Bøger udgivet af Open Road Media

Ten stories of wonder and imagination by an author named Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. In the collection's title story, Frederick Gray is closing in on seventy and has outlived his usefulness as a professor of law. He has no family; his best friend, fellow faculty member Ben Lovell, has recently died. Before Gray moves into a retirement home, he takes a final canoe trip to a favorite fishing spot he and Lovell had visited many times, only to find that someone has built a house on the remote riverside. When an accident leaves Gray stranded and in pain, he returns to the shelter seeking aid and instead finds a new reason for living. Nine additional tales showcase Clifford D. Simak's talent for spinning stories that allow us to glimpse the possibilities of life beyond Earth as well as expand our wisdom of what it means to be human. Each story includes an introduction by David W. Wixon, literary executor of the Clifford D. Simak estate and editor of this ebook.

Twelve classic tales of the unknown from the Hugo and Nebula Awardwinning author ofWay Station. Clifford D. Simak had a sublime ability to evoke a lost way of life. He spent his youth in rural Wisconsin, a landscape filled with mysterious hollows, cliffs, dark forests, and the Wisconsin River flowing in its deep-cut valley. As Simak wandered the countryside and the ridges, he peopled them with imaginary characters who later came to life in his stories. One such individual is Johnny, the orphaned farm boy of ';The Contraption,' who stumbles upon a wrecked starship and receives a priceless gift from its owners. Another is the old prospector Eli, whose surprising discoveries on Mercury get him killed in ';Spaceship in a Flask.' In ';Huddling Place,' a man with paralyzing agoraphobia is the only one who can save the life of a dear friend on Marsif he can bear to make the trip. And in the title story, aliens slowly take over Earth while humans leave it behind and head for the Homestead Planets. Each story includes an introduction by David W. Wixon, literary executor of the Clifford D. Simak estate and editor of this ebook.

An indefatigable, irresistible, and wildly inappropriate Jewish mother takes her 17-year-old son to school in this uproarious coming-of-age comedy Tall and scattered-looking, Joseph has just graduated from high school and is ready for college. But is college ready forhim? Apparently not, judging by the rejection letter he receives from Bates and the deafening silence that greets his application to Columbia. While his friends pack their bags for schools across the country, Joseph mopes around the apartment in his bathrobe and checks the mailbox obsessively. It's enough to make his mother fear for the boy's sanityso she resolves to take matters into her own hands. What follows is a sidesplitting series of misadventures as Meg, whom theNew York Times Book Reviewcalled ';the most unforgettable mother since Medea,' pulls out all the stops to get her boy what he wants. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Bruce Jay Friedman including rare photos from the author's personal collection.

Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize: In this comedic novel, an English professor collides with disaster at the peak of the Cold War Shortly after his plane first grazes the tarmac in the eastern European nation of Slaka, Dr. Angus Petworth is beset by a cavalcade of misadventures. A university lecturer and seasoned international traveler, Petworth is nevertheless unprepared for the oddities of culture and circumstance that await him on the other side of the iron curtain. In two eventful weeks, Petworth gives an incendiary interview, is seduced by a femme fatale, and becomes embroiled in a plot of international intrigue, all of which conspire to give the mild, unassuming professor way more than he bargained for. Satirizing everything from critics and diplomats to Marxism and academia, Malcolm Bradbury's Rates of Exchange is a witty and lighthearted novel of cultural interchange at the height of the Cold War.

Rosamond Lehmann's first novel, now a classic of British literature, tells a luminous story of friendship, discovery, and forbidden love This debut novel, set in the early 1900s, tells the story of Judith Earle, a solitary only child growing up in a sprawling house in the Thames Valley. From an early age, she is fascinated by the six cousins who live next door. There's boring, faithful Martin, of the red cheeks and perennially scabby knees; beautiful, aristocratic Charlie, whom Judith secretly adores and who will die in the First World War; reckless Julian, who turns lying into an art; enigmatic Roddy, who visits only occasionally; and Mariella, whose marriage to her first cousin will end tragically, and who lives with the scandal of her mother running off with another man. Every year, the Fyfe family returns to this idyllic corner of England. Childhood friendships blossom into adolescent romance as the cousins fall in love with Judithand she with them. But her world transforms forever when she meets a beautiful fellow student named Jennifer. A novel in many ways ahead of its time, Dusty Answer is about love: first love, love on the rebound, taboo love, the loss of love. With its gentle indictment of England's class system, it is also about what goes on behind the closed doors of genteel society, and the self-deceptions we spin in order to give our lives meaning.

