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Vincent And Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers
by Deborah HeiligmanThe deep and enduring friendship between Vincent and Theo Van Gogh shaped both brothers' lives. Confidant, champion, sympathizer, friend—Theo supported Vincent as he struggled to find his path in life. They shared everything, swapping stories of lovers and friends, successes and disappointments, dreams and ambitions. Meticulously researched, drawing on the 658 letters Vincent wrote to Theo during his lifetime, Deborah Heiligman weaves a tale of two lives intertwined and the extraordinary love of the Van Gogh brothers.
El vínculo más fuerte
by Kent HarufLa excelente ópera prima con la que el autor de Nosotros en la noche inicia su andadura por la Ámerica rural y los orígenes del condado de Holt, anticipándose a todos los elementos que hacen única su poética. Es la primavera de 1977 en Holt, Colorado. La octogenaria Edith Goodnough yace en una cama de hospital y un policía vigila su habitación. Unos meses antes, un incendio destruyó la casa donde vivía Edith con su hermano Lyman, y ahora la acusan de su asesinato. Un día, un periodista llega al pueblo para investigar el incidente y se dirige a Sanders Roscoe, el granjero vecino, que, para proteger a Edith, se niega a hablar. Pero finalmente es la voz de Sanders la que nos contará su vida, una historia que comienza en 1906, cuando los padres de Edith y Lyman llegaron a Holt en busca de tierra y fortuna, y que recorrerá siete décadas. En esta primera novela, Kent Haruf nos traslada a la ardua América rural, un paisaje hecho de mazorcas de maíz, hierba y vacas, cielos estrellados en verano y abundante nieve en invierno, donde existe un código de conducta indiscutible, ligado a la tierra y la familia, y donde esta mujer sacrificará sus años en nombre del deber y el respeto para luego, con un solo gesto, reclamar su libertad. Haruf nos habla de sus personajes sin juzgarlos, desde la profunda confianza en la dignidad y la tenacidad del espíritu humano que ha hecho que su voz literaria sea inconfundible. La crítica ha dicho...«Una América que quizá solo los escritores puedan recuperar.»Juan Marín, El País «Un escritor que posee una originalidad deslumbrante. Habla pausadamente, de forma íntima y contenida. Es cuidadoso a la hora de contar una buena historia. Una historia que destila verdad.»The Guardian «[...] se aleja de los tópicos y habilita senderos que entre los dedos de otro autor solo serían suspiros nocivos.»Sonia Fides, Heraldo de Aragón «Su narrativa recuerda a Faulkner, en quien Haruf se inspira, a Hemingway, con quien se le ha comparado, y a Carver, con quien comparte el absoluto rechazo a cualquier afectación estilística y la claridad de los diálogos.»Il Post Sobre El vínculo más fuerte...«Un trabajo impresionante de sensibilidad y detalle, elaborado por todo un experto... Poderoso.»Los Angeles Times Book Review «Una excelente primera novela que explora de forma dramática y precisa las vidas de la gente que trabaja la tierra en el crudo Medio Oeste estadounidense.»The New York Times Book Review «Kent Haruf escribe de maravilla… Sus personajes viven, y la voz de su narrador resuena más allá de la última página: humorística, irónica, amorosa.»The Christian Science Monitor «Los dones de Haruf como escritor superan la coreografía. Ha atrapado a la gente de laspraderas con la habilidad de Wright Morris, la pradera misma con la arrolladora mirada de Willa Cather... [Es] casi imposible creer que esta es su primera novela.»Rocky Mountain News «Pero independientemente del éxito, la primera novela sigue siendo la primera. Es el nacimiento de una voz, el acto de fe hacia la palabra que hace una persona sin paracaídas, sin saber aún si se convertirá en escritor o no. Y supone la emergencia de un mundo nunca contado.»Corriere della Sera «Lo que [los personajes] creen y cómo sobreviven la convierte de repente no en otra historia del Oeste que puede deleitar al lector [...], sino en una historia de proporciones míticas, y no sólo en una historia sobre un pequeño pueblo del Oeste americano, sino en una historia de interés universal. Nuestra historia.»Boston Review «Se apoya en algunos mitos universales, pero muy norteamericanos -la familia, la pequeña comunidad y el ciclo de la naturaleza-, peroes
The Vine Basket
by Josanne La ValleyThings aren't looking good for fourteen-year-old Mehrigul. She yearns to be in school, but she's needed on the family farm. The longer she's out of school, the more likely it is that she'll be sent off to a Chinese factory . . . perhaps never to return. Her only hope is an American woman who buys one of her decorative vine baskets for a staggering sum and says she will return in three weeks for more. Mehrigul must brave terrible storms, torn-up hands from working the fields, and her father's scorn to get the baskets done. The stakes are high, and time is passing. A powerful intergenerational story of a strong, creative young artist in a cruelly oppressive society.
