Narrative theme: love / relationships

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe truth behind a teenage girl’s disappearance becomes something to conceal in a gripping novel about justice, lies, and impossible choices by New York Times bestselling author Catherine Ryan Hyde. When nineteen-year-old Jill Moss goes missing near the Utah-Arizona border, everyone has an opinion. Only Norma Gallagher, a search and rescue volunteer, knows the real story. Norma’s already found Jill, huddled in a cave and terrified that her abusive boyfriend, Jake, will kill her. If he ever sees her again. To protect Jill from a dangerous man, Norma quietly delivers the girl to her grateful parents in California, even though she’s conflicted. Keeping Jill safe and hidden from Jake, the press, and the public will be their secret. But secrets can’t last forever. Five years later, the disappearance stirs a new media frenzy when Jake is arrested for the murder of Jill Moss—and Norma knows he didn’t kill her. As Jake is about to stand trial, lust for retribution inflames public opinion and Jill’s family refuses to come forward, forcing Norma to make a life-changing decision. What are the consequences if she stays silent? And what are the risks if she dares to finally tell the truth?Trade Review“Prolific author Hyde raises thorny issues around domestic violence, examines the power of misplaced guilt, and illustrates the bonds of shared experience in her take on a ripped-from-the-headlines story. Her characteristic empathy is on full display…” —Booklist “In Catherine Ryan Hyde’s gripping novels, ordinary people become extraordinary because of their determination to do the right thing…No matter which Hyde book you read, life after that reading seems just a bit different, a bit more satisfying and a bit more hopeful.” —Bookreporter

Read more less

Book SynopsisAn electrifying novel about a woman in thrall to the exhilarating rhythms of Manhattan, lost in the dizzying promise of youth, and fatally naive to the dark pressures of fame. When Rolling Stone journalist Kayla McCray is assigned a cover story on pop icon Lexi Mayhem, Kayla stumbles across a startling new angle to the exposé. Years ago, another rising star from Lexi’s past mysteriously leaped to her death. Some things are better off forgotten, Lexi says. Kayla disagrees. It’s 2005 and Ava Petrova moves to New York with a notebook full of songs and a dream. Then she meets Lexi, an up-and-coming singer who brands Ava with an enigmatic new stage name and introduces her to an intoxicating city alive with possibilities. From fast friends and kindred spirits to creative muses and inseparable soul mates, Ava and Lexi embark on a parallel journey to stardom, but there is room for only one at the top. As past and present converge, Kayla chases the ghost of a young woman doomed by betrayal and erased by a secret, and unravels the truth that it takes more than ambition to become a star.Trade ReviewPraise for The Rise and Fall of Ava Arcana “Read-in-one-sitting…Banash masterfully interweaves guilt, love, remorse, and yearning with a bit of playfulness, creating a tale that is multifaceted in its content and spirit.” —Booklist “Banash’s sublime new stunner immerses us in an intoxicating female friendship between two young singers, each striving for pop stardom, until one of them suspiciously dies, later leading a Rolling Stone journalist to dig out the truth no one seems to want uncovered. A psychological why-done-it about the glittering allure and tragic cost of fame, and the heady bliss of bonding, all set against an unforgettable soundtrack of love and deception.” —Caroline Leavitt, New York Times bestselling author of With or Without You and Pictures of You “Gritty, propulsive, and complex, Banash paints a vivid picture of two young women navigating their way through the dark side of the music industry and the journalist who uncovers their shocking truth years later. I found myself completely transported into Banash’s world of glittering stages, bright city lights, and deeply nuanced, compelling characters. The Rise and Fall of Ava Arcana is an addictive read that will leave you wanting more.” —Julia Spiro, author of Full and Someone Else’s Secret “I devoured this suspenseful and perceptive read about the price of fame, the dangerously blurred boundary between envy and admiration, and the tantalizing pull of those who recognize your potential and your desires. Urgently narrated in dual timelines, The Rise and Fall of Ava Arcana introduces us to three unforgettable women: the passionate, dogged Kayla; the dreamy, yearning Ava; the irrepressible, brazen Lexi. I’ll be thinking about them for a long time.” —Caitlin Barasch, author of A Novel Obsession “The Rise and Fall of Ava Arcana is one of the sexiest novels I’ve ever read. While it is a thriller, a mystery, and an excavation into the backstabbing glamour of the music industry, Jennifer Banash is also first and foremost an absolute master of sensual details and whip-smart dialogue, making her female protagonists leap off the page in an electrical storm. This novel is one part propulsive beach read, one part feminist deep dive into the ways women ferociously love, impulsively betray, and ultimately redeem each other. And did I mention that it’s hot?” —Gina Frangello, author of Blow Your House Down and A Life in Men “I binged this twisty mystery thriller that probes the darker side of fame and female friendships. The Rise and Fall of Ava Arcana is as addictive as any Netflix series.” —Liska Jacobs, author of The Pink Hotel “This dark, sexy novel combines the rocker-chick moxie of Daisy Jones & the Six with the psychological-thriller plot twists of Social Creature. Banash’s clear, lush prose makes The Rise and Fall of Ava Arcana a gripping read.” —Kate Christensen, author of The Last Cruise and The Great Man

Read more less

Book SynopsisFrom a delightful new voice in fiction comes the story of a stay-at-home dad reclaiming his past and discovering a new future. Jack Parker didn’t set out to be a stay-at-home dad, but his professional dreams went up in smoke after he accidentally burned down his office building. Six years later, Jack’s got parenting his two kids down cold. Then comes an unwelcome blast from Jack’s past: high school nemesis Chad Henson. He beat out Jack for class president, stole his girlfriend, and never had so much as a pimple in his four years of adolescent bliss. Now Chad has moved to the same midwestern town Jack calls home. When Jack learns Chad is running for president of his daughter’s school board, he decides to run to settle old scores. But parent politics prove more cutthroat than Jack could have imagined, and he’s facing unexpected challenges in his marriage, too, forcing him to question his role in the family. Suddenly, the election is about more than Jack’s past. It’s an opportunity to discover the person he wants to become. People grow up, but some high school rivalries never die. It’s time Chad Henson got schooled once and for all—and for Jack to learn a few things of his own.Trade Review“Introducing a witty new voice in literary fiction, Schooled explores the uneasiness that comes with trading high-powered business lunches for leftover macaroni and cheese and the importance of taking the little wins wherever you can find them.” —Booklist

