万本电子书0元读

万本电子书0元读

Friendly Fire
Friendly Fire
Al Aswany, Alaa
¥84.16
Alaa Al Aswany has won resounding critical acclaim for his deft and moving portrayals of the lives of contemporary Egyptians who constantly examine their relationship with Egypt's history, religion, class, and gender distinctions. In Friendly Fire he once again demonstrates an extraordinary empathy for lost and searching souls as he focuses on the exquisite emotions of everyday life.In "The Kitchen Boy" and "Dearest Sister Makarim," Al Aswany explores the hypocrisy of the class divide. The brief and tender "Izzat Amin Iskandar" is a heartrending view of youthful hope. And in the unforgettable novella "The Isam Abd el-Ati Papers," the narrator carries us along a troubling journey through his painful relationships with his artist father and his self-centered mother, en route to a devastating collision of temptation and morality.Here are stories of generational conflict, love, repression, and the clash of Western and Arab ideals, all beautifully rendered by a true modern master.
We Only Know So Much
We Only Know So Much
Crane, Elizabeth
¥84.16
Jean Copeland, an emotionally withdrawn wife and mother of two, has taken a secret lover—only to lose him in a moment of tragedy that leaves her reeling. Her husband, Gordon, is oblivious, distracted by the fear that he's losing his most prized asset: his memory. Daughter Priscilla (a pill since birth—don't get us started) is talking about clothes, or TV, or whatever, and hatching a plan to extend her maddening reach to all of America. Nine-year-old Otis is torn between his two greatest loves: crossword puzzles and his new girlfriend. At the back of the house, grandfather Theodore is in the early throes of Parkinson's disease. (And he's fine with it—as long as they continue to let him walk the damn dog alone.) And Vivian, the family's ninety-eight-year-old matriarch, is a razor-sharp grande dame who suffers no fools...and still harbors secret dreams of her own. With empathy, humor, and an unforgettable voice, Elizabeth Crane reveals what one family finds when everyone goes looking for meaning in all the wrong places.
The Boy Who Stole the Leopard's Spots
The Boy Who Stole the Leopard's Spots
Myers, Tamar
¥84.16
A decades-old murder, a strange superstition, an enormous snake, and one giant secret are about to rock the beautiful Belle Vue to its core. It is a time of great upheaval for the Belgian Congo and Belle Vue is not safe from the changes. But there are more pressing problems as an unsolved disappearance brings up issues for some of the denizens of the village. Add to that a sudden influx of strangers and a horrible storm that literally divides the village in half, and suddenly danger seems to be everywhere. The lovely young American missionary Amanda, the police chief Captain Pierre Jardin, and the local witch doctor and his wise-woman wife, Cripple, all become embroiled in the mystery as evil omens and strange happenings at every turn suggest that more lives will be lost before the true killer is unmasked.
Charlotte Street
Charlotte Street
Wallace, Danny
¥84.16
Jason Priestley (no, not that Jason Priestley) is in a rut. He gave up his teaching job to write snarky reviews of cheap restaurants for the free newspaper you take but don't read. He lives above a video-game store, between a Polish newsstand and that place that everyone thinks is a brothel but isn't. His most recent Facebook status is "Jason Priestley is . . . eating soup." Jason's beginning to think he needs a change. So he uncharacteristically moves to help a girl on the street who's struggling with an armload of packages, and she smiles an incredible smile at him before her cab pulls away. What for a fleeting moment felt like a beginning is cruelly cut short—until Jason realizes that he's been left holding a disposable camera. And suddenly, with prodding and an almost certainly disastrous offer of assistance from his socially inept best friend Dev, a coincidence-based, half-joking idea—What if he could track this girl down based on the photos in her camera?—morphs into a full-fledged quest to find the woman of Jason's dreams.
The Girl Below
The Girl Below
Zander, Bianca
¥84.16
Suki Piper is a stranger in her hometown. . . .After ten years in New Zealand, Suki returns to London, to a city that won't let her in. However, a chance visit with Peggy—an old family friend who still lives in the building where she grew up—convinces Suki that there is a way to reconnect with the life she left behind a decade earlier. But the more involved she becomes with Peggy's dysfunctional family, including Peggy's wayward sixteen-year-old grandson, the more Suki finds herself mysteriously slipping back in time—to the night of a party her parents threw in their garden more than twenty years ago, when something happened in an old, long-unused air-raid shelter. . . .A breathtaking whirlwind of mystery, transgression, and self-discovery, Bianca Zander's The Girl Below is a haunting tale of secrets, human frailty, and dark memory that heralds the arrival of an extraordinary new literary talent.
