The Lazy Conman and Other Stories

The Lazy Conman and Other Stories
Author: Ajit Baral
Publisher:
Total Pages: 196
Release: 2009
Genre: Tales
ISBN: 9780143103868

&Lsquo;Do You Not Have Eyes? Can&Rsquo;T You See That I Am Watering My Tree?&Rsquo; The Merchant Said, &Lsquo;But There Are Clothes On The Branches.&Rsquo; &Lsquo;Yes, I Would Expect A Clothes-Tree To Grow Clothes&Mdash;Wouldn&Rsquo;T You?&Rsquo; Kakaji Is A Lazy Man, Much Given To Sitting Around, Until, One Day, His Wife Kicks Him Out In A Rage. After A Series Of Adventures&Mdash;Which Involve A Tree That Bears Clothes And A Dancing Bear That Shits Silver Coins&Mdash;Kakaji Comes Home Rich And Resumes His Life Of Indolence.&Nbsp; Characters Like Kakaji Abound In The Lazy Conman And Other Stories, Making Their Roguish Way In The World With Wit, Charm And Grace. The Uttis And Laligurans Trees Fall In And Out Of Love; The Mouse Asks The Sun, The Clouds And The Mountain, Successively, To Be Her Husband; And Death Is Trapped, For The First And The Only Time, On Earth. The Fox Teaches The Brahmin An Important Lesson Of Life While Gods Walk The Earth And Actively Take Part In Human And Animal Affairs. &Nbsp; An Engaging Retelling Of Mostly Oral Folktales, These Stories Represent The Mosaic Of Cultures That Make Up The Nepalese Nation. With Beautiful Illustrations By Durga Baral, One Of Nepal&Rsquo;S Best-Known Cartoonists, The Lazy Conman And Other Stories Affords A Fascinating View Of The Social And Cultural Life Of Nepal And A Unique Opportunity To Sample The Treasures Of An Ancient And Rapidly Changing Culture. &Nbsp;

The World Between Two Covers: Reading the Globe

The World Between Two Covers: Reading the Globe
Author: Ann Morgan
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Total Pages: 387
Release: 2015-05-04
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1631490680

A beguiling exploration of the joys of reading across boundaries, inspired by the author’s year-long journey through a book from every country. Ann Morgan writes in the opening of this delightful book, "I glanced up at my bookshelves, the proud record of more than twenty years of reading, and found a host of English and North American greats starting down at me…I had barely touched a work by a foreign language author in years…The awful truth dawned. I was a literary xenophobe." Prompted to read a book translated into English from each of the world's 195 UN-recognized countries (plus Taiwan and one extra), Ann sought out classics, folktales, current favorites and commercial triumphs, novels, short stories, memoirs, and countless mixtures of all these things. The world between two covers, the world to which Ann introduces us with affection and no small measure of wit, is a world rich in the kind of narratives that engage us passionately: we meet an irreverent junk food–obsessed heroine in Kuwait, an explorer from Togo who spent years among the Inuit in Greenland, and a former child circus performer of Roma background seeking sanctuary in Switzerland. Ann's quest explores issues that affect us all: personal, political, national, and global. What is cultural heritage? How do we define national identity? Is it possible to overcome censorship and propaganda? And, above all, why and how should we read from other cultures, languages, and traditions? Illuminating and inspiring, The World Between Two Covers welcomes us into the global community of stories.

Agent Zigzag

Agent Zigzag
Author: Ben Macintyre
Publisher: Crown
Total Pages: 400
Release: 2007-09-04
Genre: History
ISBN: 0307405508

“Ben Macintyre’s rollicking, spellbinding Agent Zigzag blends the spy-versus-spy machinations of John le Carré with the high farce of Evelyn Waugh.”—William Grimes, The New York Times (Editors’ Choice) “Wildly improbable but entirely true . . . [a] compellingly cinematic spy thriller with verve.”—Entertainment Weekly ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Entertainment Weekly ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post Eddie Chapman was a charming criminal, a con man, and a philanderer. He was also one of the most remarkable double agents Britain has ever produced. In 1941, after training as German spy in occupied France, Chapman was parachuted into Britain with a revolver, a wireless, and a cyanide pill, with orders from the Abwehr to blow up an airplane factory. Instead, he contacted M15, the British Secret service, and for the next four years, Chapman worked as a double agent, a lone British spy at the heart of the German Secret Service. Inside the traitor was a man of loyalty; inside the villain was a hero. The problem for Chapman, his spymasters, and his lovers was to know where one persona ended and the other began. Based on recently declassified files, Agent Zigzag tells Chapman’s full story for the first time. It’s a gripping tale of loyalty, love, treachery, espionage, and the thin and shifting line between fidelity and betrayal.

Ella Minnow Pea

Ella Minnow Pea
Author: Mark Dunn
Publisher: MP Publishing
Total Pages: 165
Release: 2010-05-22
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1596929995

An epistolary novel set on a fictional island off the South Carolina coastline, 'Ella Minnow Pea' brings readers to the hometown of Nevin Nollop, inventor of the pangram 'The Quick Brown Fox Jumps Over the Lazy Dog'. Deified for his achievement in life, Nevin has been honored in death with a monument featuring his famous phrase. One day, however, the letter 'Z' falls from the monument, and some of the islanders interpret the missing tile as a message from beyond the grave. The letter 'Z' is banned from use. On an island where the residents pride them-selves on their love of language, this is seen as a tragedy. They are still reeling from the shock when another tile falls. And then another... In his charming debut, first published in 2001, Mark Dunn took readers on a journey through the eyes of Ella Minnow Pea, a young woman forced to create another clever turn of phrase in order to save the islanders’ beloved language.

