Seven years into their marriage, they decide to take a sabbatical, a sailboat journey on which they sum up their years together and try to make important decisions about the years ahead. (Google Books)

     In 1950, Constantine Stassos, a Greek immigrant laborer, marries Mary Cuccio, an Italian-American girl, and together they produce three children: Susan, an ambitious beauty, Billy, a brilliant homosexual, and Zoe, a wild child. Over the years, a web of tangled longings, love, inadequacies and unfulfilled dreams unfolds as Mary and Constantine's marriage fails and Susan, Billy, and Zoe leave to make families of their own. Zoe raises a child with the help of a transvestite, Billy makes a life with another man, and Susan raises a son conceived in secret, each extending the meaning of family and love. With the power of a Greek tragedy, the story builds to a heartbreaking crescendo, allowing a glimpse into contemporary life which will echo in one's heart for years to come.

    Wrenn," who would be writing you directly and explaining everything most satisfactorily. At thirty-four Mr. Wrenn was the sales-entry clerk of the Souvenir Company.

    If you're born in Venus Holler, you're not much. For Jamalee Merridew, her hair tomato red with rage and ambition, Venus Holler just won't cut it. Jamalee sees her brother Jason, blessed with drop-dead gorgeous looks and the local object of female obsession, as her ticket out of town. But Jason may just be gay, and in the hills and hollows of the Ozarks that is the most dangerous and courageous thing a man could be.Enter Sammy Barlach, a loser ex-con passing through a tired nowhere on the way to a fresher nowhere. Jamalee thinks Sammy is just the kind of muscle she and Jason need.

    As the girls and boys gather, we are introduced to Lily, an evacuee unclaimed by her family at the end of the war; to Judy, taught independence by her war widow mother; for Katie, the product of a marriage between a drunken, violent father and a coward, beaten mother; and for the spoiled, willful Helen. It is an evening that fuels jealousies and sows the seeds for friendships, confidences, and romance.

    He saved lives, tamed giants. Animals loved him. People loved him. Women loved him (and he loved them back). And he knew more jokes than any man alive.Now, as he lies dying, Edward Bloom can't seem to stop telling jokes -or the tall tales that have made him, in his son's eyes, an extraordinary man. Big Fish is the story of this man's life, told as a series of legends and myths inspired by the few facts his son, William, knows. Through these tales -hilarious and wrenching, tender and outrageous- William begins to understand his elusive father's great feats, and his great failings.

    Henry, William Sydney Porter was an incredibly prolific and popular master of the short story in the early twentieth century. His stories are known for being witty, playful, full of plot twists, and marked by surprise endings. The author had a special fondness for New York City and a deep interest and appreciation for the ordinary folk who populate his timeless tales.   First published in 1911, his eleventh collection features such classics as “The Duplicity of the Hargraves,” about a destitute Confederate major and his spinster daughter in Washington, DC, and their encounter with a vaudeville actor; as well as “Makes the Whole World Kin,” about a thief and a sick old man who form a surprising bond. Once entered, O. Henry’s world becomes an unforgettable destination, and over a century later, readers continue to return—again and again.   Sixes and Sevens includes “The Duplicity of Hargraves,” “Makes the Whole World Kin,” “The Last of the Troubadours,” “Witches’ Loaves,” “The Adventures of Shamrock Jolnes,” “A Ghost of a Chance,” “New York by Camp Fire Light,” “Ulysses and the Dogman,” and more.  This ebook has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.

    The character of The Business seems, even to her, to be vague to the point of invisibility. Her job is to keep abreast of technological developments, but she must let go the assumptions of a lifetime.

    Now, unable to play, adrift in an alcoholic daze, and with only fragmented memories of his past, Braden wants desperately to escape the darkness of the last eleven years.When his ex-wife and son are killed in a car accident, Braden returns home, hoping to forge a relationship with his troubled seventeen-year-old daughter, Allie. But how can he hope to rescue her from the curse that seems to shadow his family?Ophelia “Phee” MacPhee, granddaughter of the eccentric old man who sold Braden his cello, believes the curse is real. She swore an oath to her dying grandfather that she would ensure Braden plays the cello as long as he lives. But he can’t play, and as the shadows deepen and Phee finds herself falling for Braden, she’ll do anything to save him. It will take a miracle of forgiveness and love to bring all three of them back to the healing power of music.

    I happen to have some self-respect. I've only just found it out, it's true, but it's there all right. I don't want to be a prince--take it from me, it's a much overrated profession--but if I've got to be one, I'll specialize. I won't combine it with being a bunco steerer on the side. As long as I am on the throne, this high-toned crap-shooting will continue a back number.

    Then, life after the Miracle on the Hudson landing puts three families on another crash course…with their own fragile humanity.Airplane passenger Deborah DeWitt-Goldman knows her survival means one last chance to start the family she so badly desires—no matter the cost to her marriage. Preacher’s wife Brett Stevens witnesses the event from a ferry, burdened by a secret that could destroy her family. And while twelve-year-old Robby Palmer’s desperate parents struggle to reach through the fog of his autism, the boy discovers a deep connection to the birds responsible for the crash.Now, all of them must navigate the crosscurrents of the consequences of their decisions…and when their paths collide a second time, another miracle just might happen.Award-winning author Cari Noga’s Sparrow Migrations is an inspiring, heartfelt look at the crucible of crisis and the power of human connection.

    Twenty-one years old and Annette Roberta Randall is searching, looking for herself. The perception and sensitivity she relied on to bolster her through an isolated childhood have disappeared and with them her sense of self. Nettie also seeks the truth, information about her dysfunctional family and the mysteries that whisper to her in their eccentric family home. She receives glimpses in the alcohol induced monologues of her mother, Delores Cecelia, “DeCe”. However, DeCe lost herself long before Nettie was born, and she buried her secrets so deep, even the spirits haunting her cannot unlock her soul. Pup, Nettie’s peculiar uncle, may have witnessed the most recent chaos, but he cannot communicate what he knows for sure. Nettie’s struggles are apparent to her extended family and neighbors, but only she can resolve to overcome the pull of the notorius Kirkland family and Berclaire mansion. The secrets fester and DeCe clings to them like the neglected ivy tendrils on the shadowed side of the mansion. Slowly, the truth will unfold, but will it be enough to free Nettie, or the undoing of her mother, DeCe? Nettie believed it was possible her grandfather, Old Nate, was responsible for the hauntings at the Berclaire mansion, but the more she learns of her great grandmother, Roberta, she decides he might have been a victim, also. DeCe had been taking pills and drinking alcohol from before the time she was a teenager, attempting to numb herself to her dysfunctional family. Nettie could only guess at a history during her drunken orations about DeCe's childhood. Nettie knows she is the seventh child born to DeCe, the others gone before Nettie was born. Some would filter back into her life, but would they help her learn more about her identity, or bring more pain?

    The second victim, the head of the city's chamber of commerce, was found dead with a toy rubber alligator lodged in his throat. And that was just the beginning... Now Brian Keyes, reporter turned private eye, must move from muckraking to rooting out murder, in a caper that will mix football players, politicians, and police with a group of fanatics and a very hungry crocodile.

    A thrilling collection of Alex Kava's five Maggie O'Dell novels, A Perfect Evil, Split Second, The Soul Catcher, At the Stroke of Madness, and A Necessary Evil, plus a bonus title, One False Move.

    Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.