Download or read book Sparks Like Stars written by Nadia Hashimi and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2021-03-02 with total page 476 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Suspenseful…emotionally compelling. I found myself eagerly following in a way I hadn’t remembered for a long time, impatient for the next twist and turn of the story."—NPR An Afghan American woman returns to Kabul to learn the truth about her family and the tragedy that destroyed their lives in this brilliant and compelling novel from the bestselling author of The Pearl That Broke Its Shell, The House Without Windows, and When the Moon Is Low. Kabul, 1978: The daughter of a prominent family, Sitara Zamani lives a privileged life in Afghanistan’s thriving cosmopolitan capital. The 1970s are a time of remarkable promise under the leadership of people like Sardar Daoud, Afghanistan’s progressive president, and Sitara’s beloved father, his right-hand man. But the ten-year-old Sitara’s world is shattered when communists stage a coup, assassinating the president and Sitara’s entire family. Only she survives. Smuggled out of the palace by a guard named Shair, Sitara finds her way to the home of a female American diplomat, who adopts her and raises her in America. In her new country, Sitara takes on a new name—Aryana Shepherd—and throws herself into her studies, eventually becoming a renowned surgeon. A survivor, Aryana has refused to look back, choosing instead to bury the trauma and devastating loss she endured. New York, 2008: Thirty years after that fatal night in Kabul, Aryana’s world is rocked again when an elderly patient appears in her examination room—a man she never expected to see again. It is Shair, the soldier who saved her, yet may have murdered her entire family. Seeing him awakens Aryana’s fury and desire for answers—and, perhaps, revenge. Realizing that she cannot go on without finding the truth, Aryana embarks on a quest that takes her back to Kabul—a battleground between the corrupt government and the fundamentalist Taliban—and through shadowy memories of the world she loved and lost. Bold, illuminating, heartbreaking, yet hopeful, Sparks Like Stars is a story of home—of America and Afghanistan, tragedy and survival, reinvention and remembrance, told in Nadia Hashimi’s singular voice.

Download or read book Gathering Sparks written by Howard Schwartz and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2010-08-03 with total page 45 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A grandfather introduces his grandson to the Jewish tradition of tikkun olam, a centuries-old concept which proposes that everyone must do their part in order to improve the world.

Download or read book Warrior s Creed written by Roger Sparks and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2019-08-13 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The riveting story of how a young boy's upbringing with outlaw culture and charismatic role models forged him into an elite Marine and a decorated Pararescueman. "Absence of self is my sword" comprises the final line in "The Warrior's Creed," a 14th century poem written by an unknown Japanese Samurai, and this is the code Master Sergeant Roger Sparks embodied as a Recon Marine turned Alaskan Pararescueman. A living legend in the military, Sparks first made a name for himself within elite Marine Reconnaissance units. He went on to become an instructor where he trained future Reconnaissance Marines with unorthodox and ancient indigenous warrior techniques. A decade later, the same methods would keep him and others alive, when he hoisted into a maelstrom of violence to rescue an embattled platoon in the rugged mountains of eastern Afghanistan. Introduced to a tough code of honor, family, and brotherhood from birth, Roger Sparks rose to become a distinguished instructor in Marine Reconnaissance and a Silver Star recipient as an Alaska Pararescueman. A raw and exhilarating tale of guts, grit, and heart, Warrior's Creed recounts the hidden side of special operations training, heroic and heartbreaking Alaskan wilderness rescues, and the surreal and deadly rescues during Operation Bulldog Bite in Afghanistan’s Watapur Valley. This powerful and inspirational story is as much of a self-help book as it is an edge of your seat military memoir. Warrior's Creed reveals a motivating and mindful approach to overcoming the odds, facing the impossible, and finding mercy and grace in the aftermath.

Download or read book Sparks A Graphic Novel Sparks 1 written by Ian Boothby and published by Scholastic Inc.. This book was released on 2018-02-27 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sparks is a hero and man's best friend, but nobody suspects he's two cats! This Super Dog is the Cat's Meow!August is a brilliant inventor who is afraid of the outside. Charlie is a crack pilot who isn't afraid of anything. Together these pals save lives every day. They also happen to be cats who pilot a powerful, mechanical dog suit! Always eager to leap into danger, this feline duo have their work cut out for them as they try to thwart Princess, an evil alien bent on enslaving mankind. Don't let the fact that Princess looks like a cute, diaper-wearing baby fool you. She's clever, determined, and totally ruthless. So when Princess and the browbeaten fools she calls servants enact a brilliant and dastardly plan to conquer Earth, August and Charlie pull out all the stops to save the day.

