Archive for the ‘New Release’ Category
In the years following World War II, a small group of gay writers established themselves as literary power players, fueling cultural changes that would resonate for decades to come, and transforming the American literary landscape forever.
In EMINENT OUTLAWS, novelist Christopher Bram brilliantly chronicles the rise of gay consciousness in American writing. Beginning with a first wave of major gay literary figures-Tennessee Williams, Gore Vidal, Truman Capote, Allen Ginsberg, and James Baldwin-he shows how (despite criticism and occasional setbacks) these pioneers set the stage for new generations of gay writers to build on what they had begun: Armistead Maupin, Edmund White, Tony Kushner, and Edward Albee among them.
Weaving together the crosscurrents, feuds, and subversive energies that provoked these writers to greatness, EMINENT OUTLAWS is a rich and essential work. With keen insights, it takes readers through fifty years of momentous change: from a time when being a homosexual was a crime in forty-nine states and into an age of same-sex marriage and the end of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.
Inside the world of Elizabeth II.
Throughout history, there has been no Monarch like her. She is not merely the oldest Sovereign England has ever known. She is the most worldly. She has travelled further than all her predecessors put together. She has met more historic figures than anyone alive — from Churchill to Mandela, de Gaulle, Reagan and Obama. And today, Queen Elizabeth II is no more contemplating retirement than she was when she came to the throne in 1952. She sits at the head of a hereditary institution so often associated with rigid tradition. And yet, it is more dynamic now than ever.
Having inherited a quasi-Edwardian insitution nearly 600 years ago, the Queen presides over a Monarchy which has managed to remain, simultaneously, popular, regal, inclusive and relevant in a 21st Century world. She has done this so effectively that she is, beyond doubt, the most respected and popular figure in British public life.
As she reaches a defining moment of her reign — her Diamond Jubliee — Robert Hardman explores the secrets of the Queen’s success to produce a fascinating new portrait of a Sovereign who has witnessed more change than any since the creation of Great Britain.
When Barack Obama won the 2008 presidential election, he also won a long-running debate with his wife Michelle. Contrary to her fears, politics now seemed like a worthwhile, even noble pursuit. Together they planned a White House life that would be as normal and sane as possible.
Then they moved in.
In the Obamas, Jodi Kantor takes us deep inside the White House as they try to grapple with their new roles, change the country, raise children, maintain friendships, and figure out what it means to be the first black President and First Lady. Filled with riveting detail and insight into their partnership, emotions and personalities, and written with a keen eye for the ironies of public life, THE OBAMAS is an intimate portrait that will surprise even readers who thought they knew the President and First Lady.
Small-time private investigator Ray Lovell veers between paralysis and delirium in a hospital bed. But before the accident that landed him there, he’d been hired to find Rose Janko, the wife of a charismatic son of a traveling Gypsy family, who went missing seven years earlier. Half Romany himself, Ray is well aware that he’s been chosen more for his blood than his investigative skills.
The Greek and Roman myths have never died out; in fact they are as relevant today as ever. For thousands of years these myths have inspired plays, operas, paintings, movies, and television programs. They are fascinating tales that tell us about ourselves—about our hopes, fears, and desires, which are as ancient as mankind. Many of these myths are deeply disturbing; others are sublimely beautiful. All of them move us still, as they did the Greeks and Romans hundreds of generations ago.
Oh My Gods is a retelling of some of the most popular myths by a gifted scholar and writer. These tales of errant gods, fantastic creatures, and human heroes are brought to life in fresh and contemporary versions.
Have there ever been stories to rival the myths about the creation of the universe and the wars among the earliest gods? Or about the Olympian gods themselves: powerful Zeus, king of the gods, possessed of a wandering eye; his wife, Hera, queen of marriage and childbirth, perpetually outraged by her husband’s many affairs; Poseidon, god of the sea, brother of Zeus; their other brother, Hades, god of the underworld; and all the other gods and goddesses—talented Apollo, beautiful Aphrodite, fierce Athena, swift Hermes, and many more. And the dauntless heroes Theseus and Hercules, the doomed lovers Hero and Leander or Orpheus and Eurydice, whose stories can still break our hearts. From the astonishing tales of the Argonauts to the immortal narrative of the Battle of Troy, these ancient myths have inspired writers from Shakespeare to J. K. Rowling.
Philip Freeman’s vibrant, contemporary retelling makes us appreciate again why these wonderful tales have lasted thousands of years and charmed young and old readers alike.
