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Small Pleasures: Longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction
By Clare Chambers. 2020
LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2021'A WORD-OF-MOUTH HIT' Evening Standard 'A very fine book... It's witty and sharp…
and reads like something by Barbara Pym or Anita Brookner, without ever feeling like a pastiche'David Nicholls'Perfect'India Knight 'Beautiful' Jessie Burton'Wonderful'Richard Osman 'Miraculous'Tracy Chevalier 'A wonderful novel. I loved it'Nina Stibbe 'Effortless to read, but every sentence lingers in the mind' Lissa Evans 'This is one of the most beautiful books I have ever read. I honestly don't want you to be without it'Lucy Mangan'Gorgeous... If you're looking for something escapist and bittersweet, I could not recommend more' Pandora Sykes'Remarkable... Small Pleasures is no small pleasure'The Times'An irresistible novel - wry, perceptive and quietly devastating'Mail on Sunday'Chambers' eye for undemonstrative details achieves a Larkin-esque lucidity' Guardian'An almost flawlessly written tale of genuine, grown-up romantic anguish' The Sunday Times 1957, the suburbs of South East London. Jean Swinney is a journalist on a local paper, trapped in a life of duty and disappointment from which there is no likelihood of escape. When a young woman, Gretchen Tilbury, contacts the paper to claim that her daughter is the result of a virgin birth, it is down to Jean to discover whether she is a miracle or a fraud. As the investigation turns her quiet life inside out, Jean is suddenly given an unexpected chance at friendship, love and - possibly - happiness. But there will, inevitably, be a price to pay.Book of the Year for: The Times, Daily Telegraph, Evening Standard, Daily Express, Metro, Spectator, Red Magazine and Good HousekeepingMy Louisiana sky (Major And Mrs Holt's Battlefield Guide To Ser.)
By 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 6-9Summer of the war
By 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. 2006The Wednesday wars: A Newbery Honor Award Winner
By 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. 2007Dash (Dogs Of World War Ii Ser.)
By 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. 2014Liberty (Dogs Of World War Ii Ser.)
By 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. 2016Farewell to The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul
By Deborah Rodriguez. 2023
THE LONG-AWAITED SEQUEL TO THE LITTLE COFFEE SHOP OF KABUL, THE BESTSELLER THAT CAPTURED THE HEARTS OF MILLIONS WORLDWIDE Kabul,…
August 2021 Sunny Tedder is back in her beloved coffee shop. After eight years away, she's thrilled to reunite with her Kabul 'family': Yazmina now runs a pair of women's shelters from the old cafe, and dreams of a bright future for her two young daughters. Her sister Layla has become an outspoken women's rights activist and, thanks to social media, is quite the celebrity. Kat, Sunny's friend from America, is wrapping up her year-long stay in the land of her birth, but is facing some unfinished business. And finally there's elderly den mother Halajan, whose secret new hobby is itself an act of rebellion. Then the US troops begin to withdraw - and the women watch in horror as the Taliban advance on the capital at ferocious speed...Set against the terrifying fall of Kabul in 2021, Deborah Rodriguez concludes her bestselling Little Coffee Shop trilogy with a heart-stopping story of resilience, courage and, most importantly, hope.Praise for Deborah Rodriguez'Eye-opening and uplifting' - Grazia 'Restores belief in humanity' - Daily Telegraph 'Heart-warming' - Cosmopolitan'Beguiling' - Woman 'Captivating and addictive' - Take a Break'Full of heart and intelligence' - Look MagazineFarewell to The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul
By Deborah Rodriguez. 2023
THE LONG-AWAITED SEQUEL TO THE LITTLE COFFEE SHOP OF KABUL, THE BESTSELLER THAT CAPTURED THE HEARTS OF MILLIONS WORLDWIDE Kabul,…
August 2021 Sunny Tedder is back in her beloved coffee shop. After eight years away, she's thrilled to reunite with her Kabul 'family': Yazmina now runs a pair of women's shelters from the old cafe, and dreams of a bright future for her two young daughters. Her sister Layla has become an outspoken women's rights activist and, thanks to social media, is quite the celebrity. Kat, Sunny's friend from America, is wrapping up her year-long stay in the land of her birth, but is facing some unfinished business. And finally there's elderly den mother Halajan, whose secret new hobby is itself an act of rebellion. Then the US troops begin to withdraw - and the women watch in horror as the Taliban advance on the capital at ferocious speed...Set against the terrifying fall of Kabul in 2021, Deborah Rodriguez concludes her bestselling Little Coffee Shop trilogy with a heart-stopping story of resilience, courage and, most importantly, hope.Praise for Deborah Rodriguez'Eye-opening and uplifting' - Grazia 'Restores belief in humanity' - Daily Telegraph 'Heart-warming' - Cosmopolitan'Beguiling' - Woman 'Captivating and addictive' - Take a Break'Full of heart and intelligence' - Look MagazineThe Book of Two Ways: The stunning bestseller about life, death and missed opportunities
By Jodi Picoult. 2020
Dawn thinks she knows everything there is to know about dying. As a death doula she helps her clients fix…
what is left undone so they can peacefully make the final transition. But when her plane plummets from the sky and she thinks she is experiencing the last moments of her life, she is shocked to find that she isn't thinking of her husband or teenage daughter - but of a road she strayed from 15 years earlier, when she turned her back on her PhD studies. Against all odds, Dawn survives, and the airline gives her a free ticket to wherever she needs to get to. in alternating chapters, we see possible choices: Land - returning to her husband, a quantum physicist who studies the possibilities of parallel universes, she is faced with a test to her marriage and a daughter who is struggling with self-image issues. And Water: returning to her studies and the archaeological site she worked on 15 years earlier, where the man she abandoned is about to make the discovery of a lifetime. But time may not be as straightforward as we think. As Dawn explores her possible futures, she is finding out what a well-lived life means, what we leave behind of ourselves when we leave the earth, and who she might have been...(P) 2020 Penguin Random House AudioDISCOVER THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER TODAY. Iraq, 2002. Three women - a secretary, an artist and a diplomat's wife - must…
decide what to sacrifice to protect their families, under the ruthless rule of a dictator . . .Have you discovered the international bestseller yet?'I truly felt for the memorable women risking their lives to protect themselves and their families . . . Baghdad springs into vivid violent life . . . Outstanding!' DINAH JEFFERIES, number one Sunday Times bestselling authorTwo can keep a secret, only when one of them is dead . . .'A deeply involving and important novel by a master storyteller' SUSAN WIGGS, number one New York Times bestselling author'Breathtaking...Riveting and profound! I adored this book!' Ellen Marie Wiseman, New York Times bestselling authorIraq, 2002.As night falls in Huda's fragrant garden of apricot trees, a breeze sweeps in from the desert, warning of visitors at her gate.A secretary at the Australian embassy in Baghdad, Huda has been ordered by the mukhabarat to befriend and spy upon the Deputy Ambassador's wife, Ally Wilson. To refuse is to risk her son being forced to join a deadly militia. But - though Huda cannot yet know it - Ally is keeping dangerous secrets of her own.Meanwhile, Huda's estranged friend Rania - a sheikh's daughter whose wealth is long gone - is battling to keep her own her own daughter safe from the dictator's men.As Huda and Rania are brought together again, through their relationship with Ally, their hidden pasts spill into the present. Facing betrayal at every turn, all three women must trust in a fragile, newfound loyalty, even as they discover how much each is willing to sacrifice to protect those they love . . .Lose yourself in this evocative, emotionally powerful and completely gripping international bestseller, where secrets are precious currency and three courageous women are tested to the limit by a horrifying power seemingly beyond their control.'Wilkinson weaves in the miasma of fear and distrust that characterized Hussein's regime with convincing detail. Richly drawn characters and high-stakes plot' PUBLISHERS WEEKLY'Rarely do we hear stories of those who are most oppressed. And stories from recent wars told by women about women are even rarer . . . Wilkinson's evocative language shapes the novel into one of suspense, intrigue and conspiracy; where female friendship is platformed . . . Although it is set within a backdrop of male power, where human grief is "almost a creature into itself", the power of a woman's intent for the safety of those she loves carries the novel through with a mesmerising pulsating force' SYDNEY MORNING HERALD(P)2020 Headline Publishing GroupLife is waiting to happen to Hubert Bird.But first he has to open his front door and let it in.In…
weekly phone calls to his daughter in Australia, widower Hubert Bird paints a picture of the perfect retirement, packed with fun, friendship and fulfilment. But Hubert Bird is lying.The truth is day after day drags by without him seeing a single soul. Until, that is, he receives some good news - good news that in one way turns out to be the worst news ever, news that will force him out again, into a world he has long since turned his back on.Now Hubert faces a seemingly impossible task: to make his real life resemble his fake life before the truth comes out.Along the way Hubert stumbles across a second chance at love, renews a cherished friendship and finds himself roped into an audacious community scheme that seeks to end loneliness once and for all . . . Life is certainly beginning to happen to Hubert Bird. But with the origin of his earlier isolation always lurking in the shadows will he ever get to live the life he's pretended to have for so long?From bestselling author Mike Gayle, All the Lonely People is by turns a funny and moving meditation on love, race, old age and friendship that will not only charm and uplift, but also remind you of the power of ordinary people to make an extraordinary difference.(P) 2020 Hodder & Stoughton Ltd'His most accomplished and moving novel yet' Lisa Jewell'Emotionally high-voltage' MetroFrom the author of The Man I Think I Know***Strangers…
living worlds apart.Strangers with nothing in common.But it wasn't always that way...Kerry Hayes is a single mum, living on a tough south London estate. She provides for her son by cleaning houses she could never hope to afford. Taken into care as a child, Kerry cannot ever forget her past.Noah Martineau is a successful barrister with a beautiful wife, daughter and home in fashionable Primrose Hill. Adopted as a child, Noah always looks forward, never back.When Kerry reaches out to the sibling she lost on the day they were torn apart as children, she sets in motion a chain of events that will have life-changing consequences for them both. By turns funny and moving, Half a World Away is a story that will stay with you long after you read its powerfully emotional, heartbreaking final page.***Readers love Half a World Away!'These are people who matter, situations one can believe. Most readers will find themselves caring very much. A life-affirming read.' Vine'It isn't easy, it is heart-wrenching, but, oh, is it worth reading. I can't recommend this book highly enough.' Vine 'How have I not read a Mike Gayle book before? I want to give this book all of the starts in the universe. I cried my eyes out at the end. It is touching, heart-wrenching and thought-provoking.' Netgalley'This story is raw and beautiful and sad. It puts lots of things into perspective and makes you think about what is important in life. Beautifully written, easy to read and will certainly bring tears to your eyes. A must read.' Netgalley 'This is a beautiful, beautiful book. It's about family, about class, about love, about choices and sacrifice. It's about letting go and learning to hold on. It's optimistic and heartbreaking and funny and emotional. It's the kind of book that will stay with you, long after you finish it. Buy it, read it, love it - and hang on to those tissues, you'll need them.' NetgalleyAuthors love Half a World Away!'Mike Gayle has such a talent for delving into hearts, minds and contemporary issues. Half a World Away is supremely poignant, uplifting and heartwarming in equal measure - as well as being a real page-turner.' Sophie Kinsella, author of Surprise Me'Mike has a prodigious talent for writing completely relatable characters who draw you into their world and tug at your heart strings. Half a World Away is an absolute triumph and a joy to read. Once again Mike tackles complex and thorny issues with a confident and compassionate hand.' Ruth Hogan, author of The Keeper of Lost Things 'Half a World Away is heartbreaking and beautiful, full of poignant moments and characters you fall for from page one. I couldn't put it down.' Libby Page, author of The Lido(P)2019 Hodder & Stoughton LimitedThe perfect Christmas romance for 2019 - featuring the original characters in the much loved Animal Ark series!**Summer Days at…
Sunrise Farm, the new book in the Animal Ark revisited series, is currently available!**Although Christmas should be the most wonderful time of year, Mandy Hope is struggling. Her relationship with Jimmy Marsh is on the rocks, while her best friend James has a gorgeous new son which only confirms how much Mandy wants children of her own. Desperately in need of a friend, Mandy strikes up a close relationship with new Welford resident Geraldine Craven, who is only too happy to offer a shoulder to cry on. Geraldine looks to be a lifeline in these troubled times, until she reveals a devastating secret about Mandy's past.With so much uncertainty, is there still hope for a happy Christmas?******Read what everyone's saying about Animal Ark Revisited!'An adorable read [with] a real sense of village community' Bookworms and Shutterbugs'Just the right amount of nostalgia... wonderful and very poignant' - The World is a Book Blog'Heartwarming and endearing... a gorgeous story filled with hope, joy, sweetness and light combined with the honesty of real life' - Amazon'An incredibly lovely story' - Rachel's Random Reads'Will leave you feeling cosy and uplifted' Goodreads'I loved every minute' Amazon'I had tears in my eyes at the first chapter' - Goodreads'One of the best books I've read!' Amazon(P)2019 Hodder & Stoughton LimitedIn Her Eyes: an unputdownable, twisty psychological thriller
By Sarah Alderson. 2019
You're at home with your family. You think you're safe. You're wrong... Ava's life is the kind other people envy:…
loving husband; great kids; beautiful house. Until the night a violent home invasion turns the dream into a nightmare, and leaves her beautiful daughter fighting to survive. And then things get worse. Ava realises that the attack wasn't random. Someone is targeting her family. Why? Who could hate them enough to kill?Ava must find out what really happened that night, to save those she loves from even greater danger. But when everyone around you has been lying, how do you decide who to trust? And Ava has secrets of her own...For fans of The Silent Patient, The Wife Between Us and Perfect Child, In Her Eyes is a dark and twisty thriller; you're about to find out that home is where the hate is.Evvie Drake Starts Over: the perfect cosy season read for fans of Gilmore Girls
By Linda Holmes. 2019
When you get a second chance, will you be brave enough to take it? You don't always get to start…
your life over. Sometimes, life starts itself over for you. One morning, Eveleth 'Evvie' Drake got up, packed her suitcase, and got ready to leave her life - and her perfect husband - behind. But before she walked out of the door, she received a phone call asking her to come to the hospital. That day, Evvie's new life as a widow began. Now wrestling with her guilt and grief, Evvie has found her independence, but not the way she planned. Unable to leave the house she once dreamed of escaping, it's clear to her best friend Andy that Evvie needs a change. And Andy might just have the answer. . . Dean Tenney was a big-shot baseball star, until a bad case of the 'yips' meant he couldn't play anymore - or understand why. An invitation from his childhood friend Andy to stay in Maine for a few months seems like the perfect chance to hit the reset button. When Dean moves into the apartment at the back of Evvie's house, the two make a deal: Dean won't ask about Evvie's late husband, and Evvie won't ask about Dean's baseball career. But rules have a funny way of being broken sometimes, and as a friendship evolves into something more, will Evvie and Dean be brave enough to let go of the past and start over again?'Charming, hopeful, and gently romantic . . . Evvie Drake is great company.' Rainbow Rowell(c)2019 Penguin Random House AudioA Spark of Light: THE NUMBER ONE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
By Jodi Picoult. 2018
THE #1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 'A writer the world needs to be reading right now' The Independent'An apposite and nuanced…
novel... Picoult writes about an emotive, controversial issue with unflinching precision.' Red'Incredibly compelling and page turning' Dolly Alderton'A very special novel about a very difficult subject.' Grazia'Her intelligent, meticulously researched novels explore ethical dilemmas through heartrending, headline-grabbing scenarios' The Sunday TimesA lone gunman takes the women and doctors at a controversial abortion clinic hostage. Nobody has ended up there by choice.As the tense negotiation for their release unfolds, hour by crucial hour, back in time through the day that brought the hostages and their captor to this moment, every certainty is questioned, every judgement thrown into sharp relief.Because matters of life and death look very different when you, or the ones you love, are staring down the barrel of a gun . . .Powerful, thought-provoking and deeply involving, Jodi Picoult's new novel is told in reverse, propelling the reader through intertwining characters and uncovering motives in this unflinching exploration of what makes a life.THE BOOK OF TWO WAYS, Jodi's stunning new novel about life, death and missed opportunities is available to pre-order now.A thought-provoking, controversial and immediately gripping story with a tangled and messy moral dilemma at its heart.Two couples. One reckless…
night. In the time they've known each other, Sally, Al and Mike have shared - well, almost everything.Sally and Al have been married for seven years, though now their relationship is hanging by a thread.Sally and Mike have been best friends since university. And on many occasions something more.Mike and Al have been friends and colleagues for many years. Yet with Al poised to become Mike's boss, their friendship comes under threat.And now there's Mike and Faye. They haven't been together long, but Mike's pretty sure that, this time, it's the real deal.As the three old friends sit on a train heading towards Brighton to meet Faye, little do they know that after this weekend, the four of them will have shared . . . everything.They all know they have made a mistake. But they could never have imagined the consequences.**************Praise for Andy Jones:''What happens the morning after the night before, when the night before was when you did the most reckless thing of your life? I loved Andy Jones's stylish portrayal of four people who make way too much history in one night, and just couldn't put it down until I found out the fate of each of them' Jane Costello'Beautifully written and wonderfully engaging. I loved it.' Daily Mail on The Two of Us'I'm always wary about comparing books but, just this once, I'm going to make an exception because for me this is one of those few novels that deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as One Day. It has everything you could want from a romcom and then some' - Sun on The Trouble With Henry and Zoe(P)2018 Hodder & Stoughton LimitedWhen I tell you Stella Fortuna was a special girl, I hope you aren't thinking small-town special. Other people would…
underestimate Stella Fortuna during her long life, and not one of them didn't end up regretting it.*******************A sprawling 20th century saga of a young woman with a fire inside her which cannot be put out, for fans of Elena Ferrante, Captain Correlli's Mandolin, All the Light We Cannot See and Brooklyn.By turns a family saga, a ghost story, and a coming-of cranky-old-age tale, Juliet Grames's THE SEVEN OR EIGHT DEATHS OF STELLA FORTUNA lays bare the costs of migration and patriarchal values, but also of the love and devotion that can sustain a family through generations.The book tells the story of Stella Fortuna, born into rural poverty in a mountainside Calabrian village in the early 20th century. After being abandoned by their father, who had left to seek his fortune in L'America, Stella grew up with her beloved mother Assunta, her brother Giuseppe and her sister Tina. Tough, vivacious, and fiercely loyal, the sisters were always inseparable, going on to support each other through immigration, marriage, children, loss - and the seven (or eight, depending how you count them) near-death experiences Stella suffered throughout her life.Beginning in their childhood with the time she was burned by frying oil ("the eggplant attack"), Assunta became convinced that her eldest daughter was cursed, a victim of the Evil Eye or a malevolent ghost. But after Stella woke up from 'The Accident', an eighth brush with death which robbed her of a large portion of her memories, it was Tina who she refused to speak to. Now, despite living across the street from each other, the sisters have not spoken in thirty years. Determined to solve the mystery of this falling out, it's up to the family historian to unravel the life and deaths of Stella Fortuna, to connect the inexplicable dots in her dramatic story, and to suggest, finally, redemption of the battle-scarred and misunderstood woman who has lived her life with a fire inside her which could not be put out.'A compulsive, huge-hearted novel about family, home and how women move through the world; you don't read this book, you live it.' Erin Kelly, author of He Said / She Said(P)2019 Hodder & Stoughton LimitedSaltwater: Winner of the Portico Prize
By Jessica Andrews. 2019
SHORTLISTED FOR THE PORTICO PRIZE 'This book is sublime. It dares to be different, to look in a different way.…
Andrews is not filling anyone's shoes, she is destroying the shoes and building them from scratch.' Daisy JohnsonWhen Lucy wins a place at university, she thinks London will unlock her future. It is a city alive with pop up bars, cool girls and neon lights illuminating the Thames at night. At least this is what Lucy expects, having grown up seemingly a world away in working-class Sunderland, amid legendary family stories of Irish immigrants and boarding houses, now-defunct ice rinks and an engagement ring at a fish market. Yet Lucy's transition to a new life is more overwhelming than she ever expected. As she works long shifts to make ends meet and navigates chaotic parties from East London warehouses to South Kensington mansions, she still feels like an outsider among her fellow students. When things come to a head at her graduation, Lucy takes off for Ireland, seeking solace in her late grandfather's cottage and the wild landscape that surrounds it, wondering if she can piece together who she really is. Lyrical and boundary-breaking, Saltwater explores the complexities of mother-daughter relationships, the challenges of shifting class identity and the way that the strongest feelings of love can be the hardest to define.(p) 2019 Hodder & Stoughton LtdLove Without End: A Story of Heloise and Abelard
By Melvyn Bragg. 2019
A profoundly thought-provoking, moving novel that breathes fresh life into one of history's most remarkable and enduring love stories. Paris…
in 1117. Heloise, a brilliant young scholar, is astonished when the famous, radical philosopher, Peter Abelard, consents to be her tutor. But what starts out as a meeting of minds turns into a passionate, dangerous love affair, which incurs terrible retribution. Nine centuries later, Arthur is in Paris to recreate the extraordinary story of Heloise and Abelard in a novel. To his surprise, his daughter visits and agrees to help, challenging his portraits of a couple who seem often inscrutable, sometimes breathtakingly modern. It soon emerges she is on her own mission to discover more about her parents' fractured relationship - and that Arthur's connection to his subject is more emotional than he cares to admit.(P)2019 Hodder & Stoughton Limited