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The good samaritan : a novel / by Halleen, Toni,author.;
"A college professor is offered a chance at redemption-if he can figure out the right thing to do in this thoughtful psychological thriller from the author of The Surrogate. Sociology professor Matthew Larkin is barely holding on. After the death of his toddler son, his wife divorced him, his teenage daughter abandoned him, and he lost a job he loved. Landing a rare tenure track position at a small college in southern Minnesota, he's trying to cope with the disaster his life has become. While driving down an empty highway in the middle of nowhere one gloomy Sunday evening, Matthew gets caught in a hailstorm. Pulling off the road to find shelter, he spies a disturbing sight. Caught in the car's headlights is a child curled up beneath a plastic tarp. The boy is alive but unconscious, soaked to the bone and possibly hypothermic. Knowing an ambulance would take too long to reach them, Matthew impulsively puts the boy in his car, intending to get medical help. On the way, the boy awakens and becomes agitated, begging Matthew not to take him to a hospital or to call the police. Matthew sympathizes with the panicked boy, who looks to be the same age his son would have been. Overcome by longing, grief, and a need to make sense of everything that's happened to him, Matthew makes a dangerous choice-risking everything for a chance to face his past, move on from the pain, and forgive both his family and himself"--
Subjects: Thrillers (Fiction); Psychological fiction.; Novels.; Bereavement; Choice (Psychology); College teachers; Helping behavior; Redemption;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Nobody's magic / by Birdsong, Destiny O.,1981-author.;
"In this glittering triptych novel, Suzette, Maple and Agnes, three Black women with albinism, call Shreveport, Louisiana, home. At the bustling intersection of the American South and Southwest, these three women find themselves at the crossroads of their own lives. Suzette, a pampered twenty-year-old, has been sheltered from the outside world since a dangerous childhood encounter. Now, a budding romance with a sweet mechanic allows Suzette to seek independence, which unleashes dark reactions in those closest to her. In discovering her autonomy, Suzette is forced to decide what she is willing to sacrifice in order to make her own way in the world. Maple is reeling from the unsolved murder of her free-spirited mother. She flees the media circus and her judgmental grandmother by shutting herself off from the world in a spare room of the motel where she works. One night, Maple connects with Chad, someone who may understand her pain more than she realizes, and discovers that the key to her mother's death may be within her reach. Agnes is far from home, working yet another mind-numbing job. She attracts the interest of a lonely security guard and army veteran who's looking for a traditional life for himself and his young son. He's convinced that she wields a certain "magic," but Agnes soon unleashes a power within herself that will shock them both and send her on a trip to confront not only her family and her past, but also herself. This novel, told in three parts, is a searing meditation on grief, female strength, and self-discovery set against a backdrop of complicated social and racial histories. Nobody's Magic is a testament to the power of family-the ones you're born in and the ones you choose. And in these three narratives, among the yearning and loss, each of these women may find a seed of hope for the future"--
Subjects: Bildungsromans.; Psychological fiction.; African American women; Albinos and albinism; Man-woman relationships; Self-actualization (Psychology) in women;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Once we were home / by Rosner, Jennifer,author.;
Includes bibliographical references."From Jennifer Rosner comes a novel based on the true stories of children stolen in the wake of World War II. Ana will never forget her mother's face when she and her baby brother, Oskar, were sent out of their Polish ghetto and into the arms of a Christian friend. For Oskar, though, their new family is the only one he remembers. When a woman from a Jewish reclamation organization seizes them, believing she has their best interest at heart, Ana sees an opportunity to reconnect with her roots, while Oskar sees only the loss of the home he loves. Roger grows up in a monastery in France, inventing stories and trading riddles with his best friend in a life of quiet concealment. When a relative seeks to retrieve him, the Church steals him across the Pyrenees before relinquishing him to family in Jerusalem. Renata, a post-graduate student in archaeology, has spent her life unearthing secrets from the past--except for her own. After her mother's death, Renata's grief is entwined with all the questions her mother left unanswered, including why they fled Germany so quickly when Renata was a little girl. Two decades later, they are each building lives for themselves, trying to move on from the trauma and loss that haunts them. But as their stories converge in Israel, in unexpected ways, they must each ask where and to whom they truly belong."--
