It is also a complex portrait of Spain under Franco. The author explores the patterns of love, sacrifice, and forbearance that mark not only her own life but those of many other Spanish women she has known.

    They worked together on the frontline in Belgium, where Monty was a nurse and Ada drove ambulances - like the devil. And now, Bleakly Hall hydropathic has brought them together again. Monty has just arrived to look after the gouty residents - there to take the Hall's curative waters via nozzle, douche and jet - and Ada is the maid and driver. For all those at Bleakly, the end of the Great War has brought changes. Not all of them good. Monty has a score to settle with the elusive Captain Foxley; Ada misses her wartime sense of purpose; the Blackwood brothers must reinvigorate Bleakly for a new era; Foxley has his own particular ways of keeping his ghosts at bay. But with the crumbling, rumbling hydropathic threatening to blow its top, what will become of the folk thrown together in its bilious embrace? This wonderfully original novel brings together an irresistible cast of characters - including Bleakly Hall itself - in the wake of one of history's great tragedies. To powerful effect, it combines fizzing comedy with a deeply moving look at the aftermath of war.

    Her mother, Goldie, the oldest sister, harbors a desire for social status that only results in a tacit disappointment, that nothing, not even her daughter, can assuage. Carrie, the middle one, possesses a gentle nature that masks a tragic countenance. The youngest, Sarah, still a teenager, stands poised to take on the world.While Beth seeks out the nurturing comfort of Carrie, who keeps Uncle Phil’s memory alive and bestows upon Beth his love of the stars and planets, it is the rebellious spirit of Sarah that most entices the girl. As Beth matures into a young woman, the combination of her aunts’ influences pits the old world of her mother’s strictures against a new one of exploration and escape. This internal conflict will force Beth to make a difficult choice.With a voice as distinct as it is compelling, Holding My Breath celebrates the bonds of family and its reassuring traditions as it affirms the uniqueness of the individual on uncharted paths.

     The year is 1863 and Joshua is a runaway slave who finds refuge on a farmstead in Missouri. Six year old Clara was born on the farm and is naive to the ways of the world. She abides there with her mother, Lizbet, and discovers Joshua hiding in the barn. Her father is absent, fighting for the Confederacy with Missouri guerrillas, and she soon forms an attachment with the unusual man whose presence she agrees to keep secret. However, not all secrets can be kept, despite best intentions. This is an evocative tale and the interplay of the characters will keep you enthralled. The descriptive qualities match those of The Hanging Tree, as does the emotional content. Engaging in its simplicity, Runaway is sure to touch its readers and is another tale by Edwin Page that will not soon be forgotten. A story that shows sometimes you don’t have to leave home to make a journey of discovery. 20% of the proceeds from this book will be donated to the charity Anti-Slavery International. The U.K. abolished slavery in 1833 and the U.S. in 1865, but its blight is still present in the world today with an estimated 21 million people living under its yoke, visit www.antislavery.org to find out more. This book is available in paperback and Kindle formats. Look out for the sequel to Runaway. Entitled Homestead, it will be released in paperback and Kindle formats on the 17th November 2017. The Kindle edition will be available to pre-order from the 3rd of that month. 'This moving book about slavery is set in 1863 on a farmstead in Missouri. It focuses on six-year-old Clara and her mother, Lizbet, who, through the last days of slavery, hide Joshua, a runaway slave, in their barn. The child’s presence brings an innocent perspective on the matter that highlights the cruelty of slavery yet also allows for some of the more refreshing elements in this novel. While the plot and outline are not overly original, the book shines with its likeable and endearing characters, and its ultimately upbeat tone. I was gripped by the suspense and deeply touched, and would recommend this book to others' - Historical Novel Society

    Her father, determined to improve the family’s lot, relocates to Georgia.Ezekiel Salter scrimps to buy a ticket in Georgia’s 1807 Land Lottery, wins, and he and his impoverished family head west to newly-created Murcheson County.Prominent since colonial times, the Underwoods foresee the growing demand for cotton and acquire extensive acreage in newly-opened lands in central Georgia. Dispatched by his father, Jacob Underwood begins construction of Poplar Grove plantation.And, the slave known as Gant, his wife and daughter, Lucey, have no say as to their destination…the highest bidder will decide for them…and if the family remains intact.Spanning over fifty years, Murcheson County chronicles the four families’ fortunes against the backdrop of the most turbulent time in American history.An epic saga of slavery, emancipation, war and hardship, Murcheson County will remain in your heart long after the winds of war have stopped blowing.

    Now, two years later, struggling in a poorly paid job, Rachel feels her luck will never change. So when she finds herself the new owner of her late Uncle Chip's Hammersmith boat-building business she wonders if it's too good to be true. Why would Chip have left it to her when he has a son himself? The business is only just afloat - thanks to the hard work of Chip's charismatic assistant, Ben - but Rachel is determined to restore it to its former glory for the sake of her sons. And before long, she realises that she's falling in love with kind-hearted and handsome Ben. But her good fortune doesn't last for long - someone is maliciously plotting to sabotage her plans...

