Book picks similar to
Life Never Ends Well: A Cavalcade of Murders, Suicides, Accidental Deaths, and Tragic Demises by Jim Goad
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Pig Candy: Taking My Father South, Taking My Father Home--A Memoir
Lise Funderburg - 2008
During a series of visits with her father to the South he'd escaped as a young black man, Lise Funderburg, the mixed-race author of the acclaimed "Black, White, Other," comes to understand his rich and difficult background and the conflicting choices he has had to make throughout his life. Lise Funderburg is a child of the '60s, a white-looking mixed-race girl raised in an integrated Philadelphia neighborhood. As a child, she couldn't imagine what had made her father so strict, demanding, and elusive; about his past she knew only that he had grown up in the Jim Crow South and fled its brutal oppression as a young man. Then, just as she hits her forties, her father is diagnosed with advanced and terminal cancer -- an event that leads father and daughter together on a stream of pilgrimages to his hometown in rural Jasper County, Georgia. As her father's escort, proxy, and, finally, nurse, Funderburg encounters for the first time the fragrant landscape and fraught society -- and the extraordinary food -- of his childhood.In succulent, evocative, and sometimes tart prose, the author brings to life a fading rural South of pecan groves, family-run farms, and pork-laden country cuisine. She chronicles small-town relationships that span generations, the dismantling of her own assumptions about when race does and doesn't matter, and the quiet segregation that persists to this day. As Funderburg discovers the place and people her father comes from, she also, finally, gets to know her magnetic, idiosyncratic father himself. Her account of their thorny but increasingly close relationship is full of warmth, humor, and disarming candor. In one of his last grand actsFunderburg's father recruits his children, neighbors, and friends to throw a pig roast -- an unforgettable meal that caps an unforgettable portrait of a man enjoying his life and loved ones right up through his final days."Pig Candy" takes readers on a stunning journey that becomes a universal investigation of identity and a celebration of the human will, familial love, and, ultimately, life itself.
The Lockdown Trade-Off
Sam West - 2020
In the Cornish seaside town of Treeve, Cat’s husband, Brian Oxley, is on the brink of losing everything. Eight pubs, five restaurants, and six pasty shops worth of everything…When a potential, financial bailout comes in the form of lottery winner Ewan Davies, it is the answer to all of Brian’s prayers. The creepy, ex-furniture restorer makes Brian an offer he can’t refuse. His offer is twenty million.And the price of Brian’s salvation? His wife.Never in her wildest imaginings, could Cat imagine what lies in store for her at the millionaire’s mansion. She will never look at a piece of furniture in the same way again…This is an extreme horror novella. It contains some scenes that readers may find upsetting.
A Sea Rose for the Duchess
Fanny Finch - 2019
What he never expected to find, however, is a beautiful young woman who has lost her memory. All he knows about her is her name... Aboard the Sea Rose, Odelia struggles to remember who she is. What the pieces of her returning memory show her, though, may be something she’s not ready for. When the voyage ends, their quest for Odelia’s identity takes them on a journey across England. However, someone dangerous seems to lurk in the shadows of her past, and that person may not be finished with her yet. Now, Arnold and Odelia will both have to face the sorrows and secrets of their past and seek a way into the future they desire. But their enemy might prove more cunning than they expected, and has vowed to turn their dreams to ashes…
Oathkeeper
Troy Grice - 2015
Beleaguered Sheriff Bear Ellison finds himself outnumbered, over-matched, and increasingly isolated as he is forced to decide between risking his life protecting a local hero, or reneging on his oath and handing him over to federal prosecutors.
The Fall of Cinderella
K. Street - 2017
Stand-alone contemporary romance with a happily-ever-after. One perfect life.Two uniformed officers.Three acts of betrayal.Four beats of a heart.Five words that will destroy her.Once upon a time, Tessa Salinger had it all.Until...She discovered that fairy tales were nothing more than extravagant lies dressed up in lavish clothes.In reality...Cinderella falls.
A Beverly Jenkins Romance Collection
Beverly Jenkins - 2018
And when Jamal Watts hears the stunning songbird, he’s ready to sign her to his label. The love-burned producer isn’t prepared for the passion Regina unleashes in him. Suddenly they’re both hitting all the right notes. But Regina isn’t ready to trust her heart—unless this gorgeous, caring man can show her how, together, they can make the most beautiful music of all….