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Novels.; Belonging (Social psychology); Holocaust survivors; World War, 1939-1945;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The homewreckers : a novel / by Andrews, Mary Kay,1954-author.;
"Hattie Kavanaugh went to work helping clean up restored homes for Kavanaugh & Son Restorations at eighteen; married the boss's son at twenty; and was only twenty-five when her husband Hank was killed in a motorcycle accident. Broken-hearted but determined to continue the business of their dreams, she takes the life insurance money, buys a small house in a gentrifying neighborhood, flips it, then puts the money into her next project. But that house is a disaster and a money-loser, which rocks her confidence for years to come. Then, Hattie gets a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: star in a beach house renovation reality show called The Homewreckers, cast against a male lead who may be a love interest, or may be the ultimate antagonist"--
Subjects: Chick lit.; Psychological fiction.; Novels.; Cold cases (Criminal investigation); Dwellings; Grief; Man-woman relationships; Murder; Reality television programs; Triangles (Interpersonal relations); Widows;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 3
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The river is waiting [sound recording] : a novel / by Lamb, Wally,author.; Sisto, Jeremy,1974-narrator.; Blackstone Audio, Inc.,publisher.;
Read by Jeremy Sisto.Corby Ledbetter is struggling. New fatherhood, the loss of his job, and a growing secret addiction have thrown his marriage to his beloved Emily into a tailspin. And that's before he causes the tragedy that tears the family apart. Sentenced to prison, Corby struggles to survive life on the inside, where he bears witness to frightful acts of brutality but also experiences small acts of kindness and elemental kinship with a prison librarian who sees his light and some of his fellow offenders, including a tender-hearted cellmate and a troubled teen desperate for a role model. Buoyed by them and by his mother's enduring faith in him, Corby begins to transcend the boundaries of his confinement, sustained by his hope that mercy and reconciliation might still be possible. Can his crimes ever be forgiven by those he loves?
Subjects: Audiobooks.; Psychological fiction.; Novels.; Families; Grief; Married people; Prisoners; Prisons; Reconciliation;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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We rip the world apart / by Carr, Charlene,author.;
"A sweeping multi-generational story about motherhood, race and secrets in the lives of three women, perfect for readers of Brit Bennett's The Vanishing Half and David Chariandy's Brother. When 24-year-old Kareela discovers she's pregnant with a child she isn't sure she wants, it amplifies her struggle to understand her place in the world as a woman who is half-Black and half-white, yet feels neither. Her mother, Evelyn, fled to Canada with her husband and their first-born child, Antony, during the politically charged Jamaican Exodus of the 1980s, only to realize they'd come to a place where Black men are viewed with suspicion--a constant and pernicious reality Evelyn watches her husband and son navigate daily. Years later, in the aftermath of Antony's murder by the police, Evelyn's mother-in-law, Violet, moves in, offering young Kareela a link to the Jamaican heritage she has never fully known. Despite Violet's efforts to help them through their grief, the traumas they carry grow into a web of secrets that threatens the very family they all hold so dear. Back in the present, Kareela, prompted by fear and uncertainty about the new life she carries, must come to terms with the mysteries surrounding her family's past and the need to make sense of both her identity and her future. Weaving the women's stories across multiple timelines, We Rip the World Apart reveals the ways that simple choices, made in the heat of the moment and with the best of intentions, can have deeper repercussions than could ever have been imagined, especially when people remain silent."--
Subjects: Domestic fiction.; Psychological fiction.; Novels.; African American women; Families; Family secrets; Identity (Psychology); Intergenerational relations; Pregnant women; Racially mixed people; Secrecy; Women;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Black dove : a novel / by McAdam, Colin,author.;
