Summer at Mount Hope

Summer at Mount Hope
Author: Rosalie Ham
Publisher: Pan Australia
Total Pages: 251
Release: 2018-08-21
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1760783897

From the author of bestseller The Dressmaker and upcoming novel The Year of the Farmer. Phoeba Crupp is a young woman who lives with her parents and sister on a small farm near Geelong in the 1890s. Her father is an eccentric ex-accountant who moved his family from the city in order to establish a vineyard, a decision her mother bitterly - and loudly - resents. While her sister makes a play for the local squatter's son, Phoeba is content with her best friend Harriet, until circumstances push her towards the world of men and money. Like Ham's first novel, The Dressmaker, Summer at Mount Hope is a black comedy which also contains a more serious strand about the efforts of a woman a century ago to be free.

The Dressmaker

The Dressmaker
Author: Rosalie Ham
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2015-08-11
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0698194802

A darkly satirical novel of love, revenge, and 1950s haute couture—now a major motion picture starring Kate Winslet, Judy Davis, Liam Hemsworth, and Hugo Weaving After twenty years spent mastering the art of dressmaking at couture houses in Paris, Tilly Dunnage returns to the small Australian town she was banished from as a child. She plans only to check on her ailing mother and leave. But Tilly decides to stay, and though she is still an outcast, her lush, exquisite dresses prove irresistible to the prim women of Dungatar. Through her fashion business, her friendship with Sergeant Farrat—the town’s only policeman, who harbors an unusual passion for fabrics—and a budding romance with Teddy, the local football star whose family is almost as reviled as hers, she finds a measure of grudging acceptance. But as her dresses begin to arouse competition and envy in town, causing old resentments to surface, it becomes clear that Tilly’s mind is set on a darker design: exacting revenge on those who wronged her, in the most spectacular fashion.

An American Summer

An American Summer
Author: Alex Kotlowitz
Publisher: Anchor
Total Pages: 306
Release: 2020-03-31
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0804170916

2020 J. ANTHONY LUKAS PRIZE WINNER From the bestselling author of There Are No Children Here, a richly textured, heartrending portrait of love and death in Chicago's most turbulent neighborhoods. The numbers are staggering: over the past twenty years in Chicago, 14,033 people have been killed and another roughly 60,000 wounded by gunfire. What does that do to the spirit of individuals and community? Drawing on his decades of experience, Alex Kotlowitz set out to chronicle one summer in the city, writing about individuals who have emerged from the violence and whose stories capture the capacity--and the breaking point--of the human heart and soul. The result is a spellbinding collection of deeply intimate profiles that upend what we think we know about gun violence in America. Among others, we meet a man who as a teenager killed a rival gang member and twenty years later is still trying to come to terms with what he's done; a devoted school social worker struggling with her favorite student, who refuses to give evidence in the shooting death of his best friend; the witness to a wrongful police shooting who can't shake what he has seen; and an aging former gang leader who builds a place of refuge for himself and his friends. Applying the close-up, empathic reporting that made There Are No Children Here a modern classic, Kotlowitz offers a piercingly honest portrait of a city in turmoil. These sketches of those left standing will get into your bones. This one summer will stay with you.

The Cement Garden

The Cement Garden
Author: Ian McEwan
Publisher: RosettaBooks
Total Pages: 154
Release: 2011-02-08
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0795302592

Orphaned siblings create a macabre secret world for themselves in this “irresistibly readable” novel by the New York Times-bestselling author (The New York Review of Books). This “powerful and disconcerting” novel by the Booker Prize-winning author of The Children Act and Atonement (The Daily Telegraph) tells the story of a dying family who live in a dying part of the city. A father of four children decides, in an effort to make his garden easier to control, to pave it over. In the process, he has a heart attack and dies, leaving the cement garden unfinished and the children to the care of their mother. Soon after, the mother too dies and the children, fearful of being separated by social services, decide to cover up their parents’ deaths: they bury their mother in the cement garden. The story is told from the point of view of Jack, one of the sons, who is entering adolescence with all of its attendant curiosity and appetites. Julie, the eldest, is almost a grown woman. Sue is rather bookish and observes all that goes on around her. And Tom is the youngest and the baby of the lot. The children seem to manage in this perverse setting rather well—until Julie brings home a boyfriend who threatens their secret by asking too many questions. “[A] beautiful but disturbing novel.”—The AV Club “McEwan’s evocative detail and perfect British prose lend a genteel decorum to the death and decay that surround the family.”—The New Yorker

On a Summer Tide (Three Sisters Island Book #1)

On a Summer Tide (Three Sisters Island Book #1)
Author: Suzanne Woods Fisher
Publisher: Revell
Total Pages: 320
Release: 2019-04-30
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1493417800

Sometimes love hurts--and sometimes it can heal in the most unexpected way. Camden Grayson loves her challenging career, but the rest of her life could use some improvement. "Moving on" is Cam's mantra. But there's a difference, her two sisters insist, between one who moves on . . . and one who keeps moving. Cam's full-throttle life skids to a stop when her father buys a remote island off the coast of Maine. Paul Grayson has a dream to breathe new life into the island--a dream that includes reuniting his estranged daughters. Certain Dad has lost his mind, the three sisters rush to the island. To Cam's surprise, the slow pace of island life appeals to her, along with the locals--and one in particular. Seth Walker, the scruffy island schoolteacher harbors more than a few surprises. With On a Summer Tide, bestselling author Suzanne Woods Fisher begins a brand-new contemporary romance series that is sure to delight her fans and draw new ones.

