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A Tale of Two Maidens: A Novel (A\tale Of Two Maidens Ser.)
by Anne EcholsFifteen-year-old Felise, an apprentice scribe in medieval France, is in a desperate situation. She yearns to find a way to become a writer and a book shop owner, but in order to achieve her dreams she must first escape from her cruel guardian, who is plotting an arranged marriage for her.As the Hundred Years’ War rages all around Felise, Joan of Arc blazes into history, claiming God-given powers to set France free from English control. Her courage inspires Felise to run away, but every day of the journey that follows draws the young scribe further into the underbelly of a world she has never known—a world of burning villages and terrified peasants left behind in the path of war. She soon encounters a young man from home who begins to pursue her, and she is drawn to him despite her quest for freedom and distrust of men. But following after the army, she meets Joan face to face, and finds herself torn between her heroine’s single-minded sense of purpose and her own desire for love and personal fulfillment.A Tale of Two Maidens brings to life the story of an ordinary medieval girl on an extraordinary adventure—one that will require her to dig within herself to claim her own true, independent, and heroic destiny.
What's Not True: A Novel
by Valerie TaylorIn her second novel, Valerie Taylor—award-winning author of What’s Not Said—gives readers another romantic comedy interwoven with forbidden love, infidelity, and family.With the court date set for her divorce and the future she’d planned with a younger man presumably kaput, Kassie O’Callaghan shifts attention to reviving her stalled marketing career. But that goal gets complicated when she unexpectedly rendezvous with her former lover in Paris. After a chance meeting with a colleague and a stroll along Pont Neuf, Kassie receives two compelling proposals. Can she possibly accept them both? Kassie’s decision process screeches to a halt when her soon-to-be ex-husband has a heart attack, forcing her to fly home to Boston. There, she confronts his conniving and deceitful fiancée—a woman who wants not just a ring on her finger but everything that belongs to Kassie. In the ensuing battle to protect what’s legally and rightfully hers, Kassie discovers that sometimes it’s what’s not true that can set you free.
Mattie, Milo, and Me: A Memoir
by Anne AbelAnne grew up in an abusive home, leading to severe depression and a determination to do better as a mother. One of her sons wants a dog from the time he is a baby; Anne very much does not. For years she appeases him with creatures who live in cages and tanks, but on his tenth birthday she can no longer say no—and she proceeds to fall in love with their new four-legged family member, Mattie. Then Mattie dies a sudden and tragic death, and Anne feels herself begin to sink back into depression.Trying to cope, she immediately adopts Milo—a dog who, unbeknownst to her, has already been returned to the rescue by several families due to his aggressive behavior. But even after she realizes Milo is dangerous, she’s committed to trying to give him a chance at a good life.Anne’s journey takes the reader from dog school into the deep woods as she perseveres with Milo’s lifelong rehabilitation and her unwavering efforts to be a good mother to her sons. Working with Milo strengthens Anne and expands her ability to love. Ten years later, when Milo dies, Anne faces another choice: close the door to that part of her heart, or risk loving another dog after two tragic losses?
Travel Mania: Stories of Wanderlust
by Karen GershowitzSince leaving home for Europe alone at age seventeen, Karen Gershowitz has traveled to more than ninety countries. In pursuit of her passion for travel, she lost and gained friends and lovers and made a radical career change. She learned courage and risk taking and succeeded at things she didn’t think she could do: She climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro. She visited remote areas of Indonesia on her own and became a translator, though only fluent in English. She conquered her fear of falling while on an elephant trek in Thailand. And she made friends across the globe, including a Japanese family who taught her to make sushi and a West Berliner who gave her an insider’s look at the city shortly after the wall came down. An example that will inspire armchair travelers to become explorers and embolden everyone to be more courageous, Travel Mania is a vivid story of how one woman found her strength, power, and passion. Travel is Karen’s addiction—and she doesn’t want treatment.