Read more less

Book SynopsisFrom Perfectly Impossible author Elizabeth Topp comes an unforgettably searing novel about a band of mothers who are forced to reckon with themselves after the unexpected loss of one of their own. When beautiful and successful Susan Harris jumps from the roof of her apartment building, she sets a tremor through her New York City mothers’ group that forces them all to look at one another with new cynicism: How could this have happened right under their noses? To one of them? Between her death and the harrowing private school admission season on the horizon, these women are forced to explore the hard truths about themselves. Vic, a single mom with literary aspirations, is shocked and confused by the unexpected death of her best friend. Bhavna, a makeup executive, tries to process Susan’s death while sacrificing everything to get her son into the school of his dreams. Kara’s sister died by suicide years earlier, so she’s been down this road before—or so it seems. Penelope and Amy are navigating a business deal when Susan dies, but is it worth the toll on their families? And how will Chandice, battling cancer, come to terms with Susan’s death? For these women, the loss of a fellow mother forces them to reexamine who they really are while the futures of their children hang in the balance.Trade Review“[T]he novel’s scathing observations about Manhattan's wealthiest parents are wildly entertaining. An engrossing, unflinching critique of elite parenting in Manhattan.” —Kirkus Reviews “Topp packs a lot into the narrative while thoroughly fleshing out each of her protagonists. There’s much to enjoy in this character-driven portrait of the high-stakes world of New York private school admissions.” —Publishers Weekly “In this haunting novel, Topp delicately peels back the gilt layers of privilege to expose the true cost of living amid Manhattan’s 1 percent, where the things that matter—ease, self-esteem, and love—are always tantalizingly out of reach…promised in the next purchase, the next investment, but never delivered. Topp dares to ask, If your child’s admission to an elite school could be an entrée into this world, would you take it? Should you?” —Nicola Kraus, coauthor of The Nanny Diaries “Liz Topp brilliantly gets into the minds of five different women as they deal with the pride-swallowing process of applying to kindergarten in New York City. What could have been a predictable jaunt is made fresh and intriguing with a plot twist in the first chapter. You won’t be able to put it down until the last.” —Laurie Gelman, author of Class Mom “Sharp, unflinching, and dirty with secrets, City People speaks volumes about the isolation of motherhood, the shades of ambition, and the power of loss to push us together or pull us apart. In overlapping narratives that radiate from one cataclysmic event, Elizabeth Topp deftly explores the chasm between public persona and private reality, forcing us to question our own preoccupation with image versus truth.” —Nora Zelevansky, author of Competitive Grieving “With echoes of Big Little Lies, City People offers a sharply observed portrait of Manhattan private school culture, disrupted by one mother’s hidden pain and tragedy.” —Robin Kirman, author of The End of Getting Lost

Read more less

Book SynopsisFrom Perfectly Impossible author Elizabeth Topp comes an unforgettably searing novel about a band of mothers who are forced to reckon with themselves after the unexpected loss of one of their own. When beautiful and successful Susan Harris jumps from the roof of her apartment building, she sets a tremor through her New York City mothers’ group that forces them all to look at one another with new cynicism: How could this have happened right under their noses? To one of them? Between her death and the harrowing private school admission season on the horizon, these women are forced to explore the hard truths about themselves. Vic, a single mom with literary aspirations, is shocked and confused by the unexpected death of her best friend. Bhavna, a makeup executive, tries to process Susan’s death while sacrificing everything to get her son into the school of his dreams. Kara’s sister died by suicide years earlier, so she’s been down this road before—or so it seems. Penelope and Amy are navigating a business deal when Susan dies, but is it worth the toll on their families? And how will Chandice, battling cancer, come to terms with Susan’s death? For these women, the loss of a fellow mother forces them to reexamine who they really are while the futures of their children hang in the balance.Trade Review“[T]he novel’s scathing observations about Manhattan's wealthiest parents are wildly entertaining. An engrossing, unflinching critique of elite parenting in Manhattan.” —Kirkus Reviews “Topp packs a lot into the narrative while thoroughly fleshing out each of her protagonists. There’s much to enjoy in this character-driven portrait of the high-stakes world of New York private school admissions.” —Publishers Weekly “In this haunting novel, Topp delicately peels back the gilt layers of privilege to expose the true cost of living amid Manhattan’s 1 percent, where the things that matter—ease, self-esteem, and love—are always tantalizingly out of reach…promised in the next purchase, the next investment, but never delivered. Topp dares to ask, If your child’s admission to an elite school could be an entrée into this world, would you take it? Should you?” —Nicola Kraus, coauthor of The Nanny Diaries “Liz Topp brilliantly gets into the minds of five different women as they deal with the pride-swallowing process of applying to kindergarten in New York City. What could have been a predictable jaunt is made fresh and intriguing with a plot twist in the first chapter. You won’t be able to put it down until the last.” —Laurie Gelman, author of Class Mom “Sharp, unflinching, and dirty with secrets, City People speaks volumes about the isolation of motherhood, the shades of ambition, and the power of loss to push us together or pull us apart. In overlapping narratives that radiate from one cataclysmic event, Elizabeth Topp deftly explores the chasm between public persona and private reality, forcing us to question our own preoccupation with image versus truth.” —Nora Zelevansky, author of Competitive Grieving “With echoes of Big Little Lies, City People offers a sharply observed portrait of Manhattan private school culture, disrupted by one mother’s hidden pain and tragedy.” —Robin Kirman, author of The End of Getting Lost

