The Twelve Little Cakes


Book Description

The Twelve Little Cakes is equal parts testimony to the struggles of a bygone era and a love letter to a joy-filled childhood that no external forces could dim. In a village on the outskirts of Prague, full of gossipy neighbors, state informants, friendly old "grandmothers," and small-town prejudices, Dominika Dery grows up a self-possessed child, whose openness and curiosity often lead her, and her family, into trouble. Yet the love, pride, and quirky ingenuity that bind them together will guarantee their survival-and ultimately their happiness-through the best and worst of times.




Pie in the Sky


Book Description

Knowing very little English, eleven-year-old Jingwen feels like an alien when his family immigrates to Australia, but copes with loneliness and the loss of his father by baking elaborate cakes.







A Daddy for Her Sons


Book Description

Babies for the bachelor! When playboy Connor McNair watched his best friend marry Jill Darling, he never expected a second chance with the girl who got away. Now she's a single mother, and he's back to persuade her to give up her pastry company. It's just business…until Jill's sweet smile makes him question his loyalties and his feelings about a picket-fence lifestyle. Falling for Jill's adorable twin babies—and her kisses, which are even more delicious than her cakes—has Connor thinking about fatherhood and forever. But that's against all the rules.…




The Bachelor's Baby Surprise


Book Description

Twins for the bachelor A Daddy for Her Sons by Raye Morgan When Connor McNair watched his best friend marry Jill Darling, he never expected a second chance with the girl who got away. Now she's the single mother of adorable twin babies, and he's back to persuade her to give up her pastry company. It's just business…until Jill's sweet smile has Connor thinking about fatherhood and forever. But that's against all the rules… Doorstep Twins by Rebecca Winters Gabi Turner is on the Greek island of Milos to find Andreas Simonides—the father of her late sister's baby twins. But Andreas knows who the real father is—his brother! Waiting for his brother, Andreas is soon changing diapers and singing nursery rhymes. He and Gabi make a good team. But what will keep them together when the real father arrives? Previously published as A Daddy for Her Sons and Doorstep Twins




Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake


Book Description

“[Quindlen] serves up generous portions of her wise, commonsensical, irresistibly quotable take on life.”—NPR This edition includes an exclusive conversation between Meryl Streep and Anna Quindlen. In this irresistible memoir, Anna Quindlen writes about a woman’s life, from childhood memories to manic motherhood to middle age. Considering—and celebrating—everything from marriage, girlfriends, our mothers, parenting, faith, loss, to all the stuff in our closets, and more, Quindlen says for us here what we may wish we could have said ourselves. As she did in her beloved New York Times columns, and in A Short Guide to a Happy Life, Quindlen uses her past, present, and future to explore what matters most to women at different ages. Quindlen talks about: Marriage: “A safety net of small white lies can be the bedrock of a successful marriage. You wouldn’t believe how cheaply I can do a kitchen renovation.” Girlfriends: “Ask any woman how she makes it through the day, and she may mention her calendar, her to-do lists, her babysitter. But if you push her on how she really makes it through her day, she will mention her girlfriends. ” Our bodies: “I’ve finally recognized my body for what it is: a personality-delivery system, designed expressly to carry my character from place to place, now and in the years to come.” Parenting: “Being a parent is not transactional. We do not get what we give. It is the ultimate pay-it-forward endeavor: We are good parents not so they will be loving enough to stay with us but so they will be strong enough to leave us.” Candid, funny, and moving, Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake is filled with the sharp insights and revealing observations that have long confirmed Quindlen’s status as America’s laureate of real life.




The Great Gatsby - With Audio Level 5 Oxford Bookworms Library


Book Description

A level 5 Oxford Bookworms Library graded reader. This version includes an audio book: listen to the story as you read. Retold for Learners of English by Clare West. Gatsby's mansion on Long Island blazes with light, and the beautiful, the wealthy, and the famous drive out from New York to drink Gatsby's champagne and to party all night long. But Jay Gatsby, the owner of all this wealth, wants only one thing - to find again the woman of his dreams, the woman he has held in his heart and his memory for five long years. The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald's masterpiece, is one of the great American novels of the twentieth century. It captures perfectly the Jazz Age of the 1920s, and goes deep into the hollow heart of the American Dream.




