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Setting Free the Bears / The Water-Method Man / The 158-Pound Marriage
John Irving - 1980
Compassionate, satirical, deeply insightful and humorous, these compelling novels have gained him millions of fans. Setting Free the Bears: Siggy and Hannes were disenchanted students and fellow conspirators. Astride a 700cc royal Enfield motorcycle, they roamed the Austrian countryside. When Gallen, a lovely hitchhiker, joined them, they zeroed in on the Vienna Zoo--and Siggy's dream: setting free the bears! The Water-Method Man: The acclaimed second novel by the author of the #1 international bestseller, A Prayer for Owen Meany. Fred "Bogus" Trumper is a wayward knight-errant in the battle of the sexes, and the pursuit of happiness. Yet, he stubbornly clings to the notion he'll make something of his life. The 158 Pound Marriage: Sometimes they looked at each other, aroused half out of their minds by the thought that each had just been making love with another, and it would be enough to make them want to do it--together--all over again. Well, almost enough.
Waterloo: The French Perspective
Andrew W. Field - 2012
Even after 200 years of intensive research and the publication of hundreds of books and articles on the battle, the French perspective and many of the primary French sources are underrepresented in the written record. So it is high time this weakness in the literature – and in our understanding of the battle – was addressed, and that is the purpose of Andrew Field’s thought-provoking new study. He has tracked down over ninety firsthand French accounts, most of which have never been previously published in English, and he has combined them with accounts from the other participants in order to create a graphic new narrative of one of the world’s decisive battles. Virtually all of the hitherto unpublished testimony provides fascinating new detail on the battle and many of the accounts are vivid, revealing and exciting.
Pipe Dream (Strivers Row)
Solomon Jones - 2001
Black drew hard, squinting as the smoke rushed into his lungs."Where do you want to start?"the lawyer said, lighting a cigarette of his own."I guess there’s only one place to start; at Broad and Erie."Johnny Podres, a politician whose record against corruption had been propelling him straight to the mayor’s office, is found murdered in a North Philly crack house.Enter Samuel Jackson, a.k.a. Black, a drug addict who knows better, a man embittered by the fact that he can’t seem to escape from his addiction to crack cocaine or, for that matter, from himself. Though he was once a family man with a wife and son, Black’s only concern these days is getting his next high, that is, until he stumbles across a friend and fellow addict, Leroy, and both become prime suspects in the Podres murder. Black and Leroy hook up with two female pipers: Clarisse, a registered nurse who is slowly losing to crack any semblance of a respectable life, and Pookie, who already has lost it. Soon the hunt is on for all four as they try to stay one step ahead of a police department under tremendous pressure to solve the case—because if a killer isn’t found soon, this could blow up into one of the biggest scandals in Philadelphia history. Solomon Jones weaves a suspenseful story against the backdrop of corruption in the Philadelphia police department and centers it on a group of drug addicts who, in the process of fleeing the law, come to terms with their own addiction, leading to some devastating consequences.
The Blizzard Voices
Ted Kooser - 1986
The Blizzard Voices is based on the actual reminiscences of the survivors as recorded in documents from the time and written reminiscences from years later. Here are the haunting voices of the men and women who were teaching school, working the land, and tending the house when the storm arrived and changed their lives forever.
Conflict of Interest
Dee Lagasse - 2021
Filled with a mix of nerves and excitement, she heads to a small pub in South Boston the night before... for one drink. Just. One. Drink. Instead Audrey finds a bartender with a generous pour and Leo - the hot guy at the end of the bar who convinces her to stay for a cheeseburger and much longer than she planned. All the while, Audrey knows she doesn't have time for a relationship. So, she takes their flirty conversation for exactly what it is: harmless fun. That is... until the next morning when she walks into her interview and comes face to face with Leo himself. Fate isn’t something Audrey believes in, but if she did… this certainly would feel a lot like it.The only problem? Leo is her new boss. Their chemistry may be off the charts, but they both agree their careers come first. What Audrey and Leo both seem to forget is that all is fair in love and law....and some lines are meant to be crossed.
Dear Abba: Morning and Evening Prayer
Brennan Manning - 2013
It can also save our lives.Author Brennan Manning has laid out a month of honest prayers to God, whom he affectionately calls Abba, in an easy-to-use format that can guide your own prayers. Each day contains morning and evening prayers coupled with Scripture and excerpts from Manning’s contemporary spiritual classics.DEAR ABBA is a modern-day collection of psalms, complete with cries for help, expressions of wonder, and invitations into the comforting mercy of God.
