Daniel Thayne, a young Englishman, finds himself trapped in Tokyo. His passport lost, he is working illegally in a ramshackle language school, whose boss refuses to pay his salary. He is in a dead end relationship with Keiko, his cloying Japanese girlfriend, whose apartment is filled with stuffed toys. But his troubles are only beginning. As the hot, stormy weather of the rainy season descends, Keiko's family appear on his doorstep, determined to pressure him into marriage with their daughter by any means. Owners of their own mysterious and threatening 'Company Business' (or is it 'Business Company'?) they set about taking over his life. As Daniel resists, or tries to, he will learn a great deal about Japan - good and bad - and about his own culture.

This unfinished work was unearthed among his papers by City College professor Murphy, along with Trilling's own preface and commentary on the work as it stands: 24 short chapters. The novel is based on the late-life of poet Walter Savage Landor (1775-1864), who got into some unpleasant business surrounding his Bath landlady and her 16-year-old ward. Trilling details the true-life incident in his preface, then moves his own story to 1930s New England.

Mad Men meets Nashville in this debut mystery set in 1963, written by Grammy winner and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Cynthia Weil. "I loved everything about I'm Glad I Did ... Not just brava, Cynthia. Bravissima!!" --Carole King, multi-Grammy winning singer-songwriter of Tapestry and author of the New York Times bestseller A Natural Woman New York City, summer of 1963: JJ Green is a born songwriter--a major problem, since her family thinks the music business is a cesspool of lowlifes and hustlers. Defying them, she secretly takes an internship at the Brill Building, the epicenter of a new sound called rock and roll. When she finds a writing partner in Luke Silver, a boy with mesmerizing green eyes, JJ believes she is living her dream. They'll even be cutting their first demo with legendary singer Dulcie Brown. But soon JJ's dream is shattered by tragedy, and she must navigate a web of troubled pasts, hidden identities, and tangled secrets--before it snares her, too. From the Hardcover edition.

A captivating novel about aging fathers and their grown daughters, childhood scars, and rewriting the script with a little help from Shakespeare, from the acclaimed author of My October . On the brink of forty, Bea Rose has lost her lover, her business, and her bearings. When the opportunity arises to work on a summer production of King Lear to be staged in various parks around Montreal, she takes it, despite her utter lack of theatre experience. Things get off to a rocky start when Bea meets the artistic director, Artie White, a childhood friend whose presence stirs up painful memories. Then, inadvertently attracting the attentions of the play's aging star, she learns that she must tread carefully among the egos and relationships of the company. At the same time, Bea's father begins behaving erratically, and her younger sister Cara discovers cracks in the foundation of an apparently perfect life. The sisters do their best to care for their beloved, demanding father, but his deteriorating condition is more than they can handle. Meanwhile, the star of Lear is also faltering amidst the confusions of age, illness, and regret. When a raucous party whirls out of control, the various forces in Bea's life collide, culminating in a violent act that could destroy more than one life. But that act also reveals how lives might be united in new ways. Tender, vivid, and powerful, Lear's Shadow is a richly satisfying meditation on love's power to bind and to liberate. It's a lyrical reminder that even in the face of grief, life's joy can be embraced.

Miriam Beckstein is a young, hip, business journalist in Boston. She discovered in The Family Trade and The Hidden Family that her family came from an alternate reality, that she was very well-connected, and that her family was too much like the mafia for comfort. She found herself caught in a family trap in The Clan Corporate and betrothed to a brain-damaged prince, and then all hell broke loose. Now, in The Merchants' War , Miriam has escaped to yet another world and remains in hiding from both the Clan and their opponents. There is a nasty shooting war going on in the Gruinmarkt world of the Clan, and we know something that Miriam does not; something that she's really going to hate--if she lives long enough to find out.

The third book (after The Family Trade and The Hidden Family ) in the saga of the Merchant Princes by Charles Stross, in which Miriam gets into deadly trouble. Miriam Beckstein has gotten in touch with her roots and they have nearly strangled her. A young, hip, business journalist in Boston, she discovered (in The Family Trade ) that her family comes from an alternate reality, that she is very well-connected, and that her family is too much like the mafia for comfort. In addition, starting with the fact that women are family property and required to breed more family members with the unique talent to walk between worlds, Miriam has tried to remain an outsider and her own woman. She started a profitable business in a third world she has discovered, outside the family reach (recounted in The Hidden Family ). She fell in love with a distant relative, but he died saving her life. Now, however, in The Clan Corporate , Miriam may be overreaching. And if she gets caught, death or a fate worse is around the bend. There is, for instance, the brain-damaged son of the local king who needs a wife. But they'd never make her do that, would they?

