Download or read book Icy Sparks written by Gwyn Hyman Rubio and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2001-03-08 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New York Times Notable Book and the March 2001 selection of Oprah's Book Club® ! Icy Sparks is the sad, funny and transcendent tale of a young girl growing up in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky during the 1950’s. Gwyn Hyman Rubio’s beautifully written first novel revolves around Icy Sparks, an unforgettable heroine in the tradition of Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird or Will Treed in Cold Sassy Tree. At the age of ten, Icy, a bright, curious child orphaned as a baby but raised by adoring grandparents, begins to have strange experiences. Try as she might, her "secrets"—verbal croaks, groans, and physical spasms—keep afflicting her. As an adult, she will find out she has Tourette’s Syndrome, a rare neurological disorder, but for years her behavior is the source of mystery, confusion, and deep humiliation. Narrated by a grown up Icy, the book chronicles a difficult, but ultimately hilarious and heartwarming journey, from her first spasms to her self-acceptance as a young woman. Curious about life beyond the hills, talented, and energetic, Icy learns to cut through all barriers—physical, mental, and spiritual—in order to find community and acceptance. Along her journey, Icy faces the jeers of her classmates as well as the malevolence of her often-ignorant teachers—including Mrs. Stilton, one of the most evil fourth grade teachers ever created by a writer. Called willful by her teachers and "Frog Child" by her schoolmates, she is exiled from the schoolroom and sent to a children’s asylum where it is hoped that the roots of her mysterious behavior can be discovered. Here Icy learns about difference—her own and those who are even more scarred than she. Yet, it isn’t until Icy returns home that she really begins to flower, especially through her friendship with the eccentric and obese Miss Emily, who knows first-hand how it feels to be an outcast in this tightly knit Appalachian community. Under Miss Emily’s tutelage, Icy learns about life’s struggles and rewards, survives her first comical and heartbreaking misadventure with romance, discovers the healing power of her voice when she sings, and ultimately—takes her first steps back into the world. Gwyn Hyman Rubio’s Icy Sparks is a fresh, original, and completely redeeming novel about learning to overcome others’ ignorance and celebrate the differences that make each of us unique.
Download or read book While I Was Gone written by Sue Miller and published by Ballantine Books. This book was released on 2002-11-26 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The "New York Times" bestseller called "quietly gripping" by "USA Today" demonstrates how impulses can fracture even the most stable family. Despite her loving family and beautiful home, Jo Becker is restless. Then an old roommate reappears, bringing back Jo's memories of her early 20s. Jo's obsession with that period in her life--and the crime that ended it--draws her back to a horrible secret.
Download or read book Back Roads written by Tawni O'Dell and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2001-01-01 with total page 422 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE Funny and heartbreaking, this New York Times bestselling debut perfectly captures the maddening confusion of adolescence and the prickly nature of family with irony and unerring honesty. Harley Altmyer should be in college having the time of his life. He should be free from the backwards Pennsylvania coal town he calls home, with its lack of jobs and no sense of humor. Instead, he’s constantly reminded of just how messed up everything is... Harley’s mother is in prison for killing his father, so he’s in charge of bringing up his younger sisters and working two jobs to pay the bills—and that doesn’t leave a lot of time for distractions. But lately, he’s getting more and more sidetracked by lusting after Callie Mercer, his middle-aged neighbor. As he struggles to keep it together, things begin to spin out of control. Soon Harley finds that as shattered as his family is, there are still more crushing surprises in store. “In Harley, O’Dell has created a hero who’s heartbreakingly believable; like Holden Caulfield, he uses caustic humor to hide his pain. Readers will care very much about him and his future, if indeed he has one.”—St. Petersburg Times
Download or read book The Woodsman s Daughter written by Gwyn Hyman Rubio and published by Penguin Group. This book was released on 2005 with total page 436 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A big raw-boned, brave novel in the post civil War era.
Download or read book The Illuminations written by Andrew O'Hagan and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2015-03-24 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Originally published in 2015 by Faber and Faber Limited, Great Britain."
