Shining Desk

Whitney Houston... Music on Shining Desk

2012-02-13T09:30:00.000+01:00

What to read on Valentine's Day. Stories by Lara Adrian, Kate Alcott and Richard Mason

2012-02-09T23:09:00.000+01:00

Title: Darker After Midnight

Author: Lara Adrian

Synopsis: The climactic novel in Lara Adrian’s New York Times bestselling Midnight Breed series—and her hardcover debut—Darker After Midnight invites readers to enter a thrillingly sensual world where danger meets desire.

In the dark of night, a blood war escalates within the hidden world of the Breed. After existing in secret for many long centuries, maintaining a fragile peace with the humans who walk beside them unaware, a single act of retaliation has put the entire vampire nation at risk of discovery. It falls to the Order—a cadre of Breed warriors pledged to protect their own and humankind alike—to stop Dragos, the power-mad vampire at the center of the conflict, before his push for domination can explode into catastrophe.

At the center of the Order’s quest is Sterling Chase, once a morally rigid enforcer of Breed law, now a warrior fallen from grace, whose biggest battle is the one he wages against his own savage nature. With addiction beckoning him toward eternal darkness, Chase’s path to redemption has never seemed more out of reach. But when his eyes meet those of Tavia Fairchild, a beautiful witness who identifies him at the scene of a mission gone terribly wrong, Chase finds himself drawn to the woman—and convinced she is something much more than she seems.

Pulled into a vortex of intrigue and danger she can neither resist nor understand, Tavia is uncertain whom to trust. And while everything sane and logical warns her against getting close to Chase, she cannot deny that the handsome, deeply haunted male stirs something primal and ravenous within her. But even as she surrenders to her cravings, nothing can prepare her for the shattering truth of who—and what—she truly is.

As the Order’s enemy mobilizes for the battle of the ages, Dragos and his Minions unleashing a hell on Earth like nothing ever seen before, Chase and Tavia are thrust into the heart of the violence. With time running out and the streets running red with the blood of innocent lives, both Breed and human, together Chase and Tavia must find a way to defeat Dragos once and for all—or die trying.

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Title: The Dressmaker

Author: Kate Alcott

Synopsis: Just in time for the centennial anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic comes a vivid, romantic, and relentlessly compelling historical novel about a spirited young woman who survives the disaster only to find herself embroiled in the media frenzy left in the wake of the tragedy.

Tess, an aspiring seamstress, thinks she's had an incredibly lucky break when she is hired by famous designer Lady Lucile Duff Gordon to be a personal maid on the Titanic's doomed voyage. Once on board, Tess catches the eye of two men, one a roughly-hewn but kind sailor and the other an enigmatic Chicago millionaire. But on the fourth night, disaster strikes.

Amidst the chaos and desperate urging of two very different suitors, Tess is one of the last people allowed on a lifeboat. Tess’s sailor also manages to survive unharmed, witness to Lady Duff Gordon’s questionable actions during the tragedy. Others—including the gallant Midwestern tycoon—are not so lucky.

On dry land, rumors about the survivors begin to circulate, and Lady Duff Gordon quickly becomes the subject of media scorn and later, the hearings on the Titanic. Set against a historical tragedy but told from a completely fresh angle, The Dressmaker is an atmospheric delight filled with all the period's glitz and glamour, all the raw feelings of a national tragedy and all the contradictory emotions of young love.

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Title: History of a Pleasure Seeker

Author: Richard Mason

Synopsis: From the acclaimed author of The Drowning People (“A literary sensation” —The New York Times Book Review) and Natural Elements (“A magnum opus” —The New Yorker), an opulent, romantic coming-of-age drama set at the height of Europe’s belle époque, written in the grand tradition with a lightness of touch that is wholly modern and original.

The novel opens in Amsterdam at the turn of the last century. It moves to New York at the time of the 1907 financial crisis and proceeds onboard a luxury liner headed for Cape Town.

It is about a young man—Piet Barol—with an instinctive appreciation for pleasure and a gift for finding it. Piet’s father is an austere administrator at Holland’s oldest university. His mother, a singing teacher, has died—but not before giving him a thorough grounding in the arts of charm.

Piet applies for a job as tutor to the troubled son of Europe’s leading hotelier: a child who refuses to leave his family’s mansion on Amsterdam’s grandest canal. As the young man enters this glittering world, he learns its secrets—and soon, quietly, steadily, finds his life transformed as he in turn transforms the lives of those around him.

History of a Pleasure Seeker is a brilliantly written portrait of the senses, a novel about pleasure and those who are in search of it; those who embrace it, luxuriate in it, need it; and those who deprive themselves of it as they do those they love. It is a book that will beguile and transport you—to another world, another time, another state of being.

