Faraway Summer

Faraway Summer
Author: Johanna Hurwitz
Publisher: StarWalk Kids Media
Total Pages: 148
Release: 2014-06-30
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1630834009

Two weeks seems like forever to Dossi Rabinowitz, a poor Jewish orphan from New York City who is sent by the Fresh Air Fund to a small Vermont town during the summer of 1910. With her journal as her closest companion, Dossi reflects on her struggle to understand her Christian host family and their rural community

A Faraway Island

A Faraway Island
Author: Annika Thor
Publisher: Yearling
Total Pages: 258
Release: 2011-09-13
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 0375844953

Two Jewish sister leave Austria during WWII/Holocaust and find refuge in Sweden. It's the summer of 1939. Two Jewish sisters from Vienna—12-year-old Stephie Steiner and seven-year-old Nellie—are sent to Sweden to escape the Nazis. They expect to stay there six months, until their parents can flee to Amsterdam; then all four will go to America. But as the world war intensifies, the girls remain, each with her own host family, on a rugged island off the western coast of Sweden. Nellie quickly settles in to her new surroundings. Not so for Stephie, who finds it hard to adapt; she feels stranded at the end of the world, with a foster mother who's as unforgiving as the island itself. It's no wonder Stephie doesn't let on that the most popular girl at school becomes her bitter enemy, or that she endures the wounding slights of certain villagers. Her main worry, though, is her parents—and whether she will ever see them again.

Faye, Faraway

Faye, Faraway
Author: Helen Fisher
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 320
Release: 2021-01-26
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1982142693

Heartfelt and irresistible—“a lovely, deeply moving story of loss and love and memory made real” (Diana Gabaldon, #1 New York Times bestselling author)—this enchanting debut follows a woman who travels back in time to be reunited with the mother she lost when she was a child. Every night, as Faye puts her daughters to bed, she thinks of her own mother, Jeanie, who died when Faye was eight. The pain of that loss has never left her, and that’s why she wants her own girls to know how very much they are loved by her—and always will be, whatever happens. Then one day, Faye gets her heart’s desire when she’s whisked back into the past and is reunited not just with her mother but with her own younger self. Jeanie doesn’t recognize grown-up Faye as her daughter, even though there is something eerily familiar about her. But the two women become close friends and share all kinds of secrets—except for the deepest secret of all, the secret of who Faye really is. Faye worries that telling the truth may prevent her from being able to return to the present day, to her dear husband and beloved daughters. Eventually she’ll have to choose between those she loved in the past and those she loves in the here and now, and that knowledge presents her with an impossible choice. If only she didn’t have to make it....

The Faraway Nearby

The Faraway Nearby
Author: Rebecca Solnit
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 215
Release: 2013-06-13
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1101622776

A New York Times Notable Book Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award A personal, lyrical narrative about storytelling and empathy, from the author of Orwell's Roses Apricots. Her mother's disintegrating memory. An invitation to Iceland. Illness. These are Rebecca Solnit's raw materials, but The Faraway Nearby goes beyond her own life, as she spirals out into the stories she heard and read—from fairy tales to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein—that helped her navigate her difficult passge. Solnit takes us into the lives of others—an arctic cannibal, the young Che Guevara among the leprosy afflicted, a blues musician, an Icelandic artist and her labyrinth—to understand warmth and coldness, kindness and imagination, decay and transformation, making art and making self. This captivating, exquisitely written exploration of the forces that connect us and the way we tell our stories is a tour de force of association, a marvelous Russian doll of a book that is a fitting companion to Solnit's much-loved A Field Guide to Getting Lost.

The Zenith

The Zenith
Author: Duong Thu Huong
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 529
Release: 2013-07-30
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0143123718

Memory is the one who builds you a permanent court of justice. Memory is the one at your side from whom you cannot run... A sweeping tale of thwarted love, political intrigue, and the price of power—“The Doctor Zhivago of Vietnam” (Boston Globe)—about Ho Chi Minh, the founding father of modern Vietnam, a man beloved by millions but shrouded in controversy and mystery Vietnam's most popular dissident writer, Duong Thu Huong has won acclaim for her exceptional lyricism and psychological acumen, as well as for her unflinching portraits of modern Vietnam and its culture and people. Built on 15 years of research, The Zenith imagines the final months in the life of Ho Chi Minh—president of North Vietnam from 1945 until his death in 1969—at an isolated mountain compound where he is imprisoned both physically and emotionally. Complex, daring, and elegiac, Huong's novel weaves Ho Chi Minh's story together with narratives of members of his inner circle and a village elder, illuminating the personal costs of political struggle, the addictive quality of power and influence, and how a tragedy can threaten to engulf not just one individual but an entire nation. Most radically, it is a multidimensional portrait of Ho Chi Minh himself; a man who is often painted as a saint, martyr, or puppet, but whom Huong portrays as a real person whose life encapsulated humanity's capacity for vision, greed, pain, love, and fallibility. An epic masterpiece that is both a gripping political thriller and a haunting excavation of the human heart, The Zenith is an unforgettable novel that leaves readers unsettled, transformed, and closer to life's fundamental mysteries.

