Jacob & Dora story  Years ago when Dad decided to remarry after he divorced Mum, he moved to London. When I graduated from Braxton University he asked me to work for him. I had just ended things with Jacob, the man that I loved, and I didn’t know what to do with myself. Things were difficult, and I was drowning. Jacob attracted media attention as a part of the England national rugby team. I haven’t seen him for five years, and I often wonder how it would be if we were still together. 

A magnificent, vast, and enthralling saga, Sena Jeter Naslund's Ahab's Wife is a remarkable epic spanning a rich, eventful, and dramatic life. Inspired by a brief passage in Moby Dick, it is the story of Una, exiled as a child to live in a lighthouse, removed from the physical and emotional abuse of a religion-mad father. It is the romantic adventure of a young woman setting sail in a cabin boy's disguise to encounter darkness, wonder, and catastrophe; the story of a devoted wife who witnesses her husband's destruction by obsession and madness. Ultimately it is the powerful and moving story of a woman's triumph over tragedy and loss through her courage, creativity, and intelligence.

It is the story of a beautiful, gifted woman who leaves the magic mountains of her native New Mexico for the piratical, opulent, gaslit New York of the 1870s—only to end her search for happiness back in the high, thin air of Santa Fe. Santa Fe Cameron, named for the place of her birth, was the child of a Spanish mother and a Scotch father and inherited from both a high degree of psychic perceptivity. Natanay, an American Indian, saw this and gave the little orphan a turquoise amulet as a keepsake; this turquoise, the Indian symbol of the spirit, dominates her life. For Santa Fe Cameron, life is made up of violent contrasts: the rough wagon of the gay young Irish medicine vendor who brings her East and the scented hansom cabs and carriages waiting before her own Fifth Avenue mansion; the glittering world of the Astors and a dreary cell in the Tombs. All the color, excitement, and rich period detail which distinguish Anya Seton’s novels are here, together with one of her most unusual heroines.

The sixth volume in the popular The House of Niccolo series, this vivid novel of the 15th century centers on Nicholas vander Poele who, in 1471, is acclaimed by all the great courts of Europe, but whose personal life is tumultuous. He and his passionate rival--his wife--embark on a deadly competition for control of their mutual destiny. From the Hardcover edition.

Those you love, know how to hurt you. Those you love, know what to hide, because they know what is unforgivable to you. Now that I know what Seth hid from me, I want the secret to be the lie. I don't want to kill him. I don't want to leave him. I guess that is why they say there is a fine line between love and hate. I love and hate that man with such passion, that it damn near hurts. But now, as we face down our shared enemies, as we are lead right back to an explosive discover about my family, and to the night Seth and I parted ways, we will both be exposed in every way. And it's time for me to decide if I plan to love Seth Cage for the rest of my life, or kill him, before he kills me. Part three of the three part Poison Kisses Serial*

John Updike’s first collection of nonfiction pieces, published in 1965 when the author was thirty-three, is a diverting and illuminating gambol through midcentury America and the writer’s youth. It opens with a choice selection of parodies, casuals, and “Talk of the Town” reports, the fruits of Updike’s boyish ambition to follow in the footsteps of Thurber and White. These jeux d’esprit are followed by “Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu,” an immortal account of Ted Williams’s last at-bat in Fenway Park; “The Dogwood Tree,” a Wordsworthian evocation of one Pennsylvania childhood; and five autobiographical essays and stories. Rounding out the volume are classic considerations of Nabokov, Salinger, Spark, Beckett, and others, the earliest efforts of the book reviewer who would go on to become, in The New York Times’s estimation, “the pre-eminent critic of his generation.” Updike called this collection “motley but not unshapely.” Some would call it a classic of its kind.