Download or read book Sparks and the Fallen Star written by Lyndon White and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Silver Sparks written by Starr Ambrose and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2011-11-29 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Larkin sisters are used to hearing whispers behind their backs. Being raised by hippie parents in the small resort town of Barringer’s Pass, Colorado, they were always considered oddballs, and for a while, they did everything they could to earn the name. But now, older and wiser, they're discovering that it's not so great to be the wild child, and are struggling to earn a new place for themselves in town. When Maggie Larkin resists the come-ons of a sleazy actor in town to shoot a film, she pisses off more than a pretty boy and his manager. Turns out that Rafe DeLuca isn't just a movie star...he's possibly a killer, and Maggie's landed herself in more trouble than she could imagine. Enter Cal Drummond, cop extraordinaire, who's been trailing DeLuca himself for weeks, convinced that his recently murdered sister is one of Rafe's victims. He's determined not to let another woman be victimized by the dangerous Rafe, and if that means sticking like glue to Maggie, so be it. Maggie and Cal seem like perfect opposites, but as we all know...opposites attract!

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 Sparks Fly Upward written by Stewart Granger and published by . This book was released on 1981 with total page 446 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Pearl That Broke Its Shell written by Nadia Hashimi and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2014-05-06 with total page 396 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Afghan-American Nadia Hashimi's literary debut novel is a searing tale of powerlessness, fate, and the freedom to control one's own fate that combines the cultural flavor and emotional resonance of the works of Khaled Hosseini, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Lisa See. In Kabul, 2007, with a drug-addicted father and no brothers, Rahima and her sisters can only sporadically attend school, and can rarely leave the house. Their only hope lies in the ancient custom of bacha posh, which allows young Rahima to dress and be treated as a boy until she is of marriageable age. As a son, she can attend school, go to the market, and chaperone her older sisters. But Rahima is not the first in her family to adopt this unusual custom. A century earlier, her great-great grandmother, Shekiba, left orphaned by an epidemic, saved herself and built a new life the same way. Crisscrossing in time, The Pearl the Broke Its Shell interweaves the tales of these two women separated by a century who share similar destinies. But what will happen once Rahima is of marriageable age? Will Shekiba always live as a man? And if Rahima cannot adapt to life as a bride, how will she survive?

Download or read book Star Eater written by Kerstin Hall and published by Tordotcom. This book was released on 2021-06-22 with total page 366 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From Nommo Award finalist Kerstin Hall comes “a layered and incisive examination of power.”—Rory Power, New York Times bestselling author of Wilder Girls All martyrdoms are difficult. Elfreda Raughn will avoid pregnancy if it kills her, and one way or another, it will kill her. Though she’s able to stomach her gruesome day-to-day duties, the reality of preserving the Sisterhood of Aytrium’s magical bloodline horrifies her. She wants out, whatever the cost. So when a shadowy faction approaches Elfreda with an offer of escape, she leaps at the opportunity. As their spy, she gains access to the highest reaches of the Sisterhood, and enters a glittering world of opulent parties, subtle deceptions, and unexpected bloodshed. A phantasmagorical indictment of hereditary power, Star Eater takes readers deep into a perilous and uncanny world where even the most powerful women are forced to choose what sacrifices they will make, so that they might have any choice at all. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Download or read book Feast of Sparks written by Sierra Simone and published by Sierra Simone. This book was released on 2019-08-01 with total page 428 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: I’m an outcast and a loner, named for death itself. Fate wasn’t supposed to have plans for me. But then she came back—the girl I once kissed in a thorn-covered chapel in the woods. She came back, and I could no more resist her than I could pry out my own heart. And by some trick of fate, she wants me as much as I want her. The only problem? She also wants the man who owns Thornchapel, Auden Guest. And so do I. Eight years ago, I did something to Auden, something terrible. He hurt me back the only way he knew how, and so here we are: our hatred seasoned with pain and my loneliness seasoned with longing. The only thing we can agree on is Proserpina Markham, and she wants us to find a way to be together—all three of us. If Auden wants to earn her as his submissive, then he has to earn me as well. But with the discovery of bones behind the altar and the carnal revel of Beltane fast approaching, it’s becoming clear that Thornchapel’s secrets are much deeper and older than any of us could have ever guessed. And no matter how bright and merry a feast of sparks may be, it’s always followed by ashes. And darkness. Feast of Sparks is Book Two in the Thornchapel quartet. Content warnings can be found at thesierrasimone.com/contentnotes

Download or read book And I Do Not Forgive You Stories and Other Revenges written by Amber Sparks and published by Liveright Publishing. This book was released on 2020-02-11 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Amber Sparks holds her crown in the canon of the weird with this fantastical collection of “eye-popping range” (John Domini, Washington Post). Boldly blending fables and myths with apocalyptic technologies, Amber Sparks has built a cultlike following with And I Do Not Forgive You. Fueled by feminism in all its colors, her surreal worlds—like Kelly Link’s and Karen Russell’s—are all-too-real. In “Mildly Happy, With Moments of Joy,” a friend is ghosted by a text message; in “Everyone’s a Winner at Meadow Park,” a teen coming-of-age in a trailer park befriends an actual ghost. Rife with “sharp wit, and an abiding tenderness” (Ilana Masad, NPR), these stories shine an interrogating light on the adage that “history likes to lie about women,” as the subjects of “You Won’t Believe What Really Happened to the Sabine Women” will attest. Written in prose that both shimmers and stings, the result is “nothing short of a raging success, a volume that points to a potentially incandescent literary future” (Kurt Baumeister, The Brooklyn Rail).

