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Showing 101 - 120 of 21113 items
By Marion Ekholm. 2016
Dear Trish, someday I want to marry you... Craig Cadman has proposed to Trish Lowery at least a dozen times.…
Of course, he started when he was nine and kept at it until her parents moved away when they were both teens. Clearly, she didn't take him seriously. Because now, after ten years, she's back...and engaged to someone else. He has to remember that. Just do the job, help her renovate her gram's Victorian house and keep a professional distance. But Craig can't forget those old feelings. Is working together just stirring up nostalgia...or is this something more?By Nancy Springer, Daniel Mark Duffy. 1993
4 girls and only 1 pony! When their mother remarries, twin sisters Toni and Staci get . . . twin…
stepsisters! Toni and Staci have almost nothing in common with their new siblings--Paisley is loud and spoiled, and Stirling is pretty and perfect--but all of the girls love horses. When Paisley brings home a pony of her own, with a sugar-colored mane and sweet dark eyes, the rest of the sisters are consumed with jealousy. How can 4 horse-crazy girls get along when there's only 1 pony?By Emma Tennant. 2012
From the acclaimed author of Pemberley and Thornfield Hall comes a tale inspired by Henry JamesThe Beautiful Child is the…
last known unfinished story by the great American writer, ending on a Jamesian note of terror and amplified throughout by Tennant's trademark feminist-dreamlike style. A chilling account of cruelty and neglect, it suggests a terrifying real scandal behind James's inability to complete his story of a couple who beseech a fashionable artist to paint the child they never had--none other than the dipsomaniac Mr. and Mrs. Smith, longstanding servants of James until the novel was abandoned.By Jenna Harte. 2016
Feisty and outspoken, Lexie McKenna will do anything to protect her cantankerous and ailing patient--even if it means going up…
against his cold and calculating, but sexy and irresistible, grandson. After all, as a nurse, her number one priority is her patient. Drake Carmichael doesn't trust the nurse who's taking care of his grandfather--despite how adorable and compassionate she seems. He refuses to let her get her grips into their hard-earned money. But as the two square off and begin to battle about what is best for the dying man, Lexie and Drake realize they know very little about each other and that first impressions are deceiving. Once they finally give in to their desires, the battle has only just begun. With a fight between family and fortune, love and lust, will either one be able to find the southern comfort they both truly crave?By David Margolis. 1996
Sexy, funny, painful, and wise--The Stepman probes a broken family and a modern marriage. At its unusual and disturbing conclusion,…
it pins an ordinary man in the trap of his own personality.By Kai Maristed. 1993
A young American couple is touring Germany with their two children. During an Alpine hike, the parents, eager to hunt…
mushrooms down the slope, settle their drowsy children to nap in the glade. When the kids awake, the sun has set and they are alone, their world changed. They are found eventually by strangers and returned to an America they might have never known.By Belinda Mckeon. 2011
Belinda McKeon's Solace is an extraordinarily accomplished first novel--a story of a father and son thrown together by tragedy; one…
clinging to the old country and one plunging into the new. Set in an Ireland that catapulted into wealth at the end of the twentieth century and then suffered a swift economic decline, this is a novel about the conflicting values of the old and young generations and the stubborn, heartbreaking habits that mute the language of love. Tom and Mark Casey are a father and son on a collision course, two men who have always struggled to be at ease with each other. Tom is a farmer in the Irish midlands, the descendant of men who have farmed the same land for generations. Mark, his only son, is a doctoral student in Dublin, writing his dissertation on the nineteenth-century novelist Maria Edgeworth, who spent her life on her family's estate, not far from the Casey farm. To his father, who needs help baling the hay and ploughing the fields, Mark's academic pursuit is not man's work at all, the occupation of a schoolboy. Mark's mother negotiates a fragile peace. Then, at a party in Dublin, Mark meets Joanne Lynch, a lawyer in training whom he finds irresistible. She also happens to be the daughter of a man who once spectacularly wronged Mark's father, and whose betrayal Tom has remembered every single day for twenty years. After the lightning strike of devastating loss, Tom and Mark are left with grief neither can share or fully acknowledge. Not even the magnitude of their mutual loss can alter the habit of silence. Solace is a beautiful and moving novel by one of the most exciting new writers to emerge from Ireland.By Elvira Woodruff. 1990
