Book picks similar to
Best Loved Books for Young Readers 14: The Red Badge of Courage, The Odyssey, Kabloona, Precious Bane by Reader's Digest Association
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Hand Me a Fig Leaf
James Hadley Chase - 1981
As they prove to be uninterested, he turns instead to Colonel Parnell of the Parnell Detective Agency. It seems at first to be a simple case of a missing person but they soon find themselves in the middle of a complicated web of deceit, intrigue and murder.
Blood in the Forum: A Novella of Ancient Rome (The Marius Scrolls Book 2)
Vincent B. Davis II - 2019
Betrayal. Assassination. Rome, 133 b.c. Gaius Marius is back from war in the West. They fought for the peace and prosperity of Rome, but the legions return to find the Eternal City far less peaceful and prosperous than they had hoped. People are starving, homelessness abounds, war after war has overtaxed the legions. And the revolutionary tribune, Tiberius Gracchus, thinks he has a solution for everything. Political parties are developing, the people are up in arms, the senate is enraged. And Tiberius is at the center of it all. Before Marius has a chance to reacclimate to civilian life, he’s thrust into this political upheaval in Rome. His allegiances are put to the test as Rome is almost brought to the brink of civil war. For the first time in the history of the Republic, blood will be shed in the forum.
Like Hell
Ben Weasel - 2001
About a guy and his punk band. Who start out shitty, but persevere, and eventually become pretty popular. If I mentioned that Ben Foster is better known as Ben Weasel from Screeching Weasel, you'll get a much more nuanced idea about what this book is about, and certainly, what this novel MIGHT be based upon. Regardless, it's a great, rollicking read. Whether or not it's entirely true, or entirely false, anyone with any knowledge of 90s punk in America will recognise large chunks of this. And anyone with any interest in, appreciation of, or experience of being in a band, breaking up with a girl, or punk rock, will thoroughly enjoy. It's that good. Though why he had to kill off his guitarist and best friend at the end I'll leave to his shrink to fathom...
Three Minutes More
Edward R. O'Dell - 2010
Severely injured, he does not know if he will survive the night. Reflecting on the evening's dreadful events, wondering if he could have done anything to alter them, his thoughts begin to drift. He begins to contemplate his remarkable life, his dysfunctional family, and the unfortunate prospect that he may have to soon answer for his life to God. While vividly recalling the most amusing, distressing, bizarre, and disturbing events of his life, he soon comes to realize "the monster you know is far easier to deal with than the monster you don't!" Will he get the miracle he needs to make it through the night? If so, will he finally find peace? Author's Note: This book deals with sensitive topics, and is intended for mature audiences only.
That Good Night
Richard Probert - 2016
With the help of an old sailing buddy living in Maine, Charlie plans to go AWOL permanently, buy a boat, and hit the high seas, where he will live out the remainder of his life on his own terms.Nothing ever goes quite as planned, though, and as Charlie heads towards Maine on a 46-foot sailboat, he strikes up an unexpected romance with Abigail, a woman decades his junior. Things take a darker turn, though, when he discovers a former FBI agent-turned-insurance-investigator hot on his trail. Agent Roberts has been hired to find out what happened to Charlie: bring him back if he s alive, or determine he s dead so his estranged sons can collect on his life insurance policy. Roberts doesn t expect a fight from the old man, but that s just what he gets. Because Charlie has no intention of ever returning to Sunset, whether in handcuffs or a pine box.Funny, heart-warming, and heart-breaking, "That Good Night" tells the story of a man who, rather than rail against going gentle into that good night, as Dylan Thomas wrote, instead wishes to simply sail into a sunset of his own choosing."
Loving Taylor (Loving Bad Book 4)
Regan Ure - 2018
I never offer a girl more than one night. I never sleep with the same girl twice. And I never sleep with virgins. But when I meet Taylor Price, I will break every rule to have her. Loving Bad was Taylor’s story. This is Sin’s.
In the Blue Light of African Dreams
Paul Watkins - 1990
Disfigured and demoralized, he deserts from France's famed Lafayette Escadrille, only to be captured, convicted, and sentenced to twenty years in the Foreigh Legion. He serves in Africa, where, along with a motley group of convicts and outcasts, Halifax is forced to fly illegal arms shipments to the very tribesmen they have been sent to fight. But a dream keeps Halifax alive even as his companions fall to harm or misery-the relentless determination to become the first pilot to fly nonstop from Paris to New York.
Never So Green
Tim Johnston - 2002
Instead, Tex gets dumped on his mother's doorstep, where Farley Dickerson, the big oaf she's just married, and his two kids have made themselves at home. Nobody's more surprised than Tex, then, when he discovers he likes his new stepfather, that he actually wants to spend the summer at Mom's, and that he - Tex Donleavy - is going to play ball on Farley's Little League team. And then there's the plucky and brooding Jack, Farley's daughter, who becomes Tex's closest ally, as well as his greatest source of confusion. In all, it's shaping up to be a summer full of surprises - though nothing can prepare Tex for the biggest surprise of all, a secret so terrible that it will change the lives of every member of his family. Through his careful, lyrical prose, Tim Johnston expertly balances the pain of inching toward maturity with sly humor, making his fiction debut an auspicious occasion.
