Book picks similar to
Incendiary by Carl Rackman


contemporary-fantasy
contemporary-fiction
spy-thriller

With Every Breath (McCall Family Series Book 1)


Natasha D. Frazier - 2021
    

Little Girl Leaving: A Novel Based on a True Story


Lisa Blume - 2018
    . . enlightening . . . A disturbing and illuminating tale.”—KIRKUS REVIEWSThe 1960s have come to a close—it’s 1972, and America is changing. So is Deidi’s world; she’s seven, and her family is moving. As she packs her room and unearths precious objects from her past, her thoughts begin to stray to the years before—to her first memories in 1968, and all that followed.From these reveries unfolds a story of terrible abuse and incredible survival. We see Deidi grow from a three-year-old whose understanding of the world is just beginning to form to a child whose courage, compassion, and sense of wonder persist despite every obstacle. Through her vivid recollections, the stark landscape of rural America, the political and social turmoil of the era, and the brutal power dynamics of adults come into sharp focus. Deidi’s story reveals the darkness roiling beneath the surface of American life and the way children are forced to confront it themselves, weaponless and alone. For Deidi, whose family continues to fall into deeper and darker cycles of sexual abuse and violence, survival is a matter of clinging desperately to the light in the world around her—no matter how dim it grows.By turns heartbreaking and stunningly beautiful, Little Girl Leaving is a reminder of the incredible power and fragility of a child’s spirit, and a call to action to protect it at all costs.  “Insightful, poignant, and riveting. I believe that everyone living with or around children should read this book.”—Judith Landau, MD, former president, International Family Therapy Association; senior Fulbright scholar; consultant to the UN and World Health Organization"Little Girl Leaving, Lisa Blume's debut novel, is sadly tragic but deeply moving and evocative."—Gabrielle Glaser, New York Times bestselling author, Her Best-Kept Secret; winner of the Award for Excellence in Journalism, American Psychoanalytic Association“An enthralling read, a brilliant read. You will never forget it.”—Mary Dispenza, educator, activist, and national distinguished principal; author, Split: A Child, a Priest, and the Catholic Church“A sensory barrage. A convincing and disturbing narrative. Most wonderful is how variously the child’s goodness of spirit tries to maintain itself. This is a page-turner.”—Sharon Solwitz, author, creative writing professor, Purdue University; winner, Carl Sandburg Prize, Doheny Award, The Center for Fiction“A must-read. A compelling story of a wise girl who tries to do good, no matter how painful and frightening life becomes, with the beauty of her essence always somehow enduring.”—Rocío Chang-Angulo, PsyD, co-director, Center for Trauma Recovery and Juvenile Justice; steering committee, National Child Traumatic Stress Network"Awake and alive to the unending beauty of the world juxtaposed with its secret horrors—an extraordinarily powerful punch to the heart.”—Katherine Ketcham, author, The Only Life I Could Save, A Memoir and Broken: My Story of Addiction and Redemption, with William Cope Moyers“As innovative as it is disturbing. The narrative captures elements of child abuse which, all too often, are lost or not understood by justice systems. A skillful portrayal.”—Raymond McMenamin, Shrieval Convener, Mental Health Tribunal for Scotland; former spokesperson, Law Society of Scotland’s vulnerable witness legislation“How does one turn the unfathomable into the believable without sounding vengefulor outrageous—in a voice, even, of great tenderness? This novel has done just that.”—Sally Anderson, editor-in-chief, Strategic News Service, FiReBooks, and FiReFilms

The Kremlin's Vote


Andrew Turpin - 2021
    . . Two top US officials are gunned down while visiting London. A trail of deception misleads the CIA. And former intelligence operative Jayne Robinson is viciously targeted during a high-risk foray into Russia.Robinson, previously a long-term MI6 officer, is covertly deployed by the CIA in a deniable operation to handle one of its biggest assets in the Kremlin and to get to the bottom of a threat that seems likely to engulf the White House—just as the next presidential election looms.The mission becomes deeply personal for Robinson when it emerges one of the victims is married to one of her best and oldest friends.But nothing is what it seems in this vortex of deception and deceit. As she gets closer to the truth behind the killings, Robinson finds herself challenged to the core while fending off threats from unexpected directions.