Far Far Away

Far Far Away
Author: Tom McNeal
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Total Pages: 386
Release: 2013-06-11
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
ISBN: 0375896988

A National Book Award Finalist An Edgar Award Finalist A California Book Award Gold Medal Winner A dark, contemporary fairy tale in the tradition of Neil Gaiman. Jeremy Johnson Johnson hears voices. Or, specifically, one voice: the ghost of Jacob Grimm, one half of The Brothers Grimm. Jacob watches over Jeremy, protecting him from an unknown dark evil whispered about in the space between this world and the next. But Jacob can't protect Jeremy from everything. When coltish, copper-haired Ginger Boultinghouse takes a bite of a cake so delicious it’s rumored to be bewitched, she falls in love with the first person she sees: Jeremy. In any other place, this would be a turn for the better for Jeremy, but not in Never Better, where the Finder of Occasions—whose identity and evil intentions nobody knows—is watching and waiting, waiting and watching. . . And as anyone familiar with the Brothers Grimm know, not all fairy tales have happy endings. Veteran writer Tom McNeal has crafted a young adult novel at once grim(m) and hopeful, full of twists, and perfect for fans of contemporary fairy tales like Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book and Holly Black's Doll Bones. The recipient of five starred reviews, Publishers Weekly called Far Far Away "inventive and deeply poignant."

Let's Change the World

Let's Change the World
Author: Emiliana Vegas
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 249
Release: 2024-09-10
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 153819029X

A how-to and inspirational guide for everyone, no matter their age, who wants to make a difference in the world through their professional life – from ensuring access to quality schools and clean water to healthcare and safer communities. So many talented young people receive a great education and set out to make a difference in the world. Yet, they often find the global institutions on that path difficult to understand, hard to get into, and even harder to navigate. Emiliana Vegas provides a deeply personal and informative guide to building a career in international development for current and aspiring changemakers. This book dives into the key lessons and specific takeaways the author has learned throughout her twenty years working in international development organizations. Vegas's passion for the power of education comes through on every page of this book and now she is sharing what she has learned to help others achieve the same success. Through insider tips, best practices, and targeted advice, readers will come away with a clear picture of how these organizations really work, how you can get in and thrive, and how to make a real difference from the inside out.

Far Away

Far Away
Author: Lisa Graff
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 290
Release: 2020-03-03
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1524738611

A book about life, loss, and the secrets families keep, reminiscent of Sharon Creech's Walk Two Moons, by National Book Award nominee Lisa Graff. CJ's Aunt Nic is a psychic medium who tours the country speaking to spirits from Far Away, passing on messages from the dearly departed. And CJ knows firsthand how comforting those messages can be -- Aunt Nic's Gift is the only way CJ can talk to her mom, who died just hours after she was born. So when CJ learns that she won't be able to speak to her mother anymore, even with Aunt Nic's help, she's determined to find a work-around. She sets off on road trip with her new friend Jax to locate the one object that she believes will tether her mother's spirit back to Earth . . . but what she finds along the way challenges every truth she's ever known. Ultimately, CJ has to sort out the reality from the lies. National Book Award nominee Lisa Graff has written a poignant, heartfelt novel that explores the lengths we go to protect those we love -- and the power secrets have to change our worlds. Praise for Far Away: * "Graff nimbly crafts a credible novel from the unlikely, shaping layered characters and unforeseen plot twists while exploring issues of truth and illusion--and the emotion-infused miasma that separates the two. A genuinely moving and memorable story." --Publishers Weekly, *STARRED REVIEW* "The story is a genre blend of mystery and realistic family drama . . . Graff never shies away from difficult topics, and this is as brave as expected." --Booklist

Murder is Grim

Murder is Grim
Author: Samuel Rogers
Publisher: Wildside Press LLC
Total Pages: 147
Release: 2018-06-12
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1479417688

If Kate Archer had known just what the invitation entailed, she most certainly would not have succumbed to the pleading of June Gladstone to spend a month’s vacation at her father’s luxurious farm. Kate had met June at school, and, although four years her senior, had gone out of her way to befriend the forlorn, unattractive, almost ugly girl in her early teens. Now, five years later, the invitation had appeared out of the blue, and Kate found herself a guest in a strange, isolated household of very bohemian ways, with a menacing undercurrent that made Kate very uneasy. Suddenly, things began to happen with astonishing rapidity. Clotilde, June’s beautiful stepsister was kidnapped in very gruesome circumstances, and Kate had to play a nerve-racking part in delivering the ransom money. But two murders occurred before peace was finally restored in the Gladstone household, and the warped, twisted mind of a murderer was revealed. (Originally published as "You'll Be Sorry.")