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Jeff Bridges, Sting, Kyle Eastwood,... Music on Shining Desk

2012-02-06T18:11:00.004+01:00

Beyoncé, Pink, Leona Lewis, Christina Aguilera, Rihanna and Alicia Keys. Music on Monday

2012-01-30T07:30:00.000+01:00

Music on Monday: Prince

2012-01-23T08:00:00.000+01:00

Jeff Bridges, Lana del Rey, Pixie Lott, Adele,... music on Monday

2012-01-16T19:19:00.000+01:00

Blog update

2011-12-22T22:34:00.001+01:00

I will update this blog in January 2012 (after holidays).

Bryan Adams, Barbra Streisand, Celine Dion, Whitney Houston,... Music on Monday

2011-12-12T09:00:00.000+01:00

Take a peek at new novels by Janet Evanovich, P.D. James, Rosamund Lupton,...

2011-12-08T16:22:00.001+01:00

Title: Explosive Eighteen

Author: Janet Evanovich

Synopsis: Bounty hunter Stephanie Plum’s life is set to blow sky high when international murder hits dangerously close to home, in this dynamite novel by Janet Evanovich.

Before Stephanie can even step foot off Flight 127 Hawaii to Newark, she’s knee deep in trouble. Her dream vacation turned into a nightmare, and she’s flying back to New Jersey solo. Worse still, her seatmate never returned to the plane after the L.A. layover. Now he’s dead, in a garbage can, waiting for curbside pickup. His killer could be anyone. And a ragtag collection of thugs and psychos, not to mention the FBI, are all looking for a photograph the dead man was supposed to be carrying.

Only one other person has seen the missing photo—Stephanie Plum. Now she’s the target, and she doesn’t intend to end up in a garbage can. With the help of an FBI sketch artist Stephanie re-creates the person in the photo. Unfortunately the first sketch turns out to look like Tom Cruise, and the second sketch like Ashton Kutcher. Until Stephanie can improve her descriptive skills, she’ll need to watch her back.

Over at the bail bonds agency things are going from bad to worse. The bonds bus serving as Vinnie’s temporary HQ goes up in smoke. Stephanie’s wheelman, Lula, falls in love with their largest skip yet. Lifetime arch nemesis Joyce Barnhardt moves into Stephanie’s apartment. And everyone wants to know what happened in Hawaii?

Morelli, Trenton’s hottest cop, isn’t talking about Hawaii. Ranger, the man of mystery, isn’t talking about Hawaii. And all Stephanie is willing to say about her Hawaiian vacation is . . . It’s complicated.

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Title: Death Comes to Pemberley

Author: P.D. James

Synopsis: A rare meeting of literary genius: P. D. James, long among the most admired mystery writers of our time, draws the characters of Jane Austen’s beloved novel Pride and Prejudice into a tale of murder and emotional mayhem.

It is 1803, six years since Elizabeth and Darcy embarked on their life together at Pemberley, Darcy’s magnificent estate. Their peaceful, orderly world seems almost unassailable. Elizabeth has found her footing as the chatelaine of the great house. They have two fine sons, Fitzwilliam and Charles. Elizabeth’s sister Jane and her husband, Bingley, live nearby; her father visits often; there is optimistic talk about the prospects of marriage for Darcy’s sister Georgiana. And preparations are under way for their much-anticipated annual autumn ball.

Then, on the eve of the ball, the patrician idyll is shattered. A coach careens up the drive carrying Lydia, Elizabeth’s disgraced sister, who with her husband, the very dubious Wickham, has been banned from Pemberley. She stumbles out of the carriage, hysterical, shrieking that Wickham has been murdered. With shocking suddenness, Pemberley is plunged into a frightening mystery.

Inspired by a lifelong passion for Austen, P. D. James masterfully re-creates the world of Pride and Prejudice, electrifying it with the excitement and suspense of a brilliantly crafted crime story, as only she can write it.

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Title: Sister

Author: Rosamund Lupton

Synopsis: "Lupton enters the highly charged ring where the best psychological detective writers spar... Like Kate Atkinson, Patricia Highsmith and Ruth Rendell… Both tear-jerking and spine-tingling, Sister provides an adrenaline rush that could cause a chill on the sunniest afternoon." –The New York Times Book Review

When her mom calls to tell her that Tess, her younger sister, is missing, Bee returns home to London on the first flight. She expects to find Tess and give her the usual lecture, the bossy big sister scolding her flighty baby sister for taking off without letting anyone know her plans. Tess has always been a free spirit, an artist who takes risks, while conservative Bee couldn’t be more different. Bee is used to watching out for her wayward sibling and is fiercely protective of Tess (and has always been a little stern about her antics). But then Tess is found dead, apparently by her own hand.

