Susan Howatch's Blog, page 2

Chinese New Year: Inspirational Reading

Chinese New Year, also known as Lunar New Year or Spring Festival, is the most widely celebrated holiday in Chinese culture. Beginning January 10 this year—it changes according to the Chinese calendar—the celebration traditionally lasts fifteen days, and culminates in the Lantern Festival. It is a time for visiting family and friends, and for welcoming the coming year.

To welcome the Year of the Snake, we encourage readers to explore ebooks related to Chinese culture and history. From classic fiction, to inspirational texts, to illuminating nonfiction—there's something for everyone on this list!

The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck: Buck’s timeless masterpiece, the Pulitzer Prize–winning story of a farmer’s journey through China in the 1920s

Confucius by Meher McArthur: An illuminating portrait of Confucius’s life and philosophical teachings

The Way of the Panda by Henry Nicholls: Learn how the extraordinary impact of the panda—from obscurity to fame is also the story of China’s transition from shy beginnings to center stage

The Woman Who Could Not Forget by Ying-Ying Chang: A moving and illuminating memoir about the life of world-famous author and historian Iris Chang

The Wisdom of Confucius: Hundreds of sage observations from China’s most revered scholar

The Wisdom of Buddha: Discover the origins of Buddhism and its tenets from the seminal texts

The Wisdom of Mao: Beyond the Little Red Book: China’s revolutionary leader and his philosophy

Bonus title for the young reader in your life:

The Mystery in the Fortune Cookie by Gertrude Chandler Warner: When the Aldens go to dinner at a local Chinese restaurant, Benny can’t wait for his favorite part of the meal: dessert. He loves breaking open the delicious fortune cookies and reading the messages inside. But when Benny opens his cookie, he is in for a surprise. Instead of a fortune, Benny’s cookie contains a handwritten riddle! One cookie leads to another, and the Aldens soon realize they’ve bitten into another mystery. Who is leaving the Aldens the mysterious cookie clues … and why?

Ellery Queen Video: Master of the Whodunit Mystery

We are thrilled to announce the release of twelve ebooks by the great Ellery Queen, as well as a new mini-documentary in which the authors’ family members and mystery master Otto Penzler speak about the lasting influence of Queen’s work.

According to Otto Penzler, the renowned critic, publisher, anthologist, editor, and owner of the Mysterious Press and Mysterious Bookshop, “as an anthologist, Ellery Queen is without peer, his taste unequalled. As a bibliographer and a collector of the detective short story, Queen is, again, a historical personage. Indeed, Ellery Queen clearly is, after Edgar Allen Poe, the most important American in mystery fiction.”

Ellery Queen was the pen name used by two cousins from Brooklyn, New York—Frederic Dannay (1905–1982) and Manfred Bennington Lee (1905–1971)—as well as the name of their famous fictional character. It was said that Dannay devised the plots and clues of the novels, and Lee would write them. Ellery Queen, the author and protagonist, lasted until Lee’s death in 1971.

Ellery Queen debuted in 1928 with The Roman Hat Mystery, in which the amateur sleuth and mystery writer helps his father, a New York City police detective, solve crimes. The Ellery Queen books quickly won a huge fan base, and the character leaped into radio, television, comics, board games, and film, becoming the most famous fictional detective of the 1930s and 1940s.

These Golden Age mysteries are considered “fair play” or “whodunit” mysteries, meaning that readers are given all the clues to crack the case themselves. Furthermore, the early Ellery Queen mysteries contain a “Challenge to the Reader” near the end of the story—a passage that tells the reader all the clues have been presented and only one possible solution remains. More often than not, these mysteries follow a “locked room” formula, with all clues described for a seemingly impossible crime.

 The Chinese Orange Mystery (1934) is one such example. A mysterious visitor is bludgeoned to death in the waiting room of a New York City publisher’s office. The anteroom’s single door had been locked from the outside, and no one was seen entering or exiting the room before or after the crime was committed. To confuse matters, everything in the room has been reversed—picture frames are backwards, the victim’s clothing is front-to-back, and a bowl of Chinese oranges (tangerines) is found upside down. The dapper, brilliant Ellery Queen is called in to set things straight.

You can find the complete list of Ellery Queen ebooks on the profile page here. Be sure to check out the new video about the legendary authors below!

