Why Can't Native Speakers of English Learn Another Language?

      Wayne Parry
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Why is it that native speakers of English have such a hard time trying to learn another language? Is it laziness? Is it arrogance? Maybe it's not our fault. Maybe there are other reasons for the fact that many only speak English. This is a part of the D.Y.S.E. series (Do You Speak English?) which deals with this contemporary topic.This Halloween, college girl, Erin Kowalkski, battles cancer once again. But this time, she has questions and she’s dying to know the answers. What will her dreams and aspirations, all she’s learned, felt and experienced, amount to when she’s gone? What will she become? Guided by a hot new patient and chased by a menacing wraith, Erin learns more about life and death than she’d ever imagined.Download this free New Adult Paranormal Romance by Jamie Leigh Hansen and see how you can benefit Childhood Cancer Awareness! “I once cross-stitched a quote for my mother that said, ‘Hope lights a candle in the darkest of despairing hearts.’ This story is yours to enjoy. You can easily gift it to others simply by telling them where to download. The more downloads, the more readers, all mean more opportunities for hope to children fighting a life-threatening illness.”- Jamie Leigh Hansen, mom to a miracle

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    Tunnel W

      Michele M. Reynolds
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She has been bucketed by two large Swabbies. She had forgotten it was the 1st of the month, and was caught for relocation. Worse, once the Swabbies find out who she really is, she makes a quick decision to run into Tunnel W. The tunnel is home to some of the city's most lawless Relos. The Swabby High Commander has ordered her capture, and the Relos are depending on her to get them out of Tunnel W.She has been bucketed by two large Swabbies. She had forgotten it was the 1st of the month, and was captured for relocation. Worse, once the Swabbies find out who she really is, she makes a quick decision to run into Tunnel W. The tunnel is home to some of the city's most lawless captives called Relos. The Swabby High Commander has ordered her captured. The Relos in Tunnel W are depending on her to get them all out of Tunnel W.

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    Destroying the Wrong

      Evelyne Stone
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"Destroying the Wrong is a story of friendship, survival and love." -Review "The author makes you laugh with the sentimental moments that occur between not only best friends but sisters of the sort, Kat & Alyssa, you cry at the heartbreaking moments that occur also in this book. You will shout out in frustration as certain points too, well I know I did." -ReviewSome strong language.Mild sexual content.Alissa Sullivan has got it made -- a supportive, loving family, a cause she believes in, and her new boyfriend. With her best friend Kat at her side, she was counting the days until the end of high school when they could go away to college together. Then she met Scott, a man who wouldn't touch her but would turn her life upside-down. Katherine Horne is perfectly content being in the background. All she wants is to graduate and get out of the town she's grown to loathe. She'd do anything to avoid confrontation but when she finds herself in increasingly humiliating situations, she realizes some things can't be ignored. Especially when it comes to bullying. With their carefully planned futures unraveling, Kat and Alissa will come to realize the bond of their friendship will be tested... and might not make it through intact.

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    Journey to Ninas Twei, Book One of The Earth Woman Tree Woman Quartet

