One Plus One

One single mom. One chaotic family. One quirky stranger. One irresistible love story from the New York Times bestselling author of Me Before You American audiences have fallen in love with Jojo Moyes. Ever since she debuted stateside, she has captivated readers and reviewers alike, and hit the New York Times bestseller list with the word-of-mouth sensation, Me Before You. Now, with One Plus One, she's written another contemporary opposites-attract love story that reads like a modern-day Two for the Road. Suppose your life sucks. A lot. Your husband has done a vanishing act, your teenage stepson is being bullied and your math whiz daughter has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that you can't afford to pay for. That's Jess's life in a nutshell—until an unexpected knight-in-shining-armor offers to rescue them. Only Jess's knight turns out to be Geeky Ed, the obnoxious tech millionaire whose vacation home she...
Views: 3 140

Birthright

On a hot July afternoon, a worker at an Antietam Creek construction site drives the blade of his backhoe into a layer of soil — and strikes a 5,000-year-old human skull. The discovery draws plenty of attention and a lot of controversy. It also changes the life of one woman in ways she never expected...As an archaeologist, Callie Dunbrook knows a lot about the past. But her own past is about to be called into question. Recruited for her expertise on the Antietam Creek dig, she encounters danger — as a cloud of death and misfortune hangs over the project, and rumors fly that the site is cursed. She finds a passion that feels equally dangerous, as she joins forces in her work with her irritating, but irresistible, ex-husband, Jake. And when a strange woman approaches her, claiming to know a secret about Callie’s privileged Boston childhood, some startling and unsettling questions are raised about her very identity.Searching for answers, trying to rebuild, Callie finds that there are deceptions and sorrows that refuse to stay buried. And as she struggles to put the pieces back together, she discovers that the healing process comes with consequences — and that there are people who will do anything to make sure the truth is never revealed
Views: 3 127

Before We Were Yours

Two families, generations apart, are forever changed by a heartbreaking injustice in this poignant novel, inspired by a true story, for readers of Orphan Train and The Nightingale. Memphis, 1939. Twelve-year-old Rill Foss and her four younger siblings live a magical life aboard their family's Mississippi River shantyboat. But when their father must rush their mother to the hospital one stormy night, Rill is left in charge—until strangers arrive in force. Wrenched from all that is familiar and thrown into a Tennessee Children's Home Society orphanage, the Foss children are assured that they will soon be returned to their parents—but they quickly realize that the truth is much darker. At the mercy of the facility's cruel director, Rill fights to keep her sisters and brother together—in a world of danger and uncertainty. Aitken, South Carolina, present day. Born into wealth and privilege, Avery Stafford seems to have it all: a successful...
Views: 3 098

Rebel Heart

Elinor does not know if her brother Kit has perished during the Jacobite rebellion, or is a fugitive. She is torn between his allegiance to the exiled King James and her betrothed, Francis, who serves in George I's army. Then a stranger appears who insists on carrying her off to France, to Kit, but first they have to evade their enemies.Elinor is bored with her quiet life in Norfolk with her aunt and uncle, waiting until she can marry Francis, a captain in George I's army. Though she looks forward to the marriage she worries about the probable disapproval of her brother Kit. If, that is, he is still alive. He has been fighting for the Jacobites, now defeated and driven from the country. Kit, however, has not been heard of and could be dead, perished on the battlefield. Either that or he is now a fugitive. When a mysterious stranger arrives claiming he carries messages from Kit she dare not believe him, especially as he says Kit wants her to go with him to France. Saying he has promised Kit to bring her, Sir Talbot Carr carries her off, and they find the journey far from easy.
Views: 3 095

David Copperfield

The story traces the life of David Copperfield from childhood to maturity. David is born in Blunderstone, Suffolk, near Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, England, in 1820, six months after the death of his father. David spends his early years with his mother and their housekeeper, Peggotty. When he is seven years old his mother marries Edward Murdstone. David is given good reason to dislike his stepfather and has similar feelings for Murdstone's sister Jane, who moves into the house soon afterwards. Murdstone attempts to thrash David for falling behind in his studies. David bites him and soon afterwards is sent away to a boarding school, Salem House, with a ruthless headmaster, Mr. Creakle. There he befriends James Steerforth and Tommy Traddles.
Views: 3 090

First Impressions

Escaping the rat race and the lure of gold-digging women, wealthy businessman Vance Banning moves to a small, rural retreat, telling the townsfolk that he\'s an out-of-work carpenter. All he wants is peace, quiet and to keep away from women. So the last thing he needs is a charitable neighbor; especially a beautiful, gracious and persistent neighbor of the female persuasion - but there\'s something about Shane Abbott he just can\'t ignore.Vance is certain his cover story will stop his lovely neighbor from getting too friendly, but Shane is determined to break down his resistance. Vance has been burned once, so only a fool would fall for the same innocent act twice. And he\'s no fool. But he has no idea how relentless Shane Abbott can be when it comes to giving a helping hand; or a loving heart.He needed to simplify his life and mend his broken heart. She was searching for a place to finally fit in and a man who could love her for who she was. Together they discover that all they really needed was each other, and that love is the greatest Christmas gift of all.
Views: 3 089

