Reading assessment book for use with the running records on the Columbia University Teachers College Reading & Writing Project website.William is organized and ready for Wednesday, but not this weird Wednesday. F&P: J, RR/DLL: 18, DRA2: 18, Lexile: 590L, Stage: Transitional-Early Fluent, Type: Fiction
When we first meet Pearl - young in years but advanced in her drinking - she's sitting at a hotel bar in Florida, throwing back gin and tonics. Cradled in the crook of her arm is her infant son. But the relief she feels at having fled her abusive husband, and the Northeastern island his family calls home, doesn't last for long. Soon she's being shepherded back. The island, for Pearl, is a place of madness and pain, and her drinking might dull the latter but it spurs on the former. Through the lens of Pearl's fragile consciousness, readers encounter the horror and triumph of both childhood and motherhood. With language that flits between exuberance and elegy, the plainspoken and the poetic, Joy Williams has created a modern fairy-tale, entirely original and entirely consuming.
A New York Times bestseller | Soon to be a major motion picture “Witty, endearing and greatly entertaining.” —Wall Street Journal “Don’t trust anyone, including the four septuagenarian sleuths in Osman’s own laugh-out-loud whodunit.” —Parade Four septuagenarians with a few tricks up their sleeves A female cop with her first big case A brutal murder Welcome to... THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB In a peaceful retirement village, four unlikely friends meet weekly in the Jigsaw Room to discuss unsolved crimes; together they call themselves the Thursday Murder Club. When a local developer is found dead with a mysterious photograph left next to the body, the Thursday Murder Club suddenly find themselves in the middle of their first live case. As the bodies begin to pile up, can our unorthodox but brilliant gang catch the killer, before it's too late?
Sexy and seductive, Breaking & Entering stars Academy Award nominee Jude Law (Cold Mountain), Academy Award winner Juliette Binoche (The English Patient), and Robin Wright Penn (Message in a Bottle) in "one of the most personal, provocative, and satisfying dramas in recent memory" (Leonard Maltin, Entertainment Tonight). A string of robberies brings two very different Londoners together, drawing them into an unexpected, passionate, and forbidden affair that threatens to destroy the lives of everybody around them. Written and directed by Academy Award winner Anthony Minghella (The English Patient), Ebert and Roeper?s Richard Roeper calls it "a beautiful piece of work."
Norm and Lynn are having problems. Big problems. Rather than hide from the issues, they go on a marriage retreat together while Stephanie goes to cheerleading camp and Diana stays with her father. But when everyone returns, things seem worse than ever. So bad, in fact, it looks like Stephanie and Diana may not have to put up with each other anymore, which is what they wanted all along. This final book in the Sisters in all Seasons series brings the story of Stephanie and Diana to a close, and shows what happens when two opposites become friends, and maybe sisters.
The enthralling examination of one of the most popular and most intriguing animals in the deep blue sea The ocean is the last remaining source of profound mystery and discovery on Earth with eighty percent of it still largely unexplored; thus, it is of perennial fascination. In Kraken: The Curious, Exciting, and Slightly Disturbing Science of Squid, journalist Wendy Williams introduces one of the ocean’s most charismatic, monstrous, enigmatic, and curious inhabitants: the squid. More than just calamari, squid species are fascinatingly odd creatures, with much to teach us about our own species, not to mention the obsessive interest so many of us can't help but have for the enormous beast that is the giant squid, which is quick to attack sperm whales, and even submarines and boats. Williams also examines other equally enthralling cephalopods, including the octopus and the cuttlefish, and explores their otherworldly abilities, such as camouflage and bioluminescence. Kraken takes the reader on a wild ride through the world of squid science and adventure, along the way answering some riddles about how the human brain works, what intelligence really is, and what monsters lie in the deep. Wendy Williams weaves a rich narrative tapestry around her subject, drawing powerfully on the passions and discoveries of scientists, fisherman, and squid enthusiasts around the world.