Snakewoman of Little Egypt
Snakewoman of Little Egypt

Author: Robert Hellenga

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2010-09-20

Total Pages: 350

ISBN-13: 1608193233

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Jackson Jones is trying to decide whether to remain an anthropology professor in his small Midwestern town, or to return to doing fieldwork among the Mbuti people, in their African Garden of Eden. His ruminations are interrupted by the arrival of a late friend's niece, who has just been sprung from jail. Sunny admits that she shot her husband, an evangelical pastor from the Little Egypt region of Illinois, but he had it coming after forcing her to take on a rattle snake. As an anthropologist, Jackson is curious about Sunny's experiences with The Church of the Burning Bush; as a man, he is not immune to her backwoods sassiness. Although Sunny is pleased to be with a kind partner at last, she is also serious about her belated education--funded by her late uncle--at Jackson's university. French and herpetology compete for her attention, and Jackson's plan to take her to Paris to propose marriage are waylaid when she decides to travel to an academic conference with her biology professor instead. Jackson is crushed and heads for Little Egypt in Sunny's absence, to get to know her ex-husband and to study the snake-handling ceremonies at his evangelical church. Complications ensue, including Jackson's near-death experience and Sunny's murder of her ex, but fate is a positive force for all in the end. Packed with both information and emotion, Snakewoman of Little Egypt delivers Robert Hellenga at the top of his form.

The Sixteen Pleasures
The Sixteen Pleasures

Author: Robert Hellenga

Publisher: Soho Press

Published: 2009-09-01

Total Pages: 327

ISBN-13: 1569478112

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Art and poetry, mystery and desire collide in this sensual and “elegantly moving” literary romance set in the cobbled streets and painted halls of Florence, Italy (New Yorker). Margot Harrington, an American volunteer in Florence, is an expert at book conservancy. While struggling to save a waterlogged convent library, she comes across a fabulous volume of 16 erotic drawings by Giulio Romano, accompanying 16 steamy sonnets by Pietro Aretino. When first published over 4 centuries ago, the Vatican ordered all copies destroyed. This one—now unique—volume has survived. The abbess prevails upon Margot to save the order’s finances by selling the magnificently illustrated erotica discreetly—meaning without the bishop’s knowledge. Margot’s other clandestine project is a middle-aged Italian who is boldly attempting radical measures to save endangered frescoes. She is 29 and available; he, older and married. He shares her sense of mission and soon her bed in this daring story of spiritual longing and earthly desire.

The Fall of a Sparrow
The Fall of a Sparrow

Author: Robert Hellenga

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 1999-07-06

Total Pages: 468

ISBN-13: 0684850273

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In his rich and dazzling new novel, the author of the bestselling "The Sixteen Pleasures" chronicles the journey of a man awakening from profound sorrow and rediscovering love in a most unexpected time and place.

Love, Death & Rare Books
Love, Death & Rare Books

Author: Robert Hellenga

Publisher: Thorndike Press Large Print

Published: 2021-01-27

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 9781432880958

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Chas. Johnson & Sons has been a family operation for three generations--grandfather, father and son. But when it comes time for Gabe Johnson to take the reins of the business, the world of books has changed, and the combination of the internet and inner city rents forces the store to close. But instead of folding his hand, Gabe decides to risk everything he has and reopen the shop--and, in a sense restart his life--in a small town on the shores of Lake Michigan. Haunted his entire life by an obsession with a former lover, he finds her again only to be faced with yet another even more difficult challenge that threatens the well-being of the revival of the bookstore as well as the fate of his rekindled relationship.

Blues Lessons
Blues Lessons

Author: Robert Hellenga

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2002-02-08

Total Pages: 332

ISBN-13: 0743236319

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Growing up on his family's orchards in Appleton, Michigan, in the 1950s, Martin Dijksterhuis finds everything he needs in his extended family and in the land itself -- in the reassuring routines of growing and harvesting, spraying and pruning. Although his mother wants him to get out of Appleton, which she finds impossibly provincial, and attend a great university -- the University of Chicago, her alma mater -- he has no desire to leave. In the autumn of his junior year of high school, however, in the camp of the migrant workers who come north every year to pick the Dijksterhuis peaches and apples, Martin discovers his vocation, the country blues -- unsettling melodies that cry out from a place in the soul he never knew existed. He also falls in love with Corinna Williams, the strong-willed daughter of the black foreman who runs the Dijksterhuis orchards. His blues vocation and his love for Corinna are the two stories of his life. His struggle to combine them into a single story takes him a long way from home and from the life he had always envisioned for himself, and then it brings him back again in a way he could never have imagined. In this beautifully rendered novel, Robert Hellenga, author of The Sixteen Pleasures and The Fall of a Sparrow, explores the fragility of happiness, the difficulties of following one's calling in life, and the sorrows and satisfactions of being a parent.

Miracles, Inc.
Miracles, Inc.

