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Planting the Trees of Kenya: The Story of Wangari Maathai
by Claire A. NivolaWangari Maathai, winner of the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize and founder of the Green Belt Movement, grew up in the highlands of Kenya, where fig trees cloaked the hills, fish filled the streams, and the people tended their bountiful gardens. But over many years, as more and more land was cleared, Kenya was transformed. When Wangari returned home from college in America, she found the village gardens dry, the people malnourished, and the trees gone. How could she alone bring back the trees and restore the gardens and the people? Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature, says: “Wangari Maathai’s epic story has never been told better—-everyone who reads this book will want to plant a tree!” With glowing watercolor illustrations and lyrical prose, Claire Nivola tells the remarkable story of one woman’s effort to change the fate of her land by teaching many to care for it. An author’s note provides further information about Wangari Maathai and the Green Belt Movement. In keeping with the theme of the story, the book is printed on recycled paper.
Leon's Story
by Leon Walter TillageThe son of a North Carolina sharecropper recalls the hard times faced by his family and other African Americans in the first half of the 20th century, and the changes that the civil rights movement helped bring about.
The Treasure
by Uri ShulevitzA poor man, inspired by a recurring dream, journeys to a far city to look for a treasure, only to be told to go home and find it. <P><P>[This text is listed as an example that meets Common Core Standards in English language arts for grades 2-3 at http://www.corestandards.org.]
The Seizure of Power
by Czeslaw Milosz Celina WieniewskaNovel by the Nobel Prize winner for Literature about the month in 1944 when Nazi rule over Europe was crumbling and the Red Army pushed into Poland to meet the Western Allies on the Elbe.
Terra Nostra
by Carlos Fuentes Margaret Sayers PedenFuentes's greatest novel is concerned with the history of Spain and South America, with the Indian Gods, with Christianity, with the birth, the passion and the death of civilizations.
A Small Place
by Jamaica KincaidKincaid's book appraises the small island of Antigua in the British West Indies where she grew up and makes vivid the impact of European colonization and tourism.
The Iliad
by Homer Robert FitzgeraldThis definitive translation of Homer's epic is timeless in its authority and always fresh in its vivid rendering of the pre-eminent war story of the Western world.
A New Life
by Bernard MalamudBernard Malamud--generally thought of as a distinctly New York writer--took on the American myth of the West as a place of personal reinvention. When Sy Levin, a high school teacher beset by alcohol and bad decisions, leaves the city for the Pacific Northwest to start over, it's no surprise that he conjures a vision of the extraordinary new life awaiting him there: "He imagined the pioneers in covered wagons entering this valley for the first time. Although he had lived little in nature Levin had always loved it, and the sense of having done the right thing in leaving New York was renewed in him." Soon after his arrival at Cascadia College, however, Levin realizes he has been taken in by a mirage. The failures pile up anew, and Levin, fired from his post, finds himself back where he started and little the wiser for it. A New Life--as Jonathan Lethem's introduction makes clear--is Malamud at his best: with his belief in luck and new beginnings Sy Levin embodies the thwarted yearning for transcendence that is at the heart of all Malamud's work.
Play It as It Lays
by Joan DidionA profoundly disturbing novel, riveting in its exploration of a woman and a society in crisis and stunning in the still-startling intensity of its prose.
Darkness Visible
by William GoldingA reissue of the tour de force by the Nobel laureate that is "a vision of elemental reality so vivid we seem to hallucinate the scenes" (The New York Times Book Review). It opens during the London blitz, when a naked child steps out of an all-consuming fire; that child, Matty, becomes a wanderer and a seeker. Two more lost children await him, twins as exquisite as they are loveless. In a final conflagration, William Golding's book lights up both the inner and outer darknesses of our time.
The Silver Linings Playbook
by Matthew QuickA heartwarming debut novel, now a major movie by David O. Russell "Aawww shucks!" NPR's Nancy Pearl said. "I know that's hardly a usual way to begin a book review, but it was my immediate response to finishing Matthew Quick's heartwarming, humorous and soul-satisfying first novel . . . This book makes me smile. " Meet Pat Peoples. Pat has a theory: his life is a movie produced by God. And his God-given mission is to become physically fit and emotionally literate, whereupon God will ensure him a happy ending - the return of his estranged wife, Nikki. (It might not come as a surprise to learn that Pat has spent several years in a mental health facility.) The problem is, Pat's now home, and everything feels off. No one will talk to him about Nikki; his beloved Philadelphia Eagles keep losing;he's being pursued by the deeply odd Tiffany; his new therapist seems to recommend adultery as a form of therapy. Plus, he's being haunted by Kenny G! David O. Russell, the Oscar-nominated director of The Fighter, is helming his own adaptation of The Silver Linings Playbook. Due in theaters this Thanksgiving, the movie features Bradley Cooper ( People magazine's Sexiest Man Alive) in the role of Pat, alongside Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro, Julia Stiles, Chris Tucker, and Jacki Weaver. As the award-winning novelist Justin Cronin put it: "Tender, soulful, hilarious, and true, The Silver Linings Playbook is a wonderful debut. "
Six Figures
by Fred G. LeebronA novel of psychological investigation and suspense, of a family caught in complex and ambiguous turmoil.
