Best of
Roman

2001

Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club


Harold Bloom - 2001
    Presents the most important 20th-century criticism on major works from The Odyssey through modern literature.The critical essays reflect a variety of schools of criticism.Contains critical biographies, notes on the contributing critics, a chronology of the author's life, and an index.Introductory essay by Harold Bloom.

Meet Me Under the Ombu Tree


Santa Montefiore - 2001
    All, that is, except her Irish mother, Anna, who punishes her daughter for her own sense of alienation and inadequacy while doting on her sons.When a horrified Anna discovers that Sofia has embarked on a passionate love affair that can only bring shame upon the family, she sends Sofia away to Europe, inadvertently exiling her from her family and the man she loves for over twenty years. And then a family tragedy calls Sofia home.Following the story of the Solanas family in Argentina during the tumultous years of political upheaval, and Sofia's life in exile, MEET ME UNDER THE OMBU TREE is a moving, evocative and unforgettable story of love and forgiveness from a brilliant new voice.

The Pursuit of Happiness


Douglas Kennedy - 2001
    The war was over, and Eric Smythe's party was in full swing. All his clever Greenwich Village friends were there. So too was his sister Sara -- an independent, canny young woman, starting to make her way in the big city. And then in walked a gatecrasher, Jack Malone -- a U. S. Army journalist just back from a defeated Germany, and a man whose world-view did not tally with that of Eric and his friends. Set amidst the dynamic optimism of postwar New York and the subsequent nightmare of the McCarthy witch-hunts, The Pursuit of Happiness is a great tragic love story; a tale of divided loyalties, decisive moral choices, and the random workings of destiny.

The Stanislaski Series Collection Volume 2: Convincing Alex / Waiting for Nick / Considering Kate


Nora Roberts - 2001
    When she meets the sexy detective Alex Stanislaski she decides to follow him around to get "ideas" for her show. Nick is absolutely perfect for her research…and maybe for herself as well. WAITING FOR NICK Frederica Kimball has three goals now that she’s moved to New York City: find her own place, become a Broadway lyricist and get Nick LeBeck to fall as desperately in love with her. Though Nick has always treated Freddie like a little sister, he can't help but notice the gorgeous woman now standing in her place. Perhaps everything he's ever wanted is closer than he could have imagined… CONSIDERING KATE Kate Stanislaski Kimball has come home to make a fresh start. The only thing more perfect than the beautiful — dilapidated — building she's bought for her new dance school is Brody O'Connell, the frustrating contractor she's hired for the renovation. As a single father, Brody is determined to resist Kate's effortless allure. But how long can a man hold out against his own heart? Originally published.

The Half Brother


Lars Saabye Christensen - 2001
    This Nordic Prize-winning novel, a truly gripping epic, relates the lives of four generations of a unique and strange family with touching intimacy and surreal comedy.Traces four generations of a family marked by the untimely birth of Fred, a misfit and boxer conceived during a devastating rape who forges an unusual friendship with his younger half-brother, Barnum.

Afghanistan, Where God Only Comes to Weep


Siba Shakib - 2001
    After the men in her family joined the resistance, she fled with the women and children to the capital, Kabul, and so began a life of day-to-day struggle in her war-torn country. A life that includes a period living in the harsh conditions of a Pakistani refugee camp, being forced into a marriage to pay off her brother's gambling debts, selling her body and begging for the money to feed her growing family, an attempted suicide, and an unsuccessful endeavour to leave Afghanistan for Iran after the Taliban seized control of her country. Told truthfully and with unflinching detail to writer and documentary-maker Siba Shakib, and incorporating some of the shocking experiences of Shirin-Gol's friends and family members, this is the story of the fate of many of the women in Afghanistan. But it is also a story of great courage, the moving story of a proud woman, a woman who did not want to be banished to a life behind the walls of her house, or told how to dress, who wanted an education for her children so that they could have a chance of a future, to live their lives without fear and poverty. .

