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万本电子书0元读

Emma
Emma
Alexander McCall Smith
¥66.22
Jane Austen teased readers with the idea of a 'heroine whom no one but myself will much like', but Emma is irresistible. 'Handsome, clever, and rich', Emma is also an 'imaginist', 'on fire with speculation and foresight'. She sees the signs of romance all around her, but thinks she will never be married. Her matchmaking maps out relationships that Jane Austen ironically tweaks into a clearer perspective. Judgement and imagination are matched in games the reader too can enjoy, and the end is a triumph of understanding.
Araby
Araby
Gretta Mulrooney
¥66.22
A funny and intensely moving portrait of childhood, death and a man’s relationship with his larger-than-life mother. This poignant, witty, warm-hearted yet unsentimental novel charts the turbulent relationship of a mother and son. As a young boy, Rory Keenan finds his mother bewilderingly and embarrassingly eccentric as his childhood is punctuated by hilarious, cringe-making episodes caused entirely by her unpredictable behaviour and bizarre habits and exploits. Kitty has a huge appetite – for food, for mysterious imaginary illnesses and for strange hobbies. Her irrespressible, opinionated nature ensures that she (and, against his will, Rory too) is the centre of any attention to be had. At the end of Kitty’s life, Rory, now a grown man, begins to come to terms with his confused feelings for Kitty – he loves her devotedly, but nevertheless her cussedness still infuriates him. As memories and secrets from his family’s stormy past in Ireland and London echo through the tragedy of her final, very real illness we are given an outstandingly vivid and compassionate vision of life, love and death.
The Skull and the Nightingale
The Skull and the Nightingale
Michael Irwin
¥66.22
Set in England in the early 1760s, this is a chilling and deliciously dark tale of manipulation, sex, and seduction. When Richard Fenwick, a young man without family or means, returns to London from the Grand Tour, his wealthy godfather, James Gilbert, has an unexpected proposition. Gilbert has led a fastidious life in Worcestershire, but now in his advancing years, he feels the urge to experience, even vicariously, the extremes of human feeling—love and passion, adultery and deceit—along with something much more sinister. He has selected Fenwick to be his proxy, and his ward has no option but to accept. But Gilbert’s elaborate and manipulative “experiments” into the workings of human behaviour drag Fenwick into a vortex of betrayal and danger where lives are ruined and tragedy is always one small step away. And when Fenwick falls in love with one of Gilbert’s pawns and the stakes rise even higher – is it too late for him to escape the Faustian pact?
The Confession of Katherine Howard
The Confession of Katherine Howard
Suzannah Dunn
¥66.22
The new novel from the bestselling author of THE SIXTH WIFE. When 12-year-old Katherine Howard comes to live in the Duchess of Norfolk's household, poor relation Cat Tilney is deeply suspicious. The two girls couldn't be more different: Cat, watchful and ambitious; Katherine, interested only in clothes and boys. Their companions are in thrall to Katherine, but it's Cat in whom Katherine confides and, despite herself, Cat is drawn to her. Summoned to court at 17, Katherine leaves Cat in the company of her ex-lover, Francis, and the two begin their own, much more serious, love affair. Within months, the king has set aside his Dutch wife Anne for Katherine. The future seems assured for the new queen and her maid-in-waiting, although Cat would feel more confident if Katherine hadn't embarked on an affair with one of the king's favoured attendants, Thomas Culpeper. However, for a blissful year and a half, it seems that Katherine can have everything she wants. But then allegations are made about her girlhood love affairs. Desperately frightened, Katherine recounts a version of events which implicates Francis but which Cat knows to be a lie. With Francis in the Tower, Cat alone knows the whole truth of Queen Katherine Howard – but if she tells, Katherine will die.
The Lover’s Dictionary: A Love Story in 185 Definitions
The Lover’s Dictionary: A Love Story in 185 Definitions
David Levithan
¥66.22
How does one talk about love? We are all beginners when it comes to love, from those tentative first dates to learning how to live with, or without, someone. But how does one describe love? How does one chart its delights and pleasures, its depths and desolations? Do we even have the right words to describe something that can be both utterly mundane and completely transcendent, pulling us out of our everyday lives and making us feel a part of something greater than ourselves? David Levithan's The Lover's Dictionary starts where we all once started – with the alphabet. Constructing the story of a relationship as a dictionary, Levithan explores the intimacies and workings of love through his nameless narrator, to paint a moving portrait of love through everyday words. Cleverly using the confines of language to provide an intimate window into the great events and quotidian trifles of being part of a couple, Levithan gives us an indelible and deeply moving portrait of love in our time.
