Once Two Heroes

Once Two Heroes
Author :
Publisher : Penguin Classics
Total Pages : 292
Release :
ISBN-10 : 0142003824
ISBN-13 : 9780142003824
Rating : 4/5 (24 Downloads)

Synopsis Once Two Heroes by : Calvin Baker

In this stirring novel by the author of "Naming the New World," two World War II heroes--one black and one white--return home to learn that what happened in war was no preparation for the brutal violence of peace.

A Once Crowded Sky

A Once Crowded Sky
Author :
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Total Pages : 336
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781451652017
ISBN-13 : 1451652011
Rating : 4/5 (17 Downloads)

Synopsis A Once Crowded Sky by : Tom King

"Tom King's debut novel opens in an imaginative world of comic book superheroes struggling to take on normal lives after sacrificing their powers to save the world"--

I Know This Much Is True

I Know This Much Is True
Author :
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Total Pages : 884
Release :
ISBN-10 : 0060391626
ISBN-13 : 9780060391621
Rating : 4/5 (26 Downloads)

Synopsis I Know This Much Is True by : Wally Lamb

With his stunning debut novel, She's Come Undone, Wally Lamb won the adulation of critics and readers with his mesmerizing tale of one woman's painful yet triumphant journey of self-discovery. Now, this brilliantly talented writer returns with I Know This Much Is True, a heartbreaking and poignant multigenerational saga of the reproductive bonds of destruction and the powerful force of forgiveness. A masterpiece that breathtakingly tells a story of alienation and connection, power and abuse, devastation and renewal--this novel is a contemporary retelling of an ancient Hindu myth. A proud king must confront his demons to achieve salvation. Change yourself, the myth instructs, and you will inhabit a renovated world. When you're the same brother of a schizophrenic identical twin, the tricky thing about saving yourself is the blood it leaves on your bands--the little inconvenience of the look-alike corpse at your feet. And if you're into both survival of the fittest and being your brother's keeper--if you've promised your dying mother--then say so long to sleep and hello to the middle of the night. Grab a book or a beer. Get used to Letterman's gap-toothed smile of the absurd, or the view of the bedroom ceiling, or the influence of random selection. Take it from a godless insomniac. Take it from the uncrazy twin--the guy who beat the biochemical rap. Dominick Birdsey's entire life has been compromised and constricted by anger and fear, by the paranoid schizophrenic twin brother he both deeply loves and resents, and by the past they shared with their adoptive father, Ray, a spit-and-polish ex-Navy man (the five-foot-six-inch sleeping giant who snoozed upstairs weekdays in the spare room and built submarines at night), and their long-suffering mother, Concettina, a timid woman with a harelip that made her shy and self-conscious: She holds a loose fist to her face to cover her defective mouth--her perpetual apology to the world for a birth defect over which she'd had no control. Born in the waning moments of 1949 and the opening minutes of 1950, the twins are physical mirror images who grow into separate yet connected entities: the seemingly strong and protective yet fearful Dominick, his mother's watchful "monkey"; and the seemingly weak and sweet yet noble Thomas, his mother's gentle "bunny." From childhood, Dominick fights for both separation and wholeness--and ultimately self-protection--in a house of fear dominated by Ray, a bully who abuses his power over these stepsons whose biological father is a mystery. I was still afraid of his anger but saw how he punished weakness--pounced on it. Out of self-preservation I hid my fear, Dominick confesses. As for Thomas, he just never knew how to play defense. He just didn't get it. But Dominick's talent for survival comes at an enormous cost, including the breakup of his marriage to the warm, beautiful Dessa, whom he still loves. And it will be put to the ultimate test when Thomas, a Bible-spouting zealot, commits an unthinkable act that threatens the tenuous balance of both his and Dominick's lives. To save himself, Dominick must confront not only the pain of his past but the dark secrets he has locked deep within himself, and the sins of his ancestors--a quest that will lead him beyond the confines of his blue-collar New England town to the volcanic foothills of Sicily 's Mount Etna, where his ambitious and vengefully proud grandfather and a namesake Domenico Tempesta, the sostegno del famiglia, was born. Each of the stories Ma told us about Papa reinforced the message that he was the boss, that he ruled the roost, that what he said went. Searching for answers, Dominick turns to the whispers of the dead, to the pages of his grandfather's handwritten memoir, The History of Domenico Onofrio Tempesta, a Great Man from Humble Beginnings. Rendered with touches of magic realism, Domenico's fablelike tale--in which monkeys enchant and religious statues weep--becomes the old man's confession--an unwitting legacy of contrition that reveals the truth's of Domenico's life, Dominick learns that power, wrongly used, defeats the oppressor as well as the oppressed, and now, picking through the humble shards of his deconstructed life, he will search for the courage and love to forgive, to expiate his and his ancestors' transgressions, and finally to rebuild himself beyond the haunted shadow of his twin. Set against the vivid panoply of twentieth-century America and filled with richly drawn, memorable characters, this deeply moving and thoroughly satisfying novel brings to light humanity's deepest needs and fears, our aloneness, our desire for love and acceptance, our struggle to survive at all costs. Joyous, mystical, and exquisitely written, I Know This Much Is True is an extraordinary reading experience that will leave no reader untouched.

