“What are you reading?”
That’s the question Will Schwalbe asks his mother, Mary Anne, as they sit in the waiting room of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. In 2007, Mary Anne returned from a humanitarian trip to Pakistan and Afghanistan suffering from what her doctors believed was a rare type of hepatitis. Months later she was diagnosed with a form of advanced pancreatic cancer, which is almost always fatal, often in six months or less.
This is the inspiring true story of a son and his mother, who start a “book club” that brings them together as her life comes to a close. Over the next two years, Will and Mary Anne carry on conversations that are both wide-ranging and deeply personal, prompted by an eclectic array of books and a shared passion for reading. Their list jumps from classic to popular, from poetry to mysteries, from fantastic to spiritual. The issues they discuss include questions of faith and courage as well as everyday topics such as expressing gratitude and learning to listen. Throughout, they are constantly reminded of the power of books to comfort us, astonish us, teach us, and tell us what we need to do with our lives and in the world. Reading isn’t the opposite of doing; it’s the opposite of dying.
Will and Mary Anne share their hopes and concerns with each other—and rediscover their lives—through their favorite books. When they read, they aren’t a sick person and a well person, but a mother and a son taking a journey together. The result is a profoundly moving tale of loss that is also a joyful, and often humorous, celebration of life: Will’s love letter to his mother, and theirs to the printed page.
This eBook edition includes a Reading Group Guide. Views: 232
Now this is the beginning of the Hollow Tree stories which the Story Teller told the Little Lady in the queer old house which stands in the very borders of the Big Deep Woods itself. They were told in the Room of the Lowest Ceiling and the Widest Fire—a ceiling so low that when the Story Teller stands upright it brushes his hair as he walks, and a fire so deep that pieces of large trees do not need to be split but can be put on whole. In the old days, several great-grandfathers back, as the Hollow Tree People might say, these heavy sticks were drawn in by a horse that came right through the door and dragged the wood to the wide stone hearth. Views: 232
Aurore Lescure, the first woman astronaut to have gone into space, returns to Earth with deadly alien spores which feed on electricity and threatens to utterly destroy our civilization. Theo Varlet's 1930 novel shows the influence of J.-H. Rosny Aîné's classic disaster story The Mysterious Force (1913) and Henri Allorge's award-winning The Great Cataclysm (1922), both available from Black Coat Press. It is an exhilarating thriller which extrapolates ideas about dangerous alien lifeforms with considerable verve and polish, and foreshadows many similar-themed novels of the 1950s. Views: 232
The slight indisposition from which the Queen suffered in the spring of 1602, and which was occasioned by a cold caught during her lying-in, by diverting the King\'s attention from matters of State, had the effect of doubling the burden cast on my shoulders. Views: 232
Eliza (Buckminster) Lee (1792-1864) was an American author, the daughter of Joseph Buckminster. She was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire; was well educated by her father and brother, Joseph Stevens Buckminster; married a Thomas Lee of Boston; became a writer; and was unusually felicitous in her descriptions of New England life. She wrote, notably: Sketches of New England Life (1837); Naomi, or Boston Two Hundred Years Ago (1848); and memoirs of her father and brother (1849). She translated from the German, wrote a life of Richter (1842), and published an historical novel, Parthenia, the Last Days of Paganism (1858). Views: 232
Sunny McDonald and her vampire boyfriend, Magnus, are on the run-accused of treason and wanted alive...or undead. And her twin is the slayer sent to track them down.
Rayne would do anything to save her twin sister, Sunny, from the Vampire Consortium dictator who wants her dead. Instead, she's been commissioned by Slayer Inc. to find Sunny and Magnus and deliver them to the Consortium...which Rayne knows means certain death. She also knows that if she and her boyfriend, Jareth, disobey orders, they are signing not only their own death warrants, but also those of every vampire in the Blood Coven.
As a rival slayer with a personal vendetta moves in, Rayne and Jareth must do something to stop her. So they embark on their most dangerous journey yet, deep beneath the streets of New York City and through the Gates of the Underworld. But when a greedy god demands the ultimate sacrifice, will Rayne be forced to choose between her sister...and the vampire she loves? Views: 232
This short free monologue book contains a variety of monologues perfect for auditions. The book has both male and female monologues that will leave directors laughing and asking for more.To The One I Love depicts twelve letters filled with romantic prose that captures and seals the love between Jonathan and Emily from their first date until their final goodbye.Excerpt:(Part of a letter from Jonathan)The scent of you still lingers about my rooms, distracting my thoughts and teasing my senses. I want you, Emily. I want you so much it verges on insanity. Only your sweet kisses can lure me from the brink.The hours until tonight stretch on endlessly and I catch myself cursing the clock. It mocks…no it punishes me with its constant ticking and hands that move too slowly. Views: 232
A literary portrait of New Zealand's best-loved children's author - a new edition. Margaret Mahy's death on 23 July 2012 brought forth an unprecedented outpouring of grief and heartfelt tributes from around New Zealand and the world. Her passing at 76 was breaking news in the media, unstoppable through the social networks, noted by political leaders in Parliament and by children in classrooms throughout the country. Margaret was one of the world's leading authors for younger readers for four decades. In her own country she was popularly known as the writer in the multicoloured wig who wrote marvellously funny picture books and enchanted generations of school children. Her story had its fairy-tale elements. In 1968, a hard-pressed solo mother of two daughters, working as a librarian by day and writing long into the night, she was 'discovered' by a leading American publisher who flew 'to the end of the earth' to offer her a multi-book publishing contract. From those first picture... Views: 232
Montague Rhodes James - M. R. James - was an English academic and provost of King's College and Eton. He started writing ghost stories to entertain his friends... one hundred and fifty years after his birth he is now revered as the father of the modern English ghost story.
