万本电子书0元读

万本电子书0元读

Michael Jackson – Legend, Hero, Icon: A Tribute to the King of Pop
Michael Jackson – Legend, Hero, Icon: A Tribute to the King of Pop
James Aldis
¥100.06
A lavishly illustrated tribute to the greatest entertainer of a generation. ‘The world has lost one of the greats but his music will live on forever’ - Madonna Michael Jackson was the undisputed King of Pop and his untimely death has provoked tributes from around the world. With a colourful life spanning from 1968 when Michael was a member of the Jackson 5 to his recent announcement of a final comeback tour at the O2 in London, nobody can dispute the achievements of the man who was arguably the greatest artist of the millenium. This fully illustrated book offers an insightful tribute to the man behind Thriller, the world's best selling album of all time. Including sections on Michael's early life and the Jackson 5, the making of Off the Wall and Thriller, and the troubled years leading right up to his announcement of a comeback tour, this will be a comprehensive and fitting tribute to a legendary pop star, the likes of which the world will never see again.
Beautiful Losers
Beautiful Losers
Leonard Cohen
¥73.58
One of the best-known experimental novels of the 1960s, this uninhibited tale centres on the hapless members of a love triangle, and their sexual obsession and shared fascination with a mythic saint. Revolving around four central – and intrinsically flawed – characters, ‘Beautiful Losers’ is the frank and humorous story of a nameless narrator, his wife Edith, their domineering friend and mentor ‘F’ and Catherine Tekakwitha, a mythic 17th-century Mohawk virgin saint. The complexities of this three-way love, pain and lust are sent spiralling by the death of Edith and ‘F’ at the novel’s start, leading the damaged narrator to question the nature of love, sexuality and spirituality in a series of explicit flashbacks. The extraordinary and inimitable singer-songwriter’s classic novel, this is Leonard Cohen’s most critically acclaimed literary work, echoing the dark poetry and wry humour of his timeless songs of loss, love, sex and religion. Not just an extremely funny novel, but an incredibly original and explicit examination of friendship, sex and spirituality.
Under Heaven
Under Heaven
Guy Gavriel Kay
¥71.22
An epic historical adventure set in an alternate 8th century China, from the author of the 2008 World Fantasy winner, Ysabel. Under Heaven is a novel of heroes, assassins, concubines and emperors set against a majestic and unforgiving landscape. Honour is beyond measure But its price may be an empire… For two years Shen Tai has mourned his celebrated father and lived like a hermit beyond the borders of the Kitan Empire. There, by a mountain lake, the bones of the soldiers killed in great battles between the Kitai and the Tagurans lie unburied and their wailing ghosts strike terror into the living. Tai has laboured alone, laying to rest the mingled dead of both empires, until a letter arrives. It contains the promise of a poisoned chalice: Tai will be given two hundred and fifty Sardian horses by the Tagurans, legendary steeds from the far west, as a reward for his courage and piety. Now, Tai must try to return alive from solitude to a glittering, dangerous court. For to give a man even one of the famed Sardians is to honour him greatly; to give him so many is a reward which would overwhelm an emperor, and could be Tai's death warrant.
Oscar Wilde’s Stories for All Ages
Oscar Wilde’s Stories for All Ages
Oscar Wilde,Stephen Fry
¥95.75
One of the world’s best loved presenters meets one of the world’s greatest authors in this beautiful selection of timeless, haunting stories. Vividly brought to life through abundant illustrations and Stephen’s masterly introductions, Oscar Wilde’s short stories are here made accessible to an entirely new generation. Whether you know it or not, the stories in this book are familiar. Like old friends whose charm and warmth never fade, Oscar Wilde's short stories have enchanted generations of readers, and this beautiful book makes them accessible to an entirely new readership. Selected and presented by one of Wilde's biggest fans, the book includes a foreword from Stephen Fry, who will also supply short introductions to the stories themselves, explaining why they mean so much to him and why they should mean a lot to you too. Meet the selfish giant, whose garden was cloaked in perpetual winter until he allowed the children to enter and play, the happy prince whose statue stood overlooking his city, who gave the rubies and sapphires embedded in his eyes and clothing to feed the poor, and the tiny swallow who helped him. And let's not forget the remarkable rocket who was so convinced that he would be the brightest, most remarkable rocket of all, yet who ended up in a ditch. There's also the Canterville ghost, so inept at being scary that every attempt to spook his American visitors results in failure. Stephen Fry has always been passionate about Oscar Wilde's writing but he has a particular fondness for his short stories. In this beautifully illustrated book he shares with us what each story means to him and what he feels the reader can take away with them, whether they're five or fifty years old. As well as a general introduction, Stephen offers introductions to the stories themselves, taking the reader through his selection. Illustrated by Nicole Stewart, stunning artwork accompanies each story to give shape to the reader's imagination. Whether you are buying this for yourself, for your wife, your son or daughter, for your nephew, your niece, your mother, your brother or your sister, the book will be a gift that you or they will cherish forever and return to time and time again. These are stories for adults and children of all ages, for all time.