      Connie Pwll Walck Tyler
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When a stray kitten struts boldly into Giselle’s life, the restless young teacher finds herself compelled to “go north.” She’s drawn from the city to rural Arundel where, with the help of a man who prowls the forest as a grey wolf, a librarian who slips through the night as a cougar, and a gardener who rides the wind as a red tailed hawk, she sets out to save the world.Quartet OverviewThe Earth Woman Tree Woman Quartet is a near future fantasy with a progressive political bent, a diverse set of characters, and links to recordings of many original songs.Ninas Twei is the mystical place where all of Earth’s species dance and sing together to ensure the continuance of life on Earth – all, that is, except Homo sapiens. Greed and the lust for power has barred them from the dance.Giselle, an activist school teacher, finds herself called to a small rural community to join a group of people who, becoming their Tla Twein (mythical animals or gods), are able to travel to Ninas Twei.Gathering an increasingly diverse group of people from the city, the country, and the world, the Tla Twein engage in a life and death struggle to heal the rift in the natural order and defeat the forces of greed.Giselle, the Earth Woman Tree Woman, joins with the Wolfwind, and together they become all things – earth, air, and water; flora and fauna – a compassionate force for the well-being of the earth.Book One: Journey to Ninas TweiA stray cat struts into Giselle’s apartment bringing an elusive melody? A majestic homeless woman sings her a prophesy and a red-tailed hawk silently urges her to travel north from the city to a rural farming community on the north coast, where she finds an ocean-side house next to a hilly forest, and a new job.Three people in Arundel have been waiting for Giselle, believing that she, and two children, Enid and Jésus, are missing pieces in their attempt to bring humans back to the dance of life. Yameno, 30, the last member of the Tuwillian nation living in Arundel, is guardian of the sacred spring. His nation has a tradition of transforming into their Tla Twein and traveling to Ninas Twei to watch and guard the dance. Yameno’s Tla Twei is a large grey wolf. Dan, 50, a black gardener and scholar, is the hawk. Hazel, 47, a librarian, becomes the cougar. With subtle, often musical encounters, Giselle and the children are drawn into the group. Yameno, carves a sculpture of Giselle’s Tla Twei, the Earth Woman Tree Woman and transform to their Tla Twein and join, becoming all things – wolf and tree, earth, water, and air.But Enid’s grandfather, Gunther, who learned the secrets of the Tla Twein when married to Hazel’s sister, blames Hazel and the others for his wife’s death. When he stumbles on an encounter between Enid and the cougar he knows is Hazel, he arouses the town and a cougar hunt is planned.Ninas Twei is in imminent danger. Hunt or no hunt, the Tla Twein must travel there. On the day of the cougar hunt they meet in a forest clearing where, singing their songs, they transform to their Tla Twein, journeying to Ninas Twei through a vortex splashed with color – and sometimes pierced by tremors and sharp pain. In Arundel Jésus and Enid are reported missing and the townspeople’s hunt for the cougar turns to one for the children.In Ninas Twei they watch the incredible dance of life and find the Weaving Tree where Giselle can trace people’s stories and see the relationship between the problems on earth and the absence of humans from the dance. The source of the tremors and pain is somewhere beneath this tree and it is dying.Suddenly the ground shakes and a gapping crevice opens up swallowing the screaming children. The others are tossed back to earth in their human form just as the hunters come down the path into the clearing. Obsessed with anger, Gunther raises his gun accusing Hazel of being “the devil”. Hazel and Dan have only a moment to transform to their Tla Twein as he shoots. Hazel and Dan disappear, leaving behind the bodies of a cougar and a hawk.The children are missing. Giselle and Yameno are accused of kidnapping them. They walk back down the hill back of Giselle’s house in the custody of the sheriff.Hazel and Dan call to each other, their voices growing fainter and fainter as they float away from each other in a gray empty place.

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    The Mulligan Planet

      Zachariah Dracoulis
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John Prince is a 264 year old vampire who has been recruited into a specialist team. Their missions range from snatch and grab to assassinations, but they have one thing in common; absolute suicide for humans. One such mission is going well when the unthinkable happens; an alien invasion. Now John must fight through the zombie apocalypse to find his team. Action, comedy and romance ensue.The Mulligan Planet is a first person account of the zombie apocalypse as told by British-born John Prince; a 264 year old stuck at the age of 24 after a run in with a vampire left him as the immoral immortal that he is today. His adventure starts with a slip, trip and a (4 storey) tumble that forces our hero to quickly adapt as in the time frame of a fortnight he is kidnapped by a secret government agency, assigned the task of preventing a world-wide terrorist attack and having this task interrupted by an alien invasion that is converting billions of Earth's population into hordes of the undead, splitting John from his team. Along the way to find the group of wayward vampire agents in the zombified city of Brisbane John meets a new friend, a telepathic sociopath and a host of alien invaders trying to convert Earth into a new vampiric homeworld... again. The first in a three part story of war, love, betrayal, survival and the biggest galactic do-over of all time will see John recount the two weeks before the invasion and the first few weeks into the apocalypse, as well as show the events unfolding upon the scientific star-ship Yuik after the catastrophic failure on, what would come to be known as, the Mulligan Planet.

