Books with title Opossums After Dark

Here is a short, sleek novel of encounters, set in Tokyo during the witching hours between midnight and dawn, and every bit as gripping as Haruki Murakami's masterworks The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and Kafka on the Shore. At its center are two sisters: Eri, a fashion model slumbering her way into oblivion, and Mari, a young student soon led from solitary reading at an anonymous Denny's toward people whose lives are radically different from her own: a jazz trombonist who claims they've met before, a burly female "love hotel" manager and her maid staff, and a Chinese prostitute savagely brutalized by a businessman. After Dark moves from mesmerizing drama to metaphysical speculation, interweaving time and space, as well as memory and perspective, into a seamless exploration of human agency. Murakami's trademark humor, psychological insight, and grasp of spirit and morality are here distilled with extraordinary, harmonious mastery.

In After Dark—a gripping novel of late night encounters—Murakami’s trademark humor and psychological insight are distilled with an extraordinary, harmonious mastery. Nineteen-year-old Mari is waiting out the night in an anonymous Denny’s when she meets a young man who insists he knows her older sister, thus setting her on an odyssey through the sleeping city. In the space of a single night, the lives of a diverse cast of Tokyo residents—models, prostitutes, mobsters, and musicians—collide in a world suspended between fantasy and reality. Utterly enchanting and infused with surrealism, After Dark is a thrilling account of the magical hours separating midnight from dawn.

In After Dark—a gripping novel of late night encounters—Murakami’s trademark humor and psychological insight are distilled with an extraordinary, harmonious mastery. Nineteen-year-old Mari is waiting out the night in an anonymous Denny’s when she meets a young man who insists he knows her older sister, thus setting her on an odyssey through the sleeping city. In the space of a single night, the lives of a diverse cast of Tokyo residents—models, prostitutes, mobsters, and musicians—collide in a world suspended between fantasy and reality. Utterly enchanting and infused with surrealism, After Dark is a thrilling account of the magical hours separating midnight from dawn.

Fifteen-year-old slacker Charlie Harker is stuck in the sleepy town of Rolling Hills for the summer, helping his mom renovate his great-grandfather’s creaky old inn. It’s not entirely dull, thanks to Charlie’s new neighbor Miles Van Helsing, who insists there’s paranormal activity happening in Rolling Hills. Charlie chalks it up to Miles being the town nutcase. But many townspeople are falling prey to a mysterious illness, and wisecracking Charlie quickly gets wise¬: there’s something sinister going on in Rolling Hills.

There is much more to opossums than just their well-known ability to play dead. Opossums are great climbers and scavengers, as well as protective mothers. They have a well-developed sense of smell and strong jaws. Through fact-filled text and color photos, readers will learn all about these North American marsupials, including what they eat, where they live, how they are helpful to people, and how to stay safe around them.

A short, sleek novel of encounters set in Tokyo during the witching hours between midnight and dawn, and every bit as gripping as Haruki Murakami’s masterworks The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and Kafka on the Shore.At its center are two sisters—Eri, a fashion model slumbering her way into oblivion, and Mari, a young student soon led from solitary reading at an anonymous Denny’s toward people whose lives are radically alien to her own: a jazz trombonist who claims they’ve met before, a burly female “love hotel” manager and her maid staff, and a Chinese prostitute savagely brutalized by a businessman. These “night people” are haunted by secrets and needs that draw them together more powerfully than the differing circumstances that might keep them apart, and it soon becomes clear that Eri’s slumber—mysteriously tied to the businessman plagued by the mark of his crime—will either restore or annihilate her.After Dark moves from mesmerizing drama to metaphysical speculation, interweaving time and space as well as memory and perspective into a seamless exploration of human agency—the interplay between self-expression and empathy, between the power of observation and the scope of compassion and love. Murakami’s trademark humor, psychological insight, and grasp of spirit and morality are here distilled with an extraordinary, harmonious mastery.

There is much more to opossums than just their well-known ability to play dead. Opossums are great climbers and scavengers, as well as protective mothers. They have a well-developed sense of smell and strong jaws. Through fact-filled text and color photos, readers will learn all about these North American marsupials, including what they eat, where they live, how they are helpful to people, and how to stay safe around them.

What eighteen year old Mac Thorne doesn't know will probably kill her. In exactly eight months, five days, three hours and thirteen minutes, Mac has to choose what she'll be for the rest of her life. She has no choice but to pick. As a Changeling, it's her birthright. To Mac, it's a birthchore. Like going to school with humans, interacting with humans, and pretending to be human during the pesky daylight hours. Once darkness descends, Mac can change into any supernatural form that exists—which makes her as happy as she can be. That is, until Winn Thomas, the biggest geek in her senior class figures out there's more to what hides in the dark than most are willing to acknowledge. In this first of the 19th Year Trilogy, Winn might know more about Mac than even she does, and that knowledge could end their lives, unless Mac ensures the powers-that-be have no choice but to keep him around.

The stories are linked by a narrative framework.At the beginning and end of the book are "Leaves from Leah's Diary" William Kerby, a travelling portrait-painter, is in danger of losing his sight, and is required by his doctor to cease painting for a while. His wife Leah realizes that destitution threatens. He is a good story-teller, and Leah has the idea of writing down his stories and publishing them.Each story has a prologue, which was added to the original story that appeared in Household Words.

Fifteen-year-old Charlie Harker is pretty disappointed to learn he'll be spending his summer vacation helping his mom renovate an old family inn in the ?hick town? of Rolling Hills. He much preferred his plan of lounging on a beach in Hawaii. And now he has to deal with his annoying neighbor Miles Van Helsing, who's been trying to convince him there's paranormal activity going on in town. Charlie knows this can't be true. Miles is just nuts, right? Although he has to admit, it is getting harder and harder to explain all the odd situations he keeps finding himself in, particularly once the sun goes down. And it does seem like an awful lot of people are getting sick ... Author James Leck hits all the right notes in this young-adult novel: adventure, suspense, funny dialogue and, best of all, zombie-vampires! This fast-moving page-turner will be a favorite read for pre-teens. Leck has created an appealing character in Charlie: the lovable slacker and consummate prankster at Choke Academy boarding school who's always quick with a clever or sarcastic comment. But Charlie proves in the end that he can step up to a challenge and show leadership and courage when he needs to. With characteristics of several different genres, this book makes a great choice for a language arts discussion of literary genres. Despite the zombie-vampires, Leck deftly avoids the carnage, so the story never reaches the level of horror.