Historical Homes

MISS MICHELLE ELLINGTON despises the founder of a competing school for young ladies. Already, he has lured away two teachers and seems intent on wreaking havoc upon her school, all while the headmistress is away. She’s never met the man, but the few missives they’ve exchanged have told her exactly the sort of person he is—an underhanded cad.

Movie star Nicky Tallon selects architect Wren Fontaine to renovate Turnbull House, where he’ll be filming his next movie. Even to Wren, used to old homes, this one is special: a two-hundred-year-old federal-style home on a private island in New York harbor, designed by the most celebrated architect of the day. But Turnbull House hides many secrets, such as the disappearance of the sea captain who built it. That’s just a historical curiosity, until a studio executive no one likes is killed.

Nick Turnhouse is captain of his own sloop, and increasingly aware of how rapidly he has been promoted and how much he does not know. He is reliant on the professional skill and goodwill of Master and Boatswain, both of whom are long experienced and old, coming close to the end of their seagoing days.

Israel Meir Lau, one of the youngest survivors of Buchenwald, was just eight years old when the camp was liberated in 1945. Descended from a 1,000-year unbroken chain of rabbis, he grew up to become Chief Rabbi of Israel--and like many of the great rabbis, Lau is a master storyteller. Out of the Depths is his harrowing, miraculous, and inspiring account of life in one of the Nazis' deadliest concentration camps, and how he managed to survive against all possible odds.

Why the American Revolution, of all the great revolutions, was the only enduring success. Through the Founders' own voices - and in the homes they designed and built to embody the ideal of domestic happiness they fought to achieve - we come to understand why the American Revolution, of all great revolutions, was the only enduring success. The Founders were vivid, energetic men, with sophisticated worldviews, and this magnificent reckoning of their successes draws liberally from their own eloquent writings on their actions and well-considered intentions.

הביתה הלוך חזור הוא ספרה הראשון של אילה דקל, מרצה ומנחה בנושאי יהדות, זהות ומגדר, נשואה ואם לשלושה, שהלכה לפני כשנתיים להלוויה משפחתית, ושמעה שם, לגמרי במקרה, סיפור שטלטל את עולמה.

Lauren Hauser is home for the holidays, and she's been given a challenge: preparing her grandmother's pecan pie. The problem? Lauren's not famed for her baking skills. In fact, while her sister would win Star Baker every week and her mom at least knows a sieve from a spatula, Lauren's baked goods have always been more dangerous than delicious!

When Andrea Wilson receives the devastating news that her husband has been lost at sea, she decides to return home to Iowa with her young son. But what she finds there is equally terrible: the family farm has burned and her father has died, leaving Andrea with few options. Relying on the kindness of the members of the Amana Colonies, she accepts their offer to live among them until she can make plans for her future. Andrea discovers so much goodness and contentment among the Amana people that she doesn't want to leave, especially since the strong, kind tinsmith, a man named Dirk, has captured her heart.

It's June 1943. From New York to California, families gather to send their sons and husbands, friends and lovers off to war. The attack on Pearl Harbor seems a long time ago as America begins to understand that their boys won't be home any time soon.

In the midst of the Great Depression, Cassandra Scheimer is trying to keep the family farm afloat in the Big Woods of Wisconsin...alone. As a local midwife and struggling backwoods doctor, she certainly doesn't need more mouths to feed. Stephanie Evans is a widow enceinte with her third child. She accepts a kind stranger’s offer of marriage in exchange for keeping house for him...but he never shows up to claim her. While dealing with unrequited guilt and the desperation of impoverished motherhood, moving in and consequentially falling in love with Cass is the least of her worries.

Hattie finds herself relegated to the factory floor on her return from the war. Her workmates are unforgiving at Hattie's attempt to raise herself up, and she is soon ostracised. After journeying to Australia to marry her husband, Clara is betrayed and returns penniless, homeless and trying to raise a child alone. Lou's daughter and parents are killed by a bomb blast. By day she works at the factory; by night she roams the bomb sites, half mad with grief. These women forge a bond that will ultimately allow them to find hope.

