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Sharpe’s Christmas
Sharpe’s Christmas
Bernard Cornwell
¥9.71
A Richard Sharpe short story, featuring scenes of action and adventure at Christmas. ‘You’ll like Irati,’ Colonel Hogan said. ‘It’s a nothing place, Richard. Hovels and misery, that’s all it is and all it ever will be, but that’s where you’re going for Christmas.’ Sharpe was sent to Irati because maybe the French were going there. The garrison planned to march at Christmas in the hope that their enemies would be too bloated with beef and wine to fight, but Hogan had got wind of their plans and was now setting his snares on the only two routes that the escaping French could use. One, the eastern road, was by far the easier route, for it entered France through a low pass, and Hogan guessed it was that route that the French would choose. But there was a second road, a tight, hard, steep road, and that had to be blocked as well and so the Prince of Wales’s Own Volunteers, Sharpe’s regiment, would climb into the hills and spend their Christmas at a place of hovels and misery called Irati. Soldier, hero, rogue – Sharpe is the man you always want on your side. Born in poverty, he joined the army to escape jail and climbed the ranks by sheer brutal courage. He knows no other family than the regiment of the 95th Rifles whose green jacket he proudly wears.
Second Chance
Second Chance
Elizabeth Wrenn
¥51.50
Every woman needs a best friend… And Deena Munger needs one more than most. Faced with an almost empty nest, a marriage that's as stale as week-old bread, and hot flushes that are driving her mad, no wonder she feels running away. Despite her twenty extra pounds, Deena feels invisible and wonders when she started to disappear. And how come she never even noticed. Until the day Heloise enters her life. To the astonishment of her family, Deena volunteers to raise a Guide dog-and suddenly her world is turned upside down. Can this messy, boisterous, playful Labrador puppy show her the way out of the darkness? Seeing really is believing…
Humble Pie
Humble Pie
Gordon Ramsay
¥63.18
Everyone thinks they know the real Gordon Ramsay: rude, loud, pathologically driven, stubborn as hell. But this is his bestselling real story… Humble Pie tells the full story of how he became the world’s most famous and infamous chef: his difficult childhood, his brother’s heroin addiction and his failed first career as a footballer: all of these things have made him the celebrated culinary talent and media powerhouse that he is today. Gordon talks frankly about: ? his tough childhood: his father’s alcoholism and violence and the effects on his relationships with his mother and siblings, ? his first career as a footballer: how the whole family moved to Scotland when he was signed by Glasgow Rangers at the age of fifteen, and how he coped when his career was over due to injury just three years later, ? his brother’s heroin addiction. ? Gordon’s early career: learning his trade in Paris and London; how his career developed from there: his time in Paris under Albert Roux and his seven Michelin-starred restaurants. ? Kitchen life: Gordon spills the beans about life behind the kitchen door, and how a restaurant kitchen is run in Anthony Bourdain-style. ? How he copes with the impact of fame on himself and his family: his television career, the rapacious tabloids, and his own drive for success.
Waking Giant
Waking Giant
Reynolds, David S.
¥94.10
America experienced unprecedented growth and turmoil in the years between 1815 and 1848. It was an age when Andrew Jackson redefined the presidency and James K. Polk expanded the nation's territory. Bancroft Prize–winning historian and literary critic David S. Reynolds captures the turbulence of a democracy caught in the throes of the controversy over slavery, the rise of capitalism, and the birth of urbanization. He brings to life the reformers, abolitionists, and temperance advocates who struggled to correct America's worst social ills, and he reveals the shocking phenomena that marked the age: violent mobs, P. T. Barnum's freaks, all-seeing mesmerists, polygamous prophets, and rabble-rousing feminists. Meticulously researched and masterfully written, Waking Giant is a brilliant chronicle of America's vibrant and tumultuous rise.