The Gray Bird of Baghdad: An Ex-Secret Service Agent's Desperate Mission to Save an Iraqi Scientist
by Stephen Phillip MonteiroA missing Iraqi scientist, an ex–Secret Service agent, and the threat of another biological terrorist attack—all these elements come together in the gripping true story of the Gray Bird of Baghdad. Iraqi Microbiologist Thamer Abdul Rahman Imran has information vital to stopping the unthinkable: a biological attack on the US. When he learns that the new Iraqi government wants to arrest him and the insurgents want to kill him, he goes into hiding. Racing against time, ex–Secret Service agent Steve Monteiro and his team set out on a mission to find the missing scientist and learn what he knows. The journey takes them from the White House to the Middle East as they fight bureaucrats in Washington who want them to fail. Why? And what is this vital information that Thamer possesses?The Gray Bird of Baghdad tells the true story of one’s man’s quest to protect his country and another man’s fight to save his family from the ravages of a country at war.
Love and Death with the In Crowd: Beautiful and Mute
by Jessica Anya BlauWe think of the past as a more innocent time. But in these stories of California teenagers acting out in the last years of the ’70s, it’s easy to see that love, loss, and heartbreak are even more poignant when viewed through 15- or 16-year-old eyes. Surrounded by friends and family who are spinning with their own losses and heartache, these teenage girls navigate the terrors and tenderness of life in the only ways they know how. In this touching and moving pair of coming-of-age stories, best-selling author Jessica Anya Blau makes it clear that once you step over certain lines, there’s no going back.
The Pale Flesh of Wood: A Novel
by Elizabeth A. TuckerFor fans of Celeste Ng and Dani Shapiro, this lyrical debut set in twentieth-century Northern California offers a multigenerational braided narrative examining the rippling effects of trauma and perceived fault after a loved one’s suicide.1953. WWII veteran Charles Hawkins sweet-talks his daughter, Lyla, into climbing the family’s oak tree and hanging the rope for their tire swing. Eager, Lyla crawls along the branch and ties off a bowline, following her father’s careful instructions, becoming elated when he playfully tests the rope and declares the knot to be “strong enough to hold the weight of a grown man. Easy.” But when her father walks out back one November night and hangs himself from the rope, Lyla becomes haunted by the belief that his death is her fault, a torment amplified by her grief-stricken mother, who sneaks up to the attic and finds comfort in the arms of her dead husband’s sweaters, and a formidable grandmother, who seemingly punishes Lyla by locking her outside, leaving her to stare down the enormous tree rooted at the epicenter of her family’s loss. Set among the fault-prone landscape of Northern California, The Pale Flesh of Wood is told by three generations of the Hawkins family. Each narrative explores the effects of trauma after the ground shifts beneath their feet and how they must come to terms with their own sense of guilt in order to forgive and carry on.
Goodbye, Lark Lovejoy: A Novel
by Kris ClinkFor readers of Katherine Center and Kristan Higgins, an immersive, soul-nourishing novel that dares to hold onto hope when happily-ever-after seems lost. Full of character, wit, and wisdom, Goodbye, Lark Lovejoy explores second chances and the power of connection.Lark’s lost her husband, and the expiration date has come and gone on her fake-it-till-you-make-it “Happy Mommy Show.” Healing her broken family requires drastic measures—like returning to her hometown in the Texas Hill Country. But she’s going to need more than clean air and a pastoral landscape to rebuild a life for her and her young sons.After years of putting off her dream of becoming a winemaker, Lark puts every cent into a failing vineyard, determined to work through her grief and make a brighter future for her children. The last thing she expects is to fall in love again. Especially not with Wyatt Gifford, an injured Army vet with a past of his own to conquer.Coming home may not be the reset Lark imagined, but it does take her on a journey filled with humor and reconciliation—one that prepares her for a courageous comeback.
