The Song of the Sea
The Song of the Sea

Author: Jenn Alexander

Publisher: Bywater Books

Published: 2019-06-25

Total Pages: 279

ISBN-13: 1612941524

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The ocean has always been a place of freedom for Lisa Whelan, and after her newborn son passes away, she returns to her family home by the sea to seek freedom from her grief. She’s not expecting to meet anyone, and is caught off guard by the attraction she feels for Rachel, the part-owner of a local restaurant. That initial spark is dampened, however, when Lisa realizes that Rachel has a child. Rachel Murray has worked hard to build a life for herself and her son but raising Declan has not been without its challenges. Each day when Rachel picks him up from school, she says a silent prayer that he will be waiting for her in his classroom, and not in the principal’s office. Again. Her son’s behavior has grown increasingly disruptive, and Rachel is at a loss at how to help him. Despite her grief, Lisa finds herself drawn to both Rachel and Declan. She thinks she can keep her emotions at bay— keep from drowning in grief and keep from falling in love—but she finds both to be a tidal wave, washing over her, sweeping her off her feet. Lisa never intended on falling in love with anyone, and she certainly cannot allow herself to fall for someone whose son is a constant reminder of the child she lost. Or can she?

Finding Love at Hedgehog Hollow
Finding Love at Hedgehog Hollow

Author: Jessica Redland

Publisher: Boldwood Books Ltd

Published: 2020-07-02

Total Pages: 401

ISBN-13: 1838891153

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Prepare to fall in love with MILLION-COPY BESTSELLER Jessica Redland's treasured Hedgehog Hollow series. 'I loved my trip to Hedgehog Hollow. An emotional read, full of twists and turns' Heidi Swain Can love really be found when you stop looking for it...? As Samantha Wishaw watches the love of her life marry another woman, she’s ready to give up hope of finding her happy ever after. But when a chance encounter leads Sam to find friendship in Thomas - a lonely, grumpy elderly widower living at derelict Hedgehog Hollow - her life is about to change forever. Glad to have a distraction from family feuds and match-making, Sam vows to fulfil Thomas and his wife, Gwendoline's, dreams of restoring Hedgehog Hollow to its former glory, and to open a hedgehog rescue centre. Throwing herself into the task at hand, little does Sam realise that the keys to love and happiness may also be found at Hedgehog Hollow, when she least expects it... Escape to Hedgehog Hollow with million-copy bestseller Jessica Redland for the perfect uplifting, feel-good read. Praise for the Hedgehog Hollow series: 'The Hedgehog Hollow series is a tonic I'd recommend for everyone. There is so much to make you smile in Jessica's stories and they are always uplifting reads, which will make you really glad you decided to pick up a copy.' Jo Bartlett ‘An emotional, romantic and ultimately uplifting read. Jessica always touches my heart with her sensitive handling of difficult subjects. The gorgeous community she has built around Hedgehog Hollow is one I hope to visit again and again.’ Sarah Bennett 'A beautifully written series that offers the ultimate in heartwarming escapism.' Samantha Tonge 'Hedgehog Hollow is a wonderful series that has found a special place all of its own deep in the hearts of readers, including mine.' Jennifer Bohnet 'A warm hug of a book. I never wanted to leave Hedgehog Hollow. Very highly recommended.' Della Galton 'A wonderful, warm series full of family, friends and romance.' Katie Ginger Praise for Jessica Redland: 'Jessica Redland writes from the heart, with heart, about heart' Nicola May 'Redland takes you on a heart-warming ride that navigates broken hearts and painful secrets, but ultimately restores your faith in the power of love. I absolutely adored it.' Jenni Keer on Healing Hearts at Bumblebee Barn 'I fell in love with this story from page one.' Helen Rolfe on Snowflakes Over The Starfish Café 'A tender love story, full of sweet touches and beautiful characters.' Beth Moran on Snowflakes Over The Starfish Café 'A warm-hearted and beautiful book. Jessica Redland doesn’t shy away from the fact that life can be very difficult, but she reminds us that we all can find love, hope and joy again.' Sian O'Gorman on Snowflakes Over The Starfish Café 'Achingly poignant, yet full of hope - You will fall in love with this beautiful Christmas story' Sandy Barker on Snowflakes Over The Starfish Café 'An emotional but uplifting page turner. The Secret to Happiness is a beautiful story of friendship and love' Fay Keenan 'A delightful read that highlights the reality of many aspects of love, life, loss and illness. Add a huge bear hug of romance and comedy to create a winning formula for a cracking read. I loved it!' Nicola May on All You Need Is Love

Casting Off
Casting Off

Author: Emma Bamford

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2015-03-31

Total Pages: 353

ISBN-13: 1472906616

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Sun, sea and gorgeous sailors--the route to happiness, surely? After an early-mid-life-crisis, Emma leaves her highly stressed, fast-paced life as a journalist on the Independent for a sailing adventure and finds that it is possible to find fulfillment--and love--on your own terms.

