The Maintenance of Headway

The Maintenance of Headway

Author: Magnus Mills

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2015-05-19

Total Pages: 161

ISBN-13: 1632860376

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From the Booker-shortlisted author acclaimed as having "no literary precedent" (Independent) comes a gently absurd examination of the systems that trap and frustrate us daily. Fans of dry humor will enjoy this tale of mishap and folly, told from the point of view of a bus driver who's been charged to maintain a precise distance between himself and other buses--a directive that leads him to ignore the very passengers he's meant to serve. Witty, allegorical, and intelligent, this is a novel for all those who have ever run for a bus, only to have it pull away as they reach its doors. Showcasing all of Mills' strengths, it is the perfect reintroduction for American readers to an incomparable talent.


Book Synopsis The Maintenance of Headway by : Magnus Mills

Download or read book The Maintenance of Headway written by Magnus Mills and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2015-05-19 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the Booker-shortlisted author acclaimed as having "no literary precedent" (Independent) comes a gently absurd examination of the systems that trap and frustrate us daily. Fans of dry humor will enjoy this tale of mishap and folly, told from the point of view of a bus driver who's been charged to maintain a precise distance between himself and other buses--a directive that leads him to ignore the very passengers he's meant to serve. Witty, allegorical, and intelligent, this is a novel for all those who have ever run for a bus, only to have it pull away as they reach its doors. Showcasing all of Mills' strengths, it is the perfect reintroduction for American readers to an incomparable talent.


A Cruel Bird Came to the Nest and Looked in

A Cruel Bird Came to the Nest and Looked in

Author: Magnus Mills

Publisher: A&C Black

Published: 2012-08-01

Total Pages: 290

ISBN-13: 1408821974

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Far away, in the ancient empire of Greater Fallowfields, things are falling apart. The imperial orchestra is presided over by a conductor who has never played a note, the clocks are changed constantly to ensure that the sun always sets at five o' clock, and the Astronomer Royal is only able to use the observatory telescope when he can find a sixpence to put in its slot. But while the kingdom drifts, awaiting the return of the young emperor, who has gone abroad and communicates only by penny post, a sinister and unfamiliar enemy is getting closer and closer...A Cruel Bird Came to the Nest and Looked In is Magnus Mills's most ambitious work to date. A surreal portrait of a world that, although strange and distant, contains rather too many similarities to our own for the alien not to become brilliantly familiar and disturbingly close to home. It is comic writing at its best - and it is Magnus Mills's most ambitious, enjoyable and rewarding novel to date.


Book Synopsis A Cruel Bird Came to the Nest and Looked in by : Magnus Mills

Download or read book A Cruel Bird Came to the Nest and Looked in written by Magnus Mills and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2012-08-01 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Far away, in the ancient empire of Greater Fallowfields, things are falling apart. The imperial orchestra is presided over by a conductor who has never played a note, the clocks are changed constantly to ensure that the sun always sets at five o' clock, and the Astronomer Royal is only able to use the observatory telescope when he can find a sixpence to put in its slot. But while the kingdom drifts, awaiting the return of the young emperor, who has gone abroad and communicates only by penny post, a sinister and unfamiliar enemy is getting closer and closer...A Cruel Bird Came to the Nest and Looked In is Magnus Mills's most ambitious work to date. A surreal portrait of a world that, although strange and distant, contains rather too many similarities to our own for the alien not to become brilliantly familiar and disturbingly close to home. It is comic writing at its best - and it is Magnus Mills's most ambitious, enjoyable and rewarding novel to date.


Three to See the King

Three to See the King

Author: Magnus Mills

Publisher: Macmillan

Published: 2002-12-06

Total Pages: 178

ISBN-13: 9780312306106

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A novel rich in comic menace from the author of The Restraint of Beasts In a setting Samuel Beckett might have found homey lives a man in a house made of tin. He is content. The tin house is well constructed and located miles from the tin houses of his nearest neighbors. Though he seems to have escaped society, however, society finds him. One day, a woman arrives and moves in. Soon a neighbor comes to visit, and then another. Soon, moving figures silhouette the horizon. People dismantling their tin houses and setting off to find a master builder with a revolutionary message. The gravitational pull cannot be resisted. Nor can this novel. Part mystery, part parable, Three to See the King stalks the reader’s imagination and grows inexorably and irresistibly in the telling.


