Life Fiction

It happens more than you might think. One second someone’s life is totally typical, the next it’s terribly tragic. Everything they had, everything they planned, everything they were, all of it vanishes in a flash. Shock and sorrow leave the victim staring into tomorrow’s void, wondering: How did it happen? Who did it? And why?

After too many dates, thirtysomething Mimi Perkins is still single, unmoored, and longing for love. So when Ren Yardley—a handsome, divorced fellow drama teacher and single father—falls in love with her and proposes, she’s sure this is at last the good news her psychic predicted. Soon after proposing, Ren receives the devastating news that his ex-wife has been in a debilitating car accident, prompting him to temporarily move back into his former home to care for her and his daughters.

A writer who's blocked - I'm a total cliche. Lucky for me, my agent has a cure that's an even bigger stereotype - a month at her villa in Tuscany, with nothing to do but find my muse. When he walks right in the front door, adorable son in tow, it feels like fate has finally done for me what it does for every other cliched girl I've seen in the movies. Except that he's completely off-limits. In this case, business and pleasure can never mix. Because Claudio is my agent's ex.

Frederick Fife was born with an extra helping of kindness in his heart. If he borrowed your car, he’d return it washed with a full tank of gas. The problem is there’s nobody left in Fred’s life to borrow from. At eighty-two, he’s desperately lonely, broke, and on the brink of homelessness. But Fred’s luck changes when, in a bizarre case of mistaken identity, he takes the place of grumpy Bernard Greer at the local nursing home. Now he has warm meals in his belly and a roof over his head—as long as his poker face is in better shape than his prostate and that his look-alike never turns up.

Dylan has been looking forward to the Midwinter Meltdown Tournament for months. He knows this will be the year his hockey team wins. Then a pre-season injury takes him out of the game. Even though his wrist is healing, he's too weak to play. Can Dylan be part of the team if he's stuck on the bench?

Catherine, a 12-year-old girl with big responsibilities, loves her autistic younger brother David and makes lists of rules she thinks will help him get by. But she often feels that her parents, focused on special care for David, forget that she exists, too.

Luke Garner has spent his entire life - all 12 years - in hiding. The government has outlawed families with more than two children. As the Garners' third child, Luke's very life is in danger. When Luke meets Jen, another "shadow child," he begins to question the government's policies.

Stories of Your Life and Others presents characters who must confront sudden change-the inevitable rise of automatons or the appearance of aliens-while striving to maintain some sense of normalcy. In the amazing and much-lauded title story (the basis for the 2016 movie Arrival), a grieving mother copes with divorce and the death of her daughter by drawing on her knowledge of alien languages and non-linear memory recollection.

In their fifth exploit, Sabrina and Daphne Grimm are on their own while investigating the theft of enchanted items from the Ever Afters. And if they don't solve the case, the villain behind the crimes will unleash chaos upon the residents of Ferryport Landing.

Big Nate Flips Out: Everyone knows N-A-T-E does not equal N-E-A-T! And when Nate’s sloppiness gets out of hand, his best friend, Francis, is in serious trouble. Can Nate clean up his act, or will he flip out first? Big Nate: In the Zone: Nate’s not having the best of luck...in fact; he’s not having ANY luck. But with a little boost thanks to Chad’s lucky foot, suddenly good luck is everywhere Nate turns! Nate’s in the zone! But how long will it last?

At times stern, at other times patient, at times perceptive, at other times in sad denial, Olive Kitteridge, a retired schoolteacher, deplores the changes in her little town of Crosby, Maine, and in the world at large, but she doesn’t always recognize the changes in those around her: a lounge musician haunted by a past romance; a former student who has lost the will to live; Olive’s own adult child, who feels tyrannized by her irrational sensitivities; and her husband, Henry, who finds his loyalty to his marriage both a blessing and a curse.

The Nasr family is spread across the globe - Beirut, Brooklyn, Austin, the California desert. A Syrian mother, a Lebanese father, and three American children: all have lived a life of migration. Still, they’ve always had their ancestral home in Beirut - a constant touchstone - and the complicated, messy family love that binds them. But following his father's recent death, Idris, the family's new patriarch, has decided to sell. The decision brings the family to Beirut, where everyone unites against Idris in a fight to save the house.

Lisa Wingate has been favorably compared to authors Nicholas Sparks and Richard Paul Evans. In A Month of Summer, Hanna Beth has been caring for her aging husband - who suffers from Alzheimer's - and her developmentally challenged adult son for years on her own. But when she suffers a stroke, estranged stepdaughter Rebecca must take the reins. As she cares for her father and the step-brother she's barely met, Rebecca slowly begins to heal both herself and her family.

Iqbal, a 13-year-old boy, fights for children's liberation. Bravely, he speaks out against children working long hours in carpet factories in Pakistan.

A Signature Performance: Leelee Sobieski’s Emma is sultry but vulnerable, offering a sympathetic rendering of the heroine and her plight, allowing the listener to draw his own conclusions about Madame Bovary in this cautionary tale of love, passion, and desperation.

Here is a compelling meditation from renowned horseman Mark Rashid on all the ways that the principles we apply in our dealings with fellow humans can apply to our relationships with our horses, and vice versa. Horsemanship Through Life is about awareness, learning, teaching, honesty, integrity, and much more. It is about more than tips or technique; it is about principles to live by. It is about taking ownership of and responsibility for our lives and relationships with horses and humans. It doesn t take long to listen to, but will be with you for life.

Born a slave, the Roman Stoic philosopher Epictetus (c. 55-135 AD) taught that mental freedom is supreme, since it can liberate one anywhere, even in a prison. In How to Be Free, A. A. Long - one of the world's leading authorities on Stoicism and a pioneer in its remarkable contemporary revival - provides a superb new edition of Epictetus's celebrated guide to the Stoic philosophy of life (the Encheiridion) along with a selection of related reflections in his Discourses.

Someone is shooting horses, and Sadie is determined to find out who it is. That is until she begins to suspect that Mark, her boyfriend, may be involved. Will Sadie discover the truth? Will it be too hard to bear?

George Washington Hayduke III was last seen clinging to a rock face in the wilds of Utah as an armed posse hunted him down for his eco-radicalist crimes. Now he is back with a fiery need for vengeance. In this sequel to the enormously popular and entertaining The Monkey Wrench Gang, Hayduke teams up with his old pals Doc Sarvis, Seldom Seen Smith, and Bonnie Abbzug in a battle against the world's biggest earth-moving machine.

Heavenly Young doesn't have time for romance. The innocent nursing student is struggling to care for her ailing father, keep a roof over their head, and start a new career. Then fate further complicates her life by dropping two very different men in her lap and forcing her to make a choice that will change her life forever. Dr. Ken Beckman - vascular surgeon by day, sadist by night - has three hard-and-fast rules: Never date where he works, never touch vanillas, and never get tangled up with a virgin. But the moment he meets Heavenly, he aches to toss his scruples aside and claim her.