Two-bit Heroes

Two-bit Heroes
Author :
Publisher : D A W Books, Incorporated
Total Pages : 319
Release :
ISBN-10 : 0886775000
ISBN-13 : 9780886775001
Rating : 4/5 (00 Downloads)

Synopsis Two-bit Heroes by : Doris Egan

A thrilling new adventure of Theodora and Ran from the author of The Gate of Ivory. Drawn back to Ivory both by her love for Ran and her fascination with magic, Theodora leaves with Ran on an investigation for a noble family, and their mission gets them trapped between the Emperor's troops and a dangerous band of outlaws.

Cape

Cape
Author :
Publisher : Aladdin
Total Pages : 336
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781534439115
ISBN-13 : 1534439110
Rating : 4/5 (15 Downloads)

Synopsis Cape by : Kate Hannigan

“Readers…will be enamored by this blend of history, mystery, and superpowered action.” —Booklist (starred review) “Has the exciting pace of a superhero adventure.” —Kirkus Reviews Hidden Figures meets Wonder Woman in this action-packed, comic-inspired adventure about a brilliant girl puzzler who discovers she’s part of a superhero team—the first in a new series! Josie O’Malley does a lot to help out Mam after her father goes off to fight the Nazis, but she wishes she could do more—like all those caped heroes who now seem to have disappeared. If Josie can’t fly and control weather like her idol, Zenobia, maybe she can put her math smarts to use cracking puzzles for the government. After an official tosses out her puzzler test because she’s a girl, it soon becomes clear that an even more top-secret agency has its eye on Josie, along with two other applicants: Akiko and Mae. The trio bonds over their shared love of female superhero celebrities, from Hauntima to Zenobia to Hopscotch. But during one extraordinary afternoon, they find themselves transformed into the newest (and youngest!) superheroes in town. As the girls’ abilities slowly begin to emerge, they learn that their skills will be crucial in thwarting a shapeshifting henchman of Hitler, and, just maybe, in solving an even larger mystery about the superheroes who’ve recently gone missing. Inspired by remarkable real-life women from World War II—the human computers and earliest programmers called “the ENIAC Six”—this pulse-pounding adventure features bold action and brave thinking, with forty-eight pages of comic book style graphic panels throughout the book. Readers will want to don their own capes for an adventure, and realize they have the power to be a superhero, too!

Once Saved, Always Saved?

Once Saved, Always Saved?
Author :
Publisher : Anchor
Total Pages : 189
Release :
ISBN-10 :
ISBN-13 :
Rating : 4/5 ( Downloads)

Synopsis Once Saved, Always Saved? by : David Pawson

The majority Evangelical view is that once someone has accepted Christ as Saviour they are guaranteed salvation. But is it safe to assume that once we are saved, we are saved for always? David Pawson investigates this through biblical evidence, historical figures such as Augustine, Luther and Wesley, and evangelical assumptions about grace and justification, divine sovereignty and human responsibility. He asks whether something more than being born again is required so that our inheritance is not lost. This book helps us decide whether ‘once saved, always saved’ is real assurance or a misleading assumption. The answer will have profound effects on the way we live and disciple others.

