Winter is a dolphin. Just over two years ago, when she was a baby, she was rescued from a crab trap, her tail seriously damaged. Winter was rushed to Clearwater Marine Aquarium, a marine animal hospital. It wasn't clear that she would survive. She did, but eventually the tail fell off and Winter compensated by swimming more like a fish than a dolphin which was seriously damaging her spine. But for the last year, Winter has been learning how to use a prosthetic tail. The idea came from a company that makes prosthetics for humans. It was very challenging but Winter is thriving and using her new tail with great command. The word has gotten out about Winter. Visitors are traveling in droves to Clearwater to visit Winter who has become an inspiration to adults and children alike, especially to children who are amputees themselves. The tale doesn't end there. The special technology used for Winter's prosthetic tail is being used to develop prosthetics for Iraq war veterans who have especially sensitive injuries.
Under the cover of wintry dark shadows, passion's magic ignites a fire too hot to touch -- and too wicked to die....
DEEP KISS OF WINTER
Two never-before-published paranormal stories to delight the senses and tantalize the imagination!
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR
KRESLEY COLE
delivers a breathtaking tale of a brutal vampire soldier about to know love for the first time...and a Valkyrie aching to be touched.
Murdoch Wroth will stop at nothing to claim Daniela the Ice Maiden -- the delicate Valkyrie who makes his heart beat for the first time in three hundred years. Yet the exquisite Danii is part ice fey, and her freezing skin can't be touched by anyone but her own kind without inflicting pain beyond measure. Soon desperate for closeness, in an agony of frustration, Murdoch and Danii will do anything to have each other. Together, can they find the key that will finally allow them to slake the overwhelming desire burning between them?
NEW YORK TIMES AND USA TODAY BESTSELLING AUTHOR
GENA SHOWALTER
puts a daring spin on a tale of huntress and hunted...and concocts a sensual chemistry that is positively explosive.
Aleaha Love can be anyone -- literally. With only skin-to-skin contact, she can change her appearance, assume any identity. Her newest identity switch has made her an AIR (alien investigation and removal) agent and sends her on a mission to capture a group of otherworldly warriors. Only she becomes the captured. Breean, a golden-skinned commander known for his iron will who is at once dangerous and soul-shatteringly seductive, threatens her new life. Because for the first time, Aleaha only wants to be herself....
About this product: Amazon Exclusive: Kim Sunée Reviews Cherries in Winter
Kim Sunée is the author of the bestselling memoir, Trail of Crumbs: Hunger, Love, and the Search for Home. Sunée has been featured in the New York Times, Ladies’ Homes Journal, People, ELLE, and Glamour. She was the founding food editor of Cottage Living and a former food editor for Southern Living, and she has appeared as a judge on Iron Chef America. Read her exclusive Amazon guest review of Cherries in Winter:
When I started reading Suzan Colón’s Cherries in Winter, I didn’t know if I should feel relieved that someone had written a book so perfect for coping in these challenging economic times or if it would be better just to lose my sorrows in an entire lemon meringue pie. Luckily, this book allowed me to do both.
Like the author, I lost my dream job as an editor for a national magazine. And like the author, I also spent much of my childhood with my grandfather, spending time in his kitchen, eating his food, and, in my case, listening to stories of his German family and how they arrived in New Orleans.
"Every family has stories," Colón writes. "...One only has to reach back and the stories are there, tales of courage and plain dumb luck that make us shake our heads in disbelief and respect for the ones who came before us."
Colón pays respect to several generations of survivors before her; the stories of her relatives are revealed to us through various recipes and moments she spends cooking with her mother. This is a book about food and family and what we inherit from those who came before us. Unlike the author, I did not inherit an entire recipe file of handwritten family favorites and magazine and newspaper clippings of instructions for "Mow ‘Em Down Michigan Apple Pie" and both an old-fashioned method and a modern recipe for "Chicken Pie à la Mississippi."
