Title: The Curse of Chalion Author: Lois McMaster Bujold File Type: Mobi Subject:Fantasy Description:From School Library JournalAdultHigh School-Iselle, the royesse (princess) of Chalion, and her lady-in-waiting, Bertriz, need a new tutor. Cazaril, the man chosen for the job, has been scarred, physically and mentally, from secret betrayals by the very people who now rule Chalion through Iselle's uncle, and who seek to control her younger brother, the heir, as well. To rescue the royesse, and save Chalion, Cazaril must play matchmaker between Iselle and the prince of another realm, fight off assassins, lift a century-old curse, and risk everything-learning not to run from his own love for Bertriz-along the way. Bujold weaves a convincing and captivating fantasy world, well researched, with magic that works and gods that live without destroying the balance of this medieval society. Cazaril's life is rich with detail, and plays a part in the conclusion. The villains are believably motivated. The young heroines are deeply sympathetic characters as well. Readers will find themselves rooting for the good guys, while still uncertain that all can end without at least one of them suffering a dire fate. A finely balanced mixture of adventure, swordplay, court intrigue, romance, magic, and religion makes this book a delightful read.Paul Brink, Fairfax County Public Library System, VA 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.From Library JournalBetrayed by an unknown enemy into slavery, former soldier and courtier Lupe dy Cazaril escapes his bondage and returns to the royal household he once served. Entrusted with the teaching of the sister to the heir to the throne of Chalion, Cazaril finds himself drawn into a tangled web of politics and dark magic as he battles a curse that threatens the lives and souls of a family he has come to love. The author of the Vorkosigan series of dynastic sf turns her hand as competently and engagingly to the fantasy genre in a tale of quiet heroism and self-sacrifice. Compelling characters and richly detailed world building make this a strong addition to fantasy collections. br 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Title: The Road Author: Vasily Grossman File Type: Mobi Subject:Fiction Description:ReviewGrossmans unsparing, literary account of the horrific ways Nazi Germany implemented its ethnic-cleansing program at Treblinka was one of the first reports of a death camp anywhere in Europe and eventually provided prosecutors at the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal with crucial background information. The surprise is that up until now and English-language translation of Grossmans lengthy article has never been published in its entirety. That will soon change with the publication of The Road, a collection of Grossmans best short stories and war-time articles, including The Hell of Treblinka. --Tobias Grey, The Wall Street Journal “Grossman’s greatness is manifested in a constant ability to surprise his readers where we lazily expect darkness and gloom, Grossman provides lightness and humour what might seem at first glance to be narrow polemic turns out, when paid more attention, to have the grandeur of tragedy.” —David Lea, _The Literateur_ “Vasily Grossman is the Tolstoy of the USSR.” —Martin Amis “…the collection is a treasure trove that lends the reader an insiders understanding of what it was like to live through the Soviet era, at the same time as it introduces us to Grossmans enduring preoccupation with the wonder and terror of humanity.…A wonderful collection, this – an introduction to the man and his times that also tells us much about his love, his pity and his faith.” —Gillian Slovo, _The Guardianbr _br “Grossman’s work excavates from the Soviet rubble vital artifacts of the bitter, the tragic, the self-sacrificing, the indomitable and, ultimately, the inspiring….. [_The Road_ is] a volume that is sensitive to Grossman’s often lyrical language and frames each entry within its time through comprehensive notes.” —Ken Kalfus, The New York Times “[Grossman’s] report ‘The Hell of Treblinka’ was one of the first to report on an extermination camp, and was used as testimony in the Nuremberg trials. ‘Treblinka” is included in the recently published book, The Road — an original collection of Grossman’s short stories, essays, and letters translated into English for the first time…. This collection serves as a fantastic view into the man’s work, and will hopefully lead readers to seek out his two books of fiction put out a few years earlier.” —Jason Diamond, Jewcy “Soviet author Grossman volunteered for the army when the Germans invaded in 1941 and spent more than three years as a special correspondent at the front for the army newspaper Red Star. His wartime writing established him as a major voice of war–a status resembling in many ways that of Ernie Pyle in America…Grossman was a perceptive observer with an eye for essential detail. His vignettes of the fighting at Kursk and the battles that brought the Red Army into Berlin are models of combat reporting, and the elegiac realism of his description of Treblinka merits wide anthologizing in Holocaust literature.” –_Publishers Weekly_The Road brings together short stories, journalism, essays, and letters by Vasily Grossman, the author of Life and Fate, providing new insight into the life and work of this extraordinary writer. The stories range from Grossman’s first success, “In the Town of Berdichev,” a piercing reckoning with the cost of war, to such haunting later works as “Mama,” based on the life of a girl who was adopted at the height of the Great Terror by the head of the NKVD and packed off to an orphanage after her father’s downfall. The girl grows up struggling with the discovery that the parents she cherishes in memory are part of a collective nightmare that everyone else wishes to forget. The Road also includes the complete text of Grossman’s harrowing report from Treblinka, one of the first anatomies of the workings of a death c “The Sistine Madonna,” a reflection on art and atrocity as well as two heartbreaking letters that Grossman wrote to his mother after her death at the hands of the Nazis and carried with him for the rest of his life. Meticulously edited and presented by Robert Chandler, The Road allows us to see one of the great figures of twentieth-century literature discovering his calling both as a writer and as a man.