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万本电子书0元读

The Pinball Theory of Apocalypse
The Pinball Theory of Apocalypse
Selwood, Jonathan
¥84.16
For years, painter Isabel Raven has made an almost-living forging Impressionist masterpieces to decorate the McMansions of the not-quite-Sotheby's-auction rich. But when she serendipitously hits on an idea that turns her into the "It Girl" of the L.A. art scene, her career takes off just as the rest of her life heads south. Her personal-chef boyfriend is having a wild sexual dalliance with the teenage self-styled "Latina Britney Spears." If Isabel refuses to participate in an excruciatingly humiliating ad campaign, her sociopathic art dealer is threatening to "gut her like an emu." And her reclusive physicist father has conclusively proven that the end of the world is just around the corner. Now, with the Apocalypse looming—and with only a disaffected Dutch-Eskimo billionaire philanthropist and his dissolute thirteen-year-old adopted daughter to guide her—there's barely enough time remaining for Isabel to reexamine her fragile delusional existence . . . and the delusional reality of her schizophrenic native city.
Filthy Rich
Filthy Rich
Samuels, Dorothy
¥84.16
Marcy Mallowitz has just been dumped -- big time! Marcy's orthodontist boyfriend, Neil, blew a gasket during an appearance on So You Want to Be Filthy Rich!, the stratospheric television phenomenon and top-rated quiz show of all time. When Marcy incorrectly answered his $1.75 million Lifeline question, Neil immediately broke off their preengagement, abruptly terminating their three-year relationship -- in front of twenty million people coast to coast! Suddenly Marcy isn't just Marcy anymore. The thirtysomething Barnard Phi Beta Kappa and Personal Life Coach is now the nationally renowned victim of America's "Big Brush-Off." Media hounds are clamoring for interviews. The street in front of her West Village apartment is swarming with paparazzi sharks. And everyone -- everyone -- knows her name, even if only as the punchline to late-night talk-show jokes. Marcy, who has made a career of improving other peoples's lives, could now use some serious help reclaiming her own. But where does she turnTo her lovable, meddling, marriage-oriented momTo her protective dad, who dreams of Marcy joining the family roach extermination companyTo her two decidedly oddball best girlfriendsMarcy Mallowitz's fifteen minutes of fame are lasting a lot longer than she would ever have dreamed possible. And now she'll either have to find someplace to hide from the all-seeing, unblinking media eye...or agree to expose herself to the world, à la Survivor's naked fat guy. A dazzling debut novel as winning and smart as it Is uproariously funny, Dorothy Samuels's Filthy Rich is an unprecedented delight -- a story of women, men, friends, and mothers; of fame and romance in the early twenty-first century; and of that contemporary nemesis of modern love: reality TV.
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.
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.
Sourland
Sourland
Oates, Joyce Carol
¥84.16
A gripping and moving new collection of stories that reimagines the meaning of loss—through often unexpected and violent means.Joyce Carol Oates is not only one of our most important novelists and literary critics, she is also an unparalleled master of the short story. Sourland—sixteen previously uncollected stories that explore how the power of violence, loss, and grief shape both the psyche and the soul—shows us an author work-ing at the height of her powers.With lapidary precision and an unflinching eye, Oates maps the surprising contours of “ordinary” life. From a desperate man who dons a jack-o’-lantern head as a prelude to a most curious sort of courtship, to a “story of a stabbing” many times recounted in the life of a lonely girl; from a beguiling young woman librarian whose amputee state attracts a married man and father, to a girl hopelessly in love with her renegade, incarcerated cousin; from a professor’s wife who finds herself tragically isolated at a party in her own house, to the concluding title story of an unexpectedly redemptive love rooted in radical aloneness and isolation, each story in Sourland resonates beautifully with Oates’s trademark fascination for the unpredictable amid the prosaic—the comming-ling of sexual love and violence, the tumult of family life—and shines with her predilection for dark humor and her gift for voice.