The Long Read: Bestselling Science Fiction Series

Don’t you love finding out there’s a sequel to the ebook you’re racing through? The only downside is that sometimes it takes years between the releases. For the titles listed below, you won’t have to wait! These series from bestselling science fiction authors Alan Dean Foster, Timothy Zahn, William Shatner, and David Feintuch are all complete and now available as ebooks—so you can download the entire series for a nonstop journey.

 The Icerigger Trilogy by Alan Dean Foster

Stranded on a frozen and remote planet, Ethan Frome Fortune searches for a way back to civilization.

Icy, desolate, and sharply carved by hurricane-force winds, Tran-ky-ky is a terrible place to crash-land. But a botched kidnapping aboard the interstellar transport Antares sends Ethan Frome Fortune and a handful of his fellow travelers tumbling toward the stormy planet. Stranded and cut off from civilization, the castaways struggle to survive. In this page-turning trilogy, Fortune confronts vicious predators (even the plants want to make a meal of him) and forges an alliance with a native Tran. As he searches for a way off Tran-ky-ky, he helps the Tran gain admission to the Humanx Commonwealth and learns about their troubled history. Just as Fortune accepts that he’ll never escape the harsh planet and acclimates to its relentless winter, he learns that scientists have detected rising temperatures in the atmosphere. This sinister change leads Fortune to a thrilling and unexpected final adventure.

 TekWar by William Shatner: First of five titles

In this national bestseller, a private detective in twenty-second-century Los Angeles fights to destroy the synthetic high that nearly ruined him.

Not satisfied with the thrills of being one of Greater Los Angeles’ toughest cops, Jake Cardigan turns to Tek, a computerized brain stimulant which transports the user to any reality he can imagine. He’s soon addicted to this fantasy-enabler—and it isn’t long before Cardigan is accused of dealing. When he fails to convince the mechanized jury of his innocence, the state strips his badge and sentences him to fifteen years in suspended animation. Four years later he’s awakened. His sentence has been changed, but no one will tell him why.

Cardigan’s search for answers takes him to Mexico, where a rogue scientist is attempting to rid the world of Tek. But these efforts have roused powerful enemies. Aiding this quest is the right thing to do, but for an ex-con, doing good can be the most dangerous decision of all.

 Blackcollar by Timothy Zahn: First of two titles

The blackcollars—an elite, genetically enhanced fighting force—may be humanity’s only hope.

Decades after a successful invasion of Earth and the Terran Democratic Empire by the Ryqril—hostile, leathery-skinned aliens—resistance fighter Allen Caine is training for an undercover mission. He will assume the identity of an aide to the senate—part of the government that colludes with the invaders. But when the mission begins earlier than planned, Caine finds himself stuck on the off-planet outpost of Plinry with no idea of what awaits. He’s responsible for the most important mission undertaken by the resistance in twenty years, and when the operation goes awry, Caine’s only hope is to locate Plinry’s so-called blackcollars—the elusive, martial arts–trained guerilla force whose wartime resistance efforts are legendary. With his life and the freedom of everyone in the TDE on the line, Caine’s success will depend on whether or not he can find them. . . . 

 Midshipman’s Hope  by David Feintuch: First of seven titles

Feintuch’s acclaimed military science fiction series, the Seafort Saga, begins as Nicholas Seafort sets off on an interstellar naval adventure he will never forget.

In the year 2194, seventeen-year-old Nicholas Seafort is assigned to the Hibernia as a lowly midshipman. Destination: the thriving colony of Hope Nation. But when a rescue attempt goes devastatingly wrong, Seafort is thrust into a leadership role he never anticipated. The other officers resent him, but Seafort must handle more dangerous problems, from a corrupted navigation computer to a deadly epidemic. Even Hope Nation has a nasty surprise in store. Seafort might be the crew’s only hope . . .

This page-turning science fiction in the vein of Robert Heinlein and Orson Scott Card—with a dash of Horatio Hornblower—marks the captivating debut adventure in Feintuch’s hugely popular Seafort Saga.

 Hail Hibbler by Ron Goulart: First of three titles

Jake and his wife grapple with a harebrained Nazi doctor

Jake Pace is battling a bistro’s worth of robotic mafia goons when the government comes to ask him a favor. The Department of Big Business has a particularly sensitive murder on its hands, and Jake, proprietor of Odd Jobs, Inc., is a sensitive detective. A week ago, Statz Kazee announced to a television audience of 140 million that his next scoop would blow the lid off the international business community. Hours later, he was found shot to death, and every federal policemen sent to investigate the murder has wound up dead.

