Download or read book The Resurrection of Tess Blessing written by Lesley Kagen and published by SparkPress. This book was released on 2014-12-09 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After she's diagnosed with breast cancer, forty-nine-year-old Tess sets forth on a mission to complete her to-do list before, what she's sure is, her impending death. She needs to make peace with her estranged sister, Birdie, scatter her mother's long-kept ashes, rescue her daughter, Haddie, from the grip of an eating disorder, guide her teenage son, Henry, through a bumpy adolescence, and reignite the spark in her almost thirty-year marriage to her husband, Will. Tess is aided on her quest by narrator, Grace, who lends the story its most brilliant elements: subtle magical realism and deep psychological complexity. Is Grace an imaginary friend, guardian angel, or a part of Tess that knows better than she? The Resurrection of Tess Blessing is by turns poignant, gritty, spiritually uplifting, and hilarious as hell. Lesley Kagen has created an unforgettable, redemptive story about a middle-aged woman with the odds stacked against her, who discovers that in the end, love really does conquer all.
Download or read book The Undertaking of Tess written by Lesley Kagen and published by SparkPress. This book was released on 2014-12-16 with total page 150 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the summer of 1959, ten-year-old Theresa "Tessie" Finley has her work cut out for her. Not only is she attempting to come to grips with the devastating loss and guilt she feels after witnessing her father's death, but her kid sister, Birdie, refuses to believe that their beloved daddy is really gone. Tessie needs to make sure that she does before their mom gets wind of how much "weirder" her sister’s getting. Stronger and more down to earth than ethereal Birdie, Tess has always watched over her sister, so it's only natural for her to come up with a plan that she jots down on one of her never-ending to-do lists. If she can't achieve her goals, she's desperately worried that her beautiful, but self-centered mother, Louise, might send emotionally fragile Birdie to the county insane asylum. Her daddy always told her, "A Finley never throws in the towel," so more than anything Tess wants to make him proud. But despite her resourcefulness and grit, she's smart enough to know that the odds are stacked against her and her time is running out. Heartbreaking, funny, nostalgic, and spiritually uplifting, you’ll cheer the Finley sisters on from the first page to the last of this charming novella that sets the stage for the accompanying novel, The Resurrection of Tess Blessing.
Download or read book Bedside Manners written by Heather Frimmer and published by SparkPress. This book was released on 2018-10-16 with total page 341 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As Joyce Novak’s daughter, Marnie, completes medical school and looks ahead to a surgical internship, her wedding, and a future filled with promise, a breast cancer diagnosis throws Joyce’s own future into doubt. Always the caregiver, Joyce feels uncomfortable in the patient role, especially with her husband and daughter. As she progresses through a daunting treatment regimen including a biopsy, lumpectomy, and radiation, she distracts herself by planning Marnie’s wedding. When the sudden death of a young heroin addict in Marnie’s care forces Marnie to come face-to-face with mortality and her professional inadequacies, she also realizes she must strike a new balance between her identity as a doctor and her role as a supportive daughter. At the same time, she struggles with the stark differences between her fiancé’s family background and her own and comes to understand the importance of being with someone who shares her values and experiences. Amid this profound soul-searching, both Joyce and Marnie’s futures change in ways they never would have expected.
Download or read book The Infinite Now written by Mindy Tarquini and published by SparkPress. This book was released on 2017-10-24 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On a rainy night in Philadelphia's Ninth Street Market, sixteen-year-old Fiora, newly-orphaned by the 1918 influenza epidemic, is dumped at an old man's door. Daughter of the local fortune teller, Fiora arrives with a little money, a lot of attitude, and her mother's formidable reputation. The old man, a widowed shoemaker ticking down his clock, is the only person in their superstitious immigrant community brave enough to stand between Fiora and an orphanage. Fiora?s a modern, forward-thinking young woman, uninterested in using old-world magic to make a way for herself?but when her mother's magical curtain shows her that the old man will shortly die of a heart attack, Fiora panics, and casts her entire neighborhood into a stagnant bubble of time. A bubble where everything continues but nothing progresses?tomatoes won?t ripen, babies refuse to be born, and the sick suffer under the weight of a never-ending stream of unspent seconds. Not everything in the bubble is bad. Love, fresh and fascinating, ignites. Friendships take root. But as day drags into interminable day, the pressure inside the bubble world builds. Fiora must accept that not everything found can be kept, not everything saved will remain, and unless Fiora finds the courage to collapse the bubble, every one of her hopes will be trapped inside an unbearable, unyielding, unpredictable, and infinite Now.