Anita and Me
Anita and Me
Meera Syal
¥66.22
Nine-year-old Meena can’t wait to grow up and break free from her parents. But, as the daughter of the only Punjabi family in the mining village of Tollington, her struggle for independence is different from most. Meena wants fishfingers and chips, not chapati and dhal; she wants an English Christmas, not the usual interminable Punjabi festivities – but more than anything, she wants to roam the backyards of working-class Tollington with feisty Anita Rutter and her gang. Blonde, cool, aloof, outrageous and sassy, Anita is everything Meena thinks she wants to be. Meena wheedles her way into Anita’s life, but the arrival of a baby brother, teenage hormones, impending entrance exams for the posh grammar school and a motorcycling rebel without a future threaten to turn Anita’s salad days sour. Anita and Me paints a comic, poignant, compassionate and colourful portrait of village life in the era of flares, power cuts, glam rock, decimalisation and Ted Heath. It is a unique vision of a British childhood in the Seventies, a childhood caught between two cultures, each on the brink of change.
Every Day Is Mother’s Day
Every Day Is Mother’s Day
Hilary Mantel
¥66.22
From the author of the Man Booker prize-winners ‘Wolf Hall’ and ‘Bring Up the Bodies’ comes a story of suburban mayhem and merciless, hilarious revenge. Barricaded inside their house filled with festering rubbish, unhealthy smells and their secrets, the Axon family baffle Isabel Field, the latest in a long line of social workers. Isabel has other problems too: a randy, untrustworthy father and a slackly romantic lover, Colin Sidney, history teacher to unresponsive yobs and father of a parcel of horrible children. With all this to worry about, how can Isabel begin to understand what is going on in the Axon household?
Vacant Possession
Vacant Possession
Hilary Mantel
¥66.22
From the Man Booker Prize-winning author of ‘Wolf Hall’ and ‘Bring Up the Bodies’, a savagely funny tale that revisits the characters from the much-loved ‘Every Day is Mother’s Day’. Muriel Axon is about to re-enter the lives of Colin Sidney, hapless husband, father and schoolmaster, and Isabel Field, failed social worker and practising neurotic. It is ten years since her last tangle with them, but for Muriel this is not time enough. There are still scores to be settled, truths to be faced and rather a lot of vengeance to be wreaked.
The Giant, O’Brien
The Giant, O’Brien
Hilary Mantel
¥66.22
From the two-time Man Booker winner, the story of the 18th Century Irish giant, Charles O’Brien. Charles O’Brien, bard and giant. The cynical are moved by his flights of romance; the craven stirred by his tales of epic deeds. But what of his own story as he is led from Ireland to seek his fortune beyond the seas in England? The Surprising Irish Giant may be the sensation of the season but only his compatriots seem to attend to his mythic powers of invention. John Hunter, celebrated surgeon and anatomist, buys dead men from the gallows and babies’ corpses by the inch. Where is a man as unique as The Giant to hide his bones when he is yet alive? The Giant, O’ Brien is an unforgettable novel; lyrical, shocking and spliced with black comedy.
The Devil and Miss Prym
The Devil and Miss Prym
Paulo Coelho
¥66.22
A novel from Paulo Coelho, author of The Alchemist. A stranger arrives in the small mountain village. He carries with him a backpack containing a notebook and eleven gold bars. Burying these in the vicinity, the stranger strikes up a curious friendship with a young woman from the village – Miss Prym. His mission is to discover whether human beings are essentially good or evil. In this stunning novel, Paulo Coelho’s unusual protagonist sets the town a moral challenge from which they may never recover. A fascinating meditation on the human soul, The Devil and Miss Prym illuminates the reality of good and evil within us all, and our uniquely human capacity to choose between them.
The Other Queen
The Other Queen
Philippa Gregory
¥66.22
A dramatic novel of passion, politics and betrayal from the author of The Other Boleyn Girl. They can fear me, and they can hate me. They can even deny me. But they cannot kill me. 1568. The Virgin Queen Elizabeth I has ruled England for ten years, but refuses to name a successor, despite the rival claims that threaten her kingdom. Bess of Hardwick, the new Countess of Shrewsbury, has secured her future with her fourth marriage to George Talbot. Ambitious and shrewd, Bess anticipates royal favour when she and the Earl are asked to give sanctuary to the fugitive Mary Queen of Scots. But the Scottish queen rails against house arrest in a desolate castle and plots to regain her throne. The castle becomes the epicentre of intrigue against Elizabeth, the Earl blinded by admiration for the other queen. Even Bess’s own loyalty is thrown into question. If Elizabeth's spymaster William Cecil links the Talbots to the growing conspiracy to free Mary, they will all face the Tower…
Disguise
Disguise
Hugo Hamilton
¥66.22
Hugo Hamilton, the internationally acclaimed author of ‘The Speckled People’ and ‘Sailor in the Wardrobe’, turns his hand back to fiction with a compelling drama tracing Berlin's central historical importance throughout the twentieth century. 1945. At the end of the second world war in Berlin, a young mother loses her two-year-old boy in the bombings. She flees to the south, where her father finds a young foundling of the same age among the refugee trains to replace the boy. He makes her promise never to tell anyone, including her husband – still fighting on the Russian front – that the boy is not her own. Nobody will know the difference. 2008. Gregor Liedmann is a Jewish man now in his sixties. He's an old rocker who ran away from home, a trumpet player, a revolutionary stone-thrower left over from the 1968 generation. On a single day spent gathering fruit in an orchard outside Berlin with family and friends, Gregor looks back over his life, sifting through fact and memory in order to establish the truth. What happened on that journey south in the final days of the war? Why did his grandfather Emil disappear, and why did the Gestapo torture uncle Max? Here, in the calmness of the orchard, along with his ex-wife Mara and son Daniel, Gregor tries to unlock the secret of his past. In his first novel since the best-selling memoir ‘The Speckled People’, Hugo Hamilton has created a truly compelling story of lost identity, and a remarkable reflection on the ambiguity of belonging.
