17009–17024 di 74503 risultati

The Camel Club

EDITORIAL REVIEW: The man known as Oliver Stone has no official past. He spends most days camped opposite the White House, hoping to expose corruption wherever he finds it. But the stakes are raised when he and his friends, a group of conspiracy theorist misfits known as The Camel Club, accidentally witness the murder of an intelligence analyst. Especially when the authorities are seemingly happy to write it off as a suicide. For Secret Service agent Alex Ford, monitoring the ‘investigation’, the suicide verdict doesn’t ring true. As punishment for sticking his nose where it doesn’t belong, he is reassigned to bodyguard duties. His abilities are tested to the limit when he is sent to protect the President during a visit to his hometown, where a terrorist cell has spent months plotting an event that will shake the world. Meanwhile, America’s powerful intelligence chief Carter Gray is unnerved when he glimpses the face of an old acquaintance in Arlington Cemetery – but it is the face of a man supposedly long dead …And as “The Camel Club” is poised to expose a conspiracy that reaches into the heart of Washington’s highly secretive corridors of power, Alex Ford finds out that his worst nightmare is about to happen .

The Call of Kerberos: Twilight of Kerberos

SUMMARY: Within the call of Kerberos, lies the destiny of humankind!Silus is a fisherman working the Nurn Coast, a simple man leading a simple life. But there is more to Silus than even he himself realises. When a mysterious man on the run from the Final Faith tries to persuade Silus on an extraordinary voyage, his world begins to change. And when an ancient and evil race burts from the sea to try and claim Silus as one of their own, he is forced to flee his home. Soon Silus becomes a pawn in a deadly game played between ancient races. On the forbidding Twilight seas, Silus begins to discover the extraordinary truth behinf his burgeoning preternatural abilities. As he battles alongside the crew of the magical galleon the Llothriall, Silus will find out more about his legacy than he could ever have imagined. Hearing the call of Kerberos, he will fight to save existence itself!

The Cabal

The Cabal (Book 14 in the McGarvey series) (2010) In Washington, CIA operative Todd Van Buren meets with a Washington Post investigative reporter who has uncovered strong evidence that a powerful lobbyist has formed a shadowy group called the Friday Club, a cabal whose members include high-ranking men inside the government: a White House adviser, a three star general at the Pentagon, deputy secretaries at the State Department, Homeland Security, the FBI and even the CIA. That afternoon Van Buren, son-in-law of the legendary spy Kirk McGarvey, is brutally gunned down.and that evening, the reporter and his family are killed, all traces of the shadow group erased. A grief stricken McGarvey is drawn into the most far-reaching and bizarre investigation of his career, the stakes of which could destabilize the US government and shake the foundations of the world financial order.

The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism

The gap between rich and poor has never been wider . . . legislative stalemate paralyzes the country . . . corporations resist federal regulations . . . spectacular mergers produce giant companies . . . the influence of money in politics deepens . . . bombs explode in crowded streets . . . small wars proliferate far from our shores . . . a dizzying array of inventions speeds the pace of daily life.
These unnervingly familiar headlines serve as the backdrop for Doris Kearns Goodwin’s highly anticipated *The Bully Pulpit* —a dynamic history of the first decade of the Progressive era, that tumultuous time when the nation was coming unseamed and reform was in the air.
The story is told through the intense friendship of Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft—a close relationship that strengthens both men before it ruptures in 1912, when they engage in a brutal fight for the presidential nomination that divides their wives, their children, and their closest friends, while crippling the progressive wing of the Republican Party, causing Democrat Woodrow Wilson to be elected, and changing the country’s history.
*The Bully Pulpit* is also the story of the muckraking press, which arouses the spirit of reform that helps Roosevelt push the government to shed its laissez-faire attitude toward robber barons, corrupt politicians, and corporate exploiters of our natural resources. The muckrakers are portrayed through the greatest group of journalists ever assembled at one magazine—Ida Tarbell, Ray Stannard Baker, Lincoln Steffens, and William Allen White—teamed under the mercurial genius of publisher S. S. McClure.
Goodwin’s narrative is founded upon a wealth of primary materials. The correspondence of more than four hundred letters between Roosevelt and Taft begins in their early thirties and ends only months before Roosevelt’s death. Edith Roosevelt and Nellie Taft kept diaries. The muckrakers wrote hundreds of letters to one another, kept journals, and wrote their memoirs. The letters of Captain Archie Butt, who served as a personal aide to both Roosevelt and Taft, provide an intimate view of both men.
*The Bully Pulpit* , like Goodwin’s brilliant chronicles of the Civil War and World War II, exquisitely demonstrates her distinctive ability to combine scholarly rigor with accessibility. It is a major work of history—an examination of leadership in a rare moment of activism and reform that brought the country closer to its founding ideals.
**

