The Chance Of A Sparrow

An American version of Miss Marple, Gracie Evans is homesick and tired of retirement. She's bored with living in the Moser Mansion Rest Home For Women in Locked Rock, Iowa. Spring brings back pleasant memories so she prays to God to give her a chance to go back to her farm for a little while. No one is more surprised than Gracie when her prayer comes true. The renter asks her to stay at her farm for a month while he goes on vacation. Soon she decides she should be more careful what she prays for. Her thrill at finding wild strawberries to pick dulls when she sees an Indian swimming naked in her pond. After he leaves, she finds a missing neighbor's clothes on her pond bank. Gracie goes for a walk through her timber to mushroom hunt and gets shot at. That's just the beginning of bad luck for her while she's at Three Oaks to farm sit. Once the widower neighbor and Gracie's former beau finds out her problem, he keeps coming over to check on her. At least that's his excuse for showing up unexpectedly. What he really wants is to take back up with Gracie where they left off years ago. None of this farm sitting experience was what Gracie meant when she asked God for The Chance Of A Sparrow.

A Guide to the Identification and Natural History of the Sparrows of the United States and Canada provides comprehensive information on all the features that make possible identification of all 62 species of sparrows that occur in North America. The text gives detailed descriptions of the summer, winter, and juvenile plumages of each species, as well as comparisons with similar species. The species accounts are illustrated with range maps and superb line drawings showing behavioral postures and, where useful, fine features of tail feather patterns. The 27 color plates splendidly illustrate the various plumages of each species with the emphasis on the distinctive appearance of birds of different sex, age, and geographic regions. This beautiful and authoritative book is a must for the library of all keen birders living in and visiting North America. Species accounts include discussions of species': * Identification * Measurements * Voice * Habitat * Ecology * Nesting biology * Distribution * Taxonomy * Geographic variations * Historical and present status

Alasdair MacPherson, a widowed pastor, sees his life change when he hires Mary Bridget to be his housekeeper.

A visionary work that combines speculative fiction with deep philosophical inquiry, The Sparrow tells the story of a charismatic Jesuit priest and linguist, Emilio Sandoz, who leads a scientific mission entrusted with a profound task: to make first contact with intelligent extraterrestrial life. The mission begins in faith, hope, and beauty, but a series of small misunderstandings brings it to a catastrophic end. Praise for The Sparrow “A startling, engrossing, and moral work of fiction.”—The New York Times Book Review “Important novels leave deep cracks in our beliefs, our prejudices, and our blinders. The Sparrow is one of them.”—Entertainment Weekly “Powerful . . . The Sparrow tackles a difficult subject with grace and intelligence.”—San Francisco Chronicle “Provocative, challenging . . . recalls both Arthur C. Clarke and H. G. Wells, with a dash of Ray Bradbury for good measure.”—The Dallas Morning News “[Mary Doria] Russell shows herself to be a skillful storyteller who subtly and expertly builds suspense.”—USA Today

Julie Hoffman is sixteen, clumsy, and a dreamer. Not such a great combo when your mom has moved you to a new school on Long Island. Feeling alone and ugly, Julie dreams about her estranged dad coming back and calling her Sparrow again. All she has left to remember him by is his collection of adventure and fantasy novels—which propels her into developing a fantasy of her own. In her new school Julie meets the members of the Clan of the Western Holt—a group of bright, imaginative kids like herself who don’t quite fit in. They devour comic books, sew costumes for Renaissance Faires, stage mock hunts, and huddle together for warmth and friendship against a world that ridicules them. The Clan brings out a talent for writing that has lain dormant in Julie. With Dana Burke, a young artist, Julie begins to write her own fantasy—‘Sparrow’s Flight’—and in it she puts all of her crises and dreams. She is able to give voice to her fears and desires through he make-believe characters—chronicling a painful experience with love, betrayal, and death. In her fantasy, Julie goes on an imaginary quest for her father and a mission to destroy the evil sorceress—her mom. But when she has the real-life chance to accomplish both, Julie finds that she has changed and makes her first adult decision.

Green Beret Captain James Ross travels to Kuala Lumpur for a routine military training conference and unwittingly finds himself set up as the patsy in an insidious terrorist plot. "Sparrow's Tears" is an exciting military-espionage thriller taking place throughout exotic Thailand and Malaysia. Ross is an intelligence officer with Special Forces sent to Kuala Lumpur to attend the CARAT conference held this year at the Petronas Twin Towers. Accompanying Ross is his old C.I.A. colleague from Bangkok, Randal Kloet. Once in Malaysia, Ross is assigned Miss Lin Sparrow as his official interpreter. The lovely and intriguing Miss Sparrow proves an extremely capable young woman. Of Amerasian descent with the gift of clairvoyance, Lin uses what some call her witchcraft skills in an attempt to pull Ross out of his deeply disturbing family past. Ultimately, Ross and Lin cross destinies with rogue C.I.A. agent Julius Creedmoor who has sold out his country to Abu Sayyaf. Someone in Abu Sayyaf is using an education in psychology and PTSD to erode the American soldier psyche. Their plan is to destroy the Petronas Towers and bring the financial infrastructure of Southeast Asia to its knees. Blame will be placed squarely on the United States unless Ross and Lin can stop them.