Download or read book The Boy Who Fell to Earth A Novel About Coming of Age written by Wayne Kyle Spitzer and published by Hobb's End Books. This book was released on 2018-11-18 with total page 186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It’s the dawn of the 1970s and everything is changing. The war in Vietnam is winding down. So is the Apollo Space Program. The tiny northwestern city of Spokane is about to host a World’s Fair. But the Watergate Hearings and the re-entry of Skylab and the eruption of Mount Saint Helens are coming … as are killer bees and Ronald Reagan. Enter ‘The Kid,’ a panic-prone, hyper-imaginative boy whose life changes drastically when his father brings home an astronaut-white El Camino. As the car’s deep-seated rumbling becomes a catalyst for the Kid’s curiosity, his ailing, over-protective mother finds herself fending off questions she doesn’t want to answer. But her attempt to redirect him on his birthday only arms him with the tool he needs to penetrate deeper—a pair of novelty X-Ray Specs—and as the Camino muscles them through a decade of economic and cultural turmoil, the Kid comes to believe he can see through metal, clothing, skin—to the center of the universe itself, where he imagines something monstrous growing, spreading, reaching across time and space to threaten his very world. Using the iconography of 20th century trash Americana—drive-in monster movies, cancelled TV shows, vintage comic books—Spitzer has written an unconventional memoir which recalls J.M. Coetzee’s Boyhood and Youth. More than a literal character, ‘The Kid’ is both the child and the adult. By eschewing the technique of traditional autobiography, Spitzer creates a spherical narrative in which the past lives on in an eternal present while retrospection penetrates the edges. X-Ray Rider is not so much a memoir as it is a retro prequel to a postmodern life—a cinematized “reboot” of what Stephen King calls the “fogged out landscape” of youth.
Download or read book The Boy Who Fell to Earth written by Kathy Lette and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2024-06-20 with total page 211 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Meet Merlin. He's Lucy's bright, beautiful son – who just happens to be autistic. Since Merlin's father left them in the lurch, Lucy has made Merlin the centre of her world. Struggling with the joys and tribulations of raising her adorable yet challenging child (if only Merlin came with operating instructions), Lucy doesn't have room for any other man in her life. By the time Merlin turns ten, Lucy is seriously worried that the Pope might start ringing her up for tips on celibacy, so resolves to dip a toe back into the world of dating. Thanks to Merlin's candour and quirkiness, things don't go quite to plan... Then, just when Lucy's resigned to singledom once more, Archie – the most imperfectly perfect man for her and her son – lands on her doorstep. But then, so does Merlin's father, begging for a second chance. Does Lucy need a real father for Merlin – or a real partner for herself? Praise for Kathy Lette: 'Fabulous, fast-paced, funny & unapologetically female. Nobody does it better.' DEBORAH FRANCES-WHITE, THE GUILTY FEMINIST 'Deliciously rude and darkly funny, but with compassion and humanity at its heart. Read with relish.' NICOLE KIDMAN 'Kathy Lette can turn from raunchy farce to the most tender emotion in a trice.' STEPHEN FRY
Download or read book The Girl Who Fell to Earth written by Sophia Al-Maria and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2012-11-27 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Award-winning filmmaker and writer Sophia Al-Maria’s The Girl Who Fell to Earth is a funny and wry coming-of-age memoir about growing up in between American and Gulf Arab cultures. Part family saga and part personal quest, The Girl Who Fell to Earth traces Al-Maria’s journey to make a place for herself in two different worlds. When Sophia Al-Maria's mother sends her away from rainy Washington State to stay with her husband's desert-dwelling Bedouin family in Qatar, she intends it to be a sort of teenage cultural boot camp. What her mother doesn't know is that there are some things about growing up that are universal. In Qatar, Sophia is faced with a new world she'd only imagined as a child. She sets out to find her freedom, even in the most unlikely of places. The Girl Who Fell to Earth takes readers from the green valleys of the Pacific Northwest to the dunes of the Arabian Gulf and on to the sprawling chaos of Cairo. Struggling to adapt to her nomadic lifestyle, Sophia is haunted by the feeling that she is perpetually in exile: hovering somewhere between two families, two cultures, and two worlds. She must make a place for herself—a complex journey that includes finding young love in the Arabian Gulf, rebellion in Cairo, and, finally, self-discovery in the mountains of Sinai. The Girl Who Fell to Earth heralds the arrival of an electric new talent and takes us on the most personal of quests: the voyage home.