Dream Singer


Frank O. Smith - 2014
    As a young man, he possessed the rare gift of dream singing – the ability to see the future, but lost it through a selfish act. A seemingly chance crossing of paths with a thirteen year-old runaway boy who has witnessed a murder in a railroad dramatically changes both their destinies. Part love story, tragedy, and mystery, Dream Singer is a story of the betrayal of love, and the quest for redemption, where listening to dreams and the spirit of the land is vital to Elijah and boy staying ahead of the killer – and staying alive.

Since the Day we Met


Kay Shanee - 2020
    However, the reality of living thousands of miles apart and the committed relationships they would return to forces a vow to forget their unprecedented passion. 

One year later, when the paths of the unsuspecting pair cross again, the feelings they were afraid to let flow have magnified tenfold.Nothing will stand in the way of their love… or so they think. 

Follow Kyree and Braelynn on their journey of love. Since the day their spirits collided, there was an inkling that they were meant to be. But love rarely makes its home on Easy Street.

The Sun King


David Ignatius - 1999
    In The Sun King, Ignatius has written a love story for our time, a spellbinding portrait of the collision of ambition and sexual desire.Sandy Galvin is a billionaire with a rare talent for taking risks and making people happy. Galvin arrives in a Washington suffering under a cloud of righteous misery and proceeds to turn the place upside down. He buys the city's most powerful newspaper, The Washington Sun and Tribune, and wields it like a sword, but in his path stands his old Harvard flame, Candace Ridgway, a beautiful and icy journalist known to her colleagues as the Mistress of Fact. Their fateful encounter, tangled in the mysteries of their past, is narrated by David Cantor, an acid-tongued reporter and Jerry Springer devotee who is drawn inexorably into the Sun King's orbit and is transformed by this unpredictable man.In this wise and poignant novel, love is the final frontier for a generation of baby boomers at midlife—still young enough to reach for their dreams but old enough to glimpse the prospect of loss. The Sun King can light up a room, but can he melt the worldly bonds that constrain the Mistress of Fact? In The Sun King, David Ignatius proves with perceptive wit and haunting power that the phrase "Washington love story" isn't an oxymoron.

The Closing Bid


Elle Wright - 2019
    When she requests his presence at her neighborhood bachelor auction, he agrees—under one condition. His participation must be kept under wraps. He may be one of the best “closers” in the league, but the last thing he needs is a media circus. Unfortunately, the persistent woman who wins his company is a reporter. She stands for everything he tries to avoid, but their instant connection and her undeniable beauty are slowly breaking through his exterior whether he likes it or not. One night, one goal. That’s all sports journalist Ashton Joy (A.J.) Cook needs to land the exclusive interview of her dreams. She’s worked overtime to earn respect and interviewing the mysterious baseball player is an opportunity too delicious to pass up. Using her sly reporter skills, A.J. arranges the auction’s winning bid for Christian. Yet, the man behind the legend is infuriating in more ways than one. Their explosive chemistry is giving her whiplash and soon, A.J. must decide between doing what’s best for her career or following what she feels in her heart.

The Santa Suit


Mary Kay Andrews
    The Four Roses, as the farmhouse is called, is a labor of love--but Ivy didn't bargain on just how much labor. The previous family left so much furniture and so much junk, that it's a full-time job sorting through all of it.At the top of a closet, Ivy finds an old Santa suit--beautifully made and decades old. In the pocket of a suit she finds a note written in a childish hand: it's from a little girl who has one Christmas wish, and that is for her father to return home from the war. This discovery sets Ivy off on a mission. Who wrote the note? Did the man ever come home? What mysteries did the Rose family hold?Ivy's quest brings her into the community, at a time when all she wanted to do was be left alone and nurse her wounds. But the magic of Christmas makes miracles happen, and Ivy just might find more than she ever thought possible: a welcoming town, a family reunited, a mystery solved, and a second chance at love.

