The Summer Before the War

The Summer Before the War
Author: Helen Simonson
Publisher: Random House
Total Pages: 493
Release: 2016-03-22
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0679644644

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “A novel to cure your Downton Abbey withdrawal . . . a delightful story about nontraditional romantic relationships, class snobbery and the everybody-knows-everybody complications of living in a small community.”—The Washington Post The bestselling author of Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand returns with a breathtaking novel of love on the eve of World War I that reaches far beyond the small English town in which it is set. NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE WASHINGTON POST AND NPR East Sussex, 1914. It is the end of England’s brief Edwardian summer, and everyone agrees that the weather has never been so beautiful. Hugh Grange, down from his medical studies, is visiting his Aunt Agatha, who lives with her husband in the small, idyllic coastal town of Rye. Agatha’s husband works in the Foreign Office, and she is certain he will ensure that the recent saber rattling over the Balkans won’t come to anything. And Agatha has more immediate concerns; she has just risked her carefully built reputation by pushing for the appointment of a woman to replace the Latin master. When Beatrice Nash arrives with one trunk and several large crates of books, it is clear she is significantly more freethinking—and attractive—than anyone believes a Latin teacher should be. For her part, mourning the death of her beloved father, who has left her penniless, Beatrice simply wants to be left alone to pursue her teaching and writing. But just as Beatrice comes alive to the beauty of the Sussex landscape and the colorful characters who populate Rye, the perfect summer is about to end. For despite Agatha’s reassurances, the unimaginable is coming. Soon the limits of progress, and the old ways, will be tested as this small Sussex town and its inhabitants go to war. Praise for The Summer Before the War “What begins as a study of a small-town society becomes a compelling account of war and its aftermath.”—Woman’s Day “This witty character study of how a small English town reacts to the 1914 arrival of its first female teacher offers gentle humor wrapped in a hauntingly detailed story.”—Good Housekeeping “Perfect for readers in a post–Downton Abbey slump . . . The gently teasing banter between two kindred spirits edging slowly into love is as delicately crafted as a bone-china teacup. . . . More than a high-toned romantic reverie for Anglophiles—though it serves the latter purpose, too.”—The Seattle Times

The Summer Before (The Baby-Sitters Club)

The Summer Before (The Baby-Sitters Club)
Author: Ann M. Martin
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Total Pages: 227
Release: 2016-09-27
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1338094580

From the bestselling author of the generation-defining series The Baby-sitters Club comes a series for a new generation! Before there was The Baby-sitters Club, there were four girls named Kristy Thomas, Mary Anne Spier, Claudia Kishi, and Stacey McGill. As they start the summer before seventh grade, Kristy is still hoping that her father will return to her family, Mary Anne has to prove that she's no longer a little girl, Claudia is navigating her first major crush, and Stacey is leaving her entire New York City life behind. Separately, it's a lot to deal with. But together, these friends will find a way to make it through--with plenty of laughter, tears, and suprises along the way.

The Summer Before Boys

The Summer Before Boys
Author: Nora Raleigh Baskin
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 212
Release: 2012-04-03
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 141698674X

Twelve-year-old best friends and relatives, Julia and Eliza are happy to spend the summer together while Julia's mother is serving in the National Guard in Iraq but when they meet a neighborhood boy, their close relationship begins to change.

The Summer Before the Dark

The Summer Before the Dark
Author: Doris Lessing
Publisher: HarperCollins UK
Total Pages: 518
Release: 2012-11-01
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0007383576

The story of a middle-aged woman’s search for freedom, from Doris Lessing, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Ostend

Ostend
Author: Volker Weidermann
Publisher: Pantheon
Total Pages: 178
Release: 2016-01-26
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1101870273

It’s the summer of 1936, and the writer Stefan Zweig is in crisis. His German publisher no longer wants him, his marriage is collapsing, and his house in Austria—searched by the police two years earlier—no longer feels like home. He’s been dreaming of Ostend, the Belgian beach town that is a paradise of promenades, parasols, and old friends. So he journeys there with his lover, Lotte Altmann, and reunites with fellow writer and semi-estranged close friend Joseph Roth, who is himself about to fall in love. For a moment, they create a fragile haven. But as Europe begins to crumble around them, the writers find themselves trapped on vacation, in exile, watching the world burn. In Ostend, Volker Weidermann lyrically recounts “the summer before the dark,” when a coterie of artists, intellectuals, drunks, revolutionaries, and madmen found themselves in limbo while Europe teetered on the edge of fascism and total war. Ostend is the true story of two of the twentieth century’s great writers, written with a novelist’s eye for pacing, chronology, and language—a dazzling work of historical nonfiction. (Translated from the German by Carol Brown Janeway)

The Night Before Summer Camp

The Night Before Summer Camp
Author: Natasha Wing
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 34
Release: 2007-05-10
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 0448446391

The first day of summer camp is almost here, and one little camper doesn’t know what to expect. For a while everything is hunkydory . . . until rest time rolls around and he gets a bad case of nervous butterflies. But an unlikely friend appears out of the crowd and reassures him that the best cure for the summertime blues is tons of summertime fun! A sweetly reassuring story, once again told in verse to the meter of Clement Moore’s classic.

