![]() ![]() ![]() One night a stranger named Savannah knocks on Stan and Joy's door, bleeding after a fight with her boyfriend. But that's okay, now that they're all successful grown-ups and there is the wonderful possibility of grandchildren on the horizon. The four Delaney children-Amy, Logan, Troy, and Brooke-were tennis stars in their own right, yet as their father will tell you, none of them had what it took to go all the way. But after fifty years of marriage, they've finally sold their famed tennis academy and are ready to start what should be the golden years of their lives. ![]() They're killers on the tennis court, and off it their chemistry is palpable. The parents, Stan and Joy, are the envy of all of their friends. The Delaneys are fixtures in their community. This is the dilemma facing the four grown Delaney siblings. Synopsis: If your mother was missing, would you tell the police? Even if the most obvious suspect was your father? ![]()
0 Comments
![]() ![]() _ Is there any part of you in Finlay Donovan? So, let’s jump the gun… errr… I mean, let’s jump into it! I was thrilled that Elle Cosimano agreed to take the time to answer my serious and fun questions. There is even a Finlay Donovan TV Series in the works! Look for a summary of the books and my overview tomorrow! (Linked) There are three books in Elle Cosimano’s series: Finlay Donovan is Killin’ It (she really is), Finlay Donovan Knocks’m Dead, and Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun. ![]() In all seriousness, tomorrow, my overview post of the Finlay Donovan series will hit. For those of you that aren’t sure what I’m talking about, I’m sorry for you. I may not have been in review mode, but anyone who knows me has been in Barnes and Noble while I was working or reads my Twitter knows of my love for the Finlay Donovan Series by Elle Cosimano knows no bounds. Finlay Donovan And Elle Cosimano- A Love Story ![]() ![]() It all began with an old bag of sand, mailed to Alcatraz on his birthday-the only inheritance left to him by his birth parents. ![]() He is thirteen years old and lives with his foster parents. The real person behind this novel is a young boy named Alcatraz Smedry. ![]() The Evil Librarians is the first in a fantasy adventure series featuring its eponymous protagonist who is narrating this book as its writer-“Brandon Sanderson” is just a front, you see. Don’t let that stop you if you think this might be something you’ll enjoy, though! Personally, I jumped into this first book amidst a bevy of reservations, but I ended up loving it to bits.Īlcatraz vs. By his own admission, this series is very different from his normal style and they tend to be a source of contention among his readers. After all, very rarely do I dip my toes into the Children’s/Middle Grade category, and they did seem far removed from the author’s other work. But in my own defense, these books do fall a little outside my purview. I’ve been a terrible Brandon Sanderson fan! Seriously, how else to explain for the many years it took me to finally read his Alcatraz series? Mea culpa, it was complete negligence on my part, and I am sorry. ![]() Review copies were provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. ![]() the Evil Librarians books 1 & 2 by Brandon Sanderson ![]() ![]() But while this conformity-investment should be reaping them all manner of interest in the form of social capital, the only type of interest it's resulting in is that of the neighbours. ![]() ![]() Even their children impressively fit the suburban family mould, with their meagre efforts at rebellion manifesting as vehement vegetarianism and mawkish infatuations with the works of Byron. For many years, Peter has maintained the dully admirable position of the town GP, while Helen spends her days forcing her way through dirge-like book club tomes and painting numbingly bland watercolours. Over the years, Peter and Helen Radley have invested so heavily in the bank of middle-class conformity that the recent financial crisis ought likely had them quaking in their boots. In this moving, thrilling and extraordinary portrait of one unusual family, The Radleys asks what we grow into when we grow up, and explores what we gain and lose when we deny our appetites. But, as their children have yet to find out, the Radleys have a devastating secret. They are an everyday family, averagely dysfunctional, averagely content. ![]() Blurb: Meet the Radleys Peter, Helen and their teenage children, Clara and Rowan, live in a typical suburban English town. ![]() ![]() Imagine lying here beneath such a pendulous chandelier of lambent gloom – imagine the transporting reflections slipping across their sleek hermetic skins, the assuaging shadows they’d cast as degradation tipped them into slow stately revolutions, the whisperings, the whisperings, the sighs, the melancholy glow. When I was a dismayed student in London I often fantasised about hanging a great many aubergines from the square ceiling of my sketchy boudoir. ‘I’ve always been very taken with aubergines,’ the narrator states in Bennett’s new novel Checkout 19, ‘with the way they are so tightly sheathed in a shining bulletproof darkness.’ Bennett takes an everyday object – the humble aubergine – and lets her mind linger on it, dwelling on fleeting sensations until the object appears different and strange: ![]() She likes things, objects, bric-a-brac, and she likes contemplating their dimensions, curvature and tactility. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() The Witch Elm, in other words, hastens to let you know that something bad definitely happened at Ivy House, and that it’s come back to haunt poor Toby. “All it takes,” Toby tells us, “is one whiff of the right smell-jasmine, lapsang souchong, a specific old-fashioned soap that I’ve never been able to identify-or one sideways shaft of afternoon light” to bring him back to those halcyon days when everyone got along and, as far as he can remember, nothing bad ever happened. Like a previous noteworthy house from French’s oeuvre, the grandiosely ramshackle Whitethorn House in The Likeness, with its “worn stone steps,” “great brass knocker,” and “big rusted key,” Ivy House serves as a repository for all the reader’s sentimental notions of a life that once was, or could have been. Ivy House is a wonderful creation French provides just enough detail to goose the reader’s brain into filling in the rest. ![]() ![]() ![]() Weapons and full-face masks are not permitted. Visitors of all ages are welcome to wear Halloween costumes. Enjoy creepy music and fantastical images from the Library’s collections, perfect to fill your own treehouse. Read a scary story in the reading corner or find an adventure with a book about the world. Timed-entry passes will provide entry to the author program in the Coolidge Auditorium.īeginning at 10 a.m., visitors are invited to participate in “spooky” art activities on the Mezzanine level of the Great Hall. Visit loc.gov/visit to reserve a timed-entry pass for all members of your party. Stine, author of the “Goosebumps” series, and Mary Pope Osborne, author of the “Magic Tree House” series.įree timed-entry passes are required to enter the Thomas Jefferson Building. in the Coolidge Auditorium with beloved authors R.L. The day will feature a special program at 2 p.m. The Library of Congress will host a day of family-friendly activities on Saturday, Oct. Stine and Mary Pope OsborneĮvent Celebrates 30 Years of “Goosebumps” and “Magic Tree House” Series with Authors Library to Host Halloween Family Day with Authors R.L. ![]() ![]() ![]() Our of the frying pan into the fire, as they say. This was the story of a young girl, who got herself engaged to a German pastor by mistake, but sees it as a chance to escape her domineering father. Added to that, most of her books contain autobiographical elements, making you wish you could have known the author herself. This whole book was that way, as was "Elizabeth and her German Garden", the previous von Arnim book I read. And you feel intelligent because of that, knowing that not everyone will. You read a sentence or paragraph, nodding your head and chuckling because you get it. ![]() Unlike humor or books written to amuse and entertain, wit must be appreciated through the lens of the reader's own experiences. Elizabeth von Arnim has that elusive quality, wit. ![]() ![]() ![]() Brittany provides practical guidance on how to use the cards in a Christian context, whether as prompts for personal prayer, daily reminders of spiritual truths, or as part of a more structured practice such as the Ignatian examen. The Tarot has held countless meanings to countless listeners over the course of its existence, but The Contemplative Tarot offers a uniquely Christian interpretation of the cards, including Bible verses and meditations on each of their spiritual meanings. In The Contemplative Tarot, author Brittany Muller draws deeply on Christian tradition and theology to create a tarot practice built on spiritual reflection, prayer, and worship. The Tarot can become an unexpected tool in this journey, inviting us to pause, contemplate, and find insight and wisdom in our walk. ![]() In the chaos of daily life, many Christians long for the time and mental clarity to reflect on scripture, to worship, and to pray. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() We are often told how, in the course of a million years, adults acquired increased dexterity, adaptability, intelligence, and powers of communication. ![]() Beginning with the assertion that much of our thinking about human evolution exercises an unconscious bias-that we envision an archetypal human being as an adult-Morgan sets out to explain why human infants evolved in the way they did. Elaine Morgan, an internationally bestselling science writer known for her iconoclastic take on evolutionary theory, addresses these questions and more in The Descent of the Child, an intriguing and controversial look at human evolution from the point of view of infant development. Why are chimp babies skinny, while human babies are so fat they float? As humans developed greater intelligence-and increased cranial capacity-how did babies and mothers adapt to increased fetal brain size? And how did humans develop our unique intelligence. ![]() |