Apple has approved a version of Knife Music as an e-book application after the author removed words Apple considered objectionable.
An e-book submitted to Apple's App Store has been approved after the author removed language that apparently offended Apple.
Ayn Rand's libertarian rant is unpleasant, daft and deeply flawed. I hated it - but I couldn't put it down
Letter to My Daughter
by Maya Angelou
From the mellifluous voice of a venerable American icon comes her first original collection of writing to be published in ten years, anecdotal vignettes drawn from a compelling life and written in Angelou's erudite prose. Beginning with her childhood, Angelou acknowledges her own inauguration into daughterhood in "Philanthropy," recalling the first time her mother called her "my daughter." Angelou becomes a mother herself at an early age, after a meaningless first sexual experience: "Nine months later I had a beautiful baby boy. The birth of my son caused me to develop enough courage to invent my life." Fearlessly sharing amusing, if somewhat embarrassing, moments in "Senegal," the mature Angelou is cosmopolitan but still capable of making a mistake: invited to a dinner party while visiting the African nation, Angelou becomes irritated that none of the guests will step on a lovely carpet laid out in the center of the room, so she takes it upon herself to cross the carpet, only to discover the carpet is a table cloth that had been laid out in honor of her visit. The wisdom in this slight volume feels light and familiar, but it's also earnest and offered with warmth.
The Slapby Christos Tsiolkas
At a suburban barbecue, a man slaps a child who is not his own. This event has a shocking ricochet effect on a group of people, mostly friends, who are directly or indirectly influenced by the event. In this remarkable novel, Christos Tsiolkas turns his unflinching and all-seeing eye on to that which connects us all: the modern family and domestic life in the twenty-first century. The Slap is told from the points of view of eight people who were present at the barbecue. The slap and its consequences force them all to question their own families and the way they live, their expectations, beliefs and desires. What unfolds is a powerful, haunting novel about love, sex and marriage, parenting and children, and the fury and intensity - all the passions and conflicting beliefs - that family can arouse.
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PDF Download: Read an excerpt from The Slap |
SHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2008
A Fraction of the whole
by Steve Tolz
“A Fraction of the Whole is that rarest of long books–utterly worth it…The story starts in a prison riot and ends on a plane, and there is not one forgettable episode in between…It reads like Mark Twain with access to an intercontinental Airbus…This book moves; it bucks and rocks in a world that feels more than a hemisphere away…So comically dark and inviting that you have no choice but to step into its icy wake.” —Esquire
“Rollicking…laugh-out-loud funny.” —Entertainment Weekly
“A rich father-and-son story packed with incident, humor, and characters reminiscent of the styles of Charles Dickens and John Irving…Occasionally, a big, sprawling first novel fights its way into print with a flourish, at which point its ambition and the eccentricities of its ‘firstness’ can become its best marketing tools. Such is the case with A Fraction of the Whole, a book that is willfully misanthropic and very funny…like Irving, Toltz makes minor characters leap off the page…He’s a superb, disturbing phrasemaker…this long novel, which lives or dies in the brilliance of its writing, has a subtle, compelling structure
…A Fraction of the Whole soars like a rocket.” —Los Angeles Times
“Combines the hilarious high-low reference points of early Martin Amis with the annihilating punk inventiveness of Chuck Palahniuk.” —Best Life
Ever wonder what makes us buy from a certain salesperson or prefer one TV news announcer over another? In each case, a
human voice is subtly captivating our ear and commanding our attention.
Like a Dress for Success for the speaking voice, this unique self-help book shows how to use "voice strategy" to succeed.
"Ever wonder what makes us buy from a certain salesperson or prefer one TV news announcer over another? In each case, a human voice is subtly captivating our ear an commanding our attention.
Now celebrity voice coach Renee Grant-Williams reveals the trade secrets behind those persuasive voices and shows readers how to apply positive vocal techniques to business and personal situations. Much more than a guide to proper breathing or voice projection, this is a life-altering ""owner's manual"" to unleashing and directing the powers of communication within one's speaking voice. By exploring the rich connections between singing and speaking, Grant-Williams helps readers:
* Evaluate their ""VoicePower"" quotients
* Literally breathe new life into their voices
* Tap the amazing power of consonants--and silence
* Deliver sales pitches virtually guaranteed to sell
* Turn a voice mail message (incoming or outgoing) into a personal calling card
* Become more confident, persuasive presenters and public speakers."
About the Author
Renee Grant-Williams (Nashville, TN) is a well-known voice coach whose clients include U.S. senators, attorneys, salespeople, and vocalists such as Faith Hill and Randy Travis.
You can buy the book from
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In 1704, a 28-year-old Scottish sailor named Alexander Selkirk found himself in a fix. He had taken up privateering—piracy with an official seal, in other words—and had spent too much time cooped up on a galley with an irascible captain of the sort Geoffrey Rush so ably portrays in the Pirates of the Caribbean film franchise. Grievance boards and human-resources departments being nonexistent in that line of work, Selkirk made a potentially catastrophic decision: when he was demoted after a squabble with the captain about the seaworthiness of their ship, which was apparently riddled with shipworms, he asked to be put ashore on an island (pictured here) far away from anything in particular, 400 miles west of the port of Valparaiso, Chile, in the Juan Fernandez archipelago. Though remote, the 36-square-mile island contained large stores of sweet water from which passing ships would replenish their supplies, and Selkirk apparently figured that it would not be long before another ship came along.
![Robinson Crusoe's Island, Chile. Photograph [c] by Leonardo Ramirez](http://www.britannica.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/472600761_bb6a58e7ac-11.jpg)
by Nick Morgan
Give Powerful Speeches to Audiences of Five or Five Hundred
Through entertaining and insightful examples, Morgan illustrates a practical, three-part process—focusing on content development, rehearsal, and delivery—geared toward engaging an audience on every level: emotional, intellectual, and physical. more …
The Lost Dog
by Michelle de Kretser De Kretser
(The Hamilton Case) presents an intimate and subtle look at Tom Loxley, a well-intentioned but solipsistic Henry James scholar and childless divorcé, as he searches for his missing dog in the Australian bush. While the overarching story follows Tom's search during a little over a week in November 2001, flashbacks reveal Tom's infatuation with Nelly Zhang, an artist tainted by scandal—from her controversial paintings to the disappearance and presumed murder of her husband, Felix, a bond trader who got into some shady dealings. As Tom puts the finishing touches on his book about James and the uncanny and searches for his dog, de Kretser fleshes out Tom's obsession with Nelly—from the connection he feels to her incendiary paintings (one exhibition was dubbed Nelly's Nasties in the press) to the sleuthing about her past that he's done under scholarly pretences. Things progress rapidly, with a few unexpected turns thrown in as Tom and Nelly get together, the murky circumstances surrounding Felix's disappearance are (somewhat) cleared up and the matter of the missing dog is settled. De Kretser's unadorned, direct sentences illustrate her characters' flaws and desires, and she does an admirable job of illuminating how life and art overlap in the 21st century.