My Life Before Me

Author : Norah McClintock
Publisher : Orca Book Publishers
ISBN 13 : 1459806638
Total Pages : 258 pages
Book Rating : 4.34/5 ( download)

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Download or read book My Life Before Me written by Norah McClintock and published by Orca Book Publishers. This book was released on 2015-09-29 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this YA novel, would-be reporter Cady investigates racism and family secrets in a small Indiana town.

Author : Emma Brockes
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 1101617853
Total Pages : 320 pages
Book Rating : 4.54/5 ( download)

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Download or read book She Left Me the Gun written by Emma Brockes and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2013-05-16 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "One of those memoirs that remind you why you liked memoirs in the first place... It has the density of a very good novel... As you do with the best writers, you feel lucky to be in Ms. Brockes’s company." --Dwight Garner, The New York Times A chilling work of psychological suspense and forensic memoir, She Left Me the Gun is a tale of true transformation: the story of a young woman who reinvented herself so completely that her previous life seemed simply to vanish, and of a daughter who transcends her mother’s fears and reclaims an abandoned past. “One day I will tell you the story of my life,” promises Emma Brockes’s mother, “and you will be amazed.” Brockes grew up hearing only pieces of her mother’s past—stories of a rustic childhood in South Africa, glimpses of a bohemian youth in London—and yet knew that crucial facts were still in the dark. A mystery to her friends and family, Paula was clearly a strong, self-invented woman; glamorous, no-nonsense, and frequently out of place in their quaint English village. In awe of Paula’s larger-than-life personality, Brockes never asked why her mother emigrated to England or why she never returned to South Africa; never questioned the source of her mother’s strange fears or tremendous strengths. Looking to unearth the truth after Paula’s death, Brockes begins a dangerous journey into the land—and the life—her mother fled from years before. Brockes soon learns that Paula’s father was a drunk megalomaniac who terrorized Paula and her seven half-siblings for years. After finally mustering the courage to take her father to court, Paula is horrified to see the malevolent man vindicated of all charges. As Brockes discovers, this crushing defeat left Paula with a choice: take her own life, or promise herself never to be intimidated or unhappy again. Ultimately she chooses life and happiness by booking one-way passage to London—but not before shooting her father five times, and failing to kill him. Smuggling the fateful gun through English customs would be Paula’s first triumph in her new life. She Left Me the Gun carries Brockes to South Africa to meet her seven aunts and uncles, weighing their stories against her mother’s silences. Brockes learns of the violent pathologies and racial propaganda in which her grandfather was inculcated, sees the mine shafts and train yards where he worked as an itinerant mechanic, and finds in buried government archives the court records proving his murder conviction years before he first married. Brockes also learns of the turncoat stepmother who may have perjured herself to save her husband, dooming Paula and her siblings to the machinations of their hated father. Most of all, She Left Me the Gun reveals how Paula reinvented herself to lead a full, happy life. As she follows her mother’s footsteps back to South Africa, Brockes begins to find the wellsprings of her mother’s strength, the tremendous endurance which allowed Paula to hide secrets from even her closest friends and family. But as the search through cherished letters and buried documents deepens, Brockes realizes with horror that her mother’s great success as a parent was concealing her terrible past—and that unearthing these secrets threatens to undo her mother’s work. A beguiling and unforgettable journey across generations and continents, She Left Me the Gun chronicles Brockes’s efforts to walk the knife-edge between understanding her mother’s unspeakable traumas and embracing the happiness she chose for her daughter.

Author : Norah McClintock
Publisher : Orca Book Publishers
ISBN 13 : 1459806646
Total Pages : 172 pages
Book Rating : 4.41/5 ( download)

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Download or read book My Life Before Me written by Norah McClintock and published by Orca Book Publishers. This book was released on 2015-09-29 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cady has always wanted to be a reporter, like her hero Nellie Bly, so after a fire burns down the orphanage she lives in, she’s ready to leave small-town Ontario and make her mark as a newspaperwoman. A crumbling newspaper clipping leads her to Orrenstown, Indiana, where her investigation into a long-ago murder earns her a hard lesson in race relations. Smart and determined, and more than a little headstrong, Cady pokes a stick into a wasp’s nest of lies, dirty politics, corrupt law enforcement and racial tension—and ends up fearing for her life as she closes in on something she’s never cared about before—the truth about her own origins. Part of the SECRETS—a series of seven linked novels that can be read in any order.