From the book Jacket: When aspiring scientist Nelly Brown shares a beach cottage with her grandmother one summer, she is…
thrilled to discover an old chemistry set in the basement. Equipped with bottles and beakers, test tubes and chemicals, it also has instructions for mixing up magic formulas. Each child using the set can make a wish that will come true. Nelly, who loves her 70-year-old grandmother more than anyone else in world, decides to mix up a formula for making her young. Little does she realize that she'll meet Grandma at age 30, 15, 10, 6, 4, 2 and finally as an infant. Horrified that her grandmother might shrink into nothing, Nelly calls on her cousin Ben to help reverse the effects of the formula. But is he able to help? And will Nelly ever see Grandma as a 70-year-old again? ELVIRA WOODRUFF has worked as both a children's librarian and a storyteller. She is also the author of one other novel, Awfully Short for the Fourth Grade, and a picture book, Tubtime. She lives in Martins Creek, Pennsylvania, with her two sons, Noah and Jess. KATHERINE COVILLE has illustrated both picture books and middle-grade fiction. The mother of three children, she lives in Syracuse, New York.By Edward Hower. 1996
This subtle and powerful novel is the story of a haunted, wealthy family whose mysteries Jerry tries to solve with…
his precocious imagination. Why does his father miss so many trains home from his New York office? Why does his mother hide in the bedroom behind a locked door? There's love somewhere in the house, but it will take extraordinary, perhaps tragic events to make the love strong enough to bind the family back together.By Alan Lazar. 2011
A wise and heartwarming first novel about families, love lost and found, and a scrappy three-legged dog who is trying…
to find his way back home as Christmas approaches. Roam features a seven-part soundtrack--composed and performed by the author--accessible online and embedded in the eBook.They say you never forget your first love . . . Born under a sparkling crescent moon, Nelson is a bright-eyed, inquisitive half beagle, half poodle. He lives with Katey and Don, newlyweds whose marriage is straining under the pressures of domesticity, but Katey's devotion to Nelson buoys the pup even as he worries his home may be falling apart. But there are few things Nelson likes better than to follow a scent, and one day he follows his nose and gets lost . . . very lost. Though he searches frantically for Katey--and she for him--Nelson can't seem to find his way home, and he soon realizes that if he's ever to see his great love again, he must make his way on his own and try to survive in the wild. Over the course of eight years, Roam follows Nelson as he crosses the country searching for his family. For a time he rides shotgun with a truck driver named Thatcher, then he lives in the woods with a pack of wolves. A terrible accident takes his hind leg, but Nelson's strength and longing to find Katey keep him alive. Escaping death in a shelter, Nelson grows into an old dog with a cynical eye and a world-weary demeanor, but underneath it all, a fearless and courageous spirit. After all, he believes that one day he'll make it home . . . and maybe, just maybe, he will. . . . Much more than the story of one dog's incredible journey, this is a deeply moving story of survival and enduring love, which once again confirms the unbreakable bond between humans and their best friends. In the tradition of The Art of Racing in the Rain and The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, Roam is an unforgettable tale of love lost and found, the trials that test families, and an affirmation that no matter how far or how long you may travel, there's always a place you can call home.By William Dean Howells. 2008
One of the most influential authors of the late nineteenth century, and a former editor of the Atlantic Monthly and…
Harper's Magazine, William Dean Howells wrote more than fifty novels, as well as plays, memoirs, and poetry collections. Opposed to the sentimentalism, contrived heroism, and theatrical endings in fiction, he developed a literary style based on unvarnished realism. This unique genre is brilliantly depicted in A Modern Instance, a novel that helped Howells' career skyrocket and is considered to be his masterpiece. A cornerstone of American realism, it contrasts old and new worlds to explore social and moral issues involving family life and the traditional roles of women. Centering a novel on the theme of divorce was a radical concept in 1882, so this portrait of a failing marriage occupies a transitional moment in literary history. It opens in Equity, Maine, with a seemingly perfect love story. Ambitious journalist Bartley Hubbard and insecure Marcia Gaylord elope and move to Boston with great plans for their future. But Bartley's self-indulgence and Marcia's jealousy prove to be a combustible mix of character flaws that threatens to destroy the marriage--even after the birth of their child. A journey through each character's thoughts, feelings, and reveries, A Modern Instance winds its way around our hearts, promoting dialogue about the nature of marriage and the changing face of American society.By Warren Adler. 2016
In an attempt to reconnect with his two alienated adult children, George Temple replicates the memorable horse trek through the…
forbidding Yellowstone wilderness they had enjoyed twenty years earlier. But his callous children, Courtney and Scott, accompany him only to persuade him to restore the financial support he has withdrawn. As they are led by a drunken guide and a venal horse wrangler over potentially lethal terrain, their bonding experience quickly disintegrates.Nostalgia is corrupted into a nightmare of lust, betrayal, and entrapment as the children's disturbing motives are revealed and dark family secrets are exposed. Courtney's appetite for selfish and violent pursuits establishes her as one of the most evil women in fiction, alongside the likes of Lady Macbeth. Through her, Warren Adler explores how an obsession for celebrity and blind ambition can distort familial love and turn a beloved child into a grotesque monster. As he did in the iconic The War of the Roses, Adler paints a frightening picture of the American family, only more sinister.By Cristina Alger. 2016
From the acclaimed author of The Darlings comes an incisive, hilarious, and tender exploration of fatherhood, love, and family life…
through the story of a widower who attempts to become the father he didn't know he could be.Charlie Goldwyn's life hasn't exactly gone according to plan. Widowerhood at thirty-three and twelve-hour workdays have left a gap in his relationship with his quirky five-year-old son, Caleb, whose obsession with natural disasters and penchant for girls' clothing have made him something of a loner at his preschool. The only thing Charlie has going for him is his job at a prestigious law firm, where he is finally close to becoming a partner. But when a slight lapse in judgment at an office party leaves him humiliatingly unemployed, stuck at home with Caleb for the summer, and forced to face his own estranged father, Charlie starts to realize that there's more to fatherhood than financially providing for his son, and more to being a son than overtaking his father's successes. At turns heartbreaking and hilarious, This Was Not the Plan is a story about loss and love, parenthood, and friendship, and what true work-life balance means.By Claire Cook. 2013
From the bestselling author of the beloved book Must Love Dogs, later made into a film starring John Cusack and…
Diane Lane, comes a new novel about what happens when we think everything is falling apart, and discover that we can pick up the pieces after all.Years ago, Melanie followed her husband, Kurt, from the New England beach town where their two young sons were thriving to the suburbs of Atlanta. She's carved out a life as a successful metal sculptor, but when Kurt leaves her for another woman, having the tools to cut up their marriage bed is small consolation. She's old enough to know that high school reunions are often a big disappointment, but when her best friend makes her buy a ticket and an old flame gets in touch to see if she'll be going, she fantasizes that returning to her past might help her find her future...until her highway driving phobia resurfaces and threatens to hold her back from the adventure of a lifetime.Time Flies is an epic trip filled with fun, heartbreak, and friendship that explores what it takes to conquer your worst fears...so you can start living your future.By Anton Svensson, Elizabeth Clark Wessel. 2014
How does a child become a criminal? How does a father lose a son? An epic crime novel with the…
excitement of Jo Nesbo's Headhunters and the narrative depth of We Need to Talk About Kevin, The Father is inspired by the extraordinary true story of three brothers who committed ten audacious bank robberies in Sweden over the course of just two years. None had committed a crime before. All were under twenty-four years old. When their incredible spree had come to an end amid the glare of the international media, all of them would be changed forever as individuals and as a family. This intoxicating, heartbreaking thriller tells the story of how three boys are transformed over the course of their lives from innocent children to the most wanted criminals in Sweden. And of the man who made them that way: their father.By Mike Revell. 2016
Ever since his mother died, 11-year-old Owen has felt lost. He's drifting apart from his dad, his grades are dropping,…
and the only thing keeping him sane are the soccer trials coming up.Then, in the middle of school one day, he is sucked out of real life and thrown into a desolate alternative world, a largely deserted wasteland where a menacing storm of Darkness plagues the city, threatening his life and the lives of the people who dwell there.Terrifying as this new world is, Owen recognizes it--his dad is an author, and this is the setting of his new novel. Fueled by his grief over the loss of his mom, Owen's dad has conjured a world so real and so fraught that Owen is transported to it every time his dad sets pen to paper. And he has to live out every word in the story.But each jump devours chunks of his real life. Owen misses days of school, and even a key soccer game that threatens his chances of having a shot at appearing in the tryouts at all. Owen desperately wants these events to stop, but doesn't want to plunge his dad any further into the well of unhappiness that threatens to drown them both. With social services threatening to ship Owen off to his aunt's house and his school career spiraling out of control, what if finishing the story and battling the Darkness is the only way Owen can save himself . . . and his dad?By Carol Chataway. 2007
Edwina begins a journal in order to leave evidence should there be a murder inquiry. With Edwina?s father away in…
Antarctica, brother Julian hopeless as usual and Gran thinking she is sixteen again with World War II going on, Edwina must cope alone. The school front is not much better. Girls begin toppling off their chairs in the classrooms suffering from a raging dieting epidemic. Edwina suspects the school bully Krystal Shard and her gang, The Gems, are responsible. It is up to Edwina, operating on barely enough sustenance for even a person with an ordinary-sized intellect, to save herself and family, stop Krystal and find out what is really going on with her mother! EDWINA SPARROW by award-winning author Carol Chataway will have teenage girls rolling with laughter.By Val Jones. 2008
The Robertson family has lived on their New South Wales sheep and cattle property, Brindabella, for five generations. However, their…
continued ownership of the farm is under threat. An adjoining property has been sold and the new owners are unfriendly to say the least. Then things start to go very wrong on Brindabella. Stock begins to die and there seems to be no reasonable explanation. Facing bankruptcy and the loss of Brindabella, Ben's father commences an opal-mining venture in Coober Pedy in South Australia's remote outback. But even here mysterious mishaps plague the smooth operation of what began as a successful opal mine. In this well-rounded, gripping story of rural crisis, Val Jones writes how lives are threatened and 'accidents' occur, which make life in Coober Pedy very dangerous. Suddenly opal mining isn?t as straightforward as it seems ?By Hilma Wolitzer. 1977
As her marriage disintegrates, a woman finds that living for herself might be just what her relationship needsIt's 1957, and…
Paulette has just gotten into trouble in the backseat of a car. Her beau, Howard, is a handsome musician with an ability to inspire lust that she has never encountered before. So, although some women in her position might choose a different path, Paulette persuades Howard to get married. After a small ceremony, the happy couple takes up residence on the nineteenth floor of a high rise in Forest Hills. For a time they are shockingly happy, but then things start to go wrong. And when Howard's eye begins to wander, Paulette must ask herself: If a person lives for love alone, what happens when the love disappears? This ebook features an illustrated biography of Hilma Wolitzer, including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author's personal collection.By Karin Altenberg. 2016
Steeped in its bleak and beautiful landscape, Mortford is a place of secrets and memories, of bitter divisions and shattered…
dreams. Returning to this Dartmoor village where he grew up, Gabriel attempts to come to terms with what he lost as a boy so long ago. Slowly the mysteries hidden in this small community on the edge of the moors begin to unravel. But one of Gabriel's memories remains sharper than all the others: that of his boyhood friend Michael, the tenderness of their first summers and the violent betrayal that destroyed it. And, intruding on his self-enforced isolation, the beautiful Mrs Sarobi, meddling Doris Ludgate, and the frightful specter of Jim of Blackaton will become bound in with Gabriel's search for acceptance and the possibility of love. In her striking, lyrical prose, Karin Altenberg imagines what it is to be incomplete. Set in this haunted landscape, a mesmerizing tale is told of the ways in which something once broken in two may, finally, be made whole.