Icy Sparks

Author : Gwyn Hyman Rubio
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 1101200189
Total Pages : 336 pages
Book Rating : 4.86/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Icy Sparks written by Gwyn Hyman Rubio and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2001-03-08 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New York Times Notable Book and the March 2001 selection of Oprah's Book Club® ! Icy Sparks is the sad, funny and transcendent tale of a young girl growing up in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky during the 1950’s. Gwyn Hyman Rubio’s beautifully written first novel revolves around Icy Sparks, an unforgettable heroine in the tradition of Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird or Will Treed in Cold Sassy Tree. At the age of ten, Icy, a bright, curious child orphaned as a baby but raised by adoring grandparents, begins to have strange experiences. Try as she might, her "secrets"—verbal croaks, groans, and physical spasms—keep afflicting her. As an adult, she will find out she has Tourette’s Syndrome, a rare neurological disorder, but for years her behavior is the source of mystery, confusion, and deep humiliation. Narrated by a grown up Icy, the book chronicles a difficult, but ultimately hilarious and heartwarming journey, from her first spasms to her self-acceptance as a young woman. Curious about life beyond the hills, talented, and energetic, Icy learns to cut through all barriers—physical, mental, and spiritual—in order to find community and acceptance. Along her journey, Icy faces the jeers of her classmates as well as the malevolence of her often-ignorant teachers—including Mrs. Stilton, one of the most evil fourth grade teachers ever created by a writer. Called willful by her teachers and "Frog Child" by her schoolmates, she is exiled from the schoolroom and sent to a children’s asylum where it is hoped that the roots of her mysterious behavior can be discovered. Here Icy learns about difference—her own and those who are even more scarred than she. Yet, it isn’t until Icy returns home that she really begins to flower, especially through her friendship with the eccentric and obese Miss Emily, who knows first-hand how it feels to be an outcast in this tightly knit Appalachian community. Under Miss Emily’s tutelage, Icy learns about life’s struggles and rewards, survives her first comical and heartbreaking misadventure with romance, discovers the healing power of her voice when she sings, and ultimately—takes her first steps back into the world. Gwyn Hyman Rubio’s Icy Sparks is a fresh, original, and completely redeeming novel about learning to overcome others’ ignorance and celebrate the differences that make each of us unique.

Author : Gwyn Hyman Rubio
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 9780142000205
Total Pages : 340 pages
Book Rating : 4.05/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Icy Sparks written by Gwyn Hyman Rubio and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2001-03-08 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New York Times Notable Book and the March 2001 selection of Oprah's Book Club® ! Icy Sparks is the sad, funny and transcendent tale of a young girl growing up in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky during the 1950’s. Gwyn Hyman Rubio’s beautifully written first novel revolves around Icy Sparks, an unforgettable heroine in the tradition of Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird or Will Treed in Cold Sassy Tree. At the age of ten, Icy, a bright, curious child orphaned as a baby but raised by adoring grandparents, begins to have strange experiences. Try as she might, her "secrets"—verbal croaks, groans, and physical spasms—keep afflicting her. As an adult, she will find out she has Tourette’s Syndrome, a rare neurological disorder, but for years her behavior is the source of mystery, confusion, and deep humiliation. Narrated by a grown up Icy, the book chronicles a difficult, but ultimately hilarious and heartwarming journey, from her first spasms to her self-acceptance as a young woman. Curious about life beyond the hills, talented, and energetic, Icy learns to cut through all barriers—physical, mental, and spiritual—in order to find community and acceptance. Along her journey, Icy faces the jeers of her classmates as well as the malevolence of her often-ignorant teachers—including Mrs. Stilton, one of the most evil fourth grade teachers ever created by a writer. Called willful by her teachers and "Frog Child" by her schoolmates, she is exiled from the schoolroom and sent to a children’s asylum where it is hoped that the roots of her mysterious behavior can be discovered. Here Icy learns about difference—her own and those who are even more scarred than she. Yet, it isn’t until Icy returns home that she really begins to flower, especially through her friendship with the eccentric and obese Miss Emily, who knows first-hand how it feels to be an outcast in this tightly knit Appalachian community. Under Miss Emily’s tutelage, Icy learns about life’s struggles and rewards, survives her first comical and heartbreaking misadventure with romance, discovers the healing power of her voice when she sings, and ultimately—takes her first steps back into the world. Gwyn Hyman Rubio’s Icy Sparks is a fresh, original, and completely redeeming novel about learning to overcome others’ ignorance and celebrate the differences that make each of us unique.

