Download or read book The Accidental written by Ali Smith and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2007-04-10 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Filled with the bestselling, award-winning author's trademark wordplay and inventive storytelling, here is the dizzyingly entertaining, wickedly humorous story of a mysterious stranger whose sudden appearance during a family’s summer holiday transforms four variously unhappy people. Each of the Smarts—parents Eve and Michael, son Magnus, and the youngest, daughter Astrid—encounter Amber in his or her own solipsistic way, but somehow her presence allows them to see their lives (and their life together) in a new light. Smith’s narrative freedom and exhilarating facility with language propel the novel to its startling, wonderfully enigmatic conclusion.

Download or read book The Accidental Tourist written by Anne Tyler and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2015-05-05 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this irresistible #1 New York Times best-selling novel, Anne Tyler explores the slippery alchemy of attracting opposites, and the struggle to rebuild one’s life after unspeakable tragedy. Travel writer Macon Leary hates travel, adventure, surprises, and anything outside of his routine. Immobilized by grief, Macon is becoming increasingly prickly and alone, anchored by his solitude and an unwillingness to compromise his creature comforts. Then he meets Muriel, an eccentric dog trainer too optimistic to let Macon disappear into himself. Despite Macon’s best efforts to remain insulated, Muriel up-ends his solitary, systemized life, catapulting him into the center of a messy, beautiful love story he never imagined. A fresh and timeless tale of unexpected bliss, The Accidental Tourist showcases Tyler’s talents for making characters—and their relationships—feel both real and magical. “Incandescent, heartbreaking, exhilarating…One cannot reasonably expect fiction to be much better than this.” —The Washington Post Look for Clock Dance, the charming new novel from Anne Tyler, available now.

Download or read book An Accidental Life written by Pamela Binnings Ewen and published by B&H Publishing Group. This book was released on 2013 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New Orleans senior district attorney and his lawyer wife are caught up in a faith-testing courtroom battle involving the rights of infants born alive during abortions.

Download or read book The Accidental Life written by Terry McDonell and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2017-07-11 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An Amazon Best Book of 2016 A celebration of the writing and editing life, as well as a look behind the scenes at some of the most influential magazines in America (and the writers who made them what they are). You might not know Terry McDonell, but you certainly know his work. Among the magazines he has top-edited: Outside, Rolling Stone, Esquire, and Sports Illustrated. In this revealing memoir, McDonell talks about what really happens when editors and writers work with deadlines ticking (or drinks on the bar). His stories about the people and personalities he’s known are both heartbreaking and bitingly funny—playing “acid golf” with Hunter S. Thompson, practicing brinksmanship with David Carr and Steve Jobs, working the European fashion scene with Liz Tilberis, pitching TV pilots with Richard Price. Here, too, is an expert’s practical advice on how to recruit—and keep—high-profile talent; what makes a compelling lede; how to grow online traffic that translates into dollars; and how, in whatever format, on whatever platform, a good editor really works, and what it takes to write well. Taking us from the raucous days of New Journalism to today’s digital landscape, McDonell argues that the need for clear storytelling from trustworthy news sources has never been stronger. Says Jeffrey Eugenides: “Every time I run into Terry, I think how great it would be to have dinner with him. Hear about the writers he's known and edited over the years, what the magazine business was like back then, how it's changed and where it's going, inside info about Edward Abbey, Jim Harrison, Annie Proulx, old New York, and the Swimsuit issue. That dinner is this book.”

Download or read book AN Accidental Man written by Iris Murdoch and published by Penguin. This book was released on 1988-03-01 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A scintillating novel of fate, accidents, and moral dilemmas Set in the time of the Vietnam War, this story concerns the plight of a young American, happily installed in a perfect job in England, engaged to a wonderful girl, who is suddenly drafted to a war he disapproves of. What is duty here, what is self-interest, what is cowardice? Austin Gibson Grey, the accidental man of the title, is accident-prone, also prone to bring disaster to his friend sand relations. He blames fate. But are we not all accidental, one of his victims asks. Fate and accidents make deep moral dilemmas for the characters in the long and complex tale.

Download or read book A Town of Empty Rooms written by Karen E. Bender and published by Catapult. This book was released on 2014-07-15 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Karen E. Bender burst on to the literary scene a decade ago with her luminous first novel, Like Normal People, which garnered remarkable acclaim. A Town of Empty Rooms presents the story of Serena and Dan Shine, estranged from one another as they separately grieve over the recent loss of Serena's father and Dan's older brother. Serena's actions cause the couple and their two small children to be banished from New York City, and they settle in the only town that will offer Dan employment: Waring, North Carolina. There, in the Bible belt of America, Serena becomes enmeshed with the small Jewish congregation in town led by an esoteric rabbi, whose increasingly erratic behavior threatens the future of his flock. Dan and their young son are drawn into the Boy Scouts by their mysterious and vigilant neighbor, who may not have their best intentions at heart. Tensions accrue when matters of faith, identity, community, and family all fall into the crosshairs of contemporary, small–town America. A Town of Empty Rooms presents a fascinating insight into the lengths we will go to discover just where we belong.

