He’s a rat, anyway, and currently attends Sex Addicts Anonymous. He still comes by the house, though, as do her hippie, macrobiotic mother; her feisty, alcoholic best friend; her God-fearing grandmother; and that Perfect Guy, the one with the beatific son who plays with her daughter, the one who happens to have a winning smile, wild black hair, a professorship at Harvard—and (drats!) a gorgeous doctor girlfriend. Told in short takes that perfectly mimic the frantic nature of our busy lives, Hot and Bothered follows its heroine through the streets of Cambridge, where she spends far too much time staring into space and sipping mocha lattes with extra whipped cream; to church, where she prays for a little salvation; to Alaska, where she believes a rugged outdoorsman might just be that salvation; and to Cape Cod, where, in a little house by the sea, she might finally see the light. Annie Downey has written an updated Cinderella story for all single moms.

    It was released on June 2014. Ng’s novel managed to beat the likes of Stephen King and Hilary Mantel for the 2014 Amazon Book of the Year Award. Her debut novel has also won the 2014-2015 Asian/ Pacific American Award for Literature in Adult Fiction and the 2014 Alex Award. Currently, Everything I Never Told You is sold in 15 territories worldwide. Celeste Ng’s family thriller is a highly recommended and critically acclaimed work of fiction. Read more.... Download your copy today! for a limited time discount of only $2.99! Available on PC, Mac, smart phone, tablet or Kindle device. © 2015 All Rights Reserved by Unlimited Press Works, LLC

    166 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more – everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of I Know This Much Is True. This detailed literature summary also contains Topics for Discussion and a Free Quiz on I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb.

    . . but is it for better or for worse? When the office lotto pool lands the winning ticket for four friends, each will embark on journeys that change their lives forever. After years of stringing her along, Terrance has reluctantly married his longtime girlfriend, Sheray. . . just days before winning the lottery. Now, that he’s a rich newlywed, the former playboy is dreaming of what life would’ve been like as a rich bachelor. When the money drives a wedge between them, Sheray leaves and Terrance learns the hard way to be careful what you wish for. Angelique has been overweight since she was young. Despite her insecurities, her boyfriend, Marcus, gives her his love and affection without reservation. When she uses some of her winnings to get weight loss surgery, her new body and new attitude gets her some new attention, and could cost her the man she loves. After twelve years of marriage, Janine’s husband announces that he’s leaving her for another woman. When she realizes he could possibly get a portion of her prize, she devises a scheme to keep it from him. But when her plan backfires, will she lose it all? Raquelle’s life has just been turned upside down when she’s caught embezzling money, which she started doing to support her sick son. With a boss bent on making her pay, Raquelle is facing hard time and about to discover there are some things her lotto winnings can’t buy…or can it? With a bitter former coworker lurking in the background, these friends are discovering their big payday will definitely change their lives…just not in the ways they expected.

    Georgetown, Kentucky, 1939...soon after dawn on a February morning, Elliott Chapel discovers an unconscious, bloodied, young woman lying face up in the cold waters of Penny Creek. Days later, awakening from her hypothermic coma, Ellie Evans finds herself on the Chapel Farm. Once she explains her plight as the abused wife of a powerful man, Elliott offers her and her son a place to stay and vows to keep them from harm. For both Ellie and Elliott, life under the same roof is a challenge--with the cantankerous Paul Chapel, Elliott's father who spends his retirement days drinking whiskey with his aging coonhound by his side. Elliott has taken over the daily operations of the horse farm with his assistant, Booley. Unusual for the time--when blacks were subservient to whites--Booley manages a small staff and helps Elliott attempt the impossible with the newly-acquired horse of a high-profile client. Ellie pitches in and helps out when she can and helps change the mood of the busy farm with her sweet charm and culinary skills, even getting on the good side of the bad-tempered Paul Chapel. Just when daily life settles into an enjoyable rhythm, a violent struggle erupts when the malicious Mayor Evans descends on the farm with the county sheriff and two deputies. Armed with shotguns, they remove Ellie and her son from the farm, against her will. Narrated by Elliott five decades later, he recalls the incident on the Chapel Farm and subsequent events which ultimately reveal the long-kept secret...hidden in a small town since 1939.

