In his most profound and accomplished book to date, acclaimed author Bruce Wagner breaks from Hollywood culture with a novel of exceptional literary dimension and searing emotional depth. Joan Herlihy is a semi-successful architect grasping at the illustrious commission that will catapult her to international renown, glossy décor magazines, and the luxe condo designs of Meier, Koolhaas, and Hadid: the incestuous cult of contemporary Starchitects. Unexpectedly, she finds her Venice Beach firm on the short list for a coveted private memorial -- a Napa billionaire's vanity tribute to relatives killed in the Christmas tsunami -- with life-changing consequences. Her brother Chester clings to a failing career as a location scout before suffering an accidental injury resulting from an outrageous prank; the tragicomic repercussions lead him through a maze of addiction, delusion, paranoia -- and ultimately, transcendence. Virtually abandoned by her family, the indomitable... Views: 48
From School Library JournalGrade 6–8—Thirteen-year-old Leon Noside (Edison spelled backwards) Harris has spent a lifetime hating the middle name his father gave him as an insult to Thomas Edison. Smart-mouthed and gifted, he uses his creative resources—a talent he inherited from parents who spend hours concocting their own inventions whether in the garage or the kitchen—to make an avant-garde sex-education video that tells kids that masturbation is normal. Leon is suspended, and the students stage a near riot, complete with "Free Leon Harris" signs. This isn't the first time that Mrs. Smollet, the program director for the gifted pool, has had negative encounters with her students, but it is the first time that Leon is a hero at school. The administration is challenged to sort out the real problem: Is it Leon, or Mrs. Smollet? This funny, fast-paced novel is filled with characters who epitomize the middle school experience, and it presents a lesson or two about free speech as well.—Pat Scales, formerly at South Carolina Governor's School for the Arts and Humanities, Greenville Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From BooklistSelzer's zany, edgy debut thumbs its nose at censorship and prudishness as its eighth-grade hero tries to make a "frank, honest, and artistic sex-ed video" for a peer-education project. Leon wants to avoid rehashing the staid diagrams and dramatizations typical of the genre. Inspired by his worldly friend and crush, Anna, who introduces him to avant-garde cinema, he creates a nonsensical pastiche of Great Masters nudes, symbolic images, and narrated sonnets about body changes and "whacking off." His creative triumph, followed by his suspension and the ensuing uproar, unfolds in a comic, first-person narrative, laden with sarcasm, occasional cussing ("bullshit"), and mostly abstract references to sex. Characters are over-the-top in this slapstick parable, and it all comes to a pointed end (lots of people see and admire the film, and a teacher with a religious agenda is ousted). Still, many creative young readers--perhaps especially those who, like Leon, identify with "miscreant kids who just happen to read books from the adult section in the library"--will appreciate the plot's outrageousness and applaud Leon's commitment to his quirky vision. Jennifer MattsonCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved Views: 48
When black cats roam, and spooks are seen, Come celebrate, it's Halloween. Sinful, Louisiana, really knows how to throw a party, and it goes all out for Halloween. The weeklong celebration kicks off with a maze of horror in the park built of hay bales. And Fortune has the perfect assignment—the executioner. Her scene comes complete with a head block, a hatchet, and a fake body with removable head. It's the perfect setup...for a crime. When Fortune returns from break and realizes the body in her scene is a real one and not the prop, she knows trouble is coming. Before she can shake a broomstick, Celia Arceneaux has raised the alarm and the state police show up to take over the investigation. With Carter on the sidelines and Fortune the prime suspect, Swamp Team 3 sets out to catch a real monster. Views: 48
Two hard years in prison have changed Wilford "Preacher" Winters for the better. He did his time, now he's going to "do the right thing." But the women in his life have other ideas.Tanya, the sleek and sexy mother of his two kids, is much too comfortable with her pearls-and-Porsche lifestyle, and she'll do whatever it takes to maintain it... His sister, Loretta, kept "the business" running smoothly while Preacher was inside, and she can't believe he'd trade Easy Street bling for a nickel-and-dime dead-end job...His one-time girlfriend Serena, now married to his main man Barnard, is hiding a secret—and if past sins come to light, they'll ruin several lives and a very new, very precious friendship between Preacher and Barnard's beautiful-inside-and-out sister, Natalie.With his world about to explode all around him, Preacher's going to need every ounce of his new-found faith to remain strong. Because it takes a lot to become a new man, sometimes even a miracle. Views: 48
Scrabbling for ways to believe in themselves and the world, the spirited, heart-driven people who populate these stories find surprising pockets of hope. A woman returns to the Alaskan cabin of her survivalist childhood, full of misgivings and memories. A trip to Yellowstone sparks a crisis for a man who feels kinship with the wolves he glimpses there. Nursing painful pasts, sisters take a cruise together to Antarctica. A runaway finds salvation from violence in her own singing. And in the title novella, a Grand Canyon rafting expedition profoundly changes the lives of six women.Refusing to buckle under the pressures of family and political traumas, the sojourners in this collection are unified by themes of creative expression and of love—how we define it, how we are impelled by it, and how we are lifted by it. Views: 48
An eye-catching new edition of this popular, inspirational novel about a teenage girl re-making her life after a car accident. A deeply moving, unsentimental story of pain and love and self-discovery.Jenny rushes in; stops and turns pale at the sight of my scaffolded neck. This isn't what she expected to see - and for a moment Jenny, sunny, effervescent, ever-optimistic Jenny, stares at me and can't speak.'They made a mistake - I broke my neck after all.'Jenny begins to cry. And I think that maybe this is what best friends are for, not to be brave for you, but to tell you this is real, and it stinks.Anna is used to being athletic, popular, 'normal'. Now she feels the layers of her familiar self being peeled away; nothing is normal or easy. Can she pick up the pieces of her life? What part will Hayden and Luke play? And who, now, is Anna Duncan? Views: 48
Sweeping epic of adventure and enduring love, from the revolutionary upheaval in Russia to the chaos of post-War Berlin.Misha is an aristocratic young officer in the army when the Russian revolution sweeps away all his certainties. Tonya is a nurse from an impoverished family in St Petersburg. They should have been bitter enemies; and yet they fall passionately in love. It cannot last, and Misha must flee the country as Tonya faces arrest and possibly death.Thirty years later, Misha has survived the War and seeks to rebuild his life in the destroyed city of Berlin. Drawn into spying for the British, he learns of a talented female agent from the Soviet quarter. Can it be his lost love? And how will they find each other, as the divide deepens between East and West?Intensely dramatic, epic in scope, this is a glorious novel of courage, action and ultimately undying hope. Views: 48
