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Ascendance of a Bookworm: Part 2 Volume 2
As Myne continues her busy life as an apprentice blue shrine maiden, some good news changes everything: Her mother is pregnant! Naturally, Myne immediately sets out to make a picture book for her future little sibling.But there's still so much she doesn't know about the temple that doing anything is a struggle. She's forced into the education of a shrine maiden and has her hands full with her new attendants. She has a mountain of work as the orphanage director, too.As always Myne has bitten off more than she can chew, but she charges forward with her love of books giving her strength. And as it becomes clear that someone with her level of mana will not continue to go unnoticed, the door to the world of nobles opens and the plot escalates dramatically!Winter approaches, and a blizzard is about to fall upon this bibliofantasy!
Swift As Desire
Don Jubilo entered the world smiling rather than crying like other babies, and his life mission is to bring happiness to everyone's lives. Even as a young boy, acting as interpreter between his warring Mayan grandmother and his Spanish-speaking mother, he mistranslates words of spite into words of respect, so that their mutual hatred turns to love. When he grows up, he puts his gift for hearing what is in people's hearts and interpreting it to others, to good use in his job as the village telegraph operator. But the telegraph now lies abandoned, obsolete as a means of communication in the electronic age, and don Jubilo is on his deathbed, mute and estranged from his beloved wife, Lucha, who refuses to speak to him. What tragic event has come between such two sensuous, giving people to cause this seemingly irreparable rift? What mystery lies behind the death of their son, Ramiro, whom no one ever mentions? Can daughter Lluvia bring reconciliation to their parents by acting as an interpreter between them, just as Jubilo did for his grandmother and mother when he was a boy?This bittersweet story of the humble telegraph operator with a talent for curing misunderstanding, for hearing sand dunes sing and insects whisper, is based on the story of Laura Esquivel's own father, just as the much-loved LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE was inspired by her mother's family. Romantic, poignant, touched with graphic earthiness and wit, Esquivel shows us how, in our computerised world of excess, keeping secrets will always lead to unhappiness, and how old-fashioned speaking to each other can redress and heal all our wrongs.
Swift as Desire
As the millions of fans of Like Water for Chocolate know, Laura Esquivel is a romanticist whose novels explore the power of love and the truths of the human heart. She returns to those themes in Swift as Desire, the story of a loving and passionate man who has the gift of bringing happiness to everyone except his own wife.The hero of this novel is Júbilo Chi, a telegraph operator who is born with the ability to “hear” people’s true feelings and respond to their most intimate, unspoken desires. His life changes forever the day he falls deeply and irrevocably in love with Lucha, the beautiful daughter of a wealthy family. She believes money is necessary to insure happiness, while for Júbilo, who is poor, love and desire are more important than possessions. But their passion for each other enables them to build a happy life together -- until their idyll is shattered by a terrible event that drives them bitterly apart. Only years later, as Júbilo lies dying, is his daughter able to unravel the mystery behind her parents’ long estrangement and bring about a surprising reconciliation.
Malinche
From the bestselling author of Like Water for Chocolate, an extraordinary retelling of the passionate and tragic love affair during the conquest of the Aztecs between the conquistador Cortés and his interpreter, Malinalli.A brilliant and multilingual woman, Malinalli has been reviled throughout Mexican history for the betrayal of her people—but her role was actually much more complex. When a young Malinalli's tribe was conquered and enslaved by the Aztec warriors, her grandmother imparted to her that their founding forefather god, Quetzalcoatl, had abandoned them—but he was destined to return with the rising sun and save her tribe from captivity. When the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés first arrives, she—like many—believes he is the reincarnated forefather god of her tribe, here to free them. With her talent for linguistics, Malinalli became an indespensable guide and translator for Cortés. In the hopes of freeing her people—and wanting to please this supposed god—she welcomes Cortés and assumes her new role as an interpreter for the Spanish. Throughout their travels and various conquests, Cortés and Malinalli gradually fall passionately in love. But it's not long before Malinalli realizes that Cortés's thirst for conquest is all too human, and that he is willing to destroy anyone, even his own men, and even their own love.
