Results 851 to 860 of 1,199 | « previous | next »
- Anxious people / by Backman, Fredrik,1981-author.; Smith, Neil(Neil Andrew),translator.;
"This is a story about a hostage drama. But more than that, it’s a story about idiots. That’s why, from the very outset, I need to say that it is always very easy to declare people idiots, but only if you forget that it is also almost always idiotically difficult to be human. Anxious People is an unreasonably riotous comedy about a hostage drama during an open house that all begins when a failed bank robber locks himself in with six strangers who have come to view the apartment. In captivity we meet Roger and Anna-Lena, a recently retired couple who are on a manic hunt for fixer-uppers because they don’t know how to fix their own marriage. They have the distinction of shopping at every Ikea in Sweden—and those are some of the most romantic moments they ever shared. Then there is Zara, a wealthy director of a bank who has never cared for poor people or their problems (and isn’t shy about saying so). But when tragedy strikes in her life, she becomes addicted to visiting real-estate open houses to see how the middle-classes live – and possibly to find a suitable place to commit suicide. Julia and Danijela are a young lesbian couple with a newborn baby who can’t agree on anything. Their opposite and idiosyncratic home preferences are making them increasingly anxious about their chances of spending a lifetime together. And Estelle, an eighty year-old woman who has lived long enough to be unimpressed by some bank robber waving a gun in her face. Despite the story she tells them all, Estelle hasn’t really come to the apartment to view it for her daughter, and her husband really isn’t outside parking the car. As police surround the premises and television channels are broadcasting live, the pressure of an increasingly tense situation mounts, causing each person to reveal more and more about themselves to each other. Before long, the robber must decide which is the more terrifying prospect: going out to face the police, or staying in the apartment with this group of impossible people. In the end, the hostages are released, but when the police storm the apartment to capture the robber, it is...empty. In a series of interviews afterwards, the witnesses all tell their version of what happened that day, whereupon it becomes clear to the police that one person is lying, and that none of the others are telling the whole truth. This is a story about a crime that never took place, a would-be bank robber who disappears into thin air, and a group of very anxious people who experience the same events in wildly different ways."--
- Subjects: Detective and mystery fiction.; Fiction.; Humorous fiction.; Detective and mystery fiction.; Humorous fiction.; Bank robberies; Thieves; Hostage negotiations; Witnesses; Small cities; Bank robberies.; Hostage negotiations.; Small cities.; Thieves.; Witnesses.;
- Available copies: 0 / Total copies: 2
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- Anxious People [electronic resource] : by Backman, Fredrik.aut; Ireland, Marin.nrt; CloudLibrary;
#1 New York Times bestseller From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Man Called Ove and “writer of astonishing depth” (The Washington Times) comes a poignant comedy about a crime that never took place, a would-be bank robber who disappears into thin air, and eight extremely anxious strangers who find they have more in common than they ever imagined. Viewing an apartment normally doesn’t turn into a life-or-death situation, but this particular open house becomes just that when a failed bank robber bursts in and takes everyone in the apartment hostage. As the pressure mounts, the eight strangers begin slowly opening up to one another and reveal long-hidden truths. First is Zara, a wealthy bank director who has been too busy to care about anyone else until tragedy changed her life. Now, she’s obsessed with visiting open houses to see how ordinary people live—and, perhaps, to set an old wrong to right. Then there’s Roger and Anna-Lena, an Ikea-addicted retired couple who are on a never-ending hunt for fixer-uppers to hide the fact that they don’t know how to fix their own failing marriage. Julia and Ro are a young lesbian couple and soon-to-be parents who are nervous about their chances for a successful life together since they can’t agree on anything. And there’s Estelle, an eighty-year-old woman who has lived long enough to be unimpressed by a masked bank robber waving a gun in her face. And despite the story she tells them all, Estelle hasn’t really come to the apartment to view it for her daughter, and her husband really isn’t outside parking the car. As police surround the premises and television channels broadcast the hostage situation live, the tension mounts and even deeper secrets are slowly revealed. Before long, the robber must decide which is the more terrifying prospect: going out to face the police, or staying in the apartment with this group of impossible people. Rich with Fredrik Backman’s “pitch-perfect dialogue and an unparalleled understanding of human nature” (Shelf Awareness), Anxious People’s whimsical plot serves up unforgettable insights into the human condition and a gentle reminder to be compassionate to all the anxious people we encounter every day.