Read more less

Book SynopsisFrom the bestselling author of The Kindness of Strangers comes a poignant and life-affirming novel about our connections to the past, and the promise for the future during the least promising of times. Grieving but feisty widow Vivian Laurent is at a late-in-life crossroads. The man she loved is gone. Their only daughter is estranged and missing. And the assisted-living facility where her husband died is going into quarantine. Living in lockdown with only heartache and memories is something Vivian can’t bear. Then comes a saving grace. Luna, a compassionate nursing assistant and newly separated mother, is facing eviction. Vivian has a plan that could turn their lives around: return to her old home and invite Luna and her two children to move in with her. With the exuberant eleven-year-old Wren in her hot-pink motorized wheelchair and Wren’s troubled older brother, Cooper, the new housemates make for an unlikely pandemic pack, weathering the coming storm together. Now it’s time to heal old wounds, make peace with the past, find hope and joy, and discover that the strongest bonds can get anyone through the worst of times.Trade Review“With compassion, candor, and humor, Katrina Kittle explores how a ragtag group of people on the verge can redefine what it means to be a family, in all its messy unpredictability. Told through multiple perspectives, this life-affirming, heartwarming novel captures the unlikely friendships and connections that can emerge out of perilous circumstances—and ultimately make life worth living.” —Christina Baker Kline, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Orphan Train and The Exiles “Morning in This Broken World is a heartfelt take on the family we’re born with, the family we choose, and the messy, beautiful intersections between the two. Katrina Kittle gifts us with an unforgettable protagonist, an endearing supporting cast, and a moving story about what it really means to call a place ‘home.’ The world would be a better (and dare I say less broken) place if it were filled with more novels like this one.” —Jessica Strawser, author of A Million Reasons Why “Katrina Kittle’s latest novel puts a moment in our collective memory into a context so comforting, so beautiful, and so hopeful that it is impossible not to look back on that time in a new light. Morning in This Broken World offers an emotional read full of heart-stirring highs and cathartic sorrows. I am buying stock in tissues before this novel comes out.” —Kelly Harms, bestselling author of Wherever the Wind Takes Us “There are very few writers who can address the human condition in such a thoughtful and poignant way as Katrina Kittle. If you are looking to escape into a wonderfully diverse and entertaining world, this book is exactly what you are looking for as a reader.” —Angela Jackson-Brown, author of The Light Always Breaks “Morning in This Broken World is a heartening reminder that even early in the COVID-19 pandemic, joy found a way to persist. Without contrivance or sentimentality, Kittle gives us a cast of characters who fight to be their best selves against terrible odds—both personal and global—armed with humor, hope, and the strength of human connection. This novel is in some ways an apocalypse story and, like the best of them, a powerful reminder of what we have to live for.” —Erin Flanagan, Edgar-winning author of Deer Season and Blackout “Kittle has written a beautiful and emotional novel about the families we choose to create when we need them the most. This is a novel that celebrates love and hope and why we matter to one another.” —Adriana Trigiani, author of The Good Left Undone

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe rescue of two missing boys in the Sierra Nevada mountains relies on unraveling the mysteries of the past in an addictive novel of heartrending suspense. After inheriting his uncle’s lodge, Silas Matheson hopes the grandeur of the California Sierra Nevada will be a fresh start for his two young sons, and a chance to finally face his demons. It was here, fifteen years ago, that Silas and his friends Jessica, Danny, and Meg ventured into the mountain wilderness and Jessica vanished without a trace. When his boys go missing in the same dark woods, the fear and guilt that Silas has been running from ever since come crashing back. Silas’s panicked call brings in the local search-and-rescue unit, and two familiar faces: Danny and Meg. As the frantic search gets underway, the three friends are plunged into a painfully recurring nightmare, each of them thinking, This can’t be happening again. With a storm brewing and the boys’ fates threatened with every desperate hour, the secrets of the past begin to surface, and this time, for Silas, Danny, and Meg, there’s no escaping the truth.Trade Review“The Wild Between Us shows how a suspense novel should be written. The tension ramps up with every scene, starting with the call out through to the shocking resolution. With the authentic description of the search and rescue mission, and the beautifully realized characters and scenery, Amy Hagstrom has created a story that all readers of suspense will relish, an achievement all the more remarkable given it’s by a debut author.” —Authorlink “The Wild Between Us is an unputdownable novel full of heart-stopping suspense and emotions. I couldn’t read fast enough and was blown away by this stellar debut.” —Lyn Liao Butler, Amazon bestselling author of Someone Else’s Life “If the tragedy that defined your life threatens to repeat, is it a moment of reckoning or redemption? That question drives this gripping dual-timeline story set in the Sierra Nevada. As rescuers race to find two missing boys, the mission reunites key players in an unsolved disappearance from fifteen years earlier. Packed with secrets, guilt, and regret, I loved every heart-pounding moment with Silas, Meg, and Danny. The Wild Between Us is a phenomenal debut!” —Barbara Claypole White, bestselling author of The Perfect Son and The Promise Between Us “The Wild Between Us is a taut, engrossing story about searching for lost people and lost love…Part thriller and part tender love story, this novel will find resonance with a wide array of readers.” —Nicole Baart, bestselling author of Everything We Didn’t Say and The Long Way Back “Revolving between two search and rescue missions fifteen years apart in the Marble Lake wilderness, like two points of gravitational pull, The Wild Between Us explores the depths of guilt, secrets, and the unbearable weight of time in the face of tragedy. This immersive thriller had me riveted from the first page. Do not miss Amy Hagstrom’s exceptional debut!” —Mindy Mejia, bestselling author of Everything You Want Me to Be and To Catch a Storm

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn this witty, warm novel by award-winning author Corinne Demas, unexpected changes bring two retirees together on a voyage of self-discovery from past regrets to the true meaning of happily ever after. Widower Noah Shilling considers Clarion Court to be less an independent living community and more a prison. But there may be hope for the place yet. The newest resident is bold, eccentric, rule-breaking Cassandra Joyce—whom, as it turns out, Noah met long ago in college. As Noah and Cassandra get reacquainted, major changes at Clarion Court force them both to reevaluate their living situation. When Noah invites Cassandra to rough it with him at his Cape Cod cottage, the old friends must decide whether they should risk embarking on the next stage of their journey together. But moving forward means coming to terms with the past and relying on each other to do so, which is something the stubbornly independent pair may not be ready for. They’ve come this far on their own, and unless they can reconcile a lifetime of emotional baggage, the road they started down together may lead instead to parted ways.Trade Review“How welcome and true: late love, beautifully and wryly rendered. Both light hearted and insightful, with age-defying charm and wit, The Road Towards Home is a totally satisfying (and identifiable!) read.” —Elinor Lipman, author of Ms. Demeanor and Rachel to the Rescue “Corinne Demas is amazing! The Road Towards Home is about two opinionated, rigid, and, yes, curmudgeonly septuagenarians who will have you falling in love and rooting for them as they negotiate and argue their way to a last run at happiness. Noah and Cassandra are so believable that I’m certain I’ve been over at their house for dinner—and the dialogue between them made me laugh out loud and also shake my head at their stubbornness. I utterly adored this novel, which is filled with wisdom and generosity and heart, qualities that readers of all ages will appreciate.” —Maddie Dawson, bestselling author of Matchmaking for Beginners “When Noah (saved the world with a boat) meets Cassandra (sees the future way too clearly) at the aptly named Clarion retirement home, they are both seriously not getting with the program. Though barely acquainted, they agree to escape together. As they break free from the planned trajectory and plunge into the uncharted territory of each other, you’ll be rooting for the oldsters all the way. The Road Towards Home is a wonderful novel—engaging, wry, and genuinely touching.” —Valerie Martin, author of Property and I Give It To You “In the novel The Road Towards Home, feisty entomologist Cassandra Joyce, who has been married multiple times, moves to a senior-living community. Quickly, she finds Clarion Court is not her clarion call. So, too, does widower Professor Noah Shilling, whose son and daughter-in-law are behind his relocation. When Cassandra drives Noah to his summer cottage on Cape Cod, there’s a lifetime of baggage to be unpacked. Kudos to Corinne Demas—heralded author of thirty books for children, teens, and adults—for this late-in-life romance: a story that shows both love and friendship can be found where and when least expected…and most necessary. Cassandra and Noah will open your mind—and your heart—to finding love at any stage of life. Uniquely uplifting.” —Marilyn Simon Rothstein, author of Crazy to Leave You “This latest novel by the always wonderful Corinne Demas is about a growing relationship through the hiccups of aging. The two main characters are both fascinating and thoughtful people. He an English professor emeritus, she a bug-and-spider scientist plus bird-watcher. The ‘home’ of the title is rather two homes: the first where they remeet (they knew one another in college some fifty years in the past), and the second Noah’s rather charming but broken-down cottage on a Cape Cod marsh, a great metaphor for the two of them. They are both wise and wisecrackers, both loving and snarky. And I, at eighty-three, sat up half the night finishing the book. It’s that good.” —Jane Yolen, award-winning author of The Devil’s Arithmetic and the short story collection The Scarlet Circus

