During the Second World War, Eastenders Miranda and Ted are sent to the country with another young evacuee, Roberta (Bobbie), to live with two unmarried sisters in their idyllic rectory. The time they spend with Aunt Sophie and Aunt Prudence turns their underprivileged lives into something very near to Heaven: gathering wool from hedgerows, initiating do and mend campaigns, and trotting about the countryside with Tom Kitten, Aunt Prudence's pony. But when the Committee for Evacuation object to the women's efforts to adopt all three of them, it is Bobbie who is sent away to live with the Dingwalls in very different circumstances. And when the aunts die, Miranda, Tom and Bobbie -- who have come to regard themselves as a family unit -- are eventually parted, seemingly forever. The three find each other after the war, and Miranda, now a beautiful young model, falls in love with grown-up Ted Mowbray, but unfortunately he can only think of her as a sister. In turn, he loves Bobbie,... Views: 7
Set against the stark but seductive landscape of the American Southwest, the stories in All My Relations explore the inner landscape of mind and heart, where charting the simplest course is subject to a complex constellation of relationships. In the title story of the collection, a Pima Indian hires on with a rancher in an attempt to quit drinking and to win back the wife and son who have left him. His efforts to master land and horses and to bake the perfect cake mirror his efforts to subdue his own demons and to embrace a peaceful domesticity.In "The Big Bang and the Good House", Tony, a former drug dealer, pits his urge toward chaos against the orderly pleasures of marriage, finally yielding to the solidity and spaciousness of domestic love: "I feel myself gathering weight, density. Cautiously, I allow myself to inhabit this Good House, which surprisingly fits like my own body". Julia, the aging protagonist of "Simplifying", risks her fragile health in a love affair; her generosity of spirit toward her lover is matched in inverse proportion by the frugality with which her lover doles out his affections. In "The March of the Toys", a young woman flees Delaware, her chronically ill father, and her grieving mother, only to find that she's traded the neediness of her family for the harrowing disturbances of her lovers. She muses, "I couldn't affect anyone's life. I could only attend it".In "Hualapai Dread", an investment broker's infatuation with an enigmatic Hualapai Indian woman, as elusive as she is beautiful, brings out his most predatory instincts and unmasks her own deceit. Acting on similar but more destructive impulses toward the object of his sexual obsession, a character in another story takes his soon-to-be ex-wife on a bizarre "honeymoon for divorce". The close-knit family of "Builders" breaks under the strain of constructing their dream house with their own hands, and eventually they are forced to leave behind the illusion of safety and permanence: "Once the three had imagined themselves as a house on a hill, dug into stone with the tenacity of a lion. Now they sat tensely in canvas-backed chairs stretched like slingshots. They talked cautiously, with encouragement, hoping for the return of pleasure".Embodying the transience and openness of the New West, the characters in All My Relations reinvent themselves, even as they struggle with the age-old, perilous necessity of loving.From Publishers WeeklySet against the landscape of the American Southwest, this collection of eight precisely observed stories offers a powerful and moving series of observations about love and relationships in the modern world. In the title tale, Milton, a Pima Indian, quits drinking and finds success as a ranch hand in the employ of a stubborn white cattle owner. But his sobriety alienates him from his friends, and his long-missed wife and son return only as Milton descends into a debilitating, dream-like illness. In "Simplifying," Julia, a volunteer at the local zoo, finds renewed life in an affair with Philip, a 66 poet with brittle feet. In a line that has resonance for many of the characters here, Philip says: "For my wife and me, making a baby would have implied too much optimism about our future." In "Builders," a close-knit family implodes under the pressure of building their dream house, only to be reborn in the thinner, less burdensome air of Denver. Describing their reunion, McIlroy writes, "Now they sat tensely in canvas-backed chairs stretched like slingshots. They talked cautiously, with encouragement, hoping for the return of pleasure." A winner of the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction, McIlroy writes with a spare elegance, consistently displaying the illuminating detail or the evocative description. His stories are grittily real, occasionally disturbing, filled with the breath of life. Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library JournalMany of the stories in this collection are set in Arizona, and McIlroy skillfully portrays both landscape and people. Distance between places in the desert is a recurring notion, and the emotional distance between people mirrors the geographically imposed isolation. In the title story, the brief friendship that grows between a lonely Anglo rancher and a Native American ranch hand is a singularly healing episode in increasingly barren lives. In "The March of the Toys," an encounter at a party leads two vulnerable women to friendship, tentative romance, ultimate alienation, and the question, "How can a person cease being who she's always been?" The final story, "Builders," ends on a hopeful note, when, estranged during the building of their dream house, a family begins to reconnect. In many of the stories, promising relationships begin by chance, end in deceit and disappointment, yet leave characters transformed. Recommended for larger fiction collections.Eleanor Mitchell, Arizona State Univ. West, PhoenixCopyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. Views: 7
After a home dye job ruins her hair, Agatha Raisin, the prickly yet lovable amateur sleuth, turns to the wonderful new hairdresser in the neighboring town for help. And as Agatha soon learns, Mr. John is as skilled at repairing her coiffure as he is at romancing her heart. But the charming Mr. John isn't all he appears to be. According to gossip around the salon and the village, some of his former clients seem to be afraid of him. Could Mr. John really be a ruthless blackmailer? When a murderer strikes at the busy salon, Agatha must discover the truth and the killer's identity before it's too late. Views: 7
It's been twenty years and two election cycles since Information, a powerful search engine monopoly, pioneered the switch from warring nation-states to global microdemocracy. The corporate coalition party Heritage has won the last two elections. With another election on the horizon, the Supermajority is in tight contention, and everything's on the line.With power comes corruption. For Ken, this is his chance to do right by the idealistic Policy1st party and get a steady job in the big leagues. For Domaine, the election represents another staging ground in his ongoing struggle against the pax democratica. For Mishima, a dangerous Information operative, the whole situation is a puzzle: how do you keep the wheels running on the biggest political experiment of all time, when so many have so much to gain?Infomocracy is Malka Older's debut novel. Views: 7
A team of ninjas descends upon Pawston in this fourth Rider Woofson adventure!When the sacred scroll of Bark-Jitsu disappears, the Sensei goes to his student Westie for help. Can Westie and the rest of the Pup Investigators Pack expose the truth before the scroll disappears forever? With easy-to-read language and illustrations on almost every page, the Rider Woofson chapter books are perfect for emerging readers! Views: 7
Deborah and Simon St. James have taken a holiday in the winter landscape of Lancastershire, hoping to heal the growing rift in their marriage. But in the barren countryside awaits bleak news: The vicar of Wimslough, the man they had come to see, is dead—a victim of accidental poisoning. Unsatisfied with the inquest ruling and unsettled by the close association between the investigating constable and the woman who served the deadly meal, Simon calls in his old friend Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley. Together they uncover dark, complex relationships in this rural village, relationships that bring men and women together with a passion, with grief, or with the intention to kill. Peeling away layer after layer of personal history to reveal the torment of a fugitive spirit, Missing Joseph is award-winning author Elizabeth George's greatest achievement. Views: 7
She’s 33, unmarried, and stuffed into a Bubble Yum pink bridesmaid dress. And the whole town wants to fix her up with anyone with a dental plan… Who’s going to rescue Sadie Hollowell now? Everyone in Lovett, Texas knows Sadie has always been a ‘notional’ kind of gal. She got a notion to leave town asap , and never visit her daddy (bless his heart). Now, she’s back and got the notion to invite a good-looking, hard-muscled, total stranger to her cousin’s wedding. Better a stranger than some of the losers she’s dated. Vince Haven got his muscles the hard way—as a Navy SEAL in Afghanistan. He’s staying in Lovett to visit his crazy aunt—the proprietor of the local Gas N Go. Before he can get the heck back out of the small town, his aunt makes him an offer he can’t refuse. Maybe he’ll stick around Lovett for a while. Maybe he’ll make a ‘go’ of the Gas N Go. Maybe he’ll rescue Sadie out of that pink dress! Views: 7
Genevieve Porter was forced to flee the art world of Manhattan after she blew the whistle on the shady practices of a powerful dealer. Now she owns a small gallery in the breathtaking beach town of Cambria, California. For Gen, this is a place to regroup; she's poised to restore her reputation in the art world and return to New York in triumph.When she meets Ryan Delaney, a cattle rancher who's more than he appears to be, she's ready for a sexy roll in the hay—literally. But when her feelings for him become more than casual, she realizes that his roots on the Central Coast go back generations, and it's going to be a challenge to lure him away from his family's land.If these two are going to make a life together, one of them is going to have to give up old ideas, old goals—old feelings about what success means, and what makes a place a true home.Set amid the crashing waves and rugged cliffs just south of Big Sur, Like That Endless Cambria Sky is Book 2 in Linda Seed's Main Street... Views: 7
Kate Sharpe, US Marshal, is a woman on a mission with no time for love or romance. Her prisoner, the handcuffed hottie, Kyle Archer, just turned State’s evidence on notorious mobster Jonathon Bragan. Kate’s responsible for getting him from the courthouse to the jailhouse, but can she do it without losing her heart? Views: 7
Feral, dangerous, and oozing lethal charm, he captured Jessica with a kiss, but the Cajun rogue, Gabriel Benoit, is not what he seems. Danger follows him, exciting her beyond imagining, until she's swept into a world she never dreamed existed. A world of werewolves and vampires at war…. Views: 7
