Great Family

Der größte Roman, den Jonathan Franzen seit den Korrekturen geschrieben hat. Sein Meisterwerk! Es ist der 23. Dezember 1971, und die Familie Hildebrandt steht an einem Scheideweg. Der Vater Russ, zweiter Pastor an einer Vorstadtkirche in Chicago, ist bereit, sich aus seiner Ehe zu lösen, die ihm freudlos erscheint - vorausgesetzt, seine patente, aber labile Frau Marion löst sich zuerst. Ihr ältester Sohn, Clem, kommt über die Feiertage aus dem College nach Hause, nachdem er eine moralische Entscheidung gefällt hat, die seinen Vater erschüttern wird.

Life hasn't been great for Jeff Hicks. After years at his beloved St. Catherine's, he's forced to spend eighth grade in the public middle school, which he hates. He's no longer speaking to his former best friend, Tom Bender, because of "that burned girl" Jessica Feeney. But worst of all, his family is changing, and it's not for the better. When his mom comes home announcing that she's lost her job, Jeff begins to worry about things far beyond his years.

Quinn Roberts is a 16-year-old smart aleck and Hollywood hopeful whose only worry used to be writing convincing dialogue for the movies he made with his sister, Annabeth. Of course, that was all before - before Quinn stopped going to school, before his mom started sleeping on the sofa...and before Annabeth was killed in a car accident.

The most important tradition in tiny St. Polonius is the annual Tasting of the Sacred Bear Liver. Each citizen over 12 must eat one bite of liver to prevent the recurrence of the Great Hibernation, when the town founders fell asleep for months. This year is Jean Huddy's first time to taste the liver. It doesn't go well. A few hours later, all the adults fall into a sleep from which they cannot be woken, and the kids are left to run things. At first, they have a blast. But then the town bullies take over the mayor's office and the police force....

Dunlop Fantasia has a passion for marketing, excellent ideas, hovercrafts, and avoiding rehab. A dark, complicated family upbringing sets him on course for early divorce, a blunder with his father's mistress, making TV shows, the heartbreaking death of a manservant, pursuit of celebrity endorsements, and winning respect for his growing advertising empire. Follow his satirical exploration of wealth, self-help advice, business success, gritty optimism, and downgrading to business class flights.

Eliza Jacobson has always been the black sheep of her mega-successful family, who runs the HealthNut Corporation. She’s not as pretty, talented, or business-savvy as her older sister, but she loves volunteering to work with the dogs at Pretty Paws, especially Athena, a Great Dane whose high-anxiety habits make her nearly unadoptable. After her last-chance opportunity to become a vet tech collapses, she takes a job at the call center of HealthNut’s competitor, Thetalife Supplements, where she meets the dashing, charming, sweep-you-off-your-feet CEO, Tony Costos.

Sound interesting? The author thinks so too! Listen to Great Courses: Como Criar Hijos Curiosos and learn about molding inquisitive minds.

Twelve-year-old Sara and her brother, Hawk, are told that they are not to bother the man - The Mister - who just moved into the silo apartment on their farm. It doesn’t matter that they know nothing about him and they think they ought to know something. It doesn’t matter that he’s always riding that unicycle around. Mama told them no way, no how are they to bother The Mister unless they want to be in a mess of trouble.

I had big thoughts to match the big wind. I wondered if we find the people we need when we need them. I wondered if we attract our future by some sort of invisible force, or if we are drawn to it by a similar force. I felt I was turning a corner and that change was afoot. In the little town of Blackbird Tree live two orphan girls: one Naomi Deane, brimming with curiosity, and her best friend, Lizzie Scatterding, who could talk the ears off a cornfield. Naomi has a knack for being around when trouble happens.

A fight for love and freedom in a harsh land...will the stakes prove too high? From the emerald hills of Ireland to a wild colonial land comes an epic story of love, brotherhood and the fight for liberty. 1851: After the death of her father, young Eve Richards is destitute. Her struggle to survive sees her deported in chains to the colony of New South Wales, penniless and alone. But here in this strange new world fortune smiles on the spirited, clever Eve in the shape of a respectable job offer that will lead to a quiet, secure life.

