Are you silly as a goose? Do you laugh like a hyena? Like a monkey? Like a moose? In this introduction to grammar fundamentals, young learners discover the silly world of similes, a figure of speech that compares two things. With laugh-out-loud illustrations and clever, quirky text, this nonfiction picture books young grammarians and the children of language lovers.
Peter MacTeague, president of Brewster College, is a right-wing Economist who once advocated allowing the sale of babies "just like beer and soap." While pressing to make worship of free markets the college creed, as he was handpicked to do, he also launches a campaign for the Senate. Polls show him ahead in his effort to unseat one of the dying breed of Republican moderates by running to his right in the Maine primary on a platform that calls for abolishing the income tax. MacTeague's undoing begins late one night when some drunken students impulsively "kidnap" White, Brewster College's renowned mascot mule, and deposit him on the front porch of the president's house. MacTeague is not home, and his efforts to cover up his whereabouts at the time of the braying mule's delivery start him skidding down the slope to political ruin. Connected plot lines spoof worship of unregulated markets, "politically correct" academic culture, sensation-mongering journalism, and networking among the privileged as this comic romp unfolds. About the author: Richard Fallon has been a professor at Harvard Law School since 1982. He has written numerous books and articles on law, primarily focusing on constitutional law. Stubborn as a Mule is his first novel.
Down in Whynot, NC, there are three things that hold true: 1) life moves just a little bit slower, 2) family means everything, and 3) you don’t mess with history. When his family decides to sell a home that’s been part of their history for over a century, Lowe Mancinkus is madder than a hornet. To add insult to injury, the woman who purchased it is some fancy pants, city girl looking to fix it up and sell it off. Doesn’t matter that she’s sexy as hell or that just being near her gets his blood racing like never before. That home belongs to his family, or at least it did until she came to town. Well that just won’t do, now will it? From the moment that she laid eyes on the historical home in rural North Carolina, Melinda Rothschild knew Mainer House was something special. The perfect escape from life in New York City, Melinda signed the papers and set to work restoring the house to its natural beauty. That is until an angry Lowe showed up on her doorstep one day. With a scowl on his handsome, chiseled face. And a shotgun in his strong, muscular arms. Is it getting hot in here? Melinda’s about to get a lesson on life in the south, but Lowe is about to learn a lesson of his own – this city girl doesn’t back down from a fight.
For fans of bestselling WWII fiction comes a powerful novel from Lynn Austin about three women whose lives are instantly changed when the Nazis invade the neutral Netherlands, forcing each into a complicated dance of choice and consequence. Lena is a wife and mother who farms alongside her husband in the tranquil countryside. Her faith has always been her compass, but can she remain steadfast when the questions grow increasingly complex and the answers could mean the difference between life and death? Lenas daughter Ans has recently moved to the bustling city of Leiden, filled with romantic notions of a new job and a young Dutch police officer. But when she is drawn into Resistance work, her idealism collides with the dangerous reality that comes with fighting the enemy. Miriam is a young Jewish violinist who immigrated for the safety she thought Holland would offer. She finds love in her new country, but as her family settles in Leiden, the events that follow will test them in ways she could never have imagined. The Nazi invasion propels these women onto paths that cross in unexpected, sometimes-heartbreaking ways. Yet the story that unfolds illuminates the surprising endurance of the human spirit and the power of faith and love to carry us through.
The unexpected story of an ordinary man with an extraordinary vision of hope As a father, Pastor Ty Schenzel believed that if he loved his kids deeply, crazily, and unconditionally that they would see life, God, and their futures with hope and expectation. His children grew up knowing that "a thousand screaming mules" could not keep their dad from being there when they needed him. He showed his children that they were his priority - more than anything else. Outside of his world and particularly in the inner city, Ty grieved when he saw other children not feeling loved in the same way. He has always felt a father's love for those kids, and has devoted his dreams to breaking their cycle of hopelessness through faith, education, employment, and collaboration - all leading to the creation of the Hope Center for Kids. Ty began by building a foundation of trust in the North Omaha community. He worked to help youth from across the city understand each others' cultures better, and the Lord began to draw the groups together in a mighty way. In 1998, the former Gene Eppley Boys Club in North Omaha became home to the Hope Center, and Ty's incredible vision became a reality.
Standing at the podium, Victor Villaseñor looked at the group of educators amassed before him, and his mind flooded with childhood memories of humiliation and abuse at the hands of his teachers. He became enraged. With a pounding heart, he began to speak of these incidents. When he was through, to his great disbelief he received a standing ovation. Many in the audience could not contain their own tears. So begins the passionate, touching memoir of Victor Villaseñor. Highly gifted and imaginative as a child, Villaseñor coped with an untreated learning disability (he was finally diagnosed, at the age of forty-four, with extreme dyslexia) and the frustration of growing up Latino in an English-only American school in the 1940s. Despite teachers who beat him because he could not speak English, Villaseñor clung to his dream of one day becoming a writer. He is now considered one of the premier writers of our time.
Although he likes some things about school, Stomper does not do well with his lessons in stubbornness and is teased for not being like the other mules, but when disaster strikes and the others dig in, Stomper proves that being stubborn is not always the best choice.
"Lydia Peelle has given us a collection of stories so artfully constructed and deeply imagined they read like classics. It marks the beginning of what will surely be a long and beautiful career." —Ann Patchett In Reasons for and Advantages of Breathing, Lydia Peelle brings together eight brilliant stories—two of which won Pushcart Prizes and one of which won an O. Henry Prize—that peer straight into the human heart. In startling and original prose, she examines lives derailed by the loss of a vital connection to the land and to the natural world of which they are a part. Reasons for and Advantages of Breathing conveys an almost Faulknerian ache for the pre-modern South, for a landscape and a way of life lost to the ravages of money and technology.
