Download or read book The Elegance of the Hedgehog written by Muriel Barbery and published by Europa Editions. This book was released on 2008-09-02 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The phenomenal New York Times bestseller that “explores the upstairs-downstairs goings-on of a posh Parisian apartment building” (Publishers Weekly). In an elegant hôtel particulier in Paris, Renée, the concierge, is all but invisible—short, plump, middle-aged, with bunions on her feet and an addiction to television soaps. Her only genuine attachment is to her cat, Leo. In short, she’s everything society expects from a concierge at a bourgeois building in an upscale neighborhood. But Renée has a secret: She furtively, ferociously devours art, philosophy, music, and Japanese culture. With biting humor, she scrutinizes the lives of the tenants—her inferiors in every way except that of material wealth. Paloma is a twelve-year-old who lives on the fifth floor. Talented and precocious, she’s come to terms with life’s seeming futility and decided to end her own on her thirteenth birthday. Until then, she will continue hiding her extraordinary intelligence behind a mask of mediocrity, acting the part of an average pre-teen high on pop culture, a good but not outstanding student, an obedient if obstinate daughter. Paloma and Renée hide their true talents and finest qualities from a world they believe cannot or will not appreciate them. But after a wealthy Japanese man named Ozu arrives in the building, they will begin to recognize each other as kindred souls, in a novel that exalts the quiet victories of the inconspicuous among us, and “teaches philosophical lessons by shrewdly exposing rich secret lives hidden beneath conventional exteriors” (Kirkus Reviews). “The narrators’ kinetic minds and engaging voices (in Alison Anderson’s fluent translation) propel us ahead.” —The New York Times Book Review “Barbery’s sly wit . . . bestows lightness on the most ponderous cogitations.” —The New Yorker
Download or read book A Single Rose written by Muriel Barbery and published by Europa Editions. This book was released on 2021-09-28 with total page 121 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A magnificent romance redolent of ancient wisdom and rich with melancholy, loss, and love” from the bestselling author of The Elegance of the Hedgehog (Le Monde). Rose has just turned forty when she gets a call from a lawyer asking her to come to Kyoto for the reading of her estranged father’s will. And so for the first time in her life she finds herself in Japan, where Paul, her father’s assistant, is waiting to greet her. As Paul guides Rose along a mysterious itinerary designed by her deceased father, her bitterness and anger are soothed by the stones and the trees in the Zen gardens they move through. During their walks, Rose encounters acquaintances of her father—including a potter and poet, an old lady friend, his housekeeper and chauffeur—whose interactions help her to slowly begin to accept a part of herself that she has never before acknowledged. As the reading of the will gets closer, Rose’s father finally, posthumously, opens his heart to his daughter, offering her a poignant understanding of his love and a way to accept all she has lost. “Interspersed with aphoristic Japanese tales from various periods, as melancholy is gradually transmuted into joy.” —The New Yorker “[A] luminous meditation on grief.” —Booklist “With elegant and careful prose, [Barbery] offers descriptions of Kyoto and Japanese culture that transcend the genre of a travelogue. This novel will appeal to readers who long for happy endings and escape.” —Library Journal “The novel balances lush, cultivated gardens and weighted symbolism with mischievous foxes, matcha, sliced eel, and sushi, all forming ‘one happy chaos’ and a fascinating maze of emotional release.” —Foreword Reviews
Download or read book Gourmet Rhapsody written by Muriel Barbery and published by Europa Editions. This book was released on 2009-08-25 with total page 100 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A French food critic faces his mortality in an “entertaining [and] witty” novel by the New York Times–bestselling author of The Elegance of the Hedgehog (Newsday). In the heart of Paris, in the same posh building made famous in The Elegance of the Hedgehog, Pierre Arthens, the greatest food critic in the world, is dying. Revered by some and reviled by many, Monsieur Arthens has been lording it over the world’s most esteemed chefs for years, passing judgment on their creations, deciding their fates with a stroke of his pen, destroying and building reputations on a whim. But now, during his final hours, his mind has turned to simpler things. He is desperately searching for that singular flavor, that sublime something once sampled, never forgotten, the flavor par excellence. Indeed, this flamboyant and self-absorbed man desires only one thing before he dies: one last taste. Thus begins a charming voyage that traces the career of Monsieur Arthens from childhood to maturity across a celebration of all manner of culinary delights. Alternating with the voice of the supercilious Arthens is a chorus belonging to his acquaintances and familiars—relatives, lovers, a would-be protégé, even a cat. Each will have his or her say about M. Arthens, a man who has inspired only extreme emotions in people. Here, as in The Elegance of the Hedgehog, Muriel Barbery’s story celebrates life’s simple pleasures and sublime moments while condemning the arrogance and vulgarity of power. “Lush and satisfying prose.” —Publishers Weekly