The book’s first recipe, "Suzan’s Rigatoni Disoccupati" (Pasta of the Unemployed) will provide some comfort to the approximately 500,000 Americans who are newly jobless and negotiating health insurance plans and 401K rollovers. The ingredients, a half pound of spaghetti and a small jar of prepared spaghetti sauce, are common and humble enough that we all have them somewhere in our larders.
I love some of the recipes because of the author’s sense of humor, especially "Suzan’s Attempted Split Pea Soup" to which she adds hot dogs after too many days of ingesting the same meal and because she doesn’t want to waste the already-opened package. Directions: "Marvel at how strangely, surprisingly comforting the hot dog pieces are in the soup, like something a kid would get for lunch. Feel that somehow, all will be okay."
In spite of shrinking 401ks and the sound of pennies dropping into a metal can, Suzan shares with us her deep resolve that if we love one another, feed our souls as well as our bodies, things can only get better. Cherries in Winter includes words of wisdom we’ve heard from our own mothers and grandmothers, but they get a new life here and we pay attention. This is a book about defying "poverty not of the wallet but of the soul." And one example--spending a little extra to relish the joy of "being in Manhattan in Central Park and eating cherries in winter"--teaches us the importance of spending a little more to help keep ourselves "from feeling like less."
"The women in my family," Colón writes, "have certain traits: height, prominent noses, and the ability to rationalize spending extra, just once in a while, when there is no extra to be spent... I got some of their height and all of the nose, but I thought the last characteristic was missing in me. It wasn’t: I just didn’t realize that it only wakes up when we begin to measure ourselves by money, or the lack of it. It’s not a reflexive kick of denial about having less. It’s a deep breath reminding us not to become miserly in spirit. We may be broke, but we’re not poor."
Suzan reminds us that these stories and recipes "offer more than directions for making the comfort food that sustained my family for four generations. They’re artifacts from times both good and bad--not vague references, but proof that we’ve been through worse than this and have come out okay. And right now, that’s something I need to know."
I don’t know how books help us, but when reading Cherries in Winter, you will feel a little less alone in these uncertain times. Suzan Colón’s book will make you want to head to the kitchen with a favorite relative in hopes that you, too, will learn a thing or two, if not about your family then about yourself, about your own hunger and resilience. Colón’s journey helps us remember to celebrate the simple things, like how, in the deep of winter, summer fruit can still taste its brightest.--Kim Sunée
My mother is a brilliant storyteller, especially of our family’s history. Around the holidays, she can have me in tears from laughing and crying, sometimes simultaneously. There’s no shortage of material--our family is an interesting bunch--and Mom’s delivery is almost stage-perfect. She could read a shopping list and turn it into tragic comedy.
When I got the idea to write these stories in what would become Cherries in Winter: My Family’s Recipe for Hope in Hard Times, I was cooking meatloaf with my mother. I had been laid off and had to economize, and Mom suggested I dig out Nana’s recipe file from the basement. In it, I found instructions for making good, simple food from many years of challenging times that my family had faced. I started making the recipes with Mom, and she’d tell the stories behind them.
I tried writing down what she said, but I lost all the flavor of the way she said it. Next I brought my tape recorder; Mom was initially a little shy, but she soon forgot the little machine was running--especially when I hid it behind the onions.
When I transcribed the tapes, I had more questions. "What year was that? How old were you when this happened? What was Nana wearing? Where were my great-grandparents living then?" A lot of our family stories, like our recipes, have been passed down through generations, and some of the details have been lost. "I don’t know," Mom would say, trying to remember things she hadn’t been told since she was a little girl.
Later, I’d read my notes and see big blanks in my family’s past. It was like having parts of photographs, or a treasured quilt missing squares. I wished my Nana were still alive so she could tell me where she’d been, what she’d been thinking and feeling.
Then I remembered--though I know that isn’t the right or best word for something that came to me, rather than from me--that there had been another box with the old recipe file. I’d been so excited about finding the recipe folder that I hadn’t bothered to look at what was next to it.