The Vine Basket
by Josanne La ValleyThings aren't looking good for fourteen-year-old Mehrigul. She yearns to be in school, but she's needed on the family farm. The longer she's out of school, the more likely it is that she'll be sent off to a Chinese factory . . . perhaps never to return. Her only hope is an American woman who buys one of her decorative vine baskets for a staggering sum and says she will return in three weeks for more. Mehrigul must brave terrible storms, torn-up hands from working the fields, and her father's scorn to get the baskets done. The stakes are high, and time is passing. A powerful intergenerational story of a strong, creative young artist in a cruelly oppressive society.
Vinegar Hill
by A. Manette AnsayDutifully accompanying her newly unemployed husband, Ellen has brought her two children into the home of her in-laws on Vinegar Hill-a loveless house suffused with the dust of bitterness and cruelty.
Vinegar Hill: Poems
by Colm TóibínFrom the New York Times best-selling author of Brooklyn, Colm Tóibín&’s first collection of poetry explores sexuality, religion, and belonging through a modern lens.Fans of Colm Tóibín&’s novels, including The Magician, The Master, and Nora Webster, will relish the opportunity to re-encounter Tóibín in verse. Vinegar Hill explores the liminal space between private experiences and public events as Tóibín examines a wide range of subjects—politics, queer love, reflections on literary and artistic greats, living through COVID, and facing mortality. The poems reflect a life well-traveled and well-lived; from growing up in the town of Enniscorthy, wandering the streets of Dublin, and crossing the bridges of Venice to visiting the White House, readers will travel through familiar locations and new destinations through Tóibín&’s unique lens.Within this rich collection of poems written over the course of several decades, shot through with keen observation, emotion, and humor, Tóibín offers us lines and verses to provoke, ponder, and cherish.
The Vineyard: A Novel
by Barbara DelinskyNew York Times bestselling author Barbara Delinsky has written her most complex and emotionally rewarding novel yet: a story of two women, a generation apart, each of whose dream becomes bound with the other's.To her family, Natalie Seebring is a woman who prizes appearances: exquisitely mannered, a supportive wife, and head of a successful wine-producing enterprise. So when she announces plans to marry a vineyard employee mere months after the death of her husband of fifty-eight years, her son and daughter are stunned. Faced with their disapproval, Natalie decides to write a memoir. Olivia Jones is a dreamer, living vicariously through the old photographs she restores. She and her daughter, Tess, cling to the fantasy that a big, happy family is out there just waiting for them. When Natalie hires Olivia to help with her memoir, a summer at Natalie's vineyard by the sea seems the perfect opportunity to live out that fantasy, but all is not as it seems. As the illusion of an idyllic existence comes crashing headlong into reality, the lives of these two women, parallel in so many ways, become a powerful and moving story.
