Glass Houses

An instant New York Times Bestseller and August 2017 LibraryReads pick! “Penny’s absorbing, intricately plotted 13th Gamache novel proves she only gets better at pursuing dark truths with compassion and grace.” —PEOPLE “Louise Penny wrote the book on escapist mysteries.” —The New York Times Book Review “You won't want Louise Penny's latest to end....Any plot summary of Penny’s novels inevitably falls short of conveying the dark magic of this series.... It takes nerve and skill — as well as heart — to write mysteries like this. ‘Glass Houses,’ along with many of the other Gamache books, is so compelling that, for the space of reading it, you may well feel that much of what’s going on in the world outside the novel is ‘just noise.’” —Maureen Corrigan, The Washington Post When a mysterious figure appears in Three Pines one cold November day, Armand Gamache and the rest of the villagers are at first curious. Then wary. Through rain and sleet, the figure stands unmoving, staring ahead. From the moment its shadow falls over the village, Gamache, now Chief Superintendent of the Sûreté du Québec, suspects the creature has deep roots and a dark purpose. Yet he does nothing. What can he do? Only watch and wait. And hope his mounting fears are not realized. But when the figure vanishes overnight and a body is discovered, it falls to Gamache to discover if a debt has been paid or levied. Months later, on a steamy July day as the trial for the accused begins in Montréal, Chief Superintendent Gamache continues to struggle with actions he set in motion that bitter November, from which there is no going back. More than the accused is on trial. Gamache’s own conscience is standing in judgment. In Glass Houses, her latest utterly gripping book, number-one New York Times bestselling author Louise Penny shatters the conventions of the crime novel to explore what Gandhi called the court of conscience. A court that supersedes all others.

College freshman Claire Danvers has had enough of her nightmarish dorm situation, where the popular girls never let her forget just where she ranks in the school's social scene: somewhere less than zero. When Claire heads off-campus, the imposing old house where she finds a room may not be much better. Her new roommates don't show many signs of life. But they'll have Claire's back when the town's deepest secrets come crawling out, hungry for fresh blood. Watch a Windows Media trailer for this book.

For readers of Hillbilly Elegy and Strangers in Their Own Land WINNER OF THE OHIOANA BOOK AWARDS AND FINALIST FOR THE 87TH CALIFORNIA BOOK AWARDS | NAMED A BEST/MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2017 BY: New York Post • Newsweek • The Week • Bustle • Books by the Banks Book Festival • Bookauthority.com The Wall Street Journal: "A devastating portrait...For anyone wondering why swing-state America voted against the establishment in 2016, Mr. Alexander supplies plenty of answers." Laura Miller, Slate: "This book hunts bigger game. Reads like an odd?and oddly satisfying?fusion of George Packer’s The Unwinding and one of Michael Lewis’ real-life financial thrillers." The New Yorker : "Does a remarkable job." Beth Macy, author of Factory Man: "This book should be required reading for people trying to understand Trumpism, inequality, and the sad state of a needlessly wrecked rural America. I wish I had written it." In 1947, Forbes magazine declared Lancaster, Ohio the epitome of the all-American town. Today it is damaged, discouraged, and fighting for its future. In Glass House, journalist Brian Alexander uses the story of one town to show how seeds sown 35 years ago have sprouted to give us Trumpism, inequality, and an eroding national cohesion. The Anchor Hocking Glass Company, once the world’s largest maker of glass tableware, was the base on which Lancaster’s society was built. As Glass House unfolds, bankruptcy looms. With access to the company and its leaders, and Lancaster’s citizens, Alexander shows how financial engineering took hold in the 1980s, accelerated in the 21st Century, and wrecked the company. We follow CEO Sam Solomon, an African-American leading the nearly all-white town’s biggest private employer, as he tries to rescue the company from the New York private equity firm that hired him. Meanwhile, Alexander goes behind the scenes, entwined with the lives of residents as they wrestle with heroin, politics, high-interest lenders, low wage jobs, technology, and the new demands of American life: people like Brian Gossett, the fourth generation to work at Anchor Hocking; Joe Piccolo, first-time director of the annual music festival who discovers the town relies on him, and it, for salvation; Jason Roach, who police believed may have been Lancaster’s biggest drug dealer; and Eric Brown, a local football hero-turned-cop who comes to realize that he can never arrest Lancaster’s real problems.

