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Joshua Johannssen has spent all of his 31 years among sailboats. His grandfather designed them, his father built and raced them, his mother knows why and how they work (or not). For Josh and his two siblings, their backyard was the Puget Sound and sailing their DNA. But both his sister and brother fled many years ago: Ruby to Africa and elsewhere to do good works on land, and Bernard to god-knows-where at sea, a fugitive and pirate.
Published in 1951, The Sea Around Us is one of the most remarkably successful books ever written about the natural world. This classic work remains as fresh today as when it first appeared. Carson's writing teems with stunning, memorable images - the newly formed Earth cooling beneath an endlessly overcast sky, the centuries of nonstop rain that created the oceans, giant squids battling sperm whales hundreds of fathoms below the surface, and incredibly powerful tides moving 100 billion tons of water daily in the Bay of Fundy.
Verily, the story Biff has to tell is a miraculous one, filled with remarkable journeys, magic, healings, kung fu, corpse reanimations, demons, and hot babes. Even the considerable wiles and devotion of the Savior's pal may not be enough to divert Joshua from his tragic destiny. But there's no one who loves Josh more (except maybe "Maggie," Mary of Magdalan) and Biff isn't about to let his extraordinary pal suffer and ascend without a fight.
Internationally best-selling author and Washington State Book Award winner Jim Lynch's Truth Like the Sun was named one of Amazon's Best Books of the Month. In 1962, Roger Morgan became the golden boy behind the Seattle World's Fair. Nearly 40 years later, he's a shoo-in for mayor. But when an ambitious journalist begins digging into his past, sordid details about his career come to light.
Acclaimed author Jim Lynch sets Border Songs along a 30-mile strip of Washington state and British Columbia. When severely dyslexic Brandon Vanderkool is forced to join the Border Patrol, he learns the border is a haven for illegal drug smugglers and other criminals. Meanwhile, disease has struck his father's herd, and his mother is battling something even more debilitating. Each will have to fight for hope in a world changing too fast.
Tara Westover was 17 the first time she set foot in a classroom. Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, she prepared for the end of the world by stockpiling home-canned peaches and sleeping with her "head-for-the-hills bag". In the summer she stewed herbs for her mother, a midwife and healer, and in the winter she salvaged in her father's junkyard. Her father forbade hospitals, so Tara never saw a doctor or nurse. Gashes and concussions, even burns from explosions, were all treated at home with herbalism.
Joshua Johannssen has spent all of his 31 years among sailboats. His grandfather designed them, his father built and raced them, his mother knows why and how they work (or not). For Josh and his two siblings, their backyard was the Puget Sound and sailing their DNA. But both his sister and brother fled many years ago: Ruby to Africa and elsewhere to do good works on land, and Bernard to god-knows-where at sea, a fugitive and pirate.
Published in 1951, The Sea Around Us is one of the most remarkably successful books ever written about the natural world. This classic work remains as fresh today as when it first appeared. Carson's writing teems with stunning, memorable images - the newly formed Earth cooling beneath an endlessly overcast sky, the centuries of nonstop rain that created the oceans, giant squids battling sperm whales hundreds of fathoms below the surface, and incredibly powerful tides moving 100 billion tons of water daily in the Bay of Fundy.
Verily, the story Biff has to tell is a miraculous one, filled with remarkable journeys, magic, healings, kung fu, corpse reanimations, demons, and hot babes. Even the considerable wiles and devotion of the Savior's pal may not be enough to divert Joshua from his tragic destiny. But there's no one who loves Josh more (except maybe "Maggie," Mary of Magdalan) and Biff isn't about to let his extraordinary pal suffer and ascend without a fight.
Internationally best-selling author and Washington State Book Award winner Jim Lynch's Truth Like the Sun was named one of Amazon's Best Books of the Month. In 1962, Roger Morgan became the golden boy behind the Seattle World's Fair. Nearly 40 years later, he's a shoo-in for mayor. But when an ambitious journalist begins digging into his past, sordid details about his career come to light.
Acclaimed author Jim Lynch sets Border Songs along a 30-mile strip of Washington state and British Columbia. When severely dyslexic Brandon Vanderkool is forced to join the Border Patrol, he learns the border is a haven for illegal drug smugglers and other criminals. Meanwhile, disease has struck his father's herd, and his mother is battling something even more debilitating. Each will have to fight for hope in a world changing too fast.
Tara Westover was 17 the first time she set foot in a classroom. Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, she prepared for the end of the world by stockpiling home-canned peaches and sleeping with her "head-for-the-hills bag". In the summer she stewed herbs for her mother, a midwife and healer, and in the winter she salvaged in her father's junkyard. Her father forbade hospitals, so Tara never saw a doctor or nurse. Gashes and concussions, even burns from explosions, were all treated at home with herbalism.
Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors, yet her cells, taken without her knowledge, became one of the most important tools in medicine. The first immortal human cells grown in culture, they are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than 60 years.
Inara Erickson is exploring her deceased aunt's island estate when she finds an elaborately stitched piece of fabric hidden in the house. As she peels back layer upon layer of the secrets it holds, Inara's life becomes interwoven with that of Mei Lein, a young Chinese girl mysteriously driven from her home a century before. Through the stories Mei Lein tells in silk, Inara uncovers a tragic truth that will shake her family to its core - and force her to make an impossible choice.
Brought to Kenya from England as a child and then abandoned by her mother, Beryl is raised by both her father and the native Kipsigis tribe, who share his estate. Her unconventional upbringing transforms Beryl into a bold young woman with a fierce love of all things wild and an inherent understanding of nature's delicate balance. But even the wild child must grow up, and when everything Beryl knows and trusts dissolves, she is catapulted into a string of disastrous relationships.
Ava's 25-year marriage has fallen apart, and her two grown children are pursuing their own lives outside of the country. Ava joins a book group, not only for her love of reading but also out of sheer desperation for companionship. The group's goal throughout the year is for each member to present the book that matters most to them. Ava rediscovers a mysterious book from her childhood - one that helped her through the traumas of the untimely deaths of her sister and mother.
Vatanen, a journalist, is feeling burned out and sick of the city. One summer evening, he and a photographer set out on an assignment, and as they drive through the country, the car hits a young hare. Vatanen leaves the car to save the injured creature, and the grateful animal adopts him. This small incident becomes a turning point in Vatanen’s life as he decides to break free from the world’s constraints.
After a long and eventful life, Allan Karlsson ends up in a nursing home, believing it to be his last stop. The only problem is that he's still in good health, and in one day, he turns 100. A big celebration is in the works, but Allan really isn't interested (and he'd like a bit more control over his vodka consumption). So he decides to escape. He climbs out the window in his slippers and embarks on a hilarious and entirely unexpected journey, involving, among other surprises, a suitcase stuffed with cash.
Sixteen-year-old Noa has been cast out in disgrace after becoming pregnant by a Nazi soldier and being forced to give up her baby. She lives above a small rail station, which she cleans in order to earn her keep. When Noa discovers a boxcar containing dozens of Jewish infants bound for a concentration camp, she is reminded of the child that was taken from her. And in a moment that will change the course of her life, she snatches one of the babies and flees into the snowy night.
At times stern, at other times patient, at times perceptive, at other times in sad denial, Olive Kitteridge, a retired schoolteacher, deplores the changes in her little town and in the world at large, but she doesn't always recognize the changes in those around her.
Debut novelist Eowyn ivey’s experience living in the Alaskan wilderness brings a palpable authenticity to The Snow Child. Alaska in the 1920s is a difficult place for Jack and Mabel. Drifting apart, the childless couple discover Faina, a young girl living alone in the wilderness. Soon, Jack and Mabel come to love Faina as their own. But when they learn a surprising truth about the girl, their lives change in profound ways.
There isn't much fun in the sun when a billionaire real estate tycoon is found murdered on the Tilt-a-Whirl at a seedy seaside amusement park in the otherwise quiet summer tourist town of Sea Haven. John Ceepak, a former MP just back from Iraq, has just joined the Sea Haven police department. The job offer came from an old Army buddy who hoped to give Ceepak at least a summer's worth of rest and relaxation to help him forget the horrors of war. Instead, Ceepak will head up the murder investigation.
From his years serving in British Intelligence during the Cold War, to a career as a writer that took him from war-torn Cambodia to Beirut on the cusp of the 1982 Israeli invasion to Russia before and after the collapse of the Berlin Wall, John le Carré has always written from the heart of modern times. In this, his first memoir, le Carré is as funny as he is incisive, reading into the events he witnesses the same moral ambiguity with which he imbues his novels.
Born in a South Africa divided by racism and hatred, this one small boy will come to lead all the tribes of Africa. Through enduring friendships with Hymie and Gideon, Peekay gains the strength he needs to win out. And in a final conflict with his childhood enemy, the Judge, Peekay will fight to the death for justice.
One moonlit night, 13-year-old Miles O'Malley slips out of his house, packs up his kayak, and goes exploring on the flats of Puget Sound. But what begins as an ordinary hunt for starfish, snails, and clams is soon transformed by an astonishing sight: a beached giant squid. As the first person to ever see a giant squid alive, the speed-reading, Rachel Carson-obsessed insomniac instantly becomes a local curiosity. When he later finds a rare deepwater fish in the tidal waters near his home, and saves a dog from drowning, he is hailed as a prophet. The media hovers and everyone wants to hear what Miles has to say.
