| Search | About | Preferences | Interact | Help | |
| 150 million books. 1 search engine. | ||
› Find signed collectible books: 'Brick Lane'
With its gritty Tower Hamlets setting, this sharply observed contemporary novel about the life of an Asian immigrant girl deals cogently with issues of love, cultural difference and the human spirit. The pre-publicity hype about Brick Lane was precisely the kind to set alarm bells ringing (we've heard it so often before), but, for once, the excitement is fully justified: Monica Ali's debut novel demonstrates that there is a new voice in modern fiction to be reckoned with.
Nazneen is a teenager forced into an arranged marriage with a man considerably older than her--a man whose expectations of life are so low that misery seems to stretch ahead for her. Fearfully leaving the sultry oppression of her Bangladeshi village, Nazneen finds herself cloistered in a small flat in a high-rise block in the East End of London. Because she speaks no English, she is obliged to depend totally on her husband. But it becomes apparent that, of the two, she is the real survivor: more able to deal with the ways of the world, and a better judge of the vagaries of human behaviour. She makes friends with another Asian girl, Razia, who is the conduit to her understanding of the unsettling ways of her new homeland.
This is a novel of genuine insight, with the kind of characterisation that reminds the reader at every turn just what the novel form is capable of. Every character (Nazneen, her disappointed husband and her resourceful friend Razia) is drawn with the complexity that can really only be found in the novel these days. In some ways, the reader is given the same all-encompassing experience as in a Dickens novel: humour and tragedy rub shoulders in a narrative that inexorably grips the reader. Whether or not Monica Ali can follow up this achievement is a question for the future; it's enough to say right now that Brick Lane is an essential read for anyone interested in current British fiction. --Barry Forshaw [via]
› Find signed collectible books: 'Bridget Jones's Diary'
Now a major motion picture starring Renee Zellwegger and Hugh Grant!
"130 lbs. (how is it possible to put on 4 pounds overnight? Could flesh have somehow solidified becoming denser and heavier (repulsive, horrifying notion)); alcohol units 2 (excellent) cigarettes 21 (poor but will give up totally tomorrow); number of correct lottery numbers 2 (better, but nevertheless useless)?"
This laugh-out-loud chronicle charts a year in the life of Bridget Jones, a single girl on a permanent, doomed quest for self-improvement--in which she resolves to: visit the gym three times a week not merely to buy a sandwich, form a functional relationship with a responsible adult, and not fall for any of the following: misogynists, megalomaniacs, adulterers, workaholics, chauvinists or perverts. And learn to program the VCR. Caught between her Singleton friends, who are all convinced they will end up dying alone and found three weeks later half-eaten by an Alsatian, and the Smug Marrieds, whose dinner parties offer ever-new opportunities for humiliation, Bridget struggles to keep her life on an even keel (or at least afloat). Through it all, she will have her readers helpless with laughter and shouting, "BRIDGET JONES IS ME!"
[via]More editions of Bridget Jones's Diary:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Charles Dickens' a Tale of Two Cities'
Plot synopsis of this classic is made meaningful with analysis and quotes by noted literary critics, summaries of the work's main themes and characters, a sketch of the author's life and times, a bibliography, suggested test questions, and ideas for essays and term papers. [via]
More editions of Charles Dickens' a Tale of Two Cities:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Dk Eyewitness London'
More editions of Dk Eyewitness London:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Down and Out in Paris and London'
What was a nice Eton boy like Eric Blair doing in scummy slums instead of being upwardly mobile at Oxford or Cambridge? Living Down and Out in Paris and London, repudiating respectable imperialist society, and reinventing himself as George Orwell. His 1933 debut book (ostensibly a novel, but overwhelmingly autobiographical) was rejected by that elitist publisher T.S. Eliot, perhaps because its close-up portrait of lowlife was too pungent for comfort.
In Paris, Orwell lived in verminous rooms and washed dishes at the overpriced "Hotel X," in a remarkably filthy, 110-degree kitchen. He met "eccentric people--people who have fallen into solitary, half-mad grooves of life and given up trying to be normal or decent." Though Orwell's tone is that of an outraged reformer, it's surprising how entertaining many of his adventures are: gnawing poverty only enlivens the imagination, and the wild characters he met often swindled each other and themselves. The wackiest tale involves a miser who ate cats, wore newspapers for underwear, invested 6,000 francs in cocaine, and hid it in a face-powder tin when the cops raided. They had to free him, because the apparently controlled substance turned out to be face powder instead of cocaine.