Dog Soldiers: Love, loyalty and sacrifice on the front line
Dog Soldiers: Love, loyalty and sacrifice on the front line
Isabel George
¥66.22
Dog Soldiers tells the story of two brave young ‘dog soldiers’ (Army bomb dog handlers), killed in action in Afghanistan with their dogs by their side, through the inspirational words of their mothers. Lance Corporal Kenneth Rowe and Lance Corporal Liam Tasker were both dog lovers from boyhood and went on to do the job they had always wanted to do. Through the soldiers’ mothers – Lyn Rowe and Jane Duffy – the book will take the reader on a journey and a celebration of the young men’s lives that begins with the two young boys growing up and fulfilling their dream to serve Queen and country as Army dog handlers – Ken Rowe with his dog, Sasha, and Liam Tasker with his canine partner, Theo. Both mothers acknowledge that their sons signed up to do the job they loved best and fell with their loyal and trusted best friend beside them. Jane Duffy said of her son, Liam Tasker: ‘I know my son died doing the job he loved. And he loved that dog as I loved my son, with every ounce of his being. To lose Liam was and still is unbearable. But for Liam to have survived without Theo? Unthinkable.’
The Last of Us
The Last of Us
Rob Ewing
¥66.22
When a pandemic wipes out the entire population of a remote Scottish island, only a small group of children survive. How will they fend for themselves? Since the last adult died, sensible Elizabeth has been the group leader, testing for a radio signal, playing teacher and keeping an eye on Alex, the littlest, whose insulin can only last so long. There is ‘shopping’ to do in the houses they haven’t yet searched and wrong smells to avoid. For eight-year-old Rona each day brings fresh hope that someone will come back for them, tempered by the reality of their dwindling supplies. With no adults to rebel against, squabbles threaten the fragile family they have formed. And when brothers Calum Ian and Duncan attempt to thwart Elizabeth’s leadership, it prompts a chain of events that will endanger Alex’s life and test them all in unimaginable ways. Reminiscent of The Lord of the Flies and The Cement Garden, The Last of Us is a powerful and heartbreaking novel of aftershock, courage and survival.
Age of Consent
Age of Consent
Marti Leimbach
¥66.22
Thirty years ago, June was a young widow with a hopeless crush on a Craig Kirtz, a disc jockey at a local rock station. To her surprise, the two struck up a friendship that seemed headed for something more. But it was June’s thirteen-year-old daughter, Bobbie, whom Craig had wanted all along. Bobbie thought her secret life—the sex, the drugs, the illicit relationship itself—could remain safely buried in the past. But when she discovers that Craig had similarly pursued any number of other young girls, Bobbie returns home after a long absence with one purpose in mind:to bring Craig to trial. Her decision is greeted with mixed feelings. Some people think that bringing charges against someone for a crime committed so many years ago is unjustified. She’s called a “middle-aged woman with a vendetta.” She’s accused of waging war against her own family. June remembers things differently from the way Bobbie does. Craig insists he has done nothing wrong. But the past has a way of revealing itself, and some relationships lay dormant through the years, ready to stir to life at the slightest provocation. While their traumatic history is relived in the courtroom, Bobbie and June must face the choices they made and try to make sense of the pain they endured while seeking justice at long last. Told with warmth and compassion, this is a moving, deeply absorbing story of a family in crisis.
