"There is nothing small about Childress's fine novel. It's big in all the ways that matter - big in daring, big in insight, and big-hearted. Really, really big-hearted." -New Orleans Times-PicayuneThis exuberantly acclaimed novel by the author of the bestselling Crazy in Alabama tells an uproarious and moving story about family, best friends, first love, and surviving the scariest years of your life. You need only one best friend, Daniel Musgrove figures, to make it through high school alive. After his family moves to Mississippi just before his junior year, Daniel finds fellow outsider Tim Cousins. The two become inseparable, sharing a fascination with ridicule, The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour, and Arnita Beecham, the most bewitching girl at Minor High. But soon things go terribly wrong. The friends commit a small crime that grows larger and large... Views: 49
SUMMARY:For 4,000 years, the lavish crypt of the Pharaoh Mamose has never been found...until the Seventh Scroll, a cryptic message written by he slave Taita, gives beautiful Egyptologist Royan Al Simma a tantalizing clue to its location. But this is a treasure cache others would kill to possess. Only one step ahead of assassins, Royan runs for her life and into the arms of the only man she can trust, Sir Nicholas Quenton-Harper-a daring man who will stake his fortune and his life to join her hunt for the king's tomb. Together, they will embark on a breathtaking journey to the most exotic locale on earth, where the greatest mystery of ancient Egypt, a chilling danger and an explosive passion are waiting. Steeped in ancient mystery, drama and action,The Seventh Scrollis a masterpiece from a storyteller at the height of his powers.Biography From Wikipedia - Wilbur SmithBorn: 9 January 1933 (age 78), Broken Hill, Northern Rhodesia1Occupation: NovelistGenres: Natural, AdventureWilbur Addison Smith (born January 9, 1933 in Broken Hill, Northern Rhodesia, now Kabwe, Zambia) is a best-selling novelist currently residing in London. His writings include 16th and 17th century tales about the founding of the southern territories of Africa and the subsequent adventures and international intrigues relevant to these settlements. His books often fall into one of three series. These works of partial fiction help to explain the rise and historical influence of the Dutch and English whites in southern Africa that eventually claimed this diamond and gold rich and disputed territory as home.As a baby, he was sick with cerebral malaria for ten days, but made a full recovery. He spent the first years of his life on his father's cattle ranch which consisted of 12,000 hectares (25,000 acres) of forest, hills and savannah. On the ranch his companions were the sons of the ranch workers, small black boys with the same interests and preoccupations as Wilbur Smith. With his companions he ranged through the bush, hiking, hunting, and trapping birds and small mammals. His mother read to him every night and later gave him novels of escape and excitement, which piqued his interest in fiction; however, his father dissuaded him from pursuing writing.He went to boarding school at Cordwalles Preparatory School in Natal (now Kwa-Zulu Natal). While in Natal he continued to be an avid reader and had the good fortune to have had a wonderful English master who made Wilbur Smith his protege, and would discuss the books had Wilbur had read that week. Unlike Wilbur's father and many others, the English master made it clear to Wilbur that being a bookworm was praiseworthy, rather than something to be ashamed of and let Wilbur know that his writings showed great promise. He tutored Wilbur on how to achieve dramatic effects, to develop characters and to keep a story moving forward.Next he went to Michaelhouse (St Michael's academy for young gentlemen) situated on the foothills of the Drakensberg mountains. He never felt like he "fit-in" with the people, goals, and interests of the other students at Michaelhouse. On a positive note, he did start a school newspaper at Michaelhouse for which he wrote the entire content, except for the sports pages. His weekly satirical column became mildly famous, and were circulated as far as afield as Wykham Collegiate and St Annes.Later Wilbur attended Rhodes University in Grahamstown, Eastern Cape, South Africa. He became a journalist, writing about social conditions in South Africa, but his father's advice to "Get a real job" prompted him to resentfully become a tax accountant (chartered accountant). After he qualified as a Chartered Accountant, he married and had two children. The marriage ended badly and the divorce led to alimony and child support payments that left him penniless at only twenty four years of age.He turned back to his first love, fiction and this time he determined to write it, and to his delight found that he was able to sell his first