Download or read book I Know This Much Is True written by Wally Lamb and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1998-06-03 with total page 884 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With his stunning debut novel, She's Come Undone, Wally Lamb won the adulation of critics and readers with his mesmerizing tale of one woman's painful yet triumphant journey of self-discovery. Now, this brilliantly talented writer returns with I Know This Much Is True, a heartbreaking and poignant multigenerational saga of the reproductive bonds of destruction and the powerful force of forgiveness. A masterpiece that breathtakingly tells a story of alienation and connection, power and abuse, devastation and renewal--this novel is a contemporary retelling of an ancient Hindu myth. A proud king must confront his demons to achieve salvation. Change yourself, the myth instructs, and you will inhabit a renovated world. When you're the same brother of a schizophrenic identical twin, the tricky thing about saving yourself is the blood it leaves on your bands--the little inconvenience of the look-alike corpse at your feet. And if you're into both survival of the fittest and being your brother's keeper--if you've promised your dying mother--then say so long to sleep and hello to the middle of the night. Grab a book or a beer. Get used to Letterman's gap-toothed smile of the absurd, or the view of the bedroom ceiling, or the influence of random selection. Take it from a godless insomniac. Take it from the uncrazy twin--the guy who beat the biochemical rap. Dominick Birdsey's entire life has been compromised and constricted by anger and fear, by the paranoid schizophrenic twin brother he both deeply loves and resents, and by the past they shared with their adoptive father, Ray, a spit-and-polish ex-Navy man (the five-foot-six-inch sleeping giant who snoozed upstairs weekdays in the spare room and built submarines at night), and their long-suffering mother, Concettina, a timid woman with a harelip that made her shy and self-conscious: She holds a loose fist to her face to cover her defective mouth--her perpetual apology to the world for a birth defect over which she'd had no control. Born in the waning moments of 1949 and the opening minutes of 1950, the twins are physical mirror images who grow into separate yet connected entities: the seemingly strong and protective yet fearful Dominick, his mother's watchful "monkey"; and the seemingly weak and sweet yet noble Thomas, his mother's gentle "bunny." From childhood, Dominick fights for both separation and wholeness--and ultimately self-protection--in a house of fear dominated by Ray, a bully who abuses his power over these stepsons whose biological father is a mystery. I was still afraid of his anger but saw how he punished weakness--pounced on it. Out of self-preservation I hid my fear, Dominick confesses. As for Thomas, he just never knew how to play defense. He just didn't get it. But Dominick's talent for survival comes at an enormous cost, including the breakup of his marriage to the warm, beautiful Dessa, whom he still loves. And it will be put to the ultimate test when Thomas, a Bible-spouting zealot, commits an unthinkable act that threatens the tenuous balance of both his and Dominick's lives. To save himself, Dominick must confront not only the pain of his past but the dark secrets he has locked deep within himself, and the sins of his ancestors--a quest that will lead him beyond the confines of his blue-collar New England town to the volcanic foothills of Sicily 's Mount Etna, where his ambitious and vengefully proud grandfather and a namesake Domenico Tempesta, the sostegno del famiglia, was born. Each of the stories Ma told us about Papa reinforced the message that he was the boss, that he ruled the roost, that what he said went. Searching for answers, Dominick turns to the whispers of the dead, to the pages of his grandfather's handwritten memoir, The History of Domenico Onofrio Tempesta, a Great Man from Humble Beginnings. Rendered with touches of magic realism, Domenico's fablelike tale--in which monkeys enchant and religious statues weep--becomes the old man's confession--an unwitting legacy of contrition that reveals the truth's of Domenico's life, Dominick learns that power, wrongly used, defeats the oppressor as well as the oppressed, and now, picking through the humble shards of his deconstructed life, he will search for the courage and love to forgive, to expiate his and his ancestors' transgressions, and finally to rebuild himself beyond the haunted shadow of his twin. Set against the vivid panoply of twentieth-century America and filled with richly drawn, memorable characters, this deeply moving and thoroughly satisfying novel brings to light humanity's deepest needs and fears, our aloneness, our desire for love and acceptance, our struggle to survive at all costs. Joyous, mystical, and exquisitely written, I Know This Much Is True is an extraordinary reading experience that will leave no reader untouched.

