Showing results by publisher "-emdashery books-" in Friendship

Welcome to the Poppy Fields, where there’s hope for even the most battered hearts to heal. Here, in a remote stretch of the California desert, lies an experimental and controversial treatment center that allows those suffering from the heartache of loss to sleep through their pain...and keep on sleeping. After patients awaken from this prolonged state of slumber, they will finally be healed. But only if they’re willing to accept the potential shadowy side effects. On a journey to this mystical destination are four very different strangers and one little dog.

Vivian Molloy hardly expected to retire early from teaching, but for her husband, Dave, she'd do anything. But when Dave abandons her after a weekend away, she returns home to their picturesque town in Tasmania, shell-shocked and alone with nothing to fill her days. When an old colleague tries to rope her into teaching a writing class at the local library, Vivian is hesitant. How can she teach with her life falling apart? But it is the people she meets that help her remember who she is.

Joni, Deb, Eden, and Trina try to catch up once a year for a girls' getaway. Careers, husbands, and babies have pulled these old high-school friends in different directions, and the closeness they once enjoyed is increasingly elusive. This year, in a bid to revive their intimacy, they each share a secret in an anonymous letter. But the revelations are unnerving. Then a fifth letter is discovered, venting long-held grudges and murderous thoughts. But who was the author? And which of the friends should be worried?

A.J. Fikry, the grumpy owner of Island Books, is going through a hard time: his bookshop is failing, he has lost his beloved wife, and his prized possession - a rare first edition book has been stolen. Over time, he has given up on people, and even the books in his store, instead of offering solace, are yet another reminder of a world that is changing too rapidly. But one day A.J. finds two-year-old Maya sitting on the bookshop floor, with a note attached to her asking the owner to look after her. His life - and Maya's - is changed forever.

1916, London: Keen to support the war effort, bookshop manager and sometime amateur sleuth Hannah Merrill has taken a volunteer role in the library of the nearby military hospital. But arriving at the hospital one cold winter’s morning, she is horrified to find the body of a dead soldier in the library. What’s more, a beautiful young nurse confides in Hannah that she thinks she’s being followed, and then she abruptly disappears. Hannah can’t shake the suspicion that the two cases are connected, but she can’t solve the case alone.

With a past she’s desperate to leave behind and a baby on the way, she’s found a new home, deep in the forest, hidden from the world. But when the time comes to go to the hospital, she has no idea that Beckett, the quiet, steady taxi driver who braves the blizzard to reach her, will change everything. As Mary adjusts to life with her newborn, she finds herself drawn into a local close-knit community she never expected to be part of. Beckett is always there ­– dependable, patient and offering a friendship she doesn’t know how to accept but slowly comes to rely on.

In 1985, Yale Tishman, the development director for an art gallery in Chicago, is about to pull off an amazing coup: bringing an extraordinary collection of 1920s paintings as a gift to the gallery. Yet as his career begins to flourish, the carnage of the AIDs epidemic grows around him. One by one, his friends are dying, and after his friend Nico's funeral, he finds his partner is infected and that he might even have the virus himself. The only person he has left is Fiona, Nico's little sister.

Obituary writer Bud Stanley isn’t really living his best life. He’s fallen into a funk after a divorce. (She left him for another man, who, in fairness, was far more interesting). He’s not doing his job well. He’s given up on dating. And he’s about to be fired for accidentally publishing his own obituary one mildly drunken night (though technically the company can’t legally fire a dead person).

Three South Yorkshire friends, all on the cusp of 40, fall pregnant at the same time following a visit to an ancient fertility symbol. For Helen, it's a dream come true, although her husband is not as thrilled about it as she had hoped. Not only wrestling with painful ghosts of the past, Helen has to deal with the fact that her outwardly perfect marriage is crumbling before her eyes. For Janey, it is an unmitigated disaster as she has just been offered the career break of a life-time.

There are new residents at Goodwill House—WAAF drivers Camilla ‘Millie’ Cunningham and Diane Forsyth, both eager to do their bit for the war effort and excited to help the brave boys who fly. And when Millie meets dashing and heroic Spitfire pilot Ted Thorrington, they strike up an instant connection. But with Hitler gaining more ground in Europe, there is danger brewing across the Channel in Dunkirk and Ted is required to fly more and more dangerous sorties, risking his life every time. With their hearts and lives on the line, the courage of the girls in blue will be tested.