Love in the Asylum
Love in the Asylum
Carey, Lisa
¥84.16
From an author whose work has been called 'haunted and joyous and heartbreaking all at once' (Washington Post Book World) comes an unforgettable novel of two lost souls who find love and salvation against all odds. Can love save those who believe they are beyond redemptionIn and out of a swank north–eastern rehab centre more than a dozen times in ten years, Alba Elliot, a 25–year–old children's book writer and manic–depressive, believes she is a hopeless case. But an unlikely relationship with Oscar, a 30–year–old drug addict whose 'recreation' has cost him everything, and a century–old story hidden in the institution's library bring about changes that Alba could never have imagined. Brought together by fate, influenced by forces as beautiful and powerful as they are unforeseen, Alba and Oscar will slowly rise from the ashes of despair and self–destruction and, in the midst of righting an old wrong, begin to heal their battered spirits. A beautifully crafted, heartfelt tale of tragedy and triumph, Lisa Carey's moving third novel is a testament to the surprising resilience of the human heart.
The Prophet of Zongo Street
The Prophet of Zongo Street
Ali, Mohammed Naseehu
¥84.16
A dazzling collection of stories, The Prophet of Zongo Street takes readers to a world that seamlessly blends African folklore and myths with modernity. Set primarily on Zongo Street, a fictitious community in West Africa, the stories -- which are reminiscent of the works of Ben Okri and Amos Tutuola -- introduce us to wonderfully quirky characters and the most uproarious, poignant, and rawest moments of life. There's Kumi, the enigmatic title character who teaches a young boy to finally ask questions of his traditions. And as Ali moves his characters to America we meet Felix, who struggles with America's love of the exotic in "Rachmaninov."The Prophet of Zongo Street heralds a new voice and showcases Mohammed Naseehu Ali's extraordinary ability to craft stories that are both allegorical and unforgettable.
The Secret Sisters
The Secret Sisters
Rodgers, Joni
¥84.16
Exploring the timeless themes of family, self, misfortune, and hope that have made the novels of Anna Quindlen and Sue Miller bestsellers, Joni Rodgers's moving and powerful tale tells the story of three women bound together by loss and set free by love.Pia feels the walls of her life closing in around her, until she discovers a strangely sensual world that leads her to a new existence.Lily, Pia's brash, tough-talking sister, makes a tragic mistake that leaves her incarcerated, body and soul. But when she finds the last thing she expects—love—she is at last able to face the past.Beth, married to Pia and Lily's brother, has never been able to admit her own failure as a mother. Finally forced to confront a tragedy of her own making, she discovers that the truth can set her free.
Ship Sooner
Ship Sooner
Sullivan, Mary
¥84.16
Envision an imaginary dial with which you can turn all sounds from your everyday experience onto the highest level of volume: that is the world of 13–year old Ship Sooner whose incredible ability to hear sounds normally indiscernible to the human ear defines her life–"Carson McCullers meets Alice Hoffman" (Baltimore Sun). Ship Sooner hears everyone and everything in her sleepy Massachusetts town. Sounds of frost forming on glass; a rabbit hopping on just fallen snow; and of a fork making indentations on pie crust are as familiar to Ship as an old Sinatra tune played full volume at the town diner. Misunderstood by her classmates and ignored by her disdainful older sister, thirteen–year old Ship consoles herself by listening to the sounds of others' secrets: her mother's lips pressing against those of a balding salesman's; her sister Helen's trysts in a secluded shed; family friend Trudy's breath quickening as she cuts the hair of the town priest; and her only friend Brian Dodd's promise to his parents not to tell where he goes with them on Sunday afternoons. Ship's isolation intensifies when Brian disappears inexplicably the day after Christmas. During the long winter of 1981, as Helen retreats behind her slammed bedroom door and her mother is increasingly absent, Ship keeps a vigil for Brian and slowly loses hope. But as winter melts to spring, an unexpected calling from the woods will lead her to make an astonishing discovery that compels her to abandon all that she has known, and set out on a journey to transform her life.
Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind
Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind
Ross, Ann B.
