It's been a while since I posted a mail call post, so I'm working to get caught up now. On that note, here are all the books that I got in the mail WAY back in July.
Letter Tracing Book for Preschoolers 3-5 & Kindergarten
Synopsis
Letter Tracing Book for Preschoolers 3-5 & Kindergarten: A Letter Tracing Practice Book for Kids
Give your child all the practice they will need for writing! With this book, your child will be learning every letter, tracing letters, and even writing them on their own!
Check out all of the contents of these abc letter tracing worksheets:
• Step-by-step instructions: Your child will learn how to write letters, one stroke at a time. These contain both uppercase and lowercase letters!
• Examples for every letter: Each letter has a word that begins with that letter and a picture alongside it. This way, your student will be familiar with every letter.
• Tracing letters template: After your preschooler learns the steps, there are several alphabet letters to trace for hands-on practice! With and without the numbered steps, that way they can gradually learn to write the letters on their own!
• Blank lines: Once they are able to trace letters, there are empty lines available to practice writing letters without any guides! By the end, your kindergartener will be freehanding every letter! There are still horizontal lines to keep letters even.
It's a preschool letter tracing guide your child will love!
Be a Better Writer by Steve Peha
Synopsis
One Book for All Kinds of Writers and All Kinds of Writing
Whether you’re writing essays for school or fiction for fun, this book helps you be a better writer.
For School...
Improve your grades with techniques like the What-Why-How and Content-Purpose-Audience strategies that clarify your thinking and strengthen logical arguments on tests, in essays, and on research reports. Use Sentence Patterns and the Plain English for Handy Analysis approach to improve your grammar without having to learn grammar rules. Get your work done faster, develop more confidence, bring home better report cards, and score higher on state tests.
For Fun...
Improve your creative writing by using The Five Facts of Fiction to dream up compelling characters and powerful plot lines that keep your readers reading from beginning to end. Produce rich description with the Tell-Show strategy. Render your ideas in well-chosen words and smooth-sounding sentences. Find your voice and translate your passion to the page so your readers feel it, too.
For Anyone...
You have a voice the world wants to hear. You have stories to tell, real and imagined, that readers can’t wait to read. You have things to say that will change the way people think and feel, and that will shape the way they look at life after seeing it through your eyes. Don’t keep your readers waiting; give them things to read. Don’t wait for someone to discover you; discover yourself. Don’t wait to be a better writer; be a better writer now!
Primary Anomaly by Peter Sonntag
Synopsis
In a post-apocalyptic world full of war, inequality, and corruption, one young man may have the power to change everything.
In the year 2033, what began as a breakthrough in understanding the human genome became the end of civilization. Decades later, Eibmoz Corporation establishes Habitats in low radiation zones in an attempt to revive society, installing a totalitarian regime in the process. But the Corporation only allows the pure—those unaffected by mutation—inside. Everyone else must join one of the warring factions in the decaying wastelands outside the Habitat’s walls.
When the Corporation launches a new augmented soldier program, sabotage by an unknown enemy destroys the experiment and delivers the one surviving specimen—a young man—into the Decay. Without any memory of his origins, identity, or purpose, the struggle of drone No. 1613 begins. Caught in the middle of the Decay’s volatile geopolitical landscape and perplexed by his surfacing abilities, he must embark across treacherous territory, where his search for answers may endanger everything he holds dear.
Spotted Her First by Emma Dean
Synopsis
Three hot leopard shifters? Yes please.
Piper is a librarian at Sacramento State working on her graduate thesis, but her quiet life turns upside down when three hot guys literally crash into her world. They move into her house and her life, telling her she's wanted by a demon and a witch for her pharaoh's blood. She just didn't realize how much they would take over her life in the name of protecting her.
Piper is overwhelmed by the paranormal world and everything in it, including the fact that somehow all three of these guys are her mates. She has two weeks to find a way out of a demon contract and figure out how she's going to deal with all three of these domineering shifters in her life and in her apartment. Will Piper be able to save herself and the pride she's grown attached to before it's too late?
*This is a steamy reverse harem shifter romance with some MM. All paranormal books by Emma Dean exist in the same paranormal world - the Council of Paranormals.
Do Story by Bobette Buster
Synopsis
Today's world wants to know you and the real story behind why you do what you do. Whether you have a product to sell, a company mission to share, or an audience to entertain, people are more likely to engage and connect if you deliver a well-crafted story with an emotional core.
Bobette Buster is a story consultant, lecturer and screenwriter who works with the major studios such as Pixar, Disney and Sony Animation, and in top film programs all over the world. In this, her first book, she shares the tools and principles used by some of the world’s best storytellers and helps you apply them to your own.
Find out: How to source, structure and shape your story; Ways to discover the essence of your story; Why finding the emotional connection with your audience can take a story from good to great.
