The engaging village of Candlewood in 1840s New York provides a glimpse into the past that will inspire and uplift today's readers. Fifty-one-year-old Emma Garrett runs Hill House, a boardinghouse on a hill at the edge of town. Emma ministers to her guests, both the transient and those who call Hill House home. Gifted with an uncanny ability to see the unique strengths of her guests, Emma serves and challenges them with homespun wisdom and absolute faith in God. When eighty-year-old Widow Leonard shows up at Hill House to escape a heated land dispute between her two sons, Emma welcomes her and tries to help her heal the family feud. But tragedy soon hits closer to home when Emma's very ownership of Hill House is called into question!
Emma Garrett is eagerly anticipating the arrival of spring, when her family plans to reunite in Candlewood. Together they will celebrate her birthday at Hill House, the boardinghouse she oversees. Though Emma is anxious to introduce Zachary Breckenwith to her sons, their own problems--and wounds deeply hidden since childhood--soon overshadow her joy. As Zachary presses Emma for an answer to his marriage proposal, her initial elation falters and she finds herself riddled with doubts.
Betrayed by her husband, Annabelle Tyler wears the burden of legally being a divorcee, a difficult position for an upstanding young woman to find herself in. While attempting to start a new life for herself, an unexpected turn of events once again has Annabelle married--this time to Harrison Graymoor, the most eligible, yet elusive, bachelor in Philadelphia. Harrison assures her that he will secure an annulment immediately, unaware that the constable has sent word of the marriage to the press in Philadelphia. And here things continue to go awry. Harrison's past, a philanthropic cousin with his eye on Annabelle, and the appearance of Annabelle's ex-husband threaten the tentative relationship growing between Harrison and his "wife." For two individuals set against marriage, there are certainly a lot of second thoughts regarding the one forced upon them.
She moved to Sandwich, Illinois, in search of a new life, but ended up in a giant pickle. Sandwich represents hope for twenty-year-old Maddie Buckner and Kyle, the eleven-year-old brother Maddie wants to spring out of foster care. Then she loses her new job after less than an hour on the clock. It’s all Reuben-the-Jerk’s fault, and she’s determined to make him right the wrong. He does so, reluctantly, by giving her a job at his restaurant, The Sandwich Shop. Then crazy things start happening at the restaurant, and Kyle’s foster parents apply to adopt him. To stop it all, Maddie must learn the art of humbling herself and accepting the help God has arranged, risking her heart to Reuben in the process. And she’d rather eat a million corned-beef on rye sandwiches than do that. "Don’t let the light-hearted cover and title fool you. Krista Phillips’ spunky, rough-around-the-edges heroine may be “tickle me” funny, but her faith journey offers more than a cute read. There is depth here, made all the more satisfying served up with a generous side of romance." - Tamara Leigh, author of Restless in Carolina and Dreamspell "Krista Phillips' book is much like a submarine sandwich--multi-layered and loaded with tasty delights. There's a little something for everyone: a light, quirky opening, and an ending that packs a punch. Yum!" - Janice Thompson, author of the Weddings by Bella series "Krista Phillips is a unique and entertaining new voice in contemporary Christian romance. She brings a fresh, young perspective to the genre and left me eager to read whatever she writes next." - Kaye Dacus, author of Stand-In Groom (Christy Award Finalist 2010), The Brides of Bonneterre series, and The Matchmaker series "In Sandwich, With a Side of Romance, Krista Phillips will win you over with her witty, entertaining, laugh-out-loud writing style. She's created loveable, quirky, down-to-earth characters with real life struggles. As the characters wrestle to overcome their problems, you'll find yourself cheering them on and savoring the sweet but sassy romance that ends with a blissful sigh." - Jody Hedlund, best-selling author of The Preacher's Bride "With lovable characters, an engaging plot, and a swoon-worthy romance, debut author Krista Phillips has penned a novel that will have readers laughing and flipping pages well into the night. Sandwich, With a Side of Romance is a refreshing and enjoyable read!" - Katie Ganshert, author of Wildflowers from Winter
This “superb history” of artificial light traces the evolution of society—“invariably fascinating and often original . . . [it] amply lives up to its title” (Publishers Weekly, starred review). In Brilliant, Jane Brox explores humankind’s ever-changing relationship to artificial light, from the stone lamps of the Pleistocene to the LEDs embedded in fabrics of the future. More than a survey of technological development, this sweeping history reveals how artificial light changed our world, and how those social and cultural changes in turn led to the pursuit of more ways of spreading, maintaining, and controlling light. Brox plumbs the class implications of light—who had it, who didn’t—through the centuries when crude lamps and tallow candles constricted waking hours. She identifies the pursuit of whale oil as the first time the need for light thrust us toward an environmental tipping point. Only decades later, gas street lights opened up the evening hours to leisure, which changed the ways we live and sleep and the world’s ecosystems. Edison’s bulbs produced a light that seemed to its users all but divorced from human effort or cost. And yet, as Brox’s informative portrait of our current grid system shows, the cost is ever with us. Brilliant is infused with human voices, startling insights, and timely questions about how our future lives will be shaped by light
“[Pynchon's] funniest and arguably his most accessible novel.” —The New York Times Book Review “Raunchy, funny, digressive, brilliant.” —USA Today “Rich and sweeping, wild and thrilling.” —The Boston Globe Spanning the era between the Chicago World's Fair of 1893 and the years just after World War I, and constantly moving between locations across the globe (and to a few places not strictly speaking on the map at all), Against the Day unfolds with a phantasmagoria of characters that includes anarchists, balloonists, drug enthusiasts, mathematicians, mad scientists, shamans, spies, and hired guns. As an era of uncertainty comes crashing down around their ears and an unpredictable future commences, these folks are mostly just trying to pursue their lives. Sometimes they manage to catch up; sometimes it's their lives that pursue them.
Deep in Lakota Souix territory in 1878, a torched farmstead is discovered by American soldiers. Hiding in the cellar is Laina Gray--delirious and pregnant. Laina is slowly nursed back to health by Granny Max, a woman who trusts God's healing hand. While Laina recovers physically, her faith is also restored just as she needs it most. She is torn between two men--the sergeant who rescued her, and a man from her past who knows her closely guarded secrets.
