"Incomparable...because of its bravery, its wisdom, its vitality, and because it's a novel that never stops haunting." —Junot Díaz Twelve-year-old Fee is a shy Korean-American boy growing up in Maine whose powerful soprano voice wins him a place as section leader of the first sopranos in his local boys choir. But when, on a retreat, Fee discovers how the director treats the boys he makes section leader, he is so ashamed, he says nothing of the abuse, not even when Peter, Fee's best friend, is in line to be next. The director is eventually arrested, and Fee tries to forgive himself for his silence. But when Peter takes his own life, Fee blames only himself. Years later, after he has carefully pieced a new life together, Fee takes a job at a private school near his hometown. There he meets a young student, Arden, who, to his shock, is the picture of Peter—and the son of his old choir director. Told with "the force of a dream and... Views: 30
Iris Chance is turning 33. She’s an independent woman, the owner of the Sunflower Coffee and Tea Company in Hidden Falls, Oregon. Hidden Falls boasts clean air, natural beauty, good neighbors. The only problem is that there are zero interesting single men and Iris wants a baby. She’d love the whole package -- the love story, the sexy romance with a hero who will sweep her off her feet, but she doesn’t have time to wait for Mr. Right. He may lose his way and never show up. She decides to start a family with the help of a sperm bank, knowing she’ll have her large family to support and encourage her as a single mom. When the new High School English teacher, Geoff McLeod, walks into her café and into her life he seems perfect. There’s only one problem…
Geoff McLeod never imagined his wife would end their six- year marriage with a text message. Reeling from her betrayal, he moves to Hidden Falls to teach English and Creative Writing. He’s got zero interest in women or dating until he meets Iris Chance, the intriguing woman who bakes the best Morning Glory muffins he’s ever tasted. He can’t imagine starting his day without stopping in on his way to work for coffee and a muffin and to see the sexiest woman who ever donned an apron.
Iris is oldest girl in a family of eleven kids. She’s always been the stand-in mother to her younger siblings. She’s got so used to looking out for other people and listening to their problems that she’s become the confidante and unofficial therapist of half the town. She can see that the new English teacher has some emotional baggage dragging along behind him. He looks like he can use a friend and Iris has never been able to turn away from someone in pain. She’s prepared to be his friend, but she would never get involved with someone who is still officially married.
When her matchmaking mother invites the new English teacher to her birthday party everyone begins to wonder whether this will be a friends to lovers tale.
In this contemporary romantic comedy about a small town girl who longs for a family, but has never entirely trusted she deserved a happy ending, two lonely people learn that sometimes love comes when you least expect it.
A sexy, humorous, contemporary romance, Iris in Bloom is the perfect beach read, or a romance novel to while away a rainy afternoon.
Iris in Bloom is the second book in the Take a Chance series, but the books can be read in any order. Views: 30
Post--Civil War New York City is the battleground of the American dream. In this era of free love, emerging rights of women, and brutal sexual repression, Freydeh, a spirited young Jewish immigrant, toils at different jobs to earn passage to America for her family. Learning that her younger sister is adrift somewhere in the city, she begins a determined search that carries her from tenement to brothel to prison--as her story interweaves with those of some of the epoch's most notorious figures: Elizabeth Cady Stanton; Susan B. Anthony; sexual freedom activist Victoria Woodhull, the first woman to run for president; and Anthony Comstock, founder of the Society for the Suppression of Vice, whose censorship laws are still on the books.In the tradition of her bestselling World War II epic Gone to Soldiers, Marge Piercy once again re-creates a turbulent period in American history and explores changing attitudes in a land of sacrifice, suffering, promise, and... Views: 30
Expressing a Biblical Truth of Life Views: 30
On the night of President Abraham Lincoln's assassination, his frantic wife, Mary, calls for her best friend and confidante, Elizabeth Keckley. But the woman is mistakenly kept from her side by guards who were unaware of Mary Todd Lincoln's close friendship with the black seamstress.With vivid detail and emotional power, Ann Rinaldi delves into the childhoods of two fascinating women who became devoted friends amid the turbulent times of the Lincoln administration. Includes an author's note, a reader's guide, and a bibliography. Views: 30
