What separates Laake's self-pitying volume from other pray-and-tell books by former Mormons is her lengthy and derisive description of the church's secret temple rituals (hence the title) by which marriages are "sealed" for all time and eternity. Now 39 and an editor of an alternative weekly newspaper in Phoenix, Ariz., Laake blames the church and its patriarchal priesthood for her inability to enjoy marital intercourse, for her three failed marriages, for her attempted suicide and for the two months she spent in a psychiatric institution. Laake was raised a Mormon and in the early '70s attended Brigham Young University, where, before graduating, she married a man she says she never loved. Her book has zoomed to fourth place on The New York Times best-seller list. $20), enough readers want to know the answer. But what can a Mormon woman look forward to when she fails in marriage?įortunately for ex-Mormon Deborah Laake, author of a sudsy new autobiography, "Secret Ceremonies" (240 pages. Obviously, the Mormon afterlife is no place for singles, which explains why the Latter-day Saints put so much emphasis on earthly marriage and the family. For those couples so exalted, heaven is an eternal round of reproduction of "spirit children" destined to populate other planets. One of the key doctrines that distinguish Mormonism from all other religions is its belief that only married couples can attain the highest reaches of heaven.
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And with a jolt, I realized I was conscious,Īnd the functioning part of my brain decided something was really, The dream wasn’t passively shredding into In my dream, I tore the clothes off the rod and threw them to my With an eerie feeling of disconnection, I watched it happen, even as Haze of sleep, and I felt the primitive part of me that never sleptĬoolly measuring my slow gathering of will as I tried to wake up. The mild pain broke through my comfortable somnolent Of my closet wasn’t one of my more pleasant dreams. For a Few Demons more went on to be awarded B&N's top pick in 2013 for best paranormal fantasy of the decade. It was also awarded Romantic Times Best Urban Fantasy It has since been nominated for P.E.A.R.L.s (Paranormal Excellence Awardįor Romantic Literature) and for best Paranormal Romance 2007. And while the ancient artifact Rachel is hiding may be the key to stopping the murderer, revealing it could also create a battle to the death among the numerous supernatural races that live in and around Cincinnati.įor every action has its price, and when the vampire master Piscary is set free and the demonic Algaliarept dares to walk openly under the sun, even Rachel Morgan can't hide forever.įor A Few Demons More was published March 2007 as the debut of the Hollows in hardcover. until now.Ī fiendish serial killer stalks the Hollows, and the resulting terror ignites a vicious Inderland gang war. Despite dating one vampire and living with another, Rachel Morgan has managed to stay just ahead of trouble. She’s bisexual, but shunned by her group of friends, the self-named Disco Dykes, who can’t forgive her for dating a boy. “High school junior Etta juggles many identities, none of which seem to fit quite right. Not Otherwise Specified by Hannah Moskowitz (Simon Pulse) … Passion and power are the driving forces behind this series that continues to deliver.” - Kirkus … Cora, possessing both her own powers and a fierce determination to protect those she loves, is no shrinking violet. “As a member of the Scintilla, 17-year-old Cora possesses the rare ability to see people’s auras, making her both an object of desire and a target for harm. Determined to get back to her mother, Mim hops a bus to Cleveland, beginning an Odysseus-like adventure …” - Publishers Weekly, starred review Mim, blind in one eye from a solar eclipse and suffering from a ‘misplaced epiglottis’ that results in unpredictable spells of vomiting, is reeling from her parents’ divorce and an unclear psychiatric diagnosis when she is dragged to Mississippi by her father and new stepmother. “Newcomer Arnold’s protagonist, 16-year-old Mim Malone, is as hold-nothing-back honest as they come, which makes the narrative she provides about her outlandish trek from Mississippi to Cleveland wholly enjoyable. Mosquitoland by David Arnold (Viking Juvenile) One good thing though, is that it isn’t as bad as it could have been. The events and the psyche of its characters are quite disturbing and occasionally even make your skin crawl. The way the book plays out could be enough to make people extremely uncomfortable. One thing is for sure – The Butterfly Garden isn’t a book that everyone will be able to digest. Because uncovering Maya’s secret, or failing to do so, will affect the fate of every girl they rescued and the man responsible for their horror.Ī disturbing book with a good storyline, but that fails to pack a real punch. Agent Hanoverian needs to get to the truth. Yet, something is missing, something is being held back. More disturbing than they could have ever imagined, the story that Maya tells them takes them into the horrors of the Garden and The Gardener’s mind. Maya begins to take FBI agents Victor Hanoverian and Brandon Eddison through her story, and the story of many others interwoven with hers. The girls are too damaged to speak or share what they’ve been through. When the FBI rescues the girls, they find themselves struggling to find answers. And a collection of butterflies – kidnapped women intricately tattooed to resemble their namesakes and whose beauty is captured and preserved. Meanwhile, Archie's sometime confidant Obie, in wild love with Laurie Gundarson, loses interest in The Vigils when Laurie is nearly raped by a trio of Vigils henchmen, Obie loses her-and vows revenge on Archie (who inspired but didn't order the attack). and suffers the consequences when Archie (a subtle tormentor) finds out. Carter, clumsy super-jock and Vigils "president," is horrified by Archie's latest scheme-a plan to humiliate both Brother Leon and the Bishop (!) during an upcoming assembly so he sends an anonymous warning to Brother Leon. As the end of the school year approaches, however, two of Archie's longtime student-henchmen will become increasingly disaffected, secretly rebellious. And the one student who stood up to Archie in The Chocolate War-Jerry Renault-is at home, still recuperating from the physical/psychic damage of his doomed attempt at individualistic