Book Synopsis Three to See the King by : Magnus Mills

Download or read book Three to See the King written by Magnus Mills and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2002-12-06 with total page 178 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A novel rich in comic menace from the author of The Restraint of Beasts In a setting Samuel Beckett might have found homey lives a man in a house made of tin. He is content. The tin house is well constructed and located miles from the tin houses of his nearest neighbors. Though he seems to have escaped society, however, society finds him. One day, a woman arrives and moves in. Soon a neighbor comes to visit, and then another. Soon, moving figures silhouette the horizon. People dismantling their tin houses and setting off to find a master builder with a revolutionary message. The gravitational pull cannot be resisted. Nor can this novel. Part mystery, part parable, Three to See the King stalks the reader’s imagination and grows inexorably and irresistibly in the telling.


Explorers of the New Century

Explorers of the New Century

Author: Magnus Mills

Publisher: A&C Black

Published: 2011-09-05

Total Pages: 194

ISBN-13: 1408825309

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The brilliant new novel by the author of The Restraint of Beasts


Book Synopsis Explorers of the New Century by : Magnus Mills

Download or read book Explorers of the New Century written by Magnus Mills and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2011-09-05 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The brilliant new novel by the author of The Restraint of Beasts


The Restraint of Beasts

The Restraint of Beasts

Author: Magnus Mills

Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing Inc.

Published: 2012-07

Total Pages: 225

ISBN-13: 1611455138

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When sloth and alcohol lead to a horribly botched job, two fence-builders named Tam and Richie flee their native Scotland to England, where all hell quickly breaks loose, in an offbeat novel in the British comic tradition.


Book Synopsis The Restraint of Beasts by : Magnus Mills

Download or read book The Restraint of Beasts written by Magnus Mills and published by Skyhorse Publishing Inc.. This book was released on 2012-07 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When sloth and alcohol lead to a horribly botched job, two fence-builders named Tam and Richie flee their native Scotland to England, where all hell quickly breaks loose, in an offbeat novel in the British comic tradition.


The Field of the Cloth of Gold

The Field of the Cloth of Gold

Author: Magnus Mills

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2016-08-09

Total Pages: 218

ISBN-13: 1632862875

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The Great Field lies in the bend of a broad, meandering river. Bounded on three sides by water, on the fourth side it dwindles gradually into wilderness. A handful of tents are scattered far and wide across its immensity. Their flags flutter in the warm breeze, rich with the promise of halcyon days. But more and more people are setting up camp in the lush pastures, and with each new arrival, life becomes a little more complicated. And when a large and disciplined group arrives from across the river, emotions run so high that even a surplus of milk pudding can't soothe ruffled feathers. Change is coming; change that threatens the delicate balance of power in the Great Field. Magnus Mills's new novel takes its name from the site of a 1520 meeting between Henry VIII and Francis I of France, to improve relations between the countries as the Treaty of London deteriorated. It allegorically suggests a number of historical encounters on British soil: the coming of the Vikings, the coming of the Romans. But The Field of the Cloth of Gold sits firmly outside of time, a skillful and surreal fable dealing with ideas of ownership, empire, immigration, charisma, diplomacy, and bureaucracy. It cements Magnus Mills's status as one of the most original and beloved novelists writing today.


Book Synopsis The Field of the Cloth of Gold by : Magnus Mills

Download or read book The Field of the Cloth of Gold written by Magnus Mills and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2016-08-09 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Great Field lies in the bend of a broad, meandering river. Bounded on three sides by water, on the fourth side it dwindles gradually into wilderness. A handful of tents are scattered far and wide across its immensity. Their flags flutter in the warm breeze, rich with the promise of halcyon days. But more and more people are setting up camp in the lush pastures, and with each new arrival, life becomes a little more complicated. And when a large and disciplined group arrives from across the river, emotions run so high that even a surplus of milk pudding can't soothe ruffled feathers. Change is coming; change that threatens the delicate balance of power in the Great Field. Magnus Mills's new novel takes its name from the site of a 1520 meeting between Henry VIII and Francis I of France, to improve relations between the countries as the Treaty of London deteriorated. It allegorically suggests a number of historical encounters on British soil: the coming of the Vikings, the coming of the Romans. But The Field of the Cloth of Gold sits firmly outside of time, a skillful and surreal fable dealing with ideas of ownership, empire, immigration, charisma, diplomacy, and bureaucracy. It cements Magnus Mills's status as one of the most original and beloved novelists writing today.