Dominion

Dominion
Author :
Publisher :
Total Pages : 392
Release :
ISBN-10 : UOM:39015064884672
ISBN-13 :
Rating : 4/5 (72 Downloads)

Synopsis Dominion by : Calvin Baker

Calvin Baker first entered the literary landscape at the age of twenty-three with the publication of Naming the New World, which Publishers Weekly called brilliant ... Baker] proves himself a powerful new male voice in African American literature. Since his second novel, Once Two Heroes, Baker has continued to be acclaimed by the major media from USA Today to The Village Voice and GQ. And now, with Dominion, Baker has written his most ambitious, important, and timely book yet. Dominion tells the story of Jasper Merian, newly freed from slavery in Virginia at the close of the seventeenth century, who leaves for the uncharted free territory to the west. There, he aims to carve out a utopia in the wilderness of the Carolinas. While grappling with the legacy he has left behind, Jasper must build a home for himself to pass down to his two sons--one enslaved, the other free. Despite the hardships of frontier life and the malignant local spirit Ould Lowe, Jasper and his wife, Sanne, manage to build the thriving estate, Stonehouses. The farm passes through three generations, ministered in turn by Jasper's son Magnus and his grandson Caleum. Their lives bring them up against the natural (and occasionally supernatural) world, colonial politics, the injustices of slavery, the Revolutionary War, and questions of fidelity and the heart. When Caleum, discharged from the colonial army, lingers in New Amsterdam with another woman instead of returning to his family, the threads binding Stonehouses together begin to unravel. Ould Lowe, long restrained, again haunts the land, and, like his grandfather, Caleum must ultimately face the demon. Footed in both myth and modernity, Calvin Baker crafts a rich, intricate, and moving novel, with meditations on God, responsibility, and familial legacies. While masterfully incorporating elements of the world's oldest and greatest stories, the end result is a bold contemplation of the origins of America.

The Hero Strikes Back

The Hero Strikes Back
Author :
Publisher : Penguin
Total Pages : 321
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781440625084
ISBN-13 : 1440625085
Rating : 4/5 (84 Downloads)

Synopsis The Hero Strikes Back by : Moira J. Moore

In a realm beset by natural disasters, only the magical abilities of the bonded Pairs—Source and Shield—make the land habitable and keep the citizenry safe. The ties that bind them are far beyond the relationships between lovers or kin—and last their entire lives… Whether they like it or not. The weather in the city of High Scape is off the charts. It’s snowing in the middle of summer, and the townsfolk are desperate for Shield Lee Mallorough and Source Shintaro Karish to fix it—which they can’t do. But try explaining that to an angry mob… Meanwhile, there’s a crazed killer targeting aristocrats. Karish has forfeited the Dukedom of Westsea to continue working as a Source, but Lee fears that technicality won’t matter to the murderer. It certainly doesn’t matter to Karish’s mother, who’s bound and determined that he take the title. Only by working together will Lee and Karish be able to figure out the weather, catch the killer before it’s too late, and most importantly…get rid of Karish’s mother.

Before We Were Strangers

Before We Were Strangers
Author :
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Total Pages : 320
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781501105784
ISBN-13 : 1501105787
Rating : 4/5 (84 Downloads)

Synopsis Before We Were Strangers by : Renée Carlino

From the USA TODAY bestselling author of Sweet Thing and Nowhere But Here comes a love story about a Craigslist “missed connection” post that gives two people a second chance at love fifteen years after they were separated in New York City. To the Green-eyed Lovebird: We met fifteen years ago, almost to the day, when I moved my stuff into the NYU dorm room next to yours at Senior House. You called us fast friends. I like to think it was more. We lived on nothing but the excitement of finding ourselves through music (you were obsessed with Jeff Buckley), photography (I couldn’t stop taking pictures of you), hanging out in Washington Square Park, and all the weird things we did to make money. I learned more about myself that year than any other. Yet, somehow, it all fell apart. We lost touch the summer after graduation when I went to South America to work for National Geographic. When I came back, you were gone. A part of me still wonders if I pushed you too hard after the wedding… I didn’t see you again until a month ago. It was a Wednesday. You were rocking back on your heels, balancing on that thick yellow line that runs along the subway platform, waiting for the F train. I didn’t know it was you until it was too late, and then you were gone. Again. You said my name; I saw it on your lips. I tried to will the train to stop, just so I could say hello. After seeing you, all of the youthful feelings and memories came flooding back to me, and now I’ve spent the better part of a month wondering what your life is like. I might be totally out of my mind, but would you like to get a drink with me and catch up on the last decade and a half? M

Mask

Mask
Author :
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Total Pages : 288
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781534439153
ISBN-13 : 1534439153
Rating : 4/5 (53 Downloads)

Synopsis Mask by : Kate Hannigan

Akiko, Mae, and Josie, also called the Infinity Trinity, spring into action after learning that a spy is betraying secrets to the Japanese military--and that Akiko's mother may be involved.--