![]() “When I first got the idea to become a novelist, it took me five years to teach myself the craft and finish my first book,” Brenda admits. ![]() In school, math and science were her best subjects, and when it came time to pick a major in college, she chose business.Ībandoning her academic scholarship to Brigham Young University at the age of 20 in order to get married and start a family, Brenda dabbled in commercial real estate, then became a loan officer. In fact, Brenda swears she didn’t have a creative bone in her body. However, writing was the last profession she expected to undertake. “It was then that I decided that I needed to do something from home.” “I caught my day-care provider drugging my children with cough syrup and Tylenol to get them to sleep while I was away,” Brenda says. It was a shocking experience that jump-started Brenda Novak’s bestselling author career. ![]()
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![]() ![]() ![]() This is a stirring small-town story that explores many different issues-albinism, blindness, depression, dyslexia, growing old, and more-with a light touch and lots of heart. The funny thing is, as Alice confronts her own blindness, everyone else seems to see her for the first time. No one, not even her new friend Kerica, believes she can scout out her new town’s stories and write the essay by herself. To prove it, Alice enters the Stinkville Success Stories essay contest. She’s going to show them-and herself-that blindness is just a part of who she is, not all that she can be. But when her parents start looking into schools for the blind, Alice takes a stand. In Stinkville, Alice finds herself floundering-she can’t even get to the library on her own. Back in her old neighborhood in Seattle, everyone knew Alice, and Alice knew her way around. Until Stinkville.įor the first time in her life, Alice feels different-like she’s at a disadvantage. But life has always been like this for Alice. ![]() Putting on sunscreen and always wearing a hat are just part of life. And a cane keeps her from bruising her hips on tables. Sure, she uses a magnifier to read books. "Even I could see that Tooter was no Seeing Eye dog."īefore Stinkville, Alice didn’t think albinism-or the blindness that goes with it-was a big deal. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() What they don’t know is that Stahl, horrified by the Nazi war on Jews and intellectuals, has become part of an informal spy service being run out of the American embassy in Paris.įrom Alan Furst, the bestselling author, often praised as the best spy novelist ever, comes a novel that’s truly hard to put down. The Nazis know he’s coming-a secret bureau within the Reich Foreign Ministry has for years been waging political warfare against France, using bribery, intimidation, and corrupt newspapers to weaken French morale and degrade France’s will to defend herself.įor their purposes, Fredric Stahl is a perfect agent of influence, and they attack him. It is the late summer of 1938, Europe is about to explode, the Hollywood film star Fredric Stahl is on his way to Paris to make a movie for Paramount France. ![]() ![]() ![]() It features a new take on an age-old classic that will ensure lots of giggles and lots of re-readings - a perfect go-to bedtime story. ![]() Let's be clear, they were definitely not setting up a trap for some succulent, poorly supervised little girl called Goldilocks who may wander by.ahem. ![]() Also included is a homework sheet for additional practice. Students cut out the picture cards and put them in the correct order. While reading this story, the Pumpkins used vegetables to create their own Papa Dinosaur, Mama Dinosaur, and Baby Dinosaur. Then the class read Goldilocks and The Three Dinosaurs. One day, purely on a whim, they decided to tidy up their house nice and neat, make their beds up all cosy and comfortable, prepare delicious hot chocolate pudding of varying temperatures, place their chairs just so, and go.Someplace else. This activity includes the five-finger retelling template (characters, setting, beginning, middle, end) and picture cards to go along with Goldilocks and the Three Bears. First, the Pumpkins read Jan Brett's Goldilocks and The Three Bears and identified the main story elements including: setting, characters, plot, and theme. ![]() Once upon a time, there were three hungry dinosaurs: Papa Dinosaur, Mama Dinosaur and.a Dinosaur who happened to be visiting from Norway. I would then use their answers to transition into Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs and ask them based on the previous questions what they think the story will. Have you ever heard the story of Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs? Yes, you heard right - Dinosaurs. This is a hugely entertaining and riotous re-telling of a classic fairytale from one of the most original and funny voices in children's books today. ![]() ![]() Ken has every reason to hate Jordan for his past: Ken's baseball career was shattered in a drunk-driving accident. One thing he knows for sure: finding love is entirely too much to ask.On the first day of his new job, Jordan meets Ken Ashton. He's past the worst part of his life but knows it will haunt him forever. He has the skills to get a job, but isn't sure any prospective employer can get past the time he spent in jail for alcohol-related vehicular homicide. He wants to reconnect with best friends Cooper and Shawn yet is uncertain of his welcome. Nacho's he has one goal in mind: starting over. Can love bring them back to life? When Jordan Jensen moves to St. An alcohol fueled accident destroyed two men. ![]() ![]() ![]() How dare he? How dare they all?”