Knox


Book Description

Reese I’m done. Getting ditched at the altar is nothing compared to being humiliated there in front of three hundred shocked guests. Apparently I’m no good at spotting the signs your man’s a cheating liar. So I set off solo on my honeymoon to Hawaii, where I realize I’ve got this life thing down just fine on my own. Friendships and laughter? Yes. Adventures? Absolutely. But relationships? Hell no. Never again. Knox I’m a man of few words. My reputation as a moody prick is deserved, but only the handful of people who really know me see the man beneath the professional mask. I’m a protector. A warrior. That part is true. But the world doesn’t get to see the rest of me. And women don’t seem to mind my gruff exterior—my bed’s always warm. I’m content with life—loving it, even—or so I thought. But when I meet a beautiful pastry chef with a broken heart and a smile that softens me down to my soul, I realize I wasn’t really content at all before her. I only wish I had the words to let her know. All nine books in the Chicago Blaze hockey romance series can be read standalone, but if you read them all in order, you'll get to revisit your favorite characters. Anton (forbidden love/interracial romance/BWWM) Luca (single dad) Victor (rags to riches/average woman meets superstar crush) Knox (jilted bride/vacation romance) Alexei (forbidden love) Easy (second chance/interracial romance/BMWW) Jonah (fake relationship) Kit (wounded hero) Olivier (age gap/billionaire) The Chicago Blaze series has heat, heart and always a happily ever after. Perfect for readers of Teagan Hunter, Hannah Grace, Robyn Carr, Helena Hunting, Elle Kennedy, Catherine Gayle, Avon Gale, Toni Aleo, Kristen Callihan, LJ Shen, Corinne Michaels, Jana Aston, Karina Halle, Meghan March, Jay Crownover, Anna Todd, Geneva Lee, Audrey Carlan, Jill Shalvis, Suzanne Brockmann, Helen Hoang, Christina Lauren, Kristan Higgins, Sally Thorne, Penelope Sky, Vi Keeland, Penelope Ward, Debbie Macomber, Nora Roberts, Maisey Yates, Sarah Mayberry, Elle Kennedy, Lauren Blakely, Susan Mallery, Penny Reid, Julia Kent, Kelly Jamieson, Melanie Harlow, Carrie Ann Ryan, Kendall Ryan, Kennedy Ryan, Helen Hardt, Meghan March, Julia Kent, Meli Raine, Sylvia Day, Chelle Bliss, Brenda Rothert, Natasha Madison, Kylie Scott, Helena Hunting, Sloane Kennedy, Penelope Sky, Elle Kennedy, K.A. Linde, Nana Malone, Jami Davenport, Jaci Burton, Penelope Sky, Helen Hardt, E.L. James, Anna Todd, Chelle Bliss, Kendall Ryan, Kennedy Fox, Harlequin romance, Waterhouse Press, Virgin River, Carly Phillips, Piper Rayne, Cora Seton, Sherryl Woods, Marie Force, Sarina Bowen.




The Promise of a Normal Life


Book Description

For readers of Marilynne Robinson, Elizabeth Strout, and Katie Kitamura, the indelible journey of a quiet young woman—the “silent person” in the Seder—finding her way. Hailed as “radiant and transporting” (Margot Livesey), The Promise of a Normal Life is a poet’s debut novel, so evocative of life as lived that it transports you to a time and place you can practically see, touch, and feel. The unnamed narrator is a fiercely observant, introverted Jewish-American girl who seems to exist in a private and separate realm. She's the child of a first-generation doctor and lawyer—whose own stories have the loud grandeur of family legend—in an America where Jews are excluded from the country club across the street. Her expectations for adulthood are often contradictory. In the changing landscape of the 1960s, she attempts to find her way through the rituals of life, her geography expanding across the country, across the ocean, and into multiple nations. Along the way, she meets a glamorous hairdresser on a cruise ship to Israel, loopy tarot-card-reading passengers, and Alice-in-Wonderland lawyers in Haifa. There’s a blue-eyed all-American college boyfriend, a mystified tourist agent in the Lofoten Islands, a handsome eligible rabbi in LA, a righteous and self-absorbed MIT professor, and a clandestine, calculating lover in Boston. Eventually, she finds her own compass, but only after being swept to several distant shores by many winds.