Read more less

Book SynopsisThree grown women find escape and camaraderie on sorority row in a delightfully exhilarating novel about fresh starts, whether you want them or not, by New York Times bestselling author Jen Lancaster. How fast can charity fundraiser CeCe Barclay’s unimpeachable society life come tumbling down? One minute she’s speaking before Chicago’s glitterati. The next, her financier husband is wanted for embezzlement. Her assets seized and her fall mortifyingly public, CeCe grasps for refuge—and employment—as a sorority housemom at Eli Whitney University, her daughter Hayden’s alma mater. Tasked with preparing a stately—but in CeCe’s estimation shabby—house for rush, CeCe isn’t the only one navigating a new life. Janelle Smith’s last experience as a housemother was at a Jersey strip club, where she witnessed a mob hit. To keep her safe until trial, WITSEC finds her a new identity and a housemom position on Eli Whitney’s sorority row, where Janelle’s conflict mediation and tolerance for high estrogen levels make her a star employee. For Hayden, a barista at a hopelessly hip off-campus café, the goal is to flee everything Barclay: the money, the scandals, and the exasperating family nonsense. What next? Though CeCe’s not ready to sell her Chanel bag, she’s open to reinvention. Hayden might even admit she needs help in her new independent life. And Janelle’s due for a personal triumph. But big challenges loom between the alabaster columns of Eli Whitney, unexpected and dicey enough to bring them all together—if only to keep them from falling completely apart.Trade Review“[A]n intriguing and compelling tale with complex characters…look[ing] at the sisterhood formed in sororities that extends to those who work in, and around, them.” —Kirkus Reviews “The book shines in its emphasis on the power of women having each other’s backs and rooting for one another. This novel is a witty, wild ride and an overall gripping read with unforgettable, wholesome moments.” —Booklist “Scathingly witty.” —The Boston Herald “Witty and hilarious…Jen Lancaster is like that friend who always says what you’re thinking—just 1,000 times funnier.” —People “No matter what she’s writing, it’s scathingly witty and lots of fun.” —Publishers Weekly “Hilarious.” —InStyle “Witty, bitingly funny, and even thought provoking.” —The Book Chick “Jen Lancaster is like a modern-day, bawdy Erma Bombeck.” —Lisa Lampanelli, New York Post

Read more less

Three grown women find escape and camaraderie on sorority row in a delightfully exhilarating novel about fresh starts, whether you want them or not, by New York Times bestselling author Jen Lancaster. How fast can charity fundraiser CeCe Barclay’s unimpeachable society life come tumbling down? One minute she’s speaking before Chicago’s glitterati. The next, her financier husband is wanted for embezzlement. Her assets seized and her fall mortifyingly public, CeCe grasps for refuge—and employment—as a sorority housemom at Eli Whitney University, her daughter Hayden’s alma mater. Tasked with preparing a stately—but in CeCe’s estimation shabby—house for rush, CeCe isn’t the only one navigating a new life. Janelle Smith’s last experience as a housemother was at a Jersey strip club, where she witnessed a mob hit. To keep her safe until trial, WITSEC finds her a new identity and a housemom position on Eli Whitney’s sorority row, where Janelle’s conflict mediation and tolerance for high estrogen levels make her a star employee. For Hayden, a barista at a hopelessly hip off-campus café, the goal is to flee everything Barclay: the money, the scandals, and the exasperating family nonsense. What next? Though CeCe’s not ready to sell her Chanel bag, she’s open to reinvention. Hayden might even admit she needs help in her new independent life. And Janelle’s due for a personal triumph. But big challenges loom between the alabaster columns of Eli Whitney, unexpected and dicey enough to bring them all together—if only to keep them from falling completely apart.

Read more less

Book Synopsis“Charming, laugh-out-loud funny, and honest, The Better Half celebrates the absurdity and joy in life, and does so with an enviable grace and good heart.” —Mindy Kaling From comedy writing duo Alli Frank and Asha Youmans comes The Better Half, a sidesplitting spin on reaching the pinnacle of life, only to stare down a slippery slope on the other side. After a difficult five years, at age forty-three, Nina Morgan Clarke’s time has finally arrived. With an ex-husband relocated across the country, her father bouncing back after the loss of his beloved wife, and her daughter, Xandra, thriving at boarding school, Nina is stepping into her dream job as a trifecta: a first-generation, Black female head of the storied Royal-Hawkins School. To mark the moment, Nina and her best friend, Marisol, take a long-overdue girls’ trip to celebrate the second half of Nina’s life—which is shaping up to be the best part of her life. As Nina’s school year gets underway, all seems to be progressing as planned. Before long, wunder-hire Jared Jones, two hundred pounds of Harvard-educated ego, relentlessly pushes Nina to her ethical limits. Soon after, dutiful Xandra accuses one of her teachers of misconduct. And most alarming, the repercussions of her trip with Marisol force Nina into a life-altering choice. Time is of the essence, and Nina must decide if she will embrace a future she never could have predicted.Trade ReviewNamed one of AARP's Hot Summer Novels of 2023 “The third book from comedy writing duo Alli Frank and Asha Youmans dazzled Mindy Kaling so much that she is publishing the book under her own imprint launched in 2022, Mindy’s Book Studio.” —Entertainment Weekly “Best Books of Summer 2023” “The Better Half is a rom-com unafraid to tackle weighty issues, and Nina’s narrative voice is a delightfully funny one.” —The Seattle Times “Charming, laugh-out-loud funny, and honest, The Better Half celebrates the absurdity and joy in life, and does so with an enviable grace and good heart.” —Mindy Kaling “The Better Half sizzles with sharp observations and even sharper wit from the first page to the delicious end. Alli Frank and Asha Youmans are a formidable team skewering the culture that forces women into roles while writing characters who both embrace, eschew, and finally succeed in their own powerful way.” —Ann Garvin, USA Today bestselling author of I Thought You Said This Would Work

