Showing results by narrator "Brian Holden" in All Categories

Milo Bloom, chess prodigy, has a secret: he doesn’t want to play chess anymore. If only he had the courage to tell someone. Instead, he blows a major tournament on purpose. The problem is, winning that tournament was a ticket to chess camp, and now his summer plans are shot. Enter Roxie, a girl he’s never met, who shows up at his door to tell him that he and his mom will be spending the summer in her “cat room” … what?

In the twenty-sixth century, Mars is thriving: the huge crater made by the crashed moon of Deimos is now a vast domed city, buzzing with industry and a burgeoning Martian-born and immigrant workforce. Ecoline scientist Mel Erdan is at the forefront of vital research to feed and maintain Mars' increasing population. But when her viral enhancer transforms lush green plants into a blackened swathe of dead crops, it triggers a wave of violent unrest across Deimos City, and Mel is accused of deliberately sabotaging Mars' fragile viability.

Cymbeline Barnes has been waiting for a grand adventure. When the town competition is announced, she sees it as her chance to spread her wings, even if people think she’s wild and rebellious. But when she learns that the competition is for men only, her hopes are dashed. Should she give in to societal pressure and do what most women do now? Marry a man of fine standing and have children? After all, it’s only her pride that’s keeping her from admitting that she’s fallen in love with Victor Olofsson.

Furious Popcorn and his best friends, the Only Onlys, are about to blow the cover of the dangerous and dastardly F.A.R.T. (Families Against Rotten Teens) by exposing their bizarre Parenting Manual. But then Furious Popcorn discovers that one of the Onlys—Apricot—is under F.A.R.T.’s control and he worries they’ve used their diabolical Brain Modem on her! Can Furious Popcorn save Apricot from becoming a zombie? And can he stop F.A.R.T. from unleashing the Brain Modem on the rest of the planet?

After four years at a university, Delphia Barnes returns home to Emerson Pass as America prepares to join the war. Determined to resist a conventional life of marriage and children, she fights her attraction to her old pal Jack Depaul. However, her heart won’t listen to reason, falling in love anyway.

On Mars, terraforming breakthroughs leave citizens dreaming of a transformed planet. However, when a contaminated ice asteroid puts water supplies in peril, the dream quickly shatters. Professor Zambrotta "Zammi" Kaspar is tasked to investigate a fatal crash on a remote ice asteroid, but he never expects to discover his missing sister there as an indentured worker for the Mining Guild. As the siblings reconnect and dig deeper into the mystery of the contaminated water, they both discover a personal legacy of secrets and loss over competing visions for the future of humanity.

In 2004, in a small, windowless theater in then-desolate Williamsburg, Brooklyn, an eccentric family of broke art-school survivors staged an experimental, four-hour adaptation of William Faulkner’s novel As I Lay Dying inside an enormous wooden coffin that could barely fit the cast, much less an audience. The production’s cast and crew—including its sweetly monomaniacal director—poured their hearts and paychecks into a messy spectacle doomed to fail by any conventional measure. It ran for only eight performances.

It's always been comfort over fashion for me. But when my boss dangles a carrot in the shape of my very own column, I will do whatever she wants. Even if it means I have to swap my leggings and Uggs for a tight dress and stilettos. She asks me to do a makeover photoshoot for the magazine I work for. The night before the shoot, I am saved from an awkward situation by some hot businessman who takes pity on me. Pity. Not exactly the romantic meet-cute that one might hope for.

It’s 1940, and Jody is moving with her military family yet again—this time to a small naval base in Pearl Harbor. She’s always created a “top ten” list for each new home to help her adjust, and with Hawaii being so beautiful and her loyal dog Happy by her side, it’s easy to find things to add. But Jody’s mom is convinced the island is dangerous and starts constantly practicing first aid. Jody also learns that Happy is getting older and beginning to slow down.