Download or read book Tiny Sunbirds Far Away written by Christie Watson and published by Other Press, LLC. This book was released on 2011-05-10 with total page 449 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the 2011 Costa First Novel Award When their mother catches their father with another woman, twelve year-old Blessing and her fourteen-year-old brother, Ezikiel, are forced to leave their comfortable home in Lagos for a village in the Niger Delta, to live with their mother’s family. Without running water or electricity, Warri is at first a nightmare for Blessing. Her mother is gone all day and works suspiciously late into the night to pay the children’s school fees. Her brother, once a promising student, seems to be falling increasingly under the influence of the local group of violent teenage boys calling themselves Freedom Fighters. Her grandfather, a kind if misguided man, is trying on Islam as his new religion of choice, and is even considering the possibility of bringing in a second wife. But Blessing’s grandmother, wise and practical, soon becomes a beloved mentor, teaching Blessing the ways of the midwife in rural Nigeria. Blessing is exposed to the horrors of genital mutilation and the devastation wrought on the environment by British and American oil companies. As Warri comes to feel like home, Blessing becomes increasingly aware of the threats to its safety, both from its unshakable but dangerous traditions and the relentless carelessness of the modern world. Tiny Sunbirds, Far Away is the witty and beautifully written story of one family’s attempt to survive a new life they could never have imagined, struggling to find a deeper sense of identity along the way.

Download or read book Last Call at the Hotel Imperial written by Deborah Cohen and published by Random House Trade Paperbacks. This book was released on 2023-03-14 with total page 625 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: WINNER OF THE MARK LYNTON HISTORY PRIZE • A prize-winning historian’s “effervescent” (The New Yorker) account of a close-knit band of wildly famous American reporters who, in the run-up to World War II, took on dictators and rewrote the rules of modern journalism “High-speed, four-lane storytelling . . . Cohen’s all-action narrative bursts with colour and incident.”—Financial Times NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE • WINNER OF THE GOLDSMITH BOOK PRIZE • FINALIST FOR THE PROSE AWARD ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, NPR, BookPage, Booklist They were an astonishing group: glamorous, gutsy, and irreverent to the bone. As cub reporters in the 1920s, they roamed across a war-ravaged world, sometimes perched atop mules on wooden saddles, sometimes gliding through countries in the splendor of a first-class sleeper car. While empires collapsed and fledgling democracies faltered, they chased deposed empresses, international financiers, and Balkan gun-runners, and then knocked back doubles late into the night. Last Call at the Hotel Imperial is the extraordinary story of John Gunther, H. R. Knickerbocker, Vincent Sheean, and Dorothy Thompson. In those tumultuous years, they landed exclusive interviews with Hitler and Mussolini, Nehru and Gandhi, and helped shape what Americans knew about the world. Alongside these backstage glimpses into the halls of power, they left another equally incredible set of records. Living in the heady afterglow of Freud, they subjected themselves to frank, critical scrutiny and argued about love, war, sex, death, and everything in between. Plunged into successive global crises, Gunther, Knickerbocker, Sheean, and Thompson could no longer separate themselves from the turmoil that surrounded them. To tell that story, they broke long-standing taboos. From their circle came not just the first modern account of illness in Gunther’s Death Be Not Proud—a memoir about his son’s death from cancer—but the first no-holds-barred chronicle of a marriage: Sheean’s Dorothy and Red, about Thompson’s fractious relationship with Sinclair Lewis. Told with the immediacy of a conversation overheard, this revelatory book captures how the global upheavals of the twentieth century felt up close.

