If the fact that they were single mothers meant that gorgeous women (who would not ordinarily look twice at Will) were willing to date him, then Will had it made. Inventing a son got him into a single parents support group, but rather than a fabulous new sex life, he found someone else's very real son -- a twelve-year-old with a lot to teach Will about being a grown up.

Winner of the Whitbread Prize for best first fiction, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit is a coming-out novel from Winterson, the acclaimed author of The Passion and Sexing the Cherry. The narrator, Jeanette, cuts her teeth on the knowledge that she is one of God’s elect, but as this budding evangelical comes of age, and comes to terms with her preference for her own sex, the peculiar balance of her God-fearing household crumbles. Jeanette Winterson's semi-autobiographical novel is one of the most beautifully written story of a middle-class girl struggling to come to terms with her own sexuality, creativity, passion vs. her family/society's inflexible "formed opinions". The story of the persecution of a girl because of her sexual preference (in this case, lesbianism) is not new. It's how Ms. Winterson presents her story. Fresh. Alive. Witty. Funny. Heartbreaking at times. Imaginative. Almost like you were holding a piece of someone's soul in your hands rather than merely a book. I noticed that one reviewer mentioned that the book's sexual nature is vulgar. I do not find this so. Even if it is, so what? Life is vulgar. Only those fond of sweeping the dirt under the carpet so that it stays out of sight (or those who drive lesbian girls from their house/church and pretend they don't exist) will disagree with the innate vulgarity of all life. This book is the antidote for that kind of sanitized thinking. This book exposes that sanitized Christian middle-class thinking is weird, almost alien when observed sanely by a third party standing on the outside. This book celebrates life. Read it.

媒體推薦 人類無法逃脫他必須承受的命運安排，Max Morden在生命中的十字路口，他必須把他混亂生活理出個頭緒，他罹患癌症的太太剛剛過世，他想逃離現實生活中面對的失落，卻回到當年受到創傷的所在。他回到的他還是小男孩時生活的海邊小鎮，他記得當時Grace家庭的雙胞胎Myles與Chloe。不過在Max Morden試著重新在此地展開新生活的同時，卻又陷入與雙胞胎的奇怪關係。John Banville以《The Sea》以一位年過五旬的中年男子的心態，討論懷鄉的渴望與對於記憶的冥思，討論人面對的死亡與記憶，Banville優美的文字與嚴謹的風格架構讓該書在傳媒界一致認為是文字藝術的臻品，《The Sea》入圍了今年的英國布克獎，可說是呼聲相當高的一部作品。 【94年11月好讀推薦】二○○五年布克獎得主 John Banville，儘管在初審時擊退伊恩．麥可尤恩（Ian McEwan）、柯慈（J. M. Coetzee）、魯西迪（Salman Rushdie），決選時打敗朱力安．巴恩斯（Julian Barnes）、石黑一雄和札迪．史密斯（Zadie Smith），在英國文壇的知名度卻出奇地低。出生於愛爾蘭的Banville，共出版過十四部小說，無一不以「難讀」著稱，獲獎作品The Sea，描寫主人翁喪妻後重遊故地，全書幾無對白，情節亦少起伏，盡由細節繁複的意識流獨白構成，對一般讀者來說，閱讀門檻頗高。由於近年布克獎傾向鼓勵對大眾讀者較「友善」的書寫，該書獲獎後益發受到爭議。針對媒體書評關乎該書「語言拗口」、「內容晦澀」的批評，評審團主席John Sutherland為Banville辯護道：「人生不正是這般抑鬱、難纏？」以下節譯該書第一章，供欲一探究竟之讀者先讀為快。 ■精采內文試閱【The Sea節譯】 方才有人踏過我的墳墓，有個人…… 我在這裡的那許多年以前，眾神仍與人同在的日子，名叫「西達」的老房子是棟避暑小屋，一次出租兩個星期或一個月。每年六月，一個有錢的醫生跟他粗聲粗氣的一大家子會在這裡出沒──我們不喜歡他家大嗓門的小孩，他們衝我們笑，又自攻不破的大門柵欄後面向我們丟石頭。在他們之後，是一對神祕的中年夫妻，他倆不跟人攀談，每日清晨同一時間陰沉著臉帶他家臘腸狗出門，無聲無息沿車站路走到河邊。在我們看來，八月的「西達」老屋最有意思。這時節的房客年年不同：有從英國或歐洲來的旅客，有我們老想偷窺的滑稽蜜月夫妻，有一回，甚至來了一隊裝備齊全的巡迴劇團，在小鎮簡陋的戲院裡演了一台午場戲。然後，那年，葛斯一家出現。 我第一眼看見的，是他家的車；泊在大門內的碎石地上。低底盤、刮痕累累、坑坑疤疤的黑色車款，內裝灰棕色皮椅墊，和一輪亮晶晶的木質方向盤。封面磨損還帶折痕的書，隨意灑在「西達」斜度挺時髦的後窗底下，一台書架上。還有一幅法國旅遊地圖，已翻得破破爛爛了。屋子前門大開，我聽得見屋內的聲響，從樓下傳來；樓上，有赤腳跑過樓板的聲音，和一個女孩的笑。我在大門邊停住，幾乎是在偷聽；倏地，一個男人手端著酒跑了出來……他把無握把酒杯──青藍色烈酒、冰塊、一塊檸檬片──以危險的角度放在車頂上，打開前座車門，彎身入內，在儀表版下東翻西找。看不見的樓上，女孩又笑了一遍，發出一聲狂亂、顫抖、佯裝受驚嚇的尖叫，之後，仍是疾行的腳步聲……男人轉身進屋的時候與我四目相對，對我眨了一下眼，那不是一般大人促狹帶諂媚的眨法，而是一種志同道合、帶有共謀意味的表示，近乎祕密結謀，彷彿，我與他，兩個陌生人，一個大人和一個小孩，共同經歷的這一時刻，儘管看似無足輕重，甚至毫無內容，卻饒富深意…… 這，便是我與葛斯一家的初次相遇…… 過去，在我心中跳動，彷若第二顆心。

