In order to uncage the girl within, you have to love her, heal her, and set her free. There are moments every girl knows: The pain of wanting to fi t in. The joy of being consumed by love. The shame of not feeling at home in your body. The strength in learning you're beautiful. Francesca Lia Block follows the journey from girlhood to womanhood in this soaring three-part poetry collection. Exploring those unspoken feelings and words—the thorny, sparkling moments that chain us to ourselves—Block gives a startlingly personal voice to girls and women everywhere. From School Library JournalGrade 9 Up—These poems traverse the steep climb from girlhood to womanhood while unearthing the hard truths hidden within this journey. Divided into three parts—"years at the asylum," "in the hair of the toxic blonde," and "love poems for girls"—the collection touches on anorexia, self-love and loathing, parental relationships, superficiality, losing one's virginity, rape, and love and loss. Block celebrates womanhood, but not in a bubblegum, girl-power way. Plathian symbols abound, from pervasive father issues to Nazi comparisons to insane asylums, real and imagined. The poems feel simultaneously autobiographical and universal. While the death of the narrator's father in "a myth of love for girls" colors her search for a partner, the universal struggle of women to escape or find their father's image in future relationships is aptly captured. The final selections cross into the territory of life lessons learned well beyond the teen experience and perhaps ring too much like motherly advice, but the raw authenticity of the narrator's voice throughout overshadows any later departure. Teenage girls, especially sophisticated, angst-filled poetry readers, will devour this insightful and powerful collection.—Jill Heritage Maza, Greenwich High School, CT Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From BooklistBlock once again mixes characters from fairy tale and myth—vampires, mermaids, fairies—in this collection of urban poems that contrast menace and beauty; innocence and heartbroken experience; despair and bold confidence. As in her recent story collection, Blood Roses (2008), the works frankly discuss body image, sex, and love, and subjects that stretch into adult life, with poems about marriage, divorce, and motherhood. Luxuriant imagery of roses, feathers, and glitter contrast with dark, menacing scenarios of girls and women threatened by men and by their own brutal judgment, with vibrant, sometimes cruel Los Angeles as a constant backdrop. Eating disorders figure into many poems, as does advice on finding joy. There is hope in the beautiful title poem, which speaks about the limitless freedom that can come with self-acceptance, and young women will easily relate to the many selections about teen naïveté and restlessness: “just us girls all in shiny pink / waiting for something to happen.” A stirring exploration of female suffering and empowerment, this will attract Block’s adult readers, too. Grades 11-12. --Gillian Engberg Views: 560
Five light mystery short stories: from puzzles like "Waiter, There's a Clue in My Soup!", "The Hoosegow Strangler," and "Trail of the Lonesome Stickpin," to suspense in "Alibi" and "The Promise." These stories were previously published in magazines like Handheld Crime and Futures Mysterious Anthology. Several of these stories were nominated for a Derringer Award or put forward for an Edgar.Four layered 10-minute plays--three to laugh with, one to cry with, and each to ponder. What's more important: the book or the members? In "Reality Book Group," three college professors invite a book-loving ex-convict to join them. Selected from over 400 plays written by New England playwrights, "Reality Book Group" was top-billed in The Boston Globe and performed at the 2012 Boston Theater Marathon. The play will be print-published in Boston Theater Marathon XIV, 2012 Anthology (Smith & Kraus).Bluefish (and humans): "Once they're hooked, they fight for their lives!" John, an odd, motherless third-grade boy follows his teacher, Ms. Willoughby, everywhere after learning she is pregnant. And he's telling everyone that Mr. Matthews, the principal, is the father. In "Room with Maintenance," Harold, an intellectual with a painfully swollen leg, and Frank, a crude carpenter, find themselves locked in a room together after they die. Each, a divorcee, reminds the other of his disliked ex-wife. Are they in Heaven, Hell, or someplace entirely different? Why were they "placed" together. And who's going to fix the broken toilet??? "Medium Security 2025": The year is 2025, and Linda, the wife of an art history professor, has had enough of her husband Ronald's philandering with students. She confronts him (and a coed) at the art museum in front of his favorite painting, Van Gogh's "Postman." Is it time for security to step in? Or will this ruin the "best exhibition (you've) ever seen"? Views: 560
George Orwell was a tireless and lively correspondent. He communicated with family members, friends and newspapers, figures such as Henry Miller, Cyril Connolly, Stephen Spender and Arthur Koestler, and strangers who wrote to him out of the blue. This carefully selected volume of his correspondence provides an eloquent narrative of Orwell's life, from his schooldays to his final illness.
