Download or read book The Ladies of Garrison Gardens written by Louise Shaffer and published by . This book was released on 2006-08-29 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Small-town secrets, star-crossed lovers, and the power of the past to determine the future come together to prove that behind every great fortune there is a great crime.
Download or read book Those Garrison Women written by Louise Shaffer and published by Bantam. This book was released on 2005 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The many fans of the three Miss Margarets will be delighted to be reunited with Miss Li'l Bit, Maggie and Peggy, along with Laurel Selene McCready, the wild child from the wrong side of the tracks the formidable trio took under their collective wing. But the spotlight this time is firmly on Laurel. She has just become the wealthiest person in Charles Valley and she is not happy. Along with Li'l Bit and Maggie, she's mourning the loss of their beloved Peggy, whose decision to leave the entire Garrison fortune to Laurel, the daughter she never had, has caused the biggest uproar in town since the three Miss Margarets turned it upside down. Meanwhile, the Garrison family lawyer is trying to strong-arm Laurel into signing over power of attorney so he can continue to rip off the people who work for the town's biggest employer, Garrison Gardens. As Laurel struggles to make the right decision and to make peace with her own past, she discovers that the mansion is still haunted by the legend of its original owner, the legendary Myrtis Garrison. When she stumbles across a mysterious page of sheet music and a child's dress, Laurel begins to unravel the truth about this enigmatic woman, and her own path suddenly becomes clear. Culminating in an unforgettable sleight-of-hand that reminds us that behind every great fortune there is a great crime, THOSE GARRISON WOMEN is as entertaining and addictive as its predecessor.
Download or read book The Three Miss Margarets written by Louise Shaffer and published by Ballantine Books. This book was released on 2004-08-03 with total page 333 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Miss Peggy, Dr. Maggie, and Miss Li’l Bit, friends and confidantes for nearly a lifetime, find it funny and bewildering that they have become icons in Charles Valley, Georgia. Little does the rest of the town know that beneath the irreproachable façades of its three doyennes lies an explosive decades-old secret that is about to be revealed. Thirty-odd years ago the three Miss Margarets did something extraordinary, clandestine, and very illegal. Although their lives are haunted by the night that changed their lives, they believe that their crime was simply a matter of righting an egregious wrong. But when a stranger’s arrival in town and a tragic death open the floodgate of memory, their loyalty, friendship, and honor are tested in ways they could never have imagined.
Download or read book Family Acts written by Louise Shaffer and published by Ballantine Books. This book was released on 2008-12-10 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Louise Shaffer follows her beloved novels The Three Miss Margarets and The Ladies of Garrison Gardens with an unforgettable tale of poignancy, wit, and high drama. Katie Harder and Randa Jennings live on opposite coasts, have never met, and have almost nothing in common–except that they’re both named after Shakespearean characters. Everything Katie has ever done or possessed–her New York City co-op, her career as a writer for a daytime drama–was given to her by her late mother, in her day a flamboyant soap opera queen. Randa, on the other hand, has escaped the trappings of a difficult past and forged a life as a single mom, juggling her work as a Hollywood business manager with the needs of her precocious eleven-year-old daughter. Life takes an unpredictable turn for these two strangers when they jointly inherit the century-old Venable Opera House, a stately but run-down theater in small-town Georgia. Puzzled at this peculiar legacy, Katie and Randa are at first eager to unload their white elephant. But as they spend more time in the old theater, they come to realize that a rich heritage is at stake. A line of strong women–starting with Juliet Venable in the late nineteenth century–has been responsible for keeping the grand old place up and running. In the face of huge obstacles, including a dying theater culture and their own personal struggles, these singular women have gone to drastic measures to keep the opera house in the family–including burying a devastating family secret that could destroy the carefully cultivated Venable legend forever. Now, as a local contractor seeks to tear down the landmark, Katie and Randa must decide not only if they want to unravel their mysterious connection to the theater and maintain its tradition but if they have what it takes to keep the Venable family legacy alive. A sprawling page-turner about maintaining family honor and lifelong dreams, Family Acts is Louise Shaffer’s most powerful and assured novel to date.
