Author of How Fiction Works James Wood has long established himself as the leading critic of his generation. With The Fun Stuff, he confirms his preeminence not only as a discerning judge, but also as one of fiction's most ardent appreciators. In these twenty-three sparkling dispatches, Wood offers a panoramic look at the modern novel. He effortlessly connects his encyclopedic understanding of the literary canon-casting his eye upon such crucial writers as Thomas Hardy and Leo Tolstoy-with an equally in-depth analysis of the most important authors writing today, including Cormac McCarthy, Lydia Davis, and Aleksandar Hemon. From the brilliant title essay on Keith Moon and the lost joys of drumming to Wood's incisive piece on the writings of George Orwell, The Fun Stuff is indispensable reading for anyone who cares about contemporary literature.
Sarah Jane Beauhall thinks she's getting her life in order. The blacksmith turned dragon slayer has it all figured out-little things like dealing with the political intrigue of dragons who secretly run our world and learning to wield the magic that she has been given by none other than Odin, who has been fighting the dragons for millennia. And then there is the matter of coming to terms with who she is...and how to build a life with her partner, Katie. All these things are forced into the background, however, when a magic-wielding serial killer starts prowling the Pacific Northwest. All of his victims have ties to Sarah.Sarah will have to unravel the web she finds closing around her as a powerful necromancer and a crazed blood cult known as the Dragon Liberation Front work to tear apart everything she holds dear. Forged in Fire is the third title in J.A. Pitts's urban fantasy series
Jackie, Lettie, and Laura Beth barely survived the holidays . . . literally. Jackie's on lockdown while the hunt is on for her stalker, who somehow got into the White House and left her an ominous note. Laura Beth and Sol are finally back together after a scandal almost tore them apart, and Lettie, who's forced to live with Whitney and her gossip-mongering mom, has let down her guard enough to fall in love with Daniel. For the Capital Girls life is always complicated, especially when they're under 24-hour media scrutiny. But that won't stop the three friends from making their senior year the most amazing ever-even as the mystery deepens over Taylor Cane's death and First Son Andrew Price's role in it.
Jackie Whitman, Washington DC's "It Girl." She's drop-dead gorgeous, brilliant and dating the President's son. Under 24/7 media scrutiny, she never makes a mistake...but there's a new guy on the scene with all the right moves. Suddenly, being bad has never looked so good. Taylor Cane, blonde bombshell and wild child extraordinaire. She's the leader of the pack and the glue that binds the four of them together. Reckless adventure is her specialty, flirting with danger her drug of choice, no matter the consequences. Lettie Velasquez, she's all brains and blind ambition. Her goal: Princeton. Though money and privilege elude her, she's counting on hard work to pay off one of these days. So long as her heart doesn't lead her astray. Laura Beth Ballou, poor little rich girl and a real southern belle. She dreams of Julliard and the bright lights of Broadway. She's sweet as pie...until the new girl in town starts messing with her friends. Capital Girls forever...But when one of them dies in a mysterious accident, their once impenetrable bond is shaken. And as secrets long kept rise to the surface, the future of their friendship hangs in the balance. One thing's for certain, though: Washington DC will never be the same again.
Acclaimed as a "gifted, courageous writer"(The New York Times), Chris Adrian brings all his extraordinary talents to bear in The Great Night-a brilliant and mesmerizing retelling of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream."On Midsummer Eve 2008, three people, each on the run from a failed relationship, become trapped in San Francisco's Buena Vista Park, the secret home of Titania, Oberon, and their court. On this night, something awful is happening in the faerie kingdom: in a fit of sadness over the end of her marriage, which broke up in the wake of the death of her adopted son, Titania has set loose an ancient menace, and the chaos that ensues will threaten the lives of immortals and mortals alike. Selected by The New Yorker as one the best young writers in America, Adrian has created a singularly playful, heartbreaking, and humorous novel-a story that charts the borders between reality and dreams, love and magic, and mortality and immortality.
Late one night after interviewing a witness, Lacey Flint, a young detective constable, stumbles onto a woman brutally stabbed just moments before. Within twenty-four hours, a reporter receives an anonymous letter pointing out alarming similarities between the murder and Jack the Ripper's first murder-a letter that calls out Lacey by name. If it's real, and they have a killer bent on re-creating London's bloody past, history shows they have just five days until the next attempt.No one believes the connections are anything more than a sadistic killer's game, not even Lacey, whom the killer seems to be taunting specifically. But as the case unfolds, the details start reminding Lacey of a part of her own past she'd rather keep hidden. And the only way to do that is to catch the killer herself.Fast paced and riveting, Sharon Bolton's modern gothic novel Now You See Me is nothing less than a masterpiece of suspense fiction.
