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Showing 1 - 20 of 80 items
By Eleanor Agnew. 1999
The authors share their personal accounts along with the memories and experiences of hundreds of women who are the daughters…
of alcoholic mothers. Co-author is Sharon Robideaux, foreword by Dr. Robert J. Ackerman. 1999By Kirby Larson. 2016
New Orleans, 1940s. Polio-survivor Fish Elliot and his neighbor Olympia team up in order to save a starving stray dog…
they call Liberty, and they find other unlikely allies willing to help. For grades 3-6. 2016By Kirby Larson. 2014
When her family is forced into a Japanese internment camp, Mitsi Kashino is separated from her home, her classmates, and…
her beloved dog, Dash. Heartbroken, Mitsi clings to her one connection to Dash: the letters from the kindly neighbor who is caring for him. For grades 3-6. 2014By Gloria Whelan. 2006
Michigan, 1942. With their parents working for the war effort, Mirabelle and her siblings travel to live with their grandparents…
on Turtle Island. Fourteen-year-old Belle is resentful when her more sophisticated fifteen-year-old cousin Caroline joins them, but during the summer they become real family. For grades 6-9. 2006By Gary D. Schmidt. 2007
Long Island, 1967. Seventh-grader Holling Hoodhood knows that Mrs. Baker "hates his guts" because she would have Wednesday afternoons free…
if he went to catechism or Hebrew school like his classmates. Mrs. Baker worries about her husband in Vietnam and introduces a reluctant Holling to Shakespeare. For grades 5-8. Newbery Honor. 2007By Steven Millhauser. 2003
Three novellas centering on illicit love. In the title piece, the king's counselor deplores the queen's affair but doesn't tell…
her husband. In Revenge a widow remembers her husband's infidelities and wants to punish his mistress. In An Adventure of Don Juan, the Spanish rake discovers unrequited love in England. Strong language. 2003By Kimberly Holt. 1998
Louisiana, 1950s. Twelve-year-old Tiger Ann Parker begins to feel embarrassed in front of the other kids about the "slowness" of…
her parents. Her grandmother is the one who keeps the family intact. After Granny dies, Tiger has a chance to move to the city with her sophisticated aunt, but she is reluctant to abandon the parents who love her. For grades 6-9By Nancy Springer. 2001
Thirteen-year-old Donni, living with her father, is so upset over her parents' divorce that she gets into increasingly serious trouble…
at school. She does not realize how much her fourteen-year-old sister, Trisha, who lives with their mother, is also hurting. For grades 6-9. 2001By Morris Panych. 2012
Four seasons after her husband Tom's disappearance, Colette remains emotionally paralyzed, isolated in a country cottage. She waits in anguish,…
not knowing whether he is dead or alive, but clinging to hope. A young stranger in a jean jacket waves to her from the frozen lake - a sign? She emerges to give him her husband's parka - strangely, the boy has a likeness to Tom.What is the stranger's connection to her geologist husband, kidnapped more than a year before by leftist guerrillas in Colombia? How does this slyly seductive young stranger happen to show up at her home in rural Ontario, thousands of miles away? He seems to know more about Colette than he should, and as he slowly insinuates himself into her life, Colette's attentive sister, Evelyn, and her helpful neighbor Bill become increasingly alarmed.Part mystery, part moving story of vanished love, In Absentia explores the notion of disappearance, articulated in very personal terms. Through the tough, time-shifting action of the play, Colette reflects on her marriage and past love, offering rich associative memories while also uncovering the hidden and inaccessible - that which is made to disappear from view.Guilt and grief, infidelity and infertility, loss and longing are the deeper subjects Panych explores here. At the same time, the play examines the desire to make connections in life - thoughts to deeds, intentions to outcomes - in scenes often enlivened by the playwright's trademark humor.Cast of 3 men and 2 women.By Rein Raud, Adam Cullen. 2008
The Brother is a spaghetti western told in poetic prose, simultaneously paying tribute to both Clint Eastwood and Alessandro Baricco.…
It opens with a mysterious stranger arriving in a small town controlled by a group of men-men who recently cheated the stranger's supposed sister out of her inheritance. Following his arrival, fortunes change dramatically, enraging this group of powerful men.By Helen Dewitt. 2016
Called "remarkable" (The Wall Street Journal) and "an ambitious, colossal debut novel" (Publishers Weekly), Helen DeWitt's The Last Samurai is…
