Varina Palladino's Jersey Italian Love Story


Book Description

“Varina Palladino’s Jersey Italian Love Story is fun and funny, wonderfully exuberant, and incredibly wise. These endearing characters—their voices and stories— will be with me for a long time to come. I didn’t want to say good-bye.” –Jill McCorkle, New York Times bestselling author of Hieroglyphics An utterly delightful and surprising family drama—think Moonstruck and My Big Fat Greek Wedding set in New Jersey—about a boisterous, complicated Italian family determined to help their widowed mother find a new boyfriend. Lively widow Varina Palladino has lived in the same house in Wyldale, New Jersey, her entire life. The town might be slightly stuck in the 1960s, when small businesses thrived and most residents were Italian, but its population is getting younger and the Palladinos are embracing the change. What Varina’s not embracing, much to her ninety-two-year-old mother’s dismay, is dating. Running Palladino’s Italian Specialties grocery, caring for her mother, and keeping her large, loud Jersey Italian family from killing one another takes up all of Varina’s energy anyway. Sylvia Spini worries about her daughter Varina being left all alone when she dies. Sylvia knows what it is to be old and alone, so when her granddaughter, Donatella, comes to her with an ill-conceived plan to find Varina a man, Sylvia dives in. The three men of the family—Dante, Tommy, and Paulie—are each secretly plotting their own big life changes, which will throw everyone for a loop. Three generations of Palladinos butt heads and break one another’s hearts as they wrestle with their own Jersey Italian love stories in this hilarious and life-affirming ode to love and family.




The Bar Harbor Retirement Home for Famous Writers (And Their Muses)


Book Description

A whimsical, moving novel about a retirement home for literary legends who spar, conjure up new stories, and almost magically change the lives of the people around them. Alfonse Carducci was a literary giant who lived his life to excess—lovers, alcohol, parties, and literary rivalries. But now he's come to the Bar Harbor Home for the Elderly to spend the remainder of his days among kindred spirits: the publishing industry's nearly gone but never forgotten greats. Only now, at the end of his life, does he comprehend the price of appeasing every desire, and the consequences of forsaking love to pursue greatness. For Alfonse has an unshakeable case of writer's block that distresses him much more than his precarious health. Set on the water in one of New England's most beautiful locales, the Bar Harbor Home was established specifically for elderly writers needing a place to live out their golden years—or final days—in understated luxury and surrounded by congenial literary company. A faithful staff of nurses and orderlies surround the writers, and are drawn into their orbit, as they are forced to reckon with their own life stories. Among them are Cecibel Bringer, a young woman who knows first-hand the cost of chasing excess. A terrible accident destroyed her face and her sister in a split-second decision that Cecibel can never forgive, though she has tried to forget. Living quietly as an orderly, refusing to risk again the cost of love, Cecibel never anticipated the impact of meeting her favorite writer, Alfonse Carducci—or the effect he would have on her existence. In Cecibel, Alfonse finds a muse who returns him to the passion he thought he lost. As the words flow from him, weaving a tale taken up by the other residents of the Pen, Cecibel is reawakened to the idea of love and forgiveness. As the edges between story and reality blur, a world within a world is created. It’s a place where the old are made young, the damaged are made whole, and anything is possible….




This Won't End Well


Book Description

An ingeniously witty novel about the risks--and rewards--of opening your life to new people by Amazon Charts bestselling author Camille Pagán. No new people: that's Annie Mercer's vow. It's bad enough that her boss sabotaged her chemistry career and her best friend tried to cure her with crystals. But after her fiancé, Jon, asks for space while he's gallivanting around Paris, Annie decides she needs space too--from everyone. Yet when Harper moves in next door, Annie can't help but train a watchful eye on the glamorous but fragile young woman. And if keeping Harper safe requires teaming up with Mo, a maddeningly optimistic amateur detective, who is she to mind her own business? Soon Annie has let not one but two new people into her life. Then Jon reappears--and he wants her to join him in France. She's pretty sure letting anyone get close won't end well. So she must decide: Is another shot at happiness worth the risk?




Finder


Book Description

To find her brother, sold after the Purge of Calaira, Zihariel has fled her luxurious life as a musician performing for the wealthiest households in the desert. She soon discovers the world is much bigger than she ever suspected, teeming with those who see her only as a pooni, an object to be bought and sold, used until she is used up. --publisher's description.




Wifey


Book Description

With more than four million copies sold, Wifey is Judy Blume's hilarious, moving tale of a woman who trades in her conventional wifely duties for her wildest fantasies—and learns a lot about life along the way. Sandy Pressman is a nice suburban wife whose boredom is getting the best of her. She could be making friends at the club, like her husband keeps encouraging her to do. Or working on her golf game. Or getting her hair done. But for some reason, these things don't interest her as much as the naked man on the motorcycle...




