The Double Down series continues with two men, and some interesting issues they contend with—two stories, two authors, one book. There was a time when Pete felt like he had the world in the palm of his hands, but lately everything is falling apart. His wife is growing cold, his business is in trouble, and even his friends show him nothing but contempt. Then a neighbor introduces him to paleo—the old way of eating, exercising, and even communing with the ancient sprits of the Neanderthals. All it takes is a little work, a little discipline, and a little blood sacrifice, and mysterious powers are within his grasp, but there's a price Pete never expected. It's a dark tale of terror, revenge, and suburban fads.Eric can sell insurance, but he can't sell anyone on what he knows for a fact: this world is about to go down in flames. Eric is forced to prep in secret. His wife won't listen, neither will his clients. Views: 142
In this delightful memoir, the book critic for NPR's Fresh Air reflects on her life as a professional reader. Maureen Corrigan takes us from her unpretentious girlhood in working-class Queens, to her bemused years in an Ivy League Ph.D. program, from the whirl of falling in love and marrying (a fellow bookworm, of course), to the ordeal of adopting a baby overseas, always with a book at her side. Along the way, she reveals which books and authors have shaped her own life—from classic works of English literature to hard-boiled detective novels, and everything in between. And in her explorations of the heroes and heroines throughout literary history, Corrigan's love for a good story shines. Views: 142
A Glass of Water is a gripping tale of family, loyalty, ambition, and revenge that offers an intimate look into the tragedies unfurling at our country’s borders. The first novel from award-winning memoirist, poet, and activist, Jimmy Santiago Baca, it is a passionate and galvanizing addition to Chicano literature.The promise of a new beginning brings Casimiro and Nopal together when they are young immigrants, having made the nearly deadly journey across the border from Mexico. They settle into a life of long days in the chili fields, and in a few years their happy union yields two sons, Lorenzo and Vito. But when Nopal is brutally murdered, the boys are left to navigate life in this brave but capricious new world without her.A Glass of Water is a searing, heartfelt tribute to brotherhood, and an arresting portrait of the twisted paths people take to claim their piece of the ever-elusive American dream. Views: 141
New York's social darling just woke up in a nightmare: Oklahoma. Problem is, it's right where God wants her.Bella Kirkwood had it all: A-list friends at her prestigious private school, Broadway in her backyard, and Daddy's MasterCard in her wallet. Then her father, a plastic surgeon to the stars, decided to trade her mother in for a newer model.When Bella's mom falls in love with a man she met on the Internet--a factory worker with two bratty sons--Bella has to pack up and move in with her new family in Truman, Oklahoma. On a farm no less!Forced to trade her uber-trendy NYC lifestyle for down-home charm, Bella feels like a pair of Rock & Republic jeans in a sea of Wranglers.At least some of the people in her new high school are pretty cool. Especially the hunky football player who invites her to lunch. And maybe even the annoying--but kinda hot--editor of the school newspaper.But before long, Bella smells something rotten in the town of Truman, and it's not just the cow pasture. With her savvy reporter's instincts, she is determined to find the story behind all the secrets.How can a girl go on when her charmed life is gone and God appears to be giving her the total smackdown?From School Library JournalGrade 6–9—Isabella Kirkwood is a popular, privileged Manhattan socialite who is in for a big awakening when her mother remarries, and the teen is forced to move to Oklahoma farm country. Shortly after starting at her new school, she posts a blog on her former New York private academy's Web site insulting everything and everyone in her new town. Almost immediately, her new classmates find out about it, and Isabella becomes a social pariah. The series is labeled Christian fiction, but other than scattered references to prayers and church attendance, there is little in the story to indicate any kind of spiritual awakening or growth on the part of the main character. In addition, a number of situations stretch the bounds of plausibility, such as when Isabella accepts a reporting assignment requiring her to sit for hours in a Dumpster in order to "investigate" the school's lack of recycling. Her stepfather is secretly training to be a pro-wrestler, and one of her classmates attempts to burn down her house while she is babysitting her stepbrother, and later holds her at gunpoint. Although much of the story is predictable, there are also some genuinely humorous moments mixed in. This is an additional purchase for libraries seeking chick-lit series that are free of sexual content and coarse language.—Jessica Marie, Renton Public Library, WA Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. About the AuthorJenny B. Jones writes Christian Fiction with equal parts wit, sass, and untamed hilarity. When she’s not writing, she’s living it up as a high school teacher in Arkansas. Since she has very little free time, she believes in spending her spare hours in meaningful, intellectual pursuit such as watching E!, going to the movies and inhaling large buckets of popcorn, and writing her name in the dust on her furniture. Views: 141