back in print at last Helen DeWitt's 2000 debut, The Last Samurai, was "destined to become a cult classic" (Miramax). The enterprising publisher sold the rights in twenty countries, so "Why not just, 'destined to become a classic?'" (Garth Risk Hallberg) And why must cultists tell the uninitiated it has nothing to do with Tom Cruise? Sibylla, an American-at-Oxford turned loose on London, finds herself trapped as a single mother after a misguided one-night stand. High-minded principles of child-rearing work disastrously well. J. S. Mill (taught Greek at three) and Yo Yo Ma (Bach at two) claimed the methods would work with any child; when these succeed with the boy Ludo, he causes havoc at school and is home again in a month. (Is he a prodigy, a genius? Readers looking over Ludo's shoulder find themselves easily reading Greek and more.) Lacking male role models for a fatherless boy, Sibylla turns to endless replays of Kurosawa's masterpiece Seven Samurai. But Ludo is obsessed with the one thing he wants and doesn't know: his father's name. At eleven, inspired by his own take on the classic film, he sets out on a secret quest for the father he never knew. He'll be punched, sliced, and threatened with retribution. He may not live to see twelve. Or he may find a real samurai and save a mother who thinks boredom a fate worse than death.By Richard Wiley. 2016
"A witty, roller-coaster ride of uncertain identity set against the gritty certainties of New York City. In compelling, unadorned prose,…
Richard Wiley gives us a bewitching and ultimately moving tale." -Caryl Phillips, author of A Distant Shore and The Lost ChildDr. Ruby Okada meets a charming man with a Scottish accent in the elevator of her psychiatric hospital. Unaware that he is an escaping patient, she falls under his spell, and her life and his are changed forever by the time they get to the street.Who is the mysterious man? Is he Archie B. Billingsly, suffering from dissociative identity disorder and subject to brilliant flights of fancy and bizarre, violent fits? Or is he the reincarnation of Robert Louis Stevenson, back to haunt New York as Long John Silver and Mr. Edward Hyde? Her career compromised, Ruby soon learns that her future and that of her unborn child depend on finding the key to his identity. With compelling psychological descriptions and terrifying, ineffable transformations, Bob Stevenson is an ingenious tale featuring a quirky cast of characters drawn together by mutual fascination, need, and finally, love.Richard Wiley is the author of eight novels including Soldiers in Hiding, winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, and Ahmed's Revenge, winner of the Maria Thomas Fiction Award. Professor emeritus at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, he divides his time between Los Angeles, California and Tacoma, Washington.By Stéphane Bourguignon. 2002
At forty-one, Eddy is in existential extremis. He once had an enviable life--a wife he adored, a young son, a…
cozy suburban house surrounded by carefully planted and sculpted gardens, the luxury to pursue his passion and become a professional horticulturalist. Now he's separated from his wife, estranged from his son, he's let his garden grow wild--like the rest of his life, it's totally out of control. When his son, Maxime, tired of being embarrassed by his father's dilapidated house, his garden gone to seed and his old beater of a car, decides to leave home and live with his cool, professional mother--who immediately demands twice the alimony--Eddy goes on a rampage, smashing his son's furniture and hurtling it and his possessions through windows he neglects to open first. Ending up in the hospital, the doctor diagnoses "a slight case of fatigue." As Eddy plunges deeper into despair, insomnia and self-destruction, frantically searching for a way to live an authentic life, punching out his boss and finally threatening his best friend with a gun, the narrative voice of the novel changes, and we begin to see Eddy, his parents, his childhood and his past loves through the eyes of his wife, friends and companions. Stéphane Bourguignon, the creator of the much-loved television series La vie, la vie, about a group of thirty-somethings in Montreal, has said that he wanted this book to look at the darker side of life. Written like a surrealist Camus on steroids, in multiple voices, with an uncanny eye and ear for graphic physicality and keen psychological insight, Bourguignon's examination of relationships between men and women, fathers and sons, past wounds and present possibilities is filled with a raucous warmth and humanity--but it is also intensely, darkly and almost unbearably humorous. Translated by Phyllis Aronoff & Howard ScottBy Paul Shepherd. 2005
[A] haunting novel. . . . This book brims with the poetry of the working class, seldom sung lyrics of…