In London, Orwell studied begging with a crippled expert named Bozo, a great storyteller and philosopher. Orwell devotes a chapter to the fine points of London guttersnipe slang. Years later, he would put his lexical bent to work by inventing Newspeak, and draw on his down-and-out experience to evoke the plight of the Proles in 1984. Though marred by hints of unexamined anti-Semitism, Orwell's debut remains, as The Nation put it, "the most lucid portrait of poverty in the English language." --Tim Appelo [via]
More editions of Down and Out in Paris and London:
› Find signed collectible books: 'El Diario De Bridget Jones / Bridget Jones's Diary'
Helen Fielding ha creado un personaje cómico, hilarante que hable sin tapujos sobre sus contemporaneos, Bridget Jones. El Diario de Bridget Jones es una sabia combinación de Anita Loos and Jane Austen y ha conseguido un éxito espectacular en todos los paises. [via]
More editions of El Diario De Bridget Jones / Bridget Jones's Diary:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Eyewitness Travel Guides London'
The essence of London, found "in the swing, tramp, and trudge; in the bellow and uproar; the carriages, motor cars, omnibuses, vans, sandwich men shuffling and swinging; brass bands; barrel organs; in the triumph and the jingle and the strange high singing of some aeroplane overhead..." (Mrs. Dalloway), is ably conveyed in the visual burst of Dorling Kindersley's London guide. This compact book is filled to overflowing with a montage of timelines, street maps, 3-D aerial views, district maps, cutaways of important buildings--including Buckingham Palace and Shakespeare's Globe Theatre--and more than 1,200 full-color photographs.
Like all of DK's books, this reference is overwhelming when you first crack open the pages. There's so much information, you almost don't know where to start. Lucky for tourists, London's editors kept a steady eye on usability when they organized the book. It begins with a short history (mostly conveyed in images) and then moves to an extensive section on the sights and sounds of the city by the Thames. The aim is to give you a "portrait" of each area before divulging the details, of which there is no lack. If you're worried about the practicalities of the trip, fear not: London is on your side. A section on travelers' needs and a handy survival guide--including instructions, complete with photographic aides, on how to use different types of public telephones--should eliminate any apprehension about exploring this wondrous city. Perhaps the most useful feature for those on the go who want portable information, and for those who hate to haul out maps in public ("Hey! I'm a tourist!"), is the "Street Finder," a comprehensive index of street names and 24 pages of corresponding maps. Small enough to fit in your backpack, London is the guide to grab before hopping on the Underground. --Heidi Robinson [via]
More editions of Eyewitness Travel Guides London:
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Ghost Map'
Steven Johnson, bestselling author of Everything Bad is Good for You, is fantastically gifted, and anyone who doubts it need only consider this: in The Ghost Map, Johnson manages to make filth, overpopulation, feces and death the cornerstones of one of the year's snappiest page-turners. On the simplest level, The Ghost Map is the true-life tale of the cholera scourge that slammed London in 1854 and the two passionate and whip-smart men who ferreted out its cause. But it's also a biography, a detective saga, a horror story, a history lesson, a sociological rumination on cities, an unlikely but gripping celebration of the modern sewer system and a vivid portrait of historic London life.
"London's underground market of scavenging had its own system of rank and privilege, and near the top were the night-soil men," Johnson observes. "Like the beloved chimney sweeps of Mary Poppins, the night-soil men worked as independent contractors at the very edge of the legitimate economy, though their labor was significantly more revolting than the foraging of the mud-larks and toshers.
"City landlords hired the men to remove the "night soil" from the overflowing cesspools of their buildings. The collecting of human excrement was a venerable occupation; in medieval times they were called rakers. [But] the work conditions could be deadly: in 1326, an ill-fated laborer by the name of Richard the Raker fell into a cesspool and literally drowned in human shit."Nice. Clearly much more than just a dry recitation of data--though the depth of Johnson's research is obvious--The Ghost Map is a hair-raiser that cooks from page one. A big reason is Johnson's ability to personify and animate what he terms "the invisible kingdom of microscopic bacteria," transforming cholera into a nefarious three-dimensional villain with a role to play and zest for the part.