The year is 1031. Karimah, a charming, headstrong Jewish nineteen-year-old has followed her heart on an adventure that will take her far from home. The story is revealed in her letters to the family she left behind in Egypt, their letters to her, and their correspondence with others as they seek to make sense of the disorder that Karimah has brought to their lives. Details of everday life from a millennium ago are now familiar to scholars through the discovery of the Cairo Geniza, a synagogue storeroom full of several centuries' worth of religious manuscripts, receipts, and business correspondence. The author creates an impassioned portrayal of a time when Jews and Muslims lived together in reasonable harmony.

Things are going badly for the Clan in this SF novel of the Merchant Princes, the immensely popular series by Charles Stross. Locked in a vicious civil war for control over the kingdom of Niejwein, their army is bottled up inside a fortress under siege in two parallel universes at once. Duke Angbard, the Clan's leader, has been laid low by a stroke: plotters are already conspiring in readiness for the deadly dance to come. Miriam, rescued from a tight spot in New Britain, finds the hopes of the young, progressive faction focused on her. But do they want her as a leader or a figurehead? She soon finds herself thrown into a desperate struggle for power. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to the Clan, researchers working for the US government have achieved a technological breakthrough.

Story of a Viennese Jewish businessman whose faith is restored after being snowbound in a faith-centered rural village. He returns to Vienna with a renewed sense of faith and tolerance on the eve of World War II where an anti-Semitic atmosphere pervades.

Cantor, Eddie

While waiting in line for apple pie at a party, Imogene Gilfeather, a lingerie designer who does not understand the reason for romance, meets Wally Yez, a scientist whose business card says “An Answer for Everything.” Imogene is told that Wally is the perfect guy. (“Perfect,” she replies, “is not my type.”) He is told that her company, Featherware, manufactures intimates ( that gets his attention). Unfazed by Imogene’s indifference (who needs love when you have a career, friends, and an undemanding affair with a married man?), Wally resolves to win her over. E-mails turn into late-night phone calls; one date turns into two and then into more. Thus begins the most absurd and amusingly unbalanced relationship to grace the pages of a novel. Wally is certain he and Imogene are meant for each other (They both use mechanical pencils! Neither has had mumps! They are so alike!), but convincing his beloved is another matter. (“Do you know why it is I don’t have pierced ears?” she asks. “Because it’s too permanent.”) In defiance of the odds, or the gods, or perhaps just Imogene’s qualms, Wally and Imogene become a pair. They celebrate their anniversaries—the first time they touched each other on purpose, took public transportation together, saw the other with wet hair. But can they possibly end as happily as they’ve begun? (“Does he really have a cowlick? If yes, no bed will ever be big enough.”) Made up of hundreds of chaplettes, clever illustrations, and darkly funny commentary on getting together and staying the course, Starting from Happy is a cunning and sophisticated send-up of coupledom that showcases one of the finest comic writers of our time.

Product Description Spanning four decades from the 1940s to the present and set against the backdrops of Paris, Jerusalem, Cambridge, and Toronto, this novel focuses on a sensuous female astronomer's attempt to free herself from the past From Library Journal Jumping back and forth over four decades with settings in Paris, Toronto, England, and Jerusalem, this novel blends storytelling with a dash of science and philosophy. It centers around its narrator, Nadine Santangel, orphaned when her parents are sent to concentration camps shortly after her birth in Paris in 1941. She becomes an astronomy student and teacher in Canada, but she is haunted by what happened during her early years. Wielding a not always benign influence are a half-uncle, Stefan, and a fellow student, D.B. Miller. Nadine relates events as encountered and as told to her, adding her interpretations. Although the story is not always compelling, some characterizations are oddly fascinating, and the reader can identify with Nadine's efforts to fit all the influences and incidents of her life into an understandable whole. Ellen Kaye Stoppel, Drake Univ. Law Lib . , Des MoinesCopyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Wieder Gut Machung-making good again-reparations. In London, James Raison, a lawyer, was preparing to take a quick trip to Munich in the interest of his client, Mrs. Wolff, and the estate of her late father, Helmut Bamberger. Bamberger had been a very wealthy and very complex man who had, apparently, died in a Nazi concentration camp. In Tel Aviv, Dr. Grunwald, an elderly lawyer who had been crippled by the Nazis, was planning to go to Munich, too, as the representative of a Jewish organization intensely interested in the fate of Bamberger's fortune. In pre-holocaust Germany, Grunwald had represented Bamberger and had helped him get the bulk of his money safely into a Swiss bank. In Munich, the German lawyer in charge of the Bamberger case, Heinz Haffner (who took pride in not actually having been a Nazi, though his sister still was one), was preparing to meet with his colleagues to discuss some puzzling new elements in the case. Haffner had problems of his own. So did the English and the Israeli lawyers. And even when one means to concentrate on the business at hand, one's mind sometimes strays. Even with three good lawyers at work, the Bamberger question became frustrating, mystifying, and, at last, explosive --

