A diamond in the desert
Barely forty years ago, Abu Dhabi was a fishing village on the Arabian Gulf. Now the capital of the United Arab Emirates, its citizens are each worth $17 million, it holds major stakes in Western economies, and has money to burn. In this timely, revealing and evocative portrait of a global player, Jo Tatchell traces the emirate’s dramatic development and the sometimes ruinous effect of extreme wealth on its people and their desert culture. And as its rulers fund another giant leap forward, she probes behind the official facade to examine whether this secretive and controlled society can realise its breathtaking plans to transform relations between East and West.
Making Business Presentation
HOW TO DELIVER A WINNING MESSAGE – The critical knowledge you need to plan, write and deliver your next presentation with maximum impact. Written by a co-founder of the Professional Speaking Association, this book focuses on getting you the results you need from your presentation, whether you are selling a product or service, a proposed change or even your own skills and abilities. It will show you how to persuade your audience by being relevant, clear, engaging and memorable. FINANCIAL TIMES ESSENTIAL GUIDES THE KNOW-HOW YOU NEED TO GET THE RESULTS YOU WANT.
The Black Dahlia
On January 15, 1947, the torture-ravished body of a beautiful young woman is found in a vacant lot. The victim makes headlines as the Black Dahlia—and so begins the greatest manhunt in California history. Caught up in the investigation are Bucky Bleichert and Lee Blanchard: Warrants Squad cops, friends, and rivals in love with the same woman. But both are obsessed with the Dahlia—driven by dark needs to know everything about her past, to capture her killer, to possess the woman even in death. Their quest will take them on a hellish journey through the underbelly of postwar Hollywood, to the core of the dead girl’s twisted life, past the extremes of their own psyches—into a region of total madness.
Although a vital part of the US economy, foreign direct investment (FDI) in the United States periodically raises public and congressional alarms—as witnessed during Dubai Ports World’s recent bid to acquire US port operations and Chinese firm CNOOC’s attempt to buy US energy firm Unocal. Drawing fire from Congress are the Exon-Florio provisions of US law, which enable the president to block a foreign acquisition that threatens national security. This important new book finds that many proposed reforms risk harming the US economy without enhancing national security. The authors propose ways to strengthen the current interagency review of deals, including an improved process for reporting to Congress.
House of sand and fog
In this “page-turner with a beating heart” (Boston Globe), a recovering alcoholic and addict down on her luck struggles to hold on to her home in California. But this becomes contested territory when a recent immigrant from the Middle East—a former colonel in the Iranian Air Force—becomes determined to restore his family’s dignity through buying the house. When the woman’s lover, a married cop, intervenes, he goes to extremes to win her love. Andre Dubus III’s unforgettable characters—people with ordinary flaws, looking for a small piece of ground to stand on—careen toward inevitable conflict. An “affecting, subtle portrait of two hostile but equally fragile camps” (The New Yorker), their tragedy paints a shockingly true picture of the country we still live in today, two decades after this book’s first publication.
The stone monkey
Now the awe-inspiring duo returns in The Stone Monkey. Recruited to help the FBI and the Immigration and Naturalization Service perform the nearly impossible, Lincoln and Amelia manage to track down a cargo ship headed for New York City and carrying two dozen illegal Chinese immigrants, as well as the notorious human smuggler and killer known as « the Ghost. » But when the Ghost’s capture goes disastrously wrong, Lincoln and Amelia find themselves in a race against time: to stop the Ghost before he can track down and murder the two surviving families who have escaped from the ship and vanished deep into the labyrinthine world of New York City’s Chinatown. Over the next harrowing forty-eight hours, the Ghost brilliantly and ruthlessly hunts for the families, while Rhyme, aided by a quirky policeman from mainland China, struggles to find them before they die, and Amelia Sachs pursues a very different kind of police work — forming a connection with one of the immigrants that may have consequences going to the core of her relationship with her partner and lover, Lincoln Rhyme. The Stone Monkey abounds with Deaver’s famous trademarks: wholly unexpected plot twists, breakneck pacing, and characters who are heartbreakingly real, reminding us once again why People hailed him as « the master of ticking-bomb suspense » and Publishers Weekly called him the « most clever plotter on the planet. »
The art of fielding
En Anglais – At Westish College, a small school on the shore of Lake Michigan, baseball star Henry Skrimshander seems destined for big league stardom. But when a routine throw goes disastrously off course, the fates of five people are upended. Henry’s fight against self-doubt threatens to ruin his future. College president Guert Affenlight, a longtime bachelor, has fallen unexpectedly and helplessly in love. Owen Dunne, Henry’s gay roommate and teammate, becomes caught up in a dangerous affair. Mike Schwartz, the Harpooners’ team captain and Henry’s best friend, realizes he has guided Henry’s career at the expense of his own. And Pella Affenlight, Guert’s daughter, returns to Westish after escaping an ill-fated marriage, determined to start a new life. As the season counts down to its climactic final game, these five are forced to confront their deepest hopes, anxieties, and secrets. In the process they forge new bonds, and help one another find their true paths. Written with boundless intelligence and filled with the tenderness of youth, The Art of Fielding is an expansive, warmhearted novel about ambition and its limits, about family and friendship and love, and about commitment – to oneself and to others.
