The Porcelain Thief

Author : Huan Hsu
Publisher : Crown
ISBN 13 : 0307986314
Total Pages : 396 pages
Book Rating : 4.13/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Porcelain Thief written by Huan Hsu and published by Crown. This book was released on 2015-03-24 with total page 396 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A journalist travels throughout mainland China and Taiwan in search of his family’s hidden treasure and comes to understand his ancestry as he never has before. In 1938, when the Japanese arrived in Huan Hsu’s great-great-grandfather Liu’s Yangtze River hometown of Xingang, Liu was forced to bury his valuables, including a vast collection of prized antique porcelain, and undertake a decades-long trek that would splinter the family over thousands of miles. Many years and upheavals later, Hsu, raised in Salt Lake City and armed only with curiosity, moves to China to work in his uncle’s semiconductor chip business. Once there, a conversation with his grandmother, his last living link to dynastic China, ignites a desire to learn more about not only his lost ancestral heirlooms but also porcelain itself. Mastering the language enough to venture into the countryside, Hsu sets out to separate the layers of fact and fiction that have obscured both China and his heritage and finally complete his family’s long march back home. Melding memoir, travelogue, and social and political history, The Porcelain Thief offers an intimate and unforgettable way to understand the complicated events that have defined China over the past two hundred years and provides a revealing, lively perspective on contemporary Chinese society from the point of view of a Chinese American coming to terms with his hyphenated identity.

Author : Joshua Hammer
Publisher : Simon & Schuster
ISBN 13 : 150119190X
Total Pages : 336 pages
Book Rating : 4.09/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Falcon Thief written by Joshua Hammer and published by Simon & Schuster. This book was released on 2021-02-16 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A “well-written, engaging detective story” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) about a rogue who trades in rare birds and their eggs—and the wildlife detective determined to stop him. On May 3, 2010, an Irish national named Jeffrey Lendrum was apprehended at Britain’s Birmingham International Airport with a suspicious parcel strapped to his stomach. Inside were fourteen rare peregrine falcon eggs snatched from a remote cliffside in Wales. So begins a “vivid tale of obsession and international derring-do” (Publishers Weekly), following the parallel lives of a globe-trotting smuggler who spent two decades capturing endangered raptors worth millions of dollars as race champions—and Detective Andy McWilliam of the United Kingdom’s National Wildlife Crime Unit, who’s hell bent on protecting the world’s birds of prey. “Masterfully constructed” (The New York Times) and “entertaining and illuminating” (The Washington Post), The Falcon Thief will whisk you away from the volcanoes of Patagonia to Zimbabwe’s Matobo National Park, and from the frigid tundra near the Arctic Circle to luxurious aviaries in the deserts of Dubai, all in pursuit of a man who is reckless, arrogant, and gripped by a destructive compulsion to make the most beautiful creatures in nature his own. It’s a story that’s part true-crime narrative, part epic adventure—and wholly unputdownable until the very last page.

Author : Jess Faraday
Publisher : Bold Strokes Books Inc
ISBN 13 : 1602825254
Total Pages : 266 pages
Book Rating : 4.53/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Affair of the Porcelain Dog written by Jess Faraday and published by Bold Strokes Books Inc. This book was released on 2011-06-01 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: London 1889. For Ira Adler, former rent-boy and present plaything of crime lord Cain Goddard, stealing back the statue from Goddard's blackmailer should have been a doddle. But inside the statue is evidence that could put Goddard away for a long time under the sodomy laws, and everyone's after it, including Ira's bitter ex, Dr. Timothy Lazarus. No sooner does Ira have the porcelain dog in his hot little hands, than he loses it to a nimble-fingered prostitute. As IraÕs search for the dog drags him back to the mean East End streets where he grew up, he discovers secrets about his own past, and about Goddard's present business dealings, which make him question everything he thought he knew. An old friend turns up dead, and an old enemy proves himself a friend. Goddard is pressing Ira for a commitment, but every new discovery casts doubt on whether Ira can, in good conscience, remain with him. In the end, Ira must choose between his hard-won life of luxury and standing against a grievous wrong.

