Nights Of Rain And Stars

Nights Of Rain And Stars
Author: Maeve Binchy
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 368
Release: 2005-06-28
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 110121029X

The lives of four strangers are forever altered when they meet in a Greek seaside village in this compelling novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Maeve Binchy. Tourists enter the hilltop tavern, alone and in pairs, for a casual lunch. But a sudden tragedy in the harbor below causes these perfect strangers to become unlikely friends as their lives begin to entwine... Fiona left her nursing career in Ireland to be with the man everyone thinks is wrong for her. Elsa fled Germany and her high-powered television job once she learned what the man she loved was hiding from her. Thomas mourns his failed marriage and misses his young son in California, while David yearns to reconcile with his family in England without having to go into the family business. Chance has brought them together, and together they will find new ways of looking at the lives they left behind. “By the time the bouzouki players start up on the last page, you’ll feel you’ve known these people all your life.”—The Seattle Times “The sort of book you should take with you on a trip to the Greek islands.”—The Boston Globe

When Stars Rain Down

When Stars Rain Down
Author: Angela Jackson-Brown
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Total Pages: 368
Release: 2021-04-13
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0785240454

Opal is an eighteen-year-old Black woman working as a housekeeper in a small Southern town in the 1930s—and then the Klan descends. A moving story that confronts America’s tragic past, When Stars Rain Down is both heartwarming and heart-wrenching. The summer of 1936 in Parsons, Georgia, is unseasonably hot, and Opal Pruitt senses a nameless storm brewing. She hopes this foreboding feeling won’t overshadow her upcoming 18th birthday or the annual Founder’s Day celebration in just a few weeks. She and her Grandma Birdie work as housekeepers for the white widow Miss Peggy, and Opal desperately wants some time to be young and carefree with her cousins and friends. But when the Ku Klux Klan descends on Opal’s neighborhood, the tight-knit community is shaken in every way possible. Parsons’s residents—both Black and white—are forced to acknowledge the unspoken codes of conduct in their post-Reconstruction era town. To complicate matters, Opal finds herself torn between two unexpected romantic interests—the son of her pastor, Cedric Perkins, and the white grandson of the woman she works for, Jimmy Earl Ketchums. Faced with love, loss, and a harsh awakening to an ugly world, Opal holds tight to her family and faith—and the hope for change. “When Stars Rain Down is so powerful, timely, and compelling . . . an important and beautifully written must-read of a novel.” —Silas House, author of Southernmost 2021 Langum Prize in American Historical Fiction – Finalist Stand-alone novel Includes discussion questions for book clubs

Sun, Moon, Stars, Rain

Sun, Moon, Stars, Rain
Author: Jan Cheripko
Publisher: Boyds Mills Press
Total Pages: 172
Release: 2006
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 9781932425536

Still grieving over his father's death, nineteen-year-old college dropout Danny Murtaugh turns to a drunk, an eccentric landowner, and a young waitress for answers about his past and direction for his future.

Sunbathing in the Rain

Sunbathing in the Rain
Author: Gwyneth Lewis
Publisher: Jessica Kingsley Publishers
Total Pages: 226
Release: 2006-11-15
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 1846426499

Sunbathing in the Rain is undoubtedly the best book I have ever read about one person's experience of depression.' - Dorothy Rowe, author of Breaking the Bonds 'This upbeat, very readable and engaging view of depression as a temporary retrenchment, a breathing space in which to adjust better to life, makes encouraging reading.' - Spectator 'Gwyneth Lewis writes with clarity, beauty and metaphorical precision. She conveys the darkness, the silence, the selfishness, the mental clutter of depression brilliantly.' - Simon Hattenstone, Guardian 'Welsh poet Gwyneth Lewis shares her personal story of wrestling with clinical depression and describes what she learned along the way about coping with the disease. The text is aimed primarily at those who are currently depressed and are struggling to recover. The emphasis throughout is on the healing power of self-acceptance and truth-telling. This is a reprint of a book first published in London by Flamingo in 2002.' - www.booknews.com This might well be the Age of Depression. More people than ever now experience the disease directly or see a friend or relative succumb to it. Among their number is Gwyneth Lewis. And she set about writing this book simply because she wished something like it had existed for her when she was in the middle of her depression. Depression is assassination. The depressive is both victim and detective - charged with tracking down the perpetrator of his or her own murder. By drawing on her own experience of struggling with the affliction, by highlighting ways of coping, ways of truth-telling, and ways of thriving, in a straightforward, robust fashion full of casual wisdom and easy wit, Gwyneth re-embarks on a journey that nearly killed her first time round and returns with this, perhaps the first truly undogmatic, undemanding, downright useful book about depression.

The Art of Racing in the Rain

The Art of Racing in the Rain
Author: Garth Stein
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2014-09-16
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9780062349538

The New York Times bestselling novel from Garth Stein–a heart-wrenching but deeply funny and ultimately uplifting story of a dog’s efforts to hold together his family in the face of a divisive custody battle. Enzo knows he is different from other dogs: a philosopher with a nearly human soul (and an obsession with opposable thumbs), he has educated himself by watching television extensively, and by listening very closely to the words of his master, Denny Swift, an up-and-coming race car driver. Through Denny, Enzo has gained tremendous insight into the human condition, and he sees that life, like racing, isn't simply about going fast. Using the techniques needed on the race track, one can successfully navigate all of life's ordeals. On the eve of his death, Enzo takes stock of his life, recalling all that he and his family have been through: the sacrifices Denny has made to succeed professionally; the unexpected loss of Eve, Denny's wife; the three-year battle over their daughter, Zoë, whose maternal grandparents pulled every string to gain custody. In the end, despite what he sees as his own limitations, Enzo comes through heroically to preserve the Swift family, holding in his heart the dream that Denny will become a racing champion with Zoë at his side. Having learned what it takes to be a compassionate and successful person, the wise canine can barely wait until his next lifetime, when he is sure he will return as a man.

