Jaffa - famed for its orange groves - was for centuries a city of traders, merchants, teachers and administrators, home to Muslims, Christians and Jews alike. That is, until the founding of the state of Israel, which was simultaneously a moment of jubilation for the Jews and a disaster - the Naqba - for the 100,000 Arabs who fled Jaffa in 1948. Through the stories of six families - three Arab and three Jewish - Adam LeBor delicately illuminates the complexity of modern Israel, going beyond the media stereotypes and political rhetoric to tell a moving human story. From the Christian Arab car-dealer, the Jewish coffee-and-spice merchant and the Arab baker who makes bread for the whole community, to the Jewish schoolgirl who befriends an Arab drug dealer, these people strive to make a life in a country born of conflict. Views: 26
The delightful new installment in Alexander McCall Smith's beloved and best-selling series finds Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi traveling to the north of Botswana, to the stunning Okavango Delta, to visit a safari lodge where there have been several unexplained and troubling events-including the demise of one of the guests. When the two ladies of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency arrive at the Okavango Delta, their eyes are opened, as if for the first time, to the natural beauty of their homeland. With teeming wildlife, endless grasslands, and sparkling rivulets of water running in every direction, it is breathtaking. But they can't help being drawn into a world filled with other wildlife: rival safari operators, discontented guides, grumpy hippopotamuses. On top of that, the date has still not been set for Mma Makutsi and Phuti Radiphuti's wedding, and it's safe to say that Mma Makutsi is beginning to grow a bit impatient. And to top it all off, the impossible has happened: one of Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni's apprentices has gotten married… Of course none of this defeats the indomitable Precious Ramotswe. Good sense, kindness, and copious quantities of red bush tea carry the day. As they always do. Views: 26
In one of her most delicate and suspenseful novels to date, Anita Brookner brings us an exquisite story of friendship and duty. Rachel Kennedy and Oscar Livingston were not precisely friends or family. Rachel had been acquanted with Oscar for some time, first as her father's accountant, and then as her own. Part owner of a London bookshop, Rachel is thoroughly independent and somewhat distant, determinedly restrained in her feelings for others, but above all responsible. And it is this trait that leads Oscar and his wife Dorrie to seek out Rachel as a mentor for their twenty-seven-year-old daughter, Heather. Yet when Heather seems poised to make an unsuitable romantic decision, Rachel decides to speak out and intervene, causing an unwitting and devastating insight. Views: 26
SUMMARY:
Deep in the Pacific Northwest lies the Olympic National Forest– nearly one million acres of impenetrable darkness and impossible beauty. Even in this modern age, much of it remains undiscovered and uncharted. From the heart of this old forest, a six-year-old girl appears. Speechless and alone, she can give no clue as to her identity, no hint of her past. . . .Until recently, Dr. Julia Cates was one of the preeminent child psychiatrists in the country, but a scandal shattered her confidence, ruined her career, and made her a media target. When she gets a desperate call from her estranged sister, Ellie, a police chief in their small western Washington hometown, she jumps at the chance to escape. In Rain Valley, nothing much ever happens–until a girl emerges from the deep woods and walks into town. She is a victim unlike any Julia has ever seen: a child locked in a world of unimaginable fear and isolation. When word spreads of the “wild child” and the infamous doctor who is treating her, the media descend on Julia and once again her competence is challenged. State and federal authorities want to lock the girl away in an institution until an identification can be made.But to Julia, who has come to doubt her own ability, nothing is more important than saving the girl she now calls Alice. To heal this child, Julia will have to understand that she cannot work alone and must look to others–the people in the town she left long ago, the sister she barely knows, and Dr. Max Cerrasin, a handsome, private man with secrets of his own.Then a shocking revelation forces Julia to risk everything to discover the truth about Alice. The ordeal that follows will test the limits of Julia’s faith, forgiveness, and love, as she struggles to ascertain where Alice ultimately belongs.In her most ambitious novel to date, Kristin Hannah delivers an incandescent story about the resilience of the human spirit, the triumph of hope, and the mysterious places in the heart where love lies waiting.From the Hardcover edition. Views: 26
Urban Teen Fiction Flip Book - showing the point of view from two sides- the cheer squad and the football team. Want a different point of view? The Lockwood High cheer squad has it all. And the ballers are hot, tough, and on point. But where there's cheer, there's drama...The girls story are part of Cheer Drama - Always Upbeat, Keep Jumping, Yell Out, Settle Down, and Shake It. The boys stories are Baller Swag - All That, No Hating, Do You, Be Real and Got Pride. Together they tell the story of high school couples through the eyes of the cheerleading squad and the varsity football team. The first letter in each book, C-H-E-E-R, and B-A-L-L-ER, represent the names of the featured high school couple. Keep Jumping (Cheer Drama): Eager Hallie Ray has finally made the cheerleading squad. If being a cheerleader is measured in heart, then Hallie has it all. But she's jealous of her BFFs. Then a friend lays down the hard truth: Hallie must learn to love without conditions, if she weren't... Views: 26
With this novel, Booker Prize-winning author Anita Brookner confirms her reputation as an unparalleled observer of social nuance and deeply felt longings. Brief Lives chronicles an unlikely friendship: that between the flamboyant, monstrously egocentric Julia and the modest, self-effacing Fay, who is at once fascinated and appalled by Julia's excesses. Thrust together by their husbands' business partnership -- and by a guilty secret -- Julia and Fay develop an intense bond that is nonetheless something less than intimacy, a relationship in which we see our own uneasy compromises, not only with other people, but with life itself. Views: 26