Īgamemnon disrespected him, tore his honour to shreds and tossed it at Achilles’ feet like a filthy rag, and no one lifted a finger to oppose him. ![]() He stands there, silent, eyes solemn and forlorn. He can feel nothing beyond it, think nothing, see nothing. He flings them away, then tosses the ewer on the table across the tent - the sound it makes as it shatters against a chair is sickening.Īchilles’ rage is hot, incandescent. ![]() The spear snaps in Achilles’ hands in an explosion of wood, the two halves of it now useless. Even while we talk, Time, hateful, runs a mile. Be wise, strain clear the wine, and prune the rambling vine of expectation. How much better to suffer whatever will be, whether Zeus gives us more winters, or whether this is our last, which now weakens the Tyrrhenian sea on the pumice stones opposing it. Leave the Babylonians to parse the sentence of the stars. Don’t ask (we may not know), Leuconoë, what the gods plan for you and me. ![]() ![]() The Marquess and I is the first Forever Yours novel by Stacy Reid. As she navigates the traps laid for her by enemies, Drac must decide if he will claim Saieke as his mate or relinquish her to avoid embroiling his kingdom in war… Drawn by an irresistible hunger to the princess, he forces himself to maintain distance from a woman who is forbidden to those of his race. Shadow assassin Drac must find the factions who murdered the dark king. The only thing she needs from him is his body to advance her plot, certainly not the soul-searing desire has. Making matters worse, she’s stuck with Archduke Drac EL Kyn – a creature of darkness and sensuality, who entices her with reckless passion. Running from a blood oath made against her will to the tyrant king, the last place Princess Saieke expected to be trapped was in the Darkage – the land of the feared shadowed demons. ![]() Stacy Reid Synopses: Eternal Darkness by Stacy Reid is the first book in the Amagarians series. ![]() If You Like Stacy Reid Books, You’ll Love… ![]() ![]() ![]() Most people assume that the term “Leb” is shorthand for “Lebanese” – in such a way, we often construct the “Leb” in Australia as a foreign presence (and menace!) from Lebanon. The book’s title means so much more than simply people of Lebanese background: even Palestinian and Indonesian boys are referred to as “Lebs” and there’s a tribal element to the label. ![]() I don’t care what readers take away from this book, so long as they know that I was honest with them. What are you hoping readers will take away from the book? On the surface, The Lebs is a coming of age story about a Lebanese-Australian teenage boy trying to find his place in a post-9/11 world, yet you explore other issues – disaffection, anger, marginalisation among them. ![]() Michael Mohammed Ahmad talks to The Big Smoke about his book, The Lebs, racism, Islamophobia, misinformation, paranoia and the power of art. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() I personally thought Nightblood was the best of the three books. I wish I had started the series sooner, and finished it sooner, but in the end, I enjoyed it nonetheless. ![]() I purchased Nightblood last year when it was first released as a birthday present to myself (it came out one day before my birthday), and I am so glad I did. The Minax, dark spirits bent on doing the bidding of the god Eurus, will destroy the world if Ruby, Kai, Arcus and the rest of the book’s characters do not attempt to seal the magical doorway holding them at bay. Nightblood begins where the second book in the trilo gy, Fireblood, left off, with Ruby Otrera, the main character, on a ship destined for Tempesia, and a Minax in her heart. The final book in the Frostblood trilogy, author Elly Blake’s breakout young adult fantasy series, comes to a close with this dark and twisty book full of desire, blood, hatred and love. ![]() ![]() ![]() And as they team up with the powerful men of London’s exclusive Séance Society to solve the mystery, they begin to suspect that they are not merely out to solve a crime, but perhaps entangled in one themselves… Written with intoxicating suspense and sultry prose, The London Séance Society is an entrancing tale that blurs the lines between truth and illusion, and reveals the grave risks women will take to avenge the ones they love. ![]() With shared determination, the women find companionship that perhaps borders on something more. When Vaudeline is beckoned to England to solve a high-profile murder, Lenna accompanies her as an understudy. ![]() Lenna Wickes has come to Paris to find answers about her sister’s death, but to do so, she must embrace the unknown and overcome her own logic-driven bias against the occult. Known worldwide for her talent in conjuring the spirits of murder victims to ascertain the identities of the people who killed them, she is highly sought after by widows and investigators alike. At an abandoned château on the outskirts of Paris, a dark séance is about to take place, led by acclaimed spiritualist Vaudeline D’Allaire. THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER From the author of the sensational bestseller The Lost Apothecary comes a spellbinding tale about two daring women who hunt for truth and justice in the perilous art of conjuring the dead. ![]() |