-From the Publisher
Nineteenth-century Europe—from Turin to Prague to Paris—abounds with the ghastly and the mysterious. Conspiracies rule history. Jesuits plot against Freemasons. Italian republicans strangle priests with their own intestines. French criminals plan bombings by day and celebrate Black Masses at night. Every nation has its own secret service, perpetrating forgeries, plots, and massacres. From the unification of Italy to the Paris Commune to the Dreyfus Affair to The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, Europe is in tumult and everyone needs a scapegoat. But what if, behind all of these conspiracies both real and imagined, lay one lone man? What if that evil genius created its most infamous document? Eco takes his readers on an unforgettable journey through the underbelly of world-shattering events. Eco at his most exciting, a book immediately hailed as a masterpiece. Translated from the Italian by Richard Dixon.
Horace Rumpole lives alongside Sherlock Holmes, Pickwick and Jeeves as one of the immortal characters of English fiction. With his curmudgeonly wit, his literary allusions, his disdain for personal ambition and his lack of pomposity, he has, according to the Daily Telegraph, ‘ascended to the pantheon of literary immortals’.
Over a period of thirty years, John Mortimer wrote almost eighty Rumpole stories. The world changed gradually and Rumpole found himself defending hunt-saboteurs and alleged Islamic terrorists, but the old boy himself remained the same: committed to defending the apparently indefensible, trusting of the good sense of a jury, scornful of the law’s pomposities – values he carried with him wherever he practised, whether a murder at the Bailey or a bit of assault at the Uxbridge Magistrates Court. And when the day was over, it was a quick nip into Pommeroy’s for a glass or two of Chateau Thames Embankment before the tube home to She Who Must Be Obeyed in Foxbury Mansions.
The best of Rumpole is represented in this new selection of fourteen stories, the first published in 1978, the last in 2004. And as an added bonus, the book ends with the fragment of a new Rumpole novel Sir John was working on when he died in January 2009.
The new Discworld novel from the master features the popular Sam Vimes, Commander of the City Watch.
According to the writer of the best-selling crime novel ever to have been published in the city of Ankh-Morpork, it is a truth universally acknowledged that a policeman taking a holiday would barely have had time to open his suitcase before he finds his first corpse. And Commander Sam Vimes of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch is on holiday in the pleasant and innocent countryside, but not for him a mere body in the wardrobe. There are many, many bodies and an ancient crime more terrible than murder.
He is out of his jurisdiction, out of his depth, out of bacon sandwiches, and occasionally snookered and out of his mind, but never out of guile. Where there is a crime there must be a finding, there must be a chase and there must be a punishment.
They say that in the end all sins are forgiven. But not quite all.
-From the Publisher
Not so very long ago, Eragon—Shadeslayer, Dragon Rider—was nothing more than a poor farm boy, and his dragon, Saphira, only a blue stone in the forest. Now the fate of an entire civilization rests on their shoulders.
Long months of training and battle have brought victories and hope, but they have also brought heartbreaking loss. And still, the real battle lies ahead: they must confront Galbatorix. When they do, they will have to be strong enough to defeat him. And if they cannot, no one can. There will be no second chances.
The Rider and his dragon have come further than anyone dared to hope. But can they topple the evil king and restore justice to Alagaësia? And if so, at what cost?
This is the much-anticipated, astonishing conclusion to the worldwide bestselling Inheritance cycle.
The stunning conclusion to the smash New York Times bestselling series the Wicked YearsHailed as bewitching, remarkable, extraordinary, engrossing, amazing, and delicious, Gregory Maguires Wicked Years seriesa sophisticated fantasy cycle inspired by the classic childrens novel The Wizard of Ozbecame national bestsellers and the basis for a hit Tony-winning Broadway musical. Now, Maguire returns with the final installment in his transformative work, a thrilling and compulsively readable saga in which the fate of Oz is decided at last. . . .Once peaceful and prosperous, the spectacular Land of Oz is knotted with social unrest: The Emerald City is mounting an invasion of Munchkinland, Glinda is under house arrest, and the Cowardly Lion is on the run from the law. And look whos knocking at the door. Its none other than Dorothy. Yes. That Dorothy. Yet amidst all this chaos, Elphabas granddaughter, the tiny green baby born at the close of Son of a Witch, has come of age. Now it is up to Rain to take up her broomand her legacyin an Oz wracked by war. The stirring, long-awaited conclusion to the bestselling series begun with Wicked, Out of Oz is a magical journey rife with revelations and reversals, reprisals and surprisesthe hallmarks of the unique imagination of Gregory Maguire.
-From the Publisher