This gorgeous hardback contains all thirty-five of M.R. James's highly acclaimed ghost stories, including the classics: 'Oh Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad' and 'Canon Alberic's Scrapbook'. As well as a foreword by Clark Ashton Smith and an extended Afterword by Stephen Jones the book is gloriously illustrated by award-winning artist Les Edwards. Views: 231
Discover How ANYONE Can Quickly Become a Strumming, Chords, and Lead Guitar Ninja.Would you like to know how to play the guitar like a guitar master and eliminate any disbeliefs that have been holding you back from truly mastering the guitar?Sound impossible? Well it's not...Guitar Mastery Simplified, by Erich Andreas AKA Your Guitar Sage, is packed with the most important guitar lessons that will help you take your guitar playing ability to the highest level it has ever been! Erich has taught/played guitar professionally for almost 30 years.INSIDE YOU WILL DISCOVER: Over 100 PagesExactly "Where to Start?"The 3 Most Important Dexterity ExercisesHow to Play Open and Bar ChordsThe Power of the Pentatonic ScaleHow to Read and Play Chord ChartsGuitar Fingerpicking Basics and ExercisesThe 6 Most Fundamental Concepts to Guitar StrummingHow to Play Guitar TablatureChord Noodling and ImprovisationAll There is to Know About the Major ScaleHow to Use a Capo The Correct WayWhere the Notes Fall on the Fret BoardHow to Play by EarThe "CAGED" SystemHow to Tune Your GuitarRelative Major and MinorChord Construction and Building Seventh ChordsGuitar DiagramsDiatonic Harmony and Guitar Music TheoryAnd Much, Much More...You will FINALLY get to fully understand guitar music theory while at the same time learn all the important guitar chords needed to become an advanced guitar "ninja". This book is for beginners to advanced guitar players.The solutions you'll discover inside Guitar Mastery Simplified will have you on your way to playing the guitar like a true strumming, chords and lead guitar ninja! The guitar lessons inside this book will have you rockin' out to all your favorite guitar jams and songs in no time.Scroll up and click on "Buy Now" to deliver almost instantly to your Kindle or other reading device! Views: 231
Is science a kind of magic? Is magic a science all its own? In a world run by technological giant iGoogAmaHoo, only one woman can stop the violent overthrow of society by an evil sorcerer who's seeded the world's tech connection with a magical virus. THESE DARK ELECTRONS is a short story with a breathtaking pace set in a fantastical sci-fi future.A collection of short stories, poems and 'other scribblings' by Sian Turner.Read 'Hot Under the Collar,' a tale of jealousy and its consequences, 'Poor Law,' the story of young Will Thompson's life in a 1903 Cottage Home (or workhouse for children) and what happens when he is unjustly accused of theft, 'Watching,' the story of Luke Peterson's ghostly encounter in the woods, plus other stories, poems and what the author describes as 'other scribblings.' Views: 231
A small survivor of a brutal massacre becomes the leader of a terrorist splinter group intent on attacking soft targets in the west. The novel develops into a detective story to find the brains behind the attacks and into a clandestine operation to exact "retribution" for the evil done, but the terrorist agenda is not complete, a much larger plot with grave effects for the western nations begins.When a terrorist splinter group carries out a series of attacks on the west, an American intelligence analyst becomes involved in events far more closely than he could ever have imagined. Forced to witness a brutal murder at close quarters, and even closer to home, he vows to exact “retribution” - whatever the cost.The analyst becomes the catalyst in unfolding actions, and the novel becomes both a detective story to track the mastermind and an action thriller to take out the terrorist organization. Events build to a catastrophic climax; can an international crisis be averted? Can an elusive urban guerrilla be tracked and stopped? What will be the cost?Fast paced and international in scope, this is the first novel in a series built around a set of realistic characters immersed in extreme circumstances. Technically accurate and well researched, this series of novels takes us into the world of ex special forces operatives’ now working in. the private sector.These characters have taken on a life of their own and will become involved in many future adventures.Read and enjoy,Nicholas Gill. Views: 231