No Longer Human
The poignant and fascinating story of a young man who is caught between the breakup of the traditions of a northern Japanese aristocratic family and the impact of Western ideas. Mine has been a life of much shame. I can’t even guess myself what it must be to live the life of a human being. Portraying himself as a failure, the protagonist of Osamu Dazai’s No Longer Human narrates a seemingly normal life even while he feels himself incapable of understanding human beings. His attempts to reconcile himself to the world around him begin in early childhood, continue through high school, where he becomes a “clown” to mask his alienation, and eventually lead to a failed suicide attempt as an adult. Without sentimentality, he records the casual cruelties of life and its fleeting moments of human connection and tenderness. Still one of the ten bestselling books in Japan, No Longer Human is an important and unforgettable modern classic: “The struggle of the individual to fit into a normalizing society remains just as relevant today as it was at the time of writing.” (The Japan Times)
The Setting Sun
This powerful novel of a nation in social and moral crisis was first published by New Directions in 1956. Set in the early postwar years, it probes the destructive effects of war and the transition from a feudal Japan to an industrial society. Ozamu Dazai died, a suicide, in 1948. But the influence of his book has made "people of the setting sun" a permanent part of the Japanese language, and his heroine, Kazuko, a young aristocrat who deliberately abandons her class, a symbol of the anomie which pervades so much of the modern world.
A Matter of Honour
'If there were a Nobel Prize for storytelling, Archer would win' - The Daily TelegraphThe opening of a letter leads to a desperate chase across Europe in A Matter of Honour by Jeffrey Archer, one of the world’s bestselling novelists.Adam Scott listens to the reading of his father’s will, aware that the contents can only be meagre. The Colonel, after all, had nothing to leave – except a letter he had never opened himself, a letter that could only bring further disgrace to the family name.Against his mother’s advice, Adam opens the letter. Immediately, he realizes that his life can never be the same again. The contents leave him with no choice but to follow a course of action – one his father would have described as a matter of honour . . .*****Praise for Jeffrey Archer: 'Probably the greatest storyteller of our age' – Mail on Sunday'Archer has a gift for plot that can only be described as genius' – The Daily Telegraph'Stylish, witty and constantly entertaining' – The Times
Queuing for the Queen
'Beautifully sensitive, quietly reflective, this absorbing tale about a group of strangers brought together following the death of Queen Elizabeth II is an absolute triumph.' LoveReading debut of the monthOne queue. 250,000 people. Twenty-four life-changing hours.A young boy wearing a cereal box crown, impatiently dragging his mother behind him.A friendly man in a khaki raincoat, talking about his beloved Leeds United to anyone who will listen.An elderly woman who has lived her life alongside the Queen, and is just hoping she'll make it to the end of the queue to say goodbye.And among them, a British Indian mother and daughter, driven apart by their differences, embarking on a pilgrimage which neither of them yet know will change their lives forever.Full of secrets and surprises, this uplifting novel celebrates not only the remarkable woman who defined an era and a country, but also the diverse and unique people she served for so long.
The Little Liar
THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER'Moving' Daily Mail'It will stay with you' Independent'Profound' Irish Examiner____________________A moving new novel from the beloved author of Tuesdays with Morrie and The Five People You Meet in HeavenWhen the Nazis invade Salonika, Greece, eleven-year-old Nico Crispi is offered a chance to save his family. He is instructed to convince his fellow Jewish residents to board trains heading towards the east, where they are promised jobs and safety. He dutifully goes to the station platform every day and reassures the passengers that the journey is safe. Only after it is too late does Nico discover that the people he loved would never return. In The Little Liar, Nico's story is interweaved with other individuals impacted by the occupation: his brother Sebastian, their schoolmate Fanni and the Nazi officer who radically changed their lives. As the decades pass, the consequences of what they endured come to light.Exploring honesty, survival, revenge and devotion, The Little Liar is a timeless story about the harm we inflict with our deceits, and the power of love to redeem us.____________________Five-star reader reviews of The Little Liar'An amazing story about truth, war, humanity and loss' 'Another beautiful piece of work by the author. He makes you feel like you are there, know everybody and feel every emotion''Within an exciting and thought-provoking story, without preaching or proselytising, the author invites us to contemplate Truth, and how it is often the first causality of war'''Excellent interwoven stories by a master storyteller. Meaningful insights we can use today''This book nearly broke me''I love Mitch's books, but this is the best of all of them'
Every Time We Say Goodbye
The bestselling author of The Jane Austen Society and Bloomsbury Girls returns with a brilliant novel of love and art, of grief and memory, of confronting the past and facing the future.In 1955, Vivien Lowry is facing the greatest challenge of her life. Her latest play, the only female-authored play on the London stage that season, has opened in the West End to rapturous applause from the audience. The reviewers, however, are not as impressed as the playgoers and their savage notices not only shut down the play but ruin Lowry's last chance for a dramatic career. With her future in London not looking bright, at the suggestion of her friend, Peggy Guggenheim, Vivien takes a job in as a script doctor on a major film shooting in Rome’s Cinecitta Studios. There she finds a vibrant movie making scene filled with rising stars, acclaimed directors, and famous actors in a country that is torn between its past and its potentially bright future, between the liberation of the post-war cinema and the restrictions of the Catholic Church that permeates the very soul of Italy.As Vivien tries to forge a new future for herself, she also must face the long-buried truth of the recent World War and the mystery of what really happened to her deceased fiancé. Every Time We Say Goodbye is a brilliant exploration of trauma and tragedy, hope and renewal, filled with dazzling characters both real and imaginary, from the incomparable author who charmed the world with her novels The Jane Austen Society and Bloomsbury Girls.