In your arms
Orphaned by a tragic accident, sixteen-year-old Amalie Courtland set sail from America for a new life in England with her godmother. What she didn’t expect to find was Lady Winford’s handsome rogue of a grandson, Robert Holt Braxton, Earl of Deverell. Immediately smitten by Holt’s careless good looks and smoldering blue eyes, Amalie’s naive young heart fell in love. Little did she know Holt was trying to resist his own temptation — by having his grandmother take Amalie away. Years later, Holt is shocked by the change in the one-provincial Amalie. The tawny-skinned enchantress with raven hair and lustrous green eyes has become a cool, composed beauty. Soon Amalie is lost in the arms of this experienced rake as they succumb to the tempestuous passion of their hearts and bodies. Then, when Holt learns of her brother’s plot to destroy his business holdings, he suspects Amalie has betrayed him and he vows revenge. But not even he can deny the all-consuming storm of desire that threatens to drown them both …
The boyfriend
Author of numerous scary thrillers, R.L. Stine tells a story of spoiled, rich Joanna who gets a lot of chilling surprises when she cheats on her sweet and caring boyfriend, Dex. Joanna wants to date Shep because he is wealthy and has good prospects, whereas Dex lives with an old aunt and can”t afford expensive schools. Even when Joanna doesn”t show up for their date at the mall, Dex still wants to see her. After convincing her to go out with him and his friend, Pete, to see the beautiful moon, the night ends in tragedy with Dex falling off a cliff and Joanna getting into a car accident as she flees the scene.
After Joanna recovers from her injuries, and Dex is declared dead, it would seem that her romantic problems are over. But strange things keep happening. Dex is calling Joanna on the phone and appearing on street corners. When Joanna realizes he”s not dead, she goes out with him, but something is different. Why is Dex”s skin so pale, and why does he smell like rotten meat? In a series of suspenseful twists and turns, reality and fantasy are blurred, and Joanna”s friendships with her best friend, Mary, and her new boyfriend, Shep, are threatened by Joanna”s growing self-centeredness. In a dramatic and surprising ending, Dex « returns from the dead » one final time to teach Joanna that it is she who has been « dead » all along.
She who hears the sun
A century ago, the American Southwest was a region of savage natural beauty. There the Navajo people worshipped the land, spinning folk tales into legends and prayers into songs. But besieged by U.S. Army soldiers, the tribe was suddenly thrust into a battle that nearly destroyed the proudly woven fabric of its culture.. « Riding the storm of change are three strong and uniquely gifted women. Deezbaa, called Going off To War, the clan chief’s wife, is a healer respected for her enigmatic wisdom. Ayoi, The Tall One, Deezbaa’s daughter, promises to honor her husband’s ways, but chooses her own path. Her daughter Pahe, She Who Hears the Sun, will listen to her spirit partners and guide the tribe towards its ultimate destiny.
