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万本电子书0元读

Girl Runner
Girl Runner
Snyder, Carrie
¥84.16
An unforgettable novel about competition, ambition, and a woman's struggle to earn a place in a man's world, Girl Runner is the story of 1928 Olympic gold medalist Aganetha Smart. Will Aganetha's undeniable talent help her to outrun the social conventions of her time, or the burden of her family's secrets?As a young runner, Aganetha Smart defied everyone's expectations to win a gold medal for Canada in the 1928 Olympics. It was a revolutionary victory, because these were the first Games in which women could compete in track events—and they did so despite opposition. But now Aganetha is in a nursing home, and nobody realizes that the frail centenarian was once a bold pioneer.When two young strangers appear asking to interview Aganetha for their documentary about female athletes, she readily agrees. Despite her frailty, she yearns for adventure and escape, and though her achievement may have been forgotten by history, her memories of chasing gold in Amsterdam remain sharp. But that triumph is only one thread in the rich tapestry of her life. Her remarkable story is colored by tragedy as well as joy, and as much as Aganetha tries, she cannot outrun her past. Part historical page-turner, part contemporary mystery, Girl Runner peels back the layers of time to reveal how Aganetha's amazing gift helped her break away from a family haunted by betrayals and sorrow. But as the pieces of her life take shape, it becomes clear that the power of blood ties does not diminish through the years, and that these filmmakers may not be who they claim to be. . . .
When We Argued All Night
When We Argued All Night
Mattison, Alice
¥84.16
Two young men are swimming naked in an Adirondack lake when they hear a motor, a car appears, and two women get out, one with an orange scarf around her head. It's 1936: New York is suffering through the Great Depression, frightening things are happening in Europe, and Artie Saltzman and Harold Abramovitz, friends since their Brooklyn childhood, are unsure about everything—jobs, lefty politics, women. After this time in the mountains, nothing will be quite the same. From World War II to the McCarthy-era witch hunts, through work, marriages, and life with children, Artie and Harold turn to each other, whether for solace or another good argument. And when Artie's daughter Brenda comes of age during the 1960s, her struggles with jobs, love, and friendship in yet another period of political turmoil recall Artie and Harold's youth.A sweeping yet intimate novel about people who never stop loving one another despite everything life throws at them, When We Argued All Night illuminates a friendship over more than sixty-five years, as the twentieth century gives way to the changed yet recognizable times in which we live.
The Psalmist
The Psalmist
Lilliefors, James
¥84.16
Luke Bowers is in the good and evil business.On a cold, late-winter morning in the Chesapeake Bay community of Tidewater County, Bowers discovers a dead woman seated in a pew at the church where he is pastor—her eyes open, her hands clasped as if in prayer.Nothing at the scene identifies the woman or explains why she was at the church. And when state police homicide investigator Amy Hunter comes to town to head up the case, not everyone is pleased that a young, female outsider has the job. The only lead in solving the crime is a sequence of numbers that has been carved into the victim's right hand, which Bowers suspects may be a reference to the Book of Psalms.With Bowers's help, Hunter follows a chain of seemingly innocuous clues to track down a deranged serial killer and unravel an elusive criminal enterprise that is more powerful than they ever could have imagined.