It's a journey that most deem an insane impossibility. Yet on October 20th, 1811, Lydia Latrobe Roosevelt—daughter of one of the architects of the United States Capitol—fearlessly boards the steamship New Orleans in Pittsburgh. Eight months pregnant and with a toddler in tow, Lydia is fiercely independent despite her youth. She's also accustomed to defying convention. Against her father's wishes, she married his much older business colleague, inventor Nicholas Roosevelt—builder of the New Orleans—and spent her honeymoon on a primitive flatboat. But the stakes for this trip are higher.

The Second World War ends and Josje is returned to his parents. Who are these people who call themselves my parents, he imagines. He is three years old and feels abandoned, confused and angry. He wants to return to his “real” parents who loved and sheltered him during the war. “My name is Pietje Dijkstra not Josje Gosler!”, he states tearfully when goaded by his cousin. As a Jew and a Hidden Child, his innocence protected him as much as his Christian family.

Calvin Kusek, a WWII pilot and attorney, and his wife, Betsy, escape the 1950s conformity of New York City to relocate to a close-knit town in South Dakota. They settle on a ranch and Betsy becomes a visiting nurse, befriending a quirky assortment of rural characters. Their children, Jo and her brother Lance, grow up caring for animals and riding rodeo. Life isn't easy, but it is full and rewarding. When a seat in the State Assembly becomes available, Cal jumps at the chance to repay the community and serves three popular terms.

August 1941: As war sweeps across Britain and millions of men enlist, women must fight the battle on the home front. Fran always thought she would marry her childhood sweetheart and live in Massingham, the beloved pit village she has always called home. But the opening of a munitions factory in the north-east of England presents a new opportunity. Against her father's wishes and with best friends Sarah and Beth by her side, Fran signs up to join the ranks of women at the factory. It's dangerous work, but the friends discover that their lives are only just beginning.

Settle in by the fireside and savor stories of unexpected romance, second chances, and lifelong love. Featuring four novellas from some of your favorite authors, this historical Christmas romance collection is sure to capture your heart: Memories of Christmas, A Home for the Holidays, Lady Walmsley and Foster, and Charles and Maria.

After saving the life of the glamorous Marquise de Harfleur, painfully shy barmaid Alice Henshawe is employed as the lady’s companion and whisked away to Versailles. There, she catches King Louis’ eye and quickly becomes a court favorite as the muse for Charles Perrault’s Cinderella. The palace appears to be heaven itself, but there is danger hidden beneath the façade and Alice soon finds herself thrust into a world of intrigue, murder, and Satanism at the heart of the French court.

Joining the communal society of the Amana Colonies isn't what Jancey Rhoder planned for her future, but when unforeseen circumstances force her family to make some difficult decisions, she chooses to give up her teaching position in a Kansas City orphanage and move with her parents to Iowa. Her besotted suitor, Nathan Woodward, isn't at all happy about the move and is determined to get Jancey to change her mind.

1891: Living separately for three years, 14-year-old twins Katherine and Tommy Arthur have done their best to make each boarding house feel like home. But unrest grows as they are driven to questionable actions just to survive. Meanwhile, their desperate mother is confronted with breaking yet another promise to her children. Then a miracle descends. Hope rises on a cold, rainy night and changes everything. If Jeanie could just get word to Katherine and Tommy, she knows she can set their lives right again.

Hazel Mae Hollingsworth is devastated following the unexpected death of her father, and she can’t shake a sense of foreboding when the family solicitor arrives at the estate. Her intuition turns out to be well founded, for her father’s will reveals a long-held family secret - Hazel’s entire life has been a lie. Within hours of receiving the news, she is turned out by the man she once called her brother, dispossessed with little more than her mother’s instruction to seek refuge with her father’s sister.