In this stirring collection of linked stories, Linda LeGarde Grover portrays an Ojibwe community struggling to follow traditional ways of life in the face of a relentlessly changing world.In the title story an aunt recounts the harsh legacy of Indian boarding schools that tried to break the indigenous culture. In doing so she passes on to her niece the Ojibwe tradition of honoring elders through their stories. In “Refugees Living and Dying in the West End of Duluth,” this same niece comes of age in the 1970s against the backdrop of her forcibly dispersed family. A cycle of boarding schools, alcoholism, and violence haunts these stories even as the characters find beauty and solace in their large extended families.With its attention to the Ojibwe language, customs, and history, this unique collection of riveting stories illuminates the very nature of storytelling. The Dance Boots narrates a century’s evolution of Native Americans making choices and compromises, often dictated by a white majority, as they try to balance survival, tribal traditions, and obligations to future generations.From Publishers WeeklyWinner of this year's Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction, Grover's stories work back in time to retrace the rupturing experience of Western schooling on the Ojibwe tribes in Minnesota during the early 20th century. In the title story, narrator Artense's beloved Aunt Shirley is dying of lung cancer as she recounts "the breaking of a culture through the education of its young." In addition to the history, Artense, the oldest child and the first high school graduate, is given Shirley's cherished dancing boots. The intergenerational key is grandma Maggie, who, in "Maggie and Louis," is educated at a mission school and meets her future husband while working as a teacher's assistant at the forbidding Harrod boarding school, which Indian children, taken from their reservations, are forced to attend. Later, in "Three Seasons," Maggie, now a worn-out mother and wife, leaves her drunken and abusive husband and takes her children to live with her alcoholic sister. Even in escape, Maggie has a harsh road ahead, and it's her generous spirit that permeates the stories of the later generations and lends this collection a bright and determined vitality. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From BooklistIn linked stories, Grover portrays the inhabitants of an imaginary Ojibwe reservation north of Duluth, Minnesota. While Artense, the narrator, attends community college and goes on to graduate school, her aunt Shirley, who lives in Duluth, calls her every couple of weeks to tell her family stories, which Artense passes on to us. Shirley’s multigenerational tale involves Indian boarding schools, homesickness, and racism. Readers also meet Grandma Maggie, who hits her husband with a frying pan, then takes off with her two youngest boys because her three oldest are already at the Indian school; Louis, Maggie’s first husband, whom she meets at the Harrod Indian School; and Sonny and Mickey, who repeatedly escape from Harrod. Before Shirley dies, she gives Artense her suede beaded dancing boots, and Grover writes lyrically of the first time Artense wears them to a powwow, while watching her own daughters join the line of dancing grandmothers, aunts, and cousins. Grover’s collection, for which she won the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction, is simply mesmerizing. --Deborah Donovan Views: 12
Mike and Angel are not like other teens. Born with violet eyes, highly intelligent and athletically gifted, they belong to a genetically-engineered superspecies. Though raised in ignorance in a 1980s Historical Immersion project, they escaped their prison. After months on the run, Mike and Angel have found a fragile peace, attending college, but diverging careers have driven a wedge between them.Stuck in the PastAngel is less than thrilled to find herself back in another Historical Immersion. This time around she's the bodyguard for her old friend Maryanne—the daughter of Kenneth Jones, the multi-millionaire behind the Historical Immersion parks. Angel saves Maryanne from an attempted kidnapping, only to be framed for the felony herself.An Uncertain FutureA hate-crime organization has targeted Mike and Angel. Now they must not only dodge bullets, but match wits against their toughest opponent yet: another one of the violet-eyed. Views: 12
A teenaged runaway fights for survival on 'the boulevard of broken dreams' in this searing debut novel based on a true story. It's always sunny in California until you walk on the wrong side of Sunset Boulevard. And yet the bright lights still call to thousands, and every day new arrivals fill the ranks of Hollywood's underworld of teenage runaways and hopeful stars turned hookers and strippers. Their stories are too wretched and too sad for society's attention, but when a high-profile lawyer is murdered at the Chateau Marmont, lackluster detective Jimmy McCann takes to the streets and finds himself enmeshed in this complex web of prostitution and drugs, learning that the killer, a young girl named Casey, is a victim in her own right. Delving into Casey's troubled community of homeless runaways, characterized by abuse, rape, death and disease, but also by friendship, loyalty and love, Bill Guttentag has crafted a stunning literary crime novel - based on real-life incidents - that will resound with readers everywhere. . Views: 12
Shipwrecks, gangsters, and the mother of all storms. Living in a lighthouse can be murder.The year is 1924. The place: Isle Royale, a remote island on Lake Superior. Clarence MacDougal, keeper of Wolf Point Lighthouse, stands ready to guide sailors through treacherous waters.One storm-tossed night, French-Canadian bootleggers arrive. The gang’s leader is Sean LeBeck, former lover of Collene MacDougal—the lightkeeper’s wife. LeBeck is determined to rescue Collene from her dreary life and rekindle their old passion, even if it means taking her off the island by force.The lightkeeper’s son, Ian, escapes during the storm, only to stumble upon a hidden cove, home of the last remaining members of the Coast Guard cutter "Chippewa." A dark secret forced the crew to banish themselves. Given one last chance at redemption, the ancient mariners set out on stormy Lake Superior in a desperate attempt to save the day.ABOUT THE AUTHOR:John Hamilton's work includes bestselling books about fantasy & folklore, science fiction, the national parks, and pirates. "Lewis & Clark: Adventures West" (Sparrow Media Group) was a finalist at the 17th Annual Minnesota Book Awards in 2005. He is a two-time Golden Duck Award winner for excellence in children’s science fiction literature. John can be found most summers hiking along Minnesota’s North Shore of Lake Superior. Views: 12