Download or read book Love and Ordinary Creatures written by Gwyn Hyman Rubio and published by Ashland Creek Press. This book was released on 2014-10-15 with total page 205 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New York Times bestselling author Gwyn Hyman Rubio’s highly anticipated new novel... Love and Ordinary Creatures is told through the eyes of a cockatoo in love with his very human caretaker. Snatched in a net from his Australian homeland as a young parrot, Caruso has adapted to captivity and has learned all he knows of love from his previous owner, who was obsessively fixated on his childhood sweetheart. Now in his new home with the beautiful and talented Clarissa, Caruso has found both love and happiness—until a handsome stranger arrives in town and sets his sights on Clarissa. Smart, passionate, and wildly inventive, Caruso strives to put his human rival in his place before he loses Clarissa for good. And when a hurricane descends upon the coast, Caruso’s love for Clarissa and his memories of freedom are tested as the storm threatens all that he holds dear. Set in the early 1990s in a quaint North Carolina seashore town, Love and Ordinary Creatures is an exquisite tale of the ways in which love and hope transcend species.
Download or read book House of Sand and Fog written by Andre Dubus and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 1999 with total page 460 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Oprah Book Club selection for November 2000.
Download or read book Drowning Ruth written by Christina Schwarz and published by Ballantine Books. This book was released on 2008-11-19 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Deftly written and emotionally powerful, Drowning Ruth is a stunning portrait of the ties that bind sisters together and the forces that tear them apart, of the dangers of keeping secrets and the explosive repercussions when they are exposed. A mesmerizing and achingly beautiful debut. Winter, 1919. Amanda Starkey spends her days nursing soldiers wounded in the Great War. Finding herself suddenly overwhelmed, she flees Milwaukee and retreats to her family's farm on Nagawaukee Lake, seeking comfort with her younger sister, Mathilda, and three-year-old niece, Ruth. But very soon, Amanda comes to see that her old home is no refuge--she has carried her troubles with her. On one terrible night almost a year later, Amanda loses nearly everything that is dearest to her when her sister mysteriously disappears and is later found drowned beneath the ice that covers the lake. When Mathilda's husband comes home from the war, wounded and troubled himself, he finds that Amanda has taken charge of Ruth and the farm, assuming her responsibility with a frightening intensity. Wry and guarded, Amanda tells the story of her family in careful doses, as anxious to hide from herself as from us the secrets of her own past and of that night. Ruth, haunted by her own memory of that fateful night, grows up under the watchful eye of her prickly and possessive aunt and gradually becomes aware of the odd events of her childhood. As she tells her own story with increasing clarity, she reveals the mounting toll that her aunt's secrets exact from her family and everyone around her, until the heartrending truth is uncovered. Guiding us through the lives of the Starkey women, Christina Schwarz's first novel shows her compassion and a unique understanding of the American landscape and the people who live on it.
Download or read book Ruby Oprah s Book Club 2 0 written by Cynthia Bond and published by Hogarth. This book was released on 2015-02-10 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New York Times bestseller and Oprah Book Club 2.0 selection, the epic, unforgettable story of a man determined to protect the woman he loves from the town desperate to destroy her. This beautiful and devastating debut heralds the arrival of a major new voice in fiction. Ephram Jennings has never forgotten the beautiful girl with the long braids running through the piney woods of Liberty, their small East Texas town. Young Ruby Bell, “the kind of pretty it hurt to look at,” has suffered beyond imagining, so as soon as she can, she flees suffocating Liberty for the bright pull of 1950s New York. Ruby quickly winds her way into the ripe center of the city—the darkened piano bars and hidden alleyways of the Village—all the while hoping for a glimpse of the red hair and green eyes of her mother. When a telegram from her cousin forces her to return home, thirty-year-old Ruby finds herself reliving the devastating violence of her girlhood. With the terrifying realization that she might not be strong enough to fight her way back out again, Ruby struggles to survive her memories of the town’s dark past. Meanwhile, Ephram must choose between loyalty to the sister who raised him and the chance for a life with the woman he has loved since he was a boy. Full of life, exquisitely written, and suffused with the pastoral beauty of the rural South, Ruby is a transcendent novel of passion and courage. This wondrous page-turner rushes through the red dust and gossip of Main Street, to the pit fire where men swill bootleg outside Bloom’s Juke, to Celia Jennings’s kitchen, where a cake is being made, yolk by yolk, that Ephram will use to try to begin again with Ruby. Utterly transfixing, with unforgettable characters, riveting suspense, and breathtaking, luminous prose, Ruby offers an unflinching portrait of man’s dark acts and the promise of the redemptive power of love. Ruby was a finalist for the PEN America Robert Bingham Debut Novel Award, a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection, and an Indie Next Pick.
Download or read book Eight Simple Rules for Dating a Dragon written by Kerrelyn Sparks and published by St. Martin's Paperbacks. This book was released on 2018-03-27 with total page 444 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the brilliant imagination of "New York Times"-bestselling author Sparks comes the third installment of a bold new fantasy romance series in which passion and magic collide. Original.
Download or read book Christmas at Fireside Cabins written by Jenny Hale and published by Bookouture. This book was released on 2020-10-14 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Brilliant… I loved every moment.” Book Lover Lorna, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “I couldn’t put it down.” Ink Heart Blogger, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “A feel-good, uplifting, heartwarming read.” WattsYaReading, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “Absolutely perfect.” Sheila Books Shelf, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ An uplifting, beautiful and totally heartwarming tale about the magic of family at Christmas, the importance of chasing your dreams, and the unbeatable feeling of falling in love under the mistletoe. Christmas is always the toughest holiday for Lila Evans––a heartbreaking reminder of losing her father… This year, she’s organized a cozy getaway with her closest friends. She might not have a family to call her own, but it should be just the remedy for the December blues. On the way to their festive vacation, Lila stops at a coffee shop in Pinewood Hills. But the rugged, surly owner Theo Perry, doesn’t offer a warm small-town welcome. Despite her best efforts, Lila’s met with an icy reception. At least she has Fireside Cabins, tucked in the snowy Tennessee hills, to look forward to. Except it turns out to be far from a winter wonderland––there isn’t a shred of Christmas spirit in their tumbledown cabin and the owner, a widow named Eleanor Finely, confesses that the resort is on the brink of closure. Lila instantly wants to help––tearful Eleanor clearly has no one and Lila knows exactly how that feels… When a burst pipe floods their cabin, Lila turns to Theo for help. As much as his coldness infuriates her, she can’t deny that on the rare occasions when he does smile, it feels like coming home. As Lila does her best to bring some sparkle to Fireside Cabins, and to warm up frosty Theo, could Pinewood Hills hold her new beginning––and the family she’s always longed for? And, with a dusting of Christmas magic, spiced cider and sugarplum pie, could this be the first holiday she’s not alone? Indulge in this glittering page-turner that might just prove, at this magical time of year, that anything is possible… Christmas at Fireside Cabins is the perfect treat for fans of Debbie Macomber, Susan Mallery and Sheila Roberts. Readers totally love Christmas at Fireside Cabins: “Wow, what a story!!… Simply put, I loved it!… The end had me needing the tissues, it was so heartwarming.” Goodreads Reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “I LOVED this one!… Jenny Hale has done it again – she made me fall even more in love with the bad boy and the holidays :-)… All adds up to the perfect read.” The Miron Monologues, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “Oh, my heart… The writing is wonderful and had pangs running through my chest.” WattsYaReading, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “Absolutely perfect… For anyone longing for the perfect dose of Christmas, look no further… I have never wanted to wrap myself in a soft blanket, with a cup of steaming hot cocoa and enjoy the lights of a Christmas tree more than I have after reading this book.” Goodreads Reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “Like a warm hug in a book… Pure escapism… Highly recommended for any fans of festive fiction. You will not be disappointed!” Goodreads Reviewer “THIS WAS SO CUTE! Sorry for the capital letters but I'm excited!” Goodreads Reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “Such a gorgeous festive story… Jenny Hale is the queen of Christmas stories for me! They just keep getting better.” Goodreads Reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “Jenny Hale is the gift that keeps on giving! Perfect escapism, in the most charming, magical, warm and cozy way… Tied together like a beautifully wrapped Christmas gift… Perfect read for fans of Hallmark movies and Christmas romance stories!” Books n Lattes, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘Undeniably brilliant!… I would recommend this to everyone in need of a little bit (or a lot) of holiday cheer! I hope many more fall in love with Fireside Cabins as I have.” Misty’s Corner Reviews, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Download or read book Sparks of Light written by Janet B. Taylor and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2017-08-01 with total page 451 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A time-traveling teenager must race from twenty-first–century Scotland to Gilded Age New York in book two of this YA sci-fi fantasy series. When American teenager Hope Walton first came to the Scottish Highlands, she got more than she bargained for—new friends, a (maybe) boyfriend, and a quick excursion to the 12th century. Hope is part of a long line of time-traveling ancestors known as the Viators. But while the Viators make sure not to disturb the natural timeline, a rival group of time-travelers has other ideas. The Timeslippers plan to steal a dangerous device from the inventor Nikola Tesla, and Hope and the Viators must race into the past to stop them. As they nagivage the glitterati of The Gilded Age in 1895 New York City, Hope and her crew will discover that high society can be as deadly as it is beautiful. In this sequel to the dazzling time-travel romance Into the Dim, sacrifice takes on a whole new meaning as Hope and Bran struggle to determine where—or when—they truly belong.
Download or read book Frog Music written by Emma Donoghue and published by Little, Brown. This book was released on 2014-04-01 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the New York Times bestselling author of Room, a young French burlesque dancer living in San Francisco is ready to risk anything in order to solve her friend’s murder—but only if the killer doesn’t get her first. Summer of 1876: San Francisco is in the fierce grip of a record-breaking heat wave and a smallpox epidemic. Through the window of a railroad saloon, a young woman named Jenny Bonnet is shot dead. The survivor, her friend Blanche Beunon, is a French burlesque dancer. Over the next three days, she will risk everything to bring Jenny's murderer to justice—if he doesn't track her down first. The story Blanche struggles to piece together is one of free-love bohemians, desperate paupers, and arrogant millionaires; of jealous men, icy women, and damaged children. It's the secret life of Jenny herself, a notorious character who breaks the law every morning by getting dressed: a charmer as slippery as the frogs she hunts. In thrilling, cinematic style, Frog Music digs up a long-forgotten, never-solved crime. Full of songs that migrated across the world, Emma Donoghue's lyrical tale of love and bloodshed among lowlifes captures the pulse of a boomtown like no other. "Her greatest achievement yet . . . Emma Donoghue shows more than range with Frog Music—she shows genius." —Darin Strauss, author of Half a Life.
