Shouting at the Rain

Shouting at the Rain
Author: Lynda Mullaly Hunt
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2020-05-05
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 0147516773

From the author of the New York Times bestseller Fish in a Tree comes a compelling story about perspective and learning to love the family you have. Delsie loves tracking the weather--lately, though, it seems the squalls are in her own life. She's always lived with her kindhearted Grammy, but now she's looking at their life with new eyes and wishing she could have a "regular family." Delsie observes other changes in the air, too--the most painful being a friend who's outgrown her. Luckily, she has neighbors with strong shoulders to support her, and Ronan, a new friend who is caring and courageous but also troubled by the losses he's endured. As Ronan and Delsie traipse around Cape Cod on their adventures, they both learn what it means to be angry versus sad, broken versus whole, and abandoned versus loved. And that, together, they can weather any storm.

Things to Do When It's Raining

Things to Do When It's Raining
Author: Marissa Stapley
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2018-02-06
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1501131893

When secrets tear love apart, can the truth mend it?—from The Globe and Mail–bestselling author Marissa Stapley. When secrets tear love apart, can the truth mend it? Mae Summers and Gabe Broadbent grew up together in the idyllic Summers’ Inn, perched at the edge the St. Lawrence River. Mae was orphaned at the age of six and Gabe needed protection from his alcoholic father, so both were raised under one roof by Mae’s grandparents, Lily and George. A childhood friendship quickly developed into a first love—a love that was suddenly broken by Gabe’s unexpected departure. Mae grew up and got over her heartbreak, and started a life for herself in New York City. After more than a decade, Mae and Gabe find themselves pulled back to Alexandria Bay by separate forces. Hoping to find solace within the Summers’ Inn, Mae instead finds her grandparents in the midst of decline and their past unravelling around her. A lifetime of secrets that implicate Gabe and Mae’s family reveal a version of the past that will forever change Mae’s future. From the bestselling author of Mating for Life comes a poignant generational story about family and secrets. With honesty and heart, Marissa Stapley reminds us of the redemptive power of love and forgiveness, and that, ultimately, family is a choice.

Little Broken Things

Little Broken Things
Author: Nicole Baart
Publisher: Pocket Books
Total Pages: 400
Release: 2020-08-25
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1982145080

“If you liked Big Little Lies, you’ll want to crack open [Little Broken Things].” —Southern Living An unforgettable and moving novel about an affluent suburban family whose carefully constructed façade crumbles with the unexpected arrival of an endangered young girl. I have something for you. When Quinn Cruz receives that cryptic text message from her older sister Nora, she doesn’t think much of it. They haven’t seen each other in nearly a year and their relationship consists mostly of infrequent phone calls and the occasional email. But when a haunted-looking Nora shows up just hours later, a chain reaction is set into motion that will change both of their lives forever. Nora’s “something” is more shocking than Quinn could have ever imagined: a little girl, cowering and wide-eyed. Nora hands her over to Quinn with instructions to keep her safe and disappears, leaving Quinn as the unlikely caretaker of a girl introduced simply as Lucy. “Steeped in menace…a race-to-the-finish family drama” (People), Little Broken Things explores life and death, family and freedom, and the lengths one woman will go to protect the ones she loves.

Broken Things

Broken Things
Author: Lauren Oliver
Publisher: HarperCollins
Total Pages: 362
Release: 2018-10-02
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
ISBN: 0062224158

With all the intensity and whiplash turns of Sharp Objects and One of Us Is Lying, this engrossing psychological thriller by New York Times bestselling author Lauren Oliver is an unforgettable, mesmerizing tale of exquisite obsession, spoiled innocence, and impossible friendships. It’s been five years since Summer Marks was brutally murdered in the woods. Everyone thinks Mia and Brynn killed their best friend. That driven by their obsession with a novel called The Way into Lovelorn the three girls had imagined themselves into the magical world where their fantasies became twisted, even deadly. The only thing is: they didn’t do it. On the anniversary of Summer’s death, a seemingly insignificant discovery resurrects the mystery and pulls Mia and Brynn back together once again. But as the lines begin to blur between past and present and fiction and reality, the girls must confront what really happened in the woods all those years ago—no matter how monstrous.

