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Alicia Rasley

The Year She Fell

Product Description

The tragic mystery at the heart of their family has finally surfaced . . . When Ellen Wakefield O'Connor is confronted by a young man armed with a birth certificate that mistakenly names her as his mother, she quickly sorts out the truth: his birth mother listed Ellen on the certificate to cover up her own identity, but also because Ellen is, in a way, related to the child. The birth father is Ellen's troubled husband, Tom. The secrets of the past soon engulf Ellen, Tom, and everyone they love. This drama of love, loss, family and betrayal will capture readers with its unforgettable power.

From the Author

The Year She Fell by Alicia Rasley
Reader's Guide

  1. The Year She Fell is set in the mountains of West Virginia, a beautiful but impoverished state.  Discuss the situation of the Wakefield sisters, growing up rich but surrounded by poverty.
  2. Both Ellen and her sister Theresa have religious vocations, but while Ellen's faith is low-key, Theresa's requires constant sacrifice. What about their personalities and experiences might account for the difference in religious intensity?
  3. Mitch Price is an artisan, a man who works creatively with his hands in a traditional craft (wood-carving). In his own way, he is as much a throwback as Mrs. Wakefield. How might the remote setting (mountainous West Virginia) lead to an embrace of more traditional forms and roles?
  4. Jackson McCain was a delinquent who grew up to be a cop. What sort of experiences might account for such a transformation?
  5. Mrs. Wakefield is a society matriarch of a sort not seen much in these days of grannies in hiking boots. Tom calls his father "a professional Irishman," deepening his accent and Irishness to impress the Americans who come to his pub. Trevor O'Connor. and Mrs. Wakefield are both most comfortable in the personas imparted by their social class and situation.  Is that sort of role-inhabiting a thing of the past in our fast-changing society?  Contrast this with the discarding of early roles (delinquent and debutante) shown by the younger Jackson and Laura.
  6. Laura and Jackson never got over their early love, and they reunite as adults. Is this sort of "reunion love" an example of self-deception, or can what attracted us at 16 still be alluring in midlife?
  7. In his reckless youth, Tom betrayed Ellen. Do you think it's possible to forgive and forget in a case like theirs? Is she a fool if she believes him when he says he loved only her?
  8. Cathy is the great enigma, and her death the mystery that her sisters must solve.  Consider the damage she has done to each sister. Does her reason absolve her of guilt?  How much should childhood trauma excuse adult misbehavior?
  9. Were Mrs. Wakefield's attempts to protect her family admirable or lamentable?  Chief McCain thinks she's crazy, as are most rich women. Do you agree that wealth distorts reality for the wealthy?
  10. All families have secrets, though the Wakefields have more than most. Have you discovered secrets in your own family? What did your parents and grandparents hide from you, and why?

Carla René

Zen In The Art of Absurdity

In “Sounds Like...A Self-Portrait” we see Fern’s struggle to go for it with Rogers or not. But will her gas keep them apart? “Road Rage” shines a light on all those crappy drivers--who are driving YOUR car. “See Dick and Jane Beat The Hell Out of Jack and Jill,” is an all-out farce that writers everywhere will love. “Sleep Walker” is the same story, told from 3 different points of view, with 3 very different stories emerging. An exercise in writing purely horrible fiction is what “The Tokyo Kens” is all about. Watch Delores have a controlled meltdown in “It’s All Just Water Under the Fridge.” In the essay “We All Need Traditions,” Carla’s mother asked for a pink azalea for Mother’s Day every year. And every year, her dad would buy it, and then mow it down. Why they never got hobbies, we’ll never know. “That’ll Be Seven Lipsticks, Please,” is an all-out mockery of Canadians. All Sam’s wife wants is a bathroom. All Sam wants is to find someone who speaks Canglish. Or Englanadian. Even the suicide notes from avid shoe-lovers can be funny in “The Suicide Ranks.” Find out why living in the south in the winter, and being married to a man who picks his ears with his keys is comic fodder in “Radio Shack, Earwax and Toilet Paper.” And finally, “Justifiable Lack of Initiative” teaches us to celebrate our under-achieving, and see why a writer in search of his own writing space is driven to desperation by his wife in “Zen In The Art of Absurdity.”

