Charvella's bookshelf: all en-US Wed, 27 Jan 2016 21:00:45 -0800 60 Charvella's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[Thin from Within: The Powerful Self-Coaching Program for Permanent Weight Loss]]> 25645363 Tired of your weight swinging up and down? Do you find it difficult to stick to a diet? You’re not alone. Every day, millions of people battle temptation as they try to drop unwanted pounds. For those who succeed, a whopping 80 percent quickly pack the weight back on.

Thin from Within delves into the root causes and reveals that diets alone—whether counting calories or controlling carbs—don’t work. Why? Because lasting results have less to do with what you eat, and everything to do with why you eat it. To lose weight and keep it off, you’ve got to retrain your brain.

Renowned psychologist Joseph J. Luciani explores the emotional triggers and ingrained habits driving overindulgence—and shares simple self-coaching techniques proven to control cravings and break the cycle of self-sabotage. Once mastered, these strategies turn healthy eating into an effortless process.

Combining insight and inspiration with powerful cognitive tools, this remarkable guide enables you to:

� Embrace change
� Strengthen your self-discipline
� Resist the lure of comfort foods
� Free yourself from destructive thinking
� Replace even the most stubborn bad habits with positive ones
� Develop resilience and confidence
� Learn from setbacks
� Fight food addictions
� And more

It’s up to you. You can try yet another fad diet and fail—or read Thin from Within and finally find your permanent weight loss solution.

]]> 256 Joseph J. Luciani 0814436781 Charvella 0 to-read 3.87 2016 Thin from Within: The Powerful Self-Coaching Program for Permanent Weight Loss
author: Joseph J. Luciani
name: Charvella
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2016
rating: 0
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date added: 2016/01/27
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]]> Southern Exposure 28147839 140 Beth Albright 0991369882 Charvella 0 to-read 4.33 2015 Southern Exposure
author: Beth Albright
name: Charvella
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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date added: 2016/01/27
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]]> <![CDATA[Dreams Of My Mothers: A Story Of Love Transcendent]]> 23464763
Dreams of My Mothers represents the 21st Century's version of a new Great American Novel. The story graphically blends our new century's domestic and global themes - race, country, family, identity, love, loss, joy, and redemption - set within a soul grabbing backdrop of international and interracial child adoption and a new, breathtaking American Dream, the story takes the reader on an unforgettable, inspirational journey beyond all expectations and experiences.]]> 324 Joel L.A. Peterson 0989527786 Charvella 0 to-read 4.12 2015 Dreams Of My Mothers: A Story Of Love Transcendent
author: Joel L.A. Peterson
name: Charvella
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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date added: 2015/03/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Finding Samuel Lowe: China, Jamaica, Harlem]]> 22693251 288 Paula Williams Madison 0062331639 Charvella 0 to-read 3.68 2015 Finding Samuel Lowe: China, Jamaica, Harlem
author: Paula Williams Madison
name: Charvella
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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date added: 2015/03/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Success Secrets of the Online Marketing Superstars]]> 22541848
Eager business owners gain access to the playbooks of 23 of today’s most respected and well-known online marketers, who reveal their most valuable online strategies and tactics for capturing new customers and influencing ongoing purchases from current ones.