Author : Jonelle Patrick
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1645060292
Total Pages : 307 pages
Book Rating : 4.91/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Last Tea Bowl Thief written by Jonelle Patrick and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2020-10-20 with total page 307 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For three hundred years, a stolen relic passes from one fortune-seeker to the next, indelibly altering the lives of those who possess it. In modern-day Tokyo, Robin Swann’s life has sputtered to a stop. She’s stuck in a dead-end job testing antiquities for an auction house, but her true love is poetry, not pottery. Her stalled dissertation sits on her laptop, unopened in months, and she has no one to confide in but her goldfish. On the other side of town, Nori Okuda sells rice bowls and tea cups to Tokyo restaurants, as her family has done for generations. But with her grandmother in the hospital, the family business is foundering. Nori knows if her luck doesn’t change soon, she’ll lose what little she has left. With nothing in common, Nori and Robin suddenly find their futures inextricably linked to an ancient, elusive tea bowl. Glimpses of the past set the stage as they hunt for the lost masterpiece, uncovering long-buried secrets in their wake. As they get closer to the truth—and the tea bowl—the women must choose between seizing their dreams or righting the terrible wrong that has poisoned its legacy for centuries.

Author : David Kidd
Publisher : New York Review of Books
ISBN 13 : 1590174291
Total Pages : 212 pages
Book Rating : 4.96/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Peking Story written by David Kidd and published by New York Review of Books. This book was released on 2011-04-27 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For two years before and after the 1948 Communist Revolution, David Kidd lived in Peking, where he married the daughter of an aristocratic Chinese family. "I used to hope," he writes, "that some bright young scholar on a research grant would write about us and our Chinese friends before it was too late and we were all dead and gone, folding into the darkness the wonder that had been our lives." Here Kidd himself brings that wonder to life.

Author : Jennifer A. Nielsen
Publisher : Scholastic Inc.
ISBN 13 : 0545837340
Total Pages : 5 pages
Book Rating : 4.47/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Mark of the Thief (Free Preview Edition) written by Jennifer A. Nielsen and published by Scholastic Inc.. This book was released on 2014-10-03 with total page 5 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A sneak peek at an electrifying tale of greed and power, magic and destiny, and one boy's courage at the heart of it all, from Jennifer A. Nielsen, the New York Times bestselling author of the Ascendance Trilogy. When Nic, a slave in the mines outside of Rome, is forced to enter a sealed cavern containing the lost treasures of Julius Caesar, he finds much more than gold and gemstones: He discovers an ancient bulla, an amulet that belonged to the great Caesar and is filled with a magic once reserved for the Gods -- magic some Romans would kill for. Now, with the deadly power of the bulla pulsing through his veins, Nic is determined to become free. But instead, he finds himself at the center of a ruthless conspiracy to overthrow the emperor and spark the Praetor War, a battle to destroy Rome from within. Traitors and spies lurk at every turn, each more desperate than the next to use Nic's newfound powers for their own dark purposes. In a quest to stop the rebellion, save Rome, and secure his own freedom, Nic must harness the magic within himself and defeat the empire's most powerful and savage leaders.

Author : Jordan Rivet
Publisher : Independently Published
ISBN 13 : 9781796348057
Total Pages : 352 pages
Book Rating : 4.58/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Watermight Thief written by Jordan Rivet and published by Independently Published. This book was released on 2019-02-07 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Welcome to Pendark, a city of murky canals, brutal gladiator fights, and sorcerers who feud over access to the silvery magical substance known as Watermight. Tamri is a scrappy magic thief who's trying to get her grandmother out of this festering swamp of a city. But when a quick score involving a dragon goes wrong, she's shipped off to a distant mountaintop kingdom where the legendary Fire Queen is starting a school for magic wielders. Tamri's not just going there to learn. The King of Pendark suspects the Fire Queen is up to something more dangerous than training young wielders, and he orders Tamri to find out the truth. If she fails, neither she nor her grandmother will survive the school year. Return to the world of Steel and Fire in this all new adventure set five years after Night of Flame. AUTHOR'S NOTE: You don't need to read the Steel and Fire books to enjoy The Watermight Thief, but it does contain spoilers for the original series.