The Brush-Off: A Hair-Raising Mystery

SUMMARY: Make an appointment for intrigue at Reyn Marten Sawyer’s hair salon! Outrageous, flirtatious, and as colorful as a magenta mohawk, Reyn tracks twisted crimes, untangles tight knots, and never, ever leaves loose ends. Someone clearly meant business when they targeted San Antonio’s hair salon king, Ricardo, who was fatally stabbed with a one-of-a-kind weapon: a sharp plastic hair pick. Reyn had loaned Ricardo the tool — and now she’s not only mourning her friend and mentor’s murder: she’s also a suspect. And in the eyes of sexy detective Jackson Scythe, she’s one alluring stylist who should drop her insistent sleuthing like a hot roller. But Reyn’s wound a little too tight to stay out of the thick of things, including teasing and taming the stubbornly single Scythe while taking short cuts to catch a killer — and uncovering the past of a dead man, whose secrets will make Reyn’s hair curl….

The Broom of the System

EDITORIAL REVIEW: Published when Wallace was just twenty-four years old, *The Broom of the System* stunned critics and marked the emergence of an extraordinary new talent. At the center of this outlandishly funny, fiercely intelligent novel is the bewitching heroine, Lenore Stonecipher Beadsman. The year is 1990 and the place is a slightly altered Cleveland, Ohio. Lenore’s great-grandmother has disappeared with twenty-five other inmates of the Shaker Heights Nursing Home. Her beau, and boss, Rick Vigorous, is insanely jealous, and her cockatiel, Vlad the Impaler, has suddenly started spouting a mixture of psycho- babble, Auden, and the King James Bible. Ingenious and entertaining, this debut from one of the most innovative writers of his generation brilliantly explores the paradoxes of language, storytelling, and reality.

The Bronze Axe

The first book in the Richard Blade series (1969) Blasted into a fantastic new world, Richard Blade woke at the feet of a strange and beautiful woman, Taleen, Princess of Voth. Running for her life from the savage Albs who had kidnapped her. Without clothes or weapons of any kind, Blade was in trouble himself – but the seductive Taleen needed help… Strange experiences were nothing new to Blade, but he was ill-prepared for his trial by fire and sword, the secret cannibal rites of the Drus, the unquenchable lusts of the evil Queen Beata, and the maddening teasing of the virgin Taleen.

The bread lover’s bread machine cookbook: a master baker’s 300 favorite recipes for perfect-every-time bread, from every kind of machine

From Publishers Weekly

Unlike electric ice cream makers and pasta machines, the bread machine hasn’t really enjoyed wholehearted acceptance in the culinary world. There are hordes of enthusiasts, no question about it, but many who consider themselves serious bakers look upon the machine with a skeptical eye. However, the newer generation of machines turns out excellent bread, and after being bombarded with know-how by this James Beard Award-winning writer, even the most reluctant may be inspired to give it a go. The book opens with an excellent orientation to both the machine and the basics of bread making. Step-by-step instructions are given for a few basic loaves. (Less helpful is a “what went wrong” section, which displays a firm grasp of the obvious.) The 300-plus recipes are so far-ranging it’s hard to believe a bread exists that isn’t included here. There are white breads and sourdoughs, all manner of whole wheat and grain breads and breads featuring nuts and dried fruits, cheese and savory flavorings. There are crusty ciabattas, a sturdy Irish Potato Brown Bread and a variety of challahs. Hensperger also includes dozens of sweet breads, including croissants, coffee cakes and traditional holiday confections. There are recipes for pizza and flatbreads, as well as selections from a variety of traditions, from Alsatian kugelhopf to Zuni Indian bread. She even offers instructions for using bread machines to make pasta, jams and chutneys. By the end, Hensperger (The Bread Bible, etc.) will have convinced readers that it’s time to overcome any qualms and get to work. The bread machine is here to stay. (Aug.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Hensperger’s smaller quick breads book includes 100 recipes from her earlier Art of Quick Breads, now out of print, as well as 50 new ones. In addition to quick loaves, both sweet and savory, there are waffles, dumplings, biscuits, popovers, and a variety of other easy baked goods, along with some tasty accompaniments, such as the Fruit Salsa for her Hopi Blue Corn Hotcakes. For most collections.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The brazen gambit

Pavek of Urik, templar of Hamanu and lower-level bureaucrat, has grown accustomed to the benefits of his station. Neither aggressive nor rebellious, he accepts his position, follows orders, and doesn’t usually ask questions. Then one day he uncovers a far-reaching conspiracy that permeates all of Urik, even the ranks of his templar superiors, and now he is on the run. Forced to flee the comforts of his station, Pavek must take to the desert in search of a new way of life and a new system of beliefs, or meet death in the blood-soaked alleys of Urik at the hands of those he used to trust.