Author : Gwyn Hyman Rubio
Publisher : Penguin Group
ISBN 13 : 9780143037422
Total Pages : 436 pages
Book Rating : 4.20/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Woodsman's Daughter written by Gwyn Hyman Rubio and published by Penguin Group. This book was released on 2005 with total page 436 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A big raw-boned, brave novel in the post civil War era.

Author : Tawni O'Dell
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 1101209275
Total Pages : 352 pages
Book Rating : 4.71/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Back Roads written by Tawni O'Dell and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2001-01-01 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE Funny and heartbreaking, this New York Times bestselling debut perfectly captures the maddening confusion of adolescence and the prickly nature of family with irony and unerring honesty. Harley Altmyer should be in college having the time of his life. He should be free from the backwards Pennsylvania coal town he calls home, with its lack of jobs and no sense of humor. Instead, he’s constantly reminded of just how messed up everything is... Harley’s mother is in prison for killing his father, so he’s in charge of bringing up his younger sisters and working two jobs to pay the bills—and that doesn’t leave a lot of time for distractions. But lately, he’s getting more and more sidetracked by lusting after Callie Mercer, his middle-aged neighbor. As he struggles to keep it together, things begin to spin out of control. Soon Harley finds that as shattered as his family is, there are still more crushing surprises in store. “In Harley, O’Dell has created a hero who’s heartbreakingly believable; like Holden Caulfield, he uses caustic humor to hide his pain. Readers will care very much about him and his future, if indeed he has one.”—St. Petersburg Times

Author : Christina Schwarz
Publisher : Ballantine Books
ISBN 13 : 030748405X
Total Pages : 370 pages
Book Rating : 4.55/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Drowning Ruth written by Christina Schwarz and published by Ballantine Books. This book was released on 2008-11-19 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Deftly written and emotionally powerful, Drowning Ruth is a stunning portrait of the ties that bind sisters together and the forces that tear them apart, of the dangers of keeping secrets and the explosive repercussions when they are exposed. A mesmerizing and achingly beautiful debut. Winter, 1919. Amanda Starkey spends her days nursing soldiers wounded in the Great War. Finding herself suddenly overwhelmed, she flees Milwaukee and retreats to her family's farm on Nagawaukee Lake, seeking comfort with her younger sister, Mathilda, and three-year-old niece, Ruth. But very soon, Amanda comes to see that her old home is no refuge--she has carried her troubles with her. On one terrible night almost a year later, Amanda loses nearly everything that is dearest to her when her sister mysteriously disappears and is later found drowned beneath the ice that covers the lake. When Mathilda's husband comes home from the war, wounded and troubled himself, he finds that Amanda has taken charge of Ruth and the farm, assuming her responsibility with a frightening intensity. Wry and guarded, Amanda tells the story of her family in careful doses, as anxious to hide from herself as from us the secrets of her own past and of that night. Ruth, haunted by her own memory of that fateful night, grows up under the watchful eye of her prickly and possessive aunt and gradually becomes aware of the odd events of her childhood. As she tells her own story with increasing clarity, she reveals the mounting toll that her aunt's secrets exact from her family and everyone around her, until the heartrending truth is uncovered. Guiding us through the lives of the Starkey women, Christina Schwarz's first novel shows her compassion and a unique understanding of the American landscape and the people who live on it.