But Miles is really just a teenager on the verge of growing up, infatuated with the girl next door, worried that his bickering parents will divorce, and fearful that everything, even the bay he loves, is shifting from him. While the sea continues to offer up discoveries from its mysterious depths, Miles struggles to deal with the difficulties that attend the equally mysterious process of growing up. In this unforgettable, beguiling novel, we witness the dramatic sea change for both Miles and the coastline that he adores over the course of a summer, one that will culminate with the highest tide in 50 years.
"Tender and authentic....This moving, unusual take on the summers of childhood conveys a contagious sense of wonder at the variety and mystery of the natural world." (Publishers Weekly)
"Readers, particularly those who enjoy discovering new voices in fiction, will appreciate Lynch's assertive, microscopically observant writing and respond to the precocious hero, a boy so attuned to the land that his coming-of-age exerts a tidal pull on the very molecules of his environment." (Booklist)
"A stunning light show....A celebratory song of the seas." (Kirkus Reviews)
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, particularly the discussions about the wonders of nature. Judging from other reviews, I may be unusual in this regard. (Okay, I majored in Marine Biology many years ago.) The reader did an excellent job capturing the artless enthusisasm that we as adults too often lose.
Like another reviewer, I was a bit disconcerted by the sudden ending, as if the writer just ran out of steam and quit. But all in all, I highly recommend this book, especially to people with an interest in sealife or biology in general.
7 of 7 people found this review helpful
I'm not sure why I bought this book but I was unexpectedly surprised that it was so enjoyable. Its has a interesting plot and lots of information on sea life which was also something that I found very interesting.
All and all, I'd reccommend this quiet book.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful
Pros:
Coming-of-age books can be great and moving reads. This book was loaded with emotion, and chock full of beautiful descriptions of life on the ocean (or bay, as it were) by one who obviously loves it and is well versed in the subject.
Cons:
There is plenty of what I'd expect a young teen to be thinking of and doing in this novel. But, about one-third the way into the book, I started to doubt a 13 year old could ever know as much as Miles O'Malley did. The story started to flatten for me as more and more very detailed facts about marine life, elegant quotes from Rachel Carson's writings, and very adult emotions came tumbling out of Miles. As Miles drones on about clams and the reproductive habits of obscure squid, I found my attention drifting more than once.
9 of 10 people found this review helpful
Very well written and while told from the point of view of a teen-ager, seemed very convincing. The details of the Olympia tidal flats and the environmental concerns and interests of the main character were fascinating. It made me want to go explore tidal pools!
3 of 3 people found this review helpful
While the story was interesting it was hard to get past the raspy voice of the narrator. I will not listen to him again when there are so many with nice smooth voices out there. A shame as it was a good story.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful
Maybe living on Puget Sound and being a native of this state makes me more generous in my review, but I found this book to be a delightful coming of age book. The ending was a bit abrupt for my wife, but I would rather have a few questions unanswered and left to the imagination.
3 of 4 people found this review helpful
Fisher Stevens has a great voice for narration, and has done nice characterizations in his career. Unfortunately, the protagonist and his friends in this book are 13 years old. Rachel Carson's view of life on earth was fresh with dire predictions. But the counterpoint of this protagonist, his foul-mouthed and misguided friends, adults who are all "users" for their own self-interest, makes this a tiresome book. I have listened to 6 of the 7 hours, and can't wait for it to be over. Perhaps this review would be more favorable if i waited until the end, but I am so annoyed, I needed to vent by frustrations now.
I applaud Fisher Stevens, and urge people NOT to listen to this.
8 of 14 people found this review helpful
I can't believe I spent eight hours listening to this. Sure, I learned a lot about the life in tidal pools, but a "coming of age" story this ain't. Totally pointless book.
6 of 14 people found this review helpful
A sweet and funny coming-of-age story about 13 year old Mike O'Malley's summer on Puget Sound. Mike sneaks out of his home one night to explore the marine life when the tide is out and discovers a giant squid.That's just the beginning of a special summer for a kid that knows all about the tides and what they bring to his town.
0 of 1 people found this review helpful
I usually don't pay too much attention to the readers of audiobooks, but this one almost ruined the experience for me. He speaks with exaggerated, unnatural inflections. At times he sounds like a TV commercial (one can imagine him saying,"Try new FlavorFresh(TM)!"). At other times, he sounds like he is telling camp stories to first graders ("and THEN, the scaaaaary monster JUMPED out of the closet!!").
I found this reading strangely incongruous because the narrator in the novel is supposed to be an introspective and thoughtful thirteen year old.
The novel was otherwise enjoyable, so I was almost tempted to just buy the paperback version.
1 of 4 people found this review helpful