How Beautiful It Is And How Easily It Can Be Broken
How Beautiful It Is And How Easily It Can Be Broken
Mendelsohn, Daniel
¥94.10
Whether he's on Broadway or at the movies, considering a new bestseller or revisiting a literary classic, Daniel Mendelsohn's judgments over the past fifteen years have provoked and dazzled with their deep erudition, disarming emotionality, and tart wit. Now How Beautiful It Is And How Easily It Can Be Broken reveals all at once the enormous stature of Mendelsohn's achievement and demonstrates why he is considered one of our greatest critics. Writing with a lively intelligence and arresting originality, he brings his distinctive combination of scholarly rigor and conversational ease to bear across eras, cultures, and genres, from Roman games to video games.His interpretations of our most talked-about films from the work of Pedro Almodóvar to Brokeback Mountain, from United 93 and World Trade Center to 300, Marie Antoinette, and The Hours have sparked debate and changed the way we watch movies. Just as stunning and influential are his dispatches on theater and literature, from The Producers to Jeffrey Eugenides' Middlesex, from The Lovely Bones to the works of Harold Pinter. Together these thirty brilliant and engaging essays passionately articulate the themes that have made Daniel Mendelsohn a crucial voice in today's cultural conversation: the aesthetic and indeed political dangers of imposing contemporary attitudes on the great classics; the ruinous effect of sentimentality on the national consciousness in the post-9/11 world; the vital importance of the great literature of the past for a meaningful life in the present.How Beautiful It Is And How Easily It Can Be Broken makes it clear that no other contemporary thinker is as engaged with as many aspects of our culture and its influences as Mendelsohn is, and no one practices the vanishing art of popular criticism with more acuity, humor, and feeling.
Reggie Jackson
Reggie Jackson
Perry, Dayn
¥95.39
Baseball Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson earned the nickname "Mr. October" for the crucial clutch hitting that led his teams to the World Series six times and won him two series MVP awards, and this skill at the plate is perhaps what he is best remembered for. But behind the bat was a man many don't know a man struggling to find his place in the world, at home, and in the sport that made him a star. Now, in the first biography of Jackson in more than twenty-five years and the first to cover his entire career as a player FOXSports.com columnist Dayn Perry provides an intimate, honest, and never-before-seen glimpse into the life and times of one of baseball's all-time greats. A cantankerous man full of swagger with a fearsome talent to match, Jackson was an outspoken iconoclast as a player a gift that made him friends and enemies of some of the most colorful characters in the game. As large a presence on the field as he was outside the ballpark, Jackson backed up his talk by establishing himself as one of the best sluggers the sport has ever seen.Yet Jackson's story is about more than sports prowess. His life reflects a time, between Jackie Robinson and Ken Griffey, Jr., when black ballplayers were accepted but still considered inferior to their white teammates. There were unspoken rules to keep the racial waters still; Jackson not only ignored such conventions, he demolished them paving the way for true equality for all black players.From his childhood in a predominantly white neighborhood to heroics at the plate, from relationships with legendary players such as "Catfish" Hunter and Thurman Munson to battles with some of the sport's most powerful figures, including notoriously cheap Oakland A's owner Charlie Finley and the irascible George Steinbrenner, Reggie Jackson tells the full story of the man who was one of the first black baseball superstars and one of the greatest players of all time.
Direct From Dell
Direct From Dell
Dell, Michael
¥94.10
At nineteen, Michael Dell started his company as a freshman at the University of Texas with $1,000 and has since built an industry powerhouse. As Dell journeys through his childhood adventures, ups and downs, and mistakes made along the way, he reflects on invaluable lessons learned.Michael Dell's revolutionary insight has allowed him to persevere against all odds, and Direct from Dell contains valuable information for any business leader. His strategies will show you effective ways to grow your business and will help you save time on costly mistakes by following his direct model for success.
Everyone Loves You When You're Dead
Everyone Loves You When You're Dead
Strauss, Neil
¥94.10
Neil Strauss can uncover the naked truth like nobody else. With his groundbreaking book The Game, Strauss penetrated the secret society of pickup artists. Now, in Everyone Loves You When You're Dead, the Rolling Stone journalist collects the greatest moments from the most insane music interviews of all time. Join Neil Strauss, "The Mike Tyson of interviewers," (Dave Pirner, Soul Asylum), as he Makes Lady Gaga cry, tries to keep Mtley Cre out of jail is asked to smoke Kurt Cobain's ashes by Courtney Love Shoots guns with Ludacris, takes a ride with Neil Young goes to church with Tom Cruise and his mother Spends the night with Trent Reznor, reads the mind of Britney Spears finds religion with Stephen Colbert Gets picked on by Led Zeppelin, threatened by the mafia serenaded by Leonard Cohen Picks up psychic clues with the CIA, diapers with Snoop Dog prison survival tips from Rick James Goes drinking with Bruce Springsteen, dining with Gwen Stefani hot tubbing with Marilyn Manson Talks glam with David Bowie, drugs with Madonna, death with Johnny Cash sex with Chuck Berry Gets molested by the Strokes, in trouble with Prince in bed with . . . you'll find out who inside. Enjoy many, many more awkward moments and accidental adventures with the world's number one stars in Everyone Love You When You're Dead.
