On a hot midsummer morning, after sixteen years of marriage, Jane saw her husband fifty feet away and did not recognise him. Alan has changed because he's injured his back. Pain has altered his appearance, but he has also changed in other ways: he has become glum and demanding. Jane has to do everything for him - fetching, carrying, shopping, cooking, even dressing and undressing him. When she longs for escape, her mother accuses her of selfishness - of course she can't abandon a man so handicap...
At the age of seventy-two, Lily Roberts became a national celebrity on writing her first book - a spiritual memoir. But her new-found fame was not well received by her son Alan and wayward daughter Clary, both profoundly disturbed by Lily's intimate revelations about her married life. Ten years on their resentment is still raw, and when Lily, now ill and frail, comes to live with Alan, the bitter legacy of their very different memories threatens to upset the precarious balance of their lives.
Stacy and Roger seem to have it all: a wonderful marriage, a luxury Upper East Side apartment, and two endearing young children enrolled in private schools. But Roger is drafting a suicide note, and keeps a Glock in his glove compartment. What appears to be "the good life" to their family and friends is not what it seems...
The grown-up Anne of Green Gables, her husband, and their six children live in a special hideaway known as Rainbow Valley.
"Sonia and Kennard have the "perfect" life: they both have successful careers, beautiful twins, and a charming house. But despite the fact that Kennard is a faithful breadwinner, his emotional distance from the family makes Sonia believe that a good marriage must be more than in name only. Sonia is a grown woman with responsibilities; she's too old for make-believe ... Adrian couldn't love her husband, Darryl, more if she tried. He's the one person who's shown her what real love means. But when...
A funny, heartwarming story about a feisty group of women who shake, spice, and heat things up with a “recipe” book for romance, from the bestselling author of Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons. Newly installed at All Souls Lutheran, Mallory “Pastor Pete” Peterson soon realizes that her church isn’t merely going through turbulent waters, but is a sinking ship. With the help of five loyal members of the Naomi Circle, the young, bold minister brainstorms fundraising ideas. They all agree that the...
Ring Around the Bath: Topsy-turvy family life
by Lucy Clare and Ian Davidson
A riotous sitcom about a mother battling to get her adult children to leave homeIn this wonderful, fraught, witty, real comedy about a middle-aged mother desperate to begin her post-children life, Stella is wondering why those grown-up children are all still in her house. Dreaming of retiring to a life in the countryside with her husband, instead she's dealing with four extra people in the house, rooms that urgently need de-junking, surprise pregnancy tests, difficult neighbours and a mother who...
The second title in Sheelagh Kelly's bestselling 'Feeney' saga tells how one treacherous act can turn a brother's love into a murderous rage! In the summer of 1867 a sudden change in the fortunes of the Feeney family saves them from their life of struggle and poverty in the mean back streets of York. But what will save the Feeney family from itself? Patrick and Thomasin Feeney and their children, Erin, Richard and Sonny, each have different dreams -- and as these dreams grow under the influence...
The new novel from internationally acclaimed author Paulo Coelho – a dramatic story of love, life and death that shows us all why every second of our existence is a choice we all make between living and dying. Veronika has everything she could wish for. She is young and pretty, has plenty of boyfriends, a steady job, a loving family. Yet she is not happy; something is lacking in her life, and one morning she decides to die. She takes an overdose of sleeping pills, only to wake up some...
Mildred Pierce (Crime masterworks, #27) (Wisconsin/Warner Brothers Screenplays S.)
by James M. Cain
Joan Crawford forged a new and successful screen image in this powerful women's "noir" film; winning her an Academy Award for best actress. Albert J. LaValley's through and insightful guide to "Mildred Pierce" at once tells us much about the making of this complex film, the problems and process of transferring the story to the screen, the specific and important roles of the producer, director, and set designer, and how the film relates to broad trends within the industry. It is without a doubt t...
A quietly powerful presence in American fiction in during the past two decades, these collected stories show the true scale of Hempel's achievement. Her compact fictions, populated by smart neurotic somewhat damaged narrators, speak grandly to the longings and insecurities in all of us, and in a voice that is bracingly direct and sneakily profound. These are stories about people who make choices that seem inevitable, whose longings and misgivings evoke eternal human experience. With her trademar...
Can a New York City journalist exchange her subway pass for an SUV and find happiness? Can a small-town wife and mother take on the role of single city woman and discover a whole new life? Jessie Holland is in search of a hot story for Savvy magazine when her editor poses a compelling question -- can you ever really go home again? Jumping on the idea, and with her love life currently at a crossroads, Jessie plans to return to her Arizona hometown and follow the path not taken -- with a twist....
Norwegian born Katriina and Irish Architect Max have built their perfect life; a stunning eco-home in the Scottish Highlands, successful and fulfilling careers, and the icing on the cake D two beautiful children, Louis and Lyssa. But, buried beneath the foundations of their marriage lurks a terrible secret and when a stranger comes into their lives, events take an unexpected and dramatic turn. In this provocative novel, twenty years of love, life and longing are wiped out in an instant. Praise f...
Make Believe Match (Texas Cattleman's Club: The Wedding, #4)
by Joanne Rock
An NYRB Classics Original A humble clerk and his loving wife scrape out a quiet existence on the margins of Tokyo. Resigned, following years of exile and misfortune, to the bitter consequences of having married without their families’ consent, and unable to have children of their own, Sōsuke and Oyone find the delicate equilibrium of their household upset by a new obligation to meet the educational expenses of Sōsuke’s brash younger brother. While an unlikely new friendship appears to offer a w...