Read more less

Book SynopsisFor two old friends with so much to hide, playing catch-up is a dangerous game in a propulsive novel of suspense by the author of Mother of All Secrets. Writer Carrie Colts hopes a move to Montauk will be a rejuvenating change of pace for her family. The last thing she expects to see is her former college roommate on her doorstep. Newly widowed, and with a daughter of her own, Maya would love to reconnect. As a gesture to an old friend in mourning, Carrie extends an invitation to stay. Just for a few days. After all, there are reasons that Carrie and Maya are estranged. Carrie soon regrets her impulsive offer. Someone has taken a pair of scissors to her college yearbook. Her herb garden is destroyed. She’s starting to receive sinister texts. And Maya is making herself a little too much at home. What does Maya really want? What is she hiding? Carrie’s afraid to ask. Because Maya knows all her secrets, and exposing them comes with a price Carrie can’t afford to pay.Trade Review“Kathleen Willett has done it again! Anything for a Friend is chock full of domestic tension, twisty plot turns, and compelling female characters. I couldn't put this one down! After reading this page-turner, you might think twice about inviting your oldest friends into your home…” —Katie Sise, nationally bestselling author of We Were Mothers, Open House, and The Break “Ominous, twisty, and impossible to put down. I raced to the end!” —Nora Murphy, author of The Favor and The New Mother “Twisty and totally bingeable, Kathleen M. Willett’s Anything for a Friend is a dark and devious exploration of female friendship that kept me turning the pages into the night, but fair warning—this story might make you think twice before picking up the phone when an old friend just wants to ‘catch up.’” —Rachel Koller Croft, author of Stone Cold Fox “An old friend’s return threatens to unearth dark truths in Kathleen Willett’s newest page-turner. Twisty and full of suspense, Anything for a Friend explores deception, the push and pull of complicated friendships, and the cost of keeping a secret. I tore through it.” —Allison Buccola, author of Catch Her When She Falls

Read more less

Book SynopsisFrom the USA Today bestselling author of When We Believed in Mermaids comes an emotional novel about two women facing the betrayals, heartbreaks, and refuge of true friendship. Phoebe and Suze used to be closer than sisters. Growing up in a quiet and wildly beautiful coastal town in Oregon, they shared everything. Until the secrets they couldn’t share threatened their bond and complicated their lives. Now, decades later, Suze, a famous actress desperate for safe haven following a brutal attack, is back in town. Phoebe, a successful illustrator and fabric designer, has discovered keeping a secret means she can’t let anyone get close, aside from her beloved granddaughter, Jasmine. As Jasmine’s move to London looms, Phoebe doesn’t know how to face the return of her old friend and all that’s still unsaid between them. Can the two women who’ve never confronted their past do it now when the choice is between healing and survival? Heartfelt and layered, The Starfish Sisters is a moving story about the complicated nature of female friendship, the joys and heartbreaks of life, and the resiliency and power that women possess.Trade ReviewPraise for The Starfish Sisters “Barbara O’Neal is at the top of her game. The Starfish Sisters is a gorgeous, heartfelt story about two lifelong friends who, now estranged, must battle their way back to each other after years of betrayals and jealousy and misunderstandings. Suze is a famous, world-traveling movie star who seems to have everything but love—while her former best friend, Phoebe, does art and nurtures the people around her. O’Neal has written a deeply harrowing, suspenseful, and ultimately loving book that explores the nature of women’s friendships and the lengths to which we all will go to protect those we love from danger. I read it far into the night, and, yes, I wept a few tears along the way.” —Maddie Dawson, Washington Post bestselling author of Matchmaking for Beginners Previous Praise “A wonderfully moving tale…This Place of Wonder will sweep you away.” —Colleen Hoover, #1 New York Times bestselling author “Kristin Hannah readers will thoroughly enjoy the family dynamic, especially the mother-daughter relationships.” —Booklist (starred review) on This Place of Wonder “A woman’s strange disappearance brings together four strong women who struggle with their relationships, despite their need for one another. Fans of Sarah Addison Allen will appreciate the emphasis on nature and these women’s unique gifts.” —Library Journal (starred review) on The Lost Girls of Devon “An emotional story about the relationship between two sisters and the difficulty of facing the truth head-on.” —Today on When We Believed in Mermaids “Elegiac but also forward-looking…I loved every moment of it.” —Julie Powell, author of Julie & Julia and Cleaving on This Place of Wonder “Great writing, terrific characters, food elements, romance, a touch of intrigue, and more than a few surprises to keep readers guessing.” —Kirkus Reviews on The Art of Inheriting Secrets

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis*“A treasure of a novel…read it and be healed.” —Justin Cronin * “Beautifully written and emotion-packed.” —Harlan Coben * From the New York Times bestselling author of The Silver Linings Playbook—made into the Academy Award-winning movie starring Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper—a poignant and hopeful novel about a widower who takes in a grieving teenager and inspires a magical revival in their small town.Lucas Goodgame lives in Majestic, Pennsylvania, a quaint suburb that has been torn apart by a recent tragedy. Everyone in Majestic sees Lucas as a hero—everyone, that is, except Lucas himself. Insisting that his deceased wife, Darcy, visits him every night in the form of an angel, Lucas spends his time writing letters to his former Jungian analyst, Karl. It is only when Eli, an eighteen-year-old young man whom the community has ostracized, begins camping out in Lucas’s backyard that an unlikely alliance takes shape and the two embark on a journey to heal their neighbors and, most importantly, themselves. From Matthew Quick, whose work has been described by the Boston Herald as “like going to your favorite restaurant. You just know it is going to be good,” We Are the Light is “a testament to the broken and the rebuilt” (Booklist, starred review). The humorous, soul-baring story of Lucas Goodgame offers an antidote to toxic masculinity and celebrates the healing power of art. In this unforgettable and optimistic tale, Quick reminds us that life is full of guardian angels.

