Vaudeville: mad, mercenary, dreamy, and absurd, a world of clashing cultures and ferocious showmanship and wickedly delightful deceptions.But sixteen-year-old pianist George Carole has joined vaudeville for one reason only: to find the man he suspects to be his father, the great Heironomo Silenus. Yet as he chases down his father's troupe, he begins to understand that their performances are strange even for vaudeville: for wherever they happen to tour, the very nature of the world seems to change. Because there is a secret within Silenus's show so ancient and dangerous that it has won him many powerful enemies. And it's not until after he joins them that George realizes the troupe is not simply touring: they are running for their lives. And soon...he is as well.
Corkfeen wrote: » It's not trash! While much of King has tended towards being trash, The Stand and IT are superb.
py2006 wrote: » Seriously, Stephen King is trash??? You cannot be serious.
Candie wrote: » Some Stephen King is trash though. Lots of his work isn't, some of his work is brilliant, but there's some trash in there too. I read Dreamcatchers, I know.
Jazzmaster wrote: » I've just finished reading Moondust: In search of the men who fell to Earth, by Andrew Smith. If you have any doubt that the Americans actually went to the moon then read this. Smith interviews all the surviving astronauts who took part in the Apollo missions and finds out how it affected them. They're all fascinating characters and it's such an interesting read. Highly recommended!
He's not trash,he's a great entertaining and fast paced writer.
honeybear wrote: » In a lovely chilled bookclub. It's really the social aspect that I am enjoying. Any suggestions for a book that we might enjoy? Historical fiction has been a hit so far. Any ideas?
Custardpi wrote: » Finished Anna Karenina a few days ago, challenging at over 800 pages but worth it overall I reckon. Really interesting seeing things from the perspective of the Russian aristocratic elite in the late 19th Century, never realised that it was common among members of the upper class to speak French to each other for instance. It also helped having a guide to how everyone was related to each other at the start of the book as the many characters & their patronymics got confusing at times. The central story of Anna & her adultrous affair with Vronsky occasionally got a bit melodramatic, though Tolstoy does convey well the sense of claustrophobia which she suffers from in the prison of high society/Church values from which she can never really escape. Both she & Vronsky are certainly far more sympathetic characters than that self-centred salope Emma Bovary & the scoundrel Rodolphe Boulanger, to whom they have inevitably been compared. One aspect of the book that did really irk me was the religious element of the character Levin's (apparently a self-portrait by Tolstoy himself) search for inner peace & enlightenment, where the tired (though possibly it was not as much at the time of writing) old argument that a belief in God & attachment to a Church are prerequisites for moral behaviour - without these Tolstoy asserts you would be unable to resist the urge to "throttle your neighbour". This belief must have been a popular one among religious Russians in the 19th Century as Dostoevsky advances much the same argument in The Brothers Karamasov. Reading a bit about Tolstoy's life he seems to have become fanatically religious & conservative in his later years so this aspect of the book is a good indication of where he was going in that regard. On a final note if you're thinking of tackling this book I read the Pevear/Volokhonsky translation, which going by various reviews I've seen is apparently far superior to other versions available. I'm no expert on these things but I found it to be elegantly written & reasonably readable, very important when it comes to novels of this length.
Bernard Cornwell, the "master of martial fiction" (Booklist), brings Thomas of Hookton from the popular Grail Quest series into a new adventure in 1356, a thrilling stand-alone novel. On September 19, 1356, a heavily outnumbered English army faced off against the French in the historic Battle of Poitiers. In 1356, Cornwell resurrects this dramatic and bloody struggle—one that would turn out to be the most decisive and improbable victory of the Hundred Years’ War, a clash where the underdog English not only the captured the strategic site of Poitiers, but the French King John II as well. In the vein of Cornwell’s bestselling Agincourt, 1356 is an action-packed story of danger and conquest, rich with military strategy and remarkable characters—both villainous and heroic—transporting readers to the front lines of war while painting a vivid picture of courage, treachery, and combat.
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