Small Life

In the imposing Glen Carrick House overlooking Scotland’s famous Loch Ness lives eighty-eight-year-old Mimi McKinlay, cared for by her three adult sons. Hamish has inherited his mother’s musical talents, Fin is the responsible brother, and Angus has the complicated and brooding personality to match his dashing good looks. But what all the brothers share is a concern that their beloved mother is living in her memories of her days on stage, while letting her present days pass her by.

In a world where meaningful connections are more important than ever, mastering the art of small talk can be a game-changer. "Mastering Small Talk: Building Confidence and Strategies for Engaging Conversations" is your essential guide to transforming those initial, often awkward exchanges into genuine, lasting relationships. Whether you’re navigating social gatherings, professional settings, or networking events, this book provides the tools and techniques to engage in confident and effective small talk.

When her last two plays are dismal failures and her relationship with her temperamental mentor falls apart, writer Bree O’Brien abandons Chicago and the regional theater where she hoped to make a name for herself to return home. Opening Flowers on Main promises to bring her a new challenge and a new kind of fulfillment. But not all is peaceful and serene in Chesapeake Shores, with her estranged mother on the scene and her ex-lover on the warpath.

Set in a Lower East Side tenement in the early days of the COVID-19 lockdowns, Fourteen Days is an irresistibly propulsive collaborative novel from the Authors Guild, with an unusual twist: each character in this diverse, eccentric cast of New York neighbors has been secretly written by a different, major literary voice—from Margaret Atwood and John Grisham to Tommy Orange and Celeste Ng.

Sure, death by semi truck wasn’t fun, and being isekai’d into the sky was a rough entrance. But hey, I was alive. Reborn in a quaint little town in a magical world. I ended up rooming with a floppy-eared puppy girl and a bubbly hobgoblin who run a bookshop together. Found myself a job, too. Town sheriff! And I’m just in time, because orc gangsters are imposing a reign of fear over the residents, slowly crushing my roommates’ dreams for their bookshop.

In Lessons from the Mat, Chen breaks down the 12 core principles that will help you focus your efforts, seize the moment, adapt to challenges, and more effectively build the career—and the life—you want. Whether you're an entrepreneur, an executive, a small business owner, or a freelancer—whether you’re navigating boardroom negotiations, launching a new venture, or working to turn your passion into a profitable business—these time-tested principles will help you navigate the challenges you face while maximizing your impact.

Junie Raines is ready for a second chance at life on a sunny island off the coast of Southern California. She’s managing the gift shop at the Majestic Hotel, a Victorian-era beach resort, and her sister Maileah is trying her patience with her sibling rivalry. It’s been two years since Junie’s husband died. She longs for a second chance to have a family while she’s still young, but dating has its challenges with Maileah around. Junie is looking for a beach cottage, and her sister is determined to move in with her.

A deserted train station: A man waits. A woman watches. Chris is ready to join his wife. He’s planned this moment for nearly a year. The date. The time. The train. But he hadn’t factored in Sarah.So when Sarah walks onto the platform and sees a man swaying at the edge, she assumes he’s just had too much to drink. What she doesn’t expect is to stop a suicide. As Sarah becomes obsessed with discovering the secrets that Chris is clearly hiding, he becomes obsessed with stopping her, protecting her. But there are some secrets that are meant to stay buried....

Struggling in his role as a newly single father, former army medic Kevin O’Brien moves home to Chesapeake Shores. He wants a haven for himself and his toddler son, surrounded by the family he knows he can count on and a future that’s nothing like his past. But Kevin is suddenly facing a risk he hadn’t anticipated...in the form of Main Street bookseller Shanna Carlyle. Shanna immediately recognizes Kevin as a wounded soul - she’s had way too much experience with the type.

It’s been three months since Ollie made a daring deal with the smiling man to save those she loved, and then vanished without a trace. The smiling man promised Coco, Brian and Phil, that they’d have a chance to save her, but as time goes by, they begin to worry that the smiling man has lied to them and Ollie is gone forever. But finally, a clue surfaces. A boy who went missing at a nearby traveling carnival appears at the town swimming hole, terrified and rambling. He tells anyone who'll listen about the mysterious man who took him.