In the fall of 2005, a band of researchers cracked the code of the chimpanzee genome and provided a startling new window into the differences between humans and our closest primate cousins. For the past several years, acclaimed Science reporter Jon Cohen has been following the DNA hunt, as well as eye-opening new studies in ape communication, human evolution, disease, diet, and more.In Almost Chimpanzee, Cohen invites us on a captivating scientific journey, taking us behind the scenes in cutting-edge genetics labs, rain forests in Uganda, sanctuaries in Iowa, experimental enclaves in Japan, even the Detroit Zoo. Along the way, he ferries fresh chimp sperm for a time-sensitive analysis, gets greeted by pant-hoots and chimp feces, and investigates an audacious attempt to breed a "humanzee." Cohen offers a fresh and often frankly humorous insider's tour of the latest research, which promises to lead to everything from insights about the unique ways our bodies work to shedding light on stubborn human-only problems, ranging from infertility and asthma to speech disorders. And in the end, Cohen explains why it's time to move on from Jane Goodall's plea that we focus on how the two species are alike and turns to examining why our differences matter in vital ways-for understanding humans and for increasing the chances to save the endangered chimpanzee.
When the wife of renowned art critic Daniel Lichtmann plunges to her death, she is not alone. Lying next to her is Benjamin Wind, the very artist Daniel most championed. Dedicating himself to uncovering the secrets of their relationship, Daniel discovers a web of mysteries leading back to pre--World War II Vienna. Ambitious, haunting, and stunningly written, The Marriage Artist is an "elaborate psycho-political-sexual puzzle, with...hard truths, startling visions, and eerie insights into the mystical and memorializing powers of art, and that endless hunger we call love" (Booklist).
Autumn: Disintegration is the penultimate chapter in David Moody's riveting horror series!Forty days have passed since the world died. Billions of corpses walk the Earth. Everything is disintegrating. . . . A group of eleven men and women have survived against the odds. On an almost daily basis, they attack the dead with brutal ferocity, tearing through them with utter contempt.Somewhere nearby, out of sight and out of earshot, is another group that has adopted a completely different survival strategy. Where the others have used brutality and strength, these people have demonstrated subtlety, planning, and tactics.A series of horrific events force the two groups together. Backed into a corner and surrounded by hundreds of thousands of corpses, they all know that their final battle with the dead is about to begin.
Even life in the greatest city in the world can sometimes feel like a little too much. For this New Yorker, running away to the Heartland may be just the antidote. When New York City native Desirée Christian-Cohen flees her sometime-boyfriend, unhappy mother, Nina (who's recently learned her soon-to-be ex-husband Patrick is gay), and failing grandfather, she picks the flight plan by randomly dropping her finger on a map and hitting: Honey Creek, Kansas, population 1,623. And if being a "tourist" in Honey Creek weren't noticeable enough, try hanging out in the Sweet Tooth luncheonette, where you're referred to as "half a Jew." Wary of , but wanting to, fit in with the local populace, Desirée is forced to defend herself and define herself in a world that feels vastly different from her own. Her Yale boyfriends were never like Bobby McVicar, the son of two ageing hippies, who finds all he needs in his pinprick of a hometown. And never-even as an only child of typically doting Manhattan parents-has anyone paid so much attention to Desirée.Over one surprising, transformative and sometimes very funny summer, Desirée Christian-Cohen, member-in-good-standing of the Self Esteem Generation, discovers how an impulsive escape from home and family turns out to be much more than that.
Dr. Lauren Wagner was a celebrity. She was involved with the most exciting adventure mankind had ever undertaken: a manned expedition to Mars. The whole world admired and respected her.But Lauren knew fear. Inside-voices entreating her to love them. Outside-the mystery of the missing group that had gone before her. The dead group.But were they simply dead? Or something else? A haunting and unforgettable blend of science fiction, fantasy, horror, and suspense from one of America's bestselling writers. A novel you won't soon forget.