Precious Time


Erica James - 2001
    Of course, her friends and family think she's gone mad. But when they arrive in Deaconsbridge, a small market town on the edge of the Peak District, Clara and Ned become drawn into the lives of the locals. Two in particular seem destined to get under Clara's skin—Gabriel Liberty, a cranky widower who terrifies his family, and Archie Merryman, a local dealer in second-hand furniture, who possesses a heart of gold. Then Clara finds herself having to confront a problem much closer to home, and one she had hoped she would never have to face

A Little Bit of Paris


Jean-Jacques Sempé - 2001
    His drawings are famed for their striking use of pen and ink, their inimitable style, and most of all for their satire and tragic-comic vision. The 128 drawings in this charming portfolio are sweet and sentimental. They somehow manage to be gentle even when the topic is difficult. They probe the quirkiness of life in Paris and wordlessly pinpoint the quintessential features of the City of Light, creating a world peopled by lovers strolling along the Seine, culture mavens preening in the Louvre, and characters who are ready to see the comic and the light-hearted beyond life's problems. Anyone who has fallen in love with Paris will be sure to cherish this charming keepsake.

Dream Country


Luanne Rice - 2001
    But this one had ended differently, with Sage gone from their Connecticut home the next morning, leaving behind only a brief note: ""I have to go."" Daisy tried not to overreact, tried to remind herself this was different from what had happened thirteen years earlier to Sage's twin brother, Jake. This was different from a three-year-old boy disappearing in the canyons of Wyoming, never to be found. Sage was sixteen and resourceful. She would be found. Years ago Daisy had traveled to Wyoming's Wind River Mountains in search of inspiration for her art and had found a man with the wilderness inside him. James Tucker was a rancher, bound to the wild land he loved, and together he and Daisy created a small paradise for their family--until the day their little boy vanished without a trace. Now, as their daughter makes a dangerous cross-country pilgrimage to the father she longs for, Daisy will return to the place that took everything she had.... Filled with a wild and unpredictable beauty, Dream Country""is a novel you'll never want to end--even as you can't wait to finish it. "From the Trade Paperback edition."

Empires of Sand


David Ball - 2001
    As civilizations collide around two men, a battle begins: for survival, for love, and for a destiny written in a desert's shifting sands.The year is 1870. Paris is under siege, and two boys, best friends and cousins, are swept from their life of privilege. A brutal killing forces Michel deVries — called Moussa — to flee to his mother's homeland in North Africa. A family disgrace forces Paul deVries to seek redemption in the French military. Ten years will pass before they come face-to-face again. Now Moussa has become a desert warrior and a beautiful woman's forbidden lover, while Paul leads an ill-fated French force into the Sahara. Against a breathtaking landscape of blazing sands and ancient mysteries, these two men face a struggle that will shatter lives across two continents — and force them to choose between separate dreams and shared blood....

Quadehar the Sorcerer


Erik L'Homme - 2001
    One night, Robin's potential for magic is revealed in the presence of Quadehar the Sorcerer. Robin becomes the sorcerer's apprenctice and studies the magical secrets of the craft. His talents are put to the test when he and his friends must cross into the Uncertain World to save a classmate who's been kidnapped by monsters. Will Robin's newfound knowledge help them prevail?

The Last Opium Den


Nick Tosches - 2001
    From Europe to Hong Kong to Thailand to Cambodia, he hunts the Big Smoke, bewildered by its elusiveness and, despite the meaning it continues to evoke as a cultural touchstone, its alleged extinction. Weaving his spiritual and hallucinogenic quests together with inimitable, razor-sharp prose, Tosches's trip becomes a deeper meditation on what true fulfillment is and why no one bothers to look for it any more.

Fox River


Emilie Richards - 2001
    Julia Warwick grew up amid wealth and privilege, the beautiful daughter of a legendary Virginia hunt master. A talented artist, Julia is devastated when she loses her sight after a fall from a horse - but that loss is only the beginning. When doctors say her blindness has no physical cause, her husband commits her to a clinic where she's kept a virtual prisoner - until her mother brings her back to her childhood home, along with Julia's daughter, nine-year-old Callie. But rest alone cannot heal Julia. Trapped in a darkened world and captivated by her mother's unpublished novel, "Fox River," she is beginning to see some devastating truths, both past and present - truths about her husband, her family, and a murder case from years ago in which justice went astray and lovers were torn apart. Only one question remains: Will the light of truth be strong enough to restore all that Julia has lost - her sight, her life, and her forsaken love?

