Angelia Zapata is about to learn that life is not a fairy tale. In her opinion, a quinceaera is a waste of money, but the fifteenth-birthday celebration that she has avoided for a year quickly becomes more than a fancy party and a pretty dress. When members of a local gang crash her party, Angelias eyes are opened to a dangerous world of territorial gangs and the threat of la migra, the immigration authority. She finds comfort in the arms of her first boyfriend, but her dream of college seems to be slipping from her grasp. Torn between her family, her faith, her boyfriend, and her future, Angelia tries to be true to all of them, but her efforts may jeopardize everythingeven her life.
This is Nick Armbrister's third collection of poems and his fourth book. It has poems that didn't make his first two collections due to a variety of reasons. He didn't think some of his early poems were up to standard; these he edited and rewrote; some poetry was too personal in nature, like relationship ones. Also, poetry that repeated the same subject matter never made the first two books. In later years, after re-reading his poetry, Nick decided to bring all of his remaining unpublished work together in this new volume - poems written during the years 1996-2008. The work changes in depth, quality and subject matter and most of the poems have never been published before. Nick continues his passionate, multi-emotional and often left-of-centre work in these poems. Nick has always been drawn to the weird and wonderful. While his poems are often simple and brittle, they make a graphic and powerful impact that cuts like broken glass.
THE COMPLETE NICK ARMBRISTER POETRY COLLECTION Volume 1 covers it all, Nick Armbrister's work from early 1996 right through to late 2013. An epic career of poems on many topics and views. Much of his work has been published in the 'small press' poetry scene over the years and in his previous books. Also included here is new unpublished work. This book will appeal to anyone who wants to read Nick Armbrister's multi emotional work and to new readers who want to read something different and unique.
Here is an intriguing exploration of the ways in which the history of the Spanish Conquest has been misread and passed down to become popular knowledge of these events. The book offers a fresh account of the activities of the best-known conquistadors and explorers, including Columbus, Cortés, and Pizarro. Using a wide array of sources, historian Matthew Restall highlights seven key myths, uncovering the source of the inaccuracies and exploding the fallacies and misconceptions behind each myth. This vividly written and authoritative book shows, for instance, that native Americans did not take the conquistadors for gods and that small numbers of vastly outnumbered Spaniards did not bring down great empires with stunning rapidity. We discover that Columbus was correctly seen in his lifetime--and for decades after--as a briefly fortunate but unexceptional participant in efforts involving many southern Europeans. It was only much later that Columbus was portrayed as a great man who fought against the ignorance of his age to discover the new world. Another popular misconception--that the Conquistadors worked alone--is shattered by the revelation that vast numbers of black and native allies joined them in a conflict that pitted native Americans against each other. This and other factors, not the supposed superiority of the Spaniards, made conquests possible. The Conquest, Restall shows, was more complex--and more fascinating--than conventional histories have portrayed it. Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest offers a richer and more nuanced account of a key event in the history of the Americas.
Named to ten BEST OF THE YEAR lists and selected as a William C. Morris Award Winner,The Serpent King is the critically acclaimed, much-beloved story of three teens who find themselves--and each other--while on the cusp of graduating from high school with hopes of leaving their small-town behind. Perfect for fans of John Green's Turtles All the Way Down. "Move over, John Green; Zentner is coming for you." —The New York Public Library “Will fill the infinite space that was left in your chest after you finished The Perks of Being a Wallflower.” —BookRiot.com Dill isn't the most popular kid at his rural Tennessee high school. After his father fell from grace in a public scandal that reverberated throughout their small town, Dill became a target. Fortunately, his two fellow misfits and best friends, Travis and Lydia, have his back. But as they begin their senior year, Dill feels the coils of his future tightening around him. His only escapes are music and his secret feelings for Lydia--neither of which he is brave enough to share. Graduation feels more like an ending to Dill than a beginning. But even before then, he must cope with another ending--one that will rock his life to the core. Debut novelist Jeff Zentner provides an unblinking and at times comic view of the hard realities of growing up in the Bible belt, and an intimate look at the struggles to find one’s true self in the wreckage of the past. “A story about friendship, family and forgiveness, it’s as funny and witty as it is utterly heartbreaking.” —PasteMagazine.com “A brutally honest portrayal of teen life . . . [and] a love letter to the South from a man who really understands it.” —Mashable.com “I adored all three of these characters and the way they talked to and loved one another.”—New York Times
Greatly expanded, with twenty countries added. Now there are 50 countries represented, with more than 10,000 male and female names, their phonetic pronunciations, and their meanings.
Six Months in Mexico is a book by an American journalist, industrialist, inventor, and charity worker Nellie Bly. She wrote this book after her travels through Mexico in about 1885. In the book, she describes the lives and customs of the people of Mexico, their poverty, the widespread addiction to playing the lottery, courtship, wedding ceremonies, the popularity of tobacco smoking, and the habits of the soldiers, including an early mention of their marijuana use.
In this new telling of Mexico’s Second Empire and Louis Napoléon’s installation of Maximilian von Habsburg and his wife, Carlota of Belgium, as the emperor and empress of Mexico, Maximilian and Carlota brings the dramatic, interesting, and tragic time of this six-year-siege to life. From 1861 to 1866, the French incorporated the armies of Austria, Belgium—including forces from Crimea to Egypt—to fight and subdue the regime of Mexico’s Benito Juárez during the time of the U.S. Civil War. France viewed this as a chance to seize Mexican territory in a moment they were convinced the Confederacy would prevail and take over Mexico. With both sides distracted in the U.S., this was their opportunity to seize territory in North America. In 1867, with aid from the United States, this movement came to a disastrous end both for the royals and for France while ushering in a new era for Mexico. In a bid to oust Juárez, Mexican conservatives appealed to European leaders to select a monarch to run their country. Maximilian and Carlota’s reign, from 1864 to 1867, was marked from the start by extravagance and ambition and ended with the execution of Maximilian by firing squad, with Carlota on the brink of madness. This epoch moment in the arc of French colonial rule, which spans North American and European history at a critical juncture on both continents, shows how Napoleon III’s failure to save Maximilian disgusted Europeans and sealed his own fate. Maximilian and Carlota offers a vivid portrait of the unusual marriage of Maximilian and Carlota and of international high society and politics at this critical nineteenth-century juncture. This largely unknown era in the history of the Americas comes to life through this colorful telling of the couple’s tragic reign.
Illuminates the complexities of Aztec life. Readers meet a people highly skilled in sculpture, astronomy, city planning, poetry, and philosophy, who were also profoundly committed to cosmic regeneration through the thrust of the ceremonial knife and through warfare.