This is the classic work on the subject, tracing the history - architectural, botanical and social - of the glass houses, from Roman times, to the height of their popularity in the 18th and early 19th centuries.

The eighties were my formative years, and while other teenagers were gyrating to rock 'n' roll, we were praying for revival. We were taking communion, not cocaine. We treated virginity like a wedding present, not a cold sore. And why wouldn't we? We were told we could be, we already were, anything we wanted to be... We were armed and dangerous. Armed with the power of God and dangerous in the eyes of Satan. Tanya Levin grew up in the church that became Hillsong—the country’s most ambitious, entrepreneurial and influential religious corporation. People in Glass Houses tells how a small Assemblies of God church in a suburban school hall became a multi-million dollar tax-free enterprise and a powerful force in Australia today. Opening up the world of Christian fundamentalism, this is a powerful, personal and at times very funny exploration of an all-singing, all-swaying mega church.

'A wonderfully empathetic exploration of human frailties and our capacity to heal ... brutally truthful and beautifully uplifting' Sophie White 'Moving, unexpected and compassionate' Louise O'Neill 'A heartfelt reminder of the importance of connection - to nature, to others, to ourselves' Calum McSwiggan Jenna Walker has suddenly found herself with no job, no boyfriend, nowhere to live - and she's been wondering for a while now if, apart from her beloved cat Bertie, she has anything to live for. The last thing she wants is to turn up on her sister's doorstep, but that feels like her only option... Rosie Walker spends a lot of her time thinking about the life she used to have. These days she's stretched too thin, and she's not sure she can cope with taking care of another person. If only one thing in her life would work out the way she wants it to... David is Rosie's next-door neighbour. A retired doctor, he has had a big idea, one inspired by his late wife June: a community garden project for those who are struggling. The sisters reluctantly agree to take part, even though they're sure it'll be a waste of time. How could fixing up an overgrown plot of land make anyone's life better? But as the group works together to bring the garden back to life, new friendships blossom and old wounds start to heal. And Jenna and Rosie come to realise that the world around them might have more to offer than they had once believed. From the author of bestseller If Only, Glass Houses is a heartfelt, uplifting novel about family, growth, friendship and hope. 'Evocative, emotional and visceral' Briana Morgan

The glasshouses of the nineteenth century represent a remarkable confluence of opposites in architecture and technology. The architecture was designed to create an artificial climate in which people could return to paradise, and yet the technical means employed were also basic to the century's developing industrial grime -the other side of paradise. Enriched by more than 700 illustrations, Houses of Glass chronicles these pristine structures as they evolved from hothouses into exhibition halls, ballrooms, and theaters. Georg Kohlmaier is an architect and Barna von Sartory a sculptor. They have collaborated on many books and articles on contemporary architecture.

A chilling and revelatory appraisal of the new faces of espionage and warfare on the digital battleground Shortly after 9/11, Joel Brenner entered the inner sanctum of American espionage, first as the inspector general of the National Security Agency, then as the head of counterintelligence for the director of National Intelligence. He saw at close range the battleground on which adversaries are attacking us: cyberspace. Like the rest of us, governments and corporations inhabit “glass houses,” all but transparent to a new generation of spies who operate remotely from such places as China, the Middle East, Russia, and even France. In this urgent wake-up call, Brenner draws on his extraordinary background to show what we can—and cannot—do to prevent cyber spies and hackers from compromising our security and stealing our latest technology.