Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale is about a little girl who envisions beauty in the light of her last remaining matches as she faces death on New Year’s Eve. Let us take a cue from a master storyteller and remember that endings always make room for rebirth.
The Perfect Love Song is the ideal read-aloud-as-a-family story for the Christmas season. Children and adults will revel in the fun tone, sweetness of young love, sparkle of musical themes, and characters so real they pop off the page.
When Emily Emerson is laid off from her reporting job, she thinks she has lost everything—until she receives a beautiful, haunting painting of a young woman, recognizable as her grandmother, standing at the edge of a sugarcane field under a violet sky.
Every time I read a Mitford book, I’m completely drawn in, again, to the quaint town and its quirky characters.
In Grey Mask, every scene, even every paragraph, builds solidly on the previous one, creating a satisfying web of mystery. The authentic characters are complex yet consistent.
After leaving sophisticated London life and a cheating husband, Hanna Casey moves into her mum’s spare bedroom and takes a job driving a mobile library van through Ireland’s farms and villages. But when the threatened closure of her library jeopardizes her plans to establish a new life, Hanna leads a battle to restore the heart and soul of her community.
Although retirement is still three years away, Al Richardson is counting the days, anticipating restful years in which every day feels like Saturday. But when Al’s wife, Millie, learns that a Victorian-era home is up for sale, she launches a full-blown campaign to convince Al that Goose Creek needs a Bed & Breakfast.
In Imzadi, Peter David gives us the glowing details of the enduring love between Commander William Riker and Counselor Deanna Troi. It turns out that romance can be snugged into science fiction as easily as it can be to other genres.
Saint Maybe offers opportunities for a reader to think about the broader questions in life right alongside the messy characters Anne Tyler presents so intimately and sensitively.
Dashiell Hammett’s glittering gem of detective fiction has entertained generations of readers.