I’m always amazed at how the shallowness of a
culture can imperil the lives of smarter people.
Cathy was an active pre-teen girl in pants,
still living on the plantation of her family’s former enslavers. When General
Robert E. Lee appears with his retinue, he mistakes her for a boy and enlists
her – like it or not -- into his regiment as the cook’s assistant. And she must
continue to masquerade as a male.
But what does a girl do when the men
challenge her in pissing contests? I
continually anguished over whether she’d get herself out of such situations.
Although her circumstances are far from my own, her dilemmas felt quite
familiar in the sense that she constantly had to assess people’s motives as
well as their sincerity.
"You'll be swept away by the passion and power of this remarkable, trailblazing woman who risked everything to follow her own heart." – Kristin Hannah, #1 New York Timesbestselling author
"An epic page-turner." – Christina Baker Kline
Named Best Fiction Writer in the Austin Chronicle's "Austin's Best 2018" Named one of Lone Star Literary Life's "Top 20 Texas Books of 2018"
The compelling, hidden story of Cathy Williams, a former slave and the only woman to ever serve with the legendary Buffalo Soldiers.
“Here’s the first thing you need to know about Miss Cathy Williams: I am the daughter of…
Nicki's obsessive
internal monologue seems to trap her somewhere between fantasy and
reality.
But isn't this a truth about
life in general? How much do we rationalize our desires as we navigate the
world outside our heads?
Her desires keep her from seeing key aspects of her
own personality. As she argues with
herself in meticulous detail, so do the police who suspect her of murder. The
reader must figure out to what extent Nicki is a reliable narrator, as well as
whether the police's logic is sound.
What I relate to in this book is that I've
sometimes learned that friends and acquaintances have really been more locked
into their internal worlds than being
upfront about what's true for them. There's an almost obsessive amount of
detail, especially in Nicki's inner monologue as we learn increasingly more
about her, but it serves the story's purpose as well as constructs
interestingly complex characters.
It contained constant surprises. I liked
how the author constructed the story bit by bit and her insight into how these
characters think.
Lisa Gardner calls it "mesmerizing." Liane Moriarty says it's "unpredictable, unputdownable, and unlike anything you've read before." See for yourself what these #1 New York Times-bestselling authors are talking about.
She's a wife.
She's a mother.
She isn't who you think she is.
Nicki Clements has secrets, just like anybody else—secrets she keeps from her children, from her husband, from everyone who knows her. Secrets she shares with only one person: A stranger she's never seen. A person whose voice she's never heard.
And then Nicki is arrested for murder. The murder…
I love this book because of its reference to a
higher reality and to the idea that life itself and all its details can be
read as symbolic metaphors for reality.
After the boat carrying Pi’s family and their
zoo animals from India to Canada sinks. Pi floats adrift for 277 days before
he’s rescued from his lifeboat, where
he experiences extreme
distress and fear for his life.
When he presents two different versions of his
experience to his rescuers, who must write an official report, his rescuers must
assess which of his versions contains the “truth” in the same way we gravitate
between surface meanings and underlying ones.
After the sinking of a cargo ship, a solitary lifeboat remains bobbing on the wild blue Pacific. The only survivors from the wreck are a sixteen-year-old boy named Pi, a hyena, a wounded zebra, an orangutan—and a 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger.
Soon the tiger has dispatched all but Pi Patel, whose fear, knowledge, and cunning allow him to coexist with the tiger, Richard Parker, for 227 days while lost at sea. When they finally reach the coast of Mexico, Richard Parker flees to the jungle, never to be seen again. The Japanese authorities who interrogate Pi refuse to believe his…
Unbeknownst
to Sylvie, the clash between her two dominant character traits – love of the
truth and love for absurdities – lead her into situations that are difficult to
get out of. She’s a stickler about facts but a sucker for people. The book
follows her thinking from childhood to adulthood as she becomes increasingly
aware of both what’s true in life as well as what she must learn to regard as
the absurdities of people.
My granddaughter likes how the girl Ryan always wants to be good and be a good friend, but is undergoing lots of changes. The family is moving to another house, is going to be in a talent show and she's afraid that no one will like her or her talent.
She is inspired by how Ryan believes she'll be fine, despite her fears.
From New York Times-bestselling and multi-award-winning author Renee Watson comes the start of a character-driven, young middle grade series starring a black girl and her relatable and lovable family
'Without ever shying away from difficult topics such as racism and financial hardship, this is a positive, optimistic story. For readers who are going through tough or troubling times, this book will be a welcome dose of happiness' BookTrust Great Books Guide 2021
Ryan Hart and her family live in Portland, Oregon, and her dad lost his job a while ago. He finally got a new one, but it pays less,…
It’s a book of funny poems. The one my granddaughter likes best is called “Sick”, when a girl names all the things that she’s pretending to be sick, making up all kinds of things that are wrong with her so she won’t have to go to school. But then her mom tells her it’s Saturday and there’s no school. That made my granddaughter laugh. She also likes how the poem rhymes.
Shel Silverstein, the New York Times bestselling author of The Giving Tree, A Light in the Attic, Falling Up, and Every Thing On It, has created a poetry collection that is outrageously funny and deeply profound. Come in...for where the sidewalk ends, Shel Silverstein's world begins. This special edition contains 12 extra poems. You'll meet a boy who turns into a TV set, and a girl who eats a whale. The Unicorn and the Bloath live there, and so does Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout who will not take the garbage out. It is a place where you wash your shadow…
This a fantasy chapter book about a girl at a magic school who’s taking lessons. You’re supposed to turn into a type of animal, but the girl can’t figure out how to work the magic right, so she’s a mixed-up animal, like a cat with dragon wings, which is funny and kind of scary. My granddaughter found it exciting to see what was going to happen to her.
A hilarious and heartfelt new series about a group of magical misfits!
Nory Horace is nine years old. She's resourceful, she's brave, she likes peanut butter cookies. Also, like most people in her magical world, she's able to transform into many different animals.
Unfortunately, Nory's shape-shifting ability is a bit...wonky. And when she flunks out of her father's own magic academy, Nory's forced to enter the magic equivalent of the remedial classes.
But Nory and her new classmates are going to prove that upside-down magic definitely beats right-side up!