Holiday Heat
For Eve Clark, winter usually means long cold nights spent alone, until she’s persuaded to attend a masked ball. Abandoning her inhibitions, she shares a blissful tryst with a mysterious partner. Though she runs from their hotel room the next morning, Leyton Palmer is determined to track Eve down and show her that the night neither can forget was only the start of something sensational….
I’ll Be Home for Christmas
Three years ago, Broadway star Dina Caldwell and celebrity chef Morgan Caldwell were passionately in love. Now America’s onetime favorite couple are about to be reunited in Morgan’s Detroit hometown for the holidays. Is this the season for forgiving and forgetting? With sizzling kisses under the mistletoe, Morgan vows to make this a Christmas Dina will never forget!
Hawaii Magic
Workaholic attorney Anita Hunt is on the job 24/7. She’s looking to make partner, not party. While on a forced vacation in Hawaii, she meets gorgeous pilot Steve Blair. When engine trouble forces them to make a crash landing, the seductive airman shows her a side of the exotic island and herself she never expected—and a passion that could make them partners in paradise forever.…
Overtime Love
Drew Davis’s goal is to buy the semipro football team where he is general manager. But the owner’s grandaughter, Tasha Bloom, unexpectedly inherits it first. Still, Drew’s not brokenhearted, since their mutual passion for football runs second only to their attraction to each other. But can the team and their budding romance make it to the New Year’s Day championship?
Beautiful Goodbye
Heather D'Agostino - 2016
Some words can break us so badly that we never fully recover from them. Goodbye being the worst of all. As a young adult I was forced to say goodbye to my father. Losing him broke me in a way I never thought I’d recover from… until I met Ryan. Ryan Mitchell was the balm my soul needed to heal. He filled my life with happiness, love, and affection. He made me want things I didn’t think I ever would, and the dreams I’d said goodbye to years before didn’t seem so lost anymore. He taught me to live life to the fullest, and open myself to love. I didn’t think anything could bring me down from the high he kept me on… but I was wrong. Life sometimes throws us curveballs that we can’t explain. It tests us and pushes us harder than we can ever imagine. I didn’t think I’d survive the crash, but I did. Sometimes goodbye can be beautiful and it was…with Ryan. ***This is a STANDALONE contemporary romance.*** It contains profanity and graphic sexual encounters. It may not be suitable for readers under the age of 17.
Silver Bells
Lyz Kelley - 2020
She’s stuck there and haunted by memories until she meets Tim, Christmas present. He opens her eyes and heart.If you love small town second chance romances, read this heartwarming novella and fall in love today.
Where There's a Will: Who Inherited What and Why
Stephen M. Silverman - 1991
In Where There's a Will, Stephen M. Silverman shows just how different with a peek at the wills of the richest, most celebrated people of all time, and he provides the intimate scoop on what their heirs had to say about it. Discover what secret pact Clark Gable made in 1942 and took to his grave - only to be exposed when his will was read. Learn why it took more than a year for Liza Minnelli to raise the $37,500 needed to bury the ashes of her mother, Judy Garland, and what treasures were left to the heirs of Babe Ruth, James Dean, John Jacob Astor, Ernest Hemingway, and Ayn Rand once those wills cleared probate. From Marilyn Monroe and Andy Warhol to John Lennon, Jim Morrison, John Steinbeck, Rita Hayworth, and Jack Dempsey, Where There's a Will . . . is an utterly engrossing read sure to captivate tycoons and gossip addicts alike with its fascinating tales of how the other half bequeaths.