Download or read book Serendipity written by Louise Shaffer and published by Random House Digital, Inc.. This book was released on 2009 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At thirty-seven, Carrie Manning feels her life is going nowhere, and when she suspects that her issues might have to do with her fraught relationship with her recently deceased mother Rose, she begins to dig deep into three generations of family history to uncover the dark secret buried for more than thirty years. Original.
Download or read book That Time of Year written by Garrison Keillor and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2020-12-01 with total page 398 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With the warmth and humor we've come to know, the creator and host of A Prairie Home Companion shares his own remarkable story. In That Time of Year, Garrison Keillor looks back on his life and recounts how a Brethren boy with writerly ambitions grew up in a small town on the Mississippi in the 1950s and, seeing three good friends die young, turned to comedy and radio. Through a series of unreasonable lucky breaks, he founded A Prairie Home Companion and put himself in line for a good life, including mistakes, regrets, and a few medical adventures. PHC lasted forty-two years, 1,557 shows, and enjoyed the freedom to do as it pleased for three or four million listeners every Saturday at 5 p.m. Central. He got to sing with Emmylou Harris and Renée Fleming and once sang two songs to the U.S. Supreme Court. He played a private eye and a cowboy, gave the news from his hometown, Lake Wobegon, and met Somali cabdrivers who’d learned English from listening to the show. He wrote bestselling novels, won a Grammy and a National Humanities Medal, and made a movie with Robert Altman with an alarming amount of improvisation. He says, “I was unemployable and managed to invent work for myself that I loved all my life, and on top of that I married well. That’s the secret, work and love. And I chose the right ancestors, impoverished Scots and Yorkshire farmers, good workers. I’m heading for eighty, and I still get up to write before dawn every day.”
Download or read book Looking for a Love Story written by Louise Shaffer and published by Ballantine Books. This book was released on 2010 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Shaffer's warm, wonderfully inspiring novel follows a woman who has lost her way but just might discover who she's meant to be.
Download or read book The Lumby Lines written by Gail Fraser and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2007 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Mark and Pam Walker, a vacationing couple from the East Coast, arrive in the tiny Pacific Northwest town of Lumby, planning to restore the village's dilapidated Montis Abbey and turn it into an inn, it takes a while for the quirky locals to warm up to the idea and to the newcomers, especially irascible William Beezer, owner of the local newspaper The Lumby Lines. Reprint.
Download or read book Kissing Babies at the Piggly Wiggly written by Robert Dalby and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2008-11-04 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “The charmingly eccentric and infinitely lovable characters from Waltzing at the Piggly Wiggly are back” (Louise Shaffer, author of The Ladies of Garrison Gardens) In Second Creek, Mississippi, Hale Dunbar is taking on the solidly entrenched mayor in the upcoming election. Hale may not have much political experience, but he has something better: he's being backed by the Nitwitts—the town's most influential and enjoyably eccentric posse of widows. As the campaign unfolds, everyone is about to discover what's more important than coming in first—close friends, second chances, and true love. And of course, a good slogan.
Download or read book Women s Fiction written by Rebecca Vnuk and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2013-09-17 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Offering a fresh perspective on women's fiction for a broad reading audience—fans as well as librarians—this book defines and maps the genre, and describes hundreds of relevant titles. Women's Fiction: A Guide to Popular Reading Interests celebrates the books in this broad genre—titles that explore the lives of female protagonists, with a focus on their relationships with family, friends, and lovers. After a brief introductory history and a chapter that defines the characteristics of women's fiction, the author showcases annotations and suggestions of approximately 300 titles by more than 100 authors. She explains how women's fiction differs from romance fiction, enabling readers to appreciate this rich body of literature that encompasses titles as diverse as Meg Cabot's lighthearted chick lit to the more serious novels of Elizabeth Berg and Maeve Binchy. The book identifies some of the most popular and enduring women's fiction authors and titles, and provides invaluable reading lists and readalike suggestions that will be appreciated by both librarians and general readers.