Protect and defend
No longer willing to wait for the international community to stop its neighboring enemy, Israel brings down Iran’s billion-dollar nuclear program in an ingeniously conceived operation. The attack leaves a radioactive tomb and environmental disaster in its wake, and has Iranian president Amatullah calling for blood—American blood. Seeing opportunity where others fear reprisals, Mitch Rapp devises a brilliant plan to humiliate Iran’s government and push the nation to the brink of revolution. But when a back-channel meeting between CIA director Irene Kennedy and her Iranian counterpart goes disastrously wrong, Rapp is locked in a showdown with a Hezbollah mastermind in league with Amatullah—and he is given twenty-four hours to do whatever it takes to stop unthinkable catastrophe.
Wake up Dead
En anglais – On a blowtorch-hot night in Cape Town, American ex-model Roxy Palmer and her gunrunner husband, Joe, are carjacked, leaving Joe lying in a pool of blood. As the carjackers make their getaway, Roxy makes a fateful choice that changes her life forever. Disco and Godwynn, the ghetto gangbangers who sped away in Joe’s convertible, will stop at nothing to track her down. Billy Afrika, a mixed-race ex-cop turned mercenary, won’t let her out of his sight because Joe owed him a chunk of money. And remorselessly hunting them all is Piper, a love-crazed psychopath determined to renew his vows with his jailhouse “wife,” Disco. As these desperate lives collide and old debts are settled in blood, Roxy is caught in a wave of escalating violence in the beautiful and brutal African seaport…
Sisters
En Anglais – The companion to Raina Telgemeier’s #1 New York Times bestselling and Eisner Award-winning graphic memoir, Smile.Raina can’t wait to be a big sister. But once Amara is born, things aren’t quite how she expected them to be. Amara is cute, but she’s also a cranky, grouchy baby, and mostly prefers to play by herself. Their relationship doesn’t improve much over the years, but when a baby brother enters the picture and later, something doesn’t seem right between their parents, they realize they must figure out how to get along. They are sisters, after all.Raina uses her signature humor and charm in both present-day narrative and perfectly placed flashbacks to tell the story of her relationship with her sister, which unfolds during the course of a road trip from their home in San Francisco to a family reunion in Colorado.
Smile
En Anglais – Raina just wants to be a normal sixth grader. But one night after Girl Scouts she trips and falls, severely injuring her two front teeth. What follows is a long and frustrating journey with on-again, off-again braces, surgery, embarrassing headgear, and even a retainer with fake teeth attached. And on top of all that, there’s still more to deal with: a major earthquake, boy confusion, and friends who turn out to be not so friendly.
Allen Carr’s easy way to Stop smoking
En Anglais – En Anglais – Allen Carr’s Easy Way to Stop Smoking is a self-help classic, with over 5 m copies sold worldwide. It has been a #1 bestseller in nine European countries. It outsells all other quit smoking titles combined. This edition has been developed specifically for smokers in the US. This seminal book has enabled millions of smokers to quit easily and enjoyably using Carr’s simple, drug-free approach.
Haddix – Among the impostors
En Anglais – Luke Garner is an illegal third child. All his life has been spent in hiding. Now, for the first time, Luke is living among others. He has assumed a deceased boy’s identity and is attending Hendricks School for Boys, a windowless building with cruel classmates and oblivious teachers. Luke knows he has to blend in, but he lives in constant fear that his behavior will betray him. Then one day Luke discovers a door to the outside. He knows that beyond the walls of Hendricks lie the secrets he is desperate to uncover. What he doesn’t know is whom he can trust — and where the answers to his questions may lead him…
On secret service
En Anglais – John Jakes is to historical American fiction what Stephen King is to horror: a one-man industry. Jakes, the author of over 60 books, including the eight-part Kent Family Chronicles, the North and South Trilogy, and innumerable short stories of the American West, returns to his well-trod Civil War stomping grounds in the engrossing On Secret Service. The story of a war within a war on various levels–the North v. the South, the Union’s Pinkerton Detective Agency v. the Confederacy’s agent provocateurs, youthful idealism v. youthful lust–On Secret Service chronicles the lives and times of four young Americans, from the war’s early tremors in January 1861, through its bloody conclusion, Lincoln’s assassination, and John Wilkes Booth’s murder in May 1865. …..
