DescriptionWhen Maude Chambliss first arrives at Retreat, the seasonal home of her husband's aristocratic family, she is a 19-year-old bride fresh from South Carolina's Low Country. Among the patrician men and women who reside in the summer colony on the coast of Maine, her gypsy-like beauty and impulsive behavior immediately brand her an outsider. She, as well as everyone else, is certain she will never fit in. And of course, she doesn't, at first. But over the many summers she spends there, Maude comes to cherish life in the colony, as she does the people who share it with her. There is her husband Peter, consumed with a darkness of spirit; her adored but dangerously fragile children; her domineering mother-in-law, who teaches her that it is the women who possess the strength to keep the colony intact; and Maine native Micah Willis, who is ultimately Maude's truest friend.
DescriptionEmma-Jean Lazarus is a lovable oddball who thinks she can use logic to solve the "messy" everyday problems of her seventh-grade peers. It's easy - she just follows the example of her late father, a brilliant mathematician. Of course, the more Emma-Jean gets involved, the messier her own life gets. Suddenly, she's no longer the person standing on the outside of all social interactions. But perhaps that's a good thing? Quirky, honest, and written by first-time author Lauren Tarshis, this is a tender story about what happens when a girl who has long stood in the social shadows gets a taste of what it's like to connect with kids her own age.
Description"Is this my hidden Mutant Power, the ability to screw up absolutely any decent situation?" Fanboy has never had it good, but lately his sophomore year is turning out to be its own special hell. The bullies have made him their favorite target; hi…
DescriptionKabloona is a true story of a journey into the North. This extraordinary classic has been variously acclaimed as one of the great books of adventure, travel, anthropology, and spiritual awakening. In the summer of 1938, the Frenchman Gontran de…
DescriptionBy the time Dostoevsky was 40, he had spent four years in prison and a further four years in the army as punishment for his part in a political conspiracy. His health was broken. He was gaunt, fervid, anxiety-ridden, and close to bankruptcy. It was in this state he wrote Notes from the Underground, a masterpiece of the psychology of theoutsider. The book, published in 1864, marks a turning point in Dostoevsky's writing: it announces the moral, political, and social ideas that he will further examine in Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov . The book opens with a tormented soul crying out, "I am a sick man...I am a spiteful man." This is the cry of an alienated individual who has become one of the greatest anti-heroes in all literature.
DescriptionThis critically acclaimed debut by breakout author Keith Donohue flawlessly blends fantasy and realism into an utterly unique fable, inspired by a W.B. Yeats poem, that has been described as a bedtime story for adults. Seven-year-old Henry Day is kidnapped and renamed "Aniday" by changelings, ageless beings who inhabit the woods near his home. The changelings also leave behind one of their own, who flawlessly impersonates Henry except for one noteworthy detail: the new Henry is a prodigiously talented pianist. Both Aniday and Henry settle comfortably enough into their new existences, but both are haunted by vague memories of their former lives. A fresh take on the search for identity that will appeal to fans of J.R.R. Tolkien and J.M. Barrie, The Stolen Child triumphantly announces Donohue as a fresh voice in contemporary fiction.