- Subjects: Audiobooks.; Small Town & Rural; Literary; Sports;
- © 2020., Simon & Schuster,
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- Last summer at the Golden Hotel / by Friedland, Elyssa,author.;
"A family reunion in the Catskills brings hilarity and nostalgia when two clans convene for the summer at their beloved getaway. In its heyday, the Golden Hotel was the crown jewel of the hotter-than-hot Catskills vacation scene. For more than sixty years, the Goldman and Weingold families-best friends and business partners-have presided over this glamorous resort, which served as a second home for well-heeled guests and celebrities. But the Catskills are not what they used to be-and neither is the relationship between the Goldmans and the Weingolds. As the facilities and management begin to fall apart, a tempting offer to sell forces the two families together again to make a heart-wrenching decision. Can they save their beloved Golden, or is it too late? Long-buried secrets emerge, new dramas and financial scandal erupt, and everyone from the traditional grandparents to the millennial grandchildren wants a say in the hotel's future. But business and pleasure clash when the hotel owners rediscover the magic of a bygone era of nonstop fun, even as they grapple with what may be their last resort"--
- Subjects: Domestic fiction.; Humorous fiction.; Families; Hotels; Secrecy;
- Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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- James Patterson by James Patterson [text (large print)] : the stories of my life. by Patterson, James,1947-author.;
"How did a kid whose dad lived in the poorhouse become the most successful storyteller in the world? On the morning he was born, he nearly died. Growing up, he didn't love to read. That changed. He worked at a mental hospital in Massachusetts, where he met the singer James Taylor and the poet Robert Lowell. While he toiled in advertising hell, James wrote the ad jingle line "I'm a Toys ‘R' Us Kid." He once watched James Baldwin and Norman Mailer square off to trade punches at a party. He's only been in love twice. Both times are amazing. Dolly Parton once sang "Happy Birthday" to James over the phone. She calls him J.J., for Jimmy James. Three American presidents have invited him to golf with them. How did a boy from small-town New York become the world's most successful writer? How does he do it? He has always wanted to write the kind of novel that would be read and reread so many times that the binding breaks and the book literally falls apart. As he says, "I'm still working on that one.""--
- Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Large type books.; Patterson, James, 1947-; Authors, American; Authors, American;
- Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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- Vera, or faith [text (large print)] : a novel / by Shteyngart, Gary,1972-author.;
"The Bradford-Shmulkin family is falling apart. A very modern blend of Russian, Jewish, Korean, and New England WASP, they love one another deeply but the pressures of life in an unstable America are fraying their bonds. There's Daddy, a struggling, cash-thirsty editor whose Russian heritage gives him a surprising new currency in the upside-down world of twenty-first-century geopolitics; his wife, Anne Mom, a progressive, underfunded blue blood from Boston who's barely holding the household together; their son, Dylan, whose blond hair and Mayflower lineage provide him pride of place in the newly forming American political order; and, above all, the young Vera, half-Jewish, half-Korean, and wholly original. Observant, sensitive, and always writing down new vocabulary words, Vera wants only three things in life: to make a friend at school; Daddy and Anne Mom to stay together; and to meet her birth mother, Mom Mom, who will at last tell Vera the secret of who she really is and how to ensure love's survival in this great, mad, imploding world"--
- Subjects: Domestic fiction.; Large print books.; Novels.; Adopted children; Families; Multiracial families; Preteen girls; Geopolitics;
- Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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- Meet me on Love Street / by Heron, Farah,author.;
"Sana Merali is a certified hopeless romantic. It's inevitable when she literally lives on Love Street, a cute side-street full of mom-and-pop shops and cozy apartments. With her florist mother, her part-time job at a vintage shop, and her adorably curated wardrobe, Sana knows she's what meet-cutes are made of -- and it's only a matter of time until her own HEA. When the neighborhood is threatened by new developments, however, her plans for love get pushed to the backburner as she and her neighbors rally to host a festival that will finally put the neighborhood on everyone's radar. Because what better way to get people to fall in love with Love Street? Unfortunately, Miles Desai is also on the planning committee. Miles is contrary, judgmental, and ... anti-romance. His hard stance on love inspires Sana with another goal for the summer: to matchmake Miles and knock the cynicism right out of him. But as her set-up for Miles starts to actually work, Sana realizes that happily-ever-afters, for herself and for her street, aren't that easy to come by."--
- Subjects: Young adult fiction.; Novels.; Festivals; Gentrification; Interpersonal relations; Festivals; Gentrification; Interpersonal relations;
- Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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- Unsheltered [sound recording] : a novel / by Kingsolver, Barbara,author,narrator.; Harper Audio (Firm),publisher.;
Read by the author.Willa Knox has always prided herself on being the embodiment of responsibility for her family. Which is why it's so unnerving that she's arrived at middle age with nothing to show for her hard work and dedication but a stack of unpaid bills and an inherited brick home in Vineland, New Jersey, that is literally falling apart. The magazine where she worked has folded, and the college where her husband had tenure has closed. The dilapidated house is also home to her ailing and cantankerous Greek father-in-law and her two grown children: her stubborn, free-spirited daughter, Tig, and her dutiful debt-ridden, ivy educated son, Zeke, who has arrived with his unplanned baby in the wake of a life-shattering development. In an act of desperation, Willa begins to investigate the history of her home, hoping that the local historical preservation society might take an interest and provide funding for its direly needed repairs. Through her research into Vineland's past and its creation as a Utopian community, she discovers a kindred spirit from the 1880s, Thatcher Greenwood.