THE SECRET OF WATTENSAW BAYOU
M.E. Hubbs - 2013
. . Thirteen year old Ephraim Wright suffers the depredations of war along with the white family who reared him. Raised with the family since he was two years old, he is never once required to call Jonathan Wright, his benevolent owner, "master." His speech, manners and outlook on life are more akin to his white "siblings than the other slaves in the community who chide him for being a "pet" and "talkin' like white folk." He is stranded between two worlds; that of free whites, and of enslaved blacks. His life is irreversibly changed when Confederate conscript officers take the family's oldest son at gun point and a bushwhacker gang guns down Jonathan Wright. The law forbids a slave to touch a firearm, because a “negro with a gun is a nervous thing to white folks.” But where his family is concerned, Ep is never one to care about what the slave laws say. By seeking to send men to hell, will Ephraim send himself there as well?Advance Praise for The Secret of Wattensaw BayouWhile reading the book my feelings of anger and resentment toward the institution of slavery and those who fought to protect such rights were sometimes overwhelming and required me to take a deep breath. Nevertheless, the story from a historical perspective, although it was a work of fiction, was masterly woven and I found myself with the urge to continue reading. . . The book is well written and the author provides a fascinating glimpse into the everyday existence of many Southern families during the Civil War. Commander Harold Barnes (US Navy, retired)
My Babysitter is a Monster
A.J. Cosmo - 2013
Sean's babysitter insists that he stay in his room, but there's a monster under his bed! What can Sean do?4 full color illustrations, 3,500 words, recommended for ages 6 and up
The Shuttle
Frances Hodgson Burnett - 1906
Sir Nigel Anstruthers crosses the Atlantic to look for a rich wife and returns with the daughter of an American millionaire, Rosalie Vanderpoel. He turns out to be a bully, a miser and a philanderer and virtually imprisons his wife in the house. Only when Rosalie's sister Bettina is grown up does it occur to her and her father that some sort of rescue expedition should take place. And the beautiful, kind and dynamic Bettina leaves for Europe to try and find out why Rosalie has, inexplicably, chosen to lose touch with her family. In the process she engages in a psychological war with Sir Nigel; meets and falls in love with another Englishman; and starts to use the Vanderpoel money to modernize ‘Stornham Court’.The book’s title refers to ships shuttling back and forth over the Atlantic (Frances Hodgson Burnett herself traveled between the two countries thirty-three times, something very unusual then).
Of Love and Life: 31 Dream Street / Hidden / The Two Mrs Robinsons
Lisa Jewell - 2007
But when a quiet tragedy and an unwelcome letter interrupt Toby's sedate existence, he needs his housemates to find some direction in their lives. Leah Pilgrim has watched the tenants of the house over the road for several years, and when the owner of 31 Silversmith Road asks her for advice, he opens the door not only to the eccentric building across the street - but to five lives in various stages of turmoil. Can Toby and Leah help these misfits to grow up, move on and move out? And in doing so, can they make their own dreams come true? Hidden : A trail of blood winding through a squalid flat in Margate leads DCI Dave Gosworth to the body of Jacqui Jennings, her skull smashed with a chisel. For Dave it is just the start of a long and puzzling case...Forty miles away in South London a young single mother named Melanie Stenning is blissfully unaware of Jacqui's life and death. But that trail of blood will one day lead straight to her door - with terrifying repercussions. For Melanie is about to fall in love with a stranger...Fourteen months later, Melanie has a new husband, a new baby and a new home on the isolated Kent coast. But when her seven-year-old daughter Poppy disappears, she is forced to question everything in her new life, including the man she loves. Because DCI Dave Goswrth has come knocking - with some chilling questions... The Two Mrs Robinsons: Anna lives with Oliver Robinson and their 3-year-old son Charlie. They met when she worked as a waitress at his restaurant; he had recently separated and she was a shoulder to cry on. But friendship turned to love. Now she juggles motherhood with part-time work and she couldn't be happier. Or perhaps she could? Oliver has never divorced his first wife Eve who is everything Anna is not. Eve insists on making herself part of their lives and her demands soak up much of their time and income. Anna understands that Oliver needs to support his two teenage children, but why should they keep Eve too? The situation looks set to grumble on indefinitely unless someone or something shakes it up. And something does - it's called Fate. Oliver is killed in a car crash, leaving both women shattered. How will they react to this appalling tragedy? Will it drive them further apart, or force them to cut their losses and pull together for the sake of their children and their futures?
Lord of the Flies: By William Golding (The Teacher's Companion)
Karen Malouf - 1990
The text of Lord of the Flies is not included.