Book picks similar to
And So It Was Written by Ellen Brazer
historical-fiction
alt-history
historic-fiction
fiction
Sour Lake: Or, The Beast
Bruce McCandless III - 2010
Someone, or something, is leaving the good citizens of East Texas's Ochiltree County savagely mutilated and drained of blood. Slow-talking Sheriff Reeves Duncan needs to put an end to the murders, and soon. But it won't be easy. This is the Big Thicket, dark and brooding, haunted by racial tensions and economic despair. Fortunately, Sheriff Duncan can count on the assistance of an undersized but tough-as-rawhide Texas Ranger, two physicians, a mechanical wunderkind, and a soft-spoken idiot savant who knows the sloughs and baygalls of the Thicket like his own backyard. This league of unimpressive gentlemen is about to be tested by the cunning and ferocity of an enemy that walks by night--and the tentacles of a desperate sectarian plot that threatens the very survival of the human race. Cover design by Shaun Venish.
The Beech Tree
Don Phelan - 2011
We follow Johnny and Margo, Johnny's lifelong, albeit socially taboo, friendship with his friend, “Bullet Joe” Rogan, a pitcher in the Negro Leagues.Johnny introduces his granddaughter, Debby, to the tree in 1957, an era of bobby socks, roller-skating carhops and Elvis music, and Debby meets Mason in 1967's Summer of Love, just before Mason is drafted to fight in Vietnam.For 30 years, Debby wonders whatever became of the boy who changed her life. Then she finds out.
The German Girl
Armando Lucas Correa - 2016
Her family moved in Berlin’s highest social circles, admired by friends and neighbors. Eleven-year-old Hannah was often taken by her mother for an afternoon treat at the tea room of the beautiful Adlon Hotel, both dressed in their finest clothes. She spent her afternoons at the park with her best friend Leo Martin. But, in an instant, that sunlit world vanished. Now the streets of Berlin are draped with red, white, and black flags; their fine possessions are hauled away, and they are no longer welcome in the places that once felt like home. The two friends make a pact: come what may, they promise to have a future together.As Hannah and Leo’s families desperately begin to search for a means of escape, a glimmer of hope appears when they discover the Saint Louis, a transatlantic liner that can give Jews safe passage to Cuba. After a frantic search to obtain visas, the Rosenthals and the Martins depart from Hamburg on the luxurious passenger liner bound for Havana. Life aboard the ship is a welcome respite from the gloom of Berlin—filled with masquerade balls, dancing, and exquisite meals every night.As the passengers gain renewed hope for a bright future ahead, love between Hannah and Leo blossoms. But soon reports from the outside world began to filter in, and dark news overshadows the celebratory atmosphere on the ship; the governments of Cuba, the United States, and Canada are denying the passengers of the St. Louis admittance to their countries, forcing them to return to Europe as it descends into the Second World War. The ship that had seemed their salvation seems likely to become their death sentence.After four days anchored at bay, only a handful of passengers are allowed to disembark onto Cuban soil, and Hannah and Leo must face the grim reality that they could be torn apart. Their future is unknown, and their only choice will have an impact in generations to come.Decades later in New York City on her eleventh birthday, Anna Rosen receives a mysterious envelope from Hannah, a great-aunt she has never met but who raised her deceased father. In an attempt to piece together her father’s mysterious past, Anna and her mother travel to Havana to meet Hannah, who is turning eighty-seven years old. Hannah reveals old family ties, recounts her journey aboard the Saint Louis and, for the first time, reveals what happened to her father and Leo. Bringing together the pain of the past with the mysteries of the present, Hannah gives young Anna a sense of their shared histories, forever intertwining their lives, honoring those they loved and cruelly lost.
Masters of Rome Collection Books I - V: First Man in Rome, The Grass Crown, Fortune's Favourites, Caesar's Women, Caesar
Colleen McCullough - 2014
From the marbled columns of the Senate to the squalid slums of the Subura, the city is about to be plunged into a conflict that will set rich against poor, Roman against Italian, father against son, a conflict destined to destroy the Republic but leave, in its stead, an Empire. From the seven hills of Rome to the Sahara desert, from Britannia to Bithynia, here is the stuff of legend: unbearable cruelty, martial brilliance, murderous ambition and heroic destiny. Colleen McCullough's epic MASTERS OF ROME captures the soul of Rome in a way no other writer has ever managed. Included in this box set are the novels: THE FIRST MAN IN ROME. THE GRASS CROWN. FORTUNE'S FAVOURITES. CAESAR'S WOMEN. CAESAR.
Please note: This ebook contains all the original maps and illustration.