Haunted by the freak accident that killed their father when they were children, Jim and Bob Burgess escaped from their Maine hometown of Shirley Falls for New York City as soon as they possibly could. Jim, a sleek, successful corporate lawyer, has belittled his bighearted brother their whole lives, and Bob, a Legal Aid attorney who idolizes Jim, has always taken it in stride. But their long-standing dynamic is upended when their sister, Susan—the Burgess sibling who stayed behind—urgently calls them home. Her lonely teenage son, Zach, has gotten himself into a world of trouble, and Susan desperately needs their help. And so the Burgess brothers return to the landscape of their childhood, where the long-buried tensions that have shaped and shadowed their relationship begin to surface in unexpected ways that will change them forever. With a rare combination of brilliant storytelling, exquisite prose, and remarkable insight into character, Elizabeth Strout has brought to life two deeply human protagonists whose struggles and triumphs will resonate with readers long after they turn the final page. Tender, tough-minded, loving, and deeply illuminating about the ties that bind us to family and home, The Burgess Boys is Elizabeth Strout’s newest and perhaps most astonishing work of literary art.

An old American who lives in Brazil is writing his memoirs. An English teacher at the naval academy, he is married to a woman young enough to be his daughter and has a little son whom he loves. He sits in a mountain garden in Niterói, overlooking the ocean. As he reminisces and writes, placing the pages carefully in his antproof case, we learn that he was a World War II ace who was shot down twice, an investment banker who met with popes and presidents, and a man who was never not in love. He was the thief of the century, a murderer, and a protector of the innocent. And all his life he waged a valiant, losing, one-man battle against the world’s most insidious enslaver: coffee. Mark Helprin combines adventure, satire, flights of transcendence, and high comedy in this "memoir" of a man whose life reads like the song of the twentieth century.

The 16th Amendment to the Constitution is why Americans pay income taxes. But what if there were problems associated with that amendment? Secrets that call into question decades of tax collecting? In fact, there is a surprising truth to this hidden possibility. Cotton Malone, once a member of an elite intelligence division within the Justice Department known as the Magellan Billet, is now retired and owns an old bookshop in Denmark. But when his former-boss, Stephanie Nelle, asks him to track a rogue North Korean who may have acquired some top secret Treasury Department files—the kind that could bring the United States to its knees—Malone is vaulted into a harrowing twenty-four hour chase that begins on the canals in Venice and ends in the remote highlands of Croatia. With appearances by Franklin Roosevelt, Andrew Mellon, a curious painting that still hangs in the National Gallery of Art, and some eye-opening revelations from the $1 bill, this riveting, non-stop adventure is trademark Steve Berry—90% historical fact, 10% exciting speculation—a provocative thriller posing a dangerous question: What if the Federal income tax is illegal?

In this brilliant, breathtaking book by Pulitzer Prize winner Katherine Boo, a bewildering age of global change and inequality is made human through the dramatic story of families striving toward a better life in Annawadi, a makeshift settlement in the shadow of luxury hotels near the Mumbai airport. As India starts to prosper, the residents of Annawadi are electric with hope. Abdul, an enterprising teenager, sees “a fortune beyond counting” in the recyclable garbage that richer people throw away. Meanwhile Asha, a woman of formidable ambition, has identified a shadier route to the middle class. With a little luck, her beautiful daughter, Annawadi’s “most-everything girl,” might become its first female college graduate. And even the poorest children, like the young thief Kalu, feel themselves inching closer to their dreams. But then Abdul is falsely accused in a shocking tragedy; terror and global recession rock the city; and suppressed tensions over religion, caste, sex, power, and economic envy turn brutal. With intelligence, humor, and deep insight into what connects people to one another in an era of tumultuous change, Behind the Beautiful Forevers, based on years of uncompromising reporting, carries the reader headlong into one of the twenty-first century’s hidden worlds—and into the hearts of families impossible to forget.