The Vineyard at Painted Moon: A Novel
by Susan Mallery"In true Susan Mallery fashion, strong female characters, friendship, and family are at the center... You're sure to laugh and cry along the journey and delight in the happy ending."—Robyn Carr, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Virgin RiverStep into the vineyard with Susan Mallery&’s most irresistible novel yet, as one woman searches for the perfect blend of love, family and wine.Mackenzie Dienes seems to have it all—a beautiful home, close friends and a successful career as an elite winemaker with the family winery. There&’s just one problem—it&’s not her family, it&’s her husband&’s. In fact, everything in her life is tied to him—his mother is the closest thing to a mom that she&’s ever had, their home is on the family compound, his sister is her best friend. So when she and her husband admit their marriage is over, her pain goes beyond heartbreak. She&’s on the brink of losing everything. Her job, her home, her friends and, worst of all, her family.Staying is an option. She can continue to work at the winery, be friends with her mother-in-law, hug her nieces and nephews—but as an employee, nothing more. Or she can surrender every piece of her heart in order to build a legacy of her own. If she can dare to let go of the life she thought she wanted, she might discover something even more beautiful waiting for her beneath a painted moon.Don't miss New York Times bestselling author Susan Mallery's heartwarming summer novel, The Summer Book Club, where conversations over a glass of wine turns into something much more in this journey of motherhood, friendship and love.Get lost in more beach reads by Susan Mallery: The Summer Book Club - Coming February 2024! The Happiness Plan The Sister Effect The Boardwalk Bookshop The Summer Getaway
A Vineyard Morning (A Vineyard Novel #3)
by Jean StoneLife is usually quiet during the off-season on Martha&’s Vineyard. But not for island newbie and bestselling novelist Annie Sutton . . . Finally settled into her adopted island home, Annie is looking forward to writing her next mystery, making soap for her new business, and starting renovations on the Inn she plans to open by the summer. She&’s also enjoying spending more time with local police sergeant John Lyons, the man she&’s only just gotten comfortable calling her boyfriend. She&’s even starting to relish her relationship with John&’s teenaged daughter, Lucy. It&’s probably not the best moment for a visit from the biological mother Annie only recently met. Still, it&’s high time she got to know the mysterious Donna MacNeish . . . But Donna&’s visit isn&’t merely a social call—she&’s come to share some devastating news. Seeking solace in an outing with Lucy, Annie and the teen stumble upon skeletal remains on the Inn&’s property, a finding that calls a halt to all construction while the police investigate. Desperate for answers, Annie starts asking questions of her own. But when secrets about her own past bring shattering revelations, suddenly everything Annie understands about love and loyalty is tested—and she wonders if the ties that bind her to her beloved community will reach a breaking point . . . Praise for Jean Stone&’s Vineyard Novels &“Filled with heart. . . . Perfect for long summer days. For fans of Debbie Macomber or Elin Hilderbrand.&” —Booklist&“Lie down on the couch, put a pillow under your head and enjoy the ride.&”—The Vineyard Gazette
The Vineyards of Champagne
by Juliet BlackwellBeneath the cover of France's most exquisite vineyards, a city of women defy an army during World War I, from the New York Times bestselling author of The Lost Carousel of Provence.... Deep within the labyrinth of caves that lies below the lush, rolling vineyards of the Champagne region, an underground city of women and children hums with life. Forced to take shelter from the unrelenting onslaught of German shellfire above, the bravest and most defiant women venture out to pluck sweet grapes for the harvest. But wine is not the only secret preserved in the cool, dark cellars... In present day, Rosalyn Acosta travels to Champagne to select vintages for her Napa-based employer. Rosalyn doesn't much care for champagne--or France, for that matter. Since the untimely death of her young husband, Rosalyn finds it a challenge to enjoy anything at all. But as she reads through a precious cache of WWI letters and retraces the lives lived in the limestone tunnels, Rosalyn will unravel a mystery hidden for decades...and find a way to savor her own life again.
Vintage: A Novel
by David Baker"Vintage is at once a mouthwatering culinary tale, an evocative look at the strength it takes to create the life we want, and a delicious adventure." --Nina Mukerjee Furstenau, MFK Fisher Award-winning author Good ingredients, an open heart, a dash of tenacity and a pinch of courage... Food journalist, wine connoisseur, and onetime bestselling writer Bruno Tannenbaum has long believed these are the elements of a full life. The rest will take care of itself. But lately, nothing's going right for Bruno. His career is floundering, he's separated from his wife and their two daughters, and is drinking his way through a dwindling bank account, certain all that's left of life is a downward slope into obscurity. Then Bruno stumbles on a clue leading to a "lost" wine vintage, one of the many bottles stolen and smuggled out of France during WWII, now worth a small fortune and sought after by wine collectors throughout the world. Bruno realizes that finding this bottle could be the key to restoring his career--maybe even writing his comeback book. But his discovery is not a secret for long; as word of his finding spreads, nefarious characters interested in the bottle start appearing at every turn. Bruno scrapes together his final resources, calls in favors he may ultimately regret and sets off on a grand adventure. From the rolling hills of Burgundy to a raucous wedding in Moldova, from a Beaune bacchanal to the graying walls of a Russian prison, Vintage is a hilarious food-filled debut about redemption, sacrifices and making one last effort to follow your dreams.
