Book picks similar to
The Secret of the Elements by Christos Tsotsos
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The Girl Who Sees Angels
Jeffrey McClain Jones - 2020
Even her mother doubted her as a child. Psychiatrists doubted her too. Psychics tried to recruit her to enrich and empower themselves. Now she’s thirty-two, living on her own, and sharing her secret only with her mother and a few friends.A threatening specter begins to visit her at night, and more than her sleep is at stake. She follows a friend’s recommendation to visit Detta Washington, a church lady who believes that Sophie does see angels and demons. Even if Sophie is skeptical about the labels Detta uses for what she sees, she comes to respect Detta and finds ways to use her gift to help others.When she helps free Detta from an incurable disease and releases two of her friends from creepy creatures shadowing them, Sophie starts to embrace her identity. But she still needs help with the ghoul that hovers above her bed at night. And that’s not the last enemy who threatens her in the dark.Anthony, Detta’s handsome son, helps Sophie understand his mother’s religious language, and he becomes convinced that Sophie is for real. After years of doubt and frequent commitments to mental hospitals, Sophie’s mother comes to trust her daughter’s visions as well.Recovering from a life of being condemned as a crazy person, Sophie finds new confidence. She is gifted. She is the girl who sees angels.
The Time Seer
Richard Phillips - 2020
Never far from Kragan’s evil grasp, she is struck down by his wicked spell.Carol’s assassin husband, Arn, has no choice but to cast aside his precious weapon to embrace a more powerful one: the clairvoyance he shares with Carol. With time-sights linked, they must now rely on the dreamscapes of their minds to track Kragan into the shadows as he nears his own invaluable weapon: the legendary shattered trident, which will ensure him godlike powers. But Carol and Arn’s visions come at a cost. Pursuit into such abominable darkness is leading to madness.As Kragan’s armies amass for a raging war between good and evil, Carol fears that the ancient prophecy she’s been chosen to bear out may be impossible to survive.
A Narrow Bridge
J.J. Gesher - 2017
HIs faith shattered, Jacob flees the comforts of his community and disappears. He lands up in a predominantly black town in rural Alabama, where he meets Rosie, the single mother of a young son. Their developing relationship, along with the rekindling of his love of music, precipitate events that will change both their lives. This debut novel is a powerful page-turner that follows a complex man on a journey of salvation after tragedy.J.J. Gesher is the pen name for co-authors Joyce Gittlin and Janet B. Fattal. Together, Janet and Joyce have won several prestigious screenwriting awards, including the Geller Prize and the Screenwriting Award at the Austin Film Festival. Their first screenwriting collaboration was produced as a Lifetime Television feature.Joyce Gittlin has written and directed such television shows as Wings, Frasier, and Everybody Loves Raymond and has written more than ten feature films for Disney, Paramount, and 20th Century Fox. She has an MFA from NYU.Janet B. Fattal has a masters in Comparative Literature from UCLA and has taught literature and writing at the college level. The editor of several memoirs, Janet leads many Los Angeles–area book groups, including for the Skirball Cultural Center, Hadassah, and the Brandeis alumni association. The co-authors both live in Los Angeles.
Merry Bloody Christmas
Ellie Scott - 2018
A chocoholic grizzly bear, a talking Christmas tree, mince pie overdoses and a very bloody murder. Will poor old Saint Nick make it out alive? Sad, strange, funny and gruesome, this overlapping, multi-genre collection of tales has a little something for every reader. Curl up with a mulled wine and some fictional festive misery, and discover what Father Christmas really likes to drink when he wriggles down your chimney. Spoiler: it isn’t milk.
Second Son (Hostile Takeover Thrillogy Book 2)
Derek Blount - 2016
His name is Silas Kane.Dr. Grant Armstrong has returned home from his medical work in Africa. His grandfather is dead. His remaining family has gathered on Armstrong Island where a billion dollar inheritance is in play. And he’s just learned from his best friend, NYPD Detective Eric Johnson, that the old man may have been murdered.When Silas Kane—the ruthless second son of an infamous serial killer—escapes police custody, Eric embarks on a mission to recapture the monster. Following a bloody trail through the streets of New York, Eric races against time to stop Kane before he strikes again.Meanwhile, Grant is left alone to investigate his grandfather’s death with each clue leading him further down a path he doesn’t wish to follow.A violent storm envelopes the State of New York as Eric and Grant each pursue a killer. Will either succeed…or survive?Brimming with tantalizing mystery, pulse-pounding suspense and unexpected twists, Second Son is a complex, exhilarating thriller and an electrifying follow-up to the stellar Hostile Takeover.
The Mahabharata Code: Yet Another Retelling of the Mahabharata, or Is It?
Karthik K.B. Rao - 2016
NR and a few other crew members agree to take part in the NASA mission to visit this mystery planet from which they had received mysterious signals. Here, they meet a man with a long flowing white beard, and he introduces himself as Vyasa. He reveals that he has a crazy plan in mind and seeks NR and his members' help in implementing this plan. He intends to recreate the entire Mahabharata on this planet to restore the faith of the primitive simpletons here. As the Mahabharata incidents start unfolding, NR realizes that Vyasa intends to recreate them page by page here, if not paragraph by paragraph. Also NR begins to realize that his son, Krishna, who is being groomed by Vyasa as Vishnu's avatar, is nothing more than a pawn in Vyasa's scheme of things. Other incidents of Mahabharata also unfold according to the original epic. Pandavas and Kauravas grow up hating each other and finally the restaging plan culminates with both the warring sets of cousins facing each other in the battlefield of Kurukshetra. Inexplicably, like the original epic, Arjuna develops cold feet seeing his own cousins, teachers and relatives on the opposite side. He seeks Krishna's divine intervention. Is the brainwashed "alien" Krishna prepared for this intervention?
