Cee Cee Porter came to Nashville as a young woman with a handful of love songs she’d written for her husband, Bucky, and a dream of joining the ranks of country music queens. After one of the songs became a hit, Bucky convinced her to trade her career for a family. Meanwhile, he founded DMG Records and became a major power player in Nashville. Now their marriage is falling apart. Like a good, Southern, Christian woman, Cee Cee does everything she can to save it. But when Bucky signs the young Australian phenomenon Michael Jennings, Cee Cee’s world is upended. As she tries to create a life above Nashville’s hypocritical moral stricture, she is menaced at every turn. A fast-paced, complex, true-to-life story, The Circle Broken captures what it’s really like to be in the music business: the fame, the debauchery, the manipulation, and the duplicity. It is a dramatic exploration of the psychology of money and power, illuminating the struggle of women trying to rise in a male-dominated world. Most importantly, it is a story about identity and about how trauma is passed from generation to generation, like a song no one can stop singing. Can the circle ever be broken?
"Witness an untold chapter in Halo lore as John Shirley's Halo: Broken Circle takes us to the dawn of the Covenant and the fateful first bargain between the Prophets and the Elites. Broken Circle will explore an Elite splinter group rebelling against the Covenant in its earliest days, a brave Prophet caught in the machinations of the new Covenant leadership, and the root of the betrayal that would ultimately shatter the Covenant during events seen in the blockbuster Xbox video game Halo 2"--
"Theodore Fontaine lost his family and freedom just after his seventh birthday, when his parents were forced to leave him at an Indian residential school by order of the Roman Catholic Church and the Government of Canada. Twelve years later, he left school frozen at the emotional age of seven. He was confused, angry and conflicted, on a path of self-destruction. At age 29, he emerged from this blackness. By age 32, he had graduated from the Civil Engineering Program at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology and begun a journey of self-exploration and healing.
Broken Circle recounts “The Chokecherry Massacre,” in which three New Mexico high-school students were charged with the murder of two Navajo Indian men, causing a violent, racial street riot that prompted the governor to call out the National Guard. The tensions between whites and Native Americans reached a high in the town of Farmington, New Mexico when three white high school students brutally tortured and killed helpless victims from the neighboring Navajo reservation. As the town erupted into a violent, racial street riot and the courts went easy on the sentencing of the high school boys, Barker tells how Navajo militants sought out justice for years of injustice and oppression in response. An illuminating work of contemporary history, The Broken Circle reveals both sides of a dramatic and painful conflict and a turning point in the struggle for Native American rights.
A stunning repackage of a companion to Mildred D. Taylor's Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, with cover art by two-time Caldecott Honor Award winner Kadir Nelson! It is a frightening and turbulent time for the Logan family. First, their friend T.J. must go on trial for murder--and confront an all-white jury. Then, Cousin Suzella tries to pass for white, with humiliating consequences. And when Cassie's neighbor, Mrs. Lee Annie, stands up for her right to vote, she and her family are driven from their home. Other neighbors are destroyed and shattered by the greed of landowners. But through it all, Cassie and the Logans stand together and stand proud--proving that courage, love, and understanding can defy even the deepest prejudice. "This dramatic sequel to Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry is a powerful novel . . .capable of touching readers of any age."—The Christian Science Monitor "A profoundly affecting novel."—Publishers Weekly
"Before the Soviet invasion of 1980, Enjeela Ahmadi remembers her home--Kabul, Afghanistan--as peaceful, prosperous, and filled with people from all walks of life. But after her mother, unsettled by growing political unrest, leaves for medical treatment in India, the civil war intensifies, changing young Enjeela's life forever. Amid the rumble of invading Soviet tanks, Enjeela and her family are thrust into chaos and fear when it becomes clear that her mother will not be coming home. Thus begins an epic, reckless, and terrifying five-year journey of escape for Enjeela, her siblings, and their father to reconnect with her mother. In navigating the dangers ahead of them, and in looking back at the wilderness of her homeland, Enjeela discovers the spiritual and physical strength to find hope in the most desperate of circumstances."--
Winner of the Writers' League of Texas's Discovery Prize for Middle Grade/Young Adult! "The Powerses' worldbuilding and writing will keep [readers] hooked. They will find themselves questioning what is fact and what is fiction and cheering Adam on as he journeys in this new, strange world. A gripping, philosophical paranormal thriller." --Kirkus Reviews "In this intriguing tale of life and death (literally, there are soul guides and a grim reaper), siblings J. L. and M. A. Powers explore the intersections of fear and power in relation to limbo, as Adam and his newfound friends try to become everything they are supposed to be...