More editions of The Ghost Map:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Lights Out for the Territory: 9 Excursions in the Secret History of London'
Ever listened to a madman rant? Often, buried somewhere in his monologue, there's an idea that is true glittering brilliance. Perhaps you will listen for hours trying to catch another strand of his unusual logic. Or perhaps you will shrug your shoulders and walk away. Reading Iain Sinclair is like that. The idea behind Lights Out for the Territory: Nine Excursions in the Secret History of London at its most mundane level--and this book has many levels woven into its 386 dense, perplexing pages--is to reflect London by exploring its shadows: its streets, its graffiti, its anachronisms, its forgotten geniuses, and its subcultural characters. But readers, at least readers not from London, are scarcely taken by the hand on a stroll through the city. Instead, they are pushed and pulled, yanked and tossed, given little explanation of what they're reading about or why. More often, Lights Out feels like a high-speed ride in a stolen car--images recklessly thrown before you, then knocked over by sheer velocity as you pass, pedestrians run over before you've met them--and all the while you never know where you are, since sites, characters, and references are rarely set up or explained.
Instead of mapping out London, its secrets, and hidden characters, Sinclair muddles the picture, leaving this image of London impenetrable except to scholars or those with free months to muck through this unbridled slop. Is it the use of peculiar British words, the liberal tossing of obscure references, or Sinclair's vastly brilliant mind that makes this book so unknowable? Whatever the reason, expect writing that bewilders, such as this chapter beginning: "The saturnine, widdershins excursion of Alan Moore's anti-solar mystagogue, Sir William Gull, as revealed in Chapter Four of the graphic novel, From Hell, begins, traditionally enough, with Boadicea...." Judging from cover blurbs, the British press loves this book. But for all its hype and glowing praise, it's hard to see why. --Melissa Rossi [via]
More editions of Lights Out for the Territory: 9 Excursions in the Secret History of London:
› Find signed collectible books: 'London'
Edward Rutherfurd belongs to the James Michener school: he writes big, sprawling history-by- the-pound. His novel, London, stretches two millennia all the way from Roman times to the present. The author places his vignettes at the most dramatic moments of that city's history, leaping from Caesar's invasion to the Norman Conquest to the Great Fire to (of course) the Blitz, with many stops in between. London is ambitious, and students of English history will eat it up. The author doesn't skimp on historical detail, and that's a signal pleasure of the book. Ultimately, though, the structure of the novel determines the lion's share of its success. Rutherfurd is a good storyteller and each vignette makes for a good story; however, he has given himself the inevitable task of beginning what amounts to a new book every 40 pages or so. Just as one begins to warm to the characters, they are hurried off the stage. You can't read London without a scorecardbut that's part of the fun. [via]
› Find signed collectible books: 'London: The Biography'
Here are two thousand years of Londons history and folklore, its chroniclers and criminals and plain citizens, its food and drink and countless pleasures. Blackfriars and Charing Cross, Paddington and Bedlam. Westminster Abbey and St. Martin in the Fields. Cockneys and vagrants. Immigrants, peasants, and punks. The Plague, the Great Fire, the Blitz. London at all times of day and night, and in all kinds of weather. In well-chosen anecdotes, keen observations, and the words of hundreds of its citizens and visitors, Ackroyd reveals the ingenuity and grit and vitality of London. Through a unique thematic tour of the physical city and its inimitable soul, the city comes alive. [via]
› Find signed collectible books: 'London'
The essence of London, found "in the swing, tramp, and trudge; in the bellow and uproar; the carriages, motor cars, omnibuses, vans, sandwich men shuffling and swinging; brass bands; barrel organs; in the triumph and the jingle and the strange high singing of some aeroplane overhead..." (Mrs. Dalloway), is ably conveyed in the visual burst of Dorling Kindersley's London guide. This compact book is filled to overflowing with a montage of timelines, street maps, 3-D aerial views, district maps, cutaways of important buildings--including Buckingham Palace and Shakespeare's Globe Theatre--and more than 1,200 full-color photographs.
Like all of DK's books, this reference is overwhelming when you first crack open the pages. There's so much information, you almost don't know where to start. Lucky for tourists, London's editors kept a steady eye on usability when they organized the book. It begins with a short history (mostly conveyed in images) and then moves to an extensive section on the sights and sounds of the city by the Thames. The aim is to give you a "portrait" of each area before divulging the details, of which there is no lack. If you're worried about the practicalities of the trip, fear not: London is on your side. A section on travelers' needs and a handy survival guide--including instructions, complete with photographic aides, on how to use different types of public telephones--should eliminate any apprehension about exploring this wondrous city. Perhaps the most useful feature for those on the go who want portable information, and for those who hate to haul out maps in public ("Hey! I'm a tourist!"), is the "Street Finder," a comprehensive index of street names and 24 pages of corresponding maps. Small enough to fit in your backpack, London is the guide to grab before hopping on the Underground. --Heidi Robinson [via]
More editions of London:
› Find signed collectible books: 'London'
More editions of London:
Paperback: 288 pages Publisher: Hunter Publishing (NJ) (April 1988) Language: English [via]
More editions of London A Z: Street Atlas:
More editions of London A-Z:
› Find signed collectible books: 'London Orbital: A Walk Around the M25'
One might be forgiven for thinking that the only thing more boring than spending a year walking around the M25 would be reading a large book about walking around the M25. Yet Iain Sinclair's London Orbital is a fascinating and curiously haunting read. Part of the reason is that Sinclair brings to the project an immense literary talent, an intense and lifelong interest in the history of London and some extremely interesting travelling companions.