Hands Free Mama
Hands Free Mama

Author: Rachel Macy Stafford

Publisher: Zondervan

Published: 2014-01-07

Total Pages: 215

ISBN-13: 031033814X

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Discover the power, joy, and love of living a present, authentic, and intentional life despite a world full of distractions. If technology is the new addiction, then multitasking is the new marching order. We check our email while cooking dinner, send a text while bathing the kids, and spend more time looking into electronic screens than into the eyes of our loved ones. With our never-ending to-do lists and jam-packed schedules, it's no wonder we're distracted. But this isn't the way it has to be. Special education teacher, New York Times bestselling author, and mother Rachel Macy Stafford says enough is enough. Tired of losing track of what matters most in life, Rachel began practicing simple strategies that enabled her to momentarily let go of largely meaningless distractions and engage in meaningful soul-to-soul connections. Finding balance doesn't mean giving up all technology forever. And it doesn't mean forgoing our jobs and responsibilities. What it does mean is seizing the little moments that life offers us to engage in real and meaningful interaction. In these pages, Rachel guides you through how to: Acknowledge the cost of your distraction Make purposeful connection with your family Give your kids the gift of your undivided attention Silence your inner critic Let go of the guilt from past mistakes And move forward with compassion and gratefulness So join Rachel and go hands-free. Discover what happens when you choose to open your heart--and your hands--to the possibilities of each God-given moment.

Black Box Thinking
Black Box Thinking

Author: Matthew Syed

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2015-11-03

Total Pages: 377

ISBN-13: 069840887X

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Nobody wants to fail. But in highly complex organizations, success can happen only when we confront our mistakes, learn from our own version of a black box, and create a climate where it’s safe to fail. We all have to endure failure from time to time, whether it’s underperforming at a job interview, flunking an exam, or losing a pickup basketball game. But for people working in safety-critical industries, getting it wrong can have deadly consequences. Consider the shocking fact that preventable medical error is the third-biggest killer in the United States, causing more than 400,000 deaths every year. More people die from mistakes made by doctors and hospitals than from traffic accidents. And most of those mistakes are never made public, because of malpractice settlements with nondisclosure clauses. For a dramatically different approach to failure, look at aviation. Every passenger aircraft in the world is equipped with an almost indestructible black box. Whenever there’s any sort of mishap, major or minor, the box is opened, the data is analyzed, and experts figure out exactly what went wrong. Then the facts are published and procedures are changed, so that the same mistakes won’t happen again. By applying this method in recent decades, the industry has created an astonishingly good safety record. Few of us put lives at risk in our daily work as surgeons and pilots do, but we all have a strong interest in avoiding predictable and preventable errors. So why don’t we all embrace the aviation approach to failure rather than the health-care approach? As Matthew Syed shows in this eye-opening book, the answer is rooted in human psychology and organizational culture. Syed argues that the most important determinant of success in any field is an acknowledgment of failure and a willingness to engage with it. Yet most of us are stuck in a relationship with failure that impedes progress, halts innovation, and damages our careers and personal lives. We rarely acknowledge or learn from failure—even though we often claim the opposite. We think we have 20/20 hindsight, but our vision is usually fuzzy. Syed draws on a wide range of sources—from anthropology and psychology to history and complexity theory—to explore the subtle but predictable patterns of human error and our defensive responses to error. He also shares fascinating stories of individuals and organizations that have successfully embraced a black box approach to improvement, such as David Beckham, the Mercedes F1 team, and Dropbox.

