Sister Noon

Sister Noon
Author: Karen Joy Fowler
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2002-05-28
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 110165984X

Loosely based in historical fact, Sister Noon is a wryly funny, playfully mysterious, and totally subversive novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Jane Austen Book Club. Lizzie Hayes, a member of the San Francisco elite, is a seemingly docile, middle-aged spinster praised for her volunteer work with the Ladies Relief and Protection Society Home, or "The Brown Ark". All she needs is the spark that will liberate her from the ruling conventions. When the wealthy and well-connected, but ill-reputed Mary Ellen Pleasant shows up at the Brown Ark, Lizzie is drawn to her. It is the beautiful, but mysterious Mary Ellen, an outcast among the women of the elite because of her notorious past and her involvement in voodoo, who will eventually hold the key to unlocking Lizzie's rebellious nature.

We are All Completely Beside Ourselves

We are All Completely Beside Ourselves
Author: Karen Joy Fowler
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 322
Release: 2013
Genre: Bloomington (Ind.)
ISBN: 0399162097

From the "New York Times"-bestselling author of "The Jane Austen Book Club," the story of an American family, ordinary in every way but one--their close family relative was a chimpanzee.

Noon Lady of Towitta, The

Noon Lady of Towitta, The
Author: Patricia Sumerling
Publisher: Wakefield Press
Total Pages: 178
Release: 2011-05
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1862549826

Bertha Schippan, beautiful but headstrong daughter of a Wendish-German family, is murdered on New Year's Day, 1902. A posse of Adelaide police arrive at the family's lonely Murray Flats farm thirty-six hours later, but by the time an Aboriginal tracker can start his work, a gale has blown all clues away.

Booth

Booth
Author: Karen Joy Fowler
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 497
Release: 2023-02-07
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0593331451

Best Book of the Year Real Simple • AARP • USA Today • NPR • Virginia Living Longlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize From the Man Booker finalist and bestselling author of We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves comes an epic and intimate novel about the family behind one of the most infamous figures in American history: John Wilkes Booth. In 1822, a secret family moves into a secret cabin some thirty miles northeast of Baltimore, to farm, to hide, and to bear ten children over the course of the next sixteen years. Junius Booth—breadwinner, celebrated Shakespearean actor, and master of the house in more ways than one—is at once a mesmerizing talent and a man of terrifying instability. One by one the children arrive, as year by year, the country draws frighteningly closer to the boiling point of secession and civil war. As the tenor of the world shifts, the Booths emerge from their hidden lives to cement their place as one of the country’s leading theatrical families. But behind the curtains of the many stages they have graced, multiple scandals, family triumphs, and criminal disasters begin to take their toll, and the solemn siblings of John Wilkes Booth are left to reckon with the truth behind the destructively specious promise of an early prophecy. Booth is a startling portrait of a country in the throes of change and a vivid exploration of the ties that make, and break, a family.

Vurt

Vurt
Author: Jeff Noon
Publisher: Watkins Media Limited
Total Pages: 341
Release: 2023-10-10
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1915202965

Hailed as the novel that reinvented cyberpunk, The 30th Anniversary edition of Jeff Noon's award winning cult classic, Vurt. Scribble and his gang, the Stash Riders, haunt the streets of an alternate Manchester, chasing the immersive highs that come from Vurt Feathers. Place a feather in your mouth and it takes you to the Vurt: another place, a trip, a shared reality of all our dreams and mythologies. Different coloured feathers provide different experiences, but Scribble is searching for his lost love and only one feather offers the hope of finding her. It’s the ultimate feather, it may not even exist at all: Curious Yellow. But as the Game Cat says, “Be careful, be very careful. This ride is not for the weak.” First published in 1993, Jeff Noon’s extraordinary, influential, award-winning novel transcended SF boundaries and resisted categorization. Alluding to noir and surrealism alike, it was defiantly its own thing and remains so thirty years later. File Under: Fantasy [ Curious Yellow | Urban Wonderland | Game Cat | Living on the Dub Side ]

The Girl Philippa

The Girl Philippa
Author: Robert W. Chambers
Publisher: DigiCat
Total Pages: 399
Release: 2022-06-02
Genre: Fiction
ISBN:

The Girl Philippa is a romance set in Belgium during the First World War. Robert W. Chambers portrayed the struggles of this tumultuous period through the touching story of girl Philippa. Filled with intriguing characters, an absorbing plot, and vivid descriptions of the war, this work makes a perfect read for historical romance fans.

Pavilion of Women

Pavilion of Women
Author: Pearl S. Buck
Publisher: Open Road Media
Total Pages: 490
Release: 2012-08-21
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1453263500

A “vivid and extremely interesting” novel of an upper-class Chinese wife’s quest for freedom, from the Nobel Prize–winning author of The Good Earth (The New Yorker). At forty, Madame Wu is beautiful and much respected as the wife of one of China’s oldest upper-class houses. Her birthday wish is to find a young concubine for her husband and to move to separate quarters, starting a new chapter of her life. When her wish is granted, she finds herself at leisure, no longer consumed by running a sixty-person household. Now she’s free to read books previously forbidden her, to learn English, and to discover her own mind. The family in the compound are shocked at the results, especially when she begins learning from a progressive, excommunicated Catholic priest. In its depiction of life in the compound, Pavilion of Women includes some of Buck’s most enchanting writing about the seasons, daily rhythms, and customs of women in China. It is a delightful parable about the sexes, and of the profound and transformative effects of free thought. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Pearl S. Buck including rare images from the author’s estate.