Download or read book The Fragile World written by Paula Treick DeBoard and published by MIRA. This book was released on 2014-10-28 with total page 429 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Kaufmans have always considered themselves a normal, happy family. Curtis is a physics teacher at a local high school. His wife, Kathleen, restores furniture for upscale boutiques. Daniel is away at college on a prestigious music scholarship, and twelve-year-old Olivia is a happy-go-lucky kid whose biggest concern is passing her next math test. And then comes the middle-of-the-night phone call that changes everything. Daniel has been killed in what the police are calling a "freak" road accident, and the remaining Kaufmans are left to flounder in their grief. The anguish of Daniel's death is isolating, and it's not long before this once-perfect family finds itself falling apart. As time passes and the wound refuses to heal, Curtis becomes obsessed with the idea of revenge, a growing mania that leads him to pack up his life and his anxious teenage daughter and set out on a collision course to right a wrong.
Download or read book Here We Lie written by Paula Treick DeBoard and published by Harlequin. This book was released on 2018-01-30 with total page 237 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A nuanced and complex look at the long-standing consequences of privilege and toxic masculinity . . . . Compulsively readable!” —Kate Moretti, New York Times–bestselling author of The Vanishing Year Megan Mazeros and Lauren Mabrey are complete opposites on paper. Megan is a girl from a modest Midwest background, and Lauren is the daughter of a senator from an esteemed New England family. When they become roommates at a private women’s college, they forge a strong, albeit unlikely, friendship, sharing clothes, advice and their most intimate secrets. The summer before senior year, Megan joins Lauren and her family on their private island off the coast of Maine. It should be a summer of relaxation, a last hurrah before graduation and the pressures of post-college life. Then one night, something unspeakable happens, searing through the framework of their friendship and tearing them apart. Many years later, Megan publicly comes forward about what happened that fateful night, revealing a horrible truth and threatening to expose long-buried secrets. “DeBoard does a wonderful job creating her realistic and flawed characters . . . . This story particularly resonates now, in the throes of the #MeToo movement.” —Booklist “A wrenching tale of broken friendship and shattered dreams.” —Kirkus Reviews “Suspenseful and evocative . . . . An engrossing read.” —Kimberly Belle, national bestselling author of The Marriage Lie “An absorbing exploration of how we attain personal power and the consequences of wielding it.” —Kathryn Craft, author of The Far End of Happy “Observant, devastating, and thoroughly satisfying.” —Emily Carpenter, author of The Weight of Lies “Powerful.” —Publishers Weekly
Download or read book The Drowning Girls written by Paula Treick DeBoard and published by Harlequin. This book was released on 2016 with total page 380 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Liz McGinnis never imagined herself living in a luxurious gated community like The Palms. Ever since she and her family moved in, she's felt like an outsider amongst the Stepford-like wives and their obnoxiously spoiled children. Still, she's determined to make it work--if not for herself, then for her husband, Phil, who landed them this lavish home in the first place, and for her daughter, Danielle, who's about to enter high school. Yet underneath the glossy veneer of The Palms, life is far from idyllic. In a place where reputation is everything, Liz soon discovers that even the friendliest residents can't be trusted. So when the gorgeous girl next door befriends Danielle, Liz can't help but find sophisticated Kelsey's interest in her shy and slightly nerdy daughter a bit suspicious. But while Kelsey quickly becomes a fixture in the McGinnis home, Liz's relationships with both Danielle and Phil grow strained. Now even her own family seems to be hiding things, and it's not long before their dream of living the high life quickly spirals out of control." -- From page 4 of cover.