Pretty Broken Things

Pretty Broken Things
Author: Melissa Marr
Publisher: Melissa Marr
Total Pages: 305
Release: 2020-12-18
Genre: Fiction
ISBN:

A contemporary Bluebeard story set in the shadowy edges of New Orleans’ French Quarter by the New York Times best-selling author Melissa Marr After receiving a lead from an unlikely source, Juliana, the mortician tasked with the bodies of victims of the "Carolina Creeper", the South’s most notorious serial killer in decades, sets off to New Orleans in search of Theresa Morris, an heiress and presumably the Creeper’s only surviving victim. Theresa now goes by “Tess” and is a shadow of her former heiress self. She’s also being pursued by famous novelist Michael, who sets his sights on Tess as the muse of his work-in-progress, oblivious to her former identity. As Michael gets closer to Tess and begins to put the pieces of her traumatic past together, Juliana zeroes in on her whereabouts. They don’t know it, but the three of them are on a collision course, hurtling straight into the Creeper’s path.

Hard Rain Falling

Hard Rain Falling
Author: Don Carpenter
Publisher: New York Review of Books
Total Pages: 337
Release: 2010-06-23
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1590173902

A hardboiled novel about life in the American underground, from the pool halls of Portland to the cells of San Quentin. Simply one of the finest books ever written about being down on your luck. Don Carpenter’s Hard Rain Falling is a tough-as-nails account of being down and out, but never down for good—a Dostoyevskian tale of crime, punishment, and the pursuit of an ever-elusive redemption. The novel follows the adventures of Jack Levitt, an orphaned teenager living off his wits in the fleabag hotels and seedy pool halls of Portland, Oregon. Jack befriends Billy Lancing, a young black runaway and pool hustler extraordinaire. A heist gone wrong gets Jack sent to reform school, from which he emerges embittered by abuse and solitary confinement. In the meantime Billy has joined the middle class—married, fathered a son, acquired a business and a mistress. But neither Jack nor Billy can escape their troubled pasts, and they will meet again in San Quentin before their strange double drama comes to a violent and revelatory end.

The House of Broken Angels

The House of Broken Angels
Author: Luis Alberto Urrea
Publisher: Little, Brown
Total Pages: 275
Release: 2018-03-06
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0316516252

In this "raucous, moving, and necessary" story by a Pulitzer Prize finalist (San Francisco Chronicle), the De La Cruzes, a family on the Mexican-American border, celebrate two of their most beloved relatives during a joyous and bittersweet weekend. "All we do, mija, is love. Love is the answer. Nothing stops it. Not borders. Not death." In his final days, beloved and ailing patriarch Miguel Angel de La Cruz, affectionately called Big Angel, has summoned his entire clan for one last legendary birthday party. But as the party approaches, his mother, nearly one hundred, dies, transforming the weekend into a farewell doubleheader. Among the guests is Big Angel's half brother, known as Little Angel, who must reckon with the truth that although he shares a father with his siblings, he has not, as a half gringo, shared a life. Across two bittersweet days in their San Diego neighborhood, the revelers mingle among the palm trees and cacti, celebrating the lives of Big Angel and his mother, and recounting the many inspiring tales that have passed into family lore, the acts both ordinary and heroic that brought these citizens to a fraught and sublime country and allowed them to flourish in the land they have come to call home. Teeming with brilliance and humor, authentic at every turn, The House of Broken Angels is Luis Alberto Urrea at his best, and cements his reputation as a storyteller of the first rank. "Epic . . . Rambunctious . . . Highly entertaining." -- New York Times Book Review"Intimate and touching . . . the stuff of legend." -- San Francisco Chronicle"An immensely charming and moving tale." -- Boston GlobeNational Bestseller and National Book Critics Circle Award finalistA New York Times Notable BookOne of the Best Books of the Year from National Public Radio, American Library Association, San Francisco Chronicle, BookPage, Newsday, BuzzFeed, Kirkus, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Literary Hub