Author : Anne Leonard
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 0143126210
Total Pages : 385 pages
Book Rating : 4.18/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Moth and Spark written by Anne Leonard and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2014-12-30 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A prince with a quest, a beautiful commoner with mysterious powers, and dragons who demand to be freed—at any cost Filled with the potent mix of the supernatural and romance that made A Discovery of Witches a runaway success, Moth and Spark introduces readers to a vibrant world—and a love story they won’t soon forget. Prince Corin has been chosen to free the dragons from their bondage to the power Mycenean Empire, but dragons aren’t big on directions. They have given him some of their power, but none of their knowledge. No one, not the dragons nor their riders, is even sure what keeps the dragons in the Empire’s control. Tam, sensible daughter of a well-respected doctor, had no idea before she arrived in Caithenor that she is a Seer, gifted with visions. When the two run into each other (quite literally) in the library, sparks fly and Corin impulsively asks Tam to dinner. But it’s not all happily ever after. Never mind that the prince isn’t allowed to marry a commoner: war is coming. Torn between his quest to free the dragons and his duty to his country, Tam and Corin must both figure out how to master their powers in order to save Caithen. With a little help from a village of secret wizards and rogue dragonrider, they just might pull it off.

Author : Gwyn Hyman Rubio
Publisher : Ashland Creek Press
ISBN 13 : 1618220330
Total Pages : 306 pages
Book Rating : 4.32/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Love and Ordinary Creatures written by Gwyn Hyman Rubio and published by Ashland Creek Press. This book was released on 2014-10-15 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New York Times bestselling author Gwyn Hyman Rubio’s highly anticipated new novel... Love and Ordinary Creatures is told through the eyes of a cockatoo in love with his very human caretaker. Snatched in a net from his Australian homeland as a young parrot, Caruso has adapted to captivity and has learned all he knows of love from his previous owner, who was obsessively fixated on his childhood sweetheart. Now in his new home with the beautiful and talented Clarissa, Caruso has found both love and happiness—until a handsome stranger arrives in town and sets his sights on Clarissa. Smart, passionate, and wildly inventive, Caruso strives to put his human rival in his place before he loses Clarissa for good. And when a hurricane descends upon the coast, Caruso’s love for Clarissa and his memories of freedom are tested as the storm threatens all that he holds dear. Set in the early 1990s in a quaint North Carolina seashore town, Love and Ordinary Creatures is an exquisite tale of the ways in which love and hope transcend species.

Author : Sue Miller
Publisher : Ballantine Books
ISBN 13 : 0345420748
Total Pages : 348 pages
Book Rating : 4.49/5 ( download)

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Download or read book While I Was Gone written by Sue Miller and published by Ballantine Books. This book was released on 2002-11-26 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The "New York Times" bestseller called "quietly gripping" by "USA Today" demonstrates how impulses can fracture even the most stable family. Despite her loving family and beautiful home, Jo Becker is restless. Then an old roommate reappears, bringing back Jo's memories of her early 20s. Jo's obsession with that period in her life--and the crime that ended it--draws her back to a horrible secret.

Author : Kerrelyn Sparks
Publisher : St. Martin's Paperbacks
ISBN 13 : 125010825X
Total Pages : 444 pages
Book Rating : 4.58/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Eight Simple Rules for Dating a Dragon written by Kerrelyn Sparks and published by St. Martin's Paperbacks. This book was released on 2018-03-27 with total page 444 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the brilliant imagination of "New York Times"-bestselling author Sparks comes the third installment of a bold new fantasy romance series in which passion and magic collide. Original.

Author : Janet B. Taylor
Publisher : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN 13 : 1328698963
Total Pages : 451 pages
Book Rating : 4.64/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Sparks of Light written by Janet B. Taylor and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2017-08-01 with total page 451 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A time-traveling teenager must race from twenty-first–century Scotland to Gilded Age New York in book two of this YA sci-fi fantasy series. When American teenager Hope Walton first came to the Scottish Highlands, she got more than she bargained for—new friends, a (maybe) boyfriend, and a quick excursion to the 12th century. Hope is part of a long line of time-traveling ancestors known as the Viators. But while the Viators make sure not to disturb the natural timeline, a rival group of time-travelers has other ideas. The Timeslippers plan to steal a dangerous device from the inventor Nikola Tesla, and Hope and the Viators must race into the past to stop them. As they nagivage the glitterati of The Gilded Age in 1895 New York City, Hope and her crew will discover that high society can be as deadly as it is beautiful. In this sequel to the dazzling time-travel romance Into the Dim, sacrifice takes on a whole new meaning as Hope and Bran struggle to determine where—or when—they truly belong.