¥84.16
Miss Julia, a recently bereaved and newly wealthy widow, is only slightly bemused when one Hazel Marie Puckett appears at her door with a youngster in tow and unceremoniously announces that the child is the bastard son of Miss Julia's late husband. Suddenly, this longtime church member and pillar of her small Southern community finds herself in the center of an unseemly scandal-and the guardian of a wan nine-year-old whose mere presence turns her life upside down.With razor-sharp wit and perfect "Steel Magnolia" poise, Miss Julia speaks her mind indeed-about a robbery, a kidnapping, and the other disgraceful events precipitated by her husband's death. Fast-paced and charming, with a sure sense of comic drama, a cast of crazy characters, and a strong Southern cadence, Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind will delight readers from first page to last.
The Language of Trees
The Language of Trees
Ruby, Ilie
¥84.16
Gripping, suspenseful, magical, and richly atmospheric . . . Ilie Ruby's haunting debut novel, The Language of Trees, is exhilarating fiction that announces the arrival of a truly extraordinary storyteller.Echo O'Connell knows that the summer holds its secrets. They are whispered in the rustling trees, in the lush scent of the lilacs, in the flurry of the mayflies batting against the screen door, and in the restless spirits that seem to clamor in the scant breezes on hot evenings. It is in summer that she returns home to Canandaigua, to confront these spirits, both living and not, and to share a secret with her first love, Grant Shongo—a secret that will forever change the lives of many people in the town and put to rest the mysterious disappearance of a little boy more than a decade earlier. Grant, a descendant of the Seneca Indians who call this place "The Chosen Spot," has also come back to face his past. After a broken marriage, he has moved into his childhood home, a lake house that has withstood happiness and tragedy. He knows the spirits of the past must be dealt with—that of the little boy who disappeared all those years ago; the boy's sister, who never overcame the loss; and the love Grant still has for Echo. But before the healing must come the forgiveness. . . .
The Queen of Patpong
The Queen of Patpong
Hallinan, Timothy
¥84.16
For American travel writer Poke Rafferty, life finally seems to hold some semblance of stability. He and his longtime love, Rose, have gone through with their much-deferred marriage ceremony, their adopted daughter, Miaow, a former street child, has become a loving—if sometimes difficult—part of the family, and the three of them live in relative comfort thanks to Rose's housekeeping business and Rafferty's writing. Then a nightmare figure from Rose's time as a Patpong dancer barges into their world, shattering the peace they've worked so hard to obtain. His appearance threatens everything they cherish: their love, their home . . . their very lives. As a foreigner who's seen some of the worst Bangkok has to offer and survived confrontations with Thailand's most powerful and dangerous elements, Rafferty feels equal to most of the challenges Bangkok can throw at him. But now his only hope is to discover the whole truth of Rose's past—a journey down the dark and twisting road that turned a shy, awkward village teenager into the queen of Asia's most lurid red-light street: Patpong Road. And just when Rafferty thought life was looking good, reality comes crashing in as he learns that the secrets from Rose's former life are almost impossible to accept—and even harder to survive.The Queen of Patpong is a terrifying, heart-breaking, electrifying story of peril, love, and, ultimately, redemption in modern-day Thailand—and the most ambitious, affecting novel yet from thriller master Timothy Hallinan.
The Saving Graces
The Saving Graces
Gaffney, Patricia
¥84.16
Meet The Saving Graces, Four Of The Best Friends A Woman Can Ever Have.For ten years, Emma, Rudy, Lee, and Isabel have shared a deep affection that has helped them deal with the ebb and flow of expectations and disappointments common to us all. Calling themselves the Saving Graces, the quartet is united by understanding, honesty, and acceptance—a connection that has grown stronger as the years go by . . .Though these sisters of the heart and soul have seen it all, talked through it all, Emma, Rudy, Lee, and Isabel will not be prepared for a crisis of astounding proportions that will put their love and courage to the ultimate test.
