A promise to her sister sent rising ballet star Cheryl Steele temporarily back to the hometown she had fled years ago in disgrace. Then an unexpected snowstorm and an injured foot soon landed her in the home of Sam Hardin. Sam's two little girls wrapped themselves around her heart...while they schemed to make Cheryl not a guest or temporary nanny but their new mom. But staying with the Hardin family made Cheryl uneasy. She feared confessing past secrets to Sam, and she had even greater fear of the present. Because the more Cheryl stayed with Sam, the more it all felt so right....

Under the Sabers is a groundbreaking narrative detailing the complex personal challenges Army wives face, presenting a provocative new look at Army life. Tanya Biank goes beyond the sound bites and photo ops of military life and shows what it is really like to be an Army wife--from hauling furniture off the rental truck by yourself at a new duty station when your husband is in the field, to comforting your son who wants his dad home from Afghanistan for his fifth birthday--she takes readers into the hearts and homes of today's military wives. In the summer of 2002, Army wives were in the headlines after Biank, a military reporter for the Fayetteville Observer, made international news when she broke the story about four Army wives who were brutally murdered by their husbands in the span of six weeks at Fort Bragg, an Army post that is home to the Green Berets, Airborne paratroopers, and Delta Force commandos. By that autumn, Biank, an Army brat herself, realized the still untold story of Army wives lay in the ashes of that tragic and sensationalized summer. She knew the truth--wives were the backbone of the Army. They were strong--not helpless--and deserved more than the sugarcoating that often accompanied their stories in the media. Under the Sabers tells the story of four typical Army wives, who, in a flash, find themselves neck-deep in extraordinary circumstances that ultimately force them to redefine who they are as women and Army wives. In this fascinating and meticulously researched account, Biank takes the reader past the Army's gates, where everyone has a role to play, rules are followed, discipline is expected, perfection praised, and perception often overrides reality. Biank explores what happens when real life collides with Army convention. Biank describes what it means to be a wife and mother in a subculture that is in a constant state of readiness for war. In this hard-hitting and powerful book, Biank takes a close look at the other woman--the Army itself--and its impact on wives, marriages, and home life. This story of strength and perseverance is an eye-opener for those who have never experienced military life and an anthem to those women who each day live the "unwritten code."

Everyone wants something from Carrie. Her step-mother Nancy wants to control her, her birth mother Barbara wants her forgiveness, and Sean – well Sean just wants her – in his arms and in his life. In the shadows behind them stands Carrie’s father, who is different. All four of them have secrets; all four of them live a lie. And Carrie? She just wants answers.

From the author of Semi-Sweet comes a delightful new novel about the art of friendship, love, and (still) life. When Audrey Matthews offers an evening class in life drawing, all she's looking for is a little extra pocket money and something to fill her Tuesday nights. So she hires a model and recruits five students - each of whom have their own reason for being there. For Zarek, a Polish immigrant, the class is a welcome distraction and a place to escape his dull cafe job and noisy roommate. Then there's the handsome, mysterious James who has moved to the small town of Carrickbawn looking for a new start for himself and his daughter. He's vowed to keep to himself, but then his interest in Jackie, the class model and single mom, takes a more personal turn. While Audrey has just fallen in love — with the adorable puppy in the window of the local pet shop. Will she be put off by the store's brusque owner or does she find out that his bark is worse than his bite? As...

SUMMARY: In their runaway bestseller Gettysburg, Newt Gingrich and William Forstchen answered the Civil War's ultimate hypothetical question: What if Lee's army had won the victory within its grasp at Gettysburg in 1863? Now, through the same extraordinary research and brilliant character studies, we take the next step of a provocative journey: The Army of Northern Virginia is poised to invade Washington, D.C... A besieged Lincoln calls on a general with a drinking problem to save the Union. And in the East, Ulysses Grant faces a storm of calamity and rivalry-and a war on the verge of being lost.... In this extraordinary book, the battlefront and home fronts come alive through the eyes of ordinary soldiers and such little known characters as General Herman Haupt, commander of the U.S. railroads, and the politician turned soldier General Dan Sickles-a political arch-enemy of Grant's. As the best of plans are undone, and every strategy countered by another, GRANT COMES EAST builds to a stunning portrait of the war that was-and the war that might have been....