The Day the Rain Moved In

The Day the Rain Moved In
Author: Éléonore Douspis
Publisher: Groundwood Books Ltd
Total Pages: 32
Release: 2021-04-01
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1773064827

In this beautiful picture book, the wondrous merges with the ordinary when it starts to rain ... inside the house! One day, it starts to rain in Pauline and Louis’s house. The whole family looks for the source of the rain, but nothing can be found! Dad tries to mop up the puddles that form on the floor, Mom holds an umbrella over her head to read, and Pauline and Louis wear their raincoats. Everyone tries to pretend that nothing is wrong. Pauline and Louis are embarrassed and try to keep their rainy house a secret from the other kids at school, expecting to be teased. What would happen if someone found out? Outside, the sun is shining. But inside the house, something new is happening. Plants sprout from the carpet, the bathtub and the kitchen sink. A giant tree spreads its branches through the living room. The neighborhood children, curious about the leaves they see through the windows, come inside. Instead of teasing, they want to play. Pauline and Louis aren’t alone with their secret any longer. In fact, having a tree in the house is kind of fun! Soon, the branches grow too big for the house, and sunlight streams in through holes in the roof. There’s something else, new, too — the rain has finally stopped. A story about embracing difference, celebrating the wondrous and expecting the best from our friends. This nuanced and layered story will have both very young and school-aged children requesting repeated readings. Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.2.3 Describe how characters in a story respond to major events and challenges.

Where the Rain Cannot Reach

Where the Rain Cannot Reach
Author: Adesina Brown
Publisher: Atmosphere Press
Total Pages: 318
Release: 2021-12-07
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9781639881383

Tair has never known what it means to belong. Abandoned at a young age and raised in the all-Elven valley of Mirte, the young Human defines herself by isolation, confined to her small, seemingly trustworthy family. Abruptly, that family uproots her from Mirte and leads her on an inevitable but treacherous journey to Doman: the previous site of unspeakable Human atrocities and the current home of Dwarvenkind. Though Doman offers Tair new definitions of family and love, it also reveals to her that her very existence is founded in lies. Now, tasked with an awful responsibility to the Humans of Sossoa, Tair must decide where her loyalties lie and, in the process, discover who she wants to be... And who she has always been. In their debut fantasy novel Where the Rain Cannot Reach, Adesina Brown constructs a world rich with new languages and nuanced considerations of gender and race, ultimately contemplating how, in freeing ourselves from power, we may find true belonging.

The Stars, the Earth, the River

The Stars, the Earth, the River
Author: Minh Khuê Lê
Publisher: Voice from Vietnam
Total Pages: 268
Release: 1997
Genre: Fiction
ISBN:

This collection of 14 stories--each a harrowing sketch of the Vietnam War and its aftermath-- offers American readers a glimpse offamiliar territory, but from an unfamiliar perspective. Often writing from a young woman's point of view, Le Minh Khue, a war veteran who served in the Youth Volunteers Brigade, uses simple, understated prose to describe numbing horrors: "There were three of us. Three girls. We lived in a cavern at the foot of a strategic hill ... Our job was to sit there. Whenever a bomb exploded, we had to run up, figure out how much earth was needed to fill the hold, count the unexploded bombs, and, if necessary, detonate them. They called us the Ground Reconnaissance Team. That title inspired in us a passion to do heroic deeds and therefore our work was not that simple." So begins the first story, "Distant Stars." Born in 1949, Le Minh Khue was no stranger to the vagaries of Land Reform politics and war. Colored by her stint as a war correspondent in Vietnam, Khue's level gaze lingers over the shambles of a war-torn country and its reconstruction to examine the soul of a people whose culture has all but been destroyed. The Stars, the Earth, the River contains an excellent introduction by the translators, grounding the stories in Le Minh Khue's personal history; the narrator of "A Day on the Road" speaks from having witnessedthe carnage of war. You simultaneously feel the rage of the author and the narrator when Khue disparagingly notes that the conversations around her center on luxuries, motor scooters, and business deals. Of what use, these stories ask, is such suffering? How can a culture honor the losses of war?

When Rain Falls

When Rain Falls
Author: Melissa Stewart
Publisher: National Geographic Books
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2013-03-05
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 1561454389

A colorful look at the amazing ways animals behave and interact with their environments on a rainy day. We go inside when the rain comes down, but where do animals go? This engaging book for young readers offers a first glimpse at how different animals in different habitats behave during a thunderstorm. Acclaimed children's nonfiction author Melissa Stewart takes a lyrical look at the behavior of animals in forests, fields, wetlands, and deserts and briefly describes how each creature interacts with its rained-soaked environment. Constance Bergum's soft watercolor paintings colorfully depict the animals and special features of each habitat.