Rebel in the Back Seat... and other short storiesComing of age, no matter the age! "While reading this book. I almost missed my subway stop once. The only other writer who comes close to making me miss subway stops is Robert Sawyer. The short stories in the collection are excellently written and have fascinating characters. Although the stories mostly take place in Toronto, this geographical restriction did not affect my enjoyment of the book. I strongly...

Cuando Anddor Shallau es invadido por el ejército Russnori, la tribu de Sikandar es conducida a la remota Alcina Sahar, a veces llamada el patio de juegos del diablo. Sikandar y Mónica regresan al desierto donde entran en conflicto con el ejército invasor. Cuando la patria de Sikandar es invadida, debe regresar para defender a su pueblo. Mónica lo desafía, negándose a quedarse atrás, insistiendo en que no volverá a perderlo. Los dos, más...

While Gene Stratton-Porter is known best for her portrayals of nature (such as in The Girl of the Limberlost), Her Father's Daughter is a fascinating look at anti-Asian bias. In this novel, a young woman struggles to find her place in society in a story that is overwhelmed by white supremacist rhetoric. Set in California during the 1920s, this book makes an excellent launching point for a discussion of historical racism and how a community's views...

Originally published in 1871, Ralph the Heir revolves around two men named Ralph. One is the nephew and legal heir of Squire Gregory Newton. The other is the squire's beloved illegitimate son and preferred heir. The fortunes and misfortunes of the actual heir, as he desperately seeks to pay off his debts and marry a woman of good social standing, form the core of the novel. Particularly noteworthy is the book's description of a corrupt Parliamentary...

Each of us has the ability to make a difference through the gifts we give. The mission of The Girl with 35 Names is all about giving back. To fulfill that promise our gift is to donate 100% of profits raised from the sale of the book to charity. Ever since that snowy Russian winter's night when she was born, Molly has longed to know the secret behind each of her 35 names. When Molly unearths a pair of time-worn spectacles in her garden, she is drawn...

This PEN/Hemingway Award winner about coming of age in Los Angeles is a “little gem of a novel . . . a masterwork of Hollywood fiction” (Salon).
He’s a child of 1940s Hollywood—specifically, Casa Fiesta, a ranch in the Malibu hills that he shares with his mother, a onetime Broadway headliner, and his father, a star of Westerns. But when his parents fall out of favor in Tinseltown, the narrator...

A story about the fairy-tale fantasies of girlhood and the realities of growing up by “one of our quirkiest and most interesting novelists” (Jane Smiley, USA Today).
When Teresa sleeps—sometimes for days at a time, the scent of roses surrounding her—she dreams of the Arias, outlaw riders on white steeds, who roam the desert at night. She was told about the dark-eyed horsemen by her mother, Dina, who left...

According to Jack Haywood, the trouble with the Hill-the farm-is that nothing ever happens there. He expects this summer, the summer of his fourteenth year, to be no different. First there is Jenny Holmes, whom he can go to see only on the pretext of seeing her brother, Les, a real pain. Jenny, who lives a mile and a half away by moonlit trail through piney woods and cypress swamp. Then there is the 'gator hole, even further from the Hill, where one...

For as far back as he could remember, Chance had been able to feel wrongness in the world. With that also came the ability to sense rightness, but that didn't mean he could always fix it. And sometimes that knowing got him into a lot of trouble. Until he met Brand. Chance knew as soon as he saw him, that working for Brand was right. It gave him a safe place with people who accepted his odd knack. Until the day the wrongness was so big he blacked out. With...

Flint thought that growing up in the dangerous frontier town of Far Enough, with six older brothers, would prepare her for anything...until she met the monster.She had waited and worked hard for a chance to study at the School for Wizards and Weirdlings. But things went sideways when powerful magic turned her world inside out. Seeing a cruel injustice, Flint had to take a stand to protect the life of a dangerous being.The carefully planned journey...