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An art project gone mainstream, Post Secret is a collection of postcards. Not just any postcards, but "secrets" -- confessions, really -- sent by anonymous readers. "I work for the Director of a religious charity. He is robbing them blind and thinks nobody knows ... but I KNOW." Or: "At my best friend's graduation today I heard a fire engine and could only think of a bomb going off, the F.D. responding. Firecrackers went off and I heard machine gun fire. When I drive in my car, as I look for oncoming traffic I also check local buildings and houses for snipers. I have been out of the military for 2 years and was only in Iraq for 4 months. I am so f**king scared of everything." Amazing, powerful stuff. From This is True for 28 May 2006 Suggestions for further reading:
 By: Avi List Price: $5.99 Amazon Price: $5.99 Editorial Review: The Seahawk looms against a darkening sky, black and sinister. Manned by an angry, motley crew at the mercy of a ruthless captain, the rat-infested ship reeks of squalor, despair ... and mutiny! It is no place for the lone passenger, thirteen-year-old Charlotte Doyle, yet for her there is no turning back. At first a trapped and powerless young girl, Charlotte dares to become the center of a daring and deadly voyage that will challenge her courage, her loyalties, and her very will to survive!Alone on the brig Seahawk with a mutinous crew and a ruthless, mad captain, thirteen-year-old Charlotte bravely survives a dangerous high-sea voyage-but not before she is wrongfully accused of murder, tried, and sentenced to hang! "Riveting...Nonstop action...A story hard to forget."-Booklist  By: Gregory Maguire List Price: $11.95 Amazon Price: $9.56 Editorial Review: E-book extras: "Cinderilla or, The Little Glass Slipper" (read the original version of the classic fairy tale); reading group guide. From Gregory Maguire, the acclaimed author of Wicked, comes his much-anticipated second novel, a brilliant and provocative retelling of the timeless Cinderella tale. In the lives of children, pumpkins can turn into coaches, mice and rats into human beings.... When we grow up, we learn that it's far more common for human beings to turn into rats.... We all have heard the story of Cinderella, the beautiful child cast out to slave among the ashes. But what of her stepsisters, the homely pair exiled into ignominy by the fame of their lovely sibling? What fate befell those untouched by beauty . . . and what curses accompanied Cinderella's exquisite looks? Is this new land a place where magics really happen? Extreme beauty is an affliction Set against the rich backdrop of seventeenth-century Holland, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister tells the story of Iris, an unlikely heroine who finds herself swept from the lowly streets of Haarlem to a strange world of wealth, artifice, and ambition. Iris's path quickly becomes intertwined with that of Clara, the mysterious and unnaturally beautiful girl destined to become her sister. Clara was the prettiest child, but was her life the prettiest tale? While Clara retreats to the cinders of the family hearth, burning all memories of her past, Iris seeks out the shadowy secrets of her new household--and the treacherous truth of her former life. God and Satan snarling at each other like dogs.... Imps and fairy godmotbers trying to undo each other's work. How we try to pin the world between opposite extremes! Far more than a mere fairy-tale, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister is a novel of beauty and betrayal, illusion and understanding, reminding us that deception can be unearthed--and love unveiled--in the most unexpected of places.Gregory Maguire's chilling, wonderful retelling of Cinderella is a study in contrasts. Love and hate, beauty and ugliness, cruelty and charity--each idea is stripped of its ethical trappings, smashed up against its opposite number, and laid bare for our examination. Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister begins in 17th-century Holland, where the two Fisher sisters and their mother have fled to escape a hostile England. Maguire's characters are at once more human and more fanciful than their fairy-tale originals. Plain but smart Iris and her sister, Ruth, a hulking simpleton, are dazed and terrified as their mother, Margarethe, urges them into the strange Dutch streets. Within days, purposeful Margarethe has secured the family a place in the home of an aspiring painter, where for a short time, they find happiness. But this is Cinderella, after all, and tragedy is inevitable. When a wealthy tulip speculator commissions the painter to capture his blindingly lovely daughter, Clara, on canvas, Margarethe jumps at the chance to better their lot. "Give me room to cast my eel spear, and let follow what may," she crows, and the Fisher family abandons the artist for the upper-crust Van den Meers. When Van den Meer's wife dies during childbirth, the stage is set for Margarethe to take over the household and for Clara to adopt the role of "Cinderling" in order to survive. What follows is a changeling adventure, and of course a ball, a handsome prince, a lost slipper, and what might even be a fairy godmother. In a single magic night, the exquisite and the ugly swirl around in a heated mix: Everything about this moment hovers, trembles, all their sweet, unreasonable hopes on view before anything has had the chance to go wrong. A stepsister spins on black and white tiles, in glass slippers and a gold gown, and two stepsisters watch with unrelieved admiration. The light pours in, strengthening in its golden hue as the sun sinks and the evening approaches. Clara is as otherworldly as the Donkeywoman, the Girl-Boy. Extreme beauty is an affliction... But beyond these familiar elements, Maguire's second novel becomes something else altogether--a morality play, a psychological study, a feminist manifesto, or perhaps a plain explanation of what it is to be human. Villains turn out to be heroes, and heroes disappoint. The story's narrator wryly observes, "In the lives of children, pumpkins can turn into coaches, mice and rats into human