Book picks similar to
My Lady Of The Chimney Corner by Alexander Irvine
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Hungry for Home
Cole Moreton - 2000
Cole Moreton tells the story of the Blaskets through the eyes of the Kearney family, who lived there for generations until 1947 when they paid a terrible price for their isolation-a young man's life. Moreton discovers a few survivors still alive within sight of the Great Blasket, but most had left Ireland for America, settling in Massachusetts. Hungry for Home is a beautifully written and gripping account of a quest for a vanished people, and the Kearneys' incredible journey into the twentieth century is "a moving, atmospheric testament to the mythic lure of home". Entertainment Weekly.
The Edwardians
Vita Sackville-West - 1930
A deep sense of tradition binds him to his inheritance, though he loathes the social circus he is a part of. Deception, infidelity and greed hide beneath the glittering surface of good manners. Among the guests at a lavish party are two people who will change Sebastian's life: Lady Roehampton, who will initiate him in the art of love; and Leonard Anquetil, a polar explorer who will lead Sebastian and his free-spirited sister Viola to question their destiny.A portrait of fashionable society at the height of the era, THE EDWARDIANS revealed all that was glamorous about the period - and all that was to lead to its downfall. First published in 1930, it was Vita Sackville-West's most successful book.
Libra
Don DeLillo - 1988
Kennedy, Don DeLillo chronicles Lee Harvey Oswald's odyssey from troubled teenager to a man of precarious stability who imagines himself an agent of history. When "history" presents itself in the form of two disgruntled CIA operatives who decide that an unsuccessful attempt on the life of the president will galvanize the nation against communism, the scales are irrevocably tipped.A gripping, masterful blend of fact and fiction, alive with meticulously portrayed characters both real and created, Libra is a grave, haunting, and brilliant examination of an event that has become an indelible part of the American psyche.
Lust for Life
Irving Stone - 1934
"Vincent is not dead. He will never die. His love, his genius, the great beauty he has created will go on forever, enriching the world... He was a colossus... a great painter... a great philosopher... a martyr to his love of art. "Walking down the streets of Paris the young Vincent Van Gogh didn't feel like he belonged. Battling poverty, repeated heartbreak and familial obligation, Van Gogh was a man plagued by his own creative urge but with no outlet to express it. Until the day he picked up a paintbrush.Written with raw insight and emotion, follow the artist through his tormented life, struggling against critical discouragement and mental turmoil and bare witness to his creative journey from a struggling artist to one of the world's most celebrated artists.
The Call of the Wild/White Fang/To Build a Fire
Jack London - 1906
L. Doctorow wrote in The New York Times Book Review. Generally considered to be London's greatest achievement, The Call of the Wild brought him international acclaim when it was published in 1903. His story of the dog Buck, who learns to survive in the bleak Yukon wilderness, is viewed by many as his symbolic autobiography. "No other popular writer of his time did any better writing than you will find in The Call of the Wild," said H. L. Mencken. "Here, indeed, are all the elements of sound fiction." White Fang (1906), which London conceived as a "complete antithesis and companion piece to The Call of the Wild," is the tale of an abused wolf-dog tamed by exposure to civilization. Also included in this volume is "To Build a Fire," a marvelously desolate short story set in the Klondike, but containing all the elements of a classic Greek tragedy. "The quintessential Jack London is in the on-rushing compulsive-ness of his northern stories," noted James Dickey. "Few men have more convincingly examined the connection between the creative powers of the individual writer and the unconscious drive to breed and to survive, found in the natural world. . . . London is in and committed to his creations to a degree very nearly unparalleled in the composition of fiction."
The Countess of Monte Cristo (The Works of Alexander Dumas in Thirty Volumes, Volume 2)
Alexandre Dumas - 1884
Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870) continues the adventures of the Monte-Cristo family in the Countess of Monte-Cristo.
Uncle Silas
J. Sheridan Le Fanu - 1864
In UNCLE SILAS (1864) Le Fanu brought up to date Mrs Radcliffe's earlier tales of virtue imprisoned and menaced by unscrupulous schemers. The narrator, Maud Ruthyn, is a 17 year old orphan left in the care of her fearful uncle, Silas. Together with his boorish son and a sinister French governess, Silas plots to kill Maud and claim her fortune. The novel established Le Fanu as a master of horror fiction.
The Last King of Scotland
Giles Foden - 1998
When Garrigan tends to Amin, the dictator, in his obsession for all things Scottish, appoints him as his personal physician. And so begins a fateful dalliance with the central African leader whose Emperor Jones-style autocracy would transform into a reign of terror.In The Last King of Scotland Foden's Amin is as ridiculous as he is abhorrent: a grown man who must be burped like an infant, a self-proclaimed cannibalist who, at the end of his 8 years in power, would be responsible for 300,000 deaths. And as Garrigan awakens to his patient's baroque barbarism--and his own complicity in it--we enter a venturesome meditation on conscience, charisma, and the slow corruption of the human heart. Brilliantly written, comic and profound, The Last King of Scotland announces a major new talent.