Last Call
Laura Pedersen - 2003
In fact, he now spends his days crashing funerals for the free food and insight into the Great Beyond. Then he meets Rosamond, a nun playing hooky from the Holy Orders. Hayden is smitten the instant her heavy silver cross smacks him in the face when she leaps up to do the wave at a ball game. Luckily, Rosamond has picked the right person to teach her how to live . . . and to love—because nobody does both better than Hayden MacBride.However, Rosamond’s years in the convent have not prepared her for the oddball characters of Hayden’s world. There’s his ever-fretful, vigilant daughter, Diana, the “Dutchess o’ the Sidelong Glance”; his sweet grandson Joey, struggling to break free of his mother’s overprotective embrace; Hayden’s bagpipe-blowing cronies; the Greyfriars Gang; neighbor Bobbie Anne, a “working girl” full of good advice and tender mercies; and Hank, the sexy architect contemplating the priesthood—a big mistake in Hayden’s book. For Hayden thinks that Hank should be married to his daughter and raising Joey. And he has an elaborate plan to make Hank see things his way. . . .In an uproariously funny novel of love, laughter, and one man’s final call at the riotous watering hole called life, Laura Pedersen proves that miracles are all around us—when we open our eyes and our hearts to embrace them.
Ted Bundy's Murderous Mysteries: The Many Victims Of America's Most Infamous Serial Killer
Kevin M. Sullivan - 2019
It’s a veritable goldmine of information on Bundy, his victims, and this very voluminous case. Written by the foremost authority on Ted Bundy, this latest examination of this brutal serial killer contains new, revealing, and never-before published interviews with those close to Bundy, close to his victims, and a potential victim who barely escaped his clutches. Ted Bundy’s Murderous Mysteries brings to light for the first time many heretofore passed-over facts about Bundy and reveals previously hidden aspects of the lives of some of his victims.
Dirty Work
Reed Farrel Coleman - 2013
After his sister, an NYPD policewoman, is murdered, he becomes a licensed PI. Dowd is shocked to discover that his mysterious new client is Nina, his high-school girlfriend and the one true love of his life. But the real surprise is yet to come. Nina hires Gulliver to find her runaway daughter, convincing him to take the case only when she confesses that the missing girl is Dowd's daughter too, the product of their high-school romance. When he takes the case, Dowd must travel from an exclusive girls' academy to a Mafia don's mansion to seek the answer to his newfound daughter's disappearance. But all is not what it seems. What is the real surprise awaiting Gulliver Dowd?
Hiking the Camino: 500 Miles With Jesus
Dave Pivonka - 2009
Whatever happened to planes, trains and automobiles? But Father Dave Pivonka knew that the Camino—the ancient pilgrim path to the tomb of Saint James the Apostle in Santiago—offered an opportunity to focus on God in the stripped-down environment typical of the religious journey known as a pilgrimage.
Father Dave takes you along with him, eager to show that God wants to take care of you whether or not you can see down the road or, if tired and sore, you're tempted to quit. His Camino hike holds real lessons for your own life's journey.
Kamby Bolongo Mean River
Robert Lopez - 2009
His only link to the outside world is a telephone that will not dial out. During the occasional calls he receives, usually wrong numbers, the narrator remembers his former life growing up in Injury, Alaska with his Mother, an often unemployed single parent, and his older brother, Charlie, a sometime boxer, sometime actor. Throughout the course of this extraordinary novel, the unwilling captive draws his life-story in stickfigures on the walls. From the difficulty of his birth, to his sickly childhood, to adventures with his brother, the narrator depicts his crazy life, which is at once fascinating and heartbreaking. The one memory that haunts him is that of watching a movie about slaves on television and how that one slave, the one for whom Kamby Bolongo Mean River meant freedom, would never relinquish the idea of returning home.
The Sun King
David Ignatius - 1999
In The Sun King, Ignatius has written a love story for our time, a spellbinding portrait of the collision of ambition and sexual desire.Sandy Galvin is a billionaire with a rare talent for taking risks and making people happy. Galvin arrives in a Washington suffering under a cloud of righteous misery and proceeds to turn the place upside down. He buys the city's most powerful newspaper, The Washington Sun and Tribune, and wields it like a sword, but in his path stands his old Harvard flame, Candace Ridgway, a beautiful and icy journalist known to her colleagues as the Mistress of Fact. Their fateful encounter, tangled in the mysteries of their past, is narrated by David Cantor, an acid-tongued reporter and Jerry Springer devotee who is drawn inexorably into the Sun King's orbit and is transformed by this unpredictable man.In this wise and poignant novel, love is the final frontier for a generation of baby boomers at midlife—still young enough to reach for their dreams but old enough to glimpse the prospect of loss. The Sun King can light up a room, but can he melt the worldly bonds that constrain the Mistress of Fact? In The Sun King, David Ignatius proves with perceptive wit and haunting power that the phrase "Washington love story" isn't an oxymoron.
