Exciting Times


Book Description

“This debut novel about an Irish expat millennial teaching English and finding romance in Hong Kong is half Sally Rooney love triangle, half glitzy Crazy Rich Asians high living—and guaranteed to please.” —Vogue A RECOMMENDED BOOK FROM: The New York Times Book Review * Vogue * TIME * Marie Claire * Elle * O, the Oprah Magazine * The Washington Post * Esquire * Harper's Bazaar * Bustle * PopSugar * Refinery 29 * LitHub * Debutiful An intimate, bracingly intelligent debut novel about a millennial Irish expat who becomes entangled in a love triangle with a male banker and a female lawyer Ava, newly arrived in Hong Kong from Dublin, spends her days teaching English to rich children. Julian is a banker. A banker who likes to spend money on Ava, to have sex and discuss fluctuating currencies with her. But when she asks whether he loves her, he cannot say more than "I like you a great deal." Enter Edith. A Hong Kong–born lawyer, striking and ambitious, Edith takes Ava to the theater and leaves her tulips in the hallway. Ava wants to be her—and wants her. And then Julian writes to tell Ava he is coming back to Hong Kong... Should Ava return to the easy compatibility of her life with Julian or take a leap into the unknown with Edith? Politically alert, heartbreakingly raw, and dryly funny, Exciting Times is thrillingly attuned to the great freedoms and greater uncertainties of modern love. In stylish, uncluttered prose, Naoise Dolan dissects the personal and financial transactions that make up a life—and announces herself as a singular new voice.




Pages for You


Book Description

A wry, tender novel of sexual and intellectual awakening. Something made her risk a look at the reader, who took a sip of black coffee. And another. She turned the pages. She pursed her lips. Flannery abandoned her breakfast and watched the woman drink her coffee. It wasn't that she wanted the coffee herself. That wasn't it. Rather, she wanted to be the coffee: she envied the dark drink its chance to taste those lips.In a steam-filled diner in a college town, Flannery Jansen catches sight of something more beautiful than she's ever seen: a graduate student, reading. Flannery, a seventeen-year-old, new to everything around her -- college, the East Coast, bodies of literature, and the sexual flurries of student life -- is shocked by her own desire to follow this beauty wherever it takes her. By chance she finds herself enrolled in a class taught by the remote, brilliant older woman; intimidated at first, she gradually becomes Anne Arden's student outside class as well. Whatever the subject -- Baudelaire, lipstick colors -- Flannery proves an eager pupil, until one day she learns more about Anne than she ever wanted to know.A bittersweet, exhilarating, sentimental education, Pages for You confirms Sylvia Brownrigg as "one of the most exuberantly agile minds among younger American writers" (Dan Cryer, Newsday) and is her sexiest, most poignant work to date.




Interesting Times


Book Description

'There is a curse. They say: may you live in interesting times . . .' This is the worst thing you can wish on a citizen of Discworld. Especially for the magically challenged Rincewind, who has already had far too much excitement in his life. Unfortunately, the unlucky wizard always seems to end up in the middle of, well, absolutely everything. So when a request for a 'Great Wizzard' arrives from the faraway Counterweight Continent, it's obviously Rincewind who's sent. For one thing, he's the only one who spells wizard that way. Once again Rincewind is thrown headfirst into a dangerous adventure. For the oldest empire on the Disc is in turmoil and Chaos is building. And, for some reason, someone believes Rincewind will have a vital role in the coming war . . . 'Pratchett is a comic genius' Daily Express 'Funny, delightfully inventive, and refuses to lie down in its genre' Observer Interesting Times is the fifth book in the Wizards series, but you can read the Discworld novels in any order.




Make Time


Book Description

From the New York Times bestselling authors of Sprint comes “a unique and engaging read about a proven habit framework [that] readers can apply to each day” (Insider, Best Books to Form New Habits). “If you want to achieve more (without going nuts), read this book.”—Charles Duhigg, author of The Power of Habit Nobody ever looked at an empty calendar and said, "The best way to spend this time is by cramming it full of meetings!" or got to work in the morning and thought, Today I'll spend hours on Facebook! Yet that's exactly what we do. Why? In a world where information refreshes endlessly and the workday feels like a race to react to other people's priorities faster, frazzled and distracted has become our default position. But what if the exhaustion of constant busyness wasn't mandatory? What if you could step off the hamster wheel and start taking control of your time and attention? That's what this book is about. As creators of Google Ventures' renowned "design sprint," Jake and John have helped hundreds of teams solve important problems by changing how they work. Building on the success of these sprints and their experience designing ubiquitous tech products from Gmail to YouTube, they spent years experimenting with their own habits and routines, looking for ways to help people optimize their energy, focus, and time. Now they've packaged the most effective tactics into a four-step daily framework that anyone can use to systematically design their days. Make Time is not a one-size-fits-all formula. Instead, it offers a customizable menu of bite-size tips and strategies that can be tailored to individual habits and lifestyles. Make Time isn't about productivity, or checking off more to-dos. Nor does it propose unrealistic solutions like throwing out your smartphone or swearing off social media. Making time isn't about radically overhauling your lifestyle; it's about making small shifts in your environment to liberate yourself from constant busyness and distraction. A must-read for anyone who has ever thought, If only there were more hours in the day..., Make Time will help you stop passively reacting to the demands of the modern world and start intentionally making time for the things that matter.