Losing Our Way

Losing Our Way

Author: Bob Herbert

Publisher: Anchor

Published: 2015-07-07

Total Pages: 306

ISBN-13: 0767930843

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From longtime New York Times columnist Bob Herbert comes a wrenching portrayal of ordinary Americans struggling for survival in a nation that has lost its way In his eighteen years as an opinion columnist for The New York Times, Herbert championed the working poor and the middle class. After filing his last column in 2011, he set off on a journey across the country to report on Americans who were being left behind in an economy that has never fully recovered from the Great Recession. The portraits of those he encountered fuel his new book, Losing Our Way. Herbert’s combination of heartrending reporting and keen political analysis is the purest expression since the Occupy movement of the plight of the 99 percent. The individuals and families who are paying the price of America’s bad choices in recent decades form the book’s emotional center: an exhausted high school student in Brooklyn who works the overnight shift in a factory at minimum wage to help pay her family’s rent; a twenty-four-year-old soldier from Peachtree City, Georgia, who loses both legs in a misguided, mismanaged, seemingly endless war; a young woman, only recently engaged, who suffers devastating injuries in a tragic bridge collapse in Minneapolis; and a group of parents in Pittsburgh who courageously fight back against the politicians who decimated funding for their children’s schools. Herbert reminds us of a time in America when unemployment was low, wages and profits were high, and the nation’s wealth, by current standards, was distributed much more equitably. Today, the gap between the wealthy and everyone else has widened dramatically, the nation’s physical plant is crumbling, and the inability to find decent work is a plague on a generation. Herbert traces where we went wrong and spotlights the drastic and dangerous shift of political power from ordinary Americans to the corporate and financial elite. Hope for America, he argues, lies in a concerted push to redress that political imbalance. Searing and unforgettable, Losing Our Way ultimately inspires with its faith in ordinary citizens to take back their true political power and reclaim the American dream.


Book Synopsis Losing Our Way by : Bob Herbert

Download or read book Losing Our Way written by Bob Herbert and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2015-07-07 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From longtime New York Times columnist Bob Herbert comes a wrenching portrayal of ordinary Americans struggling for survival in a nation that has lost its way In his eighteen years as an opinion columnist for The New York Times, Herbert championed the working poor and the middle class. After filing his last column in 2011, he set off on a journey across the country to report on Americans who were being left behind in an economy that has never fully recovered from the Great Recession. The portraits of those he encountered fuel his new book, Losing Our Way. Herbert’s combination of heartrending reporting and keen political analysis is the purest expression since the Occupy movement of the plight of the 99 percent. The individuals and families who are paying the price of America’s bad choices in recent decades form the book’s emotional center: an exhausted high school student in Brooklyn who works the overnight shift in a factory at minimum wage to help pay her family’s rent; a twenty-four-year-old soldier from Peachtree City, Georgia, who loses both legs in a misguided, mismanaged, seemingly endless war; a young woman, only recently engaged, who suffers devastating injuries in a tragic bridge collapse in Minneapolis; and a group of parents in Pittsburgh who courageously fight back against the politicians who decimated funding for their children’s schools. Herbert reminds us of a time in America when unemployment was low, wages and profits were high, and the nation’s wealth, by current standards, was distributed much more equitably. Today, the gap between the wealthy and everyone else has widened dramatically, the nation’s physical plant is crumbling, and the inability to find decent work is a plague on a generation. Herbert traces where we went wrong and spotlights the drastic and dangerous shift of political power from ordinary Americans to the corporate and financial elite. Hope for America, he argues, lies in a concerted push to redress that political imbalance. Searing and unforgettable, Losing Our Way ultimately inspires with its faith in ordinary citizens to take back their true political power and reclaim the American dream.


Time Management for System Administrators

Time Management for System Administrators

Author: Tom Limoncelli

Publisher: "O'Reilly Media, Inc."

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 226

ISBN-13: 0596007833

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Provides advice for system administrators on time management, covering such topics as keeping an effective calendar, eliminating time wasters, setting priorities, automating processes, and managing interruptions.


Book Synopsis Time Management for System Administrators by : Tom Limoncelli

Download or read book Time Management for System Administrators written by Tom Limoncelli and published by "O'Reilly Media, Inc.". This book was released on 2006 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Provides advice for system administrators on time management, covering such topics as keeping an effective calendar, eliminating time wasters, setting priorities, automating processes, and managing interruptions.


