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Poems that will Save Your Life: Inspirational verse by the world's greatest writers to motivate, strengthen and bring comfort in difficult times


John Boyes - 2010
    In this superb anthology can be found the best of the English-speaking world’s inspirational and reassuring verse, including such classics as Rudyard Kipling’s ‘If’ and W.H. Davies’ ‘Leisure’. This beautifully illustrated collection of over 120 poems is sure to offer solace, hearten the soul and motivate the human spirit.

Her Bohemian Husband (Marriages Made in India, #6)


Sundari Venkatraman - 2016
    Yeah, he’s struck by wanderlust and can’t remain at home for more than a couple of weeks at one time. Avantika Kamath, the dusky beauty from Bengaluru, has chalked out a rocking career for herself as a dancer, heading her own troupe, as well as being a Bollywood choreographer. It is love at first sight for her when she sets eyes on Shatru at her best friend Dia’s wedding to his twin, Bharat. Shatru’s attracted to Avantika but fears the commitment as he leads a Bohemian life while her life’s grounded. Can the two ends meet? Will Avantika be able to juggle her career and the marriage she wants with Her Bohemian Husband?

The Husband's Secret - A 30-Minute Summary


Instaread Summaries - 2014
    The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty - A 30-minute Instaread SummaryInside this Instaread Summary: - Overview of the entire book- Introduction to the important people in the book- Summary and analysis of all the chapters in the book- Key Takeaways of the book- A Reader's PerspectivePreview of this summary: Chapter OneCecilia's husband, John-Paul, is in Chicago on business. She is a busy mother and part-time Tupperware consultant. Her twelve-year-old daughter, Esther, is currently obsessed with the Berlin Wall. Cecilia has a piece of the wall from a trip she took to Germany several years ago. While in the attic searching for it, she finds a mysterious envelope with her name on it. A note on it says that it should only be opened in the event of her husband's death. She does not open it. When she mentions the letter to John-Paul on the phone, she is troubled by his awkward silence.Chapter TwoTess and Felicity are cousins. Felicity was always overweight until recently, when she joined Weight Watchers and lost forty pounds. Tess, her husband, Will, and Felicity own a marketing business together in Melbourne. Tess is worried about her mother, who has just broken her ankle, and her six-year old son, Liam, who is being bullied at school. Will and Felicity call Tess into a meeting to tell her they have fallen in love. Furious, Tess says she will move back to Sydney with Liam to help her mother. She believes that her husband became attracted to Felicity when she lost weight. She tosses cold coffee in their faces....

The Complete Opposite of Everything


Nour Abou Fayad
    He just doesn’t. He doesn’t overthink, he doesn’t second-guess himself, and he most certainly does not cry.YetThat’s all he’s been doing lately.He’s a mess and he just can’t seem to get it together.His friend, Rami, is no help.Nobody is.UntilYasmin comes along to reconnect with her homeland. She’s been away for too long. She needs to know her roots.And she’s the one person who understands what Adam’s going through, even when he doesn’t.But can two people, both with minds that can’t fully be trusted, help each other navigate the other’s journey towards self-discovery?

Sleep In Heavenly Peace Inn


Malinda Martin - 2014
     What could be a better destination for the holidays than a peaceful inn tucked in the picturesque mountains of Vermont? But when a blizzard hits, three couples will be forced to deal not only with the weather but also with the reality of their relationships. Mary Michaels, competent innkeeper is very good at her job. And at hiding her growing attraction for the inn’s handyman, Joe Puletti. Friend of her late husband, Joe is a great catch, but with a five-year old son and complications from her past, Mary is not. Lila Benson needs to reinvent her life. What the quiet, second grade teacher doesn’t need is to run into a face from her past—Dan Hamilton, football star that she helped tutor in high school. And fell hopelessly in love with. Celia and Richard Davis have brought their children Kevin and Jenna for a family vacation. It will be their last since the divorce will be final soon. However, Kevin and Jenna have hopes that a little time together is all their parents need to heal their family. Can these relationships be saved? Anything’s possible at Christmas. Especially with the help of three children, a man with a white beard, the inn’s mysterious manager, and a reindeer.

Refresh, Refresh


Benjamin Percy - 2005
    But the boys’ bravado fades at home when, alone, they check e-mail again and again for word from their fathers at the front.Often from fractured homes and communities, the young men in these breathless stories do the unthinkable to prove to themselves—to everyone—that they are strong enough to face the heartbreak in this world. Set in rural Oregon with the shadow of the Cascade Mountains hanging over them, these stories bring you face-to-face with a mad bear, a house with a basement that opens up into a cave, a nuclear meltdown that renders the Pacific Northwest into a contemporary Wild West. Refresh, Refresh by Benjamin Percy is a bold, fiery, and unforgettable collection that deals with vital issues of our time.