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY HERMIONE LEE The previously uncollected occasional prose of a great English writer ? full of wit, feeling and illumination. Penelope Fitzgerald was a prolific letter writer. She avoided the phone if she could, never even contemplated the possibility of going online. Her warmth, humour and supreme storytelling abilities found their best forum here. Surprising, wonderfully funny, definitive, this is a major collection of Penelope Fitzgerald?s reviews, essays and autobiographical writings. This collection includes pieces on contemporary novelists Giles Foden, Anne Enright, Carol Shields, Rose Tremain, Roddy Doyle; on classic writers Muriel Spark, A.E. Housman, Rose Macaulay, M.R. James, Stevie Smith, Dorothy L. Sayers; on remembering her grandfather E.H. Shepard; on her love of Devon and Spain and William Morris: on writers in their old age; and witty and poignant recollections of her schooldays, her life on a Thames barge, her childhood in Hampstead and the...

Ponyboy can count on his brothers and his friends, but not on much else besides trouble with the Socs, a vicious gang of rich kids who get away with everything, including beating up greasers like Ponyboy. At least he knows what to expect—until the night someone takes things too far.Written forty-five years ago, S. E. Hinton's classic story of a boy who finds himself on the outskirts of regular society remains as powerful today as it was the day it was written.

Hometown Hero Returns by Colleen Montgomery (staff reporter) Draft U.S. Air Force captain Kenneth Vance is back in Colorado Springs on medical leave, and currently working for his old friend Quinn Montgomery's vandalism-plagued construction company. Sources say both families are being targeted for their roles in taking down that South American drug cartel a year ago. Ken has been seen around town with Julianna Red Feather, who has been busy training canine search-and-rescue teams. [Note: Mention Julianna's high school crush on Ken?] Each is at a turning point in their careers--and lives-- and spending all this time together might lead to good news for the Vance family for the first time in months!

The bestselling saga continues The Raging Bears have begun their occupation of the planet Vega with the hope of restoring order on a planet beset by violence and civil ruin. But their bold move to stabilize Prefecture I for the Republic of the Sphere may prove to be the chance their enemies have waited for...**About the AuthorJ. Steven York is the national best-selling author of over fifteen books and many short stories. In his career, he's been privileged to write in such fantastic fictional universes as "Star Trek," "X-Men," "Conan the Barbarian," and "Transformers," but his favorite universes are the ones he creates himself.In his spare time, he creates a weekly web-comic called "Minions at Work." He is married to fellow writer Christina F. York (who in addition to working under her own name, also writes mysteries under the names Christy Evans and Christy Fifield). They live together a few blocks from the Pacific on the Oregon coast.

The Swiss writer Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1921–90) was one of the most important literary figures of the second half of the twentieth century. During the years of the cold war, arguably only Beckett, Camus, Sartre, and Brecht rivaled him as a presence in European letters. Yet outside Europe, this prolific author is primarily known for only one work, The Visit . With these long-awaited translations of his plays, fictions, and essays, Dürrenmatt becomes available again in all his brilliance to the English-speaking world. This second volume of Selected Writings reveals a writer who may stand as Kafka’s greatest heir. Dürrenmatt’s novellas and short stories are searing, tragicomic explorations of the ironies of justice and the corruptibility of institutions. Apart from The Pledge , a requiem to the detective story that was made into a film starring Jack Nicholson, none of the works in this volume are available elsewhere in English. Among the most evocative fictions included here are two novellas: The Assignment and Traps . The Assignment tells the story of a woman filmmaker investigating a mysterious murder in an unnamed Arab country and has been hailed by Sven Birkerts as “a parable of hell for an age consumed by images.” Traps , meanwhile, is a chilling comic novella about a traveling salesman who agrees to play the role of the defendant in a mock trial among dinner companions—and then pays the ultimate penalty. Dürrenmatt has long been considered a great writer—but one unfairly neglected in the modern world of letters. With these elegantly conceived and expertly translated volumes, a new generation of readers will rediscover his greatest works.