So, what’s your story?
Bobette Buster is a screenwriter, documentary producer, story consultant and lecturer. She grew up in Kentucky, a region renowned for its great storytellers. As a student she produced an oral history of the area that is now archived at the Kentucky Museum. She then moved on to Hollywood to learn the business of script development, and is now a story consultant to the major studios - notably Disney and Pixar, and in top film programs all over the world. Since 1992 she has been Adjunct Professor at the University of Southern California’s Graduate School of Cinematic Arts where she created the first MFA program in Original Feature Film Development.
The Waiter by Matias Faldbakken
Synopsis
In the tradition of modern classics The Dinner and A Gentleman in Moscow comes The Waiter, in which the finely tuned balance of a grand European restaurant (that has seen better days) is irrevocably upset by an unexpected guest.
In a centuries-old European restaurant called The Hills, a middle-aged waiter takes pride in the unchangeable aspects of his job: the well-worn uniform, the ragged but solid tablecloths, and the regular diners. Some are there daily, like Graham “Le Gris”—also known as The Pig—and his dignified group of aesthetes; the slightly more free-spirited drinking company around Tom Sellers; and the closest one can get to personal friends of the waiter, Edgar and his young daughter, Anna.
In this universe unto itself, there is scarcely any contact between the tables...until a beautiful and well-groomed young woman walks through the door and upsets the delicate balance of the restaurant and all it has come to represent.
Like living in a snow globe, The Waiter is a captivating study in miniature. Everything is just so, and that’s exactly how the waiter needs it to be. One can understand why he becomes anxious when things begin to change. In fact, given the circumstances, anxiety just might be the most sensible response...
With the sophistication of The Remains of the Day and the eccentricity of The Elegance of the Hedgehog, The Waiter marks the North American debut of an exciting new voice in literary fiction.
Resist by Veronica Chambers
Synopsis
A perfect tool for young readers as they grow into the leaders of tomorrow, Veronica Chambers’s inspiring collection of profiles—along with Senator Cory Booker’s stirring foreword—will inspire readers of all ages to stand up for what’s right.
You may only be one person, but you have the power to change the world.
Before they were activists, they were just like you and me. From Frederick Douglass to Malala Yousafzai, Joan of Arc to John Lewis, Susan B. Anthony to Janet Mock—these remarkable figures show us what it means to take a stand and say no to injustice, even when it would be far easier to stay quiet.
Resist profiles men and women who resisted tyranny, fought the odds, and stood up to bullies that threatened to harm their communities. Along with their portraits and most memorable quotes, their stories will inspire you to speak out and rise up—every single day.
The Story of a Marriage by Geir Gulliksen
Synopsis
A dramatic portrait of the dissolution of a marriage, written with brutal and lyrical precision, and nominated for the Nordic Prize.
Jon, who is losing his wife to another man, is trying to understand what happened to his Great Love, by working, painfully, to see the story from her perspective. It begins as he asks her: "Can you tell me about us?" As he looks to his past and within himself, he begins to question the conventions of masculinity and femininity, understanding himself uncommonly as a man who challenges the male role--he's deeply embedded in family life, and identifies as sensitive, vulnerable, and nurturing. And finally, in an effort to understand how his wife could fall in love with someone else, he attempts an ultimate act of empathy: to tell the story from the other man's point of view, raising crippling questions: Is it possible to have sex without violating oneself or the other? How much of what we think is love is only projection? Is it possible to truly know another person?
With prose unsettling in its precision and emotional heft, The Story of a Marriage cracks wide open the familiar story of a failed love, as it turns cliched phrases over and over again until they crumble, revealing a bitter hollowness--or ringing new meanings.
The Stiletto Woman by Marisa Ferraro
Synopsis
Ladies, are you ready to up your dating game?
Well pour yourself a drink and have a good read of this. Navigating today's dating scene can be confusing. That's why you need a good wing woman to go with your good shoes.
In The Stiletto Woman, Marisa tells it like it is and gives you the support and girly pep talk you need to blaze your way through the jungle of social pressure, heartache and loss, confusing relationship and dating dynamics and even fashion conundrums.
If you are struggling to find meaningful connections in today's dating world and even meaning of yourself and finding who you are and what you want, you are not alone. Women all over the world sympathise with your struggle. Using one part common sense, two parts transparency and a dollop of good humour and empathy, Marisa shares lessons from her experiences and others to help you transform self- doubts into Self- Empowerment.
Take control of your love life and find your happiness by rediscovering the beautiful woman that is you.