The Jerusalem Inception
Avraham Azrieli - 2011
Relying on recent disclosures about what instigated the greatest Mideast war, “The Jerusalem Inception” tells the story of courageous yet imperfect men and women engaged in a race against a national calamity. It starts in Neturay Karta, a fiercely anti-Zionist Orthodox sect in Jerusalem, and continues through the corridors of power and the annals of covert operations as the Jewish state is caught in a titan match between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. Faced with the most dangerous moment in Israel’s short history, the agents of the Mossad and its sister spy agencies will stop at nothing to prevent a second Holocaust. “The dramatic outcome of the 1967 war continues to dominate the Middle East. If you want to know what really happened (and at the same time fall in love with a striking cast of unforgettable characters) then ‘The Jerusalem Inception’ is for you. In the best tradition of ‘Eye of the Needle’ and ‘The Bourne Identity,’ this one is a hit!” —Stephen J. Wall, author of ‘The Morning After’ and ‘On the Fly.’
I Never Knew You
Patrick Higgins - 2020
A promising career. Good health. A beautiful house. A promising relationship. Most importantly, she was a proud member of the largest and most popular megachurch in all of Seattle—the Blessed and Highly Favored Full Gospel Church.Everything started changing in her seemingly perfect life after a pastor visiting from China created such an uproar at her church, with messages most members found both mean spirited and judgmentally offensive, that Mark Lau was asked to leave and told never to come back.It took traveling all the way to Shanghai, China, with her best friend, Meredith Geiger, for Charmaine to discover the many differences between her church, which was opulent in every sense of the word, and Pastor Lau’s church, which was located beneath a dry cleaners, of all places.Even more telling were the messages both pastors preached. Despite that they taught from the very same Book, their messages couldn’t have been anymore polarizing. While Charmaine was instantly intrigued by the whole “underground” experience, Meredith was so traumatized that she cut short what had been the best vacation of her life, to go back to the States.But not before alarming Charmaine’s boyfriend of the grave danger they faced. Rodney Williams then told lead pastors, Julian and Imogen Martín, who flew 5,700 miles from Seattle to China, to rescue her from the so-called pastor who’d already caused some to leave their megachurch.Upon arriving, they learned their suspicions were quickly confirmed. Mark Lau had used his subterranean gathering place to radically change Charmaine’s way of thinking. Despite her strongest protests, they flat-out refused to believe that God had used him to transform her life and deepen her faith, to the extent that she finally had eternal assurance.Tragically for the Martíns, by the time they discovered the prosperity Gospel they’d been preaching was a false one, it would be too late…
Love & Saffron: A Novel of Friendship, Food, and Love
Kim Fay - 2022
Joan lives in Los Angeles and is just starting out as a writer for the newspaper food pages. Imogen lives on Camano Island outside Seattle, writing a monthly column for a Pacific Northwest magazine, and while she can hunt elk and dig for clams, she's never tasted fresh garlic--exotic fare in the Northwest of the sixties. As the two women commune through their letters, they build a closeness that sustains them through the Cuban Missile Crisis, the assassination of President Kennedy, and the unexpected in their own lives.Food and a good life--they can't be separated. It is a discovery the women share, not only with each other, but with the men in their lives. Because of her correspondence with Joan, Imogen's decades-long marriage blossoms into something new and exciting, and in turn, Joan learns that true love does not always come in the form we expect it to. Into this beautiful, intimate world comes the ultimate test of Joan and Imogen's friendship--a test that summons their unconditional trust in each other.A brief respite from our chaotic world, Love & Saffron is a gem of a novel, a reminder that food and friendship are the antidote to most any heartache, and that human connection will always be worth creating.
Bicycles and Blackberries
Sheila Newberry
But some secrets aren't meant for little girls, and she finds herself in danger.Can a good heart keep a mischievous girl out of trouble?
South of Good (Hardin Steel #1)
Randall Reneau - 2014
Twice divorced, with a bit of a drinking problem, he’s now dating Rory Roughton, a fiery sixth-generation Texan who’s as rich as she is beautiful—and hell-bent on keeping Steel on the straight and narrow. But then his best friend, Wes Stoddard, is nearly shot down flying in a load of pot, Rory is kidnapped by a Russian mercenary working for the most dangerous cartel in Mexico, and the Cuban Mafia decides they’d like the former DEA agent—dead. Steel is forced to take unsanctioned, unconventional—and mostly illegal—action in order to save himself and those closest to him . . .