Now it’s Jake’s problem. After battling malfunctioning skycars, sinking houses, and mysterious cowboys, Jake and his wife learn that Statz had information about the fearsome Adolph Hibbler, the nastiest sinner to ever come out of the Nazi scientific community. Seventy years after the end of the war, Hibbler is back, and he’ll burn America to the ground if Jake can’t handcuff him first.

Excerpt of the Week: From Kramer vs. Kramer by Avery Corman

For Joanna and Ted Kramer, building a life in New York City is tough but full of joy thanks to their lovely little boy, Billy. Or so it seems, until one day Joanna walks out, unable to manage the burdens of family life and her own unfulfilled ambitions. Alone with Billy, Ted begins to navigate the challenges of single parenthood and forms a bond with his son that no one can break—except the courts.

"The father in Ted Kramer is the idealized version of the father I never knew," says Avery Corman, author of Kramer vs. Kramer. Adapted as the landmark film starring Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep, Kramer vs. Kramer is an unforgettable and heartrending story of love and devotion in the wake of divorce. We're proud to feature an excerpt from this powerful classic, below:

Kramer vs. Kramer by Avery Corman {Excerpt} by OpenRoadMedia

Avery Corman (b. 1935) is an American author best known for his novels Kramer vs. Kramer and Oh, God!, which inspired classic feature films. Born and raised in the Bronx, Corman worked as a freelance writer for most of his early career before his first novel was published in 1971. Corman has written powerfully of family relations, divorce, and midlife crisis. 

Learn more about Corman and his work, here! 

What is Gothic Fantasy?

Gothic fantasy is often described as a subgenre of horror, dark fantasy, or the paranormal—really, though, it touches on all of these fiction styles. If you’d like to sample its spooky thrills, here are three gothic fantasy ebooks we recommend.

 From the Teeth of Angels by Jonathan Carroll.

Four strangers’ lives are turned upside down when death comes for a visit.

At first it seems like an ordinary dream. Talkative Englishman Ian McGann meets a long-dead acquaintance and asks him questions about the afterlife. But when he awakes, a thick pink scar stretches across his chest. Each subsequent night, as he dreams of death, he asks more questions, understands less, and awakens with increasingly gruesome injuries. When he meets an American traveler in Sardinia and tells him of his experience, the stranger begins having matching dreams—with the same painful results. Across the globe, a former TV icon struggles with leukemia, and a movie star falls in love with an HIV-positive photographer. All are flirting with death, and the more they struggle to understand the mysteries of the afterlife, the more they realize the world is not nearly as simple as they once believed.

[image error] Swan Song by Robert R. McCammon

McCammon’s epic, bestselling novel about a girl psychic struggling to survive in the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust. 

Something flashes in nine-year-old Swan’s brain, telling her that trouble is coming. Maybe it’s her mother, fed up with her current boyfriend and ready to abandon their dismal trailer park and seek a new home. But something far worse is on the horizon. Death falls from the sky—nuclear bombs which annihilate American civilization. Though Swan survives the blast, this young psychic’s war is just beginning.

As the survivors try to make new lives in the wasteland, an evil army forms, intent on murdering all those tainted with the diseases brought by fallout. When Swan finds a mysterious amulet that could hold the key to humankind’s salvation, she draws the attention of a man more dangerous than any nuclear bomb. To rescue mankind, this little girl will have to grow up fast.

 Winterlong by Elizabeth Hand

This dynamite debut novel takes readers on a sensual dystopian journey through a world unburdened by moral taboos.

Set in the surreal, post-apocalyptic City of Trees, Winterlong centers on Wendy Wanders, a girl who can tap into the dreams and emotions of the people around her, and her long-lost twin brother, Raphael, a seductive sacred courtesan to the City’s decadent elite. During their voyage, they encounter manmade and godlike monstrosities—both hideous and gorgeous—in their effort to stop an ancient power from consuming all. Blending science fiction and fantasy, Winterlong is a dark fairy tale about a land where societal and sexual taboos have disappeared, and what’s left is a world that is both lyrical and terrifying, familiar and striking.

Gilded Cages: The Long Wait Is Over

“I'm going CRAZY w/out #3!” cries one Amazon reviewer's headline. “Please, Ellen Jones, WRITE, WRITE!!! I love your books!” cheers another reviewer. Others are reduced to mere exclamations of impatience (“Aaagh!”).

