![]() It's a feast for all five senses and in spite of its weight, it's impossible to put down. ![]() Don't miss it Daily Telegraph * An astonishing narrative sweep that encompasses Victorian society in all its colourful variety, it peels away the surface gentility and brings its world to vivid life. ![]() Which is to say that the book is both mind-bogglingly clever and page-turningly tempting. Enjoy! - Alice Sebold * Owes as much to John Fowles as it does to Charlotte Bronte. wildly entertaining New York Times * When a book is this big, it had better be good - this one is. Faber's take on the 19th Century English novel is a heady and intoxicating mixture of affection, respect and scabrous resistance The Times * A sexy, bravura novel. From Pointillism to broad brushstroke bravura, the prose seems to be on some benign, timed-release speed: its pace in unflagging, its onward rush irresistible. * This is an unputdownable book there is no choice but to give in to this most unbelievably pleasurable of narrative rides. ![]()
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![]() He drank gin to excess, and still talked of his coming masterpiece. He earned a little by serving as a model to those young artists in the colony who could not pay the price of a professional. Indeed, the comparisons with a satyr and an imp suggest he is lecherous and sinful: satyrs are fauns often associated (in artworks) with lust. ![]() Behrman appears more like a work of (ageing) art than he appears capable of producing one. Note how the closest parallel between Behrman and Michelangelo is in the former’s physical appearance: his beard resembles that of Moses in the great artist’s sculpture. For several years he had painted nothing except now and then a daub in the line of commerce or advertising. He had been always about to paint a masterpiece, but had never yet begun it. Forty years he had wielded the brush without getting near enough to touch the hem of his Mistress’s robe. ![]() He was past sixty and had a Michael Angelo’s Moses beard curling down from the head of a satyr along with the body of an imp. ![]() He appears to have no family and has not produced any art of note, despite self-identifying as an ‘artist’: Henry spends considerable time portraying Behrman as a failure who drinks too much gin and has led a largely wasted life. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Somewhat unusually, her mother moves in to 'look after' the Duke. The split becomes inevitable when it appears that Fletch is on the verge of having an affair and Poppy moves out. It's not that she refuses her husband, but rather that she suffers his attentions and that's not what Fletch wants. What more could a convent-educated girl like Poppy ask for? Her mother certainly thought that she'd done quite well.įour years later and the couple are the toast of high society but behind the glittering façade all is not well as Poppy has never really come to terms with the intimate side of married life. He was attractive (some said devilishly handsome), thoughtful – and a Duke. ![]() Quite wonderfully, he felt the same way about her and Poppy was convinced that she would love him forever. When Perdita 'Poppy' Selby met the Duke of Fletcher, she fell in love with him immediately. Good characters and authentic settings make for a good read although you might find it more satisfying if you've first read Desperate Ducheses. Summary: A cheeky and evocative romp through the lives of the eighteenth century A-listers. ![]() ![]() ![]() So it was really just bare-minimum parenting until about 8:30 a.m. ![]() And then I’d give them granola bars when they were hungry. And we got to the point where I would give one child the iPad and one child the television remote, so that I never even had to do any sort of referee work about who was watching what. And I would have had a good solid chunk of time, but I was not ready to stop. And then my children would sleepily emerge from the bedroom at like 6:45. And I would get to that point of a caffeine high, where everything just feels so good and you feel so smart, and you’re just like, flying and words are pouring out. In terms of the daily nuts and bolts of it, I was just waking up disgustingly early-4:30 or 5:00 a.m.-and writing in my pajamas. And that’s just a huge weight off my shoulders. All that stuff that’s pretty invisible, but actually just keeps the wheels on. He does the stuff that women usually complain falls on their plates: he schedules their dentist appointments, he schedules playdates, he schedules summer camp. I have better than the true 50/50, I have the 60/40, and I’m the 40. ![]() I think it’s really rare among my female friends for people to have the true 50/50. My husband is a freelancer, and while I was writing the book, he picked up so much slack for me. I think it’s really, really, really hard for families who have two parents who are going 110% all the time. ![]() ![]() ![]() Her short stories include "Even the Queen' and "Close Encounter" her novels include the John W. Although her books involve some sci-fi elements (especially time travel), she is more known for psychological dramas that mix farce with fantasy. She won the Hugo and the Nebula in 1983 for the novelette Fire Watch, and since then has been a regular winner of the Hugo, Nebula and Locus awards. Heinlein, Willis began writing full-time in the early 1980s, starting with short stories published in sci-fi magazines. ![]() Influenced by novels of Victorian England and the science fiction of Robert A. Author Connie Willis has been winning science fiction awards since the late 1980s, including Hugo Awards for the novels The Doomsday Book (1992) and To Say Nothing of the Dog (1998). ![]() ![]() He