The Boy with the Cuckoo-Clock Heart

SUMMARY: FIRSTLY: don’t touch the hands of your cuckoo-clock heart. SECONDLY: master your anger. THIRDLY: never, ever fall in love. For if you do, the hour hand will poke through your skin, your bones will shatter, and your heart will break once more.Edinburgh, 1874. Born with a frozen heart, Jack is near death when his mother abandons him to the care of Dr. Madeleine—witch doctor, midwife, protector of orphans—who saves Jack by placing a cuckoo clock in his chest. And it is in her orphanage that Jack grows up among tear-filled flasks, eggs containing memories, and a man with a musical spine.As Jack gets older, Dr. Madeleine warns him that his heart is too fragile for strong emotions: he must never, ever fall in love. And, of course, this is exactly what he does: on his tenth birthday and with head-over-heels abandon. The object of his ardor is Miss Acacia—a bespectacled young street performer with a soul-stirring voice. But now Jack’s life is doubly at risk—his heart is in danger and so is his safety after he injures the school bully in a fight for the affections of the beautiful singer.Now begins a journey of escape and pursuit, from Edinburgh to Paris to Miss Acacia’s home in Andalusia. Mathias Malzieu’s The Boy with the Cuckoo-Clock Heart is a fantastical, wildly inventive tale of love and heartbreak—by turns poignant and funny—in which Jack finally learns the great joys, and ultimately the greater costs, of owning a fully formed heart.

The box garden

SUMMARY: Charleen, a divorced woman attending her widowed mother’s second wedding, makes startling discoveries about other family members attending the reunion and achieves a new understanding of herself and her own life. Reprint.

The Bourne Objective

SUMMARY: Facing down mercenaries in Africa, Jason Bourne witnesses the death of an art dealer named Tracy Atherton. Her killing dredges up snatches of Bourne’s impaired memory, in particular the murder of a young woman on Bali who entrusted him with a strangely engraved ring – an artifact of such powerful significance that people have killed to obtain it. Now he’s determined to find the ring’s owner and purpose. But Bourne never knows what terrible acts he’ll discover he committed when he digs into the past.

The Bourne Objective

SUMMARY: Facing down mercenaries in Africa, Jason Bourne witnesses the death of an art dealer named Tracy Atherton. Her killing dredges up snatches of Bourne’s impaired memory, in particular the murder of a young woman on Bali who entrusted him with a strangely engraved ring – an artifact of such powerful significance that people have killed to obtain it. Now he’s determined to find the ring’s owner and purpose. But Bourne never knows what terrible acts he’ll discover he committed when he digs into the past.

The Book of Three

EDITORIAL REVIEW: **The Newbery-winning fantasy series now available in gorgeous new paperback editions!** Since *The Book of Three* was first published in 1964, young readers have been enthralled by the adventures of Taran the Assistant Pig-Keeper and his quest to become a hero. Taran is joined by an engaging cast of characters that includes Eilonwy, the strong-willed and sharp-tongued princess; Fflewddur Fflam, the hyperbole-prone bard; the ever-faithful Gurgi; and the curmudgeonly Doli—all of whom have become involved in an epic struggle between good and evil that shapes the fate of the legendary land of Prydain. Released over a period of five years, Lloyd Alexander’s beautifully written tales not only captured children’s imaginations but also garnered the highest critical praise. *The Black Cauldron* was a Newbery Honor Book, and the final volume in the chronicles, *The High King*, crowned the series by winning the Newbery Medal for “the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children.” Henry Holt is proud to present this classic series in a new, redesigned paperback format. The jackets feature stunning art by acclaimed fantasy artist David Wyatt, giving the books a fresh look for today’s generation of young fantasy lovers. The companion book of short stories, *The Foundling* is also available in paperback at this time. In their more than thirty years in print, the Chronicles of Prydain have become the standard of excellence in fantasy literature for children.

The book of other people

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. “The instruction was simple: make somebody up,” explains novelist Smith in her introduction to this marvelous compendium of 23 distinct, pungent stories that attack the question of “character” from all angles. From David Mitchell’s hilarious rendering of one menopausal woman’s fantasy internet love-affair to ZZ Packer’s heart-wrenching Jewish guy-black girl romance, each story is, as Smith puts it, “its own thing entirely.” There are moments of prosaic precision (Andrew O’Hagan’s eerily incisive “Gordon” is introduced “in the talcum-powdered air of the bathroom muttering calculations and strange moral sums about the cause of Hamlet’s unhappiness”), but this volume is more than a showcase for deft prose and quirky souls. Toby Litt’s lovely, lyrical “Monster,” for example, playfully upends notions of personhood, as does Dave Eggers’ surprising “Theo,” a moving tale of a mountain who falls in love. Also on hand are a number of wonderful graphic shorts: Daniel Clowe shrewdly explores an insufferable critic’s solipsistic lapses, Nick Hornby’s “A Writing Life” gives a knowing wink with a series of writer bios and mock headshots, and “Jordan Wellington Lint” by Chris Ware cleverly chronicles the first 13 years of its hero’s life. With so much to savor-the sensuality of Adam Thirlwell’s “Nigora,” the knowingness of George Saunder’s “Puppy”-this anthology will sate even the most famished short story fan. Sales benefit Eggers’s nonprofit literary organization 826 NYC.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