The walk was taken in several stages, from Waltham Abbey to Shenley, Abbots Langley to Staines, Staines to Epsom and Epsom to Westerham before going on to Dartford, the river and Carfax and arriving back at Waltham Abbey. Each stage fills a chapter and the reader is advised to take a leaf out of Sinclair's own book by taking one stage, one chapter at a time. This is a large book of 450-odd pages and by the time the journey gets under way-about 60 pages in--even Sinclair's dazzling prose is not enough to offset the gloomy prospect of taking a second-hand trip around the London Orbital. And yet after the first trip one finds oneself being sucked in and thinking about some of the grey, ugly images, or being angered by the grasping and philistine approach of developers and copywriters and the cynicism and hypocrisy of government.
The history of London has long been Sinclair's great passion but he populates this strange excursion with flesh-and-blood people as well as literary and mythic figures: there's John Clare watching Byron's funeral procession before embarking on his epic three-day journey back to Northborough, "chewing tobacco and gnawing grass torn up from the roadside"; then there are tales of Dracula, of lost lunatic asylums, of passionate political activists crying out against toxic land and of meetings with ex-members of London's criminal underworld.
London Orbital gets under the skin. What looks at first like a dull and deeply unappealing journey is actually a multi-layered, lyrical, ugly, mythical, engaged and engaging excursion from the present into the past and back again. --Larry Brown [via]
More editions of London Orbital: A Walk Around the M25:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Neverwhere'
Neverwhere's protagonist, Richard Mayhew, learns the hard way that no good deed goes unpunished. He ceases to exist in the ordinary world of London Above, and joins a quest through the dark and dangerous London Below, a shadow city of lost and forgotten people, places, and times. His companions are Door, who is trying to find out who hired the assassins who murdered her family and why; the Marquis of Carabas, a trickster who trades services for very big favors; and Hunter, a mysterious lady who guards bodies and hunts only the biggest game. London Below is a wonderfully realized shadow world, and the story plunges through it like an express passing local stations, with plenty of action and a satisfying conclusion. The story is reminiscent of Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, but Neil Gaiman's humor is much darker and his images sometimes truly horrific. Puns and allusions to everything from Paradise Lost to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz abound, but you can enjoy the book without getting all of them. Gaiman is definitely not just for graphic-novel fans anymore. --Nona Vero [via]
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Night Watch'
Moving back through the 1940s, through air raids, blacked-out streets, illicit partying, and sexual adventure, to end with its beginning in 1941, The Night Watch tells the story of four Londoners-three women and a young man with a past-whose lives, and those of their friends and lovers, connect in tragedy, stunning surprise and exquisite turns, only to change irreversibly in the shadow of a grand historical event. [via]
› Find signed collectible books: 'Oliver Twist ; Great Expectations ; A Tale of Two Cities'
Collectable Leather padded hardcover [via]
More editions of Oliver Twist ; Great Expectations ; A Tale of Two Cities:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Restoration London : Engaging Anecdotes and Tantalizing Trivia from the Most Magnificent and Renowned City of Europe'
Here is seventeenth-century London as you've never seen it. The Restoration of Charles II marked a period of growth in colonization and trade, the rise of political parties, and an increase in the power of Parliament. Restoration London provides a fascinating look at everyday life in the city during that time. Using diaries, almanacs, newspapers, advice books, government papers, personal documents, and more, Liza Picard brilliantly portrays the human side of both ordinary daily living and catastrophic events. We see a fire out of control, leaving a great and prosperous city buried in its own ruins. We witness an enormous rebuilding, with determination from the people and a Proclamation from Charles that London would be "a much more beautiful city than that consumed."