Each chapter is a coaching session designed to help business owners avoid the pitfalls and mistakes by the experts who have been there and done that. Readers learn how to develop a personal media brand, build a total online presence, and create a social media strategy that increases traffic. They also discover how to develop and use content that converts visitors into buyers and ultimately loyal customers, succeed with SEO, pay-per-click, and linking strategies that get websites ranked. Also included is information on leveraging social networking apps, including Facebook, online video, and Instagram, and avoiding the mistakes made by new online businesses.]]> 328 Mitch Meyerson 159918558X Charvella 0 to-read 3.91 2005 Success Secrets of the Online Marketing Superstars
author: Mitch Meyerson
name: Charvella
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2005
rating: 0
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date added: 2015/03/12
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]]> <![CDATA[Tethered Angel (Struggles of the Women Folk #2)]]> 24173458 96 T.M. Brown 1505703689 Charvella 0 to-read 4.50 2014 Tethered Angel (Struggles of the Women Folk #2)
author: T.M. Brown
name: Charvella
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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date added: 2015/03/12
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[My Florence: A 70-Year Love Story]]> 22716566
Former LIFE, Fortune, Time, and Sports Illustrator photographer, ART SHAY is famous for immortalizing some of America's most compelling 20th century figures, including John F. Kennedy Jr., Muhammad Ali, and Eleanor Roosevelt. But the story of Florence was Shay's constant beat. The result is a story that runs deep and reads as a call to joy and source of inspiration for lovers, family, friends, and the photographer in us all.]]> 96 Arthur Shay 1609806247 Charvella 0 to-read 4.23 2015 My Florence: A 70-Year Love Story
author: Arthur Shay
name: Charvella
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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date added: 2014/12/21
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]]> Scent of Triumph 21853670
There, through determination and talent, she rises high from meager jobs in her quest for success as a perfumer and fashion designer to Hollywood elite. Set between privileged lifestyles and gritty realities, Scent of Triumph is one woman’s story of courage, spirit, and resilience.

Note: This is the new revised edition from St. Martin's Griffin.]]> 384 Jan Moran Charvella 0 to-read 3.69 2012 Scent of Triumph
author: Jan Moran
name: Charvella
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2012
rating: 0
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date added: 2014/12/19
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]]> <![CDATA[Birchtown and the Black Loyalists]]> 23443521
"Birchtown and the Black Loyalists" is the first and only book to recount the incredible true story of the Black Loyalists of Birchtown, Nova Scotia for young readers.

With educational and accessible language, readers are introduced to the journey of Black American soldiers taken from Africa as slaves, their quest for freedom, the settlement and struggle of Black Loyalists on Nova Scotian soil, and the enduring spirit of their descendants in spite of a history marked by hardship and loss.

Includes informative sidebars, highlighted glossary terms, recommended reading, historic timeline, an index, and dozens of historical and contemporary images.]]> 80 Wanda Taylor 177108166X Charvella 0 to-read 4.33 2014 Birchtown and the Black Loyalists
author: Wanda Taylor
name: Charvella
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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date added: 2014/12/19
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Engaging With History in the Classroom: The Civil Rights Movement (Grades 6-8)]]> 22343946
Grades 6-8]]> 154 Janice I. Robbins 1618212591 Charvella 0 to-read 4.50 2014 Engaging With History in the Classroom: The Civil Rights Movement (Grades 6-8)
author: Janice I. Robbins
name: Charvella
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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date added: 2014/11/25
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]]> My Name is Resolute 17934498 These Is My Words, Sarah's Quilt, and The Star Garden. Now Turner has written the novel she was born to write, this exciting and heartfelt story of a woman struggling to find herself during the tumultuous years preceding the American Revolution.

The story begins in 1729, when Resolute Talbot and her siblings are captured by pirates, taken from their family's plantation in Jamaica, and brought to the New World. Resolute and her sister become indentured servants and are taught the trade of spinning and weaving. Betrayed by her first love, Resolute falls back on her skill with a loom to survive. Then she meets a young woodsman who is living a double life and is wanted in England. When British rule begins to crush the Colonials, Resolute begins to work in secret, hiding her craft and smuggling goods to keep Patriot soldiers clothed. Ultimately she becomes a friend of Margaret Gage, the very real wife of the commanding general of the British Army in America. On the night of April 18, 1775, Resolute carries a message to the Reveres' silver shop, changing the course of American history.