Read more less

Book SynopsisTwo refugees find that their lives are inextricably linked—over time and distance—by the perils of history and a single haunting piece of music.Born in Beirut in 1922, Marguerite Toutoungi lives a life of loss and sacrifice. She dreams of traveling to Europe and studying music at the Conservatoire de Paris but her family—and her society—hold her back. When she meets the son of a Cuban tobacco farmer at a formal dance, love transforms her life. Together with him, she flees across the Atlantic Ocean. She’s hoping for a new beginning. Instead, she finds revolution and chaos. Over fifty years later, Naïm Rahil is a teenage refugee from Aleppo, Syria. A former piano prodigy who struggles to thrive in America—and who has lost part of his hand in the war—he dreams of a simple, normal life. Moving from Aleppo on the brink of civil war, to Lebanon in the late 1940s, to Havana during the Cuban Revolution, to the suburbs of Washington, DC, The Refugee Ocean grapples with what it means to be an immigrant, shows how wounds can heal, and highlights the role of music and art in the resilience of the human spirit.

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisCelebrate the fortieth anniversary of Jackie Collins’s Hollywood Wives with this gorgeous special edition, the first title in the iconic Hollywood series from the #1 New York Times bestselling author and “queen of sexy stories” (Daily Mirror, London).They’re a privileged breed—glamorous, glossy, and demanding. When life is this fast, there are no guarantees. Status is everything, and you’re only ever as popular as your husband’s latest box-office hit. Elaine Conti: Bronx girl turned Hollywood hostess, determined to relaunch her husband’s fading acting career back into orbit. Angel Hudson: Married to a hot young actor and an innocent beauty prey to Hollywood’s most unscrupulous men. Montana Grey: Gorgeous renegade, ambitiously driven to succeed in the male-dominated world on the other side of the camera. Hollywood Wives is a scorching blockbuster that exposes the glittering microcosm that is Beverly Hills before racing to a gripping and unexpected climax. Captivating, fun, and deliciously sexy, this classic is its own version of Hollywood magic.

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisDuring the summer of 1955, death came to town. Reporters circled soon after. Some would snatch tidbits and fly away; others would stay for the full feast. The first body was embedded into the soil of a field of dandelions, grass, weeds, and stalks of volunteer corn. Hidden like a bug crushed by a rolling pin into soft dough. The earth, unlike dough, was more accepting of the intruder. It sipped from the offering before scavengers could deprive it of its due. A herd of cows retreated to a more distant piece of their world of square corners and wire. The human, who provided them hay and a little treat of sweet feed, would become an occasional memory. For now, the body was undiscovered. Not yet noticed by birds or animals, spectators or police. Just a corpse, partially buried in a field.

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn She Who Lies Above, Beatriz Hausner brings Hypatia of Alexandria, the fourth century Byzantine mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher, to life. She does so through layered ventriloquism: publishing amorous correspondence from the feminist icon's friend and former student, Synesius the Cyrene, and scribing Hypatia's replies in turn. These letters are "discovered" by Bettina Ungaro, a librarian and archivist by day, poet by night. She, in turn, collates the correspondence to build a vision of the couple's relationship while writing a kind of postmodern critique of contemporary book and reading culture. These interjections both borrow from and juxtapose writing from ancient times, and, in doing so, explore the evolution of modern knowledge keeping. The result is a rigorous, hyper-layered collection of poems that are elegiac and erotic; steeped in appreciation for a life of books and the technical and transcendent brilliance their authors can exhibit.