The Last Odd Day
The Last Odd Day
Hinton, Lynne
¥84.16
From the Bestselling Author of Friendship Cake Comes a Remarkable Story of Love, Loss, Infidelity, and Forgiveness
The Adventures of Flash Jackson
The Adventures of Flash Jackson
Kowalski, William
¥84.16
Haley Bombauer, aka Flash Jackson, confronts the summer of her seventeenth year with glorious anticipation. She envisions herself roaming the hillsides and forests on her beloved horse, venturing farther and farther away from her sleepy hometown and her overprotective mother. But when Haley falls through the rotted roof of the barn, she is destined to spend the summer in a thigh-high cast, stuck at home with her mother, enduring visits from her spooky grandmother, and pondering the error of her impulsive ways. The year that follows will, in fact, transform not only her life but also the lives of those around her. Set in Mannville, New York, William Kowalski's signature town, here is the story of one young woman's emergence into a world that, in her words, "was not designed with girls in mind" and her efforts to find a way to fit in without giving up her independence.
Miss Me When I'm Gone
Miss Me When I'm Gone
Arsenault, Emily
¥84.16
Author Gretchen Waters made a name for herself with her bestseller Tammyland—a memoir about her divorce and her admiration for country music icons Tammy Wynette, Loretta Lynn, and Dolly Parton that was praised as a "honky-tonk Eat, Pray, Love." But her writing career is cut abruptly short when she dies from a fall down a set of stone library steps. It is a tragic accident and no one suspects foul play, certainly not Gretchen's best friend from college, Jamie, who's been named the late author's literary executor. But there's an unfinished manu* Gretchen left behind that is much darker than Tammyland: a book ostensibly about male country musicians yet centered on a murder in Gretchen's family that haunted her childhood. In its pages, Gretchen seems to be speaking to Jamie from beyond the grave—suggesting her death was no accident . . . and that Jamie must piece together the story someone would kill to keep untold.
In the Bag
In the Bag
Klise, Kate
¥84.16
A European vacation. A luggage mix-up. A note from a secret admirer.Meet two single parents who think they're too busy to date. And two teenagers who can't stop writing flirty emails. This is a tale of connections—missed and made—in a universe that seems to have its heart set on reuniting Ms. 6B and Mr. 13C.WebbI can't believe I picked up the wrong bag at the airport. My dad is never going to let me hear the end of it.CocoI don't understand why Mom told me to pack my worst underwear. And now I've lost my bagAck!AndrewI cannot stop thinking about that woman in seat 6B on the flight to Paris.DaisyI don't have time to worry about the creep sitting in 13C who slipped a note in my purse. I have to find my daughter's missing bag before this ruins our vacation.In the Bag is a smart and stylish story that explores the old-fashioned art of romance in a modern world, where falling in love can be as risky as checking a bag on an international flight. Buckle your seat belt—it's going to be a bumpy vacation!
Things Remembered
Things Remembered
Bockoven, Georgia
¥84.16
To face the future, a woman must let go of the past. . . .Returning to her childhood home in the golden hills of Northern California means regret and pain for Karla Esterbrook. Yet she can’t refuse when her ailing grandmother, Anna, asks her to help settle her affairs. After all, Anna raised Karla and her younger sisters after their parents’ death twenty years before. But from the beginning a powerful clash of wills separated Karla and her grandmother, leaving them both bitter and angry.Little does Karla know that a very determined Anna will do everything in her power to bridge the chasm between them. But can the wounds of the past truly be healedFor Karla, opening her heart could lead to more hurt—or perhaps to reconciliation . . . and a love the likes of which she has never known.