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    Wish You Were Here

      Reed W. Huston
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When Samantha took the wheel that night, she had no idea her life was about to change forever. Cradling her dying husband in her arms, salvation appears to her in the form of a little girl. Reaching the end of the rope, she has no choice but to accept the girl's offer, a bargain that on the surface, seems to be everything she wanted. But looks can be deceiving.Samantha and Morgan have had their difficulties, as have most married couples. But when a nasty accident forces Samantha to reevaluate that life, she realizes that she would do anything to have that back again. A little girl offers Samantha a deal, a bargain that seems too good to be true. But can Samantha deal with the consequences of her actions? Or will she learn the hard way that when you go to little girls in dark corners with your problems, you don't often get what you pay for.

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    Uncanny Tales of Crush and Pound 11

      Christopher D. Carter
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Crush and the beautiful giantess Beni escape from the clutches of the treacherous Mouchard, only to find themselves fleeing from a band of armored giants, the mystical Queen Dowager, and the fire-breathing dragon from beneath Scalus Mountain!!!Alice Reaver is not her real name but that's who she'll have to be at yet another new school in another new town that her fugitive father has dumped them in for her safety. It's been like this for eight long years, ever since they came home to find her mother brutally murdered. It was probably a message to her father, an almost reformed assassin. Maybe it was payback from the shady, quasi-government jokers he used to work for and betrayed or from one of his victims' families. Whatever. After spending half her life lying to everyone she meets, discarding identities and hair colors like dirty socks, and learning how to kill in dozens of different ways, "Alice" is done. She's made some friends at Oxford High - her first ever. One of them needs the help of her lethal skill sets to stay alive. And maybe she's met a boy - or two. Her father can let her have a life or he can kill her for breaking curfew and their survival protocol. But she's not leaving without a fight that will test everything he's ever taught her.

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    Escape

      Stephen Brandon
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Using stolen technology, a group of individuals plan their escape them oppressive society run by big corporations.In an decadent alien interstellar federation where profit is the main consideration, those without the technology, are captured and sold as slaves. Captured by an alien merchant, see how they jumped from the frying pan into the fire.When economic collapse happens, who takes over. If it's big business, are they after profit or power. What is the individual to do, go underground and look for an escape? Infiltrating the Cartels laboratories they find experiments that chill them to the bone. The also find technology that is suppressed. One of these technologies offers them the chance, if they can build the equipment. In hidden laboratories of their own, they work feverishly to duplicate the equipment, and hope the Cartel cannot detect the signals it generates. Is the grass really greener on the other side? They send a team to prepare a place for their families. When their families join them, the signals created by the equipment are detected by a merchant. He diverts from his scheduled route to investigate. This diversion cost him money, so he captures the refugees. In the decadent federation slavery is legal. Selling them will recover more of his expenses, than simply throwing them out an airlock door. To increase the slaves value he educates them, and everyone knows that knowledge is power. Curiosity mixed with knowledge causes more problems than solutions.

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    Aliens Did NOT Destroy Chicago

      Chris Cherry
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In this story, "Aliens Did NOT Destroy Chicago" is the title of a video discovered on the internet after claims that aliens nuked the city are broadcast on news networks. The story is told in that format, with a transcriber copying all of the spoken text into long form. The reader is challenged to examine perceptions and exercise discernment through the use of media."Aliens Did NOT Destroy Chicago" is the title of a video discovered on the internet after claims that aliens nuked the city are broadcast on new networks. The story is told in that format, with a transcriber copying all of the spoken text into long form. In this short fiction, the author formulates a scenario where a major US city is destroyed by a false flag operation, and what might occur if the scale were so monstrous it could barely be believed. The reader is challenged to examine perceptions and exercise discernment through the use of media.