Walking London
Sara Calian - 2012
Part of a brand-new series from National Geographic that showcases the world's great cities, Walking London is divided into the following sections: The Whirlwind Tours section shows you how to see the entire city in a day or a weekend; what sights will interest kids most; plus, a hedonist's tour that's pure pleasure from dawn to midnight and beyond.The Neighborhoods section of the book presents the city broken down into 15-odd itineraries that lead you on a step-by-step tour to the best sights in each of the city's greatest neighborhoods--from The City and Westminster to Kensington and Knightbridge.Travel Essentials provides information on how to get to the city and how to get around, as well as hand-picked hotels and restaurants.Each itinerary includes the following features: Distinctly London: Explore the city through 2-page features that showcase the quintessential aspects of the city, such as Royal London, Shakespeare London, and London Pubs: Here you'll get intriguing background information to help you understand why this city is one of the world's greatest. Best of: Specific thematic groupings of sights are described, such as ancient markets, posh shopping, and London clubs. In-depth: These spreads take a deep dive into a major museum or other sight--Westminster Abbey, St. Paul's, the National Gallery--providing step-by-step guidance on what to see and how to plan your visit.Sidebars throughout give you the lowdown on shopping, eating, and going out on the town, offering insider tips and interesting asides.
Burn
Sean Doolittle - 2003
Not a good sign for Andrew Kindler, who just came from back east to get away from his past–as an arsonist. In fact, almost from the moment he sets foot in his cousin’s Santa Monica beach house, the heat starts swirling around him. First there’s the cop who thinks Andrew might know something about a murder suspect. Then there’s the suspect’s beautiful sister, who is willing to pay Andrew $5,000 for the same information.But Andrew really uninformed. And with a sensational murder case burning a hole in the gut of the LAPD–as well as the star-studded L.A. fitness industry–ignorance is dangerous. Now Andrew must solve a murder he knows nothing about, find a killer he’s never met, and unravel a family’s explosive secret. His reward for success? To live another day: one step ahead of his burning past... “An exceptionally well-crafted and well-told tale of arson, police work, misplaced zeal, bad relationships, good relationships, family bonds and, oh yes, exercise videos. Quirky, compelling, intelligent, and funny ... If you like Elmore Leonard, do yourself a favor and pick up BURN.”–Lincoln Journal Star “A cult writer for the masses–hip, smart and so mordantly funny that the casual reader might be laughing too hard to realize just how thoughtful Doolittle’s work is. Get on the bandwagon now.”–Laura Lippman, author of By a Spider’s Thread “Sean Doolittle combines wit, good humor, and a generosity of spirit rare in mystery fiction to create novels that are both engrossing and strangely uplifting. He deserves to take his place among the best in the genre.”–John Connolly, author of The White Road“An estimable addition not only to the publisher’s list but also to crime fiction ... Doolittle delivers a briskly plotted, hard-boiled mystery that has its roots in the Elmore Leonard school of dark comedy.”–South Florida Sun-Sentinel·Gold medal winner for mystery in ForeWord Magazine’s Book of the Year Award·A Best Crime Fiction of 2003 pick from January Magazine
Mail Obsession: A journey around Britain by postcode
Mark Mason - 2015
Mark Mason has embarked on a tour of the country, immersing himself in Britain's history on a roundabout journey from AB to ZE. On the lookout for interesting place names and unusual monuments, along the way he discovers what the Queen keeps in her handbag, why the Jack Russell has a white coat and how Jimi Hendrix got confused by the M1. He visits the Harrogate hotel where Agatha Christie hid for eleven days, a bungalow in Kent that can't get a mobile phone signal because of the Second World War and the grave of a Scottish duke whose legs had to be cut off so he could fit in his coffin.At the same time Mason paints an affectionate portrait of Britain int he 21st century, from aggressive seagulls in Blackpool to 'seasoned' drinkers in Surrey. And his travels offer the perfect opportunity to delve into the history of the Royal Mail, compete with pillar boxes, posties and Penny Reds - plus Oscar Wide's unconventional method of posting a letter.A charming mix of fact, anecdote and overheard conversation, Mail Obsession plays homage to Britain's wonderful past and its curious present.