story to 'Argosy' magazine for seventy pounds, which was twice his monthly salary. His first attempt at a novel, 'The Gods First Make Mad', was rejected so for a time he returned to work as a tax accountant, until the urge to write once again overwhelmed him.His first successful novel 'When the Lion Feeds' was published in 1964, written while he worked for Salisbury Inland Revenue. It tells the story about a young man, Sean Courtney and his twin brother Garry. The character's name was a tribute to Wilbur Smith's Grandfather Courtney James Smith who had had commanded a Maxim gun team during the Zulu Wars. Wilbur Smith's grandfather, Courtney James Smith, had a magnificent mustache and could tell wonderful stories that had helped inspire Wilbur. The novel, When the Lion Feeds tells the story of Sean and Garry growing up on an African cattle ranch. The story wove in facts about Wilbur Smiths own father and darling mother. He added in early African history and included the perspective of black people and white. He wrote about hunting, gold mining, carousing, women, love, sex, and hate. This time he left out all the philosophies and radical politics and rebellious posturing that had been the backbone of his first attempt a novel. The book gained a film deal and its success encouraged him to become a full-time writer. His publisher and later agent, Charles Pick, gave him advice he never forgot: "Write for yourself, and write about what you know best." Pick also told him ""Don't talk about your books with anybody, even me, until they are written." Smith states that "Until it is written a book is merely smoke on the wind. It can be blown away by a careless word."He married again following the publication of his first novel, and had another child, but this too ended in divorce. Initially, he vowed never to marry again, but after a time he longed for companionship. He met a young divorcee named Danielle Thomas who was not only very beautiful and intelligent, but had been born in the same town and had read all of Wilbur Smith's books, and thought that they were wonderful. He was enchanted and in 1971 he married dedicating his books to her until her death from brain cancer. It had been a long and painful illness from the time of discovery of the brain tumor in 1993 until her death in 1999.In a bookstore in London he met a beautiful, clever, hard-working, Tadjik girl, Mokhiniso Rakhimova 39 years younger than Mr Smith. Mokhiniso had received her law degree from Moscow University. He fell in love once again and they married in May 2000.He states that Africa is his major inspiration, and currently he has over 30 novels published. Smith now lives in London, but avows an abiding concern for the peoples and wildlife of his native continent.In 2002, Wilbur Smith was granted the Inaugural Sport Shooting Ambassador Award by the World Forum on the Future of Sport Shooting Activities. Views: 49
A new crime–thriller full of suspense from Sujata Massey, the acclaimed author of The Bride's Kimono and The Floating Girl.Antiques dealer Rei Shimura is in San Francisco visiting her parents and researching a personal project tracing the story of 100 years of Japanese decorative arts through her own family's experience. Her work is interrupted by the arrival of her boyfriend, lawyer Hugh Glendinning, who is involved in a class action lawsuit on behalf of aged Asian nationals forced to engage in slave labour for Japanese companies duringWorld War II.These two projects suddenly intertwine when one of Hugh's clients is murdered and Rei begins to uncover unsavoury facts about her own family's actions during the war. Rei unravels the truth, finds the killer, and at the same time learns about family ties and loyalty and the universal desire to avoid blame. Views: 49
"Help me find my little girl." Jess Mastriani -- dubbed "Lightning Girl" by the press when, after a huge storm, she develops a psychic ability to find missing children -- has lost her miraculous powers. Or has she? She would like the media and the government to think so. All Jess wants is to be left alone, by everyone except sexy Rob Wilkins -- who still hasn't called, by the way.... But it doesn't look like Jess is going to get her wish -- especially not while she's stuck working at a summer camp for musically gifted kids. Then the father of a missing girl shows up to beg Jess to find his daughter. Jess can't say no, but now the feds are on her trail again, as is one ornery stepdad, who'd like to see Lightning Girl...well, dead.From School Library JournalGr 7-10-In When Lightning Strikes (Pocket Pulse, 2001), an accident endowed Jess with the psychic ability to find missing people. After the Feds, the press, and desperate parents of missing children made her life miserable, the teen decided to pretend that her powers were gone. In this sequel, Jess is trying to go back to a normal life. She gets a summer