The Lindsay family has come west hoping to help the father, John, recover from an illness. When they arrive, they are induced to purchase Spanish Peaks Ranch, an abandoned United States military post surrounded by mountains. It seems like a perfect place to settle into their new life as ranchers. As they soon find out, though, this deserted fort is equally suited for both protection and imprisonment.

When Vanessa Young finds herself aged out of her job as a Hollywood stylist and facing the loss of her father, she acts on a bold impulse and reconnects with the daughter she gave up for adoption thirty years ago. To her surprise, Emily is also at a crossroads in her life, equally eager for change and a fresh start. Together, they travel to Vanessa's hometown of Rosemary Beach, Florida, to embark on a journey of self-discovery and second chances.

Long before Hank Crawford arrived in the waters of Ketchikan, his partners and compatriots were already in love with its shores. Following the final, crushing moments of World War II, Japanese officer Kiyoshi Tsurifune, Sergeant Jones Henry, and Resistance fighter Swede Scorden struggle to regain normalcy and any contact with the shimmering, fish-filled sea. Lost honor, fallen friends, their cultural identities gone in the wake of a nuclear blast - these fishermen-turned-soldiers have a long way to go till they regain the waters in which they feel most at home.

Meet the Pomeroys: a church-going family living in a too-red house in a Texas college town. Roger, the patriarch, has impulsively gone back to school, only to find his future ambitions at odds with the temptations of the present. His wife, Georgia, tries to keep things afloat at home, but she's been feeding the bill drawer with unopened envelopes for months and never manages to confront its swelling contents. In an attempt to climb out of the holes they've dug, Roger and Georgia make a series of choices that have catastrophic consequences for their three children

What's the saying, bad luck comes in threes? If so, Lily Green is due for something good. First, her divorce is finalized - on her birthday, no less. Then the first job she lands for her catering company turns out to be for her ex-husband's wedding. To top it off, she's stuck working the event with Luke Everett, the sexy-as-hell best man who's never been able to stand her. When can a girl catch a break? For years, Luke has kept his feelings for Lily safely hidden. Hitting on his best friend's ex-wife would definitely break the cowboy code of honor.

Miss Small, the gym teacher, is teaching A.J., Andrea, and the gang to juggle scarves, balance feathers, and do the Chicken Dance! Is this any way to stay in shape? Whatever happened to good old dodgeball? In fact, all the grown-ups at A.J.'s school seem to have something wrong with them. What's going on here? What are A.J. and the kids in his class going to do? They've got to convince Miss Small to act her age before the end of the year! Never before has school been this mixed up -- or this much fun.

When Leonie Baxter finds herself out of a job and out of a relationship, she’s at her wits end. Her life has just been turned upside down and she needs a plan, fast. By chance, on a walk with her rescue puppy, Leonie stumbles across a striking house in the woods; fully furnished but unoccupied. As a journalist, she is determined to find out more, after all, reporting is in her nature. But her attempts are thwarted by Lily Cruickshank who lives in the cottage next door.

It’s been years since Dr. Imani Kemp has returned home to Peachtree Cove, Georgia. As Tallahassee’s most sought-after OB-GYN, she doesn’t have much time for anything else. But when her mom announces she’s marrying a man she just met on a dating app, Imani knows she has to put a stop to it immediately. Let her mom be hurt again after the disastrous way her last marriage ended? Absolutely not. Always her protector, Imani won’t rest until her mom sees reason. She just never expected sparks to fly with the groom’s son.

Writing with the telegraphic swiftness and microscopic sensitivity that have made her one of our most distinguished journalists, Joan Didion creates a shimmering novel of innocence and evil. A Book of Common Prayer is the story of two American women in the derelict Central American nation of Boca Grande. Grace Strasser-Mendana controls much of the country's wealth and knows virtually all of its secrets; Charlotte Douglas knows far too little.

Anitra Pollard has lived in Blueberry Beach all her life, an idyllic small, lakeside town where regular people go to escape real life. Unfortunately, Anitra’s real life couldn’t get much worse. Her husband left not long before her oldest son was diagnosed with leukemia. Worse, the head doctor on the team assigned to her son looks very much like the man she had a short, but very sweet, summer fling with…and the father of the child she carries. Her life couldn’t get any harder or messier, but she will let nothing get in the way of getting the very best care for her son.