Nine Lives


Bernice Rubens - 2002
    And though the murders are taking place up and down country, there is one other similarity that Inspector Wilkins can't help noticing. Each and every victim is a psychotherapist.

Toni Morrison: Song of Solomon / Beloved / Jazz


Toni Morrison
    

Roller Derby: The History and All-Girl Revival of the Greatest Sport on Wheels


Catherine Mabe - 2007
    There are also player vignettes, rule breakdowns, definitions of derby slang and lots of pictures to accompany Mabe’s semi-fanatical text.”—CurveScores of American women are leading double lives. By day they are librarians, financial analysts, bartenders, teachers, and even mothers; by night their athletic alter egos assume their authority with monikers such as Helen Wheels, Dirty Britches, Anna Mosity, and Assaultin’ Pepa. They lace up their skates, slide into racy racing uniforms, and adorn a full set of protective gear. One of America’s greatest sports is back—roller derby. In Roller Derby, readers will encounter roller derby in its various incarnations, from the original Depression-era games through the days of Roller Jam to its current revival. What started as a dance-a-thon-style test of endurance has evolved into a unique sport that exemplifies point-scoring, body-checking, speed, blood, punches, and miles and miles of personality and style. Punctuated throughout the book are derby vignettes: stories from old-school and new-school girls, the process of selecting a derby name and style, the artistic element to logos and uniforms, so-gruesome-you-just-have-to-look injuries, what’s legal during a bout and—more importantly—what’s not, and much more. Encircling the story of roller derby are vintage promo paraphernalia and histori-cal photographs, as well as stunning, full-color and black-and-white, modern-day shots of the women, the bouts, and the sport.

The Harold Fry and Queenie Hennessy 2-book Bundle: Includes: The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy


Rachel Joyce - 2014
    She has written to say she is in hospice and wanted to say goodbye. Leaving his tense, bitter wife Maureen to her chores, Harold intends a quick walk to the corner mailbox to post his reply but instead, inspired by a chance encounter, he becomes convinced he must deliver his message in person to Queenie--who is 600 miles away--because as long as he keeps walking, Harold believes that Queenie will not die. So without hiking boots, rain gear, map or cell phone, one of the most endearing characters in current fiction begins his unlikely pilgrimage across the English countryside. Along the way, strangers stir up memories--flashbacks, often painful, from when his marriage was filled with promise and then not, of his inadequacy as a father, and of his shortcomings as a husband. Ironically, his wife Maureen, shocked by her husband's sudden absence, begins to long for his presence. Is it possible for Harold and Maureen to bridge the distance between them? And will Queenie be alive to see Harold arrive at her door?THE LOVE SONG OF MISS QUEENIE HENNESSYWhen Queenie Hennessy discovers that Harold Fry is walking the length of England to save her, and all she has to do is wait, she is shocked. Her note had explained she was dying. How can she wait?      A new volunteer at the hospice suggests that Queenie should write again; only this time she must tell Harold everything. In confessing to secrets she has hidden for twenty years, she will find atonement for the past. As the volunteer points out, 'Even though you've done your travelling, you're starting a new journey too.'      Queenie thought her first letter would be the end of the story. She was wrong. It was the beginning.

Everyone's Pretty


Lydia Millet - 2005
    Meanwhile his pious, romantic spinster sister, who reluctantly keeps house for him, busies herself writing quasi-religious love notes to the boss she worships at the statistics company where she works, and her co-workers—an obsessive-compulsive Christian Scientist in a twisted marriage and a promiscuous, depressed blond bomb-shell—become enmeshed in her life as she dreams of ridding herself of her freeloading brother and being carried away on a white horse by her employer. Next door, a teenage math genius runs away from home after her mother humiliates her in school and hooks up at a bar with Decetes's suicidal editor. The story is told from five points of view—those of Decetes, his sister, the lonely blonde, the Christian scientist & the high school math genius—over three days which the five lives intersect.

Pleasant Vices


Judy Astley - 1995
    With all those out-of-work teenagers on the nearby council estate hanging around, stealing, joy-riding and goodness knows what else, it was just as well that Paul Mathieson was setting up a Neighbourhood Watch scheme.Not that the inhabitants of the Close did not have their own little activities, of course, but these were hardly the same thing...If Jenny and Alan's daughter was caught travelling on the underground without a ticket, and their son was doing a little experimenting with certain substances, and Laura didn't see the need to declare her earnings from hiring out her house to a film crew, and Jenny drove home only just over the legal limit - well, these were quite different matters, not to be compared with what went on in the Estate.And then there was Jenny's discovery, when she advertised flute lessons, that she could work up quite a nice little earner in a rather unexpected way...As the leafy London street resounded to the efforts of its citizens to keep crime at bay, Jenny realised that it was her marriage, rather than her property, that needed watching.

A Sunburnt Childhood


Toni Tapp Coutts - 2016
    But there was no 'big house' here - Toni did not grow up in a large homestead. She lived in a shack that had no electricity and no running water. The oppressive climate of the Territory - either wet or dry - tested everyone. Fish were known to rain from the sky and sometimes good men drank too much and drowned trying to cross swollen rivers.Toni grew up with the Aboriginal people who lived and worked on the station, and got into scrapes with her ever-increasing number of siblings. She loved where she grew up - she was happy on the land with her friends and family, observing the many characters who made up the community on Killarney. When she was sent to boarding school all she wanted to do was go back to the land she loved, despite the fact that her parents' marriage was struggling as Bill Tapp succumbed to drink and June Tapp refused to go under with him.Toni's love of the natural world and of people alike has resulted in a tender portrait of a life that many people would consider tough. She brings vividly to the page a story seldom seen: a Territory childhood, with all its colour, characters and contradictions.