Black Dahlia & White Rose
Black Dahlia & White Rose
Oates, Joyce Carol
¥84.16
A wildly inventive new collection ofstories by Joyce Carol Oates that chartsthe surprising ways in which the worldwe think we know can unexpectedlyreveal its darker contoursThe New York Times has hailed Joyce Carol Oates as "adangerous writer in the best sense of the word, one whotakes risks almost obsessively with energy and relish."Black Dahlia & White Rose, a collection of eleven previouslyuncollected stories, showcases the keen rewards ofOates's relentless brio and invention. In one beautifullyhoned story after another, Oates explores the menace thatlurks at the edges of and intrudes upon even the seeminglysafest of lives—and maps with rare emotional acuity thetransformational cost of such intrusions.Unafraid to venture into no-man's-lands both real andsurreal, Oates takes readers deep into dangerous territory,from a maximum-security prison—vividly delineatingthe heartbreaking and unexpected atmosphere of such aninstitution—to the inner landscapes of two beautiful andmysteriously doomed young women in 1940s Los Angeles:Elizabeth Short, otherwise known as the Black Dahlia,victim of a long-unsolved and particularly brutal murder,and her roommate Norma Jeane Baker, soon to becomeMarilyn Monroe. Whether exploring the psychologicalcompulsion of the wife of a well-to-do businessman whois ravished by, and elopes with, a lover who is not what heseems or the uneasily duplicitous relationships betweenyoung women and their parents, Black Dahlia & White Roseexplores the compelling intertwining of dread and desire,the psychic pull and trauma of domestic life, and resonatesat every turn with Oates's mordant humor and hertrenchant observation.
Wildalone
Wildalone
Zourkova, Krassi
¥84.16
In this darkly imaginative debut novel full of myth, magic, romance, and mystery, a Princeton freshman is drawn into a love triangle with two enigmatic brothers and discovers terrifying secrets about her family and herself—a bewitching blend of Twilight, The Secret History, Jane Eyre, and A Discovery of WitchesFor every world, there is an underworld. Arriving at Princeton for her freshman year, Thea Slavin finds herself alone, a stranger in a strange land. Away from her family and her Eastern European homeland for the first time, she struggles to adapt to unfamiliar American ways and the challenges of college life—including a young man whose brooding good looks and murky past intrigue her. Drawn to the elusive Rhys and his equally handsome and mysterious brother, Jake, she ventures into a sensual mythic underworld as irresistible as it is dangerous.In this shadow world that seems to evoke Greek mythology and the Bulgarian legends of the samodivi, or "wildalones"—forest witches who beguile and entrap men—Thea will discover a family secret bound to transform her forever . . . if she can accept that dead doesn't always mean gone, and love doesn't always distinguish between the two.Mesmerizing and addictive, Wildalone is a thrilling blend of the modern and the fantastical. Krassi Zourkova creates an atmospheric world filled with rich characters as compelling as those of Diana Gabaldon, Deborah Harkness, and Stephenie Meyer.
Behemoth
Behemoth
Tobias, Ronald B.
¥84.16
In the two hundred years since their arrival in America, elephants have worked on farms, mills, mines, and railroads, in Hollywood, and in professional baseball. They've contributed to the national discourse on civil rights, immigration, politics, and capitalism. They became so deeply ingrained in the American way that they were once accorded the rights of American citizenship, including the right to vote and the right to provide testimony under oath and they have incurred brutal punishments when convicted of human crimes.In Behemoth, Ronald B. Tobias has written the first comprehensive history of the elephant in America. As tragic as it is comic, this enthralling chronicle traces this animal's indelible footprint on American culture.
Everybody Dies
Everybody Dies
Tanaka, Ken
¥84.16
Nobody likes to think about death, but the world would be awfully crowded without it.From YouTube sensation Ken Tanaka and actor David Ury, who was crushed by an ATM on AMC's Breaking Bad, comes Everybody Dies, a colorful story and delightful assemblage of games that makes it easy-even fun- to come to grips with mortality.
Unwritten Rules of Golf
Unwritten Rules of Golf
Post, Peter
¥84.16
There's a social aspect to golf that's unique to the sport. It's the only sport where you're building relationships at the same time that you're trying to play your best and win—and maybe close a business deal. While the rules of golf are clearly defined, the etiquette of golf is less codified. Making the wrong move can cause annoyance, errors in play, or even injury—all things your fellow golfers won't forget. Now bestselling etiquette authority and passionate golfer Peter Post explains what seasoned golfers and newcomers need to know to handle every situation with total confidence. Based on Emily Post Institute surveys on golfers' most annoying incidents on the course, Peter addresses: ?How to deal with the biggest frustration in golf—slow play. ?What to do if you break the cardinal rule of never being late. ?When is a "gimme" acceptableThe difference between friendly play and tournament play. ?Dealing with sandbaggers and other cheats. ?Do's and don'ts when playing for "a little something." Peter Post's useful tips on the subtleties of the game—such as how and when to offer advice, strategies for speeding up play, and "piniquette"—will help longtime golfers be better companions on the course. New golfers unsure of the unwritten social rules of golf will find all the information they need to avoid embarrassment. Packed with true stories from golfers about best moments and worst behavioral blunders on the course—ranging from the sandbagger who cheated himself out of an eagle to a wardrobe malfunction that gave new meaning to the term "You're out"—this book is for anyone who appreciates the spirit of the game.