Cecily Hanson longs to live life on her own terms - to leave the shadow of her overbearing mother and marry her childhood sweetheart once he returns from the Great War. But when her fiancé is lost at sea, this future is shattered. Looking for meaning again, she decides to perform for the troops in France. Life on the front line is both rewarding and terrifying, and Cecily soon finds herself more involved - and more in danger - than she ever thought possible. And her family has followed her to France, with her mother seemingly set on a path of self-destruction.

Catholic priests don't generally have children, but Australian legend Father Chris Riley has brought up about 60,000 – and they're some of the toughest kids around. He regularly encounters some of the most troubled children on Earth – kids who have given up or refuse to talk to others, who steal, take drugs, see themselves as irredeemable failures, hate everyone and everything, self-harm, have been abused or abuse other kids, and prostitute themselves.

For nearly fifty years, Dave Lopez covered every major story in the Southland. The veteran news reporter was a nightly presence in LA living rooms on KCBS Channel 2 for a remarkable 48-year career on camera. General managers and news directors came and went in the unforgiving world of major market TV news, but Dave outlasted more than twenty regime changes.

Newly orphaned Magnolia Parker must protect her sick little brothers, but when the authorities send the boys to an unknown orphan asylum, Magnolia calls on her unwavering grit to bring them home. She's lost everything but still has a secret weapon—a promise from Eleanor Roosevelt, the most famous woman in America. Setting out on a cross country quest, she befriends two unlikely travelers: Hop, a migrant worker with a big heart, and Red, a young girl traumatized into silence.

Rose Zadeh pleases everyone, except herself. Memories of her late Iranian-immigrant father, who valued hard work and family, keep Rose in a dead-end job as a Silicon Valley copywriter, and tethered to her guilt-trippy mom and needy sisters. As much as it would disappoint her father, Rose needs an escape. Voilà! A mandated vacation gives her the chance. Three weeks on a long-dreamed-of trip to the City of Light. Instead of landing in a Parisian fairy tale, Rose falls under the spell of a charming and possibly dangerous expat.

Cashing in on his family's recent good-luck streak, ten-year-old Freddy Peach has been entering his family in a bunch of sweepstakes, but he doesn't really expect to win. And then he does—a free family trip to the Ice Hotel in Sweden! Since the Peaches are now the proud owners of their own bed-and-breakfast, they decide they can't pass up on the opportunity. It's research. They'll learn more about what it takes to operate a successful hotel from one of the most famous tourist destinations in the world.

1916. At the onset of war, Nurse Pru le Cuirot left her home in Jersey to care for injured soldiers at Ashbury Manor, Dorset. She wanted to do her bit but she never expected to meet Canadian pilot, Jack Garland, so unlike any man she has ever met. When Jack is sent on a dangerous mission and vanishes, Pru is forced to make an agonising decision…one that will haunt them both forever.

William and Christopher are two friends living entirely different lives, and somewhere along the way, this makes them adversaries. In the process of life and growth, they find themselves asking hard questions about life, such as: Just how important is money in life? How often should one laugh every day? What's the true meaning of happiness? Are we all so different, or what makes us different?

Thomasina "Hitch" Waycott loves living and working on the remote family farm and B&B. But she also wants more. To see the world. To own her own home. To fall madly in love. But those are fairy tales, and if her life is a fairy tale, then she’s the ugly duckling. Her deformed lip, her crooked limbs and her weak heart have kept her from taking chances. But that’s about to change. When Grayson Potts comes to stay, he’s unlike anyone Thomasina has ever met.

In this paradigm-shifting book, Jonathan Catherman shares with adults raised in the 1900s a fresh look at guiding 21st century youth to become confident and capable adults. With relevant research and real-world examples, Catherman shows us the benefits of practicing and teaching four principles that will unite and empower us all.