The Thing About Luck


Book Description

Just when 12-year-old Summer thinks nothing else can possibly go wrong in a year of bad luck, an emergency takes her parents to Japan, leaving Summer to care for her little brother while helping her grandmother cook and do laundry for harvest workers. Illustrations.




Summer of My Amazing Luck


Book Description

A Novel by the Governor General’s Literary Award—winning author of A Complicated Kindness Lucy Van Alstyne always thought she’d grow up to become a forest ranger. Instead, at the age of eighteen, she’s found herself with quite a different job title: Single Mother on the Dole. As for the father of her nine-month-old son, Dillinger, well…it could be any of number of guys. At the Have-a-Life housing project–aptly nicknamed Half-a-Life by those who call it home–Lucy meets Lish, a zany and exuberant woman whose idea of fashion is a black beret with a big silver spider brooch stuck on it. Lish is the mother of four daughters, two by a man on welfare himself and twins from a one-week stand with a fire-eating busker who stole her heart–and her wallet. Living on the dole isn’t a walk in the park for Lucy and Lish. Dinner almost always consists of noodles. Transportation means pushing a crappy stroller through the rain. Then there are the condescending welfare agents with their dreaded surprise inspections. And just across the street is Serenity Place, another housing project with which Half-a-Life is engaged in a full-on feud. When the women aren’t busy snitching on each other, they’re spreading rumours–or plotting elaborate acts of revenge. In the middle of a mosquito-infested rainy season, Lish and Lucy decide to escape the craziness of Half-A-Life by taking to the road. In a van held together with coat-hangers and electrical tape and crammed to the hilt with kids and toys, they set off to Colorado in search Lish’s lost love and the father of her twins. Whether they’ll find him is questionable, but the down-and-out adventure helps Lucy realize that this just may be the summer of her amazing luck. Miriam Toews’s debut novel, Summer of My Amazing Luck opens our eyes to a social class rarely captured in fiction. At once hilarious and heartbreaking, it is inhabited by an unforgettable and poignant group of characters. Shortlisted for both the McNally Robinson Book of the Year Award and for the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour, it also earned Miriam the John Hirsch Award for the Most Promising Manitoba Writer.




Summer of L.U.C.K.


Book Description

All Things Are Possible Eleven-year-old stuttering Darby believes she's supposed to be perfect, just like her mother demands. But summer away at camp promises temporary escape. There, she befriends twelve-year-old Justin, who hasn’t uttered a word since his dad died, and ten-year-old Naz, who is struggling to learn English. When mysterious calliope music from a nearby warehouse grants the trio power to communicate without words, they sneak inside to find out why. After the abandoned building bursts into a full-sized carnival with magical rides, they're greeted by the ghost of Leroy Usher, Carnival King, who can’t rest until his property brings joy to children once again. He asks for their help convincing his estranged sons and daughter to restore the carnival to its former glory before summer's end. In return, Mr. Usher promises he'll teach Darby, Justin, and Naz how to find their voices. With each challenge they face, the kids’ confidence grows, and they learn they're capable of accomplishing so much more than they ever imagined. But will it be enough to persuade the Usher siblings to bring the carnival back to life instead of selling the property for demolition?




Summer of My Amazing Luck


Book Description

"[A] memorable portrait of a struggling young person who finds unexpected resilience and peace . . . Hilarious, heartbreaking, and poignant." —Booklist Miriam Toews welcomes her readers to the Have–a–Life housing project (better known as Half–a–Life). The welfare regulations are endless and the rate–fink neighbors won't mind their own business. Lucy Von Alstyne sends fictitious letters to her friend Alicia, pretending to be the father of Alicia's twins. When the two mothers and their five children set off on a journey to find him, facing along the way the complications of living in poverty and raising fatherless children, Lucy discovers this just may be the summer of her amazing luck.




Sometime in Summer


Book Description

From critically acclaimed author Katrina Leno comes a tender love letter to books and summertime, with a touch of magic. Anna Lucia Bell believes in luck: bad luck. Bad luck made her best friend stop talking to her. Bad luck caused her parents’ divorce. Bad luck is forcing her mother, Miriam, to sell the family’s beloved bookstore. And it is definitely bad luck that Anna seems to be the only person in the world Miriam is unable to recommend a life-changing book. When Anna finds out that she and her mom are spending two months in a New England seaside town called Rockport, she expects a summer plagued with bad luck too. But Rockport has surprises in store for Anna, including a comet making its first appearance in over twenty years and two new—but familiar—friends. In what will prove to be the most important summer of her life so far, Anna learns about love, herself, and the magic that an ordinary summer can bring.