Good Life in Hard Times


Book Description

Jerry Flamm's warm reminiscences of growing up in 1920s and 1930s San Francisco glows with romance for the city when San Franciscans entertained themselves listening to the radio, swimming at Sutro Baths or enjoying a 50 cents pasta dinner.




Seveneves


Book Description

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Anathem, Reamde, and Cryptonomicon comes an exciting and thought-provoking science fiction epic—a grand story of annihilation and survival spanning five thousand years. What would happen if the world were ending? A catastrophic event renders the earth a ticking time bomb. In a feverish race against the inevitable, nations around the globe band together to devise an ambitious plan to ensure the survival of humanity far beyond our atmosphere, in outer space. But the complexities and unpredictability of human nature coupled with unforeseen challenges and dangers threaten the intrepid pioneers, until only a handful of survivors remain . . . Five thousand years later, their progeny—seven distinct races now three billion strong—embark on yet another audacious journey into the unknown . . . to an alien world utterly transformed by cataclysm and time: Earth. A writer of dazzling genius and imaginative vision, Neal Stephenson combines science, philosophy, technology, psychology, and literature in a magnificent work of speculative fiction that offers a portrait of a future that is both extraordinary and eerily recognizable. As he did in Anathem, Cryptonomicon, the Baroque Cycle, and Reamde, Stephenson explores some of our biggest ideas and perplexing challenges in a breathtaking saga that is daring, engrossing, and altogether brilliant.




Exciting Times of an Ordinary Mormon


Book Description

Life is often filled with exciting experiences--ups and downs and good times and bad as one grows and matures. In Exciting Times of an Ordinary Mormon, author Keith L. Hancock recounts stories from his life as an ordinary Mormon who grew up during difficult circumstances on a Canadian farm and experienced his parents steady climb toward economic stability. In this memoir, Hancock shares how he was called to serve on a mission in Argentina and later built a rewarding and adventurous life with his wife, Connie, and eventually their children and grandchildren. From playing by the river with his older brother Cal, to listening to Connies singing, to building a professional career and serving in his church, Hancock shares many of his lifes highlights. From Hancocks birth to the present, Exciting Times of an Ordinary Mormon narrates the story of a man who lived life to the fullest. Praise for Exciting Times of an Ordinary Mormon This book, Exciting Times of an Ordinary Mormon, exemplifies the value and benefit of keeping a journal. Drawing from a lifetime of meticulous recordkeeping, Keith Hancock has written an engaging and well-crafted memoir that will stand as a legacy to his posterity. He weaves a fervent testimony through the account of his many accomplishments, the greatest of which, in his own words, is his family. Lessons on life abound within these pages and serve as a witness that his life has been anything but ordinary. --Darrel Nelson, Author







THE LIFE AND EXCITING TIMES OF GUY CHARLES THRONER JR.


Book Description

This autobiography portrays the exciting times and life of the author during his childhood, World War II service, and his diverse career experiences. Interesting observations and photographs about business, communities and friendships, and Guy C. Throner’s personal and family history are shared. The story begins with life as experienced by a young man in the 1920’s and 1930’s, and progresses through his World War II bomb disposal assignments, and his ordnance engineering vocation including development of safety devices and munitions for the U.S. military and space programs. A historical account of personal growth, interests, accomplishments and family are historically documented.




My Short (but Exciting) Time with the Military


Book Description

The narrative takes you through three years with the Ohio Air National Guard starting in 1947 when the author was seventeen years of age. The author takes you along with him on his flying adventures with the Air Guard. This unit, the 112th Bomb Squadron (L), was equipped with Douglas B-26 Invaders. These light bombers were real “hot rods” for their day. He takes you along on three “Summer Encampments” prior to the 112th being activated and taken into the United States Air Force in 1950. This was the result of the hostilities that broke out in Korea in June of 1950. The Air Guard really didn’t prepare the author for life in the active military. But he learned and survived. The story initially takes you to Lawson Field, which is the air field attached to Fort Benning, GA. There the 112th became part of the 117th Photo Reconnaissance Wing and the aircraft became RB-26s. Then, in 1951, the author was transferred up to Langley Field, VA where he became a member of the Armament Section of the 154th Fighter/Bomber Squadron, part of the 136th Fighter Bomber Wing. This unit was equipped with Republic F-84 Thunderjets. From there it was on to the west coast by train and subsequently to Japan and Korea by plane, exciting modes of travel in those days. Experience life, as it was, in the Air Force in a rear area combat zone.