Download or read book Hiddensee written by Gregory Maguire and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2017-10-31 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author of the beloved New York Times bestseller Wicked returns with an inventive novel inspired by a timeless holiday legend, intertwining the story of the famous Nutcracker with the life of the mysterious toy maker named Drosselmeier who carves him. Hiddensee: An island of white sandy beaches, salt marshes, steep cliffs, and pine forests north of Berlin in the Baltic Sea, an island that is an enchanting bohemian retreat and home to a large artists' colony-- a wellspring of inspiration for the Romantic imagination . . . Having brought his legions of devoted readers to Oz in Wicked and to Wonderland in After Alice, Maguire now takes us to the realms of the Brothers Grimm and E. T. A. Hoffmann-- the enchanted Black Forest of Bavaria and the salons of Munich. Hiddensee imagines the backstory of the Nutcracker, revealing how this entrancing creature came to be carved and how he guided an ailing girl named Klara through a dreamy paradise on a Christmas Eve. At the heart of Hoffmann's mysterious tale hovers Godfather Drosselmeier-- the ominous, canny, one-eyed toy maker made immortal by Petipa and Tchaikovsky's fairy tale ballet-- who presents the once and future Nutcracker to Klara, his goddaughter. But Hiddensee is not just a retelling of a classic story. Maguire discovers in the flowering of German Romanticism ties to Hellenic mystery-cults-- a fascination with death and the afterlife-- and ponders a profound question: How can a person who is abused by life, shortchanged and challenged, nevertheless access secrets that benefit the disadvantaged and powerless? Ultimately, Hiddensee offers a message of hope. If the compromised Godfather Drosselmeier can bring an enchanted Nutcracker to a young girl in distress on a dark winter evening, perhaps everyone, however lonely or marginalized, has something precious to share.
Download or read book A Wild Winter Swan written by Gregory Maguire and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2020-10-06 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After brilliantly reimagining the worlds of Oz, Wonderland, Dickensian London, and the Nutcracker, the New York Times bestselling author of Wicked turns his unconventional genius to Hans Christian Andersen's "The Wild Swans," transforming this classic tale into an Italian-American girl's poignant coming-of-age story, set amid the magic of Christmas in 1960s New York. Following her brother's death and her mother's emotional breakdown, Laura now lives on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, in a lonely townhouse she shares with her old-world, strict, often querulous grandparents. But the arrangement may be temporary. The quiet, awkward teenager has been getting into trouble at home and has been expelled from her high school for throwing a record album at a popular girl who bullied her. When Christmas is over and the new year begins, Laura may find herself at boarding school in Montreal. Nearly unmoored from reality through her panic and submerged grief, Laura is startled when a handsome swan boy with only one wing lands on her roof. Hiding him from her ever-bickering grandparents, Laura tries to build the swan boy a wing so he can fly home. But the task is too difficult to accomplish herself. Little does Laura know that her struggle to find help for her new friend parallels that of her grandparents, who are desperate for a distant relative’s financial aid to save the family store. As he explores themes of class, isolation, family, and the dangerous yearning to be saved by a power greater than ourselves, Gregory Maguire conjures a haunting, beautiful tale of magical realism that illuminates one young woman’s heartbreak and hope as she begins the inevitable journey to adulthood.