Papeles de Pandora: Cuentos
by Rosario FerréRosario Ferré irrumpio en el panorama de las letras latinoamericanas con su libro de cuentos Papeles de Pandora. Escritos en el estilo de las mejores historias fantasticas de corte psicolologico, en estos cuentos se perciben ecos de Julio Cortazar, Felisberto Hernandez y Edgar Allan Poe.
Secret Rendezvous
by Kobo AbeFrom the moment that an ambulance appears in the middle of the night to take his wife, who protests that she is perfectly healthy, her bewildered husband realizes that things are not as they should be. His covert explorations reveal that the enormous hospital she was taken to is home to a network of constant surveillance, outlandish sex experiments, and an array of very odd and even violent characters. Within a few days, though no closer to finding his wife, the unnamed narrator finds himself appointed the hospital’s chief of security, reporting to a man who thinks he’s a horse. With its nightmarish vision of modern medicine and modern life, Secret Rendezvous is another masterpiece from Japan’s most gifted and original writer of serious fiction.
The Dorothy Dunnett Companion, Volume II
by Dorothy Dunnett Elspeth MorrisonTHE purpose of this Companion is to enhance the reader's appreciation and enjoyment of the novels of Dorothy Dunnett. Arranged alphabetically, it aims to provide an easily accessible but solidly researched background to the historical characters, allusions and references which underpin the fiction of the Lymond Chronicles and the House of Niccolò series. As with Volume I, the Companion does not attempt to analyse aspects of the Renaissance which are out with the novels.
Arctic Dreams: Imagination and Desire in a Northern Landscape
by Barry Holstun LopezThis National Book Award winner examines the Far North - its terrain, wildlife, and history of the Eskimo natives and intrepid explorers who arrived on its icy shores. What turns this compendium of biology, anthropology and history into a breathtaking study of profound originality is Lopez's unique meditation on how the landscape can shape our imagination, desires and dreams.
Jurassic Park III (Junior novelization)
by Scott Ciencin Peter BuchmanJunior novelization of the movie. Eric Kirby is lost on Isla Sorna, so his parents trick Dr. Alan Grant into helping them find Eric on the dinosaur-ridden island.
Dorp Dead
by Julia CunninghamA reissue of the novel that dramatically changed children’s literature in the 20th century. Julia Cunningham’s ground-breaking novel, first published in 1965 and unavailable in any edition for a decade, is reissued for a whole new generation of readers to call their own. “Here . . . is the story of a boy who discovers himself, who basically comes to grips with that most contemporary of problems, the isolation of the individual. It is told within the near-classic framework of the story of the orphan who survives and escapes maltreatment to find love, but it is told in frank, literate terms in the lingo of today’s youngsters. And it has, as an additional dimension, a touch of the Gothic tale, a tinge of terror and a shade of romanticism. ” (The New York Herald Tribune)
Arthur Lost in the Museum
by Marc BrownArthur goes with his class on a field trip to the museum, but takes a wrong turn when heading for the bathroom.
Arthur Loses a Friend
by Marc BrownBuster goes away for a month, and Arthur becomes sad and confused when he does not receive even one postcard from him.
Sunset Cooking for Two... or Just for You
by Sunset Publishing StaffRecipes for 1 or 2 people on soups, salads, sandwiches, meats, poultry, seafood, eggs, and cheese along with salad dressings, pate, vegetables and desserts. Also a recipe called Show-stopper Dutch Baby Pancake.
Ox (Of Man and Manta #3)
by Piers AnthonyThe concluding volume of the extraordinary trilogy including 'ORN' and 'OMNIVORE'
Unnatural Death
by Dorothy L. SayersThe wealthy old woman was dead, a trifle sooner than expected. The intricate trail of horror and senseless murder leads from a Hampshire village to London...
Doorways in the Sand
by Roger ZelaznyAliens have given a precious relic, the star-stone, to the people of Earth but the harmony of the galaxy is at stake when it goes missing.
Mom, the Wolf Man, and Me
by Norma KleinHaving a mother who had never married might be awkward and inconvenient for other people, but never for Brett. In fact, Brett preferred her mom single. She'd change and be like all other mothers if she had a husband. Then there'd be three meals on time, a strict bedtime, and probably they'd both have to wear skirts instead of jeans.