The Alchemist presents a simple fable, based on simple truths and places it in a highly unique situation. And though we may sniff a bestselling formula, it is certainly not a new one: even the ancient tribal storytellers knew that this is the most successful method of entertaining an audience while slipping in a lesson or two. Brazilian storyteller Paulo Coehlo introduces Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who one night dreams of a distant treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. And so he's off: leaving Spain to literally follow his dream.
Along the way he meets many spiritual messengers, who come in unassuming forms such as a camel driver and a well-read Englishman. In one of the Englishman's books, Santiago first learns about the alchemists--men who believed that if a metal were heated for many years, it would free itself of all its individual properties, and what was left would be the "Soul of the World." Of course he does eventually meet an alchemist, and the ensuing student-teacher relationship clarifies much of the boy's misguided agenda, while also emboldening him to stay true to his dreams. "My heart is afraid that it will have to suffer," the boy confides to the alchemist one night as they look up at a moonless night.
"Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself," the alchemist replies. "And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams, because every second of the search is a second's encounter with God and with eternity."
Download: The Alchemist (pdf)
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Thomas Harris - Hannibal Rising
Discover the origins of one of the most feared villains of all time in Thomas Harris's Hannibal Rising, a novel that promises to reveal the "evolution of Hannibal Lecter's evil." Thomas Harris first introduced readers to Hannibal Lecter in Red Dragon, a tale wrapped around FBI agent Will Graham (the man who hunted Lecter down) and his ability to "get inside the mind of the killer." Graham consults Dr. Lecter (the man who nearly killed him) on the case, and the legend of the nefarious Dr. Lecter was born. Harris's masterful and mesmerizing follow up, The Silence of the Lambs wowed fans, but it was Jonathan Demme's terrifying, Oscar-winning (Best Actor, Actress, Director, Picture and Adapted Screenplay) film, and Anthony Hopkins's extraordinary (and arguably over the top) performance that made "Hannibal the Cannibal" a household name. Hannibal, the third book in the Lecter saga made Lecter the prey and seemingly wrapped up the tale of the cannibalistic psychiatrist, but never revealed the source of the doctor's...gifts. Fans have been waiting decades to find out how the good doctor became "death's prodigy," making Hannibal Rising one of the most anticipated books of 2006 (and movies of 2007).
Download: Hannibal Rising (pdf)
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Ray Bradbury - Fahrenheit 451
Amazon.com Review:
In Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury's classic, frightening vision of the future, firemen don't put out fires--they start them in order to burn books. Bradbury's vividly painted society holds up the appearance of happiness as the highest goal--a place where trivial information is good, and knowledge and ideas are bad. Fire Captain Beatty explains it this way, "Give the people contests they win by remembering the words to more popular songs.... Don't give them slippery stuff like philosophy or sociology to tie things up with. That way lies melancholy."
Guy Montag is a book-burning fireman undergoing a crisis of faith. His wife spends all day with her television "family," imploring Montag to work harder so that they can afford a fourth TV wall. Their dull, empty life sharply contrasts with that of his next-door neighbor Clarisse, a young girl thrilled by the ideas in books, and more interested in what she can see in the world around her than in the mindless chatter of the tube. When Clarisse disappears mysteriously, Montag is moved to make some changes, and starts hiding books in his home. Eventually, his wife turns him in, and he must answer the call to burn his secret cache of books. After fleeing to avoid arrest, Montag winds up joining an outlaw band of scholars who keep the contents of books in their heads, waiting for the time society will once again need the wisdom of literature.
Download: Fahrenheit 451 (pdf)
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Sue Grafton - S is for Silence
Kinsey Millhone has kept her appeal by being distinctive and sympathetic without craving center stage. While some mysteries that provide the PI's shoe size or most despised food create a forced and intrusive intimacy, a master like Grafton makes the relationship relaxed and reassuring. Millhone's life is modest and familiar, though her love life, now featuring police detective Cheney Phillips, tends to be oddly remote. This 19th entry (after 2004's R Is for Ricochet) adopts a new convention: Millhone's customary intelligent and occasionally self-deprecating first-person reportage is interrupted by vignettes from the days surrounding the Fourth of July, 34 years earlier, when a hot-blooded young woman named Violet Sullivan disappeared. Violet's daughter, Daisy, who was seven at the time, hires Millhone to discover her mother's true fate. Violet had toyed with every man in town at one time or another, so there's no shortage of scandalous secrets and possible suspects. Constant revelations concerning several absorbing characters allow a terrific tension to build. However, the utterly illogical and oddly abrupt ending undermines what is otherwise one of the stronger offerings in this iconic series.
Download: S is for Silence (pdf)
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Sidney Sheldon - The Other Side of Midnight
The Other Side of Midnight is a novel by American writer Sidney Sheldon published in 1973. The book reached No.1 on the New York Times Best Seller list. It was made into a 1977 motion picture of the same name, directed by Charles Jarrott.
Download:The Other Side of Midnight (pdf)
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Peter David- Spider-Man 2
The amazing adventures of one of the greatest superheroes of all time continue in Spider-Man 2.