Cat People
Cat People
Korda, Michael
¥84.16
With characteristic wit, self effacing charm and sheer, exuberant love of a good cat story, New York Times bestselling author Michael Korda and his wife Margaret Korda recount their lives as "cat people," beginning with Margaret's passion for cats (and Michael's reluctant mid life transformation into a cat person), and introducing readers to a hilarious assortment of people whose life revolves often to an extraordinary degree around their cat, or cats, from Cleopatra a transatlantic traveler who found happiness in Paris to Wally, the epitome of feline dignity. Here are people who just can't say no to another cat, who "world travel" with their cat, who build their social life around their cats and of course the cats themselves, for the Kordas celebrate the beguiling power of cats, including many of their own, who have complemented, complicated and changed their lives together over the years. Here are charming, often hilarious and sometimes sad portraits of such cats as Margaret's beloved Irving, whose favorite abode was the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, and Mumsie, who arrived unexpectedly at the door with her two kittens, and special cats like Jake and the gentle Chutney, as well as "difficult" cats like Chui and poor Mrs. Bumble, and Mr. McT., the bully who found love late in life. Here are graceful cats and cats like Kit–Kat that never look before they jump, in short, countless cats the reader will never forget, even those with many cats of their own.
Closing the Deal
Closing the Deal
Kirshenbaum, Richard
¥84.16
In this hip and utterly indispensable guide, two happily married husbands and regular guys reveal the secrets to getting a man down on bended knee -- his most uncomfortable position.Over the years, Richard Kirshenbaum and Daniel Rosenberg have dispensed loads of successful relationship advice to friends, colleagues, and relatives, who then pushed the ex-bachelors to share their lessons with the masses of future brides who need help taking their existing relationships to the next level. These guys have been there and know what it takes to get even the biggest commitment phobes to take the plunge.Closing the Deal will help you make a realistic assessment of your relationship and offers a fresh perspective on how your man's mind works. You'll find a new way to drive your relationship toward marriage without resorting to game playing.The authors promote the importance of truth telling, self-positioning, and the artful use of marketing tactics to reel in your man. You don't have to be the prettiest, thinnest, or richest woman to close the deal -- there is an art to it!Closing the Deal is not about outsmarting your man to the altar -- it's about learning to understand him. Richard and Daniel explain that no matter how much a guy may love his significant other, Change is the Enemy, so wannabe brides everywhere must convince their boyfriends that marriage is man's best friend. Closing the Deal will show you how to do just that.To help future brides build their matrimonial muscles and monitor their progress, Richard and Daniel include quizzes and real-life scenarios and throw in a glossary for extra clarification.Honest and supportive, funny and straightforward, these ideal big brothers offer a sure cure for the wedding-bell blues.
Shannon
Shannon
McGrath, Campbell
¥84.16
From the inimitable Campbell McGrath comes an epic poem of george shannon, the youngest member of the lewis and clark expedition, who wandered the prairie alone for sixteen days.The last of the Maha will fade from the earth Vanquished utterly by the Pawnee after the Pawnee the Sioux may perish eventually the Kentuckians and Ohioans I doubt not but my countrymen Will populate in numbers these fulsome plains But what untold count Of years men, of decades centuries What numberless generations will it require Life by life skeleton by skeleton To claim this land from the buffalo?With Shannon, a testament to both natural splendor and human courage, Campbell McGrath has created a thrilling narrative that rises from those vast, lonely spaces that continue to haunt the American consciousness.
My Fathers' Houses
My Fathers' Houses
Roberts, Steven V.