Download or read book The Age of Miracles written by Karen Thompson Walker and published by Random House. This book was released on 2012-06-26 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY People ∙ O: The Oprah Magazine ∙ Financial Times ∙ Kansas City Star ∙ BookPage ∙ Kirkus Reviews ∙ Publishers Weekly ∙ Booklist NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “A stunner.”—Justin Cronin “It’s never the disasters you see coming that finally come to pass—it’s the ones you don’t expect at all,” says Julia, in this spellbinding novel of catastrophe and survival by a superb new writer. Luminous, suspenseful, unforgettable, The Age of Miracles tells the haunting and beautiful story of Julia and her family as they struggle to live in a time of extraordinary change. On an ordinary Saturday in a California suburb, Julia awakes to discover that something has happened to the rotation of the earth. The days and nights are growing longer and longer; gravity is affected; the birds, the tides, human behavior, and cosmic rhythms are thrown into disarray. In a world that seems filled with danger and loss, Julia also must face surprising developments in herself, and in her personal world—divisions widening between her parents, strange behavior by her friends, the pain and vulnerability of first love, a growing sense of isolation, and a surprising, rebellious new strength. With crystalline prose and the indelible magic of a born storyteller, Karen Thompson Walker gives us a breathtaking portrait of people finding ways to go on in an ever-evolving world. “Gripping drama . . . flawlessly written; it could be the most assured debut by an American writer since Jennifer Egan’s Emerald City.”—The Denver Post “Pure magnificence.”—Nathan Englander “Provides solace with its wisdom, compassion, and elegance.”—Curtis Sittenfeld “Riveting, heartbreaking, profoundly moving.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review) Look for special features inside. Join the Circle for author chats and more.
Download or read book The Boy Who Fell Out of the Sky written by Ken Dornstein and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2007-06-12 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The "hugely satisfying" story (The Boston Globe) of one man’s search for the truth about his brother—and himself. David Dornstein was twenty-five years old, with dreams of becoming a great writer, when he boarded Pan Am Flight 103 on December 21, 1988. Thirty-eight minutes after takeoff, a terrorist bomb ripped the plane apart over Lockerbie, Scotland. Almost a decade later, Ken Dornstein set out to solve the riddle of his older brother’s life, using the notebooks and manuscripts that David left behind. In the process, he also began to create a new life of his own.
Download or read book The Boy Who Fell to Earth written by Kathy Lette and published by Bantam. This book was released on 2012-03-01 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Life as We Knew it written by Susan Beth Pfeffer and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2008 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: I guess I always felt even if the world came to an end, McDonald's still would be open. High school sophomore Miranda's disbelief turns to fear in a split second when an asteroid knocks the moon closer to Earth, like "one marble hits another." The result is catastrophic. How can her family prepare for the future when worldwide tsunamis are wiping out the coasts, earthquakes are rocking the continents, and volcanic ash is blocking out the sun? As August turns dark and wintery in northeastern Pennsylvania, Miranda, her two brothers, and their mother retreat to the unexpected safe haven of their sunroom, where they subsist on stockpiled food and limited water in the warmth of a wood-burning stove. Told in a year's worth of journal entries, this heart-pounding story chronicles Miranda's struggle to hold on to the most important resource of all--hope--in an increasingly desperate and unfamiliar world. An extraordinary series debut Susan Beth Pfeffer has written several companion novels to Life As We Knew It, including The Dead and the Gone, This World We Live In, and The Shade of the Moon.