Vintage: A Novel
by Susan Gloss“A colorful and charming novel, filled with tenderness for women and friendship . . . every page reads like a literary wardrobe makeover.” —Susanna Daniel, award-winning author of StiltsvilleAt Hourglass Vintage in Madison, Wisconsin, every item in the boutique has a story to tell . . . and so do the women who are drawn there.Violet Turner has always dreamed of owning a shop like Hourglass Vintage. When she is faced with the possibility of losing it, she realizes that, as much as she wants to, she cannot save it alone.Eighteen-year-old April Morgan is nearly five months along in an unplanned pregnancy when her hasty engagement is broken. When she returns the perfect 1950s wedding dress, she discovers unexpected possibilities and friends who won’t let her give up on her dreams.Betrayed by her husband, Amithi Singh begins selling off her old clothes, remnants of her past life. After decades of housekeeping and parenting a daughter who rejects her traditional ways, she fears she has nothing more ahead for her.An engaging story that beautifully captures the essence of women’s friendship and love, Vintage is a charming tale of possibility, of finding renewal and hope when we least expect it.“A wonderfully engaging story complete with the true essence of sisterhood.” —Stephanie Evanovich, New York Times–bestselling author“Swap the vintage-clothing device for knitting, and you have Kate Jacobs’ The Friday Night Knitting Club, which means Gloss should have a built-in fan base for this book-club-worthy story of redemption, healing, and love.” —Booklist“An engaging story filled with plucky characters and second acts.” —Library Journal
Vintage Book Of Fathers
by L Guinness Louise GuinnessIdeal fathers, cruel fathers, puffed-up-with-pride fathers, horribly and humanly flawed fathers: this wonderful anthology contains a whole range of experience from the amazed joy of new fatherhood, to the pains of bereavement, from the comic and eccentric Papa to the sinister and silent Dad. Louise Guinness has collected irresistible extracts spanning nearly three thousand years, from Homer and the Bible to present day, from Chaucer to Beatrix Potter, Rabelais to Seamus Heaney.
The Vinyl Cafe Celebrates
by Stuart McLeanFrom Canada's much-missed, nationally bestselling storyteller, a must-have collection featuring ten never-before-published stories and ten classic favourites, perfect for old fans and Vinyl Cafe newcomers alike.From the unforgettable Christmas classic &“Dave Cooks the Turkey&” to the tender tribute to ice-cream-loving, potato-sitting Arthur the dog in &“Morte d&’Arthur&”; from the joys and challenges of marriage in &“The Canoe Trip&” to the celebration of childhood adventure in &“The Waterslide.&” From the beginning of life (the hilarious &“Labour Pains&”) to the end (the touching &“Love Never Ends&”) and all the moments—big and small—in between, these stories remind us that there are occasions to celebrate every day.For more than two decades, Stuart McLean entered the hearts and homes of Canadians via The Vinyl Cafe radio show, his many tours across the country, and multiple nationally bestselling books. His charming, humane, and side-splitting stories brought the trials and triumphs of Dave, Morley, Sam, and Stephanie to life, and made their memorable circle of friends, family, and neighbours as real as our own.This collection is both timely and timeless, a rich celebration of Stuart McLean's inimitable voice, and of the importance of love, community, kindness, and the healing power of laughter.
