Latina novelist Alma Huebner is suffering from writer's block and is years past the completion date for yet another of her bestselling family sagas. Her husband, Richard, works for a humanitarian organization dedicated to the health and prosperity of developing countries and wants her help on an extended AIDS assignment in the Dominican Republic. But Alma begs off joining him: the publisher is breathing down her neck. She promises to work hard and follow him a bit later.
The truth is that Alma is seriously sidetracked by a story she has stumbled across. It's the story of a much earlier medical do-gooder, Spaniard Francisco Xavier Balmis, who in 1803 undertook to vaccinate the populations of Spain's American colonies against smallpox. To do this, he required live "carriers" of the vaccine.
Of greater interest to Alma is Isabel Sendales y Gómez, director of La Casa de Expósitos, who was asked to select twenty-two orphan boys to be the vaccine carriers. She agreed— with the stipulation that she would accompany the boys on the proposed two-year voyage. Her strength and courage inspire Alma, who finds herself becoming obsessed with the details of Isabel's adventures.
This resplendent novel-within-a-novel spins the disparate tales of two remarkable women, both of whom are swept along by machismo. In depicting their confrontation of the great scourges of their respective eras, Alvarez exposes the conflict between altruism and ambition. Views: 808
Dinah, Willie, and Susan have long outlived the scandal associated with their ten-year-old menage-a-trois. Dinah, an avante-garde compler, treasures her independence. Yet it takes Willie's kindness and Susan's fire to sustain her. Willie is a left-wing sculptor in a right-wing age. And Susan, his wife, is a fabric designer who craves glamour, wealth, and the attentions of the summer people who visit Cape Cod every year. Then one summer, the balance shifts. Passions are tested, honesty forsaken, and the trio must face the changes brought by their beautiful visitors . . . Views: 808
From the Night Warriors series, comes this tale that shows what happens when the old stone lord dies before the young one is a sealed Soldat der Nacht. Will the stone be lost to the Warriors until the new lord matures? Will a child hold the gods' vessel? The answer just might surprise you. NOTE: Watch for the release of this story in MONSTERS OF MYTH from Mundania Press, summer of 2011.~Part of the USA Today Bestselling Series~ It’s summer in St. Louis and Mercy Watts is on vacation from her parents. The great detective and his nosy wife are on a cruise and Mercy thinks she’s off the hook for doing any investigating for them. But when a family friend has a fatal heart attack, Dad has one of his famous feelings and orders Mercy to look into it. Mercy tries not to get sucked in. She really does, but she’s her father’s daughter. Soon Gavin’s death leads to a more grisly one, the death of a bride on her wedding day. Can the two be connected? Was Gavin murdered? Now Mercy can’t stop. You do for family. That’s all there is to it. Views: 807
During an unnamed battle, 18-year-old private Henry Fleming survives what he considers to be a lost cause by escaping into a nearby wood, deserting his battalion. He finds a group of injured men in which one of the group, the "Tattered Soldier", asks Henry, who's often referred to as "The Youth", where he's wounded.
Henry, embarrassed that he's whole, wanders thru the forest. He ultimately decides that running was the best thing, & that he's a small part of the army responsible for saving himself. When he learns that his battalion had won the battle, Henry feels guilty.
As a result, he returns to his battalion & is injured when a cannon operator hits him in the head because he wouldn't let go of his arm. When he returns to camp, the other soldiers believe he was harmed by a bullet grazing him in battle.
The next morning he goes into battle for a 3rd time. While looking for a stream from which to attain water, he discovers from the commanding officer that his regiment has a lackluster reputation. The officer speaks casually about sacrificing Henry's regiment because they're nothing more than "mule drivers" & "mud diggers".
With no regiments to spare, the general orders his men forward. In the final battle, Henry becomes one of the best fighters in his battalion as well as the flag bearer, finally proving his courage as a man. Views: 807
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY LYNNE TRUSS
'Stella Gibbons is the Jane Austen of the twentieth century' The Times
Set in wartime London, Westwood tells the story of Margaret Steggles, a plain bookish girl whose mother has told her that she is not the type that attracts men. Her schoolfriend Hilda has a sunny temperament and keeps her service boys 'ever so cheery'. When Margaret finds a ration book on Hampstead Heath the pompous writer Gerard Challis enters both their lives. Margaret slavishly adores Challis and his artistic circle; Challis idolises Hilda for her hair and her eyes and Hilda finds Gerard's romantic overtures a bit of a bind. This is a delightfully comic and wistful tale of love and longing. Views: 807
Is Mathew becoming paranoid; even when more people die he isn’t sure, and what about the beautiful married woman, is she to be the next victim?While handling my laptop and computer every day, I have grown accustomed to sitting in front of it with a cup of strong coffee, as I wait for it to start up, then to load up applications and finally load the internet. The situation did not get any better, as I have to regularly download stuff from internet and already wasted a lot of money paying so called computer professionals who have been giving me false promises. Sometime or the other, even you must have come across something similar.I have made a list of the most easily performing tasks to remove the problem of slowness from my computer. And with this ebook, you can also say goodbye to the slow computer problem once and for all… Not just blunt instructions: I have combined it with proper guidance so that the most computer illiterate person can handle the daily issues with their computer. With a dedicated section for Windows 7 users and a list of the most efficient freeware available in the market, you can also become like me… self-dependant: "Computeristically"! Views: 807
Taro Takeda had missed out on a university place by one percentage point and had been unsuccessful in every job interview that had required a tie or a skill. All that was left for him was an offer from the Tokyo crime boss, Tokin Mikoto. Could it be an opportunity to find a place in a city that had turned its back on him? Or was he destined to be just another lost nobody, a weed in the jungle?Inspired by a JA Konrath challenge to write, edit, create a cover, and publish a short story in eight hours or less. A Career Move - A crash-landed alien tries to find his career path but isn't having much luck...3072 word short story (teen+ appropriate)Capture At The Hive - The Evil Queen Mother has finally captured General Megatron, Defender of the Galaxy. 421 word flash fiction story (safe for children) Views: 807
Brilliant and magnetic as are these two studies by Ambrose Bierce, and especially significant as coming from one who was a boy soldier in the Civil War, they merely reflect one side of his original and many-faceted genius. Poet, critic, satirist, fun-maker, incomparable writer of fables and masterly prose sketches, a seer of startling insight, a reasoner mercilessly logical, with the delicate wit and keenness of an Irving or an Addison, the dramatic quality of a Hugo,—all of these, and still in the prime of his powers; yet so restricted has been his output and so little exploited that only the judicious few have been impressed. Although an American, he formed his bent years ago in London, where he was associated with the younger Hood on Fun. There he laid the foundation for that reputation which he today enjoys: the distinction of being the last of the scholarly satirists. With that training he came to San Francisco, where, in an environment equally as genial, his talent grew and mellowed through the years. Then he was summoned to New York to assist a newspaper fight against a great railroad, since the conclusion of which brilliant campaign eastern journalism and magazine work have claimed his attention. Views: 806
A frantic midnight phone call sparks one man's quest to find his daughter before SHE does.The ringing of the phone alarmed the sleeping man, and the frantic voice of his daughter sent chills through him as he learned the unthinkable: her mommy was trying to find her and kill her. After racing to his daughter's house, he sets out to carefully explore the vaulted mansion and locate his little girl before her mother, his ex-wife, does. She is mentally ill and a most powerful practitioner of ancient rites, leading to a deadly challenge. The man must trudge through the dark house in an effort to elude the woman and save the girl. Will he be successful and save his beloved Lexi, or will both of them fall under the blade of a mother who has gone crazy... Views: 805
Set in Georgia on the eve of court-ordered integration, Clock Without Hands contains McCullers's most poignant statement on race, class, and justice. A small-town druggist dying of leukemia calls himself and his community to account in this tale of change and changelessness, of death and the death-in-life that is hate. It is a tale, as McCullers herself wrote, of "response and responsibility--of man toward his own livingness." Views: 803
Immortal clones enslave humanity!When scientists invent machines that extend life indefinitely, world leaders begin working together to control world populations and ensure their own power.One worker drone named Thirty-Seven must fight the system to keep himself from becoming a scapegoat. His inflitration of the world's most corrupt culture threatens to spark a thrilling revolution.IMMORTAL CLONES ENSLAVE HUMANITY!When scientists invent machines that extend life indefinitely, world leaders begin working together to control world populations and ensure their own power.One worker drone named Thirty-Seven must fight the system to keep himself from becoming a scapegoat in the world's most corrupt society. He fights against a the whims of a desert prison dictator named Satan and gets mixed up with Satan's wife, Suicide.Through harrowing tribulations and gripping battles, Thirty-Seven evolves from a naive servant to fearless leader of a massive pack of fierce disciples. He joins a secret society and learns the truth about how immortality was invented. Coming to terms with the realities of surviving on his own, Thirty-Seven grows and evolves into a wise and powerful revolutionary.This post -apocalyptic dystopian thriller will keep you guessing. Lots of surprises and twists. Views: 803
Shakespeare’s *King Lear* challenges us with the magnitude, intensity, and sheer duration of the pain that it represents. Its figures harden their hearts, engage in violence, or try to alleviate the suffering of others. Lear himself rages until his sanity cracks. What, then, keeps bringing us back to *King Lear*? For all the force of its language, *King Lear* is almost equally powerful when translated, suggesting that it is the story, in large part, that draws us to the play.
