Risultati letto da "Nick Podehl" in Tutte le categorie

The catcher is a statistical savant, the first baseman speaks in Buddhist koans, and the twin star pitchers may or may not derive mystical powers from scars betraying their Siamese birth. In fact, everything about the Birmingham Barons baseball team is remarkable - except for their performance on the field. For decades, the Barons have been woefully mediocre and Pudge Morrison - former better-than-average left fielder now long past his prime - has become the symbol for the team's disappointment.

>In this beautifully imaginative collection, young people attempt to negotiate the often surreal terrain of childhood and adolescence where family, friends, clergy, and teachers often pose a threat instead of providing safe harbor. At the heart of the collection is the relationship between the meek narrator, his best friend alpha-male Clip, and the near-feral Roger - but there are also agoraphobic mothers, gorgeous babysitters from New Zealand, paranoid stoned veterans, and deeply sad older sisters.

Tommy has given himself a new name - Kenny - from the Japanese ken, meaning sword. It’s a good samurai name. A warrior’s name. This summer at camp - a camp for kids who are not wanted at home - Kenny and his friends need all the samurai cunning and strength they can muster. They have declared a war - between themselves and the camp’s sadistic overseer, Matron, and her adult son, Christian, who secretly stalks one of the girls. Covertly building a samurai castle in the woods, Kenny and his motley band of warriors strategize their attack and eventual escape. But then things go horribly wrong.

For more than twenty years, the Homeland has been immersed in a brutal, unwinnable war. Young men are drafted and sent to fight in a faraway jungle. Those who come back are scarred in body and mind. Lance, two weeks shy of turning eighteen, has watched his older brothers leave and his mother fall apart when they fail to return. He's never imagined a different future for himself - until he meets an idealistic young woman named Lorrie and impulsively flees town with her.

Gabe is officially living in Vegas. It's his dream scenario - except for the fact that his girlfriend, Irina, is back in Seattle and surrounded by college guys. And his apartment is a little sketchy. Still, Gabe manages to pull off the bluff of a century: he finishes bartending school and gets a job at a club, even though, technically, he's not of legal age to serve. Being a man means paying the bills, and Gabe wants to show everyone that he can make it on his own and stay faithful to Irina.

A few months after doctors tell him he has only a year to live, a precocious fifteen-year-old from a small town in Virginia has an intense reaction to The Catcher in the Rye. Deriving inspiration from J. D. Salinger’s narrative, Daniel Landon begins to question the intentions and authority of those around him in his own search for identity in the face of death.

The Fracking King follows Winston Crwth - a boarding-school kid, loner, and Scrabble prodigy - who becomes an unlikely hero in the fight to stop fracking in Pennsylvania. Truth is a rare commodity in politics, and the idea of "winning" a debate as cleanly and simply as you'd win a Scrabble game can seem impossible. But with the truth on his side, a jar of toxic "frackwater", and the belief that he can win a Scrabble tournament whose first prize is a meeting with Governor Linda King LaRue, Winston creates a moment of devastating truth.

When childhood friend Victoria rejects his love, Jeremy takes his life on his 20th birthday.

On his 21st birthday, he wakes to find Victoria holding his hand, blissfully in love with him. Jeremy can’t remember the previous year, but he savors the miracle of waking up alongside the woman he loves. The next time he wakes, two years have passed and Jeremy is now a spectator of his own life. Victoria has given him a child, but the man alongside her is a cruel, egotistical, seemingly unknowable Jeremy. Is it amnesia? Insanity? Or has Jeremy been cursed for his selfish, destructive act?

The cards are stacking up against Gabriel James: first there’s Phil, the guy paying the bills for Gabe’s mom (but not leaving his wife). Then there’s Gabe’s new school, filled with kids competing for the Ivies, Silicon Valley, and Wall Street—while Gabe’s just trying to swing enough Cs to graduate.