Read more less

Book SynopsisKasia Van Schaik’s debut story collection follows the journey of Charlotte Ferrier, a child of divorce raised by a single mother in a small town in British Columbia after moving from South Africa. Mother and daughter wait out the end of a bad year in a Mexican hotel; a friendship is tested as forest fires demolish Charlotte’s town; a childhood friend disappears while travelling through Europe; and a girl on the beach examines the memories of dying jellyfish. The stories traverse the most intimate and transforming moments of female experience in a world threatened by ecological crisis. Longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize 2023.Trade Review"Full of diffuse longing and hallucinatory memory, these stories shimmer and compel like half-remembered dreams. Van Schaik's poetic linked collection brings the reader on an evocative journey across decades and continents." Saleema Nawaz, author of Songs for the End of the World"We Have Never Lived On Earth contains a bright humour, a sharpness. There's an authentic, human thrumming behind these stories. With their focus on mothers, fathers, and daughters, these linked stories explore how initial models of care feed into our romantic loves. Kasia Van Schaik captures the souring phase of relationships, where the glue has become brittle and two individuals begin to lean away from each other. Yet the characters forge their way through these moments of dislocation with grace, humour, and the perfect amount of self-awareness, which makes the reader laugh out loud, or nod knowingly. At least it did for me." Eliza Robertson, author of Demi-Gods"Few writers can work with memory as vividly as Kasia Van Schaik—fusing fiction and remembrance with confidence, sensitivity and the shivering logic of dream. These are stories that glitter and then duck away from view, like a swimmer half-discerned. A beautiful book you can't forget." Sean Michaels, Giller Prize-winning author of Us Conductors and The Wagers“A riff on loneliness. Exquisitely written. Profoundly moving. A must read.” Rosemary Sullivan, OC, award-winning author"In Kasia Van Schaik’s visionary stories a generation will recognize its rootlessness and frail sense of futurity, as well as its desire for grace. We Have Never Lived On Earth is a beautiful collection that explores all realms of experience—what we see and what we dream. I couldn’t get enough of this work’s exquisite precision and depth." Seyward Goodhand, author of Even That Wildest Hope“We Have Never Lived On Earth speaks to many readers’ own experiences of childhood, adolescence, and adulthood, which involve the difficult work of figuring out how to move through loss and grief and, ultimately, how to be most alive in all of our imperfections. I have read many novels and collections that capture the feeling of threat the world can impose upon female bodies, but the quality of Van Schaik’s prose made these experiences alive, honest, and corporeally real throughout each story in a way I had not encountered before." Heather Jessup, author of The Lightning Field and This Is Not a Hoax: Unsettling Truth in Canadian Culture“Traversing themes such as transience, loss, painful attachment, and belonging, Kasia Van Schaik’s stories recall literary icons Mavis Gallant and Alice Munro, though with a more immediate, youthful, contemporary lens. The vital introduction of topics such as parenthood in an age of climate crisis, Canada’s history of genocide against Indigenous peoples, as well as immigrant women and girls’ experiences in Canada, make this a powerful and much-needed addition to Canadian publishing.” Jenna Butler, author of Magnetic North"Charlotte is a compelling heroine whose story captures the specific strangeness of contemporary women’s comings-of-age with pathos, poetry, and humor. The collection is engrossing, compulsively readable, bold in its formal experimentation, and masterful on both the sentence and story levels." Miranda Cooper, Foreword Reviews, September/October 2022 [Full review at https://www.forewordreviews.com/reviews/we-have-never-lived-on-earth/]"Kasia Van Schaik’s debut short story collection explores the slipperiness of memory, poking at the past to see what kinds of ephemeral meaning might be found there. Throughout, Van Schaik’s craftsmanship is unfaltering. She sketches out fully realized characters with just the lightest of strokes, then traces connections between them that resonate with familiarity… We Have Never Lived on Earth augurs the arrival of a major literary talent, a writer of great skill with an unfailing barometer for emotional resonance. It’s an outstanding debut collection that’s polished and unvaryingly satisfying, leaving an enduring mark on the reader’s memory." Jury comments, Concordia University First Book Prize“Themes of geography, movement, departure, and renewal animate We Have Never Lived on Earth, weaving a narrative cohesiveness that balances the contrast between stories set at various times and in various places…. As a narrator, [Charlotte] is incisive and compelling; as a character, she is appealingly vulnerable. The collection manages to be both dense and sparsely elegant…. The writing is intellectually rich without being obtrusive, and often warm and poignant, sometimes highlighting moments that hover between comedy and pathos…. We Have Never Lived on Earth is bold in the questions it asks, and the scope of the narrative it conveys, but in the tradition of the best short stories, it is the small, precisely rendered moments that make it resonant, familiar, and refreshing.” Danielle Barkley, Montreal Review of Books, December 8, 2022 [Full review at https://mtlreviewofbooks.ca/reviews/we-have-never-lived-on-earth-kasia-van-shaik/]“We Have Never Lived On Earth explores the care that exists between mothers and daughters, and between friends and lovers. It also considers what it means to care for other species — land animals, birds and whales — and, above all, for the planet.” -- Carol Matthews, British Columbia Review of Books, December 8, 2022. [Full review at: https://thebcreview.ca/2022/12/08/1659-matthews-van-schaik/]"Van Schaik debuts with a compelling collection of short stories. The character-driven coming-of-age narratives focus on Charlotte, a South African immigrant raised by her single mother in Canada. The stories explore every intimate aspect of life... Notes of fantasy give the richly detailed writing a dreamlike atmosphere, while topics from objectification to ecology keep listeners tethered to reality... [The stories] will appeal to listeners seeking brief, beautiful stories about family, friendships, and their power to transform. Recommended for fans of Chelsea Bieker, Elizabeth Strout, and Zadie Smith." Lauren Hackert, Library Journal, August 2023"Kasia Van Schaik is an extraordinary writer. She paints story worlds from memory akin to how Isak Dinesen recreated her farm in Africa. She drills into difficult topics like parental neglect, sexual assault, heartbreak, poverty, aloneness and mental illness without shame, and with a tragic beauty that reminds of Elizabeth Smart or Heather O’Neill. And she describes Charlotte’s most vulnerable insecurities – her disappointments, her secrets, the moments that break her heart – in so intimate a way you feel like your own heart is breaking." Wanda Baxter, The Miramichi Reader, March 16, 2023 [Full review at https://miramichireader.ca/2023/03/we-have-never-lived-on-earth-stories-by-kasia-van-schaik/]"We Have Never Lived on Earth is the debut collection of Kasia Van Schaik, a South African-Canadian writer. In this Bildungsroman of linked short stories, Charlotte, a nomadic young woman, leaves home, tries different careers and lovers, travels to Germany to teach, and wanders through Europe. Beautifully written and rich in allusions to women writers (Virginia Woolf, Emily Carr, H.D.), the collection captures the loneliness and chaos of the narrator’s transition to maturity.... Juxtaposing personal truths and imagery of ecological crisis, We Have Never Lived on Earth explores a young woman’s insights into the hazards of living on earth." Kat Cameron, Prairie Fire Magazine, October 23, 2023 [Full review at https://bit.ly/3Qvy3Ri]Table of ContentsHow Will You Prepare for Happiness? Premium Girl Highwayman House on Carbonate The Peninsula of Happiness A Girl in Nova Scotia A Girl Called Helsinki Swimming Upright How to Be Silent in German Notes on a Separation Visitor to Crete Houseboat Youth Orchestra Stingray Cellular Memory The Cascades This Is Fine We Have Never Lived on Earth An Ounce of Care Notes Acknowledgements

Read more less

Book SynopsisThese twelve new short stories from Astrid Blodgett explore the consequences of grief and denial and single moments that change perceptions, lives, and attachments forever. Crisp prose and unexpected plot twists move relatable characters through vivid outdoor settings and interior depths. A child negotiates adult behaviour when an injured dog is put down. An older sister bribes a younger one to go on her first date. A family canoe trip launches from Disaster Point. A woman wants to hurl her granddaughter’s birthday cake out the window. This Is How You Start to Disappear shows all the heartbreaking ways we evolve when coping with change or trauma.Trade Review“This Is How You Start to Disappear is for readers who revel in stories told with both skill and passion, stories with twists, stories without ready resolutions.” Rona Altrows, author of At This Juncture"In these precisely paced and deceptively dark stories, Astrid Blodgett sweeps out the dust bunnies of contempt and devastation from the junk drawers of her characters’ family homes. These stories do what short stories do best: every word flexes its muscles, every detail teeters on an iceberg of deeper meaning. This Is How You Start To Disappear is a complex and satisfying compilation of unsteady bridge crossings between our childhood and adult selves." Susan Sanford Blades, author of Fake It So Real“This collection is an intimate embrace of the moments and memories that define us. With pitch perfect prose and heaps of tension, Blodgett pierces so deep into her characters’ hearts and minds you feel as if you breathe their same air. Beautifully imagined and bursting with compassion, every story is a stunner!” Fran Kimmel, author of The Shore Girl and No Good Asking“With compassion and acute observation, Astrid Blodgett writes about events, large and seemingly small, that can change the trajectory of a life. Familial fractures spread like cracks in winter ice as Blodgett investigates those moments that divide her characters’ lives into “before” and “after,” whether they are loyalty tests one sister demands of another or a father so preoccupied with his new relationship that he can’t see his young daughter’s struggles at a skating party. At times, Blodgett’s characters recognize a life-changing event only after it has swept past them, but the reverberations will be felt for decades to come. These finely wrought, multigenerational stories pivot around such moments, as ordinary working people cope with the unexpected tragedy and dislocating circumstances of their unfolding lives.” Rachel Rose, Giller-longlisted author of The Octopus Has Three Hearts“Readers will enjoy Astrid Blodgett’s new collection of short stories. Her characters, plots, and incidents have originality and she engages with contemporary social problems, giving psychological depth to the stories.” Michael Trussler, University of Regina“Astrid Blodgett explores intimate relationships, with a focus on family drama and trauma, in 12 absorbing new short stories. As adults, a brother and sister recall the summer that spelled the end of their parents’ marriage. Teen girls at summer camp play a dangerous game that ends in tragedy. And a woman who has already suffered a full share of heartbreak and disappointment in life hits a breaking point when she makes a birthday cake for her granddaughter and the kid’s mother scrapes off the homemade icing and piped-on flowers.” Pat St. Germain, Edmonton Journal, August 12, 2023#5 on Edmonton Bestsellers list, September 3, 2023#8 on Edmonton Bestsellers list, September 10, 2023#1 on Edmonton Bestsellers list, September 17, 2023"In these stories Astrid Blodgett resists flamboyance. But her stories are not quiet. They simmer with a grammar of discontent." W.H. New, The British Columbia Review, September 24, 2023 [Full review at https://thebcreview.ca/2023/09/24/1937-new-blodgett/]#7 on Alberta Fiction Bestsellers list, October 10, 2023#9 on Edmonton Bestsellers list, October 22, 2023#3 on Edmonton Bestsellers list, November 12, 2023"The title of Astrid Blodgett’s latest collection of short stories succinctly describes what could happen to any of us throughout life: we may disappear at the surface, within ourselves, or within relationships.... It’s not often I come across a book of short stories written by the same author where every single story resonates or is worthy of deeper thought or discussion like this one. I’d recommend This Is How You Start to Disappear for a book club or English 101 studies as a model for form, structure and riveting storytelling." Mala Rai, Miramichi Reader, December 31, 2023 [Starred review at https://miramichireader.ca/2023/12/this-is-how-you-start-to-disappear-by-astrid-blodgett/]#4 on Alberta Fiction Bestsellers list, November 2023 https://readalberta.ca/recommendations/bestsellers/alberta-bestsellers-november-2023/#4 on Alberta Fiction Bestsellers list, December 2023 [https://readalberta.ca/recommendations/bestsellers/alberta-bestsellers-december-2023/]Table of ContentsThese People Have Nothing Devil’s Lake Everything’s Fine, Actually Alex and Clayton and Raylene and Me This Will All Be Over Soon The Fainting Game The Kite How to Read Water Dear Hector When Sleep is Easy The Night the Moon Was Bright and We Ate Pigs and Brownies and Drank Fizzy Beer and Didn’t Remember Much at All, in the End The Golden Rice Bowl

