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Book Professor Chandra Follows His Bliss

Download or read book Professor Chandra Follows His Bliss written by Rajeev Balasubramanyam and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2019-09-24 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'I loved this beautiful book. It's tender and compassionate, written with exquisite care and verve, and so so SO funny' MARIAN KEYES Professor Chandra is about to embark on the trip of a lifetime. In the moments after the bicycle accident, Professor Chandra begins to reassess his life, his career and his relationship with his three children. He’s just missed out on the Nobel Prize (again). All this work. All this stress. It's killing him. Professor Chandra needs to take a break, and reluctantly agrees to visit a Californian retreat, to follow his bliss. And so he must try to crack the most complex problem of all: the secret to his own happiness

Book Professor Chandra Follows His Bliss

Download or read book Professor Chandra Follows His Bliss written by Rajeev Balasubramanyam and published by Chatto & Windus. This book was released on 2019-01-10 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'I loved this beautiful book. It's tender and compassionate, written with exquisite care and verve, and so so SO funny' MARIAN KEYES Professor Chandra is an expert at complex problems. There's just one he can't crack- the secret of happiness In the moments after the bicycle accident, Professor Chandra doesn't see his life flash before his eyes, but his life's work. He's just narrowly missed out on the Nobel Prize (again) and even though he knows he should get straight back to his pie charts, his doctor has other ideas. All this work. All this success. All this stress. It's killing him. He needs to take a break, start enjoying himself. In short, says his doctor (who is from California), Professor Chandra should just follow his bliss. He doesn't know it yet, but Professor Chandra is about to embark on the trip of a lifetime.

Book In Beautiful Disguises

    Book Details:
  • Author : Rajeev Balasubramanyam
  • Publisher : Bloomsbury Pub Plc USA
  • Release : 2001-01-17
  • ISBN : 1582341273
  • Pages : 0 pages

Download or read book In Beautiful Disguises written by Rajeev Balasubramanyam and published by Bloomsbury Pub Plc USA. This book was released on 2001-01-17 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To escape an arranged marriage, the sixteen-year-old daughter of a middle class South Indian family runs away to Delhi and takes a job as a maid in a household where the other servants are as strange as her employers.

Book Last Train to Hilversum

    Book Details:
  • Author : Charlie Connelly
  • Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
  • Release : 2019-01-24
  • ISBN : 1408889986
  • Pages : 336 pages

Download or read book Last Train to Hilversum written by Charlie Connelly and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2019-01-24 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Despite the all-pervading influence of television ninety per cent of people in Britain still listen to the radio, clocking up over a billion hours of listening between us every week. It's a background to all our lives: we wake up to our clock radios, we have the radio on in the kitchen as we make the tea, it's on at our workplaces and in our cars. From Listen With Mother to the illicit thrill of tuning into pirate stations like Radio Caroline; from receiving a musical education from John Peel or having our imagination unlocked by Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy; from school-free summers played out against a soundtrack of Radio One and Test Match Special to more grown-up soundtracks of the Today programme on Radio 4 and the solemn, rhythmic intonation of the shipping forecast – in many ways, our lives can be measured in kilohertz. Yet radio is changing because the way we listen to the radio is changing. Last year the number of digital listeners at home exceeded the number of analogue listeners for the first time, meaning the pop and crackle and the age of stumbling upon something by chance is coming to an end. There will soon be no dial to turn, no in-between spaces on the waveband for washes of static, mysterious beeps and faint, distant voices. The mystery will be gone: we'll always know exactly what it is we're listening to, whether it's via scrolling LCD on our digital radios, the box at the bottom of our TV screen or because we've gone in search of a particular streaming station. And so, as the world of analogue listening fades, Charlie Connelly takes stock of the history of radio and its place in our lives as one of the very few genuinely shared national experiences. He explores its geniuses, crackpots and charlatans who got us to where we are today, and remembers its voices, personalities and programmes that helped to form who we are as individuals and as a nation. He visits the key radio locations from history, and looks at its vital role over the past century on both national and local levels. Part nostalgic eulogy, part social history, part travelogue, Last Train To Hilversum is Connelly's love letter to radio, exploring our relationship with the medium from its earliest days to the present in an attempt to recreate and revisit the world he entered on his childhood evenings on the dial as he set out on the radio journey of a lifetime.

