Now the family breadwinner, Tam is forced to work hundreds of miles away in the city of Laos, at a moon bear farm where bile from bear gall bladders is used for medicine. Lured by the promise of electricity, running water, and a television, Tam’s people move to an overcrowded village, where Tam’s father is killed by a stray landmine. Then his life implodes anyway: his entire mountain village is forced to relocate to make room for a new highway. But the mother bear’s unexpected return upends Tam’s plan, and he barely escapes with his life. His goal is to steal the cub and sell it, making a fortune for his family. Twelve-year-old Tam, on a dare, ventures into a moon bear den in the mountains of Northern Laos. Both torn from their homes in Laos, a boy and a moon bear cub form a deep bond in this “moving and memorable” ( Kirkus Reviews, starred review) tale of impossible odds and resilient hope, based on true and tragic conditions in Eastern Asia.
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I loved the characters, the storyline, the pacing, and the humor. The Unhoneymooners is one of my favorite books by Christina Lauren. A Fake Relationship and Forced Proximity Slow Burn! The only problem is, he’ll have to figure out a way to enjoy the island without having to spend time with Olive. In the end, that ethos not only saves him from gastrointestinal ruin, it also gives him the opportunity to take an unexpected and totally free vacation in Hawaii. The only thing he hates more than Olive is buffet meals. However, her luck just ran out and what was supposed to be the best (free) event of the off-season turns into a horror show when the (free) buffet makes all of the guests disgustingly ill.Įnter Ethan. Not only that, her twin sister has all the luck in the world and wins contest after contest, including an all-expenses-paid wedding and honeymoon. The Unhoneymooners combines several of my favorites: enemies-to-lovers, a delicious slow burn, snarky dialogue, and adorkable characters you can’t help but love. While not all of their books are rom-coms, no two books are ever the same and I absolutely love them for that. Christina Lauren is one of my go-to author duos when I want smart writing, witty banter, belly laughs that tend to sneak up on you, and unique storylines. This same dynamic, he notes, plays out regularly in the world of children’s activities: We prioritize our kids being exposed to new challenges and developing new skills, while we are content ourselves to sink into middle-age stagnation, centering our professional lives on existing competencies and outsourcing our leisure to the low-friction distraction offered by our devices. Vanderbilt was soon spending long weekend days with the other jangled-nerved parents, distracting themselves with smartphones on the periphery of the action. BEGINNERS The Joy and Transformative Power of Lifelong Learning By Tom VanderbiltĮarly in his new book, “Beginners,” the journalist Tom Vanderbilt finds himself unexpectedly adopting the role of a stereotypical “chess dad.” His daughter, who casually picked up the game at the age of 4, had become a serious enough player to enter scholastic tournaments. With the fate of mankind on her shoulders, Aurelia must venture into the heart of the Ebonwilde and face the darkest parts of the forest-and of herself.Įbonwilde is the thrilling conclusion to the epic Bloodleaf series, which Laura Sebastian called “a phantasmagorical wonder” and Sara Holland described as an “eerie, immersive, and fascinating” read. Suddenly she finds herself caught in a web of magic, intrigue, passion, and betrayal that stretches across centuries and ultimately reveals that Aurelia is the final piece of a deadly apocalyptic plan that is only days away.Īll Aurelia wants is to reclaim her life and reunite with those she loved and lost but with the end of the world looming, she’s forced to unravel the dark secrets of the distant past before she can get that chance. When Aurelia awakens from her magic-induced sleep, it is to the face of a rescuer she didn’t expect, in a body she doesn’t understand, and into a world she no longer recognizes.ĭesperate to know what happened to Conrad, Zan, and Kellan after the events at Greythorne Manor, Aurelia follows the threads they left behind straight into the forest. Get ready to be swept away, seduced, and swindled in the wickedly vicious third and final installment in the Bloodleaf series that Laura Sebastian called “enchanting, visceral, and twisty.” His books have received many awards from organizations such as the International Reading Association, and the American Library Association, as well as garnering a myriad of state and local awards across the country. As a full-time writer, he claims to be his own hardest task-master, always at work creating new stories to tell. In the years since, Neal has made his mark as a successful novelist, screenwriter, and television writer. Within a year of graduating, he had his first book deal, and was hired to write a movie script. After spending his junior and senior years of high school at the American School of Mexico City, Neal went on to UC Irvine, where he made his mark on the UCI swim team, and wrote a successful humor column. Award-winning author Neal Shusterman grew up in Brooklyn, New York, where