At the age of 14, Jenny Swift is torn from her home deep in the forest to become apprenticed to
the master alchemist Richard Antrobus. Jenny’s mother was a healer from the East who has taught
her well and from whom she inherits her exotic looks. But this difference means that she faces suspicion
and distrust as she is drawn into a plot to throw the world into chaos. Not only does Jenny
have to fight to stay alive amid the treachery and intrigue that surrounds the court of the Regus,
but she finds her friendships and loyalties tested to the full. Forced to seek the key to the greatest
secrets of the alchemists, Jenny discovers the power that lies within her – skills which could make
her the greatest alchemist of any age. Views: 26
Set between 1989 and the downfall of Ceausescu, and 2013, The Squeeze travels between Edinburgh, Romania and Oslo and see this multi-award-winning and bestselling author at the height of her powers.Marta, a teenager trafficked from Romania in the early 1990s is forced to work as a prostitute in Edinburgh. Mats, a Norwegian businessman, who longs only to be a good husband and father, becomes involved with Marta and both their lives are wrenched - for good or ill - in new directions.Told in a splintered narrative style that allows glimpses into several points of view, The Squeeze explores the transactions that take place between men and women. Sex, money and the desire for love, are at its heart. Views: 26
Fully illustrated history of witchcraft and the black arts; including witch trials, black masses, spells, voodoo, covens and rituals, psychic powers, possessions, earth spirits, and werewolves. Views: 26
RetailJack Cooper is an unhappy man, mind, body, and spirit. In the blink of an eye he loses his longstanding job to the bad economy, his mother to a fatal illness, and his wife to her secret lover. Beaten, broken, and crippled by tragedy, he withdraws from aspirations and passion, narrowing his life down to the simplest of routines in order to block out the pain. His day begins with a strenuous workout at the Bethesda Health Club, his personal oasis where his mind and body can be free, and ends in his tiny apartment, where he escapes from reality with his books until he can lose himself in sleep. Nothing more, nothing less. That is, until he meets the enigmatic Mike Parrish. Stolen from the hospital as a newborn and passed around from household to household, Parrish has no official identification. To the government and the world at large, he does not exist. He is an anonymous drifter, and the first person that has a conversation with Cooper in months and months. He finds solace in his friendship with Parrish, a man who understands Cooper’s plight and is sympathetic to his pain. Jack Cooper is an unhappy man; mind, body, and spirit. In the blink of an eye, he lost his job to the bad economy, his mother to a fatal illness, and his wife to her secret lover. Beaten, broken, and crippled by tragedy, he withdraws into total isolation, maintaining the simplest of routines in order to block out his pain. Cooper’s day begins with a strenuous workout at the Bethesda Health Club—his personal oasis where his mind and body are free—and ends inside his bare apartment, where Cooper escapes into his library of novels until he finally loses himself in sleep. Nothing more, nothing less. That is, until he meets the enigmatic Mike Parrish. Stolen from the hospital as a newborn, and passed around from household to household, Parrish has no official identification. To the government and the world at large, he does not exist. He is an anonymous drifter, but also the first person who breaks through Cooper’s emotional confinement. Cooper finds solace in his friendship with Parrish, a man who understands his plight and is sympathetic to his pain. But then Parrish suddenly disappears, leaving Cooper to search for a virtually invisible man. As he looks for clues as intangible as ghosts, and chases leads as fleeting as shadows, his search leads him back to the one place he called his refuge: the Bethesda Health Club. How much can be taken from a man before he has nothing to lose?About the AuthorWarren Adler is best known for The War of the Roses, his masterpiece fictionalization of a macabre divorce turned into the Golden Globe and BAFTA nominated dark comedy hit starring Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner and Danny DeVito. In addition to the success of the stage adaptation of his iconic novel on the perils of divorce, Adler has optioned and sold film rights to more than a dozen of his novels and short stories to Hollywood and major television networks. Random Hearts (starring Harrison Ford and Kristen Scott Thomas), The Sunset Gang (starring Jerry Stiller, Uta Hagen, Harold Gould and Doris Roberts), Private Lies, and Trans-Siberian Express are only a few titles that have forever left Adler's mark on contemporary American authorship from page to stage to screen. Warren Adler novels in recent development are: The War of the Roses - The Children, a feature film adaptation of the sequel to Adler's iconic divorce story, Capitol Crimes (Sennett Entertainment), a television series based on his Fiona Fitzgerald mystery series, Target Churchill, a historical thriller, and Mourning Glory, a dark comedy about a recently unemployed single mother seeking a rich husband by attending the funerals of wealthy widowers and posing as a friend of the deceased. Learn more about Warren Adler at warrenadler.com. Views: 26
In bestselling author Rochelle Alers' passionate, uplifting new series, four friends from very different backgrounds find new beginnings amid the sultry beauty of New Orleans... Corporate attorney Hannah DuPont-Lowell always pictured herself returning to New Orleans to retire—just not yet. But after her Manhattan company abruptly lays off its staff, there's no better place to figure out a next move than the porch of her plantation-style home. Nestled in the stunning Garden District, the DuPont House has been in Hannah's family for two centuries. With its eighteen rooms and two guesthouses, it's far more home than widowed Hannah needs. Still, it could make a wonderful inn, especially if she can convince her friends and former coworkers Tonya, Jasmine, and Nydia to join in the venture. But in the meantime, Hannah has a high school reunion to attend... College Professor St. John McNair, Hannah's one-time classmate, is still the finest guy in... Views: 26