Expert swordsmen Basilio and Alejo have one last mission before they go their separate ways: they must recover their teacher Don Manuel's ancient fighting manual and take it to remote Cataluña in order to have it translated by the famous alchemist Paracelsus. Unbeknownst to them, however, Don Manuel has been murdered, and a host of powerful forces has come looking for the coveted book - everyone from old lovers and lifelong archenemies to the King's assassin, and the Spanish Inquisition.

They come from different walks of life, with different problems and different hopes and dreams. But they have one thing in common: they need a scholarship to college. And they’re ready to battle seven other contestants on a reality TV show to get it. But only one contestant can win on "The Benefactor". Who will take home the big prize? Tune in to find out.

Anthony has returned from a trip around the world, and he’s ready to challenge Keith, the mastermind who cured the common fart, for leadership of Sweet Farts, Inc. And right now, Keith’s hold on the company is squeaking away: his sister, Emma, is his newest employee, and she cares only about her petting zoo, and his best friend, Scott, is still trying to impress everyone at the lab, even though he’s just one bad idea away from getting fired.

In a remote northern village, a close-knit community survives at the edge of the known world. On the far bank of the river that no one crosses lies an unnaturally straight road. Nothing ever grows on the road, and the curious heat emanating from its surface keeps it uncannily clear of snow and ice. Along this road, Aaron and his companions must travel. It is rumored that at the end of the road lies an object - the work of the devil - which is responsible for the untimely deaths of the villagers. The small band of men have volunteered to destroy this thing, whatever it is, at whatever cost.

The hot indie rockers introduced by In the Band return in this compelling second installment of the Luminescent Juliet series. This time the focus is on Justin, the band’s gorgeous lead singer - and a notorious womanizer - who sails through life without a second thought. His only problems stem from the power struggles he has with his band mates, some of whom are living with dark troubles that he wants no part of. Then one night Justin stumbles into a tattoo parlor and meets Allie.

Russia, 1945: For Petka, a rambunctious 12-year-old boy with dreams too big for his tiny village, the prospect of invasion is dangerously thrilling. He watches the Red Army troops march off to engage the enemy, and wages his own war - against boredom, bullies, and his lot in life as a bastard in a backwoods world. Secretly raising a wolf in his grandmother’s goat barn, happily raising hell with the local troops, stowing away in a shipment of bootleg booze destined for the combat zone, and defying death by the noose, Petka eagerly takes all he can from life.

Unemployed Colin is living back at home in the small town where he grew up in the shadow of his older brother and a gang of neighborhood bullies. He's still struggling to overcome his best friend Danny's unexpected death five years before. The strange series of events that took place on Danny's last night haunt Colin, and as he puts the pieces together, he discovers it may not have been an accident after all.

Jacob Cameron Asprey, Jr., is the charming son of a charming crook who’s currently residing in the state pen. Strangled by family ties, Jake is barely scraping by. When a local crime boss offers him a deal he’d be a fool to take and a chump to pass up, Jake sees a way out of his troubles - until his options begin to close down, and he finds himself at the heart of a dark plot that will place those he loves in harm’s way. This Is How You Fall is a story of old flames, old debts, and a new twist on an old con.

Eleven-year-old gumshoe Simon Sez may operate out of a tree house, but this pint-sized shamus is as tough as long division and meaner than an older sister. After Simon's heart is broken by the most beautiful dame on the playground, rich kid Bunky Matthews shows up at his HQ begging for help retrieving two hundred stolen snickerdoodles. Simon figures a new case might be just the ticket to get his mind off his troubles.

The United States prides itself on being the world’s melting pot, but during a long, hot summer in coastal North Carolina, three young people will put that theory to the test. A German named Tillmann is vacationing in the States with his girlfriend and corresponding with an African American colleague about the evolution of blues music.

Sebastien Ranes has drifted aimlessly since graduating from high school six months ago. Down on his luck, the 19-year-old is recovering from pneumonia, working a dead-end job, and living in a shabby makeshift bedroom in the basement of his mother and stepfather’s home. Looking to escape his lousy situation, Sebastien robs a local grocery store and makes off with $4,800 - but not without the store’s security cameras spotting him. Driven to a state of panic, Sebastien is hit by a drunk driver.