Download or read book Confessions of a Wall Street Insider written by Michael Kimelman and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2017-03-28 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although he was a suburban husband and father, living a far different life than the “Wolf of Wall Street,” Michael Kimelman had a good run as the cofounder of a hedge fund. He had left a cushy yet suffocating job at a law firm to try his hand at the high-risk life of a proprietary trader — and he did pretty well for himself. But it all came crashing down in the wee hours of November 5, 2009, when the Feds came to his door—almost taking the door off its hinges. While his wife and children were sequestered to a bedroom, Kimelman was marched off in embarrassment in view of his neighbors and TV crews who had been alerted in advance. He was arrested as part of a huge insider trading case, and while he was offered a “sweetheart” no-jail probation plea, he refused, maintaining his innocence. The lion’s share of Confessions of a Wall Street Insider was written while Kimelman was an inmate at Lewisburg Penitentiary. In nearly two years behind bars, he reflected on his experiences before incarceration—rubbing elbows and throwing back far too many cocktails with financial titans and major figures in sports and entertainment (including Leonardo DiCaprio, Alex Rodriguez, Ben Bernanke, and Alan Greenspan, to drop a few names); making and losing hundreds of thousands of dollars in daily gambles on the Street; getting involved with the wrong people, who eventually turned on him; realizing that none of that mattered in the end. As he writes: “Stripped of family, friends, time, and humanity, if there’s ever a place to give one pause, it’s prison . . . Tomorrow is promised to no one.” In Confessions of a Wall Street Insider, he reveals the triumphs, pains, and struggles, and how, in the end, it just might have made him a better person. Skyhorse Publishing, along with our Arcade, Good Books, Sports Publishing, and Yucca imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of biographies, autobiographies, and memoirs. Our list includes biographies on well-known historical figures like Benjamin Franklin, Nelson Mandela, and Alexander Graham Bell, as well as villains from history, such as Heinrich Himmler, John Wayne Gacy, and O. J. Simpson. We have also published survivor stories of World War II, memoirs about overcoming adversity, first-hand tales of adventure, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.
Download or read book The Gourmet written by Muriel Barbery and published by Pushkin Press. This book was released on 2025-01-16 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the author of the international bestseller The Elegance of The Hedgehog comes a mouth-watering tale delving into the life of a monstrous food critic __________ 'An exquisite French black comedy' The Times 'A foodie's delight; just don't read it when you're hungry' Daily Mail 'The exquisite descriptions of eating are like nothing you've read before' Good Housekeeping __________ After a lifetime of presiding over cowering chefs and pursuing sensual delights, France's greatest food critic is dying. Given just forty-eight hours to live, Pierre Arthens has one last ambition - to recall the most delicious food to ever pass his lips, an elusive taste from his childhood. From his luxury penthouse at Number 7, Rue de Grenelle, Pierre casts his mind back over a lifetime of flavour: eating grilled sardines with his grandfather, the warm, crumbly pastry of an apple tart, his first taste of velvety sashimi. But orbiting around him are a cast of family and acquaintances, each with their own story to tell about the greed and ruthlessness that has paved the way to Pierre's search for the perfect meal.
Download or read book A Strange Country written by Muriel Barbery and published by Gallic Books. This book was released on 2020-07-16 with total page 239 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the acclaimed author of The Elegance of the Hedgehog, A Strange Country, the sequel to The Life of Elves and described as a 'strange and poetic fantasy similar to the work of Tolkien' by the San Francisco Book Review, will transport readers to a lost world and remind them of the power of poetry and imagination. ‘Bewitching’ … ‘[an] enchanting hero’s journey’ Foreword Reviews Alejandro de Yepes and Jesús Rocamora, young officers in the Spanish regular army, are stationed alone at Castillo when a friendly redhead named Petrus appears out of nowhere. There is something magnetic and deeply mysterious about him. Alejandro and Jesús are bewitched, and, in the middle of the sixth year of the longest war humankind has ever endured, they abandon their post to follow him across a bridge that only he can see. Petrus brings them to a world of lingering fog, strange beings, poetry, music, natural wonders, harmony and extraordinary beauty. This is where the fate of the world and all its living creatures is decided. Yet this world too is under threat. A long battle against the forces of disenchantment is drawing to a climactic close. Will poetry and beauty prevail over darkness and death? And what role will Alejandro and Jesús play?
