The Escape of Bobby Ray Hammer, A Novel of a '50s Family

Among the 5 finalists in the Faulkner Society Novel Competition. The Escape of Bobby Ray Hammer is a second generation Grapes of Wrath novel. Bobby is just entering his senior year in high school and eager to graduate and go on to college to get out of his rural farming community; however, he must resolve family problems that originated, he believes, with his brother's death.Among the 5 finalists in the Faulkner Society Novel Competition. The Escape of Bobby Ray Hammer is a second generation "Grapes of Wrath" novel in that Bobby's parents migrated to California during the 1930s, the "Dust Bowl" days. Bobby is just entering his senior year in high school and eager to graduate and go on to college to get out of his rural farming community; however, he realizes that he must resolve family problems that originated, he believes, with the death of his older brother before he can fulfill his dream. Little does he realize the trail of misery he will cause as he uncovers the family secrets that led to his brother's death.
Views: 671

The Winemaker's Daughter

Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times national correspondent Timothy Egan turns to fiction with The Winemaker's Daughter, a lyrical and gripping novel about the harsh realities and ecological challenges of turning water into wine.When Brunella Cartolano visits her father on the family vineyard in the basin of the Cascade Mountains, she's shocked by the devastation caused by a four-year drought. Passionate about the Pacific Northwest ecology, Brunella, a cultural impact analyst, is embroiled in a battle to save the Seattle waterfront from redevelopment and to preserve a fisherman's livelihood. But when a tragedy among fire-jumpers results from a failure of the water supply–her brother Niccolo is among those lost—Brunella finds herself with another mission: to find out who is sabotaging the area's water supply. Joining forces with a Native American Forest Ranger, she discovers deep rifts rooted in the region's complicated history, and tries to save her...
Views: 667

The Gift: A Salvation Skit for Christmas

This free skit illustrates that salvation is a gift from God. It can be performed by churches, youth groups, Bible clubs and schools.The Gift: A Salvation Skit for Christmas is an easy-to-adapt and perform skit. It uses a group of children (three to six is ideal), a couple of adults or teens, and a narrator.Set in a living room, the cast finds a Christmas tree laden with presents -- but some of the gifts are a bit unusual. The children receive athletic ability, health, love, and salvation, along with their usual gifts.The skit includes a salvation call and prayer.
Views: 666

Blackwater

In a time when death is common, life is cheap and superstition rife, anyone can find their world torn apart by gossip and accusations. Can one lonely girl find the love and companionship she craves? Or will her heart lead her into more danger than she can imagine?‘How will you protect her from lies? From superstition? How will you protect her when your father comes calling, with threats and accusations? When a mob comes to our door?’In a time when death is common, life is cheap and superstition rife, anyone can find their world torn apart by gossip and accusations. Can one lonely girl find the love and companionship she craves? Or will her heart lead her into more danger than she can imagine?Lizzie Prentice, daughter of a cunning woman, is no stranger to scandal. She carries it with her, like the scar on her forehead. Samuel Pendle, her protector since childhood, could hold the key to a normal, safe life. But when Samuel defies his parents, it seems that history is bound to repeat itself and Lizzie’s life is at risk. ‘Blackwater’, prequel to the historical novel ‘The Black Hours’, follows Lizzie as she strives to escape the same terrible fate her parents suffered; her life thrown into turmoil, and everything she holds dear at stake, but determined to find happiness in a world of intolerance, cruelty and hate.Please note that although 'Blackwater' is the prequel to 'The Black Hours', both can be read as stand-alones.
Views: 666

The Cranford Chronicles

Based on three Elizabeth Gaskell novels "The Cranford Chronicles" follows the small absurdities and major tragedies in the lives of the people of Cranford, a small Cheshire market town, during one extraordinary year. In this witty and poignant story the railway is pushing its way relentlessly towards the town from Manchester, bringing fears of migrant workers and the breakdown of law and order. The arrival of handsome young Doctor Harrison causes yet further agitation not just because of his revolutionary methods but also because of his effect on the hearts of the ladies. Meanwhile Miss Matty Jenkyns nurses her own broken heart after she was forced to give up the man she loved when she was a young girl.
Views: 663

