"At the dawn of the 21st century, the residents of Century, Florida, prepare for their centennial celebration. There's a parade to plan, a murder to plot, a marriage to save and one to let go. Here, universes revolve around a small-town Lolita, a high school teacher sees possible futures, a Piggly Wiggly meat cutter tries to please his Vegan wife, and a lonely woman weaves a new cosmology in the patterns of her crochet. Secrets will out, lives will end, and nothing will be the same." -- Amazon.com.
Once considered the "Metropolis of Arizona," Tucson is in many respects a college town with a major military base onto which a retirement community has been grafted. A sprawling city of one million in the Sonoran Desert, Tucson was developed during and especially for the second half of the 20th century, a reality which has left it possibly unprepared for the challenges of the 21st century. Tracing the remarkable history of Tucson since 1854, this book describes many aspects of the community--its ceremonies and customs, its early bitter battle to secure the University of Arizona, its multitude of problems, its noteworthy successes and its racial divides. The recollections of those who have made Tucson such a memorable place are included, from political leaders to celebrities to ordinary residents.
Established in 1911, The Rotarian is the official magazine of Rotary International and is circulated worldwide. Each issue contains feature articles, columns, and departments about, or of interest to, Rotarians. Seventeen Nobel Prize winners and 19 Pulitzer Prize winners – from Mahatma Ghandi to Kurt Vonnegut Jr. – have written for the magazine.
This happily ever after romance tells the captivating story of two women bound together across time by a shared dream and a mysterious writing desk. Tenley Roth’s first book was a runaway bestseller. Now that her second book is due, she’s locked in fear. Can she repeat her earlier success or is she a fraud who has run out of inspiration? With pressure mounting from her publisher, Tenley is weighted with writer’s block. But when her estranged mother calls asking Tenley to help her through chemotherapy, she packs up for Florida where she meets handsome furniture designer Jonas Sullivan and discovers the story her heart’s been missing. A century earlier, another woman wrote at the same desk with hopes and fears of her own. Born during the Gilded Age, Birdie Shehorn is the daughter of the old money Knickerbockers. Under the strict control of her mother, her every move is decided ahead of time, even whom she’ll marry. But Birdie has dreams she doesn’t know how to realize. She wants to tell stories, write novels, make an impact on the world. When she discovers her mother has taken extreme measures to manipulate her future, she must choose between submission and security or forging a brand new way all on her own. Tenley and Birdie are from two very different worlds, but fate has bound them together in a way time cannot erase. “Rachel Hauck enchants us again! Tenley and Birdie are bound together by the understanding that creativity is a guiding force and that their stories must be told. A tale both bittersweet and redemptive, The Writing Desk is your must-read.” —Patti Callahan Henry, New York Times bestselling author This sweet, split-time read is a standalone novel, though characters in this story appear in Rachel Hauck’s book, The Fifth Avenue Story Society. Includes discussion questions.