In the first volume of her autobiography, "The Sun in the Morning, "M.M. Kaye detailed the first eighteen years of her life in India and England and introduced readers to her love affair with India. She brought to life its people, scents, vibrant colors, and breathtaking landscapes. In the second volume, "Golden Afternoon, "she happily returned to her beloved India after years in a British boarding school. New to the glories of the Delhi social season, M.M. Kaye recounted her delightful exploits as a vivacious young woman in Raj society.
"My Grandfather's Gallery tells Paul Rosenberg's story in bits and pieces that construct a life and a legend through association . . . A detailed and important record of twentieth century art."-The Boston GlobeOn September 20, 1940, one of the most famous European art dealers disembarked in New York, one of hundreds of Jewish refugees fleeing Vichy France. Leaving behind his beloved Paris gallery, Paul Rosenberg had managed to save his family, but his paintings--modern masterpieces by the likes of Cézanne, Monet, and Sisley--were not so fortunate. As he fled, dozens of works were seized by Nazi forces, and the art dealer's own legacy was eradicated.More than half a century later, Anne Sinclair uncovered a box filled with letters. "Curious in spite of myself," she writes, "I plunged into these archives, in search of the story of my family. To find out who my mother's father really was." Drawing on Rosenberg's intimate correspondence with Picasso, Matisse, Braque, and others, My Grandfather's Gallery takes us through the life of a legendary member of the Parisian art scene. Rosenberg's story is emblematic of millions of Jews, rich and poor, whose lives were indelibly altered by World War II, and Sinclair's journey to reclaim it paints a picture that reframes the history of twentieth-century art.
For six dreadful months, David Corstorphine has tried to come to terms with his young wife's death, while caring for his three motherless children. Try as he may, David is unable to return to work, and his only form of solace comes from working in the garden of his parents' estate in the Scottish countryside.Dispatched unexpectedly to New York, David's family hopes that the impromptu business trip will help him get back on his feet. But the journey proves both disastrous and heartening. David finds himself settling in comfortably among the strangers of a seaside Long Island town, and takes a job as a gardener. But it is the people he meets, the pain he confronts, and the joy he is able to once again experience that prove to be magically transformative-- and as David learns to accept his enormous loss, he is able to open his heart to love once again.Writing with deep sensitivity to human frailty, desires and joys that readers of his mother, Rosamunde Pilcher, have come to cherish, Robin Pilcher's An Ocean Apart will be embraced by generations of readers now and in years to come.
Celebrate life's journeys with the beloved author whose stories of life and love have touched the world.With her evocative bestsellers The Shell Seekers and Coming Home, Rosamunde Pilcher opened your heart to the extraordinary powers of love, heartbreak, and joy. Now she invites you to share the full spectrum of life's moods and emotions through her very first collection of stories. From a child's first knowledge of death, through city and country, to an elderly woman's newfound freedom, The Blue Bedroom is a welcoming experience full of the honesty and warmth unique to Rosamunde Pilcher.
In time for the 75th anniversary of the Man of Steel, comes the first comprehensive literary biography of Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel, creators of the DC Comics superhero Superman and the inspiration for Michael Chabon's Kavalier and Clay Drawing on ten years of research in the trenches of Cleveland libraries, boarded-up high schools, and secret, private collections, and a love of comic books, Brad Ricca's Super Boys is the first ever full biography about Superman's creators. Among scores of new discoveries, the book reveals the first stories and pictures ever published by the two, where the first Superman story really came from, the real inspiration for Lois Lane, the template for Superman's costume, and much, much more. Super Boys also tracks the boys' unknown, often mysterious lives after they left Superman, including Siegel's secret work during World War II and never-before-seen work from Shuster.Super Boys explains, finally, what exactly happened with the infamous check for $130 that pulled Superman away from his creators-and gave control of the character to the publisher. Ricca also uncovers the true nature of Jerry's father's death, a crime that has always remained a mystery. Super Boys is the story of a long friendship between boys who grew to be men and the standard that would be impossible for both of them to live up to.
A tender story about the power of love in the face of loss Nine-year-old Claudine doesn't want to leave her much-loved home in France to go live in America, not without her parents. But she knows about the shortages, about the yellow stars Jews must wear, and about Adolf Hitler. And she knows that there are some things she needs to do even when she doesn't want to. It's wartime, and there is much that is different now. There are more things that Claudine will lose to this terrible war. But not everything that is lost must be lost forever. Here is a moving story about lost and found lives, and the healing power of love.
