DescriptionAnthony Trollope is known primarily for his epic novels like Barchester Towers . However, he also wrote a number of smaller "gems". This is one of the best. Alice Dugdale is a plain but intelligent girl who sees the love of her life pushed by society to marry the beautiful, but somewhat vacuous, rich girl in town. Alice's reaction to this situation makes a wonderful and insightful story.
DescriptionPass or fail? This special report from the pages of The Wall Street Journal explores e-commerce in education. Big money is pouring into the business of education. In "The Hope and the Reality, " Ann Grimes reports it's too soon to tell whether there will be any payoff. Plus, a look at the different ways companies hope to make money from online education, what college will look like in the not-so-distant future, what's in store for the library of tomorrow, and much more. This report is available in three parts ("The Business, " "The Classroom, " and "The Effect on Established Education Institutions") or in this special discounted collection.
DescriptionDuring the Great Depression of the 1930s in the tiny village of Oliver, New York, deep in the snow country east of Buffalo, one young man, a local volunteer fireman, is determined to rescue his neighbors, from boredom and sadness if nothing else. He banishes both ennui and melancholy with community hijinx of manic inventiveness, and all too frequently breathtaking embarrassment, in his last years before a fatal encounter with an unsuspected cancer. The tale is a reminder that although life is short and unpredictable, its transience and danger can often be transformed by the love and even the downright silliness of those whose company we treasure. Nailing It is a warm, knowing, and often hilarious, commemoration of small-town life.
DescriptionTwo women, centuries apart, are joined through a tattered journal as they contend with God, husbands, even themselves, until they fall into the arms of the ones who love them unconditionally.
DescriptionDuring a trip to Europe, Christopher Newman, a wealthy American businessman, asks the charming Claire de Cintre to be his wife. To his dismay, he receives an icy reception from the heads of her family, who find Newman to be a vulgar example of the American privileged class. Brilliantly combining elements of comedy, tragedy, romance and melodrama, this tale of thwarted desire vividly contrasts nineteenth-century American and European manners.
DescriptionOut of the Silent Planet is the first novel of the Cosmic Trilogy, considered to be C.S. Lewis' chief contribution to the science fiction genre. The trilogy concerns Dr. Ransom, a linguist, who, like Christ, was offered a ransom for mankind. The first two novels are planetary romances with elements of medieval mythology. Each planet is seen as having a tutelary spirit; those of the other planets are both good and accessible, while that of Earth is fallen, twisted, and not known directly by most humans. The story is powerfully imagined, and the effects of lesser gravity on Martian planet and animal life is vividly rendered.