working men and women.--from the introduction by Larry Woiwode"Shepherd is a master craftsman, and the subtlety of his art, the unassuming elegance of its architecture, rendered me spellbound and finally grateful. I don't think I shall ever forget this fine book, its honest, guileless voice leading me along into the fire."--Bob Shacochis"A riveting exploration of what it is to be an outsider even in your own head. Shepherd has written a gripping story of childhood angst--psychologically thrilling, lyrically exact."--Janet BurrowayLevi Revel is a boy in danger of losing his family and maybe his mind. He's in awe of his father, Everest, a majestic dreamer, a master builder, a man with a violent, secret past. As the family moves from state to state, Levi hears solace in the voice of God, a voice that sends him preaching from treetops and roofs.But the family begins to fall apart, and as Levi enters adolescence, he hears more troubling things: other voices, terrifying sounds, warnings. When Everest takes him on a high-speed, cross-country chase to win back Levi's mother--by force if necessary--Levi realizes how much danger they all are in.Tender and frightening, this debut novel takes readers across America, through the eyes and ears of a child whose family is haunted by a past they can't outrun. From a boy lost in a world of imaginary voices and chilling destruction to a young man who can rebuild steeples, the story Levi tells is the triumph of persistence over moments of isolation and despair.Paul Shepherd lives in Tallahassee, Florida.By Patricia Leavy. 2019
Professor Peyton Wilde has an enviable life teaching sociology at an idyllic liberal arts college--yet she is troubled by a…
sense of fading inspiration. One day an invitation arrives. Peyton has been selected to attend a luxurious all-expense-paid seminar in Iceland, where participants, billed as some of the greatest thinkers in the world, will be charged with answering one perplexing question. Meeting her diverse teammates--two neuroscientists, a philosopher, a dance teacher, a collage artist, and a farmer--Peyton wonders what she could ever have to contribute. The ensuing journey of discovery will transform the characters' work, their biases, and themselves. This suspenseful novel shows that the answers you seek can be found in the most unlikely places. It can be read for pleasure, is a great choice for book clubs, and can be used as unique and inspiring reading in qualitative research and other courses in education, sociology, social work, psychology, and communication.By Robert Thomas. 2014
Bridge is a collection of linked-stories about a troubled young woman?Alice?who works at a San Francisco law firm. Alice goes…
through despair and occasional rapture as she struggles with simultaneously real and hallucinated relationships with her co-worker David (of the romantic variety) and her supervisor Fran. Passionate, whip-smart, furious, and perceptive, Alice contemplates both suicide and murder as she struggles to find meaning in the day-to-day interactions of her life.Robert Thomas holds an MFA from Warren Wilson College. He lives in Oakland, California, and works as a legal secretary in San Francisco.By Robin McLean. 2015
The characters in these nine short stories abandon families, plot assassinations, nurse vendettas, tease, taunt, and terrorize. They retaliate for…
bad marriages, dream of weddings, and wait decades for lovers. How far will we go to escape to a better dream? What consequences must we face for hope and fantasy? Robin McLean's stories are strange, often disturbing and funny, and as full of foolishness and ugliness as they are of the wisdom and beauty all around us.Robin McLean holds an MFA from UMass Amherst. She teaches at Clark University and lives in Bristol, New Hampshire, and Sunderland, Massachusetts.By Jackie Clune. 2020
'Obligatory reading for all parents of teenagers!' NIGELLA LAWSON'Bloody marvellous. Horribly familiar, funny, touching, sad, brutally honest...clutch this book to…
your stained T-shirt and never let it go.' JO BRAND'Terrific. A remarkable blend of hilarity and heartbreak with a really satisfying plot. Being childless never felt so good.' GRAHAM NORTON'Warm and witty... The competitive mothering, the hell that is other people's children, the fights and accusations of Homeland inquisition all rang deliciously true... a most entertaining read.' KATHY LETTE'Very poignant... A moving read as well as a funny one.' JANE GARVEY 'Honest, hilarious and painful' WOMAN & HOMEWarning!! This novel may lead you to make rash and life-changing decisions!**Probably don't read if you fear you may be ripe for liberation. Or if you sometimes wee when you laugh...First there was Having It All, then there was Bridget Jones' s Diary and I Don't Know How She Does It. Now there is Teenage Punchbag.I'm Just A Teenage Punchbag is a laugh-out-loud, sob-on-the bus journey through the so-called life of a middle-aged woman.Ciara is mother to three ungrateful, entitled teenagers, is married to steady Martin, a man with hairy udders, and is grieving for her mum who now lives in the wardrobe in a cardboard box from the crematorium. She finds solace in her anonymous blog, and in the daily chats she has with her mum's ashes (often the best conversations she has all day.)Despite the menopause, the invisibility of middle age and the daily self-esteem bashings, courtesy of her kids, Ciara manages to navigate the stormy waters of grief and family life - until her mask slips and she is cast out from the family bosom. She embarks on a mission to fulfil her mum's dying wishes to have her remains sprinkled from the top of the Empire State Building, finding company, distraction and - ultimately - herself in the process.If motherhood is a job - who says you can't resign?'Crownover writes cowboys that make you want to pack your bags in search of a small-town ranch! Alpha and broody,…