Download or read book Breaking the Cycle written by Zane and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2009-11-24 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An eagerly awaited collection of stories dealing with domestic abuse, edited by the New York Times bestselling author Zane. Breaking the Cycle is a stunning and moving anthology of stories, each of which focuses on an aspect of domestic abuse. This powerful collection is sure to serve as a wake-up call for people either dealing with a domestic abuse situation, or those watching someone else endure it. In the title story, Zane describes the turmoil that a young girl suffers at the hands of her stepfather. The girl and her mother plan their escape, but at the last minute the mother falters. In D.V. Bernard's "The Lonely Echoes of My Youth," readers are introduced to a young boy raising himself on the fringes of a drug-infested neigborhood. Nane Quartay's provocative story, "The Grindstone," describes a boy who witnesses a brutal murder which will have far-reaching effects on him and his family. Tracy Price-Thompson weaves a powerful tale in "The Stranger" when a woman constantly abused by her husband finds inner strength after a brutal attack. Collen Dixon's "The Break of Dawn" will keep readers deep in thought long after they finish reading her story about a young desperate mother terrifed that her own daughter will grow up and become victimized herself. Dywane D. Birch's "Victory Begins With Me" reflects how one woman has to struggle to get her life back to normal. Shonda Cheekes' "Silent Suffering" flips the script when a man finds himself abused by the female in his life. Newcomer J.L. Woodson's "God Does Answer Prayers" deals with a young boy fighting for his life in a hospital bed, put there by one of the people who is supposed to love him the most: a parent. These stories capture the dangerous realities of domestic abuse, while also pointing toward the steps that need to be taken to break the cycle that perpetuates it. It is sure to serve as a rallying cry for all those who desire victory over their own victimization, and a guide for understanding the complex undercurrents that make such patterns possible.

Download or read book Forever Hold Your Peace written by Leonora Lisa Snead and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2012-05-31 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Coming Home written by Horace Armour and published by AuthorHouse. This book was released on 2015-11-19 with total page 139 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Coming Home is about a seventy-nine-year-old man who has been caught up in the web of love. He is fighting to free himself, yet he has come too far to turn back. The ring that she wears, his need to do a serious self-examination of himself. Was he emotionally prepared to come home? One question ate at his soul. Was he still in love with that other woman? The one from the grave, whom he has asked to set him free? Did she do it? Or is she still holding on to him from the grave? Keeping him from coming home? These are the words that so many lost people have spoken over and over. Coming homethese words sound so good to hear one speak of, only to remember the traps, the games that were played. Oh! My faith is what has kept me strong, knowing that in the end that the joy, the happiness, and that long wait will come to an end because I will be coming home.

Download or read book Papers on Appeal from Order written by and published by . This book was released on with total page 1072 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Best American Short Plays 1994 1995 written by Howard Stein and published by Hal Leonard Corporation. This book was released on 2000-06 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A collection of one-act plays from American playwrights, which cover such themes as love, fantasy, politics, grief, marriage, crime, and deceit.

Download or read book It s Been a Hard Life I Just Make It Look Good written by K'Dee Talley and published by AuthorHouse. This book was released on 2010-09 with total page 138 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book tells the story of a young woman who grew up in a poor, single parent home, surrounded by drugs, violence, and welfare recipients. K'Dee was known to be smart, academically, but the question was: Did she have common sense? K'Dee has always aspired to have the finer things; however, life had a different plan. At a young age, she ran from her problems until she built up the courage to face them head on with prayer, perseverance, and persistence. If you want to know how she survived the pain, hurt, and agony of an abusive marriage, managed a family while moving ten times in one year, overcame depression, coped with the death of her mother, battled her own illness, and conquered love, while chasing her dreams...it's all here! Through it all, people wondered how she could wear a smile on her face, dress like a millionaire, and still be thankful to God. Through all that K'Dee was challenged with, she came out on the other side of life with self-esteem, expectations and standards as high as Mount Everest. This humorous, yet serious self-examination of K'Dee's life is no exception To The hard work she produces.