Mark Russinovich

Zero Day

From Publishers Weekly

Microsoft computer guru Russinovich's first novel, a cautionary tale about the imminence of the great cyber attack to wipe out the Internet, works pretty well as a thriller, though it takes a while to boot up and for the bodies to begin to fall. Arab terrorists, with the collusion of Osama bin Laden, are behind the attack, which is supposed to destroy Western civilization. A New York City law firm enlists cyber expert Jeff Aiken to track down a virus that has knocked out the company's computer network. While working on this problem, Jeff uncovers the larger threat. With the help of "stunningly attractive" Daryl Haugen, an old friend who becomes his love interest, Jeff attempts to warn the authorities, but to little avail. The author effectively employs the usual genre types—government traitors, amoral hackers, professional assassins—but his main characters spend too much time at the keyboard to build up much heat. Bill Gates provides a blurb. (Mar.)
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

From

The horror of cyberterrorism explodes on the page in Russinovich's first novel. A plane over the Atlantic suddenly needs to reboot its computer to stay in the air, and the pilots barely avert disaster. A hospital network mixes up patient information, resulting in the death of several people. A law firm, which has lost all of its clients' data and can't get its system running again, turns to Jeff Aiken, a former government analyst and computer expert. He discovers that all of the crashes are insidiously connected, and an even greater disaster is coming. Computer technospeak is handled with ease by Russinovich, who makes the jargon understandable for nongeeks but does so without losing authenticity. His background at Microsoft ensures that he knows what he's writing about, but, equally important, he constructs a gripping narrative. A terrifying tale made all the more frightening by our concern that it could offers a glimpse into the future, Russinovich's thriller just could become one of those books that prompts a real-world response, in this case a wake-up call for greater cybersecurity methods. --Jeff Ayers

Zelazny Roger

Herr des Lichts

In ferner Zukunft haben die Nachfahren der Menschen einen fernen Planeten unterworfen und regieren ihn mit gottgleicher Macht. Sie haben eine Technik der Inkarnation entwickelt, die ihnen erlaubt, jeden beliebigen Körper zu tragen, und die ihnen ein ewiges Leben beschert. Sie, die Ersten, die nach langer Reise im Raumschiff bereits als Mutanten ankamen und ihre psychischen und physischen Kräfte im Lauf der Jahrhunderte immer mehr verbessert haben, herrschen über die Sterblichen wie die Götter des hinduistischen Pantheons: Kali, die grausame Göttin der Zerstörung; Agni, der Gott des Feuers; Yama, der Todesgott. Und um ihre Macht dem Himmel, ihrer uneinnehmbaren Stadt auf dem Dach der Welt, ungeschmälert zu erhalten, unterdrücken sie jeden Fortschritt, rotten sie jeden Widerstand aus, halten sie ihre Spätgeborenen auf dem Niveau von Barbaren, die ihnen als Spielzeuge dienen und sie anbeten. Sie wollen nicht wahrhaben, daß sie gerade dadurch ihre Macht aushöhlen und ihrer Herrschaft ein vorschnelles Ende bereiten. Denn eines Tages erscheint der Herr des Lichts, Mahasamatman, auch einer der Ersten, doch er hat stets die Niederungen der Welt dem dekadenten Luxus des Himmels vorgezogen. Er stellt sich auf die Seite der Unterdrückten, sät den Zweifel an der Religion und fordert die Götter zum Kampf. Doch er muß schließlich erkennen, daß die beste Waffe gegen die Götter das Wissen, und die beste Waffe gegen Abhängigkeit der Fortschritt ist, auch wenn mit ihm jeder Zauber aus der Welt verschwindet. Roger Zelazny erhielt für dieses Buch den begehrten HUGO- Award, den Preis für den besten Science Fiction-Roman des Jahres.

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