From the splendor of lovely English gardens to pollution-filled air and streets clogged with waste and rubbish; from graceful living, fashionable clothes, and elegant décor to medical risks, plagues, accidents, and early deaths, this unique book describes the simple pleasures and the overwhelming difficulties of the time. We discover the craft of cabinet making, the art of embroidery, and the revival of theater. We are shown the importance of astrology, magic, and superstition in medical care, the labor of housework and shopping, the pleasures of music and dancing, the hazards of sex, the limitations of education, the nature of the laws, the conflicting views of the churches, and the extremes of poverty and wealth.
With meticulous detail and vivid descriptions, Restoration London shows us the people who lived there and gives us a better understanding of who they were. [via]
More editions of Restoration London : Engaging Anecdotes and Tantalizing Trivia from the Most Magnificent and Renowned City of Europe:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Restoration London: From Poverty to Pets, from Medicine to Magic, from Slang to Sex, from Wallpaper to Women's Rights'
RESTORATION LONDON is a remarkably thorough and informative picture of everyday life in 17th century London. Picard has provided a detail of everyday life in the era of London, after the House of Stuarts was restored. The streets, houses, gardens, cooking, housework, laundry, shopping, clothes, jewelry, cosmetics, hairdressing, medicine, sex, education, hobbies, etiquette, law and crime, religion and popular beliefs--the stuff of any era's daily life--are all detailed. Picard's research for RESTORATION LONDON was drawn from sources contemporary to that century: diaries, almanacs, newpapers, books, government papers, even patent registrations. RESTORATION LONDON is for anyone who wants to know more of the interesting details of life in London during the dawning of it's modern era. [via]
More editions of Restoration London: From Poverty to Pets, from Medicine to Magic, from Slang to Sex, from Wallpaper to Women's Rights:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Saturday'
From the pen of a master - the #1 bestselling, Booker Prize-winning author of Atonement - comes an astonishing novel that captures the fine balance of happiness and the unforeseen threats that can destroy it. A brilliant, thrilling page-turner that will keep readers on the edge of their seats. Saturday is a masterful novel set within a single day in February 2003. Henry Perowne is a contented man - a successful neurosurgeon, happily married to a newspaper lawyer, and enjoying good relations with his children. Henry wakes to the comfort of his large home in central London on this, his day off. He is as at ease here as he is in the operating room. Outside the hospital, the world is not so easy or predictable. There is an impending war against Iraq, and a general darkening and gathering pessimism since the New York and Washington attacks two years before. On this particular Saturday morning, Perowne's day moves through the ordinary to the extraordinary. After an unusual sighting in the early morning sky, he makes his way to his regular squash game with his anaesthetist, trying to avoid the hundreds of thousands of marchers filling the streets of London, protesting against the war. A minor accident in his car brings him into a confrontation with a small-time thug. To Perowne's professional eye, something appears to be profoundly wrong with this young man, who in turn believes the surgeon has humiliated him - with savage consequences that will lead Henry Perowne to deploy all his skills to keep his family alive. [via]
› Find signed collectible books: 'Sense And Sensibility'
Though not the first novel she wrote, Sense and Sensibility was the first Jane Austen published. Though she initially called it Elinor and Marianne, Austen jettisoned both the title and the epistolary mode in which it was originally written, but kept the essential theme: the necessity of finding a workable middle ground between passion and reason. The story revolves around the Dashwood sisters, Elinor and Marianne. Whereas the former is a sensible, rational creature, her younger sister is wildly romantic--a characteristic that offers Austen plenty of scope for both satire and compassion. Commenting on Edward Ferrars, a potential suitor for Elinor's hand, Marianne admits that while she "loves him tenderly," she finds him disappointing as a possible lover for her sister:
Oh! Mama, how spiritless, how tame was Edward's manner in reading to us last night! I felt for my sister most severely. Yet she bore it with so much composure, she seemed scarcely to notice it. I could hardly keep my seat. To hear those beautiful lines which have frequently almost driven me wild, pronounced with such impenetrable calmness, such dreadful indifference!Soon however, Marianne meets a man who measures up to her ideal: Mr. Willoughby, a new neighbor. So swept away by passion is Marianne that her behavior begins to border on the scandalous. Then Willoughby abandons her; meanwhile, Elinor's growing affection for Edward suffers a check when he admits he is secretly engaged to a childhood sweetheart. How each of the sisters reacts to their romantic misfortunes, and the lessons they draw before coming finally to the requisite happy ending forms the heart of the novel. Though Marianne's disregard for social conventions and willingness to consider the world well-lost for love may appeal to modern readers, it is Elinor whom Austen herself most evidently admired; a truly happy marriage, she shows us, exists only where sense and sensibility meet and mix in proper measure. --Alix Wilber [via]
More editions of Sense And Sensibility:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Tale of 2 Cities'
The Pearson Education Library Collection offers you over 1200 fiction, nonfiction, classic, adapted classic, illustrated classic, short stories, biographies, special anthologies, atlases, visual dictionaries, history trade, animal, sports titles and more! [via]
More editions of Tale of 2 Cities:
› Find signed collectible books: 'A Tale of Two Cities'
More editions of A Tale of Two Cities:
› Find signed collectible books: 'White Teeth: Reader's Companion'
Epic in scale and intimate in approach, White Teeth is a formidably ambitious debut. First novelist Zadie Smith takes on race, sex, class, history, and the minefield of gender politics, and such is her wit and inventiveness that these weighty subjects seem effortlessly light. She also has an impressive geographical range, guiding the reader from Jamaica to Turkey to Bangladesh and back again.