The Drama Teacher by Koren Zailckas
Synopsis
By the New York Times bestselling author of Mother, Mother and Smashed comes a propulsive new thriller: the story of a desperate and devious woman who will do anything to give her family a better life
Gracie Mueller is a proud mother of two and devoted wife, living with her husband Randy in upstate New York. Her life is complicated by the usual tedium and stressors—young children, marriage, money—and she’s settled down comfortably enough. But when Randy’s failing career as a real estate agent makes finances tight, their home goes into foreclosure, and Gracie feels she has no choice but to return to the creatively illegal and high-stakes lifestyle of her past in order to keep all that she’s worked so hard to have. Gracie, underneath all that’s marked her life as average, has a lot to hide about where she’s from, who she is, and who she’s been. And when things inevitably begin to spin out of her control, more questions about the truth of her past are raised, including all the ones she never meant to, or even knew to, ask.
Written with the style, energy, and penetrating insight that made her memoir Smashed a phenomenon, Koren Zailckas's next novel confirms her growing reputation as a psychological novelist that can stand up to the best of them.
The Dependents by Katharine Dion
Synopsis
After the sudden death of his wife, Maida, Gene is haunted by the fear that their marriage was not all it appeared to be. Alongside Ed and Gayle Donnelly, friends since college days, he tries to resurrect happy memories of the times the two couples shared, raising their children in a small New Hampshire town and vacationing together at a lake house every summer. Meanwhile, his daughter, Dary, challenges not only his happy version of the past but also his view of Maida. As a long-standing rift between them deepens, Gene starts to understand how unknown his daughter is to him--and how enigmatic his wife was as well. And a lingering suspicion seizes his mind that could upend everything he thought he knew.
Katharine Dion's assured debut moves seamlessly between Gene's present-day journey and the long history of a marriage and friendship. Rich and wonderfully alive, The Dependents is the most moving kind of drama, an intimate glance into the expanse of family life and the way we must all eventually bridge the chasm between what we want to believe and what we know to be true.
God an Autobiography by Jerry L. Martin
Synopsis
The voice announced, “I am God.” For Jerry Martin, that encounter began a personal, intellectual, and spiritual adventure. He had not believed in God. He was a philosopher, trained to be skeptical— to doubt everything. So his first question was: Is this really God talking? There were other urgent questions: What will my wife think? Why would God want to talk to me? Does God want me to do something? He began asking all the questions about life and death and ultimate things to which he—and all of us—have sought answers: Love and loss. Happiness and suffering. Good and evil. Death and the afterlife. The world’s religions. The ways God communicates with us. How to live in harmony with God. God: An Autobiography tells the story of these mind-opening conversations with God.
Jerry L. Martin was raised in a Christian home. By the time he left college, he was not a believer. But he was interested in the big questions and so he studied the great thinkers. He became a philosophy professor and served as head of the philosophy department at the University of Colorado at Boulder and of the National Endowment for the Humanities. In addition to scholarly articles on epistemology, the philosophy of mind, and public policy, he wrote reports on education that received national attention and was invited to testify before Congress. He stepped down from that career to write this book.
Martin lives in Pennsylvania and is married to Abigail L. Rosenthal, professor emerita at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York.
Mr. Nice Guy by Jennifer Miller & Jason Feifer
Synopsis
From the husband and wife writing duo Jennifer Miller and Jason Feifer comes Mr. Nice Guy, a funny and all too real comedy about the pursuit of success in life--and love--in today's working world.
Lucas Callahan, a man who gave up his law degree, fiancée and small-town future for a shot at making it in the Big Apple. He snags an entry-level job at Empire magazine, believing it’s only a matter of time before he becomes a famous writer. And then late one night in a downtown bar he meets a gorgeous brunette who takes him home...
Carmen Kelly wanted to be a hard-hitting journalist, only to find herself cast in the role of Empire's sex columnist thanks to the boys' club mentality of Manhattan magazines. Her latest piece is about an unfortunate—and unsatisfying—encounter with an awkward and nerdy guy, who was nice enough to look at but horribly inexperienced in bed.
Lucas only discovers that he’s slept with the infamous Carmen Kelly—that is, his own magazine’s sex columnist!—when he reads her printed take-down. Humiliated and furious, he pens a rebuttal and signs it, "Nice Guy." Empire publishes it, and the pair of columns go viral. Readers demand more. So the magazine makes an arrangement: Each week, Carmen and Lucas will sleep together... and write dueling accounts of their sexual exploits.
It’s the most provocative sexual relationship any couple has had, but the columnist-lovers are soon engaging in more than a war of words: They become seduced by the city’s rich and powerful, tempted by fame, and more attracted to each other than they’re willing to admit. In the end, they will have to choose between ambition, love, and the consequences of total honesty.
So that's all the new books that I got in the mail in July. I think I'm most excited about reading Resist myself. Which of these books are you most interested in reading my review on? - Katie