Download or read book Resistant written by Rachael Sparks and published by SparkPress. This book was released on 2018-10-16 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A thrilling debut in the style of Crichton or A.G. Riddle, Resistant imagines a chilling—and entirely plausible—future where antibiotics don't work, and weaves adventure, romance, and science into a thrilling chase for a cure. In the final battle with drug-resistant bacteria, one woman's blood holds a secret weapon. Rory and her father have survived the antibiotic crisis that has killed millions, including Rory’s mother—but ingenuity and perseverance aren’t their only advantages. When a stoic and scarred young military veteran enters their quiet life, Rory is drawn to him against her better judgment . . . until he exposes the secrets her mother and father kept from her, including the fact that her own blood may hold the cure the world needs, and she is the target of groups fighting to reach it first. When the government comes after Rory, aiming to use her for a cure it can sell to the highest bidder, she’s forced to flee with her father and their new protector. But can she find the new path of human evolution before the government finds her?
Download or read book A Winsome Murder written by James DeVita and published by University of Wisconsin Pres. This book was released on 2015-06-22 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Offering a fresh approach to ancient Greek architecture, Shaping Ceremony focuses on the overlooked subject of monumental steps. Written in a clear and readable style, the book presents three complementary ways of studying steps: examining how the human body works on steps; theoretical perspectives on the relationship between architecture and human behavior; and the socio-political effects of steps' presence. Although broad steps are usually associated with emperors and political dominance, Mary B. Hollinshead argues that earlier, in Greek sanctuaries, they expressed and reinforced communal authority. From this alternate perspective, she expands the traditional intellectual framework for studying Greek architecture. The heart of the study is a close reading of thirty-eight sites with monumental steps from the sixth through second centuries B.C. Organized by century, the book tracks the development of built pathways and grandstands for crowds of worshippers as evidence of the Greeks' increasing awareness of the power of architecture to shape behavior and concentrate social energy. With photographs and illustrations of plans, Shaping Ceremony offers a clear account of how Greeks' adaptation of terrain for human use promoted social cohesion and integrated architectural compositions. "
Download or read book Kingdom s Edge written by Chuck Black and published by Multnomah. This book was released on 2009-01-16 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Riveting Medieval Parallel to the Bible Good and evil clash. Leinad and Cedric are determined to not only survive, but claim hope and victory! In Kingdom’s Dawn , Leinad and Tess, along with all the king’s people, must escape slavery by the powerful Lord Fairos. Kingdom’s Hope finds them free and arriving in the Chessington Valley . But when they forget the king, will Kergon and the Kessons capture them for good? After many years, Kingdom’s Edge finds Cedric living a hopeless life until a stranger appears with powerful words of a new kingdom and a grand army. Finally, Kingdom’s Reign marches you through the danger of earth’s last days as the evil dark knight threatens to defeat the prince once and for all. Swords, knights, and battles define these captivating tales that parallel biblical events from Genesis to Revelation! He was doomed to a life of hopelessness and despair. Then the stranger arrived… For Cedric of Chessington, every day is the same: full of poverty and despair. And he knows that will never change. Or so he thinks. Then a stranger comes to the city. Drawn to the man’s mysterious ways, Cedric discovers the stranger’s humility belies great strength and wisdom. That’s when an astounding truth becomes clear—the stranger is a Master of the Sword, and He is there to train Cedric. Suddenly propelled into a desperate battle against evil, Cedric must rely on the Master’s training if he is going to survive. But