Uncle Rudolf: A Novel


Paul Bailey - 2003
    Andre's father, in a desperate effort to save him from the coming holocaust, hands him over to his captivating uncle Rudolf, an internationally famous singer of popular operettas. Rudolf is a sublimely gifted lyric tenor, a dashing leading man who is the object of many women's affections-but also an artist who lives in the shadow of his own unachieved potential as an opera star. Rudolf takes the boy to back to London, renames him Andrew, turns all his attention and sardonic humor upon him, and gradually sculpts him into a gentleman.Vivid, often lighthearted scenes of Andrew's worldly life with Rudolf are intertwined with the unfolding secrets of his forgotten past as Andre, which have shadowed his otherwise happy life. Told in matchless prose, Uncle Rudolf captures in fine detail the mood of 1940s Europe--and reveals the emotions of a man whose achievement falls short of his brilliant promise. It is a wise, knowing, elegant story about the sacrifices we make for those we love.

The Whiskey Sea


Ann Howard Creel - 2016
    The girls are taken in by a kindly fisherman named Silver, and Frieda begins to feel at home on the water. When Silver sells his fishing boat to WWI veteran Sam Hicks, thinking Sam would be a fine husband for Frieda, she’s outraged. But Frieda manages to talk Sam into teaching her to repair boat engines instead, so she has a trade of her own and won’t have to marry.Frieda quickly discovers that a mechanic’s wages won’t support Bea and Silver, and is lured into a money-making team of rumrunners supplying alcohol to New York City speakeasies. Speeding into dangerous waters to transport illegal liquor, Frieda gets swept up in the lucrative, risky work—and swept off her feet by a handsome Ivy Leaguer who’s in it just for fun.As danger mounts and her own feelings threaten to drown her, can Frieda find her way back to solid ground—and to a love that will sustain her?

Palace Walk


Naguib Mahfouz - 1956
    A national best-seller in both hardcover and paperback, it introduces the engrossing saga of a Muslim family in Cairo during Egypt's occupation by British forces in the early 1900s.

Frommer's Easyguide to Disney World, Universal and Orlando 2017


Jason Cochran - 2007
    Most books on the market make the problem worse, either burying vacationers in tiny details and anxieties or functioning as unquestioning cheerleaders for the high-priced theme parks and resorts. But Frommer's' 2017 Easy Guide cuts through the noise and hyperbole to deliver what no other book does: Honest talk, frank advice, and an affectionate insider's secrets to appreciating and affording Walt Disney World, Universal Orlando Resort, Sea World, and the inimitable attractions of Orlando and Central Florida.Praised by locals and visitors alike, it's the only guide to show you Orlando the way you actually want to see it. No other guide book is as comprehensive while remaining so concise and so honest. No other book synthesizes advice, history, and good sense in such an easy-to-read format.This Orlando guide is so novel and groundbreaking that its author, Jason Cochran, was awarded Guide Book of the Year from the Society of American Travel Writers for creating it. Cochran, who is also the editor-in-chief of our popular website, Frommers.com and the co-host of the Frommer Travel Show, keeps you on top of the newest developments in this ever-shifting tourist scene.- Rankings of the area's best resorts and well-priced hotels- Smart appraisals of what's worth waiting in line for -- and what you can skip- Reviews of non-chain restaurants -- a full chapter's worth -- so you can find the best flavors beyond the usual franchises- Money-saving tips and hacks to tame the high cost of an Orlando holiday- Tips on navigating the complex theme park systems that aren't down with unnecessarily obsessive details--Learn what you need to know and then relax.The book is in the lightweight and easily-carried format of our Easy Guides, and it also contains a valuable fold-out map.

Now You Know: A Novel


Susan Kelly - 2013
    It ends with a promise. On her deathbed Frances extracts it from her three daughters—the utterly capable homemaker Alice; the recalcitrant Allegra, a recovering alcoholic; and bohemian Edie, who shrinks in the face of any commitment: their promise to “look after Libba.” As if the formidable, tough-minded Libba Charles, author of ten books, a literary celebrity, needed looking after. Yet when they are summoned by Libba to Creek Cabin, their mother’s summer hideaway in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, they go. None of them is prepared, though, for what they will discover there—about their mother, about Libba, about themselves—in this poignant, adroit rendering of reunions and farewells.

