Book picks similar to
No More Time-Outs by Thomas Slater


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One Sunday


Carrie Gerlach Cecil - 2013
    She has captured a career as an editor of a tabloid magazine, launched her own website full of Hollywood gossip, and even clawed her way into a second-hand pair of Prada shoes. She has also finally landed a husband—no small feat, as it required getting pregnant with his baby.But when Alice becomes pregnant and experiences health problems, her world is turned upside down. To save her life and the life of her unborn child, she must leave Los Angeles and the stress of her bicoastal career, exchanging the late-night parties of sunny California for the suburbs of Nashville. With a weak smile and an even weaker heart, she soon finds herself living with a husband she barely knows, ensconced in a gated community brimming with perky, plastic, pony-tailed housewives. And then, at the gentle urging of a new friend, she agrees to attend church one Sunday afternoon.What begins as an experiment beyond her comfort zone sparks something much bigger, as Alice begins to look deep within herself only to find insecurity, fear, and loneliness. One Sunday charts an endearing character’s journey from moral ambiguity through madness, tears, laughter, and heartbreak to a connection with the only One who can help heal her.

Salty


Aleta L. Williams - 2012
    At the end, you may even feel "Salty" yourself! To some, the city of Los Angeles is the home of the "Angels"; "that's bull crap", says the characters in this ghetto soap opera. Los Angeles for them, is the home of the "Scandalous" and only those that's down for and ready for whatever will last........... Jazz is a seventeen year old, sassy, diva who strives to carry herself with class and dignity. Thanks to her ego struck boyfriend, and envious cousin, she soon finds out that classiness will get you nowhere, but humiliated and heartbroken. Peter went from a nobody to a somebody: money, cars, and big butt light skin girls now make up his worth. Peter isn't blind to the fact that he is being used; he just doesn't care. It's not until he steps on the toes of a known grimy gangster from Compton, that he realizes how dangerous these females really are. Pam can tell you first hand that "love don't love nobody", and that you have to love yourself first. After all, love is the reason she contracted the incurable. Follow the drama as it takes you on a world wind of events that will leave your mouth open and have you lusting for more. alanasbookline.org facebook.com/SaltyAGhettoSoapOpera

Bone Horses


Lesley Poling-Kempes - 2013
    Until she comes to New Mexico. During one summer in Agua Dulce, a village haunted by a phantom herd of wild horses and where ravens embody the spirits of ancestors, Charlotte’s world is upended as she unearths the details of her mother’s forbidden love affair, chilling murder, and courageous last act of redemption. Pursued by a madman hell-bent on killing her, Charlotte finds shelter, romance, and her own misplaced soul at the desert camp of a surprisingly sophisticated cowboy, and learns how love in its myriad forms is the only path to lasting salvation.

Like Dandelion Dust / This Side of Heaven


Karen Kingsbury - 2011
    In the days that follow, Jack Campbell has a desperate and dangerous thought. What if they can devise a way out? Then they could take Joey and disappear...like dandelion dust.THIS SIDE OF HEAVEN is a story of secrets, broken relationships, and a love strong enough to reunite a family. Annie Warren always wanted the best for her son, Josh. But years of failure and bad choices created a heartbreaking distance. When Annie sets out to defend her son, she might find a treasure more valuble than money, one she never expected, this side of heaven.

Torn Between a Goon and a Gangsta 2


Jade Jones - 2013
    A carefully planned home invasion was meant to go smoothly...but an unforeseen turn of events ultimately leads to bloodshed. Nothing is what it seems and no one can be trusted when it comes to the love of the almighty dollar. Filled with drama, love triangles, and a plethora of deadly secrets, "Torn Between a Goon and Gangsta 2" gives new meaning to the phrase, "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer."