Behind the Pine Curtain
Behind the Pine Curtain

Author: Gerri Hill

Publisher: Bella Books

Published: 2006-06-01

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 1594937540

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Jacqueline Keys was ostracized from her small hometown of Pine Springs, Texas when she was seventeen, sent away because she was gay. Her family was the largest employer in the county, owning Pine Springs Lumber, and her father was mayor of this small town. Her mother could not accept the fact that her only child was gay, could not tolerate the gossip about her family. So, with a hundred dollars in her pocket and a one-way bus ticket out of town, Jacqueline was told not to come back until she had come to her senses. And that included being prepared to marry the son of a business associate of the family. Fifteen years later—long after she'd hitch-hiked to Los Angeles, long after she'd worked nights to put herself through college, and long after she'd written her first best seller, No Place For Family—Jacqueline is persuaded to go back to the tiny town of Pine Springs after her father's death. The quick trip she'd envisioned for the funeral turns into weeks as she learns her father's business is suddenly hers to manage. And she is also again face-to-face with the woman who, as a teen, had been Jackie's first crush. She and Kay had been inseparable as kids, and later as teens. They find themselves falling back into their old habits, and Jackie is soon fighting the same feelings she'd had when she was seventeen. But living behind the pine curtain, Kay is afraid of her love for Jackie, afraid of what her family will say, afraid of how the town will react. Jackie refuses to hide, refuses to crawl back into the closet, so once again, she leaves Pine Springs...alone.

Peak
Peak

Author: Anders Ericsson

Publisher: HarperCollins

Published: 2016-04-05

Total Pages: 339

ISBN-13: 0544456254

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“This book is a breakthrough, a lyrical, powerful, science-based narrative that actually shows us how to get better (much better) at the things we care about.”—Seth Godin, author of Linchpin “Anyone who wants to get better at anything should read [Peak]. Rest assured that the book is not mere theory. Ericsson’s research focuses on the real world, and he explains in detail, with examples, how all of us can apply the principles of great performance in our work or in any other part of our lives.”—Fortune Anders Ericsson has made a career studying chess champions, violin virtuosos, star athletes, and memory mavens. Peak distills three decades of myth-shattering research into a powerful learning strategy that is fundamentally different from the way people traditionally think about acquiring new abilities. Whether you want to stand out at work, improve your athletic or musical performance, or help your child achieve academic goals, Ericsson’s revolutionary methods will show you how to improve at almost any skill that matters to you. “The science of excellence can be divided into two eras: before Ericsson and after Ericsson. His groundbreaking work, captured in this brilliantly useful book, provides us with a blueprint for achieving the most important and life-changing work possible: to become a little bit better each day.”—Dan Coyle, author of The Talent Code “Ericsson’s research has revolutionized how we think about human achievement. If everyone would take the lessons of this book to heart, it could truly change the world.”—Joshua Foer, author of Moonwalking with Einstein

Bowling Alone: Revised and Updated
Bowling Alone: Revised and Updated

Author: Robert D. Putnam

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Published: 2020-10-13

Total Pages: 592

ISBN-13: 1982130849

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Updated to include a new chapter about the influence of social media and the Internet—the 20th anniversary edition of Bowling Alone remains a seminal work of social analysis, and its examination of what happened to our sense of community remains more relevant than ever in today’s fractured America. Twenty years, ago, Robert D. Putnam made a seemingly simple observation: once we bowled in leagues, usually after work; but no longer. This seemingly small phenomenon symbolized a significant social change that became the basis of the acclaimed bestseller, Bowling Alone, which The Washington Post called “a very important book” and Putnam, “the de Tocqueville of our generation.” Bowling Alone surveyed in detail Americans’ changing behavior over the decades, showing how we had become increasingly disconnected from family, friends, neighbors, and social structures, whether it’s with the PTA, church, clubs, political parties, or bowling leagues. In the revised edition of his classic work, Putnam shows how our shrinking access to the “social capital” that is the reward of communal activity and community sharing still poses a serious threat to our civic and personal health, and how these consequences have a new resonance for our divided country today. He includes critical new material on the pervasive influence of social media and the internet, which has introduced previously unthinkable opportunities for social connection—as well as unprecedented levels of alienation and isolation. At the time of its publication, Putnam’s then-groundbreaking work showed how social bonds are the most powerful predictor of life satisfaction, and how the loss of social capital is felt in critical ways, acting as a strong predictor of crime rates and other measures of neighborhood quality of life, and affecting our health in other ways. While the ways in which we connect, or become disconnected, have changed over the decades, his central argument remains as powerful and urgent as ever: mending our frayed social capital is key to preserving the very fabric of our society.