Download or read book Kruso written by Lutz Seiler and published by Scribe Publications. This book was released on 2017-02-09 with total page 452 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The lyrical, bestselling 2014 German Book Prize winner, from the winner of the 2023 Georg Büchner Prize. It is 1989, and a young literature student named Ed, fleeing unspeakable tragedy, travels to the Baltic island of Hiddensee. Long shrouded in myth, the island is a notorious destination for hippies, idealists, and those at odds with the East German state. On the island, Ed stumbles upon the Klausner, Hiddensee’s most popular restaurant, and ends up washing dishes there, despite his lack of papers. Although he is keen to remain on the sidelines, Ed feels drawn towards the charismatic Kruso, unofficial leader of the seasonal workers. Everyone dances to Kruso’s tune. He is on a mission — but to what end, and at what cost? Ed finds himself drawn ever deeper into the island’s rituals, and ever more in need of Kruso’s acceptance and affection. As the wave of history washes over the German Democratic Republic, the friends’ grip on reality loosens and life on the island will never be the same. PRAISE FOR LUTZ SEILER ‘An enigmatic Bildungsroman, adapting the literary trope of the island refuge to the dying days of East German socialism … English readers can delight in this prizewinning translation from Tess Lewis, which renders Seiler’s vision in prose of startling clarity.’ The Saturday Age ‘Kruso [is] the first worthy successor to Thomas Mann’s Magic Mountain to appear in contemporary German literature.’ Der Spiegel
Download or read book With Love from the Inside written by Angela Pisel and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2016-08-09 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Angela Pisel’s poignant debut explores the complex relationship between a mother and a daughter, and their quest to discover the truth and whether or not love can prevail—even from behind bars. Grace Bradshaw knows the exact minute she will die. On death row for murdering her infant son, her last breath will be taken on February 15 at 12:01 a.m. Eleven years, five months, and twenty-seven days separate her from the last time she heard her precious daughter’s voice and the final moment she’d heard anyone call her Mom. Out of appeals, she can focus on only one thing—reconnecting with her daughter and making sure she knows the truth. Secrets lurk behind Sophie Logan’s big house and even bigger bank account. Every day when she kisses her husband good-bye, she worries her fabricated life is about to come crumbling down. No one knows the unforgivable things her mother did to tear her family apart—not her husband, who is a prominent plastic surgeon, or her “synthetic” friends who live in her upscale neighborhood. Grace’s looming execution date forces Sophie to revisit the traumatic events that haunted her childhood. When she returns to her hometown, she discovers new evidence about her baby brother William’s death seventeen years ago—proof that might set her mother free but shatter her marriage forever. Sophie must quickly decide if her mother is the monster the prosecutor made her out to be or the loving mother she remembers—the one who painted her toenails glittery pink and plastered Post-it notes with inspiring quotes (“100 percent failure rate if you don't try”) all over Sophie’s bathroom mirror—before their time runs out.
Download or read book The Brides of Maracoor written by Gregory Maguire and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2021-10-12 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first in a three-book series spun off the iconic Wicked Years from multimillion-copy bestselling author Gregory Maguire, featuring Elphaba’s granddaughter, the green-skinned Rain. Ten years ago this season, Gregory Maguire wrapped up the series he began with Wicked by giving us the fourth and final volume of the Wicked Years, his elegiac Out of Oz. But “out of Oz” isn’t “gone for good.” Maguire’s new series, Another Day, is here, twenty-five years after Wicked first flew into our lives. Volume one, The Brides of Maracoor, finds Elphaba’s granddaughter, Rain, washing ashore on a foreign island. Comatose from crashing into the sea, Rain is taken in by a community of single women committed to obscure devotional practices. As the mainland of Maracoor sustains an assault by a foreign navy, the island’s civil-servant overseer struggles to understand how an alien arriving on the shores of Maracoor could threaten the stability and wellbeing of an entire nation. Is it myth or magic at work, for good or for ill? The trilogy Another Day will follow this green-skinned girl from the island outpost into the unmapped badlands of Maracoor before she learns how, and becomes ready, to turn her broom homeward, back to her family and her lover, back to Oz, which—in its beauty, suffering, mystery, injustice, and possibility—reminds us all too clearly of the troubled yet sacred terrain of our own lives.
Download or read book The Healer written by Donna Freitas and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2018-10-09 with total page 319 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A gorgeous and heartrending novel about love, family, and faith, perfect for fans of Laura Ruby, John Corey Whaley, and Jandy Nelson. Marlena Oliveira has—mysteriously, miraculously—been given the power to heal all kinds of ailments. People around the world believe she is a saint. But it all comes at a price. Because of her power, she’ll never be able to live a normal life. And the older she gets, the more trapped she feels. Then she meets Finn, a boy who makes her want to fall in love. For the first time, she begins to doubt her power—and herself. Is her gift worth all she must give up to keep it? And who would—or could—she be without it? “I couldn’t put it down—The Healer is a tonic.”—Gregory Maguire, New York Times bestselling author of Wicked and Hiddensee
Download or read book Three Rotten Eggs written by Gregory Maguire and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2005-01-18 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With themes ranging from the ethics of gene splicing and nature-versus-nurture, this fifth installment of the Hamlet Chronicles explores dark territory. Illustrations.