Waking Savannah


Book Description

Bitterly, Connecticut, has been a haven for a woman shattered by painful memories—until a handsome stranger appears and threatens to awaken the ghosts of her past... For the last eleven years, Savannah Callowell has led a peaceful existence in Bitterly. As the owner of an old farm, she’s mostly kept to herself, not daring to let anyone get too close. None of her neighbors know that she’s haunted by tragedy, and she’s done everything possible to escape her ghosts. She thinks she’s succeeding, until her new foreman shows up—and he’s far from being the college kid she was expecting... A worldly former professor, Adelmo Gallegos has his own reasons for wanting to hide out on Savvy’s farm, and he isn’t about to share them with anyone, not even his enticing new boss. Still, Ade can’t help himself, the more time he spends with Savannah, the more he longs to lure her out of her protective shell. But how can he convince her that opening her heart is the only way to heal? Especially since he too has secrets he’s unwilling to share? Only when the past catches up with them may they be able to free themselves of it... “Terri-Lynne DeFino writes my favorite kind of romance, delightfully real and straight from the heart.” —Sarah Hegger “A touching story with memorable characters. Beautiful, heartfelt storytelling expresses a well-developed plot with the perfect blend of tension and emotion.” –RT Book Reviews, 4 Stars




Whispers from the Spirit World


Book Description

“A beautiful testament to the power of Spirit, Whispers from the Spirit World demonstrates how one’s life can transform when we are open and receptive to Spirit. Like building a new language of love, we can see life through a different spiritual lens and continue the relationship with our loved one on the other side in a whole new way. Benita’s story of grief, love, and connection will inspire you to remain open to the magic of life.” —Bill Philipps, psychic medium and author of Signs from the Other Side Joseph and Benita shared a sustained relationship built on trust, love, and emotional support for thirty-eight years. Wherever they went, they always held hands. Five years after his passing, Joseph continues holding Benita’s hand, supporting and guiding her through life with signs and messages from the spirit world. In her ninth grief memoir, Whispers from the Spirit World, Benita Glickman once again dazzles us with her original, beguiling poetry and her unique style of storytelling. signs of love heaven-sent magic in the making Spirit can reach out to us at any time—on a seemingly arbitrary day; soon after the death of a loved one; when we’re experiencing emotional upheaval, or at a crossroads in life; anytime we can use a little advice, or a gentle nudge. A deceased loved one reaches out for a multitude of reasons—with a heaven hello; to assure you he or she is fine; to fill you in on his or her new life, or to offer support and guidance. If you’re open to spirit, you’ll see the signs, hear the whispers, and receive the messages. Walk alongside the author as she and her circle of friends receive signs from the beyond. See if you recognize any of them as signs you’ve received. Ponder their meanings and ascertain the messages they hold. Ultimately, Benita’s message to her readers is Joseph’s message from beyond the veil. Believe in yourself and in the Universe. Only then can you follow your heart, and do what feels right to you. You may be surprised to find that what appears ordinary, may actually be sublime.




Beyond the Moonlit Sea


Book Description

From the bestselling author of These Tangled Vines comes a gripping novel about one woman's search for answers when her husband vanishes in the night. Olivia Hamilton is married to the love of her life, Dean, a charismatic pilot who flies private jets for the rich and famous. But when he vanishes over the Bermuda Triangle, Olivia's idyllic existence unravels. After years of waiting, Olivia must eventually let go of the fragile hope that her beloved husband might still be alive. Melanie Brown is a particle physicist who spends late nights studying the Bermuda Triangle. But her research interests falter when her mother dies in a tragic accident. Struggling to reboot her life and career, Melanie begins a forbidden love affair with her therapist. When a shocking discovery shows Olivia's and Melanie's paths are intertwined, it casts Dean's disappearance in a new light. The two women's strange connection threatens to unlock secrets that will change everything Olivia thought she knew about her marriage, her husband, and most importantly, herself.




Last Days of the Dog-Men: Stories


Book Description

"His people and dogs—those wonderful dogs!—come alive with honest, thrumming energy." —The New York Times Book Review Winner of the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the Great Lakes Colleges Association New Writers Award In prose so precise and beautiful it makes a reader's hair stand on end, Brad Watson writes about people and dogs: dogs as companions, as accomplices, and as unwitting victims of human passions; and people responding to dogs as missing parts of themselves. In each of these stories he captures the animal crannies of the human personality -- yearning for freedom, mourning the loss of something wild, drawn to human connection but also to thoughtless abandon and savagery without judgment. Ultimately, however, people are responsible where dogs are not: "I'm told in medieval times," the narrator of the title story tells us, "animals were regularly put on trial, with witnesses and testimony and so forth. But it is relatively rare today." Funny, dark, sometimes brutal, and stunning in their perfection of expression, Watson's stories herald the arrival of a true talent.




Dreaming August


Book Description

Welcome to Bitterly Connecticut, hometown of one wistful widow with a very big secret.... She should have been off-limits. After all, Benedetta “Benny” Grady is his best friend’s widow. But in the space of a whirlwind week, Daniel Greene went from strong shoulder to lean on to Benny’s ardent lover. Now Dan is determined to make Benny his bride. He hasn’t waited this long for love to let it get away so easily. But first, Benny has a few ghosts to contend with... When Benny finds herself pregnant with Dan’s child, telling him should be easy. After all, she’s fallen hard for the wise-cracking bachelor. But how can she love another while remaining true to her late husband’s memory? Could the past hold the key to their future happiness? “Terri-Lynne DeFino writes my favorite kind of romance, delightfully real and straight from the heart.” —Sarah Hegger