The Not-So-Perfect Man
The Not-So-Perfect Man
Frankel, Valerie
¥84.16
As far as her family and friends are concerned, Frieda has been the grieving widow for long enough. At 35, she's still (relatively) young, still (adequately) attractive. Her sex drive is very much alive; even Frieda admits she'd like to put it to use again. Besides, she has a son who certainly needs a father figure. With visions of the perfect second husband in mind, Frieda's sisters start to send eligible males in her direction.Big sister Ilene -- herself substantially married -- has found the ultimate unattached catch: a gorgeous, independently wealthy, successful, divorced father, pillar of society and paragon of potential. What more could a single mom ask forApparently a lot more than loved ones realize. Frieda's own efforts bear very tasty fruit. Sam is young, talented, devoted, and incredibly sexy -- though broke, only sporadically employed, and clueless about kids. But he makes Frieda feel brand-spanking-new, in a most wonderfully wanton way. When all is said and done, does Frieda really need the "perfect man" ... or the far-from-ideal man who's perfect for her?
Good-bye and Amen
Good-bye and Amen
Gutcheon, Beth
¥84.16
In a summer cottage on the coast of Maine, an unlikely love was nurtured, a marriage endured, and a family survived. Now it is time for the children of that marriage to make peace with the wounds and the treasures left to them. And to sort out which is which. The complicated marriage of the gifted Danish pianist Laurus Moss to the provincial American child of privilege Sydney Brant was a mystery to many who knew them, including their three children. Now Eleanor, Monica, and Jimmy Moss have to decide how to divide or share what Laurus and Sydney have left them without losing one another.
The Season of Lillian Dawes
The Season of Lillian Dawes
Mosby, Katherine
¥84.16
From the acclaimed writer whose first novel , Private Altars,, comes a story of driving lyrical force set in Manhattan in the 1950s.When he is expelled from boarding school, Gabriel Gibbs is sent to live with his older brother Spencer in New York. Rather than a punishment, this becomes an exhilarating invitation to a dazzling world, from smoking cigars at the Plaza Hotel to weekend house parties filled with tennis and cocktails. It is in this heady atmosphere—from white-gloved Park Avenue to literary Greenwich Village—that Gabriel first glimpses the elusive Lillian Dawes. Free-spirited and mysterious, Lillian captures the imaginations of those in "all the best circles," including both brothers. As their lives entwine, so begins the powerful and poignant unraveling of innocence. "There is, in most lives, a defining moment, a point dividing time into before and after...." Mosby beautifully traces the trajectory of consequence that will change all three lives. The Season of Lillian Dawes is a wondrous novel that chronicles a young man's first tour of the adult world.
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.
Fifteen Candles
Fifteen Candles
Lopez, Adriana V.
¥84.05
For the uninitiated, the quincea era celebrates the passage of a fifteen-year-old girl into adulthood: It's a bit bat mitzvah with a dash of debutante ball, and loaded with the same potential for hilarity and adolescent angst. In this original anthology, fifteen of the brightest and funniest Latino writers, men and women alike, share their own memories of these moving and often absurd extravaganzas tales of that unique form of familial humiliation that is borne of the best intentions, fierce love, and the infectious joy of parents finally allowing their little girl to grow up.
Bertha Venation
Bertha Venation
Ashmead, Larry
¥84.05
An ideal gift book with personality and charm, Bertha Venation is a legendary editor's lifetime collection of the amazing names of actual people, with his own inimitable wit, commentary, and stories.Roger Gotobed . . . Ida Slaptor . . . Formica Dinette . . . Honeysuckle Weeks . . . Gay Beach . . . Sappho Clissit . . . Dimple MysteryThis colorful collection of extraordinary names, sure to please every lover of miscellany, features: Celebrity Children, Weirdest Names in Sports, Aptly Named Professionals, Literary Highlights, Funny Name Marriages, Places and Houses with Strange Names, Long and Meaningless Names, and Pets.Barbara Fatt Heine . . . P. Enis . . . Razzle and Dazzle . . . Moondog . . . Casa Enima . . . Phydeaux . . . Phat Ho . . . Fitz Funfrock . . . Mone't Elysea Ann . . . and Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg