Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore

Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore

Author: Robin Sloan

Publisher: Harper Collins

Published: 2012-10-02

Total Pages: 301

ISBN-13: 1443415804

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The Great Recession has shuffled Clay Jannon out of his life as a web-design drone, and serendipity, sheer curiosity and the ability to climb a ladder like a monkey have landed him a new gig working the night shift at Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore. But Clay begins to realize that this store is even more curious than its name suggests. There are only a few customers, but they come in repeatedly and never seem to actually buy anything. Instead they “check out” impossibly obscure volumes from strange corners of the store, all according to some elaborate, long-standing arrangement with the gnomic Mr. Penumbra. The store must be a front for something larger, Clay concludes, and soon he has embarked on a complex analysis of the customers’ behaviour and roped his friends into helping him figure out just what’s going on. But once they take their findings to Mr. Penumbra, they discover the secrets extend far beyond the walls of the bookstore. Evoking both the fairy-tale charm of Haruki Murakami and the enthusiastic novel-of-ideas wizardry of Neal Stephenson or Umberto Eco, Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore is exactly what it sounds like—an establishment you have to enter and will never want to leave.


A Hellion in Her Bed

A Hellion in Her Bed

Author: Sabrina Jeffries

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2022-07-26

Total Pages: 368

ISBN-13: 198219992X

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"Mired in scandal after his parents' mysterious deaths, the notorious Lord Jarret Sharpe agrees to run the family brewery for a year if his Machiavellian grandmother rescinds her ultimatum that he marry or lose his inheritance. But the gambler in him can't resist when beguiling Annabel Lake proposes a wager: If she wins their card game, he must help save her family's foundering brewery. But if he wins, she must spend a night in his bed. The outcome sets off a chain of events that threatens to destroy all of Jarret's plans and unveil the secret Annabel has held for so long. When Jarret discovers the darker reason behind her wager, he forces her into another one--and this time he intends to win not just her body, but also her heart."--Provided by publisher.


Book

Book

Author: Hugh McGuire

Publisher: "O'Reilly Media, Inc."

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 319

ISBN-13: 1449305601

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The ground beneath the book publishing industry dramatically shifted in 2007, the year the Kindle and the iPhone debuted. Widespread consumer demand for these and other devices has brought the pace of digital change in book publishing from "it might happen sometime" to "it's happening right now"--and it is happening faster than anyone predicted. Yet this is only a transitional phase. Book: A Futurist's Manifesto is your guide to what comes next, when all books are truly digital, connected, and ubiquitous. Through this collection of essays from thought leaders and practitioners, you'll become familiar with a wide range of developments occurring in the wake of this digital book shakeup: Discover new tools that are rapidly transforming how content is created, managed, and distributed Understand the increasingly critical role that metadata plays in making book content discoverable in an era of abundance Look inside some of the publishing projects that are at the bleeding edge of this digital revolution Learn how some digital books can evolve moment to moment, based on reader feedback


Reconstruction

Reconstruction

Author: Neal Shasore

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2023-02-23

Total Pages: 409

ISBN-13: 135015296X

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Commendation, the Colvin Prize 2023 (Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain) Reconstruction explores the impact of the First World War on the built environment – examining the immediate and longer term aftermath of the Great War on the architecture of Britain and the British Empire during the interwar years. While much attention has been paid by historians to post-war architectural reconstruction after 1945, the earlier developments of the interwar period (1919-1939) have been comparatively overlooked. This volume reveals how the architectural developments of this period not only provided important foundations for what happened after 1945 – they are also of real significance in their own right. Sixteen essays written by leading and emerging scholars bring together new and diverse approaches to the period – a period of reconstruction, fraught with the challenges of modernity and democratisation. The collection considers the complex effects of reconstruction on design, discourse, practice, and professionalism, and deals with the full spectrum of architectural styles and approaches, privileging neither Modernism nor traditional styles like the neo-Georgian. It brings to the fore social and political histories of the built environment, and makes important postcolonial interventions into the architectural history of British Imperialism at home and in its far reaches; in Cairo, South Africa, Australia, and India.


Michael's War

Michael's War

Author: Daniel Ford

Publisher: Warbird Books

Published: 2010-03-31

Total Pages: 251

ISBN-13:

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When he set out on his road to rebellion, Michael Ford only wanted to keep the foxes out of Hannon's Glen. But before he was done, he found himself exchanging rifle fire with the British army, with an unlikely ally in the form of Annabel Love, the squire's daughter. Michael's War tracks the course of revolution and civil war that rended Ireland from 1916 to 1923. It ends with its hero escaping to America--but what sweetheart will he ask to join him in the new world?


Sourdough

Sourdough

Author: Robin Sloan

Publisher: MCD

Published: 2017-09-05

Total Pages: 273

ISBN-13: 0374716439

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From Robin Sloan, the New York Times bestselling author of Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore, comes Sourdough, "a perfect parable for our times" (San Francisco Magazine): a delicious and funny novel about an overworked and under-socialized software engineer discovering a calling and a community as a baker. Named One of the Best Books of the Year by NPR, the San Francisco Chronicle, and Southern Living Lois Clary is a software engineer at General Dexterity, a San Francisco robotics company with world-changing ambitions. She codes all day and collapses at night, her human contact limited to the two brothers who run the neighborhood hole-in-the-wall from which she orders dinner every evening. Then, disaster! Visa issues. The brothers quickly close up shop. But they have one last delivery for Lois: their culture, the sourdough starter used to bake their bread. She must keep it alive, they tell her—feed it daily, play it music, and learn to bake with it. Lois is no baker, but she could use a roommate, even if it is a needy colony of microorganisms. Soon, not only is she eating her own homemade bread, she’s providing loaves to the General Dexterity cafeteria every day. Then the company chef urges her to take her product to the farmer’s market—and a whole new world opens up.


Secrets of a Summer Night

Secrets of a Summer Night

Author: Lisa Kleypas

Publisher: HarperCollins

Published: 2021-04-20

Total Pages: 263

ISBN-13: 0063142732

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From the New York Times bestselling author of Devil in Disguise, the first book in her beloved Wallflowers series. The Wallflowers: four young ladies at the side of the ballroom make a pact to help each other find husbands . . . no matter what it takes. Proud and beautiful Annabelle Peyton could have her pick of suitors—if only she had a dowry. Her family is on the brink of disaster, and the only way Annabelle can save them is to marry a wealthy man. Unfortunately her most persistent admirer is the brash Simon Hunt, a handsome and ambitious entrepreneur who wants her as his mistress. Annabelle is determined to resist Simon's wicked propositions, but she can't deny her attraction to the boldly seductive rogue, any more than he can resist the challenge she presents. As they try to outmaneuver each other, they find themselves surrendering to a love more powerful than they could have ever imagined. But fate may have other plans—and it will take all of Annabelle's courage to face a peril that could destroy everything she holds dear.


Ajax Penumbra 1969

Ajax Penumbra 1969

Author: Robin Sloan

Publisher: Harper Collins

Published: 2013-09-24

Total Pages: 65

ISBN-13: 144343261X

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From Robin Sloan, author of Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore, the story of Mr. Penumbra’s first trip to San Francisco—and of how he got entangled with the city’s most unusual always-open enterprise . . . It is August 1969. The Summer of Love is a fading memory. The streets of San Francisco pulse to the sounds of Led Zeppelin and Marvin Gaye. And of jackhammers: A futuristic pyramid of a skyscraper is rising a few blocks from City Lights bookstore and an unprecedented subway tunnel is being built under the bay. Meanwhile, south of the city, orchards are quickly giving way to a brand-new industry built on silicon. But young Ajax Penumbra has not arrived in San Francisco looking for free love or a glimpse of the technological future. He is seeking a book—the single surviving copy of the Techne Tycheon, a mysterious volume that has brought and lost great fortune for anyone who has owned it. The last record of the book locates it in the San Francisco of more than a century earlier, and on that scant bit of evidence, Penumbra’s university has dispatched him west to acquire it for their library. After a few weeks of rigorous hunting, Penumbra feels no closer to his goal than when he started. But late one night, after another day of dispiriting dead ends, he stumbles across a 24-hour bookstore, and the possibilities before him expand exponentially . . .