Heart-wrenching, brilliantly written, and historically authentic, My Name is Resolute is destined to become an instant classic.]]> 608 Nancy E. Turner 1250036593 Charvella 0 to-read 4.16 2014 My Name is Resolute
author: Nancy E. Turner
name: Charvella
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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date added: 2014/11/25
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]]> <![CDATA[Tokyo Tales: A Collection of Japanese Short Stories]]> 22853051
About the Author
Renae Lucas-Hall is the author of Tokyo Tales: A Collection of Japanese Short Stories as well as Tokyo Hearts: A Japanese Love Story. Renae is an Australian-born British novelist and writer. She spent years studying French, Italian and Japanese because she loves languages and she always wanted to be an interpreter, a teacher or a writer. Renae later graduated from university with a degree in Japanese language and culture. She went on to live in Tokyo for two years, where she taught English. Renae has continued to work with the Japanese for many years. Ten years ago, Renae also completed an Advanced Diploma of Business. Over the past twenty years, Renae has enjoyed visiting Japan many times for work or as a tourist. She continues to love reading and writing anything and everything about Japan. Renae lives in Gloucestershire in the United Kingdom with her husband. You can read more about Renae Lucas-Hall, her books and her writing at .
Yoshimi OHTANI’s illustrations feature on the book cover and throughout Tokyo Tales: A Collection of Japanese Short Stories by Renae Lucas-Hall. Yoshimi OHTANI is a renowned Japanese illustrator from Tokyo. OHTANI's creations combine a traditional mindset (iki) with a sense of modern Japanesque "passive demeanor" (wabi), an "elegant simplicity" (sabi), and a "classic taste" (kare). The results give fascinating characters that are a hybrid of Japanimation/manga-comics and design/artistic expression. Find out more about Yoshimi OHTANI at .]]> 210 Renae Lucas-Hall Charvella 0 to-read 3.70 2014 Tokyo Tales: A Collection of Japanese Short Stories
author: Renae Lucas-Hall
name: Charvella
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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]]> The Long and Faraway Gone 20663088 The Long and Faraway Gone is a smart, fiercely compassionate crime story that explores the mysteries of memory and the impact of violence on survivors—and the lengths they will go to find the painful truth of the events that scarred their lives

In the summer of 1986, two tragedies rocked Oklahoma City. Six movie-theater employees were killed in an armed robbery, while one inexplicably survived. Then, a teenage girl vanished from the annual State Fair. Neither crime was ever solved.

Twenty-five years later, the reverberations of those unsolved cases quietly echo through survivors� lives. A private investigator in Vegas, Wyatt’s latest inquiry takes him back to a past he’s tried to escape—and drags him deeper into the harrowing mystery of the movie house robbery that left six of his friends dead.

Like Wyatt, Julianna struggles with the past—with the day her beautiful older sister Genevieve disappeared. When Julianna discovers that one of the original suspects has resurfaced, she’ll stop at nothing to find answers.

As fate brings these damaged souls together, their obsessive quests spark sexual currents neither can resist. But will their shared passion and obsession heal them, or push them closer to the edge? Even if they find the truth, will it help them understand what happened, that long and faraway gone summer? Will it set them free—or ultimately destroy them?]]> 454 Lou Berney 0062292439 Charvella 0 to-read 3.95 2015 The Long and Faraway Gone
author: Lou Berney
name: Charvella
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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date added: 2014/11/25
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]]> The Swap 23348773
The story begins when Nicole Lewis, young woman living in Los Angeles, arranges a summer-long swap of her condo for a London couple’s house. She thinks it’s the perfect arrangement. She’s always dreamed of seeing the real London, not just the tourist spots. She’ll be able to accompany her husband, Brad, on his out-of-town work as a trouble-shooter for his company. It will also give her a chance to keep an eye on Brenda, Brad’s assistant, who seems to be getting a little too chummy with her boss.

But things don’t turn out the way Nicole expects. Within a couple of days, she discovers that Freddy and Muriel Lowry, the Londoners, failed to arrive in L.A. and appear to be missing. Then people start following her and making threats, demanding information she doesn’t have. Nicole realizes she’s in serious trouble. But she can’t get Brad—busy working—or the police to believe her. Somehow, it’s up to her to extricate herself from the mess the Lowrys have left behind.]]> 314 Nancy Boyarsky 0692298444 Charvella 0 to-read 4.02 2017 The Swap
author: Nancy Boyarsky
name: Charvella
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2014/11/18
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]]> 12 Years a Slave 23444044
After having been kept in bondage for 12 years in Louisiana by various masters, Northup was able to write to friends and family in New York, who were in turn able to secure his release. Northup's account provides extensive details on the slave markets in Washington, D.C. and New Orleans and describes at length cotton and sugar cultivation on major plantations in Louisiana.