Download or read book The Accidental Empress written by Allison Pataki and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2015-02-17 with total page 512 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: *NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * Discover the “captivating, absorbing, and beautifully told” (Kathleen Grissom) love story of Sisi, the Austro-Hungarian empress and wife of Emperor Franz Joseph—perfect for fans of the Netflix series The Empress! The year is 1853, and the Habsburgs are Europe’s most powerful ruling family. With his empire stretching from Austria to Russia, from Germany to Italy, Emperor Franz Joseph is young, rich, and ready to marry. Fifteen-year-old Elisabeth, “Sisi,” Duchess of Bavaria, travels to the Habsburg Court with her older sister, who is betrothed to the young emperor. But shortly after her arrival at court, Sisi finds herself in an unexpected dilemma: she has inadvertently fallen for and won the heart of her sister’s groom. Franz Joseph reneges on his earlier proposal and declares his intention to marry Sisi instead. Thrust onto the throne of Europe’s most treacherous imperial court, Sisi upsets political and familial loyalties in her quest to win, and keep, the love of her emperor, her people, and of the world. With Pataki’s rich period detail and cast of complex, bewitching characters, The Accidental Empress offers “another absolutely compelling story” (Mary Higgins Clark) with this glimpse into one of history’s most intriguing royal families, shedding new light on the glittering Hapsburg Empire and its most mesmerizing, most beloved “Fairy Queen.”

Download or read book Rebel Writers The Accidental Feminists written by Celia Brayfield and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2019-07-25 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Make this your next inspirational read. Trust us, it's Oprah's Book Club worthy' Vice In London in 1958, a play by a 19-year-old redefined women's writing in Britain. It also began a movement that would change women's lives forever. The play was A Taste of Honey and the author, Shelagh Delaney, was the first in a succession of young women who wrote about their lives with an honesty that dazzled the world. They rebelled against sexism, inequality and prejudice and in doing so challenged the existing definitions of what writing and writers should be. Bypassing the London cultural elite, their work reached audiences of millions around the world, paved the way for profound social changes and laid the foundations of second-wave feminism. After Delaney came Edna O'Brien, Lynne Reid-Banks, Charlotte Bingham, Nell Dunn, Virginia Ironside and Margaret Forster; an extraordinarily disparate group who were united in their determination to shake the traditional concepts of womanhood in novels, films, television, essays and journalism. They were as angry as the Angry Young Men, but were also more constructive and proposed new ways to live and love in the future. They did not intend to become a literary movement but they did, inspiring other writers to follow. Not since the Brontës have a group of young women been so determined to tell the truth about what it is like to be a girl. In this biographical study, the acclaimed author, Celia Brayfield, tells their story for the first time.

Download or read book An Accidental Novelist written by Richard S. Wheeler and published by Sunstone Press. This book was released on 2012-01-15 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In his early forties, Richard Wheeler had never given a thought to writing fiction. By his early seventies, he had written sixty novels. And these were being published while he was climbing the masts of a sinking ship. This late-in-life novelist didn’t tackle high literature, but the sweaty world of genre fiction, where the publishers’ advances barely paid the rent. He wrote western fiction, and when that genre began to ship water, he leapt over to historical novels, and finally biographical novels, where he found himself in an odd literary corner, without competition. This is a memoir of literary struggle, of agents and editors, of jackets and publicity and book tours. This is also a story about the astonishing help he received along the way from friends, best-selling novelists, agents, editors, and publishers. Writing may be a lonely profession, but Wheeler discovered that the world of genre fiction writers is populated with caring and wise colleagues. Here, Wheeler evokes his early struggles, which somehow prepared him for a life as a successful novelist. He discusses shattered dreams and sudden joys. And running through his narrative is his passion to write about the West in new ways. RICHARD S. WHEELER is the author of sixty novels of the West, the winner of five Spur Awards, and the recipient of the Owen Wister Award for lifetime achievement in the literature of the American West. Many of his novels are now in trade paperback editions from Sunstone Press.

Download or read book An Accidental Sportswriter written by Robert Lipsyte and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2011-05-03 with total page 207 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Celebrated sports journalist Robert Lipsyte—the New York Times’ longtime lead sports columnist—mines pure gold from his long and very eventful career to bring readers a memoir like no other. An enthralling book, as much about personal relationships and the culture of sports as the athletes and teams themselves, An Accidental Sportswriter interweaves stories from Lipsyte’s life and the events he covered to explore the connections between the games we play and the lives we lead. Robert Lipsyte has been there—from the Mets’ first Spring Training to the fight that made Muhammad Ali an international icon to the current steroids scandals that rewired our view of sports—and in An Accidental Sportswriter he offers a fresh and refreshing view of the world of professional athletes as seen through the eyes of a journalist who always managed to remain independent of our jock-obsessed culture.

