In the American deep south in 1957, the Redbirds battle the Bayou Braves for the championship. Ronnie LeBlanc, the Redbirds’ pitcher, believes that winning the regional title is his ticket out of a dead-end job at the local sugar mill. When the Redbirds suffer a series of losses, the team’s coach quits, and the sole person willing to take the job is a former Negro League pitcher—the only African-American in a still-segregated game. Ronnie begins to suspect external forces are the cause of his team’s unlucky streak. As he digs for answers, he stumbles upon a secret: Bo Brasseux, the town’s bigoted banker, is scheming to kill the Redbirds’ new coach, throw the championship game, and ruin Ronnie’s family financially. A scout for the Chicago Cubs could be the answer, but will being tapped by the Cubs be enough to thwart Brasseux’s despicable plans against the coach and Ronnie’s family? Based on a true story, “Stealing First” is only one tale in this collection that offers glimpses of small-town politics, snake-handlers, nosey house-hunters, and the making of a murderer. Each story looks at our prejudices and conceits, our loves in all their variations, and the worst and best of us.
A Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year: During WWII, a Jewish boy copes with a new homeland, a polio diagnosis—and falling in love for the first time. Frank Gold’s family, Hungarian Jews, have fled the perils of World War II for the safety of Australia, but not long after their arrival, thirteen-year-old Frank is diagnosed with polio. He is sent to a sprawling children’s hospital called the Golden Age, where he meets Elsa, the most beautiful girl he has ever seen, a girl who radiates pure light. Soon, Frank and Elsa fall in love, fueling one another’s rehabilitation, facing the perils of illness and adolescence hand in hand—and scandalizing the prudish staff of the Golden Age. Their parents, meanwhile, are coping with their own challenges. Elsa’s mother must reconcile her hopes and dreams with the reality of her daughter’s sickness. Frank’s parents are isolated newcomers in a country they do not love and that does not seem to love them back. Frank’s mother, a renowned pianist in Hungary, refuses to allow the western deserts of Australia to become her home. But her husband slowly begins to free himself from the past and integrate into a new society. A winner of multiple literary awards in Australia, The Golden Age is a deeply moving novel about hardship and resilience that “graciously captures young love in a quiet and beautifully sculpted story that is easily devoured in one sitting” (Library Journal). “Poetic intensity suffuses the novel . . . Resisting easy sentimentality, [it] presents polio rehabilitation as a metaphor for postwar recovery.” —The New Yorker “Beautiful.” —The Dallas Morning News “The Golden Age is pretty much perfect.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
It should have been a marriage made in heaven. Cheviot was aristocratic and gorgeous—a man tempered by his father’s downfall and his own experiences at war. Sarah was artistic and free-thinking, shaped by the best education her nouveau riche grandfather could afford. But there was one problem. The marriage was arranged. The Duke of Cheviot needed money. Sarah’s grandfather wanted a title. And so, what could have been a perfect love affair was begun in a most imperfect way.
A Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year: During WWII, a Jewish boy copes with a new homeland, a polio diagnosis—and falling in love for the first time. Frank Gold’s family, Hungarian Jews, have fled the perils of World War II for the safety of Australia, but not long after their arrival, thirteen-year-old Frank is diagnosed with polio. He is sent to a sprawling children’s hospital called the Golden Age, where he meets Elsa, the most beautiful girl he has ever seen, a girl who radiates pure light. Soon, Frank and Elsa fall in love, fueling one another’s rehabilitation, facing the perils of illness and adolescence hand in hand—and scandalizing the prudish staff of the Golden Age. Their parents, meanwhile, are coping with their own challenges. Elsa’s mother must reconcile her hopes and dreams with the reality of her daughter’s sickness. Frank’s parents are isolated newcomers in a country they do not love and that does not seem to love them back. Frank’s mother, a renowned pianist in Hungary, refuses to allow the western deserts of Australia to become her home. But her husband slowly begins to free himself from the past and integrate into a new society. A winner of multiple literary awards in Australia, The Golden Age is a deeply moving novel about hardship and resilience that “graciously captures young love in a quiet and beautifully sculpted story that is easily devoured in one sitting” (Library Journal). “Poetic intensity suffuses the novel . . . Resisting easy sentimentality, [it] presents polio rehabilitation as a metaphor for postwar recovery.” —The New Yorker “Beautiful.” —The Dallas Morning News “The Golden Age is pretty much perfect.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Award-winning author Joan Bauer latest novel is full of warmth, humor, hope, and a healthy dose of suspense The unofficial town motto is "Nothing bad ever happens in Rosemont" where twelve-year-old Anna has come to stay with her grandmother, Mim, hoping to forget her worries about her parents' troubled marriage. She'll be busy with the town's annual Flower Festival, a celebration with floats and bands that requires weeks of preparations. But before long, Anna finds herself involved in a very big problem. When she observes a girl her own age who seems to be being held against her will, Anna can't forget the girl's frightened eyes and she is determined to investigate. "When you see something, say something" she's been told—but what good does it do to speak if no one will listen? Luckily, a take-charge girl like Anna is not going to give up. Told with Joan Bauer's trademark mixture of humor and heart, Tell Me will enthrall her many fans and win her new ones. “Bauer establishes a multi-faceted plot combining crime drama with a modern coming-of-age story.”—School Library Journal “Skillfully weaves subplots together as Rosemont citizens (and Anna’s parents) rise to the challenge of solving the mystery.”—Publishers Weekly
An MSNBC political analyst presents a thought-provoking examination into how scapegoat politics is dividing America and bankrupting the middle class, revealing a country struggling through political polarization and racial change to invent the next America in the years to come.