A headstrong young journalist goes on the adventure of a lifetime, traveling through Europe to find the world's most enigmatic philosopher Bazlo Criminale is one of Europe's most legendary living men. A mysterious novelist and thinker known for his extreme elusiveness, the beloved Criminale is a cultural icon of the highest order. Seeking to find the man behind the myth, a London television-news station hires Francis Jay, an enterprising young reporter, to find Criminale. From Vienna to Budapest to the picturesque lakeshores of Italy, Jay journeys across the continentand even briefly to Brazilinterviewing the man's biographer, his publisher, and his former lover, all of whom have their own interests at stake. Through literary award dinners and other examples of ';culture as spectacle,' Jay must navigate the chaotic world of postCold War Europe as he chases the specter of a literary legend.

The life of an American hippie in Mexico is upended by a gang of ex-cons in this thriller full of ';wild surprises' (Carl Hiaasen). All Tod remembers when he wakes up next to a dead prostitute is that he had his first shot of heroin the night before. He and his wife, Linda, were partying with their new neighbors, a trio of parole violators who fled to Mexico after robbing a Beverly Hills jewelry store. Now the place is empty, stripped clean except for Tod's hunting knife, which is covered in blood. Did he kill the woman, or was he left behind as the fall guy? Convinced that his junkie friends abducted Linda to keep her from talking to the police, Tod buys a gun and prepares to do whatever it takes to get his wife back before he makes a run for the border.

Looking to strike it rich with television gold, an English media tycoon enlists the help of an unassuming novelist to script his small-screen epic, to disastrousand hilariouseffect The year is 1986, and the cuts imposed by Margaret Thatcher's government have trickled down to university life, where departments are being forced to shave their payrolls to account for reduced public funding. Meanwhile, at Eldorado Television, a different kind of cut is about to wreak havoc. Lord Mellow, head of the declining studio, watches as his last-ditch effort to produce a hit series falls to pieces. The show's star, the volatile but vaunted Sir Luke Trimingham, has just declared that he will quit unless the script is entirely rewritten. Desperate to save the project, Eldorado brings university lecturer and author Henry Babbacombe into the fold to write thirteen new episodes of ambitious televisionsomething so grand that the leading man cannot possibly refuse it. But the production is plagued from the start, suffering endless calamities with its unpredictable actors and crew, whose behind-the-scenes drama rivals anything Babbacombe could dream up.

First published nearly one hundred years ago, Andre Gide's masterpiece, translated from the original French by Pulitzer Prize winner Richard Howard, draws from the disciplines of biology, philosophy, and history to support the author's assertion that homosexuality is a natural human trait At the time of his death in 1951, having won the Nobel Prize in Literature only four years prior, Andre Gide was considered one of the most important literary minds of the twentieth century. In Corydon, initially released anonymously in installments between 1911 and 1920, Gide speaks his most subversive and provocative truth. Citing myriad examples that span thousands of years, Gide's Socratic dialogues argue that homosexuality is naturalin fact, far more so than the social construct of exclusive heterosexuality, the act of systematically banning or ostracizing same-sex relationships.Corydon, named for the pederast character in Virgil's Eclogues, caused its author ';all kinds of trouble,' according to his friends, but he regarded it as his most important work. The courage, intelligence, and prescience of Gide's argument make it all the more impressive today.

A great read for fans of PBS's Poldark and Downton Abbeyfirst in the saga of a man returning from battle to an estate in the pre-WWI English countryside. After serving his country in the Boer War, injured Lieutenant Paul Craddock returns to England to resume civilian life. But things have changed since he joined the Imperial Yeomanry three years ago. His father has died, leaving Paul as heir to a scrap metal business he has no intention of continuing. Instead, he purchases an auctioned-off thirteen-hundred-acre estate in a secluded corner of Devon. Neglected and overgrown, Shallowford becomes the symbol of all that Paul has lostand a reminder of the gentle place his homeland once was. And here, on this sprawling stretch of land, he will be changed by his love for two women: fiercely independent Grace Lovell, and lovely, demure Claire Derwent. Set in the English countryside in the first part of the previous centuryfrom the long ';Edwardian afternoon' following the death of Queen Victoria, to the gathering storm of World War ILong Summer Dayis the story of a man, his family, and a people struggling to adapt to life in a new world.Long Summer Dayis the first novel in R. F. Delderfield's saga A Horseman Riding By, which continues withPost of HonourandThe Green Gauntlet.

An accomplished biographer wants to create a compelling life story of her own in a novel by the New York Timesbestselling author of The Stone Diaries.What is the matter with me, I wonder. Why am I always the one who watches? Judith Gill lives with her husband, son, and daughter in a nice house in the suburbs of Ontario. She has carved out a niche as a respected biographer. Her universe is shaped and bounded by the lives around her, from her family to the subjects of her books. She finds herself in the background of her life, but she hungers to tell stories of her own. In this witty, nuanced novel about art, life, love, and fiction, Carol Shields reveals Judith to readers and to herselfa woman with bold emotions, powerful instincts, and a knack for observing the small ceremonies that give our lives meaning.

