Jack hasn’t been in the public eye since his brother died a few years ago, preferring to hide out in the remote mountains of North Dakota instead of making blockbuster films. But Hannah’s boss has no intention of letting her off the hook, so she ends up protecting Jack as he stays with his family on their ranch. Sure, Jack Stapleton is one of the sexiest men alive, but he’s not even sure he needs a bodyguard despite having a very persistent stalker. So when her boss assigns her to an actor who’s visiting his ailing mother in nearby Katy, Hannah’s not interested. Now she’s stuck at home in Houston, grieving and lonely, wishing for a job that could take her far away. And although Hannah could easily incapacitate or even kill a threat, her job is to “anticipate harm before it ever materializes-and avoid it.” She spends most of her work time traveling the world, which is just how she likes it-that is, until her mother dies, her boss makes her take some time off, and her fellow agent boyfriend dumps her. Although many people picture bodyguards as big, burly men, Hannah stays undercover and unnoticed as a 5-foot-5 female agent, often blending in as a nanny. Hannah Brooks is an Executive Protection Agent, better known as a bodyguard. When a professional bodyguard is assigned to cover a famously reclusive actor, sparks fly.
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“But the world is round,” says his grandmother. After years of failure at school, failure at work, of spending his days dreaming in tea stalls, and singing to himself in the public gardens, it does not seem as if Sampath is going to amount to much. Sampath Chawla was born in a time of drought into a family not quite like other families, in a town not quite like other towns. Now available for the first time as a Grove Press paperback, Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard-Desai’s dazzling, much-heralded debut novel-is a wryly hilarious and poignant story of life, love, and family that simultaneously captures the vivid culture of the Indian subcontinent and the universal intricacies of human experience. Winner of the 2006 Man Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction for her second novel The Inheritance of Loss, Kiran Desai is one of the most talented writers of her generation. The descriptions given to describe the dragon are beautiful. We only really follow Tomkin, the mysterious Mags, the purple hat flaunting creature Wink, and the dragon. Although simple, the characters are engaging throughout. It was similar to King’s Eyes of the Dragon (that I loved when I was 11) and the main flashback from his The Wind Through the Keyhole. Perhaps the sort that you and your children could read at the same time and both love. Simply put, this is a very well written, positive fantasy drama that would be a great introduction to the scene for young teens. Tomkin, with his grandfathers sword Scalebreaker, decides to investigate the castle ruins at Colbreth where the dragon is reportedly residing. Everything is in order and great until a dragon is witnessed hijacking and devouring local sheep. His hero brother, Elton, and the nation’s armies are away doing typical military duty. He’s a great strategist and administrator with a prompt, analytical mind. Tomkin is the youngest son of the Duke of Marshwell. Set in the world of The Keeper Chronicles which includes SPFBO semi-finalist A Threat of Shadows, this is an enjoyable fantasy fairy tale told to a crowded inn full of enthusiastic patrons, by a Keeper. I received a free copy of A Keeper’s Tale in exchange for an honest review. Wulf follows in the footsteps of Stephen Hawking (2002) and Bill Bryson (2004), to win the prize. It is a book you will find yourself talking endlessly about with friends in the pub.” The Invention of Nature by Andrea Wulf is a thrilling adventure story as much as a science book about a polymath who had an extraordinary impact on our contemporary understanding of nature. “The decisive factor for the winning book was that it excited and gripped us as judges the most. On the Moon there is also a basaltic plane named Humboldtianum.Ĭhair of judges and former winner of the Prize, Bill Bryson said: Humboldt's namesakes include the Humboldt Current – the cold ocean current that hugs South America - mountain ranges in China, New Zealand and South Africa a breed of penguins in South America a river in Brazil a glacier in Greenland 13 towns in North America and a predatory six-foot squid. The book starts with an invocation to the Muse of poetry, which was the kind of beginning that ancient authors used when writing their books, believing that poetry and literature are a “gift” from the Gods.Īfter the invocation, the story begins in medias res, at the moment when Odysseus has been away from his home in Ithaca for two decades – the first of which he spent in the Trojan War, and the last ten years trying to return back home. Many theories are revolving around Homer’s identity, but whoever he was, it is certain that his works are one of the most influential and important pieces of writing ever created. It is still unknown if the name is of an individual author, or a collective name, which represents many collectors that have turned the oral tradition into writing in the course of many years. Homer is one of the first authors of Ancient Greece whose work has survived until today. Homer is considered as the well from which everyone can get inspiration. We recommend it to all readers of classical stories, as well as to aspiring authors. Unlike “The Iliad,” which is a war epic, “The Odyssey tells an individual story of a man and his struggles on the way to go back home to his family. “The Iliad” and “The Odyssey” are the most famous and celebrated poems of Homer. 