It is 1972 and Ellen and James Grier are forced to move in withEllen's rigid in-laws at 512 Vinegar Hill in Wisconsin. There is no placefor Ellen in a house filled with routine, prayer rituals, and thebitterness of her in-law's loveless marriage, where her parents-in law,devout Catholics, profess faith in God but show no compassion to their sonor his family. An honest look at the efforts of many women to balance thedemands of Catholicism, motherhood, and individual freedoms in the 1970s.
Samantha, the mother of an eleven-year-old, is abandoned by herhusband, and has all the practical problems of money and child-rearingexacerbated by extreme emotional bereavement, although her husband hasbeen showing signs of discontent for years. Sam's coping mechanisms comeoff as alternately humorous and pathetic, but she settles down enough tostart working as a "temp", takes in boarders, and even reluctantly goesout on a date or two. One date starts to turn ugly, but fortunately King,the fat but sweet underachiever who adores Same is on the scene A littletoo pat, but likeable and charming. A nice read.
Set in Vermont, this is the story of Sibyl Danforth, a midwife,who performs a C-section on a woman she believes is dead in order to savethe baby. Sibyl's assistant, Anne Austin, thinks that the woman may nothave been dead at the time. Sibyl is accused of involuntary manslaughterand stands trial. Narrated by Sibyl's daughter Connie, as she recalls theevents of that tragic day and ensuing trial, this compelling novelmesmerizes readers with its complicated plot, the conflicts betweenmidwifery and the medical community, and the surprise conclusion.
Southern California, circa 2025: high winds, overwhelming heat,vast species extinction, and a dispirited populace. In chaptersalternating between 2025 and the 1980's and 90's, Ty Tierwater recountshis roller coaster life, as a radical eco-terrorist, his runs from thelaw, his daughter Sierra, and his self-serving ex-wife. At age 75, anartificial kidney makes Ty one of the young old, facing a long slowdecline, tending a private mini-zoo of ragged endangered animals for aneccentric pop star, and lamenting the collapse of his race. The humor iswry, the outlook hilariously dire, and the personalities brilliantlyconstructed. Only a champion storyteller could slap us silly and make uslaugh at the same time.
.On Worth Row, a dead-end street of antique shops run by an odd array ofentrepreneurs, Effie, a 72-year-old paranoid, spies on her neighbors,making minute-by-minute notations in her diary. Of course, there is muchto gossip about. Mr. Haygood and Mazelle have been having an affair for35 years, and in a most peculiar location. Carl is secretly building aboat inside his house to woo the woman of his dreams. Mose and Howard sunthemselves in bathtubs out on the front lawn. Each character is morebizarre than the next. A bad storm brings forth many secrets, both funnyand poignant. Hysterically funny.
In her tenth novel, Godwin continues the life of Margaret Bonner,first explored in FATHER MELANCHOLY'S DAUGHTER (1991). Margaret is now anordained Episcopal priest in North Carolina's Smoky Mountains. Married toAdrian, headmaster and chaplain at a school for troubled boys, she will beconfronted with personal choices that will affect her marriage and herministry at High Balsam church. Set at the end of the millennium, thestory is about the uncertainties that are part of life and the capacity ofthe human spirit for goodness.
The lives of eight people intertwine in this poignant story oflife on the high plains of northeast Colorado. High school teacher TomGuthrie and his two sons are living with a mentally ill mother. VictoriaRoubideaux, a pregnant high school teacher, was thrown out of her home,and takes refuge with two elderly bachelor brothers, Harold and RaymondMacPheron. In addition, we learn about another teacher, Maggie Jones, andher senile Dad, and Russell Beckman, the town bad boy. Beautifullywritten, with a strong sense of place, this novel will appeal to readerswho enjoy good characterization and books with a regional flavor.
Deborah Peltz swore that she would reconcile with her older sisterSharon only over her dead body, but it actually took someone else's. Whenthe two try to bury the hatchet to help their mother recover from a heartattack, they soon fell to squabbling again over her sexy cardiologist.But when the doctor turns up dead, and the police look suspiciously theirway, can they put aside their differences long enough to find the realmurder? Fast, funny, and furious.
Six stories with backgrounds spanning the history of England from1496 to 1679, unified by the dwelling known as the House at Old Vine.Amid tragedy, uncertainty, and change, its walls remain solid and thecharacters it shelters are never dull. Don't look inside Old Vineexpecting all happy endings. The resolutions of the stories are as variedand as real as life itself. The harshness of English country life isgraphically exposed, as well as the limitations which women, even highbornwomen, must accept.
In northern Scotland in December, five emotionally injured people findthemselves gathered together in an old Victorian estate house. The cold,dark, dreary time of year serves as a metaphor for the lives of the maincharacters. They manage to help one another to hope, and to begin thehealing process. The comfort of cozy domesticity draws the reader into awarm and compassionate place where healing and renewal are entirelyplausible.
A portrait of the disintegration of a marriage. Hyacinth had theperfect marriage to a handsome doctor, a beautiful home, two wonderfulchildren; and all is lost when she discovers her husband's infidelity.She gets a divorce, and her husband blackmails her to get full custody oftheir children. As she struggles to rebuild her life and lies to explainher circumstances, her horrible secret haunts her happiness. Will someonediscover what happened that night?
A moving and haunting account of the life of Antoinette Cosway,the fictional character who becomes the madwoman in the attic in CharlotteBronte's JANE EYRE. Antoinette Cosway grows up in a lush and insecureworld, the Caribbean after the liberation of the slaves. A white Creole,whose parents had been slaveholders, she belongs to neither class; and shebecomes increasingly isolated in an atmosphere of fear, recrimination andbitter anger. Her growth from child to woman is defined in terms of themen who control and dominate her: her father, stepfather, brother, andhusband. The book has a moody, sensuous, and dream-like atmosphere.
When Michael Berg falls ill tone day in pre-World War II Germany, when ayoung woman brings him to her apartment and helps him to wash up. When herecovers from his illness months later, he goes back to the woman'sapartment to thank her, setting in motion an incredible and tragic chainof events that will profoundly affect both of them for the rest of theirlives. Stylistically restrained yet possessing great emotional depth, itis a work of literature that will stand as one of the great stories on theHolocaust and the toll it has taken on the human psyche.
Set in 1950's Green Bay, Wisconsin, the story centers upon thelife of Bea Maxwell, the daughter of one of the community's most notablefamilies. Bea returns to Green Bay when her mother becomes ill, settlesin, makes friends, and develops a very successful career in real estate.She never marries, however, a fact that becomes a major thread of her ownpersonal story. Simple, beautifully crafted, and well written.
Horse lovers and fans of the racetrack alike will thrill as theaction unfolds among both humans and equines. Tender, affectionatedescriptions of horses, gripping moments at well-known tracks acrossAmerica, and the alluring, scandalous, soap-opera lifestyles of the rich,famous, greedy, ambitious characters who are the horse owners, trainers,and jockeys will keep most readers pulsing with adrenaline as they gallopthrough the pages of this lengthy novel.