Life as Augusta Rockwell knows it changes once she unearths a box of old letters written by her estranged husband, Nick Flemming, the love of her life and the father her children have never known. She's told her daughters that their absent father was actually a spy, which is why he couldn't be part of their lives. But the letters reveal that Nick has secretly been keeping tabs on his family all these years from afar-a discovery that, while shocking, has the potential to mend the fractured and wayward lives of the three Rockwell sisters.
When Sophie and Darius say good-bye to their teenage daughters one morning, they have no idea how permanently their family will be affected by a decision made around the breakfast table. One daughter has a terrible accident and the other meets a boy. Both events will change their lives and relationships forever.
The author charts Jon Stewart's unlikely rise to political stardom, from his early stand-up days and the short-lived but acclaimed The Jon Stewart Show. Drawing on interviews with current and former colleagues, she reveals how things work behind the scenes at The Daily Show.
An Italian Wife opens in turn-of-the-century Italy, when young Josephine Rimaldi is forced to follow her new husband to America in an arranged marriage and finds herself in a strange country with a man she doesn't know or love. Bound by tradition, she gives birth to seven children; the last, conceived in a passionate affair, Josephine must give up for adoption. Josephine spends the rest of her life searching for this child, keeping her secret even as her other children, whose stories unfold in surprising ways, go off to war, get married, and make their own mistakes,
Faye Longchamp hates finding and selling artifacts. But she's doing it to save something she loves - the plantation manor held by the women in her family ever since her great-great-grandmother inherited it. Faye makes a little money on the legitimate dig on a nearby island until that work is interrupted by the murder of two young members of the crew. Then bones of a much older murder are uncovered, and clues lead Faye to suspect an old friend, a long-time business partner, and a new love interest.
Middle brother Kendall Armstrong wrote the ad calling for women to come to his tornado-ravaged Georgia hometown . . . but there's only one woman he really wants to answer the call---civil engineer Amy Bradshaw.
Oldest brother Marcus Armstrong, who opposed having women imported into their town in the first place, is thrown for a loop by a waitress who isn't at all what she seems.
When the Armstrong brothers place an ad in a newspaper to bring women to their tornado-ravaged Georgia hometown, Porter, the youngest brother, is so blown away by the number of newcomers, he falls off the water tower---and fortuitously meets sweet and sexy Dr. Nikki Salinger.
Valentina DeLuca has made hundreds of brides' dreams come true at her boutique where she, her sisters, and their mother design and sew couture knock-off gowns. Now it's her turn. Valentina has loved Michael Carello ever since he rescued her from a cranky shopkeeper when she was ten years old. He's handsome, chivalrous, and loyal, and in a few weeks she's going to marry him in Venice. Just when she thinks everything is falling into place, Valentina is forced to reexamine her life to see what truly makes her happy.
Can you marry young and remain faithful all your life? Will marriage fulfill your deepest desires? Is a secret the same as a lie? To whom should you be most loyal, your best friend or your spouse? These are some of the questions troubling Irene West, the wife of goodhearted Max West, the editor of a small town Massachussetts newspaper. The Wests' best friends are the glamorous Cunninghams; their four children are friends, too. For ten years the two families vacation every August in Irene's summer house on Nantucket. In August one of the children is diagnosed with cystic fibrosis, a genetically-based disease that will force Irene to expose all the secrets she's been hiding.
When Boston’s revolutionary leader, Samuel Bradstreet, dies suddenly on the day Stewart Jameson was to paint his portrait, Bradstreet’s slaves are accused of murder. Jameson, Francis Weston, and the brilliant doctor Ignatius Alexander set out to determine the truth. What they discover turns topsy-turvy everything you thought you knew about the Founding Fathers.
In 2004, Stephanie Saldana traveled to Syria to study the role of Jesus in Islam. At an ancient Christian monastery she confronted her wavering faith and met a young novice monk. As they explored the mysteries entwining Christianity and Islam, Stephanie realized that she had found God again and that she was in love. But would Frederic choose God or Stephanie?
Amid a starkly beautiful but uncanny landscape in New Mexico, a married couple from Cambridge, MA takes residency at a distinguished academic institute. When the husband is stricken with a mysterious illness, misdiagnosed at first, their lives are uprooted and husband and wife each embarks upon a nightmare journey. At thirty-seven, Michaela faces the terrifying prospect of widowhood -- and the loss of Gerard, whose identity has greatly shaped her own.
wo words: the bullet. That's all it takes to shatter her life. Caroline Cashion is beautiful, intelligent, a professor of French literature. But in a split second, everything she's known is proved to be a lie. A single bullet, gracefully tapered at one end, is found lodged at the base of her skull. Caroline is stunned. It makes no sense: She has never been shot. She has no entry wound, no scar. Then, over the course of one awful evening, she learns the truth: she was adopted when she was three years old, after her real parents were murdered. Caroline was there the night they were attacked. She was wounded too, a gunshot to the neck. Surgeons had stitched up the traumatized little girl, with the bullet still there, nestled deep among vital nerves and blood vessels. That was thirty-four years ago. Now, Caroline has to find the truth of her past. Why were her parents killed? Why is she still alive?
To some, Catherine de Medici was the ruthless queen who led France into an era of savage violence; to others, she was the passionate savior of the French monarchy. From the fairy-tale chateaux of the Loire Valley to the battlefields of the wars of religion to the mob-filled streets of Paris, here is the journey of one of the most misunderstood women ever to be queen.
Remarkably candid, compulsively readable, this is renowned chef Cat Cora's no-holds-barred memoir on Southern life, Greek heritage, same sex marriage, and the meals that have shaped her memories.
When sisters Rhiannon and Billie --- one, a former racecar driver and the other a recently-released prisoner --- meet up for the first time in months, they must embark on a road trip together to complete the scavenger hunt their mother designed for them before her death, a hunt which will take them across America, all while a slew of plane crashes flood the news.
Iris, recovering from her husband’s murder, wants only to carry on as a keeper at the zoo but when her boss is mauled to death by an elephant, she is nominated to investigate, uncovering a vicious feud, veterinary secrets and a bitter old flame. Meanwhile, activists are picketing to have the elephants sent to a sanctuary and animals begin disappearing into thin air.
Moving from the drawing rooms of prewar Paris to the lives of men and women in wartime France, these ten stories cover the details of social class; the tensions between mothers and daughters, husbands and wives; the manners and mannerisms of the French bourgeoisie; and questions of religion and personal identity.
Cassandra Brooks comes upon the vision of a young girl hanging from a tree but when she returns with authorities, the girl has vanished, leaving in question Cassandra’s credibility and sanity. What follows is the narrative of ever deepening and increasingly bizarre divinations that will lead her hurtling toward a past she’d long since thought was behind her.