the ultimate battle is yet to come, for the Dark Knight is at work, implementing his plan to take over the kingdom. Will Cedric be ready to stand in the face of pure evil? Journey to Arrethtrae, where the King and His Son implement a bold plan to save their kingdom; where courage, faith, and loyalty stand tall in the face of opposition; where good will not bow to evil; and where hope and compassion are as powerful weapons as the sword. DISCUSSION QUESTIONS INCLUDED Story Behind the Book “When my six kids’ eyes glossed over during a reading from the Bible, I paused to explain the significance of redemption to a sin-sick soul. I was rewarded with patronizing elephant nods and more blank stares. Shortly thereafter, I awoke in the middle of the night with a medieval story enveloping my mind. I wrote it down and later read it to my children. Their waning attention transformed into complete anticipation. I was amazed and disappointed. Why did it take a fictional story, not a Bible passage, to get that response? Then I realized—that is how Jesus taught! Parables are powerful! I penned the Kingdom series to help young people get excited about the supremely significant story of Jesus Christ and His mission to save mankind.” — Chuck Black
Download or read book Good Graces written by Lesley Kagen and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2011-09-01 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To this day, my sister insists it was nothing more than the unrelenting heat that drove us to do what we did that summer, but that’s just Troo yanking my chain the way she always has. Deep down, she knows as well as I do that it wasn’t anything as mundane as the weather. It was the hand of the Almighty that shoved us off the straight and narrow path… Whistling in the Dark—a national bestseller—captivated readers with the story of ten-year-old Sally O’Malley and her sister, Troo, during Milwaukee’s summer of 1959. Now it’s one year later, and Sally, who made a deathbed promise to her daddy to keep Troo safe, is having a hard time honoring her vow. Her sister is growing increasingly rebellious amid a string of home burglaries, the escape from reform school of a nemesis, and the mysterious disappearance of an orphan—events that have the entire neighborhood on edge. And in that tense, hot summer, Sally will have to ground her flights of imagination, and barter her waning innocence, in order to sort the truths from the lies to protect her sister and herself.
Download or read book Tomorrow River written by Lesley Kagen and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2010-04-29 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the national bestselling author of Whistling in the Dark. During the summer of 1968 in Rockbridge County, Virginia, eleven-year- old Shenandoah Carmody's mother disappeared. Her twin sister, Woody, stopped speaking, and her once-loving father slipped into a mean drunkenness unbefitting a superior court judge. As the first anniversary of their mother's disappearance nears, her father's threat to send Woody away and his hints at an impending remarriage spur a desperate Shenny to find her mother-before it's too late.
Download or read book Land of a Hundred Wonders written by Lesley Kagen and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2008-07-29 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the national bestselling author of Whistling in the Dark comes another funny, poignant, unforgettable story. The summer Gibby McGraw catches her big break, the cicadas are humming, and it?s so warm even the frogs are sweating. Brain damaged after a tragic car accident that took both her parents, Gibby is now NQR (Not Quite Right), a real challenge for a fledgling newspaper reporter. Especially when she stumbles upon the dead body of the next governor of Kentucky, Buster Malloy. Armed with her trusty blue spiral note-book, Gibby figures that solving the murder might be her best chance to prove to everyone that she can become Quite Right again. But she gets more than she bargained for when she uncovers a world of corruption, racism, and family secrets in small town Cray Ridge. Lucky for her, she?s also about to discover that some things are far more important than all the brains in the world, and that miracles occur in the most unexpected moments.