Ngaio Marsh: Her Life in Crime
Ngaio Marsh: Her Life in Crime
Joanne Drayton
¥63.18
The Empress of Crime's life was the ultimate detective story – revealed for the first time in this forthright and perceptive biography. While Ngaio Marsh had a flamboyant public persona, she was fiercely protective of her private life. And no one knows better how to cover tracks with red herrings and remove incriminating evidence than a crime fiction writer… This fascinating biography of Ngaio Marsh pieces together both the public and private Marsh in a way that is as riveting as a crime novel. Through her writing and her theatre work, Joanne Drayton assembles the pieces to the puzzle that is Marsh, proving that life can be as thrilling as fiction. Marsh wrote her first detective novel in a London flat in the depths of the 1930s Depression, bringing life to Detective Inspector Roderick Alleyn in her first book, A Man Lay Dead. Through 32 novels he would establish himself as one of the great super-sleuths, and Marsh as one of the four Queens of Golden Age detective fiction, alongside Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers and Margery Allingham. In 1932, a family tragedy brought Marsh home to New Zealand, to a life divided - between hemispheres, between passionate relationships at home and abroad, and between the world of publishing and her life as a stage director. In 1949 her writing would earn her the ultimate distinction when Penguin and Collins released the 'Marsh Million': 100,000 copies each of ten of her titles on to the world market. The popular appetite for classic whodunits was insatiable and Ngaio Marsh was one of the best. But her greatest love was the stage - or was it?
Journey of a Lifetime
Journey of a Lifetime
Alan Whicker
¥69.26
The iconic broadcasting legend dusts down his suitcase for a final journey around the globe, revisiting locations of significance to his life and career. Published to coincide with a major Bbc Tv series of the same name, this is a glorious celebration of 50 years in front of the camera. For as long as most can remember, Whicker has roamed far and wide in search of the eccentric, the ludicrous, and the socially-revealing aspects of everyday life as lived by some of the more colorful of the world's inhabitants. Since the late 1950s, when the long-running Whicker's World documentary was first screened, he has probed and dissected the often secretive and unobserved worlds of the rich and famous, rooting out the most implausible and sometimes ridiculous characters after gaining admittance to the places where they conduct their leisure hours. The great man's legacy contains a number of genuine television firsts. As well as landmark interviews with figures as diverse as Papa Doc, Paul Getty, and The Sultan of Brunei, he was a pioneer, covering subjects like plastic surgery, gay weddings, polygamy, swinging, and following gun-toting cops, fly-on-the-wall style, for British screens long before anyone else. This wonderful new book is the end product of a very personal journey. Whicker retraces his steps, catching up with some past interviewees and reflecting on how the world has changedfor good and badover the passing of time. Lyrical and uplifting, this autobiography is peppered with a celebrated globetrotter's brand of subtle satire.
Hellfire
Hellfire
Ed Macy
¥70.44
The true story of one man's determination to master the world's deadliest helicopter and of a split-second decision that changed the face of modern warfare. May 2006. Pilot Ed Macy arrives in Afghanistan with a contingent of the Apache AH Mk1. It’s the first operational tour for the deadly machines and confidence in the cripplingly expensive attack helicopter is low. It doesn’t help that for their first month ‘in action’, Ed and his mates see little more than the back-end of a Chinook. But when the men of 3 Para get pinned down during Op Mutay, reservations about the fearsome new attack helicopters are thrown out the window. In the blistering firefight that follows, Ed unleashes the first ever Hellfire missile in combat and, with one squeeze of the trigger, changes the war in Afghanistan forever. What had been rumoured as a ?4.2 billion mistake quickly becomes the British Army’s greatest asset, as the awe-inspiring Apache is dramatically redirected to fight the enemy head-on. In this gripping account of war on the ground and in the skies above the dusty wastes of Helmand, Ed recounts the intense months that followed: the steep learning curve, the relentless missions, the evolving enemy and the changing Rules of Engagement. As he comes to grip with the Apache, his early career as a paratrooper stands him in good stead, as does his operational baptism as a pilot. Both shaped his ability to fly, fight and survive during that fateful first Afghanistan tour against a cunning and ruthless enemy. Ed will need every ounce of willpower and skill to succeed over the long, hot Helmand summer, as he and his colleagues find themselves on trial for their lives and for the reputation of a machine on which the British government has staked a fortune. The crucible of fire that awaited them would cement the fate of man and machine forever.