The Collected Novels Volume One

The Collected Novels Volume One
Author: Pearl S. Buck
Publisher: Open Road Media
Total Pages: 1452
Release: 2018-03-13
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1504052110

From the Nobel Prize–winning author of The Good Earth: These three novels are fascinating portraits of women in China. In 1938, Pearl S. Buck became the first woman to win a Nobel Prize in Literature for The Good Earth, which had already earned her the Pulitzer Prize. Upon choosing Buck’s novel for her book club in 2004, Oprah Winfrey said: “Reading Pearl Buck’s writing feels like reading poetry to me. I just love the quiet rhythm of the words. They evoke the simple beauty of the characters and the harsh mystery of China’s ancient culture.” The daughter of missionaries, the New York Times–bestselling author would continue to explore many aspect of Chinese culture in her work, and the three novels collected in this volume represent some of her most compassionate and revealing fiction. Pavilion of Women: This “vivid and extremely interesting novel,” set in early twentieth-century China, follows an upper-class wife’s quest for personal freedom (The New Yorker). After Madame Wu turns forty, she encourages her husband to take a young concubine so she can finally begin to discover her own mind—and a new world opens up before her as she reads forbidden books and studies English with a progressive former priest. “Beautifully written . . . A fine, full flavorsome novel.” —Newsweek Peony: A young Chinese bondmaid in nineteenth-century China falls in love with the son of the wealthy Jewish family she works for. As the couple’s traditions collide, their relationship faces opposition from every side. “Peony has the vividness of scene and episode and character and the colorful detail that [Buck’s] readers have come to expect of her novels in China.” —New York Herald Tribune Imperial Woman: In this “richly woven . . . quite absorbing” New York Times bestseller, Buck brings to life the story of Tzu Hsi, the magnetic and fierce-minded woman who rose from concubine to become the working head of the Qing Dynasty and the last empress of China for nearly half a century (The Nation). “Certainly, no fictioneer could imagine a more incredible woman. . . . Pearl Buck has done a remarkable and painstaking job in recreating her.” —Saturday Review

Bear Daughter

Bear Daughter
Author: Judith Berman
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 397
Release: 2006-11-28
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1440623864

More information to be announced soon on this forthcoming title from Penguin USA

The Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1986, volume 1

The Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1986, volume 1
Author: Witness Lee
Publisher: Living Stream Ministry
Total Pages: 642
Release: 2021-05-28
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1536006521

The Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1986, volume 1, contains messages given by Brother Witness Lee from January 4, 1986, through March 11, 1989. In 1986 Brother Lee spoke sixty-six messages that were published in The Conclusion of the New Testament. These Life-study messages are not included in The Collected Works of Witness Lee. During the first few days in January Brother Lee was in Irving, Texas. He then returned to Anaheim, California, and with the exception of a brief visit to Cerritos, California, he remained in Anaheim until the beginning of March. In the first week of March Brother Lee traveled to Taipei, Taiwan, where he remained until the beginning of June. From Taipei he returned to Anaheim and was there for a few days before traveling to Irving after the third week of June. He spent about two weeks in Irving, and from there he returned to Anaheim and ministered there until the end of August. The contents of this volume are divided into seven sections, as follows: 1. A message given in Irving, Texas, on January 4, 1986. This message is included in this volume under the title Spreading the Truths in the Lord's Recovery to All of God's Children. 2. Six messages given in Anaheim, California, on January 11 through August 25, 1986. These messages are included in this volume under the title Various Elders' Meetings in Anaheim. 3. Two messages given in Anaheim, California, on January 26 and 27, 1986. These messages are included in this volume under the title Avoiding Both the Exercise of Control over the Saints and the Cultivation of Natural Affection with Them and Having Genuine Oneness in Order to Enjoy the Lord's Blessing. 4. Eight messages given in Anaheim, California, on February 17 through 19 and March 2, 1986. They were previously published in a book entitled Elders' Training, Book 7: One Accord for the Lord's Move and are included in this volume under the same title. 5. Eleven messages given in Anaheim, California, on February 19 through 22, 1986. They were previously published in a book entitled Elders' Training, Book 8: The Life Pulse of the Lord's Present Move and are included in this volume under the same title. 6. A message given in Chinese in Cerritos, California, on March 1, 1986. This message is included in this volume under the title The Center of the Bible, the Center of the Universe, and the Center of the Human Life. 7. Twenty-two messages given in Taipei, Taiwan, on March 10 through 12, April 16 through 18, and June 2, 1986; April 15 through August 13, 1987; April 20 and 21, 1988; and March 9 through 11, 1989. These messages were previously published in Chinese and English in a book entitled Three Crucial Matters for the Increase and Building Up of the Church--Begetting, Nourishing, and Teaching and are included in this volume under the same title.