“[Chaim] Potok writes powerfully about the suffering of innocent people caught in the cross-fire of a war they cannot begin to understand. . . . Humanity and compassion for his characters leap from every page.”—San Francisco Chronicle As the Chinese and the army of the North sweep south during the Korean War, an old peasant farmer and his wife flee their village across the bleak, bombed-out landscape. They soon come upon a boy in a ditch who is wounded and unconscious. Stirred by possessiveness and caring the woman refuses to leave the boy behind. The man thinks she is crazy to nurse this boy, to risk their lives for some dying stranger. Angry and bewildered, he waits for the boy to die. And when the boy does not die, the old man begins to believe that the boy possesss a magic upon which all their lives depend. . . .
The Newbery Medal–winning author of Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! gives readers a virtuoso performance in verse in this profoundly original epic pitched just right for fans of poetry, history, mythology, and fantasy. Welcome to ancient Greece as only genius storyteller Laura Amy Schlitz can conjure it. In a warlike land of wind and sunlight, “ringed by a restless sea,” live Rhaskos and Melisto, spiritual twins with little in common beyond the violent and mysterious forces that dictate their lives. A Thracian slave in a Greek household, Rhaskos is as common as clay, a stable boy worth less than a donkey, much less a horse. Wrenched from his mother at a tender age, he nurtures in secret, aided by Socrates, his passions for art and philosophy. Melisto is a spoiled aristocrat, a girl as precious as amber but willful and wild. She’ll marry and be tamed—the curse of all highborn girls—but risk her life for a season first to serve Artemis, goddess of the hunt. Bound by destiny, Melisto and Rhaskos—Amber and Clay—never meet in the flesh. By the time they do, one of them is a ghost. But the thin line between life and death is just one boundary their unlikely friendship crosses. It takes an army of snarky gods and fearsome goddesses, slaves and masters, mothers and philosophers to help shape their story into a gorgeously distilled, symphonic tour de force. Blending verse, prose, and illustrated archeological “artifacts,” this is a tale that vividly transcends time, an indelible reminder of the power of language to illuminate the over- and underworlds of human history.
To avert a potential underworld mutiny of horrific proportions, these fifty insurrectionists were relocated through a portal from the pit of hell to the dark Eldritch Forest of another world, parallel to our own. Upon their banishment, the condemned were transformed into half-man and half-serpent creatures. Thirteen years ago, William Clay-then a mere child-disappeared from a nearby forest, never to be seen again. Only recently, his younger brother, Dan, acquired information on the forest fables from a questionable source. After analyzing fact and legend, Dan suspects that his brother may have fallen through the portal into the parallel world and is being held captive by the fifty fiends. Join Dan and three friends as they embark on an out-of-this-world journey where they are hunted by savage beasts along the footpath to a demonic castle. Smith's pages within are your passport to A World Away, where the unimaginable becomes reality, the unnatural becomes the norm, and the uninvited become fitting prey.
When I was a little girl, no one told me about God. No one told me that God loved me. No one told me anything of the Lord, faith or belief. Looking back now I realize how much I wish they had. This is my story, the story of my personal journey with God. I came to a point in my life that I just could not go on with things the way they were. Perhaps you have wanted to know God more closely. I hope that in some small way, a poem, story, thought or prayer of mine blesses you. I pray that some part of my journey ministers to your soul.
In Learning to Sing, Clay Aiken tells the story of how his faith was integral to him learning valuable life lessons during his meteoric rise from life as an aspiring educator in Raleigh, North Carolina to instant stardom on "American Idol." Clay's advice is 1) Believe in yourself, 2) Believe in God, and 3) Be really stubborn. This personal relationship with God is key to personal success, as Clay has witnessed in real life experiences. When asked to "dirty up" his lyrics to increase sales, he resisted-and has sold more than 3 million albums. He refuses to make videos placing him in inappropriate situations, and considers his relationship with God the most valuable in his life. Learning to Sing is an account of Clay Aiken's extraordinary faith and will and perseverance, and an inspiring memoir by someone who became-against all odds-one of the biggest pop stars of his time.
"The rules are simple. If you want to travel back in time, you need to be at least eighteen years old. You can only travel within your own lifespan for a maximum of six months. And above all else, you must never, ever, change the past."--Back cover.
