A collection of nine exceptional stories from the much-loved author of The Catcher in the Rye An American soldier has a strange encounter with an orphaned English teenager the night before he leaves for war. A four-year-old boy runs away in a dinghy; a missionary's child is kidnapped by Chinese bandits. A honeymoon in Florida goes awry with tragic consequences. Including the first stories to feature Salinger's beloved Glass family characters, this brilliantly varied collection offers a vivid introduction to the work of one of the most admired and widely read American novelists of the twentieth century. Witty, urbane and frequently affecting, For Esme - with Love and Squalor sits alongside Salinger's very best work - a gem that will be passed down for many generations to come. For Esmé—With Love and Squalor includes two of Salinger's most famous and critically acclaimed stories, and helped to establish him as one of the contemporary literary greats. The title story recounts a Sergeant's meeting with a young girl before being sent into combat. When it was first published in The New Yorker in 1950 it was an immediate sensation and prompted a flood of readers' fan-letters. 'A Perfect Day for Bananafish' is the first of the author's stories to feature the Glass family, the loveable and idiosyncratic family who would appear in much of Salinger's later fiction. A haunting and unforgettable piece of writing, the story follows the eldest sibling, Seymour Glass, and his wife, Muriel, as they embark on an ill-fated honeymoon in Florida . . . A collection of nine exceptional stories from the much-loved author of The Catcher in the Rye A military sergeant meets a young girl immediately before he leaves for combat, a four-year-old boy runs away in a dinghy, a honeymoon in Florida goes tragically awry, a missionary's child is kidnapped by Chinese bandits. Including the first stories to feature Salinger's beloved Glass family characters, this brilliantly varied collection offers a vivid introduction to the work of one of the most admired and widely read American novelists of the twentieth century. Witty, urbane and frequently affecting, For Esmé - with Love and Squalor sits alongside Salinger's very best work as writing that will be passed down for many generations to come. Views: 500
Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best novels of all time
Set amid the splendor of London drawing rooms and gilded Venetian palazzos, The Wings of the Dove is the story of Milly Theale, a naïve, doomed American heiress, and a pair of lovers, Kate Croy and Merton Densher, who conspire to obtain her fortune. In this witty tragedy of treachery, self-deception, and betrayal, Henry James weaves together three ill-fated and wholly human destinies unexpectedly linked by desire, greed, and salvation. As Amy Bloom writes in her Introduction, “The Wings of the Dove is a novel of intimacy. . . . [James] gives us passion, he gives us love in its terrible and enchanting forms.” Views: 500
Blind Man\'s Lantern is presented here in a high quality paperback edition. This popular classic work by Allen Kim Lang is in the English language, and may not include graphics or images from the original edition. If you enjoy the works of Allen Kim Lang then we highly recommend this publication for your book collection. Views: 498
*"The father of African literature in the English language and undoubtedly one of the most important writers of the second half of the twentieth century." --Caryl Phillips, The Observer
*Chinua Achebe's award-winning poems are marked by a subtle richness and the political acuity and moral vision that are a signature of all of his work. Focused and powerful, and suffused with wisdom and compassion, Collected Poems is further evidence of this great writer's sublime gifts and it is an essential part of the oeuvre of a giant of world literature.
** Views: 498
A young boy, Eli, goes to high school. He constantly has to deal with the pain of a heartbreak and deals with the troubles and pains of it.Nyx's little brother Atalo is a monster. After he assaults her with a banana, pages from her most precious book are ruined. The book is all the girl has left of her estranged father. Upset at how her feelings are disregarded by her family, the eleven-year-old tries to repair the damage, only to realize that perhaps it isn't the book she's really so upset about...An Eikasia prelude about love and family. Views: 498
You remember that you were puzzled when I told you I had heard something from the owls—or if not puzzled (for I know you have some experience of these things), you were at any rate anxious to know exactly how it happened. Perhaps the time has now come for you to be told. Views: 498
The Eclective is a group of authors dedicated to the premise that The Story is The Thing, and classifications of genre are mostly a matter for bookshelves. While the following stories share a "Haunting" theme, they might variously be filed as Horror, Paranormal, Fantasy, YA, etc., or anything else. Our idea is that the story itself is more important than the label."Empty Vessel" by M. Edward McNally: Captain Wil has command of his own ship, the respect of his crew, and his wife is expecting their first child. But at sea, the winds always become calm just before the storm breaks."The Smell of Death" by Tara West: Maggie's unusual powers bring new threats to her already troubled childhood."Safe" by Emma Jameson: In Victorian London, a grave robber makes a nice living off the dead, until he opens the wrong crypt."Soulfully Sweet" by Shéa MacLeod: As if helping the living isn't enough of a pain in her divine hindquarters, Branwen (former goddess of love and beauty) is stuck helping the dead on All Hallow's Eve."May I Go Play?" by Heather Marie Adkins: Micah inherits a southern mansion where ancestors long dead relive their violent deaths. And now, they want company..."Blehdward, the Vampire who Couldn't Sparkle" by Pj Jones: Blehdward desperately wants to fit in with the cool vamps. If only he could learn how to sparkle."Franscesca" by Alan Nayes: Break a promise to a feiticeira and you will live to regret it."Soul Eaters" by R.G. Porter: Kaitlyn never believed in the existence of other worlds. Now she's in the middle of one where humans aren't the hunters but the hunted.The Eclective is a group of authors dedicated to the premise that The Story is The Thing, and classifications of genre are mostly a matter for bookshelves. While the following stories share a "Haunting" theme, they might variously be filed as Horror, Paranormal, Fantasy, YA, etc., or anything else. Our idea is that the story itself is more important than whatever label somebody feels like giving it, and by bringing our work together in collections like this one, we hope readers may find a story they might like. Even if it is not in "their" genre. Views: 497
A Princess on the run… *
Just once, Princess Merriam would like to make her own choices, but independence is in short supply when your father, the king, is of the royal opinion that princesses are for looking pretty and being obedient. When she overhears him talking to her broody, sexy, and oh-so-aloof bodyguard about her future wedding, a surprise to her as she’s not currently engaged to anyone, she plots her first rebellion: slip past her protection detail in NYC and board a tourist bus bound for Camp Firefly Falls where she plans to spend the week incognito as a normal twenty-something looking for love during Singles’ Week.