Download or read book Hotel Du Barry written by Lesley Truffle and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2016-02-01 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Heartbreak, joy and nefarious doings at London's luxurious HOTEL DU BARRY. A book for lovers of fine gin, murderous impulses and writing of the ilk of Jonas Jonasson. When a laughing baby is found amongst the Hotel du Barry's billowing sheets, tucked up in an expensive pair of ladies' bloomers and neatly pegged to the laundry line, the hotel staff resolve to keep the child. The hotel's owner, Daniel du Barry, still mourning the loss of his lover in an automobile accident, adopts the little girl, names her after his favourite champagne and seeks consolation in fatherhood. Cat du Barry grows up beloved by both hotel staff and guests, equally at home in the ninth-floor premium suite as she is in the labyrinth below stairs. Years later when Daniel du Barry dies in sinister circumstances, Cat determines to solve the mystery with the assistance of her extended hotel family. From hotel detective to roguish Irish gigolo, from compassionate housekeeper to foxy chamber maid, each will play their wicked part in this novel that will charm, amuse and delight. PRAISE 'This is a wonderful romp of a novel, that brilliantly evokes the attraction and the dangers of the Jazz Age. There is plenty of fabulous fashion and empathetic characters -- it cries out to be made into a film starring Helen Mirren' NZ Women's Weekly 'A must read' - Sunshine Coast Daily

Download or read book The Lonely Hearts Hotel written by Heather O'Neill and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2017-02-07 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the two-time Giller Prize shortlisted author, a dazzling circus of a novel set in the seductive underside of Montreal and New York between the wars Two babies are abandoned in a Montreal orphanage in the winter of 1910. One is a girl named Rose; the other, a boy named Pierrot. Each display rare gifts that bring them adoration and hatred. As they are made to travel around the city performing clown routines to raise funds for the orphanage, they make plans for a sensational future. They are separated as teenagers and sent off to work as menial servants, but both soon find themselves escaping into the criminal world, participating in the vicious and absurd and perverted underbelly of Montreal and New York City between the wars. They search for each other, and one night, under the snowflakes, they reunite, and the underworld will never look quite the same. With all the storytelling skill and magical language for which she is known, Heather O’Neill dazzles us with a new tale of motherless gangsters, drug addicted pianists, radicalized chorus girls and a city whose economy hinges on the price of a kiss.

Download or read book Intrepid s Last Secrets Then and Now written by Bill Macdonald and published by FriesenPress. This book was released on 2019-05-16 with total page 544 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this engrossing follow-up to The True Intrepid, author Bill Macdonald explores secrets only hinted at in that book. The WW II Macdonald explores secrets only hinted at in that book. The WW II Canadian spymaster William Stephenson - known widely as "Intrepid" Canadian spymaster William Stephenson - known widely as “Intrepid" was not only tasked to get help for anti-Nazi Europe and assist setting up was not only tasked to get help for anti-Nazi Europe and assist setting up an American intelligence agency.Stephenson faced a secret Anglophile an American intelligence agency.Stephenson faced a secret Anglophile group covertly seeking a quick peace with Adolf Hitler. Often referred to group covertly seeking a quick peace with Adolf Hitler. Often referred to as "The Milner Group;' the organization reportedly swayed major events as "The Milner Group;' the organization reportedly swayed major events of the twentieth century and likely has major influence today. of the twentieth century and likely has major influence today. Intrepid's Last Secrets: Then and Now Intrepid's Last Secrets: Then and Now explores The Milner Group's history explores The Milner Group's history in Canada, from its relationship to in Canada, from its relationship to Canadian prime ministers of the first half Canadian prime ministers of the first half of the twentieth century - to its probable of the twentieth century - to its probable impact on modern cultural policy and impact on modern cultural policy and government. Both British and American government. Both British and American strands of the group are explored with strands of the group are explored with a study of some of the prominent early members, their philosophies, and their members, their philosophies, and their strategic influence on events and our lives. This book includes the final interview with the late Svetlana Gouzenko, who, along with her husband Igor, fled to Canada from the soviet Union in 1945. The information they brought with them revealed massive Soviet espionage in the West and helped trigger the Cold War. A few of Stephenson’s former British Security Coordination (BSC) agents tell their story for the first time and the organization’s major area of accomplishment - World War II communications (the genesis of the so-called "Five Eyes" agreement) - is explained. Meticulously researched and engagingly written, Intrepid's Last Secrets presents a unique, fascinating, and ultimately deeply chilling take on modern history.