Download or read book The Writer s Cats written by Muriel Barbery and published by Gallic Books. This book was released on 2021-10-19 with total page 66 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An entertaining and gorgeously illustrated portrait of a writer’s life avec chats from the acclaimed author of The Elegance of the Hedgehog – and her four cats. Like so many writers, Muriel Barbery is a lover of cats. Grey-furred and amber-eyed (matching her home décor), Barbery’s four Chartreux cats keep her company as she works from her house in the French countryside, entertaining her with their quirks and foibles, inspiring her with their beauty, and soothing her nerves. But that’s not all. For Kirin, Ocha, Mizu and Petrus – named after the writer’s love of all things Japanese, and, in true French style, of good wine – are no ordinary felines. These intelligent creatures have taken it upon themselves to guide their owner’s writing – flicking aside sections of her manuscript with a disdainful tail, pointing an approving paw at others. And it’s time these put-upon literary consultants got the recognition they deserve. With delicious wit and irony, the international bestselling author of The Elegance of the Hedgehog gives an insight into her writing life – and the paws behind the pen. Accompanied by delightful illustrations by Maria Guitart, The Writer’s Cats is the perfect gift for cat lovers and book lovers everywhere.
Download or read book The Leavers National Book Award Finalist written by Lisa Ko and published by Algonquin Books. This book was released on 2018-04-24 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: FINALIST FOR THE 2017 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION Named a Best Book of 2017 by NPR, Entertainment Weekly, the Los Angeles Times, BuzzFeed, Bustle, and Electric Literature “There was a time I would have called Lisa Ko’s novel beautifully written, ambitious, and moving, and all of that is true, but it’s more than that now: if you want to understand a forgotten and essential part of the world we live in, The Leavers is required reading.” —Ann Patchett, author of Commonwealth Lisa Ko’s powerful debut, The Leavers, is the winner of the 2016 PEN/Bellwether Prize for Fiction, awarded by Barbara Kingsolver for a novel that addresses issues of social justice. One morning, Deming Guo’s mother, Polly, an undocumented Chinese immigrant, goes to her job at a nail salon—and never comes home. No one can find any trace of her. With his mother gone, eleven-year-old Deming is left mystified and bereft. Eventually adopted by a pair of well-meaning white professors, Deming is moved from the Bronx to a small town upstate and renamed Daniel Wilkinson. But far from all he’s ever known, Daniel struggles to reconcile his adoptive parents’ desire that he assimilate with his memories of his mother and the community he left behind. Told from the perspective of both Daniel—as he grows into a directionless young man—and Polly, Ko’s novel gives us one of fiction’s most singular mothers. Loving and selfish, determined and frightened, Polly is forced to make one heartwrenching choice after another. Set in New York and China, The Leavers is a vivid examination of borders and belonging. It’s a moving story of how a boy comes into his own when everything he loves is taken away, and how a mother learns to live with the mistakes of the past.
Download or read book Politics and the English Language written by George Orwell and published by Renard Press Ltd. This book was released on 2021-01-01 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: George Orwell set out ‘to make political writing into an art’, and to a wide extent this aim shaped the future of English literature – his descriptions of authoritarian regimes helped to form a new vocabulary that is fundamental to understanding totalitarianism. While 1984 and Animal Farm are amongst the most popular classic novels in the English language, this new series of Orwell’s essays seeks to bring a wider selection of his writing on politics and literature to a new readership. In Politics and the English Language, the second in the Orwell’s Essays series, Orwell takes aim at the language used in politics, which, he says, ‘is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind’. In an age where the language used in politics is constantly under the microscope, Orwell’s Politics and the English Language is just as relevant today, and gives the reader a vital understanding of the tactics at play. 'A writer who can – and must – be rediscovered with every age.' — Irish Times
Download or read book Delphi written by Michael Scott and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2015-10-20 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Annotation This work engages with the complex archaeological development of the religious sanctuaries of Delphi and Olympia. It investigates the physical remains of both sanctuaries to show how different visitors interacted with the sacred spaces of Delphi and Olympia in an important variety of ways during the archaic and classical periods.
Download or read book Red Is My Heart written by Antoine Laurain and published by Gallic Books. This book was released on 2022-01-18 with total page 158 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the author of The Red Notebook, described as 'Parisian perfection' by HRH The Duchess of Cornwall, Red is My Heart is a stunning collection of words and images in collaboration with Parisian street artist, Le Sonneur, about how to mend a broken heart. 'Enchanting' Washington Post How can you mend a broken heart? Do you write a letter to the woman who left you – and post it to an imaginary address? Buy a new watch, to reset your life? Or get rid of the jacket you wore every time you argued, because it was in some way … responsible? Combining the wry musings of a rejected lover with playful drawings in just three colours – red, black and white – bestselling author of The Red Notebook, Antoine Laurain, and renowned street artist Le Sonneur have created a striking addition to the literature of unrequited love. Sharp, yet warm, whimsical and deeply Parisian, this is a must for all Antoine Laurain fans.
