Showing results for "Ann" in Literature & Fiction

Brought to you by Penguin. From the New York Times bestselling author of Dear Edward comes a beautifully tender, heartbreaking, and moving story of four sisters over three decades Meet the Padvano girls. Best friends and sisters, they are thought of as inseparable by everyone in their close-knit...

In the spring of 2020, Lara’s three daughters return to the family's orchard in Northern Michigan. While picking cherries, they beg their mother to tell them the story of Peter Duke, a famous actor with whom she shared both a stage and a romance years before at a theater company called Tom Lake. As Lara recalls the past, her daughters examine their own lives and relationship with their mother, and are forced to reconsider the world and everything they thought they knew.

I don't understand why the hospital director has insisted that Siena Collins work in oncology. She is a spoiled brat, unreliable, and causes too much trouble in a department where we must look into the eyes of death every day. To make matters worse, she can't even touch or talk to patients. She is still in medical school and considering quitting altogether.

In the economic boom following the Second World War, Cyril Conroy's real estate investments take his family from poverty to enormous wealth. With it he buys the Dutch House, a lavish mansion in the Philadelphia suburbs. Meant as a surprise for his wife, the house sets in motion the undoing of everyone he loves.

Ann Hawkshaw's fourth and final collection was published privately and named for her young grandson, Cecil Wedgwood. Written for children, the volume alternates prose with poetry and is lighter in tone than her earlier work, although poems such as 'The Discontented Stream' and 'The Ambitious Water-Lily' are tinged with a sense of waste. The final piece in the collection, 'In Memoriam', is a moving elegy on childhood death, which alludes to Hawkshaw's loss of three children including Cecil's mother who died shortly after his birth. - Summary by Phil Benson

Dorothy Jean Wetstra, 87, is the town matriarch in Partonville, Illinois. Fully aware of both her strengths and flaws, she often asks "the Big Guy" in heaven for help: "Dear Lord, DO SOMETHING!"

Olivia may have entered London society three years ago, but all she has to show for it is extensive notes. The pages of her diary are filled with details on every bachelor who has ever clamored for a spot on her dance card. Although her book has afforded her a new hobby in matchmaking, it has yet to provide her with a suitable man. And she is not about to settle for just anyone....

A Sicilian Romance by Ann Radcliffe is considered the pioneer of the gothic novel.

On the northern shore of Sicily, the magnificent remains of a castle, which formerly belonged to the noble house of Mazzini, can still be seen. It stands in the center of a small bay, and upon a gentle acclivity, which, on one side, slopes toward the sea, and on the other rises into an eminence crowned by dark woods....

A decade ago, a tragic surgery forever altered the lives of Dr. Jackie Stone and Sarah Taylor. Haunted by the loss of that patient, Dr. Stone has since immersed herself in her work, believing that if she stays busy, she can escape the pain of her past. Sarah Taylor, now a determined intern at Manhattan's prestigious Watson Memorial Hospital, finds herself under the supervision of the very doctor who was present during her brother's ill-fated surgery ten years ago.

In this engaging tale, Edward Hargraves, a budding author, finds himself under the guidance of his mother and his friend Billy, who urge him to marry in order to better understand women for his next literary endeavor. As he navigates the challenge of courting Evangeline Lipscomb—a charming yet somewhat uninspiring woman—he attracts the attention of a bold American reporter determined to get her interview and win his heart. Will Edward discover the complexities of love and inspiration before its too late? - Summary by Elsie Selwyn

Winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award Winner of the Orange Prize National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist New York Times Readers’ Pick: Top 100 Books of the 21st Century "Bel Canto is its own universe. A marvel of a book." —Washington Post Book World New York Times bestselling...

FBI agent Grace Beacham is on the run. After an operation to bring down a Russian disinformation campaign goes sideways and ends in her partner’s death, the Kremlin has sent its most notorious assassin to kill her. Not knowing who to trust inside the Bureau, Grace is forced to call on the one man who might be able to save her. The one man she hasn’t been able to forget.

'Any story that starts will also end.' As a writer, Ann Patchett knows what the outcome of her fiction will be. Life, however, often takes turns we do not see coming. Patchett ponders this truth as she explores family, friendship, marriage, failure, success and what it all means. Ranging from the personal to the sublime, each essay transforms the particular into the universal, letting us all see our own worlds anew.

Two estranged childhood best friends reunite as expectant mothers, after a mysterious falling-out between their own mothers keeps them apart for years​. Perfect for readers of Claire Lombardo and J. Courtney Sullivan. When Sydney and Mae meet on the playground as toddlers, it seems like kismet...

Since I'm not going to fall for Dylan Stafford, it shouldn't matter that he shovels my driveway or looks at me like he could devour me. One kiss later—I, Marlow Taylor, am completely screwed.

A fiction writer and recovering academic seeks craft lessons in classic literature. All works are in the public domain and available on https://www.gutenberg.org. The talks are 5-10 minutes, perfect for today's on-the-go author. Earlier and even more pedantic versions of these talks are available on my blog, swerveandvanish.blogspot.com.The podcast is currently on hiatus, but please enjoy the archived episodes!

Winner of the Hugo, Nebula, and Arthur C. Clarke Awards: This record-breaking novel follows a warship trapped in a human body on a quest for revenge. A must read for fans of Ursula K. Le Guin and James S. A. Corey. "There are few who write science fiction like Ann Leckie can. There are few who...

At the International Classical Guitar Competition in Montreal, top-flight musicians fly in from all over the world to compete in a gruelling week. A career can be made or lost here, and the slightest mishap - a lapse of memory, a shaking right hand, a broken fingernail - can ruin years of preparation. Judges and contestants alike battle and scheme to achieve what they most desire here. There is much more than pretty music being performed on this stage.

It is 1936 and Kate Merritt works hard to keep her family together. Her father has slipped into alcoholism, her mother is trying to come to grips with their dire financial situation, and her sisters seem to remain blissfully oblivious to all of it. Kate could never have imagined that a dirty, abandoned little girl named Lorena Birdsong would be just what her family needs.

AN OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK "Extraordinary. Books like this are why I love reading. This novel about marriage and friendship and life and dying is a marvel." —Elin Hilderbrand “Profound and moving and real.”—Andrew Sean Greer “Some Bright Nowhere is a novel that draws you in deeply and...