Housekeeping

Housekeeping
Author: Marilynne Robinson
Publisher: Macmillan
Total Pages: 349
Release: 2015-11-03
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1250060656

"The story of Ruth and her younger sister, Lucille, who grow up haphazardly, first under the care of their competent grandmother, then of two comically bumbling great-aunts, and finally of Sylvie, the eccentric and remote sister of their dead mother. The family house is in the small town of Fingerbone on a glacial lake in the Far West, the same lake where their grandfather died in a spectacular train wreck and their mother drove off a cliff to her death. It is a town "chastened by an outsized landscape and extravagant weather, and chastened again by an awareness that the whole of human history had occurred elsewhere." Ruth and Lucille's struggle toward adulthood beautifully illuminates the price of loss and survival, and the dangerous and deep undertow of transience."--

My Story, My Song

My Story, My Song
Author: Missy Buchanan
Publisher: Upper Room Books
Total Pages: 144
Release: 2019-08-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0835811271

My Story, My Song is the heartwarming memoir of the late 88-year-old Lucimarian Tolliver Roberts, mother of Good Morning America coanchor Robin Roberts. It details pivotal moments in Mrs. Roberts' life, revealing how faith in God gave her strength and hope to face the challenges of life. Good Morning America viewers came to know and love Lucimarian Tolliver Roberts. For many, the heartfelt connection began the day after Hurricane Katrina blew through the Gulf Coast. They eagerly watched as Robin stood among the remnants of her hometown and talked about her desperate search for her elderly mother, who had ridden out the storm in her Mississippi home. Once she knew that her mother was safe, Robin admitted she was not surprised to learn that even as the winds howled and floodwaters rose, Lucimarian Roberts sang hymns. As she was working on her memoir, Lucimarian still was able to recite the lyrics to hundreds of hymns and spirituals first learned in her childhood church. She credited hymns for helping her, a black woman born in 1924, live faithfully through the turbulent times of the Great Depression, segregation, the civil rights struggle, and the loneliness and constant moves that came with being married to a U.S. Air Force officer. Robin writes, "Folks are drawn to Mom's humility, wisdom, and spirituality. Countless times I've been told, 'Your mother should write a book.' Reflections from Robin on her mother's life and faith cap each chapter. Now you will be able to gain insights from Lucimarian Roberts' amazing life. "God has brought the most wonderful and sometimes the most unlikely people, of all ages and races, into my life to encourage and guide me on this spiritual journey of life," Mrs. Roberts said with bright eyes. Highlights of My Story, My Song include: Inspiring stories of how a mother's love and character affect generations to come A tribute to the power of hymns and music to lift the heart out of loneliness and grief Honest childhood stories of poverty and alcoholism and the strength to overcome Insight into life as an African American during segregation and beyond Examples of the powerful influence of mentors and role models Encouraging stories of aging with grace Reminders of the impact of integrity, character, and love You will be inspired and uplifted by this memoir of a woman who faced the best and worst of times with faith, dignity, and grace.

Small Pleasures

Small Pleasures
Author: Clare Chambers
Publisher: HarperCollins
Total Pages: 403
Release: 2021-10-12
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0063091003

In the best tradition of Tessa Hadley, Kazuo Ishiguro, and Ann Patchett—an astonishing, keenly observed period piece about an ordinary British woman in the 1950s whose dutiful life takes a sudden turn into a pitched battle between propriety and unexpected passion. "With wit and dry humor...quietly affecting in unexpected ways. Chambers' language is beautiful, achieving what only the most skilled writers can: big pleasure wrought from small details."--The New York Times LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 1957: Jean Swinney is a feature writer on a local paper in the southeast suburbs of London. Clever but with limited career opportunities and on the brink of forty, Jean lives a dreary existence that includes caring for her demanding widowed mother, who rarely leaves the house. It’s a small life with little joy and no likelihood of escape. That all changes when a young woman, Gretchen Tilbury, contacts the paper to claim that her daughter is the result of a virgin birth. Jean seizes onto the bizarre story and sets out to discover whether Gretchen is a miracle or a fraud. But the more Jean investigates, the more her life becomes strangely (and not unpleasantly) intertwined with that of the Tilburys, including Gretchen’s gentle and thoughtful husband Howard, who mostly believes his wife, and their quirky and charming daughter Margaret, who becomes a sort of surrogate child for Jean. Gretchen, too, becomes a much-needed friend in an otherwise empty social life. Jean cannot bring herself to discard what seems like her one chance at happiness, even as the story that she is researching starts to send dark ripples across all their lives…with unimaginable consequences. Both a mystery and a love story, Small Pleasures is a literary tour-de-force in the style of The Remains of the Day, about conflict between personal fulfillment and duty; a novel that celebrates the beauty and potential for joy in all things plain and unfashionable.