job at a camp for musically gifted children and tries to wrestle with the woes of unwanted press and unruly campers. One boy, Shane, quickly rises as the camp bully and torments his fellow campers. As if that and a cabinful of young boys aren't enough to keep her busy, she is surprised by a visit from a man who begs her to find his missing daughter. She can't say no to him and her life quickly becomes complicated again as she tries to save the girl, dodge the Feds, seduce her sort-of boyfriend, and manage her job. Carroll (aka Meg Cabot of The Princess Diaries [HarperCollins, 2000]) tells the story in the irreverent and slang-peppered language of today's teenagers. With her detention-clouded past and her ambitionless future, the protagonist is no role model, but she is a character that young people will believe and enjoy. The story moves fast and is full of suspense, action, and teen intrigue. Readers who enjoyed the first book will not be disappointed, and newcomers will not be left far behind.*Heather Dieffenbach, Lexington Public Library, *Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.From BooklistGr. 6-10. In this second in the 1-800-Where-R-You series, Jess Mastriani (Lighting Girl) takes a job at a summer camp for gifted musical kids to escape the publicity and danger that have accompanied her powers of telepathy, which were triggered by a lightning strike. Determined never again to use her extraordinary talents to locate missing children, she vows to lead a normal teenage existence, boys and all--despite very obvious FBI surveillance. Carroll, author of The Princess Diaries * (2000), paces the story well, smoothly moving from typical teen and camp conversations and situations to the tense and mysterious stalking of Jess by both police and kidnappers. With more substance than many books in the genre, this will be an easy sell. Frances BradburnCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved* Views: 49
VOLATILE RELATIONS A new era of friendship between the Syrian and US governments is threatened when American high-tech weapons go missing en route overseas. Determined to destroy the stolen arms before they can be used, Mack Bolan discovers nothing is what it seems between the Syrian regime and the loyalists–including the beautiful double agent working with him. Getting to the weapons alive is only one of Bolan’s problems. Tracking down the enemy behind the theft–without starting a war–will put his years of experience to the test. But discretion is of the utmost importance, and the lives of millions are at stake, which makes the Executioner the only man for this mission. Views: 49
The beloved, bestselling author of The Birth House and The Virgin Cure is back with her most beguiling novel yet, luring us deep inside the lives of a trio of remarkable young women navigating the glitz and grotesqueries of Gilded-Age New York by any means possible, including witchcraft...The year is 1880. Two hundred years after the trials in Salem, Adelaide Thom (Moth from The Virgin Cure) has left her life in the sideshow to open a tea shop with another young woman who feels it's finally safe enough to describe herself as a witch: a former medical student and gardien de sorts (keeper of spells), Eleanor St. Clair. Together they cater to Manhattan's high society ladies, specializing in cures, palmistry and potions—and in guarding the secrets of their clients. All is well until one bright September afternoon, when an enchanting young woman named Beatrice Dunn arrives at their door seeking employment. Beatrice soon becomes... Views: 49
In 1971, the state of Minnesota was rocked by the 'Butcher Boy' incident, as coverage of a family brutally murdered by one of their own swept across newspapers and television screens nationwide. Now, in present-day New Orleans, Polly Deschamps finds herself at yet another lonely crossroads in her life. No stranger to tragedy, Polly was a runaway at the age of fifteen, escaping a nightmarish Mississippi childhood. Lonely, that is, until she encounters architect Marshall Marchand. Polly is immediately smitten. She finds him attractive, charming, and intelligent. Marshall, a lifelong bachelor, spends most of his time with his brother Danny. When Polly's two young daughters from her previous marriage are likewise taken with Marshall, she marries him. However, as Polly begins to settle into her new life, she becomes uneasy about her husband's increasing dark moods, fearing that Danny may be influencing Marshall in ways she cannot understand. But what of the ominous prediction by a New Orleans tarot card reader, who proclaims that Polly will murder her husband? What, if any, is the Marchands' connection to the infamous 'Butcher Boy' multiple homicide? And could Marshall and his eccentric brother be keeping a dark secret from Polly, one that will shatter the happiness she has forever prayed for? Views: 49