Violación Personal
by David P. WarrenCuando una ejecutiva es acosada y agredida por el director general de su compañía, y posteriormente despedida, un abogado tenaz estará determinado a hacer justicia. La ejecutiva Sarah Willis, decide buscar representación legal en el abogado Scott Winslow, luego de verse profundamente afectada y enfrentando el impacto psicológico de un ataque sexual violento durante un viaje de negocios. Inmediatamente después, Sarah será despedida debido a su presunto bajo rendimiento. Para armar su caso, Winslow deberá encontrar la manera de establecer evidencia concreta a pesar de las perspectivas enfrentadas. El segundo libro en la serie Los misterios judiciales de Scott Winslow, Violación personal es una historia ficticia dentro una realidad aterradora que refleja las lesiones substanciales causadas por la violación; los desafíos mentales y emocionales de buscar justicia; y deja entrever lo que sucede dentro del sistema judicial. Con el apoyo Lee Henry, un investigador, ex-agente de la CIA, para nada ortodoxo, Winslow sale en búsqueda de cada rastro de evidencia. Pero, ¿serán capaces de conectar todas las piezas y cerrar el caso?
Violazione Personale
by David P. WarrenQuando una dirigente viene molestata e aggredita dall’amministratore delegato dell’azienda – e poi persino licenziata – un tenace avvocato è determinato a fare giustizia. Profondamente turbata e costretta ad affrontare l’impatto psicologico dello stupro subito durante una trasferta di lavoro, Sarah si rivolge all’avvocato Scott Winslow affinché la rappresenti dopo aver denunciato l’accaduto ed essere stata immediatamente licenziata a causa del presunto scarso rendimento lavorativo. Durante la preparazione della causa, Winslow deve riuscire a raccogliere prove concrete sufficienti a sostenere l’accusa della sua cliente. Il secondo libro della serie Scott Winslow Legal Mysteries - Violazione Personale - è il racconto romanzato di un orrore che spesso accade nel mondo reale. Descrive l’indelebile ferita causata dallo stupro e le difficoltà emotive e psicologiche legate al tentativo di fare giustizia, dando al contempo al lettore un’infarinatura sul sistema legale statunitense. Grazie alla collaborazione con Lee Henry - il poco ortodosso ex-agente della CIA, ora trasformatosi in investigatore privato - Winslow si lancia a capofitto a caccia di prove. Riuscirà a trovarle e chiudere il caso?
Violence: Prevention and Treatment in Groups
by George GetzelThis informative and thoughtful book demonstrates the value of social group work concepts applied to domestic and other forms of violence. Written by social work practitioners, each chapter focuses on a different form of violence and the appropriate models of social work with groups. Using detailed accounts of their own practice and research, professionals explain behavioral, interactional, and humanistic approaches toward varying service service populations--including perpetrators, as well as victims or “survivors.” The samples of creative interventions with victims of childhood sexual abuse, rape, and domestic battering will inspire sympathy and reflection among all professionals who too often see the consequences of victimization in their own practices.
Violence and Social Injustice Against Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual People
by Lacey Sloan Nora GustavssonViolence and Social Injustice Against Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual People helps you look past the stereotypical picture of violence against sexual minorities--the public physical assaults on gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered youth by hypermasculine male thugs--and directs you toward the many daily acts of quiet violence that go on, unhindered, in the workaday settings of our legal, social, educational, and law-enforcement institutions. You’ll learn about the frightening prevelance of complacency, homophobic ignorance, and apathy that pervades our police departments, courts, high schools, and churches. Also, armed with this critical insight and statistical research, you’ll be better equipped to wage a non-violent war of fairness and mutual respect against the daily, senseless violence of policy and practice that threatens to render gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered people unwelcome and battered citizens in their own communities.You’ll find that Violence and Social Injustice Against Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual People is ideal for aiding social workers, counselors, teachers, and criminal justice officials in removing the unseen acts of violence from the policies and practices of the public sector. These and other specific areas will give you the information and the fortitude necessary to evoke positive change in your community: legal issues relating to same-sex marriage the connection between social injustice and violence violence against sexual minority youth sexual identity and ethnic minorities practice and policy recommendationsAs this book shows, violence against sexual minorities can be subtly woven into the very fabric of some of our most long-standing, respected social institutions. For too long, the sexual minorities of color, for example, and the lesbian who suffers physical assault at the hands of a partner, have had little or no help from social workers, law enforcement, or education for fear of receiving either complete negligence or increased antagonism. But now, in Violence and Social Injustice Against Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual People, you’ll find the facts and tools necessary for turning the ugliness of communal violence into social justice for people of all sexual orientations.