Book Toil   Trouble

Download or read book Toil Trouble written by Augusten Burroughs and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2019-10-01 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the number one New York Times bestselling author comes another stunning memoir that is tender, touching...and just a little spooky. "Here’s a partial list of things I don’t believe in: God. The Devil. Heaven. Hell. Bigfoot. Ancient Aliens. Past lives. Life after death. Vampires. Zombies. Reiki. Homeopathy. Rolfing. Reflexology. Note that 'witches' and 'witchcraft' are absent from this list. The thing is, I wouldn’t believe in them, and I would privately ridicule any idiot who did, except for one thing: I am a witch." For as long as Augusten Burroughs could remember, he knew things he shouldn't have known. He manifested things that shouldn't have come to pass. And he told exactly no one about this, save one person: his mother. His mother reassured him that it was all perfectly normal, that he was descended from a long line of witches, going back to the days of the early American colonies. And that this family tree was filled with witches. It was a bond that he and his mother shared--until the day she left him in the care of her psychiatrist to be raised in his family (but that's a whole other story). After that, Augusten was on his own. On his own to navigate the world of this tricky power; on his own to either use or misuse this gift. From the hilarious to the terrifying, Toil & Trouble is a chronicle of one man's journey to understand himself, to reconcile the powers he can wield with things with which he is helpless. There are very few things that are coincidences, as you will learn in Toil & Trouble. Ghosts are real, trees can want to kill you, beavers are the spawn of Satan, houses are alive, and in the end, love is the most powerful magic of all.

Book All That You Leave Behind

Download or read book All That You Leave Behind written by Erin Lee Carr and published by Ballantine Books. This book was released on 2019-04-09 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A documentary filmmaker and daughter of the late, great New York Times columnist David Carr celebrates and wrestles with her father’s legacy in a raw, redemptive memoir.”—O: The Oprah Magazine “A breathtaking read . . . a testimony equal parts love and candor. David would have had it no other way.”—Ta-Nehisi Coates, bestselling author of Between the World and Me NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY GLAMOUR AND MARIE CLAIRE Dad: What will set you apart is not talent but will and a certain kind of humility. A willingness to let the world show you things that you play back as you grow as an artist. Talent is cheap. Me: OK I will ponder these things. I am a Carr. Dad: That should matter quite a bit, actually not the name but the guts of what that name means. A celebrated journalist, bestselling author (The Night of the Gun), and recovering addict, David Carr was in the prime of his career when he suffered a fatal collapse in the newsroom of The New York Times in 2015. Shattered by his death, his daughter Erin Lee Carr, at age twenty-seven an up-and-coming documentary filmmaker, began combing through the entirety of their shared correspondence—1,936 items in total—in search of comfort and support. What started as an exercise in grief quickly grew into an active investigation: Did her father’s writings contain the answers to the question of how to move forward in life and work without her biggest champion by her side? How could she fill the space left behind by a man who had come to embody journalistic integrity, rigor, and hard reporting, whose mentorship meant everything not just to her but to the many who served alongside him? All That You Leave Behind is a poignant coming-of-age story that offers a raw and honest glimpse into the multilayered relationship between a daughter and a father. Through this lens, Erin comes to understand her own workplace missteps, existential crises, and relationship fails. While daughter and father bond over their mutual addictions and challenges with sobriety, it is their powerful sense of work and family that comes to ultimately define them. This unique combination of Erin Lee Carr’s earnest prose and her father’s meaningful words offers a compelling read that shows us what it means to be vulnerable and lost, supported and found. It is a window into love, with all of its fierceness and frustrations. “Thank you, Erin, for this beautiful book. Now I am going to steal all of your father’s remarkable advice and tell my kids I thought of it.”—Judd Apatow