When Truly Plaice's mother was pregnant, the town of Aberdeen joined together in betting how recordbreakingly huge the baby boy would ultimately be. The girl who proved to be Truly paid the price of her enormity; her father blamed her for her mother's death in childbirth, and was totally ill equipped to raise either this giant child or her polar opposite sister Serena Jane, the epitome of femine perfection. When he, too, relinquished his increasingly tenuous grip on life, Truly and Serena Jane are separated--Serena Jane to live a life of privilege as the future May Queen and Truly to live on the outskirts of town on the farm of the town sadsack, the subject of constant abuse and humiliation at the hands of her peers. Serena Jane's beauty proves to be her greatest blessing and her biggest curse, for it makes her the obsession of classmate Bob Bob Morgan, the youngest in a line of Robert Morgans who have been doctors in Aberdeen for generations. Though they have long been the pillars of the community, the earliest Robert Morgan married the town witch, Tabitha Dyerson, and the location of her fabled shadow book--containing mysterious secrets for healing and darker powers--has been the subject of town gossip ever since. Bob Bob Morgan, one of Truly's biggest tormentors, does the unthinkable to claim the prize of Serena Jane, and changes the destiny of all Aberdeen from there on. When Serena Jane flees town and a loveless marriage to Bob Bob, it is Truly who must become the woman of a house that she did not choose and mother to her eight-year-old nephew Bobbie. Truly's brother-in-law is relentless and brutal; he criticizes her physique and the limitations of her health as a result, and degrades her more than any one human could bear. It is only when Truly finds her calling--the ability to heal illness with herbs and naturopathic techniques--hidden within the folds of Robert Morgan's family quilt, that she begins to regain control over her life and herself. Unearthed family secrets, however, will lead to the kind of betrayal that eventually break the Morgan family apart forever, but Truly's reckoning with her own demons allows for both an uprooting of Aberdeen County, and the possibility of love in unexpected places. Views: 141
Hauntingly beautiful and heartbreaking, Colm Tóibín's sixth novel, Brooklyn, is set in Brooklyn and Ireland in the early 1950s, when one young woman crosses the ocean to make a new life for herself. Views: 140
Rabbitlike aliens from outer space colonize Earth during humankind's Second World War in a delightfully funny and thought-provoking science fiction adventure The Quozl just need somewhere to call home. A gentle race of extraterrestrial rabbits, they have a propensity for reproduction that has left their home planet, Quozlene, dangerously overpopulated, and in their search for greener and less-crowded pastures, they have discovered the perfect place to start over: the third planet away from a healthy, warming sun. What they don't realize is that this world they call Shiraz is already inhabited by a species of violent sentient creatures known as humans. But there's no going back now. In the midst of the brutal and helpfully distracting global conflict the Shirazians call World War II, the colony ship lands undetected, and the space rabbits immediately go into hiding. But a secret like the Quozl can be concealed for only so long, especially when their... Views: 140
On a cold night shortly before Christmas, an immigrant street vendor is killed in Venice's Campo Santo Stefano. The nearest witnesses to the event are the tourists who had been browsing the man's wares before his death -- fake handbags of every designer label -- but they have seen nothing that might be of much help to the police.When Commissario Brunetti arrives on the scene, he finds it hard to understand why anyone would murder an illegal immigrant. They have few social connections and little money; in-fighting among them is the obvious answer. But once Brunetti begins investigating this unfamiliar Venetian underworld, he discovers that matters of great value are at stake in the immigrant community... Views: 139
Sir Max Pemberton was a popular British novelist, working mainly in the adventure and mystery genres. Views: 139
