Book picks similar to
Gum Moon: A Novel of San Francisco Chinatown by Jeffrey L Staley


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Night of Many Dreams


Gail Tsukiyama - 1998
    When they return home, Emma develops a deep interest in travel and sets her sights on an artistic life in San Francisco, while Joan turns to movies and thoughts of romance to escape the pressures of her real life.As the girls become women, each follows a path different from what her family expects. But through periods of great happiness and sorrow, the sisters learn that their complicated ties to each other--and to the other members of their close-knit family--are a source of strength as they pursue their separate dreams.

Labyrinth


Kate Mosse - 2005
    Eight hundred years earlier, on the eve of a brutal crusade that will rip apart southern France, a young woman named Alais is given a ring and a mysterious book for safekeeping by her father. The book, he says, contains the secret of the true Grail, and the ring, inscribed with a labyrinth, will identify a guardian of the Grail. Now, as crusading armies gather outside the city walls of Carcassonne, it will take a tremendous sacrifice to keep the secret of the labyrinth safe.

Calamity


Libbie Hawker - 2019
    Her celebrity has spread to the East Coast and California, traveling down the new-laid railroads and along the telegraph wire. But breathless tales of Calamity Jane bear little resemblance to the truth. As she senses death coming closer, the legendary hellcat longs to set the record straight—to reveal her life story at last, unclouded by legend, every sin and failing laid bare. Only then can she hope to rest in peace. In a Deadwood saloon, she finds a writer willing to hear her out, and recount the truth to a public hungry for more tales of Calamity Jane… So begins Libbie Hawker’s expansive biographical novel, an intimate portrait of one of the best-known yet least-understood women of the American frontier. The international bestselling author of The Ragged Edge of Night takes the reader on a heart-rending journey through a landscape lost to time, as seen through the eyes of one outcast woman. Calamity is a haunting meditation on hardship, unrequited love, and the stark, affecting beauty of the American West. Editorial note: In pursuit of a narrative voice faithful to the central character, this text employs deliberate misuse of grammar and occasional misspellings. These are the author’s intentional stylistic choices and should not be interpreted as a lack of editing. Readers are encouraged to use the “Look Inside” feature before purchasing.

The Night People


Jack Finney - 1977
    

There Ariseth Light in the Darkness: A Novel of First Century Galilee


J.V. Love - 2019
    One miraculous teacher. A story of love and forgiveness… In ancient Palestine, three survivors struggle to find solace in a world of injustice and repression. Azara is studious, headstrong, and committed to her ideals. Jonah is pure and virtuous, but his heart has been darkened by the evils of man. And Vitus is a Roman soldier battling for order and progress when he is unexpectedly confronted with a different kind of war…Separated by miles of dangerous lands, and decades of turbulent history, these three wandering souls set off on a journey beyond their imagination. Their travels will test their faith and culminate in an encounter with a mysterious rabbi from Galilee—a teacher who upends their lives with his revolutionary message of love and compassion… A man called Jesus of Nazareth. Author JV Love blends meticulous research with an absorbing, heartfelt story. There Ariseth Light in the Darkness is an epic biblical adventure that sweeps readers into the lives of its unforgettable protagonists. (Note: An updated version was released in July 2019 to correct mistaken references to two New Testament books: Hebrews and Ephesians.)

Paper Wife


Laila Ibrahim - 2018
    Desperate to secure her future, Mei Ling’s parents arrange a marriage to a widower in California. To enter the country, she must pretend to be her husband’s first wife—a paper wife.On the perilous voyage, Mei Ling takes an orphan girl named Siew under her wing. Dreams of a better life in America give Mei Ling the strength to endure the treacherous journey and detainment on Angel Island. But when she finally reaches San Francisco, she’s met with a surprise. Her husband, Chinn Kai Li, is a houseboy, not the successful merchant he led her to believe.Mei Ling is penniless, pregnant, and bound to a man she doesn’t know. Her fragile marriage is tested further when she discovers that Siew will likely be forced into prostitution. Desperate to rescue Siew, she must convince her husband that an orphan’s life is worth fighting for. Can Mei Ling find a way to make a real family—even if it’s built on a paper foundation?

Catching the Wind


Melanie Dobson - 2017
    They survived a harrowing journey from Germany to England, only to be separated upon their arrival. Daniel vowed to find Brigitte after the war, a promise he has fought to fulfill for more than seventy years.Now a wealthy old man, Daniel's final hope in finding Brigitte rests with Quenby Vaughn, an American journalist working in London. He believes Quenby's tenacity to find missing people and her personal investment in a related WWII espionage story will help her succeed where previous investigators have failed. Though Quenby is wrestling her own demons--and wary at the idea of teaming up with Daniel's lawyer, Lucas Hough--the lure of Brigitte's story is too much to resist. Together, Quenby and Lucas delve deep into the past, following a trail of deception, sacrifice, and healing that could change all of their futures.A 2018 Christy Award finalist!

Women Talking


Miriam Toews - 2018
    For the past two years, each of these women, and more than a hundred other girls in their colony, has been repeatedly violated in the night by demons coming to punish them for their sins. Now that the women have learned they were in fact drugged and attacked by a group of men from their own community, they are determined to protect themselves and their daughters from future harm.While the men of the colony are off in the city, attempting to raise enough money to bail out the rapists and bring them home, these women—all illiterate, without any knowledge of the world outside their community and unable even to speak the language of the country they live in—have very little time to make a choice: Should they stay in the only world they’ve ever known or should they dare to escape?Based on real events and told through the “minutes” of the women’s all-female symposium, Toews’s masterful novel uses wry, politically engaged humor to relate this tale of women claiming their own power to decide.

