Fly in the Ointment


Anne Fine - 2008
    So you tell me what you think you'd have done. You be the judgeWhen, like her cold and indifferent husband, Lois's old life vanishes into thin air, she can't help snatching at the opportunity to come alive.There's only one fly in the ointment: Janie Gay, the feckless and spiteful mother of her wayward son's child. But as Lois takes her second - and redeeming - chance at love, she finds herself on a collision course with a society that claims to support and protect. She lays her plans, and suddenly it seems that all those years of nurturing her own deep-frozen heart may not have been so wasted after all ...In this, her seventh novel, Anne Fine offers a deeply chilling portrayal of what can happen when the remorseless convictions of society clash with the impulse of a determined mother.

A Confederate General from Big Sur


Richard Brautigan - 1964
    Having grown up near Big Sur, this book was particularly funny as Lee Mellon is still in residence there. Brautigan's descriptions of drugs, drinks, frogs & the commas of Ecclesiastes are all done in a straightforward style. A favorite paragraph: "He broke the seal on the bottle, unscrewed the cap & poured a big slug of whiskey into his mouth. He swallowed it down with a hairy gulp. Strange, for as I said before: he was bald." A great read. If there's one thing the world lacks, it's a good supply of well-written, funny-as-heck books. Luckily, aside from A Confederacy Of Dunces, we have this little gem. The characters are drunks, druggies, skanks, prostitutes & nutzoids. The pace is brisk, the imagry vivid. Most of it seemed to be part of my own life, but just where do you find weed that's so potent that 4 people smoking 5 joints stay high for well over 2 hours?If you want to spend a day or night having a good laugh over a great book, pick this one up. You'll laugh out loud. As Martha Stewart says, "it's a good thing".

Navra_Mhanava_Aapala (Marathi)


V.P.KALE
    Otherwise, our routine life goes on as it is. Actually, our minds are prepared for the traumas of life, but then we come across someone who sees us through it. But this very mind set of ours is not at all prepared for the small traumas in daytoday life, which actually have the utmost power of disaster. They attack separately while we are alone and take out liveliness from our mind and soul. We have to suffer alone, there is no one to come along with us. A human mind thus attacked, gets terribly upset, his courage fails him, he then pauses for some time, rests for a while and once again gathers his strength with new hope and desire. No one notices his tiredness, no one detects his recovering. His journey continues. Everyone has to continue his or her own journey, sometimes falling and then getting up, with a new hope every time, with a glance at the past over and over, the journey has to be continued. This is a glimpse of such sufferings, of those walking and trudging, by you and of course by me!!!

একুশে পা


Bani Basu - 1994
    This is the story of students who came to join college at the age of 18 and after three years,being twenty-one they spread their wings to take flight in the vast sky of life.

The Bell


Iris Murdoch - 1958
    A new bell, legendary symbol of religion and magic, is rediscovered. Dora Greenfield, erring wife, returns to her husband. Michael Mead, leader of the community, is confronted by Nick Fawley, with whom he had disastrous homosexual relations, while the wise old Abbess watches and prays and exercises discreet authority. And everyone, or almost everyone, hopes to be saved, whatever that may mean....Iris Murdoch's funny and sad novel has themes of religion, the fight between good and evil, and the terrible accidents of human frailty.

Firefly Summer


Maeve Binchy - 1987
    Kate Ryan and her husband, John, have a rollicking pub in the Irish village of Mountfern... lovely twelve-year-old twins... and such wonderful dreams.... It was a summer of innocence... But all that is about to change this fateful summer of 1962 when American millionaire Patrick O'Neill comes to town with his irresistible charm and a pocketful of money... when love and hate vie for a town's quiet heart and old traditions begin to crumble away.... It was a summer of love that would never come again.... A time that has been captured forever in Maeve Binchy's compelling family drama... a novel you will never forget.

Shadow of the Moon


M.M. Kaye - 1956
    SHADOW OF THE MOON is the story of Winter de Ballesteros, a beautiful English heiress come home to her beloved India. It is also the tale of Captain Alex Randall, her protector, who aches to possess her. Forged in the fires of a war that threatens to topple an empire, their tale is the saga of a desperate and unforgettable love that consumes all in its thrall. Filled with the mystery of moonlit palace gardens and the whisperings of passion and intrigue, M. M. Kaye evokes an era at once of its time, yet timeless."Another splendid tale of India." (Wall Street Journal)

The Vineyard at Painted Moon


Susan Mallery - 2021
    There’s just one problem — it’s not her family, it’s her husband’s. In fact, everything in her life is tied to him — his mother is the closest thing to a mom that she’s ever had, their home is on the family compound, his sister is her best friend. So when she and her husband admit their marriage is over, her pain goes beyond heartbreak. She’s on the brink of losing everything. Her job, her home, her friends and, worst of all, her family.Staying is an option. She can continue to work at the winery, be friends with her mother-in-law, hug her nieces and nephews — but as an employee, nothing more. Or she can surrender every piece of her heart in order to build a legacy of her own. If she can dare to let go of the life she thought she wanted, she might discover something even more beautiful waiting for her beneath a painted moon.