he began writing at an early age. You could make the case that these are all crucial steps in the development of a decidedly Caucasian musical sensibility, and you’d be right. instructions not to play any sexually explicit hip-hop jams that might perplex guests of a certain age. What do the following scenes have in common? A pubescent boy becomes the star ofhis sleep-away camp by introducing his bunkmates to Poison’s heavy-metal hit “Talk Dirty to Me” a young man learns to fear Janis Ian’s “At Seventeen” because it is the one song his mother always plays when his father doesn’t come home at night a prospective groom and bride give their D.J. Tracking delivery Saver Delivery: Australia postĪustralia Post deliveries can be tracked on route with eParcel. NB All our estimates are based on business days and assume that shipping and delivery don't occur on holidays and weekends. Order may come in multiple shipments, however you will only be charged a flat fee.ġ-2 days after each item has arrived in the warehouseġ The expected delivery period after the order has been dispatched via your chosen delivery method.ģ Please note this service does not override the status timeframe "Dispatches in", and that the "Usually Dispatches In" timeframe still applies to all orders. Items in order will be sent via Express post as soon as they arrive in the warehouse. Order may come in multiple shipments, however you will only be charged a flat fee.Ģ-10 days after all items have arrived in the warehouse Items in order will be sent as soon as they arrive in the warehouse. Moreover, the field is present everywhere on and near the planet, from the highest altitude where windborne microbiota are lofted to the deepest trenches of the sea. Although the geomagnetic field has waxed, waned, and shifted over time, it has been present continuously for as long as organisms have existed. Despite recent progress, much remains to be learned about the organization of magnetic maps, how they develop, and how animals use them in navigation. Recent findings also indicate that sea turtles, salmon, and at least some birds imprint on the magnetic field of their natal area when young and use this information to facilitate return as adults, a process that may underlie long-distance natal homing (a.k.a. Diverse animals ranging from lobsters to birds are now known to use magnetic positional information for a variety of purposes, including staying on track along migratory pathways, adjusting food intake at appropriate points in a migration, remaining within a suitable oceanic region, and navigating toward specific goals. In less than a generation, the idea that animals use Earth’s magnetic field as a kind of map has gone from a contentious hypothesis to a well-established tenet of animal navigation. In addition to providing animals with a source of directional or ‘compass’ information, Earth’s magnetic field also provides a potential source of positional or ‘map’ information that animals might exploit to assess location. Shuffling between a full deck of actors, a fidgety time-obsessed director, and an over-caffeinated costume crew, can Allyson navigate the bizarre world of high school theater? And how will her mother feel when she finds out it’s that story?Īs fiction merges with fact and her present reality uncovers past memories, what curious things will Allyson discover-and how much will she grow-along the journey through her own kind of Wonderland? Instead, she is enlisted as an assistant to the stage manager, and she runs afoul of the drama queen cast in the role she desires. But no one knows Alice like she does-she’s memorized every word-and she believes that getting the part is the only way her father will return for her. Now a quiet and shy teenager, she auditions for her school’s production of the story, despite having no previous acting experience. Since her parents’ divorce, Allyson’s only source of comfort and refuge has been within the pages of Alice in Wonderland, which her father used to read to her every night. Sometimes we all need an escape down a rabbit hole. So I decided to treat myself to a reread of those first six books. When I decided to indulge and pick up one of her older books (“indulge” because there were about twenty new books I should have been reading instead), I was tempted to go for book seven of the Foreigner series, but quickly realized that I just didn’t remember enough detail from the earlier books. I read the first six books in the Foreigner universe practically back to back, then for some reason completely lost track of the series for over a decade. For some reason, it’s been a few years since I picked up one of Cherryh’s books. I’ve read about three dozen of Cherryh’s novels the only authors I’ve read more individual works by are Pratchett and, maybe, L.E. My history with this series is a bit confused. That’s fifteen books going on sixteen, in case anyone else is in the mood for a nice meaty SF series. When I first read it, some time in the early 2000’s when the series only consisted of six books, I had no idea that this story would turn out to be five arcs of three books each, with the fifteenth novel due out in 2014 and the first book of a sixth arc reportedly in the works. Foreigner is the opening volume of what has turned out to be C.J. |