Author : Eghosa Omorogbe
Publisher : Writers Republic LLC
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 126 pages
Book Rating : 4.06/5 ( download)

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Download or read book My Life Before Me - The Memories Of Us Will Never Be Forgotten written by Eghosa Omorogbe and published by Writers Republic LLC. This book was released on 2023-01-30 with total page 126 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Throughout junior high school, Jackson was among the most popular kids until nasty rumors about him spread, something he couldn’t control. He decided to move away from the drama and start over north of town. Jackson undertakes his first days in high school, and more misfortune arises. He creates a second personality to hide his reality from the world. It is a personality that shows nothing about his past. He spends his days as a flight sergeant in a squadron or a musician in school, but whenever he’s alone, the mask disappears, the darkness of his past creeps back in. Jackson lives a double life he doesn’t want to endure. Jackson has a choice to end it all but instead, he decides to retrace his steps to remember who he is.

Author : Ann Patchett
Publisher : HarperCollins
ISBN 13 : 0063092808
Total Pages : 320 pages
Book Rating : 4.08/5 ( download)

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Download or read book These Precious Days written by Ann Patchett and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2021-11-23 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The beloved New York Times bestselling author reflects on home, family, friendships and writing in this deeply personal collection of essays. "The elegance of Patchett’s prose is seductive and inviting: with Patchett as a guide, readers will really get to grips with the power of struggles, failures, and triumphs alike." —Publisher's Weekly “Any story that starts will also end.” As a writer, Ann Patchett knows what the outcome of her fiction will be. Life, however, often takes turns we do not see coming. Patchett ponders this truth in these wise essays that afford a fresh and intimate look into her mind and heart. At the center of These Precious Days is the title essay, a surprising and moving meditation on an unexpected friendship that explores “what it means to be seen, to find someone with whom you can be your best and most complete self.” When Patchett chose an early galley of actor and producer Tom Hanks’ short story collection to read one night before bed, she had no idea that this single choice would be life changing. It would introduce her to a remarkable woman—Tom’s brilliant assistant Sooki—with whom she would form a profound bond that held monumental consequences for them both. A literary alchemist, Patchett plumbs the depths of her experiences to create gold: engaging and moving pieces that are both self-portrait and landscape, each vibrant with emotion and rich in insight. Turning her writer’s eye on her own experiences, she transforms the private into the universal, providing us all a way to look at our own worlds anew, and reminds how fleeting and enigmatic life can be. From the enchantments of Kate DiCamillo’s children’s books (author of The Beatryce Prophecy) to youthful memories of Paris; the cherished life gifts given by her three fathers to the unexpected influence of Charles Schultz’s Snoopy; the expansive vision of Eudora Welty to the importance of knitting, Patchett connects life and art as she illuminates what matters most. Infused with the author’s grace, wit, and warmth, the pieces in These Precious Days resonate deep in the soul, leaving an indelible mark—and demonstrate why Ann Patchett is one of the most celebrated writers of our time.

Author : George Kriflik
Publisher : Xlibris Corporation
ISBN 13 : 1543402429
Total Pages : 212 pages
Book Rating : 4.21/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Life Before Me written by George Kriflik and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2017-07-26 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Max is in trouble! But he cant work out what is happening. He hears one of his favourite songs, Spirit in the Sky, which immediately triggers a memory. Max is brought back to reality by hearing Darios voice and realizes that Dario is talking about him. Max is getting that creepy feeling that he is at his own funeral. Maxs mind keeps dashing off with memories, triggered by snippets of what Max hears being said. One of his very few friends from Hobart is persuaded to move to Sydney to join Max and to share some of his exploits. Max manages to get into a long-term relationship, but this does not stop Max from having a fling with the wife of a boss. Maxs mind at times comes back to his transgressions, and he wonders if one of these has led to his predicament. But what is to become of Max? Is it really Maxs funeral?

Author : Anna Quindlen
Publisher : Ballantine Books
ISBN 13 : 0307763528
Total Pages : 98 pages
Book Rating : 4.25/5 ( download)

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Download or read book How Reading Changed My Life written by Anna Quindlen and published by Ballantine Books. This book was released on 2010-12-22 with total page 98 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Anna Quindlen presents a “swift and compelling paean to the joys of books” (Booklist). “Like the columns she used to write for the New York Times, [How Reading Changed My Life] is tart, smart, full of quirky insights, lapidary, and a pleasure to read.”—Publishers Weekly “Reading has always been my home, my sustenance, my great invincible companion. . . . Yet of all the many things in which we recognize universal comfort—God, sex, food, family, friends—reading seems to be the one in which the comfort is most undersung, at least publicly, although it was really all I thought of, or felt, when I was eating up book after book, running away from home while sitting in a chair, traveling around the world and yet never leaving the room. . . . I read because I loved it more than any activity on earth.”—from How Reading Changed My Life

