that recall Everybody Sees the Ants (2011). Astrid’s consciousness is exemplified by Socrates, an agent of truth and logic who silently judges her for not owning up to her personal truths. King also incorporates the first-person narrations of the passengers in the planes, whose stories unknowingly parallel and carry Astrid’s affections and desire for escape. Another thoughtful, and often breathtaking, achievement for King, whose star is ascending as quickly as one of Astrid’s planes. Grades 9-12. --Courtney Jones Views: 15
It’s become the greatest British invasion of them all: Lara Croft is a world famous pin-up, and the British-made Grand Theft Auto and its spin-offs have sold more than 120 million copies worldwide. The UK’s games are now bigger than either its cinema or its music. Yet gaming’s birth in a moribund eighties Britain was almost accidental. Thatcherite policies had nurtured humble machines like the ZX Spectrum and BBC Micro, and a home-grown culture of young programmers and unlikely entrepreneurs exploded alongside it. Isolated from the rest of the world, British gaming evolved in a strange and brilliant profusion of odd-ball characters, programming miracles and Pythonesque humour. And when the industry went global, British games-makers were ready to be a driving force behind the new Cool Britannia and beyond. Grand Thieves and Tomb Raiders is the first book to tell the amazing secret history of British videogames. It's a story of local talent bursting onto the... Views: 15
The knights templarThey were warrior monks, dedicated to the protection of pilgrims in the Holy Land -- until an avaricious king savagely destroyed the order. One knight, however, escaped the stake, vowing justice for his murdered brothers.A gathering of evilWith scores of merchants streaming into Devon to participate in the Tavistock fair of 1319, a goodly amount of unlawful activity is expected. No one, however, anticipates a murder. The guests of Abbot Robert Champeaux, former Knight Templar Sir Baldwin Furnshill and Simon Puttock, bailiff of Lydford, have been asked by their host to investigate the grisly discovery of a headless corpse by a local butcher. Hunting a killer in the din and bustle of the fair could prove a daunting task, especially with the victim's identity a mystery. But Sir Baldwin and Simon are determined to unravel the complex weave of intrigue, rage, and violence that has brought death to Tavistock -- even if it... Views: 15
SUMMARY:
Free at last! Free at last! This ain't your grandfather's Huckleberry Finn. It's nineteenth century America and a mutant strain of tuberculosis is bringing its victims back from the dead. Sometimes they come back docile, and other times vicious. The vicious ones are sent back to Hell, but the docile ones are put to work as servants and laborers. With so many zombies on the market, the slave trade is nonexistant. The black man is at liberty, and human bondage is no more. Young Huckleberry Finn has grown up in a world that shuns the N-word, with its scornful eye set on a new class of shambling, putrid sub-humans: The Baggers. When his abusive father comes back into his life, Huck flees down the river with Bagger Jim, seeking a life of perfect freedom. When the pox mutates once again, causing even the tamest of baggers to become bloodthirsty monsters, the boy Finn is forced to question his relationship with his dearest, deadest friend. In this revised take on history and classic literature, the modern age is ending before it ever begins. Huckleberry Finn will inherit a world of horror and death, and he knows the mighty Mississippi might be the only way out... Views: 14
Elysandra Winters has always yearned for a life of adventure on the rolling seas and is willing to do whatever it takes to fulfill her dream. When her Privateer father continually refuses to allow his only daughter to sail, Ellie defies him, disguises herself as a boy, and goes in search of a captain who will give her a chance to prove her worth. Thanks to the cursed selkie blood coursing through his veins, Daniel O'Rourke needs the sea to survive. After giving up on his humanity and spending three years in seal form, he decides to give his human side another chance. Daniel goes in search of a job and a sense of normalcy, earning himself a position aboard Captain Winter's ship, The Siren's Call. However, his new captain's first assignment has nothing at all to do with sailing, and everything to do with his headstrong young daughter. Years later, when the leader of a band of bloodthirsty pirates murders Captain Winters, Daniel and Elysandra's lives come crashing back together with the force of a hurricane. Both experts in deception, they must find a way to trust each other in order to quell the raging storm between them or have any hope of hunting down the captain's killer. Views: 14
Science Fiction. 3839 words long. First published in Strange Horizons, September 2006 Views: 14
Zoey Carleigh loves going to visit her family, however as much as it is enjoyable it’s just as stressful, especially when her meddling aunt continues to bring up Zoey’s old flame, a person who has been non-existent for a number of years. Happy to be on a flight headed home, she never expected to be seated next to a guy who is strong, confident and comforting all rolled into one handsome hazel-eyed package. When things get a little bumpy he’s just the person she needs beside her to calm her fears. It’s just too bad that with a connection so intense the flight ends too soon and they head their separate ways. Or so it seems.Evan Douglas is going home after ten years in the military to an ill father he has constantly disappointed in the past. The dark passions in his life that he has always been able to trust in before have started to leave him hollow and in need of something more. Turmoil in the house he is expecting, but when he awakened to find the lovely tawny skinned beauty from the plane under the same roof, he refuses to deny that fate has played a hand in placing her in his life permanently. However, if he wants her, he better act fast because he’s not the only one that desires a happily-ever-after with Zoey. Views: 14
Chicago--the reigning #1 city in homicides--has no shortage of deadly gangs. And all those gangs know well that the Cross crew occupies a cinderblock bunker called Red 71 . . . the last place you want to go, unless you're willing to risk it being the last place you go. The crew is notorious for its deadly efficiency and its disinterest in anything but money. So why has it turned from seller to buyer, grabbing up houses on a decaying block where only a few holdouts remain? Both the cops and the underworld are watching closely . . . but are they the only ones? Views: 14
Overview
After years of struggle, Drake Maijstral has been rated
Number One Burglar by the Imperial Sporting Commission. Surely by now he
deserves a vacation— and he fully intends to take one, on Earth. But valuable
items keep disappearing, and it’s clear that Maijstral, the master thief to end
all master thieves, is being preyed upon by another expert burglar. Maijstral
would very much like to solve this mystery, but unfortunately people keep
challenging him to duels, and he’s become enmeshed in conspiracies laid by two
very attractive, very dangerous ladies. And to make things worse, the corpse of
Maijstral’s father has been stolen— a corpse that is dead, but still senile.
Rock of Ages is the third hilarious Drake Maijstral
adventure by the New York Times best-selling author Walter Jon Williams.
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