[This] will keep readers on the edge of their seats, wanting more--which is good, considering this is the first of a series." --Booklist "Fans of Holly Black and Cassandra Clare will enjoy this series starters." --School Library Journal "This novel was well constructed and rich in detail. The characters are well rounded and realistic...I enjoyed this novel very much and am excited for the next book in the series. I would recommend this novel to fans of Reaper fiction and any fantasy." --Life My Way (blog) "A very entertaining read." --Read Explore Repeat (blog) "If paranormal is your thing...give this one a try." --Reading Through Life "You won't want to put this one down: it's Hogwarts for soul guides, with family rivalries and developing powers aplenty. The writing flows and the characters have a rich depth to them, even with their own secrets that we may or may not find out before this volume ends. Thank goodness it's the first in a series; I have more to look forward to and so will you. Give this to your Gaiman fans, for sure; hand it to your Potterheads that are ready to meet a new group of friends. Give it to your readers that enjoy seeing life from a different point of view." --Mom Read It "Broken Circle is perfect for anyone who has ever been intrigued by figures of death (like the Grim Reaper, or the Underworld), enjoys YA fiction, and also likes boarding school settings." --Utopia State of Mind (blog) "Broken Circle's exacting mix of myth, science and the paranormal discloses that the whole world's destiny is at stake if powers and abilities like Adam's fall into the wrong, crepuscular hands. The Powerses have placed a sympathetic kid and his crew bravely in the midst of some very big questions (it's OK to think Harry Potter). What happens gives a different spin to everything on Earth and whatever may come after." --The Center for Fiction/Junior Edition column Adam wants nothing more than to be a "normal" teen, but his reality is quickly leaking normal. Afraid to sleep because of the monster that stalks his dreams, Adam's breakdown at school in front of his crush Sarah lands him in the hospital. As he struggles to cope with his day-to-day life, Adam can only vaguely comprehend some sort of future. His mother died when he was only four and his eccentric father--who might be an assassin, a voodoo god, the reincarnation of the Buddha, or something even stranger--is never available when Adam really needs him. Even his paranoid grandfather, who insists that people are "out to kill the entire family," is no help. Adam's life takes an even weirder turn when a fat man with a gold tooth and a medallion confronts his father regarding Adam's supposed "True Destiny." Adam is soon headed toward a collision with life, death, and the entities charged with shepherding souls of the newly dead, all competing to control lucrative territories where some nightmares are real and psychopomps of ancient legends walk the streets of North America.
INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER • A bestselling dystopian novel that tackles surveillance, privacy and the frightening intrusions of technology in our lives—a “compulsively readable parable for the 21st century” (Vanity Fair). When Mae Holland is hired to work for the Circle, the world’s most powerful internet company, she feels she’s been given the opportunity of a lifetime. The Circle, run out of a sprawling California campus, links users’ personal emails, social media, banking, and purchasing with their universal operating system, resulting in one online identity and a new age of civility and transparency. As Mae tours the open-plan office spaces, the towering glass dining facilities, the cozy dorms for those who spend nights at work, she is thrilled with the company’s modernity and activity. There are parties that last through the night, there are famous musicians playing on the lawn, there are athletic activities and clubs and brunches, and even an aquarium of rare fish retrieved from the Marianas Trench by the CEO. Mae can’t believe her luck, her great fortune to work for the most influential company in the world—even as life beyond the campus grows distant, even as a strange encounter with a colleague leaves her shaken, even as her role at the Circle becomes increasingly public. What begins as the captivating story of one woman’s ambition and idealism soon becomes a heart-racing novel of suspense, raising questions about memory, history, privacy, democracy, and the limits of human knowledge.
The renowned oral historian interviews ordinary people about facing mortality: “It’s the unguarded voices he presents that stay with you.” —The New York Times In this book, the Pulitzer Prize winner and National Book Award finalist Studs Terkel, author of the New York Times bestseller Working, turns to the ultimate human experience: death. Here a wide range of people address the unknowable culmination of our lives, the possibilities of an afterlife, and their impact on the way we live, with memorable grace and poignancy. Included in this remarkable treasury are Terkel’s interviews with such famed figures as Kurt Vonnegut and Ira Glass as well as with ordinary people, from policemen and firefighters to emergency health workers and nurses, who confront death in their everyday lives. Whether a Hiroshima survivor, a death-row parolee, or a woman who emerged from a two-year coma, these interviewees offer tremendous eloquence as they deal with a topic many are reluctant to discuss openly and freely. Only Terkel, whom Cornel West called “an American treasure,” could have elicited such honesty from people reflecting on the lives they have led and what lies before them still. “Extraordinary . . . a work of insight, wisdom, and freshness.” —The Seattle Times
The Broken Circle is the first book in the Potluck Yarn trilogy by Cheryl Potter. Combining Fantasy with fiber, and including patterns to guide young readers in making the magical garments worn by the characters, Potter spins a tale redolent with magic and layered with themes of friendship, loyalty, good vs. evil, the value of natural resources, the meaning and texture of courage, and even mortality. Follow the twelve knitting witches through adventures fraught with mayhem and mischief and knit your way through 21 patters as the Potluck witches seek to save their world. Twenty Years have passed since the fire beneath the great dyepot was lit and the circle was complete. Now, the folk of the Middlelands face a danger worse than any can remember. Darkness and chaos threaten to destroy the delicate balance of the natural world, and the magic of the dye crystals that have always been a way of life and a great source of power for the people has been outlawed. Readers age 11 and up will find themselves engrossed by this fanciful cross-over tale of magic and mayhem.
