Zuzana Majerová Poradie kníh

Woolf's first novel is a haunting book, full of light and shadow. It takes Mr. and Mrs. Ambrose and their niece, Rachel, on a sea voyage from London to a resort on the South american coast. "It is a strange, tragic, inspired book whose scene is a South americanca not found on any map and reached by a boat which would not float on any sea, an americanca whose spiritual boundaries touch Xanadu and Atlantis" (E. M. Forster).

Open Secrets , Alice Munro's eighth book, consists of eight matchless stories, each one as rich as a full novel. All of them provide compulsive reading – and rewarding re-reading. " Perhaps you will be surprised to hear from a person you don't know and that doesn’t remember your name ." These intriguing words begin a letter dated 1917 to the Librarian in Carstairs, Ontario (the heart of "Alice Munro Country"). The letter sweeps us away into a world of secrets and revelations where nothing - not even a courtship by letter that leads, over time, to a solid marriage - is as it originally seems. The Ontario stories range from "A Wilderness Station" which gives an account of an 1852 tree-felling accident and sheds light on the harsh life of the pioneers, all the way to the present, where family names known to us appear again in a world of TV shows and snowmobiles. Just as the stories range back and forth in time, they also travel far to distant settings. Much of "The Albanian Virgin" is set in a remote mountain area where a Canadian tourist in the 1920s is captured by bandits; her tale of escape is comforting to a Victoria bookseller escaping from her own former life. "The Jack Randa Hotel" brings a deserted wife in cold pursuit to Australia, which leads to another intriguing letter. "Dear Mrs. Thornaby, It has come to my attention that you are dead…" Things that cannot be explained happen here. In the title story a lawyer's wife has a flash of insight - illogical, unprovable and terrifying - into the fate of a missing teenager; in another, the appearance of a long-dead visitor reveals the grip of a former love. Yet the true magic lies in the way that Alice Munro makes everything here - unexpected marriages, elopements, acts of sudden vengeance - unfold with the ease of the inevitable. This is the mark of a great writer, and it is stamped on every page of this book. From the Hardcover edition.

Published as part of the Great Reads collection. Contains the following stories: The Fall of the House of Usher The Murders in the Rue Morgue The Pit and the Pendulum The Duc de l'Omelette The Assignation MS. Found in a Bottle The Colloquy of Monos and Una How to Write a Blackwood Article William Wilson A Descent into the Maelstrom The Imp of the Perverse Ligeia The Oval Portrait The Masque of the Red Death The Mystery of Marie Roget The Tell-Tale Heart The Gold-Bug The Black Cat The Premature Burial The Purloined Letter The Island of the Fay The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar The Case of Amontillado Von Kempelen and His Discovery The Domain of Arnheim

Could the taming of Shakespeare's shrew, Katherina, happen today? Find out in this funny, off-beat version from one of our most beloved novelists. "You can't get around Kate Battista as easily as all that." Kate Battista is feeling stuck. How did she end up running house and home for her eccentric scientist father and uppity, pretty younger sister Bunny? Plus, she's always in trouble at work--her preschool charges adore her, but the adults don't always appreciate her unusual opinions and forthright manner. Dr. Battista has other problems. After years out in the academic wilderness, he is on the verge of a breakthrough. His research could help millions. There's only one problem: his brilliant young lab assistant, Pyotr, is about to be deported. And without Pyotr.... When Dr. Battista cooks up an outrageous plan that will enable Pyotr to stay in the country, he's relying--as usual--on Kate to help him. Kate is furious: this time he's really asking too much. But will she be able to resist the two men's touchingly ludicrous campaign to win her round? Anne Tyler's retelling of The Taming of the Shrew asks whether a thoroughly modern, independent woman like Kate would ever sacrifice herself for a man. Its answer is as individual, off-beat, and funny as Kate herself.

Zmena v živote prichádza, keď ju človek najmenej čaká. To isté platí o príbehoch Alice Munroovej. Ľudia v nich žijú, akoby o tom ani nevedeli, a zrazu sa im stane niečo dramatické, bláznivé, tragické či smiešne. Rodiny sa spájajú a rozpadajú, láska vybuchuje ako sopka a presúva celé kontinenty alebo sa vášeň mení na pokojnú rezignáciu. Kanadská spisovateľka opisuje všetky tieto príbehy s rovnakým zaujatím, akoby sa aj v tom najnenápadnejšom osude ukrývalo tajomstvo vesmíru.

Six stories of pathos and terror, in which the weak, the dispossessed and the exploited wreak vengeance on a complacent world. The stories are The Birds (which became a Hitchcock film), The Apple Tree, Kiss Me Again, Stranger, The Little Photographer, The Old Man and Monte Verita.

Joan Baezová, zpěvačka, světově proslulá autorka více než tří desítek alb a politická aktivistka, je i půl století po svém ohromujícím debutu na festivalu v Newportu stále aktivní a uznávanou osobností světové hudby. U nás se proslavila i svou první osobní návštěvou v roce 1988, kdy děsila kulturní pracovníky i Státní bezpečnost, až je vyděsila a proměnila své vystoupení v otevřenou podporu tehdy stíhanému Václavu Havlovi a Chartě 77. Ve svých pamětech s upřímností a zaujetím popisuje svoje začátky na folkové scéně, vypráví o svém vztahu - v hudbě i soukromí - s Bobem Dylanem; o svém manželství i bolestném rozchodu s Davidem Harrisem; o radosti z narození syna Gabriela. S předmluvou uznávaného hudebního kritika Anthonyho DeCurtise je kniha Můj hlas je dar poutavým portrétem známé americké kulturní ikony. Díky otevřenosti a citlivosti, jež nás v hudbě Joan Baezové tak dojímají, a díky síle a pevnosti jejího politického postoje dostává čtenář do ruky upřímnou a inspirativní výpověď o životě a práci jedné z nejpozoruhodnějších uměleckých osobností naší doby.