Tricked by two men offering him a job as a musician in New York State in 1841, Solomon Northup was drugged and kidnapped. His life in jeopardy, he was forced to assume a new name and fake past. Taken to Louisiana on a disease-ridden plague ship, he was initially sold to a cotton planter. In the twelve years that follow he is sold to many different owners who treat him with varying levels of savagery; forced labour, scant food and numerous beatings are his regular fare.

Against all odds, Northup eventually succeeds in contacting a sympathetic party and manages to get word to his family. The ensuing rescue and legal cases are no less shocking and intriguing than the rest of the tale.

Northup’s meticulous first-hand recordings of slave life provide a true-life testament to tremendous courage and tenacity in the face of unfathomable injustice. A new film premiering in 2014, featuring Brad Pitt and Benedict Cumberbatch, is sure to introduce this amazing story to a new audience.]]> 248 Solomon Northup Charvella 5 4.10 1853 12 Years a Slave
author: Solomon Northup
name: Charvella
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1853
rating: 5
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date added: 2014/11/14
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]]> Honeydew 22208260 A new story collection from Edith Pearlman, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award and finalist for the National Book Award for her last collection, Binocular Vision.

From the National Book Critics Circle Award-winning author of Binocular Vision, Honeydew further solidifies Edith Pearlman's place among the likes of all-time great story writers such as John Updike, Alice Munro, Frank O'Connor, and Anton Chekhov.

Pearlman writes about the predicaments of being human. The title story involves an affair, an illegitimate pregnancy, anorexia, and adolescent drug use, but the real excitement comes from the intricate attention Pearlman devotes to the interior life of young Emily, who wishes she were a bug. In "Sonny," a mother prays for her daughters to be barren so they never have to experience the death of a child. "The Golden Swan" transports the reader to a cruise ship with lavish buffets-and a surprise stowaway.

In prose that is as wise as it is poetic, Pearlman shines light on small, devastatingly precise moments to reflect the beauty and grace found in everyday life. She maps the psychological landscapes of her exquisitely rendered characters with unending compassion and seeming effortlessness.

Both for its artistry and for the lives of the characters it presents, Honeydew is a collection that will pull readers back time and again. These stories demonstrate once more that Pearlman is a master of the form and that hers is a vision unfailingly wise and forgiving.]]> 277 Edith Pearlman 0316297224 Charvella 0 to-read 3.57 2015 Honeydew
author: Edith Pearlman
name: Charvella
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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date added: 2014/11/10
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Sweet Spot 22318422 Learn how to achieve more by doing less! Live in that zone you’ve glimpsed but can’t seem to hold on to—the sweet spot where you have the greatest strength, but also the greatest ease.
Ěý
Not long ago, Christine Carter, a happiness expert at UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center and a speaker, writer, and mother, found herself exasperated by the busyness of modern life: too many conflicting obligations and not enough time, energy, or patience to get everything done. She tried all the standard techniques—prioritizing, multitasking, delegating, even napping—but none really worked. Determined to create a less stressful life for herself—without giving up her hard-won career success or happiness at home—she road-tested every research-based tactic that promised to bring more ease into her life. Drawing on her vast knowledge of the latest research related to happiness, productivity, and elite performance, she followed every strategy that promised to give her more energy—or that could make her more efficient, creative, or intelligent.
Ěý
Her trials and errors are our reward. In The Sweet Spot, Carter shares the combination of practices that transformed her life from overwhelmed and exhausting to joyful, relaxed, and productive. From instituting daily micro-habits that save time to bigger picture shifts that convert stress into productive and creative energy, The Sweet Spot shows us how to
Ěý
� say “no� strategically and when to say “yes� with abandon
� make decisions about routine things once to free our minds to focus on higher priorities
� stop multitasking and gain efficiency
� “take recess� in sync with the brain’s need for rest
� use technology in ways that bolster, instead of sap, energy
� increase your ratio of positive to negative emotions
Ěý
Complete with practical “easiest thing� tips for instant relief as well as stories from Carter’s own experience of putting The Sweet Spot into action, this timely and inspiring book will inoculate you against “The Overwhelm,� letting you in on the possibilities for joy and freedom that come when you stop trying to do everything right—and start doing the right things.
Ěý
Advance praise for The Sweet Spot
Ěý
“Illuminates the simple and sustainable path toward a precious and happy balance.�—Deepak Chopra
Ěý
“A gift, like a good friend drawing a personal road map out of the crazy busy swirl of our overloaded lives.�—Brigid Schulte, author of Overwhelmed
Ěý
“This book did something I thought was impossible: It seemed to give me more time.�—Martha Beck, author of Finding Your Way in a Wild New World
Ěý
“A page-turning thriller full of proven ways to have the life you want.�—Rick Hanson, Ph.D., author of Hardwiring Happiness
Ěý
“Timely, lively, and vital, The Sweet Spot is an immediately useful must-read.�—Shawn Achor, author of The Happiness Advantage