Download or read book Hilo Book 2 Saving the Whole Wide World written by Judd Winick and published by Random House Graphic. This book was released on 2016-05-17 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "An action-packed page turner with heart!"—Dav Pilkey, author of DOG MAN Take off on an action packed adventure with HILO Book 2! Dog Manmeets Big Natein this hilarious New York Times bestselling graphic novel series that kids love! Everyone's favorite space boy, Hilo, is just settling into life on earth (Bowling? Knock-knock jokes? OUTSTANDING!) when strange portals begin opening up all over town. And HOLY MACKEREL! Even STRANGER creatures are coming through them! But it will take more than a GIANT MUTANT CHICKEN, A VIKING HIPPO, A MAGICAL WARRIOR CAT, or even a few MILLION KILLER VEGETABLES to stop Team Hilo . . . er, WON’T IT? Can Hilo, DJ, and GINA figure out how to send these creatures back to their worlds before they DESTROY the earth? Here's what people (and robots!) are saying about Hilo! “More giant robotic ants and people going 'Aaaah!' than in the complete works of Jane Austen”—Neil Gaiman, bestselling author “Every kid would love a pal like HILO, and every kid will love this book!” —Lincoln Peirce, bestselling author of the Big Nate series "A perfect book for any kid who ever needed a friend and then had one with superpowers fall from space.” —Seth Meyers, actor, comedian and writer "A story that can be enjoyed by the entire family."—The New York Times "A Total BLAST." —Miami Herald * "A wholeheartedly weird and wonderful tale of friendship, acceptance, and robots."—Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review * "A must-have."—School Library Journal, Starred Review
Download or read book The Man Who Fell to Earth written by Walter Tevis and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2022-05-10 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the bestselling author of The Queen's Gambit, the landmark science fiction novel that inspired the classic 1976 film starring David Bowie and is the basis for the Showtime series A man wanders into town one day seemingly out of nowhere. He starts by peddling valuables just to get by. But he possesses uncanny scientific knowledge, which he uses to develop technologies of a marvelous nature. In time he builds a corporate empire that propels him to unimaginable wealth—but to what end? His rapid ascent to the highest levels of success is remarkable, but the vision of his enterprise begins to falter as he succumbs to afflictions that feel all-too-human, and the true purpose of his presence here on earth is in grave danger of being abandoned.
Download or read book The Boy Most Likely To written by Huntley Fitzpatrick and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2016-09-06 with total page 456 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The romantic companion to My Life Next Door—great for fans of Sarah Dessen and Jenny Han. With bonus Jase and Samantha content in the paperback! Tim Mason was The Boy Most Likely To find the liquor cabinet blindfolded, need a liver transplant, and drive his car into a house Alice Garrett was The Girl Most Likely To . . . well, not date her little brother’s baggage-burdened best friend, for starters. For Tim, it wouldn’t be smart to fall for Alice. For Alice, nothing could be scarier than falling for Tim. But Tim has never been known for making the smart choice, and Alice is starting to wonder if the “smart” choice is always the right one. When these two crash into each other, they crash hard. Told in Tim’s and Alice’s distinctive, disarming, entirely compelling voices, this novel is for readers of The Spectacular Now, Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, and Paper Towns.
Download or read book Earth Girl written by Janet Edwards and published by Pyr. This book was released on 2015-03-05 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A sensational YA science fiction debut from an exciting new British author! Just because she's confined to the planet, doesn't mean she can't reach for the stars. 2788. Only the handicapped live on Earth. Eighteen-year-old Jarra is among the one in a thousand people born with an immune system that cannot survive on other planets. Sent to Earth at birth to save her life, she has been abandoned by her parents. She can't travel to other worlds, but she can watch their vids, and she knows all the jokes they make. She's an "ape," a "throwback," but this is one ape girl who won't give in. Jarra makes up a fake military background for herself and joins a class of norms who are on Earth for a year of practical history studies excavating the dangerous ruins of the old cities. She wants to see their faces when they find out they've been fooled into thinking an ape girl was a norm. She isn't expecting to make friends with the enemy, to risk her life to save norms, or to fall in love. From the Hardcover edition.