Download or read book Motel of the Mysteries written by David Macaulay and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 1979-10-11 with total page 97 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is the year 4022; all of the ancient country of Usa has been buried under many feet of detritus from a catastrophe that occurred back in 1985. Imagine, then, the excitement that Howard Carson, an amateur archeologist at best, experienced when in crossing the perimeter of an abandoned excavation site he felt the ground give way beneath him and found himself at the bottom of a shaft, which, judging from the DO NOT DISTURB sign hanging from an archaic doorknob, was clearly the entrance to a still-sealed burial chamber. Carson's incredible discoveries, including the remains of two bodies, one of then on a ceremonial bed facing an altar that appeared to be a means of communicating with the Gods and the other lying in a porcelain sarcophagus in the Inner Chamber, permitted him to piece together the whole fabric of that extraordinary civilization.

Download or read book At Bertram s Hotel written by Agatha Christie and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2003-10-28 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At Bertram’s Hotel the intrepid Miss Marple, on holiday in London, must solve a deadly mystery at the end of a chain of very violent events. An old-fashioned London hotel is not quite as reputable as it makes out to be.… When Miss Marple comes up from the country for a holiday in London, she finds what she’s looking for at Bertram’s Hotel: traditional decor, impeccable service, and an unmistakable atmosphere of danger behind the highly-polished veneer. Yet, not even Miss Marple can foresee the violent chain of events set in motion when an eccentric guest makes his way to the airport on the wrong day.…

Download or read book James Clyde and the Diamonds of Orchestra written by Colm McElwain and published by Troubador Publishing Ltd. This book was released on 2011-12-01 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As an infant, James Clyde was deposited at a children’s home by his wounded, blood-soaked grandfather. As a result, he grows up under a cloud of mystery. Eleven years later when he hears about his strange past, he vows to uncover the truth. But before he can, his grandfather hands him a magical and mysterious diamond of Orchestra. With the aid of his friends, Ben and Mary Forester, James must protect the diamond from evil forces. Soon, however, their lives are in grave danger. They are being hunted by a sinister man dressed in black and his blood-thirsty army. Outnumbered, James finds he must use the power of the diamond to escape their clutches – or become another victim of their murderous quest. So begins a journey that will transport them to an alternative world where they must confront the mysterious man in black for a final, winner-takes-all battle… James Clyde and the Diamonds of Orchestra will appeal to children aged 12-15 that are fans of fantasy fiction. Colm is inspired by a number of authors, including J. K. Rowling, C. S. Lewis, Brian Keaney and Charles Dickens.James Clyde and the Diamonds of Orchestra won the Bronze award in the 9-12 year-old category of the Wishing Shelf Independent Book Awards 2012.

Download or read book Every Day The River Changes written by Jordan Salama and published by Catapult. This book was released on 2022-11-15 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An exhilarating travelogue for a new generation about a journey along Colombia’s Magdalena River, exploring life by the banks of a majestic river now at risk, and how a country recovers from conflict. "Richly observed." —Liesl Schillinger, The New York Times Book Review An American writer of Argentine, Syrian, and Iraqi Jewish descent, Jordan Salama tells the story of the Río Magdalena, nearly one thousand miles long, the heart of Colombia. This is Gabriel García Márquez’s territory—rumor has it Macondo was partly inspired by the port town of Mompox—as much as that of the Middle Eastern immigrants who run fabric stores by its banks. Following the river from its source high in the Andes to its mouth on the Caribbean coast, journeying by boat, bus, and improvised motobalinera, Salama writes against stereotype and toward the rich lives of those he meets. Among them are a canoe builder, biologists who study invasive hippopotamuses, a Queens transplant managing a failing hotel, a jeweler practicing the art of silver filigree, and a traveling librarian whose donkeys, Alfa and Beto, haul books to rural children. Joy, mourning, and humor come together in this astonishing debut, about a country too often seen as only a site of war, and a tale of lively adventure following a legendary river.