�The Sweet Spot inspired me to make immediate changes that have increased my productivity and lowered my stress.]]> 320 Christine Carter 0553392042 Charvella 0 to-read 3.83 2015 The Sweet Spot
author: Christine Carter
name: Charvella
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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date added: 2014/11/10
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]]> Almost Famous Women: Stories 21411936 The Boston Globe): a collection of stories that explores the lives of talented, gutsy women throughout history.

The fascinating lives of the characters in Almost Famous Women have mostly been forgotten, but their stories are burning to be told. Now Megan Mayhew Bergman, author of Birds of a Lesser Paradise, resurrects these women, lets them live in the reader's imagination, so we can explore their difficult choices. Nearly every story in this dazzling collection is based on a woman who attained some celebrity—she raced speed boats or was a conjoined twin in show business; a reclusive painter of renown; a member of the first all-female, integrated swing band. We see Lord Byron's illegitimate daughter, Allegra; Oscar Wilde's troubled niece, Dolly; West With the Night author Beryl Markham; Edna St. Vincent Millay's sister, Norma. These extraordinary stories travel the world, explore the past (and delve into the future), and portray fiercely independent women defined by their acts of bravery, creative impulses, and sometimes reckless decisions.

The world hasn't always been kind to unusual women, but through Megan Mayhew Bergman's alluring depictions they finally receive the attention they deserve. Almost Famous Women is a gorgeous collection from an "accomplished writer of short fiction" (Booklist).]]> 239 Megan Mayhew Bergman 1476786569 Charvella 0 to-read 3.46 2015 Almost Famous Women: Stories
author: Megan Mayhew Bergman
name: Charvella
average rating: 3.46
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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date added: 2014/11/10
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]]> <![CDATA[There Was a Little Girl: The Real Story of My Mother and Me]]> 22522170
Brooke Shields never had what anyone would consider an ordinary life. She was raised by her Newark-tough single mom, Teri, a woman who loved the world of show business and was often a media sensation all by herself. Brooke's iconic modeling career began by chance when she was only 11 months old, and Teri's skills as both Brooke's mother and her manager were formidable. But in private she was troubled and drank heavily.

As Brooke became an adult the pair made choices and sacrifices that would affect their relationship forever. And when Brooke's own daughters were born she found that her experience as a mother was shaped in every way by the woman who raised her. But despite the many ups and downs, Brooke was by Teri's side when she died in 2012, a loving daughter until the end.

