Title: The Little Stranger Author: Sarah Waters File Type: Mobi Subject:Horror Description:From Publishers WeeklyStarred Review. Waters (_The Night Watch_) reflects on the collapse of the British class system after WWII in a stunning haunted house tale whose ghosts are as horrifying as any in Shirley Jacksons The Haunting of Hill House. Doctor Faraday, a lonely bachelor, first visited Hundreds Hall, where his mother once worked as a parlor maid, at age 10 in 1919. When Faraday returns 30 years later to treat a servant, he becomes obsessed with Hundredss elegant owner, Mrs. Ayres; her 24-year-old son, Roderick, an RAF airman wounded during the war who now oversees the family farm; and her slightly older daughter, Caroline, considered a natural spinster by the locals, for whom the doctor develops a particular fondness. Supernatural trouble kicks in after Carolines mild-mannered black Lab, Gyp, attacks a visiting child. A damaging fire, a suicide and worse follow. Faraday, one of literatures more unreliable narrators, carries the reader swiftly along to the devastating conclusion. (May) br Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. FromAt its core, The Little Stranger is an old-fashioned ghost story, complete with spooky house, eccentric inhabitants, an air of general madness and malcontent, and a narrator who may not be as mild-mannered as he seems. What elevates this novel from the crowded genre is Waters’s ability to evoke the subtleties of the past as she skillfully weaves tension and dread into each paragraph. The reviewer from Newsday likened this tale to the psychological classic The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. Perhaps the critic from the Telegraph (who voiced only a very minor complaint about the ending) summed up the reviewers’ opinions best of all by hailing this novel as a genuinely creepy story “guaranteed to make anyone with a pulse gibber in fright.”br 2009 Bookmarks Publishing LLC

Title: Going Dutch_ How England Plundered Holland's Glory Author: Lisa Jardine File Type: Mobi Subject:History Description:From Publishers WeeklyEngland's almost bloodless Glorious Revolution of 1688, in which the Dutch king William of Orange overthrew James II, began as a hostile takeover but rapidly turned into a friendly merger, according to British historian Jardine (_The Awful End of Prince William the Silent_). She explores the fascinating Anglo-Dutch relationship to answer how and why two sworn foes became friends so seamlessly. Jardine focuses mainly on the subterranean intellectual, cultural and scientific intersections between the two countries and finds that contacts were continuous and mutually advantageous for decades before William's invasion. Cross-border fertilization resulted in two of the greatest painters of the age—Peter Paul Rubens and Anton van Dyck—working for English patrons while esteemed members of the Royal Society (such as Isaac Newton) corresponded with their Netherlandish counterparts (such as Christian Huygens). By looking so closely at elite opinion, however, Jardine too lightly dismisses the virility of petty nationalism lower down the scale and too easily glosses over the very real military tensions between the two powers. Nevertheless, this is a highly original work that will appeal to fans of Simon Schama's groundbreaking The Embarrassment of Riches. Color and b&w illus. (Sept.) Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. FromExploring the cultural interchange between England and the Netherlands in the mid-1600s, historian Jardine focuses on the royal and courtier circles that cultivated the arts and sciences blossoming in that period. Her effusively illustrated book reproduces nearly 100 contemporary images of paintings and prints, each of which leads into the text, which discusses their connective role between the two countries. Jardine also traces the connections between the House of Stuart and the House of Orange, whose political interactions culminated in the Glorious Revolution of 1688, the drama of which historically overshadows their rich web of cultural relationships, Jardine’s inquiry suggests. Indeed the antagonists James II and William of Orange are instantly recognizable to history readers, whereas Jardine’s protagonist is hardly known. He is Constantijn Huygens (1596–1687), a Dutch diplomat and connoisseur of painting, architecture, and garden design, and father of Christian, the renowned astronomer, and Constantijn, who was William’s secretary during the invasion of England. Weaving the fortunes of the Huygens clan into dynastic dynamics, Jardine richly displays the society in which Rubens and van Dyck flourished. --Gilbert Taylor