Friday Finds is hosted
Here's what came in this week for review. Check them out and then stop by Feathered Quill soon to read the reviews!
Life is a challenge for 36-year-old Kate Cavanaugh, high school guidance counselor to a motley group of at-risk students. Two years after finding her young husband dead in bed beside her, Kate’s storybook life has vanished, and she and her two children are still reeling. Her daughter Charlotte, once a sweet girl, has morphed into an angry, tattooed, tongue-studded teen; and Hunter, Kate’s four-year-old, keeps his feelings sealed tight inside and an empty ketchup bottle clasped to his heart. When a tragedy occurs at the Alan B. Shepard High School, it’s Kate who finds herself in need of counsel and guidance. What she does next catapults her and her family down an unfamiliar road, on a trajectory into space—toward understanding, forgiveness and healing.
Rickshaw's descent into the world of sensation and desire incurs mysterious nightmares all too real, starting with the obsessively expected death of his new fiancé. Seeking help wherever he can find it, Rickshaw meets a blind fortuneteller who seems to know more about his destiny than anyone should. While fighting for his life and the life of his friends, our hero realizes all too late the bad karma of his ways. Only when Rickshaw loses touch with reality, when his loved ones and Jamayah face almost certain death, does his mentor appear. Together, they join forces with shamanic sorcerers in an attempt to reverse the deadly curse.
The Entrepreneur is a zany romp through the imaginative mind of a narrator who sails off into his own realm of ludicrous ambition. He begins a tattoo business with the help of Mink, a mysterious master of the needle, capable of tattooing internal organs so they can be reclaimed by the owner should they ever be snatched. Ever optimistic, the narrator undertakes another misadventure retooling a WWII Japanese submarine for luxury dinner cruises beneath the San Francisco bay. The cruises are a great success until an amorous whale spoils the fun and the Coast Guard must be beckoned to save passengers from angry, half-drunk harbor seals. Undaunted, the narrator continues his quest after falling deeply in love with June Bug, a fellow zither player. Forced to leave California, they flee to New Mexico and open a Pancake House for aliens looking for the best flap jacks in the galaxy. Rick Casteel extends the absurdity of the novella with his short story The Truth about Peking Duck in which the history of Peking Duck is delivered in the monologue of a Peking Duck that's about to be eaten. "... laugh out loud funny. I can vividly picture in my mind the different scenarios that are taking place and trust me, they are quite out of the ordinary." - Rebecca Reads Book Review
As a child growing up in various cities and towns, Britt Rutgers exhibits both acute sensitivity and an insatiable ebullience that expresses itself in rebelliousness against his restrictive parents. But something profoundly important is missing deep inside. As he moves into his late teens in the 1950s on a farm near Mayfield, Iowa, his enthusiasm gradually morphs into agonizing self-consciousness, feelings of guilt, embarrassment over sexual naïveté, and fear wrought by his fundamentalist religious upbringing. His parents have always placed his quiet older brother on a pedestal, and Britt begins to emulate him. Battling these internal demons, Britt is unable to concentrate and becomes panicky that he will fail his school subjects.
When Britt heads out for a night of bowling in February of his senior year, he has no idea that everything is about to change. Taunted by his friends, he returns home and tearfully confides to his parents that he has been miserable for some time. They send him to a sanitarium, where he is quickly diagnosed with schizophrenia and shock treatments are begun. Over the next several years, between two periods spent in psychiatric institutions observing a plethora of colorful, and tragic, characters, Britt struggles not merely to function, but to flourish. Breaking Out explores a family's dynamics and history, revealing the forces that shape an innocent child and make a train wreck of his crossing from adolescence into adulthood.
Baseball Heroes is the first book in the new middle grade nonfiction series Good Sports, about the inspiring life stories of major league athletes who have overcome obstacles in the course of their life and careers. Each book tells the stories of athletes who have encountered and overcome significant obstacles, and whose story exempifies character and nerve in the face of adversity. Baseball Heroes highlights players who were among the first to break through barriers of race, ethnicity and even sex in order to play professional baseball. Subjects include Jackie Robinson, Hank Greenburg, Fernando Valenzuela, and Ila Borders.
Dogs are disappearing in her neighborhood, and Maggie Brooklyn Sinclair knows all about it. After all, she has a semi-secret after-school gig as a professional (ok, amateur) dog-walker. Maggie hates to see a pup in trouble, so she's even willing to help her ex-best friend Ivy recover her rescue-dog, Kermit. Kermit's being held for ransom, and Maggie has noticed some suspicious behavior lately. But she never suspected her crush Milo could be involved...
Leslie Margolis's pitch-perfect voice and rich characters have endeared her to tweens, and her fans will flock to this hip new series featuring a clever and lovable new heroine, Maggie Brooklyn.
In this candid confessional, comedian Carla Collins divides the world into the angels who guide us, inspire us, and save our butts; the sexy and trendy vampires who suck the life out of us; and the douche bags who constantly annoy, disgust and taunt us. With a fast wit, fake breasts and real heart, Collins shares her unconventional journey from a small steel town in Ontario, Canada to Tinseltown L.A. On this wild and revealing romp, she navigates her way through seventy-two imaginary friends, multiple fiancés, eight dogs, two marriages, and one topless grandmother. Her hard-earned life lessons will show you that by taking risks, embracing humiliation and tapping into the power of laughter, anything is possible--and everyone is manageable. Attract more angels into your life, control your vampires, and keep all the douchebags at bay. Angels, Vampires and Douche Bags is original, edgy, uplifting and laugh-out-loud funny.
What if the only friend you could trust turned out to be dangerous? A new thriller from debut author Elizabeth Woods!
Wow! I see several to put on my wish list. I especially want to read Love in Complete Sentences and Breaking Out.
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There are several of these books that sound interesting, but I'm especially intrigued by The Entrepreneur!
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