In 1914 Vera Brittain was twenty, and as war was declared she was preparing to study at Oxford. Four years later her life - and the life of her whole generation - had changed in a way that would have been unimaginable in the tranquil pre-war era.TESTAMENT OF YOUTH, one of the most famous autobiographies of the First World War, is Brittain's account of how she survived those agonising years; how she lost the man she loved; how she nursed the wounded and how she emerged into an altered world. A passionate record of a lost generation, it made Vera Brittain one of the best loved writers of her time, and has lost none of its power to shock, move and enthral readers since its first publication in 1933.Amazon.com ReviewWhen war broke out in August 1914, 21-year-old Vera Brittain was planning on enrolling at Somerville College, Oxford. Her father told her she wouldn't be able to go: "In a few months' time we should probably all find ourselves in the Workhouse!" he opined. Brittain had hoped to escape the Northern provinces, but the war seemingly dashed her plans. "It is not, perhaps, so very surprising that the War at first seemed to me an infuriating personal interruption rather than a world-wide catastrophe." Her father eventually relented, however, and she was allowed to attend. By the end of her first year, she had fallen in love with a young soldier and resolved to become active in the war effort by volunteering as a nurse--turning her back on what she called her "provincial young-ladyhood." Brittain suffered through 12-hour days by reminding herself that nothing she endured was worse than what her fiancé, Roland, experienced in the trenches. Roland was expected home on leave for Christmas 1915; on December 26, Brittain received news that he had been killed at the front. Ten months later Brittain herself was sent to Malta and then to France to serve in the hospitals nearer the front, where she witnessed firsthand the horrors of battle. When peace finally came, Brittain had also lost her brother Edward and two close friends. As she walked the streets of London on November 11, 1918--Armistice Day--she felt alone in the crowds:For the first time I realised, with all that full realisation meant, how completely everything that had hitherto made up my life had vanished with Edward and Roland, with Victor and Geoffrey. The War was over; a new age was beginning; but the dead were dead and would never return. First published in 1933, Testament of Youth established Brittain as one of the best-loved authors of her time. Her crisp, clear prose and searing honesty make this unsentimental memoir of a generation scarred by war a classic. --Sunny DelaneyReviewIt would seem enough that Vera Brittain's autobiography is an honestly gut-wrenching love story, a haunting account of her romance with a brilliant young soldier who died at the front in World War I. Testament of Youth is her tribute to her beloved warrior, but it is also an insightful and beautifully written record of her world before, during, and after the war. As the book begins, Vera Brittain is a young woman determined to free herself from the constraints placed upon females in England. She longs for "a more eventful existence and a less restricted horizon." Ironically, soon after her hard-won acceptance at mostly-male Oxford, war begins, and the repressive English society is altered at its core. While the war cruelly robs Vera Brittain of her lover, her brother, her dearest friends, and her academic work, it also opens a new world for her, allowing her to leave her previously cloistered and chaperoned female enclave and to go alone to various foreign fronts as a nurse for wounded soldiers. She is a shrewd and intelligent observer of all aspects of the war, and her liberal use of passages from letters, diaries, and the poetry of her wartime contemporaries gives her story a directness and an emotional impact which obliterates the decades between then and now. In the end, this is a testament to a fiercely independent spirit and a strong, wise feminist who was not afraid. -- For great reviews of books for girls, check out Let's Hear It for the Girls: 375 Great Books for Readers 2-14. -- From 500 Great Books by Women; review by Rebecca Sullivan Views: 54
Struggling in his role as a newly single father, former army medic Kevin O'Brien moves home to Chesapeake Shores. He wants a haven for himself and his toddler son, surrounded by the family he knows he can count on, and a future that's nothing like his past. But Kevin is suddenly facing a risk he hadn't anticipated, in the form of Main Street bookseller Shanna Carlyle. Shanna immediately recognizes Kevin as a wounded soul--she's had way too much experience with the type. Still, this charming O'Brien man and his son are almost impossible to resist.Then, just when the barriers are toppling, someone from Shanna's past appears. Confronted with a threat to their hard-won serenity, Kevin and Shanna face their toughest challenge--learning to trust again. Views: 54
