![]() The first book in a new apocalyptic series, Partials forces readers to truly examine what it means to be human, reevaluating the concept of humanity. She learns that the source of their survival is the Partials themselves, thereby also revealing a secret about her own identity she is unprepared/unwilling to accept. She uncovers a link between humans and the Partials, a link the powers that be want to keep secret. Unable to continue to watch newborn babies die within hours of their birth, she decides to take a desperate step toward finding a cure for RM. ![]() Kira is a sixteen-year-old medic in training. Every girl of this age must become pregnant by any means necessary (including insemination) and as often as possible. The governing body referred to as the Senate is so desperate to prevent the complete devastation of the human race that they lower the mandatory pregnancy age to 16. ![]() The plan to repopulate civilization is thwarted when babies are born unable to survive the first few days of life before becoming victims of the virus. The Partials have retreated, the timing of their return unknown. ![]() Roughly 40,000 individuals have survived the virus known as RM. FebruJenn Balzer + Bray, Dystopian fiction, Harper Collins Publishers, YA 7Īfter a war against engineered beings identical to humans, known as Partials, human kind is nearly extinct. ![]()
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![]() ![]() To see the rest of the books on the Top 5 Picture Books about Grandmas, please visit my blog post at Peachy Books here. I feel similarly about I’ll Love You Forever by Robert Munsch. It’s never easy to talk to a child about death, but a simple, beautifully illustrated book like this can be just the thing to assist a child’s understanding of something that we as adults struggle to comprehend. This heartfelt tale is a tear-jerker, so be prepared before you brandish it at bedtime to an unsuspecting little one. My son had such a special relationship with my grandmother, so seeing little Tommy fastened in his chair alongside Nana upstairs made me melt. If there was a story on the list that hits me dead centre of my heart, it’s this one. ![]() ![]() ![]() In this gritty and gripping memoir, Dubus bares his soul in stunning and page-turning prose." Ultimately, he decided to take up his pen and write his way up from the bottom and into a new relationship with his father. Modeling himself on the Walking Tall sheriff, Buford Pusser, Dubus paid back acts of physical violence. After having his bike stolen, being slapped around by some of the town's bullies, and watching his brother and mother humiliated by some of the town's thugs, Dubus started lifting weights at home and boxing at the local gym. ![]() For a few years, Dubus escaped into drugs, embracing the apathetic "no-way-out" attitude of his friends. Just after he turned 12, Dubus's family fell rapidly into shambles after his father-the prominent writer Andre Dubus-not only left his wife for a younger woman but also left the family in distressing poverty on the violent and drug infested side of their Massachusetts mill town. "Long before he became the highly acclaimed author of Hou se of Sand and Fog, Dubus shuffled and punched his way through a childhood and youth full of dysfunction, desperation, and determination. ![]() ![]() ![]() When he sees a distant sail, does hope spring up again? No! ''Davos watched the sail grow for a long time, trying to decide whether he would sooner live or die.Dying would be easier, he knew. As the point of view (one per chapter) switches to former smuggler Davos, he is stranded on a rock in the middle of the sea, suffering from a fever and living off the muddy puddles from occasional rainfall. ![]() ![]() Martin's A Storm of Swords, there's a good example. The first three hefty tomes - all fantasies dealing with human woes in times of war and general upheaval - turned out to be particularly appropriate for the difficulties of my own out-of-state move if I thought I've had troubles, these characters have them in spades!Įarly on in George R.R. Martin's ''Song of Ice and Fire'' series. ![]() The last time I dealt with books this big may have been for the February 1999 column, when my reviews included A Clash of Kings, the previous volume in George R.R. Review by Faren Miller, from the November 2000 Locus Magazine ![]() ![]() From teachers to housemaids, from mothers to sons, Alvar’s powerful debut collection explores the universal experiences of loss, displacement, and the longing to connect across borders both real and imagined. ![]() In the Country speaks to the heart of everyone who has ever searched for a place to call home. And in the title story, a journalist and a nurse face an unspeakable trauma amidst the political turmoil of the Philippines in the 1970s and ’80s. A college student leans on her brother, a laborer in Saudi Arabia, to support her writing ambitions, without realizing that his is the life truly made for fiction. In Bahrain, a Filipina teacher drawn to a special pupil finds, to her surprise, that she is questioning her own marriage. ![]() Here are exiles, emigrants, and wanderers uprooting their families from the Philippines to begin new lives in the Middle East, the United States, and elsewhere-and, sometimes, turning back again.