Ruth

In Ruth Elizabeth Gaskell set out to portray, not 'the Condition of England' already famously addressed in Mary Barton, but the nature and sensibility of a fallen woman. Her orphaned heroine Ruth, apprenticed to a dressmaker, is seduced and then abandoned by wealthy young Henry Bellingham. Shamed in the eyes of society by her illegitimate son, and yet rejecting the opportunity to marry her seducer, Ruth finds a path that affirms we are not bound to repeat our mistakes. When Ruth, Elizabeth Gaskell's second novel, appeared in 1853 its first reviewers were less scandalized than moved and intrigued. In considering a 'fallen woman', Gaskell explores the worlds of nineteenth-century experience concerned with women and family, sexuality, love and religion. She declared of her critics: 'It has made them talk and think a little on a subject which is so painful it requires all one's bravery not to hide one's head like an ostrich.'.
Views: 663

Weapon

He’s been dead for more than 200 years. You’d think things couldn’t get worse. With the help of his plucky Alue sidekick and a Katalan that sets off his cat-phobia, can Detective Inspector Gabe Adon save a universe and find the daughter he last saw when she was 7?. If you like tech-heavy sci-fi, relatable characters, and stories of family and redemption, you’ll love Frank Carey’s Engine of Creation series. Buy Weapon and join Gabe on his epic adventure today! **From the Author Welcome to the League of Planetary Systems! The League of Planetary System was founded in the not too distant future. Several planets in the Milky Way Galaxy joined together for trade and mutual protection. The League continues to grow and new planets petition for admittance. The citizens of the League represent many species including the ogre-like Goranthi, the insectoid Martok, and the felinoid Katalan. As advanced and diverse as the League is, it's problems are frighteningly familiar--corruption, murder, genocide. Frank and Jo Carey created the League as the setting for many of their science fictions tales which span genres from Frank's military science fiction and space opera to Jo's sci-fi adventure and sci-fi romance. The outer fringes of League space are still being explored and new planets continue to petition for membership. The League is part of a larger multiverse providing an endless supply of tales to be told. Each book and series set in the LPS can be read as a standalone, but each League book is given a League Tale Number which appears on the copyright page of the book. The League Tale Number indicates the order in which the book was published and, should anyone ever want to, the order in which the overall League Tales should be read.
Views: 656

The White Rajah

A relief from the recent. The Nylon Pirates, this takes its story from the mid-nineteenth century and the East, on a possible island, Makassang, in the Java Seas. Richard Marriott has wandered ten years as a disillusioned freebooter after his father's death in England has revealed him a pauper and a bastard and lost him the woman he had loved; now his ""private"" warship with its trained crew of fighting seamen has gone aground on a reef off Makassang. Richard is summoned to the Rajah whose threats and promise of money cause Richard to accept the offer to drive out insurgents under an old enemy, Black Harris. Successful, he is adopted by the Rajah and given his daughter, Princess Sunara, in marriage. Two more victories in other uprisings and the birth of a son keep Richard in favor but when restiessness and inactivity spur him to plan for a model kingdom he is accused of treason and ostracized. An immediate threat to his life is averted when HM warship arrives with Richard's half-brother in command and, through his support, when the Rajah is killed, Richard becomes the new Rajah with the chance of fulfilling his dreams for his little country. Eastern backgrounds, issues of the past that echo today, romance and torture, keep this popular on all counts
Views: 649