Bee is certain that Tess didn’t commit suicide. Their family and the police accept the sad reality, but Bee feels sure that Tess has been murdered. Single-minded in her search for a killer, Bee moves into Tess's apartment and throws herself headlong into her sister's life--and all its secrets.

Though her family and the police see a grieving sister in denial, unwilling to accept the facts, Bee uncovers the affair Tess was having with a married man and the pregnancy that resulted, and her difficultly with a stalker who may have crossed the line when Tess refused his advances. Tess was also participating in an experimental medical trial that might have gone very wrong. As a determined Bee gives her statement to the lead investigator, her story reveals a predator who got away with murder--and an obsession that may cost Bee her own life.

A thrilling story of fierce love between siblings, Sister is a suspenseful and accomplished debut with a stunning twist.

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Title: The Scottish Prisoner

Author: Diana Gabaldon

Synopsis: Includes a preview of the new novel in the Outlander series.

London, 1760. For Jamie Fraser, paroled prisoner-of-war in the remote Lake District, life could be worse: He’s not cutting sugar cane in the West Indies, and he’s close enough to the son he cannot claim as his own. But Jamie Fraser’s quiet existence is coming apart at the seams, interrupted first by dreams of his lost wife, then by the appearance of Tobias Quinn, an erstwhile comrade from the Rising.

Like many of the Jacobites who aren’t dead or in prison, Quinn still lives and breathes for the Cause. His latest plan involves an ancient relic that will rally the Irish. Jamie is having none of it—he’s sworn off politics, fighting, and war. Until Lord John Grey shows up with a summons that will take him away from everything he loves—again.

Lord John Grey—aristocrat, soldier, and occasional spy—finds himself in possession of a packet of explosive documents that exposes a damning case of corruption against a British officer. But they also hint at a more insidious danger. Time is of the essence as the investigation leads to Ireland, with a baffling message left in “Erse,” the tongue favored by Scottish Highlanders. Lord John, who oversaw Jacobite prisoners when he was governor of Ardsmiur prison, thinks Jamie may be able to translate—but will he agree to do it?

Soon Lord John and Jamie are unwilling companions on the road to Ireland, a country whose dark castles hold dreadful secrets, and whose bogs hide the bones of the dead. A captivating return to the world Diana Gabaldon created in her Outlander and Lord John series, The Scottish Prisoner is another masterpiece of epic history, wicked deceit, and scores that can only be settled in blood.

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Title: The Forgotten Affairs of Youth

Author: Alexander McCall Smith

Synopsis: In this latest installment of the beloved Isabel Dalhousie series, our inquisitive heroine helps a new friend discover the identity of her father.

Isabel and her fiancé know who they are and where they come from. But not everybody is so fortunate. Jane Cooper, a visiting Australian philosopher on sabbatical in Edinburgh, has more questions than answers. Adopted at birth, Jane is trying to find her biological father, but all she knows about him is that he was a student in Edinburgh years ago. When she asks for Isabel’s help in this seemingly impossible search . . . well, of course Isabel obliges.

But Isabel also manages to find time for her own concerns: her young son, Charlie, already walking and talking; her housekeeper, Grace, whose spiritualist has lately been doubling as a financial advisor; her niece Cat’s latest relationship; and the pressing question of when and how Isabel and Jamie should finally get married.

Should the forgotten affairs of youth be left in the past, or can the memories help us understand the present? In her inimitable way, Isabel leads us to a new understanding of the meaning of family.

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Roy Budd, Michel Legrand, Frank Sinatra, Music on Monday

2011-12-04T09:00:00.000+01:00

Nirvana, Tony Bennet, Lady Gaga,... Music on Monday

2011-11-14T09:00:00.000+01:00

Katy Perry... Music on Monday

2011-11-07T09:00:00.000+01:00

Learn the Alphabet (video)

2011-10-11T08:30:00.001+02:00

All Time Low, Brook Fraser, Morrisey,... Music on Monday

2011-10-10T08:30:00.000+02:00

Kings of Leon, Lam Rim, The Killers,... Music on Shining Desk

2011-10-03T08:30:00.000+02:00

Google's 13th Birthday

2011-09-27T07:13:00.002+02:00

Today it is Google's 13th Birthday. Congratulations!!!

