Kat Harper's visit to Jessie's Diner ends abruptly when the man at the next table drops dead. Nobody suspects murder until a wannabe crime reporter and some disturbing evidence convinces them otherwise. Now it's up to Kat to figure out "whodunit" without getting killed herself.
Fundraising can be fatal. January's Furry Friends Foster Families animal rescue fundraiser turns deadly when the guest of honor ends up murdered. Now it's up to amateur detective Kat Harper to figure out who killed popular local radio personality John Sykes. As Kat soon discovers, this isn't going to be a straightforward case. Between an ambitious coworker desperate to advance his career, a bevy of lovestruck fans, and an oddly frosty wife, John Sykes could have been targeted by practically anyone in attendance that night. To complicate matters further, the more Kat learns about the victim, the more she realizes he may have had a dark side hidden beneath his charming public persona. Fortunately, Kat has a secret weapon in her sleuthing arsenal. His name is Sundae, and finding a home for the tabby cat with fudge- and caramel-colored markings may be the only way Kat can still salvage something from this tragic event. It also doesn't hurt that introducing him to prospective pet parents is a wonderful way to interview everyone on her lengthy suspect list. She just has to be careful not to let the innocent feline fall into the hands of a killer, or else this may end up being the one case Kat regrets taking on for the rest of her life. All of the Cozy Cat Caper Mystery books can be enjoyed as standalones but will be better appreciated as part of the series. The books are light, fun cozy mysteries featuring an animal-loving female amateur sleuth, lovable and not-so-lovable quirky characters, and a page-turning mystery that needs solving. None of the books include cliffhangers, bad language, or graphic scenes. keywords: murder mystery series, cat cozy mystery, amateur female sleuth, fun whodunit, mysteries with cats, amateur sleuth ebook, small-town detective books, women sleuths, animal mysteries in small towns, humorous crime caper, whimsical amateur investigator short reads, kitty mysteries, humor and hijinks, mystery ebooks, pet cozy mysteries, cozy mystery series, cozy murder mystery, cozy crime mystery books, cozy murder mysteries, kitty cozy criminal mysteries, animal cozy mystery, animal cozy, cozy mystery, cat cozy mysteries, whodunit mysteries, small town women sleuths, animal rescue ebooks, humorous crime whodunit, short fun clean ebooks, amateur detective series, kitty cozies, quick reads, ebook downloads, female gumshoe lead, wholesome whodunnit, felines in fiction, pet adoption, small town cop characters, foster care heroine, funny cat books, cat mystery and thriller books, cozy mystery books, cozy murder mystery series, cozy murder mystery that needs solving, cozy murder mystery books, cozy with murder, cozy cat caper murder mysteries, animal cozy mystery, animal cozies, kitty cozies, mystery books for adult women, fun kitty cozies, contemporary murder mystery ebook, cat caper crime mystery series, women gumshoe detectives who solve crimes, murder mysteries featuring cats, cozy mystery series set in small towns, women sleuths and quirky characters, humorous law enforcement fiction, animal cozy mysteries, clean murder mystery series, fiction featuring cats, whimsical women sleuths, cat cozy mysteries, murder mystery ebooks, amateur women sleuths, humorous crime capers, small-town relationships, felines in fiction, series that can be read as stand-alones, murder mystery whodunits, cat cozy mysteries, cat cosy mysteries, animal cozy mystery, amateur women sleuth detective, law enforcement mysteries, kitty cozies, small town fiction with quirky characters, humorous women detectives, long-running series that can be read as stand-alones
Seventeen-year-old Gwen is preparing to audition for New York City’s top music schools when her grandfather mysteriously disappears, leaving Gwen only a phone message telling her not to worry. But there’s nothing more stressful than practicing for her auditions, not knowing where her grandfather is, and being forced to lie about his whereabouts when her insistent great-uncle demands an audience with him. Then Gwen meets Robert, also in town for music auditions, and the two pair up to brave the city without supervision. As auditions approach and her great-uncle becomes more aggressive, Gwen and Robert make a startling discovery. Suddenly Gwen’s hopes are turned upside down, and she and Robert are united in ways neither of them could have foretold. . . .
A compassionate, shame-free guide for your darkest days “A one-of-a-kind book . . . to read for yourself or give to a struggling friend or loved one without the fear that depression and suicidal thoughts will be minimized, medicalized or over-spiritualized.”—Kay Warren, cofounder of Saddleback Church What happens when loving Jesus doesn’t cure you of depression, anxiety, or suicidal thoughts? You might be crushed by shame over your mental illness, only to be told by well-meaning Christians to “choose joy” and “pray more.” So you beg God to take away the pain, but nothing eases the ache inside. As darkness lingers and color drains from your world, you’re left wondering if God has abandoned you. You just want a way out. But there’s hope. In I Love Jesus, But I Want to Die, Sarah J. Robinson offers a healthy, practical, and shame-free guide for Christians struggling with mental illness. With unflinching honesty, Sarah shares her story of battling depression and fighting to stay alive despite toxic theology that made her afraid to seek help outside the church. Pairing her own story with scriptural insights, mental health research, and simple practices, Sarah helps you reconnect with the God who is present in our deepest anguish and discover that you are worth everything it takes to get better. Beautifully written and full of hard-won wisdom, I Love Jesus, But I Want to Die offers a path toward a rich, hope-filled life in Christ, even when healing doesn’t look like what you expect.