Set against the turbulent years of the Napoleonic  era, Alexandre Dumas's thrilling adventure story  is one of the most widely read romantic novels of  all time. In it the dashing young hero, Edmond  Dantès, is betrayed by his enemies and thrown  into a secret dungeon in the Chateau d'If -- doomed  to spend his life in a dank prison cell. The story  of his long, intolerable years in captivity, his  miraculous escape, and his carefully wrought  revenge creates a dramatic tale of mystery and intrigue  and paints a vision of France -- a dazzling,  dueling, exuberant France -- that has become immortal.  

The story introduces an exclusive group of friends: Alison DiLaurentis, the perfect yet manipulative queen bee, Aria Montgomery, an independent girl who is considered to be the weirdo in Rosewood, Emily Fields, a swimmer who holds secret feelings for Alison, Hanna Marin, who strives to be thin and popular like Alison, and Spencer Hastings, an ambitious girl who is brave enough to stand up against Alison's manipulative ways. Alison mysteriously disappears during a sleepover with the girls before their 8th grade school year begins. The story then jumps 3 years after, where the girls are now separated. Aria returns to Rosewood from a 2 year trip to Iceland with her family and comes back much more sophisticated than before she left. She meets and kisses a guy in a local pub who is revealed to be her English teacher, Ezra Fitz. Emily befriends the new girl in town, Maya, and soon develops romantic feelings for her. Hanna is the new popular girl in town alongside the former nerd, Mona. However, she will sometimes shoplift and throw up her meals to stay thin and popular, ruling as queen bee of Rosewood Day. Spencer continues to struggle against the rivalry with her and Melissa, her perfect older sister. Problems occur when she begins to feel attracted to Melissa's new boyfriend, Wren Kim, when he is introduced to the family. Throughout the story, the liars get messages threatening to reveal their secrets of the present and past, including a terrifying incident the girls refer to as "The Jenna Thing". They automatically believe it is their missing friend, Alison, because she is the only one each of them confided to with their darkest secrets. However, they are shocked when the police find her corpse hidden in the backyard of her former house. The book ends with the liars getting cussed by receiving a text saying, "I'm still here, bitches. And I know everything. --A"