Download or read book Child Wonder written by Roy Jacobsen and published by Graywolf Press. This book was released on 2011-09-27 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: *Winner of the prestigious Norwegian Booksellers' Prize* *A Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Selection (Holiday 2011)* A glorious evocation of a Norwegian childhood in the early sixties by an author short-listed for the 2009 Dublin IMPAC Award Little Finn lives with his mother in an apartment in a working-class suburb of Oslo. Life is a struggle to make ends meet, but he does not mind. When his mother decides to take a lodger to help pay the bills, he watches with interest as she freshens up their small apartment with new wallpaper and a sofa paid for in installments. He befriends their new male lodger, whose television is more tempting to him than his mother would like. When a half sister whom he never knew joins the household, Finn takes her under his wing over an everlasting summer on Håøya Island. But he can't understand why everyone thinks his new sister is so different from every other child. Nor can he fathom his mother's painful secret, one that pushes them ever farther apart. As summer comes to a close, Finn must attempt to grasp the incomprehensible adult world and his place within it. Child Wonder is a powerful and unsentimental portrait of childhood. Roy Jacobsen, through the eyes of a child, has produced an immensely uplifting novel that shines with light and warmth.
Download or read book Hilo Book 2 Saving the Whole Wide World written by Judd Winick and published by Random House Graphic. This book was released on 2016-05-17 with total page 105 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "An action-packed page turner with heart!"—Dav Pilkey, author of DOG MAN Take off on an action packed adventure with HILO Book 2! Dog Manmeets Big Natein this hilarious New York Times bestselling graphic novel series that kids love! Everyone's favorite space boy, Hilo, is just settling into life on earth (Bowling? Knock-knock jokes? OUTSTANDING!) when strange portals begin opening up all over town. And HOLY MACKEREL! Even STRANGER creatures are coming through them! But it will take more than a GIANT MUTANT CHICKEN, A VIKING HIPPO, A MAGICAL WARRIOR CAT, or even a few MILLION KILLER VEGETABLES to stop Team Hilo . . . er, WON’T IT? Can Hilo, DJ, and GINA figure out how to send these creatures back to their worlds before they DESTROY the earth? Here's what people (and robots!) are saying about Hilo! “More giant robotic ants and people going 'Aaaah!' than in the complete works of Jane Austen”—Neil Gaiman, bestselling author “Every kid would love a pal like HILO, and every kid will love this book!” —Lincoln Peirce, bestselling author of the Big Nate series "A perfect book for any kid who ever needed a friend and then had one with superpowers fall from space.” —Seth Meyers, actor, comedian and writer "A story that can be enjoyed by the entire family."—The New York Times "A Total BLAST." —Miami Herald * "A wholeheartedly weird and wonderful tale of friendship, acceptance, and robots."—Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review * "A must-have."—School Library Journal, Starred Review
Download or read book The Boy in the Earth written by Fuminori Nakamura and published by Soho Press. This book was released on 2017-04-25 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A darkly melancholic tale that combines Scorsese’s Taxi Driver and Camus’s The Fall —Nakamura’s Akutagawa Prize-winning novel is here translated into English for the first time and is another high-water mark in this important writer’s career. As an unnamed Tokyo taxi driver works a night shift, picking up fares that offer him glimpses into the lives of ordinary people, he can’t escape his own nihilistic thoughts. Almost without meaning to, he puts himself in harm’s way; he can’t stop daydreaming of suicide, envisioning himself returning to the earth in obsessive fantasies that soon become terrifying blackout episodes. The truth is, his long-estranged father has tried to reach out to him, triggering a cascade of traumatic memories. As the cab driver wrestles with the truth about his past and the history of violence in his childhood, he must also confront his present, which is no less complicated or grim. A precursor to Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist The Thief, The Boy in the Earth is a closely told character study that poses a difficult question: Are some lives so damaged they are beyond redemption? Is every child worth trying to save? A poignant and thought-provoking tour de force by one of Japan’s leading literary voices.