Healing Wisdom for Pet Loss: An Animal Lover's Guide to Grief
by Anne Marie Farage-SmithWhether you recently lost your cherished pet or know you soon will, this book is for you. Healing Wisdom for Pet Loss is designed to help readers understand the bond they have with their pets and why losing them is uniquely painful; aid them in understanding the grief they experience in the aftermath of that loss; and teach them the skills they need to process this loss. In these pages, licensed mental health counselor Anne Marie Farage-Smith offers detailed explanations of the types of grief that one may encounter upon the loss or impending loss of a pet and provides validation for the emotions experienced in relation to that loss. She also reminds readers that help is available, and gives actionable criteria for the reader to determine when professional assistance is needed and how to find it.Containing a variety of deliberately open-ended writing exercises Farage-Smith has seen help others to understand and heal their grief, as well as suggestions for a variety of ways to honor and remember one’s pet, Healing Wisdom for Pet Loss is the loving, supportive grief journey companion every bereaved pet parent needs.
The Third Way: A Novel
by Aimee HobenWhen mega-corporation Unibank threatens to foreclose on her grandmother’s South Dakota farm, Arden Firth fights back with a revolutionary idea. Enlisting the help of an enigmatic law student, Justin Kirish, Arden builds a campaign to abolish corporations in the state. To win, she must overcome her fear of public speaking and learn to lead while juggling her growing feelings for Kirish. When secrets from the past and dark corporate forces threaten to destroy their movement, however, the success of the ballot campaign suddenly hangs in the balance.A novel charting the intersection between idealism, extremism, and forgiveness, The Third Way—awarded the Independent Publishers Book Award 2023 IPPY Gold Medal for Popular Fiction—is perfect for fans of Barbara Kingsolver and Margaret Atwood.
A Week of Warm Weather: A Novel
by Lee BukowskiTessa Cordelia appears to have it all—a loving husband who’s just opened a dental practice, a beautiful baby girl, a big house in the suburbs, and a large, supportive family. But when her husband's reckless choices resurrect a trauma from her childhood, she must decide which is more costly: keeping his secrets or revealing them. He manipulates Tessa into believing his career and their happiness depend on her silence. She feels like she’s losing her mind. Is her husband's habit so awful? In many ways, he’s an ideal husband; should she let him have this one thing? Determined to maintain the lie that she’s living the perfect life, Tess lies to everyone she knows—except for CeCe, a woman new to the area whom she’s just befriended. But after confiding in her, Tessa learns that CeCe has an explosive secret of her own, and her world is further upended. A gripping, nuanced exploration of the havoc addiction can wreak on a family, A Week of Warm Weather is the story of a woman who has to figure out how much she is willing to lose in order to find herself.
Buck's Pantry: A Novel
by Khristin Wierman“Buck’s Pantry is a surprising tale of intrigue and suspense, and a perfect example of how three days and a random encounter can change the course of so many lives. Khristin Wierman’s narrative is charming and disarming all at the same time.” —Laurie Gelman, author of the Class Mom seriesIn a small Texas town, three women—Gillian, a former prom queen and furious juggler of her three children’s manic schedules; Lianna, a foul-mouthed East Coast banking super star; and Aimee, a woman capable of far more than her current life will allow—find their lives converging. Gillian, reeling from the revelations her husband shared at a fundraiser she hosted just days ago, is suddenly grappling with what she has always believed about politics, family, and her own comfortable life—and aghast at some of the choices she’s made. Lianna is en route to close a deal and languishing in the August heat. Desperate to return to her beloved New York and a first-time visitor to rural Texas, she’s certain she has landed in one of the outer rings of hell. Aimee, though withering under the covert dysfunction and mental illness lurking in her family, still manages to shine in her low-level job and allows herself to dream of a life far away. When Gillian and Lianna stop at the same convenience store, they find themselves in an unthinkable situation. Aimee may be their only hope—if she can put the pieces together.