Auntie Mame: An Irreverent Escapade
Patrick Dennis - 1955
It was made into a play, a Broadway as well as a Hollywood musical, and a fabulous movie starring Rosalind Russell. Since then, Mame has taken her rightful place in the pantheon of Great and Important People as the world's most beloved, madcap, devastatingly sophisticated, and glamorous aunt. She is impossible to resist, and this hilarious story of an orphaned ten-year-old boy sent to live with his aunt is as delicious a read in the twenty-first century as it was in the 1950s.
Limitless, In the Wind, Ruthless
Robert J. Crane - 2016
(Approx. 250,000 words total.) Books included: 1. Limitless 2. In the Wind 3. Ruthless Limitless Two years after the explosive Girl in the Box Series ends, Sienna Nealon is called to London, England, where she is drawn into a murder investigation involving an old friend. Paired up with a young, handsome Detective Inspector, she finds herself in a race against time to unravel the mystery surrounding the murder as victim after victim falls to the careful, clever killer. Soon, Sienna is in a race against time to find the culprit before he sets loose a plan that will show Sienna the limits of her abilities in the most brutal way imaginable. Her death. In the Wind Reed Treston is a man without purpose. His war is over, his friends have left and now he runs a lonely watch with his sister, policing people with powers beyond those of normal humans. When the government intercepts a message that has links to his past, Reed finds himself stirred into action. His path leads him across continents and through countless lies, to a city he has not seen in years – Rome, Italy – and a confrontation with a threat that could destroy a nation. Ruthless When a mission in New York City goes terribly wrong, Sienna Nealon finds herself replaced as head of the government agency in charge of policing people with powers beyond those of a normal human. Marginalized, humiliated, she ponders her place in the world now that her war is over. But it isn't long before another threat rears its ugly head, and Sienna finds herself outmatched and outgunned – against former prisoners bent on executing a scheme which will push Sienna past limits of ruthlessness even she could not imagine. Additional books not included in the set: 4. Grounded 5. Tormented 6. Vengeful 7. Sea Change 8. Painkiller 9. Masks 10. Prisoners (Coming October 11, 2016!)
Not Lost
Sarah Maria Griffin - 2013
It is just a true story. Except for the parts that are enormous, staggering lies..."At once brazen and terrified, Sarah Maria Griffin's hilarious and beautifully written story opens a doorway into the interior life of the Celtic Tiger cubs who have left Ireland to escape the recession in search of prosperity.Thrown into life 5000 miles away from home, Sarah's tale echoes that of many of her generation, forced to forge new lives and build new homes and relationships on distant shores. She describes in open, honest detail her experience of her first year in San Francisco: a year of struggle and strife, of newness and oddness, of adventure and excitement, of loneliness and despair, but also of incredible fun, happiness and joy.Not Lost is a book about growing up, about friendship, about love, about life and living it well., It is by turns heartbreaking, funny, tender and gutsy. Assured but never cocky, it marks Sarah Maria Griffin as one of the major new voices of her generation.
Mrs. Hemingway
Naomi Wood - 2014
Hemingway reveals the explosive love triangles that wrecked each of Hemingway's marriages.The Paris Wife was only the beginning of the story... Paula McLain's New York Times bestselling novel piqued readers' interest about Ernest Hemingway's romantic life. But Hadley was only one of four women married, in turn, to the legendary writer. Just as T.C. Boyle's bestseller The Women completed the picture begun by Nancy Horan's Loving Frank, Naomi Wood's Mrs. Hemingway tells the story of how it was to love, and be loved by, the most famous and dashing writer of his generation. Hadley, Pauline, Martha and Mary: each Mrs. Hemingway thought their love would last forever; each one was wrong. Told in four parts and based on real love letters and telegrams, Mrs. Hemingway reveals the explosive love triangles that wrecked each of Hemingway's marriages. Spanning 1920s bohemian Paris through 1960s Cold War America, populated with members of the fabled "Lost Generation," Mrs. Heminway is a riveting tale of passion, love, and heartbreak.
Memoirs of a Geisha
Arthur Golden - 1997
It is a unique and triumphant work of fiction - at once romantic, erotic, suspenseful - and completely unforgettable.
The Trial of Elizabeth Cree
Peter Ackroyd - 1994
A series of brutal murders has occurred, and, as Ackroyd leads us down London's dark streets, the sense of time and place becomes overwhelmingly immediate and real. We experience the sights and sounds of the English music halls, smell the smells of London slums, hear the hooves of horses on the cobblestone streets, and attend the trial of Elizabeth Cree, a woman accused of poisoning her husband but who may be the one person who knows the truth about the murders.
The Tale
Joseph Conrad - 1917
Set onboard a ship during an unnamed war, the title story is a harrowing account of guilt and responsibility, showing Conrad at his most accomplished as a master of psychological penetration. Accompanying this is another study of the brutal turns of fortune visited on the unwary by war: 'The Warrior's Soul' takes place during Napoleon's invasion of Russia, and traces the interweaving relationship between a beautiful woman and the two men who love her. 'Prince Roman', meanwhile, is one of Conrad's earliest stories, and the only piece in his entire oeuvre that touches on his homeland, Poland. The collection concludes with 'The Black Mate', a witty and light-hearted illustration of life aboard ship." "Spanning Joseph Conrad's entire literary career, these four stories touch on some of his major interests - war, imperialism, life at sea - showing him at his most intimate and ambitious."