4 min read ⌚ Who Should Read “The Odyssey”? And Why? Sometimes the woods themselves feel like the monster of the story. The atmosphere of the town and the woods is haunting and dark. As with her first book Craig’s writing is amazing. I rated it five out of five stars and actually enjoyed it more than “A House of Salt and Sorrows”. Will the townspeople survive the winter without the necessary supplies or will the monsters get to them first? These monsters convince the townspeople to do terrible things to each other in return for small favors. While the townspeople are concerned about surviving a harsh winter, beasts capable of tearing men apart in seconds, and the appearance of weird mutations in animals, Ellerie Downing becomes aware of a different type of monster lurking around the town. When members of a supply run are found dead in the woods, the people of the town start to suspect that the monsters have returned. There are stories of monsters lurking in the woods since the founding of the town, but no one has seen these monsters since the time of the founders. “Small Favors” takes place in the small town of Amity Falls. I decided to read it since I loved her first book so much. At the time I was reading the book, Erin Craig’s newest book “Small Favors” came out. If you keep up with my blog or have seen any of my previous posts you know that in August I read and loved “A House of Salt and Sorrows” by Erin Craig. Jojo slumps forward into the grass, and the cop is shaking his head, reaching under Michaela, who kicks at him, to cuff Jojo with one hand. “Sonofabitch!” Misty screams, and drops Michaela, who runs to Jojo, throws herself on his back, and wraps herself, arms and legs, around him. Now on his knees, the gun pointing at his head. When I open my eyes again, Jojo’s still whole. I blink and I see the bullet cleaving the soft butter of him. …the sound raw and carrying in the air, and Jojo shakes his head without pausing and staggers when the officer kicks his legs apart, the gun a little lower now, but still pointing to the middle of his back. The novel is written from various perspectives, and the page below is from a chapter narrated by Leonie.Ĭlick on the highlighted words to see Ward’s insights. When Jojo reaches for his pocket, the officer points a gun to his face. The family has just been pulled over, the mother Leonie has swallowed a small bag of methamphetamine to hide the evidence, and a police officer has handcuffed Leonie, her boyfriend, Michael, and their 13-year-old son Jojo, as 3-year-old Michaela cries and calls out for her brother. The scene takes place during a traffic stop. Below, Jesmyn Ward isolates a pivotal moment from her novel, “Sing, Unburied, Sing,” and explains the writing choices she made. "So you're the risqué Josella," I exclaimed. "I once wrote a book called Sex Is My Adventure." "How exciting! We're both sighted! I'm Josella Playton." The name seemed familiar, yet I couldn't quite place her. I biffed the cad who was harassing her and sent him packing. Having eyes was a grim business, but I concluded the women were probably happy to let the men take charge and continued up an alley where I heard an upper-class woman plaintively calling for help. On reaching Piccadilly Circus I encountered 50 blind wretches abusing some women. Perhaps those walking, talking triffids which we had grown from a few seeds donated by a Soviet defector, yet which had mysteriously taken over the world, were to blame for the pickle we found ourselves in. "How very distressing," I replied, not wondering if his wife had not perhaps been a little hasty as at that time she had no way of knowing if the blindness was but temporary.Īs I proceeded carefully towards central London, incurious that the sudden blindness had somehow also managed to largely depopulate the city, I reflected on my career as a biologist. Her portrayal of man, his thoughts and actions and bodily functions, achieves a level of grotesqueness rarely approached so unflinchingly. Here, Baume flexes some muscle with her ability to defamiliarize contemporary Ireland through adept, jolting descriptions and wordplay. The use of third-person narrative draws the reader intimately to the breast of the narrator while endowing them with the heightened senses of a canine, as filtered through Ray’s human perspective. When local authorities threaten to take him away after an incident in which another dog is left wounded, Ray and One Eye go on the run.īaume’s skill for withholding and providing information is pitch perfect. As a result, Ray’s loyalty towards One Eye builds with incredible intensity. As Ray and One Eye become intimately entwined, One Eye becomes the focal point of a life which until this point totally lacked love or purpose. The narrator Ray addresses the reader through his bloodthirsty, bedraggled, newly adopted mongrel One Eye, who becomes the first companion he has known in his fifty-seven years, apart from the distant father who kept him separated from human love and company. Spill Simmer Falter Wither, the debut novel from Sara Baume, is a masterpiece of language, a demonstration of the heights that words are able to reach when guided by a master hand. “This poetic and gently sublime book takes us on a journey of discovery of ‘our home wrapped in water. This book will appeal to anyone interested in the natural world, in artistic depictions of it, or in a good story well told. The Memory of Water probes a crucial and contemporary issue-that of our relationship to water and the wildlife and human life that depends upon it. Travelling the River Ganges in India, the author finds that a massive misuse of water is complicated by a billion people’s faith-based adoration of the same water. Other stories include an account of a sojourn in a small Georgian Bay fishing village as a young artist, an adventure on an urban river in southwestern Ontario, and a portrayal of the complex underwater world of the South Pacific. But his Arctic stories also celebrate human creativity as they recount the life of the pre-Inuit people, who, hunting in a changing environment, endured many hardships and developed new technologies, such as the sea kayak, to cope. In the Arctic he is attacked by a polar bear, stalked by a rogue walrus, and nearly drowns in ferocious waters. The stories in The Memory of Water-all of them accompanied by the author’s own stunning artwork-describe his adventures in the Arctic, South Pacific, Great Lakes region, and India. Adventurer, writer, and artist Allen Smutylo has experienced some of the wildest and most captivating waters imaginable in all corners of the globe. |