Book picks similar to
The Breath before Birds Fly by M.E. Silverman
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Magic In Dixie
Beth Albright - 2014
And of all places to start digging them up—a funeral.” ~Vivi McFadden HeartFull Description: “I was born into a house full of secrets and bad behavior.”Rhonda Cartwright Bently is having the most important moment of her life. She has finally been asked to help cater the Governor’s ball at the Emmy Awards in LA— But before the big day she has to get home to Tuscaloosa, Alabama and bury her estranged father. What she discovers in the aftermath of the funeral turns her life upside down in a matter of seconds. A gift from her father from the grave—a dilapidated southern mansion with an old trunk full of family secrets, will transform Rhonda’s life in an instant and make her question everything she’s ever believed about her family and herself. And then there’s that list--the one she made about her dream man when she was just a teenager. Her perfect love may be right here under her nose, but for Rhonda this is one last complication she could do without. She intended to get home, bury Daddy, sell that dilapidated monstrosity and get back to LA, as fast as she could. But plans never quite work out just as we hope.Rhonda will have to call on her old BFF’s, Blake and Vivi, to help solve the family mystery. But what those original Sassy Belles finally create out of that pile of dust could change Rhonda’s life for good, make her Hollywood dreams fade to black, and maybe even help her uncover her heart right where she left it—in Dixie. But sometimes things aren’t as they seem. And people aren’t always who we think they are.Beth Albright is at her southern best with this new series of sexy romance, laugh out loud comedy, and edge-of-your-seat mystery—exactly what we have come to love in the Beth Albright brand! So grab your girlfriends and put on your seatbelts for this one-- an exciting, unpredictable joy ride though the Deep South that will keep you guessing until the final shocking pages.
What If…?
Jessica Barondes - 2013
Such is the plight of Penelope “P” Ziegler, until she decides to take matters into her own hands and find a wife for her hopelessly quirky dad. Despite Dad’s objections, P is sure—with all her heart—that there’s a woman out there who will make them both very happy!
Phobia
C.A. Shives - 2012
But the discovery of a woman's dead body, bound and covered with snakes, sends panic through his community and ignites his investigative instincts.As the serial killer continues to target his prey, Herne must confront his haunted past to uncover the pattern in the deaths. He soon discovers that every victim suffers from a phobia. And every murder transforms the victim’s worst fear into reality.Tormented by his personal demons, Herne is forced to face his own fears as he hunts for a murderer who uses terror for a weapon.
Blood-Tied
Wendy Percival - 2008
but time has a way of exposing the truth... Esme Quentin is devastated when her sister Elizabeth is beaten unconscious, miles from her home. Two days later Esme discovers that Elizabeth has a secret past. Desperate for answers which the comatose Elizabeth cannot give, Esme enlists the help of her friend Lucy to search for the truth, unaware of the dangerous path she is treading. Together they unravel a tangle of bitterness, blackmail and dubious inheritance, and as the harrowing story is finally revealed, Esme stumbles upon evidence of a pitiful crime. Realising too late the menace she has unwittingly unleashed, Esme is caught up in a terrifying ordeal. One that will not only test her courage and sanity but force her to confront her perception of birth and family.
Sherlock Holmes and The Element of Surprise: The Wormwood Scrubs Enigma
J. Andrew Taylor - 2011
“Come Watson! The game is yet again afoot!” Do you remember the first time that you accompanied Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson through the dark and foggy side streets and lanes of Victorian London? Do you still thrill as you recall the way that the shadows played upon the fog and gas lit streetlamps, the distant sound of the clock tower at Westminster, the menacing sound of footsteps upon the cobblestone streets and a forlorn cry for help in the night?When two prison guards are found beheaded in the barren countryside surrounding Her Majesty’s Prison at Wormwood Scrubs, Inspector Lestrade seeks Holmes’ singular powers to determine how the murders could have been committed in separate locations with the only footprints being those of the murdered guards themselves.With Doctor Watson at his side, Holmes sets out on this new adventure and uncovers deeper mysteries still; mysteries that will not only test the detectives’ powers of observation and deduction, but his skepticism of the paranormal as well.
Firehearted
Sabrina Chase - 2011
Exile Ronne tes Arhi fights for her own survival and for what once made the Empire great-honor-wherever she can find it. Even in an outcast barbarian warrior. A story of resurgent magic, adventure, and epic battle by the author of The Last Mage Guardian and the Sequoyah trilogy.
When White Fades to Black
Joe Conlan - 2014
senator suddenly falls ill at a political fundraising event, he is rushed to the hospital for emergency treatment, but dies hours after being stabilized. Miami-based FBI Special Agent Daniel Falcone is called in to investigate. He quickly suspects foul play. As he searches for evidence, a torrent of domestic terrorism is unleashed upon the nation. An African-American church is bombed. A mass shooting devastates an event to commemorate the Holocaust. Mayhem tears through a Mexican-American charitable foundation and a deadly explosion rocks the downtown Manhattan Federal Building. As the pressure mounts, Daniel must race to protect the veritable future and freedom of America. A page-turning thrill ride, which pits the very best against the very worst of the United States. When White Fades to Black is a provocative, multi-layered and wildy engrossing tale that will captivate, resonate, entertain and haunt, long after the final page has been devoured.