Download or read book The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English written by Tom Dalzell and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-06-26 with total page 864 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Booklist Top of the List Reference Source The heir and successor to Eric Partridge's brilliant magnum opus, The Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, this two-volume New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English is the definitive record of post WWII slang. Containing over 60,000 entries, this new edition of the authoritative work on slang details the slang and unconventional English of the English-speaking world since 1945, and through the first decade of the new millennium, with the same thorough, intense, and lively scholarship that characterized Partridge's own work. Unique, exciting and, at times, hilariously shocking, key features include: unprecedented coverage of World English, with equal prominence given to American and British English slang, and entries included from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, India, South Africa, Ireland, and the Caribbean emphasis on post-World War II slang and unconventional English published sources given for each entry, often including an early or significant example of the term’s use in print. hundreds of thousands of citations from popular literature, newspapers, magazines, movies, and songs illustrating usage of the headwords dating information for each headword in the tradition of Partridge, commentary on the term’s origins and meaning New to this edition: A new preface noting slang trends of the last five years Over 1,000 new entries from the US, UK and Australia New terms from the language of social networking Many entries now revised to include new dating, new citations from written sources and new glosses The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English is a spectacular resource infused with humour and learning – it’s rude, it’s delightful, and it’s a prize for anyone with a love of language.

Download or read book Before We Were Strangers written by Renée Carlino and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2015-08-18 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the USA TODAY bestselling author of Sweet Thing and Nowhere But Here comes a love story about a Craigslist “missed connection” post that gives two people a second chance at love fifteen years after they were separated in New York City. To the Green-eyed Lovebird: We met fifteen years ago, almost to the day, when I moved my stuff into the NYU dorm room next to yours at Senior House. You called us fast friends. I like to think it was more. We lived on nothing but the excitement of finding ourselves through music (you were obsessed with Jeff Buckley), photography (I couldn’t stop taking pictures of you), hanging out in Washington Square Park, and all the weird things we did to make money. I learned more about myself that year than any other. Yet, somehow, it all fell apart. We lost touch the summer after graduation when I went to South America to work for National Geographic. When I came back, you were gone. A part of me still wonders if I pushed you too hard after the wedding… I didn’t see you again until a month ago. It was a Wednesday. You were rocking back on your heels, balancing on that thick yellow line that runs along the subway platform, waiting for the F train. I didn’t know it was you until it was too late, and then you were gone. Again. You said my name; I saw it on your lips. I tried to will the train to stop, just so I could say hello. After seeing you, all of the youthful feelings and memories came flooding back to me, and now I’ve spent the better part of a month wondering what your life is like. I might be totally out of my mind, but would you like to get a drink with me and catch up on the last decade and a half? M

Download or read book Damn Bunch of Cripples written by Lew Shaver and published by iUniverse. This book was released on 2003-09 with total page 156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: I was sitting in a small upstairs room attempting to write this narrative of my education in disability awareness. For over 30 years I have been involved in working with individuals with disabilities as a coach and administrator on the intercollegiate, national and international levels. When I started this journey, at a small, Midwestern University, I had no idea of what I was getting myself into. Now that I have traveled this educational path I have come to realize that it may have been one of the most important learning experiences of my life, an experience I feel needs to be shared. In putting this narrative together, one very real issue I struggled with was how to deal with the present climate of political correctness. My decision was to tell the stories as I remember them, in the language as I remember. To do differently would change and compromise the actual experience. Thus, this is a sharing of feelings and experiences that a coach and his athletes spent in timeless hours in a gym practicing and competing, of thousands of miles traveled throughout the United States and beyond, and days and nights spent together in laughter and frustration.

Download or read book Return to Vietnam written by Mia Martin Hobbs and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2021-10-14 with total page 291 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the 1980s, thousands of American and Australian veterans have returned to Việt Nam. This oral history tells their story.

Download or read book Ready Player Two written by Ernest Cline and published by Ballantine Books. This book was released on 2020-11-24 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The thrilling sequel to the beloved worldwide bestseller Ready Player One, the near-future adventure that inspired the blockbuster Steven Spielberg film. NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE WASHINGTON POST • “The game is on again. . . . A great mix of exciting fantasy and threatening fact.”—The Wall Street Journal AN UNEXPECTED QUEST. TWO WORLDS AT STAKE. ARE YOU READY? Days after winning OASIS founder James Halliday’s contest, Wade Watts makes a discovery that changes everything. Hidden within Halliday’s vaults, waiting for his heir to find, lies a technological advancement that will once again change the world and make the OASIS a thousand times more wondrous—and addictive—than even Wade dreamed possible. With it comes a new riddle, and a new quest—a last Easter egg from Halliday, hinting at a mysterious prize. And an unexpected, impossibly powerful, and dangerous new rival awaits, one who’ll kill millions to get what he wants. Wade’s life and the future of the OASIS are again at stake, but this time the fate of humanity also hangs in the balance. Lovingly nostalgic and wildly original as only Ernest Cline could conceive it, Ready Player Two takes us on another imaginative, fun, action-packed adventure through his beloved virtual universe, and jolts us thrillingly into the future once again.

