A sparkling debut set in Mark Twain's boyhood town, Flood is a story of what it means to be lost . . . and found.
Laura Brooks fled her hometown of Hannibal, Missouri, ten years ago after a historic flood and personal heartbreak. Now she's returned unannounced, and her family and friends don't know what to make of it. She says she's just home for a brief visit and her high-school reunion, but she's carrying too much luggage for that: literal and metaphorical. Soon Laura is embroiled in small-town affairs--the contentious divorce of her rowdy best friend Rose; the campaign of her twelve-year-old godson, Bobby, to become the town's official Tom Sawyer; and the renewed interest of the man Laura once thought she'd marry, Sammy McGuire.
Leaving town when she was eighteen had been Laura's only option. She feared a stifling existence in a town ruled by its past, its mythological devotion to Mark Twain, and the economic and racial divide that runs as deep as the Mississippi River. She can't forget that fateful Fourth of July when the levees broke or the decisions that still haunt her. Now as the Mississippi rises again, a deep wound threatens to reopen, and Laura must decide if running away once more might be the best way to save herself.
The Saldaña family is your stereotypical family from Mexico who immigrated to Bakersfield, California to pursue the American dream of white picket fences, color televisions, and the wealth of opportunities. They are a tightknit, honest family who, after years of hard work and perseverance, seemed to have carved out a spectacular life for themselves. Then one fateful day everything changed when their eldest son was accused of a heinous crime wherein he was sentenced to spend the rest of his life in the darkest recesses New Quantico State Prison. Anatomy of Felon is a tale of what happens to that son in prison and how he goes from being an exemplary high school student and class nerd to an inmate in one of the toughest penitentiaries in the world. Once incarcerated, this self-proclaimed “nobody” learns to navigate the pitfalls of homicides, suicides, prison gangs, and really bad food, all the while plagued by a dark force that threatens to overtake the facility. Luckily for him, no matter how bad things get or how many times he’s betrayed, there’s one person who never gives up on him. This is a story of haters and hero’s, dark forces and unconditional love, and family.
A literary journey into the lives of three women, the struggles they face, and the victories they claim.
This multi-generational novel presents three women whose paths cross at the Lindell Retirement Home. Constance Maynard, fierce, intependent and proud, reflects on her long life promoting women's rights through her career as a professor of history. Eunice Fitch, the perfect caregiver, is often unlucky in love, yet even in middle age refuses to give up searching for the perfect man. Sam Clark is a young aide with a passion for poetry and , small beautiful things, but at war with her own large, ungainly physique. All together they weave a tapestry as rich and complex as the female experience itself.
Red-Handed Jill's lovers discover--a kiss is as good as a curse.
Hook and Jill indulge in shore leave on the welcoming sands of the Neverland. But when Jill is caught between husband and paramour, her idyllic days turn into nightmare. Even in this generous land, Captain Hook is a dangerous man.
The lonesome Captain Cecco rescues Raven, an Indian widow who diverts him from his obsession for Jill. But Hook, too, finds Raven tempting. As his need for her heightens, so does the rivalry of Jill's tempestuous men.
Jill's own charms turn against her when a clever hunter from the Indian tribe stalks her heart. As tribal taboo is violated, the balance of the Neverland shifts like an overturned hourglass. Left on her own in an amorous trap, Jill must conjure her most potent magic.
The enchanted isle can be open-handed with hospitality, and with treachery, too. In order to thrive--or survive--Hook and Jill, like their allies and adversaries, may be forced to give as liberally as their Island. Jill's kiss may bring bliss or a curse, yet one thing is certain. Whatever else might be lost, Captain Hook never loses command.
Other Islands, Book Three of the award-winning Hook & Jill Saga, is a worthy sequel to the series' preceding masterworks. Lush with literary elegance, this story explores forms of generosity--usual, and unusual. Andrea Jones re-imagines J.M. Barrie's timeless island, "always changing, yet ever the same."
Outing the Mermaid takes you on a journey into the 1960s and 70s world of civil rights, feminism, Vietnam, gurus, Mafiosi, the Pill, the Beatles, class distinctions, astrology, and the eternal mystery of what’s going on between men and women.
Subtitled A novel of love, fear & misogyny, Ann Medlock’s roman å clef is a journey into the life of Lee Palmer, a smart woman making some bad choices as she tries to find her place in that Mad Men world. Divorced, a mom, and working “outside the home” in a time when that was odd, Lee pioneers a path she finds repeatedly blocked by misogyny—and by her own unrealized programming for submissiveness.
Early readers, in these “lean-in” times, have reported shouting No, don’t do that! when Lee makes a wrong move. They’ve also fist-pumped in triumph when she gets something right. It’s a deeply engaging story, to say the least.
You feel watched. It's nothing new, but the feeling is amplified when the streets are busy. That hum in your head is now a buzz.
Laika desperately wishes for a new life. At fourteen, she's hardened and independent, living on the streets of Southern California. She's finally free of her volatile home but yearns for true stability.
As Graham, a waiter at a local Russian restaurant, watches Laika steal and struggle to survive, he sees there is something else going on. Something dangerous. An insidious disease that gnaws at her mind and drags her deeper into a world of chaos and delusion.