    And she sets her sights on learning more about their scout, Thomas Bledsoe. Thomas’s job is to get settlers safely across the Kentucky Wilderness Road to their destination while keeping an ear open for news of Shawnee unrest. But naïve Kate’s inquisitive nature could put them both in the middle of a rising tide of conflict. Is there more to Thomas’s story than he is willing to tell? Is there an untapped courage in Kate that can thwart a coming disaster? Join the adventure as the Daughters of the Mayflower series continues with The Cumberland Bride by Shannon McNear. More in the Daughters of the Mayflower series:The Mayflower Bride by Kimberley Woodhouse – set 1620 Atlantic Ocean (February 2018)The Pirate Bride by Kathleen Y’Barbo – set 1725 New Orleans (April 2018)The Captured Bride by Michelle Griep – set 1760 during the French and Indian War (June 2018)The Patriot Bride by Kimberley Woodhouse – set 1774 Philadelphia (August 2018)​The Cumberland Bride by Shannon McNear – set 1794 on the Wilderness Road (October 2018)The Liberty Bride by MaryLu Tyndall – set 1814 Baltimore (December 2018)

    www.aabra.us Amazon: www.amazon.com/taliban-escape-woman&#...

    In fact, it was a time of great fear, especially for women, and especially the fear of not fitting in. As a woman, you were odd if you graduated from college without being married; if you were married you were odd if you didn't immediately have children; if you had children you were odd if you also wanted to work. Before the feminist movement, women were treated as second-class citizens whose roles were utterly restricted, and The Fifties: A Women's Oral History fully explores those roles, the women who lived them, and the women who broke the molds.

    If there is one thing they’ve learned to do over the years, it’s how to stick together. Maura is called to her hardest task yet, having to take over the raising of Tarin’s newborn baby, Brigid. Gordon’s faith in life and love is put to the test. Arianna attempts to close the gap of mistrust with Caleb while pressing to bring the dream of her own salon to life. Caleb wrestles with a bad feeling that haunts him like a ghost. Claire and Aryl come to terms with the decision they’ve made not have any more children and surgery day isn’t as easy for Claire as she thought. When an epidemic strikes and the town is all but shut down, Muzzy and Peter become Rockport’s saving grace while a Texas newcomer brings unexpected hope and friendship, just when the group needs it the most. Jonathan and Ava are tested with a devastating loss, leaving the others to wonder if Jonathan will sink down into the depths of depression again, or rise to meet an uncertain future with determination and hope.

    there was Penda, one of the greatest warrior-kings in Anglo-Saxon history and creator of Mercia, one of the seven warring kingdoms that eventually united to become England. But Penda's Britain--over thirteen hundred years ago--seethed with violent struggles between rival warrior-kings who ruled by bloody sword and sealed alliances with forced marriages; this was also when Christianity was just beginning to sweep the land as most still practiced Anglo-Saxon paganism. Told from the perspective of his wife Cynewise, "The Last Great Pagan Queen" is a richly imagined and gritty tale of her marriage to a man who would become known for killing more kings than any other of his age; it is also the story of a woman just trying to make it in a savage world, where--much like today--choices were limited, men held all the power, and it took courage to survive. Note: this book contains explicit violence and adult themes.

    Now I hear since the Free State came in there is less freedom. The Church has made inroads everywhere, so that we are in fact becoming a bourgeois nation, with the Church supplying our aristocracy, and I do not see much hope for us intellectually. Once the Church is in command she will devour everything.’ -James Joyce in conversation with Arthur Power. This is the first paperback edition of Arthur Power’s unique and fascinating account of his friendship with James Joyce during the 1920s. Power, a young Irishman working as an art critic in Paris, first met Joyce in a Montparnasse dancehall, and the two men maintained a prickly friendship for several years. Power re-creates his conversations with the master, on a remarkable range of topics, literary and otherwise. We read of Joyce’s thoughts on writers past and present: Synge, Ibsen, Hardy, Turgenev, Tolstoy, Chekhov, Dostoevsky, Gide, Proust, T.S. Eliot, Tennyson and Shakespeare. Joyce also speaks of the looming might of America (‘Political influence, yes, but not cultural’); of religion (‘Do you believe in a next life?’ ‘I don’t think much of this life’); and of his own work.

    It is a moving, almost biblical story of a father possessed by his hope for his only son; of a son who rebels against his father’s ideals, yet sacrifices himself to preserve what his father most prizes; and of a grandson who must reconcile the flaws in his inheritance.

    When his stagecoach is caught between an outlaw militia and renegade braves, a veteran driver must figure out how to save his passengers and the lone survivor of a massacred way station.

    Her seven younger brothers are cherished by their doting mother Lena, but Kate tends to be forgotten. Then Kate catches the eye of Jack Courtney and at last she too is adored. But their courtship is not straightforward. Jack comes from a family of wealthy shipowners in Merseyside, who may not approve of the match; Lena is terrified that history will repeat itself if her daughter falls in love with a man above her station; and, worst of all, Jack has not been entirely honest with Kate from the start...