The Year of the Farmer

The Year of the Farmer
Author: Rosalie Ham
Publisher: Picador Australia
Total Pages: 305
Release: 2018-09-25
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1760782696

'A book that delights, appeals but never waivers in its brutal honesty. If you didn't laugh, you'd cry.' Sue Maslin, producer of The Dressmaker In a quiet farming town somewhere in country New South Wales, war is brewing. The last few years have been punishingly dry, especially for the farmers, but otherwise, it's all Neralie Mackintosh's fault. If she'd never left town then her ex, the hapless but extremely eligible Mitchell Bishop, would never have fallen into the clutches of the truly awful Mandy, who now lords it over everyone as if she owns the place. Now that Neralie has returned, the whole town is determined to reinstate her to her rightful position in the social order. But Mandy has other ideas. Meanwhile the head of the local water board is looking for a way to line her pockets at the expense of hardworking farmers. And Mandy and Neralie's war may be just the chance she was looking for... 'Rosalie Ham's love affair with the Australian landscape is a heartbeat on every page.' Canberra Times 'The Year of the Farmer is full of loveable larrikins and lying louses - all of them truly enjoyable, believable Aussie characters who will keep you turning the pages to find out what happens to them.' Daily Telegraph 'A tightly plotted, highly entertaining romp that poses some big questions.' Saturday Paper

The Warning

The Warning
Author: James Patterson
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Total Pages: 277
Release: 2019-08-13
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 153873253X

In this fast-paced thriller, a power plant explosion takes a small-town community off the grid -- all while a terrifying force lurks in the shadows. Two roads lead to Mount Hope. None leads out. A small southern town was evacuated after a freak accident. As the first anniversary of the mishap approaches, some residents are allowed to return past the national guard roadblocks. Mount Hope natives Maggie and Jordan quickly discover that their hometown is not as it was before. Downed cellular networks fail to resume service. Animals savagely attack humans. And the damaged power plant, where Jordan's father is an engineer, is under military lockdown. As friends and family morph into terrifying strangers, Maggie and Jordan increasingly turn to each other. Their determination to discover who -- or what -- has taken control of Mount Hope soon has them caught in the crosshairs of a presence more sinister than any they could have imagined.

Notes From The Tilt-A-Whirl

Notes From The Tilt-A-Whirl
Author: N. D. Wilson
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Total Pages: 137
Release: 2013-08-06
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1418576247

What is this World? What kind of place is it? "The round kind. The spinning kind. The moist kind. The inhabited kind. The kind with flamingos (real and artificial). The kind where water in the sky turns into beautifully symmetrical crystal flakes sculpted by artists unable to stop themselves (in both design and quantity). The kind of place with tiny, powerfully jawed mites assigned to the carpets to eat my dead skin as it flakes off. The kind with people who kill and people who love and people who do both... "This world is beautiful but badly broken." "I love it as it is, because it is a story, and it isn't stuck in one place. It is full of conflict and darkness like every good story, a world of surprises and questions to explore. And there's someone behind it; there are uncomfortable answers to the how's and whys and what's. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Through Him were all things made... Welcome to His poem. His play. His novel. Let the pages flick your thumbs."

The Summer of Broken Rules

The Summer of Broken Rules
Author: K. L. Walther
Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc.
Total Pages: 245
Release: 2021-05-04
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
ISBN: 1728210305

A romance novel inspired by the songs of Taylor Swift! *NOW A USA TODAY BESTSELLER* This BookTok sensation is perfect for fans of Jenny Han's The Summer I Turned Pretty and Sarah Dessen's Along for the Ride. Meredith's family's annual game of assassin at Martha's Vineyard during a summer wedding is the perfect chance to honor her sister's legacy, and finally join the world again. But when she forms an alliance with a cute groomsman, she's at risk of losing both the game ... and her heart. When Meredith Fox lost her sister, Claire, eighteen months ago, she shut everyone out. But this summer she's determined to join the world again. The annual family vacation to Martha's Vineyard seems like the perfect place to reconnect. Her entire extended family is gathering for a big summer wedding, and although Meredith is dateless after being unexpectedly dumped, she's excited to participate in the traditional Fox family game of assassin that will take place during the week of wedding festivities. Claire always loved the game, and Meredith is determined to honor her legacy. But when Meredith forms an assassin alliance with a cute groomsman, she finds herself getting distracted. Meredith tries to focus on the game and win it for her sister, but she can't help falling for him. And as the week progresses, she realizes she's not only at risk of losing the game, but also her heart. "The feel-good summer read of my dreams!"—Alicia, Goodreads Reviewer "Boy, did it also give me all the summer feels."—Larissa, Goodreads Reviewer "This book is bound to become a favorite of all who love contemporary romance."—Kelly, Goodreads Reviewer "If beachy contemporary romances are your jam, then trust me—you do NOT want to miss this book."—Jessica, Goodreads Reviewer