Off to Kauai for a much-needed vacation, Charlie takes a helicopter tour with a gorgeous and fascinating pilot, Drake Langston. But partway through the tour they spot a body lying on the rocks below. When Drake's boss, Mack, is accused of murdering the victim, Charlie finds herself with another mystery to solve. Romance is in the air, too, as Charlie and Drake work together to find the answers. Views: 12
Artist Troy Cummings has created a clever spin-off of the "Eensy Weensy Spider" nursery rhyme in this humorous picture book, sure to appeal to kids and adults who also love fractured fairy tales.The Eensy Weensy Spider climbed up the waterspout . . . and everyone knows what happens next! By the time the sun comes out to dry up all the rain, the Eensy Weensy Spider has freaked out over her washout, big-time! "There's no way I'm climbing back up that gutter!" she says. Eensy has lost her climbing courage, but with the help of her best ladybug friend, Polly, she begins to take on bigger and bigger climbing challenges until she's rewarded with the most spectacular view of outer space that any bug has ever seen! Hilarious text and a retro, graphic art style take this popular nursery rhyme to new heights. There's also a fun size chart on the end pages for kids to track Eensy's progress as she tackles taller and taller objects. Spin-offs of children's songs and nursery... Views: 12
Berlin Alexanderplatz is a novel by Alfred Döblin, published in 1929. The story concerns a small-time criminal, Franz Biberkopf, fresh from prison, who is drawn into the underworld. When his criminal mentor murders the prostitute whom Biberkopf has been relying on as an anchor, he realizes that he will be unable to extricate himself from the underworld into which he has sunk. In a 2002 poll of 100 noted writers conducted by the Norwegian Book Clubs, the book was named among the top 100 books of all time
The novel is set in the working-class neighborhoods near the Alexanderplatz in 1920s Berlin. Its narrative style is reminiscent of James Joyce. It is told from multiple points of view, and uses sound effects, newspaper articles, songs, speeches, and other books to propel the plot forward. Views: 12
Darin Kadir had to protect American Rylie Hunt at all costs. Seeking answers, she'd traveled halfway around the world to find him. Now she is a target of his family's arch nemesis and must trust Darin in order to survive. Caught up in a covert war between two families, Rylie wants only to find her father's killers and bring them to justice. She doesn't want to fall in love. But the desire burning in Darin's eyes is unlike anything she's ever known. Will she surrender her heart -- or become a casualty of a war across the ages? Views: 12
As war-reporter Martin Crowther arrives in Umbria, still raw from a recent assignment in Africa, and from a failing love affair back home, a storm hits and the sky opens. Things are powerfully on the move inside him too as he comes to the small village of Fontanalba, on a mission to track down two friends from a lifetime ago. Adam and Marina are the estranged children of his mentor, Hal Brigshaw, who is nearing the end of a turbulent life and wants to summon them home. But there are good reasons for their self-imposed exile, and not all of them are understood, and not all are in the past. An air of secrecy also surrounds preparations for an event at Fontanalba in which Adam and Marina have an extraordinary role to play. As Martin waits, trapped between duty and desire, he is both intrigued and dismayed by his dealings with a close-knit community, who seem bent on protecting their own - and on shaking the ground of Martin's life.Review"Lindsay Clarke weaves a stunning, compelling tale that tackles the biggest theme of all: the existence of evil, and how ordinary, fallible mortals come to terms with Man's astonishing capacity for brutality and venality... The Water Theatre will linger long beyond the turning of the last page. It is difficult to remember a recent book that is at once so beautiful and yet so thought provoking." - The Times "Clarke has a gift for believably melding the visible world and human life with larger spiritual and metaphysical forces." - The Financial Times "It is a rare pleasure and surprise to read a new book whose prose is so rich and emotionally resonant... Lindsay Clarke has an enviable command of character, time, and place. He is almost Lawrentian in his ability to depict both the power and beauty of landscape, and tender or tragically fraught emotional relationships... This is a significant and ambitious work by a master of his craft." - The Independent About the AuthorLindsay Clarke is the author of 7 novels, including The Chymical Wedding, which won the Whitbread Award for Fiction in 1989. He has been Writer in Residence at the University of Wales, Cardiff, where he became a long-term Associate of the MA Creative Writing programme, is Creative Consultant to the Pushkin Trust in Northern Ireland, and has directed conferences at Dartington, been Scholar-in-Residence at Schumacher College, and has lectured widely in England abroad and tutored many courses for the Arvon Foundation. He lives in Somerset with his wife who is a ceramic artist. Views: 12
SUMMARY: Harper Adams was six years old in 2012 when an act of viral terrorism wiped out one-half of the country's population. Out of the ashes rose a new government, the Confederation of the Willing, dedicated to maintaining order at any cost. The populace is controlled via government-sanctioned sex and drugs, a brutal police force known as the Blue Coats, and a device called the slate, a mandatory implant that monitors every word a person speaks. To utter a Red-Listed, forbidden word is to risk physical punishment or even death.But there are those who resist. Guided by the fabled "Book of Noah," they are determined to shake the people from their apathy and ignorance, and are prepared to start a war in the name of freedom. The newest member of this resistance is Harper -- a woman driven by memories of a daughter lost, a daughter whose very name was erased by the Red List. And she possesses a power that could make her the underground warriors' ultimate weapon -- or the instrument of their destruction.In the tradition of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, Laura Bynum has written an astonishing debut novel about a chilling, all-too-plausible future in which speech is a weapon and security comes at the highest price of all. Views: 12