Author : Roxanne St. Claire
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 0743498593
Total Pages : 384 pages
Book Rating : 4.93/5 ( download)

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Download or read book French Twist written by Roxanne St. Claire and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2004-02-09 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Following her white-hot debut novel, Tropical Getaway, Roxanne St. Claire captures the passion and intrigue of France in a dazzling romantic suspense adventure. Janine Coulter has just gotten her big chance to prove herself, managing a prestigious exhibit at the Palace of Versailles -- and Luc Tremont, the security specialist, is clearly trouble. He's making decisions without her, under-cutting her authority. He's also too smooth, too virile, too dangerously handsome, too...well...French! And Janine has the uneasy suspicion he's not all that he seems. Luc resolutely ignores the powerful sizzle of attraction he feels when he meets Janine -- the quintessential California girl with her blond hair, blue eyes, and legs that seem to go on forever. But when thieves steal priceless treasures from the exhibit, and Luc and Janine give chase across the lush Burgundy countryside, their forced intimacy ignites the passion both have tried to ignore. Luc wonders what will happen when Janine learns his true identity -- but with dangerous men pursuing them, they may not live to find out....

Author : Margaret V. Delashmit
Publisher : Inspiring Voices
ISBN 13 : 9781462403486
Total Pages : 148 pages
Book Rating : 4.84/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Thief! written by Margaret V. Delashmit and published by Inspiring Voices. This book was released on 2012-10 with total page 148 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is 1959 when thirteen-year-old Claire McGlaughlin's parents leave for Kenya on a missionary trip. She is sent to live with her grandmother in boring old Holly Springs, Mississippi-where nothing interesting ever happens. Soon, Claire finds she has a friend in local boy Ralphie. Even better, she discovers that the small town has a mystery, and then Holly Springs becomes anything but dull. A rash of burglaries and rumors of a cold case murder send this budding writer into investigative mode. The nice folk of Holly Springs would never admit to anything bad happening in their hometown, especially bad things perpetrated by one of their own. They go so far as to deny a murder ever occurred, but Claire is sure they must be hiding something. With the help of her new pal, Claire sets out to solve the mystery. Along the way, Claire and Ralphie make the acquaintance of vicious dogs, a shotgun-waving crazy lady, and an angry sheriff . What's more, an unknown Mary Cassatt painting and a dog with mysterious powers may be the keys to unraveling a mystery that has haunted the town of Holly Springs for much too long. "This inspiring novel of teenage angst set in a small Southern town captures the emotions of doubt, rejection, and love. It provides a convincing demonstration of the resilience of teenagers who are so often dismissed by adults who cannot see beyond their myopic preconceptions of adolescence (and have forgotten their own teenage years)." -B. C. Crawford, Educator, Oxford, Mississippi

Author : Dan Hofstadter
Publisher : Vintage
ISBN 13 : 0307484599
Total Pages : 274 pages
Book Rating : 4.98/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Falling Palace written by Dan Hofstadter and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2010-02-10 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A portrait of the sun-drenched volcanic city from an American who has lost his heart to the place and to a beguiling Neapolitan woman. In Falling Palace Dan Hofstadter brilliantly reveals Naples, from the dilapidated architectural beauty to the irrepressible theater of everyday life. We witness the centuries-old festivals that regularly crowd the city’s jumbled streets, and eavesdrop on conversations that continue deep into the night. We browse the countless curio shops where treasures mingle with kitsch, and meet the locals he befriends. In and out of these encounters slips Benedetta, the object of the author’s affections, at once inviting and unfathomable. Weaving the tale of an elusive love together with a vivid portrayal of a legendary metropolis, this is a startling evocation of a magical place.