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    When the Wind Calls

      Teri J. Dluznieski M.Ed.
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Torn between her family, and the foreign boy she was forbidden to love- she chose the wind.At 19, Kijah feels like she's outgrowing her family's small urban farm. She also has questions about her real father, a Faenyr man her mother won’t talk about. Growing up in Treyu, at least, being half-blooded is common. But she just doesn't feel like she fits. Then Zria walks into her life. A golden-fair Faenyr boy, a mirror to her own exotic looks. Everything she thought was turned upside down. Now she wonders about magic, and the nature of true power, as they explore each other’s worlds. She is swept up in newfound love that brings a whirlwind of change. For the first time in her life, she feels connected to herself, to Zria, and the world around her. She knows it is all because of Zria: magic and charming and completely foreign. In a very short time, he has become her whole world. She feels so connected to Zria, that she forgets that he is truly Faenyr, in a way that she is not. What will she do when she realizes they may be less alike than she thought?

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    Dark Poetry

      A.O. Chika
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Dark Poetry is a collection of dark psychological and emotional poems.To have one written for you send a Prompt, Word or Picture.I’ve never cut myselfBut I’ll understand if you doI can’t blame youIt must feel so goodI can picture itI’ll use a knife not a bladeA blade can easily slipAnd things can turn bad fast...From Self HarmDark Poetry is a collection of dark psychological and emotional poems.To have one written for you send a Prompt, Word or Picture.I’ve never cut myselfBut I’ll understand if you doI can’t blame youIt must feel so goodI can picture itI’ll use a knife not a bladeA blade can easily slipAnd things can turn bad fast...From Self HarmI’m a coward I’ve always beenAnd it’s all in my headIn reality I’m in bed cryingI don’t know why you left me even though I doLie Smile Scream BegYou’ll come running back to meI know you won’tBut I will pretend anyway it’s all I have left...From Heartbreak

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    Living to Tell the Tale

      Gabriel García Márquez
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In Living to Tell the Tale Gabriel Garcia Marquez - winner of the 1982 Nobel Prize for Literature and author of One Hundred Years of Solitude - recounts his personal experience of returning to the house in which he grew up and the memories that this visit conjured. 'My mother asked me to go with her to sell the house' Gabriel Garcia Marquez was twenty-three, a young man experimenting with his writing when this mother asked him to come back with her to the village of his grandparents and the memories of his Colombian childhood. In the first part of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's memoir, the Nobel Prize-winning author returns to the atmosphere and influences that shaped his formidable imagination and formed the basis of his world-famous, and much-loved, fiction. 'A treasure trove, a discovery of a lost land we knew existed but couldn't find. A thrilling miracle of a book' The Times 'A marvellous journey. Never less than a miracle' Sunday Times 'Marquez writes in this lyrical, magical language that no one else can do' Salman Rushdie

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    Deepest Kiss

      J. Kenner
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New York Times *bestselling author J. Kenner continues her beloved, million-copy selling Stark series with Deepest Kiss, a *scorching-hot Stark Ever After novella for Nikki and Damien Stark, and introducing seductive bad boy Dallas Sykes from the S.I.N. trilogy. For fans of Fifty Shades of Grey*, Sylvia Day, Meredith Wild and Jodi Ellen Malpas. *My love for Damien Stark runs deep, and my need for his touch runs even deeper. He's my shelter in this world, my light when everything seems dark, and all it takes is one kiss for my body to come alive. Yet no matter where we go, our secrets threaten to surface. Someone dangerous from my past is back to stir up trouble, and now it feels like there's nowhere I can hide. I know Damien will always protect me, that our fierce desire will give us strength. In his arms I find safe harbour - and the sweetest release.Includes a special preview of J. Kenner's provocative new novel, Dirtiest Secret!Look for Dallas's story in the sexy Stark S.I.N. series: Dirtiest Secret, Hottest Mess and *Sweetest Taboo.* Find out how it all began for Damien and Nikki in J. Kenner's *hot and addictive bestselling Stark series: Release Me, Claim Me, Complete Me, Take Me, Have Me, Play My Game, Seduce Me and Unwrap Me.*** Return to the smoking hot Stark world with the Stark International trilogy: Say My Name, On My Knees and Under My Skin is the *explosively emotional story of *Jackson Steele and Sylvia Brooks.Don't miss *J. Kenner's sizzling Most Wanted series *of three enigmatic and powerful men, and the striking women who can bring them to their knees: Wanted, Heated and Ignited.**