A Spy In Vienna: A Paul Muller Novel of Political Intrigue


William N. Walker - 2018
    It is the second Paul Muller novel set in Europe before World War II. Muller is recruited to become a spy to resist Hitler's campaign to absorb Austria into the German Reich and, from his perch in Vienna, finds himself at the epicenter of the desperate struggle to preserve Austrian independence. Muller plays a dangerous game in helping Austria oppose Hitler's demands and he hatches a bold plan to divert Austria's gold reserves so they stay out of Hitler's grasp. The novel captures this gripping drama in rich and vivid detail as political pressures mount and the threat of war looms. A Spy in Vienna re-creates for readers the fraught atmosphere of 1930's, when the threat of Nazi violence hung over Europe. Aficionados of that epoch will relish the authenticity of the novel, which reawakens the tensions and turbulence of the era, with its undercurrent of violence and fear. The narrative recaptures the urgency of the crisis as repeated confrontations escalated to an explosive conclusion. Today, sitting at the safe remove of eighty years, we know the outcome. Hitler's bald aggression prevailed; his takeover of Austria became a crucial stepping stone leading to World War II. But the characters in the novel know none of this; for them, the events they are caught up in are frightening and bewildering, confronting them with dire choices and fearful consequences. The novel transports the reader into that contemporary maelstrom of intrigue and danger—combining real history with a compelling story. Admirers of Paul Muller in Danzig will revel in his new adventures in Vienna, as once again he confronts Nazi tyranny.

The Famished Road


Ben Okri - 1991
    Like Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children or Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude, it combines brilliant narrative technique with a fresh vision to create an essential work of world literature.The narrator, Azaro, is an abiku, a spirit child, who in the Yoruba tradition of Nigeria exists between life and death. The life he foresees for himself and the tale he tells is full of sadness and tragedy, but inexplicably he is born with a smile on his face. Nearly called back to the land of the dead, he is resurrected. But in their efforts to save their child, Azaro's loving parents are made destitute. The tension between the land of the living, with its violence and political struggles, and the temptations of the carefree kingdom of the spirits propels this latter-day Lazarus's story.

Millie


AnneMarie Brear - 2019
    Millie tries to help, but Jeremy grows more distant and befriends a homeless, wounded ex-soldier, Monty, who has secrets...As Millie’s distrust of Monty grows, a rift is created between her and Jeremy and when he leaves to receive hospital treatment, she is left feeling abandoned. When her family is dealt a terrible loss, it is Millie who must be the strongest. However, just when she feels things couldn’t become worse, she suffers her own heartbreaking tragedy.Grieving and alone, Millie wonders if her marriage can ever be mended, but she can’t give up without a fight.Will a new home for her and Jeremy in a foreign country be the answer, or will the events of the past destroy everything she wished for?

The In-Between World of Vikram Lall


M.G. Vassanji - 2003
    Against the unsettling backdrop of Mau Mau violence, Vic and his sister Deepa, the grandchildren of an Indian railroad worker, search for their place in a world sharply divided between Kenyans and the British. We follow Vic from a changing Africa in the fifties, to the hope of the sixties, and through the corruption and fear of the seventies and eighties. Hauntingly told in the voice of the now exiled Vic, The In-Between World of Vikram Lall is an acute and bittersweet novel of identity and family, of lost love and abiding friendship, and of the insidious legacy of the British Empire.--back cover

The Missing Gun (Hawker of the Yard Book 1)


W.H. Oxley - 2014
    Hitler has just conquered Poland, but life in London continues much as it did in peacetime, albeit a little more restricted since the introduction of petrol rationing. No bombs have been dropped on the city as yet, but the population go about their daily business under the constant threat of German air raids, and a blackout remains in force at night. For Scotland Yard and the criminal fraternity, however, it is business as usual. When a pawnbroker’s assistant is wounded by a gunman wearing a gasmask, it appears to be a straightforward case of a bungled armed robbery, but as Hawker proceeds with his investigation, the more facts he uncovers the more confusing the affair becomes. A red-headed soldier, a missing gun, a dead cat, an empty violin case and a damaged violin are only a few of the threads that have to be unravelled before he can wrap up the case – with a little help from Sherlock Holmes.