Horse Under Water
Horse Under Water
Len Deighton
¥63.18
The dead hand of a long-defeated Nazi Third Reich reaches out to Portugal, London and Marrakech in Deighton’s second novel, featuring the same anonymous narrator and milieu of The IPCRESS File, but finds Dawlish now head of the secret British Intelligence unit, WOOC(P). The Ipcress File was a debut sensation. Here in the second Secret File, Horse under Water, skin-diving, drug trafficking and blackmail all feature in a curious story in which the dead hand of a long-defeated Hitler-Germany reaches out to Portugal, London and Marrakech, and to all the neo-Nazis of today's Europe. The detail is frightening but unfaultable; the story as up to date as ever it was. The un-named hero of The Ipcress File the same: insolent, fallible, capricious - in other words, human. But he must draw on all his abilities, good and bad, when plunged into a story of murder, betrayal and greed every bit as murky as the waters off the coast of Portugal, where the answers lie buried.
The Ipcress File
The Ipcress File
Len Deighton
¥32.08
Len Deighton’s classic first novel, whose protagonist is a nameless spy – later christened Harry Palmer and made famous worldwide in the iconic 1960s film starring Michael Caine. The Ipcress File was not only Len Deighton’s first novel, it was his first bestseller and the book that broke the mould of thriller writing. For the working class narrator, an apparently straightforward mission to find a missing biochemist becomes a journey to the heart of a dark and deadly conspiracy. The film of The Ipcress File gave Michael Caine one of his first and still most celebrated starring roles, while the novel itself has become a classic.
Aggers’ Ashes
Aggers’ Ashes
Jonathan Agnew
¥146.27
An inside account of England’s Ashes triumph in Australia 2010/11. England’s much celebrated Ashes win by two clear matches with three comprehensive innings victories must rank as one of the finest of any English cricket team from any era. It kept people at home glued to their televisions, computers and radios – often all three at the same time – long into the night as the bitter winter and a depressed economy were forced into the background by the sheer joy and exhilaration of giving the old enemy a trouncing. It had been twenty-two years since a touring side won three Tests in Australia and twenty-four since the Ashes were last won on Australian soil. The current England team bears worthy comparison with some of the legendary teams of the past, captained by greats like Brearley, Hutton and Jardine. Andrew Strauss with back-to-back Ashes wins can now sit amongst that illustrious company. From the first ball of the tour in Perth to a closing rendition of the infamous ‘Sprinkler Dance’ on the outfield in Sydney some two months later – a clip that received some 250,000 hits in just three days – one person was there throughout, BBC Cricket Correspondent Jonathan Agnew, better known to his legion of Test Match Special fans as ‘Aggers’. Following the success of his last book Thanks, Johnners, Agnew has written a highly personal diary of his experiences in Australia. Whether he is sharing late night conversations in the bar with England coach Andy Flower, exchanging banter with new TMS recruit Michael Vaughan or keeping cricket junkies around the world sated with his daily Twitter feed, Aggers brings his unique sense of theatre and excitement to every day’s proceedings. With additional contributions from the best BBC cricket bloggers and the resident TMS statistician, Aggers Ashes is the only companion you will need to relive those glorious days when history was made Down Under.