Edge of the Known World: A Novel
by Sheri T. JosephFans of Margaret Atwood and Emily St. John Mandel will be gripped by this high-stakes, timely, and deeply human literary thriller about hidden identity, genetic surveillance, and the difficult choices between love and family.A USA Today bestseller and winner of the American Fiction Awards and Chanticleer International Book Awards. In a near future where DNA tests are used at ID checkpoints, brilliant Alexandra Tashen is hiding in the open. After a blissful childhood on a Texas ranch, she learned of the secret in her genes—a harmless inherited marker and ancestry that would get her deported to a brutal regime and likely death. Her adoptive father’s experimental gene therapy masks her marker, but not completely. Every security check is a one-in-ten chance of getting caught. When her father vanishes, Alex risks everything in a headlong and often comic search across nations. A volatile love triangle develops with two brothers—one a disgraced intelligence officer, the other a damaged, charismatic diplomat—each guarding secrets of their own. As betrayals mount and the secrets unravel, Alex must confront the confounding choices between love, family loyalty, and moral obligation. Edge of the Known World blends the tension of a global thriller with the heart of a love story.
Poster Girl: A Jane Benjamin Novel
by Shelley Blanton-StroudCynical young gossip columnist Jane Benjamin joins FDR’s Office of War Information, a propaganda unit, to find a Wendy-the-Welder poster girl to urge more women to the shipyard work essential to America’s winning World War II—and, incidentally, to make herself into the new Hedda Hopper. But somebody doesn’t want those women at work.During a five-day contest to beat the world speed record for building a liberty ship, Jane investigates the lives of the first women welders and learns more about her flyboy former lover’s secret post–Pearl Harbor mission—and her cynicism begins to melt. But when inspectors find and publicize a series of flaws in the contest-week welding, the women welders are blamed. Worse, two poster girl candidates are killed. Are they being sabotaged by a belligerent male shipyard supervisor? The industrialist shipyard owner with a history of controlling women? Or someone else trying to diminish the success of the US liberty ship program? To find out, Jane must choose between her professional ambition and service to the women welders—before the murderer harms another girl and America’s best chance of winning the war.
Agates Are Forever: A Nick Cameron Mystery (Nick Cameron Mysteries)
by Logan TerretMix the western setting of C. J. Box’s Joe Pickett with the noir tropes of Raymond Chandler and the humor of Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum, and you get this witty, thrilling mystery fueled by diverse characters and set against the stunning backdrop of the Arizona desert.Nick Cameron is a PhD geologist of independent means who boxes for fun, packs a Colt Commander, and has a knack for finding bodies—dead and alive. When an agate heiress arrives in Quartzrock, Arizona, on the eve of a gem show, she asks Nick for help selling some gemstones—and soon becomes a suspect in the bizarre murders of two prominent lapidaries. Stalked by the mysterious killer, she and Nick dodge police while Nick works with his friend Frankie Benally—a Navajo jewelry artist and brilliant armchair detective—to unravel the case. But even Frankie is stumped—until, at an isolated hacienda deep in the Sonoran desert, Nick meets the great-granddaughter of a soldadera who served with Pancho Villa’s División del Norte.Along the way, Nick gets help from an old-fashioned gentleman sheriff, a crusty army retiree, and a clutch of feisty dames. He navigates plot twists and red herrings that would make Sam Spade reach for the aspirin. And he does it all with deadpan humor that’ll make you spit up your bourbon.
For A Good Cause: A Practical Guide to Giving Joyfully
by Diane Lebson“For many volunteers, fundraising is a necessary evil, a dirty F-word that compels them to have uncomfortable conversations with their families and friends . . .” Through her work with countless female philanthropists, Diane Lebson discovered that there was no definitive guide volunteers and activists could turn to for guidance in navigating the day-to-day activities associated with doing good in the world—so she wrote one. Leveraging the skills and experiences she cultivated over more than twenty-five years as a nonprofit executive, board member, and consultant, For A Good Cause offers practical tips on how to “do” philanthropy. In chapters divided up by specific activities—such as serving on a board, advocating for a cause, starting your own philanthropic venture, becoming a fearless fundraiser, and more— Diane offers practical advice on how to professionalize your philanthropic engagement and make a greater impact. Rounded out with information about best practices, checklists, and profiles of inspiring leaders, For A Good Cause is the do-gooder’s go-to resource for giving joyfully.