Grace Harkness looks like she has it all - two beautiful children, four cookbooks under her belt, and an idyllic beachside home #blessed. But add another baby on the way (oops), a spouse that is nowhere to be seen, and a relentless list of things she "should" be doing, and Grace is starting to unravel. When the madness of modern-day motherhood finally pushes her to the brink, Grace and her friends decide to ditch the men in their lives, move in together, and create a "mummune" - sharing the load of chores, school pick-ups/drop-offs, and endless Life Admin.

Emma is having a fresh start. After a successful teaching career, an exciting new chapter awaits Emma – helping her fiancé Grayson run one of Beatrix Potter's farms. While imagining days spent supporting Grayson with his dream, working the land and helping with the animals, Emma harvests a dream of her own – to set up an alpaca-walking business around the farm. But working together isn’t as easy as Emma expected. Soon her dreams are in tatters and, broken-hearted, she must start over yet again.

Bristol - 1953. It’s Coronation Year. A new beginning in the aftermath of war, but there are still battles to be fought and secrets to be kept. Charlotte Hennessey-White copes with the shortcomings of her marriage and throws herself into helping refugees unwelcome by some and exploited by others. Edna Burbage has three beautiful children and considers herself lucky until the advent of a deadly twentieth century disease makes her think otherwise. Polly Chandler still hopes for a better life, but there are too many obstacles standing in her way.

Emily Anderson adores romance—both in books and in real life (though her own love life is more ‘tragic subplot’ than ‘happily-ever-after’). As an audiobook narrator, she spends her days bringing love stories to life, convinced that one day, her own perfect romance will come true. Jude Cavendish, thinks romance is a fairy tale for fools. A crime author with a serious case of writer’s block, he’s horrified when his publisher asks him to add a love story to his latest novel. He knows murders, mysteries, and mayhem—not grand gestures and stolen kisses.

It's the day they've always dreamed about. But will it turn out to be a nightmare? Bel is in the midst of planning her perfect wedding when disaster strikes and everything she thought she knew is turned on its head. Can she hold it all together and, with the help of her friends, and a mysterious man she meets unexpectedly, turn disaster into triumph? Bel's friend, ice-cream parlour owner Violet, is engaged to Glyn, who is besotted by her although Violet fell out of love with him long ago.

Lainey has just lost everything. Luckily one little fib (OK, quite a big fib) helps nail her dream job. Soon she's living in a stunning house by the sea, fending off obsessed fans for a retired - if far-from-retiring - actor and organising his charming but chaotic family. Yes, everyone thinks she's part of a couple, and it's tricky keeping this secret. But at least she's not looking for love: with her disastrous relationship history, men are definitely off the agenda.

For Evelyn, mornings pass as mornings always do. She ticks off the jobs at the laundromat and gives welcoming smiles to those who come in. If they've earned one. Evelyn knows what is going on in her community because she pays attention. She sees the weariness of the frazzled shop owners, the woman with the nasty boyfriend, the nice man with the curly-topped dog, the car parking war and the forgetful man. The community might not notice Evelyn, because it is easy to overlook the seemingly ordinary. But Evelyn is far from ordinary.

Maeve Binchy's best-selling novels not only tell wonderful stories, they also give an insight into how Ireland has changed over the decades but how people remain the same: they still fall in love, sometimes unsuitably; they still have hopes and dreams; they have deep, long-standing friendships, and some that fall apart. From her earliest writing to her most recent, Maeve's work has included wonderfully nostalgic pieces and also sharp, often witty writing which is insightful and topical.

Hidden away, the Morisaki Bookshop is a booklover's paradise. On a quiet corner in an old wooden building, the shop is filled with hundreds of second-hand books. Here is where Takako comes to nurse a broken heart, finding within its crowded shelves books to soothe and uplift her flagging spirits. Over the course of two novels, Days at the Morisaki Bookshop and More Days at the Morisaki Bookshop, Takako and her uncle Satoru discover their similarities and differences, and learn all about life, love and the healing power of books.

It's 412 BC, and Athens' invasion of Sicily has failed catastrophically. Thousands of Athenian soldiers are held captive in the quarries of Syracuse, starving, dejected and hanging on by the slimmest of threads. Lampo and Gelon are local potters, men with no work and barely two obols to rub together. With not much to fill their time, they take to visiting the nearby quarry, where they discover prisoners who will, in desperation, recite lines from the plays of Euripides in return for scraps of bread and a scattering of olives. And so an idea is born: the men will put on Medea in the quarry.