Book picks similar to
Magpies by Lynne Barrett
short-stories
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River Road
Charles Martin - 2015
For the boy inside the pages . . From Charles: I am often asked about my childhood. How I grew up. Where. What informed me as a writer, man and child of God. Starting with some of my earliest memories, these are stories of that place in me. That kid in me. In here you will find honest admission of my mistakes, failures, successes. Note: these are not fiction and this is not a novel.These stories are as true as I can remember. In these pages, you will hear the beginnings of my voice as a writer, the things that were troubling me — things I didn’t know how to voice out my mouth so they bubbled up and out my fingers. You will also hear my unshakable and childlike faith in a sovereign and good Heavenly Father.I wrote most all of these stories between my sophomore year in high school and my senior year in college so my temptation here and now was to edit them. To make them sound like me today, the writer I’ve become after almost thirty years with this keyboard on my lap. For the record, I have not done that. What you read today, is what I wrote then. (That doesn’t mean they’re sloppy. I’ve cleaned them up a bit.) But, as a result, you hear my early voice. And while it is ripe with mistakes and a wordiness long since edited out of me, there’s also an innocence and purity that I cherish.For those of you looking for my next novel, this is not it. But, it will give you insight into the novels you have read or might read. I’ve entitled them, “River Road,” because I grew up there. Because that hallowed ground along the St. Johns River holds a tender place in my heart. Because the valiant, sweaty kid I knew back then is still running around with Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn and he holds an absolute faith that fishing is a more noble pursuit than school, that he can play in the NFL, that men don’t die of hiccups, that he can still cat-walk his Schwin Mag Scrambler over sixty nine parking spaces, that swallowing Levi Garrett chewing tobacco won’t hurt him and that girls actually think it’s cool, that throwing tangerines at cars is good training for arm strength, that being a bully to a buddy hurt his heart, that a pellet to the gonads is excruciatingly painful, that when my praying mother hit her knees next to a wrecked car and bleeding man that she towered over the men around her, that forgiveness is the toughest thing that kid will ever offer another and that God can and will kill the devil. Enjoy.
Serpent of Old
T.R. Pearson - 2019
When a decent, regular guy does his thieving neighbor a favor by driving him out to a long-neglected farm to steal an old panel truck, the two accidentally spark the ire of the hidden, quasi-occult residents of the place who prove eager to inflict Old Testament vengeance on just about every male within reach. It's Me Too gone feral in a story of moral anxiety, misguided romance, and the age-old wages of sin.
Matthew's Prize
Marcus Palliser - 1999
He dreams of the sea. But his dream of an honest trade is wrecked on the Essex shoals. Swept away to the Spanish Main, Matthew is plunged into a bloody life of pillage and prize money. Struggling to adhere to his own code of honour yet seduced by life at sea, Matthew carries in his heart the hope of reclaiming his rightful legacy. Furthermore, he longs to be worthy of the hand of woman he loves – the woman he left behind in Whitby. Fierce sea battles, lawless privateers, naval skirmishes and ruthless slave traders combine in a story of adventure and high drama during one of the most colourful periods in maritime history. Matthew’s Prize is the first book in the Matthew Loftus series. Marcus Palliser left his job as Director of Communications at a big computer corporation to live on a small yacht and sail the Mediterranean. He crossed the Atlantic single-handed before returning to Britain to write a series of elegant and well-received historical seafaring novels. The three books in the series, Matthew's Prize, A Devil of a Fix and To the Bitter End, explore life in the Caribbean at a time when it was filled with pirates and warring imperial powers, and have a fresh and invigorating perspective backed up by painstaking historical research. Endeavour Press is the UK's leading independent digital publisher. For more information on our titles please sign up to our newsletter at www.endeavourpress.com. Each week you will receive updates on free and discounted ebooks. Follow us on Twitter: @EndeavourPress and on Facebook via http://on.fb.me/1HweQV7. We are always interested in hearing from our readers. Endeavour Press believes that the future is now.
The Road to Berry Edge
Elizabeth Gill - 1997
Perfect for fans of Dilly Court, Maggie Hope and Nadine Dorries.
1903. As Rob Berkeley comes home to Berry Edge, ten years after his brother's terrible death, he brings with him memories that Faith Norman, his dead brother's fiancée, would rather forget. Rob, driven by guilt, is determined to bring the family business, the foundering steelworks, back to full strength. But every time he sees Faith, he is remained of the part he played in her bereavement and the debt he owes her and Berry Edge. The secrets he hides from the community around him could threaten his very future, and jeopardise his growing feelings for Faith . . .
Sarah Morris
D.E. Stevenson - 2019
Decisive, resourceful and independent, Sarah faces challenges in love and friendship from those around her and the wider circumstances of the war as she travels across the cities and countrysides of England and Scotland. Often described as gentle romances, D. E. Stevenson novels are neither overblown nor unduly tragic, populated with characters who quietly make those around them better simply because of their existence. Consistently satisfying, there is a good reason why Stevenson has amassed a devoted following.
Boundary (Field Book 3)
Simon Winstanley - 2017
The sharp corners and twists are taken at speed, leaving you to grip the edge of your seat!
Continue your journey now,Go beyond Time itself...