Download or read book Sag Harbor written by Colson Whitehead and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2009-04-28 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NATIONAL BESTSELLER • PEN/FAULKNER AWARD FINALIST • From the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys: a hilarious and supremely original novel set in the Hamptons in the 1980s, "a tenderhearted coming-of-age story fused with a sharp look at the intersections of race and class” (The New York Times). Benji Cooper is one of the few Black students at an elite prep school in Manhattan. But every summer, Benji escapes to the Hamptons, to Sag Harbor, where a small community of Black professionals have built a world of their own. The summer of ’85 won’t be without its usual trials and tribulations, of course. There will be complicated new handshakes to fumble through and state-of-the-art profanity to master. Benji will be tested by contests big and small, by his misshapen haircut (which seems to have a will of its own), by the New Coke Tragedy, and by his secret Lite FM addiction. But maybe, just maybe, this summer might be one for the ages. Look for Colson Whitehead’s new novel, Crook Manifesto, coming soon!
Download or read book The Boy Who Loved Too Much written by Jennifer Latson and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2017-06-20 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The acclaimed, poignant story of a boy with Williams syndrome, a condition that makes people biologically incapable of distrust, a “well-researched, perceptive exploration of a rare genetic disorder seen through the eyes of a mother and son” (Kirkus Reviews). What would it be like to see everyone as a friend? Twelve-year-old Eli D’Angelo has a genetic disorder that obliterates social inhibitions, making him irrepressibly friendly, indiscriminately trusting, and unconditionally loving toward everyone he meets. It also makes him enormously vulnerable. On the cusp of adolescence, Eli lacks the innate skepticism that will help him navigate coming-of-age more safely—and vastly more successfully. In “a thorough overview of Williams syndrome and its thought-provoking paradox” (The New York Times), journalist Jennifer Latson follows Eli over three critical years of his life, as his mother, Gayle, must decide whether to shield Eli from the world or give him the freedom to find his own way and become his own person. Watching Eli’s artless attempts to forge connections, Gayle worries that he might never make a real friend—the one thing he wants most in life. “As the book’s perspective deliberately pans out to include teachers, counselors, family, friends, and, finally, Eli’s entire eighth-grade class, Latson delivers some unforgettable lessons about inclusion and parenthood,” (Publishers Weekly). The Boy Who Loved Too Much explores the way a tiny twist in a DNA strand can strip away the skepticism most of us wear as armor, and how this condition magnifies some of the risks we all face in opening our hearts to others. More than a case study of a rare disorder, The Boy Who Loved Too Much “is fresh and engaging…leavened with humor” (Houston Chronicle) and a universal tale about the joys and struggles of raising a child, of growing up, and of being different.
Download or read book Hanna Who Fell from the Sky written by Christopher Meades and published by Harlequin. This book was released on 2017-09-26 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A magical, provocative tale of forbidden love and one girl’s struggle for liberation Hanna has never been outside her secluded community of Clearhaven. She has never questioned why her father has four wives or why she has fourteen brothers and sisters. And in only one week, on her eighteenth birthday, Hanna will follow tradition and become the fifth wife of a man more than twice her age. But just days before the wedding, Hanna meets an enigmatic stranger who challenges her to question her fate and to follow her own will. And when her mother reveals a secret—one that could grant her the freedom she’s known only in her dreams—Hanna is forced to decide whether she was really meant for something greater than the claustrophobic world of Clearhaven. But can she abandon her beloved younger sister and the only home she’s ever known? Or is there another option—one too fantastical to believe? With lush, evocative prose, award-winning author Christopher Meades takes readers on an emotional journey into a fascinating, unknown world—and, along the way, brilliantly illuminates complexities of faith, identity and how our origins shape who we are.