Murder in the Seventh Cavalry


Robert Broomall - 2001
    Lysander goes undercover as an enlisted man to find the killer, who is believed to have been one of the officer’s men. He discovers that the vaunted Seventh Cavalry is not the elite regiment that the papers make it out to be, and that a large number of its officers and enlisted man despise their famous commander. Lysander reluctantly teams up with newspaper reporter Verity Winslow. Lysander and Verity mix like oil and water, but Verity has information that’s important to the case and she won’t share it unless Lysander agrees to let her help. As the two of them dig deeper, they start to believe that Custer may not want them to find the real killer . . .

The History of Greek Vases


John Boardman - 2001
    It provides a continuous commentary on all other Greek arts, even sculpture, and the scenes figured on the vases can prove to be as subtle and informative as the great works of Greek literature. In no other art of antiquity do we come closer to the visual experience of the ancient Greeks, or are we able to observe so clearly their views on life, myth, and even politics. John Boardman has demonstrated the stylistic history of Greek vases in other Thames Hudson titles; as he writes, the subject "is a central one to classical archaeology and art, and dare not be ignored by students of any other ancient medium, or indeed of any other classical discipline."Here Boardman sketches that history but goes on to explore many other matters that make the study so fruitful. He describes the processes of identifying artists, the methods of making and decorating the vases, the life of the potters' quarter in Greek towns, and the way in which the wares were traded far beyond the borders of the Greek world. Boardman shows how Greek artists exercised a style of narrative in art that was long influential in the West, and how their pictures reflected not simply on storytelling but also on the politics and social order of the day.

Defence Speeches


Marcus Tullius Cicero - 2001
    His speeches are masterpieces of persuasion: compellingly written, and sometimes hilariously funny. This book presents five of his most famous defences: of Roscius, falsely accused of murdering his father; of the consul-elect Murena, accused of electoral bribery; of the poet Archias, on a citizenship charge; of Caelius, ex-lover of Clodia Metelli, on charges of violence; and of Milo, for murdering Cicero's hated enemy Clodius. Cicero's clients were rarely whiter-than-white, but so seductive is his oratory that the reader cannot help taking his side. In these speeches we are plunged into some of the most exciting courtroom dramas of all time.These new translations preserve Cicero's literary artistry and emotional force, and achieve new standards of accuracy. Each speech has its own introduction discusses Cicero's public career and the criminal courts. The substantial explanatory notes guide the reader through the speeches, and offer new scholarship presented in a clear way.

The Oxford Grammar of Classical Greek


James Morwood - 2001
    With additional features such as a glossary of grammatical terms, a vocabulary list covering all the Greek words found in the main text, study tips, and practice exercises to help develop knowledge and gain confidence, this invaluable resource ensures that students have all the support they need to complement their language learning. The Oxford Grammar of Classical Greek also offers hundreds of example sentences illustrating grammatical points, an explanation of literary terms, and a guide to how Classical Greek was pronounced. The first book of grammar dedicated to Classical Greek for students in almost a century, this handy reference will replace existing Greek grammars and help students bring this ancient language to life.

Constantine and the Christian Empire


Charles Matson Odahl - 2001
    Odahl has written a fascinating account of the life and reign of the first Christian emperor of the Roman world.Drawing on over a quarter of a century of research on sources relevant to the period and retracing the journeys made by Constantine across Europe and around the Mediterranean basin, this up-to-date biography provides students with a comprehensive knowledge of literary sources and research into the archaeology of the Constantinian era, and enables a more rounded and accurate portrait than has previously been available.Illustrated with ninety-two photographs and eight maps, Constantine and the Christian Empire is the standard work on the man and his life for scholars, students, and all those interested in Roman imperial, early Christian, and Byzantine imperial history.

Rome, art & architecture


Brigitte Hintzen-Bohlen - 2001
    Three thousand years of history have left their mark on this fascinating city and made it into a unique showcase for European art. This art travel guide provides a combination of practical orientation for travelers with deeper insight into the art history of Rome and the Vatican City.

The Aliens Have Landed at Our School


Kenn Nesbitt - 2001
    Children will love the slightly screwy world of Kenn Nesbitt, with mashed potatoes on the ceiling, kangaruplets, skunks falling in love, antigravity machines, and a jillion other imaginative subjects.

Song of the Sound


Adam Armstrong - 2001
    She can provide a home for her daughter while she studies the marine creatures she loves. When she meets John-Cody Gibbs whose understanding of wildlife is so profound as to be almost magical, it seems she has found the perfect man. But John-Cody is still grieving the loss of Mahina, the woman he had loved for more than twenty years. And he has a dark secret in his past and enemies who are more than ready to use it to destroy his earthly paradise.From the Hardcover edition.