A memoir by photographic artist Jona Frank told in captivating stories and poignant images with a cast of actors, including Laura Dern and Imogene Wolodarsky, Cherry Hill tells the story of one girl's suburban youth and deliverance. Cherry Hill is a multimedia memoir of photographic artist Jona Frank's upbringing in--and flight from--a stifling suburban household. Told in words and evocative photographs, Frank's account of her childhood struggles with a repressive mother, mentally ill brother, and overwhelming expectations is leavened with episodes from her rich interior world. Akin to a graphic novel, this hybrid of personal essay and photography breaks open the memoir format, detailing the life of a young artist as she spends her days dreaming of a friendship with Emily Dickinson, longing for Bruce Springsteen and eschewing the rules of femininity. Frank employs a cinematic approach to construct vivid scenes from her youth. Using elaborately dressed sets, era-specific wardrobes, and multiple actors to portray herself as a child, Frank refashions her memories into vibrant tableaux. Strikingly, Frank cast Academy Award-winning actor Laura Dern in the role of her strict and complicated mother in a performance as bravura as her film and television work. As Frank outgrows the confines of her environment and suffocating domestic life, discovering art and photography as the path to her personal fulfillment, she plots her ultimate escape. A unique photographic storytelling project reminiscent of such classics as Fun Home and The Best We Could Do, Cherry Hill is an intimate self-portrait of what it takes to break free of convention and answer the question, "Who am I meant to be?"
Kat Harper is in for a Valentine's Day surprise when her police detective boyfriend is spotted with another woman. Kat doesn't really believe Andrew would cheat on her, but that doesn't explain why he's being so mysterious. She realizes if she wants answers she'll have to investigate herself . . . but she better be careful or she might find herself crossing paths with a criminal more dangerous than any she's ever encountered before.
"Brutally beautiful — not like anything else you'll read this year, or any other." - Cassandra Clare, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Clockwork Angel Kit and Fancy Cordelle are sisters of the best kind: best friends, best confidantes, and best accomplices. The daughters of the infamous Bonesaw Killer, Kit and Fancy are used to feeling like outsiders, and that’s just the way they like it. But in Portero, where the weird and wild run rampant, the Cordelle sisters are hardly the oddest or most dangerous creatures around. It’s no surprise when Kit and Fancy start to give in to their deepest desire—the desire to kill. What starts as a fascination with slicing open and stitching up quickly spirals into a gratifying murder spree. Of course, the sisters aren’t killing just anyone, only the people who truly deserve it. But the girls have learned from the mistakes of their father, and know that a shred of evidence could get them caught. So when Fancy stumbles upon a mysterious and invisible doorway to another world, she opens a door to endless possibilities….
A classic work of American literature that has not stopped changing minds and lives since it burst onto the literary scene, The Things They Carried is a ground-breaking meditation on war, memory, imagination, and the redemptive power of storytelling. The Things They Carried depicts the men of Alpha Company: Jimmy Cross, Henry Dobbins, Rat Kiley, Mitchell Sanders, Norman Bowker, Kiowa, and the character Tim O’Brien, who has survived his tour in Vietnam to become a father and writer at the age of forty-three. Taught everywhere—from high school classrooms to graduate seminars in creative writing—it has become required reading for any American and continues to challenge readers in their perceptions of fact and fiction, war and peace, courage and fear and longing. The Things They Carried won France's prestigious Prix du Meilleur Livre Etranger and the Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize; it was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award.
"A wonderful introduction the Japanese tradition of jisei, this volume is crammed with exquisite, spontaneous verse and pithy, often hilarious, descriptions of the eccentric and committed monastics who wrote the poems." --Tricycle: The Buddhist Review Although the consciousness of death is, in most cultures, very much a part of life, this is perhaps nowhere more true than in Japan, where the approach of death has given rise to a centuries-old tradition of writing jisei, or the "death poem." Such a poem is often written in the very last moments of the poet's life. Hundreds of Japanese death poems, many with a commentary describing the circumstances of the poet's death, have been translated into English here, the vast majority of them for the first time. Yoel Hoffmann explores the attitudes and customs surrounding death in historical and present-day Japan and gives examples of how these have been reflected in the nation's literature in general. The development of writing jisei is then examined--from the longing poems of the early nobility and the more "masculine" verses of the samurai to the satirical death poems of later centuries. Zen Buddhist ideas about death are also described as a preface to the collection of Chinese death poems by Zen monks that are also included. Finally, the last section contains three hundred twenty haiku, some of which have never been assembled before, in English translation and romanized in Japanese.