Bellweather Rhapsody

Bellweather Rhapsody

Author: Kate Racculia

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Published: 2014

Total Pages: 357

ISBN-13: 0544129911

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A young music prodigy goes missing from a hotel room that was the site of an infamous murder-suicide fifteen years earlier, renewing trauma for a bridesmaid who witnessed the first crime and rallying an eccentric cast of characters during a snowstorm that traps everyone on the grounds.


Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts

Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts

Author: Kate Racculia

Publisher: Mariner Books

Published: 2019

Total Pages: 373

ISBN-13: 0358023939

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A dying billionaire sends one woman and a cast of dreamers and rivals on a citywide treasure hunt in this irresistible novel by the author of Bellweather Rhapsody.


This Must Be the Place

This Must Be the Place

Author: Kate Racculia

Publisher: Henry Holt and Company

Published: 2010-07-06

Total Pages: 365

ISBN-13: 1429942282

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A sudden death, a never-mailed postcard, and a longburied secret set the stage for a luminous and heartbreakingly real novel about lost souls finding one another The Darby-Jones boardinghouse in Ruby Falls, New York, is home to Mona Jones and her daughter, Oneida, two loners and self-declared outcasts who have formed a perfectly insular family unit: the two of them and the three eclectic boarders living in their house. But their small, quiet life is upended when Arthur Rook shows up in the middle of a nervous breakdown, devastated by the death of his wife, carrying a pink shoe box containing all his wife's mementos and keepsakes, and holding a postcard from sixteen years ago, addressed to Mona but never sent. Slowly the contents of the box begin to fit together to tell a story—one of a powerful friendship, a lost love, and a secret that, if revealed, could change everything that Mona, Oneida, and Arthur know to be true. Or maybe the stories the box tells and the truths it brings to life will teach everyone about love—how deeply it runs, how strong it makes us, and how even when all seems lost, how tightly it brings us together. With emotional accuracy and great energy, Kate Racculia's This Must Be the Place introduces memorable, charming characters that refuse to be forgotten.


The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place

The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place

Author: Julie Berry

Publisher: Roaring Brook Press

Published: 2014-09-23

Total Pages: 369

ISBN-13: 1596439572

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There's a murderer on the loose—but that doesn't stop the girls of St. Etheldreda's from attempting to hide the death of their headmistress in this rollicking farce. The students of St. Etheldreda's School for Girls face a bothersome dilemma. Their irascible headmistress, Mrs. Plackett, and her surly brother, Mr. Godding, have been most inconveniently poisoned at Sunday dinner. Now the school will almost certainly be closed and the girls sent home—unless these seven very proper young ladies can hide the murders and convince their neighbors that nothing is wrong. Julie Berry's The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place is a smart, hilarious Victorian romp, full of outrageous plot twists, mistaken identities, and mysterious happenings.


Gold Mountain

Gold Mountain

Author: Betty G. Yee

Publisher: Lerner + ORM

Published: 2022-04-05

Total Pages: 234

ISBN-13: 1728451019

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Working on the Transcontinental Railroad promises a fortune—for those who survive. Growing up in 1860s China, Tam Ling Fan has lived a life of comfort. Her father is wealthy enough to provide for his family but unconventional enough to spare Ling Fan from the debilitating foot-binding required of most well-off girls. But Ling Fan’s life is upended when her brother dies of influenza and their father is imprisoned under false accusations. Hoping to earn the money that will secure her father’s release, Ling Fan disguises herself as a boy and takes her brother’s contract to work for the Central Pacific Railroad Company in America. Life on “the Gold Mountain” is grueling and dangerous. To build the railroad that will connect the west coast to the east, Ling Fan and other Chinese laborers lay track and blast tunnels through the treacherous peaks of the Sierra Nevada, facing cave-ins, avalanches, and blizzards—along with hostility from white Americans. When someone threatens to expose Ling Fan’s secret, she must take an even greater risk to save what’s left of her family . . . and to escape the Gold Mountain alive.


Bellwether

Bellwether

Author: Connie Willis

Publisher: Spectra

Published: 2010-02-10

Total Pages: 257

ISBN-13: 0307571947

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Connie Willis has won more Hugo and Nebula awards than any other science fiction author. Now, with her trademark wit and inventiveness, she explores the intimate relationship between science, pop culture, and the arcane secrets of the heart. Sandra Foster studies fads—from Barbie dolls to the grunge look—how they start and what they mean. Bennett O'Reilly is a chaos theorist studying monkey group behavior. They both work for the HiTek corporation, strangers until a misdelivered package brings them together. It's a moment of synchronicity—if not serendipity—which leads them into a chaotic system of their own, complete with a million-dollar research grant, caffé latte, tattoos, and a series of unlucky coincidences that leaves Bennett monkeyless, fundless, and nearly jobless. Sandra intercedes with a flock of sheep and an idea for a joint project. (After all, what better animal to study both chaos theory and the herd mentality that so often characterizes human behavior?) But scientific discovery is rarely straightforward and never simple, and Sandra and Bennett have to endure a series of setbacks, heartbreaks, dead ends, and disasters before they find their ultimate answer. . . . Praise for Bellwether “One of science fiction's best writers.”—The Denver Post “Connie Willis deploys the apparatus of science fiction to illuminate character and relationships, and her writing is fresh, subtle, and deeply moving.”—The New York Times Book Review “Keen social satire touched with genuine humanity . . . Connie Willis's fiction is one of the most intelligent delights of our genre.”—Locus “A sheer pleasure to read . . . Sprightly, intelligent fun.”—Publishers Weekly