Only Brooke knows the truth of the remarkable, difficult, complicated woman who was her mother. And now, in an honest, open memoir about her life growing up, Brooke will reveal stories and feelings that are relatable to anyone who has been a mother or daughter.]]> 416 Brooke Shields 0525954848 Charvella 0 to-read 3.48 2014 There Was a Little Girl: The Real Story of My Mother and Me
author: Brooke Shields
name: Charvella
average rating: 3.48
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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date added: 2014/11/10
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]]> Don't Tease the Elephants 21524163 30 Jen Knox 0991542916 Charvella 0 to-read 4.86 2014 Don't Tease the Elephants
author: Jen Knox
name: Charvella
average rating: 4.86
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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date added: 2014/11/10
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[20 Pounds Younger: The Life-Transforming Plan for a Fitter, Sexier You!]]> 20695995
Readers can achieve that kind of weight loss, and the anti-aging rewards that come with it, with the help of 20 Pounds Younger, a program designed by Women's Health magazine's top life stylists, the experts in integrative medicine, nutrition, strength training, meditation, and beauty who have helped Women's Health editor-in-chief Michele Promaulayko optimize her health and fitness.

The comprehensive, total-body makeover offered by 20 Pounds Younger includes strength training; weight loss for foodies, focusing on nutrient-dense whole foods; stress reduction for the busy woman; and anti-aging strategies for natural beauty. The reader can expect to lose 20 pounds or more and build a fit, lean, healthy body that looks 5 to 10 years younger.]]> 304 Michele Promaulayko 1623364035 Charvella 0 to-read 3.30 2014 20 Pounds Younger: The Life-Transforming Plan for a Fitter, Sexier You!
author: Michele Promaulayko
name: Charvella
average rating: 3.30
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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date added: 2014/11/10
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]]> <![CDATA[Passenger on the Pearl: The True Story of Emily Edmonson's Flight from Slavery]]> 20312457 176 Winifred Conkling 1616201967 Charvella 0 to-read 3.87 2015 Passenger on the Pearl: The True Story of Emily Edmonson's Flight from Slavery
author: Winifred Conkling
name: Charvella
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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]]> The Chapels on the Hill 23339770 300 Virginia McCullough 1494904306 Charvella 0 to-read 3.50 2014 The Chapels on the Hill
author: Virginia McCullough
name: Charvella
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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date added: 2014/11/05
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Cakewalk: Stories (Southern Revivals)]]> 18841654
This Southern Revival edition includes a new introduction by the author.]]> 256 Lee Smith 1611174198 Charvella 0 to-read 4.11 1981 Cakewalk: Stories (Southern Revivals)
author: Lee Smith
name: Charvella
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1981
rating: 0
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date added: 2014/11/05
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Modern Shorts: 18 Short Stories From Fiction Attic Press]]> 23343569
This anthology includes new fiction by Neil Mathison, Jane St. Claire, Timothy Boudreau, Linda Boroff, D.R.D. Bruton, Darlene Campos, Christopher David DiCicco, J.S. Kierland, Jen Knox, Claire E. Lombardo, John P. Loonam, Jennifer Marquardt, Jackie Davis Martin, Mark Pritchard, Suzanne Samples, JLSchneider, Thom Schwarz, and Owen Thomas, edited and with a foreword by Michelle Richmond.

In Neil Mathison’s “The Cannery," an outdoorsman in Alaska becomes the platonic companion of a young movie star, a woman who has briefly escaped the confines of Hollywood to read scripts in the far North. In “When You’re Flying High, You’d Better Not Look Down,� the narrator takes a trip on Route 66 in the wrong direction, irreverently channeling Thelma and Louise. In Linda Boroff’s “Home Like a Shadow,� a college student accompanies her well-spoken boyfriend on a trip to his derelict hometown, where she encounters the ugly reality of his alcoholic family.

Timothy Boudreau exposes the underbelly of small-town life in “The Charm." The struggle between belief and science is explored with grace and insight in “Godforsaken Stone Gilbert,� D.R.D. Bruton’s tale of a bookishly inclined working man who is faced with the realization that he may never see his dead daughter in the afterlife. “Indian Classroom,� by Darlene P. Campos, is a love story set at the Flandreau Indian Boarding School at a time in the not-too-distant past.

“The Red Ball,� J.S. Kierland’s story of two women who meet in New York City decades after they stood on opposite sides of a barbed wire fence at a concentration camp, ponders whether forgiveness is possible.

Christopher David DiCicco’s “Beer of the Month� is an epistolary tale that begins with beer and ends, as all good stories do, in an entirely unexpected place.

