![]() ![]() ![]() I appreciated how the parents were portrayed and wondered if Linus and Harrison's relationship would change as a result of Ferris Day. This will be a 'mirror' book for many teens and a 'window' book for others. It was a fun surprise to discover that this well-crafted coming-of-age novel features a movie I associate with my college years, and I hope it creates a new generation of Ferris Bueller fans. Of course, nothing goes as planned, and as events unfold, readers see them deal with a wide range of issues including race, family dynamics, economic resources, friend groups, and body identity. Inspired by the classic 80's movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Harrision secretly arranges a Ferris Day full of adventures for Linus. That plan is ruined when Linus tells Harrison he's moving from Baltimore to South Carolina in just a few days. ![]() They would work summer jobs at the same place, graduate high school in a couple of years, and attend college together. Harrison and Linus, Black gay 16-year-old best friends, had their future planned. ![]() I appreciated Here For It, the author's essay collection and enjoyed Kings of B'more, his first YA novel that primarily takes place on a single day in June. "Your heart will break in this life, but when it does break, I hope every crack makes more space inside for love." - Kings of B'more by R. ![]()
0 Comments
![]() ![]() ![]() In around 300 pages, Bilton outlines the rise and fall of what the Silk Road, the “Amazon of drugs,” and its founder, Ross Ulbright. ![]() For another, I’m not often interested in them.īut there’s value in reading outside my comfort zone, and this book reminded me of summer reading of my younger years and discovering great authors accidentally at the library.Īmerican Kingpin: The Epic Hunt for the Criminal Mastermind Behind the Silk Road (Portfolio/Penguin, 2017), came to my hands via my local library, because I heard the author, Nick Bilton, on a podcast.Īmerican Kingpin coverWhile I don’t necessarily recommend this book for the faint-of-heart, I did enjoy it and couldn’t put it down. For one thing, I have a ton of books waiting for me (and they all look so good!). I don’t often pick up NYT bestsellers or things that aren’t on my Catholic reading radar. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() She hit the local headlines in June, 1981, when she became the Swimming Gold Medallist for 50m at the in Belgium Special Olympics, surrounded by her family - including her father, who taught her to swim at the age of six at Kenfig pool. Read more: The 100 people changing the face of Wales So grateful for the care she received, Frances wanted to show the hospital her gratitude. This was after her stay there when she had to fight for her life with Covid-19, in March, 2020. Frances, has been involved with Bridgend County Borough’s day care services for over 47 years since the age of 17, and on April 14, she retired.įrances is an avid fundraiser and has raised over £200 for the Princess of Wales Hospital, Bridgend. ![]() "A life less ordinary" is how some people might describe her journey to date. The 66-year-old has lived with Down's Syndrome all her life, but has never let this hold her back. From a young age, Frances Childs has challenged any stereotypes people might place on those with learning disabilities - from winning an Olympic gold medal for swimming at age 24, to writing the published memoirs of her life. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() And a national debate over the unwritten code of baseball and the accountability of players for acts on the field will erupt in a courtroom and in the offices of the baseball commissioner. The stakes are high for Tim Charles as he faces the unimaginable consequence of his last pitch. What began as a feud between two teams turns into a legal drama that will play out in a grand jury and potentially a full blown jury trial. Veteran prosecutor Jaime Brooks reluctantly accepts the task of investigating a case that could change the way the game of baseball is played forever. Is it just a tragic part of the game? Or could it actually be criminal? ![]() ![]() The crackling sound the ball makes as it hits the helmet will be heard throughout the baseball and legal community. The next pitch he throws will shock the nation. Phillies rookie pitcher Tim Charles must decide whether to honor his manager's call to retaliate against a Met's batter or ignore him and risk losing his club's respect. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Doig's 2006 novel The Whistling Season became a New York Times best-seller. ![]() In 2007 Doig won the University of Colorado's Center of the American West's Wallace Stegner Award. With settings ranging from the Rocky Mountain Front to Alaska's coast, Puget Sound and Oregon, the Chicago Tribune noted in 1987 that Doig wrote of "immigrant families, dedicated schoolteachers, miners, fur trappers, town builders" and of "the uncertainties of friendship and love, and colossal battles of will, set amid the vast unpredictabilities of a land noted for sudden deadly floods, agonizing droughts, blizzards and forest fires." Doig himself would later say "I come from the lariat proletariat, the working-class point of view." In particular, Doig "believed that ordinary people deserve to have their stories told" This House of Sky: Landscapes of a Western Mind, Doig's 1977 memoir, was finalist for the National Book Award for Contemporary Thought. Ivan Doig ( / ˈ aɪ v ən ˈ d ɔɪ ɡ/ J– April 9, 2015) was an American author and novelist, widely known for his sixteen fiction and non-fiction books set mostly in his native Montana, celebrating the landscape and people of the post-war American West. ![]() ![]() Now Haakon faces the hardest choice of his life. Haakon's cunning and strength hold the