I ran down to the basement again, opened the second box, and found the key to my family’s history. In beautiful script and nearly perfect typing, on stationery, work letterhead, and even envelopes, Nana told me our stories. She’d written essays about meeting the father who never admitted she was his. She described my great-great-grandparents in lyrical detail. I read her voice, and it was as though Nana was saying, Here--this is what happened. She was right there, writing the book with me.
I’d never known until then that Nana had wanted to be a writer. Her work had never been published, but one of the happiest moments of my career as a writer was putting our words together. Between Nana’s poetic details, Mom’s rich storytelling, and me recording how I got through my own hard time in this recession, we wrote Cherries in Winter. The book isn’t just about my family; it’s about all of our families. I hope when you read it that you’re reminded of your own family stories. Those, and some good, sturdy food, are what will get you through any hard time. --Suzan Colón
About this product: Choosing locally grown organic food is a sustainable living trend that’s taken hold throughout North America. Celebrated farming expert Eliot Coleman helped start this movement with The New Organic Grower published 20 years ago. He continues to lead the way, pushing the limits of the harvest season while working his world-renowned organic farm in Harborside, Maine.
Now, with his long-awaited new book, The Winter Harvest Handbook, anyone can have access to his hard-won experience. Gardeners and farmers can use the innovative, highly successful methods Coleman describes in this comprehensive handbook to raise crops throughout the coldest of winters.Building on the techniques that hundreds of thousands of farmers and gardeners adopted from The New Organic Grower and Four-Season Harvest, this new book focuses on growing produce of unparalleled freshness and quality in customized unheated or, in some cases, minimally heated, movable plastic greenhouses.Coleman offers clear, concise details on greenhouse construction and maintenance, planting schedules, crop management, harvesting practices, and even marketing methods in this complete, meticulous, and illustrated guide. Readers have access to all the techniques that have proven to produce higher-quality crops on Coleman’s own farm.His painstaking research and experimentation with more than 30 different crops will be valuable to small farmers, homesteaders, and experienced home gardeners who seek to expand their production seasons.A passionate advocate for the revival of small-scale sustainable farming, Coleman provides a practical model for supplying fresh, locally grown produce during the winter season, even in climates where conventional wisdom says it “just can’t be done.”
About this product: Illustrated by Jane Monroe Donovan
It may be Christmastime but on a small, forlorn farm the holiday season is best forgotten, along with painful memories of loved ones lost. Mother Nature has other plans, however, and a chance snowstorm brings together two unlikely hearts, one human and one beast, yet both yearning for comfort, companionship, and that most elusive gift of all, hope. This lustrous jewel of a story, quietly told and perfectly complemented by soft, evocative paintings, reminds even the most cynical of readers that the heart indeed can recover and go on.
Jane Monroe Donovan's parents encouraged her to follow her heart and it led to her love of sketching and painting. Her affection for animals is reflected in much of her subject matter. Jane makes her home in Pinckney, Michigan, with her husband Bruce and their two sons, Ryan and Joey. Other members of their family include their two dogs, Belle and Grizzly, a Siamese cat named Maylee, and their two horses, Ameera and Cherokee Rose.
In addition to Winter's Gift, Jane has also illustrated three other titles for Sleeping Bear Press: My Teacher Likes to Say; My Momma Likes to Say; and Sunny Numbers: A Florida Counting Book. (20041212)
About this product: In Hatchet, 13-year-old Brian Robeson learned to survive alone in the Canadian wilderness, armed only with his hatchet. Finally, as millions of readers know, he was rescued at the end of the summer. But what if Brian hadn't been rescued? What if he had been left to face his deadliest enemy--winter?
Gary Paulsen raises the stakes for survival in this riveting and inspiring story as one boy confronts the ultimate test and the ultimate adventure.
About this product: The stunning national bestseller now features an illuminating discussion with Sister Souljah -- her secret thoughts on creating the story that has sold more than one million copies worldwide and introduced readers everywhere to the real ghetto experience. Here are answers to the questions fans everywhere have been asking; the meanings and inspirations behind such memorable characters as Winter, Midnight, and Santiaga; and insights into why and how Souljah conceived of one of the most powerful novels of our time.