Violence, Entitlement, and Politics: A Theology on Transforming the Subject (Routledge New Critical Thinking in Religion, Theology and Biblical Studies)
by Steven G. OgdenThis book is an exercise in political theology, exploring the problem of gender-based violence by focusing on violent male subjects and the issue of entitlement. It addresses gender-based violence in familial and military settings before engaging with a wider political context. The chapters draw on sources ranging from Michel Foucault, Judith Butler, and Étienne Balibar to Rowan Williams and Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza. Entitlement is theorized and interpreted as a gender pattern, predisposing subjects toward controlling behaviour and/or violent actions. Steven Ogden develops a theology of transformation, stressing immanence. He examines entitled subjects, predisposed to violence, where transformation requires a limit-experience that wrenches the subject from itself. The book also reflects on today’s pervasive strongman politics, where political rationalities foster proprietorial thinking and entitlement gender patterns, and how theology is called to develop counter-discourses and counter-practices.
Violence in Intimate Spaces: Law and Beyond (Sustainable Development Goals Series)
by Pinki Mathur Anurag Santwana DwivedyThis book provides a textured understanding of intimate violence across the unlimited stretch of human relationships, institutions, and social structures. The volume has been conceptualized with the overarching objective to provide the reader with a collection of thoughtfully selected chapters that critically examine existing literature for an in-depth analysis of institutions through the lens of violence, beyond disciplinary and topical boundaries, from a range of methodologies. The book encourages reflections on the complexities of society, its institutions and gendered norms that enmesh violence and intimate relationships. It further examines the socio-normative contexts within which violence operates as a tool for maintaining inequalities in society. The chapters in this volume attempt to address questions such as: What are the complexities in the relationship between the perpetrator and the victim which sustain and legitimize violence? What are the diverse dimensions of violence in intimate relationships? What role does violence in intimate spaces play in preserving status quo and the pervasive gendered hierarchies within society and its institutions? Who is vulnerable to violence and why? The book covers conversations on intimate space violence and relationships that have not been explored hitherto in mainstream academic debates. The volume pivots violence fundamentally as a product of ‘entitlements’ based on gendered social hierarchies and critical intersectionalities to examine its manifestations in a variety of intimate situations and relationships beyond socio-cultural, religious and geographical boundaries. The book provides invaluable learnings for academics, researchers, students, lawyers, sociologists, social workers, health professionals and policymakers.
The Violence of Love: Race, Family, and Adoption in the United States (American Crossroads #74)
by Kit W. MyersA free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press's Open Access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more.The Violence of Love challenges the narrative that adoption is a solely loving act that benefits birth parents, adopted individuals, and adoptive parents—a narrative that is especially pervasive with transracial and transnational adoptions. Using interdisciplinary methods of archival, legal, and discursive analysis, Kit W. Myers comparatively examines the adoption of Asian, Black, and Native American children by White families in the United States. He shows how race has been constructed relationally to mark certain homes, families, and nations as spaces of love, freedom, and better futures—in contrast to others that are not—and argues that violence is attached to adoption in complex ways. Propelled by different types of love, such adoptions attempt to transgress biological, racial, cultural, and national borders established by traditional family ideals. Yet they are also linked to structural, symbolic, and traumatic forms of violence. The Violence of Love confronts this discomforting reality and rethinks theories of family to offer more capacious understandings of love, kinship, and care.