Orwell's letters afford a unique and fascinating view of his thoughts on matters both personal, political and much in between, from poltergeists, to girls' school songs and the art of playing croquet. In a note home to his mother from school, he reports having 'aufel fun after tea'; much later he writes of choosing a pseudonym and smuggling a copy of *Ulysses *into the country.
We catch illuminating glimpses of his family life: his son Richard's developing teeth, the death of his wife Eileen and his own illness. His talent as a political writer comes to the fore in his descriptions of Barcelona during the Spanish Civil War, his opinions on bayonets, and on the chaining of German prisoners. And of course, letters to friends and his publisher chart the development and publication of some of the most famous novels in the English language, providing unparalleled insight into his views on his own work and that of his contemporaries.
*A Life in Letters* features previously unpublished material, including letters which shed new light on a love that would haunt him for his whole life, as well as revealing the inspiration for some of his most famous characters. Presented for the first time in a dedicated volume, this selection of Orwell's letters is an indispensible companion to his diaries. Views: 560
Offers an indispensable introduction to the central period of Greek History for all students of classics. Chapter by chapter, the relevant historical periods from the age of colonization to Alexander the Great are reconstructed. Views: 560
Cut & Run Series Book Three: Sequel to Sticks & StonesSpecial Agents Ty Grady and Zane Garrett are back on the job, settled into a personal and professional relationship built on fierce protectiveness and blistering passion. Now they’re assigned to impersonate two members of an international smuggling ring—an out-and-proud married couple—on a Christmas cruise in the Caribbean. As their boss says, surely they’d rather kiss each other than be shot at, and he has no idea how right he is.Portraying the wealthy criminals requires a particular change in attitude from Ty and Zane while dealing with the frustrating waiting game that is their assignment. As it begins to affect how they treat each other in private, they realize there’s more to being partners than watching each other’s backs, and when the case takes an unexpected turn and threatens Ty’s life, he and Zane will have to navigate seas of white lies and stormy secrets, including some of their own. Views: 559
An elderly professor finds a man washed up on the beach near her home. Perfectly fine, and extremely beautiful: golden-haired and sapphire eyed. A Norse legend come to life, and bewitching as she takes him home to live with her. He isn’t the only element out of his time in this supernatural story of past betrayal and blood.A Gender Switch Adventure.“These days, we do not lack information about other societies and countries” writes Eva Hoffman, in her introduction to this illuminating collection of essays. But why, we must ask, does this unprececedented level of knowledge not translate into greater understanding?Spurning the sound byte, glossy guide or shallow schematic, an international group of thinkers and writers set out on a much more vital journey leading us through the Innner Lives of Cultures. In these 10 revealing essays about Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Mexico, Romania, Russia and Uzbekistan, we enter, through empathy and imagination ‘into the subjective life of another culture – its symbolic codes, its overt beliefs and implicit assumptions’. Often, they suggest, it is the experience of emmigration or displacment which is the key: it reveals most sharply to us not only how culture shapes our human enviroment but also the inner landscapes of the self which perceives it. In an opening essay, ‘Barbarism, Civilisation, Cultures’, Tzvetan Todorov, argues forcefully that without this much-prized knowledge of what ‘culture’ is, we may increasingly fail to become what he calls “a civilised person: one who is able, at all times and in all places, to recognise the humanity of others fully”. This is an urgent and indispensible book for our world now. Views: 559
Will is a fearless, loveable superhero...well...at least in his imagination. He can leap tall buildings...from his bed...and he can rescue his sister from the jaws of a ferocious beast...his dog, Ralph! Complete with cape and sword, Will's adventures take him on dangerous missions through the jungle...his backyard. But when he gets confused by the meaning of God's armor, his dad teaches him that he can do anything with God's strength and protection. After all, he is Will, God's Mighty Warrior! Views: 558
A story of the American Revolution from two-time Newbery Honor–winning author Patricia Reilly Giff.
While staying with her aunt, Elizabeth finds something remarkable: a drawing. It hangs on the wall, a portrait of her ancestor, Eliza, known as Zee. She looks like Elizabeth.
The girls’ lives intertwine as Elizabeth’s present-day story alternates with Zee’s, which takes place during the American Revolution. Zee is dreamy, and hopeful for the future—until the Revolution tears apart her family and her community in upstate New York. Left on her own, she struggles to survive and to follow her father and brother into battle.