Still, the book's home base is a scrubby North London borough, where we encounter Smith's unlikely heroes: prevaricating Archie Jones and intemperate Samad Iqbal, who served together in the so-called Buggered Battalion during World War II. In the ensuing decades, both have gone forth and multiplied: Archie marries beautiful, bucktoothed Clara--who's on the run from her Jehovah's Witness mother--and fathers a daughter. Samad marries stroppy Alsana, who gives birth to twin sons. Here is multiculturalism in its most elemental form: "Children with first and last names on a direct collision course. Names that secrete within them mass exodus, cramped boats and planes, cold arrivals, medical checks."
Big questions demand boldly drawn characters. Zadie Smith's aren't heroic, just real: warm, funny, misguided, and entirely familiar. Reading their conversations is like eavesdropping. Even a simple exchange between Alsana and Clara about their pregnancies has a comical ring of truth: "A woman has to have the private things--a husband needn't be involved in body business, in a lady's... parts." And the men, of course, have their own involvement in bodily functions:
The deal was this: on January 1, 1980, like a New Year dieter who gives up cheese on the condition that he can have chocolate, Samad gave up masturbation so that he might drink. It was a deal, a business proposition, that he had made with God: Samad being the party of the first part, God being the sleeping partner. And since that day Samad had enjoyed relative spiritual peace and many a frothy Guinness with Archibald Jones; he had even developed the habit of taking his last gulp looking up at the sky like a Christian, thinking: I'm basically a good man.Not all of White Teeth is so amusingly carnal. The mixed blessings of assimilation, for example, are an ongoing torture for Samad as he watches his sons grow up. "They have both lost their way," he grumbles. "Strayed so far from what I had intended for them. No doubt they will both marry white women called Sheila and put me in an early grave." These classic immigrant fears--of dilution and disappearance--are no laughing matter. But in the end, they're exactly what gives White Teeth its lasting power and undeniable bite. --Eithne Farry [via]
More editions of White Teeth: Reader's Companion:
Odyssey, The: The World's Great Classics, by Homer; tr. by S.H. Butcher and Andrew Lang [via]
More editions of The World's Great Classics:
More editions of A-Z London:
Unlike streets in the US, London's roads do not follow a logical numbering system (or even a logical system, for that matter!), so navigating you and your family around the maze of dead-ends and one-way streets can be a nightmare! Knowing the quickest routes from A to B is a learning process, and is largely a matter of time. But here is your escape route. This pocket-sized street atlas has been the London cabby's bible for years. It is by far the best-selling, all-color street atlas of the city, covering every street, lane, highway, mew, garden, close, glen, river, bridge and motorway. In addition, it shows the tube and mainline train stations, gardens, parks, schools and major points of interest, making it your best friend on a trip to this historic city. A complete index lists every entry, so you can get from Baker Street to the Tate Gallery and back to Leicester Square in the evening without getting frustrated and spending hours going round in circles. With this book in hand, you'll be able to direct you and your family without any hesitation, and you'll also know when the cabby is taken you the "long way home" (haven't I seen that street corner before?). [via]
More editions of A-Z London: London's Best Selling Street Atlas:
› Find signed collectible books: 'LA Autobiografia De Mi Madre'
Helen Fielding ha creado un personaje cómico, hilarante que hable sin tapujos sobre sus contemporaneos, Bridget Jones. El Diario de Bridget Jones es una sabia combinación de Anita Loos and Jane Austen y ha conseguido un éxito espectacular en todos los paises. [via]