Nostalgia Has Ruined My Life


Zarah Butcher-McGunnigle - 2021
    Her activities are banal — applying for jobs, looking up horoscopes, managing depression, going on Tinder dates.'I want to tell someone I love them but there is no one to tell,' she says. 'Except my sister maybe. I want to pick blackberries on a farm and then die.' She observes the ambiguities of social interactions, the absurd intimacies of sex and the indignity of everyday events, with a skepticism about the possibility of genuine emotion, or enlightenment. Like life, things are just unfolding, and sometimes, like life, they don't actually get better. Zarah Butcher-McGunnigle's novella-in-fragments blends artifice with sincerity, is darkly funny, and alive to the incongruous performance that constitutes getting by.

Bottomless Cups


Joel Bresler - 2020
    What began as a mutual interest in sneak-reading comic books in class evolved into a friendship which has outlasted a great many Presidents and a whole lot more, besides.Teddy and Ray, along with two other boys, formed the core of a group of kids who did everything together. As teenagers, they discovered that restaurants gave free coffee refills even if you didn't order anything else, leading to a lifetime's worth of bottomless cups and frustrated restaurant owners. Now in advanced age, Teddy and Ray still meet regularly to drink too much coffee and talk about the things old guys usually tend to talk about. In between, they flash back to various times and events which helped shape their lives.One of their once-close group, who has enjoyed a modestly successful career in Hollywood, comes up with the idea of making a movie about their youthful experiences together and what came after for each of them. This would, of course, include starring the surviving originals as the present-day versions of their cinematic selves. For some, however, facing their past, present and inevitable future all in one sitting proves considerably more difficult than it looks on the silver screen.

Little Birds


Anaïs Nin - 1979
    From the beach towns of Normandy to the streets of New Orleans, these thirteen vignettes introduce us to a covetous French painter, a sleepless wanderer of the night, a guitar-playing gypsy, and a host of others who yearn for and dive into the turbulent depths of romantic experience.

Thirteen Ways of Looking


Colum McCann - 2015
    From the author of the award-winning novel Let the Great World Spin and TransAtlantic comes an eponymous novella and three stories that range fluidly across time, tenderly exploring the act of writing and the moment of creation when characters come alive on the page; the lifetime consequences that can come from a simple act; and the way our lives play across the world, marking language, image and each other.Thirteen Ways of Looking is framed by two author’s notes, each dealing with the brutal attack the author suffered last year and strikes at the heart of contemporary issues at home and in Ireland, the author’s birth place.Brilliant in its clarity and deftness, this collection reminds us, again, why Colum McCann is considered among the very best contemporary writers.

Serpent Girl


Matthew Carnahan - 2005
    He’s tripping out of his head on peyote. And someone seems to have made a half-assed attempt at slashing his throat. He can’t for the life of him remember what happened. And then it all comes back: His boys screwed him over.Bailey, college dropout and carny, was working props and rigging for a touring tent circus and freak show. The Freaks were the nastiest, most tweaked-out group of misfits Bailey had ever come across. But the Freaks were doing some shady bookkeeping in addition to a boatload of veterinary Quaalude and crystal meth. So to get the inside dope on the circus payroll, Bailey took up with Eelie, the Serpent Girl, and began an unexpectedly erotic and dangerous odyssey. As Bailey hits the road to track down his “friends” and get his loot back, a black-edged, hilarious caper unfolds. From Tank Deerflower, the drug-dealing rodeo rider, and Arnold, the fire-eater with a temper as black as his charred throat, to Sissy, the beautiful ex-junkie/whore who steals Bailey’s heart, strange characters and stranger events converge in this fast, gritty, and unforgettable novel. Crafted with artistry and deftness, Serpent Girl is a voyage into the darkest depths of carny life–and, remarkably, a tender love story to boot.From the Hardcover edition.

The Best Girls


Min Jin Lee - 2019
    Not her. Not her three sisters. Receiving approval only for uncomplaining sacrifice, she has resolved to take on her family’s troubles. She is a good girl. And she knows what good girls must do.The Best Girls is part of Disorder, a collection of six short stories of living nightmares, chilling visions, and uncanny imagination that explore a world losing its balance in terrifying ways. Each piece can be read or listened to in a single disorienting sitting.

Look! Look! Feathers


Mike Young - 2010
    A town of spilled peaches fields its own game show. A mosquito fogger finds an unlikely friend. The stories in Mike Young's debut collection Look! Look! Feathers tap into the surreal and sad, the absurd and ragged dreams scratching at the edge of the American heart. Punks drive auctioned police cars, and necklaces of bluebird bones are sold from a roadside van. In these tales of the Pacific Northwest, Young finds magic burrowed under the moss of ordinary life.

Speedboat


Renata Adler - 1976
    It remains as fresh as when it was first published.

The Fear of Ravens (Esme Quentin Mystery Book 4)


Wendy Percival - 2020
    Can a 19th century curse still wield its formidable power? What connects Anna with the 24 year-old mystery concerning the whereabouts of the charismatic Ellen Tucker?​Esme must uncover the truth to save Anna from becoming a 21st century victim, in a cruel repetition of her ancestor’s merciless fate.