Christmas at Carly's Cupcakes
Christmas at Carly's Cupcakes

Author: Jessica Redland

Publisher: Boldwood Books Ltd

Published: 2020-08-13

Total Pages: 221

ISBN-13: 1800480008

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Escape to Castle Street, for a romantic, feel-good festive read from MILLION-COPY BESTSELLER Jessica Redland. It's the most wonderful time of the year... It's December on Castle Street; the fairy lights are twinkling, snow has settled and the festive season is in full swing. For Carly, the owner of Carly's Cupcakes, it's the busiest time of year getting everyone's Christmas treats ready on time. However with her clumsy sister, Bethany, as a co-worker, it's proving a difficult task. They say you shouldn't mix work with family. Maybe they have a point... As Christmas approaches, Carly is also eagerly awaiting the return of her best friend to Whitsborough Bay. Liam has no idea he's been the object of her affection since their schooldays. After years of pining after him, can Carly pluck up the courage to finally tell him how she really feels by 25th December? Could a little festive magic make all of Carly's wishes come true this Christmas...? A heartwarming story of friendship and family from million-copy bestseller Jessica Redland. Find out what happens to Carly next through exploring her best friend Tara's story in Starry Skies Over The Chocolate Pot Café. Praise for Jessica Redland: 'Jessica Redland writes from the heart, with heart, about heart' Nicola May 'I loved my trip to Hedgehog Hollow. An emotional read, full of twists and turns' Heidi Swain 'There is so much to make you smile in Jessica's stories and they are always uplifting reads, which will make you really glad you decided to pick up a copy.' Jo Bartlett ‘An emotional, romantic and ultimately uplifting read. Jessica always touches my heart with her sensitive handling of difficult subjects.’ Sarah Bennett on the Hedgehog Hollow series 'A beautifully written series that offers the ultimate in heartwarming escapism.' Samantha Tonge on the Hedgehog Hollow series 'Hedgehog Hollow is a wonderful series that has found a special place all of its own deep in the hearts of readers, including mine.' Jennifer Bohnet 'A warm hug of a book. I never wanted to leave Hedgehog Hollow.' Della Galton 'A heart-warming ride that navigates broken hearts and painful secrets, but ultimately restores your faith in the power of love. I absolutely adored it.' Jenni Keer on Healing Hearts at Bumblebee Barn 'I fell in love with this story from page one.' Helen Rolfe on Snowflakes Over The Starfish Café 'A tender love story, full of sweet touches and beautiful characters.' Beth Moran on Snowflakes Over The Starfish Café 'A warm-hearted and beautiful book. Jessica Redland doesn’t shy away from the fact that life can be very difficult, but she reminds us that we all can find love, hope and joy again.' Sian O'Gorman on Snowflakes Over The Starfish Café 'Achingly poignant, yet full of hope - You will fall in love with this beautiful Christmas story' Sandy Barker on Snowflakes Over The Starfish Café 'A heartwarming story of true friendship, love and romance set in the gorgeous backdrop of the Lakes. A cosy hug of a read that left me feeling warm inside.’ Julie Caplin on The Start of Something Wonderful 'A heartwarming story in a beautiful location... Love, friendship and the power of letting go are all covered in this gorgeous story.' Katie Ginger on The Start of Something Wonderful 'An emotional, uplifting page-turner. The Secret to Happiness is a beautiful story of friendship and love' Fay Keenan

The Song of Hartgrove Hall
The Song of Hartgrove Hall

Author: Natasha Solomons

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2015-12-29

Total Pages: 391

ISBN-13: 0698407024

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From the New York Times bestselling author of The House at Tyneford comes a captivating 1940s English country novel of a love triangle, family obligations, and rediscovering joy in the face of grief—perfect for fans of Kate Morton and Downton Abbey. New Year’s Eve, Dorset, England, 1946. Candles flicker, a gramophone scratches out a tune as guests dance and sip champagne—for one night Hartgrove Hall relives better days. Harry Fox-Talbot and his brothers have returned from World War II determined to save their once grand home from ruin. But the arrival of beautiful Jewish wartime singer Edie Rose tangles the threads of love and duty, and leads to a devastating betrayal. Fifty years later, now a celebrated composer, Fox reels from the death of his adored wife, Edie. Until his connection with his four-year old grandson—a music prodigy—propels him back into life, and ultimately to confront his past. An enthralling novel about love and treachery, joy after grief, and a man forced to ask: is it ever too late to seek forgiveness?