Summer Secrets


Book Description

Twelve-year-old Missy tries to learn more about her mother's odd behavior as she and her two friends share some secrets during a long, hot summer in Mississippi toward the end of World War II.




SAD SUMMER IN BIARRITZ


Book Description

I have now started my new life with its positive dynamic; by recording all details, I’ll see a pattern emerge. One day — perhaps in the very near future — I’ll peruse these notes with pleasure. One day. When I’m secure in love, in my own home, in happiness. The narrator, a Canadian woman, hopes to change her life by moving to Biarritz. Having escaped a devastating relationship with the mentally unstable Dominique, she is determined to make new friends and find the perfect mate. But in this summer resort frequented by couples and families, available singles are lonely people, too often embittered by romantic failure. And if the young artist Vinnie has promised entry into local society, he remains an illusive figure. When Vinnie’s body surfaces at the Pointe des Fous new rumours circulate. Had he really been a fortune hunter, a seducer and blackmailer, or just a gentle, over-sensitive man, a loser in love and friendship? The police have concluded his death was accidental, but doesn’t everything point to murder? Or is the narrator over-reacting? Perhaps loneliness and isolation have made her suspicious, for love is as unattainable as ever, and threatening letters from Dominique are arriving with increasing frequency. Sad Summer in Biarritz, is a mystery, a story of the desperately lonely search for love, and a satirical portrait of French nouveau riche society in the 1980s.




Summer Sisters


Book Description

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • READ WITH JENNA BOOK CLUB PICK AS FEATURED ON TODAY • “Summer Sisters is a book to return to again and again.”—Colleen Hoover “As warm as a summer breeze blowing through your hair, as nostalgic as James Taylor singing ‘How Sweet It Is.’ You remember. So does Judy Blume. How sweet it was.”—Chicago Tribune In the summer of 1977, Victoria Leonard’s world changes forever when Caitlin Somers chooses her as a friend. Dazzling, reckless Caitlin welcomes Vix into the heart of her sprawling, eccentric family, opening doors to a world of unimaginable privilege, sweeping her away to vacations on Martha’s Vineyard, an enchanting place where the two friends become “summer sisters.” Now, years later, Vix is working in New York City. Caitlin is getting married on the Vineyard. And the early magic of their long, complicated friendship has faded. But Caitlin begs Vix to come to her wedding, to be her maid of honor. And Vix knows that she will go—because she wants to understand what happened during that last shattering summer. And, after all these years, she needs to know why her best friend—her summer sister—still has the power to break her heart.




The Summer of Pomba Gira


Book Description

He started to play a soft, warm tune that reminded him of the statue. Romantic, edgy, waiting for someone to come. He could see her there, as a real woman under a streetlight on a rainy night, waiting for love. Wasn?t that what they all wanted? Evaline put the final flourishes on her artwork and held it up for him to see. Her image was more confident and alive, with a cynical little smile that reminded him more of Evaline than the statue. He shrugged it off, didn?t all artists put something of themselves in their work? ?Maybe she?s an artist,? he said casually, nodding to the statue. ?What should I entitle it? Sad lady with a rose?? Jonah pointed to the base of the statue. The Summer of Pomba Gira is a paradigm shifting novel about two Chicago families who encounter one another in crisis. A story of relationships, it weaves the lives of those struggling with family conflict and addiction with the influence of spiritual intercessions and transformative moments. Author royalties from your purchase of The Summer of Pomba Gira will be donated to two American Indian organizations whose express purpose is in improving the lives of community members and students through enrichment and opportunities. Sgi dv (thank you) for buying this book.




Anthology of Classic Short Stories. Vol. 9 (Summer Tales). Illustrated


Book Description

In this collection of classic short stories readers will encounter some of the finest writing in world literature: Byezhin Prairie by Ivan Turgenev The Enchanted Bluff by Willa Cather The Garden Party by Katherine Mansfield A White Heron by Sarah Orne Jewett The Rocking-Horse Winner by D. H. Lawrence Gooseberries by Anton Chekhov How Much Land Does a Man Need? by Leo Tolstoy The Sheriff’s Children by Charles W. Chesnutt The Piece of String by Guy de Maupassant From Letters from my Windmill by Alphonse Daudet