A Shadow in Moscow
In the thick of the Cold War, a betrayal at the highest level risks the lives of two courageous female spies: MI6’s best Soviet agent and the CIA’s newest Moscow recruit.Vienna, 1954After losing everyone she loves in the final days of World War II, Ingrid Bauer agrees to a hasty marriage with a gentle Soviet embassy worker and follows him home to Moscow. But nothing within the Soviet Union’s totalitarian regime is what it seems, including her new husband, whom Ingrid suspects works for the KGB. Inspired by her daughter’s birth, Ingrid risks everything and reaches out in hope to the one country she understands and trusts—Britain, the country of her mother’s birth. She begins passing intelligence to MI6, navigating a world of secrets and lies, light and shadow.Moscow, 1980A student in the Foreign Studies Initiative, Anya Kadinova finishes her degree at Georgetown University and boards a flight home to Moscow, leaving behind the man she loves and a country she’s grown to respect. Though raised by dedicated and loyal Soviet parents, Anya soon questions an increasingly oppressive and paranoid regime at the height of the Cold War. Then the KGB murders her best friend and Anya chooses her side. Working in a military research lab, she relays Soviet plans and schematics to the CIA in an effort to end the 1980s arms race.The past catches up to the present when an unprecedented act of treachery threatens all agents operating within Eastern Europe, and both Ingrid and Anya find themselves in a race for their lives against time and the KGB.“Eloquently portrays the incredible contributions of women in history, the extraordinary depths of love, and, perhaps most important, the true cost of freedom.” —Kristy Woodson Harvey, New York Times bestselling author of The Wedding VeilAn exciting story of two brave female spies in Cold War MoscowIncludes discussion questions for book clubs
The Lion Women of Tehran
NATIONAL BESTSELLER An “evocative read and a powerful portrait of friendship, feminism, and political activism” (People) set against three transformative decades in Tehran, Iran—from nationally bestselling author Marjan Kamali. In 1950s Tehran, seven-year-old Ellie lives in grand comfort until the untimely death of her father, forcing Ellie and her mother to move to a tiny home downtown. Lonely and bearing the brunt of her mother’s endless grievances, Ellie dreams for a friend to alleviate her isolation. Luckily, on the first day of school, she meets Homa, a kind girl with a brave and irrepressible spirit. Together, the two girls play games, learn to cook in the stone kitchen of Homa’s warm home, wander through the colorful stalls of the Grand Bazaar, and share their ambitions of becoming “lion women.” But their happiness is disrupted when Ellie and her mother are afforded the opportunity to return to their previous bourgeois life. Now a popular student at the best girls’ high school in Iran, Ellie’s memories of Homa begin to fade. Years later, however, her sudden reappearance in Ellie’s privileged world alters the course of both of their lives. Together, the two young women come of age and pursue their own goals for meaningful futures. But as the political turmoil in Iran builds to a breaking point, one earth-shattering betrayal will have enormous consequences. “Reminiscent of The Kite Runner and My Brilliant Friend, The Lion Women of Tehran is a mesmerizing tale” (BookPage) of love and courage, and a sweeping exploration of how profoundly we are shaped by those we meet when we are young.