He seemed to work magic in the oil business as he established wildly successful ventures. California at the turn of the century was his stage and his adventures read like fiction until his luck seems to run out and he exits to China. Was he a huckster from the outset?
Call Me Cecilia is story about a high school ladies’ man who messes with the wrong girl. In the course of courting his new conquest at a party, Cecil accidentally falls on top of her in a drunken state. In an angry response, the girl, Beth, uses her special powers and puts a spell on Cecil, effectively sending him into a parallel world where he has to be a female for a full year. Over the course of that period, Cecil, now called Cecilia, gradually transforms from the boy he was into the girl he is to become. He must adjust to the many male and female differences and make sense of who he is while living out his female life. Over the course of time, Cecilia endures the horrible pain of a breakup and losing a lifelong friend. At the end of the spell, Cecilia must then decide whether to remain a girl or go back to being the boy he was before his transformation.
This story is about 17 year old Jennifer, approaching her senior year in high school. She starts out with so many good things happening. But it all goes downhill when she gets involved with boys and the so called popular crowd. But she then learns that popularity isnt everything.
During the 1921 race riots in Tulsa, Oklahoma, violence tears the city apart. One woman, Apple Lewis, is caught in the carnage. She barely escapes with her life, but luckily, two mysterious men rescue her. They whisk her away from the bloodshed and give her another chance at a mystical life she never could have imagined. Her saviors are decedents of an ancient Native American tribe referred to as Spirit Walkers. The Spirit Walkers discovered the fountain of youth, and now Ms. Apple is offered the opportunity to share their immortal gifts. Upon acceptance of their offer, her travels take her away from Tulsa and on an enigmatic journey as the world changes around her. Her passage through time and place is not without threats, however, as villains long for the secret of her eternal youth. To protect herself, she receives other strange gifts from the Spirit Walkers. Ms. Apple has the chance to see the world turn for decades and decades without fear of age or death, but that does not make her immune to horror or conspiracy.
A car was coming towards her. Surprisingly she didnt see it and I couldnt get to her in time. I saw it slam into her. I saw her fly into the air and land on her arm. I saw it yet I couldnt stop it. I didnt see the driver; it didnt really matter at that moment in time. All I cared about was my mother. But something felt odd, like dj vu. Doli and Nymphandora are both running away from their past. They both find themselves in Chicago, and as they get to know each other, they realise they havent left their past behind; it has simply followed them. So what are they going to do? Are they going to run again or stay and fight?
Jim Carlson’s most vivid memories of childhood are of his estranged father’s obsession with parring the Savage. Located on the island of Caramus, the 458-yard, par 4, 16th hole at Wild Links has presumably never been parred. At age twenty-five, Jim sets off to Caramus. Over the course of this golfing weekend, his life is forever transformed. There is the beautiful Tina, who presents Jim with a challenge to rival his own dream of parring the Savage. And there is John; a handsome, solidly built enigma of a young man who can knock the cover off a golf ball and plans to make his own run at the Savage—by using a gold ball, a 9-iron, and a little bit of magic. Nine-Iron John is a tale about reconciling a painful past with the hope for the future. It’s about fathers and sons, the fertile territory of the male ego, about coming to terms with the pursuit of athletic and sexual conquests. It’s about the search for dignity and self-respect, the desire to love and to be loved. It is the story of the journey that all men begin… that only a select few ever manage to successfully complete.
Sage Gaveston was your typical wall flower. She had few close friends and plenty of bullies. She had little excitement in her life - that was until Purrin Xavier walked into Math class. Purrin was everything Sage wasn't, outgoing, popular and gorgeous. He even had the attention of Beverly Miles, the hottest girl in school. So why did he bother with Sage? Sage began to notice strange things happening around the new guy. Milk exploding, soup boiling, and failed food fights to name just a few. Purrin was a mystery that Sage was bent on figuring out. But what if the mystery wasn't so much the new kid, but Sage herself? What if Sage was the puzzle that needed to be solved?
Perish the Day is a riveting new mystery from John Farrow, an author who "brings a literary fiction writer's sensitivity to nuance and feel for landscape to this fine, character-rich thriller with a bang-up finish" (Booklist). A co-ed is found murdered on campus, her body scarcely touched. The killer paid meticulous attention to the aesthetics of his crime. Coincidentally (or not), a college custodian is also found dead. While an epic rainstorm assails the Holyoake, New Hampshire campus, overflowing rivers and taking down power lines, a third crime scene is revealed: a professor, formerly a spy, has been shot dead in his home. A mysterious note is found that warned him to run. Each victim is connected to the Dowbiggin School of International Relations, yet none seems connected to the other. The dead student was a close friend of Sergeant-Detective Émile Cinq-Mars’s niece, so he puts his nose in; when internecine battles between police departments create a rift, he covertly slips into the crevice so he can be involved in the investigation. Coming up against campus secrets, Émile Cinq-Mars must uncover the links between disparate groups quickly before the next victim is selected for an elaborate initiation into murder.
Although this book is a work of fiction, it is based on actual events. John Gross lived through those events. He commanded a mechanized infantry company that fought in Bien Hoa City on the first day of the Tet Offensive. I was one of his soldiers that day. He has an insider's understanding of the Vietnam War, but he also has a wonderful facility for making it understandable to the average reader. David T. Zabecki, Editor, Vietnam Magazine
I remember the first time I met John, or "Johnny B" as most folks referred to him - it was at his daughter, Melody's wedding rehearsal, where I was best man for my friend Jeff. John was dressed in his best attire - new blue work pants with suspenders, blue suit with a white shirt and a navy colored neck tie. He had difficulty finding shirts with a large enough neck, so instead of the top button holding his shirt collar together, the task was forfeited to the necktie. He and his wife Anne had married a bit later in life, as did both his daughters, so he was 79 years old at the time of Melody's wedding. Anne told him, with a voice still slightly tainted with a Slovak accent, "Papa, when you walk Melody down the isle, walk straight. Don't walk like an old man." John looked at her over his glasses and said, "I AM an old man."