![]() ![]() And as she delves deeper into the mystery, it makes her question the place she’s started to find for herself at Monarch Middle School. Because although Zen knows she can find who did it, she’s also aware that success may not make her popular with her classmates. Then the school website is hacked, and it changes everything. The only comforts lie in Arli, a self-proclaimed word geek, and the familiar riddles of Cyberlandium. Despite all the hardships she’s faced, though, Zen finds new challenges in middle school-girls who make fun of her, a boy who despises her for her skill at technology, and the constant fear that someone will learn she’s transgender. Or that although Zen was born a boy, in her new home in Maine, she’s been able to transition publicly to the girl she’s always been inside. The fact that she’s not living with her parents but with her two eccentric aunts. ![]() ![]() Her skills at tech, for example, developed over long days sitting at home when her father wouldn’t let her leave the house. There are plenty of ways that Zenobia July is different from her fellow students when she starts Monarch Middle School. ![]()
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![]() I SEE A MAN COMING THROUGH THE FALLING SNOW. But how close is too close?ĭON'T BE LEFT OUT. Keep your friends close, the old adage says. Two days later, on New Year’s Day, one of them is dead. . Amid the boisterous revelry of New Year’s Eve, the cord holding them together snaps, just as a historic blizzard seals the lodge off from the outside world. But after a decade, the weight of secret resentments has grown too heavy for the group’s tenuous nostalgia to bear. The trip begins innocently enough: admiring the stunning if foreboding scenery, champagne in front of a crackling fire, and reminiscences about the past. ![]() For this vacation, they’ve chosen an idyllic and isolated estate in the Scottish Highlands-the perfect place to get away and unwind by themselves. ![]() “My favorite kind of whodunit, kept me guessing all the way through, and reminiscent of Agatha Christie at her best - with an extra dose of acid.” - Alex Michaelides, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Silent PatientĮveryone's invited.everyone's a suspect.ĭuring the languid days of the Christmas break, a group of thirtysomething friends from Oxford meet to welcome in the New Year together, a tradition they began as students ten years ago. ![]() ![]() ![]() As the party became more radical, a new and younger leader arose from within its ranks: Narendra Modi, who as prime minister today is driving India in an increasingly exclusionary and authoritarian direction. The Secret Listener: An Ingenue in Mao's CourtAn Ingenue in Mao's Court February 2022 DOI:10.1093/oso/9780197573341.001.0001 ISBN: 9780197573341 Authors: Yuan-tsung Chen Yuan-tsung. Sitapati’s sweeping and richly textured account details how the two initially moderate leaders led the party through a series of victories and defeats, in the process stirring up an intense culture of “defensive violence” among their followers, which eventually led to several tragic incidents of mass violence by Hindu mobs. Sitapati offers an innovative analysis of the party’s evolution by focusing on the intertwined lives of two of its founders, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, a member of Parliament and three-time prime minister, and Lal Krishna Advani, a longtime activist, parliamentarian, and party official. This electoral component went through several incarnations, emerging in 1980 as today’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, which mobilizes its vote base on a fear of enemies at home and abroad, especially Muslims. Since the 1920s, Hindu nationalists in India have labored to create a political arm that could win elections by unifying Hindus across divisions of caste and region. ![]() ![]() But he is also the only man capable of finding the real attackers. Former hacker and activist Manzano becomes a prime suspect. Plunged into darkness, people are freezing. ![]() Across Europe, controllers watch in disbelief as electricity grids collapse. And not just on this street every light in the city is dead. Manzano is thrown from his Alfa as cars pile up. A cold night in Milan, Piero Manzano wants to get home. ![]() ![]() Highly recommended' LEE CHILD 'A dazzling debut' Marcel Berlins, The Times THE TIMES THRILLER OF THE MONTH THE GLOBAL MILLION-COPY BESTSELLER PUBLISHED IN 15 LANGUAGES WORLDWIDE A 21ST-CENTURY HIGH-CONCEPT DISASTER THRILLER *************************************** Tomorrow will be too late. 'Fast, tense, thrilling - and timely: this will happen one day. Central among the books characters are former hacker and activist Piero Manzano. ![]() ![]() Liesl Shurtliff weaves a spellbinding tale, shining the spotlight on a beloved character from her award-winning debut, Rump: The True Story of Rumpelstiltskin. ![]() And one of them just might have the magical solution Red is looking for. All the while, Red and Goldie are followed by a wolf and a huntsman-two mortal enemies who seek the girls’ help to defeat each other. Her journey takes her through dwarves’ caverns to a haunted well and a beast’s castle. With the help of a blond, porridge-sampling nuisance called Goldie, Red goes on a quest to cure Granny. But when Red’s granny falls ill, it seems that only magic can save her, and fearless Red is forced to confront her one weakness. Liesl Shurtliff weaves a spellbinding tale, shining the spotlight on a beloved character from her. ![]() Red is not afraid of the big bad wolf. She’s not afraid of anything. Red: The (Fairly) True Tale of Red Riding Hood - Liesl Shurtliff From the New York Times bestselling author of RUMP, comes a spellbinding fairy tale featuring a brave heroine, a wild wolf, plenty of magical misadventures, and more Red is not afraid of the big bad wolf. ![]() Join New York Times bestselling author, Liesl Shurtliff, for a reading and signing of hew new book. From the New York Times bestselling author of RUMP, comes a spellbinding fairy tale featuring a brave heroine, a wild wolf, plenty of magical misadventures, and more! Liesl Shurtliff Red: The True Story of Red Riding Hood. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() If you are having difficulty falling asleep or staying awake during the night it's time to consult with a healthcare provider regarding potential solutions. Sleep is essential to both physical and mental wellbeing, helping reduce risks such as heart disease, diabetes, weight gain, depression and cancer. ![]() Studies have revealed that up to 25% of adults over 65 years old exhibit symptoms of insomnia. Insomnia is one of the most prevalent sleep issues among older adults and may increase as they get older. Do you know sleep is essential to good health, but can often prove challenging for older adults in this modern society in 2023? Sleep issues like insomnia, chronic sleep loss and apnea can create serious health issues in older people such as memory, attention and cognitive decline as well as depression, fatigue and mood disorders not to mention an increase in disease risks. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() thrilling to the end.” -Mary Burton, USA Today–bestselling author “A fantastic blend of romance and suspense . . . Now, determined to solve the crime and keep Mia safe, with his ARES buddies backing him up, Lucas will have to reconstruct the murder victim’s last days-and follow a lethal trail that leads right back to the fate of the woman he still loves . . . But it’s soon clear that isn’t true for either of them. Mia has never forgiven Lucas for breaking her heart, and she’s convinced her feelings for him are in the past. When he discovers a dead man clutching a picture of Mia that bears a threatening message, his fiercest protective instincts kick in, and he knows he must go to her. ![]() But since surviving captivity, he’s a changed man-and a crucial member of ARES Security. Clair’s prestigious family had a political future planned out for him-one that didn’t include his high school sweetheart, Mia Ramon. Highly skilled, intimidating, invincible, and one by one, tested again and again . . . A murder mystery reunites a veteran with an embittered ex in this romantic suspense novel by the New York Times–bestselling author of Kill Without Mercy.įive brave military heroes have survived the hell of a Taliban prison to return home-and take on civilian missions no one else can. ![]() ![]() ![]() The nightmarish realization that life has sped up but left you behind with a child’s clothing left on a hook, her toys left on a shelf, desolate comforters and pillows left on a bed.Īnn Hood and other parents never really recover from the gut-wrenching grief of losing a child. ![]() ![]() So unexpectedly and so quickly.Īnn Hood’s raw grief was that which only a parent can feel. It was a horror that some parents have to endure – the unimaginable sojourn of a losing a child.Īnn Hood and her husband returned from the hospital to tell their living older son, Grace’s older brother Sam, that his sister had died. It was an absolutely hell-ridden journey of only 36 hours, when Grace died of an unthinkably virulent and destructive strep infection. Having lost a child myself, I was related to her raw expressions of grief after losing her five-year old daughter in 2002. Right after it was published, I discovered Ann Hood’s non-fiction memoir Comfort (2008). By the time she turns 60 this December 9, she will have celebrated with 60 cupcakes with 60 different book groups. I wish I had thought to spend my 60th birthday having as much fun as author Ann Hood has. ![]() ![]() ![]() In other words, the buried giant here is England's own violent genesis, and how Arthurian legend has glossed it over all our confident contemporary judgments about religious violence, these, too, are clouded by the mist of forgetfulness. ![]() The final pages of "Never Let Me Go," his greatest novel, are utterly devastating. And because Ishiguro remains invisible, granting his characters the folly, grace and independence of real people, their innocence can have an indescribable emotional intensity. We see more clearly than they do what their stories imply, whether it's the futility of the detective's search, or the whole tragic future that adult's glance contains. ![]() The ingenuousness of these narrators is precisely their point. Their tone is curious but modest, their histories delivered through the accretion of puzzling minor anecdotes, as small as a long-ago glance from an adult in the case of Kath, of "Never Let Me Go." ![]() But what, exactly? Ishiguro's books generally feature the same kind of narrator, from the butler recalling his years of service in "The Remains of the Day" to the detective searching for his parents in "When We Were Orphans." All are slowly piecing together some mystery, something about their lives they still can't quite understand. ![]() ![]() ![]() The endless parade of science fiction, fantasy, and superhero material available today would be a feast for my preteen and teenage self. Unfortunately for me, I was born about thirty years too soon. I will piece together recollections from what others have said and make up the rest. Another problem with dredging up memories of old books is the desire to read them again before putting a finger on the keyboard. Reviewing my list, I decided that grouping the historical works by author would save time. The Fundamentals is moving to publication, and as for sharing my love of the written word I have been mum. I loved the books, but they were paperback, and I trashed them in a fit of organization. Just now, I thought of one a bear, and I am pretty sure an otter, has an adventure or two (no, it’s not what you’re thinking). ![]() I have started this task of reviewing every book I have read since childhood. ![]() |