Chasing Fire

Little else in life is as dangerous as fire jumping. Flying past towering pillars of smoke, parachuting down to the edge of an all-consuming blaze, shoveling and sawing for hours upon hours, days at a time, all to hold the line and push back against the raw power of Mother Nature. But there\'s also little else as thrilling - at least to Rowan Tripp. The Missoula smoke jumpers are one of the most exclusive fire-fighting squads in the nation, and the job is in Rowan\'s blood: her father is a legend in the field. She\'s been fighting fires since her eighteenth birthday. At this point, returning to the wilds of Montana for the season feels like coming home - even with reminders of the partner she lost last season still lingering in the air. Fortunately, this year\'s rookie crop is among the strongest ever - and Gulliver Curry\'s one of the best. He\'s also a walking contradiction, a hotshot firefighter with a big vocabulary and a winter job at a kid\'s arcade. He came to Missoula to follow in the footsteps of Lucas "Iron Man" Tripp, yet he\'s instantly more fascinated by his hero\'s daughter. Rowan, as a rule, doesn\'t hook up with other smoke jumpers, but Gull is convinced he can change her mind. And damn if he doesn\'t make a good case to be an exception to the rule.  Everything is thrown off balance, though, when a dark presence lashes out against Rowan, looking to blame someone for last year\'s tragedy. Rowan knows she can\'t complicate things with Gull - any distractions in the air or on the ground could be lethal. But if she doesn\'t find someone she can lean on when the heat gets intense, her life may go down in flames.
Views: 3 057

The Orphan's Tale

"Readers who enjoyed Kristin Hannah's The Nightingale and Sara Gruen's Water for Elephants will embrace this novel. " —Library Journal"Secrets, lies, treachery, and passion.... I read this novel in a headlong rush." —Christina Baker Kline, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Orphan TrainA powerful novel of friendship set in a traveling circus during World War II, The Orphan's Tale introduces two extraordinary women and their harrowing stories of sacrifice and survival Sixteen-year-old Noa has been cast out in disgrace after becoming pregnant by a Nazi soldier and being forced to give up her baby. She lives above a small rail station, which she cleans in order to earn her keep... When Noa discovers a boxcar containing dozens of Jewish infants bound for a concentration camp, she is reminded of the child that was taken from her. And in a moment that will change the course of her...
Views: 3 054

Money

Time Magazine included the book in its list of the 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005. The story of John Self and his insatiable appetite for money, alcohol, fast food, drugs, pornography, and more, Money is ceaselessly inventive and thrillingly savage; a tale of life lived without restraint, of money and the disasters it can precipitate.
Views: 3 045

White Noise

Part of the Penguin Orange Collection, a limited-run series of twelve influential and beloved American classics in a bold series design offering a modern take on the iconic Penguin paperback For the seventieth anniversary of Penguin Classics, the Penguin Orange Collection celebrates the heritage of Penguin’s iconic book design with twelve influential American literary classics representing the breadth and diversity of the Penguin Classics library. These collectible editions are dressed in the iconic orange and white tri-band cover design, first created in 1935, while french flaps, high-quality paper, and striking cover illustrations provide the cutting-edge design treatment that is the signature of Penguin Classics Deluxe Editions today. White Noise Winner of the 1985 National Book Award, White Noise tells the story of Jack Gladney, his fourth wife, Babette, and their four ultramodern offspring, as they navigate the rocky passages of family life to the background babble of brand-name consumerism.
Views: 3 043

Freedom

Patty and Walter Berglund were the new pioneers of old St. Paul—the gentrifiers, the hands-on parents, the avant-garde of the Whole Foods generation. Patty was the ideal sort of neighbor, who could tell you where to recycle your batteries and how to get the local cops to actually do their job. She was an enviably perfect mother and the wife of Walter's dreams. Together with Walter—environmental lawyer, commuter cyclist, total family man—she was doing her small part to build a better world. But now, in the new millennium, the Berglunds have become a mystery. Why has their teenage son moved in with the aggressively Republican family next door? Why has Walter taken a job working with Big Coal? What exactly is Richard Katz—outré rocker and Walter's college best friend and rival—still doing in the picture? Most of all, what has happened to Patty? Why has the bright star of Barrier Street become "a very different kind of neighbor," an implacable Fury coming unhinged before the street's attentive eyes? In his first novel since The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen has given us an epic of contemporary love and marriage. Freedom comically and tragically captures the temptations and burdens of liberty: the thrills of teenage lust, the shaken compromises of middle age, the wages of suburban sprawl, the heavy weight of empire. In charting the mistakes and joys of Freedom's characters as they struggle to learn how to live in an ever more confusing world, Franzen has produced an indelible and deeply moving portrait of our time.
Views: 3 036

Dubliners

This Prestwick House Literary Touchstone Classic includes a glossary and reader's notes to help the modern reader understand Joyce's use of textures, dialect, and symbols. Each of the beautifully written short stories in this collection precisely details a brief scene in the life of a resident of Dublin at the turn of the 20th century. Although the characters do not know each other, their experiences unfold along the same streets and often overlap thematically. Their tragedies mirror that of Ireland, a country struggling for political identity and held back, in Joyce's view, by rigid religious ideas and adherence to tradition. Joyce's great skill at dialect offers a sense of the city's complex social structure, while themes of isolation, emotional paralysis, violence, regret, and death run throughout the collection and link all of the stories. Chronologically, too, the stories appear to progress; portrayals of youthful confusion and disillusionment in the opening story, "The Sisters," become the haunting midlife meditations of "The Dead." Like his masterpieces Ulysses and Finnegan's Wake, James Joyce's Dubliners displays consummate control of nuances, emotions, and images. **
Views: 3 023

The Bride of Lammermoor

The plans of Edgar, Master of Ravenswood to regain his ancient family estate from the corrupt Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of Scotland are frustrated by the complexities of the legal and political situations following the 1707 Act of Union, and by his passion for his enemy's beautiful daughter Lucy. First published in 1819, this intricate and searching romantic tragedy offers challenging insights into emotional and sexual politics, and demonstrates the shrewd way in which Scott presented his work as historical document, entertainment, and work of art. About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.
Views: 3 009