    The guide should be used with the novel, not instead of it, so please pick up a copy before buying this book if you haven’t already done so. BookNotes is meant to enhance the experience of fans, and for use by book clubs. Inside you will discover: A book summary and analysis with commentary Character list A look at symbols, themes and motifs Commentary on the book as well as details on plot, settings and final thoughts BookNotes introduces a companion to A Spool of Blue Thread, by Anne Tyler for fans and book clubs to enhance your reading experience.

    . .It’s 1981. Eleven-year-old Sadie adores her beautiful and vibrant mother, Connie, whose dreams of making it big as a singer fill their tiny house in Leeds. It’s always been just the two of them. Until the unthinkable happens.Jean hasn’t seen her good-for-nothing daughter Connie since she ran away from the family home in Harlow – or Pram Town as its inhabitants affectionately call it – aged seventeen and pregnant.But in the wake of the Royal Wedding, Jean gets a life-changing call: could she please come and collect the granddaughter she’s never met?We all know how Charles and Diana turned out, and Jean and Sadie are hardly a match made in heaven – but is there hope of a happy ending for them?Written in Joanna Nadin’s trademark dazzling prose, The Talk of Pram Town tells the story of three generations of Earnshaws and asks whether it always has to be like mother, like daughter . .

    It wasn’t long before hardships left them unable to provide.Soon, four-year-old Phyllis is plucked off her front porch, ripped away from the only family she knows, and sent to live with her grandmother Lula on an Alabama farm with no electricity, plumbing, or running water.Heartbroken by her mother’s abandonment, Phyllis struggles to acclimate to her new surroundings. Thanks to the unconditional love of Grandma Lula and the healing powers of an old, tattered quilt, she is finally able to adjust to her new life.In Quilt of Souls, Lawson documents her childhood growing up with the incredible woman who raised her and the powerful family heirloom that served as the cloth that would forever stitch their lives together.With its tales of family, despair, freedom and hope, the true story behind this deeply personal memoir serves as the inspiration for http://www.quiltofsouls.com, where individuals share relics and stories from their own family histories.

    Her father Brian, a Vietnam veteran struggling with the long-term effects of the war, has been missing ever since he walked out on Beth and their two children in the dead of night twenty years ago. Matt dreams of one day finding his own path like his heroic father, as Beth’s religious fervour propagates a childhood of parental disappointment. Rachel sets before her family one last request: a journey to the exotic and the unknown. Rachel, ever the free spirit, administers a dose of her notorious wanderlust.The Happiness Jar is a story about how tightly you hold on to what you believe in; how one person’s beliefs can affect a family and tear at the already fragile folds where love hides. It’s about faith, and what can endure despite the burdens we place on ourselves and each other.Set against the red dust of the Kimberley desert, and the smoky backdrop of the holy river Ganges in India, The Happiness Jar is a novel that reminds us that we continue to live in the memories we leave behind. “The Happiness Jar will take the reader on a journey of discovery, of oneself and those whom we love, and others we may not love at all. I found this book to be a wonderful read from start to finish and was left pondering at the end, my own mortality, outlook and relationships. Samantha Tidy has penned a book that you may well want to read again and again.” Gary McKay, Author

    Fikry. A comprehensive guide to Zevin's wonderful celebration of the world of literature, this book includes useful literary context; a full plot summary, discussion of themes and symbols; character notes; 15 thought-provoking discussion questions; recommended further reading and a quick quiz. **Amazon Reviews for the Reading Room Book Group Notes:** "Belong to a small book club and we had our liveliest, best discussion ever over this book." (Jeanne McCloskey) "I would definitely recommend it to other book groups." (Book Addict) "Insightful and made the discussion easy to begin." (C. Childress) "I'm in a book club that read this and it was SO helpful!" (AvidReaderAllGenres) The Reading Room Book Group Guides are designed to help you get the absolute best from your book club meetings. An invaluable reference tool, they provide a wealth of useful information on your chosen novel. *THIS BOOK IS A COMPANION GUIDE, DESIGNED TO BE READ IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE ORIGINAL NOVEL. PLEASE BE AWARE, IT DOES NOT CONTAIN THE ORIGINAL TEXT OF THE NOVEL.*