Lakeland Lily
Freda Lightfoot - 1997
When the rich Clermont-Read family spoils her plans, Lily embarks on a personal quest for revenge and marries their only son, Bertie, a handsome indolent charmer. Rejected by his family, the young couple soon find themselves battling against the very poverty Lily had hoped to escape... A twist of fate brings her the freedom she craves, but the price Lily must pay is vindictive snobbery from Bertie's mother - as well as another far greater one, finally leading to a passionate affair with Nathan Monroe, a local steam boat captain. Now it is Lily who must protect herself against the threat of vengeance and decide who is more important, her husband or her lover.
Orphans
Charles D'Ambrosio - 2005
Fiction writer and essayist Charles D'Ambrosio inspects manufactured homes in Washington state; tours the rooms of Hell House, a Pentecostal "haunted house" in Texas; visits the dormitories and hallways of a Russian orphanage in Svrstroy; and explored the textual space of family letters, at once expansive and claustrophobic. In these spaces, or the people who inhabit them, he unearths a kind of optimism, however guarded. He introduces us to a defender of gray whales; the creator of Biosquat, a utopian experiment in Austin, Texas; and a younger version of himself, searching for "culture" in Seattle in 1974. He analyzes the nuances of Mary Kay Letourneau's trial and contemplates the persistence of rain and of memory.
Panther
Chhimi Tenduf-La - 2015
Legs like toothpicks, body and face all ribs and cheekbones. And that hair. Come on, what is it? Like friggin' barbed wire. I see you with a hand-me-down cracked bat creaming a leather ball, in a sock, hanging from the branch of a mango tree.' Being accepted into an elite international school on a cricket scholarship doesn't mean your life is going to change. Except it does, because hunky Indika - I for Indika, I for Incredible - takes you under his wing, drags you to posh restaurants and shows you pictures from glossy magazines of women who ... well, never mind, that's not the point. The point is: if your best friend snogs your girlfriend, can he still be Incredible? Was he ever? But don't sweat the small stuff. There are cricket matches to win, examinations to pass, a horrifying past to forget, a sinister schoolmaster to avoid ... and, of course, a first kiss to finally experience. Prabu's life is never going to be the same again. Funny, diamond-sharp and unapologetic, Panther is a novel about that familiar, fractured passage to adulthood that can make us magnificent if it does not kill us.
I Wrote This Crap for You
Edward Savio - 2012
It’s all right here in these words. Everything you ever need to know. That’s because I use all twenty-six letters, and you can make anything out of those twenty-six letters. So, you see, this book encompasses everything." — PleaseHelpMeRumored to be penned by the brother of the best-selling author of “I Wrote This For You,” this new tour de force in poetry is sure to stab at your heart, or, at least, make you want to.If you loved the international best-selling collection of poetry, “I Wrote This For You,” you’ll probably hate this. But even those admirers of the free-verse artistry of that work will get a laugh from this classic parody. Author and screenwriter Edward Savio put together a spot-on send up of the poetry best-seller with “I Wrote This Crap For You.”It’s a quick, fun read that we hope you enjoy.“It touched my heart and moved me to tears.”“It’s as if he knew my inner thoughts and fears, and—come to think of it my diary is missing.”
The Best Times: An Informal Memoir
John Dos Passos - 1966
Beginning with a wonderful portrait of tha author's remarkable father, the book follows Dos Passos through Harvard; through World War I as an ambulance driver in France & Italy; through the chaotic postwar Middle East; through the vast reaches of Soviet Russia; the 'Russian Experiment' & through the literary world on both sides of the Atlantic.
Whisper
Ava Claire - 2014
Fresh off the success of her teen drama TV series Carolina, California, movie executives want her to headline their blockbusters, and record executives are vying for the chance to release her first solo studio album. And then Mia starred in three movies that took her from household name to household joke.Mia made more mistakes than she can count, turning to anything that can numb her pain. What the world doesn't know is that her mother is much worse than any pill she swallowed. Despite her best efforts, Mia can't quiet the screech of her past, nor the swan song of her waning fame. Until she meets him. Liam Walker knows all too well what it's like to fall from grace. He's a soulful rocker with a one-hit wonder under his belt, but he still believes in love--and he believes in Mia. He doesn't know how to save what's left of his career, but he knows that they belong together. He breathes for her.If only she would let him in...Whisper is a spin off story from the best-selling His Submissive series. Whisper is a New Adult (NA) romance.
Coma
Pierre Guyotat - 2006
--from Coma The novelist and playwright Pierre Guyotat has been called the last great avant-garde visionary of the twentieth century, and the near-cult status of his work--because of its extreme linguistic innovation and its provocative violence--has made him one of the most influential of French writers today. He has been hailed as the true literary heir to Lautr?amont and Arthur Rimbaud, and his "inhuman" works have been mentioned in the same breath as those by Georges Bataille and Antonin Artaud.Winner of the 2006 prix D?cembre, Coma is the deeply moving, vivid portrayal of the artistic and spiritual crisis that wracked Guyotat in the 1980s when he reached the physical limits of his search for a new language, entered a mental clinic, and fell into a coma brought on by self-imposed starvation. A poetic, cruelly lucid account, Coma links Guyotat's illness and loss of subjectivity to a broader concern for the slow, progressive regeneration of humanity. Written in what the author himself has called a "normalized writing," this book visits a lifetime of moments that have in common the force of amazement, brilliance, and a flash of life. Grounded in experiences from the author's childhood and his family's role in the French Resistance, Coma is a tale of initiation that provides an invaluable key to interpreting Guyotat's work, past and future.