Download or read book A Singular Hostage written by Thalassa Ali and published by Bantam. This book was released on 2008-12-10 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a land of exotic splendor, a young Englishwoman finds herself guardian of an orphan child believed by a dying maharajah to be endowed with magical gifts. It is a role that will take her on a perilous journey into a kingdom’s walled city to protect a child she doesn’t know from a culture she doesn’t understand... A Singular Hostage The year is 1838. Mariana Givens, a spirited young woman of twenty, has been sent to India to find a suitable husband. Traveling as a translator, she joins the entourage of Lord Auckland, the British Governor-General, as he journeys across India with an army ten thousand strong to meet the fabled Ranjit Singh, Maharajah of the Punjab. Eager young officers compete for Mariana’s favor, but it is with India that she falls in love: the baggage elephants tramping through country vast and wild; the scent of exotic foods at remote campsites; the enigmatic tutor who is her guide to native languages and ways. Lord Auckland must forge an alliance with Ranjit Singh that will deliver Afghanistan into British control, but as he negotiates his crucial treaty, Mariana is drawn into a perilous conspiracy surrounding the one-eyed Maharajah’s baby hostage--a child of mystical repute named Saboor.
Download or read book A Beggar at the Gate written by Thalassa Ali and published by Bantam. This book was released on 2008-07-29 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Set in nineteenth-century British India, Thalassa Ali’s dazzling debut, A Singular Hostage, introduced us to Mariana Givens, the Englishwoman who risked everything to save a young Indian orphan from certain death. Now Ali returns to that exotic kingdom beyond the northwestern frontier, where Mariana will come face-to-face with a different destiny. Two years have passed since Mariana left the walled city of Lahore. But she’s unable to forget its haunting scent of roses or her ill-fated marriage to a native-born husband that has scandalized Calcutta society and made her an outcast among the English. Worse still, she bears the knowledge that she will be forced to give up Saboor—the boy believed to be endowed with magical gifts whose life she risked her own to save. Now Mariana must revisit Lahore to return Saboor to his family and request a divorce from Hassan Ali Khan. But how can she say good-bye to the enigmatic man whose love defied two cultures—or the child she’s loved as her own? As political and civil strife threaten to erupt in violence, she seeks answers in a world no Englishwoman has ever seen. And she’s driven ever closer to a secret so powerful that it will change her life—and the lives of those she loves—forever.
Download or read book Companions of Paradise written by Thalassa Ali and published by Bantam. This book was released on 2008-12-24 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In A Singular Hostage and A Beggar at the Gate, Thalassa Ali introduced us to the lush, intriguing world of nineteenth-century British India—and to Mariana Givens, a brave, beautiful Englishwoman. Now, as vengeful Afghan tribesmen close in, Mariana must face the repercussions of her marriage to a Punjabi Muslim, and choose between the people she calls her own—and the life that owns her heart. Mariana Givens aches to return to the rose-scented city of Lahore, home of Hassan Ali Khan, the Muslim stranger she has come to love, his mystical family, and his prescient little son. But her own reckless behavior has sent her into exile at the British cantonment near Kabul, on the eve of the First Afghan War. There, she embarks on a dangerous double life, pretending to be a proper young Victorian lady while secretly traveling Kabul’s violent, fascinating streets to visit the Sufi seer who possesses the answers she needs. But the mystic’s help comes with a price, and her family wants her to marry a British officer. As Afghanistan descends into violence and her hopes of rescue fade, Mariana must make a fateful decision: can she abandon her old life and allow herself to be drawn toward her destiny—whatever it may be?