Family is the subject of “The Chef,� by Jen Knox, “The Neighbors,� by Claire E. Lombardo, “Running,� by John P. Loonam, and “It’ll Be All Right,� by Jackie Davis Martin. In “The Chef,� two young siblings bond over their father’s absence, making their own precarious way in the world, until the brother leaves for California. In “The Neighbors,� a 13-year-old girl becomes the silent bearer of all of the neighborhood secrets while babysitting the children of families much wealthier than her own. “Running� begins with a car crash and ends with a quiet but effective act of revenge. In “It’ll Be All Right,� Jackie Davis Martin focuses on the distance between a woman and her adult daughter.

“Little Big Death,� by Mark Pritchard, is the chilling dystopian tale of a man who, faced with the prospect of living out the rest of his days in a world in chaos, chooses to end his life in an orgiastic party, courtesy of the drug Superdeath—only to discover that the government’s program to provide citizens with an easy way out is not foolproof.

Suzanne Samples turns her attention to death as well in “Chekhov’s Toothbrush,� in which a woman who doesn’t quite have her act together discovers a suicide note written by her well-adjusted, better-looking younger sister. In “Slivers of Smoke,� by JLSchneider, the Beamstrous family’s seemingly innocuous camping trip is revealed to be the product of ulterior motives. In “The Hand,� by Thom Shwarz, a man who has been a failure as a husband watches as his wife of many years is swept away in a flood.

The anthology ends with Owen Thomas's "Everything Stops," the story of a man who has spent a great many years lying to himself finally looking both inward and outward, into the impossibly vast heavens, at the stars whose stories were written long before they reached us.]]> 248 Michelle Richmond 0991149963 Charvella 0 to-read 3.33 2014 Modern Shorts: 18 Short Stories From Fiction Attic Press
author: Michelle Richmond
name: Charvella
average rating: 3.33
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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date added: 2014/11/05
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]]> <![CDATA[Marriage Illustrated with Crappy Pictures]]> 22521841 "Funny and flattering quote from loving, supportive, perfect husband."—Crappy Husband

Marriage: Illustrated with Crappy Pictures provides much-needed laughs about coping with another person's hygiene habits, cleaning rituals (including their ritual of not cleaning), financial decisions, cooking quirks and everything else that makes your spouse weird and annoying special and perfect in every way.]]> 176 Amber Dusick 0373893078 Charvella 0 to-read 3.85 2014 Marriage Illustrated with Crappy Pictures
author: Amber Dusick
name: Charvella
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2014/11/05
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[The Reluctant Midwife (Hope River #2)]]> 22535513
The Great Depression has hit West Virginia hard. Men are out of work; women struggle to feed hungry children. Luckily, Nurse Becky Myers has returned to care for them. While she can handle most situations, Becky is still uneasy helping women deliver their babies. For these mothers-to-be, she relies on an experienced midwife, her dear friend Patience Murphy.

Though she is happy to be back in Hope River, time and experience have tempered Becky’s cheerfulness-as tragedy has destroyed the vibrant spirit of her former employer Dr Isaac Blum, who has accompanied her. Patience too has changed. Married and expecting a baby herself, she is relying on Becky to keep the mothers of Hope River safe.

But becoming a midwife and ushering precious new life into the world is not Becky’s only challenge. Her skills and courage will be tested when a calamitous forest fire blazes through a Civilian Conservation Corps camp. And she must find a way to bring Isaac back to life and rediscover the hope they both need to go on.

Full of humor and compassion, The Reluctant Midwife is a moving tribute to the power of optimism and love to overcome the most trying circumstances and times, and is sure to please fans of the poignant Call the Midwife series.]]> 409 Patricia Harman 0062358243 Charvella 0 to-read 4.02 2015 The Reluctant Midwife (Hope River #2)
author: Patricia Harman
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]]> The Ron Rash Reader 22114718
The Ron Rash Reader is a collection of essential works that covers the full range of Rash's career to date, from his first published collection of stories, The Night the New Jesus Fell to Earth and Other Stories from Cliffside, North Carolina (1994), to Nothing Gold Can Stories (2012) and includes previously unpublished material as well. Edited by Randall Wilhelm, this collection of more than sixty of Rash's writings demonstrates his remarkable breadth and vitality across genres―from short stories and verse to novel excerpts and nonfiction―comprising a best-of volume for new readers and established aficionados alike.