Download or read book The Paragon Hotel written by Lyndsay Faye and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2019-01-08 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A gun moll with a knack for disappearing flees from Prohibition-era Harlem to Portland's Paragon Hotel. The year is 1921, and "Nobody" Alice James has just arrived in Oregon with a bullet wound, a lifetime's experience battling the New York Mafia, and fifty thousand dollars in illicit cash. She befriends Max, a black Pullman porter who reminds her achingly of home and who saves Alice by leading her to the Paragon Hotel. But her unlikely sanctuary turns out to be an all-black hotel in a Jim Crow city, and its lodgers seem unduly terrified of a white woman on the premises. As she meets the churlish Dr. Pendleton, the stately Mavereen, and the club chanteuse Blossom Fontaine, she understands their dread. The Ku Klux Klan has arrived in Portland in fearful numbers--burning crosses, electing officials, infiltrating newspapers, and brutalizing blacks. And only Alice and her new Paragon "family" are searching for a missing mulatto child who has mysteriously vanished into the woods. To untangle the web of lies and misdeeds around her, Alice will have to answer for her own past, too. A richly imagined novel starring two indomitable heroines, The Paragon Hotel at once plumbs the darkest parts of America's past and the most redemptive facets of humanity. From international-bestselling, multi-award-nominated writer Lyndsay Faye, it's a masterwork of historical suspense.

Download or read book Hotel Florida written by Amanda Vaill and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2014-04-24 with total page 615 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Amid the rubble of a city blasted by a civil war that many fear will cross borders and engulf Europe, the Hotel Florida on Madrid's chic Gran Via has become a haven for foreign journalists and writers. It is here that six people meet and find their lives changed forever. Ernest Hemingway, his career stalled, his marriage sour, hopes that this war will give him fresh material and a new romance; Martha Gellhorn, an ambitious young journalist hungry for love and experience, thinks she will find both with Hemingway in Spain. Robert Capa and Gerda Taro, idealistic and ground-breaking young photographers based in Paris, want to capture history in the making and are inventing moder photojournalism in the process. And Arturo Barea, chief of the Republican government's foreign press office, and Ilsa Kulcsar, his Austrian deputy, are struggling to balance truth-telling with their loyalty to their sometimes-compromised cause - a struggle that places both of their lives at risk. Hotel Florida traces the tangled wartime destinies of these three couples - and a host of supporting characters - living as intensely as they had ever done, against the backdrop of a critical moment in history. It is a narrative of love and reinvention that is, finally, a story about truth, finding it, telling it - and living it, whatever the cost.

Download or read book Up in the Old Hotel written by Joseph Mitchell and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2015-07-15 with total page 738 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Saloon-keepers and street preachers, gypsies and steel-walking Mohawks, a bearded lady and a 93-year-old “seafoodetarian” who believes his specialized diet will keep him alive for another two decades. These are among the people that Joseph Mitchell immortalized in his reportage for The New Yorker and in four books—McSorley's Wonderful Saloon, Old Mr. Flood, The Bottom of the Harbor, and Joe Gould's Secret—that are still renowned for their precise, respectful observation, their graveyard humor, and their offhand perfection of style. These masterpieces (along with several previously uncollected stories) are available in one volume, which presents an indelible collective portrait of an unsuspected New York and its odder citizens—as depicted by one of the great writers of this or any other time.

Download or read book Sammy Keyes and the Hotel Thief written by Wendelin Van Draanen and published by Yearling. This book was released on 2003-09-09 with total page 173 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The most winning junior detective ever in teen lit. (Take that, Nancy Drew!)" —Midwest Children's Book Review What Sammy should have done was put the binoculars down and call 911. What she does instead is tighten up the focus on her right eye to get a better look. There's something very familiar about this thief. But when Sammy eventually spills her story to Officer Borsch, he doesn't believe her. He treats her like some snot-nosed little kid. Well, Sammy's not going to stand for that. She's a snot-nosed seventh grader now, and she knows what she saw. And somehow she's going to prove it. The Sammy Keyes mysteries are fast-paced, funny, thoroughly modern, and true whodunits. Each mystery is exciting and dramatic, but it's the drama in Sammy's personal life that keeps readers coming back to see what happens next with her love interest Casey, her soap-star mother, and her mysterious father.

Download or read book Spineless written by Samantha San Miguel and published by Union Square & Co.. This book was released on 2022-06-07 with total page 211 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This exciting middle-grade adventure is Hoot for the Gilded Age—with scientific discoveries, secret plots, and surprisingly enormous fauna. When his asthma lands him at a health resort in the wilds of Gilded Age South Florida, twelve-year-old Algie Emsworth is over the moon. The scientific treasure trove of unexplored swamps may launch his dream career as a naturalist. But even Algie is startled when he happens upon a brand-new species and her brood in the karst springs surrounding the resort. Algie quickly realizes he must keep his discovery a secret: a famous collector of exotic animals is also staying at the hotel, and the new species is threatened by his very presence. An apparent curse has also descended upon the hotel, bringing with it a deadly red tide. But when the pool starts filling with ink and guests start getting mysterious, sucker-shaped wounds, Algie must pluck up his courage to find the truth about the goings-on at the Grand Hotel—and save the new species from destruction.