Crazy Stupid Money (Kindle Single)


Rachel Shukert - 2015
    On social media and beyond, we dish on all aspects of our personal lives: our relationships, our children, our sex lives, our health. But there's one thing that no one ever mentions-- our money. How much do we actually have? Who makes it? And how does that make us feel about ourselves? These are the uncomfortable questions that Rachel Shukert managed to avoid for years, buffered from the gnawing anxiety of her patched-together freelance living by the comfortable salary of her loving and successful husband. But when a sudden change in circumstances forced her to step up and start supporting her family for the first time, she had to face the depth of her phobias about money for the first time, and truth about the damage they had caused to her relationship. It wasn't pretty. Plates were thrown. Police were called. Accountants were vomited on -- or at least, near. And a marriage was pushed to the breaking point by the curious power that money -- or the lack of it -- has in our lives. Hilarious, painful, and searingly honest, CRAZY STUPID MONEY tells the hard truth about all the things that married people (not to mention not-quite-successful creative freelancers) never talk about but desperately wish someone would. The story of how one couple broke themselves down and struggled to come back together again, it's an unflinching look at what we talk about when we DON'T talk about money -- and how alone it makes us feel.RACHEL SHUKERT is a television writer living in Los Angeles. She is the author of five books, including the memoir EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE GREAT and the Kindle Single LET ME BE YOUR STAR. You can follow her on Twitter At @RachelShukertCover Design by Adil Dara

The Color Purple: Piano/Vocal Selections


Brenda Russell - 2007
    Includes: The Color Purple * Hell No * Mysterious Ways * Push Da Button * Too Beautiful for Words * What About Love? * and more. The arrangements are standard piano/vocal format with the melody in the piano part.

Dark of Night (Glasgow Kiss, #1)


C.S. Duffy - 2017
    When Lorna’s body is found in the Campsies, Ruari sets out to retrace her last steps in the hopes of finding her killer – but somebody has beaten him to it. Now the hunt is on for a serial killer terrorising Glasgow.Dark of night is a fast-paced, twisty serial killer thriller set in Glasgow, turbo-charged with Scandi-esque noir and black humour.

Sunshine After the Rain


Daisy James - 2017
    Perfect for fans of Mandy Baggot, Christie Barlow and Zara Stoneley.A summer that changes everything…Frazzled workaholic Evie Johnson has finally had enough! When she’s blamed for a publicity disaster at the art gallery she loves, she decides to flee the bright lights of London for the sun-drenched shores of Corfu and turn her life upside-down.Under the shade of the olive trees, she picks up her dusty paintbrushes and begins to chase the dreams she had put aside for so long. But she never expected to bump into drop-dead-gorgeous Sam Bradbury – and certainly not whilst wrapped only in a towel!A summer fling is the last thing Evie wanted but a few stolen kisses under the stars might just begin to change her mind…

Counsels on diet and foods: A compilation from the writings of Ellen G. White (Christian home library)


Ellen G. White - 1976
    White in 1864 began to speak and write on proper nutrition and a way of living that took into account nature's laws, average life expectancy in the United States was 32 years; meals, served three, four, or five times a day, were highly spiced, heavy with meats, rich gravies, fried foods, and a vast array of pastries loaded with sugar and fat. Milk was often supplied by cows poorly cared for and sometimes tuberculous. Testing was unknown, and pasteurization was decades away. Except for salting and drying, the science of food preservation was still in the future. It was in this climate that Ellen White, with a pen dipped in the wisdom and knowledge of the Designer of the human form and the Author of nature's laws, called for a dietary program that was simple, healthful, nutritious, and appetizing. To this end she spoke for fifty years, writing her views in articles, books, and personal correspondence. Nutritionists today are aware of people's resistance to changes in their diet. Yet Ellen White succeeded in changing the dietary practices of hundreds of thousands who today profitably follow these counsels, now well supported by scientific research. Counsels on Diet and Foods presents this rich knowledge in topical order for convenient study.

The Gravity Inside Us: Poetry and Prose


Chloe Frayne - 2021
    The Gravity Inside Us is an ode to whatever it is we carry that pulls us in and out of place, and speaks so insistently of fate. Through writing about her own experiences, this book is a reach into that space.

Ask Polly's Guide to Your Next Crisis


Heather Havrilesky - 2017
    Every crisis carries with it some kind of a gift that will make you feel more whole.” From beloved advice-columnist Heather Havrilesky comes a new collection of treasured questions and answers for those of us who have a crisis looming, who are still looking to find our joy, and who are hiding from injustice and doubt. Why doesn’t anything feel fun? Am I too anxious to ever find love? Why won’t my former friends forgive me? And, why should I keep going? To all of these questions and more, Havrilesky offers her customary wit, grace, candor, and wisdom. These are the pep talks we all need to hear to lay our egos aside and draw on the strengths we didn’t know we had.

The Wind Blows Through the Doors of My Heart: Poems


Deborah Digges - 2010
    Here are poems that bring to life her rural Missouri childhood in a family with ten children (“Oh what a wedding train / of vagabonds we were who fell asleep just where we lay”); the love between men and women as well as the devastation of widowhood (“love’s house she goes dancing her grief-stricken dance / for his unpacked suitcases, . . . / . . . / his closets of clothes where I crouch like a thief”); and the moods of nature, which schooled her (“A tree will take you in, flush riot of needles light burst, the white pine / grown through sycamore”). Throughout, touching all subjects, either implicitly or explicitly, is the call to poetry itself.The final work from one of our finest poets, The Wind Blows Through the Doors of My Heart is a uniquely intimate collection, a sustaining pleasure that will stand to remind us of Digges’s gift in decades to come.