More editions of LA Autobiografia De Mi Madre:
› Find signed collectible books: 'El Diario de Bridget Jones'
Helen Fielding ha creado un personaje cómico, hilarante que hable sin tapujos sobre sus contemporaneos, Bridget Jones. El Diario de Bridget Jones es una sabia combinación de Anita Loos and Jane Austen y ha conseguido un éxito espectacular en todos los paises. [via]
More editions of El Diario de Bridget Jones:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Schokolade Zum Fruhstuck'
Bridget Jones ist knapp über 30, arbeitet als Lektorin in einem Verlag, hat einen aktiven großen Freundeskreis -- eine selbstbewusste junge Frau also. Aber ihr Lebenslauf weist ein großes Manko auf: Sie ist Single. Ein unhaltbarer Zustand, wie auch ihre Eltern, deren Freunde sowie ihre verheirateten Freundinnen finden. Die sie prompt immer wieder einladen, um ihr alleinstehende Männer vorzustellen. Dieses Weihnachten war Mark Darcy der auserwählte Kandidat ihrer Eltern -- ein unmöglicher Mensch, grauenhaft gekleidet, mit dem man keine zwei vernünftigen Worte wechseln kann. Außerdem flirtet sie wie wild mit Daniel, ihrem Chef. Und ihre Freundinnen sind stolz auf sie -- hat sie es doch geschafft, sich wieder anzuziehen und zu gehen, nachdem Daniel ihr erklärt hatte, nur weil er scharf auf sie sei, wolle er noch lange keine Beziehung mit ihr. Nebenbei kämpft sie noch mit ihren Gewichtsproblemen, einem langweiligen Job, dem Single-Dasein als solchem und mit der Tatsache, dass ihre Mutter nun nach all den Jahren plötzlich anfängt auf Männerpirsch zu gehen und ein rasantes Eigenleben entwickelt.
Ein Unterhaltungsroman im besten Sinne des Wortes. Singles um die 30, die schon mindestens eine Diät hinter sich haben, werden sicher vieles wieder erkennen. Die Krisensitzungen mit den besten Freundinnen zum Beispiel, die wohlmeinenden Ratschläge derer, die schon unter der Haube sind (und deren Männer fremdgehen). Und bekannt ist vielleicht auch das Kalorienzählen, die Ausreden vor sich selbst, warum es denn nun ausgerechnet Schokolade anstelle vollwertiger Ernährung sein musste -- und das schlechte Gewissen am Tag danach. Ich konnte auf alle Fälle herzlich lachen. --Daniela Ecker [via]
More editions of Schokolade Zum Fruhstuck:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Zähne zeigen'
Zähne zeigen, monumental im Ausmaß und intim im Ansatz, ist ein ehrgeiziger Roman. Seine Themen drehen sich um Herkunft, Religion, Geschlechterbeziehungen, Hautfarbe, gesellschaftliche Stellung und Geschichte, aber Zadie Smith ist mit einem Witz und einem Einfallsreichtum gesegnet, die diese gewichtigen Ideen mühelos leicht erscheinen lassen.
Die Handlung führt uns nach Jamaika, die Türkei, Bangladesch und Indien und bringt uns schließlich in einen schäbigen Vorort von North London, in dem die zwei merkwürdigen Helden dieses Buches zu Hause sind: Archie Jones, der es mit der Wahrheit nicht so genau nimmt, und Samad Iqbal, der im hohen Maße dem Alkohol zuspricht. Sie begegneten sich erstmals im Zweiten Weltkrieg als Mitglieder eines vom Pech verfolgten Bataillons und sind seitdem unzertrennlich. Archie heiratet die schöne Clara mit den vorstehenden Zähnen, die sich auf der Flucht vor ihrer Mutter befindet, einer Zeugin Jehovas, und mit der er eine Tochter hat, Irie. Samad heiratet die pampige Alsana, die ihm zwei stramme Jungs schenkt -- Zwillinge: "Kinder mit Vor- und Zunamen, die sich auf direktem Kollisionskurs befinden; Namen, hinter denen sich Massenexodus, überfüllte Boote und Flugzeuge, unfreundliche Ankünfte und ärztliche Untersuchungen verbergen."
Große Fragen verlangen nach kühn gezeichneten Charakteren. Zadie Smiths Helden sind nicht heroisch; sie sind einfach echt: warmherzig, komisch, fehlgeleitet und absolut vertraut. Wenn man ihre Unterhaltungen liest, kommt man sich vor, als würde man sie heimlich belauschen. In einer ganz einfachen Szene unterhalten sich Alsana und Clara im Park über ihre Schwangerschaften: "Eine Frau muss ihre privaten Dinge haben -- ein Ehemann sollte sich nicht in die körperlichen Angelegenheiten einmischen, in den Intimbereich einer Frau."
