The Year She Left Us


Kathryn Ma - 2014
    A disastrous trip to visit her "home" orphanage in China has plunged eighteen-year-old Ari into a self-destructive spiral. Her adoptive mother, Charlie, a lawyer with a great heart, is desperate to keep her daughter safe. Meanwhile, Charlie must endure the prickly scrutiny of her beautiful, Bryn Mawr educated mother, Gran—who, as the daughter of a cultured Chinese doctor, came to America to survive Mao's Revolution—and her sister, Les, a brilliant judge with a penchant to rule over everyone's lives.As they cope with Ari's journey of discovery and its aftermath, the Kong women will come face to face with the truths of their lives—four powerful intertwining stories of accomplishment, tenacity, secrets, loneliness, and love. Beautifully illuminating the bonds of family and blood, The Year She Left Usexplores the promise and pain of adoption, the price of assimilation and achievement, the debt we owe to others, and what we owe ourselves.

A House for Happy Mothers


Amulya Malladi - 2016
    In a Southern Indian village, Asha doesn’t have much—raising two children in a tiny hut, she and her husband can barely keep a tin roof over their heads—but she wants a better education for her gifted son. Pressured by her family, Asha reluctantly checks into the Happy Mothers House: a baby farm where she can rent her only asset—her womb—to a childless couple overseas. To the dismay of friends and family, Priya places her faith in a woman she’s never met to make her dreams of motherhood come true.Together, the two women discover the best and the worst that India’s rising surrogacy industry has to offer, bridging continents and cultures to bring a new life into the world—and renewed hope to each other.

Why Aren't You Sweet Like Me?: Based on a True World War II Love Story


Carrie Nyman - 2011
    As America enters the war, and Don is pressured into the service by his father, the two newlyweds struggle to maintain contact. Don becomes a hero, saving the lives of his comrades, but will he make it home alive? Why Aren't You Sweet Like Me? is a novel based on the actual love letters exchanged between the author's grandparents.

Peter in Flight


Paul Michael Peters - 2013
    He can tell you everything there is to know about successful trade show programs. He can tell you stories about the thousands of people he has met, miles he has flown, hotel rooms he has stayed in, and ways to work the system to your advantage when you travel. But he can't tell the woman he loves how he feels. Think "Up in the Air meets Planes, Trains and Automobiles..". Based on his own extensive business trips, Paul Michael Peters brings us this funny, bittersweet story of a traveling software salesman. Filled with wry observations and entertaining vignettes, life moves fast in this quick read about a "trade show guy" and a love he thinks he can never have.

A Single Swallow


Ling Zhang - 2017
    After their deaths, each year on the anniversary of the broadcast, their souls would return to the Chinese village of their younger days. It’s where they had fought—and survived—a war that shook the world and changed their own lives in unimaginable ways. Now, seventy years later, the pledge is being fulfilled by American missionary Pastor Billy, brash gunner’s mate Ian Ferguson, and local soldier Liu Zhaohu.All that’s missing is Ah Yan—also known as Swallow—the girl each man loved, each in his own profound way.As they unravel their personal stories of the war, and of the woman who touched them so deeply during that unforgiving time, the story of Ah Yan’s life begins to take shape, woven into view by their memories. A woman who had suffered unspeakable atrocities, and yet found the grace and dignity to survive, she’d been the one to bring them together. And it is her spark of humanity, still burning brightly, that gives these ghosts of the past the courage to look back on everything they endured and remember the woman they lost.

The Sound of Crickets


Marissa Farrar - 2014
    Four lives inextricably joined ... Four friendships that will last forever ... Named after Amelia Earhart, the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic, Amelia Thompson always thought life would have given her wings. Instead, she finds herself stuck at home with three small children, and a body she no longer recognises. Hoping to connect with like-minded people, she decides to reach out on a women’s forum to try to find others with whom to start a blog. To her delight, she gets a response. Sara, a romance author whose elderly mother has just moved in with her. Kelly, whose husband only wants to spend time down the pub, and Charlotte, who is suffering from empty nest syndrome now her daughter has left home. Told in the medium of their blog posts and emails to each other, The Sound of Crickets is a touching novel of friendship in the digital age.

All the Children Are Home


Patry Francis - 2021
    A harrowing incident years before left her a virtual prisoner in her own home, forever wary of the heartbreak and limitation of a girl’s life.Eleven years after they began fostering, the Moscatellis are raising three children as their own and Dahlia and Louie consider their family complete, but when the social worker begs them to take a young girl who has been horrifically abused and neglected, they can’t say no.Six-year-old Agnes Juniper arrives with no knowledge of her Native American heritage or herself beyond a box of trinkets given to her by her mother and dreamlike memories of her sister. Before long, this stranger in their midst has strengthened the bond in this unusual family, showing them how to contend with outside forces that want to tear them apart. Heartfelt and enthralling, All the Children Are Home is a moving testament to how love can survive in the face of devastating losses.