A Duke in pursuit… *
Harmon Maxwell , Duke of Carlisle and Commander of the Royal Palace Guard has no patience for spoiled little rich girls who think security is a game. The tempting princess has tormented his dreams for years, but he’s a man of honor and duty, and he intends to bring the reckless beauty to heel until a real threat to her safety means a week at camp might be the safest place for her. It’s his duty to keep her in close protection, and that means she only gets one suitor during Singles’ Week: him.
Views: 496
Scotland, Yule Eve, 1260.A Viking raider with mysterious powers brings change to little Clan Kilbirnie, especially to the chieftain’s daughter Rhona.Scotland, Yule Eve, 1260.A Viking raider with mysterious powers brings change to little Clan Kilbirnie, especially to the chieftain’s daughter Rhona. Views: 495
From the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature and author of the Cairo trilogy, comes Akhenaten, a fascinating work of fiction about the most infamous pharaoh of ancient Egypt.
In this beguiling new novel, originally published in 1985 and now appearing for the first time in the United States, Mahfouz tells with extraordinary insight the story of the "heretic pharaoh," or "sun king,"--and the first known monotheistic ruler--whose iconoclastic and controversial reign during the 18th Dynasty (1540-1307 B.C.) has uncanny resonance with modern sensibilities. Narrating the novel is a young man with a passion for the truth, who questions the pharaoh's contemporaries after his horrible death--including Akhenaten's closest friends, his most bitter enemies, and finally his enigmatic wife, Nefertiti--in an effort to discover what really happened in those strange, dark days at Akhenaten's court. As our narrator and each of the subjects he interviews contribute their version of Akhenaten, "the truth" becomes increasingly evanescent. Akhenaten encompasses all of the contradictions his subjects see in him: at once cruel and empathic, feminine and barbaric, mad and divinely inspired, his character, as Mahfouz imagines him, is eerily modern, and fascinatingly ethereal. An ambitious and exceptionally lucid and accessible book, Akhenaten is a work only Mahfouz could render so elegantly, so irresistibly.
From the Trade Paperback edition. Views: 494
As part of the Louis L'Amour's Lost Treasures series, this edition contains exclusive bonus materials! Louis L'Amour has been best known for his ability to capture the spirit and drama of the authentic American West. Now he guides his readers to an even more distant frontier—the enthralling lands of the twelfth century. Warrior, lover, and scholar, Kerbouchard is a daring seeker of knowledge and fortune bound on a journey of enormous challenge, danger, and revenge. Across Europe, over the Russian steppes, and through the Byzantine wonders of Constantinople, Kerbouchard is thrust into the treacheries, passions, violence, and dazzling wonders of a magnificent time. From castle to slave galley, from sword-racked battlefields to a princess's secret chamber, and ultimately, to the impregnable fortress of the Valley of Assassins, The Walking Drum is a powerful adventure in an ancient world that you will find every bit as riveting... Views: 493
"Oates's introduction to Akashic's noir volume dedicated to the Garden State, with its evocative definition of the genre, is alone worth the price of the book . . . Poems by C.K. Williams, Paul Muldoon, and others--plus photos by Gerald Slota--enhance this distinguished entry."
-- Publishers Weekly
"It was inevitable that this fine noir series would reach New Jersey. It took longer than some readers might have wanted, but, oh boy, was it worth the wait . . . More than most of the entries in the series, this volume is about mood and atmosphere more than it is about plot and character . . . It should go without saying that regular readers of the noir series will seek this one out, but beyond that, the book also serves as a very good introduction to what is a popular but often misunderstood term and style of writing."
-- Booklist , Starred Review
"A lovingly collected assortment of tales and poems that range from the disturbing to the darkly humorous."
-- Shelf Awareness
Featuring brand-new stories (and a few poems) by: Joyce Carol Oates, Jonathan Safran Foer, Robert Pinsky, Edmund White & Michael Carroll, Richard Burgin, Paul Muldoon, Sheila Kohler, C.K. Williams, Gerald Stern, Lou Manfredo, S.A. Solomon, Bradford Morrow, Jonathan Santlofer, Jeffrey Ford, S.J. Rozan, Barry N. Malzberg & Bill Pronzini, Hirsh Sawhney, and Robert Arellano.
From the introduction by Joyce Carol Oates:
". . . The most civilized and 'decent' among us find that we are complicit with the most brutal murderers. We enter into literally unspeakable alliances--of which we dare not speak except through the obliquities and indirections of fiction, poetry, and visual art of the sort gathered here in New Jersey Noir." Views: 492
