Addie Sutton's stained-glass window business may be this close to bankruptcy, but she won't give up, even if it means she'll have to see Devlin Chandler again. All right, so she's still in love with the bad-boy heir to the Chandler estate. Though Addie's too smart to go after a man she knows isn't right for her, especially with the tangled history between them. But Dev's intent on pushing the envelope. He's always been attracted to the former housekeeper's daughter and wants to see where their relationship could lead. Addie tells him where—to heartbreak. Can he convince her that special something between them is worth taking a chance on?
Friendship turns into young love, a nasty breakup, and maybe a second chance. Can this billionaire make his great life perfect? Blake Murphy wants redemption. More than that, he wants a second chance. He'd been avoiding his home town since the day he left for college. Trista Kennedy would be there and he had no idea how he'd face her after the way he'd treated her. But now he'd find out. His high school reunion was coming up and he'd see her then. Trista had moved on from Blake. Until she saw him when he came home for their high school reunion. He was handsome, rich, and easy going. He'd only been boyishly good looking in high school. So much had happened in a decade. Blake's old flame - the one who'd come after he'd broken Trista's heart - was ready to scoop him up again. Trista couldn't even think about competing with her. She'd never outshine the former cheerleader and constant social butterfly. But she felt something. Yearning. What might have been. Regret. She thought he felt it, too. Is there a chance to mend broken relationships in the heat of a small Arizona town after a decade apart?
Stories of a Small Town Farm Boy is a collection of humorous anecdotes illustrating some of the problems, solutions, and issues encountered by a boy growing up in a small town farming community. The isolation of growing up out in the country provided its own set of challenges for many young school kids of this locality. Even getting acclimated to the new routine of first grade proved to be a feat, but certain new cultural forces were at work to offer alternate areas of interest and entertainment. Television and radio were both still young but made a significant impact at a time when a transistor radio could be brought along, and music could be enjoyed while pulling weeds out in the fields. Growing up with parents who had both lived through the depression added a dimension of frugality which most young people today could never imagine. Many friends and neighbors of my parents’ generation actually grew up in German speaking households but were expected to attend public school where all lessons were presented in English. This book is designed to humorously present a number of significant cultural changes that have taken place in our society. Growing up with little money and a lot of responsibility made for a childhood which was diametrically opposed to current expectations. Much of what we dreamed about then is taken for granted today. Cultural changes are illustrated from the first grade through graduate school, a teaching career and retirement. Enjoy the trip.
A best-selling, autobiographical depiction of class privilege, bad romance, and political intrigue during World War II in China. Now available in English for the first time, Eileen Chang’s dark romance opens with Julie, living at a convent school in Hong Kong on the eve of the Japanese invasion. Her mother, Rachel, long divorced from Julie’s opium-addict father, saunters around the world with various lovers. Recollections of Julie’s horrifying but privileged childhood in Shanghai clash with a flamboyant, sometimes incestuous cast of relations that crowd her life. Eventually, back in Shanghai, she meets the magnetic Chih-yung, a traitor who collaborates with the Japanese puppet regime. Soon they’re in the throes of an impassioned love affair that swings back and forth between ardor and anxiety, secrecy and ruin. Like Julie’s relationship with her mother, her marriage to Chih-yung is marked by long stretches of separation interspersed with unexpected little reunions. Chang’s emotionally fraught, bitterly humorous novel holds a fractured mirror directly in front of her own heart.
American folklife is steeped in world cultures, or invented as new culture, always evolving, yet often practiced as it was created many years or even centuries ago. This fascinating encyclopedia explores the rich and varied cultural traditions of folklife in America - from barn raisings to the Internet, tattoos, and Zydeco - through expressions that include ritual, custom, crafts, architecture, food, clothing, and art. Featuring more than 350 A-Z entries, "Encyclopedia of American Folklife" is wide-ranging and inclusive. Entries cover major cities and urban centers; new and established immigrant groups as well as native Americans; American territories, such as Guam and Samoa; major issues, such as education and intellectual property; and expressions of material culture, such as homes, dress, food, and crafts. This encyclopedia covers notable folklife areas as well as general regional categories. It addresses religious groups (reflecting diversity within groups such as the Amish and the Jews), age groups (both old age and youth gangs), and contemporary folk groups (skateboarders and psychobillies) - placing all of them in the vivid tapestry of folklife in America. In addition, this resource offers useful insights on folklife concepts through entries such as "community and group" and "tradition and culture." The set also features complete indexes in each volume, as well as a bibliography for further research.
Film plays a vital role in the celebration of Christmas. For decades, it has taught audiences about what the celebration of the season looks like – from the decorations to the costumes and to the expected snowy weather – as well as mirrors our own festivities back to us. Films like It’s a Wonderful Life and Home Alone have come to play key roles in real-life domestic celebrations: watching such titles has become, for many families, every bit as important as tree-trimming and leaving cookies out for Santa. These films have exported the American take on the holiday far and wide and helped us conjure an image of the perfect holiday. Rather than settling the ‘what is a Christmas film?’ debate – indeed, Die Hard and Lethal Weapon are discussed within – Analyzing Christmas in Film: Santa to the Supernatural focuses on the how Christmas is presented on the deluge of occasions when it appears. While most Christmas films are secular, religion makes many cameos, appearing through Nativity references, storylines involving spiritual rebirth, the framing of Santa as a Christ-like figure and the all-importance of family, be it the Holy family or just those gathered around the dining table. Also explored are popular narratives involving battles with stress and melancholy, single parents and Christmas martyrs, visits from ghosts and angels, big cities and small towns, break-ups and make-ups and the ticking clock of mortality. Nearly 1000 films are analyzed in this volume to determine what the portrayal of Christmas reveals about culture, society and faith as well as sex roles, consumerism, aesthetics and aspiration.
In the fifth book in this series, Lt. Dekker gets an advance warning that he might be investigating a couple of murders when two people turn up missing after a high school reunion. When those bodies do indeed turn up, the lieutenant and his sergeant sidekick go to work. They start by interviewing everyone who attended that high school reunion. In their favor is the fact that not a lot of people attended the reunion, but it doesn't help them any when they find out that everyone hated one of the victims, but none of them appear guilty of murder.
Her school reunion was just an excuse. New Christian Ivy Villard really returned to Eden, Oklahoma, to reconcile with her father, her sister…and Ryan Jeffords, the high school boy she left behind. Ivy chased adventure in the big city, but she's learned her lesson. Of all her mistakes, there's nothing she regrets more than throwing Ryan's love away. Now they have a second chance, if they're brave enough to take it.
In the early 1850s, the oil industry had a major impact on the resource town of Petrolia, Ontario. Christina Burr explores the ways in which the industry provided a common cultural identification that helped Petrolia change from a rough shanty-town of disreputable land speculators and "wildcatters" into an orderly, "civilized" Victorian community.