- Subjects: Audiobooks.; Domestic fiction.; Historical fiction.; Middle-aged women; Families; Life change events; History; Dwellings;
- Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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- No journey too far : a novel / by Turansky, Carrie,author.;
"A family separated, a missing sweetheart, a hidden trunk, and a journey across the ocean all in the name of love--the epic saga of the McAlisters continues in the riveting sequel to No Ocean Too Wide . In 1909, Grace McAlister set sail for Canada as one of the thousands of British Home Children taken from their families and their homeland. Though she is fortunate enough to be adopted by wealthy parents, the secrets of her past are kept hidden for ten years until someone from her long-buried childhood arrives on her doorstep. With this new connection to her birth family, will she be brave enough to leave her sheltered life in Toronto and uncover the truth? After enduring hardship as an indentured British Home Child, Garth McAlister left Canada to serve in World War I. His sweetheart, Emma Lafferty, promised to wait for his return, but after three long years apart, her letters suddenly stopped. When Garth arrives home from the war to unexpected news, he is determined to return to Canada once more on a daunting mission to find the two women he refuses to abandon--his long-lost sister and his mysteriously missing sweetheart."--
- Subjects: Religious fiction.; Domestic fiction.; Historical fiction.; British; Brothers and sisters; Forced migration; Home children (Canadian immigrants); Betrothal; World War, 1939-1945;
- Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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- Dangerous / by Spencer, Minerva.;
Lady Euphemia Marlington hasn't been free in seventeen years--since she was captured by Corsairs and sold into a harem. Now the sultan is dead and Mia is back in London facing relentless newspapermen, an insatiably curious public, and her first Season. Worst of all is her ashamed father's ultimatum: marry a man of his choosing or live out her life in seclusion. No doubt her potential groom is a demented octogenarian. Fortunately, Mia is no longer a girl, but a clever woman with a secret--and a plan of her own... Adam de Courtney's first two wives died under mysterious circumstances. Now there isn't a peer in England willing to let his daughter marry the dangerously handsome man the ton calls The Murderous Marquess. Nobody except Mia's father, the desperate Duke of Carlisle. Clearly Mia must resemble an aging matron, or worse. However, in need of an heir, Adam will use the arrangement to his advantage... But when the two outcasts finally meet, assumptions will be replaced by surprises, deceit by desire--and a meeting of minds between two schemers may lead to a meeting of hearts--if the secrets of their pasts don't tear them apart...
- Subjects: Romance fiction.; Historical fiction.; Man-woman relationships; Aristocracy (Social class); Widowers;
- Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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- The unlikely adventures of the Shergill sisters : a novel / by Jaswal, Balli Kaur,author.;
The British-born Shergill sisters-- Rajni, Jezmeen, and Shirnia-- barely got along growing up, and as adults have grown even further apart. But on her deathbed, their mother voices one last wish: that her daughters will make a pilgrimage together to the Golden Temple in Amritsar to carry out her final rites. After a trip to India with her mother as a teenager, Rajni vowed never to return. But she's always been a dutiful daughter, and cannot, even now, refuse her mother's request. Struggling actress Jezmeen has just been publicly fired from her television job, so the trip to India is a welcome break to help her pick up the pieces of her broken career. Shirina's in-laws are pushing her to make a pivotal decision about her married life; time away will help her decide whether to meekly obey, or to bravely stand up for herself for the first time. Arriving in India, these sisters will make unexpected discoveries about themselves, their mother, and their lives-- and learn the real story behind the trip Rajni took with their Mother long ago-- a momentous journey that resulted in Mum never being able to return to India again.
- Subjects: Domestic fiction.; Sisters; Panjabis (South Asian people); Women travelers;
- Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 2
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Results 851 to 860 of 1,199 | « previous | next »