He certainly thought there'd be more to it than his ramshackle Oklahoma farm and a mundane job coaching basketball at his old high school. He questions his fatherhood skills too: his oldest son won't speak to him, his younger son wants to quit the basketball team, and now his daughter wants to go out on dates. He loves his wife, but the marriage has settled into complacency. Now his twentieth high school reunion looms and he has agreed to play in an exhibition game at the reunion, which is sure to be a wretched joke. And his ex-girlfriend's back in town, newly single. Twenty years is plenty long enough for a man to mope after what might have been. It's time for John to make himself understand that.Professor of English at Baylor University, Greg Garrett is an award-winning author of both fiction and nonfiction. His critically acclaimed novel Free Bird was chosen by Publishers Weekly as one of the best first novels of 2002. He resides in Austin, Texas.

    But that did little to save her when it was discovered that her deceased mother was a runaway quadroon. Disowned and shamed by the Hearne family, Elise and her baby find themselves on their way to the wild frontier of Texas--as slave.When Elise inadvertently meets Benjamin Sinclair, a fiery evangelist determined to convert the lawless Texans, their lives become intertwined in the midst of tragedy--shattering their fragile existence and forcing them to discover the faith that sustains.This volume also includes the full-length novel Heaven's Road, the story of Micah Sinclair, the reckless but courageous stepson of Elise.

    In the Bible, her life is only hinted at in a brief and violent detour within the more familiar chapters of the Book of Genesis that are about her father, Jacob, and his dozen sons. Told in Dinah's voice, this novel reveals the traditions and turmoils of ancient womanhood—the world of the red tent. It begins with the story of her mothers—Leah, Rachel, Zilpah, and Bilhah—the four wives of Jacob. They love Dinah and give her gifts that sustain her through a hard-working youth, a calling to midwifery, and a new home in a foreign land. Dinah's story reaches out from a remarkable period of early history and creates an intimate connection with the past. Deeply affecting, The Red Tent combines rich storytelling with a valuable achievement in modern fiction: a new view of biblical women's society.

    A New Yorker living in the wilds of Ireland, he has children he never sees in California, a father he loathes in Brooklyn, and a wife, Claudette, who is a reclusive ex–film star given to pulling a gun on anyone who ventures up their driveway. Claudette was once the most glamorous and infamous woman in cinema before she staged her own disappearance and retreated to blissful seclusion in an Irish farmhouse. But the life Daniel and Claudette have so carefully constructed is about to be disrupted by an unexpected discovery about a woman Daniel lost touch with twenty years ago. This revelation will send him off-course, far away from wife, children and home. Will his love for Claudette be enough to bring him back?This Must be the Place is a novel about family, identity, and true love: an intimately drawn portrait of a marriage, both the forces that hold it together and the pressures that drive it apart. O'Farrell writes with complexity, insight, and laugh-out-loud humor in a narrative that hurtles forward with powerful velocity and emotion. This Must be the Place is a sophisticated, spellbinding summer read from one of the UK's most highly acclaimed and best-loved novelists.

    It's a bittersweet celebration as Mary Sue is scheduled for a mastectomy in the morning. When Mary Sue's boyfriend finally shows up, she has already gone to bed. Drunk and angry, he trips, breaks his neck, and dies. Horrified, the three other women put him in his car and send it careening into the lake.How these women deal with their awful secret parallels their lives and relationships to this point. Pamela is at the beck and call of her rich and boorish husband. Gretchen gave up a promising career to marry an adulterous man who eventually left her for his secretary. Dixie -- also divorced -- is involved in an extended long-distance affair with a handsome but married vineyard owner; as she plays the role of the dreaded "other woman, " even her closest friends can't know. And Mary Sue, the ebullient cheerleader, had lived an idyllic married life until she found her husband carrying on with a sexy widow. Shattered, she convinced herself to fall in love with a contentious and truculent drunk.In addition to keeping their terrible secret, the women must continually deal with their ever-complicated lives and relationships. And it is these trials, and the struggle to find one's place in a world where everyone is younger and prettier that is at the heart of this moving and ultimately triumphant novel.

    Her client, Anna Petersheim, is pleasant and tells captivating stories. Plus, her home is quiet and far more peaceful than Esther's, with so many siblings. She only dreads the day when Anna's grandson, Viktor, will return from the river to take over the farm. She and Viktor were classmates years ago, and he'd been an obnoxious flirt who paid attention to every girl but her.A Toughened Riverboat CaptainA seasoned riverboat captain, Viktor Petersheim has seen his share of trials. He left the Amish after the death of his parents and siblings in a house fire for which he still feels responsible. Now, after years of working on the Mississippi River, he returns home to claim the farm he inherited from his grandparents and, hopefully, to repair some of the damaged relationships and broken hearts he left in his wake.Love off the RiverWhen Viktor arrives home, it doesn't take long for him and Esther to realize their mutual attraction. Even so, their relationship remains as tumultuous as a shaken snow globe, like the one Esther finds at a garage sale and gives to Viktor's grandmother as a token of affection. Viktor isn't the only man with an eye on Esther, and soon it looks as if she's ready to make a future with someone else. Will the two go their separate ways again? Or will the hand of God work something beautiful out of their angst and agitation?