defiance. Brother Leon, the slimy teacher who has become Archie's quasi-partner in dictatorial evil, is now the Headmaster. The Vigils, the secret society headed by cold, manipulative senior Archie Costello, is still going strong. It's been over ten years since The Chocolate War (1974), but the action in this sequel takes place only a few months after the original ugly doings at Trinity High-a boys' day school in drab mid-New England. For it now sits in the undignified guise of a Radisson Edwardian hotel. Incredibly, it seems, its current owners prefer not to openly acknowledge such a legacy. Feelgood's ferocious 1975 performance and, of course, the two infamous Sex Pistols gigs in the heat of 1976. The end-of-gig riot during Lou Reed's Sally Can't Dance tour. In truth, it cannot be denied that 'things' do seem to happen here. All a touch romantic, perhaps, although Tony Wilson was fond of the connection. Many have claimed the site to be a fracture zone, a place where a social upheaval that fizzed to tragedy during the Peterloo Massacre, resonates down the ages (inspiring Percy Shelley's vitriolic poem 'The Mask of Anarchy'). Ghosts and echoes linger in every corner of what was once the Free Trade Hall, the only major building in England named after a proposition as AJP Taylor perceptively noted. Memories still crowd Manchester's most famous building. Like if you liked Hunger Games kind of book. maybe not my favourite writing style.but an interesting story. Hopefully the characters will be expanded on a deeper level. Separately the characters are unlikable but something about them being a group is interesting. I was surprised each step of the way by how her selfish and childish attempts at survival puts not only her but those she cares about more danger than if she would just shut up and go along for the ride. Ember seems to grow throughout the book but she makes decisions at every turn that made me want to smack her. " This was a decent book if you don't put much hope in our heroine. It was unfortunate, because the setting and storyline were fairly good, but I am so turned off of books that can't write a strong female who is intelligent. " Ugh, if I read one more YA book where the female protagonist is as dumb as a box of rocks, I'm going to scream. Read this book so many times, I've got every other page memorized!! " - Maddie, Overall Performance: Narration Rating: Story Rating:. To save the Duc's life, they'll have to cross the country, manage to keep from strangling each other, and defeat an enemy too damaged for even a Bard's song to reach. Now, she's on the run from the Royal Guards with the Duc of Ohrid, the father of her unborn child, both of them guilty of treason - one of them unjustly accused. Annice is a rare talent, able to Sing all four quarters, but her brother, the newly enthroned King Theron, sees her request to. They give their people, from peasant to king, a song in common. They, and the elemental spirits they Sing earth, air, fire, and water - bring the news of the sea to the mountains, news of the mountains to the plains. She walks away from political responsibilities, royal privilege and her family.Ten years later, Annice has become the Princess Bard and her real life is about to become the exact opposite of the overwrought ballad her fellow students at the Bardic Hall wrote about her. The Bards of Shkoder hold the country together. To his surprise, Annice accepts his conditions, renouncing her royal blood and swearing to remain childless so as not to jeopardize the line of succession. They give their people, from peasant to king, a song in common.Annice is a rare talent, able to Sing all four quarters, but her brother, the newly enthroned King Theron, sees her request to study at the Bardic Hall as a betrayal. They, and the elemental spirits they Sing - earth, air, fire, and water - bring the news of the sea to the mountains, news of the mountains to the plains. Listen Free to Sing the Four Quarters audiobook by Tanya Huff with a 30 Day Free Trial Stream and download audiobooks to your computer, tablet and iOS and. The Quartered Sea Tanya Huff Science fiction & fantasy 3.8star 9.99 The Last Wish: Introducing the Witcher Andrzej Sapkowski Science fiction & fantasy 4.6star 7.99 Fifth Quarter Tanya. The Bards of Shkoder hold the country together. He goes through her letters, asks for recollections from his older sister Susan and father Augustine (the eponymous Big Hoom, although no one remembers how he got this nickname), and talks to doctors. Surely, he thinks, there must have been signs there had to have been a trigger that caused her to begin acting out. Jerry Pinto's debut novel, Em and the Big Hoom, is the story of a Mumbai family trying to cope with their matriarch's bipolar disorder and the impact it has on those around her.Īs the book opens we discover that Imelda Mendes ("Em") is, in her words, "mad," has attempted suicide for a third time, and the unnamed narrator, her teen son, is holding conversations with her, trying to take her back in time to discover when exactly her bipolar symptoms began to manifest themselves. Featuring richly drawn characters, this engaging tale evaluates the effects of mental illness on families. They mine them like gold to bring their con home. Bamboozlers at the top of their game sense the weaknesses of their pigeons (greed, dishonesty, vanity, opportunism, lust, compassion, credulity, desperation and naïveté). Thus, arrogance and self-deception increase his susceptibility to the con artist’s fraud. Of course, the fan never believes that he could be the sucker who falls for the scam. Oftentimes, the admirer of the confidence game identifies with the artistry of the hustler, who dupes his mark because he plays upon his vulnerabilities. Brothers Booth (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), and Lincoln (Corey Hawkins), have bought into the idea that to be “the man” they must do the con, in other words, financially “make a killing” easily and quickly. Clever con artists encourage the falsehoods of the American Dream, the greatest con ever, that prosperity buys happiness. Suzan-Lori Parks’ revival of her Pulitzer Prize winning Topdog/Underdog currently at the Golden Theater measures all the worst elements of America’s love affair with hustlers, grifters, swindlers, confidence men and bamboozlers. (L to R): Corey Hawkins, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II in Topdog/Underdog (courtesy of Marc J. |