About this product: John Dover Wilson's New Shakespeare, published between 1921 and 1966, became the classic Cambridge edition of Shakespeare's plays and poems until the 1980s. The series, long since out-of-print, is now reissued. Each work is available both individually and in a set, and each contains a lengthy and lively introduction, main text, and substantial notes and glossary printed at the back. The edition, which began with The Tempest and ended with The Sonnets, put into practice the techniques and theories that had evolved under the 'New Bibliography'. Remarkably by today's standards, although it took the best part of half a century to produce, the New Shakespeare involved only a small band of editors besides Dover Wilson himself. As the volumes took shape, many of Dover Wilson's textual methods acquired general acceptance and became an established part of later editorial practice, for example in the Arden and New Cambridge Shakespeares.
About this product: My reviewing process is very neat and orderly. As I read books I place them on my To Be Read shelf, where they are cataloged by those most likely to get a review to those least likely. Everything has its place. Some titles wait months before I get to them. But once in a great while, if I'm lucky, I run across a book so spectacular that I have to review it immediately. "Waiting for Winter" was that book. Now if I say the name Sebastian Meschenmoser to you, does it ring any bells? No? Well, the man first burst on the American scene with his touching if strange "Learning to Fly" about a penguin with flights of fancy. But "Waiting for Winter", his latest title to be released here in the States, is far more accessible to the American market. It is smart, clever, beautifully illustrated, and downright funny. Each season there is one good "snow" book that comes out for kids. This book should be considered the good snow book of this and any other year. Read it!
Under normal circumstances, Squirrel tends to sleep through the winter. However, this year Squirrel has heard from Deer that it's going to snow soon. Squirrel has never seen it snow before so he commits himself to staying up to wait for it. When merely staying up doesn't work he runs like a madman to keep himself occupied. Such energy wakes up Hedgehog, who also has never seen snow before. To keep themselves open eyed they sing loud sea shanties which, in turn, wakes up Bear. Now all three animals are waiting for snow. But what if it has already fallen? Taking Deer's description of the element ("White and wet and cold and soft") each one finds an object that might be snow. But after looking at their toothbrush, tin can, and sock, a single snowflake falls to the ground and the three are left in a whirl of white. And after making a snow creature (to be discovered by a confused pair of humans later) the three can finally burrow down for a long, comfortable sleep.
Meschenmoser's style is mesmerizing. Look at the lines closely and they just appear to be the hastily scrawled lines of a palsied hand. Back up a little and the lines come together and coalesce into not just recognizable characters, but sympathetic ones. After all, what human being doesn't identify with sleep deprivation? In this book various characters are so bleary-eyed and sleep starved that they look half dead on their feet. There's an absolutely wonderful close-up of the squirrel sitting on a branch, feet splayed. His fur looks like he just rolled out of bed and he's holding his tiny paw to his head as bags form under his eyes. This is one tired pookie. Facial expressions on realistic animals are also difficult, but when a seriously disgruntled bear hears Squirrel and Hedgehog's explanation for why they're being so loud, his skeptical look askance at the reader is priceless.
Pacing is so important too so the author doles out each image beautifully. The two-page wordless sequences sometimes act like silent comedies. For example, on the first page Squirrel and Hedgehog are letting rip some sea shanties, on the second they continue to belt out the tunes, and on the third Hedgehog has launched into a particularly boisterous part (using a leaf for emphasis) while Squirrel notices the awake and grumpy bear standing nearby. Two of these three spreads are wordless, but Meschenmoser renders any need for explanation unnecessary. You get where he's coming from. The crazy thing too is that in spite of the fact that this is a translation, the writing reads aloud beautifully. There's a real wonder to the words here. So kudos to both Mr. Meschenmoser and his translator. One gets the impression that the feel of the original tale has been well preserved here.