On the Rocks

On the Rocks

Author: Theodora Ziolkowski

Publisher: Texas A&M University Press

Published: 2021-04-05

Total Pages: 167

ISBN-13: 1680032402

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In On the Rocks, Eva Marino’s free-spirited mother Leonora is on the cusp of her second marriage and Eva is to serve as the maid of honor. Between binge-watching episodes of Midsomer Murders, attending therapy, and drinking mojitos at the Grumpy Monk Tavern directly after the yoga classes she takes with her mother, Eva attempts to keep her grief at bay. Eva knows she has to step up for her mother as wedding preparations continue, despite the grief she feels over her best friend's death and her realizations about the secrets her parents kept from her as well as from each other. For Eva, the convergence between her past and present comes to a head in the weeks leading up to her mother’s wedding. A mother-daughter last hoorah at a New Jersey spa culminates in Eva’s understanding of the truth, the truth she tried to keep from surfacing as well as the discovery of a secret that could be impossible for her to move on from. On the Rocks is a novel about mother-daughter relationships, betrayal, annoying relatives, the power of laughter, family secrets, and a love that lingers from childhood even after the beloved’s death. It is both hilarious and poignant, and its heroine’s observations are laugh-out-loud funny at the same time they break your heart. Brad Watson has described Theodora Ziolkowski as descending “from a line of writers including the late-greats Eudora Welty (in her sometimes-under-appreciated comic mode), Flannery O'Connor, Charles Portis, and Lewis Nordan, and more recently the great George Singleton. She's darkly funny with a fine eye for the everyday bizarre absurdities that make you want to lie about some of the people you come from.” According to the judge for the Next Generation Indie Book Award, “The strength of the voice in [On the Rocks], the humor layered over the pain, the need to turn away from the pain and yet confront it make this fast, funny, poignant [novella] memorable.” The Revised and Expanded Edition includes a foreword by Antonya Nelson, a preface by the author, a reading guide, and the author’s preferred version of the text.


Dava Shastri's Last Day

Dava Shastri's Last Day

Author: Kirthana Ramisetti

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing

Published: 2021-11-30

Total Pages: 439

ISBN-13: 1538703858

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In this novel "full of music, magnetism, and familial obligation" (Emma Straub, author of All Adults Here) a dying billionaire matriarch leaks news of her death early so she can examine her legacy—a decision that horrifies her children and inadvertently exposes secrets she has spent a lifetime keeping. Dava Shastri, one of the world's wealthiest women, has always lived with her sterling reputation in mind. A brain cancer diagnosis at the age of seventy, however, changes everything, and Dava decides to take her death—like all matters of her life—into her own hands. Summoning her four adult children to her private island, she discloses shocking news: in addition to having a terminal illness, she has arranged for the news of her death to break early, so she can read her obituaries. As someone who dedicated her life to the arts and the empowerment of women, Dava expects to read articles lauding her philanthropic work. Instead, her "death" reveals two devastating secrets, truths she thought she had buried forever. And now the whole world knows, including her children. In the time she has left, Dava must come to terms with the decisions that have led to this moment—and make peace with those closest to her before it's too late. Compassionately written and chock-full of humor and heart, this powerful novel examines public versus private legacy, the complexities of love, and the never-ending joys—and frustrations—of family. Includes a Reading Group Guide. A Good Morning America and Lilly Singh's Lilly Library Book Club pick Most anticipated in fall 2021 by TIME, The Washington Post, Bustle, Goodreads, and Debutiful • An Indie Next Pick • A Publishers Marketplace Buzz Book for Fall/Winter 2021 • Longlisted for the 2021 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize


Like No Other

Like No Other

Author: Una LaMarche

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2014

Total Pages: 358

ISBN-13: 1595146741

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In the timeless tradition of "West Side Story" and "Crossing Delancey, " this thoroughly modern take on romance is sure to inspire laughter, tears, and the belief that love can happen when and where it's least expected.


The Watch That Ends the Night

The Watch That Ends the Night

Author: Allan Wolf

Publisher: Candlewick Press

Published: 2024-10-15

Total Pages: 676

ISBN-13: 1536246417

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"A lyrical, monumental work of fact and imagination." — Kirkus Reviews (starred review) Arrogance and innocence, hubris and hope — twenty-four haunting voices of the Titanic tragedy, as well as the iceberg itself, are evoked in a stunning tour de force. Slipping in telegraphs, undertaker’s reports, and other records, poet Allan Wolf offers a breathtaking, intimate glimpse at the lives behind the tragedy, told with clear-eyed compassion and astounding emotional power.