The Gilboa Iris
Zahava D. Englard - 2012
When the Harows are targeted by a terror cell in hot pursuit of technology not yet found in any country's arsenal, Dara finds herself at the center of a hierarchy of terror that threatens her life and the lives of those she loves. The Gilboa Iris is a blazing tale of romance, deceit and international intrigue. Its rich characters and explosive plot take readers from Israel's Gilboa Mountains to the streets of New York, to Germany's Zehlendorf Forest, and back to Israel amid seminal events that rocked the world between 1983 and 2002.
Dark Side: The Haunting
J.M. Barlog - 1999
Because only a miracle could have brought her through after a terrible car crash.Do you believe in ghosts?Jenny didn't either, until...A tenacious and talented surgeon made Jenny almost as good as new. Almost.Accidents happen--sometimes. But sometimes accidents are planned. Somebody wanted Jenny Garrett dead, and now Detective Rick Walker has to find out who and why. But Jenny can't help with the investigation. Jenny's memory of the accident, and the weeks preceding it, are gone. Yet somehow Rick has to get to the truth before the killer tries again.But the real horror in Jenny's life transcends far beyond the stalking of an earthly killer. Jenny is being terrorized by a Doppelganger--a ghostly image of herself. Dwight Mackenzie believes in ghosts. So much so, that he is willing to help Jenny uncover the truth behind her torment.But the real truth is: there is only one way to escape the vicious torment of a Doppelganger.
Wives of War
Soraya M. Lane - 2017
Two young nurses meet at a train station with a common purpose: to join the war effort. Scarlet longs for the chance to find her missing fiancé, Thomas, and to prove to her family—and to herself—that she’s stronger than everybody thinks. Nursing is in Ellie’s blood, but her humble background is vastly different from Scarlet’s privileged upbringing. Though Ellie puts on a brave face, she’s just as nervous as Scarlet about what awaits them in France.In Normandy, the two friends soon encounter the seemingly unflappable Lucy. Scarlet and Ellie are in awe of her courage and competence, but the experienced nurse is well aware of the dangers of the job they’ve chosen—and even she is terrified they won’t make it home alive.Pushed to their limits by the brutality of a world at war, Scarlet, Ellie and Lucy will need to rely on each other—and the power of their friendship—to survive.
The Traitors
David W. Walker - 2010
Collapsing Nazi Germany has developed terrible super weapons: the V1 Flying bomb, the V2 missile, rocket and jet powered aircraft. Now, with the war apparently lost, the maniacal Nazi leadership fashions a final diabolical plan born of the infamous Japanese Unit 731 of biological warfare and the secret “Amerika Bomber” ME 264. It is so evil, so inhuman, that even those ordered to proceed find themselves questioning their loyalty and this mission of mass death. OSS agent Chris Clancy will need all his skill and courage to combat this desperate plot. In a secret mission behind enemy lines, Clancy must locate the hidden base and defeat an enemy on his own ground. Yet, with twist on unseen twist, who are the enemies, and who are the Traitors?
The Promise
Freda Lightfoot - 2011
Georgia Briscoe, a young woman from a good family, is unwillingly betrothed to businessman Drew Kemp when she falls for handsome British sailor Ellis Cowper. Drew had the charm to dazzle everyone around him, but when the couple are married, it soon transpires that Drew's charm is only skin-deep, and that he is in fact a greedy gambling addict with a penchant for other women, including Georgia's maid Maura and jealous sister Prudence. When Georgia and Maura become pregnant, both women decide to escape to be with the men they love, providing Prudence with an opportunity to seize Drew -- and much more besides. London, 1948. When Chrissie Kemp travels to the Lake District to visit her grandmother Georgia, she is not prepared for the shocking revelation that is about to throw her family into turmoil. As a last act of vengeance on her death bed, Prudence claims that Chrissie's mother Vanessa and her late father Aaran are brother and sister. As the truth unfurls, the passion, emotion and astounding love that occurred in San Francisco forty years ago is revealed, and three generations of the family are tested to their limits.
Say Goodbye for Now
Catherine Ryan Hyde - 2016
Lucy cares for abandoned animals. The solitude allows her to avoid the people and places that remind her of the past. Not that any of the townsfolk care. In 1959, no one is interested in a woman doctor. Nor are they welcoming Calvin and Justin Bell, a newly arrived African American father and son.When Pete Solomon, a neglected twelve-year-old boy, and Justin bring a wounded wolf-dog hybrid to Dr. Lucy, the outcasts soon find refuge in one another. Lucy never thought she’d make connections again, never mind fall in love. Pete never imagined he’d find friends as loyal as Justin and the dog. But these four people aren’t allowed to be friends, much less a family, when the whole town turns violently against them.With heavy hearts, Dr. Lucy and Pete say goodbye to Calvin and Justin. But through the years they keep hope alive…waiting for the world to catch up with them.