Download or read book Accidental Heroes written by Danielle Steel and published by Delacorte Press. This book was released on 2018-03-20 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A decorated former Air Force pilot. A pregnant flight attendant. A dedicated TSA agent. The fates of these three, and many others, converge in Danielle Steel’s gripping new novel—a heart-stopping thriller that engages ordinary men and women in the fight of their lives during a flight from New York to San Francisco. On a beautiful May morning at New York’s John F. Kennedy airport, two planes have just departed for San Francisco—one a 757, another a smaller Airbus A321. At a security checkpoint, TSA agent Bernice Adams finds a postcard of the Golden Gate Bridge bearing an ambiguous—perhaps ominous—message. Her supervisor dismisses her concerns, but Bernice calls security and soon Ben Waterman arrives. A senior Homeland Security agent, still grappling with guilt after a disastrous operation in which hostages were killed, Ben too becomes suspicious. Who left the postcard behind, which flight is that person on, and what exactly does the message mean? As Ben scans the passenger manifests, his focus turns to the A321, with Helen Smith as its senior pilot. Helen’s military service and her tenure with the airline have been exemplary. But her husband’s savage death in Iraq was more than anyone should bear, leaving her widowed with three children. A major film star is on board. So is an off-duty pilot who has just lost his forty-year career. So is a distraught father, traveling with the baby son he has abducted from his estranged wife. Sifting through data and relying on instinct, Ben becomes convinced that someone on Helen’s plane is planning something terrible. And he’s right. Passengers, crew, and experts on the ground become heroes out of necessity to try to avert tragedy at the eleventh hour. In her stunning novel, Danielle Steel combines intense action with stories of emotionally rich, intertwined lives. As the jet bears down on its destination of San Francisco, strangers are united, desperate choices are made, and futures will be changed forever by a handful of accidental heroes.

Download or read book The Accidental Billionaires written by Ben Mezrich and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2009-07-14 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NATIONAL BESTSELLER “The Social Network, the much anticipated movie…adapted from Ben Mezrich’s book The Accidental Billionaires.” —The New York Times Best friends Eduardo Saverin and Mark Zuckerberg had spent many lonely nights looking for a way to stand out among Harvard University’s elite, competitive, and accomplished student body. Then, in 2003, Zuckerberg hacked into Harvard’s computers, crashed the campus network, almost got himself expelled, and was inspired to create Facebook, the social networking site that has since revolutionized communication around the world. With Saverin’s funding their tiny start-up went from dorm room to Silicon Valley. But conflicting ideas about Facebook’s future transformed the friends into enemies. Soon, the undergraduate exuberance that marked their collaboration turned into out-and-out warfare as it fell prey to the adult world of venture capitalists, big money, and lawyers.

Download or read book The Reluctant RV Wife written by Gerri Almand and published by Brown Posey Press. This book was released on 2019-08-04 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Follow a reluctant wife and her excited husband through two humorously-conflicted years of RV travel. He wanted to go; she wanted to stay. They both learn, grow, and change as a new level of freedom evolves. This book is light-hearted and humorous but at the same time serious. While not a How-To book, it gives lots of basic information about RVing. And while not a travelogue, it touches upon many travel destinations in the United States and Canada. On deeper levels, the book is about marital relationships, retiring and getting old, and finding a new kind of freedom through a minimalistic lifestyle. After reading this book, you'll never again look at one of those huge monstrosities driving down the road in quite the same way. The book answers questions for non-RVers and triggers chuckles of recognition from experienced RVers.

Download or read book Soy Sauce for Beginners written by Kirstin Chen and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2014 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For fans of Kyung-Sook Shin and Anna Quindlen, a story of family, loyalty and fresh starts in the heart of Singapore.

Download or read book The Accidental Universe written by Alan Lightman and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2014-01-14 with total page 108 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The bestselling author of Einsteins Dreams explores the emotional and philosophical questions raised by recent discoveries in science with passion and curiosity. He looks at the dialogue between science and religion; the conflict between our human desire for permanence and the impermanence of nature; the possibility that our universe is simply an accident; the manner in which modern technology has separated us from direct experience of the world; and our resistance to the view that our bodies and minds can be explained by scientific logic and laws. Behind all of these considerations is the suggestion--at once haunting and exhilarating--that what we see and understand of the world is only a tiny piece of the extraordinary, perhaps unfathomable whole.

Download or read book The Accident written by Ismail Kadare and published by Canongate Books. This book was released on 2010-08-05 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why did the taxi crash on the autobahn in Vienna? Who exactly were Besfort Y and Rovena, the mysterious couple who died after being flung from the backseat? How was Besfort connected to the war in the Balkans? And why was his affair with Rovena clouded in jealousy and mistrust? Who wanted them dead? This is the story of the last forty weeks of their lives - a fever dream where love and obsession collide.

Download or read book An Accidental Novelist written by Richard S. Wheeler and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 239 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In his early 40s, Wheeler had never given a thought to writing fiction. By his early 70s, he had written nearly 60 novels. This is a memoir of literary struggle, of agents and editors, of jackets and publicity and book tours. He discusses shattered dreams, sudden joys, and his passion to write about the West.