Terminal House


Sean Costello - 2017
    Now imagine being intimately aware of the process, but helpless to arrest it. Would you be afraid? For retired physician Ben Hunter, that malign force is Alzheimer’s disease—and he is terrified.Now a resident in a major geriatric center, Ben straddles an ever-widening gulf between a muddled present and an idealized past, never quite certain which will support his weight. Against this backdrop, he meets Roxanne Austen, an 18-year-old student who both enriches his life and accelerates his descent into bewilderment.With equal measures of frankness and humor, Terminal House illuminates the many challenges of aging, including dementia, death and dying, voluntary euthanasia, and romantic love.Here's a sample of what advance readers are saying about Terminal House:"As a retired editor who doesn't watch television I probably read 300 novels a year (about one a day).Unequivocally,Terminal House is the best of the year, actually the best for a long while. How someone who is not that old could capture the feelings, desires, memories and fears of an older person is astounding. He emotionally touched the true feelings of both elderly people and the younger persons around them. No one will be able to put this book down once they start reading.

Yasmeen


Sophia Khan - 2015
    She is also unpredictable, enigmatic, funny and tragic. And then one day, she vanishes, leaving behind a heartbroken husband and desolate daughter. Irenie refuses to accept that Yasmeen is gone; she haunts the house with the scents and sounds of her dazzling mother in an effort to maintain the illusion of her presence. Five years after her mother's disappearance, Irenie discovers a box of letters, beautiful, intimate love letters, which reveal a different Yasmeen, a woman who, all her life, was in love with a man named Ahmed. Why did the two never get together? What really happened to Yasmeen? On a quest for answers she suspects her father, James, has long suppressed, she travels to Islamabad, where she uncovers a trove of secrets for which she may not be ready. Over the course of a summer, father and daughter find that they must help each other move out of Yasmeen's shadow and forge their own stories. Simultaneously intricate and expansive, shattering and uplifting, this is a sophisticated debut about obsessive love, family ties and a desperate search for closure.

Going Insane


Cole Baxter - 2021
    Who do you trust when you can't even trust yourself?Occult novelist and cult escapee Brandy Lawson has worked very hard to put her past behind her.Alone in the world save for her loving but often-absent airline pilot husband Justin, she does her best to live a quiet life.Everything is disrupted, however, when she learns she’s finally inheriting a former cult property owned by her long-estranged parents.But Brandy is unprepared for how taking possession of the isolated farmhouse will affect her mental health.Peculiar occurrences on the property lead her to question her sanity, and a breakdown leads her to seek professional help and medications at the behest of her husband.After initially chalking up the strange things happening in her home to her PTSD, soon it becomes clear that everyone is not who they appear to be.To save their marriage and her sanity, they will have to investigate what may be causing the issues at her home, only to discover that their frightening, jealous “housemate” is something more disturbing than any ghost.

In Search of Vindication


Ethan Westfield - 2020
    Deputy Marshal in Kansas for a great deal of his life. As soon as his brother Tommy stops answering his letters, he gets extremely alarmed and decides to take matters into his own hands. When he puts a plan in place to travel to Texas, little does he know that a shattering surprise awaits him there; his brother has been found dead, next to the body of one of the most powerful ranchers in town. Will Lee manage to unravel the truth behind these enigmatic and shocking deaths?While Lee is still aghast, the local sheriff declares Tommy's death a suicide, and also accuses him of attempting robbery and murder. On the spur of the moment, the case is considered closed, which makes Lee highly suspicious. Feeling that they drag Tommy's name through the mud, he decides to defy the law and seek vindication. Will he succeed in this lonesome yet risky mission? How will he solve this demanding riddle and clear his brother's name?Lee's hazardous quest begins, having Susan Marsh and Ki'Somma, a young Cherokee medicine man, on his side. Doubts, lies, deceits, serious injuries as well as many other roadblocks will derange their endless undertaking. Will they manage to join forces triumphantly and complete this challenging mission? Or will Tommy always be remembered as a ruthless criminal?

Black Dove White Raven


Elizabeth Wein - 2015
    Teo's mother died immediately, but Em's survived, determined to raise Teo according to his late mother's wishes—in a place where he won't be discriminated against because of the color of his skin. But in 1930s America, a white woman raising a black adoptive son alongside a white daughter is too often seen as a threat.Seeking a home where her children won't be held back by ethnicity or gender, Rhoda brings Em and Teo to Ethiopia, and all three fall in love with the beautiful, peaceful country. But that peace is shattered by the threat of war with Italy, and teenage Em and Teo are drawn into the conflict. Will their devotion to their country, its culture and people, and each other be their downfall or their salvation?In the tradition of her award-winning and bestselling Code Name Verity, Elizabeth Wein brings us another thrilling and deeply affecting novel that explores the bonds of friendship, the resilience of young pilots, and the strength of the human spirit.