Book The Summer Before the War

Download or read book The Summer Before the War written by Helen Simonson and published by Random House. This book was released on 2016-03-22 with total page 512 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “A novel to cure your Downton Abbey withdrawal . . . a delightful story about nontraditional romantic relationships, class snobbery and the everybody-knows-everybody complications of living in a small community.”—The Washington Post The bestselling author of Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand returns with a breathtaking novel of love on the eve of World War I that reaches far beyond the small English town in which it is set. NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE WASHINGTON POST AND NPR East Sussex, 1914. It is the end of England’s brief Edwardian summer, and everyone agrees that the weather has never been so beautiful. Hugh Grange, down from his medical studies, is visiting his Aunt Agatha, who lives with her husband in the small, idyllic coastal town of Rye. Agatha’s husband works in the Foreign Office, and she is certain he will ensure that the recent saber rattling over the Balkans won’t come to anything. And Agatha has more immediate concerns; she has just risked her carefully built reputation by pushing for the appointment of a woman to replace the Latin master. When Beatrice Nash arrives with one trunk and several large crates of books, it is clear she is significantly more freethinking—and attractive—than anyone believes a Latin teacher should be. For her part, mourning the death of her beloved father, who has left her penniless, Beatrice simply wants to be left alone to pursue her teaching and writing. But just as Beatrice comes alive to the beauty of the Sussex landscape and the colorful characters who populate Rye, the perfect summer is about to end. For despite Agatha’s reassurances, the unimaginable is coming. Soon the limits of progress, and the old ways, will be tested as this small Sussex town and its inhabitants go to war. Praise for The Summer Before the War “What begins as a study of a small-town society becomes a compelling account of war and its aftermath.”—Woman’s Day “This witty character study of how a small English town reacts to the 1914 arrival of its first female teacher offers gentle humor wrapped in a hauntingly detailed story.”—Good Housekeeping “Perfect for readers in a post–Downton Abbey slump . . . The gently teasing banter between two kindred spirits edging slowly into love is as delicately crafted as a bone-china teacup. . . . More than a high-toned romantic reverie for Anglophiles—though it serves the latter purpose, too.”—The Seattle Times

Book Michael Douglas

Download or read book Michael Douglas written by Marc Eliot and published by Crown. This book was released on 2013-09-17 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A groundbreaking portrait of one of Hollywood’s most successful stars, from critically acclaimed and bestselling biographer Marc Eliot Through determination, inventiveness, and charisma, Michael Douglas emerged from the long shadow cast by his movie-legend father, Kirk Douglas, to become his own man and one of the film industry’s most formi­dable players. Overcoming the curse of failure that haunts the sons and daughters of Hollywood celebrities, Michael became a sensation when he successfully brought One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, starring his friend Jack Nicholson, to the screen after numerous setbacks, including his father’s own failed attempts to make it happen. This 1975 box-office phenomenon won Michael his first Oscar (the film won five total, including Best Picture), an award Kirk hadn’t won at the time, and solidified the turbulent, competitive father-son relationship that would shape Michael’s career and personal life. In the decades that followed, Michael established a reputation for taking chances on new talent and proj­ects by producing and starring in the hugely successful Romancing the Stone and Jewel of the Nile movies, while cultivating a multifaceted acting persona—edgy, rebel­lious, and a little dark—in such films as Wall Street, Fatal Attraction, Basic Instinct, and Disclosure. Yet as his career thrived, Michael’s personal life floundered, with an unhappy and tumultuous first mar­riage, rumors of infidelity (especially with leading ladies such as Kathleen Turner), and a headline-grabbing stint in rehab. Rocked by a series of tragedies, including Kirk’s strokes, his son Cameron’s incarceration, and his own fight against throat cancer, Michael has emerged trium­phant, healthy, and happy in his marriage to Catherine Zeta-Jones, a Welsh actress twenty-five years his junior, and their new young family. In Michael Douglas, Marc Eliot brings into sharp fo­cus this incredible career, complicated personal life, and legendary Hollywood family. Eliot’s fascinating portrait of the lows and remarkable highs in Michael’s life—in­cluding the thorny yet influential relationship with his father—breaks boundaries in understanding the life and work of a true American film star.