Download or read book Uncaged The Singular Menace 1 written by John Sandford and published by Ember. This book was released on 2015-04-28 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New York Times bestseller! John Sandford and Michele Cook debut a high-octane thriller series about a ruthless corporation, unspeakable experiments, and a fight to expose the truth. Perfect for fans of James Dashner's The Maze Runner. Shay Remby arrives in Hollywood with $58 and a handmade knife, searching for her brother, Odin. Odin’s a brilliant hacker but a bit of a loose cannon. He and a group of radical animal-rights activists hit a Singular Corp. research lab in Eugene, Oregon. The raid was a disaster, but Odin escaped with a set of highly encrypted flash drives and a post-surgical dog. When Shay gets a frantic 3 a.m. phone call from Odin—talking about evidence of unspeakable experiments, and a ruthless corporation, and how he must hide—she’s concerned. When she gets a menacing visit from Singular’s security team, she knows: her brother’s a dead man walking. What Singular doesn’t know—yet—is that 16-year-old Shay is every bit as ruthless as their security force, and she will burn Singular to the ground, if that’s what it takes to save her brother.
Download or read book Nora Webster written by Colm Toibin and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2014-10-07 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From one of contemporary literature’s bestselling, critically acclaimed, and beloved authors: a “luminous” novel (Jennifer Egan, The New York Times Book Review) about a fiercely compelling young widow navigating grief, fear, and longing, and finding her own voice—“heartrendingly transcendant” (The New York Times, Janet Maslin). Set in Wexford, Ireland, Colm Tóibín’s magnificent seventh novel introduces the formidable, memorable, and deeply moving Nora Webster. Widowed at forty, with four children and not enough money, Nora has lost the love of her life, Maurice, the man who rescued her from the stifling world to which she was born. And now she fears she may be sucked back into it. Wounded, selfish, strong-willed, clinging to secrecy in a tiny community where everyone knows your business, Nora is drowning in her own sorrow and blind to the suffering of her young sons, who have lost their father. Yet she has moments of stunning insight and empathy, and when she begins to sing again, after decades, she finds solace, engagement, a haven—herself. Nora Webster “may actually be a perfect work of fiction” (Los Angeles Times), by a “beautiful and daring” writer (The New York Times Book Review) at the zenith of his career, able to “sneak up on readers and capture their imaginations” (USA TODAY). “Miraculous...Tóibín portrays Nora with tremendous sympathy and understanding” (Ron Charles, The Washington Post).
Download or read book The Triumph of Seeds written by Thor Hanson and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2015-03-24 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As seen on PBS's American Spring LIVE, the award-winning author of Buzz and Feathers presents a natural and human history of seeds, the marvels of the plant kingdom. "The genius of Hanson's fascinating, inspiring, and entertaining book stems from the fact that it is not about how all kinds of things grow from seeds; it is about the seeds themselves." -- Mark Kurlansky, New York Times Book Review We live in a world of seeds. From our morning toast to the cotton in our clothes, they are quite literally the stuff and staff of life: supporting diets, economies, and civilizations around the globe. Just as the search for nutmeg and pepper drove the Age of Discovery, coffee beans fueled the Enlightenment and cottonseed sparked the Industrial Revolution. Seeds are fundamental objects of beauty, evolutionary wonders, and simple fascinations. Yet, despite their importance, seeds are often seen as commonplace, their extraordinary natural and human histories overlooked. Thanks to this stunning new book, they can be overlooked no more. This is a book of knowledge, adventure, and wonder, spun by an award-winning writer with both the charm of a fireside story-teller and the hard-won expertise of a field biologist. A fascinating scientific adventure, it is essential reading for anyone who loves to see a plant grow.
Download or read book Waiting for Nothing written by Tom Kromer and published by Pickle Partners Publishing. This book was released on 2019-11-22 with total page 170 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Waiting for Nothing, first published in 1935, is a sobering, first-hand account of the author's life as a homeless man during the Great Depression of the 1930s. The book, a classic portrayal of the brutality and inhumaness of the time, was written while author Tom Kromer (1906-1969) was working at a Civilian Conservation Corps camp in California, and was his only completed novel. Waiting for Nothing describes Kromer's travels on the rails, his encounters with small-time cooks, prostitutes and homosexuals, and the endless search for enough food to eat and a warm place to sleep. Throughout the book, Kromer describes the plight of a vast army of unemployed workers, left to fend for themselves in a largely uncaring society.
