In the first century AD, Publius Ovidius Naso, the most urbane and irreverant poet of imperial Rome, was banished to a remote village on the edge of the Black Sea. From these sparse facts, one of our most distinguished novelists has fashioned an audacious and supremely moving work of fiction. Marooned on the edge of the known world, exiled from his native tongue, Ovid depends on the kindness of barbarians who impate their dead and converse with the spirit world. But then he becomes the guardian of a still more savage creature, a feral child who has grown up among deer. What ensues is a luminous encounter between civilization and nature, as enacted by a poet who once catalogued the treacheries of love and a boy who slowly learns how to give it. Views: 118
It is a desperate time in Witch World. The Magestone, the key to the pandimensional gates, has been lost and now all the gates are open. In the classic series' grand finale, an infinite flood of evil is about to wash across the world as Simon Tregarth returns to lead the planet's heroes in the final war against the forces of darkness. Views: 118
From Publishers WeeklyIn February of this year, Laymon, then president of the Horror Writers Association, died of a heart attack at age 53. A few weeks ago, the last of his novels to be published before his death, The Traveling Vampire Show, won the HWA's Stoker Award for best novel of the year. Soon after Laymon died, Cemetery Dance, which issued that award winner, brought out Night in the Lonesome October. But it turns out that wasn't the last we'll see of Laymon, nor is this new, enjoyable short novel. The Beast House Chronicles, launched in 1979, made Laymon's reputation. This novella is the slightest of the series four entries, emotionally as well as in page length, but it features all the trademark Laymon touches. There's a horny teen protagonist, Mark, and a spooky adventure, as Mark accepts the dare of the girl of his wet dreams, Alison, that he help her sneak into Beast House, scene of several horrific murders during past decades and now a major tourist attraction in the small West Coast town where it stands. There are plenty of suspenseful and scary moments as Mark breaks into the Beast House and hides in the Beast Hole, and a particularly shocking twist at book's end. Above all, there's that inimitable Laymon style, the use of simple, strong sentences to construct, via extraordinarily vivid sensual detail, a narrative that envelops the reader in a moment by moment revelation of events in the service of a story that's terrific, nasty fun. All Laymon fans and anyone who likes horror served with a cackle are going to like this one. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.Review“Terrific, nasty fun. All Laymon fans and anyone who likes horror served with a cackle are going to like this one.” —Publishers Weekly“One of horror’s rarest talents.”—Publishers Weekly“If you’ve missed Laymon, you’ve missed a treat!” —Stephen King“All Laymon fans and anyone who likes horror served with a cackle are going to like this one.” – Publishers Weekly Views: 118
Sonny Baca, the New Mexican shaman and PI, is up against a shape-shifting adversary who haunts Sonny's worst nightmares After a savage confrontation with his archenemy, Sonny Baca is confined to a wheelchair. The doctors don't know if he'll ever walk again—and now the Chicano PI is plagued by disturbing dreams of his female ancestors being abducted. The reality is even more chilling. In present-day Santa Fe, the mayor's sixteen-year-old daughter has disappeared. The four black feathers found on Consuelo Romero's bed confirm Sonny's fears: Three more girls will go missing before Raven's master plan becomes a terrifyingly reality. A charismatic, chameleonlike power broker who also possesses a shaman's gifts, Raven lures radical environmentalists into committing terrorist acts under the guise of antinuclear protests. But his true agenda is to bring down Sonny once and for all. By obliterating Sonny's dreams—the portal into the spirit... Views: 117
Barbara Park’s New York Times bestselling chapter book series, Junie B. Jones, is a classroom favorite and has been keeping kids laughing—and reading—for more than twenty years. Over 60 million copies in print and now with a bright new look for a new generation!
Meet the World’s Funniest First Grader—Junie B. Jones! Junie B. has all the answers when it comes to cheating. It’s just plain wrong! But what about copying someone else’s homework? That’s not cheating, right? ’Cause homework isn’t even a test! And speaking of tests . . . what if a friend shares an answer that you didn’t even ask for? Sharing definitely isn’t cheating . . . is it? Uh-oh. Maybe this cheating business is more complicated than Junie B. thought. Could she be a cheater pants and not even know it?
USA Today :
“Junie B. is the darling of the young-reader set.”
Publishers Weekly :
“Park convinces beginning readers that Junie B.—and reading—are lots of fun.”
Kirkus Reviews :
“Junie’s swarms of young fans will continue to delight in her unique take on the world. . . . A hilarious, first-rate read-aloud.”
Time :
“Junie B. Jones is a feisty six-year-old with an endearing penchant for honesty.” Views: 115
In this flawless novella, Mona Simpson turns her powers of observation toward characters who, unlike Ann and Adele August in her bestselling Anywhere but Here, choose to stay rather than go. As a high school student in Green Bay, Bea Maxwell raised money for good causes; later, she became a successful real estate agent and an accomplished knitter. The one thing missing from her life is a romantic relationship. She soon settles comfortably into the role of stylish spinster and do-gooder. Woven into Bea's story are stories of other lifelong residents of Green Bay and the changes time brings to a town and its residents. This pure and simple work once again proves Mona Simpson one of the defining writers of her generation.From the Trade Paperback edition. Views: 114
The Son He Never Knew...When Cole McGuire learns that he had fathered a son, he returns to White Stone, Colorado, to claim what's rightfully his. But it's clear the town is hiding something, and he's got a feeling he knows exactly who's behind it all.The Widow's Secret...Rebecca's heart stops when Cole McGuire walks back into town, his green eyes blazing with passion. And the longer he stays, the more she wishes for the love she never had. But will Cole ever forgive her for hiding the truth--that the son she claimed as her own is the child he's been searching for? Views: 114
Barbara Park’s New York Times bestselling chapter book series, Junie B. Jones, is a classroom favorite and has been keeping kids laughing—and reading—for more than twenty years. Over 60 million copies in print and now with a bright new look for a new generation!
