The Homecoming of Samuel Lake

The Homecoming of Samuel Lake
Author: Jenny Wingfield
Publisher: HarperCollins UK
Total Pages: 433
Release: 2011-07-07
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0007355033

A bewitching debut novel in the vein of the much-loved classic Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Café.

The Homecoming of Samuel Lake

The Homecoming of Samuel Lake
Author: Jenny Wingfield
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Total Pages: 354
Release: 2012-07-10
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0385344090

“Raw, dark, and powerful . . . Southern Gothic at its best. The Homecoming of Samuel Lake puts one in mind of Erskine Caldwell and Flannery O’Connor.”—Fannie Flagg Every first Sunday in June, members of the Moses clan gather for an annual reunion at a sprawling hundred-acre farm in Arkansas. And every year, Samuel Lake, a vibrant and committed young preacher, brings his beloved wife, Willadee Moses, and their three children back for the festivities. In the midst of it all, Samuel and Willadee’s outspoken eleven-year-old daughter, Swan, is a bright light. Her high spirits and fearlessness have alternately seduced and bedeviled three generations of the family. But just as the reunion is getting under way, tragedy strikes, jolting the family to their core and setting the stage for a summer of crisis and profound change. With the clear-eyed wisdom that illuminates the most tragic—and triumphant—aspects of human nature, Jenny Wingfield has created an enduring work of fiction. “Jenny Wingfield has given us a spectacular novel [that] will make you laugh out loud one minute, hold your breath the next, and weep when you least expect it.”—Dorothea Benton Frank, author of Folly Beach “[This novel] touches on many genres—family life, Christian fiction, coming-of-age, and suspense. . . . Readers will love it.”—Library Journal (starred review) “Wingfield hooks the reader with her opening sentence. . . . The reader is thoroughly caught up in the family saga.”—Abilene Reporter-News “A lovely debut . . . a bittersweet, inspirational tale.”—The Dallas Morning News Look for special features inside. Join the Circle for author chats and more.

Ordinary Grace

Ordinary Grace
Author: William Kent Krueger
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 336
Release: 2014-03-04
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1451645856

Looking back at a tragic event that occurred during his thirteenth year, Frank Drum explores how a complicated web of secrets, adultery, and betrayal shattered his Methodist family and their small 1961 Minnesota community.

The Ballad of Samuel Hewitt

The Ballad of Samuel Hewitt
Author: Nick Tooke
Publisher: The Porcupine's Quill
Total Pages: 216
Release: 2019-12-27
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0889848718

June 1934: the depths of the Great Depression. Reckless with anger and spoiling for a fight, seventeen-year-old Samuel Hewitt and his Shuswap friend Charleyboy conspire to steal a prize stallion and disappear into the blistered, unforgiving terrain of British Columbia’s Thompson River Valley. The boys are looking for a fresh start—and for somewhere to belong. But what they find is a hardscrabble existence enlivened by ruthless criminals and boxcar bums ... until they come upon the denizens of a once-majestic travelling circus struggling to survive in an era in which even marvels have lost their capacity to charm. In this surreal, ramshackle environment, Samuel develops an unexpected kinship with the failing ringmaster and his enigmatic daughter. But violence and treachery are prevalent in the shadows of the Big Top, and Samuel may well find himself on the run once more. In The Ballad of Samuel Hewitt, Nick Tooke presents an uncommon coming-of-age story as well as a thoughtful examination of the meaning of home and family.

The Best American Short Stories 2019

The Best American Short Stories 2019
Author: Anthony Doerr
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Total Pages: 403
Release: 2019
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1328465829

Presents a selection of the best works of short fiction of the past year from a variety of acclaimed sources.

Faith Bass Darling's Last Garage Sale

Faith Bass Darling's Last Garage Sale
Author: Lynda Rutledge
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 278
Release: 2012-04-26
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1101580607

SOON TO BE CLAIRE DARLING—A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE STARRING CATHERINE DENEUVE! When a wealthy woman decides to sell all of her worldly possessions, she unearths the secrets of her family’s past in this charming debut. On the last day of the millennium, sassy Faith Bass Darling, the richest old lady in Bass, Texas, decides to have a garage sale. With help from a couple of neighborhood boys, Faith lugs her priceless Louis XV elephant clock, countless Tiffany lamps, and everything else in her nineteenth-century mansion out onto her long, sloping lawn. Why is a recluse of twenty years suddenly selling off her dearest possessions? Because God told her to. As the townspeople grab up five generations of heirlooms, everyone drawn to the sale—including Faith’s long-lost daughter—finds that the antiques not only hold family secrets but also inspire some of life’s most important questions: Do our possessions possess us? What are we without our memories? Is there life after death or second chances here on earth? And is Faith really selling that Tiffany lamp for $1? READERS GUIDE INCLUDED

The Summer I Found Myself

The Summer I Found Myself
Author: Colleen French
Publisher: Kensington Books
Total Pages: 304
Release: 2021-05-25
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1496729633