Violent No More: Helping Men End Domestic Abuse
by Michael Paymar Anne Ganley<p>Violent No More is for men who have struggled with or are currently being violent in an intimate relationship. Filled with real stories of men who have harmed the ones they love and found the courage to change, this highly acclaimed book has helped thousands acknowledge and reform their abusive behavior. Author Michael Paymar doesn't sidestep the unpleasant reality of domestic violence—included here are the sometimes shocking first-person accounts of violent men, along with those of battered women. More importantly, many of these stories illustrate the ways in which men were able to stop their use of violence and control. <p>This edition contains four new chapters which address the challenges faced by practitioners who work with domestic violence offenders or victims, and the particular struggles faced by combat veterans returning from war, many of whom come home with PTSD and other mental health issues. With group exercises and individual goal-setting plans to help men find healthy ways of responding to conflict, change the cultural conditioning that condones violence, and avoid reverting to old patterns, Violent No More is an essential guide for men dealing with violence issues, as well as for the professionals who assist in their efforts to improve.</p>
Violet and Daisy: The Story of Vaudeville's Famous Conjoined Twins
by Sarah MillerFrom the author of The Miracle & Tragedy of the Dionne Quintuplets and The Borden Murders comes the absorbing and compulsively readable story of Violet and Daisy Hilton, conjoined twins who were the sensation of the US sideshow circuits in the 1920s and 1930s. On February 5, 1908, Kate Skinner, a 21-year-old unmarried barmaid in Brighton, England, gave birth to twin girls. They each had ten fingers and ten toes, but were joined back to back at the base of the spine. Freaks, monsters--that's what they were called. Mary Hilton, Kate's employer and midwife, adopted Violet and Daisy and promptly began displaying the babies as "Brighton's United Twins." Exhibitions at street fairs, carnivals, and wax museums across England and Scotland followed. At 8 years old, the girls came to the United States, eventually becoming the stars of sideshow, vaudeville, and burlesque circuits in the 1920s and 1930s. In a story loaded with questions about identity and exploitation, Sarah Miller delivers a completely compelling, empathetic portrait of two sisters whose bonds were so sacred that nothing — not even death— would compel Violet and Daisy to break them.
Violet and Jobie in the Wild
by Lynne Rae PerkinsNewbery Medal winner Lynne Rae Perkins introduces Violet and Jobie, two house mice exiled to the wilderness, in an exceptional read-aloud and read-alone for fans of Skunk and Badger,Nuts to You, and classic animal stories such as Stuart Little. This thrilling—and funny!—animal adventure explores themes of friendship, family, bravery, and the meaning of home. Violet & Jobie in the Wild is illustrated in black-and-white throughout by the author. Brother and sister mice Violet and Jobie live a cozy and comfortable life in a humans’ house, where food is plentiful and the television is good. In fact, Violet, tucked safely behind a book in the bookcase, loves to watch nature programs along with the young boy of the family. The boy’s mother, however, isn’t the biggest fan of mice.When Violet and Jobie are caught in a trap, the young boy pleads with his mother to release them, and she agrees. Now Violet and Jobie find themselves in tall grasses, under tall trees, surrounded by all kinds of unfamiliar scents and sounds and creatures. In short, they find themselves in the wild. How will they survive?This short, generously illustrated novel is packed with action, humor, heart, friendship, and surprises. Award-winning author Lynne Rae Perkins’s Violet & Jobie in the Wild will resonate with readers who love books about animals.
Violet and the Pie of Life
by D. L. GreenThere's no golden ratio for a family, despite what number-crunching Violet might think.Twelve-year-old Violet has two great loves in her life: math and pie. And she loves her parents, even though her mom never stops nagging and her dad can be unreliable. Mom plus Dad doesn't equal perfection. Still, Violet knows her parents could solve their problems if they just applied simple math. #1: Adjust the ratio of Mom's nagging to her compliments. #2: Multiply Dad's funny stories by a factor of three. #3: Add in romantic stuff wherever possible. But when her dad walks out, Violet realizes that the odds do not look good. Why can't her parents get along like popular, perfect Ally's parents? Would it be better to have no dad at all, like her best friend, McKenzie? Violet is considering the data when she and Ally get cast in the school play, and McKenzie doesn't--a probability that Violet never calculated. Maybe friendship and family have more variables than she thought.Filled with warmth, math-y humor, and delicious pie, this heartfelt middle grade read is perfect for fans of The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl. Includes illustrated charts, graphs, and diagrams throughout.