Meet the World’s Funniest Kindergartner—Junie B. Jones! Junie B.’s having a rough week. First she got punishment for shooting off her mouth in kindergarten. And now she’s in big trouble again! ’Cause Monday is Job Day, and Junie B. told her class that she’s got the bestest job of all. Only, what the heck is it?
USA Today :
“Junie B. is the darling of the young-reader set.”
Publishers Weekly :
“Park convinces beginning readers that Junie B.—and reading—are lots of fun.”
Kirkus Reviews :
“Junie’s swarms of young fans will continue to delight in her unique take on the world. . . . A hilarious, first-rate read-aloud.”
Time :
“Junie B. Jones is a feisty six-year-old with an endearing penchant for honesty.”
From the Trade Paperback edition. Views: 113
Stephen Jay Gould's writing remains the modern standard by which popular science writing is judged. Ever since the late 1970s up until till his death in 2002, his monthly essay in Natural History and his full-length books bridged the yawning gap between science and wider culture.In this fascinating new collection of essays from Natural History, Gould applied biographical perspectives to the illumination of key scientific concepts and their history, ranging from the origins of palaeontology to modern eugenics and genetic engineering. The essays brilliantly illuminate and elucidate the puzzles and paradoxes great and small that have fuelled the enterprise of science and opened our eyes to a world of unexpected wonders. Views: 113
In four sections—Childhood, Migration, First Generation, and Return—the contributors to this anthology write powerfully, often hauntingly, of their lives in Haiti and the United States. Jean-Robert Cadet's description of his Haitian childhood as a restavec—a child slave—in Port-au-Prince contrasts with Dany Laferriere's account of a ten-year-old boy and his beloved grandmother in Petit-Gove. We read of Marie Helene Laforest's realization that while she was white in Haiti, in the United States she is black. Patricia Benoit tells us of a Haitian woman refugee in a detention center who has a simple need for a red dress—dignity. The reaction of a man who has married the woman he loves is the theme of Gary Pierre-Pierre's "The White Wife"; the feeling of alienation is explored in "Made Outside" by Francie Latour. The frustration of trying to help those who have remained in Haiti and of the do-gooders who do more for themselves than the Haitians is described in Babette Wainwright's "Do Something for Your Soul, Go to Haiti." The variations and permutations of the divided self of the Haitian emigrant are poignantly conveyed in this unique anthology.From Publishers WeeklyThe experience of Haitian ?migr?s in what novelist Danticat (Krik? Krak!; etc.) calls the "tenth" geographical "department" of HaitiA"the floating homeland, the ideological one, which joined all Haitians living in the dyaspora"Ais the theme of this collection of 33 spare and evocative essays and poems. Most of these writers fled political instability as children and describe the dual reality of alienation from yetbelonging to two worlds, forging an identity separate from that of their parents in the new country, while at the same time continuing to wait for stability in the old country. Nik?l Payen tells of her experience as a U.S. Justice Department-sponsored interpreter who uses her knowledge of Krey?l ("the language whose purpose in life up until now had been to pain and confuse me") as "an asset" to translate for refugees waiting in horrific conditions at Guantanamo Naval Base following the overthrow of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. When she witnesses the return of some of these HaitiansAdenied entrance to the U.S.Ashe likens their journey to the African Middle Passage. In another, Marie-H?l?ne Laforest, whose lighter skin color and family's wealth made her "white" in Haiti, realizes that she is simply black in America and later forges a third identity in Italy. Francie Latour, a journalist, convinces her American newspaper to send her to Haiti with a noble aim, but ends up "hitting a cultural wall" and being viewed as a "traitor" by her native people. This rich collection of writings will appeal to the growing number of Haitian-Americans and others interested in the question of the ?migr?'s sense of identity. (Feb.) Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. From BooklistDiaspora kindles painful and conflicting emotions, and those living in exile from Haiti carry burdens both archetypal and unique to the legacy of their homeland, the first black republic in the Western Hemisphere. Danticat, the gifted Haitian American author of The Farming of Bones (1998), has assembled a potent and piercing collection of essays and poems that articulate the frustrations and sorrows of Haitians who are now outsiders both in Haiti and in their places of refuge. Her eloquent contributors express anger over the negative images conjured by what Joel Dreyfuss calls "the Phrase," the automatic tag line "the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere," and voice pride in Haiti's spirituality and art. Not that there isn't much to lament, as evident in searing essays by Jean-Robert Cadet, Barbara Sanon, and Marie Ketsia Theodore-Pharel. Haiti is a profoundly complex and alluring place, a neighbor, as Francie Latour observes, "whose history and future are so intertwined" with the U.S. that it must be better understood, and Danticat's revelatory anthology is a giant step in that direction. Donna SeamanCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved Views: 113
David confronts his desires and his demons in this novel about what it means to be left behind—literally, figuratively, and spiritually—from the author of the Shade trilogy.Everyone mourns differently. When his older brother was killed, David got angry. As in, fist-meets-someone-else's-face furious. But his parents? They got religious. David's still figuring out his relationship with a higher power, but there's one thing he knows for sure: The closer he gets to Bailey, the better, brighter, happier, more he feels. Then his parents start cutting all their worldly ties in preparation for the Rush, the divine moment when the faithful will be whisked off to Heaven...and they want David to do the same. David's torn. He likes living in the moment, and isn't sure about giving up his best friend, varsity baseball, and Bailey—especially Bailey—in hope of salvation. But when he comes home late from prom, and late for the Rush, to... Views: 110
