The Great Silenceby Juliet Nicholson
A wonderfully vivid journey through Britain after the First World War.
When we study history we often focus on the most prodigious events—war, genocide—and tend to overlook the transitional periods. Author Juliet Nicholson has, in short time, become the voice of these critical gaps in the fabric of British history. In her superbly enjoyable previous book, The Perfect Summer: England 1911, Just Before the Storm, Nicholson impressed critics with her arresting portrait of English society on the brink of war. And now, in another splendid work of social history, Nicholson focuses on the years between 1918 and 1920. At once grand and intimate, Nicholson takes us on a captivating journey from Armistice Day in November 1918 to the funeral procession of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Westminster Abbey two years later that The Guardian calls “a small treasure-house of a book from a writer who understands the vital importance of small details.”
I Curse the River of Timeby Per Petterson
Acclaimed author of Out Stealing Horses returns with a reflective novel of man during the dying days of communism.
Norwegian author Per Petterson follows up 2006’s In the Wake with I Curse the River of Time, the story of 37-year-old Arvid Jansen, a Norwegian whose life is falling apart at the same time as his political ideology is shattered. In 1989, Arvid and his dying mother travel to Denmark as his marriage is ending, and he is faced with the memories of his life before it went so wrong. In a rave review, NPR says Petterson “provides one of literature’s greatest gifts in his novels—an absorbing interiority that creates a welcome refuge from our cacophonous world.” Petterson, whose 2007 novel Out Stealing Horses was named one of the New York Times Best Books of the Year, has been called a “profoundly gifted novelist” by Pulitzer Prize-winner Richard Ford, and his works have been translated into more than 40 languages.
The Zeroesby Randall Lane
Wall Street has never looked so bad as in this outrageously entertaining account of one man’s journey through the boom years.
Fast-paced, star-studded, gilded and unashamedly egotistical, the violent world of high-stakes Wall Street trading has never been so real. A veteran journalist, The Daily Beast’s own Randall Lane tells the tale of his rollercoaster ride through the wild world of high finance as founder of the now defunct magazine, Trading Monthly. With uncanny storytelling ability and the true writer’s talent for making even the most complex subjects accessible, Lane adeptly illuminates these modern swashbucklers and their outrageous lifestyles. The Zeroes follows the audacious behavior and destructive tendencies of the industry, culminating in the "Great Recession," a fascinating and almost self-fulfilling journey into the financial sector’s dazzling decade. The book Bloomberg BusinessWeek called “A delicious, salacious recounting of Wall Street’s bloated decade …marvelously readable” is a must read for anyone interested in finance, the economic implosion, or human nature.
Rules of Betrayalby Christopher Reich
In the third thrilling installment of the Jonathan Ransom series, a doctor in Afghanistan must decide between stopping a terrorist or saving his Russian spy wife.
Christopher Reich’s latest in the Jonathan Ransom series, Rules of Betrayal takes readers to Afghanistan, where Jonathan is working to amend the 30-year-old sins of his wife, a spy who used Jonathan’s job with Doctors Without Borders as her cover story. Now the Americans and the Russians are hunting her, and he must decide to save her or stand by while terrorists purchase a dangerous weapon of mass destruction. Publisher’s Weekly said Rules of Betrayal “will have readers eagerly awaiting the next installment.”
Let’s Take the Long Way Homeby Gail Caldwell
A true story of friendship and loss in this grief memoir by the Pulitzer Prize-winning critic.
Winner of the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Criticism, Gail Caldwell knows a thing or two about good writing. In this, her second memoir, she tells the story of her enduring friendship between two women writers and the grief of losing a companion and confidant. The longtime Boston Globe critic and editor’s latest offering has all the charm and emotion one would expect from a noted critic with none of the maudlin so often seen in memoirs of this kind. Drawn together by their dogs, struggles with alcoholism, and their work, Let’s Take the Long Way Home frames a unique connection between two great writers in a way sure to appeal to anyone who has ever experienced true friendship. With writing that Laura Miller of Salon called “serene, wry and meditative,” Caldwell’s book is a sure hit for the summer.
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