Deadliest Sea
Deadliest Sea
Thompson, Kalee
¥84.16
Soon after 2:00 A.M. on Easter morning, March 23, 2008, the fishing trawler Alaska Ranger began taking on water in the middle of the frigid Bering Sea. While the first mate broadcast Mayday calls to a remote Coast Guard station more than eight hundred miles away, the men on the ship's icy deck scrambled to inflate life rafts and activate the beacon lights, which would guide rescuers to them in the water. By 4:30 A.M. , the wheelhouse of the Ranger was just barely visible above the sea's surface, and most of the forty-seven crew members were in the water, wearing the red survival suits a number of them torn or inadequately sized that were supposed to keep them from freezing to death. Every minute in the twenty-foot swells was a fight for survival. Many knew that if they weren't rescued soon, they would drown or freeze to death.Two Coast Guard helicopter rescue teams were woken up in the middle of the night to save the crew of the Alaska Ranger. Many of the men thought the mission would be routine. They were wrong. The helicopter teams battled snow squalls, enormous swells, and gale-force winds as they tried to fulfill one guiding principle: save as many as they could. Again and again, the helicopters lowered a rescue swimmer to the ocean's surface to bring the shipwrecked men, some delirious with hypothermia, some almost frozen to death, back to the helicopter and to safety. Before the break of dawn, the Coast Guard had lifted more than twenty men from the freezing waves more than any other cold-water Coast Guard rescue in history.Deadliest Sea is a daring and mesmerizing adventure tale that chronicles the power of nature against man, and explores the essence of the fear each man and woman must face when confronted with catastrophe. It also investigates the shocking negligence that leads to the sinking of dozens of ships each year, which could be prevented and makes commercial fishing one of the most dangerous occupations in the world.With deft writing and technical knowledge, veteran journalist Kalee Thompson recounts the harrowing stories of both the rescuers and the rescued who survived the deadly ordeal in the Bering Sea. Along the way, she pays tribute to the courage, tenacity, and skill of dedicated service people who risk their own lives for the lives of others.
Smart-Wiring Your Baby's Brain
Smart-Wiring Your Baby's Brain
Conkling, Winifred
¥84.16
Has science shoved parents out of the nurseryJudging from the steady stream of headlines, one would think biologists have discovered a gene for every aspect of behavior. Now, Winifred Conkling reassures us that there's still room to help our children reach their personal best. In clear, compassionate language, Conkling tells parents how to make practical use of the latest research on early brain development, offering invaluable advice on how to: Create a nurturing environment in which you child can grow cognitively Encourage movement and motor development Stimulate speech and language development Foster a child's emotional health and personal identity Make toy and food choices appropriate to each stage of development With specific, sound advice; readable charts and timetables; and clear, easy-to-understand language, Winifred Conkling translates the latest scientific discoveries into useful ways to help your child live up to his or her fullest potential.
Women From the Ankle Down
Women From the Ankle Down
Bergstein, Rachelle
¥84.16
What is it about a pair of shoes that so enchants women of all ages, demographics, political affiliations, and style tribesPart social history, part fashion record, part pop-culture celebration, Women from the Ankle Down seeks to answer that question as it unfolds the story of shoes in the twentieth century. The tale begins in the rural village of Bonito, Italy, with a visionary young shoemaker named Salvatore Ferragamo and ends in New York City with a fictional socialite and trendsetter named Carrie Bradshaw. Along the way it stops in Hollywood, where Judy Garland first slipped on her ruby slippers; New Jersey, where Nancy Sinatra heard something special in a song about boots; and the streets of Manhattan, where a transit-worker strike propelled women to step into cutting-edge athletic shoes. Fashion aficionado Rachelle Bergstein shares the stories behind these historical moments, interweaving the design innovations and social changes that gave each one its lasting significance and appeal. Bergstein shows how the story of shoes is the story of women, told from the ankle down. Beginning with the well-heeled suffragettes in the 1910s, women have fought for greater freedom and mobility, a struggle that exploded in the 1960s with the women's liberation movement and culminated in the new millennium with our devotion to personal choice. Featuring interviews with designers, historians, and cultural experts, and a cast of real-life characters, from Marilyn Monroe to Jane Fonda, from Gwen Stefani to Manolo Blahnik, Women from the Ankle Down is a lively, compelling look at the evolution of modern women and the fashion that reflects—and has shaped—their changing lives.