Author: T.J. Forrester

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2011-02-01

Total Pages: 274

ISBN-13: 1439175608

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Vernon L. Oliver, still a young man, lives in a six-by-ten cell in a Florida prison. He has chosen the needle over the chair, has no desire to smell burned flesh on the day the state snuffs out his life. When his attorney suggests he write an autobiography to generate funds to cover legal fees incurred during the appeals process, Vernon sits down to pencil and paper and begins his narrative. Miracles, Inc., Forrester's debut novel, tells the story of a charismatic slacker in love with Harley Davidson motorcycles and Rickie Terrell, a beautiful woman who quotes poetry and will not discuss her past. They live in an RV, smoke weed and drink beer, play Scrabble late into the night. His boss, a brilliant businesswoman with a far-reaching vision, offers him the chance to make more money than he ever thought was possible. He buys into the faith-healing scheme without reservation, and so begins the journey that leads to the stunning event that changes his life forever.

A Single Rose
A Single Rose

Author: Barbara Delinsky

Publisher: Open Road Media

Published: 2023-06-20

Total Pages: 211

ISBN-13: 1504084853

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Set sail with the New York Times–bestselling author as a Caribbean treasure hunt brings one woman within reach of her heart’s desire. Victoria Lesser is due for some payback. The unrepentant matchmaker gets a taste of her own medicine when she’s tricked into a fortune hunting trip that just happens to be led by an age-appropriate, adventurous—and single—professor. Luckily for Victoria, she brought her niece, Shaye, as a buffer. Unluckily for Shaye, the professor brought his nephew . . . Like oil and water, Shaye and Noah don’t mix—and now they’re stuck together on a vintage sailboat heading toward Costa Rica and supposed pirate booty. As the sun and sea conspire to relax Shaye’s hard-won self-control, the brash and impulsive Noah does the rest. And he won’t stop until he tears down the walls of the sane and structured world that Shaye has built up around her . . . Praise for Barbara Delinsky “One of today’s quintessential authors of contemporary fiction . . . Delinsky is a joy to read . . . Women’s fiction at its very finest.” —Romantic Times “[An author] of sensitivity and style.” —Publishers Weekly “Delinsky has a special knack for zeroing in on the pulse of her characters immediately—we know them and understand what makes them tick within the first few pages . . . Well done!” —Rendezvous “One of the few writers . . . who still writes a great love story, Ms. Delinsky is truly an author for all seasons.” —Rave Reviews

Shattered
Shattered

Author: Kathryn Casey

Publisher: Harper Collins

Published: 2010-06-29

Total Pages: 387

ISBN-13: 0062000268

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“Kathryn Casey is one of the best true crime writers today.” —Ann Rule With true crime classics like Descent into Hell and Die My Love, author Kathryn Casey has peered into the darkest corners of the Lone Star State, shedding a fascinating, chilling light on a series of notorious Texas murders. In Shattered, she explores in riveting detail an infamous Houston area crime: the brutal slaying of a young mother and her unborn child by the person closest to them. Bestselling author Carlton Stowers numbers Kathryn Casey “among the elite of true crime writers,” and Shattered—a shocking true story of blood, rage, and betrayal—will only enhance her reputation as one of the best of the best.

One Thousand and One Nights
One Thousand and One Nights

Author: Hanan Al-Shaykh

Publisher: A&C Black

Published: 2011-08-15

Total Pages: 306

ISBN-13: 1408826046

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The Arab world's greatest folk stories re-imagined by the acclaimed Lebanese novelist Hanan al-Shaykh, published to coincide with the world tour of a magnificent musical and theatrical production directed by Tim Supple

Scarlet A
Scarlet A

Author: Katie Watson

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2018-01-02

Total Pages: 297

ISBN-13: 0190624876

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Winner of the NCTE George Orwell Award for Distinguished Contribution to Honesty and Clarity in Public Language Although Roe v. Wade identified abortion as a constitutional right in1973, it still bears stigma--a proverbial scarlet A. Millions of Americans have participated in or benefited from an abortion, but few want to reveal that they have done so. Approximately one in five pregnancies in the US ends in abortion. Why is something so common, which has been legal so long, still a source of shame and secrecy? Why is it so regularly debated by politicians, and so seldom divulged from friend to friend? This book explores the personal stigma that prevents many from sharing their abortion experiences with friends and family in private conversation, and the structural stigma that keeps it that way. In public discussion, both proponents and opponents of abortion's legality tend to focus on extraordinary cases. This tendency keeps the national debate polarized and contentious, and keeps our focus on the cases that occur the least. Professor Katie Watson focuses instead on the cases that happen the most, which she calls "ordinary abortion." Scarlet A gives the reflective reader a more accurate impression of what the majority of American abortion practice really looks like. It explains how our silence around private experience has distorted public opinion, and how including both ordinary abortion and abortion ethics could make our public exchanges more fruitful. In Scarlet A, Watson wisely and respectfully navigates one of the most divisive topics in contemporary life. This book explains the law of abortion, challenges the toxic politics that make it a public football and private secret, offers tools for more productive private exchanges, and leads the way to a more robust public discussion of abortion ethics. Scarlet A combines storytelling and statistics to bring the story of ordinary abortion out of the shadows, painting a rich, rarely seen picture of how patients and doctors currently think and act, and ultimately inviting readers to tell their own stories and draw their own conclusions. The paperback edition includes a new preface by the author addressing new cultural developments in abortion discourse and new legal threats to reproductive rights, and updated statistics throughout.