Download or read book The Amur River written by Colin Thubron and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2021-09-21 with total page 301 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A gripping read with fascinating political insight." (Sunday Times, London) "Elegant, elegiac and poignant...Thubron is an intrepid traveler, a shrewd observer and a lyrical guide... to the river, much of it along the border between these two powers at a time of rapid and tense reconfiguration of global geopolitics." (Washington Post) The most admired travel writer of our time—author of Shadow of the Silk Road and To a Mountain in Tibet—recounts an eye-opening, often perilous journey along a little known Far East Asian river that for over a thousand miles forms the highly contested border between Russia and China. The Amur River is almost unknown. Yet it is the tenth longest river in the world, rising in the Mongolian mountains and flowing through Siberia to the Pacific. For 1,100 miles it forms the tense border between Russia and China. Simmering with the memory of land-grabs and unequal treaties, this is the most densely fortified frontier on earth. In his eightieth year, Colin Thubron takes a dramatic journey from the Amur’s secret source to its giant mouth, covering almost 3,000 miles. Harassed by injury and by arrest from the local police, he makes his way along both the Russian and Chinese shores, starting out by Mongolian horse, then hitchhiking, sailing on poacher’s sloops or travelling the Trans-Siberian Express. Having revived his Russian and Mandarin, he talks to everyone he meets, from Chinese traders to Russian fishermen, from monks to indigenous peoples. By the time he reaches the river’s desolate end, where Russia’s nineteenth-century imperial dream petered out, a whole, pivotal world has come alive. The Amur River is a shining masterpiece by the acknowledged laureate of travel writing, an urgent lesson in history and the culmination of an astonishing career.

Download or read book The True Intrepid written by Bill MacDonald and published by Raincoast Books. This book was released on 2001 with total page 446 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Second World War intelligence exploits of William Stephenson-the mysterious man known simply as "Intrepid" who is said to be the real-life model for Ian Fleming's James Bond-were celebrated in his lifetime in espionage lore the world over. As head of the British Security Coordination, a predecessor of the CIA, Stephenson was responsible for the hugely successful covert political war against all sources of Axis strength. Subsequently, though, some observers questioned certain aspects of Stephenson's career. In this fascinating re-examination of the historical record, Bill Macdonald documents Stephenson's clouded early life and unravels the tangled strings of information that run through secret papers and previous books to reveal the astonishing details of the man who said: "Nothing deceives like a document."A revised paperback reprint of a Maclean's magazine bestseller, The True Intrepid features historical photographs, personal interviews with those who worked with Stephenson, and a foreword by the CIA's staff historian and former CIA staff officer, Thomas F. Troy.

Download or read book Louis Vuitton written by Francisca Mattéoli and published by Abrams. This book was released on 2021-09 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A beautifully illustrated journey through the history of travel--and traveling in style--from one of the world's preeminent fashion brands The mid-19th and early 20th centuries heralded new means of transport and equipment and, with them, new and original ways of exploring the world. Transatlantic liners, automobiles, long-haul airplanes, zeppelins, and express trains unfurled new horizons and changed travel itself into an adventure. Distant lands were no longer solely accessible to aristocrats, explorers, and adventurers. Instead, the world opened up to new groups of people eager to circumvent the globe. And for many of these new globetrotters, traveling was synonymous with Louis Vuitton, the French label whose iconic and functional luggage trunks could be found on nearly every boat, plane, car, and train around the world. In this beautiful book, author Francisca Mattéoli recounts 50 tales of thrilling travel undertaken in every possible mode of transit, from the hot air balloon to the space shuttle, each lavishly illustrated with more than 300 historical photographs and ephemera from Louis Vuitton's official archives. Louis Vuitton: Extraordinary Voyages is a journey all its own--an evocative and transporting account of the most surprising and transformative trips taken since the 19th century.