Download or read book After Alice written by Gregory Maguire and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2015-10-27 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the multi-million-copy bestselling author of Wicked comes a magical new twist on Lewis Carroll’s beloved classic, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. When Alice toppled down the rabbit-hole 150 years ago, she found a Wonderland as rife with inconsistent rules and abrasive egos as the world she left behind. But what of that world? How did 1860s Oxford react to Alice’s disappearance? In After Alice, Gregory Maguire turns his dazzling imagination to the question of underworlds, undergrounds, underpinnings—and understandings old and new, offering an inventive spin on Carroll’s enduring tale. Ada, a friend of Alice’s mentioned briefly in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, is off to visit her friend, but arrives a moment too late—and tumbles down the rabbit-hole herself. Ada brings to Wonderland her own imperfect apprehension of cause and effect as she embarks on an odyssey to find Alice and see her safely home from this surreal world below the world. If Eurydice can ever be returned to the arms of Orpheus, or Lazarus can be raised from the tomb, perhaps Alice can be returned to life. Either way, everything that happens next is “After Alice.”
Download or read book 20 Hungry Piggies written by Trudy Harris and published by Millbrook Press ™. This book was released on 2017-08-01 with total page 33 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nearly everyone has heard about the little piggy that went to the market and the one that stayed home-but there's a lot more to the story! 20 Hungry Piggies completes the tale while, unbeknownst to the reader, teaching an important math concept at the same time. There are many counting books that deal with cardinal numbers (1,2,3,etc), but this book teaches ordinal numbers as well-an important part of the kindergarten math curriculum. As an added bonus, children will have a great time trying to find the hidden wolf and hidden numbers in each spread.
Download or read book The Hidden Magic of Walt Disney World 3rd Edition written by Susan Veness and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2020-10-20 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The latest edition to the successful Hidden Magic series features updated information on the latest attractions at Walt Disney World, including Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge and Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway! Whether it’s your first or fiftieth visit to Walt Disney World, you’ll be surprised at how much you can miss during your trip. But with this guide to Disney’s hidden treasures you’ll learn: -You can search for more than the usual hidden Mickey. There are other beloved characters like Donald Duck and Minnie Mouse hidden around the parks. -The book Belle reads in Beauty and the Beast is a real book...and you can find out what it is by heading to Maurice’s cottage. -Imagineers hide symbols of themselves around the park to “sign” their work. Including all-new information on Toy Story Land, Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, and Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway, The Hidden Magic of Walt Disney World, 3rd Edition will inspire you to relive the magic year after year!
Download or read book Flickering Pixels written by Shane Hipps and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2009 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The methods change, but the message stays the same." This saying is the guiding light for faithful Christians in a changing world. But author Shane Hipps reveals the error in this thinking. Instead he demonstrates how changing the methods always changes the message. He shows us the hidden power of technology to shape our faith in unexpected ways.
Download or read book Out of Oz written by Gregory Maguire and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2011-11-01 with total page 526 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Maguire’s work is melodic, symphonic, and beautiful; it is dejected and biting and brave. How great that people flock to these magical novels.” —Los Angeles Times Book Review Bestselling author Gregory Maguire’s remarkable series, The Wicked Years, comes full circle with this, his fourth and final excursion across a darker, richer, more complex landscape of “the magical land of Oz.” Out of Oz brilliantly reimagines L. Frank Baum’s world over the rainbow as wracked with social unrest—placing Glinda the good witch under house arrest and having the cowardly Lion on the lam from the law as the Emerald City prepares to make war on Munchkinland. Even Dorothy makes a triumphant return in Maguire’s magnificent Oz finale—tying up every loose green end of the series he began with his classic Wicked, the basis for the smash hit Broadway musical.