The Roman Empire from Severus to Constantine


Patricia Southern - 2001
    Yet the intervening years have traditionally been seen as a period of crisis. The 260s saw the nadir of Imperial fortunes, with every frontier threatened or overrun, the senior emperor imprisoned by the Persians, and Gaul and Palmyra breaking away from central control. It might have been thought that the empire should have collapsed - yet it did not.Pat Southern shows how this was possible by providing a chronological history of the Empire from the end of the second century to the beginning of the fourth; the emergence and devastating activities of the Germanic tribes and the Persian Empire are analysed, and a conclusion details the economic, military and social aspects of the third century 'crisis'.

The Roman Nobility


Matthias Gelzer - 2001
    

Chronicle of Pseudo-Joshua the Stylite


Frank R. Trombley - 2001
    Although that conflict is treated in other ancient texts, none of them can match "Joshua" in his wealth of detail, his familiarity with the region where the hostilities occurred, and his proximity in time to the events. The Chronicle also vividly describes the famine and plague that swept through Edessa in the years immediately before the war. The work is a document of great importance for both the social and military history of late antiquity, remarkable for the information it provides on Roman and Persian empires alike.

Magic and Ritual in the Ancient World


Marvin W. Meyer - 2001
    The essays are authored by leading scholars in the fields of Egyptology, ancient Near Eastern studies, the Hebrew Bible, Judaica, classical Greek and Roman studies, early Christianity and patristics, and Coptic and Islamic Egypt. The strength of the present volume lies in the breadth of scholarly approaches represented. The book begins with several papyrological studies presenting important new texts in Greek and Coptic, continuing with essays focusing on taxonomy and definition. The concluding essays apply contemporary theories to analyses of specific test cases in a broad variety of ancient Mediterranean cultures.

Namma: A Tibetan Love Story


Kate Karko - 2001
    Karko was the first western woman to become an Amdo (Tibetan) bride. She was welcomed by the tribes people and learned their culture with humour and a caring devotion. Their relationship with nature, and their religion have struck strong chords in her own life. She writes of their travels and illustrates them with wonderful photographs that she and her husband have taken. This is a story that will engage anyone who is interested in travel and adventure and in the lives of others civilisations who have remained unchanged for centuries.

Second Chance


Elizabeth Waite - 2001
    A barrister's daughter, she runs away to marry her sailor sweetheart in secret, ignoring her parent's disapproval. When the marriage falls violently apart, she returns home and tries to rebuild her life. Then a second chance of happiness comes her way.

Greece: An Oxford Archaeological Guide (Oxford Archaeological Guides)


Christopher Mee - 2001
    This valuable new addition to the acclaimed Oxford Archaeological Guides series provides coverage of all the main archaeological sites in Greece, ranging from prehistory to the sixth century AD. The individual sites are arranged by region, and include Philip's Tomb at Vergina, the Palace complex at Mycenae, the Temples of the Acropolis, the Hellenistic city of the Messene, and the Roman colony of Corinth. Also included in the book are 'partner factor' ratings that rank the most worthwhile sites for travelers to visit during their stay. An up-to-date introduction surveys Greece's landscape, history, and archaeology from the Neolithic period to the end of antiquity, and places the sites in their cultural context. Finally, there is a chronology for reference and a glossary of essential terms.

Rome Alive: V. 1: A Source Guide to the Ancient City


Peter J. Aicher - 2001
    U. of Southern Maine) assembles written sources from classical times revealing what the sites and structures meant to people before they were picturesque ruins. References point readers to modern editions of the full texts. The second volume presents the text

Taking Heart


Rowena Summers - 2001
    As long as we still have the family, we’ll be all right. When their father announces that the family business, Caldwell Supplies, has been bought out by Preston’s Emporium, the Caldwell family’s life is turned upside down. With an ailing mother and a young brother to care for, Imogen and her sisters must find a way to save their childhood home and remain in Bristol. But when a terrible tragedy tears the family apart, the Caldwell girls must forge their own paths in life. And with the second world war looming over England, their lives begin to change more drastically than they could have imagined. Through love and heartbreak, fear and loss, can the Caldwell girls make it out unscathed? Or will they be swept up in the chaos of the changing times? Taking Heart was first published in 2000.