Book picks similar to
How Ptolemy Proudfoot Lost a Bet by Wendell Berry
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z-fiction
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contemporary-fiction
The Fortune Teller's Daughter
Susan Wilson - 2002
After years of moving around with her footloose mother, fortune teller Madame Ruby, Sabine Heartwood settles in the quiet town of Moose River Junction. But when Danforth Smith returns to his hometown, reluctantly putting his career on hold to deal with family affairs, Sabine faces the dilemma of falling in love with a man anxious to leave the only place she has ever called home.Things get more complicated when Ruby appears, finally ready to answer her daughter's lifelong questions about their mysterious past. Then Sabine "sees" a tragic event that occurred in Dan's family more than three hundred years ago, which is linked to a painful secret from which he's been unable to break free. Now, she must face the gift of "seeing" she's inherited but rejected -- for only then can she learn the truth of her own heart.
Learning to Breathe
Karen White - 2007
Not since the love of her life, Pierce McGovern, left her years ago without a word. Now, she leads a quiet life surrounded by her four matchmaking sisters, running a historic movie theater and collecting old wartime letters. But she leaves the letters unopened, preferring to imagine their possibilities rather than risk being disappointed.Then Pierce comes back to town, shattering Brenna's hard-earned peace-and forcing her to re-examine everything, and realize that if she doesn't come to terms with the life she let slip away, she may never have the courage to go after the life she wants.
Everybody's All-american
Frank Deford - 1981
A star running back at the University of North Carolina in the late 1950s, he graces the covers of Time and LIFE magazines and appears on the "Ed Sullivan Show." Everyone wants a piece of him or to be around him to bask in his glory, including his nephew Donny, who narrates the story and is Gavin's only real confidant.After college, Gavin goes on to the NFL where he has a solid career. As his playing days wind down and the cheering stops, however, he finds the adjustment to life as an ex-athlete difficult to accept. His wife "Babs" goes off to work, becomes the primary breadwinner for the family while Gavin continues to trade on his memories of old times, when he was everybody's All-American.
Blood On The Sands
Sujata Sabnis - 2020
Her husband Virender is a tracker at the BSF headquarters in Rapar.Virender returns home during Navratri, triumphant after nabbing Shaukat, a member of a dangerous cross-border gang involved in a terror plot against India. But there are some terrible news awaiting Virender in Kuran. Are there murky secrets that threaten to destroy his family? And what are those haunting voices that whisper about a horrifying kill?When a brutal murder takes place under mysterious circumstances, Virender’s boss, Commandant Ranbir connects it to the minute-by-minute unravelling terror plot. But was he overlooking something? Then, little Ranu goes missing. Ranbir finds himself chasing red herrings in a race against time to find her and foil a terror plot. As chilling secrets tumble out, the end is more sinister than you can ever imagine.
The Producer's Daughter
Lindsay Marcott - 2013
Twenty years later, her daughter Hannah is released from prison after stealing a hundred thousand dollar necklace -- a crime she did not intend to commit. Resolving to change her life from wild child to purposeful young woman, Hannah begins to uncover secrets -- involving both high Hollywood financial stakes and the startling history of her own family.
Even Me
Celeste Granger - 2020
He sees a woman worth loving.Jennifer Williams faces the hardest battle of her life. She is incarcerated in maximum security prison behind the death of her husband, sentenced to life. She resigns herself to the hand fate has dealt her. Jennifer killed her husband. That fact is indisputable. Yet, some things happen that are completely unexpected. A higher court decides to hear her legal case on a clemency petition. Attorney Tareef Ali fights to protect Jennifer in the courtroom. Prison guard, Quinton Miller enters her life. He’s seen her before, even though she’s never seen him. He’s drawn to her even though she’s behind bars. Quinton fights to love her even though Jennifer feels she doesn’t deserve it. A romance begins to brew that neither can deny. But breaking Jennifer’s barriers isn’t easy when she feels love isn’t within her reach.This is a standalone novella with a HEA.Trigger warning: Gratuitous profanity, some violence, detailed sexual encounters
Broken Crayons Still Color 3: The Mirror of Regret
David Weaver - 2021
Ruby Lake
Sherrill Willis - 2011
When her boss sends her to Ruby Lake, a small, rural town in northern Wisconsin, the last thing she was looking for was love at first sight, not to mention a place in the world where she finally fits. Add in her city-savvy best friend, a jealous ex-girlfriend, a famous father, and a coffee shop full of off-the wall characters, and it becomes more challenging for Sydney to manage than a spinning plate competition. When disaster strikes close to home, Sydney is left with the unbearable choice of her family, or the life she has always dreamed of. Come with Sydney on her journey and laugh, cry and rediscover why some choices are not really choices at all, they are simply fate.
The Speed of Light
Elissa Grossell Dickey - 2021
Diagnosed with MS, she awaits the results of another anxiety-inducing MRI. She’s just walked away from Connor, “a fixer” but possibly the love of her life. And nearing the holidays, the sights and sounds of winter in South Dakota only prick memories of better years gone by. Then, on a December morning at the university where she works, jarring gunshots pierce the halls. In a temporary safe place and terrified, Simone listens and pretends this will all be over soon.As she waits for silence, her mind racing, Simone’s past year comes into focus. Falling in love and missing it. Finding strength in family and enduring friendships. Planning for the future, fearing it, and hoping against hope in dark places. Her life has been changing at the speed of light, and each crossroad brought Simone here, to this day, to endure the things she can’t control and to confront those that she can.
The View from Delphi
Jonathan Odell - 2004
Two young mothers have each lost a child, but they overcome their racial differences to bring about justice in a pre-Civil Rights Mississippi town.
A Tangled Mercy
Joy Jordan-Lake - 2017
Haunted by unanswered questions and her own uncertain future, she flees to Charleston, South Carolina, the place where her parents met, convinced it holds the key to understanding her fractured family and saving her career in academia. Kate is determined to unearth groundbreaking information on a failed 1822 slave revolt—the subject of her mother’s own research.Nearly two centuries earlier, Tom Russell, a gifted blacksmith and slave, grappled with a terrible choice: arm the uprising spearheaded by members of the fiercely independent African Methodist Episcopal Church or keep his own neck out of the noose and protect the woman he loves.Kate’s attempts to discover what drove her mother’s dangerous obsession with Charleston’s tumultuous history are derailed by a horrific massacre in the very same landmark church. In the unimaginable aftermath, Kate discovers a family she never knew existed as the city unites with a powerful message of hope and forgiveness for the world.
The Taming of Red Butte Western
Francis Lynde - 2005
You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.
The Canary's Song
Natalie Banks - 2018
Losing her young son to a tragic accident had nearly driven her to the point of madness and now she was on the verge of losing her husband too. In a last ditch effort to save their marriage, she decided to book a romantic cabin vacation for just the two of them up in the mountains of North Carolina. She thought she had experienced the worst life could throw at her. Little did she know that the wilderness had in something else in store for her, when she finds herself left alone and fighting for her life.
Farthest Shores of Ursula K Le Guin
George Edgar Slusser - 1976
An examination of Le Guin's career, from her obscure beginnings in the science fiction magazines to her rapid rise to the top in the 1970's.