Showing results by narrator "Wesley James" in All Categories

Justin has two goals for sophomore year: to date Chuck, the hottest boy in school, and to become the king of Cool U, the table in the cafeteria where the "in" crowd sits. Unfortunately, he has the wrong look (short, plump, Brillo-pad curls), he has the wrong interests (Broadway, chorus violin), and he has the wrong friends (Spencer, into Eastern religions, and Mary Ann, who doesn't shave her armpits). And Chuck? Well, he's not gay; he's dating Becky, a girl in chorus with whom Justin is friendly.

The contemporary lore surrounding the 1879 Alford-White affray--that occurred in Tarrant County, Texas--has celebrated George H. White as a forgotten Fort Worth peace officer killed in the line of duty by horse thieves and desperados. This sensationalized narrative, based on the yellow journalism of the day, has been glamorized in books, has been written about in magazine articles, and has been honored on national and local memorials. Nevertheless, 20 years of research has revealed a different insight.

Lyta and Carl are astronomy grad students who hardly know each other and are trying to figure out their lives. Arbitrarily thrown together on a project, they make a surprising discovery: an unobtrusive light in the sky shows signs of being an alien spacecraft. As they study the object more closely, they start receiving a stream of information that creates an unexpected bond with it, each other, their government, and ultimately humanity as a whole. Their story mixes first-contact science fiction, romantic drama, and technological thriller, as they negotiate the difficult questions their discoveries raise, and the extreme reactions the answers cause in others.