From Bernhard Schlink, the internationally best-selling author of The Reader, come seven provocative and masterfully calibrated stories. A keen dissection of the ways in which we play with truth and less-than-truth in our lives. Summer Lies brims with the delusions, the passions, the outbursts, and the sometimes irrational justifications people make within a mélange of beautifully rendered relationships. In "After the Season," a man falls quickly in love with a woman he meets on the beach but wrestles with his incongruous feelings of betrayal after he learns she's rich. In "Johann Sebastian Bach on Ruegen," a son tries to put his resentment toward his emotionally distant father behind him by proposing a trip to a Back festival but soon realizes, during his efforts to reconnect, that it wasn't his father who was the distant one. A philandering playwright is accused to infidelity by his wife in "The Night in Baden-Baden," but he sees her accusations as... Views: 30
A lot of remarkable things have happened in the life of Sam Pulsifer, the hapless hero of this incendiary novel, beginning with the ten years he spent in prison for accidentally burning down Emily Dickinson's house and unwittingly killing two people. emerging at age twenty-eight, he creates a new life and identity as a husband and father. But when the homes of other famous New England writers suddenly go up in smoke, he must prove his innocence by uncovering the identity of this literary-minded arsonist.In the league of such contemporary classics as A Confederacy of Dunces and The World According to Garp, An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England is an utterly original story about truth and honesty, life and the imagination. Views: 30
A strange and compelling unkillable woman decides to leave home, and the story begins. Fleur Pillager takes her mother's name, Four Souls, for strength and walks from her Ojibwe reservation to the cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul. She is seeking restitution from and revenge on the lumber baron who has stripped her reservation. But revenge is never simple, and she quickly finds her intentions complicated by her own dangerous compassion for the man who wronged her. Four Souls reminds us of the deep spirituality and the ordinary humanity of this world, and is as beautiful and lyrical as anything Louise Erdrich has written. Views: 30
Even though Sewing Annie Coats and her son, Gabriel, have managed to buy their freedom, their lives are still marked by constant struggle and sacrifice. Washington's Georgetown neighborhood, where the Coatses operate a tailor's shop and laundry, is supposed to be a "promised land" for former slaves but is effectively a frontier town, gritty and dangerous, with no laws protecting black people.The remarkable emotional energy with which the Coatses wage their daily battles-as they negotiate with their former owner, as they assist escaped slaves en route to freedom, as they prepare for the encroaching war, and as they strive to love each other enough-is what propels STAND THE STORM and makes the novel's tragic denouement so devastating. Views: 30
Edward Lee and John Pelan have cooked up yet another tasty treat. They will whet your appetite with a delectable trip to the Pacific Northwest in search of the rare Crackjaw Eel. This romp through the woods is flavored with inbred rednecks, sauced with generous helpings of sex, and topped with an ending that’s sure to have food critics raving the world over. Only those with strong stomachs and a taste for heavy spice should attempt this meal. In FAMILY TRADITION, Lee and Pelan show that there are far more terrible things lurking in the rain forests of the Pacific Northwest than amphetamine-crazed rednecks...secrets man was not meant to sample. Indulge yourself and enjoy the sumptuous haute cuisine served up by these two masters of guerilla gastronomic outrage. Not only will you think twice before visiting the woods again, you just might never look at food in quite the same way. From the duo that brought you Goon, Shifters, and the cult favorite Splatterspunk, FAMILY TRADITION is a feast of the senses that is best devoured before it devours you. Enjoy the grub! Views: 30
Compelling short fiction from Christos Tsiolkas, Australia's master of dark suburbia and bestselling author of 'The Slap'.My God,' she thought, a coldness settling in her, 'do I hate him?'After witnessing her teenage son insult a disabled girl, a mother struggles with contempt for her child. Views: 30
Spain is poised to suffer its worst internal strife in a thousand years. Certain well-placed Spanish diplomats sense it. Op-Center intelligence corroborates it. All the United States and Spain have to do is find a way to avert it. Before they can, an Op-Center agent is assassinated in Madrid on her way to a top secret diplomatic meeting. Now all fears are confirmed. Someone very powerful wants another Spanish civil war — no matter what the cost. Views: 30