"In a tall and narrow house, on a stained and busy street, live twelve-year-old Oliver and his father, a story-loving writer. Haunted by the ghost of his alcoholic mother, Oliver finds comfort in his father's impromptu tales: the Black Dove, an elusive flower that gives strength; the girl who consumes it as she battles attackers and yearns for happier realms. Stories where lonely souls keep searching despite their losses and grief. Running from a bully one night, Oliver finds refuge in a junk shop owned by an enigmatic man. Soon, instead of hiding in the janitor's closet after school, Oliver spends afternoons in the shop, a cavernous place full of storied oddities and grubby wonders where creatures rise up from the basement. A snake in the shape of a boy. A hunter named Night, part panther, part hound, who proves to Oliver that the world holds invisible wonder. Wanting to forget his mother, afraid of his own genes, constantly harassed by bullies, Oliver decides to follow the shop-owner down the path of genetic editing. As he begins his transformation he meets the girl from across the street, and their friendship grows in a neighbourhood where magic is real, where murderers gather, and where the darker consequences of fantasies play out. A twisting story of grief and revenge, Black Dove is a thrilling read with its own kind of magic. In rich but tightly reined prose, McAdam celebrates the value and shortfalls of storytelling, finding a light in all the darkness to conjure a tender portrait of childhood's end"--
Subjects: Magic realist fiction.; Psychological fiction.; Novels.; Authors; Boys; Fathers and sons; Genetic engineering; Revenge; Storytelling; Victims of bullying;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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What we carry : a novel / by Fogarty, Kalyn,author.;
"Cassidy Morgan's life has always followed a carefully laid track: top education, fulfilling career, and marriage to the love of her life, Owen. The next logical step was starting a family. But when a late-term miscarriage threatens to derail everything she's worked so hard for, she finds herself questioning her identity, particularly what it means to be a mother. Unable to move past her guilt and shame, she realizes there's more to fix than a broken heart. Grief illuminates the weaknesses in her marriage and forces her to deal with her tumultuous relationship with her own mother. Cassidy hopes her work as a veterinarian specializing in equine reproduction will distract her from the pain but instead finds that one of the cases she's working on shines a spotlight on the memory of her unborn son. For once in her life, Cassidy is left untethered and wondering why she wanted to become a mother in the first place. Then the unexpected happens when Cassidy becomes pregnant again. But the joy over her baby is tempered by her fear of another loss as well as her increasingly troubled marriage. Now, she must decide whether to let her pain hold her back or trust that there's still something to live for"--Provided by publisher.
Subjects: Domestic fiction.; Loss (Psychology); Man-woman relationships; Motherhood; Miscarriage; Pregnancy;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The Christmas promise / by Evans, Richard Paul,author.;
On the night of her high school graduation, Richelle Bach's father gives her and her identical twin sister, Michelle, matching opal necklaces. "These opals look identical," he tells them, "but the fire inside each is completely unique--just like the two of you." Indeed, the two sisters couldn't be more different, and their paths diverge as they embark on adulthood. Years pass, until--at their father's behest--they both come home for Christmas. What happens then forever damages their relationship, and Richelle vows never to see or speak to her sister again. In their father's last days, he asks Richelle to forgive Michelle, a deathbed promise she never fulfills as her twin is killed in an accident. Now, painfully alone and broken, caring for the sickest of children in a hospital PICU, Richelle has one last dream: to be an author. The plot of her book, The Prodigal Daughter, is a story based on her sister's life. It's not until she meets Justin Ek, a man who harbors his own loss, that a secret promise is revealed, and Richelle learns that the story she's writing is not about her sister, but about herself.
Subjects: Christmas fiction.; Psychological fiction.; Authors; Grief; Life change events; Man-woman relationships; Parent and adult child; Sisters; Twins;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 2
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The forest of lost souls / by Koontz, Dean R.(Dean Ray),1945-author.;
"Raised in the wilderness by her late great-uncle, Vida is a young woman with an almost preternatural affinity for nature, especially for the wolves that also call the forested mountains home. Formed by hard experience, by love and loss, and by the prophecies of a fortune teller, Vida just wants peace. If only nearby Kettleton County didn't cast such a dark shadow. It's where Jose Nochelobo, the love of Vida's life and a cherished local hero, died in a tragic accident. That's the official story, but Vida has reasons to doubt it. The truth can't be contained for long. Nor can the hungry men of power in Kettleton who want something too: that Vida, like Jose, disappear forever. One by one they come for her, prepared to do anything to see their plans through to their evil end. Vida is no less prepared for them. Vida, the forest, and its formidable wonders are waiting. She will not rest until goodness and order have been restored"--
Subjects: Thrillers (Fiction); Psychological fiction.; Novels.; Assassins; Enemies; Good and evil; Grief; Love; Man-woman relationships; Murder; Prophecies; Social isolation; Wolves; Women;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 2
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