Before Summer Ends

Before Summer Ends
Author: Susan Mallery
Publisher: Harlequin
Total Pages: 224
Release: 2021-04-27
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1488075530

Susan Mallery, #1 New York Times bestselling author, delivers a charming, uplifting story about second chances and found families. A long, hot summer with her secret crush... What could possibly go wrong? Nissa Lang knows Desmond Stilling is out of her league. He’s a CEO, she’s a teacher. He’s gorgeous, she’s...not. So when her house-sitting gig falls through and Desmond offers her a place to stay for the summer, she vows not to reveal how she’s felt about him since their first—and only—kiss. Desmond should’ve known better than to bring temptation into his house. He decided long ago that his best friend’s sister was too sweet, too good, for him. She deserves a guy who can give his heart. For her sake, he’s stayed away. But as her laughter breathes life into his lonely mansion, he’s not sure how long he’ll be able to resist. From Harlequin Special Edition: Believe in love. Overcome obstacles. Find happiness.

The Summer Before the Storm

The Summer Before the Storm
Author: Gabriele Wills
Publisher:
Total Pages: 556
Release: 2011-01
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9780973278057

It's the Age of Elegance in the summer playground of the affluent and powerful. Amid the pristine, island-dotted lakes and pine-scented forests of the Canadian wilderness, the young and carefree amuse themselves with glittering balls and friendly competitions. The summer of 1914 promises to be different when the ambitious and destitute son of a disowned heir joins his wealthy family at their cottage on Wyndwood Island. Through Jack's introduction into the privileged life of the aristocratic Wyndhams and their social circle, he seeks opportunities and alliances to better himself, including in his schemes, his beautiful and audacious cousin, Victoria. But their charmed lives begin to unravel with the onset of the Great War, in which many are destined to become part of the "lost generation." This richly textured tale takes the reader on an unforgettable journey from romantic moonlight cruises to the horrific sinking of the Lusitania, from regattas on the water to combat in the skies over France, from extravagant mansions to deadly trenches - from innocence to nationhood. The Summer Before The Storm, the first of the epic "Muskoka Novels," evokes a gracious, bygone era that still resonates in this legendary land of lakes.

The Summer Before Forever

The Summer Before Forever
Author: Melissa Chambers
Publisher: Entangled: digiTeen
Total Pages: 268
Release: 2016-08-22
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1633757277

Chloe Stone’s life is a hot mess. Determined to stop being so freaking skittish, she packs up her quasi-famous best friend and heads to Florida. The goal? Complete the summer bucket list to end all bucket lists. The problem? Her hot soon-to-be stepbrother, Landon Jacobs. Landon’s mom will throttle him if he even looks at his future stepsister the wrong way. Problem is, Chloe is everything he didn’t know he wanted, and that’s...inconvenient. Watching her tear it up on a karaoke stage, stand up to his asshole friend, and rock her first string bikini destroys his sanity. But there’s more than their future family on the line. Landon is hiding something—something he knows will change how she feels about him—and she’s hiding something from him, too. And when the secrets come out, there’s a good chance neither will look at the other the same way again... Each book in the A Before Forever series is a standalone story that can be enjoyed out of order. Series Order: Book #1 The Summer Before Forever Book #2 Falling for Forever

Black Sand Beach 2: Do You Remember the Summer Before?

Black Sand Beach 2: Do You Remember the Summer Before?
Author: Richard Fairgray
Publisher: National Geographic Books
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2021-05-04
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1645950042

A revelation about how Dash may or may not have spent the summer before raises the stakes even higher in this second installment of the eerie and enthralling Black Sand Beach series, perfect for fans of Gravity Falls, Rickety Stich, and Fake Blood. Dash and his crew might have stumbled upon the source of the evil at Black Sand Beach when they stumbled into the abandoned and haunted lighthouse, but when Lily reveals that she found Dash's journal there, the news is anything but comforting. The book is full of Dash's reflections on his trip to Black Sand Beach the previous summer. Only Dash doesn't recognize the journal or have any memory of being there. As the friends read the entries aloud, through flashbacks Dash's unsettling encounter with two ghost girls, a truly terrifying monster, and a life changing event make one thing very clear: Black Sand Beach isn't done with them yet. Deliciously creepy and difficult to put down, Do You Remember the Summer Before? returns readers to a supernatural shore they'll never forget.