Secrets of Breaking into the Film and TV Business
Secrets of Breaking into the Film and TV Business
Silvers, Dean
¥90.77
A highly successful, award-winning independent producer shares his funny, practical, and innovative approach to breaking into film or television, whether you want to direct, act, write, or produceIt doesn't take film school or expensive, high-tech equipment to make a brilliant and marketable movie today, says successful maverick producer Dean Silvers. For aspiring filmmakers, it's easier than ever to produce and sell their work. Secrets of Breaking into the Film and TV Business is packed with concrete, proven advice to help you follow in the footsteps of today's cinematic giants, many of whom broke out with runaway independent successes. Drawing from his own experience as a filmmaker, Silvers offers essential tips and a wealth of invaluable knowledge about every aspect of the moviemaking business, from Internet shorts to how to adapt, option, and collaborate on feature-length films (with shoestring budgets).
Notes from a Small Island
Notes from a Small Island
Bryson, Bill
¥90.51
Veering from the ludicrous to the endearing and back again, Notes From a Small Island is a delightfully irreverent jaunt around the unparalleled floating nation that has produced zebra crossings, Shakespeare, Twiggie Winkie's Farm, and places with names like Farleigh Wallop and Titsey.
The Italian American Reader
The Italian American Reader
Tonelli, Bill
¥95.39
This anthology -- the first general-reader collection of writing by Italian American authors -- is part manifesto, part Sunday dinner. A gathering of voices old and new, some speak in the accents of another age, some completely contemporary and assured, and all together for the first time. To stand with all the other popular media images we represent, now, at last, one exists in written form, the literature of Italian American life.Inside, there are excerpts from novels, memoirs, short stories, essays, and poems -- by the living and the dead, the famous and the obscure. The excerpts are variously moving, funny, poignant, lusty, biting, reverent, witty, loving, angry, and wise, dealing in the most profound aspects of our lives no matter who we are: home, love, sex, family, food, work, God, death.Characters range from gangsters to grandmas, lovers to fighters, thinkers to doers, sinners to saints, with special appearances by Frank Sinatra and the Virgin Mary.
Touch the Devil
Touch the Devil
Jack Higgins
¥54.25
Classic adventure from the million copy bestseller Jack Higgins If there’s such a thing as a grade A terrorist then his name is Frank Barry. His ideology is money and his track record is flawless. When the Russians want review copies of the latest NATO missile system, Barry’s the man to deliver them. Stopping him will be near enough impossible, but one man knows all the moves. Martin Brosnan is a poet, scholar and trained killer. A graduate of Vietnam and polished in the ranks of the IRA he could be the key to ending Barry’s reign. There’s one problem, Brosnan is languishing in a French prison, and only the powerfully persuasive Liam Devlin can get him out and working for British intelligence.
A Corpse in Shining Armour
A Corpse in Shining Armour
Caro Peacock
¥63.18
Duelling, derring-do, and dastardly deeds are all in a day’s work for Liberty Lane: the plucky heroine for fans of Georgette Heyer and Sarah Waters’s Victorian novels. London. Summer 1839. And the temperature is rising as Liberty Lane takes on her strangest case yet. Deranged aristocrat Lord Brinkburn is nearing death and his elder son, Stephen, is expecting to inherit the title. But Lady Brinkburn's sudden announcement that Stephen is illegitimate throws the family into turmoil. Tensions reach boiling point between the two brothers, one of whom stands to gain everything, and they come to blows in public - much to the amusement of London Society. Liberty is engaged privately to get to the truth of the matter, but a macabre murder raises the stakes considerably…added to which she finds her own judgement being undermined by the beguiling Lady Brinkburn. She is only too aware that time is running out - one of the brothers may be next, but which will it be…?