Resurrection of Liberty


Michael L. Wentz - 2005
    . . a solid, rollicking, fast paced, easy to read story." -- TheMartianSite.com". . . an original, deftly written, and thoroughly entertaining novel of action and adventure which can be enthusiastically recommended . . ." -- Midwest Book Review"Adventurous science fiction that takes you back to the days of Robert A. Heinlein . . ." -- firebringer.blogspot.comProduct DescriptionIn 'Resurrection of Liberty' Daniel Foster discovers a family secret that is so shocking, it will affect the future of the entire galaxy. While on an innocent road trip with his two best friends, his grandfather’s old car, almost having a mind of its own, whisks the trio out of the confines of their home planet to a cloaked starship that has remained hidden behind the moon for over fifty years. In trying to return home the three friends plunge deeper into space ultimately meeting the race that had sent his grandfather to Earth on a critical mission a generation before. Yet, to their dismay, they learn that by awakening the old ship they have hastened the peril of their own home. Now, far away from his family, Daniel must accept his destiny and dig deep inside himself to muster the confidence needed to rally his new alien friends to help save Earth—and ultimately the galaxy.From the Publisher- Perfect for all those who love action and adventure - Great for Young Adults An epic science fiction adventure for the 21st century 'Resurrection of Liberty' is written in the best tradition of the classics while still being fun, friendly, and accessible to those new to genre. Young adult friendly and packed with enough action and adventure to spare 'Resurrection of Liberty' is a remarkably entertaining read for anyone who enjoys high drama, sympathetic characters, and a look into a world where courage is the key to survival and the future is just around the corner

The Woman Who Breathed Two Worlds


Selina Siak Chin Yoke - 2016
    Together, they have ten children. At last, she can pass on the stories she has heard—magical tales of men from the sea—and her warrior’s courage, along with her wonderful kueh (cakes).But the cultural shift towards the West has begun. Chye Hoon finds herself afraid of losing the heritage she so prizes as her children move more and more into the modernising Western world.

About the Night


Anat Talshir - 2014
    Elias is a Christian Arab living on the eastern side of the newly divided city, and Lila is a Jew living on the western side. A growing conflict between their cultures casts a heavy shadow over the region and their burgeoning relationship. Between them lie not only a wall of stone and barbed wire but also the bitter enmity of two nations at war.Told in the voice of Elias as he looks back upon the long years of his life, About the Night is a timely story of how hope can nourish us, loss can devastate us, and love can carry us beyond the boundaries that hold human beings apart.

Songs of Willow Frost


Jamie Ford - 2013
    On his birthday—or rather, the day the nuns designate as his birthday—William and the other orphans are taken to the historical Moore Theatre, where William glimpses an actress on the silver screen who goes by the name of Willow Frost. Struck by her features, William is convinced that the movie star is his mother, Liu Song.Determined to find Willow, and prove his mother is still alive, William escapes from Sacred Heart with his friend Charlotte. The pair navigates the streets of Seattle, where they must not only survive, but confront the mysteries of William’s past and his connection to the exotic film star. The story of Willow Frost, however, is far more complicated than the Hollywood fantasy William sees onscreen.Shifting between the Great Depression and the 1920s, Songs of Willow Frost takes readers on an emotional journey of discovery. Jamie Ford’s sweeping book will resonate with anyone who has ever longed for the comforts of family and a place to call home.

The Boy Who Cried Christmas


Dennis Bailey - 2020
    For him, Christmas wasn't just about making a list, but making sure it was long enough. He also had a reputation for embellishing the truth. That is until a chance meeting with an angel on the streets of Manhattan ends with a journey back in time to the birthplace of Christianity. Eventually, he makes his way home with a story that could change all their lives. He only has one problem . . . no one will believe him.

The Lost Daughters of China


Karin Evans - 2000
    Presents a cultural history of the events that led to the controversial one-child policy in China and the subsequent generation-long abandonment of Chinese daughters to American families.

June Fourth Elegies


Xiaobo Liu - 2012
    He was a leading activist during the Tiananmen Square protests of June 4, 1989, and a prime supporter of Charter 08, the manifesto of fundamental human rights published in 2008. In 2009, Liu was imprisoned for “inciting subversion of state power,” and he is currently serving an eleven-year sentence. He was awarded the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize for “his prolonged non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China.” Liu dedicated his Peace Prize to “the lost souls from the Fourth of June.” June Fourth Elegies presents Liu’s poems written across twenty years in memory of fellow protestors at Tiananmen Square, as well as poems addressed to his wife, Liu Xia. In this bilingual volume, Liu’s poetry is for the first time published freely in both English translation and in the Chinese original.

Where the Secret Lies


Malika Gandhi - 2013
    A sealed door. A spirit.And a secret.A secret only the spirit knows - and only nineteen-year-old Arianna can set free. Arianna and her family travel to India from London, for a splendid wedding. Excitement soon turns secondary when strange happenings transpire within the Haveli walls. Hitherto, a sealed door opens and Arianna is given Anjali’s diary.And so begins a paranormal experience that leaves her stunned. Arianna wants answers. Who is Anjali? Why did the door unseal for her? Is there something the spirit wants to show her?What?