We Named Them All: Stories
by Michelle BrafmanWhat happens to a woman—and a marriage—when she loses a baby not once, not twice, but five times? With a surprising amount of humor, as well as poignancy, award-winning fiction writer Michelle Brafman explores pregnancy loss from the perspectives of mother, husband, and unborn baby, providing a window onto what is usually a very private kind of grief.
Finding Grace: A Novel
by Maren CooperCharles Booker is thrilled to start married life in Two Harbors, Minnesota, with his ambitious ornithologist bride, Caroline—but he sabotages his own happiness when, blinded by his desire for a family, he tricks Caroline into a pregnancy she doesn’t want.Caroline, bold and unapologetic, follows her own nature and holds Charles to his promise to parent their daughter without her help—an arrangement that allows her to travel the world and follow her birds, wherever they may take her. This uneasy truce results in near tragedy for their daughter, Grace, who comes of age in a household full of toxic resentment on the one side and suffocating love on the other, and increasingly struggles with her mental health as she grows older.Told by all three of the characters involved and set against the backdrop of Lake Superior, Finding Grace is a piercing chronicle of the struggles and eventual insight gained by each over the years, starting with Charles and Caroline’s courtship and continuing into Grace’s early adulthood—and a poignant coming-of-age journey for both Grace and her parents.
Witch Wars: Witches of Orkney, Book 3 (Witches of Orkney)
by Alane AdamsAbigail’s second year at the Tarkana Academy has been an all-out disaster. She’s just unwittingly helped Vertulious, an ancient he-witch and powerful alchemist, destroy Odin’s Stone and restore his powers, and now all of Orkney is caught up in the threat of war as the witches prepare to destroy the helpless Orkadians. Determined to set things right, Abigail and Hugo set off for Jotunheim, the land of the giants, to find a weapon to restore the balance. All they have to do is track down the God of Thunder and convince Thor to turn his hammer over to them. When their former-friend-now-foe Robert Barconian arrives with a band of dwarves, intent on stopping them, Abigail and friends must unite to prevent a war that will destroy them all. But has Abigail made the biggest mistake of all by trusting in the wrong ally?
Make a Home Out of You: A Memoir
by Ginelle TestaFor readers of Drinking: A Love Story by Caroline Knapp comes an unflinching coming-of-age addiction memoir about one woman’s journey to overcome her destructive roots to discover her road to recovery.Born to an abusive mother and a drug-dealer father, Ginelle Testa is not exactly set up for success—and her early years are just as troubled as one might expect. By the end of her thirteenth year, she’s started experimenting with alcohol and drugs, has fallen prey to anorexia, and has been sexually assaulted. And that’s only the beginning of her spiral down into addiction and disordered eating. As Ginelle progresses into young adulthood, she hits several substance-related bottoms. In her senior year of college, after blacking out and ending up naked in her dorm’s community shower, she goes to Alcoholics Anonymous and gets sober. But steering clear of drugs and alcohol, she discovers, is not a cure-all—she still has a long way to go before she can truly heal. Raw, relatable, and powerful, Testa’s is a riveting tale of climbing up from rock bottom—and learning to make a home in oneself instead of in substances and other people.
Warming Up: A Novel
by Mary Hutchings ReedApproaching forty, unemployed but well-off, talented but unknown, functional but depressed, former musical actress Cecilia Morrison is in a serious slump. Although she once won leading roles, Cecilia now can't bring herself to audition for parts. She finally—reluctantly— seeks therapy, hoping it will make a difference . . . but in the end a runaway teenager who cons her out of sixty bucks, not therapy, is what changes her life. Whether at the apex of one’s success or just starting out, Warming Up speaks to anyone who’s ever wondered what it’s all about—or who finds themselves doing something they never thought they’d do. Warming Up was a short list finalist for the 2011 William Faulkner -William Wisdom Prize for the Novel. Ten percent of the author’s proceeds are donated to The Night Ministry, which provides temporary housing, transitional living, and parenting services to Chicago’s homeless youth.