The Confession Club

The Confession Club
Author: Elizabeth Berg
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Total Pages: 320
Release: 2019-11-19
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1984855182

USA TODAY BESTSELLER • An uplifting novel about friendship, surprising revelations, and a second chance at love, from the New York Times bestselling author of The Story of Arthur Truluv. When a group of friends in Mason, Missouri, decide to start a monthly supper club, they get more than they bargained for. The plan for congenial evenings—talking, laughing, and sharing recipes, homemade food, and wine—abruptly changes course one night when one of the women reveals something startlingly intimate. The supper club then becomes Confession Club, and the women gather weekly to share not only dinners but embarrassing misdeeds, deep insecurities, and long-held regrets. They invite Iris Winters and Maddy Harris to join, and their timing couldn't be better. Iris is conflicted about her feelings for a charming but troubled man, and Maddy has come back home from New York to escape a problem too big to handle alone. The club offers exactly the kind of support they need to help them make some difficult decisions. The Confession Club is charming, heartwarming, and inspiring. And as in the previous books that take place in Mason, readers will find friendship, community, and kindness on full display. Praise for The Confession Club “[A] feel-good testament to taking risks, falling love, and reinvention . . . Berg effortlessly wraps her arms around this busy universe of quirky characters with heartbreaking secrets and unflagging faith. . . . Readers new to Berg’s Mason will be dazzled by this bright and fascinating story, and fans will be cheering for the next volume.”—Publishers Weekly

Good Housekeeping Great Escapes

Good Housekeeping Great Escapes
Author: Good Housekeeping Institute
Publisher: Anova Books
Total Pages: 298
Release: 2008-07-07
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9781843404835

Good Housekeeping magazine presents a brand new series of fiction books, kicking off with 'Great Escapes'. This book includes stories from some of our most popular and widely read award-winning authors. The stories are aimed at the readers of GH magazine - primarily women aged 25 to 55 - and deal with the myriad issues facing women today. Each story is a generous bite size of well-written, self-contained fiction perfectly suited to holiday reading. Authors include: Rose Tremain, Fay Weldon, Deborah Moggach, Lesley Pearse, Kate Mosse, Helen Simpson, Isabel Wolff, Natasha Cooper, Virginia Ironside, Polly Samson, Pat Ferguson, Nell Leyshon, Amanda Craig, Elizabeth Buchan, Jane Elizabeth Varley, Kathy Lette and Nicci Gerrard. Publishing in association with Childline, a proportion of royalties will go towards helping the charity and its work. A high profile celebrity will be involved in the promotion of the book.

Can't and Won't

Can't and Won't
Author: Lydia Davis
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
Total Pages: 252
Release: 2014-04-08
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0374711437

A new collection of short stories from the woman Rick Moody has called "the best prose stylist in America" Her stories may be literal one-liners: the entirety of "Bloomington" reads, "Now that I have been here for a little while, I can say with confidence that I have never been here before." Or they may be lengthier investigations of the havoc wreaked by the most mundane disruptions to routine: in "A Small Story About a Small Box of Chocolates," a professor receives a gift of thirty-two small chocolates and is paralyzed by the multitude of options she imagines for their consumption. The stories may appear in the form of letters of complaint; they may be extracted from Flaubert's correspondence; or they may be inspired by the author's own dreams, or the dreams of friends. What does not vary throughout Can't and Won't, Lydia Davis's fifth collection of stories, is the power of her finely honed prose. Davis is sharply observant; she is wry or witty or poignant. Above all, she is refreshing. Davis writes with bracing candor and sly humor about the quotidian, revealing the mysterious, the foreign, the alienating, and the pleasurable within the predictable patterns of daily life.

Home Comforts

Home Comforts
Author: Cheryl Mendelson
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 900
Release: 2005-05-17
Genre: House & Home
ISBN: 0743272862

A classic bestselling resource for every household, Home Comforts helps you manage everyday chores, find creative solutions to domestic dilemmas, and enhance the experience of life at home. “Home Comforts is to the house what Joy of Cooking is to food.” —USA TODAY Home Comforts is an engaging and comprehensive book about housekeeping. It is a lively and readable guide for both beginners and experts in all the domestic arts. From keeping surfaces free of germs, watering plants, removing stains, folding a fitted sheet, cleaning china, tuning a piano, lighting a fire, setting the dining room table—this guide covers everything that people might want to do for themselves in their homes. Further topics include: making up a bed with hospital corners, expert recommendations for safe food storage, reading care labels (and sometimes carefully disregarding them), keeping your home free of dust mites and other allergens, this is a practical, good-humored, philosophical guidebook to the art and science of household management.