Tag: Biographies & Memoirs

A memoir of love and loss, of being in the right place at the right time, and of the mysterious ways a beloved pet can bring people together, from CBS Sunday Morning News correspondent Martha Teichner.

There are true fairy tales. Stories that exist because impossible-to-explain coincidences change everything. Except in real life, not all of them have conventional, happily-ever-after endings. When Harry Met Minnie is that kind of fairy tale, with the vibrant, romantic New York City backdrop of its namesake, the movie When Harry Met Sally, and the bittersweet wisdom of Tuesdays with Morrie.

There’s a special camaraderie among early-morning dog walkers. Gathering at dog runs in the park, or strolling through the farmer’s market at Union Square before the bustling crowd appears, fellow pet owners become familiar–as do the personalities of their beloved animals. In this special space and time, a chance encounter with an old acquaintance changed Martha Teichner’s world. As fate would have it, her friend knew someone who was dying of cancer, from exposure to toxins after 9/11, and desperate to find a home for her dog, Harry. He was a Bull Terrier—the same breed as Martha’s dear Minnie. Would Martha consider giving Harry a safe, loving new home?

In this rich and touching narrative, Martha considers the ways our stories are shaped by the people we meet, and the profound love we can find by opening our hearts to unexpected encounters.

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Hawaii, 1948.

Troubled WWII hero turned deserter Wendell Lett desperately seeks a cure to his severe combat trauma, and The Preserve seems to be his salvation. Run by Lansdale, a mysterious intelligence officer, and Lett’s ambitious wartime XO Charlie Selfer, the secretive training camp promises relief from the terrors in his mind. Together with Kanani Alana, a tough-minded Hawaiian also looking for a new start at The Preserve, Lett begins to feel hopeful.

All illusions are shattered, though, when Lett discovers The Preserve’s true intentions—to rebuild him into a cold-blooded assassin. The deadly conspiracy runs deep, all the way to General Douglas MacArthur, and his refusal to cooperate is met with merciless punishment. His only hope is Kanani and her dangerous escape plan that would grant freedom from The Preserve—if he can hide while surviving the harsh wilderness of the Big Island.

Based on true events, The Preserve is a fast-paced historical thriller that will leave you breathless.

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From bestselling author Patrick deWitt, a brilliant and darkly comic novel about a wealthy widow and her adult son who flee New York for Paris in the wake of scandal and financial disintegration.

Frances Price – tart widow, possessive mother, and Upper East Side force of nature – is in dire straits, beset by scandal and impending bankruptcy. Her adult son Malcolm is no help, mired in a permanent state of arrested development. And then there’s the Price’s aging cat, Small Frank, who Frances believes houses the spirit of her late husband, an infamously immoral litigator and world-class cad whose gruesome tabloid death rendered Frances and Malcolm social outcasts.

Putting penury and pariahdom behind them, the family decides to cut their losses and head for the exit. One ocean voyage later, the curious trio land in their beloved Paris, the City of Light serving as a backdrop not for love or romance, but self destruction and economical ruin – to riotous effect. A number of singular characters serve to round out the cast: a bashful private investigator, an aimless psychic proposing a seance, and a doctor who makes house calls with his wine merchant in tow, to name a few.

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January 1946: London is emerging from the shadow of the Second World War, and writer Juliet Ashton is looking for her next book subject. Who could imagine that she would find it in a letter from a man she’s never met, a native of the island of Guernsey, who has come across her name written inside a book by Charles Lamb.

As Juliet and her new correspondent exchange letters, Juliet is drawn into the world of this man and his friends—and what a wonderfully eccentric world it is. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society—born as a spur-of-the-moment alibi when its members were discovered breaking curfew by the Germans occupying their island—boasts a charming, funny, deeply human cast of characters, from pig farmers to phrenologists, literature lovers all.

Juliet begins a remarkable correspondence with the society’s members, learning about their island, their taste in books, and the impact the recent German occupation has had on their lives. Captivated by their stories, she sets sail for Guernsey, and what she finds will change her forever…

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Jocelyn Minton is a woman torn between two worlds. Her mother grew up attending private schools and afternoon teas, but she married the local handyman. After her mother died when Joce was only five years old, her father remarried into his own class, and Joce became an outsider—until she met Edilean Harcourt. Although she was sixty years Joce’s senior, Miss Edi was a kindred soul who understood her like no one else ever had.

When Miss Edi passes away, she leaves Joce all her worldly possessions, including an eighteenth-century house and a letter with clues to a mystery that began in 1941. In the letter, Miss Edi also mentions that she has found the perfect man for Joce—a handsome young lawyer. Joce is shocked to learn that the mystery, the house, and the future love of her life are all in Edilean, a small town in Virginia that Miss Edi never told her about. Hurt that the woman who meant so much to her kept so many secrets, Jocelyn moves to this tight-knit village in an attempt to understand the legacy that has been left to her. As she begins to dig into Miss Edi’s mystery, she soon discovers some shocking surprises about her family’s history and her own future—and she meets a man with his own mysterious past.