My Wife Said You May Want to Marry Me
Jason B. Rosenthal - 2020
A heartbreaking, wry, brutally honest, and creative play on a personal ad—in which a dying wife encouraged her husband to go on and find happiness after her demise—the column quickly went viral, reaching more than five million people worldwide.In My Wife Said You May Want to Marry Me, Jason describes what came next: his commitment to respecting Amy’s wish, even as he struggled with her loss. Surveying his life before, with, and after Amy, Jason ruminates on love, the pain of watching a loved one suffer, and what it means to heal—how he and their three children, despite their profound sorrow, went on. Jason’s emotional journey offers insights on dying and death and the excruciating pain of losing a soulmate, and illuminates the lessons he learned.As he reflects on Amy’s gift to him—a fresh start to fill his empty space with a new story—Jason describes how he continues to honor Amy’s life and her last wish, and how he seeks to appreciate every day and live in the moment while trying to help others coping with loss. My Wife Said You May Want to Marry Me is the poignant, unreserved, and inspiring story of a great love, the aftermath of a marriage ended too soon, and how a surviving partner eventually found a new perspective on life’s joys in the wake of tremendous loss.
The Soul's Mark: FOUND
Ashley Stoyanoff - 2012
Once there, she discovers that her birthmark is more than it seems. She has been marked by a vampire’s soul. Not only does she hold his soul, but Amelia is also his soulmate.After almost a century of searching for his soulmate, Mitchell Lang fears the worst—he is going to lose Amelia to another man. His heart takes over, and his impulsive decision to take away her free will and to intensify their bond quickly turns her growing love into hate.When they become trapped in the emotional rollercoaster of their souls' bond, open conflict erupts. Amelia has no intentions of belonging to anyone, not even her soulmate, and Mitchell refuses to let her go.While she frantically searches for a way to escape his grasp, Amelia unlocks the painful memories of her past and uncovers a powerful secret. But before she has a chance to explore her newfound edge, she finds herself caught in the middle of a deadly game of revenge and is forced to realize that YOU CANNOT RUN FROM DESTINY.
Lily Love
Maggi Myers - 2014
But as Lily grows into a toddler, Caroline notices that her daughter seems to live and act with a disconnect, and soon the perfect future Caroline had envisioned, along with her marriage, begin to crumble. Now she and Peter are no longer lovers, they're plaintiffs in the throes of divorce while still struggling to care for Lily. After years of blame and overwhelming despair, Caroline's chance encounter with a stranger at University Hospital opens her eyes to the prospect of accepting new support, new loves, and new dreams.From the acclaimed author of "The Final Piece" comes a story of a family broken and unable to cope with a daughter's disability. And a mother who finds that letting go of the life she imagined may be the only way to get to the life she was meant for.
My Mother's Children
Annette Sills - 2021
She has just lost her mother Tess and brother Mikey, her marriage to Joe is coming apart at the seams and her thirty-year friendship with Karen is on the rocks.While clearing out her childhood home, Carmel discovers that her mother gave birth to a baby in an Irish Mother and Baby home when she was sixteen, a place notorious for its mass burial of babies and illegal adoptions.Carmel goes on a quest for the truth about her troubled mother’s past. Her roller-coaster journey takes her from her comfortable Manchester home to the west of Ireland and to London's theatre land. It’s a journey that leads her to ask: Can we ever escape our own family history or is our destiny in our DNA?
Sea Change
Jeremy Page - 2009
After experiencing a devastating tragedy, Guy sets out to sea in an old Dutch barge that has now become his home. Every night, he writes the imagined diary of the man he might have been-and the family he should have had. As he embarks upon the stormy waters of the North Sea-writing about a trip through the small towns and nightclubs of the rural American South-Guy's stories begin to unfold in unexpected ways. And when he meets a mother and daughter, he realizes that it might just be possible to begin his life again. Haunting and exquisitely crafted, Sea Change is a deeply affecting novel of love and family by an acclaimed young writer.
Spitfire
Carla Doolin - 2013
He is content. He carves his celebrated birds and farms on his little slice of heaven in Puffin Cove, Newfoundland, and heals from the tragedy that sent him fleeing from his homeland. But one look at a beautiful redhead in a quiet pub, and the life he has so carefully rebuilt tilts on its axis.Laura knows there must be something better out there. This is the only life she is going to get, and dammit, she isn't going to waste one more day. When she runs away from home she certainly doesn't expect to fall instantly in love with a small east coast town, and a crusty, sexy Irishman.As Kane and Laura explore the beauty of the land and a love that they never knew could exist, their fears for the future and the scars of the past threaten to tear apart a perfect forever.