“…But just when you’re ready to howl in frustration at the anthologification of the book world-_I’ve seen the best minds of my generation, live blogging about recipes that inspire them_-along comes The Book of Other People…Other People collects 23 pieces by a who’s who of 21st-century geniuses and wunderkinds, from Dave Eggers to Edwidge Dandicat…Smith sent her contributors just one instruction: Make somebody up.”
-_USA Today_

“Truly hip.”
-_The Boston Globe_

“Whether they are old-fashioned narratives, playful improvisations or comic- strip-like tales told in pictures, these stories force us to re-evaluate that old chestnut “Character is destiny.” They remind us that an individual’s life is itself a narrative with a beginning, a middle and at least the intimations of an end. And they showcase the many time-honored techniques that writers use to limn their characters’ predicaments, from straight-up ventriloquism to the use of unreliable narrators to a “Rashomon”-like splitting of perspectives.”
-Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

“From its strange, graphic-novelesque cover-an array of cartoonish sketches of odd-looking faces in profile, stacked like ladder rungs-to its uncommonly eye- catching lineup of contributors, “The Book of Other People,” a 2008 paperback from Penguin Books, is extraordinary.”
-_Charlotte Observer_

“If you only read one book, make it this dazzling selection of short stories…”
-Eve Magazine UK

“…Some of the wittiest and wisest stories you’ll read all year…”
-Elle UK

“Character provides the thematic key to these stories, all new to this collection, from some of our finest younger contemporary fiction writers.

Editor and contributor Smith (On Beauty, 2005, etc.) invited 22 other authors, many of them (like her) better known for novels than short fiction, to write a story inspired by the creation of a character. “The instruction was simple,” she writes in her introduction, “make somebody up.” Yet the stories correspond to no consensus about the role of character in fiction, or a return to realism, or the responsibility of fiction to mirror society. To the contrary, what Smith believes the stories show is that “there are as many ways to create ‘character’ (or deny the possibility of ‘character’) as there are writers.” The title of each story comes from the name of a character or type (“The Monster”) with the selections sequenced alphabetically. Many of the writers, including Smith, come from the McSweeney’s and/or Believer literary circle (Dave Eggers, Vendela Vida, Heidi Julavits, Chris Ware, Nick Hornby et al.) and most of the contributions range from the short to the very short (Toby Litt’s “The Monster” is a four-page paragraph). With proceeds benefiting 826 New York (a nonprofit organization for the inspiration and development of student writing), none of the writers were paid for their work, with the results sometimes more playful (and occasionally slighter) than one has come to expect from them. Jonathan Lethem’s Dickensian titled “Perkus Tooth” offers a hilarious dismissal of rock critics. A.L. Kennedy’s “Frank” provides an existential parable about a man who isn’t who he thinks he is. Though many of the stories have a first-person perspective, the narrator is rarely the title character, and some of the challenge for the reader can be determining whom a story is really about. In Colm T~ib”n’s “Donal Webster,” the name of the title character is never even mentioned, leaving the reader to guess who is addressing whom.

While the quality inevitably varies, the spirit of the anthology is that reading should be fun rather than work. -_Kirkus Reviews_

The Book of Fires

SUMMARY: A stunning historical novel, ‘The Book of Fires’ is the unforgettable story of Agnes Trussel ‘ and love, fireworks and redemption.Brought up in rural Sussex, seventeen-year-old Agnes Trussel is carrying an unwanted child. Taking advantage of the death of her elderly neighbour, Agnes steals her savings and runs away to London. On her way she encounters the intriguing Lettice Talbot who promises that she will help Agnes upon their arrival. But Agnes soon becomes lost in the dark, labyrinthine city. She ends up at the household of John Blacklock, laconic firework-maker, becoming his first female assistant.The months pass and it becomes increasingly difficult for Agnes to conceal her secret. Soon she meets Cornelius Soul, seller of gunpowder, and hatches a plan which could save her from ruin. Yet why does John Blacklock so vehemently disapprove of Mr Soul? And what exactly is he keeping from her? Could the housekeeper, Mrs Blight, with her thirst for accounts of hangings, suspect her crime or condition?Historical fiction at its very best, ‘The Book of Fires’ is utterly intriguing, completely compelling and impossible to put down.