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    Have a Little Faith: A True Story

      Mitch Albom
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In Have a Little Faith, Mitch Albom offers a beautifully written story of a remarkable eight-year journey between two worlds--two men, two faiths, two communities--that will inspire readers everywhere. Albom's first nonfiction book since Tuesdays with Morrie, Have a Little Faith begins with an unusual request: an eighty-two-year-old rabbi from Albom's old hometown asks him to deliver his eulogy. Feeling unworthy, Albom insists on understanding the man better, which throws him back into a world of faith he'd left years ago. Meanwhile, closer to his current home, Albom becomes involved with a Detroit pastor--a reformed drug dealer and convict--who preaches to the poor and homeless in a decaying church with a hole in its roof. Moving between their worlds, Christian and Jewish, African-American and white, impoverished and well-to-do, Albom observes how these very different men employ faith similarly in fighting for survival: the older, suburban rabbi embracing it as death approaches; the younger, inner-city pastor relying on it to keep himself and his church afloat. As America struggles with hard times and people turn more to their beliefs, Albom and the two men of God explore issues that perplex modern man: how to endure when difficult things happen; what heaven is; intermarriage; forgiveness; doubting God; and the importance of faith in trying times. Although the texts, prayers, and histories are different, Albom begins to recognize a striking unity between the two worlds--and indeed, between beliefs everywhere. In the end, as the rabbi nears death and a harsh winter threatens the pastor's wobbly church, Albom sadly fulfills the rabbi's last request and writes the eulogy. And he finally understands what both men had been teaching all along: the profound comfort of believing in something bigger than yourself. Have a Little Faith is a book about a life's purpose; about losing belief and finding it again; about the divine spark inside us all. It is one man's journey, but it is everyone's story. Ten percent of the profits from this book will go to charity, including The Hole In The Roof Foundation, which helps refurbish places of worship that aid the homeless.

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    Girls in Pants: The Third Summer of the Sisterhood

      Ann Brashares
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“A fun and poignant coming-of-age story," declared Entertainment Weekly of the third novel in the #1 New York Times bestselling Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series by Ann Brashares, author of The Here and Now. It’s the summer before the sisterhood departs for college . . . their last real summer together before they head off to start their grown-up lives. It’s the time when Lena, Tibby, Bridget, and Carmen need their Pants the most. “Readers of the other books won’t be disappointed.” —Booklist, Starred “A treat for anyone.” —*Los Angeles Times “These are friends worth having.” —Chicago Tribune *

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    Cometh the Hour

      Jeffrey Archer
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Cometh the Hour opens with the reading of a suicide note, which has devastating consequences for Harry and Emma Clifton, Giles Barrington and Lady Virginia. Giles must decide if he should withdraw from politics and try to rescue Karin, the woman he loves, from behind the Iron Curtain. But is Karin truly in love with him, or is she a spy? Lady Virginia is facing bankruptcy, and can see no way out of her financial problems, until she is introduced to the hapless Cyrus T. Grant III from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, who's in England to see his horse run at Royal Ascot. Sebastian Clifton is now the Chief Executive of Farthings Bank and a workaholic, whose personal life is thrown into disarray when he falls for Priya, a beautiful Indian girl. But her parents have already chosen the man she is going to marry. Meanwhile, Sebastian's rivals Adrian Sloane and Desmond Mellor are still plotting to bring him and his chairman Hakim Bishara down, so they can take over Farthings. Harry Clifton remains determined to get Anatoly Babakov released from a gulag in Siberia, following the international success of his acclaimed book, Uncle Joe. But then something unexpected happens that none of them could have anticipated. Cometh the Hour is the penultimate book in the Clifton Chronicles and, like the five previous novels - which were all New York Times bestsellers - showcases Jeffrey Archer's extraordinary storytelling with his trademark twists.