The tour-de-force, hair-raising new novel from Herman Koch, the New York Times bestselling author of The Dinner and Summer House with Swimming Pool Once a celebrated writer, M had his greatest success with a suspense novel based on a real-life disappearance. It told the story of a history teacher who went missing one winter after having a brief affair with a beautiful student of his. The teacher was never found. Upon publication, M's novel was a runaway bestseller, one that marked his international breakthrough. That was years ago, and now M's career is fading. But not when it comes to his bizarre, seemingly timid neighbor who keeps a close eye on him and his wife. Why? From alternating points of view, where no one is to be trusted, Herman Koch weaves together an intricate tale of a writer in decline, a teenage couple in love, a missing teacher, and a single book that entwines all of their fates. Thanks to M's novel,...

New York Times bestselling author Stephanie Laurens returns to another utterly irresistible branch on her beloved Cynster family tree in And Then She Fell.Set in Regency England, London's Henrietta Cynster, known as "The Matchbreaker" has a special talent for making sure that bad marriages never happen. After breaking up one ill-suited couple, Henrietta is obligated to find the perfect bride for the debonair James Glossup. The assignment proves to be a challenging one for the single-minded Henrietta, who believes that finding love isn't in her own stars. But Henrietta discovers--in spite of her personal denials of love--that both she and James are indisputably drawn to each other.Fans of Stephanie Laurens's Cynster books and readers of smart and compelling historical romances will be transported and entertained by And Then She Fell.

Aliens have landed in New York. After several months of no explanations, they finally reveal the reason for their arrival. The news is not good. Geneticist Marianne Jenner is having a career breakthrough, yet her family is tearing itself apart. Her children Elizabeth and Ryan constantly bicker, agreeing only that an alien conspiracy is in play. Her youngest, Noah, is addicted to a drug that keeps temporarily changing his identity. The Jenner family could not be further apart. But between the four of them, the course of human history will be forever altered. Earth’s most elite scientists have ten months to prevent a disaster—and not everyone is willing to wait. **Review"Kress, a witty and engaging writer, creates chilling suspense as twisty as a DNA double helix."—Publishers Weekly "Her style is devilishly inventive...."—CNN.com “Nancy Kress is one of the best science-fiction writers working today. Her use of science is tricky and thought-provoking, her command of fiction sharp and full of feeling.”—Kim Stanley Robinson, author of the Mars Trilogy and The Years of Rice and Salt Praise for After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall “Nebula- and Hugo-winner Kress mixes time travel, global catastrophe, and mysterious aliens in this strong post-apocalyptic tale.... Kress handles the crisscrossing timelines with cool elegance.”—Publishers Weekly “After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall is a highly intelligent, sublimely understated glimpse into humankind’s future—it’s comparable in thematic impact to Walter M. Miller, Jr.’s classic A Canticle for Leibowitz, and that is saying something.”—Paul Goat Allen, Barnes & Noble.com “An ecological apocalypse so real that it’s like a three-dimensional object that can be viewed from all sides.”—Ted Kosmatka, author of The Games and The Ascendant “...haunting, memorable.... Absolutely recommended.”—The Book Smugglers “Superstar SF and fantasy author Nancy Kress returns with After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall, an elegant novella that combines several wildly different science fiction ideas into a tight package.”—Tor.com “...three narrative lines eventually converge and complement each other, and Kress handles this with her usual superior craftsmanship.”—Locus “This is Nancy Kress in top form, but more importantly, this is SF done right.... I don’t know of another writer who balances the global and the personal with such skill.”—Daryl Gregory, author of Unpossible and AfterpartyAbout the AuthorNancy Kress is the bestselling author of 20 science-fiction and fantasy novels, including Beggars in Spain, Probability Space, and Steal Across the Sky. Kress is the recipient of the Nebula, Hugo, Sturgeon, and Campbell awards. Her fiction has been translated into multiple languages, including Klingon.

Sir Charles G. D. Roberts is known as the "Father of Canadian Poetry" for his masterful works of poetry and prose. He's still extremely popular today.

Mary Noailles Murfree, who used the pen name Charles Egbert Craddock, was a 19th and 20th century American writer whose contemporary fiction is still read today by people interested in depictions of life in Appalachia at the time.