Rural Life

It's 1984 - and it's an important time for the children of Ragley-on-the Forest school.... Their school choir is to sing a carol in a church in York, and it's actually going to be on television! Helping to keep his excited children - not to mention their parents - under control during these momentous events taxes Jack and his staff to the limit. And at the same time, Jack has his own problems to deal with....

When Marina Moore’s life blows up on national television, she seeks refuge at her grandmother’s beach house called the Coral Cottage. Now in her mid-forties with children in college, Marina is in dire need of her grandmother's gutsy advice to a well-lived life. Marina meets an old friend, Ivy Bay, proprietor of the Seabreeze Inn, who encourages her to share her love of food at the local farmer’s market. Soon Marina’s sister Kai arrives on a summer break from her musical theater troupe.

When Marina Moore decides to expand her farmers market and pop-up dinner business, the next step is a cafe on the shores of Summer Beach. But challenges loom, and Marina must quickly become more creative than ever, especially when her children need help. Her sister Kai's position with a musical theater troupe forces more changes. Their sister Brooke is having marital challenges, while grandmother Ginger continues to contribute her advice on the life well-lived—if only her granddaughters will listen.

The hilarious, charming, and candid story of writer Christopher Ingraham’s decision to uproot his life and move his family to Red Lake Falls, Minnesota, population 1,400 - the community he made famous as “the worst place to live in America” in a story he wrote for the Washington Post.

Stefanie Stahl has a husband with renovation ADD. He can't seem to finish anything he starts, and her house is littered with his "projects". If he doesn't smarten up, she swears she's going to murder him and bury him under the pile of scrounged lumber in the backyard. Her friend Griffin James is suddenly single and thinking maybe she needs to sell her fixer-upper and follow her career bliss up the ladder of success, even if that scary ladder is clear across the country.

Eine herzzerreißende Entscheidung - zwischen deiner Liebe und deiner Familie. Der 25-jährige Colby bewirtschaftet eine Farm in North Carolina. Bei einem Urlaub lernt er die Sängerin Morgan kennen. Sie verbringen eine wunderschöne Zeit miteinander – und wissen doch, dass sie bald in kaum miteinander vereinbare Welten zurückkehren müssen. Zeitgleich flüchtet eine Frau namens Beverly vor ihrem gewalttätigen Ehemann. Gemeinsam mit ihrem kleinen Sohn reist sie quer durch Amerika. Schließlich findet sie Unterschlupf in einem heruntergekommenen Haus in der Provinz.

In this delightful memoir, Jared Gulian describes the first four years of their new life in the country, its disasters, small triumphs, surprises, and pleasures. But most of all, he describes the warmth of the local community that welcomed them, saved them from certain peril, taught them how to cook, how to care for animals, and how to understand and love the land.

Laura Humphrey has had her share of ups and downs. She's loved her job teaching high school music for over twenty-five years in her hometown with a special gift for musical theater. She is devoted to her church, family, and friends. In addition, a romance may be on the horizon with the high school coach, a widower and longtime friend. On the negative side, however, Laura has always doubted her worth to others and has always struggled with sadness over a failed marriage and having no children of her own.

Being the middle son is never easy, especially when your brothers are perfect. T.K. is 14 and has a true talent for getting into trouble. He tries to keep his temper under control, but it’s a difficult task with so many freaking jerks around. T.K. feels like his life has been flushed down the toilet, but soon he’s able to join the football team, and then there’s Finn, the hottie newly hired to help out on the farm. T.K. believes he might finally be happy, but when he spots a blond angel, he realizes he didn’t know what happiness means.

A hilarious tale of dogs, fogs, bogs and moving to Ireland. For many years, Nick and Lesley Albert had shared a dream of living far away from the stress of modern life, and when the opportunity arose, they jumped in with both feet. Almost overnight, they decided to move to beautiful County Clare, in the west of Ireland - a country they had never before visited. With little experience or money they set about renovating a derelict farmhouse and building a new life together.

For decades J.J. Tucker has brought laughter and sunshine to the Sandbar Sisters. But her life has spiraled out of control. A disaster has turned Irish Hills upside down and has left J.J. alone and unsure. She can't bear to look back on her life and moving forward hurts too much. Her future, once bright and filled with love, feels lonely and hopeless. J.J. faces a very different future than she had planned and one she's not sure if she wants. She will have to face her fears and her past if she wants to find the laughter in her life again.