Download or read book 360 Degrees of Your Star Destiny written by Ellias Lonsdale and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2021-07-27 with total page 335 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: • Explains how each of the 12 signs of the zodiac has 30 degrees, and each degree, like every star, is the center of a whole system of meanings • Provides detailed write-ups for each of the 360 degrees of the zodiac • Details how to use the degrees for personal chart interpretation and as an oracle for guidance and inspiration In this extraordinary synthesis of 50 years in star work, astrologer Ellias Lonsdale explains how each of the 12 signs of the zodiac has 30 degrees, and each degree, like every star, is the center of a whole system of meanings. Inspired by the Chandra Symbols--evocative images for each degree channeled by John Sandbach nearly 40 years ago--as well as his studies with master astrologers Dane Rudhyar and Marc Edmund Jones, Lonsdale explores the deeper story, or Star Spark, of each of the 360 degrees of the zodiac, providing detailed write-ups for each degree. The author explains how to use the degree of your Sun sign and other planets from your birth chart for personal chart interpretation. Offering a way to tune in to your future star cycles as well as analyze a past event, he discusses how you can learn about personal cycles from studying the degree of a transiting or progressed planet at a specific time, such as Mercury Retrograde, or by following the degree meanings for successive New Moons or Solar Returns, revealing collective as well as personal timings. He also details how to use the 360 Star Sparks as an astrological oracle to consult when you need guidance or support for your awakening process as well as how they can be used as a source for daily contemplation by following the Sun through each degree day by day throughout the year. Providing an astrological tool to help you see deeply inside your life, your shadow, what you are questioning, and where you are being guided, this key to the symbolic power of the 360 degrees of the zodiac shows that by embracing our star cycles, we can discover our unique life path and light up the stars within.

Download or read book Frankie Sparks and the Class Pet written by Megan Frazer Blakemore and published by Aladdin. This book was released on 2019-06-18 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ivy and Bean meets Aliens in my Pocket in this start to a brand-new chapter book series about Frankie Sparks, a third grader who uses her love for science and math to help her solve problems she comes across in her daily life. The best thing EVER is happening in Frankie Sparks’s third grade class: They are getting a class pet! Their teacher, Miss Cupid, tells them they will vote on their pet, but it has to meet some “parameters.” Their pet must: 1. Fit in aquarium. 2. Cost less than $50. 3. Be easily portable. 4. Be able to be left alone for the weekend. Frankie thinks that a rat—just like the rats in her beloved Aunt Gina’s lab—would be the perfect fit. But her best friend, Maya, doesn’t think a rat would be great at all. They are kind of gross and not as cool as a hermit crab, which is Maya’s top choice. Using her special workshop, can Frankie find a way to convince her teacher and her best friend that Team Rat is the way to go?

Download or read book A Bend in the Road written by Nicholas Sparks and published by Grand Central Publishing. This book was released on 2001-09-18 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fall in love with this small-town love story about a widower sheriff and a divorced schoolteacher who are searching for second chances -- only to be threatened by long-held secrets of the past. Miles Ryan's life seemed to end the day his wife was killed in a hit-and-run accident two years ago. As deputy sheriff of New Bern, North Carolina, he not only grieves for her and worries about their young son Jonah but longs to bring the unknown driver to justice. Then Miles meets Sarah Andrews, Jonah's second-grade teacher. A young woman recovering from a difficult divorce, Sarah moved to New Bern hoping to start over. Tentatively, Miles and Sarah reach out to each other...soon they are falling in love. But what neither realizes is that they are also bound together by a shocking secret, one that will force them to reexamine everything they believe in-including their love.

Download or read book The Sparks written by Kyle Prue and published by . This book was released on 2020-03-24 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Born with superpowers. Raised as an assassin. To survive, he must become a revolutionary. The Sparks has won numerous national and international awards for Best Young Adult Fiction and Fantasy. Kyle also won an International Moonbeam Award and a prestigious Indie Fab award for Best Young Author.

Download or read book Sophia Sparks written by Elanor Best and published by . This book was released on 2019-02 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: