In 1943, Annie, Joan, Bernice, and Helen's hopes of romance are sidelined by the War, but they are resolved to make the best of it. When Annie's Sylvester is called to active duty, she finds that putting her energies into helping Joan find her true love takes the sting out of missing him. The magical party at the church hall brings bright hope to Joan, but will the handsome Dick Thimble continue his attentions to her or be taken in by the attractive and wealthy Gloria Marini?

Then, when Helen's husband Harry and Sylvester go MIA at the same time, Joan and Bernice are determined to keep their dear friends from losing faith. As Christmas approaches, they are all possessed of a very special kind of hope. But will their prayers be answered?

The Call to Serve is Book I of the Serve Series about Friendship and Love in the World War II, 1940s era.

You'll Grow Out of It hilariously and candidly explores the journey of the twenty-first-century woman.

As both a tomboy and a late bloomer, comedian Jessi Klein grew up feeling more like an outsider than a participant in the rites of modern femininity.

In You'll Grow Out of It, Klein offers—through an incisive collection of real-life stories—a relentlessly funny yet poignant take on a variety of topics she has experienced along her strange journey to womanhood and beyond. These include her transformation from a Pippi Longstocking-esque tomboy to an "are-you-a-lesbian-or-what" tom man, attempting to find watchable porn, and identifying the difference between being called "ma'am" and "miss" ("Miss" sounds like you weigh ninety-nine pounds).

Raw, relatable, and consistently hilarious, You'll Grow Out of It is a one-of-a-kind book by a singular and irresistible comic voice.

In this epic and unique love story set in the wild mountains of West Virginia, a young woman and her unlikely friends find their way through multiple job hazards and terrible working conditions to achieve the unexpected.

Andrea never thought she’d live in a camp trailer or work outdoors in inhospitable climates; but eager to leave the stress and tedium of grad-school behind, she sets off with her estranged grandpa, Buck, to build a pipeline through the rugged mountains of West Virginia. She’s determined to understand the man and the family divide that drove him away. Once the job starts, she forms an unlikely friendship with Nick, the rough and tumble foreman of the bending crew. Most of the guys aren’t willing to accept her, and Rooster, the handsome, cocky, tie-in foreman, is determined she’s a distraction.

But building a pipeline is fraught with danger, fatigue, and confrontation as egos collide. Caught up in the all-male social microcosm, Andrea can’t help but understand the pecking order, and she’s at the bottom. Being a woman makes it even more unlikely she’ll be accepted. Buck proves to be a taskmaster, but a kindhearted teddy-bear of a man under a gruff exterior, and Andrea comes to love him, opening herself up to the pain of his past. Rooster and Andrea are drawn to each other, yet they know an on-the-job romance will only cause problems. Rooster is tormented by his own past, and determined to prove himself to Buck, a pipeline ledged. Messing with the old man’s granddaughter is a line Rooster refuses to cross. But as Andrea shows herself to be a hard worker and a valuable member of the crew, she earns Rooster’s respect and he can’t keep his distance. It seems the couple can’t go back, the relationship can’t move forward, and they can’t let go. Both will have to make sacrifices and take a chance on ruining their credibility in order to be together.

When Weston Beaudurant’s buddy, rodeo clown Cody Goode, is killed in a rodeo accident—gored by the maniacal bull Baby Face that Weston is riding, Weston is consumed with guilt.

The day after the accident, while going through Cody’s papers, lawyer Wynona Vasquez discovers that he had been secretly engaged to a Thai immigrant who is arriving by train that evening.

Elected by unanimous decision to be the welcoming committee, Weston arrives at the train station prepared for anything but the lovely forlorn creature he finds waiting in the rain. Though appearing waif-like, Song Phan-Rang is anything but fragile. Her mettle quickly rises to the surface in her determination to remain in Y-oh-ming.

Forced together by their circumstances, Weston and Song are explosive. Used to solitude, Weston is driven crazy by the obliging Song. But as Song shows her prowess not only as a housekeeper and cook, but as a rider and rancher as well, Weston discovers that against his best efforts (and damned if he'll ever admit it)—he's falling in love.

The morning after the Christmas Cotillion, where cowboys by the dozen lined up for a dance with the exotic Song, and Weston wrangled the last one, she discovers her visa has expired. Pledging her Uncle Thieu's farm in Thailand as a dowry, Song asks Weston to marry her. Swearing that this is not a good idea at all—he does.

Song blossoms in America. Weston’s sister Olive, a schoolteacher, helps Song with her English, and introduces her to the ideas of the Founding Fathers, most notably Tom Paine. Firebrand and activist Wynona employs Song in her office. Her first assignment is working with Shoshone shaman Mad Bull and Bull's young assistant, Jack Deerstalker, as they fight a referendum that would allow gambling on their reservation.

As winter melts into spring, Song and Weston continue to profess their marriage is simply one of convenience, though it is obvious to everybody that the two are in love. Obvious to everyone that is, but Jack Deerstalker who has fallen for her himself.

One night as Weston returns earlier than expected from a rodeo, he finds Jack in his living room, alone with Song. Enraged, Weston explodes, throwing Jack out of the house. That night a fierce winter storm blows. The creek rises and floods, endangering thirty head of cattle caught on the other side. Song springs into action, riding side by side with Weston. When a baby calf slips into the icy creek, Song plunges in after it. Together, Weston and Song pull the animal free. Weston is knocked speechless by her bravery. Later, as he warms her by a roaring fire, Song and Weston make love for the first time.

A few days later, Wynona and Song are introduced to the case of illegal immigrant Thai workers, forced to toil as slaves in the garment industry in El Segundo, California. Song becomes deeply involved with the workers and their plight—the search for a desperate promise of freedom. With her work, she discovers the power true freedom holds.

But her work and growing sense of the true power of freedom begins to tear at the budding love between Weston and Song. Meanwhile, the referendum Jack, Wynona, and Song fought so hard against has been defeated. There will be no gambling on the reservation. Jack organizes a rodeo to raise money for an investment deal for the reservation. Weston agrees to ride—on one condition. Jack gets the bull, Baby Face, that killed Cody.

The night before the rodeo, Weston finds a letter Song has written to the garment workers she is helping. “We are, every one of us, entitled to a life with dignity. To life with honor. There are those who would attempt to steal our dignity, to seize our honor. But it is only when we allow this deepest core of our being to be ripped from us that we become enslaved. Remember, you, too, have been touched by God.”

The next morning, Weston leaves for the rodeo without her. At the rodeo, in an eerie replay of Cody’s accident, the bull throws Weston. Song nurses Weston back to health, but still torn between freedom's power and her growing love, Song knows she must ultimately choose.

Several weeks later, with Weston well on his way to mending, Song and Olive host a dinner party at Snowy Moon to celebrate Weston’s recovery. Along with Zeb, Jack Deerstalker and Mad Bull are there to join in the festivities. But in the middle of the revelry, the phone rings: it’s Jenny Chang and it’s about the case of the immigrant workers. Song knows she must go.

The next day, Weston drives her to the train station. Returning to the ranch, Weston, still suffering from his injuries, limps painfully to the corral, and saddles up his horse. He rides across the rolling plains to the waterfall where he and Song had spent so much time in happier times now long gone by. Watching the water tumble by like his lost hope, suddenly, Weston picks up a stone, and fires it into the tumultuous fall. He whistles for his horse, and throws himself into the saddle.

Across the plains, the train continues to roll. Inside, an uproar arises among the passengers. Song forces her way to the window. Outside, riding like hell, is Weston. Song’s heart begins to pound. And suddenly, she knows…. Finally, she knows. Song grabs her suitcase, and elbows her way through the crowd. Before the train fully stops, she is bounding from the platform…and rushing into Weston’s arms.

Aging and reclusive Hollywood movie icon Evelyn Hugo is finally ready to tell the truth about her glamorous and scandalous life. But when she chooses unknown magazine reporter Monique Grant for the job, no one is more astounded than Monique herself. Why her? Why now?

Monique is not exactly on top of the world. Her husband has left her, and her professional life is going nowhere. Regardless of why Evelyn has selected her to write her biography, Monique is determined to use this opportunity to jumpstart her career.

Summoned to Evelyn's luxurious apartment, Monique listens in fascination as the actress tells her story. From making her way to Los Angeles in the 1950s to her decision to leave show business in the '80s, and, of course, the seven husbands along the way, Evelyn unspools a tale of ruthless ambition, unexpected friendship, and a great forbidden love. Monique begins to feel a very real connection to the legendary star, but as Evelyn's story near its conclusion, it becomes clear that her life intersects with Monique's own in tragic and irreversible ways.

Written with Reid's signature talent for creating "complex, likable characters", this is a mesmerizing journey through the splendor of old Hollywood into the harsh realities of the present day as two women struggle with what it means—and what it costs—to face the truth.

The Facts of Life is a poignant and beautifully drawn graphic memoir by Paula Knight. This visual exploration delves deep into the stigma-inducing health issues of miscarriage, childlessness, and chronic medical conditions.

Set in the 1970s, best friends Polly and April collect hazy knowledge about the “facts of life”—sex, reproduction, and gender norms—through the gossip of older girls, magazines, and books, along with the everyday behavior of their families and teachers. As the years pass, they each choose paths they believe will enable them to “have it all.”

April’s dreams of motherhood come true quickly, while Polly enthusiastically builds a career. However, her desire and hope to start a family become less firmly ingrained, influenced by her struggles with chronic illness. Polly's journey with her partner Jack is fraught with debates on parenthood, heartbreak of repeated miscarriages, and the effects of illness on their ability to have a child.

Throughout this journey, Polly is forced to reexamine what family can mean in a society that often associates family—and womanhood—with children. The Facts of Life is a funny, sometimes painful narrative that explores what it takes to be a woman, a partner, and a mother... or not.

A few years ago, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie received a letter from a dear friend from childhood, asking her how to raise her baby girl as a feminist. Dear Ijeawele is Adichie's letter of response.

Here are fifteen invaluable suggestions -compelling, direct, wryly funny, and perceptive- for how to empower a daughter to become a strong, independent woman. From encouraging her to choose a helicopter, and not only a doll, as a toy if she so desires; having open conversations with her about clothes, makeup, and sexuality; debunking the myth that women are somehow biologically arranged to be in the kitchen making dinner, and that men can "allow" women to have full careers, Dear Ijeawele goes right to the heart of sexual politics in the twenty-first century. It will start a new and urgently needed conversation about what it really means to be a woman today.

A young woman without prospects at a ball in Gilded Age Newport, Rhode Island is a target for a certain kind of “suitor.” At the Memorial Day Ball during the Panic of 1893, impoverished but feisty Penelope Stanton draws the unwanted advances of a villainous millionaire banker who preys on distressed women—the incorrigible Edgar Daggers. Over a series of encounters, he promises Penelope the financial security she craves, but at what cost? Skilled in the art of flirtation, Edgar is not without his charms, and Penelope is attracted to him against her better judgment. Initially, as Penelope grows into her own in the burgeoning early Women’s Suffrage Movement, Edgar exerts pressure, promising to use his power and access to help her advance. But can he be trusted, or are his words part of an elaborate mind game played between him and his wife? During a glittering age where a woman’s reputation is her most valuable possession, Penelope must decide whether to compromise her principles for love, lust, and the allure of an easier life.

I always thought twenty-five was the year I’d finally be grown up, the year the world would finally start taking me seriously, the year I would finally know what I wanted. And yet…

The Year I Turned 25 catalogues the ups and downs of a TV reporter in her mid-twenties, who takes on the added challenge of training an adorable, but misbehaving puppy. Sometimes melancholic and other times hilarious, this brave and thought-provoking memoir approaches dating, sexual assault, and mental health in a personal, but relatable way.

This book is for every woman who ever asked herself if something was wrong with her and for every dog lover who discovered true love in a puppy.

This project isn't about – and was never about – figuring out who I am. It’s about figuring out how to figure out who I am.

A young woman follows winter across five continents on a physical and spiritual journey that tests her body and soul, in this transformative memoir, full of heart and courage, that speaks to the adventurousness in all of us.

Steph Jagger had always been a force of nature. Dissatisfied with the passive, limited roles she saw for women growing up, she emulated the men in her life—chasing success, climbing the corporate ladder, ticking the boxes, playing by the rules of a masculine ideal. She was accomplished. She was living The Dream. But it wasn't her dream.

Then the universe caught her attention with a sign: Raise Restraining Device. Steph had seen this ski lift sign on countless occasions in the past, but the familiar words suddenly became a personal call to shake off the life she had built in a search for something different, something more.

Steph soon decided to walk away from the success and security she had worked long and hard to obtain. She quit her job, took a second mortgage on her house, sold everything except her ski equipment and her laptop, and bought a bundle of plane tickets. For the next year, she followed winter across North and South America, Asia, Europe, and New Zealand—and up and down the mountains of nine countries—on a mission to ski four million vertical feet in a year.

What hiking was for Cheryl Strayed, skiing became for Steph: a crucible in which to crack open her life and get to the very center of herself. But she would have to break herself down—first physically, then emotionally—before she could start to rebuild. And it was through this journey that she came to understand how to be a woman, how to love, and how to live authentically.

Electrifying, heartfelt, and full of humor, Unbound is Steph's story—an odyssey of courage and self-discovery that, like Wild and Eat, Pray, Love, will inspire readers to remove their own restraining devices and pursue the life they are meant to lead.

The thrilling sequel to the Hugo and Nebula-winning Binti by Nnedi Okorafor, and a finalist for the 2018 Hugo and Nommo Awards.

It’s been a year since Binti and Okwu enrolled at Oomza University. A year since Binti was declared a hero for uniting two warring planets. A year since she found friendship in the unlikeliest of places. And now she must return home to her people, with her friend Okwu by her side, to face her family and face her elders. But Okwu will be the first of his race to set foot on Earth in over a hundred years, and the first ever to come in peace. After generations of conflict can human and Meduse ever learn to truly live in harmony?

Un revólver para salir de noche, escrita por Monika Zgustova, es una obra que sigue su exploración de la figura femenina en el siglo XX. En esta ocasión, la autora se enfoca en Véra Nabokov, la esposa de Vladimir Nabokov, quien desempeñó un papel clave en la vida y el éxito del renombrado escritor.

Véra Nabokov es retratada como una mujer de gran claridad, que eligió dedicar su vida al triunfo de su esposo. Ella fue la primera en leer los manuscritos de Vladimir, encargándose de transcribirlos y prepararlos para su publicación. Además, Véra organizó la vida de la familia Nabokov durante su exilio, viviendo primero en Berlín, luego en París y, finalmente, en Estados Unidos. Allí convenció a Vladimir de cambiar al inglés y centrarse en la novela, hasta que volvieron a Europa y se establecieron en Suiza.

La novela también explora las dinámicas de poder en la relación de los Nabokov, cuestionando si Véra era realmente independiente o si su existencia giraba completamente en torno a su marido. La narrativa se sumerge en las complejas interacciones de Nabokov con otras mujeres y el impacto que tuvieron en su vida y obra, a pesar de los esfuerzos de Véra por mantener el control.

Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls is a children's book packed with 100 bedtime stories about the lives of extraordinary women from the past and the present, illustrated by 60 female artists from all over the world. This book inspires girls with the stories of great women, from Elizabeth I to Serena Williams.

This must-have volume brings readers on an empowering journey, introducing them to the real-life adventures of trailblazing women from Elizabeth I to Malala Yousafzai. The unique narrative style transforms each biography into a fairytale, filling readers with wonder and curiosity to know more about each hero. Each woman's story is accompanied by a full-page, full-color portrait that captures her rebel spirit.

Have you ever wished you could live in an earlier, more romantic era?

Ladies, welcome to the 19th century, where there's arsenic in your face cream, a pot of cold pee sits under your bed, and all of your underwear is crotchless. (Why? Shush, dear. A lady doesn't question.)

UNMENTIONABLE is your hilarious, illustrated, scandalously honest (yet never crass) guide to the secrets of Victorian womanhood, giving you detailed advice on:

• What to wear
• Where to relieve yourself
• How to conceal your loathsome addiction to menstruating
• What to expect on your wedding night
• How to be the perfect Victorian wife
• Why masturbating will kill you
• And more

Irresistibly charming, laugh-out-loud funny, and featuring nearly 200 images from Victorian publications, UNMENTIONABLE will inspire a whole new level of respect for Elizabeth Bennett, Scarlet O'Hara, Jane Eyre, and all of our great, great grandmothers.

(And it just might leave you feeling ecstatically grateful to live in an age of pants, super absorbency tampons, epidurals, anti-depressants, and not-dying-of-the-syphilis-your-husband-brought-home.)

The Secret Loves of Geek Girls is a non-fiction anthology that combines prose, comics, and illustrated stories to explore the lives and loves of an outstanding cast of female creators. This collection includes contributions from celebrated names such as Margaret Atwood, Mariko Tamaki, Trina Robbins, Marguerite Bennett, Noelle Stevenson, Marjorie Liu, Carla Speed McNeil, and many more.

This compelling compilation shares tales from both perspectives: the fans who are passionate about video games, comics, and sci-fi, as well as the creators and industry insiders who bring these worlds to life. It offers a unique glimpse into the hearts and minds of women who are deeply engaged in the geek culture.

Convenience Store Woman is an ironic and sharp-eyed look at contemporary work culture and the pressures to conform, as well as a charming and completely fresh portrait of an unforgettable heroine.

Keiko Furukura had always been considered a strange child, and her parents always worried how she would get on in the real world, so when she takes on a job in a convenience store while at university, they are delighted for her. For her part, in the convenience store she finds a predictable world mandated by the store manual, which dictates how the workers should act and what they should say, and she copies her coworkers' style of dress and speech patterns so that she can play the part of a normal person. However, eighteen years later, at age 36, she is still in the same job, has never had a boyfriend, and has only few friends. She feels comfortable in her life, but is aware that she is not living up to society's expectations and causing her family to worry about her. When a similarly alienated but cynical and bitter young man comes to work in the store, he will upset Keiko's contented stasis--but will it be for the better?

Wide Sargasso Sea, a masterpiece of modern fiction, was Jean Rhys’s return to the literary center stage. She had a startling early career and was known for her extraordinary prose and haunting women characters. With Wide Sargasso Sea, her last and best-selling novel, she ingeniously brings into light one of fiction’s most fascinating characters: the madwoman in the attic from Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. This mesmerizing work introduces us to Antoinette Cosway, a sensual and protected young woman who is sold into marriage to the prideful Mr. Rochester. Rhys portrays Cosway amidst a society so driven by hatred, so skewed in its sexual relations, that it can literally drive a woman out of her mind.

A new introduction by the award-winning Edwidge Danticat, author most recently of Claire of the Sea Light, expresses the enduring importance of this work. Drawing on her own Caribbean background, she illuminates the setting’s impact on Rhys and her astonishing work.

From her prison cell, Firdaus, sentenced to die for having killed a pimp in a Cairo street, tells of her life from village childhood to city prostitute.

Society's retribution for her act of defiance - death - she welcomes as the only way she can finally be free.

This powerful narrative takes you through the struggles and triumphs of a woman who defies all odds to find her freedom.

Everyone Celaena Sardothien loves has been taken from her. But she's at last returned to the empire—for vengeance, to rescue her once-glorious kingdom, and to confront the shadows of her past.

She has embraced her identity as Aelin Galathynius, Queen of Terrasen. But before she can reclaim her throne, she must fight.

She will fight for her cousin, a warrior prepared to die for her. She will fight for her friend, a young man trapped in an unspeakable prison. And she will fight for her people, enslaved to a brutal king and awaiting their lost queen's triumphant return.

The fourth volume in the New York Times bestselling series continues Celaena's epic journey and builds to a passionate, agonizing crescendo that might just shatter her world.

From the author of Nine Perfect Strangers, Apples Never Fall, and The Husband’s Secret comes the #1 New York Times bestselling novel about the dangerous little lies we tell ourselves just to survive. A murder... A tragic accident... Or just parents behaving badly? What’s indisputable is that someone is dead.

Madeline is a force to be reckoned with. She’s funny, biting, and passionate; she remembers everything and forgives no one. Celeste is the kind of beautiful woman who makes the world stop and stare but she is paying a price for the illusion of perfection. New to town, single mom Jane is so young that another mother mistakes her for a nanny. She comes with a mysterious past and a sadness beyond her years. These three women are at different crossroads, but they will all wind up in the same shocking place.

Big Little Lies is a brilliant take on ex-husbands and second wives, mothers and daughters, schoolyard scandal, and the little lies that can turn lethal.

Artist's daughter Penelope Keeling can look back on a full and varied life: a Bohemian childhood in London and Cornwall, an unhappy wartime marriage, and the one man she truly loved. She has brought up three children - and learned to accept them as they are. Yet she is far too energetic and independent to settle sweetly into pensioned-off old-age.

And when she discovers that her most treasured possession, her father's painting, The Shell Seekers, is now worth a small fortune, it is Penelope who must make the decisions that will determine whether her family can continue to survive as a family, or be split apart.

Is it possible to expose Chicago’s hottest player—without getting played?

This is the story I've been waiting for all my life, and its name is Malcolm Kyle Preston Logan Saint. Don’t be fooled by that last name though. There’s nothing holy about the man except the hell his parties raise.

The hottest entrepreneur Chicago has ever known, he’s a man’s man with too much money to spend and too many women vying for his attention. Mysterious. Privileged. Legendary. His entire life he’s been surrounded by the press as they dig for tidbits to see if his fairytale life is for real or all mirrors and social media lies. Since he hit the scene, his secrets have been his and his alone to keep.

And that’s where I come in. Assigned to investigate Saint and reveal his elusive personality, I’m determined to make him the story that will change my career. But I never imagined he would change my life. Bit by bit, I start to wonder if I'm the one discovering him...or if he's uncovering me.

What happens when the man they call Saint, makes you want to sin?

Pattyn’s father is dead. Now she’s on the run in this riveting companion to the New York Times bestseller Burned. Pattyn Von Stratten’s father is dead, and Pattyn is on the run. After far too many years of abuse at the hands of her father, and after the tragic loss of her beloved Ethan and their unborn child, Pattyn is desperate for peace.

Only her sister Jackie knows what happened that fatal night, but she is stuck at home with their mother, who clings to normalcy by allowing the truth to be covered up by their domineering community leaders. Her father might be finally gone, but without Pattyn, Jackie is desperately isolated.

Alone and in disguise, Pattyn starts a new life as a migrant worker on a California ranch. But is it even possible to rebuild a life when everything you’ve known has burned to ash and lies seem far safer than the truth?

Bestselling author Ellen Hopkins continues the riveting story of Pattyn Von Stratten she began in Burned to explore what it takes to rise from the ashes, put ghosts to rest, and step into a future.

In love we find out who we want to be.In war we find out who we are.FRANCE, 1939In the quiet village of Carriveau, Vianne Mauriac says good-bye to her husband, Antoine, as he heads for the Front. She doesn’t believe that the Nazis will invade France…but invade they do, in droves of marching soldiers, in caravans of trucks and tanks, in planes that fill the skies and drop bombs upon the innocent. When a German captain requisitions Vianne’s home, she and her daughter must live with the enemy or lose everything. Without food or money or hope, as danger escalates all around them, she is forced to make one impossible choice after another to keep her family alive.Vianne’s sister, Isabelle, is a rebellious eighteen-year-old, searching for purpose with all the reckless passion of youth. While thousands of Parisians march into the unknown terrors of war, she meets Gaëtan, a partisan who believes the French can fight the Nazis from within France, and she falls in love as only the young can…completely. But when he betrays her, Isabelle joins the Resistance and never looks back, risking her life time and again to save others.With courage, grace and powerful insight, bestselling author Kristin Hannah captures the epic panorama of World War II and illuminates an intimate part of history seldom seen: the women’s war. The Nightingale tells the stories of two sisters, separated by years and experience, by ideals, passion and circumstance, each embarking on her own dangerous path toward survival, love, and freedom in German-occupied, war-torn France—a heartbreakingly beautiful novel that celebrates the resilience of the human spirit and the durability of women. It is a novel for everyone, a novel for a lifetime.

"I'm not Mavis anymore." For years, song bird Nikki Mills (aka Mavis Mills) dreamed of the freedom and lifestyle that came with being a platinum record artist. To get there, she put her career and son first and her love life on hold. Now an international singing sensation, Nikki discovers her reality is very different from what she had imagined. Determined not to be caged by the fan and media circus, Nikki struggles to protect her son, their relationship and lifestyle. That struggle is complicated by her desire for a love life.

The unearthing of Nikki's dark past, known only to her inner circle, creates a paparazzi whirlwind that threatens to destroy her. Can she find the courage to withstand the media storm? Can she transcend her past? How will she resolve matters of the heart? Set between 2000 and 2002, the themes in Song Bird centre on discovery, belonging, transformation, dealing with adversity, and matters of the heart.

Six romances, one revolution, the story of the century.

At the start of the twentieth century, on the edge of the Russian Empire, a family prospers. It owes its success to a delicious chocolate recipe, passed down the generations with great solemnity and caution. A caution which is justified- this is a recipe for ecstasy that carries a very bitter aftertaste... 

Stasia learns it from her Georgian father and takes it north, following her new husband, Simon, to his posting at the centre of the Russian Revolution in St Petersburg. Stasia's is only the first in a symphony of grand but all too often doomed romances that swirl from sweet to sour in this epic tale of the red century. 

Tumbling down the years, and across vast expanses of longing and loss, generation after generation of this compelling family hears echoes and sees reflections. Great characters and greater relationships come and go and come again; the world shakes, and shakes some more, and the reader rejoices to have found at last one of those glorious old books in which you can live and learn, be lost and found, and make indelible new friends. 

It is 1922, and London is tense. Ex-servicemen are disillusioned; the out-of-work and the hungry are demanding change. And in South London, in a genteel Camberwell villa—a large, silent house now bereft of brothers, husband, and even servants—life is about to be transformed as impoverished widow Mrs. Wray and her spinster daughter, Frances, are obliged to take in lodgers.

With the arrival of Lilian and Leonard Barber, a modern young couple of the “clerk class,” the routines of the house will be shaken up in unexpected ways. Little do the Wrays know just how profoundly their new tenants will alter the course of Frances’s life—or, as passions mount and frustration gathers, how far-reaching, and how devastating, the disturbances will be.

A love story, a tension-filled crime story, and a beautifully atmospheric portrait of a fascinating time and place, The Paying Guests is Sarah Waters’s finest achievement yet.

Set in seventeenth century Amsterdam—a city ruled by glittering wealth and oppressive religion—this masterful debut is steeped in atmosphere and shimmering with mystery.

On a brisk autumn day in 1686, eighteen-year-old Nella Oortman arrives in Amsterdam to begin a new life as the wife of illustrious merchant trader Johannes Brandt. But her new home, while splendorous, is not welcoming. Johannes is kind yet distant, always locked in his study or at his warehouse office—leaving Nella alone with his sister, the sharp-tongued and forbidding Marin.

But Nella's world changes when Johannes presents her with an extraordinary wedding gift: a cabinet-sized replica of their home. To furnish her gift, Nella engages the services of a miniaturist—an elusive and enigmatic artist whose tiny creations mirror their real-life counterparts in eerie and unexpected ways.

Johannes' gift helps Nella to pierce the closed world of the Brandt household. But as she uncovers its unusual secrets, she begins to understand—and fear—the escalating dangers that await them all. In this repressively pious society where gold is worshipped second only to God, to be different is a threat to the moral fabric of society, and not even a man as rich as Johannes is safe.

Only one person seems to see the fate that awaits them. Is the miniaturist the key to their salvation...or the architect of their destruction?

Enchanting, beautiful, and exquisitely suspenseful, The Miniaturist is a magnificent story of love and obsession, betrayal and retribution, appearance and truth.

Alicia is a compelling and heart-wrenching autobiography of Alicia Appleman-Jurman, a young Jewish girl who survived the horrors of the Nazi occupation during World War II. At the tender age of thirteen, Alicia faced unimaginable tragedy as she lost her entire family to the Nazis. Despite this, she exhibited extraordinary courage and resilience, saving the lives of thousands of Jews. Her story is one of humanity and heroism, vividly expressing the capacity for goodness in the face of Nazi brutality.

Alicia's journey began in the East Polish town of Buczacz in 1935, where she was raised amidst growing anti-Semitism. With the onset of the Russian invasion and subsequent Nazi occupation, the reality of war became starkly apparent. Fleeing through fields and forests, Alicia escaped her captors and encountered fellow refugees, occasionally finding safe harbors. Her unwavering faith in family and humanity supported her through physical and mental deprivation.

After the war, Alicia continued to risk her life by leading Polish Jews to freedom in Palestine through a clandestine route. Her story is not just one of survival, but of active resistance to oppression. Alicia's legacy is a testament to her ferocious bravery and remarkable spirit, making her a beacon of hope and inspiration for both Jews and non-Jews alike.

Afghan-American Nadia Hashimi's literary debut novel is a searing tale of powerlessness, fate, and the freedom to control one's own destiny. This story combines the cultural flavor and emotional resonance of the works of Khaled Hosseini, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Lisa See.

In Kabul, 2007, with a drug-addicted father and no brothers, Rahima and her sisters can only sporadically attend school and rarely leave the house. Their only hope lies in the ancient custom of bacha posh, which allows young Rahima to dress and be treated as a boy until she is of marriageable age. As a son, she can attend school, go to the market, and chaperone her older sisters.

But Rahima is not the first in her family to adopt this unusual custom. A century earlier, her great-aunt, Shekiba, left orphaned by an epidemic, saved herself and built a new life the same way. Crisscrossing in time, The Pearl That Broke Its Shell interweaves the tales of these two women separated by a century who share similar destinies. But what will happen once Rahima is of marriageable age? Will Shekiba always live as a man? And if Rahima cannot adapt to life as a bride, how will she survive?

In this instant New York Times bestseller, comedian and Chelsea Lately regular Jen Kirkman champions every woman’s right to follow her own path—even if that means being “childfree by choice.”

In her debut memoir, actress and comedian Jen Kirkman delves into her off-camera life with the same snarky sensitivity and oddball humor she brings to her sold-out standup shows and the Chelsea Lately roundtable, where she is a writer and regular performer.

As a woman of a certain age who has no desire to start a family, Jen often finds herself confronted (by friends, family, and total strangers) about her decision to be “childfree by choice.” I Can Barely Take Care of Myself offers honest and hilarious responses to questions like “Who will take care of you when you get old?” (Servants!) and provides a peek into the psyche—and weird and wonderful life—of a woman who has always marched to the beat of a different drummer and is pretty sure she’s not gonna change her mind, but thanks for your concern.

The Winthrop Woman, first published in 1958 and set in the early 17th century, is a bestselling novel and a follow-up to Katherine. It follows Elizabeth Winthrop, a courageous Puritan woman who finds herself at odds with her heritage and surroundings.

A real historical figure, Elizabeth married into the family of Governor John Winthrop of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. In those times of hardship, famine, and Indian attacks, many believed that the only way to prosper was through the strong, bigoted, and theocratic government that John Winthrop favored.

Defying the government and her family, Elizabeth befriends the famous heretic Anne Hutchinson, challenges an army captain, and dares to love as her heart commanded. Through Elizabeth’s three marriages, struggles with her passionate beliefs, and countless rebellions, a powerful tale of fortitude, humiliation, and ultimate triumph shines through.

Against a background of rigidity and conformity, she dares to befriend Anne Hutchinson at the moment of her banishment from the Massachusetts Bay Colony; dares to challenge a determined army captain bent on the massacre of her friends, the Siwanoy Indians; and, above all, dares to love a man as her heart and her whole being commanded.

Anya Seton’s riveting historical novel portrays the fortitude, humiliation, and ultimate triumph of the Winthrop woman, who believed in a concept of happiness transcending that of her own day.

A brilliant literary debut, inspired by a true story: the final days of a young woman accused of murder in Iceland in 1829. Set against Iceland's stark landscape, Hannah Kent brings to vivid life the story of Agnes, who, charged with the brutal murder of her former master, is sent to an isolated farm to await execution. Horrified at the prospect of housing a convicted murderer, the family at first avoids Agnes. Only Tóti, a priest Agnes has mysteriously chosen to be her spiritual guardian, seeks to understand her. But as Agnes's death looms, the farmer's wife and their daughters learn there is another side to the sensational story they've heard.

Riveting and rich with lyricism, Burial Rites evokes a dramatic existence in a distant time and place, and asks the question, how can one woman hope to endure when her life depends upon the stories told by others?

A voyage across the ocean becomes the odyssey of a lifetime for a young Irish woman.

Ireland, 1912
Fourteen members of a small village set sail on RMS Titanic, hoping to find a better life in America. For seventeen-year-old Maggie Murphy, the journey is bittersweet. Though her future lies in an unknown new place, her heart remains in Ireland with Séamus, the sweetheart she left behind. When disaster strikes, Maggie is one of the few passengers in steerage to survive. Waking up alone in a New York hospital, she vows never to speak of the terror and panic of that fateful night again.

Chicago, 1982
Adrift after the death of her father, Grace Butler struggles to decide what comes next. When her great-grandmother Maggie shares the painful secret about the Titanic that she's harbored for almost a lifetime, the revelation gives Grace new direction—and leads both her and Maggie to unexpected reunions with those they thought lost long ago.

Inspired by true events, The Girl Who Came Home poignantly blends fact and fiction to explore the Titanic tragedy's impact and its lasting repercussions on survivors and their descendants.

Ki Longfellow, acclaimed author of Flow Down Like Silver: Hypatia of Alexandria, The Secret Magdalene, and Houdini Heart has penned Walks Away Woman, a remarkable story of an ordinary woman driven to an extraordinary decision. Overwhelmed, overwrought, and overweight, an everyday housewife walks into the Sonoran Desert to die.

But there's more to a desert than sand or death. There's thorns, venom, claws, heat, thirst, other people—and unexpected adventure.

As she says, "It's because your gums are receding and your hair is thinning and your neckline is sagging. It's because all you ever had was your youth, and you spent that so long ago now it's hard to remember what you bought with it. Mrs. Warner shuddered in her loosening skin, was almost running now. It's because you're scared. Lately you're so scared and so aimless and so useless you sleep half the day and panic half the night. In between, you watch TV to ward off the evil of watching yourself. So—if not death, then what?"

When she tripped over a rock—and in tripping, plunged over the edge of a cliff—Mrs. Warner had forgotten the desert, the cacti, the heat, the hunger, the thirst. All that was left was an ever increasing panic and an ever deepening desperation. And then there was the shock of falling and the screaming inside: Here we go, here we go—but don't hurt, don't hurt. Oh god, please! Don't hurt!

After that, there was nothing.

Until she woke up at the bottom of an arroyo with a lot of surviving to do. And all she had was her purse. It wasn't much to face a desert with, but Mrs. Warner, born Molly Brock, was in a fight for her life, the life she didn't want until she was just about to lose it.

What's an everyday housewife to do? In Molly's case, a lot. And every bit of it changing her from ordinary to extraordinary.

Mavis was born to be a songbird. Her parents named her after one, a bird with a distinctive song worthy of poetry. With her wings clipped by circumstance, Mavis spent six years of her life grounded and her dream of soaring flight almost forgotten. Unexpectedly, Mavis discovers she has a choice: accept a life that is ordinary or be among the one percent that shine. It is a long way to the top in the Australian music industry and more than a name needs to change in order to succeed. It is a gruelling challenge with exhausting demands and subtle traps for the uninitiated. Can Mavis make it? Can she build a better life for herself and her son? Can she have it all?

Every generation that has faced life's challenges and who has tried to find the balance between career, parenthood, and having it all will find resonance with the themes of discovery, triumphing against the odds, reinvention, disparate families, parenting, friendship, and the nature of love; themes that resonate with all ages.

Life Song is a joyfully triumphant confection that resonates with layers of interest. The core of this novel centres on Mavis Mills' resolve to be in charge of her life and captain of her creativity. It is a story that celebrates the power of belief in oneself and of friends and supporters. In terms of its chick-lit appeal, Life Song ticks all the boxes. It is a blend of wry humour and vivid storytelling and the outcome is satisfying without being cloying. There is sizzle but no awkward sex scenes to navigate. Relationships are deftly drawn and realistically portrayed reflecting the passion with which people live life. The story draws from three generations of women who learn to make their own brave, sometimes foolish, sometimes late-applied choices to achieve a better life. Male characters are as diverse and complex as the female characters. Life Song is a story which can be read as an adventure with a wonderfully funny, distinctly visual narrating style. It can also be reflected on as a snapshot of Australian lifestyle and culture in the 1990s. The author has some great insights about the emergence of women who lead their own bands. This is the sort of novel that delights on a day when the sofa calls. Its appeal is universal.

In 2012, Elena Ferrante's My Brilliant Friend introduced readers to the unforgettable Elena and Lila, whose lifelong friendship provides the backbone for the Neapolitan Novels. The Story of a New Name is the second book in this series.

With these books, Ferrante proves herself to be one of Italy's most accomplished storytellers. She writes vividly about a specific neighborhood of Naples from the late-1950s through to the current day and about two remarkable young women who are very much the products of that place and time. Yet in doing so she has created a world in which readers will recognize themselves and has drawn a marvelously nuanced portrait of friendship.

In The Story of a New Name, Lila has recently married and made her entrée into the family business; Elena, meanwhile, continues her studies and her exploration of the world beyond the neighborhood that she so often finds stifling. Love, jealousy, family, freedom, commitment, and above all friendship: these are signs under which both women live out this phase in their stories. Marriage appears to have imprisoned Lila, and the pressure to excel is at times too much for Elena. Yet the two young women share a complex and evolving bond that is central to their emotional lives and is a source of strength in the face of life's challenges.

In these Neapolitan Novels, Elena Ferrante gives readers a poignant and universal story about friendship and belonging.

Heroes come in many forms—soldiers who fall and rise, ordinary people doing extraordinary things, women who battle for their marriage, reporters who fight for truth and justice, and men who put it all on the line for the women they love.

Sometimes heroes fall. Colonel Michael Cedars is a decorated war hero returning home from Afghanistan. Wounded and unsure if he’ll walk again, he questions how he fits into civilian life and whether he wants to remain married to the feisty redhead, Hope Shane.

Hope has never been one to play it safe. She met the Colonel while working as a war correspondent, fell in love with the man in uniform, watched him get blown up, and isn’t willing to give up on him now.

Back in Denver, Colorado, she’s working as an investigative reporter who becomes entangled in a human trafficking story. As the danger of her story intensifies, Hope and Michael are tested more than they ever imagined.

Will Michael be able to see beyond what he’s lost to embrace what remains? Is he still the man she married, or has he become a liability that could get her killed? Is he still the hero she claims him to be? Will her reckless pursuit of justice endanger the life they’ve pieced together?

What if you could live again and again, until you got it right? On a cold and snowy night in 1910, Ursula Todd is born to an English banker and his wife. She dies before she can draw her first breath. On that same cold and snowy night, Ursula Todd is born, lets out a lusty wail, and embarks upon a life that will be, to say the least, unusual. For as she grows, she also dies, repeatedly, in a variety of ways, while the young century marches on towards its second cataclysmic world war. Does Ursula's apparently infinite number of lives give her the power to save the world from its inevitable destiny? And if she can - will she?