    " ReadingsA grieving daughter navigates the morning commute, her mind bursting with memories pleading to be shared.A man made entirely of well-cut suits and strictly enforced rules swims his regular morning laps and fantasises about his self-assured promotion.A young lawyer sits in a fluorescent-lit office, typing indecipherable jargon and dreaming of everything she didn't become.A failed news hack hides under the covers from another looming deadline, and from a past that will not relent its pursuit.And a young woman seeking asylum sits tensely on an unmoving train, praying that good news waits at the other end of the line...In this charming, moving and affectionate novel, Claire Varley paints a magical portrait of five ordinary people, and the sometimes heartbreaking power of the stories we make of ourselves.PRAISE FOR THE BIT IN BETWEEN"Tragic, mysterious, insightful, sometimes humorous and often heartbreaking." Daily Telegraph"Varley writes with confidence and brio, and her main characters are believable and loveable." The Age"Full of heart and humour." West Australian

    They're inching towards that ultimate dream - buying their own land. Fenward's always been lucky with its sharemilkers: grateful, grafting folk who understand what's expected of them. Until now, when grief-stricken Ian Baxter and his precocious daughter, Gabrielle, arrive.Nickie Walker is enchanted by the glamour and worldliness of Gabrielle. Nickie's mother finds herself in the crossfire of a moral battle she dreads to confront. Each has a story to share.This is a coming-of-age story for two young girls who hold a mirror up to the place and people they love. It's a coming-of-age story, too, for a community forced to stare back at the image of a damaged soul.The question is: who will blink first?

    She seeks solace from her toxic relationship by throwing herself into a new job that she loves, by confiding in her best friend Corina and, most dangerously of all, by spending more and more time with her workmate Owen – who just so happens to be passionate, charming and everything her husband used to be.Then one heat-of-the-moment decision on a business trip to Amsterdam sets off a series of events that will change the course of all their lives forever.

    She has written to say she is in hospice and wanted to say goodbye. Leaving his tense, bitter wife Maureen to her chores, Harold intends a quick walk to the corner mailbox to post his reply but instead, inspired by a chance encounter, he becomes convinced he must deliver his message in person to Queenie--who is 600 miles away--because as long as he keeps walking, Harold believes that Queenie will not die. So without hiking boots, rain gear, map or cell phone, one of the most endearing characters in current fiction begins his unlikely pilgrimage across the English countryside. Along the way, strangers stir up memories--flashbacks, often painful, from when his marriage was filled with promise and then not, of his inadequacy as a father, and of his shortcomings as a husband. Ironically, his wife Maureen, shocked by her husband's sudden absence, begins to long for his presence. Is it possible for Harold and Maureen to bridge the distance between them? And will Queenie be alive to see Harold arrive at her door?THE LOVE SONG OF MISS QUEENIE HENNESSYWhen Queenie Hennessy discovers that Harold Fry is walking the length of England to save her, and all she has to do is wait, she is shocked. Her note had explained she was dying. How can she wait?      A new volunteer at the hospice suggests that Queenie should write again; only this time she must tell Harold everything. In confessing to secrets she has hidden for twenty years, she will find atonement for the past. As the volunteer points out, 'Even though you've done your travelling, you're starting a new journey too.'      Queenie thought her first letter would be the end of the story. She was wrong. It was the beginning.

    But it is tending her beautiful garden with her handsome young gardener, Rex Kenwright, that ultimately saves Helen from grief. No stranger to bereavement himself, Rex finds comfort in Helen's company but it is seventeen-year-old Chloe who steals his heart.It is the swinging sixties, however, and Chloe has dreams of her own. When she announces that she is pregnant and moving in with her boyfriend, Adam Livingstone, she has no idea of the effect this will have on those she loves. Nor does she anticipate the rocky road to happiness that lies ahead...