Publisher: Interactive Media
The novel focuses on the midlife crisis of the main character, Oblomov, an upper middle class son of a member of Russia's nineteenth century landed gentry. Oblomov's distinguishing characteristic is his slothful attitude towards life. While a common negative characteristic, Oblomov raises this trait to an art form, conducting his little daily business apathetically from his bed.
Irreverently juggling magical realism, film noir, hip hop, and chicanismo, Tropic of Orange takes place in a Los Angeles where the homeless, gangsters, infant organ entrepreneurs, and Hollywood collide on a stretch of the Harbor Freeway. Hemmed in by wildfires, it's a symphony conducted from an overpass, grandiose, comic, and as diverse as the city itself—from an author who has received the California Book Award and the Association for Asian American Studies Book Award, among other literary honors.Show book
Laos, 1981: When an unofficial mailman drops off a strange bilingual diary, Dr. Siri is intrigued. Half is in Lao,but the other half is in Japanese, which no one Siri knows can read; it appears to have been written during the SecondWorld War. Most mysterious of all, it comes with a note stapled to it: Dr. Siri, we need your help most urgently. But whois “we,” and why have they left no return address?To the chagrin of his wife and friends, who have to hear him read the diary out loud, Siri embarks on an investigationby examining the text. Though the journal was apparently written by a kamikaze pilot, it is surprisingly dull. Twentypages in, no one has died, and the pilot never mentions any combat at all. Despite these shortcomings, Siri begins toobsess over the diary’s abrupt ending … and the riddle of why it found its way into his hands. Did the kamikaze pilotever manage to get off the ground? To find out, he and Madame Daeng will have to hitch a ride south and uncoversome of the darkest secrets of the Second World War.Show book
Weird, wild, and little-known facts about long-lost empires from the New York Times-bestselling author . . . To fight off Roman ships in 300 BC, Carthaginians catapulted live snakes at them The Athenian lawmaker Draco died of suffocation when gifts of cloaks were showered upon him by grateful citizens at an Aegina theater in 620 BC A dead man won an early Olympic event Nero not only didn’t play a musical instrument while Rome burned, he actually tried to help—but he did scapegoat Christians afterward and subject them to terrible fates Silly, shocking, weird, hilariously funny—and outrageously true—the anecdotes in Stupid Ancient History chronicle Greek philosophers, Roman conquerors, Egyptian mummies, and much more—revealing little-known oddities and busting historic mythconceptions. Discover Biblical misattributions; the nine-year-old girl who spotted a bogus ancient relic in a British museum; the person Caesar salad was actually named after (not Julius)—and much more!Show book
The explosive debut novel featuring hard-nosed cop “Fang” Mulheisen—from an author who “stands right up there with the best chroniclers of urban crime” (The New York Times). The city of Detroit doesn’t have many places anyone would exactly call “nice.” But the exclusive enclave of Indian Village is an oasis of calm surrounded by urban blight. At least until a beautiful young heiress is murdered during a home robbery gone horribly wrong . . . if that really is what happened. Detroit’s Det. Sgt.“Fang” Mulheisen isn’t so sure. The coincidences of the case are just a bit too coincidental, the ruthlessness of the crime goes way beyond a punk thief looking for a quick score, and the victim’s big-banker husband may owe some very bad people more than just money. What they want is blood. And Mulheisen may be the only man who can keep them from getting it. With gritty detail, whip-smart dialogue, and street-level action, “the elaboration of the plot and the quality of the writing put The Diehard pretty close to the top of its class” (The New York Times Book Review).Show book
Cartoonist Ricardo Caté describes Indian humor as the result of “us living in a dominant culture, and the funny part is that we so often fall short of fitting in.” His cartoon column, Without Reservations, is a popular daily dose in the Santa Fe New Mexican. Actor Wes Studi says, “Caté’s cartoons serve to remind us there is always a different point of view, or laughing at every day scenes of home life where Indian kids act just like their brethren of different races. Without Reservations is always thought-provoking whether it makes you laugh, smirk, or just enjoy the diversity of thought to be found in Indian Country.”Show book
Piedra Negra is an isolated village that is home to many soldiers who were injured in the revolution and now pass their time drinking firewater so intense that they all hallucinate and most never recover. The firewater distiller's daughter, Elena, longs to be a poet. After a chance encounter with Daniel Arcilla, Cuba's most important poet, she wins a national poetry prize and leaves Piedra Negra behind for Havana. There, she encounters a population adjusting to a new way of life post-revolution: spies with secret meetings and black marketeers dealing with censorship. Full of outlandish humor and insights into an often contradictory and Kafkaesque regime, author Pablo Medina brings 1960s Cuba to life through the eyes of Elena.Show book