The little details are wonderful as well. For example, Hedgehog initially walks into the story with a couple leaves haphazardly stuck to his spines. Near his tail is a nut of some sort. And while the leaves do eventually fall off in the course of the story, in the last image when he's curled on top of bear's rump, fast asleep, the nut and one of the leaves remain firmly ensconced on his own backside. Meschenmoser also knows how to use his endpapers properly. At the beginning of the book the front endpapers show a scene of birds flying south for the winter. And as for the back endpapers, they kind of give the book its final joke. Turn there and you'll see a snowy woods. Two men laden with firewood stand stare at a lopsided snow. . . bear? It must be. With its sock nose, tin can hat, and toothbrush pipe, the animals have also taken care to use sticks and branches to give it claws and a tail. Fabulous.
Great snow stories are hard. Sometimes I feel like other countries write better snow books than we do. Consider "Snow Day" by Komako Sakai and now Meschenmoser's title. What I like about this book is that the author/illustrator really knows how to make use of the subject. You don't want a snow book where the world looks exactly the same after a snowfall as it did before (albeit with the landscape white) do you? No! Snow changes more than just how the land looks. There's a kind of light that accompanies a snowfall. An eerie glow that comes only when the scant light from the sky reflects off of falling frozen particles. Meschenmoser plays off of this when he has the fake snowfall dream sequences of Hedgehog and Squirrel. When toothbrushes or cans are falling against a dramatic sky, it looks especially silly. Then, when the real snow comes down, the silliness is gone. The shot of the three animals making a snowbear has this ethereal blue light shining on the scene. Any artist thinking of making a picture book where snow falls at night should be required to pick up this book and examine it closely (alongside the aforementioned "Snowy Day" and probably "Owl Moon" too) first.
The actual medium Meschenmoser is working in here isn't divulged on the publication page, but we can make some informed guesses. Graphite, certainly. And the orange of Squirrel, the green of some dying leaves, Hedgehog's yellow underbelly, the red of his berry, and Bear's brown highlights are all colored pencil. The only time you see any paint here is when the snow (in its myriad incarnations) comes down against the blue/black background that is the sky. That sky is painted, as are the flakes that fall. So suddenly you have a graphic world covered in thick blue and white paints. The result is that you really feel a kind of awe at the snowfall. It's special, and it makes everything it falls on special too.
The flaw? Because every picture book has to have one flaw, right? Okay, so the flaw of this book is so minor it's almost inconsequential but I figure I should bring it up just to be fair. I can't figure out if this is a problem on the part of the original manuscript or the translation, but the book begins with squirrel finding out about snow from a deer. But a quick glimpse at the accompanying picture and that animal squirrel is talking to? It ain't a deer. A goat, maybe. Though what a random goat is doing in the forest is anyone's guess. Maybe there are wild goats in the German trees. Or perhaps their deer are short and squat with ram-like horns. Dunno. In any case, feels like something got lost in translation along the way.
Meschenmoser is probably the best-known contemporary German picture book author/illustrator published in America today (which isn't saying much). Eric Carle doesn't count and you might be able to make a case for Ole Konnecke, but that's pushing it. Nope, like a latter day Janell Cannon Meschenmoser is our man and if ever there was a book of his deserving of our attention it is "Waiting for Winter." Touching and funny by turns, this turns out to be not only an idea winter tale, but also a perfect bedtime story too. For any kid who has ever tried to stay awake for an important event, this tale rings true. A must purchase. Can't talk it up enough.
About this product: For millennia, the shape-shifting dragon warriors known as the Pyr have commanded the four elements and guarded the earth's treasures. But now the final reckoning between the Pyr and the dreaded slayers is about to begin...
The mysterious Dragon's Blood Elixir gives immortality to Magnus, the Pyr's greatest enemy, and his minions-so it must be destroyed. Outcast from the Pyr because of his own dangerous impulses, Delaney will do anything to vanquish Magnus-and vows to complete a mission which will either redeem him or end his suffering.
But his plans don't take into account his sudden firestorm-or the hot- tempered Ginger Sinclair. The firestorm reforms Delaney closer to his old self. And when Ginger learns about Delaney's scheme, she cannot resist a strong man with a noble agenda.
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