Tea with Elephants (Suitcase Sisters Book #1)


Book Description

Ever since they met as teenagers volunteering at a conference center in Costa Rica 20 years ago, Fern Espinoza and Lily Graden have shared a close friendship, even though they live in different states. They can hardly believe it when their teen dream of traveling to Africa together becomes a reality. It's the trip of a lifetime--but life sure isn't what they thought it would be back when they were young. Along with their suitcases, each woman brings along emotional baggage that weighs heavily on them. Yet the people they meet and the places they experience have the power to change their hearts--but only if they surrender to the lessons God wants to teach them in this unexpected land of emerald tea fields, graceful giraffes, and rambunctious elephants. Pack your bags and get ready for adventure as Robin Jones Gunn invites you on a safari of the heart in this vulnerable exploration of how to move forward in faith even when the future is uncertain.




Elephant in the Sky


Book Description

Based on a true story, the tale of a nine-year-old with mental illness, and a mother who strives to find balance between her work and family.




A Promise for Faith


Book Description

Secrets have the power to ruin lives. Faith and love have the power to disarm those secrets. Failure isn't an option for Faith Fuller, She wants to prove to herself and her very successful parents she can stand on her own, even if it means accepting a job offer from someone she wanted to forget. To add to the problem, that job means facing her biggest fear. Caleb Gaines is looking for a manager for his coffee shop. He's in over his head running his successful river outfitters business, and being a single dad to a preschooler. But the perfect candidate wants nothing to do with him. Risk-taker Caleb is up for a challenge and wants to convince Faith to help him. If neither one relies on faith and learns to trust, any chance at love will be washed downstream. An out-of-work chef and successful river outfitter are both hiding secret tragedies. How much faith will it take to learn to trust in each other, overcome obstacles, and find love?




The Summer Place


Book Description

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of That Summer comes another “fun, feisty” (The Washington Post) novel of family, secrets, and the ties that bind. When her twenty-two-year-old stepdaughter announces her engagement to her pandemic boyfriend, Sarah Danhauser is shocked. But the wheels are in motion. Headstrong Ruby has already set a date (just three months away!) and spoken to her beloved safta, Sarah’s mother Veronica, about having the wedding at the family’s beach house in Cape Cod. Sarah might be worried, but Veronica is thrilled to be bringing the family together one last time before putting the big house on the market. But the road to a wedding day usually comes with a few bumps. Ruby has always known exactly what she wants, but as the wedding date approaches, she finds herself grappling with the wounds left by the mother who walked out when she was a baby. Veronica ends up facing unexpected news, thanks to her meddling sister, and must revisit the choices she made long ago, when she was a bestselling novelist with a different life. Sarah’s twin brother, Sam, is recovering from a terrible loss, and confronting big questions about who he is—questions he hopes to resolve during his stay on the Cape. Sarah’s husband, Eli, who’s been inexplicably distant during the pandemic, confronts the consequences of a long ago lapse from his typical good-guy behavior. And Sarah, frustrated by her husband, concerned about her stepdaughter, and worn out by the challenges of the quarantine, faces the alluring reappearance of someone from her past and a life that could have been. When the wedding day arrives, lovers are revealed as their true selves, misunderstandings take on a life of their own, and secrets come to light. There are confrontations and revelations that will touch each member of the extended family, ensuring that nothing will ever be the same. From “the undisputed boss of the beach read” (The New York Times), The Summer Place is a testament to family in all its messy glory; a story about what we sacrifice and how we forgive. Enthralling, witty, big-hearted, and sharply observed, “this first-rate page-turner” (Publishers Weekly) is Jennifer Weiner’s love letter to the Outer Cape and the power of home, the way our lives are enriched by the people we call family, and the endless ways love can surprise us.




Beneath the Seams: A Social Impact Novel


Book Description

Fashion designer Shelby Lawrence is launching her mother-daughter dresses nationwide when she receives a photo of the girl who will change her life forever. Runa, the family's newly sponsored child, is a clever student growing up near Dhaka, Bangladesh. Shelby's daughter Paisley is instantly captivated by their faraway friend. As the girls exchange heartwarming messages, Shelby has no idea that a tragedy in Runa's life is about to upend her own.Dresses are flying off clothing racks when a horrifying scene unfolds in Dhaka that threatens to destroy Shelby's pristine reputation. Even worse-it sends Runa's life spiraling down a terrifying path. Shelby must decide how far she's willing to go to right a tragic wrong.Both a gripping exposé of fashion industry secrets and a heartwarming mother-daughter tale, Beneath the Seams explores love, conscience, hope, and the common threads connecting humanity.