The Killers, Beady Eye,... Music on Monday

2011-09-26T13:15:00.002+02:00

Music on Monday

2011-09-19T08:30:00.000+02:00

Music on Monday: Rihanna

2011-09-12T08:30:00.000+02:00

Short Film: In the fall

2011-09-08T07:30:00.000+02:00

About Copyright

2011-09-07T07:21:00.000+02:00

Coffee Addiction

2011-09-06T07:24:00.000+02:00

Music on Monday: September (month)

2011-09-05T07:50:00.000+02:00

Louis Vuitton City Guide 2012 - London, Gentlemen's Requisites

2011-09-01T19:09:00.000+02:00

Bookcases

2011-08-17T20:35:00.000+02:00

I have found original bookcases on the page Booklicious

Film: "MOVE" by Rick Mereki

2011-08-17T10:48:00.002+02:00

Music on Monday: Amy Winehouse (II)

2011-08-15T17:38:00.003+02:00

Frank

Music on Monday: Amy Winehouse

2011-08-08T08:16:00.000+02:00

Album: Back to Black

Mystery Books -- Random House

2011-08-02T20:01:00.000+02:00

Title: Among the Missing

Author: Morag Joss

Synopsis: Three lives collide in the wake of an unforeseeable tragedy. When a bridge collapses in the Highlands of Scotland, dozens of commuters vanish into the freezing river below, swept by the currents toward the sea, and only an amateur video and the bridge’s security camera record their last moments.

A woman tourist, whose car was filmed pulling onto the bridge seconds before it fell, is assumed to be among the missing. But in desperate need of money, she had sold the car only hours before. Now she can begin life over. Her path leads her to a spartan cabin on the bank of the river where, as Annabel, she is reborn, free from her past. Here she lives with Silva, an illegal immigrant whose predicament is compounded by the disappearance of her husband and their child. She waits for them each day, clinging to hope against overwhelming evidence.

The two women are befriended by the boatman Ron, and together they create a fragile sanctuary in the shadow of the bridge that has changed their lives. They keep secrets from one another, yet also connect in ways none of them expects. Lost souls all, they struggle to survive, to trust, and to love even as the consequences of the past prove inescapable.

A masterly novel about the invisible ties that bind us to our identities, to our histories, and to one another, Among the Missing soars with the peerless voice of the author described by P. D. James as an “exciting talent.” Morag Joss, with the psychological penetration and the finely wrought prose that are her hallmarks, spins a brilliant tale of damage and reparation, suspicion and salvation.

Shining Desk

Whitney Houston... Music on Shining Desk

What to read on Valentine's Day. Stories by Lara Adrian, Kate Alcott and Richard Mason

Jeff Bridges, Sting, Kyle Eastwood,... Music on Shining Desk

Beyoncé, Pink, Leona Lewis, Christina Aguilera, Rihanna and Alicia Keys. Music on Monday

Music on Monday: Prince

Jeff Bridges, Lana del Rey, Pixie Lott, Adele,... music on Monday

Blog update

Bryan Adams, Barbra Streisand, Celine Dion, Whitney Houston,... Music on Monday

Take a peek at new novels by Janet Evanovich, P.D. James, Rosamund Lupton,...

Roy Budd, Michel Legrand, Frank Sinatra, Music on Monday

Nirvana, Tony Bennet, Lady Gaga,... Music on Monday

Katy Perry... Music on Monday

Learn the Alphabet (video)

All Time Low, Brook Fraser, Morrisey,... Music on Monday

Kings of Leon, Lam Rim, The Killers,... Music on Shining Desk

Google's 13th Birthday

The Killers, Beady Eye,... Music on Monday

Music on Monday

Music on Monday: Rihanna

Short Film: In the fall

About Copyright

Coffee Addiction

Music on Monday: September (month)

Louis Vuitton City Guide 2012 - London, Gentlemen's Requisites

Bookcases

Film: "MOVE" by Rick Mereki

Music on Monday: Amy Winehouse (II)

Music on Monday: Amy Winehouse

Mystery Books -- Random House

Marian Keyes' Books

Music on Monday: Cassandra Wilson

It's Friday!

Music on Monday

Music on Monday

Cooking Books -- Random House

Music on Monday

Short film: "Out of Sight"

Short film: "感人而真實的動畫" -- A life's chekup

Blog update

Music on Monday

Fiction -- Random House

Music on Monday

Romace -- Random House

Music on Monday

Music on Monday

Music on Monday

Cooking Books -- Random House

New Mysteries -- Random House

A Bouquet of New Novels -- Random House

Music on Monday

Put some spring in your step -- Random House

Music on Monday

Music on Monday

Get Healthy Inside and Out with New Books from Random House‏

Music on Monday

Blog update

Music on Monday: Jennifer Lopez

Music on Monday: Avril Lavigne

Blog update

Music on Monday: James Taylor

Music on Monday