Arthur Ellis Best Crime Novel Award Winner: A ';funny, poignant, surprising' (Margaret Atwood) literary detective story centering around a murdered poet. Who is Mary Swann? In this novel of a writer's revenge, an uneducated farmer's wife delivers a paper bag filled with scraps of her poems to the publisher of a small press. Hours later, she's dead, murdered by her husband. Fifteen years on, her book of one hundred twenty-five poemsMary Swann's sole claim to fameis discovered by an American academic. And a literary odyssey begins. Four narratorsSarah Maloney, a feminist writer; Frederic Cruzzi, an editor; Morton Jimroy, a biographer; and Rose Hindmarch, Mary's only friendall have a stake in the deceased poet's work. Their chorus of voicesopens a fascinating window on what constitutes genius. As the four descend into a quagmire of ego, jealousy, and backstabbing, Mary Swann comes back to lifein the minds and hearts of those who love and hate her most. Full of mischief,Swannis a novel about life, death, and the ideas that live on after us.

The Pulitzer Prizewinning author ofThe Stone Diariesgives us a love story for the ages: the tale of two polar opposites on a rocky road to romanceHe's a thrice-divorced late-night talk-show host. She's an unmarried folklorist obsessed with mermaids. He lives for the present. She lives in the past. Both are leery of commitment. Neither has ever known lasting love. But when Tom Avery and Fay McLeod meet, it's loveor at least lustat first sight. And then fate starts to throw them curveballs.Shifting between Tom and Fay's storiesfrom their complicated histories through their present-day angstThe Republic of Lovefeatures delightful secondary characters in the lovers' friends and families, including Fay's seemingly happily married parents and her beloved godmother, Onion. As Tom and Fay forge bravely ahead into a romantic minefield, they make startling discoveries about each other and themselves. With her trademark wit and irony, and a deep compassion for her hero and heroine, Carol Shields gives us a celebration of love in all its guises.

The story of a woman dancing on the edge of a difficult lifeEver since her husband left herseemingly vanishing into thin airCharleen Forrest has supported herself and her fifteen-year-old son on what she earns as an obscure poet and part-time gofer for an even more obscure scientific journal. But when her estranged mother remarries, prompting an unplanned reunion, Charleen finds herself moving out of her familiar existence.A dazzling counterpoint to Shields's debut novel,Small Ceremonies, imbued with her scathing wit and dead-on observations,The Box Gardenis an unforgettable portrait of a woman who finds transformationand happinesswhere she least expects it.

This schoolroom drama that inspired the classic Sydney Poitier film is ';a microcosm of the racial issues... A dramatic picture of discrimination' (Kirkus Reviews). With opportunities for black men limited in postWorld War II London, Rick Braithwaite, a former Royal Air Force pilot and Cambridge-educated engineer, accepts a teaching position that puts him in charge of a class of angry, unmotivated, bigoted white teenagers whom the system has mostly abandoned. When his efforts to reach these troubled students are met with threats, suspicion, and derision, Braithwaite takes a radical new approach. He will treat his students as people poised to enter the adult world. He will teach them to respect themselves and to call him ';Sir.' He will open up vistas before them that they never knew existed. And over the course of a remarkable year, he will touch the lives of his students in extraordinary ways, even as they in turn, unexpectedly and profoundly, touch his. Based on actual events in the author's life,To Sir, With Loveis a powerfully moving story that celebrates courage, commitment, and vision, and is the inspiration for the classic film starring Sidney Poitier.

The New York Timesbestselling series continues with this pun-tastic epic quest and far-flung fantasy adventure. Lydell, a shy, naive man of twenty-one, and world-weary grandmother Grania could not be more different. But when their paths cross on the way to beseech the Good Magician to add some excitement to their extraordinarily dull lives, the one thing they have in common is about to get them more than they bargained for ... Lydell and Grania's exceptional integrity makes them valuable to the Good Magician. He promises to fulfill their hearts' desires on the condition they pilot a fireboat to its new proprietors, whoeverand whereverthey may be. Along with an obnoxious bird and a robot dogfish as shipmates, they unfurl their sail of flame and cruise through the skies of Xanth, guided by cryptic clues. Picking up a crew of future children along the way, Lydell and Grania must plan a royal wedding, detonate an F-Bomb, evade illusion dragons, rescue Jack and Jill, find a princess for a werewolf prince, and face their greatest fearsall while remaining true to their compulsively honest selves. Fire Sail is the 42nd book in the Xanth series, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

Professor Nicholas Fenton enters a pact with Satan and goes back in time to bawdy, turbulent Restoration London to prevent a murder that is about to take place. But he falls in love with the intended victim and resolves to alter the course of history. "Breathless pace and ingenious plotting".--New York Times.

Three infant princesses receive the mystically protective Black Trillium at birth and learn to use their strengths and conquer their weaknesses to withstand the dangers that face them.

Originally published: London: Corgi, 2013.