SYNOPSISThree very different women work together at Cadbury's Bournville factory, and their lives become entwined by war and work - and a child called David. Edie, the main character, marries young to escape her unhappy family home. Widowed at 19 and, after losing her child from the marriage, she faces the war grieving and lonely. Then one night during the Blitz, an infant mysteriously abandoned during the bombing is handed into her care... Ruby, meanwhile, doesn't want to be left behind in the wedding stakes and settles for marriage with Frank. Finally there's Janet, kind-hearted and susceptible to male charm, who is hurt desperately by an affair with a married man. David, the child who steals Edie's heart as she brings him up through a time none of them will ever forget, is the love of all their lives. And when David is old enough to wonder who he really is, he leads Edie through struggle and heartache to a life and love she would never have dreamed of... Views: 54
A mysterious phone call compels Luke Millward to look for his estranged father in post-Katrina New Orleans. This riveting story of hope and healing, of finding love and, above all, faith is for every family who's had its share of tough times; for anyone who regrets things never said; for everyone who needs to know that life has a second verse. Views: 54
Harmon Holt always gets what he wants—and since he's a billionaire, what he's got includes music, movie, and TV studios, news networks, and a football team. Yeah, he's got everything, but he hasn't forgotten where he came from. Every year he picks one student from his old high school—no interview, no application—to be a paid intern at one of his companies. The money's good and the perks are great, but the opportunity is once in a lifetime.Beth didn't think that the song she posted on YouTube would be noticed by more than a few classmates at Clinton High. She was wrong. Harmon Holt noticed, and now she's an intern at his Bonified Records company—a label with a reputation for megahits. Can she help the label's number one star find her voice—even if that voice isn't what the executives want? Views: 54
Cole Harper is struggling to settle into life in Wounded Sky First Nation. He may have stopped a serial killer but the trouble is far from over. A creature lurks in the shadows of Blackwood Forest, the health clinic is on lockdown by a mysterious organization, and long-held secrets threaten to bubble to the surface. Can Cole learn the truth about his father's death? Why won't Choch give him a straight answer? Where the heck is Jayne? Oh, and high school sucks.Monsters is the second novel in David A. Robertson's The Reckoner trilogy. It is the follow-up to Strangers. Views: 54
Jenny is determined to make her own way in the world, and she secures a job as the kitchen maid in a grand house in Yorkshire. Gradually, she gains the attention of the young master of the house, and they fall in love.But their hopes and dreams turn to nightmares, culminating in a scandal that will force Jenny to leave behind everything she knows.Cast aside by her own family, Jenny faces many difficulties until an usual promise changes the course of her life. Jenny the kitchen maid becomes the mistress of her own grand house. Although she tries to fit in with this new world, however, she never forgets the words that the gypsy told her: that one day she will return to where she was once happy - and discover her true love . . .If you've liked books by Katie Flynn and Dilly Court, you'll love Val's heartwarming stories of triumph over adversity. Views: 54
Evolution got an astronomical kick in the pants. Now it's kicking back... Afterglow. Our world is changed. Mutated. Now home to humans who possess DNA belonging to creatures once thought to be only the stuff of legends. So what if the neighbor howls at the moon every month? No big deal as long as he mows his lawn. A savage killer munching on helpless victims, however, is a big deal to Detective Buck Shand. Buck is thinking less legend and more nightmare as he surveys the most recent in a series of brutal slayings. It's beyond even his special talents, and he's going to need help with this one. It arrives in the shapely form of Dr. Lian Herrick, a woman with her own form of Afterglow mutation--a demon that will shake Buck's everyday world to its foundations and turn his brain inside out. Will their combined skills be enough to track and stop a savage killer? Possibly. If they can keep their minds on business and their hands off each other long enough to lure a beast who feeds on sex--then kills for pleasure. Warning: This book contains blood-spattered scenes of assorted body parts, gruesome murders, and humans who aren't quite what they appear to be. Also included are episodes of mind-blowing sex and a good old-fashioned bit of detective work by a really cool detective. If you've ever dreamed of being a part-time faery, vampire, shapeshifter or paranormal psychic, and like kick-ass heroines with some interestingly unusual talents of their own, then read on. Views: 54