In the final chapter of the beloved Coral Cottage series, Ginger Delavie takes center stage as the family unravels her grandmother’s extraordinary life. Ginger is a woman whose brilliance in mathematics and codebreaking has taken her around the globe, through corridors of power, and into the heart of high society. Now, in the autumn of her years, Ginger decides it’s time to pen her story. She enlists the help of Marina and her talented grandson-in-law, Jack. Together, they embark on a journey that is as much about recording history as it is about discovering it.

Each month best friends Claudia, Sal, Ella and Laura meet for drinks, celebrating 45 years of friendship. Sal had spent a lifetime building her career, but she hadn't banked on the one thing over which she had no control. Claudia loved her urban existence. But, as many women will know, other people's needs always seem to come first. Ella is ready to try something different. But she hadn't bargained on quite such a radical change. And Laura succumbed to the oldest cliché in the book.

Flora's been in love with her husband for 20 years. The trouble is, he's been married to someone else for the past 15. Now she's been invited to spend the summer in the shady lanes and sandy coves of Cornwall. It should be blissful. There's just one small snag: she'll be staying with her former mother-in-law, Belinda. And Flora discovers she's not the only one invited when her ex-husband shows up out of the blue, complete with his new wife. So now there are two small snags.

Late September 1957. Henry and Effie, very young newlyweds from Georgia, arrive in Cape May, New Jersey, for their honeymoon only to find the town is deserted. Feeling shy of each other and isolated, they decide to cut the trip short. But before they leave, they meet a glamorous set of people who sweep them up into their drama. The empty beach town becomes their playground, and as they sneak into abandoned summer homes, go sailing, walk naked under the stars, make love, and drink a great deal of gin, Henry and Effie slip from innocence into betrayal, with irrevocable consequences.

Since their bitter divorce, Lisa and Rolf have forged new and separate lives. Rolf has moved out of Beacon Bay, while Lisa has remained in the tiny tropical town, a pillar of her community. When a cyclone brings a massive tree smashing into Lisa's roof - into the home Rolf built and where they raised their family - their son, Dave, convinces Rolf that he must do the repairs. Tensions abound when Rolf arrives with glamorous stage star Renata, along with a pretty young publicist who stirs up complications for Dave and his new restaurant.

Come sit on the porch a spell. Let's talk about times gone by and folks we remember, about slow summer evenings and lightning bugs in a jar. Listen to the music of a creaky swing and hand-cranked ice cream and cicadas chorusing in the sultry night air. Let's talk about how things used to be in the South - and for some of us, they way they still are. Welcome to the world of Sweet Tea and Jesus Shoes, where award winning authors Deborah Smith, Sandra Chastain, Virginia Ellis, Debra Dixon, Donna Ball and Nancy Knight come together for the first time to create this poignant, humorous collection of nostalgic tales.

Rientrato devastato dal Vietnam, Ernt Allbright decide di trasferirsi con la famiglia nella selvaggia Alaska, l'ultima frontiera americana, e iniziare una nuova vita con la moglie Cora e la figlia adolescente Leni. L'inizio è promettente, ma con l'avanzare del lungo inverno artico lo stato mentale di Ernt peggiora. Leni e Cora si trovano sole, in un luogo feroce ai confini del mondo, dove nessuno può salvarle.

Tess is feeling burnt out from her uninspiring job and her busy city lifestyle. Even her personal relationships make her feel as if she's simply drifting through life rather than living it to the full. Her godmother Luna, who leads a very simple existence in a rustic cottage in the North Queensland rainforest, is also at something of a crossroads. Keen to expand her jewellery-making business, she needs the new connections that a bustling city offers. When she suggests to Tess that the two of them might swap homes for an extended period, it seems the perfect solution.

Edie - smart, self-assured, beautiful - always worked hard. She worked as a teller at a bank, she worked to save her first marriage, and later, she worked to raise her daughter even as her second marriage came apart. Really, Edie just wanted a good life, but everywhere she turned, her looks defined her. Two brothers fought over her. Her second husband became unreasonably possessive and jealous. Her daughter resented her. And now, as a grandmother, Edie finds herself harassed by a younger man. It’s been a lifetime of proving that she is allowed to exist in her own sphere.