Search results for ""Author Bob Proehl""

When a group of outcasts with extraordinary abilities comes out of hiding, their clash with a violent society will spark a revolution-or an apocalypse. Avi Hirsch has always known his daughter was different. But when others with incredible, otherworldly gifts reveal themselves to the world, Avi realizes that her oddness is something more-that she is something more. With this, he has a terrifying revelation: Emmeline is now entering a society where her unique abilities unfairly mark her as a potential threat. And even though he is her father, Avi cannot keep her safe forever. Emmeline soon meets others just like her: Carrie Norris, a teenage girl who can turn invisible . . . but just wants to be seen. Fahima Deeb, a woman with an uncanny knack for machinery . . . but it's her Muslim faith that makes the U.S. government suspicious of her. They are the nobody people-ordinary individuals with extraordinary gifts who want one only thing: to live as equals in an America that is gripped by fear and hatred. But the government is passing discriminatory laws. Violent mobs are taking to the streets. And one of their own-an angry young man seething with self-loathing-has used his power in an act of mass violence that has put a new target on the community. The nobody people must now stand together and fight for their future, or risk falling apart. The first book of a timely two-part series, The Nobody People is a powerful novel of love and hope in the face of bigotry that uses a world touched by the fantastic to explore our current reality. It is a story of family and community. It is a story of continuing to fight for one another, no matter the odds. It is the story of us.

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Fahima Deeb changed everything seven years ago when she triggered the Pulse, imbuing millions of people with otherworldly gifts like flight, telekinesis, or superhuman strength. She thought that would herald the end of the hostilities between those with abilities and those without, but it instead highlighted a new problem: There is someone behind the scenes, able to influence and manipulate these newly empowered people into committing horrible acts against their will. Worse still, that shadowy figure is wearing the face of Fahima's oldest friend, Patrick Davenport. Fahima is horror-struck when she realizes that Patrick has built an army entirely under his control to wipe out all who oppose him. With nowhere to turn and few she can trust, Fahima must rely on uncertain allies: Carrie Norris, whose illusion of a normal life vanishes at Fahima's reappearance. Clay Weaver, a retired soldier fighting to keep his husband and son safe-and to keep Patrick from taking over his mind. And, finally, Emmeline Hirsch, adrift and untethered from her ability to travel through time. Together, they might be able to topple Patrick's shadowy regime . . . though it may spell destruction for the entire world.

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Bob Proehl uses the Seven Deadly Sins as a device to understand this classic album.In 1968, the Flying Burrito Brothers released their debut album, "The Gilded Palace of Sin" on A&M Records, selling a disappointing 400,000 copies. Forty years later, the band's front man, Gram Parsons, is still spoken of with an almost messianic reverence. Patron saint of altcountry, emblazoned with a shining cross, dead at twenty six. Overshadowed by the legend of Parsons, this album remains at once an anomaly in the fledgling country-rock genre and a snapshot of a moment in music and culture. Drawing on traditions of black and white southern music, to the country-tonk innovations of the early 70s Stones, and running through the psychedelia and political activism of the California scene, "The Gilded Palace of Sin" deserves to be discussed as something more than part of the Gram Parsons legacy.Bob Proehl's book uses the Seven Deadly Sins as a structuring device to look at an album that plays as fast and loose with its religious images as it does with its genre-borrowing. For example, Gluttony: Well, that's the easy one, isn't it? With the album finished, the Burritos hired a road manager and took off on a tour of the US by train. By his own account, the road manager's job was to get the drugs, hide the drugs and remember where he'd hidden the drugs. By the end of the tour most of the band members required wheelchairs and the creative spark shown on the album seemed to have fizzled under a bevy of drug-addled performances. The gluttony section will also cover Parsons' dismissal from the band by Hillman and the addictions that led to his death."33 1/3" is a series of short books about a wide variety of albums, by artists ranging from James Brown to the Beastie Boys. Launched in September 2003, the series now contains over 50 titles and is acclaimed and loved by fans, musicians and scholars alike.

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