![]() ![]() ![]() He needs a spy on the inside of this year’s tournament in order to uncover a security problem… and he wants Emika for the job. Needing to make some quick cash, Emika takes a risk and hacks into the opening game of the international Warcross Championships-only to accidentally glitch herself into the action and become an overnight sensation.Ĭonvinced she’s going to be arrested, Emika is shocked when instead she gets a call from the game’s creator, the elusive young billionaire Hideo Tanaka, with an irresistible offer. But the bounty hunting world is a competitive one, and survival has not been easy. Struggling to make ends meet, teenage hacker Emika Chen works as a bounty hunter, tracking down players who bet on the game illegally. ![]() The obsession started ten years ago and its fan base now spans the globe, some eager to escape from reality and others hoping to make a profit. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers)įor the millions who log in every day, Warcross isn’t just a game-it’s a way of life. ![]()
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![]() ![]() Jake Seliger: I first read about The Magicians on John Scalzi’s blog, “Whatever.” I don’t know if you’ve met him or not, but he wrote about it and I thought “That’s exactly the book I want to read.” The following is an edited transcript, and any links were added by me after the interview: The Magicians is a surprise and delight: its language is not overly showy and yet often contains an unexpected surprise, especially at the ends of sentences, as this early description shows: “Quentin was thin and tall, though he habitually hunched his shoulders in a vain attempt to brace himself against whatever blow was coming from the heavens, and which would logically hit the tall people first.” Until the last clause, one could be reading any novel, fantasy or otherwise, but saying that a blow from heaven would hit the tall first gives us Quentin’s personality in a single line, and yet its ideas are spun coherently across the entire novel. Unlike Hogwarts, however, classes are a grind, students are filled with angst, and sexual politics are everywhere. In the novel, Quentin Coldwater is a bright and unhappy high school student searching for meaning, happiness, and a place in the world-which he thinks he’ll find when he receives an invitation to Brakebills, a college for magic. ![]() ![]() Lev Grossman’s book tour is just about finished, and I caught up with him at Changing Hands in Phoenix on June 10 to talk about The Magicians. ![]() ![]() ![]() evil storyline, diverse and interesting characters, and a young boy swept away in an epic adventure!Īll the basic elements are there for greatness, but Eddings takes it one step further by adding one more: culture. ![]() Brought up on a quiet farm by his Aunt Pol, how could he know that the Apostate planned to wake dread Torak, or that he would be led on a quest of unparalleled magic and danger by those he loved–but did not know…?Īnother “must-read” series for fantasy buffs, the “Belgariad” is every bit as good as you’ve heard, containing all the elements that make up a top fantasy novel. So long as it lay at Riva, the prophecy went, men would be safe.īut Garion did not believe in such stories. ![]() But Belgarath the Sorcerer led men to reclaim the Orb that protected men of the West. The Overview: Long ago, the Storyteller claimed, in this first book of THE BELGARIAD, the evil god Torak drove men and Gods to war. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Not only was the setting beautiful but it was also stark and lonely. The author gives wonderful descriptions of the landscape and the ice and it almost makes the reader feel chilly even when read on a hot day. This is first book that I've ever read about Antarctica and the setting was absolutely beautiful. And it is in Antartica that she discovers something else that will change her life forever. But there is a jolt of recognition between Alice and Rooker that is like nothing she has ever known. The isolation wipes out everyone's past, and tension crackles in the air. Nothing has prepared her for the beauty of it, or the claustrophobia of a tiny base shared with eight men and one other woman. Alice discovers an ice-blue and silver world, lit by sunlight. He has taken a job working on the same small Antarctic research station. He's been running since his childhood in New Zealand. ![]() Then, with her relationship suddenly in pieces, she accepted an invitation to join a group working at the end of the earth: Antarctica. Six weeks earlier her life was comfortably unfolding in an Oxford summer. Instead of the familiar measurable world, everything that lies ahead of her is unknown and unpredictable. But now she stands alone on the deck of a rickety Chilean ship as a stark landscape reveals itself. An epic love story and adventure set against the stunning backdrop of Antarctica. ![]() ![]() ![]() It is a work that deals with the quest that we all undertake in some way or another, to define our lives in an environment of conflicting dualities and ultimately find spiritual awareness. ![]() ![]() Considered one of Hesse’s most important works, “Siddhartha” remains to this day as one of his most popular. In order to complete this novel Hesse immersed himself in the sacred teachings of both Hindu and Buddhist scriptures and lived a semi-reclusive life in order to achieve his own spiritual enlightenment. Summary Read our full plot summary and analysis of Siddhartha, scene by scene break-downs, and more. Here the two go their separate ways, Govinda joining the order of the Buddha, Siddhartha traveling on in search of spiritual enlightenment. Siddhartha is a novel by Herman Hesse first published in 1922. The two renounce their earthly possessions, engage in ritual fasting and intense meditation and ultimately seek out and speak with Gautama, the original Buddha. Siddhartha is joined by his best friend Govinda. Siddhartha is the son of a wealthy Brahmin family who decides to leave his home in the hopes of gaining spiritual illumination. ![]() The title of this novel is a combination of two Sanskrit words, “siddha,” which is defined as “achieved,” and “artha” which is defined as “meaning” or “wealth.” The word serves as the name for the principal character, a man on a spiritual journey of self-discovery during the time of the first Buddha. ![]() ![]() ![]() Getting tangled up with a shallow jerk is the last thing Francesca needs right now, so she vows to keep Tuck from recognizing her (not that she’s his type anyway).