Girl on the Platform
Girl on the Platform
Josephine Cox
¥9.71
A quick read from the bestselling storyteller, Josephine Cox. Love at first sight and a mysterious disappearance. Best friends Mark and Pete board a train to London for a night out. As Pete finds a seat he notices a girl sitting on a bench. She looks sad and lonely. When the train leaves, he can't get her out of his mind because in her he has seen a glimpse of himself. Over the coming months Pete sees the girl often, but when tempted to speak to her, his courage fails. Then one day she simply disappears. Hopelessly besotted by this girl he believes to be his kindred spirit, Pete will not rest until he finds her…
The Geneva Deception
The Geneva Deception
James Twining
¥34.14
Mafia, a secret society and the world’s greatest treasures all converge in James Twining’s all new jaw–dropping thriller featuring reformed art thief Tom Kirk It begins with a young man hanging from the Ponte Sant' Angelo Rome, his pockets weighed down with lead whilst the current of the river below slowly tightens the noose around his neck. Meanwhile, in Las Vegas, retired art thief Tom Kirk is asked by an old friend to investigate a case involving the theft of a long lost Caravaggio painting. When tragedy strikes Tom is left holding a blood-soaked body. Back in Rome Art Protection Squad officer Allegra Damico has been called to the Parthenon where a second body has been found, It begins with a young man hanging from the Ponte Sant' Angelo Rome, his pockets weighed down with lead whilst the current of the river below slowly tightens the noose around his neck. Meanwhile, in Las Vegas, retired art thief Tom Kirk is asked by an old friend to investigate a case involving the theft of a long lost Caravaggio painting. When tragedy strikes Tom is left holding a blood-soaked body. Back in Rome police Lieutenant Allegra Damico has been called to the Parthenon where a second body has been found, but this time the body is surrounded by mannequins. When a third body is found crucified upside down in the middle of the ancient forum Allegra realises there is a sinister link between the murders. Someone is staging famous Caravaggio paintings. Suspecting the detective leading the case is corrupt Allegra begins her own investigation. Spurred on by grief and the desire to avenge the murder of his friend, Tom follows a trail to Rome where he finds Allegra piecing together a similar mystery. Before long they both find themselves submerged in a vast criminal conspiracy involving the police, politicians, the church and a secret society born of a pact between two Mafia families decades before.
The Day of Creation
The Day of Creation
J. G. Ballard
¥61.51
An unforgettable voyage of the imagination from the bestselling author of ‘Cocaine Nights’ and ‘Super-Cannes’ – one of his most acclaimed novels. In parched Port-la-Nouvelle in central Africa, Dr Mallory watches his clinic fail and dreams of discovering a third Nile to make the Sahara bloom. During his search for water, an ancient tree stump is uprooted by a bulldozer and water wells up, spreading until it becomes an enormous river. With the once arid land now abounding in birds and beasts, the obsessed Mallory forges up-river in an old car ferry, clashing with hostile factions as he tries to find the source of his own creation.
The Ignorance of Blood
The Ignorance of Blood
Robert Wilson
¥72.30
A new psychological thriller in the Javier Falcon quartet, that includes THE HIDDEN ASSASSINS and The Blind Man of Seville. The sweltering city of Seville is still recovering from a shocking and unsolved terrorist attack but now a spectacular car crash brings to light another threat. A dead gangster and a suitcase filled with millions in cash means the prospect of a serious Russian mafia presence on Inspector Jefe Javier Falcón's beat. As a turf war erupts, Falcón finds himself and those closest to him personally targeted by the lethal forces suddenly unleashed. In the face of such a brutal attack, Falcón decides to retaliate with a ruthlessness that surprises him as much as his adversaries - but it will come at a tragic price.
Flashman on the March (The Flashman Papers, Book 11)
Flashman on the March (The Flashman Papers, Book 11)
George MacDonald Fraser
¥70.44
Coward, scoundrel, lover and cheat, but there is no better man to go into the jungle with. Join Flashman in his adventures as he survives fearful ordeals and outlandish perils across the four corners of the world. Who better to undertake a perilous mission into deepest Abyssinia, to rescue Britons held hostage by a mad emperor? When it comes to skulking in Ali Baba disguise or seducing barbarian monarchs, nobody does it better than Harry Flashman.
The Killing Ground (Sean Dillon Series, Book 14)
The Killing Ground (Sean Dillon Series, Book 14)
Jack Higgins
¥59.15
Jack Higgins, the undisputed master of action and suspense is back with a brand new adventure featuring the unstoppable Sean Dillon. For intelligence operative Sean Dillon, it is a routine passport check. But the events it will lead to will be as bloody as any he has ever known. The man he stops at Heathrow airport is Caspar Rashid, born and bred in England, but with family ties to a Bedouin tribe fiercely wedded to the old ways, as Rashid has just found out to his pain. His thirteen-year-old daughter, Sara, has been kidnapped by Rashid's own father and taken to Iraq to be married to a man known as the Hammer of God, one of the Middle East's most feared terrorists. Dillon has had his own run-ins with the tribe, and when the distraught man begs him for help, he sees a chance to settle some old scores – but Dillon has no idea of the terrible chain of events he is about to unleash, nor of the implacable enemies he is about to gain. Before his journey is done, many men will die – and Dillon may be one of them.