Love in a Time of Homeschooling
Love in a Time of Homeschooling
Brodie, Laura
¥84.16
"I had always thought of homeschooling as a drastic measure. . . . But when my daughter decided that she would rather hide in a closet than complete her homework, I knew that it was time for me to become a schoolteacher, if only for a little while." After years of watching her eldest daughter, Julia, struggle in a highly regimented public school system, Laura Brodie determined to teach her ten-year-old at home for a year. Although friends were skeptical and her husband predicted disaster "You can't be serious" Brodie had visions of one ideal year of learning. The monotony of fill-in-the-blank history and math worksheets would be replaced with studying dinosaurs and Mayan hieroglyphics, conversational French, violin lessons, and field trips to art museums, science fairs, bookstores, and concerts.But can one year of homeschooling make a differenceAnd what happens to the love between mother and daughter when fractions and spelling enter the relationship?Love in a Time of Homeschooling is a funny and inspiring story of human foibles and human potential, in which love, anger, and hope mingle with reading, math, and American history. As today's parents ponder their children's educations, wondering how to respond to everything from homework overload to bullying to the boredom of excessive test preparations, homeschooling has become a popular alternative embraced by millions. Short-term homeschooling is the latest trend in this growing movement.Brodie gave her daughter a sabbatical to explore, learn, create, and grow a year of independent research and writing to rejuvenate Julia's love of learning. The experiment brought out the best and worst in the pair, but they worked through their frustrations to forge an invaluable bond. Theirs is a wonderful story no parent should miss.
End of The Good Life
End of The Good Life
Froymovich, Riva
¥84.16
Generation Y faces the bleakest economic landscape in modern history. The recent spikes in unemployment and debt, alongside a drop in marriage, home-buying, and childbearing rates, will have long-term consequences for a group that had no hand in creating the financial crisis. For these young adults, the American Dream is moving farther out of reach. Worse still, leaders aren't doing anything about it. Drawing on a wide range of reportage and interviews from across the United States, Europe, Asia, and Latin America, Riva Froymovich gives voice to those struggling in this new economy and explains the harm of shortsighted government policies including initiatives to curb the national debt and key social programs. Through policy suggestions that focus on social enterprise and investment in economic growth, as well as inspiring stories from young entrepreneurs carving out their own way, End of The Good Life presents a deeply relevant read for Millennials, their baby boomer parents, and anyone who cares about the survival of this nation most important tenet: the opportunity to get ahead.
Invisible Inkling: The Whoopie Pie War
Invisible Inkling: The Whoopie Pie War
Jenkins, Emily
¥84.16
The adventures of Brooklyn boy Hank Wolowitz and his invisible—but not imaginary—friend continue with The Whoopie Pie War, the third book in the Invisible Inkling series by Emily Jenkins.?A truck selling ice-cream whoopie pies sets up right in front of the ice-cream shop belonging to Hank’s family, and it’s taking away all the shop’s business. His dad is going crazy. His mom is furious.?Hank and Inkling, his invisible bandapat, aren’t going to take it. The Whoopie Pie War is on! They’ll do whatever it takes to beat the whoopie pie truck—unicorn costumes, extreme kindness, an army of supervillains.The illustrated chapter book’s mix of silliness, fantasy, strong sense of place, and a realistic family make it a great pick for middle-grade readers.
The Beautiful Indifference
The Beautiful Indifference
Hall, Sarah
¥84.16
Winner of the Portico PrizeWinner of the Edge Hill University Short Story PrizeShort-listed for the Frank O'Connor International Short Story AwardSarah Hall has been hailed as "one of the most significant and exciting of Britain's young novelists" (The Guardian). Now, in this collection of short fiction published in England to phenomenal praise, she has created a work at once provocative and mesmerizing.
Ines of My Soul
Ines of My Soul
Allende, Isabel
¥84.16
In the early years of the conquest of the Americas, Inés Suárez, a seamstress condemned to a life of toil, flees Spain to seek adventure in the New World. As Inés makes her way to Chile, she begins a fiery romance with Pedro de Valdivia, war hero and field marshal to the famed Francisco Pizarro. Together the lovers will build the new city of Santiago, and they will wage war against the indigenous Chileans—a bloody struggle that will change Inés and Valdivia forever, inexorably pulling each of them toward separate destinies.Inés of My Soul is a work of breathtaking scope that masterfully dramatizes the known events of Inés Suárez's life, crafting them into a novel rich with the narrative brilliance and passion readers have come to expect from Isabel Allende.
Light of Day
Light of Day
Saul, Jamie M.
¥84.16
Light of Day is a powerful and illuminating novel about love, loss, and the unforeseeable darkness that lurks around the corners of everyday life.Respected professor Jack Owens brought his son, Danny, to Gilbert, Indiana, to escape a betrayal too painful to endure anywhere but in this quiet midwestern college town. After ten years, Jack believed they were safe. But on a seemingly ordinary day, the world Jack thought he knew and the future he anticipated abruptly come apart at the seams, leaving him haunted by the questions: Whyand What nextRedemption, however, could come with the arrival of an unexpected friend whose prescient understanding slowly helps Jack cope with the unacceptable. But with healing comes clarity—and secrets best left unrevealed by the stark, glaring light of day.
Almost True Confessions
Almost True Confessions
O'Connor, Jane
¥84.16
This comic mystery set in the elite zip codes of Manhattan will leave you breathless . . . literallyWhat could be more fun for a freelance copy editor than work- ing on a juicy tell-all about one of Manhattan's most enigmatic society doyennesBut when Miranda "Rannie" Bookman arrives at Ret Sullivan's tony Upper East Side apartment, she finds more than the final draft of the reclusive author's manu* waiting for her—there's also the half-naked body of Ret herself, tied to her bed and strangled with an Hermès scarf.Was this merely a case, as the police believe, of rough sex that got a little too roughOr was Ret murdered because someone wanted to make absolutely sure she didn't meet her deadlineOnce again, Rannie must prove that her mind is just as sharp as her Col-Erase blue pencils—or risk getting rubbed out too.
A Medicine for Melancholy and Other Stories
A Medicine for Melancholy and Other Stories
Bradbury, Ray
¥84.16
Ray Bradbury is a painter who uses words rather than brushes--for he created lasting visual images that, once observed, are impossible to forget. Sinister mushrooms growing in a dank cellar. A family's first glimpse at Martians. A wonderful white vanilla ice-cream summer suit that changes everyone who wears it. A great artist drawing in the sand on the beach. A clunky contraption made out of household implements to help some kids play a game called Invasion. The most marvelous Christmas display a little boy ever saw. All those images and many more are inside this book, a new trade edition of thirty-one of Bradbury's most arresting tales--timeless short fiction that ranges from the farthest reaches of space to the innermost stirrings of the heart. Ray Bradbury is known worldwide as one of the century's great men of imagination. Here are thirty-one reasons why.Ray Bradbury is a painter who uses words rather than brushes--for he created lasting visual images that, once observed, are impossible to forget. Sinister mushrooms growing in a dank cellar. A familys first glimpse at Martians. A wonderful white vanilla ice-cream summer suit that changes everyone who wears it. A great artist drawing in the sand on the beach. A clunky contraption made out of household implements to help some kids play a game called Invasion. The most marvelous Christmas display a little boy ever saw. All those images and many more are inside this book, a new trade edition of thirty-one of Bradburys most arresting tales--timeless short fiction that ranges from the farthest reaches of space to the innermost stirrings of the heart. Ray Bradbury is known worldwide as one of the centurys great men of imagination. Here are thirty-one reasons why.
Spin Doctor
Spin Doctor
Carroll, Leslie
¥84.16
Question: What do Amy, the new mom; Meriel, the West-Indian housekeeper; Claude and Naomi, the alternative couple; Faith, the elegant widow; and Talia, the super-skinny ballerina have in commonAnswer: Abso-freakin'-lutely-nothing! Except that they all live lives of not-so-quiet desperation on the Upper West Side of New York City. What gets them throughTheir unusual therapy sessions with supershrink Susan Lederer, held in the depths of the laundry room. Susan knows that all of life's problems eventually come out in the wash, but while the washers keep breaking down, she helps her female friends take control. But Susan's life has become an agitated mess. Her teenage daughter seems destined for a fast-food future; her son's adolescence hasn't quite hit yet . . . and her perfect husband is hiding something. Susan could use a really good shrink. Instead, her dirty linen exposed, she finds that it's her friends who rally 'round her, and by the final spin, she realizes that while it might not take a whole village, it does sometimes take a laundry room to get rid of the nastier wrinkles in life. Now if only she could find the formula for getting rid of that ring around the collar.
Women on the Edge of a Nervous Breakthrough
Women on the Edge of a Nervous Breakthrough
Sharpe, Isabel
¥84.16
Welcome to Kettle, Wisconsin, a town where everyone knows nothing bad ever happens.Enter Lorelei Taylor notorious, glamorous, and hot off a not-guilty murder verdict that stunned the nation. To the women of Kettle, bad things seem suddenly inevitable . . .Sarah Gilchrist A perfect house and garden can't quite make up for a marriage that's a wreck. Sarah is determined to rise above her opinion of Kettle's dreadful newcomer and give her a perfect welcome. But in the face of Lorelei's outrageous provocations, Sarah's control starts to unravel.Erin Hall What her husband does to her behind closed doors stays hidden. But Lorelei's acquittal gives Erin hope for the first time. Convinced Lorelei did kill her abusive lover . . . and got away with it, Erin thinks she may have some power after all.Lorelei Taylor In Lorelei's eyes, peaceful, heavenly Kettle could not look any more like hell. She vows to shake up the town smug, priggish Sarah; mousy, downtrodden Erin; and while she's at it, her widowed neighbor, Mike. Except the harder she shakes, the more the shake-up is happening to her.Sometimes the only thing women on the edge need . . . is a push.
The Carrion Birds
The Carrion Birds
Waite, Urban
¥84.16
Set in a small town in the Southwest, a soulful work of literary noir rife with vengeance and contrition from a fresh voice in fiction—the author of the highly acclaimed The Terror of LivingLife hasn't worked out the way Ray Lamar planned. A widower who's made some tragic mistakes, he's got one good thing going for him: he's calm and efficient under pressure, usually with a gun in his hand. A useful skill to have when you're paid to hurt people who stand in your boss's way.But Ray isn't sure he wants to be that man anymore. He wants to go home and see the son he hopes will recognize him. He wants to make a new life far from the violence of the last ten years, and he believes that one last job will take him there. A job that should be simple, easy, clean.Ray knows there's no such thing as easy, and sure enough, the first day ends in a catastrophic mess. Now the runners who have always moved quietly through this desert town on the Mexican border want answers. And revenge. Short on time, with no one to trust but himself, Ray must come up with a plan, or else Coronado, New Mexico's lady sheriff will have a vicious bloodbath on her hands.Set in a town once rich with oil, now forgotten and struggling, The Carrion Birds is filled with refreshingly realistic and vulnerable characters. With its masterfully orchestrated suspense and unexpected bursts of lyricism, this is a remarkably unsettling and indelible work in the tradition of Cormac McCarthy, Elmore Leonard, and Dennis Lehane.
Circles of Time
Circles of Time
Rock, Phillip
¥84.16
The Acclaimed Trilogy That Has Been Called a Must-Read for Fans of Downton AbbeyA generation has been lost on the Western Front. The dead have been buried, a harsh peace forged, and the howl of shells replaced by the wail of saxophones as the Jazz Age begins. But ghosts linger—that long-ago golden summer of 1914 tugging at the memory of Martin Rilke and his British cousins, the Grevilles.From the countess to the chauffeur, the inhabitants of Abingdon Pryory seek to forget the past and adjust their lives to a new era in which old values, social codes, and sexual mores have been irretrievably swept away. Martin Rilke throws himself into reporting, discovering unsettling political currents, as Fenton Wood-Lacy faces exile in faraway army outposts. Back at Abingdon, Charles Greville shows signs of recovery from shell shock and Alexandra is caught up in an unlikely romance. Circles of Time captures the age as these strongly drawn characters experience it, unfolding against England's most gracious manor house, the steamy nightclubs of London's Soho, and the despair of Germany caught in the nightmare of anarchy and inflation. Lives are renewed, new loves found, and a future of peace and happiness is glimpsed—for the moment.