Download or read book The Need written by Helen Phillips and published by Simon & Schuster. This book was released on 2020-07-07 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ***LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD IN FICTION*** “An extraordinary and dazzlingly original work from one of our most gifted and interesting writers” (Emily St. John Mandel, author of The Glass Hotel). The Need, which finds a mother of two young children grappling with the dualities of motherhood after confronting a masked intruder in her home, is “like nothing you’ve ever read before…in a good way” (People). When Molly, home alone with her two young children, hears footsteps in the living room, she tries to convince herself it’s the sleep deprivation. She’s been hearing things these days. Startling at loud noises. Imagining the worst-case scenario. It’s what mothers do, she knows. But then the footsteps come again, and she catches a glimpse of movement. Suddenly Molly finds herself face-to-face with an intruder who knows far too much about her and her family. As she attempts to protect those she loves most, Molly must also acknowledge her own frailty. Molly slips down an existential rabbit hole where she must confront the dualities of motherhood: the ecstasy and the dread; the languor and the ferocity; the banality and the transcendence as the book hurtles toward a mind-bending conclusion. In The Need, Helen Phillips has created a subversive, speculative thriller that comes to life through blazing, arresting prose and gorgeous, haunting imagery. “Brilliant” (Entertainment Weekly), “grotesque and lovely” (The New York Times Book Review, Editor’s Choice), and “wildly captivating” (O, The Oprah Magazine), The Need is a glorious celebration of the bizarre and beautiful nature of our everyday lives and “showcases an extraordinary writer at her electrifying best” (Publishers Weekly, starred review).
Download or read book A Bridge of Doom written by Kurt Paul Hotelling and published by . This book was released on 2009-04 with total page 606 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: THREE PATHS CONVERGE PRELUDE: THE HOSTAGE PRINCE-The bonds are tight, his sword broken, the possibility of rescue hopeless; heir to the throne of the western kingdom, Prince Kajor will be sacrificed on the reptilian Grems' primitive altar of blood and revenge. And yet, he fears neither his enemies, nor the endless torture, nor death, but the eventual ruin of his people under their hateful claws. Doubtful of her charged task, a young woman, Royal Messenger under guidance from the only Master Enchanter undertakes an impossible mission, seeking help from a mythical and almost forgotten demigod. AGENTS OF THE DARK ONE-A final heartbeat, demons at the door, an appeal for help, a chance bridge across the void of the Unknown. Violations of metaphysical law during the rescue of Prince Kajor have brought the inescapable wrath and cold justice of Spectres; a singular, violent death stalks Royal Messenger Marie. Back home, bereft of any trace of his adventure, Paul is heartbroken amidst questions about his own sanity. Rothson can only hope his final expenditure of Power will reach demigod and enchanter before disaster befalls and all that they have achieved is overturned. ENCHANTER'S LOT-A faint breath of shadow whispers past Maximillian amidst his private ritual of black magic, bidding him find someone; Paul helps Marie adjust to existence in his complicated world, unaware of the dark forces seeking them out; Enchanter Gaiwan's manhunt for a renegade sorcerer turns sour, bringing upon him the wrath of dragons, and a nearly impossible errand. Relentlessly, all are drawn to meet across A BRIDGE OF DOOM. This is the first of a series of classical fantasy that combines otherworld elements with this everyday world in a believable manner. The fundamentals of Magic and Power, intrinsic to the story, both psychic and mystic, are described and explained in detail (as opposed to an assumptive glossing over.) The editors at DAW Books cited this book and its sequel "An enjoyable epic. The characters, villains, and creatures are nicely done." This first book begins with Prelude: The Hostage Prince. The heir to the throne of the western lands awakens from a nightmare to find himself still bound and tied to a rough hewn stake, prisoner of his enemies, the Grems, a race of walking, yet primitive, reptilians, "lizards," that have warred unceasingly with the unwanted settlers of their territory. Staunching refusing to negotiate peace of co-existence, the Grems fight a losing battle. In a last, desperate effort, the lizards capture Prince Kajor and hold him hostage far from any aid or rescue, then prepare to perform a murderous blood sacrifice of the Prince on the battlefield before their enemies. Meanwhile, Marie, a