Laika brings to light the often-shrouded world of paranoid schizophrenia. It also examines the socially stigmatized issues of homelessness, addiction, and PTSD, in the hopes of fostering greater awareness and compassion.
A middle-aged man, an ancient dog, and a new Mustang. A search for sustenance in a battered America. Carson McCullough has given his career to a singular pursuit—putting out a small daily newspaper that keeps his employees engaged and his hometown informed. But as time and technology conspire against him, Carson’s Argus-Dispatch is shuttered by an owner with a different view of its future. Stung by the abrupt end of his career and burdened by regret and grudges, Carson and his one true companion, a yellow Lab named Hector, set out on a road trip. As the miles pile up and Carson erratically drives into the residue of past decisions and the consequences of current actions, he confronts questions of love, faith, self-worth, and, perhaps most pressing, whether he can redefine himself after his identity is stripped away. In his seventh novel, Craig Lancaster (600 Hours of Edward, The Fallow Season of Hugo Hunter) returns to the broad themes of his award-winning work and goes deeper yet, straight into the heart and mind of a good man who has lost his way and is struggling against himself to set things right.
DANIEL ARROYO has suffered a lifetime of guilt over the sudden death of his infant sister, who died when he was eight years old. He now lives his middle years between that guilt and worsening episodes of PTSD from a Vietnam he left thirty years ago. When a violent encounter on a dusty highway forces Daniel to face what haunts him, he finds himself pulled back to the neighborhood of his youth, where old houses hold tired secrets. What really happened on that steamy August afternoon? The answer comes spilling from the old neighborhood, and Daniel begins to find his way home. Corran Harrington takes the reader along the Rio Grande, from its headwaters to the sea.
“A Child of Arthur” is an autobiographical novel with an inspirational message. It will appeal to adult readers of all ages. The story is this: In 1980, depressed, disillusioned, and emotionally paralyzed by recent loss and betrayal, actress Grace Archer returns to a mountain village in Switzerland she once held dear. During a life-threatening event on that mountain, she is rescued by Klaus Urhaber—a mysterious man who seems to know more about her than she herself knows. With him, she embarks upon a romantic, dangerous journey. Her quest leads her to answers to questions many of us face today: What do you do when hope fades? Where do you go when you no longer believe in the future?
Fiction. Amina Gautier's THE LOSS OF ALL LOST THINGS won the Elixir Press 2014 Fiction Award. It is a short story collection that illuminates the beauty that can be found in inconsolable loss. Gautier leads us through terrible reality but leaves us with the promise of hope and redemption. Contest judge, Phong Nguyen had this to say about it: "Literary fiction that grips us and won't let us go is notoriously rare. To offer us complex emotional experience and riveting narrative momentum, and then to leave the reader in contemplation of its sophisticated themes and subtle weave of objective correlatives... that is the stuff of literary greatness, of art that demands to be read in conversation with the canon...Gautier's stories have you by the throat, and they surprise you with their mercy."
Mumbai Matinee depicts the life and culture around the city of Mumbai through 8 interconnected stories. Key scene sketches accompany the narrative to spark the reader's imagination.
Ajay doesn't know what to expect when he moves to the bustling city of Mumbai. He himself hails from North India, and the culture shock of the dynamic city takes a bit of getting used to. He's captivated, though, and Ajay falls in love with the colorful metropolis and its many inhabitants. In the city, he will find love, friendship, and community--but also danger and the threat of disaster.
It all begins in 1993, when Ajay comes to Mumbai on a short internship assignment. He is caught in the shock wave of the 1993 serial bombings. Despite this brush with death, Ajay is determined to learn the secrets of the city.
After graduation, he comes back and finds new stories in the city's streets. Ajay meets an interfaith couple who teach him about the power of love, a local labor leader who is more than he seems, and a dynamic acting teacher who could become something more. He also suffers another close call more than a decade after the bombings. Still, for every troubling experience, there's one that pushes Ajay beyond his comfort zone and spurs him to embrace all his adopted city has to offer.
PFC Bell, a newly-minted U.S. Army MP, quickly discovers that there’s more than a war going on along QL 4, the main road from Saigon into the Mekong Delta. It’s old-fashioned crime and corruption. He doesn’t want to get involved, just serve out his time and go home, but life for an American MP in Vietnam in 1970 doesn’t work that way. QL 4 leads Bell deep into a swamp of deception, mayhem, and death that insinuates its way both into towns the MPs patrol each day and into the old French villa where they live.
A Captivating Exploration of Mourning and West Texas
Hunter’s friend Ty survived war in the Middle East only to succumb to cancer at home. On a quest with his college buddies and Ty’s father, Hunter journeys from South Texas into the mountains and desert of West Texas to bury his close friend. During this trek, they’ll drink, hunt, party, and encounter unexpected people and enthralling landscapes as Hunter deals with his grief, compounded by his struggle with depression and obsessive–compulsive disorder.
The West Texas Pilgrimage is a love letter to West Texas and the wild culture that defines it. Author M. M. Wolthoff vividly depicts the regional landscape, exploring intriguing stops along the way and the authentic context of music, food, and language integral to this generation of Texans, while frankly and thoughtfully addressing relationships, mourning, and mental illness, with characters as unforgettable as the region itself.