Download or read book Serendipity written by Louise Shaffer and published by Ballantine Books. This book was released on 2009-03-24 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Louise Shaffer brings to life three generations of Italian American women in this stunning novel of surprises, secrets, and serendipity. A child of theatrical royalty, Carrie Manning is having a hard time getting her own act together. Thirty-seven, aimless, and having just buried a famous mother she never understood, she is desperate to uncover her family’s mysterious past in the hopes that it will help her understand herself. Carrie’s search reveals the fascinating life stories of her estranged grandmother Lu, a glamorous Broadway star whose dreams came with a price; her great grandmother Mifalda, who gave up everything to come to America as a sixteen-year-old Italian bride; and her father, Bobby, the charismatic Broadway genius who wrote some of Lu’s greatest musicals and died tragically young. At the heart of Carrie’s discoveries lies the reason for her mother’s complicated life, and a dark secret that has been buried for thirty years.
Download or read book An Old Fashioned Girl written by Louisa May Alcott and published by BoD - Books on Demand. This book was released on 2023-10-09 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "An Old-Fashioned Girl" tells the story of Polly Milton, a young girl from the countryside who goes to visit her wealthy and sophisticated friends in the city. The novel is structured in two parts, with the first part focusing on Polly's childhood visit and the second part on her experiences as a young woman. In the first part, Polly stays with the Shaw family, including Tom, Maud, and Fanny. She is initially seen as old-fashioned and unsophisticated compared to her more fashionable city friends. However, her kindness, honesty, and good-hearted nature soon win over the Shaw family, and she becomes a beloved member of their household. The novel explores the contrast between Polly's simple, virtuous upbringing and the more worldly values of her city friends. Polly's influence on the Shaws and her ability to maintain her integrity in the face of societal pressures serve as central themes. In the second part of the book, Polly returns to the city as a young woman, and the story follows her experiences as she navigates the challenges of adulthood, including romance, career aspirations, and the importance of staying true to oneself. Polly's character development is a central focus as she matures and finds her place in the world. "An Old-Fashioned Girl" is known for its moral and ethical themes, as well as its portrayal of the importance of character and virtue. It contrasts the values of simplicity and authenticity with the superficiality of social conventions. The novel also explores themes of friendship, love, and the pursuit of happiness. Louisa May Alcott's "An Old-Fashioned Girl" is a charming and heartwarming coming-of-age story that continues to resonate with readers for its timeless lessons and the enduring appeal of its characters.
Download or read book The Lake Wobegon Virus written by Garrison Keillor and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2020-09-08 with total page 191 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bestselling author and humorist Garrison Keillor returns to one of America's most beloved mythical towns, beset by a contagion of alarming candor. A mysterious virus has infiltrated the good people of Lake Wobegon, transmitted via unpasteurized cheese made by a Norwegian bachelor farmer, the effect of which is episodic loss of social inhibition. Mayor Alice, Father Wilmer, Pastor Liz, the Bunsens and Krebsbachs, formerly taciturn elders, burst into political rants, inappropriate confessions, and rhapsodic proclamations, while their teenagers watch in amazement. Meanwhile, a wealthy outsider is buying up farmland for a Keep America Truckin’ motorway and amusement park, estimated to draw 2.2 million visitors a year. Clint Bunsen and Elena the hometown epidemiologist to the rescue, with a Fourth of July Living Flag and sweet corn feast for a finale. In his newest Lake Wobegon novel, Garrison Keillor takes us back to the small prairie town where for so long American readers and listeners have found laughter as well as the wry airing of our foibles and most familiar desires and fears—a town where, as we know, "all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average."