they hit all the right buttons' Melissa Foster, New York Times bestselling authorFrom the New York Times bestselling author of the Marked Men series comes Jay Crownover's latest steamy romance. Can Hill and Kody find their way back to each other, or will they be torn apart for good.... 'Crownover delivers the goods' Lori Wilde, New York Times bestselling authorHill Gamble is a model lawman: cool and collected, with a confident swagger to boot. Too bad all that Texas charm hasn't gotten him anywhere in his personal life, especially since the only girl he ever loved has always been off-limits. But then Hill is assigned to investigate her father's mysterious death, and he's forced back to the town - and the woman - he left behind. When Hill left Loveless, he broke Kody Lawton's already battered heart. And now that he's working on her father's case, avoiding him is impossible. Kody can handle Hill and her unwanted feelings - until he puts his life on the line to protect her. Suddenly, Kody realizes that Hill could be taken away from her...for good.An suspense-filled, irresistible romance between a rugged Texas Ranger and his stubborn first love.Includes the bonus novella Cowboy to the Rescue by A.J. Pine!Readers are loving Jay Crownover's latest!'This is a humdinger of a read. With over-the-top, non-stop action, it's a page turner you simply can't put down' 5* reader review'Thick with emotion, smoulderingly sexy with a heart-pounding suspense story that kept me glued to my Kindle, Unforgiven was quintessential Jay Crownover, but with a fresh twist' 5* reader review'There's plenty of action and danger as the murder investigation moves along. And there's plenty of heat to entertain readers too!' Harlequin Junkie Filled with heart, intrigue and cast of characters you'll fall for, don't miss out on the other titles in the Loveless, Texas series! Praise for Jay Crownover and the Loveless, Texas series:'I'm in love with Loveless, TX!!' 5* reader review'I always recommend any books written by Jay Crownover' 5* reader review'I've never read a Jay Crownover book that I have not loved' 5* reader review'Off the charts attraction, dramatic suspense, heartbreaking betrayal, deep emotion, and unforgettable romance will keep you turning the pages to the climactic end. Fans and new readers will devour this fantastic story. I couldn't put it down!' Jennifer Ryan, New York Times bestselling author'Once again, Jay Crownover proves why her words are so addictive! Her characters bleed life so tangibly, you feel like you're drowning in the emotions: in the best way possible. Five big huge stars for Justified! Don't miss this page turner!' Harper Sloan, New York Times bestselling authorBy Jennie Felton. 2019
'One of the nation's favourite saga writers' Lancashire Post'A real heartbreaker' Peterborough Telegraph'Brimming with high drama, anguish, love, loss, tragedy,…
and gripping twists and turns, this is an absorbing and poignant story... Felton, a born storyteller, has a warm and compassionate heart...and an eye for the rich period detail that brings the past to life' Lancashire PostA powerful new saga from Jennie Felton in the grand tradition of Josephine Cox, Dilly Court, Maggie Hope and Rosie Goodwin of love, loss, tragedy, drama, secrets and twists and turns.Readers are hooked by The Stolen Child!'Like the twists and turns...a great read' 5* reader review'Keeps you on the edge...could not put it down' 5* reader review'A heartbreaking read. 5 stars' 5* reader review'A must read' 5* reader reviewWill anyone believe her baby is gone?When Stella Swift is discovered holding a shard of broken glass near her newborn baby boy, fears that she might harm William result in her being taken to Catcombe - the local asylum. Although the regime is not as harsh as it once was, it's not somewhere that Tom wants to send his wife - but he has no choice.Turning to his kind-hearted sister-in-law Grace for help taking care of his other three children whilst he keeps working at the mine seems like the simplest solution until Stella is well - if only there wasn't the shared history between Tom and Grace...At first Catcombe seems to offer the respite Stella needs - until one day she becomes convinced that the baby the nurses have given to her is not William. Is Stella losing her mind? Or is it true that a mother will always know her own child?Don't miss Jennie's Families of Fairley Terrace series, which began with Maggie's story in All The Dark Secrets and continued with Lucy's story in The Miner's Daughter, Edie's story in The Girl Below Stairs, Carina's story in The Widow's Promise and Laurel's story in The Sister's Secret.