Angels Flight
En Anglais – Harry Bosch finds himself yet again in charge of a case that no one else will touch. This time his job is to nail the killer of hot shot black lawyer Howard Elias. Elias has been found murdered on the eve of going to court on behalf of Michael Harris, a man the LAPD believes guilty of the rape and murder of a twelve-year-old girl. Elias had let it be known that the aim of his civil case was not only to reveal the real killer but to target and bring down the racist cops who beat up his client during a violent interrogation. Now it’s all down to Bosch – and he’s got to take a long, hard look at some of his colleagues in a police department that is rife with suspicion and hatred.
The learning curve
En Anglais – Nicky Hobbs loves teaching at the local primary school. She’s idolised by her class – in particular ten-year-old Oscar Samuels – but she’s starting to find she’d quite like some adult adoration for a change. Mark Samuels is a frazzled single father working all the hours God gives to provide for his beloved son, Oscar. But he’s unable to see that Oscar would prefer his presence to his presents once in a while. Ms Hobbs knows Mr Samuels is a heartless workaholic. Mr Samuels is certain Ms Hobbs is an interfering busybody. But when they finally meet they start to discover that first first impressions can be deceptive. And perhaps they’ve both got a bit of learning to do…
Northern Ligths
En Anglais – Without this child, we shall all die.’ Lyra Belacqua and her animal daemon live half-wild and carefree among scholars of Jordan College, Oxford. The destiny that awaits her will take her to the frozen lands of the Arctic, where witch-clans reign and ice-bears fight. Her extraordinary journey will have immeasurable consequnces far beyond her own world…
Size 14 is not fat either
En Anglais – Former pop star Heather Wells has settled nicely into her new life as assistant dorm director at New York College—a career that does not require her to drape her size 12 body in embarrassingly skimpy outfits. She can even cope (sort of) with her rocker ex-boyfriend’s upcoming nuptials, which the press has dubbed The Celebrity Wedding of the Decade. But she’s definitely having a hard time dealing with the situation in the dormitory kitchen—where a cheerleader has lost her head on the first day of the semester. (Actually, her head is accounted for—it’s her torso that’s AWOL.) /// Surrounded by hysterical students—with her ex-con father on her doorstep and her ex-love bombarding her with unwanted phone calls—Heather welcomes the opportunity to play detective . . . again. If it gets her mind off her personal problems—and teams her up again with the gorgeous P.I. who owns the brownstone where she lives—it’s all good. But the murder trail is leading the average-sized amateur investigator into a shadowy world. And if she doesn’t watch her step, Heather will soon be singing her swan song!
The Hostage
En Anglais – When an undercover operation monitoring the Real IRA goes horrifically wrong, British Intelligence turn to the one man who can get their agent out: Stratton, SBS operative with a lethal reputation. It’s a dangerous race against time: if the Real IRA get to the Republic before Stratton gets to them, his colleague is as good as dead.
Black cat crossing
Sabrina has never been the superstitious type. Still, when she moves to Lavender, Texas, to write her first novel and help her Aunt Rowe manage her vacation rental business, Sabrina can’t avoid listening to the rumors that a local black cat is a jinx—especially after the stray in question leads her directly to the scene of a murder. The deceased turns out to be none other than her Aunt Rowe’s awful cousin Bobby Joe Flowers, a known cheat and womanizer who had no shortage of enemies. The only problem is that Aunt Rowe and Bobby Joe had quarreled just before the cousin turned up dead, leaving Rowe at the top of the long list of suspects. Now it’s up to Sabrina to clear her aunt’s name. Luckily for her, she’s got a new sidekick, Hitchcock the Bad Luck Cat, to help her sniff out clues and stalk a killer before Aunt Rowe winds up the victim of even more misfortune…
Meditation to go
En Anglais – Learn to relax * de-stress * find peace of maind – Through the ancient tradition of meditation you can access a peaceful, quiet part of your mind that is free from the stresses of daily life. Meditation to Go illustrates how to find that inner sanctuary through simple mantras, exercises, chakras, and postures. Divided into easily digestible chapters that teach the basic principles of meditation, it covers every part of daily life—from establishing a morning routine to setting up a relaxing workspace to calming down in the evening. Plus, you’ll uncover effortless ways to meditate even in the busiest days—including while you are on the go—as well as advice on integrating meditation permanently into your life. Beautifully designed throughout, this soothing guide contains dozens of photos that showcase the exercises and foster tranquility.