The Red Sun (The Legends of Orkney Series #Bk. 1)
by Alane AdamsSam Baron is about to get the shock of his life. First his substitute English teacher claims to have turned his old teacher into a lizard; then a strange dwarf named Rego arrives and claims Sam is from a magical realm called Orkney. When his friends are taken prisoner, it’s up to Sam to save them. Sam embarks on a journey to Orkney through a stonefire to find his friends—but when he arrives, he discovers that an ancient curse has turned the sun a poisonous red and threatens to destroy the land. With only a young witch girl to guide him, Sam must choose: save his friends, or stop the red sun from consuming the land? Drawing on Norse mythology, The Red Sun follows Sam’s journey to uncover the truth about his past—a journey during which he has to overcome the simmering anger inside of him, learn to channel his growing magical powers, and find a way to forgive the father who left him behind.
The Sorting Room: A Novel
by Michael RoseIn Prohibition-era New York City, Eunice Ritter, an indomitable ten-year-old girl, finds work in a sweat shop—an industrial laundry—after impairing her older brother with a blow to the head in a sibling tussle. When the diminutive girl first enters the sorting room, she encounters a giant: Gussie, the largest human being she has ever seen.Gussie, a powerful, hard-working woman, soon becomes Eunice’s mentor and sole friend as she finds herself entrapped in the laundry’s sorting room by the Great Depression, sentenced to bring her low wages home to her alcoholic parents as penance for her childhood mistake. Then, on her sixteenth birthday, Eunice becomes pregnant and her drunken father demands that the culprit marry his daughter, trapping her anew—this time in a loveless marriage, along with a child she never wanted. Within a couple of years, Eunice makes a grave error and settles into a lonely life of drudgery that she views as her own doing. She spends decades in virtual solitude before her secret history is revealed to those from whom she has withheld her love.An epic family saga, The Sorting Room is a captivating tale of a woman’s struggle and perseverance in faint hopes of reconciliation, if not redemption.
The Little Book of Big Dreams: True Stories about People Who Followed a Spark
by Isa AdneySometimes, dreams do come true.There’s a lot of advice out there about how to pursue your goals, but sometimes all a dreamer needs to keep going is a true story of a dream becoming reality: proof that lows are a normal part of the process, and hope that all your hard work might still have a chance of paying off.The Little Book of Big Dreams is filled with true stories of dreamers just like you who dared to reach for the stars and actually go for the things they wanted most in life—but the most important story in this book is yours. Each uplifting tale in these pages is meant to inspire you along your dream journey, not only helping you keep going when things get hard but also reminding you that obstacles don’t mean you’re doing this wrong—they mean you’re on your way.The dreamers in this book include Oscar winner Kristen Anderson-Lopez, Disney producer Don Hahn, Pensole Lewis College founder D’Wayne Edwards, Hamilton cast member Seth Stewart, Black Girls Code founder Kimberly Bryant, actor and filmmaker Justin Baldoni, and more.
In Our Blood: A Memoir
by Caitlin BillingsWhen Caitlin Billings became a therapist, she did so with an intention to heal from her past. She wasn’t planning on a mental health relapse or an involuntary psychiatric hold. She was a mother now. A mental health professional. She thought the issues she’d faced in her past were dealt with, tucked away forever.She was wrong.Over the years, Billings contends with bipolar disorder while raising two children and fighting to regain her footing as a clinician. She feels she’s finally gotten a handle on her mental health when, on the cusp of adolescence, her elder child begins to struggle with disordered eating and depressive symptoms. Convinced that she is to blame for her child’s struggles, Billings pivots her attention to this new crisis, determined to keep it together for her family—but after it comes out that sexual abuse has taken place in their home, she questions her ability to protect her children and experiences a relapse. Amidst all this turmoil, her elder child also comes out as transgender, forcing yet another kind of reckoning. Billings must find a way to accept the many changes and unexpected challenges that have reared up in their lives—and, ultimately, to accept herself.