Luckily for these fans (and all those soon-to-be fans out there), we have good news: The long-awaited third novel in Ellen Jones’s outstanding historical fiction series, the Queens of Love and War, is finally available. Readers looking to reacquaint themselves with the earlier books, Fatal Crown and Beloved Enemy, will be doubly pleased to hear that the those titles are also now available in ebook. Together, they are a feast of Plantagenet politics, power, and passion.

The Fatal Crown *Now in Ebook Format

The Queens of Love and War, Book 1 of 3

Against the seething political intrigues of twelfth-century Europe, two royal heirs will surrender to passion as they vie for the most glittering, treacherous prize of all: the English throne.

 

 

Beloved Enemy: The Passions of Eleanor of Aquitaine *Now in Ebook Format

The Queens of Love and War, Book 2 of 3

Set against the turbulent backdrop of twelfth-century Europe, as two countries compete for world dominion, one woman will take her destiny, and the future of a nation, into her own hands.

 

 

Gilded Cages: The Trials of Eleanor of Aquitaine  *NEW!

The Queens of Love and War, Book 3 of 3

Set against the splendor and scheming of the Middle Ages, this enthralling historical novel brings to life the magnificent Eleanor of Aquitaine, a woman far ahead of her time and one of history’s most extraordinary queens.

Celebrating Women Authors of Science Fiction and Fantasy

Science fiction has always been a forward-thinking genre, and women writers have long flocked to the field. If your mental image of a science fiction writer is a wild-haired man with thick eyeglasses, time for an update. Women writers have shown incredible talent in this genre. 

Here, we celebrate women writers of science fiction and some of our favorite novels.

Octavia E. Butler (1947–2006) was a bestselling and award-winning author, considered one of the best science fiction writers of her generation. She received both the Hugo and Nebula awards, and in 1995 became the first author of science fiction to receive a MacArthur Fellowship. Watch the video!

Elizabeth Hand (b. 1957) is an award-winning author of science fiction and fantasy, whose post-apocalyptic Winterlong books, as well as the novel Black Light, are now available as ebooks from Open Road Media. Watch the video!

Ellen Datlow, an acclaimed science fiction, fantasy, and horror editor, was born and raised in New York. She has been a short story and book editor for more than thirty years and has edited or co-edited several critically acclaimed anthologies of speculative fiction. Watch the video!

Barbara Hambly (b. 1951) is a New York Times bestselling author of fantasy and science fiction, as well as historical novels set in the nineteenth century. She has created several series, including the Windrose Chronicles, Sun-Cross, and Sun Wolf and Starhawk, in addition to writing for the Star Wars and Star Trek universes. Watch the video!

For more than twenty years, Patricia C. Wrede (b. 1953) has expanded the boundaries of young-adult fantasy writing. Her first novel, Shadow Magic (1982), introduced Lyra, a magical world in which she set four more novels. Watch the video!

Archival Photo of the Week: Alice Walker

In honor of Black History Month and in anticipation of Alice Walker's birthday on February 9, we're delighted to feature the above archival photograph from the author's personal collection. Alice Walker and her partner of thirteen years, Robert L. Allen, a noted scholar of American history, pose for a portrait. The picture was taken at a celebration the couple hosted after the publication of I Love Myself When I Am Laughing, an anthology of Zora Neale Hurston’s writings that Alice edited.

Walker was born at home in Putnam County, Georgia, on February 9, 1944, the eighth child of Willie Lee Walker and Minnie Tallulah Grant Walker. Willie Lee and Minnie Lou labored as tenant farmers, and Minnie Lou supplemented the family income as a house cleaner. Though poor, Walker’s parents raised her to appreciate art, nature, and beauty. They also taught her to value her education, encouraging her to focus on her studies. When she was a young girl, Alice’s brother accidentally shot her in the eye with a BB, leaving a large scar and causing her to withdraw into the world of art and books.

One of the United States’ preeminent writers, Walker is an award-winning author of novels, stories, essays, and poetry. She was the first African-American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, which she won in 1983 for her novel The Color Purple, also a National Book Award winner. Walker has also contributed to American culture as an activist, teacher, and public intellectual. In both her writing and her public life, Walker has worked to address problems of injustice, inequality, and poverty.

Currently, Walker lives in Northern California, and spends much of her time traveling, teaching, and working for human rights and civil liberties in the United States and abroad. She continues to write and publish along with her many other activities.

