An intimate portrayal of one of history’s most important and obscure figures, the Buddha, this chronicle reveals him not as a mystic, but a warm and engaged human being that was very much the product of his turbulent times. This biographical account traces the path of Siddhartha Gautama as he walked away from the pleasure palace that had been his home and joined a growing force of wandering monks, ultimately making his way toward enlightenment beneath the bodhi tree, and spending the next 45 years sharing his insights along the banks of the Ganges. The Buddhist canon is expertly harvested to provide insight into the Buddha’s inner life and to grant a better understanding of how he came to play his pivotal role as founder of one of the world’s largest religions.
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From the national bestselling author of Whistling in the Dark, comes Land of a Hundred Wonders, which introduces yet another unforgettable character…
Brain damaged after a tragic car accident that took both her parents, Gibby is now NQR (Not Quite Right)—a real challenge for a fledgling newspaper reporter. When she stumbles upon the dead body of the next governor of Kentucky, Buster Malloy, she figures that solving the murder might be her best chance to prove to everyone that she can become Quite Right again. But Gibby is about to uncover a world of corruption,
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How would eighty-seven million dollars change your life? For Lucy Parker, the answer wasn’t so easy. She won the lottery just when her luck was running out, finding herself in the limelight for all the wrong reasons. Hours before she knew she had the winning ticket, she lost her job, caught her boyfriend in bed with another woman, and watched helplessly as her car died a slow death in traffic. But when she deposits her winnings—with a check so big the teller thinks it’s a joke—reporters dredge up the scandal that got her fired. Then her ex goes on the talk-show circuit,
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Abducted from Africa as a child and enslaved in South Carolina, Aminata Diallo thinks only of freedom—and of the knowledge she needs to get home. Sold to an indigo trader who recognizes her intelligence, Aminata is torn from her husband and child and thrown into the chaos of the Revolutionary War. In Manhattan, Aminata helps pen the Book of Negroes, a list of blacks rewarded for service to the King with safe passage to Nova Scotia. There Aminata finds a life of hardship and stinging prejudice. When the British abolitionists come looking for “adventurers” to create a new colony in Sierra Leone,
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In the tradition of Marisa de los Santos and Anne Tyler comes a moving debut about a young mother’s year of heartbreak, loss, and forgiveness…and help that arrives from unexpected sources.
Four months after her husband’s death, Janie LaMarche remains undone by grief and anger. Her mourning is disrupted, however, by the unexpected arrival of a builder with a contract to add a porch onto her house. Stunned, Janie realizes the porch was meant to be a surprise from her husband—now his last gift to her.
As she reluctantly allows construction to begin, Janie clings to the familiar outposts of her sorrow—mothering her two small children with fierce protectiveness,
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At just twenty-three years old, Shauna Reid weighed 351 pounds. Spurred into action by the sight of her enormous white knickers billowing on the clothesline, she created the hugely successful blog “”The Amazing Adventures of Dietgirl.”” Hiding behind her Lycra-clad, roly-poly alter-ego, her transformation from couch potato to svelte goddess began.
Today, eight thousand miles, seven years, and 175 pounds later, the gloriously gorgeous Shauna is literally half the woman she used to be. Hysterically funny and heart-wrenchingly honest, The Amazing Adventures of Dietgirl includes travel tales from Australia to Paris to Red Square, plus romance when she meets the man of her dreams in a Scottish pub.
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