The Valhalla Exchange
The Valhalla Exchange
Jack Higgins
¥34.14
The electrifying WWII bestseller from the master of the game. On the 30th April 1945, Russian radar reported a light aircraft leaving the vicinity of the Tiergarten in Berlin. But who was on board, and where was the plane going? Berlin was in ruins as the Russians moved relentlessly towards the concrete bunker where the Nazi adminstration was in ruins. But one man, Reichsleiter Martin Bormann, Adolf Hitler’s secretary and eminence grise had a daring plan to escape. Far away to the sout–west , at Schloss Arlberg above the River Inn, five prisoners of war were contemplating their fate. Would they be murdered by their captors or liberated by the Russians? Unbeknown to them Bormann has is own plans. They are about to become part of a mystery that has fascinated the world for over sixty years. What exactly did happen to Bormann and his prisoners?
Lost River (Cooper and Fry Crime Series, Book 10)
Lost River (Cooper and Fry Crime Series, Book 10)
Stephen Booth
¥21.58
An atmospheric new Fry and Cooper thriller for fans of Peter Robinson and Reginald Hill A May Bank Holiday in the Peak District is ruined by the tragic drowning of an eight-year-old girl in picturesque Dovedale. For Detective Constable Ben Cooper, a helpless witness to the tragedy, the incident is not only traumatic, but leads him to become involved in the tangled lives of the Neilds, the dead girl's family. As he gets to know them, Cooper begins to suspect that one of them is harbouring a secret - a secret that the whole family might be willing to cover up. Meanwhile, Detective Sergeant Diane Fry has a journey of her own to make - a journey back to her roots. As she finds herself drawn into an investigation of her own among the inner-city streets of Birmingham, Fry realises there is only one person she can rely on to provide the help she needs. But that man is Ben Cooper, and he's back in Derbyshire, where his suspicions are leading him towards a shocking discovery on the banks of another Peak District river.
The Dead Place (Cooper and Fry Crime Series, Book 6)
The Dead Place (Cooper and Fry Crime Series, Book 6)
Stephen Booth
¥21.58
Bones where there should be none and a chilling warning of an imminent killing challenge Detectives Ben Cooper and Diane Fry in their sixth novel. "This death will be a model of perfection. The details will be precise, the conception immaculate, the execution flawless…" When a caller taunts the police with talk of a 'dead place' and the threat of an imminent killing, most think it's a sick hoax. But Detective Diane Fry is sure there's a murderer at work. And when the voice calmly invites them to meet the 'flesh eater', Fry fears it may be too late. Meanwhile, her colleague DC Ben Cooper is investigating Derbyshire's first case of body snatching, entering the macabre world of those whose lives revolve around the deceased and their disposal. But does an obsession with death make for a killer? And what horrors will greet them when they finally find the dead place?
The Khufra Run
The Khufra Run
Jack Higgins
¥34.14
Classic Jack Higgins for a new generation When a treasure is priceless, men will die for it… When a naked girl runs out into the lights of Jack Nelson’s jeep, the freelance pilot finds himself submerged in the most perilous treasure hunt ever. On his side are the girl, Claire Bouvier and his best buddy Harry Turk, a tough fighter still scarred by the nightmare of the Vietnam war. Waiting for them in the trackless wastes of the Khufra marshes are the ruthless Colonel Taleb of the local security police and his murderous Husa Horsemen. Only time will tell who will survive in the deadliest adventure of all.
Relentless
Relentless
Dean Koontz
¥54.74
A must-read thriller from Dean Koontz – the worldwide bestseller of over 400 million copies. RELENTLESS is a pulse-pounding, page-turning race to the finish. It looked like just a bad review. But perhaps it was a death threat… Being a writer is a dangerous business. When Cubby Greenwich receives a scathing review for his latest bestseller by the feared and therefore revered critic Shearman Waxx, he is determined to take no notice of it. But Fate carries him right into Waxx’s path. What began as an innocent and unexpected encounter is about to trigger an inferno of violence. For Shearman Waxx is not merely a ferocious literary enemy, but a ruthless sociopath, and now he is intent on destroying Cubby and everything he holds dear: his home, his wife, his young son, and every hope he had in the world. The terror has only just begun, and it will be relentless…