Invasion of the Body Snatchers starring Kevin McCarthy and Dana Wynter is one of the most revered films in international film history. For many critics it began the serious cycle of science fiction films that now include "Alien" and "Blade Runner." Thanks to the novel by Jack Finney, the screenplay by Daniel Mainwaring and especially the direction of Don Siegel, "Invasion" runs on television somewhere virtually every day. This original book brings together interviews with Kevin McCarthy and Dana Wynter and also includes pieces by Dean Koontz (the introduction), Stephen King (an essay); and interviews with Philip Kaufman, who directed the 1978 remake; Robert H. Solo, who produced the remake; W. D. Richter, who wrote the remake; and Abel Ferrara, who directed the 1997 remake. Packed with insights into the production of a classic film, filled with moments of humor and a few moments of angst, and as entertaining as a "behind the scenes" look at the movie business. Join us in this tribute to Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

Book Excerpt: a walnut-sized diamond which was presented to me as a gift. This may sound rather improbable and extraordinary, but then it was at a time of improbable and extraordinary happenings when it came into my possession. At the end of the war, in 1919, together with certain other British servicemen, I joined General Kolchak's counter-revolutionary army. When the campaign in Siberia had ended, I managed to make my way back to the European part of Russia after incredible hardships and suffering. Armed with the papers of a dead Austrian prisoner-of-war, I managed to get into a POW train and in this manner reached Moscow. Here, I ganged up with a number of people of my ilk and floated a company whose main line of business concerned the robbing of panic-stricken propertied types who were trying to flee the country. Our custom was to nose out a few such people and offer to smuggle them across the border into Poland for which purpose we had thoughtfully provided ourselves with an army lorry. Then, at some out-of-the-way pl Read More

What would you do first if you were elected President of the United States? Hope is the story of Alexander Hope, a young American who comes back from Vietnam, falls in love with a bright, beautiful girl, and with her starts a pioneering computer business. Thirty years later he's a billionaire, and alone in life. He decides to leave behind everything he created to write books and teach history at a private college. A handful of admiring students half-jokingly enlist him as a candidate for a third party Presidential nomination. In an astonishing but plausible scenario, Hope wins the Presidency, and commences an ambitious program of enforcing the Constitution and Bill of Rights as they were written. Enemies arise from all sides aiming to obstruct, discredit, impeach, and even assassinate him. It's a story of one man's love for his country -- and for the principles that brought it into being -- for his family, for his friends, and especially for the lovely and brilliant young Internet reporter who believes in him. 440 pages.

Armchair Fiction presents extra large editions of classic science fiction double novels with original illustrations. Our first novel is a unique classic by one of the true masters of 20th Century science fiction and beyond, Robert Silverberg's "Regan's Planet." Regan was the man for the job! As the 20th Century wound down, the United States wasn't quite the world power it had once been. But a World's Fair celebrating the 500th anniversary of America's discovery by Christopher Columbus might be just the thing to help the country return to its former lofty state of prestige. Such a venture, though, would be a costly, enormous challenge; so President Hammond dropped the whole project into the lap of the shrewdest, most powerful businessman on the planet-Claude Regan, better known as "Factor Regan," head of Global Factors, Inc. But undertaking such a colossal endeavor soon put Regan and Global nearly two billion dollars in the hole. With his company's future on the line, Regan realized that the Fair would need something completely new, something radically different-so he decided to produce a World's Fair that was...quite literally...out of this world! The second novel is another unique, engaging sci-fi classic, "Someone to Watch Over Me" by H. L. Gold and Floyd C. Gold. In hyperspace lay the answer to his dreams. Len Mattern had murdered his stepfather when he was sixteen years old-crushing the man's skull and leaving his body in a pool of blood. That horrid act had sent Len into an endless flight from planet to planet, looking for a sense of purpose in the dull chaos of his purposeless youth. Then on a distant pleasure planet he met Lyddy. Lyddy soon became the woman of his dreams-his one driving obsession. But Lyddy was also a whore, and no woman so beautiful and so desired by countless men could ever be swayed to funnel her emotions and body exclusively to a resourceless space scavenger like Len Mattern. So Mattern set out on a quest through space, from one world to another, seeking the financial means to secure her heart forever. But in the awfulness of hyperspace, where everything was the nightmare opposite of itself, Len Mattern soon found a new voice in his life, and with it came the answer to his dreams...

Focuses on one catastrophic day in the life of businessman Rafael Mendes, weaving together stories of his ancestors and occurrences of the present as Mendes learns how the past informs and shackles the present

As their Nazi captors negotiate their exchange for American-held German officers, twenty Jewish businessmen plead for the life of a woman prisoner

"New York in the 1950s. A man on a barstool is telling a story about a woman he met in a bar, early married and soon divorced, her child farmed out to her parents, good-looking, if a little past her prime. They'd gone out, they'd grown close, but as far as he was concerned it didn't add up to much. He was a busy man. Then one day, out dancing, she runs into a rich awkward lovelorn businessman. He'll pay for her to be his, pay her a lot. And now the narrator discovers that he is as much in love with her as she is with him, perhaps more, though it will take him a while to realize just how utterly lost he is." -- (provided by publisher)