Why be the sheep, when you can be the wolf? Seventeen-year-old Ismae escapes from the brutality of an arranged marriage into the sanctuary of the convent of St. Mortain, where the sisters still serve the gods of old. Here she learns that the god of Death Himself has blessed her with dangerous gifts--and a violent destiny. If she chooses to stay at the convent, she will be trained as an assassin and serve as a handmaiden to Death. To claim her new life, she must destroy the lives of others. Ismae's most important assignment takes her straight into the high court of Brittany--where she finds herself woefully under prepared--not only for the deadly games of intrigue and treason, but for the impossible choices she must make. For how can she deliver Death's vengeance upon a target who, against her will, has stolen her heart?

Home Front is a profound exploration of the intimate landscape of a troubled marriage, set against the backdrop of war. Kristin Hannah crafts a provocative and timely portrait of a husband and wife, in love and at war.

All marriages have a breaking point. All families have wounds. All wars have a cost.

Michael and Jolene Zarkades are like many couples, facing the pressures of everyday life—children, careers, bills, chores—even as their twelve-year marriage teeters on the brink of collapse. A deployment sends Jolene deep into harm's way, leaving defense attorney Michael at home, struggling with the role of single parent to their two girls.

As a mother, Jolene is torn apart by leaving her family, yet as a soldier, she understands the true meaning of duty. Through her letters home, she paints a rose-colored version of life on the front lines, shielding her family from the harsh realities of war. But war changes Jolene in ways none of them could have foreseen. When tragedy strikes, Michael must confront his darkest fears and fight his own battle—for everything that matters to his family.

This story offers a profoundly honest look at modern marriage and a dramatic exploration of the toll war takes on an ordinary American family. It is a tale of love, loss, heroism, honor, and ultimately, hope.

«Éste es un libro sobre la vida... apasionado y alegre, sentimental y burlón.» ROSA MONTERO.

Cuando Rosa Montero leyó el maravilloso diario que Marie Curie comenzó tras la muerte de su esposo, y que se incluye al final de este libro, sintió que la historia de esa mujer fascinante que se enfrentó a su época le llenaba la cabeza de ideas y emociones. La ridícula idea de no volver a verte nació de ese incendio de palabras, de ese vertiginoso torbellino. Al hilo de la extraordinaria trayectoria de Curie, Rosa Montero construye una narración a medio camino entre el recuerdo personal y la memoria de todos, entre el análisis de nuestra época y la evocación íntima. Son páginas que hablan de la superación del dolor, de las relaciones entre hombres y mujeres, del esplendor del sexo, de la buena muerte y de la bella vida, de la ciencia y de la ignorancia, de la fuerza salvadora de la literatura y de la sabiduría de quienes aprenden a disfrutar de la existencia con plenitud y con ligereza.

Vivo, libérrimo y original, este libro inclasificable incluye fotos, remembranzas, amistades y anécdotas que transmiten el primitivo placer de escuchar buenas historias. Un texto auténtico, emocionante y cómplice que te atrapará desde sus primeras páginas.

De Overgave is een aangrijpend verhaal over een Texaanse pioniersfamilie die wordt overvallen door een groep Comanche-indianen. De gevolgen van deze aanval zijn hartverscheurend. Veertig jaar later krijgt de hoogbejaarde Granny, die destijds haar familie voor haar ogen zag gedood of ontvoerd worden, bezoek van Quanah, de aanvoerder van de door haar zo gehate Comanche. Hij is op weg om zich over te geven en zijn verslagen volk voor altijd in het reservaat te leiden. Hiermee wordt, na bijna vierhonderd jaar, de onderwerping van de oorspronkelijke bewoners van Amerika een feit.

De Overgave vertelt het aangrijpende en onvoorstelbare leven van een vrouw die in het gevecht om haar kinderen en kleinkinderen uiteindelijk het machtigste wapen moet leren hanteren: vergeving.

With her thirtieth birthday looming, Emma Harrison finds her biological clock clanging and the elusive knight in shining armor yet to appear. She’s running out of options, especially after her gay best friend backs out from being her sperm donor. Of course, there’s always a sperm bank, but Emma fears a donor mix-up might impregnate her with the spawn of Satan.

Resident company womanizer, Aidan Fitzgerald, is used to always getting what he wants, especially in the bedroom. When Emma spurns his advances at the company Christmas party, he's determined to have her no matter what it takes.

After Aidan learns of Emma's predicament, he is quick to offer a proposition that will benefit them both. He will father Emma's child, but she must conceive it with him naturally. Not one for hook-ups or casual sex, Emma is reluctant to take him up on his offer, but his charm, coupled with her intense desire for motherhood, wins out.

Soon their baby-making sessions become more than just physical. Aidan can't seem to walk away from her while Emma begins to wonder if Aidan could be the one. But can Aidan leave his past behind to become the man Emma needs him to be?

A sometimes funny, tragically graphic, compelling tale of a woman suffering...

She has no name of her own. She is every name everyone has ever called her. She is nameless. She has a good job, a beautiful home, and a wonderful husband. She is everything she was supposed to be. She has structure and stability, but she is lost.

She is trying. Her whole life is spent trying; yet her whole life has been nothing but an apology. She is so tired of trying and failing.

In just one week, she learns her entire life is a series of brutalities. She learns intense, consuming passion for the first time with a beautiful stranger. She learns love within this passion, and she learns heartbreak while without.

Slowly her breakdown overcomes her. She tries to rise above her circumstances, but when she has nothing left to fight with; she tries to ease the pain forever.

Desperately, she fights her way through the agony of life, and she returns with a gentle hope. She wants to live, and she wants to love, for the first time in her life.

Now, she has a name. Now, she can be 'her'... Any HER that she wants to be.