Ignited Minds

When A.P.J. Abdul Kalam wrote India 2020: A Vision for the New Millennium with Y.S. Rajan in 1998, little did they expect the magnitude of the response they would get. The idea that India could actually be a developed nation in a short time rather than remain condemned to a subsistence diet of marginal improvements and promises struck a chord among readers. The book continues to be a best-seller. Ignited Minds: Unleashing the Power Within India goes the logical next step and examines why, given all our skills, resources and talents, we, so obviously capable of being the best, settle so often for the worst. What is it that we as a nation are missing? For at the heart of Ignited Minds is an irresistible premise: the people of a nation have the power, by dint of hard work, to realize their dream of a truly good life. Kalam offers no formulaic prescription in Ignited Minds. Instead, he takes up different issues and themes that struck him on his pilgrimage around the country as he met thousands of school children, teachers, scientists and saints and seers in the course of two years: the necessity for a patriotism that transcends religion and politics; for role models who point out the path to take; and for confidence in ourselves and in our strengths. Who was he to write on so large a theme, he wondered as he started writing this book. But at the end, Kalam's humility notwithstanding, this may well prove to be the book that motivates us to get back on the winning track and unleash the energy within a nation that hasn't allowed itself full rein.
Views: 645

Satori in Paris & Pic

Satori in Paris and Pic, two of Jack Kerouac's last novels, showcase the remarkable range and versatility of his mature talent. Satori in Paris is a rollicking autobiographical account of Kerouac's search for his heritage in France, and lands the author in his familiar milieu of seedy bars and all-night conversations. Pic is Kerouac's final novel and one of his most unusual. Narrated by ten-year-old Pictorial Review Jackson in a North Carolina vernacular, the novel charts the adventures of Pic and his brother Slim as they travel from the rural South to Harlem in the 1940s.
Views: 641

Scoop

Lord Copper, newspaper magnate and proprietor of the Daily Beast, has always prided himself on his intuitive flair for spotting ace reporters. That is not to say he has not made the odd blunder, however, and may in a moment of weakness make another. Acting on a dinner party tip from Mrs. Algernon Stitch, Lord Copper feels convinced that he has hit on just the chap to cover a promising war in the African Republic of Ishmaelia. So begins Scoop, Waugh's exuberant comedy of mistaken identity and brilliantly irreverent satire of the hectic pursuit of hot news.
Views: 635

Mr Dog and a Deer Friend

A brand new young fiction series by TV broadcaster and intrepid explorer Ben Fogle, inspired by his real-life animal experiences... Co-written with best-selling children's author Steve Cole When Mr Dog meets a fawn whose forest home is in danger, he know he needs to help... quickly.As Mr Dog joins the search for the fawn's missing mother, trouble lies ahead for the whole herd. Mr Dog has a plan, though, that might just keep them all out of danger...
Views: 634

Reconstruction & an Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage

Frederick Douglass, a former slave and eminent human rights leader in the abolition movement, was the first black citizen to hold a high U.S. government rank. Abolitionist leader Frederick Douglass was born into slavery in Talbot County, Maryland. He became one of the most famous intellectuals of his time, advising presidents and lecturing to thousands on a range of causes, including women's rights and Irish home rule. Among Douglass' writings are several autobiographies eloquently describing his experiences in slavery and his life after the Civil War.
Views: 633

Accidental Agent

'Plotting in the best le Carré tradition' Mail on Sunday 'A well researched plot, intelligent prose and topicality' SpectatorFrom the author of Legacy, now a major BBC Film, and The Kaiser's Last Kiss comes a brilliant new novel for fans of John le Carre, Mick Herron and Charles Cumming. Brexit looms and Charles Thoroughgood, Chief of MI6, is forbidden for political reasons from spying on the EU. But when an EU official volunteers the EU's negotiating bottom lines to one of his officers, Charles has to report it. Whitehall is eager for more but as the case develops Charles realises that it may not be quite what it appears. At the same time, he finds he has a family connection with a possible terrorist whom MI5 want checked out. In both cases, Charles is forced to become his own agent, seeking what he really does not want to find. 'Charles Thoroughgood, Chief of MI6, keeps the flame of true espionage...
Views: 632