Prayers for Sale


Sandra Dallas - 1997
    Nit Spindle is just seventeen and newly married. She and her husband have just moved to the high country in search of work. It's 1936 and the depression has ravaged the country and Nit and her husband have suffered greatly. Hennie notices the young woman loitering near the old sign outside of her house that promises "Prayers For Sale". Hennie doesn't sell prayers, never has, but there's something about the young woman that she's drawn to. The harsh conditions of life that each have endured create an instant bond and an unlikely friendship is formed, one in which the deepest of hardships are shared and the darkest of secrets are confessed. Sandra Dallas has created an unforgettable tale of a friendship between two women, one with surprising twists and turns, and one that is ultimately a revelation of the finest parts of the human spirit.

Esther


John Piper - 2012
    This two-part poem begins with Mordecai talking with his teenage cousin Hadassah (Esther), whom he is raising. He explains how her grandfather had a prophetic dream about freedom in the land of Susa, and how his aunt and uncle (Esther's parents) began the journey. Esther's mother, he explains, died in childbirth, and her father died only two years later. Part two fast-forwards to Esther looking back and explaining how she became queen to her son, and what God's providential purposes were in saving the Jews. This moving story is complete with illustrations by artist Glenn Harrington, and will inspire faith in God through fictional poetry about the nonfictional story of Esther.

The Pilgrim's Progress


John Bunyan - 1684
    Set against realistic backdrops of town and country, the powerful drama of the pilgrim's trials and temptations follows him in his harrowing journey to the Celestial City.Along a road filled with monsters and spiritual terrors, Christian confronts such emblematic characters as Worldly Wiseman, Giant Despair, Talkative, Ignorance, and the demons of the Valley of the Shadow of Death. But he is also joined by Hopeful and Faithful.An enormously influential 17th-century classic, universally known for its simplicity, vigor, and beauty of language, The Pilgrim's Progress remains one of the most widely read books in the English language.

Moonraker's Bride


Madeleine Brent - 1973
    The way she tackles this task leads to her being thrown into the grim prison of Chengfu, where she meets Nicholas Sabine - a man about to die.He asks her a cryptic riddle, the mystery of which echoes through all that befalls her in the months that follow...She is brought to England and tries to make a new life with the Gresham family, but she is constantly in disgrace and is soon involved in the bitter feud between the Greshams and a neighbouring family.There is danger, romance and heartache for Lucy as strange events build to a point where she begins to doubt her own senses.How could she see a man, long dead, walking in the misty darkness of the valley? And who carried her, unconscious, into the labyrinth of Chiselhurst Caves and left her to die?It is not until she returns to China that Lucy finds, amid high adventure, the answer to all that has baffled her.

Taliesin


Stephen R. Lawhead - 1987
    While across a vast sea, bloody war shattered a peace that had flourished for two thousand years in the doomed kingdom of Atlantis.Taliesin is the remarkable adventure of Charis, the Atlantean princess who escaped the terrible devastation of her homeland, and of the fabled seer and druid prince Taliesin, singer at the dawn of the age. It is the story of an incomparable love that joined two worlds amid the fires of chaos, and spawned the miracles of Merlin...and Arthur the king.

The Renegade


Lily Baldwin - 2020
    Determined to protect her independence, she will do anything to avoid marriage to her insistent neighbor—and every other man for that matter. She will even venture beyond the comforts of home to traverse the disreputable shipyards of Inverness in search of a man reckless enough to set her plan in motion, a plan she hopes will ensure that she never need utter the words “to honor and obey.”To all the world, Nathan Campbell is fearless, strong, irresistibly sexy and when not tracking down thieves for a price, he can generally be found in a tavern, too far into his cups and draped by women vying to welcome him into their beds. But if they were to look beyond his devilishly charming smile to his eyes, they would see that he was hollow inside, and no amount of coin, drink, or women could fill the void in his heart.Both Elora and Nathan will see the other as a means to achieve their worldly goals—but what if within their wounded hearts beats more? What if dreams lie in wait? Dreams that can only be realized when unleashed by a passion too powerful to contain and impossible to deny.

The Devil Hates Latin


Katharine Galgano - 2017
    Everywhere, the Faith and the West are in decline. Ominously, occult practices have corrupted the elites, the media and powerful men in the Church. The new pontiff faces this unprecedented challenge alone, until an embattled American Cardinal sends his best exorcist to Rome, a young Dominican priest with hard experience combating the Devil -- in Latin -- on America's mean streets. Meanwhile, a US media mogul, an indifferent Catholic targeted for his politics, flees America with his family for the Eternal City. There, they find a despondent society where Italians no longer marry and have children. Indeed, all hope seems lost until a beautiful Roman girl takes a brave stance against the rising tide of despair. Gritty, fascinating and impossible to forget, 'The Devil Hates Latin' sweeps from New England to the Tiber, and ultimately to a Renaissance palazzo nestled in the green hills of Umbria, building to a shattering confrontation as Good summons the courage to face the menace of the gathering forces of Evil. PUBLISHED BY REGINA PRESS