Zee’s story has been waiting to be rediscovered by the right person. As Elizabeth learns about Zee, and walks where Zee once walked and battles raged, the past becomes as vivid and real as the present.
In this beautifully crafted, affecting novel from beloved author Patricia Reilly Giff, the lives of two girls reflect one another as each finds her own inner strengths.
From the Hardcover edition. Views: 558
A young rogue named Hemlock fights crime in her rundown neighborhood, which lies at the fringe of a magical city. Her sister relies on magical healing, and the spells are failing. When Hemlock confronts the wizards by breaking into their tower, events are set into motion that determine the destiny of the entire realm. Her adventure features brutal combat, cunning politics and tragic romance.How is power gained, retained and exercised; and what happens to a power structure when a young girl with magical abilities hacks and slashes her way into the very core of its apparatus?In a magical city that travels through multiple dimensions, a young girl named Hemlock has risen from being a lowly cutpurse to discovering that she is a powerful fighter. Under the guidance of an aging freedom fighter named Safreon, Hemlock battles to keep the peace in her run-down district, while across the City the upper class Elites enjoy peace, prosperity and freedom.The Wizard Tower looms in the center of the City, casting a long shadow over its affairs. The Wizards rule behind the scenes, dictating and controlling the use of magic. Hemlock instinctively feels that the Wizards are her enemies, but Safreon will not discuss openly opposing them, as he seeks to methodically mentor Hemlock, and advance his own cryptic plans for the City.Hemlock makes a decision to make a bold attack on the Wizard Tower alone, convinced that she can destroy or undo whatever method the Wizards are using to control and ration magic. As the novel opens, we join Hemlock just after she has infiltrated the Wizard Tower, learning what happens through a narrative interspersed with flashbacks to events leading up to the attack.This is a complete, standalone story; but interested readers can continue to follow Hemlock's adventures in The Maker's Fire series. Hemlock and the Dead God's Legacy (Book II) and Hemlock and the Dread Sorceress (Book III) are both available now! Views: 557
As the creepy little town of Nightshade prepares to celebrate its 200th anniversary—on Halloween, of course—many of its paranormal residents are receiving mysterious blackmail letters. Psychic teen Daisy Giordano and her sisters set out to find out who is behind the threats. But launching an investigation isn’t easy for Daisy with her overprotective father watching her every move. Though she’s is happy to have him back after the years he spent being held captive by an anti-paranormal group called the Scourge, Dad is having difficult time adjusting to home life—and the fact that his little girl is now a senior in high school. He even disapproves of Daisy’s boyfriend, Ryan. Can their relationship take the strain?
And Daisy’s got even more on her plate: A talented amateur chef, she has won cooking lessons with celebrity chef Circe Silvertongue. After nosing around (with a little help from Circe’s pet pig), Daisy begins to suspect the temperamental chef’s secrets aren’t only in her ingredients. . . .
The fourth installment in this favorite series is full of surprises and scares! Views: 557
When an old gangster friend of Leo's father makes a request he "can't refuse," Leo and his band of drunks, delve into the world of environmental politics in search of Caroline Nobel, a spoiled brat, without the sense God gave a gopher. With the help of "the Boys" -- a group of aging winos who are his modern day "Baker Street Irregulars" -- Leo fights Native American tribal politics, industrial pollution, and psychotic grannies to fulfill his obligation to a friend.Amazon.com ReviewJust out in paperback, Ford's jaunty first mystery introduces a Seattle sleuth called Leo Waterman -- the rebellious scion of a powerful family who carries the spirit of the '60s around with him like dirty laundry. When an old mobster friend of his father hires him to look for his missing granddaughter, Leo recruits a clutch of homeless people to help in the search. The same lively writing and exciting plotting also add zest to Ford's second Waterman story, Cast in Stone. From Publishers WeeklyDebut entry in the Leo Waterman series, starring a Seattle-based private eye with an off-beat sense of humor. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. Views: 557
As Miami's most celebrated vet, Dusty Warren can have his pick of any woman. But growing up on the road still makes him feel like an outsider in the city's elite circles. Then Mikayla Shroeder shows up at his ranch with her mangy mutt, and Dusty feels the white-hot spark of attraction. He knows Mikayla feels it, too, but the bestselling author is determined to stay aloof....Mikayla left her traumatic past behind to start over in a new town. She isn't prepared for the charismatic and compassionate animal doctor...or the untamed passion that takes them both by surprise. Animal attraction is one thing. But to allow this man into her heart as her protector, her lover, her soul mate? That's a wild sanctuary she never thought was possible--until now. Views: 557