Download or read book Tolstoy and the Purple Chair written by Nina Sankovitch and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2011-06-07 with total page 201 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “NinaSankovitch has crafted a dazzling memoir that remindsus of the most primal function of literature-to heal, to nurture and to connectus to our truest selves." —Thrity Umrigar, author of The Space Between Us Catalyzedby the loss of her sister, a mother of four spends one year savoring a greatbook every day, from Thomas Pynchon to Nora Ephron and beyond. In the tradition ofGretchen Rubin’s The Happiness Project and Joan Dideon’sA Year of Magical Thinking, Nina Sankovitch’ssoul-baring and literary-minded memoir is a chronicle of loss,hope, and redemption. Nina ultimately turns to reading as therapy andthrough her journey illuminates the power of books to help us reclaim ourlives.
Download or read book A Tale for the Time Being written by Ruth Ozeki and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2013-03-12 with total page 621 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A brilliant, unforgettable novel from bestselling author Ruth Ozeki, author of The Book of Form and Emptiness Finalist for the Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award “A time being is someone who lives in time, and that means you, and me, and every one of us who is, or was, or ever will be.” In Tokyo, sixteen-year-old Nao has decided there’s only one escape from her aching loneliness and her classmates’ bullying. But before she ends it all, Nao first plans to document the life of her great grandmother, a Buddhist nun who’s lived more than a century. A diary is Nao’s only solace—and will touch lives in ways she can scarcely imagine. Across the Pacific, we meet Ruth, a novelist living on a remote island who discovers a collection of artifacts washed ashore in a Hello Kitty lunchbox—possibly debris from the devastating 2011 tsunami. As the mystery of its contents unfolds, Ruth is pulled into the past, into Nao’s drama and her unknown fate, and forward into her own future. Full of Ozeki’s signature humor and deeply engaged with the relationship between writer and reader, past and present, fact and fiction, quantum physics, history, and myth, A Tale for the Time Being is a brilliantly inventive, beguiling story of our shared humanity and the search for home.
Download or read book Sex on the Moon written by Ben Mezrich and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2011-07-12 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the bestselling author of The Accidental Billionaires and Bringing Down the House, this is the incredible true story of how a college student and two female accomplices stole some of the rarest objects on the planet—moon rocks—from an "impregnable" high-tech vault. But breaking into a highly secure laboratory wasn't easy. Thad Roberts, an intern in a prestigious NASA training program, would have to concoct a meticulous plan to get past security checkpoints, an electronically locked door with cipher security codes, and camera-lined hallways even before he could get his hands on the 600-pound safe. And then how was he supposed to get it out? And what does one do with an item so valuable that it's illegal even to own? With his signature high-velocity style, Mezrich reconstructs the outlandish heist and tells a story of genius, love, and duplicity that reads like a Hollywood thrill ride.
Download or read book Mrs Mike written by Benedict Freedman and published by Perfection Learning. This book was released on 1987 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A young woman who had been raised in Boston marries a member of the Northwest Mounted Police and goes with him to live in the Canadian wilderness.
Download or read book Varina written by Charles Frazier and published by Ecco. This book was released on 2018 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Her marriage prospects limited, teenage Varina Howell agrees to wed the much-older widower Jefferson Davis, with whom she expects the secure life of a Mississippi landowner. Davis instead pursues a career in politics and is eventually appointed president of the Confederacy, placing Varina at the white-hot center of one of the darkest moments in American history"--
Download or read book Abduzeedo Inspiration Guide for Designers written by Fabio Sasso and published by Pearson Education. This book was released on 2011-05-19 with total page 541 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Brazilian designer Fábio Sasso, who has wildly popular design blog Abduzeedo, has created the definitive guide to design. This book features interviews with designers and offers tutorials on various design styles, an extension of what he does with his site abduzeedo.com. Each chapter addresses a particular style, e.g., Vintage, Neo-surrealism, Retro 80s, Light Effects, Collage, Vector, and starts off with an explanation about the style and techniques that go into that style. Next, the Abduzeedo Design Guide shows images from different visual artists illustrating each style. Fábio interviews a master of each style, such as, in the case of Retro Art, James White. Then he wraps up the chapter with a tutorial showing the elements and techniques for creating that style in Photoshop. Meant for beginning to intermediate designers as well as more experienced designers looking for inspiration, the book focuses on styles that can be applied both to web or print.