From the author of the no.1 New York Times bestselling novel The Book Thief. "An amazing talent in Australian literature" Sunday Telegraph The Dunbar boys bring each other up in a house run by their own rules. A family of ramshackle tragedy - their mother is dead, their father has fled - they love and fight, and learn to reckon with the adult world. It is Clay, the quiet one, who will build a bridge; for his family, for his past, for his sins. He builds a bridge to transcend humanness. To survive. A miracle and nothing less. WINNER INDIE BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION 2019 SHORTLISTED FOR THE ABIA BOOK OF THE YEAR 2019 LONGLISTED FOR THE DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD 2020 PRAISE FOR BRIDGE OF CLAY "I am pleased to recommend...Markus Zusak's extraordinary novel Bridge of Clay, which I suspect I'll reread many times. It's a sprawling, challenging, and endlessly rewarding book. But it also has the raw and real and unironized emotion that courses through all of Zusak's books. I'm in awe of him." John Green, author of The Fault in Our Stars and Looking for Alaska "Exquisitely written multigenerational family saga...With heft and historical scope, Zusak creates a sensitively rendered tale of loss, grief, and guilt's manifestations." Publishers Weekly "An evocative, compassionate and exquisitely composed coming-of-age story about family, love, tragedy and forgiveness. Zusak's prose is distinct: astute, witty, exquisitely rhythmic, and utterly engrossing." Australian Books+Publishing Magazine "Zusak is a writer of extraordinary empathy and he excels in his understanding of adolescent boys...in his portrayal of the gently traumatised Clay he has created a memorable character to savour... in Bridge of Clay, as earlier in The Book Thief, Zusak has succeeded in creating a story so vibrant and so real that the reader feels enveloped by it." The Australian "This vast novel is a feast of language and irony. It is such a compassionate book that it is hard not to fall a bit in love with it yourself. Bridge of Clay shares with Zusak's The Book Thief an underlying sense of the possibility of joy and human dignity even in dehumanising situations." Sydney Morning Herald "A complex, big-hearted, multi-generational Australian epic, highly evocative and rich in idiom that sprawls across 580 pages, much in the manner of Colleen McCullough, or Tim Winton's Cloudstreet." Good Weekend Magazine "In 2005, the Australian writer dazzled readers and secured a perch on bestseller lists with The Book Thief ...this book too is a stunner. Devastating, demanding and deeply moving, Bridge of Clay unspools like a kind of magic act in reverse, with feats of narrative legerdemain concealed by misdirection that all make sense only when the elements of the trick are finally laid out. In words that seem to ache with emotion, or perhaps, more aptly, with the suppression of it, Mr. Zusak moves us in and out of time. Grief and sacrifice lie at the heart of things, and we can feel it through Mr. Zusak's writing even before we understand the story's real contours." Wall Street Journal "What truly stands out about Bridge of Clay is the intensity of the prose - the potency of the heartbreak. The depth of grief and loss is so palpable you can all but feel the blood, sweat, and tears that went into crafting the story." Entertainment Weekly "As with The Book Thief, much of the appeal of the novel lies in Zusak's heartfelt love for his characters and for language. The book sings in short musical sentences like poetry, and words stop you in your tracks." Herald Sun
"In this book, Mother Nature reveals her own secret miracles for healthy living. You'll discover not only the history of healing clay, but also instructions on using clay for optimal health and beauty today. If you're ready to place your trust in Mother Earth, instead of the pharmaceutical Industry, then this book, and the fountain of knowledge within its pages, is exactly what you are seeking. Discover why natural Calcium Bentonite Clay is the premier healing clay, and why you should settle for nothing less"--p. 3 of cover.
The classic devotional, updated with page after page of full-color photographs and a fresh, new design! Most Christians have heard that God is the potter and we are the clay, but Diana Pavlac Glyer, who has spent countless hours at the potter's wheel, shows in this remarkable book that this is far more than a casual metaphor. As God hovers over His creation, centering us or shaping us or even restoring us from collapse, He may transform us in ways we never imagined. "In one hundred pages, Diana Glyer offers her readers fifteen marvelous chapters for reflection and more. You can feel her love of pottery and join her as she tells the story of creating something beautiful. Each chapter of 'Clay in the Potter's Hands' offers the reader an opportunity to accompany the potter at work. The author gently and easily moves from the potter's wheel to texts from the Bible that offer examples of each stage of development of the artist's work. These are accompanied by marvelous insights and questions for the reader to consider; then each chapter concludes with a prayer that brings the entire segment together." Father John Chandler, S.J., Honolulu, Hawaii "This is a really good book! It manages to combine depth and simplicity, which is rare, but I think it is the way it treats our experience of pain and broken-ness which really sets it apart. The chapters on Returning, Repairing and Redeeming were especially moving and significant for me. This book is going to be so helpful to so many people!" Malcolm Guite, Priest, Poet, Chaplain at Girton College, Cambridge, England