Christy Miller Collection, Vol 1


Book Description

The first twelve books in the popular Christy Miller series are now available in four treasured volumes! Bestselling author Robin Jones Gunn packs each one with enough action, romance, and drama to keep you reading and wanting more. It all starts the summer Christy vacations on a California beach and meets two friends who change her life forever. But after moving across the country with her family, Christy must begin her sophomore year of high school uncertain where she’ll fit in. A red-headed new best friend, a try at cheerleading, a job at a pet store, and expectations for the prom fill Christy’s high school years with a string of laughter-and-tears moments. Fireball Katie keeps everyone guessing what she’ll do next, and surfer Todd keeps showing up while popular Rick has determined to get her full attention! As these memorable years unfold, Christy and her God-loving friends find out what it means to be a “peculiar treasure.” Follow Christy Miller as she stays true to her identity in Christ, drawing closer to God for help in realizing her dreams and dealing with her disappointments. Whether you’re meeting her for the first time or have known her for years— Christy Is a Forever Friend Summer Promise Fourteen-year-old Christy Miller has the dream summer ahead of her in sun-kissed California, staying with her aunt and uncle at their beachfront home. Aunt Marti loves to shop, and those surfers are cute—especially Todd. Christy promised her parents she wouldn’t do anything she’d regret later, and some of her beach friends are a little wild. But Todd and his “God-Lover” friends are giving Christy a new image of all things eternal. Can this summer live up to its promise? A Whisper and a Wish Christy’s family has moved to California just in time for her sophomore year of high school. But they’re not in Newport Beach, where she spent the summer. Instead they’re an hour and a half away and Christy has to start all over making friends. Despite an embarrassing escapade at a slumber party, things are going pretty well...until some midnight fun leads to a trip to the police station. Does God really hear every whisper? Does He know our every wish? Then why is it so hard to know who your friends really are? Yours Forever Christy is back at Aunt Marti and Uncle Bob’s house on the beach for the entire week between Christmas and New Year’s...and Todd is in town, too! The cute surfer completely captured Christy’s heart last summer, and she’s eager to spend every possible minute with him. But soon Christy and her aunt are barely speaking, and it seems like all her friends are mad at her, too—including Todd! Is he hers or isn’t he? And why would God let things get so tangled? Story Behind the Book “The Christy Miller series was actually born when a group of thirteen-year-olds challenged me to write a novel. I’d been questioning the content of their favorite books when they said, ‘Why don’t you write a book for us?’ I told them no, I only wrote picture books. But they persisted: ‘How hard could it be? We’ll even tell you what to write! We want a love story with teenagers at the beach.’ And there you go. Summer Promise first released seventeen years ago and is now translated into five languages. I continue to hear from readers all over the world, many girls saying that they gave their life to Christ after reading Summer Promise. I love that!” —Robin Jones Gunn




Los Angeles Magazine


Book Description

Los Angeles magazine is a regional magazine of national stature. Our combination of award-winning feature writing, investigative reporting, service journalism, and design covers the people, lifestyle, culture, entertainment, fashion, art and architecture, and news that define Southern California. Started in the spring of 1961, Los Angeles magazine has been addressing the needs and interests of our region for 48 years. The magazine continues to be the definitive resource for an affluent population that is intensely interested in a lifestyle that is uniquely Southern Californian.




Early Learning and Teaching of English


Book Description

This book offers an insight into the dynamics and complexities of learning and teaching English as a foreign language at primary level.It presents the findings of longitudinal research undertaken in Croatia and discusses their contribution to understanding EFL development in the young learner and impact on practices in the modern EFL classroom.




The Man I Can't Have


Book Description

It started as as a simple search for a landscape designer...I wanted a beautiful backyard for my new home and my neighbors suggested I look into Ward Landscaping & Design. The owner had no pictures of himself on his website, just a portfolio of nice outdoor sitting areas, pools, and vibrant gardens that I'd always dreamed of having.Of course I hired him.I expected to meet an average guy, but Mr. Marcel Ward is far from your average man. He's handsome, and well-built, and his smile-though a rare trait-is truly infectious. He's every woman's dream-a handsome, older man who doesn't mind getting down and dirty to create something beautiful all because of his passion for it. Unfortunately that lucky woman can't be me. Although Mr. Ward tests my limits, quickens my breath, and makes my heart skip a beat when he's around, I've made a promise to devote myself to my husband.So why am I falling for a man I know I can't have?




Wilford Woodruff's Journal, 1833-1898: 1 January 1841 to 31 December 1845


Book Description

Wilford Woodruff (1807-1898) was born in Connecticut and joined the LDS Church as a young man. He went through the trials of the early members of the LDS Church and came to Utah with the body of the Saints. In 1887 he became the fourth president of the LDS Church. His administration is best remembered for publishing the Manifesto which announced the ending of plural marriage which had previously been openly practiced by members of the Church.