En Anglais – Kibera has become one of the most infamous slums in the world. But the visiting pop stars, politicians and Western journalists seldom explain how the enduring poverty and inequality in Kenya is intimately related to an unjust economic system that connects our different worlds. In this exposé, Adam Parsons sets out to unravel how a ‘megaslum’ such as Kibera came to exist, what economic forces shape the reality of life for slum-dwellers in Africa, and what it really means to live in extreme poverty. In a mix of travel writing, history and political narrative, Megaslumming vividly describes life in the slums through the eyes of its different residents – the AIDS orphans, the grandmother-headed households, the neglected schools, the Nubian elders, and most of all the street boys who become the author’s guides and bodyguards inside the dangerous shantytown. Written as a lucid introduction to global justice issues, this book ultimately raises serious questions about the current direction of world development – and points the way to a more equitable and inclusive future world.
My best Frenemy
En Anglais – Ida May finally fits in at school after becoming best friends with Stacey Merriweather, one of the popular girls. But then Ida’s frenemy, bossy Jenna Drews, brings in a game of truth or dare, and all the girls are suddenly daring one another to misbehave. When Ida finds herself in the principal’s office, she ends up ratting out her friendsÑwith disastrous consequences. The only way she can fix things is to take a triple-dog dare, but Ida May isn’t sure she has the guts. Will her BFF come to her rescue, or is this the perfect job for a frenemy?
Fairy dreams
En Anglais – Evie gets a wonderful surprise when she goes to stay at her grandma’s house. Fairies appear in the night. They are dream fairies and they live at the bottom of Evie’s bed. Even better, Evie can go and have magical adventures with them in fairyland! Soon Evie discovers that Grandma can see the fairies too. But will they still be there when Grandma returns from hospital – and how can Evie make sure that their special brand of fairy magic will stay with Grandma forever?
Junie B, First grader – Cheater pants
En Anglais – Meet the World’s Funniest First Grader—Junie B. Jones! Junie B. has all the answers when it comes to cheating. It’s just plain wrong! But what about copying someone else’s homework? That’s not cheating, right? ’Cause homework isn’t even a test! And speaking of tests . . . what if a friend shares an answer that you didn’t even ask for? Sharing definitely isn’t cheating . . . is it? Uh-oh. Maybe this cheating business is more complicated than Junie B. thought. Could she be a cheater pants and not even know it ?
Fairy gold
En Anglais – Lucy can’t believe her eyes when she wakes in the night to find Goldie and Bonnie–two tooth fairies–on her pillow. The fairies tell Lucy that their job is to collect children’s teeth, replace them with fake ones, and make a potion that creates golden Goodness. But there is trouble in fairyland. A selfish sprite wants all the Goodness for herself instead of sprinkling it around the world. With the help of the Tooth Fairy Queen, can Lucy and her new friends stop the thieving fairy before the gold has all gone?
En Anglais – The great-grandchild of a slave, Thurgood Marshall grew up to become Director-Counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and a Justice of the Supreme Court. A fierce advocate for the rights of the poor, minorities, and women, Marshall has earned a place in history as one of the greatest Americans of his century.
Fairest
En Anglais – In the kingdom of Ayortha, who is the fairest of them all? Certainly not Aza. She is thoroughly convinced that she is ugly. What she may lack in looks, though, she makes up for with a kind heart, and with something no one else has-a magical voice. Her vocal talents captivate all who hear them, and in Ontio Castle they attract the attention of a handsome prince – and a dangerous new queen. In this masterful novel filled with humour, adventure, romance, and song, Newbery Honor author Gail Carson Levine invites you to join Aza as she discovers how exquisite she truly is.