In Honor of Broken Things

In Honor of Broken Things
Author: Paul Acampora
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 208
Release: 2022-03-08
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1984816659

Three unlikely friends become partners in heartbreak and hope during a middle school pottery class in this powerful, poignant novel—perfect for fans of Gordon Korman and Lynda Mullaly Hunt. At West Beacon Middle School, eighth graders Oscar Villanueva, Riley Baptiste, and Noah Wright become unlikely friends during Introduction to Clay class. Oscar, a football star, just lost his little sister to cancer. Riley's been dragged away from Philadelphia by her single mom to a new life in West Beacon, a tiny Pennsylvania coal town that's smaller than Riley's old school. Noah's spent his whole life as a homeschooler and just started West Beacon Middle School as a result of his parents' train wreck of a divorce. Through art, football, failure, faith, and trust, the friends help one another to piece things back together again. In true friendship, they also discover that some injuries may never heal, some things can never be unbroken—and that's okay too.

Paradoxy

Paradoxy
Author: Tom Taylor
Publisher: Baker Books
Total Pages: 188
Release: 2006-06-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1441241302

Give to receive. Die to live. Lose to win. Jesus taught such paradoxes, and people listened though these teachings seemed backward to their way of life and the lessons themselves seemed contradictory. But while initially confusing, says Tom Taylor, these paradoxes are the key to contentment, a fuller life, and a deeper faith. Paradoxy analyzes these seemingly contradictory truths, revealing not only their poignancy but also fresh ways readers can apply them to life today. Drawing from his own experiences as well as Scripture, Taylor explores each paradox to reveal convicting realities about life, faith, and our relationships. Both intelligent seekers and experienced Christians will be challenged by this unique study on Jesus's teachings, ultimately finding peace and a deeper, more passionate life with Christ.

The Curator of Broken Things, Full Trilogy

The Curator of Broken Things, Full Trilogy
Author: Corine Gantz
Publisher: Carpenter Hill Publishing
Total Pages: 771
Release: 2019-08-13
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 098343669X

THE CURATOR OF BROKEN THINGS TRILOGY is a fast-paced family-saga that takes place over a century and across four continents. Multiple narrative threads take the reader through love, betrayal, and espionage in a story that spans from the last days of the Ottoman Empire to Paris of the Roaring Twenties to the prewar French Riviera to the World War II Allied landing in North Africa and to modern-day Paris and Los Angeles. In this trilogy, three generations of a family’s secrets are unearthed that might bring it together or tear it apart. Book 1: From Smyrna to Paris. With her twins in college and her ex-husband off to a younger pasture, Cassie is resigned to a disappointing life in Los Angeles, until she reluctantly returns to Paris to visit her ailing father. There, she discovers the existence of an estranged aunt, a woman of many secrets who lives in a beautiful house in Paris’s exclusive Cité des Fleurs. Dumbfounded by what she learns, Cassie sets out on a quest to understand her family’s past and make sense of her father’s cold indifference toward her. In Paris, as the truth about her failed marriage begins to take form, Cassie fights with her family, grapples with French idiosyncrasies and her own, and attempts to resist the charms of a good-looking Parisian who rides a vintage motorcycle. Book 2: Escape to the Côte d' Azur. A family flees Paris at the dawn of the Second World War, haunted by secrets that threaten to rip them apart. Seventy years later, Cassie, in modern-day Paris, finds herself alone frantically trying to confront her hostile relatives. Meanwhile, puzzled by the advances of a charming Frenchman, she struggles to cope with the demands of her manipulative ex and gain an understanding of her true self. Book 3: Resistance in Algiers. Amidst he chaos of the Second World War, and having taken refuge in North Africa, Cassie’s parents and grandparents enter the French Resistance. As the Nazi threat tightens its noose, they find love and risk their lives and one another’s. In modern-day Paris, Cassie, now on the cusp of a surprising and disorienting love interest, has to conquer her fear of failure and success. When the last shocking piece of her family’s puzzle comes into her possession, Cassie must unburden herself from several generations of family secrets.