Roan
E.R. Barr - 2012
With the help of new friends, Jace the captain of the football team and Beth, his twin sister, along with a strange Labrador Retriever named Troubles, Conor has to discover who he really is and how he is tied to the mystery of the 'Dark Ones'. They are the children the town is protecting from an ancient river demon and a shapeshifter in the nearby Indian Burial mound. Into the midst of Conor's hunt for the truth comes DIOGENE, a biogenetics company with a scientist willing to do anything to unravel the mystery of the 'Dark Ones'. Conor finds himself caught in a web of lies where myth and science war for humanity's soul.
One Night in the ER
G. Scott McCreadie - 2021
Jim McCray through a single twelve-hour night shift working in the emergency room of a small Midwestern hospital. The fast-paced writing chronicles Dr. McCray’s experience with wit and candor as he manages a series of typical but poignant patient interactions. The book dives deeply into the practice of modern emergency medicine with detailed descriptions of medical care and procedures. It is based on the author’s real-life experiences as a young resident physician.
Walden
Michael T. Dolan - 2006
Dolan, WALDEN deconstructs higher education, the struggle for individualism, and the parade of conformity in one fell swoop of a very sharp pen. In the tradition of the great angry young men novels, WALDEN presents a humorous, shocking and thoroughly modern take on a young man's struggle for self. Tucked into one day, you ll find the grand themes of love and death, revolution and freedom, hope and enlightenment. And you ll find the Who and the Stones, back before they were doing Hummer commercials, CSI theme songs, and Microsoft jingles. Pick up a copy today, and join the revolution that is WALDEN. Says author Iain Levison, author of A Working Stiff's Manifesto: WALDEN is a story about the seamier side of campus life, a life far removed from the smiling faces on the college brochures. Mike Dolan has crafted a powerful and evocative story, full of anger, frustration and misdirected emotion, about a young man caught up in the anonymous and soul-crushing world of the educational system. Should be required reading for all college freshmen.
Songs and Portobellos
M.A. McCormack - 2015
Songs and Portobellos is a magical story that captures the creativity and clarity of perception that young people possess.The book centres on the development of teenagers Conor and Melanie during the summer of 1967 and explores the influences that bring them to understand their uniqueness.By the end of the summer they have transcended the ordinary, discovered who they are and determined what they stand for.
A Beginner's Guide to Free Fall
Andy Abramowitz - 2020
Brothers and sisters. Mothers and daughters. Okay, everybody. Hold on tight.
Davis Winger has it all. A respected engineer who designs roller coasters in theme parks across the country, he is deeply in love with his wife and has a beautiful young daughter and a happy home. Until an accident strikes on one of his rides. Nothing fatal—except to his career. And to his marriage, when a betrayal from his past inadvertently comes to light. In one cosmically bad day, Davis loses it all.His sister, Molly, is at a crossroads herself. She’s coasting through a dire relationship with an incompatible man-child. And she’s a journalist whose deeply personal columns about mothers and daughters are forcing her to confront the truth about her own mother, who abandoned Molly and Davis years ago and disappeared.For these two siblings, it’s just a matter of bracing themselves for one turbulent summer in this redemptive and painfully funny family drama about making the best of the sharp turns in life—those we choose to take and those beyond our control.
The Confessions of Socrates
R.L. Prendergast - 2017
In a month he will die of hemlock poisoning. At night, by the light of a tiny oil lamp, on rolls of paper smuggled in by loyal friends, he tells his three sons the story of his life.He writes vividly about the people and events that shaped him as a person. The mother who encouraged his questions. Teachers who promoted the Greek ideals of courage and glory. Bloody battles. Lifelong friends lost and enemies made. Being proclaimed the world’s wisest man.Fearing his sons may follow in his ill-fated path, Socrates honestly reveals his thoughts and feelings, his successes and his failures, and his search for the answer to the ultimate question—how can I be happy?
The Last Summer Sister
Rachel Cullen - 2021
But when their father's untimely death reveals an earth-shattering secret, everything they thought they knew about their family -- and their future -- changes overnight.Jen spent her childhood feeling like the ugly duckling, while Lynn longed to be appreciated for something other than her looks. Consequently, both sisters competed for their father's affections but were never satisfied. Jen still hasn't forgiven Lynn for fleeing to California to follow her dreams, leaving Jen to tend to their father and the family insurance business in Chicago's North Shore suburbs. Meanwhile, Lynn is living in exile in Los Angeles, forced to endure the pain of her humiliating divorce in silence because she is too ashamed to reveal her mistakes to her perfect older sister.As the youngest member of the trio, Courtney's life is also turned upside down due to her father's death, only for an entirely different reason; Courtney didn't even know he existed until after he was gone. Now she has to figure out what life looks like with two older sisters who can't stand each other while attempting to piece together her fractured youth.Although this tragedy should bring the sisters together, the depth of their father's betrayal coupled with their tumultuous past makes reconciliation nearly impossible. Only time will tell if the bonds of sisterhood are strong enough to mend past transgressions or if the sisters, and their secrets, will destroy the Summer family forever.
The Hunt for the 60s' Ripper
Robin Jarossi - 2017
A look at the 1960s Nude Murders in West London, a series of prostitute killings that were never solved, with contemporary insights from ex-detectives and experts.
The Candle Room
Daniel K. Gentile - 2016
His first client was a transient who just learned that he was the sole beneficiary of his estranged brother’s multi-million dollar estate. His brother was brutally murdered and the alleged killer was on trial in what appeared to be an open and shut case. Zach observed the riveting courtroom drama as the case unfolded and in the process, discovered a dark, deadly secret left by the murder victim. He soon learned that he was way over his head in his new practice and that his first case could cost him not only his career but his life.