The Last Days of the Lacuna Cabal
The Last Days of the Lacuna Cabal
Sean Dixon
¥72.99
An original, mischievous rites of passage novel which will delight fans of offbeat fiction such as ‘Salmon Fishing in the Yemen’ and ‘A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian’. The Lacuna Cabal Montreal Young Women's Book Club is THE foremost book club in Canada, no, in the world. Priding themselves on their good taste, intelligent discussions and impeccable opinions, they are a group of misfits and oddballs, living on the edge of normality. There are only two rules: what Missy says goes (ok, there is a nod to democracy but let's be honest here) and NO BOYS. EVER. Of course, the premier book club in the world must read the first book ever written: 'The Epic of Gilgamesh'. But this monumental book leads them to break all their rules, shed members who end up missing out on EVERYTHING, and travel across the open seas to Bahrain in search of a wise man who'll hopefully have all the answers. Original, funny, quixotic and ultimately very moving,The Last Days of the Lacuna Cabal is set in a time of upheaval: the Iraq war is exploding and people across the world are marching in protest. It's the story of a group of friends who find a family of sorts within their book group, who learn to cope with love, and the lack of it, loss, and the lack of that, and with growing up in a world that is falling apart.
Death of a Dancer
Death of a Dancer
Caro Peacock
¥63.18
Duelling, derring-do, and dastardly deeds are all in a day’s work for Liberty Lane, a new heroine for fans of Georgette Heyer and Sarah Waters’s Victorian novels. The Augustus theatre likes to put on a good show. But when a public spat erupts between two dancers on the London stage, it comes to a dramatic conclusion that definitely wasn’t part of the *: one dead, the other arrested for murder. As far as the jury’s concerned, it’s an open-and-shut case, but Liberty Lane believes otherwise. Soon she’s leading her own investigation, in a desperate race against the hangman’s noose. And while the criminal underworld may be no place for a lady, there’s no place for a criminal to hide once Liberty’s on the case…
Savage Harvest
Savage Harvest
Hoffman, Carl
¥88.56
The mysterious disappearance of Michael Rockefeller in remote New Guinea in 1961 has kept the world, and even Michael's powerful, influential family, guessing for years. Now, Carl Hoffman uncovers startling new evidence that finally tells the full, astonishing story. On November 21, 1961, Michael C. Rockefeller, the twenty-three-year-old son of New York governor Nelson Rockefeller, vanished off the coast of southwest New Guinea when his catamaran capsized while crossing a turbulent river mouth. He was on an expedition to collect art for the Museum of Primitive Art, which his father had founded in 1957, and his expedition partner who stayed with the boat and was later rescued shared Michael's final words as he swam for help: "I think I can make it."Despite exhaustive searches by air, ground, and sea, no trace of Michael was ever found. Soon after his disappearance, rumors surfaced that he'd made it to shore, where he was then killed and eaten by the local Asmat a native tribe of warriors whose complex culture was built around sacred, reciprocal violence, headhunting, and ritual cannibalism. The Dutch government and the Rockefeller family vehemently denied the story, and Michael's death was officially ruled a drowning. While the cause of death was accepted publicly, doubts lingered and sensational stories circulated, fueling speculation and intrigue for decades. The real story has long waited to be told until now. Retracing Michael's steps, award-winning journalist Carl Hoffman traveled to the jungles of New Guinea, immersing himself in a world of former headhunters and cannibals, secret spirits and customs, and getting to know generations of Asmat. Through exhaustive archival research, he uncovered hundreds of pages of never-before-seen original documents and located witnesses willing to speak publicly for the first time in fifty years. In Savage Harvest Hoffman finally solves this decades-old mystery and illuminates a culture transformed by years of colonial rule, whose people continue to be shaped by ancient customs and lore. Combining history, art, colonialism, adventure, and ethnography, Savage Harvest is at once a mesmerizing whodunit and a fascinating portrait of the clash between two civilizations that resulted in the death of one of America's richest and most powerful scions.
