Splendid Isolation: The Jekyll Island Millionaires' Club 1888-1942


Pamela Bauer Mueller - 2009
    Because so many of the world's greatest minds and bank accounts gathered together in virtual isolation for three months each year, history was made on Jekyll Island. A group of tycoons with surnames such as Rockefeller, Morgan, Vanderbilt, Pulitzer, Baker and others formed their exclusive Millionaires' Club on this island hideaway--the richest and most inaccessible club of that time.Between 1888 and 1942, Jekyll Island was open only to Club members' families and their guests for hunting, relaxing and playing in luxurious ease. In this sweeping historical saga, you will discover the Millionaires' pastimes and deeply guarded secrets--told through the unique voices of four Club employees. In this true story of their island getaway, discover how the decisions of these powerful titans changed the face of world finances, business and politics as they built modern America.-Mueller's love for Georgia's culture, people and history is infectious. Her easy, unrushed tone is soothing as is her description of the stunning scenery and wildlife. Splendid Isolation is an excellent read for anyone interested in the Gilded Age and in Georgia.- - Angela Tate/Sacramento Book Review -Pamela Bauer Mueller has really outdone herself this time, memorably linking a sleepy Georgia island to the birth of modern American industry and finance. Pam shares with us the America that once was, and the handful of men who shaped it for the ages. BRAVA!- - Carey Giudici/Award-winning journalist/marketer/editor -This non-fictional novel, based on old articles and interviews, reads as memoirs told through the Jekyll Island Club employees' voices, and presents glimpses into the lives of the famous financiers they served. We are treated to their joys and tribulations in a way that humanizes them, and then discover mutual respect, open communication and interest in each others' lives--quite a surprising revelation.- - Enid Grabiner/RebeccasReads -The richest people in the world, through the eyes of the people whose paychecks they sign. Splendid Isolation is a fine choice and intriguing reading featuring the characters of the great tycoons of a century ago.- - Midwest Book Review

Carry This Message: A Guide for Big Book Sponsorship


Joe McQ - 2002
    In the early days of AA, sponsors would come to the alcoholic's home and talk him through Steps 1 and 2, and when they were thoroughly convinced he was ready, they would start him on the program. Step 12 is the foundation of sponsorships: "Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, to practice these principles in all our affairs." Carry This Message addresses McQ's concern that sponsors have lost some skills in working with alcoholics. AA sponsors need to refocus on the Big Book, on the Twelve Steps, and on their message, urges McQ, to recognize the value of the program and to return to its roots and essence. Directed to sponsors, this is a companion book to The Steps We Took, offering tools for helping others find recovery and new life through the Twelve Step program.

You Remind Me of Me


Dan Chaon - 2004
    He is a writer, observes the "Chicago Tribune," who can "convincingly squeeze whole lives into a mere twenty pages or so." Now Chaon marshals his notable talents in his much-anticipated debut novel. "You Remind Me of Me" begins with a series of separate incidents: In 1977, a little boy is savagely attacked by his mother's pet Doberman; in 1997 another little boy disappears from his grandmother's backyard on a sunny summer morning; in 1966, a pregnant teenager admits herself to a maternity home, with the intention of giving her child up for adoption; in 1991, a young man drifts toward a career as a drug dealer, even as he hopes for something better. With penetrating insight and a deep devotion to his characters, Dan Chaon" "explores the secret connections that irrevocably link them. In the process he examines questions of identity, fate, and circumstance: Why do we become the people that we become? How do we end up stuck in lives that we never wanted? And can we change the course of what seems inevitable? In language that is both unflinching and exquisite, Chaon moves deftly between the past and the present in the small-town prairie Midwest and shows us the extraordinary lives of "ordinary" people.

The First Cut (Terrence Reid Mystery Series Book 2)


Mary Birk - 2015
    Reid's chief suspect, a ruthless financier, always seems to be one step ahead of him. After one of his men is murdered, Reid suspects he's got a traitor in own camp. When Reid's wife, Anne, becomes deeply embroiled in the investigation, things get dangerously personal. The cold Glasgow spring isn't the only thing chilling Anne's blood when she leaves California to try to save her marriage. The estate gardens she's renovating are owned by her husband's enemy, her sister-in-law is trying to get her killed, and her efforts to help Terrence plunge-and her unborn child-deeper and deeper into peril.

