Claire the Bear with the Barely-There Hair


Book Description

Several years ago, the power went out in my home, stranding my family in the dark with only one flashlight. When I held the flashlight under my bushy beard to talk to the children, the tangled mess of my beard was broadcast over the ceiling, prompting my children to laugh and say that a bear had snuck into our house. Then they wanted to hear “scary stories,” but I was at a loss to come up with any, so I said the first thing I could think of, “Claire was a bear with barely -there hair who became aware that others would stare.” I stopped, surprised by my moment of creative clarity, and immediately knew that I needed to write the story down. Thirty minutes later, the story was complete. I’m so grateful the power went out that night. This story once produced a moment of light for my family, and I hope it will be a light for yours as well.




The Bear


Book Description

Longlisted for the Women's Fiction Prize Mummy never yells. Mostly not ever. Except sometimes. Anna is five. Her little brother, Stick, is almost three. They are camping with their parents in Algonquin Park, in three thousand square miles of wilderness. It's the perfect family trip. But then Anna awakes in the night to the sound of something moving in the shadows. Her father is terrified. Her mother is screaming. Then, silence. Alone in the woods, it is Anna who has to look after Stick, battling hunger and the elements to stay alive. Narrated by Anna, this is white-knuckle storytelling that captures the fear, wonder and bewilderment of our worst nightmares - and the power of one girl's enduring love for her family.




Claire the Bear with the Barely-There Hair


Book Description

Claire is a bear with barely-there hair who is upset that she doesn't look like the other bears! She tries everything she can think of to look like she has more hair, but nothing is working. That is, until someone shows Claire what is actually important. This delightful book cautions against the dangers of comparison, shows the importance of helping others to see their value, and demonstrates just how special it is to be unique.




Kant's Little Prussian Head and Other Reasons Why I Write: An Autobiography in Essays


Book Description

A glimpse into a beloved novelist’s inner world, shaped by family, art, and literature. In her fiction, Claire Messud "has specialized in creating unusual female characters with ferocious, imaginative inner lives" (Ruth Franklin, New York Times Magazine). Kant’s Little Prussian Head and Other Reasons Why I Write opens a window on Messud’s own life: a peripatetic upbringing; a warm, complicated family; and, throughout it all, her devotion to art and literature. In twenty-six intimate, brilliant, and funny essays, Messud reflects on a childhood move from her Connecticut home to Australia; the complex relationship between her modern Canadian mother and a fiercely single French Catholic aunt; and a trip to Beirut, where her pied-noir father had once lived, while he was dying. She meditates on contemporary classics from Kazuo Ishiguro, Teju Cole, Rachel Cusk, and Valeria Luiselli; examines three facets of Albert Camus and The Stranger; and tours her favorite paintings at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts. In the luminous title essay, she explores her drive to write, born of the magic of sharing language and the transformative powers of “a single successful sentence.” Together, these essays show the inner workings of a dazzling literary mind. Crafting a vivid portrait of a life in celebration of the power of literature, Messud proves once again "an absolute master storyteller" (Rebecca Carroll, Los Angeles Times).







Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone


Book Description

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Diana Gabaldon returns with the “vast and sweeping” (The Washington Post) new novel in the epic Outlander series. War leaves nobody alone. Neither the past, the present, nor the future offers true safety, and the only refuge is what you can protect: your family, your friends, your home. Jamie Fraser and Claire Randall were torn apart by the Jacobite Rising in 1746, and it took them twenty years of loss and heartbreak to find each other again. Now it’s 1779, and Claire and Jamie are finally reunited with their daughter, Brianna, her husband, Roger, and their children, and are rebuilding their home on Fraser’s Ridge—a fortress that may shelter them against the winds of war as well as weather. But tensions in the Colonies are great: Battles rage from New York to Georgia and, even in the mountains of the backcountry, feelings run hot enough to boil Hell’s teakettle. Jamie knows that loyalties among his tenants are split and it won’t be long before the war is on his doorstep. Brianna and Roger have their own worry: that the dangers that provoked their escape from the twentieth century might catch up to them. Sometimes they question whether risking the perils of the 1700s—among them disease, starvation, and an impending war—was indeed the safer choice for their family. Not so far away, young William Ransom is coming to terms with the mysteries of his identity, his future, and the family he’s never known. His erstwhile father, Lord John Grey, has reconciliations to make and dangers to meet on his son’s behalf and on his own, and far to the north, Young Ian Murray fights his own battle between past and future, and the two women he’s loved. Meanwhile, the Revolutionary War creeps ever closer to Fraser’s Ridge. Jamie sharpens his sword, while Claire whets her surgeon’s blade: It is a time for steel.




A Second Chance for Grace


Book Description

A new life coming into the world disrupts Susan's quiet life… Susan Montgomery is used to a quiet, peaceful life managing her apartment building, where the hardest problem is her grouchy neighbor's leaky faucet. She soon finds herself dealing with a pregnant teenage niece, a mysterious briefcase left behind by a tenant, and two very different men vying for her heart. A near-death experience gives Mac a new outlook on life… Christopher "Mac" MacAllister is trying to figure out how to "do the Christian thing." As a new convert, he's drawn to Susan's love for life and for God. She's nothing like the women he used to date; but can Mac compete with the guy who's come out of nowhere and knows all the right things to say?




The Bear and the Hair


Book Description

Illustrations and simple, rhyming text follow Bear as he tries out new hairstyles, to the amusement of his forest friends.




Following the Sparrows


Book Description

Kathryn Baker is trying to escape her past After the tragic death of her husband, Kathryn throws herself into her scientific career. She hopes to right the wrongs of her past before they catch up to her. But when she runs into a handsome stranger, she discovers that he just might hold the key to her future. Adam Harrison is tired of running from his past After losing everything he worked for in life, Adam is finally ready to follow the path that God has for him. When a series of chance meetings brings him to Kathryn, he considers the possibility of loving again. But Kathryn is still on the run from God and from her past. Can Adam convince Kathryn to stop running and trust him with her secrets, or will her fear make it impossible for them to have a future together?




Jane's Fame


Book Description

Jane's Fame tells the fascinating story of Jane Austen's renown, from the years of rejection the author faced during her lifetime to the global recognition and adoration she now enjoys. Almost two hundred years after her death, Austen remains a hot topic, constantly open to revival and reinterpretation and known to millions of people through film and television adaptations as much as through her books. In Jane's Fame, Claire Harman gives us the complete biography—of both the author and her lasting cultural influence—making this essential reading for anyone interested in Austen's life, works, and remarkably potent fame.