power to seal many fates, including Thor's-which is already imperiled due to a grave illness brought to him at the first prick of warfare. A decades-old feud with the neighboring farm has wrenched them into the fiercest confrontation on Blackbird Mountain since the Civil War. When the winds bear him home after four years away, Haakon finds the family on the brink of tragedy. ![]() ![]() Not even the beautiful Norwegian woman he's pursued can ease the torment. ![]() Having fled the Norgaard orchard after a terrible mistake, Haakon sails on the North Atlantic ice trade, where his soul is plagued with regrets that distance cannot heal. Haakon-whose selfish choices shattered her trust in him. Yet while Thor holds her heart, it is his younger brother and rival who haunts her memories. That the Lord saw her along the winding journey and that Aven now carries Thor's child are blessings beyond measure. Orphaned within an Irish workhouse, then widowed at just nineteen, she voyaged to America where she was wooed and wed by Thor Norgaard, a Deaf man in rural Appalachia. ![]() In this stunning sequel to The Sons of Blackbird Mountain, Aven and Thor's love story continues-and an age-old feud endangers the Norgaard family in ways no one could have ever imagined.Īven Norgaard understands courage. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Unicorns, written by some guy who had never even been there. Lydia is from Carthage, Washington, the town neighboring Rome, which is also poor and sad and only known as the setting for the book series Dragons vs. Billy is from Rome, Washington, a poor little town known for one thing – the band Rainy Day Knife Fight, whose lead singer is Billy’s uncle Caleb. I’m going to try to break it down, but we’ll see how successful I am. And then there’s all the supernatural stuff going on. The Boy and Girl Who Broke the World is about Billy and Lydia and two towns that hate each other but are forced together. That’s how much I wanted to love this book and tried to read it. Attempting to read it actually pushed my reading schedule way back, and now I’m off by a whole week and probably won’t catch up without setting aside a couple of books that I hoped to read in July or August. And I remembered that book took me a while to get into, so I probably gave this one more than its fair shake. The premise was interesting and Amy Reed wrote one of my favorite books of 2017 – The Nowhere Girls. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Did you have to do a lot of research in writing this novel? Lynnette Hallberg What’s your favorite scene from the book–if you can tell it without it being a spoiler.ĭiane O’Key Peggy, For me, always characters first. Without giving too much away, what’s one of your favorite moments / scenes that doesn’t involve action? My question: What comes first, story line or characters?Ĭecy Robson Diane, your novel sounds exciting. Peggy Bennett Hope this all works for the chat. Marisa Cleveland Hurray!!! Diane, I want to ask you how you chose your hero’s name?Ĭhristy Newton Do you know the average word count for romantic suspense and mystery?ĭiane O’Key Risa, a bit bizarre, but he just popped into my head, full-blown, and I knew his name instantly. ![]() LIVE Chat with Diane O’Key! Comment below, ask her questions, find out how she went from slush to agented to published! Here’s your chance to get the inside scoop! ![]() ![]() ![]() Again, however, he ends up going along with their plans. Again, Peter reacts angrily, again upset that his parents did not consult him and again threatening to run away. Shortly after the baby (nicknamed Tootsie) arrives, Peter gets news of another change in his life his family is moving from New York City to Princeton, New Jersey. Peter threatens to run away, but the appealing smells of dinner lure him into staying. Peter reacts angrily, upset that his parents did not check with him before deciding to have another baby and worrying that his new brother or sister is going to be as difficult to live with as his four-year-old brother, Fudge. The story is told in the first-person, past-tense voice of 12-year old Peter, struggling to adjust with significant changes in his family and in his life.Īs the story begins, Peter gets what he sees as some unpleasant news his Mom tells him she is going to have a baby. ![]() Puffin Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC. ![]() The following version of this book was used to create this study guide: Blume, Judy. ![]() ![]() “The best example,” he writes, “is that of 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.” KSM was “fiercely defiant and unwilling to talk” before he was subjected to enhanced interrogation techniques. Not only were those officers sincere, Morell believes they were also right. Bush at that Sarasota elementary school on the morning of September 11, 2001, as word arrived that an airplane-and then, tellingly, a second one-had crashed into the World Trade Center. He was good enough at it to climb the ranks into management, reaching the rung of deputy director and even serving two stints as acting director. His work was entirely on the “analysis” side of intelligence, as opposed to “operations,” the term for the derring-do exploits that shape public images of the trade. ![]() A bright graduate of the University of Akron, near his hometown of Cuyahoga Falls, Morell tells us that he aspired to become an economist but responded to a CIA recruitment pitch that launched his career on an unforeseen trajectory. ![]() The reason for these diverse readings, apart perhaps from the Times’s obsessive partisanship, may be that this book is not organized thematically. ![]() Neither story, however, captured the book’s thrust, hiding in plain sight on the cover: The Great War of Our Time. The Great War of Our Time, by Michael Morell ![]() |