Neena Allen’s life didn’t exactly follow the path she’d anticipated. She couldn't have seen the twists and turns that would lead her to wander the woods, presumed dead by the prison guards. When Neena starts a new life in a little Arkansas town, she finds a contentment she never dreamed possible. The thing about skeletons in your closet is they always come back to haunt you. Views: 72
Boys don't keep diaries—or do they?The launch of an exciting and innovatively illustrated new series narrated by an unforgettable kid every family can relate toIt's a new school year, and Greg Heffley finds himself thrust into middle school, where undersized weaklings share the hallways with kids who are taller, meaner, and already shaving. The hazards of growing up before you're ready are uniquely revealed through words and drawings as Greg records them in his diary.In book one of this debut series, Greg is happy to have Rowley, his sidekick, along for the ride. But when Rowley's star starts to rise, Greg tries to use his best friend's newfound popularity to his own advantage, kicking off a chain of events that will test their friendship in hilarious fashion.Author/illustrator Jeff Kinney recalls the growing pains of school life and introduces a new kind of hero who epitomizes the challenges of being a kid. As Greg says in his diary...F&P level: T Views: 72
Introducing laid back amateur sleuth Tony Gerard in this gripping new historical mystery series - Ten years after the end of World War II, Tony Gerard, amateur P.I., lives a peaceful life. That is until a routine call from the glamorous Beverly Beaumont, asking Gerard to investigate the disappearance of her brother, ends in the discovery of a body and a face from the past. A face from Paris, 1945.ReviewFans of the offbeat will doubtless enjoy this quirky, engaging, Chandleresque detective story set in 1950s London. Tony Gérard has never quite settled down to civilian life after returning from WWII. He mostly does odd jobs for Les Jackson, head of Hoxton Films. So when Les asks Tony to help find attractive starlet Beverly Beaumont's missing brother, Jon, Tony agrees. But from the minute he starts searching, he realizes there's something odd about the case. For one thing, when he manages to find Jon, the kid hands him a package for Beverly--a package of diamonds. Then, when a beautiful Frenchwoman whom Tony knows from the war turns up in the investigation, along with her husband, a man with dubious, possibly criminal, connections, Tony realizes the Beaumont case may be a lot more complex than he thought. Car chases, a mysterious Cambridge don, a gang of European thugs, and a climactic shoot-out keep the action hot and heavy. The likably lackadaisical hero (Tony is surprised when he solves the case) and the vividly rendered '50s setting make this an engaging and unusual read. --Booklist, June 1, 2011 Views: 72
Joni Peterson is catapulted through time into a world both familiar and strange. Finding herself in Victorian England, she discovers love in the most unexpected place— at the feet of the man whose carriage knocked her down.
Lord Sebastian Tyler needs to remarry, but preferably not to a woman of his mother’s choosing. The woman his carriage runs over both irritates and fascinates him, but could she be the answer to his prayers?
Will the arrow of love find them before time runs out and history rights itself? Views: 72
The Sahara is the quintessence of isolation, epitomizing both remoteness and severity of environment unlike any other place on the face of the earth. Replete with myths and fictions, it is a wild land, dotted with oases and camel trains trudging through sand dunes that roll like the waves on a sea, as far as the distant horizon. But this is just part of the picture. The largest desert in the world, the Sahara ranges from the river Nile running through Egypt and Sudan in the east, to the Atlantic coast from Morocco to Mauritania in the west; stretching from the Atlas Mountains and the shores of the Mediterranean in the north, to the fluid Sahelian fringe that delineates the desert in the south.Invaders and traders have come and gone for millennia, but the Sahara is also the place that some people call home. While larger than the United States, this vast area contains only three million people. Africans and Arabs, Berber and Bedu, Tuareg and Tebu. Eamonn Gearon explores the... Views: 72
In her highly acclaimed first novel, Anywhere But Here, Simpson created one of the most astute yet vulnerable heroines in contemporary fiction. Now Mayan Atassi--once Mayan Stevenson--returns in an immensely powerful novel about love and lovelessness, fathers and fatherlessness, and the loyalties that shape us even when they threaten to destroy us. Now a woman of twenty-eight and finally on her own in medical school, Mayan becomes obsessed with the father she never knew, leading her to hire detectives to dredge up the past, thus eroding her savings, ruining her career, and flirting with madness in a search spanning two continents. "Ratifies the achievement of Anywhere But Here, attesting to its author's...dazzling literary gift and uncommon emotional wisdom."--New York Times"A breathtaking piece of fiction; Simpson is a writer who can break our heart and mend it in the same sentence."--Cleveland Plain... Views: 72
These eighteen tales of the macabre show Dahl's dark brilliance as a short-story writer. They are wicked (as an old man attracts the attentions of those more interested in his skin than his wellbeing), shocking (as distasteful bets are made -- a daughter's hand on the identity of a glass of claret, a finger risked for a Cadillac) and blackly humorous (as a cuckolded husband receives a chance to take his revenge out on his wife's neck). Someone Like You is as devilishly ingenious and suspenseful as writing gets. Views: 72
Sixteen-year-old Gray Fallon's life is looking pretty good. His easygoing parents — a university science professor and silkscreen artist — are happy for him to entertain his friends in his suburban basement. A part-time job at the Cineplex, the occasional beer or joint, a smart, funny best friend, a hot new girlfriend — things couldn't really be any better.Then Gray's twelve-year-old science nerd sister, Maggie, is diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. Gray learns that the cancer may have environmental causes and sets out to uncover the cause and make Maggie better. His research reveals that silkscreen chemicals may be responsible for Maggie's illness. His mother's subsequent breakdown and father's anger finally drive him to quit school and seek haven at an organic farm. However, there is no escaping the reality of Maggie's illness, and the climax, written with wisdom, compassion and a complete lack of easy sentimentality, is a tour de force. Views: 72
In this powerful debut novel, three American soldiers haunted by their actions in Afghanistan search for absolution and human connection in family and civilian life. Wintric Ellis joins the army as soon as he graduates from high school, saying goodbye to his girlfriend, Kristen, and to the backwoods California town whose borders have always been the limits of his horizon. Deployed for two years in Afghanistan in a directionless war, he struggles to find his bearings in a place where allies could at any second turn out to be foes. Two career soldiers, Dax and Torres, take Wintric under their wing. Together, these three men face an impossible choice: risk death or commit a harrowing act of war. The aftershocks echo long after each returns home to a transfigured world, where his own children may fear to touch him and his nightmares still hold sway. Jesse Goolsby casts backward and forward in time to track these unforgettable characters from... Views: 72
