The Dockporter. He's got a bike, a basket ... and a whole lotta baggage. It's the summer of 1989. Jack McGuinn is a dockporter, transporting tourists' luggage, piled high in the basket of his bike on Mackinac Island, Michigan, a tiny summer resort where cars are outlawed and pedal-power rules. He's got the season wired tight: a family cottage on the bluff, a dream job, and a loyal crew of hell-raising, tip-hustling buddies. When his old friend-turned bitter rival challenges him to ride a record-setting load, he takes the bet and soon realizes he's not just carrying suitcases, he's carrying the future of the island, which is about to be paved over for profit. With the help of his pals on the dock and the love of a romantic, free-spirited Irish cellist named Erin, Jack digs deep to discover skills he didn't know he had. The Dockporter is an offbeat, nostalgic coming-of age-story that appeals anyone who ever had a summer job. If Rushmore director Wes Anderson remade Caddyshack but it emerged as a hybrid of Footloose and Meatballs (and was a book) it would be The Dockporter. Genre-smashing, hilariously fresh, yet refreshingly familiar, it's a novel about friends, family, love, luggage, and the summers we never forget. We feel the same way you do. The world's gotten a bit serious lately. So kick back, pour yourself something cold, and take a summer vacation, even if it's just in your mind. Because let's face it: we all need an island.
Roman comedy evolved early in the war-torn 200s BCE. Troupes of lower-class and slave actors traveled through a militarized landscape full of displaced persons and the newly enslaved; together, the actors made comedy to address mixed-class, hybrid, multilingual audiences. Surveying the whole of the Plautine corpus, where slaves are central figures, and the extant fragments of early comedy, this book is grounded in the history of slavery and integrates theories of resistant speech, humor, and performance. Part I shows how actors joked about what people feared - natal alienation, beatings, sexual abuse, hard labor, hunger, poverty - and how street-theater forms confronted debt, violence, and war loss. Part II catalogues the onstage expression of what people desired: revenge, honor, free will, legal personhood, family, marriage, sex, food, free speech; a way home, through memory; and manumission, or escape - all complicated by the actors' maleness. Comedy starts with anger.
Diane Hammond’s beautifully rendered description of life in the fictional small town of Hubbard, Oregon, won her plaudits for Going to Bend, her debut novel. In Homesick Creek, Hammond returns to Hubbard and captivates us once again with a cast of characters so vivid we feel like we’ve known them all our lives. Anita and Bunny have been friends since high school, when Anita was a beauty queen runner-up and Bunny a sweet single mother with average looks. They were both taken by surprise when the handsome, charismatic Hack Neary chose Bunny to be his wife. A natural-born salesman, Hack now works his charms at the local car dealership, and he and Bunny enjoy a very comfortable life. But after sixteen years of excusing Hack’s white lies, Bunny is more shaken than she’d like to be by his dangerous new flirtation and her rising suspicions that Hack never meant to put down roots in Hubbard. Anita has also married, but unlike Hack and Bunny, she and her husband are barely scraping by. Bob isn’t ambitious enough to properly support his wife and daughter. He is, however, constant in his love: for Anita, still beautiful in his eyes despite the toll of age, work, and poverty; for his daughter and granddaughter, who need more than the couple can provide; and for Warren, his best friend since they were poor and unwanted children in the same trailer park. Facing a future that seems increasingly difficult, the friends turn to one another and find reserves of love and strength that help heal the wounds they inadvertently inflict on each other. At the deepest point of her grief, Bunny realizes, “If you loved somebody once, no matter how long ago, that had to be worth something.”
Tracing his life from his birth in 1957, this biography of Osama Bin Laden places the development of his beliefs and activities within the context of the vortex of politics swirling around Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Afghanistan and other areas of the Islamic world. Journalist Robinson details his student days in Lebanon, his relationship with his large family and the family business, and his efforts to build a large organization capable of striking against his enemies. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Fifteen-year-old Pete Jenkins and his three summer friends visit the nearby Round Island Lighthouse after crossing the turbulent water of Lake Huron in their tiny dingy. After exploring the island they return to find their picnic basket turned upside down and a warning message in their boat. The threat on their lives only heightens their curiosity and leads them on the trail of dangerous thieves. Along the way the four friends discover a side of Mackinac Island that goes beyond fudge and horses---and eventually leads them into life-threatening danger.