Download or read book The Pain Artist written by E.E. "Doc" Murdock and published by H.O.T. Press Publishing. This book was released on 2015-03-08 with total page 327 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Pain Artist is a dark psychological novel about a young man who, after being abandoned and left homeless, is forced to move in with his invalid grandmother who lives in a gang-infested neighborhood of South Central Los Angeles. Crippled and in constant pain, he becomes a self-described Hikikomori (a Japanese term for young men who withdraw from society to live mostly on the internet). The novel explores the horrific challenges of today’s inner-city youth. From the chilling opening, to the existentially alarming conclusion, the reader is carried along with the protagonist on his journey of learning and self discovery.

Download or read book The Saturday Evening Post written by and published by . This book was released on 1925 with total page 2066 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Warrior in Me written by D. E. Gray and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2010-03-09 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: THERE ARE COPS AND THEN THERE ARE REAL COPS, THE ONES WHO WORK THE STREETS EVERY DAY. THEY ARE THE WARRIORS OF TODAY, RISKING THEIR LIVES AND TAKING THE CHANCES. COME ALONG WITH D. E. GRAY AS HE RIDES HIS POLICE MOTORCYCLE THROUGH THE MEAN STREETS OF L.A. AND THEN TRADES IT IN FOR A PATROL CAR IN THE CITY OF ESCONDIDO. TWO DEPARTMENTS VERY MUCH ALIKE BUT AT THE SAME TIME VERY DIFFERENT.

Download or read book Triomf written by Marlene van Niekerk and published by Abacus. This book was released on 2015-05-19 with total page 387 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the story of the four inhabitants of 127 Martha Street in the poor white suburb of Triomf. Living on the ruins of old Sophiatown, the freehold township razed to the ground as a so-called 'black spot', they await with trepidation their country's first democratic elections. It is a date that coincides fatefully with the fortieth birthday of Lambert, the oversexed misfit son of the house. There is also Treppie, master of misrule and family metaphysician; Pop, the angel of peace teetering on the brink of the grave; and Mol, the materfamilias in her eternal housecoat. Pestered on a daily basis by nosy neighbours, National Party canvassers and Jehovah's Witnesses, defenceless against the big city towering over them like a vengeful dinosaur, they often resort to quoting to each other the only consolation that they know; we still have each other and a roof over our heads. TRIOMF relentlessly probes Afrikaner history and politics, revealing the bizarre and tragic effect that apartheid had on exactly the white underclass who were most supposed to benefit. It is also a seriously funny investigation of the human endeavour to make sense of life even under the most abject of circumstances.

Download or read book Jasmine s Tears written by Elliot Graves and published by AuthorHouse. This book was released on 2006 with total page 207 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Crestwood Heights apartment complex plays host to some of the more seedier elements that Chicago has to offer. The cracks and crevasses between the buildings are a breeding ground for prostitution, drug addiction, and the mediums who profit from such decay. It also happens to be the place Jasmine Fisher calls home. Trapped in its world of over indulgence and self destruction, it's all she can do to keep her sanity and hold on to what passes as her life while struggling to break free from the hold that the dark corridors and crime-ridden alleyways of Crestwood Heights has on her. With no father in the house, a kid sister looking to head down the same decrepit path that engulfed her, and a mother who barely scraped by with enough money to keep them living in the cramped one bedroom apartment, Jasmine was left with no other decision but to take it upon herself to secure a way out of this wasteland. Jasmine adapted to life there quite easily. After hooking up with a variant of unfaithful boyfriends that ranged in economic value to everything from drug addicts to fake wannabe ballers, she finally came to the realization that if she was going to make it off the streets of Crestwood Heights then she was going to have to do it on her own. When she hooked up with Curtis Jasmine didn't know if it would improve her situation of seal her fate. A petty criminal by trade, Curtis had access to certain resources that she was going to find useful in her venture as they waded through the decadence together. It was a union that proved to be most profitable, but the effect that he would have on her life was something neither of them expected.