told me once that I couldn’t understand unless I had loved someone that way. “When we were with Leo, tonight,” she said scratchily, “I knew exactly how he felt about losing Laura. My wife.” Amelia froze in a moment of throat-clenching delight as she felt him slide the gold ring onto her finger, easing it to the base. I want to be your romni forever”-she paused with a quick, abashed smile-“whatever that is.” Gathering her courage, Amelia blurted out, “I want your ring. “Hummingbird,” he whispered, “you don’t have to be nervous with me.” And touched his foot to her rapidly tapping one. ![]() "Very sensible.” Cam took her shaking hand in his, pressed it between his warm palms. And then you won’t have to be embarrassed about having so much money, because it will flow out nearly as fast as it comes in." You should marry into a family with very, very bad luck. “I’ve been thinking about your problem.” “What problem?” Cam played lightly with the folds of her skirts, watching her face alertly. You see-” She paused to clear her throat. “I have a proposition for you,” she said, trying for a businesslike tone. ![]() ![]() The clean, salty, evergreen scent of him drifted to her nostrils. “Amelia stopped before him, her skirts crowded between his parted knees. ![]() ![]() ![]() So, what's a brilliant young girl to do when her parents are away in India, leaving her behind in the care of maids and servants? Solve mysteries, of course. ![]() And her facility with logic is reminiscent of her uncle, the eminent Sherlock Holmes himself. ![]() At ten years old, she's as familiar with the sciences and classics as any older student at Cambridge or Oxford. Along with her giant hound Nelson, Christie's implacable curiosity leads her from one dangerous adventure to another, often joining. ![]() ![]() ![]() It is an extraordinary human story that is certain to surprise with its candour. Quite apart from his all too public struggle with alcoholism, the story runs through the surreal highs and calamitous lows of a life lived habitually on the edge of chaos. It is a story that runs from a hard, hidden childhood spent in Dublin's orphanages all the way to the pain of two marriage break-ups and the struggle to cope with life after football. That story has until now never been told. But, behind the implied glamour of life in the employ of great English clubs like Manchester United and Aston Villa, McGrath wrestled with a range of destructive emotions that made his success in the game little short of miraculous. ![]() An iconic football presence during a professional career stretching over 14 years, he played for his country in the European Championship finals of 1988 and the World Cup finals of 19. Paul McGrath is Ireland's best loved sportsman and also its least understood. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() In 1932, du Maurier married Major Frederick Browning with whom she had three children. A biography of her father and three other novels followed, but it was the novel Rebecca that launched her into the literary stratosphere and made her one of the most popular authors of her day. ![]() In 1931 her first novel, The Loving Spirit was published. To learn more about how and for what purposes Amazon uses personal information (such as Amazon Store order history), please visit our Privacy Notice.ĭaphne du Maurier (1907-1989) was born in London, England. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie Preferences, as described in the Cookie Notice. ![]() Click ‘Customise Cookies’ to decline these cookies, make more detailed choices, or learn more. Third parties use cookies for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalised ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. This includes using first- and third-party cookies, which store or access standard device information such as a unique identifier. If you agree, we’ll also use cookies to complement your shopping experience across the Amazon stores as described in our Cookie Notice. We also use these cookies to understand how customers use our services (for example, by measuring site visits) so we can make improvements. We use cookies and similar tools that are necessary to enable you to make purchases, to enhance your shopping experiences and to provide our services, as detailed in our Cookie Notice. ![]() ![]() ![]() But the uppity mean girls at the library were totally believable. I loved the way Macy's friendships with Kristy and Monica and Delia and Bert, as well as her more-than-friends relationship with Wes, are portrayed. This isn't a doom and gloom Message Book, however it's surprisingly sweet and warm and grounded in a way that so many of these types of books are not. I also found Macy's relationships with her mom and her sister to be painfully familiar as well as believably awkward and flawed. The author also wrote incredibly touching examples of how people process grief in different ways, especially in how Macy witnessed her father's death as well as the funny and bittersweet packages that continue to arrive for him. I felt so much empathy for Macy, who struggles to be the perfect daughter but feels small and unimportant in so many aspects of her life. ![]() I expected a light, hopefully somewhat amusing read but what I got instead was a quiet, deep story that I absolutely loved reading from beginning to end. I fell for this book really hard, really fast, however. I'm not much on chick lit and I only occasionally come across realistic YA fiction that I truly enjoy, so I was extremely wary of what lay behind those pretty book covers, even though most of the reviews were positively gushing. I never, ever would have read Sarah Dessen if it weren't for my GoodReads friends. ![]() |