Dead Witch Walking
Dead Witch Walking
Kim Harrison
¥18.93
From New York Times best-selling author, Kim Harrison, comes the first book in her brilliant Hollows series; packed with the perfect balance of wry humour and thrilling action, which will delight fans of thrillers and fantasy alike. Rachel Morgan lives in a world where a bioengineered virus wiped out most of the world's human population – exposing the existence of supernatural communities that had long lived alongside humanity. It’s her job as a white witch working for Inderland Security to protect the humans from things that go bump in the night. For the last five years Rachel has been tracking down lawbreaking Inderlanders in modern-day Cincinnati, but now she wants to leave and start her own agency. Her only problem: no one quits the I.S. Marked for death, Rachel will have to fend off fairy assassins and homicidal werewolves armed to the teeth with deadly curses. Unless she can appease her former employers by exposing the city's most prominent citizen as a drug lord, she might just be a dead witch walking.
Swing Low
Swing Low
Toews, Miriam
¥88.56
One morning, Mel Toews put on his coat and hat, walked out of town, and took his own life. A loving husband and father, a faithful member of the Mennonite church, and an immensely popular schoolteacher, Mel was a pillar of his close-knit community. Yet after a lifetime of struggling with bipolar disorder, he could no longer face the darkness that clouded his world. In this moving meditation on illness, family, faith, and love, Mel's daughter, critically acclaimed novelist and reporter Miriam Toews, recounts her father's life as he would have told it, in his own voice, right up to the day of his final walk. Swing Low is a bold, gracefully written, and compassionate recounting of one man's heartbreaking battle with depression.
Periodic Tales
Periodic Tales
Aldersey-Williams, Hugh
¥95.11
Like the alphabet, the calendar, or the zodiac, the periodic table of the chemical elements has a permanent place in our imagination. But aside from the handful of common ones (iron, carbon, copper, gold), the elements themselves remain wrapped in mystery. We do not know what most of them look like, how they exist in nature, how they got their names, or of what use they are to us. Welcome to a dazzling tour through history and literature, science and art. In Periodic Tales, you'll meet iron that rains from the heavens and neon as it lights its way to vice. You'll learn how lead can tell your future and why zinc may one day line your coffin. You'll discover what connects the bones in your body with the White House in Washington, the glow of a streetlight with the salt on your dinner table.From ancient civilizations to contemporary couture, from the oxygen of publicity to the phosphorous in your pee, the elements are near and far and all around us. Unlocking their astonishing secrets and colorful pasts, Periodic Tales is a passionate journey through mines and artists' studios, to factories and cathedrals, into the woods and to the sea to discover the true stories of these fascinating but mysterious building blocks of the universe.
Rockers and Rollers
Rockers and Rollers
Johnson, Brian
¥84.16
By night, Brian Johnson sings in the biggest rock ’n’ roll band on the planet. But by day, AC/DC’s frontman drives balls to the wall. Cars and rock ’n’ roll—they were made for each other. When he was a young boy growing up in a working-class English town, Brian developed what would become a lifelong passion for cars, trolling junkyards and even pretending to drive the family car. From there, he steamed up the windows of his old Mini Cooper as a teenager, spent untold time in hygienically challenged tour buses with helpful signs such as No Shitting Allowed. Shagging Expected, was chauffeured in leather-trimmed limos, and raced cars to a checkered flag. Featuring guest stars Cliff Williams, Malcolm and Angus Young, and many, many others, even Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rockers and Rollers is a tribute to Brian’s obsession with four wheels. By turns surprising, poignant, funny, and maybe a little bit bawdy, these are the stories of a man who drives as hard as he rocks.
High Strung
High Strung
Tignor, Stephen
¥83.03
The golden age of tennis came crashing down suddenly at the 1981 U.S. Open when the stoical Swede, Bj?rn Borg, lost to his brash young rival, John McEnroe, in the final at Flushing Meadows. Through the lens of that era's final tournament, and the play of the other semifinalists, Jimmy Connors and Vitas Gerulaitis, High Strung chronicles the lives and careers of the men who made those Wild West days of tennis so memorable: "Ice Borg," who secretly harbored an inner madman; McEnroe, the tortured, bratty genius; Connors, the game's beloved blue-collar anti-hero; Ilie Nastase, the Romanian clown; Gerulaitis, the New York charmer; and Ivan Lendl, who became a harbinger of tennis's high-powered future. The struggles these men shared were as compelling off the court as they were on.