Read more less

Book SynopsisA classic road trip memoir about love, family, and surprisingly conversational wildlife. In 2019, artist Jon Claytor said good-bye to the Maritimes and hit the road. His destination: an artist’s residency in Prince Rupert, where he planned to work on a graphic novel about his eight-week journey across Canada. But this story, like most, isn’t about the destination.When Jon sets out, he’s less than two years sober, he’s recently broken up with his girlfriend, and his mother has just revealed a startling family secret. As Jon drives, he makes frequent stops to visit exes and children, old friends and new, and attends meetings to support his sobriety. He sorts through memories of his past, reconciling them with his present—and makes amends, seeks wisdom from wildlife, and learns the value of getting lost along the way.In Take the Long Way Home, Claytor explores alcoholism, love, and family through heart-rending vignettes and expressive linework. This is the story of a man who unpacks a difficult past, only to discover that even at his lowest point, he was never truly alone.

Read more less

Book SynopsisCass Reisender doesn't enjoy her psychic abilities. They appeared after her parents were killed in a tragic accident and led her to Madame Freyja, a travelling fortune teller and all-round terrible person. Swearing to leave both her psychic sensitivity and Madame Freyja behind, Cass starts again in Calgary, Alberta, a city with nothing supernatural about it at all. Then Cass touches a strange antique device and her new life is blown apart. Transported to West Orange, New Jersey, in the year 1900, Cass meets the dashing Erik Thorvaldsen in Thomas Edison's – that Thomas Edison's – laboratory. As she and Erik grow closer, Cass finally accepts herself as she finds love in a life lived across centuries. Yet Madame Freyja lurks in the shadows, hungry for the power of the time travel device. When Madame Freyja strikes, Cass must face both her fears and her past or lose her connection to Erik forever. Flicker is a playful, fast-paced romp through the golden age of invention, mythology, and the supernatural. This is a novel for everyone who believes in the power of scientific curiosity and the strength of the human heart.

Read more less

Book SynopsisWorld War II veteran Hank Dunfield is about to turn one hundred years old. The staff at Ponderosa Pine Lodge have recruited Sarah, a young nursing student, to keep Hank safe, comfortable, and in the building while they plan a grand centenarian celebration. There's one problem: Hank doesn't want to live that long.Seemingly opposites, Hank and Sarah kindle a deep friendship. Sarah fears the future with multiple sclerosis will be even more isolated, difficult, and painful than the isolated, difficult, and painful present. Hank, a tail gunner during the Second World War, opens his heart to share the deep knowledge of fear, luck, and flying into battle he learned over his. combat missions. Sarah and Hank find strength in each other as they face their deepest fears.Based on interviews with veterans in Alberta seniors' homes and the skilled nurses who care for them, Flight Risk is the story of finding exactly who you need when you least expect it. An empathetic exploration of grief, friendship, and hope, this play asks what we lose when we ignore the knowledge of our elderly, challenges the way that we think about aging and death, and inspires a brighter, more compassionate future.

Read more less

Book SynopsisA poignant novel imbued with music from the Giller Prize ? shortlisted author of Like This and Twenty-Six that follows two social outcasts as they navigate through their traumatic pasts.The worst moment of Sam''s life was captured on video and shared across the Internet for all to gawk at. This is something she has in common with Robot, who just wants to move past the mistakes he''s made, if only his small town will let him. When the two meet in a high school music class, they start to find their way to each other. Music might offer a way not only forward, but forward together, if Sam and Robot can overcome the echoes of the moments that made them infamous.The past reverberates in ways we don''t expect, in this new novel by Giller Prize ? shortlisted author Leo McKay, Jr. From family secrets and old relationships that resurface, to the tape loops that endlessly replay private moments of trauma and despair, What Comes Echoing Back travels back and forth in time to get to what''s true, with humour, humanity, and the healing power of music.

Read more less

Book SynopsisSet in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, this romantic tale unfolds against a background of political unrest and tenant agitation in Ireland. The poet William Butler Yeats is a central figure in the Irish literary revival, while Maud Gonne, a political activist, is passionately involved in the struggle for Irish independence. But this is not a dissertation about Yeats’ work, nor is it about the history of the day or the political involvements of Maud Gonne. It is a love story, containing some of the most poignant poems ever written.

Read more less