Download or read book Missing Sisters written by Gregory Maguire and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2009-06-30 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Alice's life is about to change. She's a skinny orphan. She's never been able to hear too well. And she can't speak too well, either. The only person who seems to care for her—one of the nuns at the orphanage—gets taken away from Alice in a freak accident. And then one day somebody calls Alice by the wrong name. Miami, she says. Miami Shaw. Miami Shaw, who may be Alice's twin sister. Who lives only a few miles away. Who has what Alice has always dreamed of—a whole wonderful family. But is there a place in that family for Alice? From bestselling author Gregory Maguire comes a funny, heartrending story of the strength of sisterhood and the struggle to find a family of one's own.
Download or read book The Hiddenseek written by Nate Cernosek and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2021-08-24 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this spine-chilling middle grade debut--perfect for fans of Small Spaces and the Goosebumps series--a brother and sister are transported to a cursed world based on the game hide-and-seek, where the only way to get home is to win. "You hid. But you were not found. You thought you were playing a harmless game. You were wrong." After Holly and Hector Thorn are left behind during a simple game of hide-and-seek, they find themselves transported to a gloomy, magical world seemingly trapped in time--the Hiddenseek. There, It, a witch with the ability to transform into a raven and a wolf, stalks children day and night, turning any she can lay hands on into statues, frozen forever in their final moments of terror. Together with the other lost children they encounter, Holly and Hector will have to unravel the mysterious origins of the Hiddenseek and find a way to put a stop to the curse once and for all, before they get stuck there forever . . . Because in this twisted game of hide-and-seek, they are playing for their lives.
Download or read book The Next Queen of Heaven written by Gregory Maguire and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2010-10-05 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A delight….[A] funny and warmhearted exploration of the sacred and the profane.” —Washington Post “Reading The Next Queen of Heaven is like hanging on to the back of an out-of-control carnival ride—terrifying, thrilling, a once-in-a-lifetime adventure.” —Ann Patchett New York Times bestseller Gregory Maguire—who re-imagined the land of Oz and all its fabled inhabitants in his monumental series, The Wicked Years—brings us The Next Queen of Heaven, a wildly farcical and gloriously imaginative tall tale of faith, Catholic dogma, lust, and questionable miracles on the eve of Y2K. The very bizarre and hilarious goings on in the eccentric town of Thebes make for a delightfully mad reading experience—as The Next Queen of Heaven shows off the acclaimed author of Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister and Mirror Mirror in a brilliant new heavenly light.
Download or read book The Splendor of Birds written by National Geographic and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 516 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An elegant collection of the best artwork and photography from the National Geographic archives depicting the magnificence of birds. Bird, nature, and art lovers alike will treasure this sumptuous visual celebration of the colors, forms, and behaviors of the winged wonders who share our world as they have been explored, displayed, and revealed throughout the years by National Geographic. The book moves chronologically so readers witness the tremendous growth in our knowledge of birds over the last 130 years, as well as the new frontiers in technology and observation--from luminous vintage paintings and classic black and white photographs to state-of-the art high-speed and telephoto camera shots that reveal moments rarely seen and sights invisible to the human eye. The wide diversity of pictures captures beloved songbirds outside the kitchen window, theatrical courtship dance of birds of paradise, tender moments inside a tern's nest, or the vivid flash of a hummingbird's flight. Readers will delight in seeing iconic species from around the world through the eyes of acclaimed National Geographic wildlife photographers such as Chris Johns, Frans Lanting, Joel Sartore, and Tim Laman and reading excerpted passages from Arthur A. Allen, Roger Tory Peterson, Douglas Chadwick, Jane Goodall, and other great explorers. Exquisitely produced and expertly curated, this visual treasury displays as never before the irresistible beauty, grace, and intelligence of our feathered friends.
Download or read book Ghosts on the Shore written by Paul Scraton and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Inspired by his wife's family photographs from the 1930s and her memories of growing up on the Baltic coast, Paul Scraton set out to walk from Lðbeck to the Polish border on the island of Usedom, an area central to the mythology of a nation and bearing the heavy legacy of trauma. Exploring a world of socialist summer camps, Hanseatic trading towns long past their heyday and former fishing villages surrendered to tourism, Ghosts on the Shore unearths stories, folklore and contradictions of the coast, where politics, history and personal memory merge to create a nuanced portrait of place.