Samad ist verärgert über seine Söhne: "Sie sind beide vom Weg abgekommen; so weit weg von dem, was ich für sie geplant hatte. Es gibt wohl keinen Zweifel, dass sie beide irgendwann weiße Frauen heiraten werden, die Sheila heißen, und mich früh unter die Erde bringen." Hier spiegeln sich "die Ängste des Einwanderers -- Identitätsverlust, Auflösung" -- deutlich wider, die Samad mehr als alles andere geprägt haben.
Die Lektüre von Zähne zeigen ist eine wahre Freude. In diesem Buch wimmelt es vor Leben und Überschwänglichkeit, und doch besitzt es genug Schläue und despektierliche Seriosität, um ihm eine gewisse Bissigkeit zu geben. --Eithne Farry [via]
More editions of Zähne zeigen:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Denti Bianchi / White Teeth'
More editions of Denti Bianchi / White Teeth:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Das Tagebuch Der Bridget Jones'
Bridget Jones ist knapp über 30, arbeitet als Lektorin in einem Verlag, hat einen aktiven großen Freundeskreis -- eine selbstbewusste junge Frau also. Aber ihr Lebenslauf weist ein großes Manko auf: Sie ist Single. Ein unhaltbarer Zustand, wie auch ihre Eltern, deren Freunde sowie ihre verheirateten Freundinnen finden. Die sie prompt immer wieder einladen, um ihr alleinstehende Männer vorzustellen. Dieses Weihnachten war Mark Darcy der auserwählte Kandidat ihrer Eltern -- ein unmöglicher Mensch, grauenhaft gekleidet, mit dem man keine zwei vernünftigen Worte wechseln kann. Außerdem flirtet sie wie wild mit Daniel, ihrem Chef. Und ihre Freundinnen sind stolz auf sie -- hat sie es doch geschafft, sich wieder anzuziehen und zu gehen, nachdem Daniel ihr erklärt hatte, nur weil er scharf auf sie sei, wolle er noch lange keine Beziehung mit ihr. Nebenbei kämpft sie noch mit ihren Gewichtsproblemen, einem langweiligen Job, dem Single-Dasein als solchem und mit der Tatsache, dass ihre Mutter nun nach all den Jahren plötzlich anfängt auf Männerpirsch zu gehen und ein rasantes Eigenleben entwickelt.
Ein Unterhaltungsroman im besten Sinne des Wortes. Singles um die 30, die schon mindestens eine Diät hinter sich haben, werden sicher vieles wieder erkennen. Die Krisensitzungen mit den besten Freundinnen zum Beispiel, die wohlmeinenden Ratschläge derer, die schon unter der Haube sind (und deren Männer fremdgehen). Und bekannt ist vielleicht auch das Kalorienzählen, die Ausreden vor sich selbst, warum es denn nun ausgerechnet Schokolade anstelle vollwertiger Ernährung sein musste -- und das schlechte Gewissen am Tag danach. Ich konnte auf alle Fälle herzlich lachen. --Daniela Ecker [via]
More editions of Das Tagebuch Der Bridget Jones:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Le Journal De Bridget Jones'
Il est vrai que les femmes modernes et célibataires ont également leurs soucis ! Helen Fielding a choisi de nous les narrer à travers le journal de Bridget Jones, 29 ans, célibataire sans enfant et de terribles angoisses. Exemples : son poids à surveiller chaque jour, le nombre de cigarettes fumées, les calories ingurgitées, les pensées négatives et par-dessus le marché une mère extravagante et adultère. Bref, dans un élan de machisme incontrôlable, on pourrait suggérer que ce livre est surtout destiné aux lectrices de Elle et à la rigueur - ce qui est nouveau - à ceux de Men's Health.
Seulement voilà, derrière l'humour pointe l'ironie ou les remarques acerbes sur la gent masculine. Car Miss Bridget, si tourmentée qu'elle soit par son aspect physique et ses carences affectives, est également une féministe, mais de son temps. Elle assume seule sa vie professionnelle et sociale et refuse catégoriquement que les hommes viennent dans son giron pour se faire consoler, la dominer ou l'embobiner.
Ce petit livre, rafraîchissant comme un bouquet de roses pleines d'épines, est pour les hommes un complément indispensable à la lecture de Haute fidélité de Nick Hornby, traitant des affres du célibat masculin. Pour les femmes, il viendra conforter quelques certitudes ou leur donnera des pistes à suivre. --Stellio Paris [via]
More editions of Le Journal De Bridget Jones:
