Download or read book Secrets of the Henna Girl written by Sufiya Ahmed and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2012-03-01 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Life as Zeba knows it could be over for good . . . Zeba Khan is like any other sixteen-year-old girl: enjoying herself, waiting for exam results . . . and dreaming of the day she'll meet her one true love. Except her parents have other plans. In Pakistan for the summer, Zeba's world is shattered. Her future is threatened by an unthinkable - and forced - duty to protect her father's honour. But does she hold the secrets that will help her escape? ** Sufiya Ahmed's stunning debut teenage book explores the illegal practice of forced marriage in Britain. ** 10 million under 18s in the world become child brides every year. ** The UK government's Forced Marriage Unit (FMU) receives over 1,700 calls from at-risk annually. Up to 15% of victims of forced marriage are male.
Download or read book The Henna Artist written by Alka Joshi and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2021-08-05 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Trusted with the secrets of the wealthy, she can never reveal her own... Escaping from an abusive marriage, seventeen-year-old Lakshmi makes her way alone from her 1950s rural village to the pink city of Jaipur. There she becomes the henna artist-and confidante-most in demand to women of the upper class. Known for her original designs and sage advice, Lakshmi must tread carefully to avoid the jealous gossips who could ruin her reputation and her livelihood. As she pursues her dream of an independent life, she is startled one day when she is confronted by her husband, who has tracked her down these many years later with a young girl in tow-a sister Lakshmi never knew she had. Suddenly the caution that she has carefully cultivated as protection is threatened. Vivid and compelling in its portrait of one woman's struggle for fulfillment in society, The Henna Artist opens a door into a world that is at once fascinating, stark and cruel.
Download or read book The Secret Keeper of Jaipur written by Alka Joshi and published by MIRA. This book was released on 2021-06-22 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A NEW NOVEL BY THE AUTHOR OF THE HENNA ARTIST, A REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK Good Morning America’s “27 Books for June" PopSugar’s Best Summer Reads of 2021 In New York Times bestselling author Alka Joshi’s intriguing new novel, henna artist Lakshmi arranges for her protégé, Malik, to intern at the Jaipur Palace in this tale rich in character, atmosphere, and lavish storytelling. It’s the spring of 1969, and Lakshmi, now married to Dr. Jay Kumar, directs the Healing Garden in Shimla. Malik has finished his private school education. At twenty, he has just met a young woman named Nimmi when he leaves to apprentice at the Facilities Office of the Jaipur Royal Palace. Their latest project: a state-of-the-art cinema. Malik soon finds that not much has changed as he navigates the Pink City of his childhood. Power and money still move seamlessly among the wealthy class, and favors flow from Jaipur’s Royal Palace, but only if certain secrets remain buried. When the cinema’s balcony tragically collapses on opening night, blame is placed where it is convenient. But Malik suspects something far darker and sets out to uncover the truth. As a former street child, he always knew to keep his own counsel; it’s a lesson that will serve him as he untangles a web of lies. "Captivated me from the first chapter to the last page." —Reese Witherspoon on The Henna Artist Don’t miss THE PERFUMIST OF PARIS! The final chapter in Alka Joshi’s New York Times bestselling Jaipur trilogy!
Download or read book Henna House written by Nomi Eve and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2015-08-04 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In Yemen in 1920 ... Adela Damari's parents desperately seek a future husband for their young daughter. After passage of the Orphan's Decree, any unbetrothed Jewish child left orphaned will be instantly adopted by the local Muslim community. With her parents' health failing, and no spousal prospects in sight, Adela's situation looks dire until her uncle arrives from a faraway city, bringing with him a cousin and aunt who introduce Adela to the powerful rituals of henna tattooing"--Amazon.com.
Download or read book Crossing the Line written by Kareem Rosser and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2021-02-09 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A marvelous addition to the literature of inspirational sports stories." - Booklist (Starred Review) "This remarkable and inspiring story shines." - Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) "Crossing the Line will not just leave you with hope, but also ideas on how to make that hope transferable” - New York Times bestselling author Wes Moore An inspiring memoir of defying the odds from Kareem Rosser, captain of the first all-black squad to win the National Interscholastic Polo championship. Born and raised in West Philadelphia, Kareem thought he and his siblings would always be stuck in “The Bottom”, a community and neighborhood devastated by poverty and violence. Riding their bicycles through Philly’s Fairmount Park, Kareem’s brothers discover a barn full of horses. Noticing the brothers’ fascination with her misfit animals, Lezlie Hiner, founder of The Work to Ride stables, offers them their escape: an after school job in exchange for riding lessons. What starts as an accidental discovery turns into a love for horseback riding that leads the Rossers to discovering their passion for polo. Pursuing the sport with determination and discipline, Kareem earns his place among the typically exclusive players in college, becoming part of the first all-Black national interscholastic polo championship team—all while struggling to keep his family together. Crossing the Line: A Fearless Team of Brothers and the Sport That Changed Their Lives Forever is the story of bonds of brotherhood, family loyalty, the transformative connection between man and horse, and forging a better future that comes from overcoming impossible odds.
Download or read book A Tiny Upward Shove written by Melissa Chadburn and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2022-04-12 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Wild and ambitious . . . [with] something ablaze at its core. It burns.” —The New York Times Book Review A Tiny Upward Shove is inspired by Melissa Chadburn's Filipino heritage and its folklore, as it traces the too-short life of a young, cast-off woman transformed by death into an agent of justice—or mercy. Marina Salles’s life does not end the day she wakes up dead. Instead, in the course of a moment, she is transformed into the stuff of myth, the stuff of her grandmother’s old Filipino stories—an aswang, a creature of mystery and vengeance. She spent her time on earth on the margins; shot like a pinball through a childhood of loss, she was a veteran of Child Protective Services and a survivor, but always reacting, watching from a distance, understanding very little of her own life, let alone the lives of others. Death brings her into the hearts and minds of those she has known—even her killer—as she accesses their memories and sees anew the meaning of her own. In her nine days as an aswang, while she considers whether to exact vengeance on her killer, she also traces back, finally able to see what led these two lost souls to a crushingly inevitable conclusion. In A Tiny Upward Shove, the debut novelist Melissa Chadburn charts the heartbreaking journeys of two of society’s castoffs as they make their way to each other and their roles as criminal and victim. What does it mean to be on the brink? When are those moments that change not only our lives but our very selves? And how, in this impossible world, full of cruelty and negligence, can we rouse ourselves toward mercy?
Download or read book Brown Girls written by Daphne Palasi Andreades and published by Random House. This book was released on 2022-01-04 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE • A “boisterous and infectious debut novel” (The Guardian) about a group of friends and their immigrant families from Queens, New York—a tenderly observed, fiercely poetic love letter to a modern generation of brown girls. “An acute study of those tender moments of becoming, this is an ode to girlhood, inheritance, and the good trouble the body yields.”—Raven Leilani, author of Luster FINALIST: The New American Voices Award, The Carol Shields Prize for Fiction, The VCU Cabell First Novelist Award, The New American Voices Award, The Center for Fiction First Novel Prize ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: PopSugar, Kirkus Reviews If you really want to know, we are the color of 7-Eleven root beer. The color of sand at Rockaway Beach when it blisters the bottoms of our feet. Color of soil . . . Welcome to Queens, New York, where streets echo with languages from all over the globe, subways rumble above dollar stores, trees bloom and topple over sidewalks, and the funky scent of the Atlantic Ocean wafts in from Rockaway Beach. Within one of New York City’s most vibrant and eclectic boroughs, young women of color like Nadira, Gabby, Naz, Trish, Angelique, and countless others, attempt to reconcile their immigrant backgrounds with the American culture in which they come of age. Here, they become friends for life—or so they vow. Exuberant and wild, together they roam The City That Never Sleeps, sing Mariah Carey at the tops of their lungs, yearn for crushes who pay them no mind—and break the hearts of those who do—all while trying to heed their mothers’ commands to be obedient daughters. But as they age, their paths diverge and rifts form between them, as some choose to remain on familiar streets, while others find themselves ascending in the world, beckoned by existences foreign and seemingly at odds with their humble roots. A blazingly original debut novel told by a chorus of unforgettable voices, Brown Girls illustrates a collective portrait of childhood, adulthood, and beyond, and is a striking exploration of female friendship, a powerful depiction of women of color attempting to forge their place in the world today. For even as the conflicting desires of ambition and loyalty, freedom and commitment, adventure and stability risk dividing them, it is to one another—and to Queens—that the girls ultimately return.
Download or read book No Filter written by Orlagh Collins and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2018-03-06 with total page 371 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This poignant, sweepingly romantic debut novel told in dual POVs is perfect for fans of Everything, Everything and All the Bright Places. Anyone who follows Emerald on her social media accounts only sees a perfect life-her loving, wealthy family, tight-knit circle of friends, and devoted internet following. But the truth hides behind the scenes of her perfectly framed, filtered photos. . . Emerald's family is far from happy, and when she finds her mom unconscious on the bathroom floor, she can no longer keep it a secret. Sent to stay with her grandmother in a small beach town while her mother recovers and her father works non-stop, Emerald fears the long, lonely summer ahead of her . . . until she meets Liam. He's an aspiring songwriter with his own baggage, but neither of them can deny their connection. With secrets and lies all that they're used to, can Emerald and Liam really fall for each other-brave and true-with no filter? This fresh, funny, and poignant debut from Orlagh Collins is refreshingly grounded and sweepingly romantic all at once.
Download or read book Book Club Box Set written by Alka Joshi and published by MIRA. This book was released on 2020-07-20 with total page 1117 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Featuring two REESE WITHERSPOON x HELLO SUNSHINE book club picks, this exclusive collection includes compelling debut novels that will stay with you long after the last page. The Henna ArtistEscaping from an abusive arranged marriage, seventeen-year-old Lakshmi makes her way from her 1950s rural village to the vibrant pink city of Jaipur. There she becomes the henna artist—and confidante—most in demand to the wealthy women of the upper class. Trusted with their secrets, she can never reveal her own… The CactusFor Susan Green, messy emotions don’t fit into the equation of her perfectly ordered life. But suddenly confronted with the loss of her mother and the news that she is about to become a mother herself, Susan’s greatest fear is realized: she is losing control. As her dismantled world falls further into a tailspin, Susan might have a chance at finding real love and learning to love herself, if only she can figure out how to let go.
Download or read book If I Was Your Girl written by Meredith Russo and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2016-05-03 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Amanda Hardy only wants to fit in at her new school, but she is keeping a big secret, so when she falls for Grant, guarded Amanda finds herself yearning to share with him everything about herself, including her previous life as Andrew.
Download or read book Under the Skin written by Linda Villarosa and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2022-06-14 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST • "A stunning exposé of why Black people in our society 'live sicker and die quicker'—an eye-opening game changer."—Oprah Daily From an award-winning writer at the New York Times Magazine and a contributor to the 1619 Project comes a landmark book that tells the full story of racial health disparities in America, revealing the toll racism takes on individuals and the health of our nation. In 2018, Linda Villarosa's New York Times Magazine article on maternal and infant mortality among black mothers and babies in America caused an awakening. Hundreds of studies had previously established a link between racial discrimination and the health of Black Americans, with little progress toward solutions. But Villarosa's article exposing that a Black woman with a college education is as likely to die or nearly die in childbirth as a white woman with an eighth grade education made racial disparities in health care impossible to ignore. Now, in Under the Skin, Linda Villarosa lays bare the forces in the American health-care system and in American society that cause Black people to “live sicker and die quicker” compared to their white counterparts. Today's medical texts and instruments still carry fallacious slavery-era assumptions that Black bodies are fundamentally different from white bodies. Study after study of medical settings show worse treatment and outcomes for Black patients. Black people live in dirtier, more polluted communities due to environmental racism and neglect from all levels of government. And, most powerfully, Villarosa describes the new understanding that coping with the daily scourge of racism ages Black people prematurely. Anchored by unforgettable human stories and offering incontrovertible proof, Under the Skin is dramatic, tragic, and necessary reading.
Download or read book The Pocket Guide to Girl Stuff written by Bart King and published by Gibbs Smith. This book was released on 2008-12-18 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Girls can be a mystery-even to themselves. Sometimes girls just need a little guidance and know-how. They get that and more with Pocket Guide to Girl Stuff. Acclaimed author Bart King delves into the secret world of girls-with the help of his five sisters and fifty other girls, of course. Girls can: Take the Friend Test to see how their friends rate. Discover their celebrity name! Learn the greatest, super-duper amazing diet of all time! Figure out why boys do annoying things. Fashion, friends, and fun stuff-everything is covered in this volume petite enough to fit in any girl's purse.
Download or read book The Candid Life of Meena Dave written by Namrata Patel and published by Lake Union Publishing. This book was released on 2022-06 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A woman embarks on an unexpected journey into her past in an engrossing novel about identity, family secrets, and rediscovering the need to belong. Meena Dave is a photojournalist and a nomad. She has no family, no permanent address, and no long-term attachments, preferring to observe the world at a distance through the lens of her camera. But Meena's solitary life is turned upside down when she unexpectedly inherits an apartment in a Victorian brownstone in historic Back Bay, Boston. Though Meena's impulse is to sell it and keep moving, she decides to use her journalistic instinct to follow the story that landed her in the home of a stranger. It's a mystery that comes with a series of hidden clues, a trio of meddling Indian aunties, and a handsome next-door neighbor. For Meena it's a chance for newfound friendships, community, and culture she never thought possible. And a window into her past she never expected. Now as everything unknown to Meena comes into focus, she must reconcile who she wants to be with who she really is.
Download or read book Rosie Raja Churchill s Spy written by Sufiya Ahmed and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2022-08-04 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A thrilling and empowering WWII adventure about the French resistance and their British allies, with a determined, Muslim heroine. Perfect for fans of Michael Morpurgo and Emma Carroll, and those looking for diverse historical fiction. July, 1941. Rosina Raja is half-Indian and half-English. She has always lived in India, so when her mother passes away and she moves to England (where it rains all the time) she is miserable and doesn't have any friends. Life changes dramatically for Rosie when she discovers that her army captain father is actually a spy for the British government. She can't bear to be left behind so she stows away in his plane. Finding herself in occupied France, Rosie is soon drawn into the struggle against the Nazis. With new allies and new enemies at every turn, she must help her father complete his mission, and more importantly... make sure they both get home alive.
Download or read book Henna for the Broken Hearted written by Sharell Cook and published by Macmillan Publishers Aus.. This book was released on 2011-09-01 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How far would you go to change your life? Sharell Cook is 30 years old and living a privileged life in Melbourne's wealthy suburbs. She has it all: the childhood-sweetheart husband, the high-powered job and plenty of cash to splash. And it's not destined to last. In a dramatic turn of events, Sharell's marriage breaks down and her perfect life falls apart. Sharell opts for a complete change of scene, travelling to India to do volunteer work. But reinventing herself is not as easy as it sounds, especially in the chaos and confrontation of India. Just as she is beginning to wonder whether she'll ever find her way, she meets a man. And so begins Sharell's transformation. Set in the Himalayan hills of Manali, the beaches of Kerala and themadness of Mumbai, Sharell's is the real story of what falling in lovewith an Indian, and India itself, really entails.
Download or read book Ladybird Tales of Super Heroes written by Sufiya Ahmed and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2019-09-05 with total page 96 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Superheroes have always been with us, from gods with mighty powers to human heroes who don disguises to save the day . . . Join six larger-than-life mythic and legendary heroes from around the world in this colourful, illustrated collection of Ladybird Tales. Meet tricksters, fighters, shape-shifters and even people who save the day with just the power of speech. Anansi the Spider-Man Loki and the Magical Hammer Hanuman, Demon Fighter Inanna in the Underworld Shahrazad the Storyteller The Legend of Hua Mulan Perfect for bedtime, to read aloud or enjoy alone, these thrilling tales breathe marvellous life into ancient tales. Includes a special introduction from award-winning author David Solomons.
Download or read book These Ghosts Are Family written by Maisy Card and published by Simon & Schuster. This book was released on 2021-01-05 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: PEN/Hemingway Award For Debut Novel Finalist Shortlisted for the 2020 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize A “rich, ambitious debut novel” (The New York Times Book Review) that reveals the ways in which a Jamaican family forms and fractures over generations, in the tradition of Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi. Stanford Solomon’s shocking, thirty-year-old secret is about to change the lives of everyone around him. Stanford has done something no one could ever imagine. He is a man who faked his own death and stole the identity of his best friend. Stanford Solomon is actually Abel Paisley. And now, nearing the end of his life, Stanford is about to meet his firstborn daughter, Irene Paisley, a home health aide who has unwittingly shown up for her first day of work to tend to the father she thought was dead. These Ghosts Are Family revolves around the consequences of Abel’s decision and tells the story of the Paisley family from colonial Jamaica to present-day Harlem. There is Vera, whose widowhood forced her into the role of a single mother. There are two daughters and a granddaughter who have never known they are related. And there are others, like the houseboy who loved Vera, whose lives might have taken different courses if not for Abel Paisley’s actions. This “rich and layered story” (Kirkus Reviews) explores the ways each character wrestles with their ghosts and struggles to forge independent identities outside of the family and their trauma. The result is a “beguiling…vividly drawn, and compelling” (BookPage, starred review) portrait of a family and individuals caught in the sweep of history, slavery, migration, and the more personal dramas of infidelity, lost love, and regret.