Book The Girl Who Wrote in Silk

Download or read book The Girl Who Wrote in Silk written by Kelli Estes and published by Sourcebooks, Inc.. This book was released on 2015-07-07 with total page 398 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A USA TODAY BESTSELLER! "A powerful debut that proves the threads that interweave our lives can withstand time and any tide, and bind our hearts forever."—Susanna Kearsley, New York Times bestselling author of Belleweather and The Vanished Days A historical novel inspired by true events, Kelli Estes's brilliant and atmospheric debut is a poignant tale of two women determined to do the right thing, highlighting the power of our own stories. The smallest items can hold centuries of secrets... While exploring her aunt's island estate, Inara Erickson is captivated by an elaborately stitched piece of fabric hidden in the house. The truth behind the silk sleeve dated back to 1886, when Mei Lien, the lone survivor of a cruel purge of the Chinese in Seattle found refuge on Orcas Island and shared her tragic experience by embroidering it. As Inara peels back layer upon layer of the centuries of secrets the sleeve holds, her life becomes interwoven with that of Mei Lein. Through the stories Mei Lein tells in silk, Inara uncovers a tragic truth that will shake her family to its core—and force her to make an impossible choice. Should she bring shame to her family and risk everything by telling the truth, or tell no one and dishonor Mei Lien's memory? A touching and tender book for fans of Marie Benedict, Susanna Kearsley, and Duncan Jepson, The Girl Who Wrote in Silk is a dual-time period novel that explores how a delicate piece of silk interweaves the past and the present, reminding us that today's actions have far reaching implications. Praise for The Girl Who Wrote in Silk: "A beautiful, elegiac novel, as finely and delicately woven as the title suggests. Kelli Estes spins a spellbinding tale that illuminates the past in all its brutality and beauty, and the humanity that binds us all together." —Susan Wiggs, New York Times bestselling author of The Beekeeper's Ball "A touching and tender story about discovering the past to bring peace to the present." —Duncan Jepson, author of All the Flowers in Shanghai "Vibrant and tragic, The Girl Who Wrote in Silk explores a horrific, little-known era in our nation's history. Estes sensitively alternates between Mei Lien, a young Chinese-American girl who lived in the late 1800s, and Inara, a modern recent college grad who sets Mei Lien's story free." —Margaret Dilloway, author of How to Be an American Housewife and Sisters of Heart and Snow

Book This Shining Life

    Book Details:
  • Author : Harriet Kline
  • Publisher : Dial Press Trade Paperback
  • Release : 2021-06-22
  • ISBN : 1984854909
  • Pages : 337 pages

Download or read book This Shining Life written by Harriet Kline and published by Dial Press Trade Paperback. This book was released on 2021-06-22 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A boy struggling to process an unexpected loss believes he has been given a series of clues to the biggest puzzle of all—the meaning of life—in this deeply felt debut novel. “An exquisitely beautiful and compelling novel about love, loss, and life.”—Rachel Joyce, New York Times bestselling author of Miss Benson’s Beetle Meet Ollie. He’s eleven years old. He hasn’t yet met a Killer Sudoku he can’t solve, but he finds the world around him difficult. People don’t say what they mean, and he hates being wrong. And now, a sudden tragedy teaches him there is no easy answer to the problem of grief. When Ollie’s happy-go-lucky father, Rich, dies of brain cancer, his mother, Ruth, has no idea how to keep living, and the entire family is thrown into disarray. The only thing that makes sense to Ollie is the puzzle he’s convinced his father left behind: one gift for each member of the family. If Ollie can find the connection between a pink vase and an old pair of binoculars, then somehow he’ll discover the secret he believes Rich wanted to share with them all: what it means to be alive. Interweaving the voices of each character in turn, this deeply felt novel paints a portrait of a family learning to come together through the darkest times. This Shining Life is a poignant yet ultimately uplifting meditation on grief, healing, and love.

Book Lord of the Senses

    Book Details:
  • Author : Vikram Kolmannskog
  • Publisher : Team Angelica Publishing
  • Release : 2019-09-06
  • ISBN : 9780995516298
  • Pages : 178 pages

Download or read book Lord of the Senses written by Vikram Kolmannskog and published by Team Angelica Publishing. This book was released on 2019-09-06 with total page 178 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the forest-fringed suburbs of Oslo to the bustling heart of Bombay; from the timeless banks of the Ganges to the never-closing nightclubs of Berlin, this collection of short stories by gay Indian-Norwegian author Vikram Kolmannskog captures a headily contemporary sense of what it is to be queer, cosmopolitan, spiritual and sexual. "[C]aptures the essence of the gay Indian experience - funny, sensual, heartbreaking, and exhilarating, all at the same time." - Udayan Dhar (founding editor, Pink Pages India) "[A] spine-tingling exploration of what it means to be a young, gay, defiantly sexual and spiritual man navigating complex identities with a sense of fluidity. A sexy, gorgeously crafted collection." - Diriye Osman (Fairytales For Lost Children) "A joyous read. Many queer folks and people of Indian origin are going to connect with these stories." - Sukdeev Singh (founding editor, Gaylaxy magazine) "The characters... negotiate prejudices, disappointments, and multiple identities of nationality, religion, caste, and sexual orientation, making this personal, poignant, and entertaining collection... a commentary on life itself." - Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar (The Adivasi Will Not Dance; My Father's Garden & more) "Indian contemporary issues and nuances like casteism, politics, sexuality, poverty, devotion and renunciation blossom in these tales... that speak unabashedly of same-sex love and lust." - Vasudhendra (Mohanaswamy) "[A] distinctive, original voice. Written with love and precision and honesty, these sincere, sensitive, intimate stories quickly become addictive." - Rajeev Balasubramanyan (Professor Chandra Follows His Bliss)