Just What I Always Wanted


Nancy Roman - 2014
    She’s bored. Bored with her safe monotonous job; bored with her cautious loneliness. Thanks to an unexpected financial windfall, Cynthia opts for early retirement at fifty, hoping to find a new passion. Soon, she thinks she’s found it – in the form of a failing boutique abandoned by its mysterious owner. And the shop is not the only thing the proprietor has deserted. There’s a very nice husband left behind as well. It’s perfect. Until Cynthia meets Shannon Miller. Shannon is fourteen, a tough and defiant casualty of the foster care system. And she’s pregnant. Irresistibly drawn to this foul-mouthed, sarcastic, but vulnerable teenager, Cynthia rediscovers long-buried memories.Suddenly the store seems unimportant. And hoping she can explain to the new man in her life – eventually, anyway – Cynthia takes the leap. She offers Shannon a deal. With strings attached.If they both get what they want, does it matter that their scheme is just slightly illegal?

HOW I BECAME A FARMER’S WIFE [Paperback] Yashodhara Lal


Yashodhara Lal - 2018
    Fast delivery through DHL/FedEx express.

Bebe's By Golly Wow!


Yolanda Joe - 1998
    A big, strapping "steak-colored" man who is as strong as he is sensitive, Isaac is the man of Bebe's dreams. But he's also a father dealing with the challenges of raising a thirteen-year-old daughter on his own.Much to Bebe's surprise, Isaac's whip-smart daughter, Dashay, turns out to be the "other woman" who threatens to keep them apart. Meanwhile Sandy, Bebe's best friend, who is struggling in the workplace as she clashes with the new owners of the radio station, continues on her adventure in search of true love, refusing to give up. Set in Chicago and told in alternating voices, Bebe's By Golly Wow sparkles with Yolanda Joe's deft storytelling, in-your-face dialogue, and marvelous insight as she paints a sensitive and funny tale of modern romance, family transitions, and heartfelt friendships.

Hope: A School, a Team, a Dream


Bill Reynolds - 2016
    But the tumult of the 1960s and the drug wars of the 70s changed both Providence and Hope. Today, the aging school is primarily Hispanic and African-American, with kids traveling for miles by bus and foot each day. Hope was known for its state championship basketball teams in the 1960s, but its 2012 team is much different. Disobedient, distracted, and overwhelmed by family troubles, with mismatched sneakers and a penchant for profanity and anger, these boys represent Coach Dave Nyblom's dream of a championship, however unlikely that might seem. Nyblom's mostly black players, including several who emigrated to Providence from war-torn Liberia, face gang violence, domestic uncertainty, drug problems, and a host of other issues. But with the unfailing support and guidance of Nyblom and other Hope coaches, their ragtag team gradually pulls together, overcoming every obstacle to find the faith and trust in themselves that Nyblom never stops teaching.A look at a hidden world that just a few hundred yards from Brown University, Bill Reynolds' Hope is the inspiring true story of young men and their mentors pursuing one goal—a championship—but achieving so much more.

The Shadow Man


Mark Murphy - 2012
    But when a random airport parking lot hit-and-run links him to a dead body in a Florida hotel and an acquaintance is found dismembered and stuffed into a garbage bag, Malcolm finds himself on the run as a suspected serial killer. But he's no murderer. Or is he?Who is the mysterious Thin Man who lurks at the edges of his vision? Are the ravens that crowd the skies overhead a warning of impending doom--or do they exist at all?With the help of Seminole tracker Billy Littlebear, Malcolm tries to untangle the web of clues left behind by a mysterious chameleon-like killer known as the Shadow Man. But will he be too late? The Shadow Man is a complex, atmospheric thriller in the tradition of Stephen King. Darkly evocative and relentless in its twists and turns, it dares the reader to put it down--even for a minute.