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    Another Day

      David Levithan
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Every day is the same for Rhiannon. She has accepted her life, convinced herself that she deserves her distant, temperamental boyfriend, Justin, even established guidelines by which to live: Don’t be too needy. Avoid upsetting him. Never get your hopes up. Until the morning everything changes. Justin seems to see her, to want to be with her for the first time, and they share a perfect day—a perfect day Justin doesn’t remember the next morning. Confused, depressed, and desperate for another day as great as that one, Rhiannon starts questioning everything. Then, one day, a stranger tells her that the Justin she spent that day with, the one who made her feel like a real person…wasn’t Justin at all. In this enthralling companion to his New York Times bestseller Every Day, David Levithan tells Rhiannon’s side of the story as she seeks to discover the truth about love and how it can change you.

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    Moonrise

      Erin Hunter
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Moons have passed since six cats set out on a journey to save their Clans. Now they are traveling home again, but on their way through the mountains, they meet a tribe of wild cats with a secret . . . and their own mysterious prophecy to fulfill. Stormfur can't understand their strange fascination with him, but he knows the danger they face is real. Meanwhile, back in the forest, Firestar and Leafpaw watch ThunderClan's world crumbling around them. Will the questing cats make it back in time to save the Clans, or will they be too late?

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    Ink in the Blood: A Hospital Diary

      Hilary Mantel
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Just after 'Bring Up the Bodies' author Hilary Mantel won the Man Booker for 'Wolf Hall', she fell gravely ill. This is her remarkable hospital diary. Originally published in the London Review of Books, this diary by the acclaimed author Hilary Mantel explores in forensic detail her loss of dignity, her determination, the concentration of the senses into an animalistic struggle to get through, and the attendant hallucinations she was plagued by during her stay in hospital. With her health now improved, and the acknowledgement of the Man Booker prize-winning follow-up to 'Wolf Hall', 'Bring Up the Bodies' as one of our greatest works of fiction, 'Ink in the Blood' remains a significant testament to the traumas of illness, and one of the most incredible and haunting essays published in a very long time.

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    The Samurai's Garden

      Gail Tsukiyama
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A 20-year-old Chinese painter named Stephen is sent to his family's summer home in a Japanese coastal village to recover from a bout with tuberculosis. Here he is cared for by Matsu, a reticent housekeeper and a master gardener. Over the course of a remarkable year, Stephen learns Matsu's secret and gains not only physical strength, but also profound spiritual insight. Matsu is a samurai of the soul, a man devoted to doing good and finding beauty in a cruel and arbitrary world, and Stephen is a noble student, learning to appreciate Matsu's generous and nurturing way of life and to love Matsu's soul-mate, gentle Sachi, a woman afflicted with leprosy.

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    Messages From a Lost World: Europe on the Brink

      Stefan Zweig
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Stefan Zweig was a leading talisman of a united Europe of unfettered movement, of pro-active cultural exchange, humane decency and tolerance, all polar opposites of the Nationalist regimes he loathed, and which came to power in the 1930s. In these poignant essays and addresses, forged in the last years or even months of his life, he shows his profound concern for and dedication to the survival of Europe's spiritual integrity. These essays form the natural accompaniment to Zweig's renowned memoir The World of Yesterday, registering the same themes and evoking the same nostalgia for a world brutally consigned to history. They can be seen as a vital addendum to that major work or as a prefiguration. But perhaps even more so than the prose of the memoir, these essays, few in number but rich in content, reveal the essence of Zweig's thought.

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