Rebecca's Children: A saga of love & betrayal in 19th Century Wales
Kate Dunn - 2016
For fans of Nadine Dorries, Maeve Binchy, Freda Lightfoot and Dilly Court. Lives are on the line as the workers fight back in the Welsh countryside…
1829, Wales
For centuries. generations of the Jenkins family have eked out a living from their Carmarthenshire hill farm. But when a fire destroys virtually all of their possessions the children witness their lives crumbling around them. Mary and William find they have barely enough land left to provide for their basic needs. Their only option is to take on more work, but William longs for action, and Mary begins to suspect that he has become embroiled with the Rebecca-ites, a shadowy group of nationalists pitted against the English landowners whose tolls have bankrupted so many Welshman. As tensions mount, Mary becomes ever more torn between her mistrust of the rebels’ violence and her growing attraction to Jac Tŷ Isha, one of their leaders. And when the British government decides to put a stop to the revolt, the danger to the men she loves increases a hundredfold… REBECCA’S CHILDREN is a poignant, beautifully crafted saga of love and betrayal, set against the background of Wales in mid-1800s – a country aflame with political and social unrest. "An accomplished first novel." -
The Times
"A well-handled tale of passion, social injustice and nationalist fervour in nineteenth century Wales." -
The Liverpool Post
“Kate Dunn is a fine storyteller.” - Ben Elton
Only When the Sun Shines Brightly
Magnus Mills - 1999
The wind tries first, but however hard it blows it fails to make any progress because the traveller simply buttons his coat even tighter than before. Only when the sun shines brightly does he finally remove it, and the wind roars away in a bad temper.
The Colonel's Daughter
Rose Tremain - 1984
It is not just another day: it is the culmination of hundreds of days, hundreds of disappointments and misunderstandings, and thousands of very small lies... From the Publisher 'Demonstrates a wry talent' Guardian 'A true writer of fiction...A writer whose every book has been a pleasure' Scotsman At the moment that Colonel Browne is standing in the shallow end of the swimming pool of the Hotel Alpenrose, preparing for his late afternoon dip, his daughter Charlotte, carrying a suitcase, is getting out of her car back in England, preparing to rob the ancestral home. It is not just another day: it is the cuilmination of hundreds of days, hundreds of disappointments and misunderstandings, and thousands of very small lies... 'Rose Tremain goes from strength to strength. The Colonel's Daughter is a winner...a riveting and satisfying read' New Statesman 'Dialogue and off-beat humour are spot on' Daily Telegraph.
Debris
Kevin Hardcastle - 2015
Written in a lean and muscular style and brimming with both violence and compassion, these stories unflinchingly explore the lives of those — MMA fighters, the institutionalized, small-town criminals — who exist on the fringes of society, unveiling the blood and guts and beauty of life in our flyover regions.
The Ruskin Bond Mini Bus
Ruskin Bond - 2006
His Tales and Legends from India, Angry River, Strange Men, Strange Places, The Blue Umbrella, A Long Walk for Bina and Hanuman to the Rescue are also available in Rupa paperback. The Ruskin Bond's Children's Omnibus has been a firm favourite with young readers for several years. Ghost Stories from the Raj, The Rupa Book of Great Animal Stories, The Rupa Book of True Tales of Mystery and Adventure, The Rupa Book of Himalayan Tales and The Rupa Book of Great Suspense Stories are some of his recent books for Rupa.
Hunters and Gatherers
Geoff Nicholson - 1991
The narrator, Steve Geddes, is a writer doing a book on collectors, especially those with "unlikely, bizarre, or exceptionally useless collections." His research leads him to the Havergals, a wealthy, eccentric couple. They "collect people"; that is, she does the "collecting" while he watches-"a bout of troilism," as Geddes calls it. By accident, Geddes learns that reclusive "cult author" Thornton McCain may have written a book that Geddes hasn't heard of. Geddes the observer becomes both obsessed collector and, for the randy Havergals, object to be collected. An insightful delight from start to finish; recommended for all fiction collections.
A Brand New Hood Love
Johnazia Gray - 2017
The hood raised her, but she's determined to let her humbled spirit take her out of it. Living a normal life is only a choice that she's made, however. Unlike Gianni, her mother, Tommy, is a bigger queen pin than any king pin in Tallahassee Florida and in the down south area. She takes care of Gianni and her two kids with no problems. Tommy could easily give Gianni the salon and big house that Gianni has always dreamed of, but Gianni wants to accomplish her goals on her own. Due to her mother being in and out of Federal Prison, Gianni reminds herself that she has two kids to think about, and she can not and will never leave her kids behind, like Tommy did her. Instead, Gianni allows her baby's father, Lamont, to take care of her and her kids. She feels he owes her that much, due to all the pain he's caused her. However, dealing with him has caused nothing but heartache, distraction and drama. After finding out about the third child that he could possibly have on her, she finally decides to stray away from him and focus on she and her kids. She meets a handsome and wealthy man by the name of Kreed at her mother's house during Tommy's known 'gambling day'. Kreed is a different breed, and though Gianni only wants friends so that she can do a little living, Kreed is hard to shake. He has that smart, hood, and smooth demeanor that Gianni admires. Being surrounded by drugs and a lot of money didn't mean a thing to Kreed. He loves his legal businesses and he enjoys living his life the right way. He's feeling Gianni just as much as she's feeling him, but he when Lamont finds out that there's a new man in town who's stole Gianni's heart, he makes she and her kids life a living hell. Which causes Kreed to bring out his old vicious ways! Tumultuous drama starts to unfold, and it will be up to Gianni to get everything in line to save what she has with Kreed.
Buffalo Yoga: Poems
Charles Wright - 2004
Wright's short lyrics, in Charles Simic's words, "achieve a level of eloquence where the reader says to himself, if this is not wisdom, I don't know what is" (The New York Review of Books). The poems in Buffalo Yoga are pristine examples of the Tennessee poet's deft, painterly touch-"crows in a caterwaul" are "scored like black notes in the bare oak"-and his oblique, expansive, and profound interrogation of mortality, as in the title sequence, where the soul is "a rhythmical knot. / That form unties. Or reties."
Earthquake Weather and Other Stories
Catherine Ryan Hyde - 1998
This is the hotly anticipated followup to Hyde's critically acclaimed novel FUNERALS FOR HORSES.