Simon Vance
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Following The Broken Estate, The Irresponsible Self, and How Fiction Works-books that established James Wood as the leading critic of his generation-The Fun Stuff confirms Wood's preeminence, not only as a discerning judge but also as an appreciator of the contemporary novel. In twenty-three passionate, sparkling dispatches-that range over such crucial writers as Thomas Hardy, Leon Tolstoy, Edmund Wilson, and Mikhail Lermontov-Wood offers a panoramic...
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"Don't call anyone else and stay inside the house. Pack a small bag. Just one."
"You'll come, then?"
"I'll be there soon. But remember, Kate: there's no going back."
Nick Miller and his team provide a unique and highly illegal service, relocating at-risk individuals across Europe with new identities and new lives. Nick excels at what he does for a reason: he himself spent years living in the shadows under an assumed name.
But when Nick steps...
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Uniquely among the world's religions, the central claims of Christianity concern not just timeless spiritual truths, but tangible historical events. At the heart of the of the Christian faith are things that are meant to have happened in Palestine between 5 BC and AD 30. It's as if Christianity happily places its head on the chopping block of public scrutiny and invites anyone who wants to come and take a swing. Some of Christianity's claims are so...
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Imriel de la Courcel's blood parents are history's most reviled traitors, while his adoptive parents, Phèdre and Joscelin, are Terre d'Ange's greatest champions. Stolen, tortured, and enslaved as a young boy, Imriel is now a Prince of the Blood, third in line for the throne in a land that revels in beauty, art, and desire. After a year abroad to study at university, Imriel returns from his adventures a little older and somewhat wiser. But perhaps...
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Hawkril the mighty warrior, Embra the beautiful sorceress, and Craer the crafty thief forge new alliances in their roles as overdukes of Aglirta as the kingdom is threatened by a mystical berserker plague while serpentine acolytes try to resurrect a new Serpent.
6) The Greatest Threat: Iraq, Weapons of Mass Destruction, and the Growing Crisis of Global Security
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Civilization may face no greater enemy than Saddam Hussein, and yet the major powers allowed Saddam to face them down. Here, Richard Butler tells the inside story of the UN's failed attempt to stop Saddam and explains the terrible cost of that failure. As the head of UNSCOM, the special United Nations commission that was supposed to regularly inspect Iraq for weapons violations, Butler had the authority to shut the Iraqis down if he caught them...
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Equatorial Guinea is a tiny country roughly the size of the state of Maryland. Humid, jungle covered, and rife with unpleasant diseases, natives call it Devil Island. Its president in 2004, Obiang Nguema, had been accused of cannibalism, belief in witchcraft, mass murder, billion-dollar corruption, and general rule by terror. With so little to recommend it, why in March 2004 was Equatorial Guinea the target of a group of salty British, South African...
8) Vita Brevis
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Ruso and Tilla's excitement at arriving in Rome with their new baby daughter is soon dulled by their discovery that the grand facades of polished marble mask an underworld of corrupt landlords and vermin-infested tenements. There are also far too many doctors-some skilled-but others positively dangerous. Ruso thinks that he has been offered a reputable medical practice only to find that his predecessor Doctor Kleitos has fled, leaving a dead man in...
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An unprecedented account of one of civilization's greatest achievements.The great pyramids of Giza have intrigued humanity for thousands of years. Questions about the construction and the purpose of these majestic monuments have existed since the middle period of ancient Egyptian civilization; in the sixth century B.C., Herodotus was the first of generations of explorers to travel to Egypt in an attempt to unlock their secrets. Recent cutting-edge...
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A gripping and provocative tale of violence, alcohol, and taxes, The Whiskey Rebellion pits President George Washington and Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton against angry, armed settlers across the Appalachians. Unearthing a pungent segment of early American history long ignored by historians, William Hogeland brings to startling life the rebellion that decisively contributed to the establishment of federal authority.In 1791, at the frontier...
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A scandal is threatening to engulf the popular spa town of Aquae Sulis (modern-day Bath). The wife of Ruso's best friend, Valens, has been found dead in the sacred hot spring, stabbed through the heart. Fearing the wrath of the goddess and the ruin of the tourist trade, the temple officials are keen to cover up what's happened. But the dead woman's father is demanding justice, and he's accusing Valens of murder. If Valens turns up to face trial, he...
12) Medicus
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Gaius Petrius Ruso is a divorced and down-on-his-luck army doctor who has made the rash decision to seek his fortune in an inclement outpost of the Roman Empire, namely Britannia. His arrival in Deva (more commonly known as Chester, England) does little to improve his mood, and after a straight thirty-six-hour shift at the army hospital, he succumbs to a moment of weakness and rescues an injured slave girl, Tilla, from the hands of her abusive owner.Now...
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The highly anticipated sequel to the best-selling-and laugh-out-loud funny How to Lose Friends and Alienate People.When even his friends refer to him in print as "a balding, bug-eyed opportunist with the looks of a beach ball, the charisma of a glove-puppet, and an ego the size of a Hercules supply plane," the odds of Toby Young scoring-in any sense-appear to be slim. But then How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, his account of the five years...
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Charlie Howard-globe-trotting mystery writer, professional thief, and poor decision maker-is in Paris. Flush with the success of his latest book reading, Charlie agrees to show a complete novice how to break into an apartment in the Marais. Fast-forward twenty-four hours and Charlie's hired to steal an ordinary-looking oil painting-from the exact same address. Mere coincidence? Charlie figures there's no harm in finding out-until a dead body turns...
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Four murders. Two detectives. One mystifying crime.
On Christmas Eve, DCI Mackenzie Jones is called to a shooting at a remote farmhouse. Ralph Mallender believes his father lies dead inside. When three more bodies are discovered, it's clear a festive family gathering has turned into a gruesome tragedy.
At first it seems like an open and shut case: a murder suicide committed by Ralph's volatile brother Cameron. Then new evidence makes Mack suspect...
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Dramatized in the major motion picture Amazing Grace, the story of William Wilberforce is the remarkable account of how one man's vision, courage, and relentless pursuit of justice brought freedom to thousands and changed the course of history. William Wilberforce: A Hero for Humanity is the definitive biography of the English statesman who overcame incredible odds to bring about the end of slavery and slave trade. Called "the wittiest man in England"...
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Charlie Howard isn't only a part-time crime writer and part-time thief; he's also a magician. For his next trick, he'll relieve Josh Masters, the famous illusionist vying for the affections of Charlie's friend Victoria, of $60,000 in casino chips stashed in his hotel safe. Revenge would be sweet if there weren't a dead redhead floating in Masters' bathtub and if Masters hadn't just disappeared in a puff of smoke after cheating at roulette. Convinced...
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When the famous German author Sebastian Haffner died at age ninety-one in 1999, a manuscript was discovered among his unpublished papers that offers a compelling eyewitness account of the rise of Hitler and Nazism. He describes the country's inflation and the political climate that contributed to Hitler's rise to power and also examines the pervasive influence of such groups as the Free Corps and the Hitler Youth movement that swept the nation. He...
20) The Wake
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In the aftermath of the Norman Invasion of 1066, William the Conqueror was uncompromising and brutal. English society was broken apart, its systems turned on their head. What is little known is that a fractured network of guerrilla fighters took up arms against the French occupiers. In The Wake, a postapocalyptic novel set a thousand years in the past, Paul Kingsnorth brings this dire scenario back to us through the eyes of the unforgettable Buccmaster,...