Book American Dream Machine

    Book Details:
  • Author : Matthew Specktor
  • Publisher : Tin House Books
  • Release : 2014-04-15
  • ISBN : 1935639455
  • Pages : 345 pages

Download or read book American Dream Machine written by Matthew Specktor and published by Tin House Books. This book was released on 2014-04-15 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The story of two talent agents and their three troubled boys, heirs to Hollywood royalty; a sweeping narrative about fathers and sons, the movie business, and the sundry sea changes that have shaped Hollywood and, by extension, American life. American Dream Machine is the story of an iconic striver, a classic self-made man in the vein of Jay Gatsby or Augie March. It's the story of a talent agent and his troubled sons, two generations of Hollywood royalty. It's a sweeping narrative about parents and children, the movie business, and the sundry sea changes that have shaped Hollywood, and by extension, American life. Beau Rosenwald—overweight, not particularly handsome, and improbably charismatic—arrives in Los Angeles in 1962 with nothing but an ill-fitting suit and a pair of expensive brogues. By the late 1970s he has helped found the most successful agency in Hollywood. Through the eyes of his son, we watch Beau and his partner go to war, waging a seismic battle that redraws the lines of an entire industry. We watch Beau rise and fall and rise again, in accordance with the cultural transformations that dictate the fickle world of movies. We watch Beau's partner, the enigmatic and cerebral Williams Farquarsen, struggle to contain himself, to control his impulses and consolidate his power. And we watch two generations of men fumble and thrive across the LA landscape, learning for themselves the shadows and costs exacted by success and failure. Mammalian, funny, and filled with characters both vital and profound, American Dream Machine is a piercing interrogation of the role—nourishing, as well as destructive—that illusion plays in all our lives.

Book America s Racial Karma

Download or read book America s Racial Karma written by Larry Ward and published by Parallax Press. This book was released on 2020-09-15 with total page 147 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Immediate, illuminating, and hopeful: this is the key set of talks given by leading Zen Buddhist teacher Larry Ward, PhD, on breaking America’s cycle of racial trauma. As an 11-year-old child, Zen Buddhist teacher Larry Ward was shot at by the police for playing baseball in the wrong spot. As an adult, he experienced the trauma of having his home firebombed by racists. At Plum Village Monastery in France—the home in exile of his teacher, Vietnamese peace activist and Zen teacher Thich Nhat Hanh—Dr. Ward found a way to heal. In these short reflective essays, he offers his insights on the effects of racial constructs and answers the question: How do we free ourselves from our repeated cycles of anger, denial, bitterness, pain, fear, violence? “I am a drop in the ocean, but I’m also the ocean,” he says. “I’m a drop in America, but I’m also America. Every pain, every confusion, every good and every bad and ugly of America is in me. And as I transform myself and heal and take care of myself, I’m very conscious that I’m healing and transforming and taking care of America. I say this for American cynics, but this is also true globally. It’s for real.” Here, Ward looks at the causes and conditions that have led us to our current state and finds, hidden in the crisis, a profound opportunity to reinvent what it means to be a human being. This is an invitation to transform America’s racial karma.

Book This Must Be the Place

    Book Details:
  • Author : Maggie O'Farrell
  • Publisher : Vintage Canada
  • Release : 2023-08-15
  • ISBN : 1039011039
  • Pages : 0 pages

Download or read book This Must Be the Place written by Maggie O'Farrell and published by Vintage Canada. This book was released on 2023-08-15 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the award-winning author of Hamnet and The Marriage Portrait: an irresistible novel about the collapse—and reawakening—of an unlikely marriage between an American professor and a reclusive actress. Daniel Sullivan, a young American professor reeling from a failed marriage and a brutal custody battle, is on vacation in Ireland when he falls in love with a world-famous actress who has fled fame for a rural village. Together, they make an idyllic life in the country, raising two more children in blissful seclusion—until a secret from Daniel's past threatens to destroy their meticulously constructed and fiercely protected home. Shot through with humour and wisdom, This Must Be the Place is a captivating story of love in the twenty-first century from “one of the most exciting novelists alive” (The Washington Post).