En Anglais – Mexican drug cartels are shooting up the streets of Laredo and El Paso. Somali pirates are holding three U.S. tankers for ransom. The President is fed up and has what he thinks is a pretty bright idea—to get hold of Colonel Charley Castillo and his merry band and put them on the case. Unfortunately, that will be difficult. Everybody knows that the President hates Castillo’s guts, has just had him forcibly retired from the military, and now Castillo’s men are scattered far and wide, many of them in hiding. There are also whispers that the President himself is unstable — the word « nutcake » has been mentioned. How will it all play out? No one knows for sure, but for Castillo and company, one thing is definite: It will be hazardous duty.
The painted word
Wolfe’s style has never been more dazzling, his wit never more keen. He addresses the scope of Modern Art, from its founding days as Abstract Expressionism through its transformations to Pop, Op, Minimal, and Conceptual. The Painted Word is Tom Wolfe « at his most clever, amusing, and irreverent » (San Francisco Chronicle).
En Anglais – « This is a book about making art. Ordinary art. Ordinary art means something like: all art not made by Mozart. After all, art is rarely made by Mozart-like people; essentially-statistically speaking-there aren’t any people like that. Geniuses get made once-a-century or so, yet good art gets made all the time, so to equate the making of art with the workings of genius removes this intimately human activity to a strangely unreachable and unknowable place. For all practical purposes making art can be examined in great detail without ever getting entangled in the very remote problems of genius. »
En Anglais – Thunder, Flush and Thomas Crapper is a dictionary of all things lavatorial, from the Abbot of St. Albans (allegedly the first Englishman to have a W.C., c. 1115) to the zero-gravity loo (as featured in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey), by way of the dog toilet, the night-soil men who took away the sewage in the streets, and the superloo, successor to the pissoir. Meticulously researched and packed with information (as well as plenty of humor), this is a book that everyone should keep by their loo. The author of this book is a very well-known writer and broadcaster. This title includes numerous illustrations.
World’s greatest magic tricks
En Anglais – Demonstrates a variety of magic tricks featuring paper, calendars, rope, coins, paper clips, and cards
En Anglais – A legend in the field of auctioneering describes his career at Sotheby’s, giving a backstage look at the world of privilege and art, and explains how AIDS has changed his life.
If you live like me
En Anglais – Before her plane even touches down in Newfoundland, Cheryl is already plotting her escape. She knows life on this isolated rock will be no better than it was in the other places she’s been forced to live, ever since her parents launched a cross-Canada tour so her father could gather material for his book. The unwilling spectator of her father’s morbid fascination with dying cultures, Cheryl has seen more than her fair share of small towns so depressing they could haunt your dreams. As events bigger than Cheryl swirl around her, will her refusal to let a new life in cut her off from those who love her? If You Live Like Me explores the bonds that form in strange and unexpected ways and shows how letting go can lead to the strongest connections of all. Lori Weber, a native of Montreal, Quebec, is the author of several acclaimed titles for young adults, including Klepto, Strange Beauty, Tattoo Heaven and Split in the SideStreets series. Weber teaches in the English department at John Abbott College in Ste. Anne de Bellevue, Quebec. (less)
The hit list
En Anglais – When a tycoon apparently falls from his yacht and drowns, the two secret service operatives who have in fact murdered him are also killed. The top secret governmental organisation that had employed them needs to find new recruits. Peter Slater, a former SAS soldier, is working as a games master in a public school. When he foils an attempt by terrorists to kidnap an Arab boy, the boy is hurt and Slater is sacked. Down on his luck he is framed for the murder of his girlfriend, and blackmailed into working for MI7. The missions he is asked to undertake on behalf of the British government become so evil that he finds himself preferring to die rather than complete these missions successfully.
En Anglais – Nonprofit organizations are now being forced to manage their activities in a more professional and corporate fashion. This book clearly and concisely shows nonprofits how to make general business management relevant and effective by providing a framework for analyzing management, and by translating business lingo into an accessible vocabulary for nonprofit managers.