Written after the First World War when he was living in Sicily, Sea and Sardinia records Lawrence's journey to Sardinia and back in January 1921. It reveals his response to a new landscape and people and his ability to transmute the spirit of place into literary art. Like his other travel writings the book is also a shrewd inquiry into the political and social values of an era which saw the rise of communism and fascism. On one level an indictment of contemporary materialism, Sea and Sardinia is nevertheless an optimistic book, celebrating the creativity of the human spirit and seeking in the fundamental laws which governed human nature in the past fresh inspiration for the present. This 1997 edition restores censored passages and corrects corrupt textual readings to reveal for the first time the book Lawrence himself called 'a marvel of veracity'.
Minnesota Book Awards 2022 -- Finalist in Novel & Short Story "Fluid in time and place, Carnival Lights flows between one past and another, offering a heartbreaking portrait of multigenerational trauma in the lives of one Ojibwe family. This tapestry of stories is beautifully woven and gut-wrenching in its effect. Read it, and it may change you forever." -- William Kent Krueger, New York Times Bestselling author Blending fiction and fact, Carnival Lights ranges from reverie to nightmare and back again in a lyrical yet unflinching story of an Ojibwe family's struggle to hold onto their land, their culture, and each other. Carnival Lights is a timely book for a country in need of deep healing. In August 1969, two teenage Ojibwe cousins, Sher and Kris, leave their northern Minnesota reservation for the lights of Minneapolis. The girls arrive in the city with only $12, their grandfather's WWII pack, two stainless steel cups, some face makeup, gum, and a lighter. But it's the ancestral connections they are also carrying - to the land and trees, to their family and culture, to love and loss - that shapes their journey most. As they search for work, they cross paths with a gay Jewish boy, homeless white and Indian women, and men on the prowl for runaways. Making their way to the Minnesota State Fair, the Indian girls try to escape a fate set in motion centuries earlier. Set in a summer of hippie Vietnam War protests and the moon landing, Carnival Lights also spans settler arrival in the 1800s, the creation of the reservation system, and decades of cultural suppression, connecting everything from lumber barons' mansions to Nazi V-2 rockets to smuggler's tunnels in creating a narrative history of Minnesota. "Fluid in time and place, Carnival Lights flows between one past and another, offering a heartbreaking portrait of multigenerational trauma in the lives of one Ojibwe family, this tapestry of stories is beautifully woven and gut-wrenching in its effect. Read it, and it may change you forever." -- William Kent Krueger, New York Times Best Selling Author "Chris Stark's newest novel explores the evolution of violence experienced by Native women. Simultaneously graphic and gentle, Carnival Lights takes the reader on a daunting journey through generations of trauma, crafting characters that are both vulnerable and resilient." -- Sarah Deer, (Mvskoke), Distinguished Professor, University of Kansas, MacArthur Genius Award Recipient "Carnival Lights is a heartbreaking wonder of gorgeous prose and urgent story. It propels the reader at a breathless pace as history crashes down on the readers as much as it does on the book's vivid characters. The author's brilliant heart restores their dignity and via the realm of imagination, brings them home." -- Mona Susan Power, author of The Grass Dancer, a PEN/Hemingway Winner "It's not every day that one is given an inimitable gift of truth. Carnival Lights is that gift. The history books that we've all read throughout time were purposely devoid of the realities of decades of Native genocide, attempts to eradicate our culture, and the horrendous effects of the boarding school era-trauma that continues to permeate the American Indian communities today. Carnival Lights is an opportune story of how two young girls navigate these lived experiences and provides a veracity that will reach deep into your heart, creating a newfound reflection of the actualities of this historical trauma. Chris Stark, a skilled narrative artist, once again engenders storytelling that ingeniously weaves multi-generational authenticities for not only the Native communities, but also as reflected for so many others. It's time for all of us to embrace this gift of truth." -- Deb Foster, Anishinaabe, MS-MFT Executive Director for the Ain Dah Yung Center, a meeting place for American Indian homeless youth and families "There