William S. Rothwell Libri

The imbibing country clubbers were tooting their New Years Eve miniature horns, prematurely. An elderly man at the adjoining table is obviously choking on an under chewed piece of steak, Jason hollers, "can you talk?" The gasping man shakes his head, "no!" The Heimlich maneuver fails. Jason yanks the tablecloth and the dishes crash to the floor. He lifts the cyanotic, gasping man to the table with his head extended over the edge. He remembers Dr Heifer's words "The most important thing to remember in performing a tracheotomy is to extend the neck and the trachea will project forward." He grabs a steak knife, makes an incision into the wind pipe below the voice box and inserts a horn as a make shift tracheotomy tube. With each breath, the tooting horn improves the color of the man from blue to pink and ushers in the New Year.

Get wrapped up in the warm memories of Edwina, a precocious and delightful girl who lived just outside of Boston in the early 1900s. Edwina's recently uncovered memoirs found in old notebooks and diaries by her granddaughter, Jill Hofstra tell the story of growing up the child of a single, working mother who never let her daughter know how hard life really was. Told in the first person, Edwina's humor, spunk and optimistic spirit shine through stories that introduce us to the diverse cast of characters that populated her world: some heartbreaking, some hilarious, and some, as Edwina would say, "real stinkers." Edwina's story evokes the sweet simplicity of childhood memories, with the knowing eye of a wiser woman looking back at them, and reminding us that in her story, we find ourselves. Threaded with life's lessons and an understanding look at human nature in the simple setting of an earlier time, Edwina is an enjoyable and cozy read.

In the year 2155, people have the option to save their personalities for re-emergence in the distant future, gaining the promise of eternal life, but a threat in the form of a small, errant sun, named Lethifer, threatens to destroy that promise and the Earth itself.