In Colleen French’s heartfelt summer read, a Delaware oceanside cottage is the perfect setting for a season of surprising lessons about how much there is to gain—when you finally let go . . . In the last two years, English professor Ellen Tolliver has weathered heartache with grace—including an unwelcome divorce and losing her parents. In her more honest moments, Ellen might admit that she’s sick of loss. She longs to stretch and grow, to truly fill her days. Maybe this year, she’ll have something to recount in her Christmas letter other than her son’s travel adventures. Maybe she’ll be too busy to even write a Christmas letter. On impulse, Ellen invites her ailing best friend, Lara, to spend the summer with her at the Delaware beach house she inherited from her parents. Lara can relax on the big front porch after chemo while Ellen readies the house for sale. But Lara has plans too—she’d like to help Ellen discover who she is, or better yet, who she can still become. At Lara’s urging, Ellen joins a local writer’s group, tries online dating, and mingles with the new friends Lara brings home from her support group. She forgoes white wine (won’t stain if you spill it!) for red and eats French fries for breakfast. She even flirts with the local bookstore owner, a handsome, sun-kissed, younger man. And as she embraces the freedom that comes with breaking her own rules, she wonders if it’s not just her past that lies in this beloved quirky town, but her future too . . .

The Mystics of Mile End

The Mystics of Mile End
Author: Sigal Samuel
Publisher: HarperCollins
Total Pages: 225
Release: 2015-10-13
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0062412183

A Jewish family navigates faith, loss, and the chaos of modern life in this “remarkable debut . . . with a profound sense of empathy” (Simon Van Booy, author of Everything Beautiful Began After). In the half-Hasidic, half-hipster Montreal neighborhood of Mile End, eleven-year-old Lev Meyer is discovering that there may be a place for Judaism in his life. As he learns about science in his day school, Lev begins his own extracurricular study of the Bible’s Tree of Knowledge with neighbor Mr. Katz, who is building his own Tree out of trash. Meanwhile his sister Samara is secretly studying for her Bat Mitzvah with next-door neighbor and Holocaust survivor, Mr. Glassman. All the while his father, David, a professor of Jewish mysticism, is a non-believer. When, years later, David has a heart attack, he begins to believe God is speaking to him. While having an affair with one of his students, he delves into the complexities of Kabbalah. Months later Samara, too, grows obsessed with the Kabbalah’s Tree of Life—hiding her interest from those who love her most–and is overcome with reaching the Tree’s highest heights. The neighbors of Mile End have been there all along, but only one of them can catch her when she falls.

Seventh Heaven

Seventh Heaven
Author: Alice Hoffman
Publisher: Open Road Media
Total Pages: 175
Release: 2014-09-23
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1497638054

A New York Times bestseller about a 1950s suburb transformed by the arrival of a divorced mother: “part American Graffiti, part early Updike” (The New York Times). On Hemlock Street, the houses are identical, the lawns tidy, and the families traditional. A perfect slice of suburbia, this Long Island community shows no signs of change as the 1950s draw to a close—until the fateful August morning when Nora Silk arrives. Recently divorced, Nora mows the lawn in slingback pumps and climbs her roof in the middle of the night to clean the gutters. She works three jobs, and when her casseroles don’t turn out, she feeds her two boys—eight-year-old Billy and his baby brother, James—Frosted Flakes for supper. She wears black stretch pants instead of Bermuda shorts, owns twenty-three shades of nail polish, and sings along to Elvis like a schoolgirl. Though Nora is eager to fit in on Hemlock Street, her effect on the neighbors is anything but normal. The wives distrust her, the husbands desire her, and the children think she’s a witch. But through Nora’s eyes, the neighborhood appears far from perfect. Behind every neatly trimmed hedge and freshly painted shutter is a family struggling to solve its own unique mysteries. Inspired by Nora, the residents of Hemlock Street finally unlock the secrets that will transform their lives forever. A tale of extraordinary discoveries, Seventh Heaven is an ode to a single mother’s heroic journey and a celebration of the courage it takes to change.

Red Rain

Red Rain
Author: R.L. Stine
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 449
Release: 2012-10-09
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1451636148

The New York Times bestselling author of the Goosebumps and Fear Street series delivers a terrifying horror novel for adults centered on a town in the grip of a sinister revolt. After travel writer Lea Sutter barely survives a merciless hurricane on a tiny island off the South Carolina coast, she impulsively brings two orphaned twin boys home with her to Long Island. Samuel and Daniel seem amiable and intensely grateful at first, but no one in Lea’s family anticipates the twins’ true evil nature—or predicts that within a few weeks’ time her husband, a controversial child psychologist, will be implicated in two brutal murders. “The horror is grisly” (Associated Press) in legendary author R.L. Stine’s “creepy, fun read” (Library Journal)—an homage to the millions of adult fans who grew up reading his classic series and a must-read for every fan of deviously inventive chillers.