Two years have passed, and Peter Parker struggles to cope with the demands of life as a college student, a Daily Bugle photographer, and a crime-fighting superhero. But it hasn’t gotten any easier. Condemned by the press, tormented by secrets he can never reveal, forced to give up the girl of his dreams—at times the lonely burden of Spider-Man seems almost too great to bear . . . and the temptation to give up grows stronger by the hour.
Enter the archfiend Doc Ock, armed with a lethal invention powerful enough to destroy half the city. If Spider-Man tries to stop Doc Ock, he’ll be placing the lives of those closest to him in mortal danger. If he doesn’t, it could be the end of the Big Apple. With millions of lives hanging in the balance, high about Manhattan’s glittering skyline, Spider-Man confronts his destiny, his fiercest enemy, and himself.
Download: Spider-Man 2 (pdf)
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Piers Anthony - A Spell for Chameleon (Xanth, Book 1)
Though already developing a successful career in SF with such heady novels as Chthon and Omnivore, Piers Anthony did not reach brand-name status until he cooked up some fantasy in 1977. And it was cheerful, humorous fantasy at that, as in his first Xanth series novel, A Spell for Chameleon. The book's young hero, Bink, is without magical powers in a world ruled entirely by magic. Worse still, if he doesn't discover his own magical talent soon, he will be forever banished from his homeland. Naturally, it takes an epic quest for Bink to learn what his unique talent truly is--and perhaps to win the girl of his dreams as well. A Spell for Chameleon was the very first of Anthony's bestselling (and still ongoing) humorous fantasy series. Noteworthy for their outrageous word puns and bizarre characters, the Xanth books are a light yet often satisfying brew, especially when compared with the author's sometimes nihilistic and ultraviolent hard SF.
Download: A Spell for Chameleon (pdf)
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Sara Shepard - Pretty Little Liars
Among the mega mansions and perfectly manicured hedges of Rosewood, Pennsylvania, everyone has something to hide—especially four very pretty little liars.
High school juniors Spencer, Hanna, Aria, and Emily have been keeping secrets ever since their best friend, Alison DiLaurentis, disappeared three years ago. But when the girls begin receiving threatening notes from someone named “A,” their secrets—the big ones, the little ones, even the long-buried ones—no longer seem so safe.
Unravel the Pretty Little Liars’ wildest mysteries in this special box set. But remember, nothing is as it seems in Rosewood . . .
Download: Pretty Little Liars (pdf)
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Sidney Sheldon - Master of the Game
Download: Master of the Game (pdf)
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Richard Matheson - I am Legend
One of the most influential vampire novels of the 20th century, I Am Legend regularly appears on the "10 Best" lists of numerous critical studies of the horror genre. As Richard Matheson's third novel, it was first marketed as science fiction (for although written in 1954, the story takes place in a future 1976). A terrible plague has decimated the world, and those who were unfortunate enough to survive have been transformed into blood-thirsty creatures of the night. Except, that is, for Robert Neville. He alone appears to be immune to this disease, but the grim irony is that now he is the outsider. He is the legendary monster who must be destroyed because he is different from everyone else. Employing a stark, almost documentary style, Richard Matheson was one of the first writers to convince us that the undead can lurk in a local supermarket freezer as well as a remote Gothic castle. His influence on a generation of bestselling authors--including Stephen King and Dean Koontz--who first read him in their youth is, well, legendary.
Download: I am Legend (pdf)
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Roald Dahl - Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator
Picking right up where Charlie and the Chocolate Factory left off, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator continues the adventures of Charlie Bucket, his family, and Willy Wonka, the eccentric candy maker. As the book begins, our heroes are shooting into the sky in a glass elevator, headed for destinations unknown. What follows is exactly the kind of high-spirited magical madness and mayhem we've all come to expect from Willy Wonka and his creator Roald Dahl. The American space race gets a send-up, as does the President, and Charlie's family gets a second chance at childhood. Throw in the Vermicious Knids, Gnoolies, and Minusland and we once again witness pure genius.
Download: Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator (pdf)
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Sophie Kinsella - Shopaholic Abroad (Shopaholic Series)
The world is a different place since Helen Fielding triumphed on both sides of the Atlantic, but the torrent of benignly self-indulgent Bridget Jones's Diary knockoffs has not subsided. In this sequel to Kinsella's bestselling Confessions of a Shopaholic, Becky Bloomwood, a personal finance "expert" with her own TV show, is more of a financial mess than ever: she can't stop shopping, even though she can't afford anything. She's even assigned her flatmate, Suze, to monitor her spending, but to no avail: Becky is full of cute rationalizations, like "Foreign money doesn't count, so you can spend as much as you like," and can't stop herself from sneaking into posh boutiques. Her work-obsessed boyfriend, Luke, runs a financial PR agency, and when he gets the green light to open an office in New York City, he brings Becky along.
Upon her arrival in the Big Apple, she euphorically discovers Barney's, Saks, Sephora and sample sales but when wind of her shopping excesses gets back to the British press, she loses both her relationship and her TV job. Becky manages to save the day in predictably winning fashion, with plenty of comic moments along the way. Sure, it's tongue-in-cheek and all in good fun but will the barrage of shopping hijinks be enough to hold readers this time around? Kinsella creates some winning characters, but the credit card and shopping bag action is wearing dangerously thin.
Download: Shopaholic Abroad (pdf)
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