Hilda and Pearl
Hilda and Pearl
Mattison, Alice
¥84.16
To Frances, an only child living in McCarthy-era Brooklyn, her mother, Hilda, and her aunt Pearl seem as if they have always been friends. Frances does not question the love between the two women until her father's job as a teacher is threatened by anti-Communism, just as Frances begins to learn about her family's past. Why does Hilda refer to her "first pregnancy," as if Frances wasn't her only childWhose baby shoes are hidden in Hilda's dresser drawerWhy is there tension when Pearl and her husband come to visit?The story of a young girl in the fifties and her elders' coming-of-age in the unquiet thirties, this book resonates deeply, revealing in beautiful, clear language the complexities of friendship and loss.
The Road to Jerusalem
The Road to Jerusalem
Guillou, Jan
¥84.16
For power. For passion. For glory. The epic story of the knights templar.Born in 1150 to a noble family in the Kingdom of Western G?taland, young Arn Magnusson is marked early on by a miraculous and fateful event. When the boy inexplicably recovers after falling from the parapet of his ancestral home, his mother finds herself beholden to a promise made in a moment of prayer. Arn, second-born son of Magnus Folkesson, will live his life in the service of God—sent from his family to do holy work and to prepare for a position in the priory.At Varnhem monastery, Arn comes of age under the tutelage of Father Henri, a Cistercian monk devoted to his aristocratic pupil's education. However, grammar, math, and logic are not the only lessons: Brother Guilbert, the monastery blacksmith and former Knight Templar, finds Arn adept at training of a very different kind. Observing the boy's extraordinary talent with horse, sword, and bow, Father Henri, trusting in God's will, sends his charge into the world to fulfill a destiny that lies beyond the cloister walls.Returning home, Arn finds his monastic habits at odds with his clan's old and tested ways. Yet his family soon discovers that Arn has learned more than poetry and farm work, and he proves himself useful at a time when he is needed most. The murder of a king has brought Western G?taland into a whirlwind of intrigue, and cunning lords from East and West are vying for power. And, when Arn meets the lovely Cecilia, he discovers this new and dangerous world holds other surprises too. Before he can claim her hand, however, the headstrong and na?ve noble makes a fateful mistake that will wrench him from his love and send him to a foreign war—to the Holy Land to battle infidels for twenty years.From the frozen landscapes of Northern Europe to the bloody battlefields of the Middle East, Arn will face brave knights, powerful queens, and treacherous kings. The first book in the international bestselling Crusades Trilogy, this thrilling epic of betrayal, faith, blood, and love sets "a Shakespearian quest for power" (Corriere della Sera, Italy) against the backdrop of the Holy Wars, witnessed through a vibrant, unorthodox lens.
Every Night Is Ladies' Night
Every Night Is Ladies' Night
Jaime-Becerra, Michael
¥84.16
In Every Night Is Ladies' Night, we are given a rare glimpse into a world created by the imagination of one of America's most promising authors. This brilliant debut collection of interrelated stories presents a portrait of a community whose members seek their own place beyond their immediate, physical world. The cast of recurring characters Jaime-Becerra has expertly created rings true: people whose hands show signs of hard work, who are optimistic enough to want to dance even if their feet are tired, and who go to bed at night and know just how long they are allowed to sleep before the obligations of their next day begin. From a teenage boy who lives in the shadow of his wild Goth sister, to a race car driver hot after the Mexican beauty queen of his dreams, to Grandpa Lopez, an on-the-road trucker who surprises his family by showing up for his granddaughter's wedding only to peel away with her dress on the day of the ceremony, readers will wholeheartedly engage themselves in Jaime-Becerra's vibrant, literary universe. Michael Jaime-Becerra shines a warm light on mechanics and musicians, on drivers of ice cream trucks and big rigs, on kids busy marking themselves with tattoos; he allows readers a unique vantage as the characters fall in love, make ends meet, and try to outlast their pasts. To help his characters negotiate the obstacles life places before them, Jaime-Becerra draws upon an attentiveness for rich, tender detail tempered by a masterful subtlety. These qualities suggest the talent of an author who is equal parts artist and craftsman. More important, they have resulted in a collection that is universal and stunning.