royal messenger, has been charged by Master Enchanter Rothson to carry a plea for help through a mystic gateway to a nearly forgotten demigod. Though herself doubtful, especially of mages and enchanters, Marie remains loyal to her future king. Armed with only her wits, her steed, she is given a silver talisman that is to be her protector and key to the gateway. The fact of this being a medieval world other than ancient Earth is revealed when mention is made of the first and second sunrises. Riding at the stroke of first dawn and, under protection of an enchantment cast by her master, Marie avoids capture by Grems along the way and breaches the mystic gateway. Arriving on the far side-a place the reader will recognize as present-day Earth, she is to a college student named Paul asleep in his dormitory room. Unbeknownst to any of them, mysterious entities, metaphysical guardians from her home world, have followed her across the mystic bridge, seeking to restore balance of power, either by escorting her back home alone and reversing events, or by destroying her immediately. The story continues in the second part titled: Agents of the Dark One and the main third part, Enchanter's Lot.
Download or read book Still Here written by Alexandra Jacobs and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2019-10-22 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of The New Yorker's favorite nonfiction book of 2019 | A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice Named one of Vogue's "17 Books We Can't Wait to Read This Fall" "Compulsively readable . . . ravenously consuming . . . manna from heaven . . . If ever someone knew how to put a genuinely irresistible book together, it's Jacobs in Still Here." —Jeff Simon, The Buffalo News Still Here is the first full telling of Elaine Stritch’s life. Rollicking but intimate, it tracks one of Broadway’s great personalities from her upbringing in Detroit during the Great Depression to her fateful move to New York City, where she studied alongside Marlon Brando, Bea Arthur, and Harry Belafonte. We accompany Elaine through her jagged rise to fame, to Hollywood and London, and across her later years, when she enjoyed a stunning renaissance, punctuated by a turn on the popular television show 30 Rock. We explore the influential—and often fraught—collaborations she developed with Noël Coward, Tennessee Williams, and above all Stephen Sondheim, as well as her courageous yet flawed attempts to control a serious drinking problem. And we see the entertainer triumphing over personal turmoil with the development of her Tony Award–winning one-woman show, Elaine Stritch at Liberty, which established her as an emblem of spiky independence and Manhattan life for an entirely new generation of admirers. In Still Here, Alexandra Jacobs conveys the full force of Stritch’s sardonic wit and brassy charm while acknowledging her many dark complexities. Following years of meticulous research and interviews, this is a portrait of a powerful, vulnerable, honest, and humorous figure who continues to reverberate in the public consciousness.
Download or read book The Exegesis of Philip K Dick written by Philip K. Dick and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2011-11-07 with total page 1003 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A great and calamitous sequence of arguments with the universe: poignant, terrifying, ludicrous, and brilliant. The Exegesis is the sort of book associated with legends and madmen, but Dick wasn't a legend and he wasn't mad. He lived among us, and was a genius."-Jonathan Lethem Based on thousands of pages of typed and handwritten notes, journal entries, letters, and story sketches, The Exegesis of Philip K. Dick is the magnificent and imaginative final work of an author who dedicated his life to questioning the nature of reality and perception, the malleability of space and time, and the relationship between the human and the divine. Edited and introduced by Pamela Jackson and Jonathan Lethem, this will be the definitive presentation of Dick's brilliant, and epic, final work. In The Exegesis, Dick documents his eight-year attempt to fathom what he called "2-3-74," a postmodern visionary experience of the entire universe "transformed into information." In entries that sometimes ran to hundreds of pages, Dick tried to write his way into the heart of a cosmic mystery that tested his powers of imagination and invention to the limit, adding to, revising, and discarding theory after theory, mixing in dreams and visionary experiences as they occurred, and pulling it all together in three late novels known as the VALIS trilogy. In this abridgment, Jackson and Lethem serve as guides, taking the reader through the Exegesis and establishing connections with moments in Dick's life and work.