More Church Folk


Michele Andrea Bowen - 2010
    The last time readers encountered the good Rev. Theophilus Simmons, he was a newlywed and the pastor of a modest-sized congregation in Memphis. Now he's the father of three and running a congregation in St. Louis. His best friend, Rev. Eddie Tate, is now with a fast growing church in Chicago, but he is getting real frustrated with the way things are run in the Gospel United Church. Marcel Brown and his father, Ernest, along with Sonny Washington and Bishop Larsen Giles have had two decades to perfect their slimy methods of "tapping" church funds and other misdeeds. Now they've found a secret weapon that will allow them to make fast money and accomplish what they failed to do 20 years ago--buy off enough power to dominate the entire denomination, put their cronies in key spots, and ransack the church like it is the spoils of war. It won't be long before the two opposing sides face off..."church-folk" style.

The Best American Poetry 2014


Terrance Hayes - 2014
    Hayes was then an undergrad at a small South Carolina college. He has since published four highly honored books of poetry, is a professor of poetry at the University of Pittsburgh, has appeared multiple times in the series, and is one of today’s most decorated poets. His brazen, restless poems capture the diversity of American culture with singular artistry, grappling with facile assumptions about identity and the complex repercussions of race history in this country. Always eagerly anticipated, the 2014 volume of The Best American Poetry begins with David Lehman’s “state-of-the-art” foreword followed by an inspired introduction from Terrance Hayes on his picks for the best American poems of the past year. Following the poems is the apparatus for which the series has won acclaim: notes from the poets about the writing of their poems.

The Streets Keep Calling


Chunichi Knott - 2010
    Determined to stay on a straight and narrow path, he follows all the rules of his probation, and even works a full-time job as a janitor. But when the pressure becomes too much to handle, he reverts back to what he knows best. With everything under control, he's the happiest man alive--that is, until he realizes his happiness was achieved at the cost of another man's losses. This brings Breeze back to a part of his life he'd hoped never to relive. He puts his combat boots on and is ready for war, not knowing if the battle will land him back in lockdown. In order to keep his happiness, Breeze is willing to risk it all. Bestselling author Chunichi brings readers another engaging tale of life on the streets. The Streets Keep Calling will make you ask yourself, "How far would I be willing to go for survival?"

The Gettin Place


Susan Straight - 1996
    A. riots of the 1990s.Straight's brilliant story of the effects of violence in America on three generations of a family is told through the lives of the Thompsons, a large clan who live in Treetown, above downtown Rio Seco, California, and operate a car towing and repair business. Patriarch Hosea is a proud man, and a hardened one, whose father was killed in the violence that erupted in Tulsa many years earlier. All Hosea's memories come flooding black with ferocious force when the bodies of two white women are found engulfed in flames in an abandoned car on his property. These are the first signs that someone wants Hosea off his land; it is up to his son Marcus, the only one of the six children of Hosea and his half-Mexican wife who can negotiate with the white world, to help the family hold on to their home and their livelihood.But it is only when Marcus' nephew Motrice-a young man infatuated with guns and the power that they bring- comes back to Rio Seco from gang-ridden Los Angeles that the real secrets of the bodies found on Thompson land are revealed, as Rio Seco erupts in the same wave of trashing and looting that has engulfed the nearby metropolis.The Gettin Place is a powerful portrait of a family struggling to defend its turf in a changing world, to hold on to the gettin place, the source from which they derive the tools for survival.

Samaritan


Estelle Ryan - 2022
    That is until she opens her front door to find the corrupt woman who publicly outed Bree as transgender—the same woman now begging for Bree’s help.Petra Keller is a despicable person, uncaring whose reputation she tramples on her way to the top of the corporate ladder. Or is she? Could she be telling the truth that she’s changed? The more Bree looks into Petra’s shocking claims, the more she uncovers facts leading her to a chilling connection between highly respected companies, their owners and an unthinkable crime.Her investigation becomes even more muddied by cryptic emails, her overprotective brother convincing his enigmatic friend to keep an eye on her and a bombing that lands her in hospital. Instead of being intimidated, Bree’s resolve is strengthened. These powerful men can’t continue to get away with profiting from actions that already resulted in the loss of countless innocent lives—actions that would cost more lives unless Bree gets to the truth. And exposes it.Samaritan is the first book in The Duchess Report trilogy, continuing with Sentinel and concluding with Maecenas.