Download or read book Refuge written by Dot Jackson and published by Diversion Publishing Corp.. This book was released on 2017-12-12 with total page 436 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “An intensely readable novel of the complexity of family ties . . . Dot Jackson is a true Southern voice, a master storyteller and an Appalachian treasure” (Dori Sanders, author of Clover and Her Own Place). Early one morning in 1929, Mary Seneca Steele spontaneously packs a suitcase, gathers up her son and daughter, and drives away in her abusive and dissolute husband’s brand-new Auburn Phaeton automobile leaving her privileged life in Charleston behind. It is the beginning of a journey of enlightenment that leads Mary “Sen” to the mountains and mysteries of Appalachia where she will learn unexpected family secrets, create a new life for herself and her children, and finally experience love and happiness before tragedy will once again test her. Written by Pulitzer Prize–nominated author, Dot Jackson has spun a story that will captivate readers looking for an entertaining saga of self-discovery, family, love, loss, and redemption. “Refuge is a wonderful story about the need to find one’s place in the world—and the price paid to remain there. With her narrative gift and keen ear for Appalachian speech, Dot Jackson gives her readers a beautifully rendered portrait of a lost time and place.” —Ron Rash, author of Serena and The Cove
Download or read book Origins of Life written by Douglas Whittet and published by Morgan & Claypool Publishers. This book was released on 2017-12-07 with total page 154 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Origins of Life: A Cosmic Perspective presents an overview of the concepts, methods, and theories of astrobiology and origins of life research while presenting a summary of the latest findings. The book provides insight into the environments and processes that gave birth to life on our planet, which naturally informs our assessment of the probability that has arisen (or will arise) elsewhere. In addition, the book encourages readers to go beyond basic concepts, to explore topics in greater depth, and to engage in lively discussions. The text is intended to be suitable for mid- and upper-level undergraduates and beginning graduate students and more generally as an introduction and overview for researchers and general readers seeking to follow current developments in this interdisciplinary field. Readers are assumed to have a basic grounding in the relevant sciences, but prior specialized knowledge is not required. Each chapter concludes with a list of questions and discussion topics as well as suggestions for further reading. Some questions can be answered with reference to material in the text, but others require further reading and some have no known answers. The intention is to encourage readers to go beyond basic concepts, to explore topics in greater depth, and, in a classroom setting, to engage in lively discussions with class members.
Download or read book Gap Creek written by Robert Morgan and published by Algonquin Books. This book was released on 2012-08-21 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New York Times Bestseller & Oprah's Book Club Pick Young Julie Harmon works “hard as a man,” they say, so hard that at times she’s not sure she can stop. People depend on her to slaughter the hogs and nurse the dying. People are weak, and there is so much to do. At just seventeen she marries and moves down into the valley of Gap Creek, where perhaps life will be better. But Julie and Hank’s new life in the valley, in the last years of the nineteenth century, is more complicated than the couple ever imagined. Sometimes it’s hard to tell what to fear most—the fires and floods or the flesh-and-blood grifters, drunks, and busybodies who insinuate themselves into their new life. To survive, they must find out whether love can keep chaos and madness at bay. Their struggles with nature, with work, with the changing century, and with the disappointments and triumphs of their union make Gap Creek a timeless story of a marriage.
Download or read book The Longest Ride written by Nicholas Sparks and published by Grand Central Publishing. This book was released on 2013-09-17 with total page 422 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the dark days of WWII to present-day North Carolina, this New York Times bestseller shares the lives of two couples overcoming destructive secrets -- and finding joy together. Ira Levinson is in trouble. Ninety-one years old and stranded and injured after a car crash, he struggles to retain consciousness until a blurry image materializes beside him: his beloved wife Ruth, who passed away nine years ago. Urging him to hang on, she forces him to remain alert by recounting the stories of their lifetime together - how they met, the precious paintings they collected together, the dark days of WWII and its effect on them and their families. Ira knows that Ruth can't possibly be in the car with him, but he clings to her words and his memories, reliving the sorrows and everyday joys that defined their marriage. A few miles away, at a local bull-riding event, a Wake Forest College senior's life is about to change. Recovering from a recent break-up, Sophia Danko meets a young cowboy named Luke, who bears little resemblance to the privileged frat boys she has encountered at school. Through Luke, Sophia is introduced to a world in which the stakes of survival and success, ruin and reward -- even life and death - loom large in everyday life. As she and Luke fall in love, Sophia finds herself imagining a future far removed from her plans -- a future that Luke has the power to rewrite . . . if the secret he's keeping doesn't destroy it first. Ira and Ruth. Sophia and Luke. Two couples who have little in common, and who are separated by years and experience. Yet their lives will converge with unexpected poignancy, reminding us all that even the most difficult decisions can yield extraordinary journeys: beyond despair, beyond death, to the farthest reaches of the human heart.