Download or read book It Ain t So Awful Falafel written by Firoozeh Dumas and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2016-05-03 with total page 389 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Zomorod (Cindy) Yousefzadeh is the new kid on the block...for the fourth time. California’s Newport Beach is her family’s latest perch, and she’s determined to shuck her brainy loner persona and start afresh with a new Brady Bunch name—Cindy. It’s the late 1970s, and fitting in becomes more difficult as Iran makes U.S. headlines with protests, revolution, and finally the taking of American hostages. Even puka shell necklaces, pool parties, and flying fish can't distract Cindy from the anti-Iran sentiments that creep way too close to home. A poignant yet lighthearted middle grade debut from the author of the bestselling Funny in Farsi. California Library Association’s John and Patricia Beatty Award Winner Florida Sunshine State Young Readers Award (Grades 6–8) New York Historical Society’s New Americans Book Prize Winner Middle East Book Award for Youth Literature, Honorable Mention Booklist 50 Best Middle Grade Novels of the 21st Century
Download or read book Calen s Captive written by Lucy Leroux and published by Lucy LeRoux Books. This book was released on 2015-02-06 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Calen is a good man from a bad family. He's worked hard for success, but something's missing...or rather, someone. Calen is the son of an Irish mobster, but he's rejected his legacy and has made a name for himself as a club owner. After years of hard work, he has the life he's always wanted. Almost. Then his father asks him to take a meeting with a rival crew. It's too important to say no. Reluctantly, he drives out to the middle of nowhere to meet them. There to negotiate for reparations, he sees an innocent girl being held against her will-someone who looks very familiar. Unwilling to leave the girl to a fate worse than death, he demands she be included as part of the deal. Maia is forced to stay with Calen for her safety, but she soon finds out he has ulterior motives for protecting her. ***Calen's Captive is the second book in the Singular Obsession Series. No cliffhangers and no serials. Each novel stands alone. Not suitable for readers under 18.***
Download or read book The Open Cage written by Daniel Start and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Ruthless written by Carolyn Lee Adams and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2016-07-12 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "When Ruth is kidnapped, she's determined not to become this serial-killer's next trophy. After she's able to escape, her captor begins stalking her through the wilderness"--
Download or read book L A Weather written by María Amparo Escandón and published by Flatiron Books. This book was released on 2021-09-07 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK • 2022 INTERNATIONAL LATINO BOOK AWARD WINNER FOR FICTION FORECAST: Storm clouds are on the horizon in L.A. Weather, a fun, fast-paced novel of a Mexican American family from the author of the #1 Los Angeles Times bestseller Esperanza’s Box of Saints. “There’s a 100% chance you’ll be paging through this book to uncover the secrets and deception that could potentially burn everything down!”—Reese Witherspoon “This is by far one of the most endearing L.A. novels in recent memory.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) "A lively and ambitious family novel."—New York Times Book Review Oscar, the weather-obsessed patriarch of the Alvarado family, desperately wants a little rain. L.A. is parched, dry as a bone, and he’s harboring a costly secret that distracts him from everything else. His wife, Keila, desperate for a life with a little more intimacy and a little less Weather Channel, feels she has no choice but to end their marriage. Their three daughters—Claudia, a television chef with a hard-hearted attitude; Olivia, a successful architect who suffers from gentrification guilt; and Patricia, a social media wizard who has an uncanny knack for connecting with audiences but not with her lovers—are left questioning everything they know. Each will have to take a critical look at her own relationships and make some tough decisions along the way. With quick wit and humor, María Amparo Escandón follows the Alvarado family as they wrestle with impending evacuations, secrets, deception, and betrayal, and their toughest decision yet: whether to stick together or burn it all down.
Download or read book The Hostage Brain written by Bruce S. McEwen and published by Rockefeller Univ. Press. This book was released on 1994 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