Book Always Look on the Bright Side of Life

Download or read book Always Look on the Bright Side of Life written by Eric Idle and published by Crown Archetype. This book was released on 2018-10-02 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the ingenious comic performer, founding member of Monty Python, and creator of Spamalot (now back on Broadway!), comes an absurdly funny memoir of unparalleled wit and heartfelt candor—now featuring a new afterword. “A hilarious, charming book by this incredible, i̶n̶s̶u̶f̶f̶e̶r̶a̶b̶l̶e̶ interesting genius.”—Steve Martin We know him best for his unforgettable roles on Monty Python—from the Flying Circus to The Meaning of Life. Now, Eric Idle reflects on the meaning of his own life in this entertaining memoir that takes us on a remarkable journey from his childhood in an austere boarding school through his successful career in comedy, television, theater, and film. Coming of age as a writer and comedian during the Sixties and Seventies, Eric stumbled into the crossroads of the cultural revolution and found himself rubbing shoulders with the likes of George Harrison, David Bowie, and Robin Williams, all of whom became dear lifelong friends. With anecdotes sprinkled throughout involving other close friends and luminaries such as Mike Nichols, Mick Jagger, Steve Martin, Paul Simon, Lorne Michaels, and many more, as well as John Cleese and the Pythons themselves, Eric captures a time of tremendous creative output with equal parts hilarity and heart. In Always Look on the Bright Side of Life, named for the song he wrote for Life of Brian and which has since become the number one song played at funerals in the UK, he shares the highlights of his life and career with the kind of offbeat humor that has delighted audiences for five decades. 2019 marked the fiftieth anniversary of The Pythons, and Eric commemorated the occasion with this hilarious memoir chock full of behind-the-scenes stories from a high-flying life featuring everyone from Princess Leia to Queen Elizabeth.

Book Ashenden

    Book Details:
  • Author : W. Somerset Maugham
  • Publisher : Standard Ebooks
  • Release : 2023-01-01T20:46:22Z
  • ISBN :
  • Pages : 287 pages

Download or read book Ashenden written by W. Somerset Maugham and published by Standard Ebooks. This book was released on 2023-01-01T20:46:22Z with total page 287 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During World War I W. Somerset Maugham, already by then an established playwright and author, was recruited to be a British intelligence agent. These stories reflect his wartime experiences in intelligence gathering. Though fictionalized, they managed to retain enough authentic elements for Winston Churchill to advise Maugham that their publication might be a violation of the Official Secrets Act, resulting in the author burning an additional 14 stories. Set in various locales across the continent, these remaining Ashenden stories are a precursor to the jet-setting spy novels of the 1950s and 1960s. Maugham is known as a master short story writer and these stories are no exception, combining wit and realism to create memorable characters in a unique and highly critical portrait of wartime espionage. Initially released to a mixed reception—with an early review by D. H. Lawrence being especially scathing—Ashenden has since been credited as an inspiration for numerous authors, including John Le Carré, Graham Greene, and Raymond Chandler. The latter in particular was especially impressed, writing in 1950, “There are no other great spy stories—none at all. I have been searching and I know.” This book is part of the Standard Ebooks project, which produces free public domain ebooks.

Book Out of the Woods

    Book Details:
  • Author : Luke Turner
  • Publisher : Greystone Books Ltd
  • Release : 2021-05-25
  • ISBN : 1771647248
  • Pages : 280 pages

Download or read book Out of the Woods written by Luke Turner and published by Greystone Books Ltd. This book was released on 2021-05-25 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Out of the Woods is a brave and beautiful book, electrifying on sex and nature, religion and love. No one is writing quite like this.”— Olivia Lang, author of The Lonely City In this highly original work of nature writing and memoir, a young man explores his shifting sexual identity and troubled family history against the backdrop of a sprawling urban forest in London. In the wake of a significant breakup, Luke Turner is visited by familiar demons, including depression and guilt surrounding his bisexual identity, experiences of sexual abuse, and confusion brought on by an intensely religious upbringing. With nowhere to turn, Turner seeks refuge in London’s Epping Forest, where unexpected, elusive threats seem to have replaced its former comforts. No stranger to compulsion, Turner finds himself repeatedly drawn to the woods, eager to uncover its secrets and investigate an old family rumor of illicit behavior that once happened there. Away from a society that still cannot cope with the complexities of masculinity and sexuality, Turner finally begins to find acceptance among the trees as he reconciles external expectations with his own way of being.