Download or read book Daughter of the Forest written by Juliet Marillier and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2010-04-01 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Daughter of the Forest is a testimony to an incredible author's talent, a first novel and the beginning of a trilogy like no other: a mixture of history and fantasy, myth and magic, legend and love. Lord Colum of Sevenwaters is blessed with six sons: Liam, a natural leader; Diarmid, with his passion for adventure; twins Cormack and Conor, each with a different calling; rebellious Finbar, grown old before his time by his gift of the Sight; and the young, compassionate Padriac. But it is Sorcha, the seventh child and only daughter, who alone is destined to defend her family and protect her land from the Britons and the clan known as Northwoods. For her father has been bewitched, and her brothers bound by a spell that only Sorcha can lift. To reclaim the lives of her brothers, Sorcha leaves the only safe place she has ever known, and embarks on a journey filled with pain, loss, and terror. When she is kidnapped by enemy forces and taken to a foreign land, it seems that there will be no way for her to break the spell that condemns all that she loves. But magic knows no boundaries, and Sorcha will have to choose between the life she has always known and a love that comes only once. Juliet Marillier is a rare talent, a writer who can imbue her characters and her story with such warmth, such heart, that no reader can come away from her work untouched. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Download or read book The Keillor Reader written by Garrison Keillor and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2014-05-01 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Stories, essays, poems, and personal reminiscences from the sage of Lake Wobegon When, at thirteen, he caught on as a sportswriter for the Anoka Herald, Garrison Keillor set out to become a professional writer, and so he has done—a storyteller, sometime comedian, essayist, newspaper columnist, screenwriter, poet. Now a single volume brings together the full range of his work: monologues from A Prairie Home Companion, stories from The New Yorker and The Atlantic, excerpts from novels, newspaper columns. With an extensive introduction and headnotes, photographs, and memorabilia, The Keillor Reader also presents pieces never before published, including the essays “Cheerfulness” and “What We Have Learned So Far.” Keillor is the founder and host of A Prairie Home Companion, celebrating its fortieth anniversary in 2014. He is the author of nineteen books of fiction and humor, the editor of the Good Poems collections, and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Download or read book Soapsuds written by Finola Hughes and published by Ballantine Books. This book was released on 2009-01-21 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Passion, power, sex, betrayal, and seduction–it’s all in a day’s work. Having escaped to Hollywood after catching her boyfriend in bed with her best friend, London stage actress Kate McPhee is offered a gig on the popular daytime television series Live for Tomorrow. As Devon Merrick–police detective, car crash victim, and love interest for at least two men–she knows all the secrets and sins pulsating in fictional Hope Canyon. But the real drama is off the set, where the soap is indeed slippery. Enter Meredith Contini, the show’s power-wielding diva. Meredith has two rules: Know your place and Stay in it. Kate broke both on day one, which is why she suddenly found her character switching sexual orientation. That brilliant solution came from Daphne del Valle, the show’s barking-mad obsessive/compulsive producer, who drives herself and her actors to enthrall the audience. (“Sell the hurt. Sell the rage. Sell the hunger. Sell the looooooove.”) As gay detective Devon Merrick, Kate is a smash. The show is a hit. Kate’s private life seems to be becoming something of a drama itself. Especially since everybody thinks she really is gay, which is a problem since she thinks the best cure for her real-life broken heart is to get a man into her bed. But who? Kirk, her sexy, tan, and talented leading man, is boffing Meredith. There’s Matt, the magician who makes her tea, but will her fourteen-hour days keep them from the promise of tangled sheets? And there’s Wyatt, her handsome new co-star, who Kate believes is the great love of her life. Except that he’s married, and his wife, Christine, is Kate’s new makeup artist and the one sane friend she has made in Los Angeles. As the line between television and reality blurs with increasing speed, tension tightens and passions surge. Does Wyatt want Kate as much as she wants him? Will Christine find out? Will Kate lose her new friend? Will Meredith finally have Kate fired? Will Kate ever get to “come out” as heterosexual on the set? Are her steamy kiss scenes fated to be only with beautiful women? Emmy Award—winning actress Finola Hughes whips up a frothy, scathingly funny novel worthy of any afternoon time slot in this delicious romp that takes readers through the twists, turns, and dish that drive the madness that is daytime television.
Download or read book Kissing Babies at the Piggly Wiggly written by Rob Dalby and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2007 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A sequel to Waltzing at the Piggly Wiggly finds newlyweds Laurie Lepanto and Powell Hampton organizing the mayoral campaign of Hale Dunbar, in which they are assisted by the eccentric Nitwitt widows and hampered by Dunbar's long-lost girlfriend, Gaylie Girl.