    Her non-profit publicity firm is doing well and her new neighbor, Jake, is causing all kinds of sparks.But when the Ex returns with a sorrowful heart begging for one more chance, Jane pulls her wedding scrapbook out of the closet to decide if her future lies in the past. With her friends going through trials of their own--adoption, run-ins with the law, and marital trouble--Jane and the girls come together over the scrapping table to make sense of their crazy lives.Through the diverse and connected lives of four women, Rebeca Seitz creates an engaging story that celebrates the power of friendship and the uncertain-but-exciting world of starting anew.

    Determined to get in and get out of the abandoned property, she finds the valuable land tangled in a trust, and wonders who she can really trust, Not the property manager and affable southern gentleman, Taylor Simpson. Caught up in the mechanics of a farm, a legal document she can’t break, and pressure from her company for money, Evelyn turns to her own wiles and willpower…but can she resist the South’s wooing?

    Though April Wright stubbornly keeps an upbeat attitude about her daughter's future, she has let her own dreams slip away. Just across the bridge lives old Luca, scarred from his time in a Romanian gulag years before. Though he has seemingly given up on people, Sierra is drawn to him despite his prickly edges. No one else is comfortable with the unpredictable old man spending time alone with Sierra, not even Luca's son. Yet it is this unconventional relationship that will bring two families together to form friendships and unearth their family stories, stories that just might give them all the courage to soar on wings toward a new future.

    Each step she takes toward finding happiness turns the dusty Mt. Hope community on its heels. Heart-warming characters will have you laughing until you cry.

    James Hollingshurst is a man shaped by those who surround him. And in James's case, it's some very different women, be it his trusty wife Deborah, his hapless PA Marcia or his ex-girlfriend Jane. And there's one woman in James's life who looks set to upset the status quo... But a tragic accident is about to shake the bedrock of life as James knows it. An event sets a train in motion, which will challenge everything he's ever known and everyone he's ever loved. It will also bring his beloved daughter, Charlotte whom he has not seen for fifteen years, tantalisingly close to him...

    Marcus wants nothing more than to indulge in drink, drugs and women.But when he meets the plot-holders on the Butterfly Lane allotments--Sophia, a charming, but troubled, woman in the midst of a spiritual crisis; Alex, his fiery, Greek neighbour, who covets both Marcus’s plot and a mysterious book that belonged to his grandfather; and Benjamin, a shadowy recluse--the reason for his inheritance becomes clear.

    What happens when he flips her heart? The tragic death of Shelby Dodson’s husband—her partner in a successful Home Network house flipping business—stole love, status, and career. Now a bungalow redesign thrusts Shelby into the company of a new contractor. Scott Matthews remembers high-and-mighty Shelby from high school, and her prissy, contemporary style goes against his down-to-earth grain. When the house reveals a mystery, will its dark secrets—and their own mistakes—cost them a second chance at love?

    We all had.When all else fails, turn to the divine taste of hummingbird cake.In the South you always say “yes, ma’am” and “no, ma’am.” You know everybody’s business. Football is a lifestyle not a pastime. Food—especially dessert— is almost a religious experience. And you protect your friends as fiercely as you protect your family— even if the threat is something you cannot see.In this spot-on Southern novel brimming with wit and authenticity, you’ll laugh alongside lifelong friends, navigate the sometimes rocky path of marriage, and roll through the outrageous curveballs that life sometimes throws . . . from devastating pain to absolute joy. And if you’re lucky, you just may discover the secret to hummingbird cake along the way.

    But a garden shed fire and the burns suffered by one of her best friends seemed to change everything. Her older sister Bitsy blamed her for the fire—and no one spoke up on her behalf. Bitsy the cheerleader, Bitsy the homecoming queen, Bitsy married to a wealthy investor. And all the while, Lovey blamed for everything that goes wrong.At eighteen, Lovey turns down a marriage proposal, flees from Oxford and the expectations of attending Ole Miss, and instead goes to Arizona—the farthest thing from the South she can imagine. She becomes a successful advertising executive, a weekend yoga instructor, and seems to have it all together. But she's alone. And on her 45th birthday, she can't help but wonder what's wrong.When she gets a call from her father—still known to everyone as Chief from his Ole Miss football days—insisting that she come home three weeks early for her parents' 50th wedding anniversary celebration, she's at wits end. She's about to close the biggest contract of her career, the one that will secure her financial goals and set her up for retirement. But his words, "Family First," hit too close to home. Is there hope for her estranged relationship with Bitsy after all this time?Eva's journey home, to the memory garden her father has planned as an anniversary surprise for her mother, becomes one of discovering roots, and truth, and love, and what living perennially in spite of disappointments and tragedy really means. Eva thought she wanted to leave her family and the South far behind . . . but she's realizing she hasn't truly been herself the whole time she's been gone.