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The Episode of the Wandering Knife: What’s a mother to do? When her daughter-in-law is slashed to death, the first thing is to hide the hunting knife that’s sure to implicate her innocent son. But it doesn’t stay hidden for long. It’s just turned up in a second victim, only to vanish once again. Whatever the cunning motive is for the ghastly crimes, the game of hide-and-seek with a deadly weapon is just beginning.

The Man Who Hid His Breakfast: A woman’s been found strangled in her bed. The only other person in the house is her daughter, Emma. Given Emma’s motive for wanting to escape the clutches of her domineering mother, the case seems open and shut. Except Inspector Tom Brent insists Emma couldn’t possibly have done it. His career depends on proving it. And it all starts with a very peculiar breakfast.

The Secret: Hilda Adams, the Homicide Bureau’s undercover “Miss Pinkerton,” is enlisted to investigate the odd behavior of Tony Rowland. The woman has suddenly broken off her engagement to a man she loves, crashed a car, and now keeps her elderly mother locked in her room. Does the Rowland family have reason to fear the neurotic woman? Or is Tony herself the one who’s afraid? If so, of what?

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A thrilling novel of love, crime, magic, fate and a boy’s coming of age in 1980s Australia, named one of the best literary fiction titles of 2019 by Library Journal.

Eli Bell’s life is complicated. His father is lost, his mother is in jail, and his stepdad is a heroin dealer. The most steadfast adult in Eli’s life is Slim—a notorious felon and national record-holder for successful prison escapes—who watches over Eli and August, his silent genius of an older brother.

Exiled far from the rest of the world in Darra, a neglected suburb populated by Polish and Vietnamese refugees, this twelve-year-old boy with an old soul and an adult mind is just trying to follow his heart, learn what it takes to be a good man, and train for a glamorous career in journalism. Life, however, insists on throwing obstacles in Eli’s path—most notably Tytus Broz, Brisbane’s legendary drug dealer.

But the real trouble lies ahead. Eli is about to fall in love, face off against truly bad guys, and fight to save his mother from a certain doom—all before starting high school…

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A tale of love and marriage, society balls and courtship, class and a touch of scandal, Pamela Mingle’s The Pursuit of Mary Bennet is a fresh take on one of the most beloved novels of all time, Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.

Growing up with four extraordinary sisters—beautiful and confident Jane and Elizabeth, and flirtatious and lighthearted Lydia and Kitty—wasn’t easy for an awkward bookworm like Mary Bennet. But with nearly all of her sisters married and gone from the household, the unrefined Mary has transformed into an attractive and eligible young woman in her own right.

When another scandal involving Lydia and Wickham threatens the Bennet house, Mary and Kitty are packed off to visit Jane and her husband, Charles Bingley, where they meet the dashing Henry Walsh. Eager and naïve, Mary is confused by Henry’s attentions, even as she finds herself drawing closer to him. Could this really be love—or the notions of a foolish girl unschooled in the art of romance and flirtation?

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Meanwhile, Dan Lord – a private investigator with a law degree who operates in the gray area of the legal system – has a new client. Hired by a congressman’s wife who fears for her safety, Dan soon learns she isn’t telling him the whole truth. A secret from her past has taken a deadly turn, and Dan’s latest client is proving to be his most dangerous.

As Dan and the DC detectives work their respective cases, a random street crime brings them crashing together, revealing that both investigations are connected to a string of unsolved murders. Working as a team, each new piece of evidence puts Dan and the detectives closer to their suspect… and closer to danger.

To survive, they need to learn the truth behind one Terminal Secret.

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The weather is just starting to warm up in Pretty Beach and as the delightful little seaside town begins to sparkle in the sunshine it welcomes Lulu Drinkwater back into its fold.

Lulu Drinkwater has loved, lost and just about everything in between. So, when she finds herself leaving her lovely, comfortable existence in London with nothing much more than a car and her gorgeous little dog a new start in Pretty Beach seems like the best thing that’s going to happen to her anytime soon.

As she sets to work on a dilapidated old house on Seafolly Passage, starts a new job and begins to turn her life around things in Pretty Beach are definitely looking on the rosier side of what she had just left. Even though she had thought that going back to Pretty Beach was very much a backward step in her life.

We follow along with Lulu, as not only the old house she has inherited, but also Lulu herself comes back to life, and just when she is least expecting it, boom, along comes Ollie Cavendish and knocks her for six.

Will Lulu Drinkwater find love least when she was expecting it or will she decide that, actually, life on her own, really isn’t quite so bad after all?

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In less than twenty-four hours Pepper Dunn loses her job, her boyfriend, and her home. It’s the worst day of her life…

But when Pepper discovers she’s a witch and has inherited the most important store in the magical town of Magnolia Cove, Alabama, she’s as happy as a pig in mud.

Too bad the shop is a familiar pet store and Pepper doesn’t like animals—not even a teensy bit. Determined to sell the shop and get the heck out of town, Pepper’s plans go haywire when a local storeowner winds up dead and Pepper gets accused of murder.

Thrust into a magical mystery, Pepper teams up with a mysterious private detective and a cat so traumatized by the murder that she’s not talking—and that cat could hold the key to Pepper’s innocence.

Now Pepper must avoid trouble, solve the mystery, and placate her new grandmother, who keeps a strict ten p.m. curfew that’s enforced by the talking end of her shotgun…

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