How to be alone
En Anglais – Jonathan Franzen’s The Corrections was the best-loved and most-written-about novel of 2001. Nearly every in-depth review of it discussed what became known as « The Harper’s Essay, » Franzen’s controversial 1996 investigation of the fate of the American novel. This essay is reprinted for the first time in How to be Alone, along with the personal essays and the dead-on reportage that earned Franzen a wide readership before the success of The Corrections. Although his subjects range from the sex-advice industry to the way a supermax prison works, each piece wrestles with familiar themes of Franzen’s writing: the erosion of civic life and private dignity and the hidden persistence of loneliness in postmodern, imperial America. Recent pieces include a moving essay on his father’s stuggle with Alzheimer’s disease (which has already been reprinted around the world) and a rueful account of Franzen’s brief tenure as an Oprah Winfrey author. // As a collection, these essays record what Franzen calls « a movement away from an angry and frightened isolation toward an acceptance–even a celebration–of being a reader and a writer. » At the same time they show the wry distrust of the claims of technology and psychology, the love-hate relationship with consumerism, and the subversive belief in the tragic shape of the individual life that help make Franzen one of our sharpest, toughest, and most entertaining social critics.
Small world
En Anglais – Philip Swallow, Morris Zapp, Persse McGarrigle and the lovely Angelica are the jet-propelled academics who are on the move, in the air and on the make in David Lodge’s satirical Small World. It is a world of glamorous travel and high excitement, where stuffy lecture rooms are swapped for lush corners of the globe, and romance is in the air.
Dicey’s song
En Anglais – Now that the four abandoned Tillerman children are settled in with their grandmother, Dicey finds that their new beginnings require love, trust, humor, and courage.
The Penguin Atlas of the World
En Anglais – – A selection of Professor Fishman’s writings, during the past two decades, on language and ethnicity in minority perspective, this volume concentrates on six major topics: – What is ethnicity and how is it linked to language? – Language maintenance and language shift in ethnocultural perspective – The ethnic dimension in language planning – Language and ethnicity in education: the bilingual minority focus – Elites and rank-and-file: contrasts and contexts – Ethnolinguistic homogeneity and heterogeneity: national and international causes and consequences. Each major topic is prefaced by a specially written introduction, as is the volume as a whole, thereby integrating the material and focusing it on minority group concerns. Joshua Fishman’s well-known dedication to worldwide cultural democracy and cultural pluralism, not only as moral imperatives but as empirical assets, shines through all of these selections and unifies them philosophically as well as scientifically.
En Anglais – – Most people, upon hearing gunfire, would run away and hide. Conflict photojournalists have the opposite reaction: they actually look for trouble, and when they find it, get as close as possible and stand up to get the best shot. This thirst for the shot and the seeming nonchalance to the risks entailed earned Greg Marinovich, Joao Silva, Ken Oosterbroek, and Kevin Carter the moniker of the Bang-Bang Club. Oosterbroek was killed in township violence just days before South Africa’s historic panracial elections. Carter, whose picture of a Sudanese child apparently being stalked by a vulture won him a Pulitzer Prize, killed himself shortly afterwards. Another of their posse, Gary Bernard, who had held Oosterbroek as he died, also committed suicide. ….. This is a riveting and appalling book. It is simply written–these guys are photographers, not writers–but extremely engaging. They were adrenaline junkies who partied hard and prized the shot above all else. None of them was a hero; these men come across as overweeningly ambitious, egotistical, reckless, and selfish, though also brave and even principled. As South Africans, they were all invested in their country’s future, even though, as whites, they were strangers in their own land as they covered the Hostel wars in the black townships. The mixture of the romantic appeal of the war correspondent with honest assessments of their personal failings is part of what makes this account so compelling and so singular among books of its ilk.
The solitaire mystery
En Anglais – – Hans Thomas and his father set out on a car trip through Europe, from Norway to Greece—the birthplace of philosophy—in search of Hans Thomas’s mother, who left them many years earlier. On the way, Hans Thomas receives a mysterious miniature book—the fantastic memoir of a sailor shipwrecked in 1842 on a strange island where a deck of cards come to life. Structured as a deck of cards—each chapter is one in the deck— »The Solitaire Mystery » weaves together fantasy and reality, fairy tales and family history. Full of questions about the meaning of life, it will spur its listeners to reexamine their own.
Singing in the comeback choir
En Anglais – – Witty, warm, wise, and wonderful, this new novel takes us into the lives of two unforgettable women: Maxine, who thinks she has it all, and her grandmother Lindy, a once-brilliant singer who’s about to give Maxine a lesson in faith, commitment — and comebacks…