Celebrating Rosa Parks

Perhaps more than any other figure, Rosa Parks reminds us that the brave act of a single citizen has the power to effect social change on a national level. On a December evening in 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, Parks altered the course of American history with a seemingly simple act. She refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a segregated bus, and her decision became a symbol that ignited the American civil rights movement.

Today, February 4, 2013, we celebrate what would have been the hundredth birthday of “the first lady of civil rights.” In honor of her birthday, Parks's courage is commemorated nationwide, including the issuing of a commemorative stamp and the National Day of Courage at the Henry Ford Museum in Michigan.

Pulitzer Prize–winning author David Halberstam wrote: “Parks was often described in newspaper reports as merely a seamstress, but she was more than that; she was a person of unusual dignity and uncommon strength of character.” In this excerpt from his book The Fifties, Halberstam recounts the momentous events of that winter day.

Celebrating Rosa Parks: An Excerpt from David Halberstam's THE FIFTIES by OpenRoadMedia

Football and Fiction: Tackle Your Football Withdrawal with Post-Season Reads

As the football season comes to a close, football fans around the world will suddenly feel as if a part of them missing. Sundays leave you feeling bored and weary; Mondays are a complete snore; your jersey is already gathering dust; and you are no longer getting a steady diet of chicken wings and pizza. To make your segue as painless as possible, we’re recommending some football fiction that will keep you up on your game and prepared for next season.

Excerpts of the titles are available in our Football and Fiction Scribd Collection available here. 

For the true football fanatic:

 North Dallas Forty by Peter Gent.

Often called the best novel ever written about football, North Dallas Forty hit the #25 spot on Sports Illustrated’s list of “Top 100 Sports Books of All Time.” Gent, who had been a wide receiver with the Dallas Cowboys, gives readers an inside look at pro football in the late 1960s, exposing its indulgences and cruelties. Despite the NFL’s gritty underside, North Dallas Forty illuminates the incredible devotion and passion that the players bring to the game.

If you like Friday Night Lights:

 All-American  by John R. Tunis .

When a football rivalry between the Academy and the High School nearly turns deadly, Ronald Perry finds himself caught between his school’s attitude and what he knows is right. On the field, Academy player Ronny is horrified after his dangerously hard tackle nearly killed High School player Meyer Goldman. In school, Ronny is even more shocked by the attitude of his friends and teammates, who tell Ronny not to be so hard on himself—because Goldman is Jewish. Unable to ignore his guilt and these anti-Semitic remarks, Ronny transfers to the High School and tries to break down this old rivalry.  

For gridiron fans who also love mysteries:

 The Cana Diversion by William Campbell Gault .

Gault is known as the best pulp sports writer of his time. Winner of the Shamus Award, The Cana Diversion is part of a series starring Brock “the Rock” Callahan, an ex–LA Rams guard turned private eye. In this installment, Brock investigates an anti-nuclear protest group. Soon, Callahan discovers there is more to the radical movement than hippies and flower power, and he must push back against mob money, corrupt utilities, and old-fashioned greed.

 Kiss Me Once by Thomas Gifford .  

At the start of World War II, a Brooklyn Bulldogs star defensive end Lew Cassidy fights gangsters on the home front. After a nasty tackle snaps his leg and ends his career, Cassidy wakes up in the hospital to the news that the Japanese have attacked Pearl Harbor. Unable to play football or fight in the war, Cassidy must face personal threats when his best bud, Terry Leary, is murdered, and Cassidy pursues a gang of murderous crooks to avenge his friend. 

 Cry at Dusk by Lester Dent .

Lester Dent is best known as the creator of the Doc Savage series, but he also wrote several stand-alone novels. In Cry at Dusk, Johnny Marks knows all about running, and not just because he’s a standout on the football field. He was raised by his secretive Uncle Walter, who insists they move from town to town and repeatedly change their names. By faking transcripts, Johnny lands in a top-tier college, playing football. But when he appears on a sports newsreel, the wrong people notice him, and soon his uncle is murdered. Now Johnny must chase down the killers, as well as his own family secrets.

Can’t get enough?

Other great novels featuring fictional franchise quarterbacks are The Moth, by noir author James M. Cain, and A Touch of Death by the classic 1950s pulp writer Charles Williams.

Read excerpts of the titles on Scribd here. 

You can view the video of quarterback Tim Tebow reading Green Eggs and Ham on YouTube here.