Keystone


Luke Talbot - 2013
    One discovery. Everything at stake. When Gail Turner discovers an ancient library under the sands of Egypt, she hopes it will get her closer to uncovering the mystery of Queen Nefertiti. Instead, it pits her against the ruthless Seth Mallus in a race for the truth that will push humanity to the very edge of existence.

Second Love (The Love Makers Trilogy)


Judith Gould - 1997
    Tonight is her crowning moment: The beautiful businesswoman has just unveiled the San Francisco Palace, the fabulous new luxury hotel that towers over the neon-bright city like a giant, glittering jewel. But as the star-studded grand opening festivities gather momentum several stories below, Dorothy Anne stands alone on the hotel's penthouse balcony, anxiously scanning the skies for a glimpse of her husband Freddy's private helicopter. It never arrives, and soon her most dreaded fears come true. As Dorothy Anne tries to cope with the devastating loss of the man who was her friend, her lover, and her whole life, a mysterious group of powerful businessmen plot a ruthless takeover of her hard-won international empire. With dizzying speed, Dorothy Anne's world spins wildly out of control, plunging her into a nightmare of scandal, deception, and cold-blooded murder. Then she meets charismatic Hunt Winslow, a decorated war hero and rising political star on a clear career path to the White House - if his domineering mother has her way. Trapped in a loveless marriage, Hunt offers Dorothy Anne something as unexpected as it is miraculous: a second chance at love. But their illicit passion will place both their lives in grave danger and could destroy everything they have worked so hard to attainall they hold most precious.

Old Masters: A Comedy


Thomas Bernhard - 1985
    It tells of the life and opinions of Reger, a 'musical philosopher', through the voice of his acquaintance Atzbacher, a 'private academic'.The book is set in Vienna on one day around the year of its publication, 1985. Reger is an 82-year-old music critic who writes pieces for The Times. For over thirty years he has sat on the same bench in front of Tintoretto's White-bearded Man in the Bordone Room of the Kunsthistorisches Museum for four or five hours of the morning of every second day. He finds this environment the one in which he can do his best thinking. He is aided in this habit by the gallery attendant Irrsigler, who prevents other visitors from using the bench when Reger requires it.

Dead Soil


Alex Apostol - 2015
    Northwest Indiana will become ground zero for the zombie plague. Within twenty-four hours, Chicago will be nothing more than a breeding ground for the undead. Some people will choose to fortify their homes while others flee to the woods when it becomes apparent that there's no end in sight to their hell on Earth. How will you survive the apocalypse?

Catch 22 by Joseph Heller (Teacher Guide)


Novel Units, Inc. - 2008
    (This is NOT the paperback novel.)

The Fortnight in September


R.C. Sherriff - 1931
    The family’s only regret is leaving their garden where, we can imagine, because it is September the dahlias are at their fiery best: as they flash past in the train they get a glimpse of their back garden, where ‘a shaft of sunlight fell through the side passage and lit up the clump of white asters by the apple tree.’ This was what the First World War soldiers longed for; this, he imagined, was what he was fighting for and would return to (as in fact Sherriff did).He had had the idea for his novel at Bognor Regis: watching the crowds go by, and wondering what their lives were like at home, he ‘began to feel the itch to take one of those families at random and build up an imaginary story of their annual holiday by the sea...I wanted to write about simple, uncomplicated people doing normal things.’

I Am Heartless: A Real Confession


Vinit K. Bansal - 2012
    It is the story of his life which encompasses love, dedication, eccentricity, friendship and overall his discovery of his true love and also the anguish of losing it due to his obstinacy and self-centeredness. It is a repertoire of moments coated with velvetiness of love and bruised by the thorns of betrayal. It highlights the situations which ultimately turns him into a devil, who wants to annihilate the whole world with his impiety, consequences being the least he cares about; and eventually loses his happiness, identity and even himself in this process.I could neither speak in words, nor could ever write it downThe loneliness, the emptiness your absence left behind....Those moments spent in the warmth of your cuddleStill linger in a cruel heart...... in a guilty mind!!!Whenever I dream, I see you so tranquilCan I trace the reason of my going away and getting back never?If by closing my eyes I see you happy sweetheart,I promise I shall close my eyes FOREVER!