¥84.16
From Steven V. Roberts comes My Fathers' Houses, a memoir of growing up in Bayonne, New Jersey, an immigrant community in the shadow of the Statue if Liberty, and the story of how his father and his grandfather's dreams and their own passion for writing and ideas influenced Steven's future, and inspired him to seek his fortune in New York City, the media capital of the world. This is a story of a town and a time and a boy who grew up there, a boy who became a New York Times correspondent, TV and radio personality, and best selling author. The town was Bayonne, New Jersey, a European village so close to New York that Steve could see the Statue of Liberty from his bedroom window. The time was the forties and fifties, when children of immigrants were striving to become American and find a place in a booming post war world. The core of Steve's world was one block, where he lived in a house his grandfather, Harry Schanbam, had built with his own hands. But the story starts back in Russia, where the family business of writing and ideas began. Steve's other grandfather, Abraham Rogowsky, stole money to become a Zionist pioneer in Palestine before moving to America. The tale continues through the Depression, when Steve's parents lived one block apart in Bayonne, wrote letters to each other and married in secret. During the war years, Steve's father wrote children's books and based one of his best sellers on outings he took with his twin sons to the local train station. As his byline, he used his boys' middle names Jeffrey Victor so Steve got his first writing credit before he was two. The story concludes with the boy leaving Bayonne, going on to Harvard, meeting the Catholic girl who became his wife, and starting work at the New York Times across the river, and worlds away, from where he began. Now a grandfather of five, Steve Roberts looks in the mirror and sees his own father and grandfather looking back at him–a family chain that started in 19th century Russia and thrives today in 21st century America.
Do I Have To Wear White?
Do I Have To Wear White?
Post, Anna
¥84.16
"I can't choose between my two best friends. Can I have two maids of honor?""My fiance and I are considering a destination wedding. Are we obligated to cover our attendants' travel expenses?""Do we have to invite our guests' children to our wedding?""I'm still close to my ex-husband's parents. Would it be okay to invite them to my wedding?""How do my partner and I go about planning our commitment ceremony?""My parents are divorced and each has remarried. Where do they sit in church?" "Do I have to wear white?" Do I Have to Wear Whitedraws on the Posts' extensive database of wedding questions received through their Web site, as well as popular topics addressed in their columns. For busy engaged couples and their families, attendants, and guests, this book provides at-a-glance answers to everything from essential bridal basics to the knotty logistical questions that spring up around this joyous yet often complex event.
Here's the Story
Here's the Story
McCormick, Maureen
¥84.16
Marcia! Marcia! Marcia! Marcia Brady, eldest daughter on television's The Brady Bunch, had it all style, looks, boys, brains, and talent. No wonder her younger sister Jan was jealous! For countless adolescents across America who came of age in the early 1970s, Marcia was the ideal American teenager. Girls wanted to be her. Boys wanted to date her. But what viewers didn't know about the always-sunny, perfect Marcia was that offscreen, her real-life counterpart, Maureen McCormick, the young actress who portrayed her, was living a very different and not-so-wonderful life. Now, for the very first time, Maureen tells the shocking and inspirational true story of the beloved teen generations have invited into their living rooms and the woman she became.In Here's the Story, Maureen takes us behind the scenes of America's favorite television family, the Bradys. With poignancy and candor, she reveals the lifelong friendships, the hurtful jealousies, the offscreen romance, the loving support her television family provided during a life-or-death moment, and the inconsolable loss of a man who had been a second father. But The Brady Bunch was only the beginning. Haunted by the perfection of her television alter ego, Maureen landed on the dark side, caught up in a fast-paced, drug-fueled, star-studded Hollywood existence that ultimately led to the biggest battle of her life.Moving from drug dens on Wonderland Avenue to wild parties at the Playboy mansion and exotic escapades on the beaches of Hawaii, this candid, hard-hitting memoir exposes a side of a beloved pop-culture icon the paparazzi missed. Yet it is also a story of remarkable success. After kicking her drug habit, Maureen battled depression, reconnected with her mother, whom she nursed through the end of her life, and then found herself in a pitched battle for her family in which she ultimately triumphed.There is no question: Maureen McCormick is a survivor. After fifty years, she has finally learned what it means to love the person you are, insight that has brought her peace in a happy marriage and as a mother. Here's the Story is the empowering, engaging, shocking, and emotional tale of Maureen McCormick's courageous struggle over adversity and her lifelong battle to come to terms with the idea of perfection and herself.