Disgrace--set in post--apartheid Cape Town and on a remote farm in the Eastern Cape--is deft, lean, quiet, and brutal. A heartbreaking novel about a man and his daughter, Disgrace is a portrait of the new South Africa that is ultimately about grace and love. At fifty--two Professor David Lurie is divorced, filled with desire but lacking passion. An affair with one of his students leaves him jobless and friendless, except for his daughter, Lucy, who works her smallholding with her neighbor, Petrus, an African farmer now on the way to a modest prosperity. David's attempts to relate to Lucy, and to a society with new racial complexities, are disrupted by an afternoon of violence that changes him and his daughter in ways he could never have foreseen. In this wry, visceral, yet strangely tender novel, Coetzee once again tells "truths [that] cut to the bone" (The New York Time Book Review). A finalist for The National Book Critics Circle Awards Coetzee is the only writer to have been awarded the Booker Prize twice

Ged was the greatest sorcerer in all Earthsea,  but once he was called Sparrowhawk, a reckless  youth, hungry for power and knowledge, who tampered  with long-held secrets and loosed a terrible shadow  upon the world. This is the tale of his testing,  how he mastered the mighty words of power, tamed an  ancient dragon, and crossed death's threshold to  restore the balance.

我抬头望着城堡的高墙。没有一扇窗户透出一丝光亮。我听见巨大木门上的锁被打开了，门缓缓开启。一个满头白发非常苍老的男人出现在我眼前。“欢迎来我家”他说。“请进入德拉库拉城堡，哈克先生”。当我步入城堡时，德拉库拉伯爵一把握住了我的手臂。他惊人地强壮但他的手却冰凉。

Just how well can you ever know the person you love? This is the question that Nick Dunne must ask himself on the morning of his fifth wedding anniversary, when his wife Amy suddenly disappears.

"Someone was following her. She had read about stalkers, but they belonged in a different, faraway world. She had no idea who it could be, who would want to harm her. She was trying desperately not to panic, but lately her sleep had been filled with nightmares, and she had awakened each morning with a feeling of impending doom." Thus begins Sidney Sheldon's haunting new novel, Tell Me Your Dreams. When a series of brutal murders is committed, the police suspect three beautiful young women. An arrest is made and what follows is one of the most bizarre murder trials of the century. Based on actual events, Tell Me Your Dreams races at a feverish pace from London to Rome to Quebec to San Francisco, and builds to a shocking climax that will leave the listener stunned. This suspenseful follow-up to Sheldon's most recent bestseller, The Best Laid Plans (ten weeks on the New York Times bestseller list), is rich with tension and heart-stopping action. Laced with the kinds of plot twists and turns that his fans love, Tell Me Your Dreams is an entertaining and gripping story.

'Every family is a ghost story ...' As a child, Charley Benetto was told by his father, 'You can be a mama's boy or a daddy's boy, but you can't be both.' So he chooses his father, only to see him disappear when Charley is on the verge of adolescence. Decades later, Charley is a broken man. His life has been destroyed by alcohol and regret. He loses his job. He leaves his family. He hits rock bottom after discovering he won't be invited to his only daughter's wedding. And he decides to take his own life. Charley makes a midnight ride to his small hometown: his final journey. But as he staggers into his old house, he makes an astonishing discovery. His mother - who died eight years earlier - is there, and welcomes Charley home as if nothing had ever happened. What follows is the one seemingly ordinary day so many of us yearn for: a chance to make good with a lost parent, to explain the family secrets and to seek forgiveness.