Athelon - War of the Three Planets


Justin Bell - 2019
    A young girl submerged into a galactic conflict. A single chance to help win the war. The daughter of a royal family, Brie Northstar believes she knows what to expect from life. She's wrong. During a routine shuttle trip to one of the outer planets, Brie's transport is destroyed and she finds herself thrust into a centuries old conflict between three warring planets, a conflict she is suddenly in the middle of. Yet somehow this young teenager from Athelon has skills and abilities she shouldn't have - she can't have. Now separated from her family with only her wits - and her newfound abilities - to help she travels from planet to planet, risking her life to prevent galactic destruction and unite a rebellion to save the galaxy. For the first time ever - the complete nine book War of the Three Planets series is available in a single omnibus for a ridiculously low price. If you love Ender's Game you will love War of the Three Planets.

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?

The Buried Book


D.M. Pulley - 2016
    He’s lucky to even have a home and must keep his mouth shut and his ears open to stay in his uncle’s good graces. No one knows where his mother went or whether she’s coming back. Desperate to see her again, he must take matters into his own hands. From the farm, he embarks on a treacherous search that will take him to the squalid hideaways of Detroit and back again, through tawdry taverns, peep shows, and gambling houses.As he’s drawn deeper into an adult world of corruption, scandal, and murder, Jasper uncovers the shocking past still chasing his mother—and now it’s chasing him too.

The Most Fun We Ever Had


Claire Lombardo - 2019
    By 2016, their four radically different daughters are each in a state of unrest: Wendy, widowed young, soothes herself with booze and younger men; Violet, a litigator-turned-stay-at-home-mom, battles anxiety and self-doubt when the darkest part of her past resurfaces; Liza, a neurotic and newly tenured professor, finds herself pregnant with a baby she's not sure she wants by a man she's not sure she loves; and Grace, the dawdling youngest daughter, begins living a lie that no one in her family even suspects. Above it all, the daughters share the lingering fear that they will never find a love quite like their parents'.As the novel moves through the tumultuous year following the arrival of Jonah Bendt--given up by one of the daughters in a closed adoption fifteen years before--we are shown the rich and varied tapestry of the Sorensons' past: years marred by adolescence, infidelity, and resentment, but also the transcendent moments of joy that make everything else worthwhile.

The Silver Widows


C.J. Petit - 2019
    But even as she began that long ride down from the mining camp, a silver coin was being tossed into the air a few miles away that would change everything.

The Great Perhaps


Joe Meno - 2009
    Each fears uncertainty and the possibilities that accompany it. When Jonathan and Madeline suddenly decide to separate, this nuclear family is split and forced to confront its own cowardice, finally coming to appreciate the cloudiness of this modern age.

Mystery Ranch


Arthur Chapman - 1921
    You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

There Your Heart Lies


Mary Gordon - 2017
    Marian cut herself off from her wealthy, conservative Irish Catholic family when she volunteered during the Spanish Civil War--an experience she has always kept to herself. Now in her nineties, she shares her Rhode Island cottage with her granddaughter Amelia, a young woman of good heart but only a vague notion of life's purpose. Their daily existence is intertwined with Marian's secret past: the blow to her youthful idealism when she witnessed the brutalities on both sides of Franco's war and the romance that left her trapped in Spain in perilous circumstances for nearly a decade. When Marian is diagnosed with cancer, she finally speaks about what happened to her during those years--personal and ethical challenges nearly unthinkable to Amelia's millennial generation, as well as the unexpected gifts of true love and true friendship. Marian's story compels Amelia to make her own journey to Spain, to reconcile her grandmother's past with her own uncertain future. With their exquisite female bond at its core, this novel, which explores how character is forged in a particular moment in history and passed down through the generations, is especially relevant in our own time. Its call to arms--a call to speak honestly about evil when it is before us, and equally about goodness--will linger long with its readers.

The Storm Without


Tony Black - 2012
    This is a new novel by the acclaimed Scottish writer Tony Black who Irving Welsh described as his "favorite British crime writer."

The Punch


Noah Hawley - 2008
    Scott, his brother, believes that his life is going to fall apart, and that everyone he loves will leave him. Doris, their mother, believes that she has nothing to lose by revealing a 60-year-old family secret. This hysterically biting and ultimately redeeming novel by Noah Hawley proves them all rightand wrongwhile answering some of life's biggest questions. Like, how did Scott end up with two wonderful wives simultaneously? And why can't David manage to keep even one dysfunctional relationship going? It all comes down to love and families and what you believe inand, maybe, forgiveness.

Incendiary


Chris Cleave - 2005
    But the bombing is only the beginning. In a voice alive with grief, compassion, and startling humor, Incendiary is a stunning debut of one ordinary life blown apart by terror.