Kelly Killoren Bensimon has done it all when it comes to nutrition and her body: eaten too little as a model, gobbled too much of the wrong things in her twenties, and fed her body just right but not-quite-satisfyingly when she was pregnant. On the eve of turning 40, Kelly knew she had to figure it out fast: how and what to eat to keep her body beautiful. An enthusiastic outdoorswoman and involved mom, Kelly discovered that eating-really eating-is the key. I Can Make You Hot! collects the diet and nutrition secrets she researched and tested and still uses herself, including:-how to train yourself to never (never!) skip a meal-load up on food, real food (not bars, powders, or fake stuff)-Kelly's 7 Day Diet for maximum power at your peak energy-draining times-don't be afraid of a giant carb-y lunch-how to lose 3 to 5 pounds fast but smart-how to satisfy your cravings without sabotaging a strong, healthy body-why you should learn to love foods you've been brainwashed into fearing (such as dairy and eggs)I Can Make You Hot! takes you all the way to a lean, strong, realistic body with 60 recipes for Kelly's favorite dishes, from Thai Chicken Noodle Salad to Mom's Irish Soda Bread to Kelly Green Salad and Pineapple Fried Rice (and don't forget the Tipsy Gummi Martini!). And the book is loaded with bonus "hot tips", from why jeans in a smaller size make you look thinner (really!) to the spicy foods that are instant metabolism boosters.I Can Make You Hot! is like rooming with a supermodel and going on a diet together: Kelly wants you to be.....HOT!
The Biographical Dictionary of Popular Music is an incredible and opinionated collection of celebrated cultural critic Dylan Jones's thoughts on more than 350 of the most important artists around the world-alive and dead, big and small, at length and in brief. This A to Z reference is the true musical heir to David Thomson's seminal The New Biographical Dictionary of Popular Film. Jones writes entertainingly about bands that have inspired, bedeviled, and fascinated him over the years.
"Not only a fascinating travelogue but also a personal meditation on loss and fate...There is a wealth to discover within these pages."-The EconomistJournalist Sarah Murray never gave much thought to what might ultimately happen to her remains-until her father died. Puzzled by the choices he made about the disposal of his "organic matter," she embarks on a series of journeys to discover how death is commemorated in different cultures. Her travels lead her to discover everything from a Czech chandelier of human bones and a weeping ceremony in Iran to a Philippine village where the casketed dead hang in caves.Fascinating, poignant, and often funny, Making an Exit is Murray's exploration of the ways in which we seek to dignify the dead-and a deeply personal quest for a final send-off of her own.
A rich, luminous novel of three remarkable women connected across a century by a family secret and by the fierce brilliance of their love Samantha's mother has been dead almost a year when the box arrives on her doorstep. In it, she finds recipe cards, keepsakes, letters-relics of her mother Iris's past. But as Sam sifts through these family treasures, she uncovers evidence that her grandmother, Violet, had a much more difficult childhood then she could have ever imagined. And Sam, a struggling new mother herself, begins to see her own burdens in a completely different light. Moving from the tempered calm of contemporary Madison, Wisconsin to the seedy underbelly of early twentieth century New York, we come face to face with a haunting piece of America's past: From 1854 to 1929 orphan trains from New York transported 150,000 to 200,000 destitute, orphaned or abandoned children across the country to find homes on farms in the Midwest. Rae Meadows takes us on our own journey of discovery in Mercy Train (originally published as Mothers & Daughters), an affecting and wonderfully woven novel about three generations of motherhood, family, and the surprising sacrifices we make for the people we love.
A fantasy masterpiece from a five-time Hugo Award winner!A war-dragon of Babel crashes in the idyllic fields of a post-industrialized Faerie and, dragging himself into the nearest village, declares himself king and makes young Will his lieutenant. Nightly, he crawls inside the young fey's brain to get a measure of what his subjects think. Forced out of his village, Will travels with female centaur soldiers, witnesses the violent clash of giants, and acquires a surrogate daughter, Esme, who has no knowledge of the past and may be immortal. Evacuated to the Tower of Babel--infinitely high, infinitely vulgar, very much like New York City--Will meets the confidence trickster Nat Whilk. Inside the Dread Tower, Will becomes a hero to the homeless living in the tunnels under the city, rises as an underling to a haint politician, meets his one true love-a high-elven woman he dare not aspire to. You've heard of hard SF: This is hard fantasy from a master of the form.
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