The TANNER Series - Books 1-3


Remington Kane - 2015
     Mobster Albert Rossetti thought he was safe after he framed Tanner for drug possession and had him locked away inside a Mexican prison--but Tanner broke out. Rossetti's made peace with the man who hired Tanner to kill him, and the contract was cancelled, but that means nothing to Tanner, who lives by his own rules. Tanner is coming for Rossetti, despite the man's hit squad, or the determined and troubled female FBI agent chasing him. Tanner is coming, Tanner is deadly, and Tanner never fails. KILL IN PLAIN SIGHT by REMINGTON KANE - A Tanner Novel - Book 2 Tanner Returns and The Conglomerate wants him dead. With their resources and vast troops of lethal thugs, The Conglomerate assumed that killing one man would be easy. They were wrong! While Tanner is just one man, he is the last man you want to go to war with, and when he teams up with another target of The Conglomerate, he doubles his chances at surviving. But this is war, and The Conglomerate plays to win. Enter Lars Gruber, possibly the greatest assassin in the world, and now he's set his sights on Tanner. It's hit man vs. hit man and only one can survive. MAKING A KILLING ON WALL STREET by REMINGTON KANE - A Tanner Novel - Book 3 Tanner's war with The Conglomerate heats up, but also grows more complicated as he becomes embroiled in a power struggle within the Calvino Crime Family. Sophia Verona, daughter of slain mobster Jackie Verona is in the middle of the conflict, and only Tanner can save her, but first, he has to keep himself alive. Meanwhile, Conglomerate boss Frank Richards has plans to gain more power, while his former assistant Al Trent grows closer to learning the truth about Tanner's "Death." Can Tanner survive and start a new life, or will fate snatch away victory at the last instance? ALSO: The first three chapters of Book 4 - THE FIRST ONE TO DIE LOSES

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith Summary & Study Guide


BookRags - 2010
    1 Ladies' Detective Agency Study Guide contains comprehensive summaries and analysis of the book. This study guide includes a detailed Plot Summary, Chapter Summaries & Analysis, Character Descriptions, Objects/Places, Themes, Styles, Quotes, and Topics for Discussion on The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith.

Lavender, Loss & Love at the Villa des Violettes (Villa des Violettes #3)


Patricia Sands - 2020
    Ancestry, intrigue, and lessons in friendship are part of the narrative. As summer draws to a close, an urgent call sends Kat and Philippe back to Sainte-Mathilde where the family gathers to support each other in an emergency situation. From the splendor of the lavender season through to the changing landscape of autumn and the festivities of the grape harvest, the Love in Provence characters face challenges, make memories and attempt to maintain their usual joie de vivre!

A Slow Dance Holiday


Carolyn Brown - 2020
    Legend has it the Honky Tonk bar in tiny Mingus, Texas, is charmed and its owners will find true love. But when new owners Cameron Walsh and JJ Jenks meet the week before Christmas and discover the deal includes sharing an efficiency in the back of the bar, they're not sure it's going to be the down-home Christmas they dreamed of...

Farthest Shores of Ursula K Le Guin


George Edgar Slusser - 1976
    An examination of Le Guin's career, from her obscure beginnings in the science fiction magazines to her rapid rise to the top in the 1970's.

The Canary's Song


Natalie Banks - 2018
    Losing her young son to a tragic accident had nearly driven her to the point of madness and now she was on the verge of losing her husband too. In a last ditch effort to save their marriage, she decided to book a romantic cabin vacation for just the two of them up in the mountains of North Carolina. She thought she had experienced the worst life could throw at her. Little did she know that the wilderness had in something else in store for her, when she finds herself left alone and fighting for her life.

Gauri..!!


Sathya Sam - 2020
    Her character is similar to that of many women we see in our lives. But what is different is the dramatic twist in the tale, which you won’t see coming. The protagonist Gauri is patient and persistent, with an undying love and affection for her husband, much like many women in the country. Indeed, Gauri’s story is the tale of many women in India, who sacrifice their needs, desires and dreams for the sake of people dear to them. This work of fiction is a tribute to every unsung woman in every household. A big salute to these strong women, without whom society will perish.