The Scheme for Full Employment

The Scheme for Full Employment

Author: Magnus Mills

Publisher: Macmillan

Published: 2003-12

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13: 9780312310295

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From Magnus Mills, the acknowledged master of the working-class dystopic parable--a genre he practically invented--a new work of comic genius The whole idea is simple yet so perfect: men drive to and from strategically placed warehouses in Univans--identical and serviceable vehicles--transporting replacement parts for. . .Univans. Gloriously self-perpetuating, the Scheme was designed to give an honest day’s wage for an honest day’s labor. That it produces nothing does not obtain. Our hero in Magnus Mills’ mesmerizing new work is a five-year veteran of the Scheme: he knows the best routes, the easiest managers, the quickest ways in and out. Inevitably, trouble begins to brew. A woman arrives on the scene. Some workers develop delivery sidelines. And most disturbing of all, not all participants are in agreement. There are “Flat-Dayers,” who believe the Scheme’s eight-hour day is sacrosanct and inviolable, and there are “Swervers,” who fancy being let off a little early now and again. Disagreement turns to argument, argument to debate, debate to outright schism. Soon the Flat-Dayers and Swervers have pushed the Scheme to the very brink of disaster. . .and readers to the edge of their chairs in delight.


Book Synopsis The Scheme for Full Employment by : Magnus Mills

Download or read book The Scheme for Full Employment written by Magnus Mills and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2003-12 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From Magnus Mills, the acknowledged master of the working-class dystopic parable--a genre he practically invented--a new work of comic genius The whole idea is simple yet so perfect: men drive to and from strategically placed warehouses in Univans--identical and serviceable vehicles--transporting replacement parts for. . .Univans. Gloriously self-perpetuating, the Scheme was designed to give an honest day’s wage for an honest day’s labor. That it produces nothing does not obtain. Our hero in Magnus Mills’ mesmerizing new work is a five-year veteran of the Scheme: he knows the best routes, the easiest managers, the quickest ways in and out. Inevitably, trouble begins to brew. A woman arrives on the scene. Some workers develop delivery sidelines. And most disturbing of all, not all participants are in agreement. There are “Flat-Dayers,” who believe the Scheme’s eight-hour day is sacrosanct and inviolable, and there are “Swervers,” who fancy being let off a little early now and again. Disagreement turns to argument, argument to debate, debate to outright schism. Soon the Flat-Dayers and Swervers have pushed the Scheme to the very brink of disaster. . .and readers to the edge of their chairs in delight.


All Quiet on the Orient Express

All Quiet on the Orient Express

Author: Magnus Mills

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2013-05-01

Total Pages: 127

ISBN-13: 1611459494

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Magnus Mills’s first novel, The Restraint of Beasts, was hailed by Thomas Pynchon as a “comic wonder.” His second novel, All Quiet on the Orient Express, is an equally edgy blend of high-grade comedy and low-grade paranoia. With insidiously beguiling deadpan charm, Mills draws us again into the world of contract employment, this time in England’s Lake District. The novel’s narrator, an itinerant odd-jobber, is camping out, waiting for summer to end so that he can set off for some vague notion of the East . . . Turkey, Persia, overland to India. In the meantime, he agrees to do a small painting job for the owner of his campsite. One job leads to another. Before long, our hero is hopelessly and hilariously enmeshed in the off-season mysteries of the placid northern English community, grappling with dark forces beyond his power—some of which hang out at the local pub. To think it all began with a simple paint job . . .


Book Synopsis All Quiet on the Orient Express by : Magnus Mills

Download or read book All Quiet on the Orient Express written by Magnus Mills and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2013-05-01 with total page 127 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Magnus Mills’s first novel, The Restraint of Beasts, was hailed by Thomas Pynchon as a “comic wonder.” His second novel, All Quiet on the Orient Express, is an equally edgy blend of high-grade comedy and low-grade paranoia. With insidiously beguiling deadpan charm, Mills draws us again into the world of contract employment, this time in England’s Lake District. The novel’s narrator, an itinerant odd-jobber, is camping out, waiting for summer to end so that he can set off for some vague notion of the East . . . Turkey, Persia, overland to India. In the meantime, he agrees to do a small painting job for the owner of his campsite. One job leads to another. Before long, our hero is hopelessly and hilariously enmeshed in the off-season mysteries of the placid northern English community, grappling with dark forces beyond his power—some of which hang out at the local pub. To think it all began with a simple paint job . . .