Half the World (Shattered Sea, Book 2)
Half the World (Shattered Sea, Book 2)
Joe Abercrombie
¥66.22
‘Grabbed me and refused to let go’ George R.R. Martin SOMETIMES A GIRL IS TOUCHED BY MOTHER WAR Thorn lives to fight. But she has been named murderer by the very man who trained her to kill. SOMETIMES A GIRL BECOMES A WARRIOR Fate traps her in the schemes of Father Yarvi, sending her across half the world to seek allies against the ruthless High King. SOMETIMES A WARRIOR BECOMES A WEAPON Beside her is Brand, a young warrior who hates to kill. A failure in his eyes and hers, he has one chance at redemption. AND WEAPONS ARE MADE FOR ONE PURPOSE Must Thorn be a tool in other hands or can she carve her own path? Is there a place beyond legend for a woman with a blade?
The Sandman
The Sandman
Lars Kepler
¥66.22
The No 1 Swedish thriller by the author of The Hypnotist and The Fire Witness He's Sweden's most prolific serial killer. Jurek Walter is serving a life sentence. Kept in solitary confinement, he is still considered extremely dangerous by psychiatric staff. He'll lull you into a sense of calm. Mikael knows him as “the sandman”. Seven years ago, he was taken from his bed along with his sister. They are both presumed dead. He has one target left. When Mikael is discovered on a railway line, close to death, the hunt begins for his sister. To get to the truth, Detective Inspector Joona Linna will need to get closer than ever to the man who stripped him of a family; the man who wants Linna dead.
All the Light We Cannot See
All the Light We Cannot See
Anthony Doerr
¥66.22
WINNER OF THE 2015 PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTIONNATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALISTNEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERWINNER OF THE CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR FICTION A beautiful, stunningly ambitious novel about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II
Interpreter of Maladies
Interpreter of Maladies
Jhumpa Lahiri
¥66.22
Pulitzer-winning, scintillating studies in yearning and exile from a Bengali Bostonian woman of immense promise. A couple exchange unprecedented confessions during nightly blackouts in their Boston apartment as they struggle to cope with a heartbreaking loss; a student arrives in new lodgings in a mystifying new land and, while he awaits the arrival of his arranged-marriage wife from Bengal, he finds his first bearings with the aid of the curious evening rituals that his centenarian landlady orchestrates; a schoolboy looks on while his childminder finds that the smallest dislocation can unbalance her new American life all too easily and send her spiralling into nostalgia for her homeland… Jhumpa Lahiri’s prose is beautifully measured, subtle and sober, and she is a writer who leaves a lot unsaid, but this work is rich in observational detail, evocative of the yearnings of the exile (mostly Indians in Boston here), and full of emotional pull and reverberation.
The Pagan Lord (The Last Kingdom Series, Book 7)
The Pagan Lord (The Last Kingdom Series, Book 7)
Bernard Cornwell
¥66.22
The seventh novel in Bernard Cornwell’s number one bestselling series on the making of England and the fate of his great hero, Uhtred of Bebbanburg. BBC2’s major Autumn 2015 TV show THE LAST KINGDOM is based on the first two books in the series. Uhtred – sword of the Saxons, bane of the Vikings – has been declared outcast. Peace in Britain has given Uhtred time to cause trouble – for himself. Branded a pagan abomination by the church, he sails north. For, despite suspecting that Viking leader Cnut Longsword will attack the Saxons again, Uhtred is heading for Bebbanburg, fearing that if he does not act now he will never reclaim his stolen birthright. Yet Uhtred’s fate is bound to the Saxons. To Aethelflaed, bright lady of Mercia and to a dead king’s dream of England. For great battles must still be fought – and no man is better at that than Uhtred. Uhtred of Bebbanburg’s mind is as sharp as his sword. A thorn in the side of the priests and nobles who shape his fate, this Saxon raised by Vikings is torn between the life he loves and those he has sworn to serve.
Emergency Admissions
Emergency Admissions
Kit Wharton
¥66.22
‘Heart-stopping, eye-opening and jaw-dropping. Sometimes painful, sometimes sad, often very, very funny.’ Craig Brown Shocking, funny and unflinchingly honest, Emergency Admissions gives us a fascinating glimpse into the extraordinary world of ambulance driving from the man behind the wheel. Kit Wharton has been an ambulance driver for a dozen years. This book is his report from the frontline of that work:999 calls that hurtle him to critical moments in other peoples’ lives. Nothing in this job is normal, every job is different. From the bizarre to the terrifying and tragic, Wharton takes the reader through his strange work. There is an S&M party gone horribly wrong and bodily discharges sure to make you wretch. There is a man who calls 999 saying he has picked a spot – you can imagine Kit’s irritation. When he arrives, the patient is lying in a pool of his own blood. On the other hand there are colossal time wasters. There are extraordinarily sad stories, heart-warming, touching instances of human bravery and connection Along the way Kit reveals more about his own unconventional upbringing, a childhood pickled in alcohol abuse and bohemian family set ups. As he says, he was well prepared for the ambulance service…