īut fate has a teeny-tiny trick up her sleeve…a plus sign on a pregnancy test. His hobbies include parties and supermodels-or so the tabloids say. Unfortunately, Francesca realizes quickly that her masked prince is the wealthy jock who lives in the penthouse of her apartment building. For one night, Francesca and Tuck indulge in a wickedly incognito affair. ![]() There, she meets unknown-to-her NFL star Tuck Avery, dressed as a prince and hiding behind a mask-he’s there to celebrate his birthday. ![]() But when her fiancé betrays her, she puts on her wedding dress and ditches the altar for a masquerade ball-at an exclusive lifestyle club. Levelheaded Francesca Lane never thought she’d miss her own wedding. A masquerade ball brings together an NFL player and a penniless princess in this smart and sexy romance from Wall Street Journal bestselling author Ilsa Madden-Mills. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() With a spine-tingling plot and a fittingly bleak, stormy setting, this chilling book is not for the faint-hearted.įind out more about The Haunting of Aveline Jones on our library Wakelet page. This spooky story is a Halloween treat The Times, Childrens Book of the Week I raced through The Haunting of Aveline Jones. However, as Aveline is drawn deeper into the tales, events take an unsettling turn. Intrigued, Aveline decides to investigate Primrose’s disappearance, with some help from her new friend, Harold. Hoping the stories may provide clues about Primrose’s fate, Aveline investigates, enlisting the help of bookseller Mr Lieberman and his great-nephew Harold. Not only are the stories spine-tingling, but it belonged to a girl called Primrose Penberthy, who vanished mysteriously, never to be seen again. When she finds a book about local ghosts and phantoms in a dusty, second-hand bookshop, Aveline is intrigued to learn that it once belonged to 11-year-old Primrose Penberthy, who mysteriously disappeared from Malmouth thirty years earlier. Despite her fondness for ghost stories, she finds the town a little creepy, particularly when sinister scarecrows appear outside people’s homes in the lead up to Halloween. ![]() Aveline is not looking forward to spending half term with her Aunt Lilian in Malmouth, a windswept village on the Cornish coast. ![]() ![]() ![]() She gasped as he latched onto her nipple again, sucking hard and sending a zing of bliss to her clit. Was that really too much to ask? At this point she was shaking with want and frustration, and the word 'please' was actually on the edge of her tongue. ![]() Right now, all she wanted was her mate to f**k her senseless. As he well knew, she wasn't much into soft, slow and savouring every minute. Taryn considered breaking his nose.but that would mean she would need to take the time to heal him and it would only prolong things. Motherfucking son of a goddamn cock-sucking bitch! For the eighth time now he had refused to let her come. ![]() ![]() At once excitingly ambitious and wittily accessible, this is the first book to combine evolutionary psychology with cutting-edge neuroscience to defend the radical claims at the heart of Buddhist philosophy. In Why Buddhism Is True, Wright leads listeners on a journey through psychology, philosophy, and a great many silent retreats to show how and why meditation can serve as the foundation for a spiritual life in a secular age. Buddhism holds that human suffering is a result of not seeing the world clearly - and proposes that seeing the world more clearly, through meditation, will make us better, happier people. And it is designed to make happiness hard to sustain.īut if we know our minds are rigged for anxiety, depression, anger, and greed, what do we do? Wright locates the answer in Buddhism, which figured out thousands of years ago what scientists are discovering only now. The mind is designed to often delude us, he argued, about ourselves and about the world. ![]() Robert Wright famously explained in The Moral Animal how evolution shaped the human brain. From one of America's greatest minds, a journey through psychology, philosophy, and lots of meditation to show how Buddhism holds the key to moral clarity and enduring happiness. ![]() ![]() ![]() You have to read all 400 odd pages of slow-burning suspens, loads of turns and u-turns to get the full weight, blast, hammer (you name it) of the final revelation. ![]() Yes, the suspense is slow and flow of the narration comes in bursts and whirpools. ![]() 496 pages of literary labour, cardio, weights, running, walking and bike/treadmil exercise. In short, I would call this book ‘a workout for the brain’. And when the Trehearnes tell her that their daughter is now missing, Susan knows that she must return to London and find out what really happened … It should be everything she’s always wanted – but is it? She’s exhausted with the responsibilities of making everything work on an island where nothing ever does, and truth be told she’s beginning to miss her old life in London.Īnd then a couple – the Trehearnes – come to stay, and the story they tell about an unfortunate murder that took place on the same day and in the same hotel in which their daughter was married, is such a strange and mysterious one that Susan finds herself increasingly fascinated by it. She is running a small hotel on a Greek island with her longterm boyfriend Andreas. Retired publisher Susan Ryeland is living the good life. ‘ The greatest evil occurs when people, no matter what their aims or their motives, become utterly convinced that they are right‘.įeaturing his famous literary detective Atticus Pund and Susan Ryeland, hero of the worldwide bestseller Magpie Murders, a brilliantly complex literary thriller by Anthony Horowitz. ![]() |