Download or read book The Fragile World written by Paula Treick DeBoard and published by Harlequin. This book was released on 2014-10-28 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the author of stunning debut The Mourning Hours comes a powerful new novel that explores every parent's worst nightmare… The Kaufmans have always considered themselves a normal, happy family. Curtis is a physics teacher at a local high school. His wife, Kathleen, restores furniture for upscale boutiques. Daniel is away at college on a prestigious music scholarship, and twelve-year-old Olivia is a happy-go-lucky kid whose biggest concern is passing her next math test. And then comes the middle-of-the-night phone call that changes everything. Daniel has been killed in what the police are calling a "freak" road accident, and the remaining Kaufmans are left to flounder in their grief. The anguish of Daniel's death is isolating, and it's not long before this once-perfect family finds itself falling apart. As time passes and the wound refuses to heal, Curtis becomes obsessed with the idea of revenge, a growing mania that leads him to pack up his life and his anxious teenage daughter and set out on a collision course to right a wrong. An emotionally charged novel, The Fragile World is a journey through America's heartland and a family's brightest and darkest moments, exploring the devastating pain of losing a child and the beauty of finding the way back to hope. "Heart-stopping. A gripping read that delivers a beautiful reminder of the resilience of love." —Karen Brown, author of The Longings of Wayward Girls
Download or read book Every Now and Then written by Lesley Kagen and published by Crooked Lane Books. This book was released on 2020-10-06 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For fans of Where the Crawdads Sing and This Tender Land comes a heartfelt story about three young girls searching for adventure during the summer of 1960 from the New York Times bestselling author of Whistling in the Dark. That summer would change us . . . forever. The summer of 1960 was the hottest ever for Summit, Wisconsin. For kids seeking relief from the heat, there was a creek to be swum in, sprinklers to run through, and ice cream at Whitcomb's Drugstore. But for Frankie, Viv, and Biz, eleven-year-old best friends, it would forever be remembered as the summer that evil paid a visit to their small town--and took their young lives as they'd known them as a souvenir. With a to-do list in hand, the girls set forth from their hideout to make their mark on that summer, but when three patients escape from Broadhurst Mental Institution, their idyllic lives take a sinister turn. Determined to uncover long-held secrets, the girls have no idea that what they discover could cost them their lives and the ones they hold dear. Six decades later, Biz, now a bestselling novelist, remembers that long ago summer and how it still haunts her and her lifelong friends in Every Now and Then, a story about the ties that bind us, the timelessness of grief and guilt--and the everlasting hope for redemption.
Download or read book Before I Die written by Jenny Downham and published by David Fickling Books. This book was released on 2008-09-25 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For the many readers who love The Fault in Our Stars, this is the story of a girl who is determined to live, love, and to write her own ending before her time is finally up. Tessa has just months to live. Fighting back against hospital visits, endless tests, and drugs with excruciating side effects, Tessa compiles a list. It’s her To Do Before I Die list. And number one is Sex. Released from the constraints of “normal” life, Tessa tastes new experiences to make her feel alive while her failing body struggles to keep up. Tessa’s feelings, her relationships with her father and brother, her estranged mother, her best friend, and her new boyfriend, are all painfully crystallized in the precious weeks before Tessa’s time runs out. A Publishers Weekly Best Children’s Book of the Year A Booklist Editors’ Choice A Book Sense Children’s Pick A Kirkus Reviews Editors’ Choice A Publishers Weekly Flying Start Author An ALA-YALSA Top Ten Best Book for Young Adults The newly released feature film Now Is Good, starring Dakota Fanning, is based on Jenny Downham's intensely moving novel.
Download or read book Moving Mountains written by John Eldredge and published by Thomas Nelson. This book was released on 2016-02-16 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New York Times best-selling author of Wild at Heart John Eldredge offers readers a step-by-step guide to effective Christian prayer. How would it feel to enter into prayer with confidence and assurance—certain that God heard you and that your prayers would make a difference? It would likely feel amazing and unfamiliar. That’s because often our prayers seem to be met with silence or don’t appear to change anything. Either response can lead to disappointment or even despair in the face of our ongoing battles and unmet longings—especially when we don’t know if we’re doing something wrong or if some prayers just don’t work. New York Times bestselling author John Eldredge confronts these issues directly in Moving Mountains by offering a hopeful approach to prayer that is effective, relational, and rarely experienced by most Christians. In a world filled with danger, adventure, and wonder, we have at our disposal prayers that can transform the events and issues that matter most to us and to God. Moving Mountains shows you how to experience the power of daily prayer, learn the major types of prayers—including those of intervention, consecration, warfare, and healing—and to discover the intimacy of the cry of the heart prayer, listening prayer, and praying Scripture. Things can be different, and you personally have a role to play with God in bringing about that change through prayer. It may sound too good to be true, but this is your invitation to engage in the kind of prayers that can move God's heart as well as the mountains before you. Moving Mountains is also available in Spanish, Mueve montañas. To dive deeper into the Moving Mountains message, the Moving Mountains study guide and video study are available now.
