John and Martha Beck had two Harvard degrees apiece when they conceived their second child. Further graduate studies, budding careers, and a growing family meant major stress—not that they’d have admitted it to anyone (or themselves). As the pregnancy progressed, Martha battled constant nausea and dehydration. And when she learned her unborn son had Down syndrome, she battled nearly everyone over her decision to continue the pregnancy. She still cannot explain many of the things that happened to her while she was expecting Adam, but by the time he was born, Martha, as she puts it, “had to unlearn virtually everything Harvard taught [her] about what is precious and what is garbage.”
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Light from a Distant Star is a gripping coming-of-age story with a brutal murder at its heart and a heroine as unforgettable as Harper Lee’s “Scout.”
It
is early summer and Nellie Peck is on the cusp of adolescence – gangly,
awkward, full of questions, but keenly observant and wiser than many of
the adults in her life. The person she most admires is her father,
Benjamin, a man of great integrity. His family’s century old hardware
store is failing and Nellie’s mother has had to go back to work.
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On an early spring morning in Richmond, Virginia, in the year 1885, a
young pregnant woman is found floating in the city reservoir. It appears
that she has committed suicide, but there are curious clues at the
scene that suggest foul play. The case attracts local attention, and an
eccentric group of men collaborate to solve the crime. Detective Jack
Wren lurks in the shadows, weaseling his way into the investigation and
intimidating witnesses. Policeman Daniel Cincinnatus Richardson, on the
brink of retirement, catches the case and relentlessly pursues it to its
sorrowful conclusion.
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Marked by tragedy, traumatized at the age of eight, Michael, now eighteen, is no ordinary young man. Besides not uttering a single word in ten years, he discovers the one thing he can somehow do better than anyone else. Whether it’s a locked door without a key, a padlock with no combination, or even an eight-hundred pound safe … he can open them all.
It’s an unforgivable talent. A talent that will make young Michael a hot commodity with the wrong people and, whether he likes it or not, push him ever close to a life of crime.
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Do I have a child? Julia DeSmit knew she would face the question
eventually, but she didn’t expect it now. At twenty-four, she is finally
content with the way her life has unfolded. A single mother to her son
and young brother, she works at the local grocery store while chipping
away at a two-year degree. All her free time is spent with her
unorthodox family—her boys, her grandmother, and her boyfriend of five
years. It’s not perfect, but Julia is happier than ever.
So when she
receives the cryptic e-mail from her son’s father,
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An intense, psychological novel about one doctor’s suspense-filled
quest to unlock the mind of a suspected political assassin: his
twenty-year old son.
As the Chief of Rheumatology at
Columbia Presbyterian, Dr. Paul Allen’s specialty is diagnosing patients
with conflicting symptoms, patients other doctors have given up on. He
lives a contented life in Westport with his second wife and their twin
sons—hard won after a failed marriage earlier in his career that
produced a son named Daniel. In the harrowing opening scene of this
provocative and affecting novel,
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