Fly By Night

Fly By Night
Author: Frances Hardinge
Publisher: Abrams
Total Pages: 314
Release: 2017-03-14
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
ISBN: 1683350790

The award-winning author of The Lie Tree “has created a distinctly imaginative world full of engaging characters, robust humor, and true suspense” (School Library Journal, starred review). Everybody knew that books were dangerous. Read the wrong book, it was said, and the words crawled around your brain on black legs and drove you mad, wicked mad. Mosca Mye’s father insisted on teaching her to read—even in a world where books are dangerous, regulated things. Eight years later, Quillam Mye died, leaving behind an orphaned daughter with an inauspicious name and an all-consuming hunger for words. Trapped for years in the care of her cruel uncle and aunt, Mosca leaps at the opportunity for escape, though it comes in the form of sneaky swindler Eponymous Clent. As she travels the land with Clent and her pet goose, Mosca begins to discover complicated truths about the world she inhabits and the power of words. “Intricate plotting, well-developed and fascinating characters, delicious humor, and exquisite wordcraft envelop readers fully into this richly imagined world.” ?The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books (starred review) “Hardinge’s stylish way with prose gives her sprawling debut fantasy a literate yet often silly tone that calls to mind Monty Python.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) “Mosca’s ferocity and authentic inner turmoil [are] both reminiscent of Philip Pullman’s Lyra Belacqua.” ?Booklist “Incredibly well written.” ?The Seattle Times

Talk Talk

Talk Talk
Author: T. C. Boyle
Publisher: A&C Black
Total Pages: 415
Release: 2011-07-01
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 140882678X

Dana sits in a courtroom with her legs shackled as a long list of charges is read out, many of them dangerous. But the panic that grips her is not because she has been caught. She knows there has been a terrible mistake - she didn't commit any of these crimes. As Dana and her lover Bridger set out to clear her name and find the person who is living a blameless life of criminal excess at her expense, they begin to test the life they have built together to its limits.

User I.D.

User I.D.
Author: Jenefer Shute
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Total Pages: 194
Release: 2005
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9780618539062

In Los Angeles for a conference, Vera de Sica confronts a nightmare when her identity is stolen by a scam artist, in a novel that captures the psychology of the victim and victimizer alike as Vera pursues the thief through cyberspace.

Rogues

Rogues
Author: Patrick Radden Keefe
Publisher: Anchor
Total Pages: 386
Release: 2022-06-28
Genre: True Crime
ISBN: 0385548524

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the award-winning author of Empire of Pain and Say Nothing—and one of the most decorated journalists of our time—twelve enthralling true stories of skulduggery and intrigue "An excellent collection of Keefe's detective work, and a fine introduction to his illuminating writing." —NPR “Fast-paced...Keefe is a virtuoso storyteller." —The Washington Post Patrick Radden Keefe has garnered prizes ranging from the National Magazine Award to the Orwell Prize to the National Book Critics Circle Award for his meticulously-reported, hypnotically-engaging work on the many ways people behave badly. Rogues brings together a dozen of his most celebrated articles from The New Yorker. As Keefe says in his preface “They reflect on some of my abiding preoccupations: crime and corruption, secrets and lies, the permeable membrane separating licit and illicit worlds, the bonds of family, the power of denial.” Keefe brilliantly explores the intricacies of forging $150,000 vintage wines, examines whether a whistleblower who dared to expose money laundering at a Swiss bank is a hero or a fabulist, spends time in Vietnam with Anthony Bourdain, chronicles the quest to bring down a cheerful international black market arms merchant, and profiles a passionate death penalty attorney who represents the “worst of the worst,” among other bravura works of literary journalism. The appearance of his byline in The New Yorker is always an event, and collected here for the first time readers can see his work forms an always enthralling but deeply human portrait of criminals and rascals, as well as those who stand up against them.

Verity

Verity
Author: Colleen Hoover
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Total Pages: 295
Release: 2021-10-05
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 153872474X

Whose truth is the lie? Stay up all night reading the sensational psychological thriller that has readers obsessed, from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Too Late and It Ends With Us. #1 New York Times Bestseller · USA Today Bestseller · Globe and Mail Bestseller · Publishers Weekly Bestseller Lowen Ashleigh is a struggling writer on the brink of financial ruin when she accepts the job offer of a lifetime. Jeremy Crawford, husband of bestselling author Verity Crawford, has hired Lowen to complete the remaining books in a successful series his injured wife is unable to finish. Lowen arrives at the Crawford home, ready to sort through years of Verity’s notes and outlines, hoping to find enough material to get her started. What Lowen doesn’t expect to uncover in the chaotic office is an unfinished autobiography Verity never intended for anyone to read. Page after page of bone-chilling admissions, including Verity's recollection of the night her family was forever altered. Lowen decides to keep the manuscript hidden from Jeremy, knowing its contents could devastate the already grieving father. But as Lowen’s feelings for Jeremy begin to intensify, she recognizes all the ways she could benefit if he were to read his wife’s words. After all, no matter how devoted Jeremy is to his injured wife, a truth this horrifying would make it impossible for him to continue loving her.

Party of the Century

Party of the Century
Author: Deborah Davis
Publisher: Turner Publishing Company
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2010-06-04
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0470893575

In 1966, everyone who was anyone wanted an invitation to Truman Capote's "Black and White Dance" in New York, and guests included Frank Sinatra, Norman Mailer, C. Z. Guest, Kennedys, Rockefellers, and more. Lavishly illustrated with photographs and drawings of the guests, this portrait of revelry at the height of the swirling, swinging sixties is a must for anyone interested in American popular culture and the lifestyles of the rich, famous, and talented.