are so many moods and story currents running through this wonder of a novel that I can attribute to individual women whose lives experiences run parallel to Stark's many characters. The two female adolescences in this novel take us to high and low heights, just like a carnival ride. It's overwhelming, irrational and dangerous, and there is no one to help, just as it has been for Indigenous people from the moment colonizers stepped foot on this continent of Turtle Island. Carnival Lights is powerful storytelling. Indigenous ancestors are persistently returning, so as not to be forgotten in death and memory, and Stark puts the reader right in the center of their pain and struggles." -- Mary K. Kunesh, Minnesota Senator, Standing Rock Lakota descendant, chair of Minnesota Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women taskforce "Carnival Lights is a powerful story of resilience, an emotional rollercoaster ride and an expression of the raw truth of multigenerational trauma. Sher, a lesbian and protector, or what we call 'two-spirit, ' is particularly connected with the old ways." -- Lenny Hayes, Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate, and Two-Spirit activist "Chris Stark weaves Native spirituality throughout Carnival Lights from the 1960s, before the Religious Freedom Act of 1978. We will lay under a fern, waiting for a drop of water to fall from the tip of the leaf with Em, feel the freedom of fleeing abuse with Kris and get to know the protector Sher who watches over Kris like a wolf. Carnival Lights reminds us that we are not alone, and we are watched over by ones we would have never known or seen if it were not for this desperate moment we are in right now. Chris Stark reminds us how important our teachings are, how our memories can comfort us in our darkest hour when we need it the most. Chris draws us into the inspiration and comfort provided to the characters at times guiding their next move." -- Babette Sandman, Ojibwe elder, White Earth Nation enrolled citizen living in Duluth "Chris Stark has done a beautiful job of incorporating this story of cousins; Sher and Kristin, within a historical and cultural narrative. The trauma that they experience is a familiar tale for many of us. I did not just read this story.... I felt this story and I journeyed with Sher and Kristin in all directions, and through many emotions. The connection to the story of Native women today is clear and brilliantly written. Chi miigwetch, Chris!" -- Nicole Matthews, ED of Minnesota Indian Women's Sexual Assault Coalition, White Earth Anishinaabe Learn more at www.ChristineStark.com From Modern History Press
In this delicately wrought and profoundly moving novel, Andrea Levy handles the weighty themes of empire, prejudice, war and love, with a lightness of touch and a generosity of spirit that challenges and uplifts the reader.
Barefoot in Beaufort is a trilogy containing the first three books in the Sarah Bowers series. The books are for young ladies ages eight to eighty. Girls today should find the books interesting and insightful as they learn that over half a century ago their grandmothers were taught values much like girls today. Twelfth Summer is the first in the series of eight historical novels set in the 1940s. Each of the books is fast paced-containing adventure, danger, sadness and hilarity. Fishing, a secret hideaway, a hurricane and a cousins wedding all conspire to make the summer on the coast with grandparents anything but ordinary. The Bowers children learn from parents and grandparents the importance of family ties strengthened by traditional values. Using good manners and showing respect for others is learned and maintained within the family unit. Thirteenth Summer follows. Sarah Bowers looks forward to once again spending time with her maternal grandparents in the little town by the sea. She renews friendships made the summer before, observes and is influenced by their attitudes, beliefs and diverse personalities. Sarah makes a tough choice because it is the right thing to do. She watches as her younger brother courageously brings home a stray dog and stands strong before the disapproving looks of his mother, grandmother and most of all, Clara, the cook. Sarah receives a strange request from a special someone in Canton, Ohio. Fourteenth Summer finds Sarah in Beaufort because of the threat of infantile paralysis. Characters from the first two books are reintroduced. Throughout the book Sarah, her friend Nancy and Granny Jewel embark on the daunting task of finding a suitable bride for Uncle Herb. He surprises all with a request to bring someone home to dinner. Sarah is asked secretly if she would return the following summer and be a bridesmaid.