The continuing saga of Sandra Blake moves onward through conflict, love and even death. When she loses her beloved Dorian, and feels her world has come to an end, she finds another love in Jack Casey. Jack is a flamboyant, devil-may-care Irishman who brings a vibrant, near fantasy to her life that she has never known. After nearly losing her life in turbulent waters while crossing one of Hawaii’s roughest channels in Jack’s boat, she decides it’s time to reinvent herself. At every twist and turn, the scheming and devious Ellen continues to make Sandra’s life miserable until she wonders if she’ll ever be out of her life - and then the unthinkable happens which nearly destroys Ellen’s beauty – and Sandra’s physical being. Through Sandra’s new style of painting, the fourth Golden Ashtray is unexpectedly located and brings Sandra an unforeseen glimpse into a future that comes as a complete surprise.
Both a medical drama and meditation on motherhood, The Water Giver is Joan Ryan's honest account of her doubts and mistakes in raising a learning-disabled son and the story of how his near-fatal accident gave her a second chance as a parent. Joan Ryan tells the powerful story of how her son’s near-fatal accident, and his struggle to become whole again, gave her a second chance to become the mother she had always wished she could be. • Acclaimed journalist and author: Joan Ryan’s sports columns earned her thirteen Associated Press Sports editors Awards, the National Headliner Award, and the Women’s Sports Foundation’s Journalism Award, among other honors. Her first book, Little Girls in Pretty Boxes: The Making and Breaking of Elite Gymnasts and Figure Skaters was named one of the Top 100 Sports Books of all Time by Sports Illustrated. • Medical drama: When Ryan’s sixteen-year-old son fell off of a skateboard, it wasn’t obvious at first how serious his injuries were. With a journalist’s eye for the telling detail and the rhythms of a natural storyteller, she captures his medical ordeal as he lurches from crisis to crisis—and with harrowing honesty and astonishing insight, relates her own journey through unknown emotional terrain. • A mother’s story: Ryan’s son was diagnosed with Sensory Integration Dysfunction as a toddler; by the time he reached school age, it was clear that he suffered from ADHD and other learning disabilities. Though she loved him fiercely, she never stopped trying to fix him. When he is restored to her after his accident, she realizes she has the opportunity to be his mother all over again—only this time she lets go of the illusion of control. Now she not only accepts, but also embraces her son for who he really is.
Senior citizen Charlie Mikkelsen and her son Jeremy again visit St. Croix but this time Charlie has a subpoena in her hand. She must testify in a murder and drug trial. As the two leave the airport for their rented villa, they pass a jewelry representative whose job is to travel from island to island and jewelry store to jewelry store to replace sold inventories. What Charlie doesnA[a¬a[t know is that the man she saw had just murdered the real sales rep and absconded with a bulging jewelry display case filled with gems and gold. She also didnA[a¬a[t know that his accomplice had simultaneously murdered another rep in the jewelry district on St. Thomas. How does Charlie end up on a cruise ship with not one, but both murderers? Who ends up alive and who ends up dead? Open the coverA[a¬A].
In New York's Golden Age of Bridges, artist Antonio Masi's paintings and Joan Marans Dim's text encourage the understanding and appreciation of the art and history of the city's nine "Golden-Age" bridges, explore the connections they've fostered, and reveal their impact on the city, nation, and world.
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