The play tells us about families struggling between greed and cruelty, on the one hand, and support and consolation, on the other. Emotions are extreme, magnified to gigantic proportions. We also see old age portrayed in all its vulnerability, pride, and, perhaps, wisdom—one reason this most devastating of Shakespeare’s tragedies is also perhaps his most moving.
The authoritative edition of *King Lear* from The Folger Shakespeare Library, the trusted and widely used Shakespeare series for students and general readers, includes:
-Freshly edited text based on the best early printed version of the play
-Full explanatory notes conveniently placed on pages facing the text of the play
-Scene-by-scene plot summaries
-A key to the play’s famous lines and phrases
-An introduction to reading Shakespeare’s language
-An essay by a leading Shakespeare scholar providing a modern perspective on the play
-Fresh images from the Folger Shakespeare Library’s vast holdings of rare books
-An annotated guide to further reading
Essay by Susan Snyder
The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC, is home to the world’s largest collection of Shakespeare’s printed works, and a magnet for Shakespeare scholars from around the globe. In addition to exhibitions open to the public throughout the year, the Folger offers a full calendar of performances and programs. For more information, visit Folger.edu.
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After years of squander, the city of Leydeity has fallen from former glory. When the Chemlam, the leader of the city dies, Kelan is thrusted back into a world of lies and power. Suyzi, the daughter of an Itipio chief, must find her father and prove herself worthy to lead her tribe. The quiet life in the forest is cut short for brother and sister. Now Patton must rescue Phoebe as time ticks away.After receiving news of his mentor’s untimely death, Kelan returns to the city of Leydeity where he spent years running away from. As Kelan digs deeper to seek the answers and the culprits responsible, the more he finds himself distracted by the politics of power and lies where one wrong step can lead to his death.In the heart of the forest near the City of Leydeity, the quiet life for sibling, Phoebe and Patton is cut short when Phoebe is captured and taken away by a group of men with sinister intention. Running out of time, Patton will undertake a journey that will test how far he will go and do to be reunited with her again.Groomed to become the next chief of the fierce Itipio tribe, Suyzi must first survive with her life as she navigates through the underground city of Basahar as she looks for her father while staying one step ahead of a persistent suitor who wants to make her his bride. Views: 798
For more than twenty years Louise Erdrich has dazzled readers with the intricately wrought, deeply poetic novels which have won her a place among today's finest writers. Her nonfiction is equally eloquent, and this lovely memoir offers a vivid glimpse of the landscape, the people, and the long tradition of storytelling that give her work its magical, elemental force.
In a small boat like those her Native American ancestors have used for countless generations, she travels to Ojibwe home ground, the islands of Lake of the Woods in southern Ontario. Her only companions are her new baby and the baby's father, an Ojibwe spiritual leader, on a pilgrimage to the sacred rock paintings their people have venerated for centuries as mystical "teaching and dream guides," and where even today Ojibwe leave offerings of tobacco in token of their power. With these paintings as backdrop, Erdrich summons to life the Ojibwe's spirits and songs, their language and sorrows, and the tales that are in their blood, echoing through her own family's very contemporary American lives and shaping her vision of the wider world. Thoughtful, moving, and wonderfully well observed, her meditation evokes ancient wisdom, modern ways, and the universal human concerns we all share.
"This book is a treasure and a delight."—Minneapolis Star Tribune
From the Trade Paperback edition. Views: 797
Davanté's heart sinks to the lowest of depths. He cannot lose his mother now. He is only seventeen years old. He has not learned enough about life to be on his own. He does not know how to live. To add to his grief, his long lost father re-emerges in his life with an agenda to make amends.Through a journey of pain, Davanté learns to forgive. He learns to love again. He learns to live anewDavanté Williams senses his mother slipping away. As her only child, he can easily discern between the usual buoyancy of his mother’s spirit and the now weakened trace that is leaving. Davanté’s skin prickles as the shadows of loneliness threaten. He cannot lose her now. He is too young. Barely seventeen. An almost-man.Mother moves on, leaving Davanté to struggle with grief. He shuffles through his last senior classes like a ghost trapped between two realities. In one, he must muster his energies to prepare his senior project for graduation. In the other reality, he reminisces over his mother and wonders about her secretive and tragic past.Love keeps Davanté afloat despite his trials. The love of true friendship. Family. Perfect strangers. His art: the colorful graphic works made from his hands. All work to hold Davanté in place.That is, until his mysterious father surfaces. A man of a dark past. An ex-convict. A rumored murderer. Davanté’s father swiftly becomes a thorn in Davanté’s side. His father wants to amend and make new, but Davanté is having none of it.He lashes out. He rebels. He pushes his father away. Love, he cannot push away so readily. It wraps itself around Davanté again, reminding him of who is, where he is from, and where he should be going.Eventually, Davanté learns to forgive. He learns to love. He learns to live anew. Views: 796
