Books with author Nicola M. Hall

While most of the other 12-year-old children in Nora Strong’s grade are filling their spare time with tv, computer, and field sports, Nora is obsessed with horses. Nora dreams about owning her own horse someday. Many of the girls at the stable, including her best friend Amanda Kasper, are fortunate enough to have their own horses. Unfortunately, Nora’s parents, Mike and Karen Strong, cannot afford horse ownership, so Nora must settle for helping at the barn in exchange for lessons. If she wasn’t fortunate enough to live a few doors down from the stable in her small Connecticut town, Nora would not even have that opportunity.When a new, magnificent horse arrives at the stables, Nora’s desire to have her own horse consumes her. She is convinced the beautiful Arabian horse, Dreamer, is her soul mate and must be hers. Besides her parents’ unwillingness to buy her a horse, another situation arises that might pull Dreamer further from her grasp. Will Nora be able to ride Dreamer into the sunset? Or will she lose the one thing she has wanted more than anything? This is a story filled with a young girl’s passionate desire for horses, and the work ethic it takes to make dreams come true.

While most of the other 12-year-old children in Nora Strong’s grade are filling their spare time with tv, computer, and field sports, Nora is obsessed with horses. Nora dreams about owning her own horse someday. Many of the girls at the stable, including her best friend Amanda Kasper, are fortunate enough to have their own horses. Unfortunately, Nora’s parents, Mike and Karen Strong, cannot afford horse ownership, so Nora must settle for helping at the barn in exchange for lessons. If she wasn’t fortunate enough to live a few doors down from the stable in her small Connecticut town, Nora would not even have that opportunity. When a new, magnificent horse arrives at the stables, Nora’s desire to have her own horse consumes her. She is convinced the beautiful Arabian horse, Dreamer, is her soul mate and must be hers. Besides her parents’ unwillingness to buy her a horse, another situation arises that might pull Dreamer further from her grasp. Will Nora be able to ride Dreamer into the sunset? Or will she lose the one thing she has wanted more than anything? This is a story filled with a young girl’s passionate desire for horses, and the work ethic it takes to make dreams come true.

It is Monday, around midday, a workday. Well, a workday for most people, but not for everyone. Daniel is sitting at home, writing yet another job application and passing the day re-living the memories of what he has gone through in the last almost one-and-a-half years: a nightmare. Daniel is young, only 32 years old. He lives in the city of Berlin, where he was born and raised. This city is where he feels at home and where he is at home. When circumstances force him to seek new employment, Daniel is at first calm and confident about his chances, as he has been successful so far in his international career. But the apparently simple task of finding a new job soon becomes first daunting as he is forced to accept social welfare benefits and then very, very depressing, as even these end. He is left without an income and propped up only by his girlfriend, who now works to keep them both going. He tries to seek a job through connections, tries to enlist the help of the German Employment Agency, but without success. And Daniel learns the hard way that in Berlin the seemingly simple task of finding a job can break you. Winter makes way for spring and then summer, but Daniel’s own long and painfully dark winter continues with no end in sight.