Author : Hanya Yanagihara
Publisher : Anchor
ISBN 13 : 0804172706
Total Pages : 834 pages
Book Rating : 4.07/5 ( download)

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Download or read book A Little Life written by Hanya Yanagihara and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2016-01-26 with total page 834 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A stunning “portrait of the enduring grace of friendship” (NPR) about the families we are born into, and those that we make for ourselves. A masterful depiction of love in the twenty-first century. NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • MAN BOOKER PRIZE FINALIST • WINNER OF THE KIRKUS PRIZE A Little Life follows four college classmates—broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition—as they move to New York in search of fame and fortune. While their relationships, which are tinged by addiction, success, and pride, deepen over the decades, the men are held together by their devotion to the brilliant, enigmatic Jude, a man scarred by an unspeakable childhood trauma. A hymn to brotherly bonds and a masterful depiction of love in the twenty-first century, Hanya Yanagihara’s stunning novel is about the families we are born into, and those that we make for ourselves. Look for Hanya Yanagihara’s latest bestselling novel, To Paradise.

Author : Rebecca Stead
Publisher : Wendy Lamb Books
ISBN 13 : 0375892699
Total Pages : 210 pages
Book Rating : 4.91/5 ( download)

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Download or read book When You Reach Me written by Rebecca Stead and published by Wendy Lamb Books. This book was released on 2009-07-14 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Like A Wrinkle in Time (Miranda's favorite book), When You Reach Me far surpasses the usual whodunit or sci-fi adventure to become an incandescent exploration of 'life, death, and the beauty of it all.'" —The Washington Post This Newbery Medal winner that has been called "smart and mesmerizing," (The New York Times) and "superb" (The Wall Street Journal) will appeal to readers of all types, especially those who are looking for a thought-provoking mystery with a mind-blowing twist. Shortly after a fall-out with her best friend, sixth grader Miranda starts receiving mysterious notes, and she doesn’t know what to do. The notes tell her that she must write a letter—a true story, and that she can’t share her mission with anyone. It would be easy to ignore the strange messages, except that whoever is leaving them has an uncanny ability to predict the future. If that is the case, then Miranda has a big problem—because the notes tell her that someone is going to die, and she might be too late to stop it. Winner of the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award for Fiction A New York Times Bestseller and Notable Book Five Starred Reviews A Junior Library Guild Selection "Absorbing." —People "Readers ... are likely to find themselves chewing over the details of this superb and intricate tale long afterward." —The Wall Street Journal "Lovely and almost impossibly clever." —The Philadelphia Inquirer "It's easy to imagine readers studying Miranda's story as many times as she's read L'Engle's, and spending hours pondering the provocative questions it raises." —Publishers Weekly, Starred review

Author : Oliver Burkeman
Publisher : Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN 13 : 0374715246
Total Pages : 140 pages
Book Rating : 4.43/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Four Thousand Weeks written by Oliver Burkeman and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2021-08-10 with total page 140 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "Provocative and appealing . . . well worth your extremely limited time." —Barbara Spindel, The Wall Street Journal The average human lifespan is absurdly, insultingly brief. Assuming you live to be eighty, you have just over four thousand weeks. Nobody needs telling there isn’t enough time. We’re obsessed with our lengthening to-do lists, our overfilled inboxes, work-life balance, and the ceaseless battle against distraction; and we’re deluged with advice on becoming more productive and efficient, and “life hacks” to optimize our days. But such techniques often end up making things worse. The sense of anxious hurry grows more intense, and still the most meaningful parts of life seem to lie just beyond the horizon. Still, we rarely make the connection between our daily struggles with time and the ultimate time management problem: the challenge of how best to use our four thousand weeks. Drawing on the insights of both ancient and contemporary philosophers, psychologists, and spiritual teachers, Oliver Burkeman delivers an entertaining, humorous, practical, and ultimately profound guide to time and time management. Rejecting the futile modern fixation on “getting everything done,” Four Thousand Weeks introduces readers to tools for constructing a meaningful life by embracing finitude, showing how many of the unhelpful ways we’ve come to think about time aren’t inescapable, unchanging truths, but choices we’ve made as individuals and as a society—and that we could do things differently.