beings. When we grow up, we learn that it's far more common for human beings to turn into rats." --Therese Littleton  By: Philip Carlo List Price: $14.95 Amazon Price: $10.17 Editorial Review: Over six weeks on the New York Times Bestseller List. Top Mob Hitman. Devoted Family Man. Doting Father. For thirty years, Richard ?The Iceman? Kuklinski led a shocking double life, becoming the most notorious professional assassin in American history while happily hosting neighborhood barbecues in suburban New Jersey. Richard Kuklinski was Sammy the Bull Gravano?s partner in the killing of Paul Castellano at Sparks Steakhouse. John Gotti hired him to torture and kill the neighbor who accidentally ran over his child. For an additional price, Kuklinski would make his victims suffer; he conducted this sadistic business with coldhearted intensity and shocking efficiency, never disappointing his customers. By his own estimate, he killed over two hundred men, taking enormous pride in his variety and ferocity of technique. This trail of murder lasted over thirty years and took Kuklinski all over America and to the far corners of the earth, Brazil, Africa, and Europe. Along the way, he married, had three children, and put them through Catholic school. His daughter?s medical condition meant regular stays in children?s hospitals, where Kuklinski was remembered as an affectionate father, extremely kind to children. Each Christmas found the Kuklinski home festooned in colorful lights; each summer was a succession of block parties. His family never suspected a thing.  By: Rachel Gibson List Price: $12.95 Amazon Price: $11.66 Editorial Review: Welcome to Gospel, Idaho, where everyone knows that there are two universal truths. First, God did His best work when He created the Sawtooth Wilderness Area. Second, every sin known to heaven and earth?from the hole in the ozone to alien abductions?is all California's fault. This is the story of what happened when a Californian came to visit . . . Hope Spencer knows wacky: as a writer for The Weekly News of the Universe she's "spotted" Bigfoot, Elvis, and the face of Jesus on a tortilla. Arriving in Gospel hoping for some peace and quiet and normal . . . she quickly figures out that there's nothing normal going on in Gospel. From the Barnes sisters with their color-coordinated hair, to the toilet-tossing sportsmen . . . to the murder victim whose body had been found in her house years before, the Gospel truth really is stranger than fiction?even tabloid fiction. Hell, she should have stayed in L.A. And then there's local sheriff Dylan Taber. He's no made-up character from one of her stories. She could never create anything that good. Dylan's all too real . . . and soon Hope is forced to face the awful truth?she's been too long without a man. But once she gets wind of a Hollywood actress somehow mixed up in Dylan's life, Hope realizes that if they are to have any chance together, he has some true confessing to do. Sheriff Dylan Taber takes one look at city girl Hope Spencer and bets she won't last a week in Gospel, Idaho. But Ray Bans, tiny spandex tops, and a silver Porsche are not the sum total of a woman, and Hope not only stays more than a week, she makes an indelible impression on the local population while she's driving Dylan crazy with lust and longing. Not that she plans to make the sheriff crazy. Hope just wants to end the writer's block that has plagued her for months so she can return to being a star reporter for an L.A. tabloid.Fortunately for her, the residents of Gospel provide inspiration for her fertile imagination and she's soon cranking out new stories that her publisher loves. Meanwhile, she's making new friends and falling in love--with the Sawtooth Mountains, with small-town life, and with Dylan Taber. Dylan is keeping a secret, however, and when he finds out that Hope isn't just a writer of nonfiction, but a member of the notorious tabloid paparazzi, all hell breaks loose in Gospel. Can Hope convince him that her actions were innocent and will Dylan ever believe her? From the waitress in the Cozy Corner Cafe to the patrons of the Buckhorn Bar, from the neighbor next door with big hair to seven-year-old boys and their endearing shenanigans, Gibson nails small-town life to perfection. True Confessions is sexy, funny, well-plotted, and a darn good novel. Don't miss this latest offering from one of the rising stars of romantic comedy. --Lois Faye Dyer  By: Kay GardinerAnn Meador Shayne List Price: $29.95 Amazon Price: $19.77 Editorial Review: Dear Fellow Knitter, Welcome! Come on in. Have a seat?we?ve been waiting for you. Ever since our first book, Mason-Dixon Knitting: The Curious Knitters? Guide, we?ve been exploring techniques and ideas that we once thought were the sort of thing that only brilliant knitters could do. Our conclusion: We are all brilliant knitters! None of this is rocket science! If you can knit a garter stitch scarf, you?ve figured out the hard part. Now it?s time for the fun to start. You hold in your hands the result of our odyssey. It?s a new collection of 30 delicious projects that we hope will take you on your own knitting adventures. Decorating Yourself: A collection of beautiful things to make for your most demanding (and forgiving) client. The Fairest Isle of All: A simple, quick introduction to a sort of knitting you may not have considered, with surprising, modern projects. Covering the Small Human: Pint-sized knits, including baby hats, dreamy dresses, and a cool pullover for the ultimate challenge: the Older Child. Occasional Knitting: Projects for the special occasions in life?holidays, housewarmings, picnics. The Sophisticated Kitchen: New uses for one of our favorite yarns: kitchen cotton. We have filled this book with luscious photographs, stories, tips, rules, and hints. You?ll read how we arrived at these projects and the discoveries we have made along the way, and you will discover shocking things about us. At all times, we have kept in mind Mason-Dixon Knitting Rule Number 1 : Knitting is spoze to be fun. Fasten your seatbelt?it?s going to be a fabulous ride! Love, Kay and Ann |
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