The world's greatest fantasy classic is the magical epic of King Arthur and his shining Camelot, of Merlyn and Guinevere, of beasts who talk and men who fly, of wizardry and war. It is the book of all things lost and wonderful and sad. It is the fantasy masterpiece by which all others are judged.

Leaving behind a world on the brink of destruction, man came to the Red planet and found the Martians waiting, dreamlike. Seeking the promise of a new beginning, man brought with him his oldest fears and his deepest desires. Man conquered Mars-- and in that instant, Mars conquered him. The strange new world with its ancient, dying race and vast, red-gold deserts cast a spell on him, settled into his dreams, and changed him forever. Here are the captivating chronicles of man and Mars-- the modern classic by the peerless Ray Bradbury.

To you, perceptive reader, I bequeath my history....Late one night, exploring her father's library, a young woman finds an ancient book and a cache of yellowing letters. The letters are all addressed to "My dear and unfortunate successor," and they plunge her into a world she never dreamed of-a labyrinth where the secrets of her father's past and her mother's mysterious fate connect to an inconceivable evil hidden in the depths of history.The letters provide links to one of the darkest powers that humanity has ever known-and to a centuries-long quest to find the source of that darkness and wipe it out. It is a quest for the truth about Vlad the Impaler, the medieval ruler whose barbarous reign formed the basis of the legend of Dracula. Generations of historians have risked their reputations, their sanity, and even their lives to learn the truth about Vlad the Impaler and Dracula. Now one young woman must decide whether to take up this quest herself-to follow her father in a hunt that nearly brought him to ruin years ago, when he was a vibrant young scholar and her mother was still alive. What does the legend of Vlad the Impaler have to do with the modern world? Is it possible that the Dracula of myth truly existed-and that he has lived on, century after century, pursuing his own unknowable ends? The answers to these questions cross time and borders, as first the father and then the daughter search for clues, from dusty Ivy League libraries to Istanbul, Budapest, and the depths of Eastern Europe. In city after city, in monasteries and archives, in letters and in secret conversations, the horrible truth emerges about Vlad the Impaler's dark reign-and about a time-defying pact that may have kept his awful work alive down through the ages.Parsing obscure signs and hidden texts, reading codes worked into the fabric of medieval monastic traditions-and evading the unknown adversaries who will go to any lengths to conceal and protect Vlad's ancient powers-one woman comes ever closer to the secret of her own past and a confrontation with the very definition of evil. Elizabeth Kostova's debut novel is an adventure of monumental proportions, a relentless tale that blends fact and fantasy, history and the present, with an assurance that is almost unbearably suspenseful-and utterly unforgettable.

50 Great Short Stories is a comprehensive selection from the world's finest short fiction. The authors represented range from Hawthorne, Maupassant, Poe, through Henry James, Conrad, Aldous Huxley, James Joyce, to Hemingway, Katherine Anne Porter, Faulkner, E.B. White, Saroyan and O'Connor. The variety in style and subject is enormous, but all these stories have one point in common--the enduring quality of the writing, which places them among the masterpieces of the world's fiction.

Famous novella chronicles a young American girl’s willful yet innocent flirtation with a young Italian, and its unfortunate consequences. Throughout, James contrasts American customs and values with European manners and morals in a narrative rich in psychological and social insight.

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它是个“赛米德”（即沙精）。有一天孩子们在砾石坑中挖沙时发现了它。它已经几千岁了。当然了，沙精们可以帮人们实现他们的愿望——愿望每天只能实现一个，而且当太阳落山时一切也就结束了。安西娅、西里尔、罗伯特和简觉得这棒极了。他们的小弟弟还太小，不会许愿，而且大部分时间都呆在家里；可其他几个盘算着些激动人心的东西。 可那又是什么呢？变得漂亮，富有，还是能像鸟儿一样飞翔？有时候想出真正的好望很困难，可是脱口说出“但愿……”却是很容易的，那时你就得到了并不真正想要的东西。这时沙精就不肯帮忙了。出了差错时它就生气地说：“为什么你不先想好了再说？” 而事情的确常出差错……