Ī pharmacist living in New York smuggles drugs to his ailing father in Manila, only to discover alarming truths about his family and his past. ![]() ![]() These nine globe-trotting, unforgettable stories from Mia Alvar, a remarkable new literary talent, vividly give voice to the women and men of the Filipino diaspora. ![]() ![]() It draws heavily - and sometimes verbatim - from his writings. The show is startlingly faithful to Hamilton’s life. The show, which Miranda famously began writing after reading Ron Chernow’s biography, chronicles Hamilton’s ascension to the forefront of American history. ![]() The tale of the "$10 Founding Father without a father" has inspired years of sell-out crowds at theaters across the country. The smash-hit Broadway musical "Hamilton" is making its move to the TV screen, bringing Lin-Manuel Miranda’s hip-hop biography of Alexander Hamilton to a new audience. (We've also fact-checked BlacKkKlansman, The Post, Darkest Hour and Dunkirk.) We want to help you sort out the facts from the dramatic liberties. ![]() Editor's note: Have you ever wondered if the movie you just saw - that claimed to be based on a real story or historical events - was really accurate? So have we. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Until a series of unexplained “accidents” begins on set.ĭanger has caught up to her… and this time she fears death has, too. ![]() Not only does her illusion slip with the blast of icy water, but it does so in front of the country’s biggest action hero and the gossipiest of celebrity TV shows.Īt first, Zoey thinks danger hasn’t caught up to her and the worst thing about her mishap is the world’s most perfect man sees her in all her not-so-perfect glory. Then her perfect job becomes her perfect nightmare. It also doesn’t hurt that she’s safe within the heavily secured and secret studio sets, away from the public eye. Working as a makeup and special effects artist for Hollywood combines her two life must-haves: her passion for makeup and hiding in plain sight. Her ability to fool the eye, to create truth where there was previously none makes her the best in the business. For those reasons, Zoey has become an expert at creating the perfect illusion. But it is something she can’t forget, something she’s reminded of every time she looks in the mirror. The only thing drawn to her more than danger is him…ĭanger isn’t Zoey’s middle name. ![]() ![]() ![]() Three unforgettable narrators join together here to tell a spellbinding story with wit, wonder, and deep affection. And in a town where nothing ever changes, suddenly everything does. Soon, the Mitchell sisters are uncovering mysteries buried longer than they’ve been alive and taking on a system stacked against them. But just when it seems life might go on the same forever, the first moving truck anyone’s seen in years pulls up and unloads new residents and old secrets. Mab’s job is hardest of all: get good grades, get into college, get out of Bourne.įor a few weeks seventeen years ago, Bourne was national news when its water turned green and was declared unfit for use, but it was too late for its residents, and the girls have come of age watching their mother’s endless fight for justice. Monday is the town’s purveyor of books now that the library’s closed-tell her the book you think you want, and she’ll pull the one you actually do from the microwave or her underwear drawer. ![]() ![]() Mirabel is the smartest person anyone knows, and no one doubts it just because she can’t speak. Everyone knows everyone in the tiny town of Bourne, but the Mitchell triplets are especially beloved. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Sunny's time with her Gramps is, after some adjustment, deliciously empty. These are things that the Holms convey in Sunny Side Up, through story and illustrations. I also have memories of the long, hot days of summer that stretched out ahead of you with a comfortable emptiness and memories of running around with packs of kids and benevolent neglect on the part of the pre-helicopter parents. I was eight in 1976 and I had a colonial girl costume that I wore, although maybe not as much as Tina Fey. As Sunny's days at Pine Palms unfold, flashbacks reveal the events that led her to her grandfather's apartment rather than a vacation at the beach with her best friend. It's August, 1976 and Sunny (short for Sunshine) is getting off a plane in Florida where she will spend the rest of the summer with her grandfather in his retirement community. and Matthew Holm are the sibling team who created the excellent, adventurous, sometimes silly Babymouse and Squish series of graphic novels, but with Sunny Side Up the Holms take on difficult sibling relationships, familial bonds, drug abuse, senior citizens and the bicentennial with a superb clarity and sensitivity. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Perkins-Valdez has done a fine job of building a structure and scaffolding that will not only endure but also bear the weight of future writers yearning to bring the past to readers afresh. Take My Hand - by Dolen Perkins-Valdez (Hardcover) 14. Take My Hand reminds us that truly extraordinary fiction is rarely written merely to entertain. In exploring unexplored events involving Black American women, Perkins-Valdez gives us a fuller, richer view of our nation’s history while also reminding readers that Black girls’ bodies and futures have never been protected in the American experiment. ![]() And in a novel that is steeped in the stew and issues of womanhood, Perkins-Valdez manages to get even the male characters on point. Not every reader will recognize the careful detail, but those who do will feel rewarded to finally behold a book that centers their experience. Perkins-Valdez paints Montgomery in such rich strokes, you can feel history breathing down your neck. As always, the author has clearly spent a great deal of time researching to ensure depth and accuracy. That's the question that protagonist Civil Townsend, a Black nurse in 1970s Alabama, has to grapple with when the federally funded clinic she works for causes irreparable harm to two of her young. In a perfectly orchestrated symphony of specificity, nuance, Jim Crow history and memory, Perkins-Valdez brings the events and images of Montgomery 1973 whizzing back like an unscheduled train rushing past a platform. ![]() |