Arranged chronologically and by genre, the collection highlights the evolution of Rash's craftsmanship and of his major themes within each genre, revealing the rich tapestry of expanding interests transcending genres. Wilhelm's introduction offers a biographical and critical guide to Rash's work as well as insightful discussion of the writer's most crucial themes and techniques, including his use of traditional and nontraditional poetic and literary forms; of different narrative strategies, story forms, and character voices; and of landscape and historic settings. Readers can see for themselves in one volume how Rash continuously returns to his deepest concerns for greater and greater effect, concerns that begin with his early poetry and stories and persist into his most recent works.]]> 401 Ron Rash 1611174147 Charvella 0 to-read 4.39 2014 The Ron Rash Reader
author: Ron Rash
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]]> Greta's Grace 23339649 308 Virginia McCullough 149961621X Charvella 0 to-read 3.94 2014 Greta's Grace
author: Virginia McCullough
name: Charvella
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2014
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]]> <![CDATA[Maya in search of Tantric Father]]> 20622371 188 Vipin Behari Goyal 9383562668 Charvella 0 to-read 4.06 2014 Maya in search of Tantric Father
author: Vipin Behari Goyal
name: Charvella
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2014
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]]> Almost Perfect 20554358
Seventy-year old Bess Rutledge has dreamed of winning the Westminster Dog Show all her life. Despite her decades-long career as one of America’s top Standard Poodle breeders, she has decided she’s too old to hold on to her foolish dream. She sells off all the dogs in her once famous kennel except for the aging champion McCreery and his mischievous, handsome son Breaker. Part of her senses they might have been the ones to take her to Westminster, if only she’d dared to try.

Bess meets Benny, a teenager with mild autism who attends a therapeutic special school, and learns he has a dream of his own: to impress his self-absorbed mother. Benny is drawn into the world of dog shows and becomes convinced he has found the perfect way to win his mother’s attention. If he can win Westminster with either McCreery or Breaker, he just knows she will finally be proud of him. Getting Bess to go along with his plan, however, is not going to be so easy. . .

Up to 100% of the author’s profits will be donated to charities serving animals and children. Visit .]]> 340 Diane Daniels Manning 0578136392 Charvella 0 to-read 3.80 2014 Almost Perfect
author: Diane Daniels Manning
name: Charvella
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2014
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]]> A Life Interrupted Stories 23476046 160 Charvella J. Campbell Charvella 0 a-life-interrupted 0.0 2014 A Life Interrupted Stories
author: Charvella J. Campbell
name: Charvella
average rating: 0.0
book published: 2014
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]]> Girl in Translation 7362158 Introducing a fresh, exciting Chinese-American voice, an inspiring debut about an immigrant girl forced to choose between two worlds and two futures.

When Kimberly Chang and her mother emigrate from Hong Kong to Brooklyn squalor, she quickly begins a secret double life: exceptional schoolgirl during the day, Chinatown sweatshop worker in the evenings. Disguising the more difficult truths of her life like the staggering degree of her poverty, the weight of her family’s future resting on her shoulders, or her secret love for a factory boy who shares none of her talent or ambition. Kimberly learns to constantly translate not just her language but herself back and forth between the worlds she straddles.

Through Kimberly’s story, author Jean Kwok, who also emigrated from Hong Kong as a young girl, brings to the page the lives of countless immigrants who are caught between the pressure to succeed in America, their duty to their family, and their own personal desires, exposing a world that we rarely hear about.

Written in an indelible voice that dramatizes the tensions of an immigrant girl growing up between two cultures, surrounded by a language and world only half understood, Girl in Translation is an unforgettable and classic novel of an American immigrant--a moving tale of hardship and triumph, heartbreak and love, and all that gets lost in translation.]]> 305 Jean Kwok 1594487561 Charvella 3 3.98 2010 Girl in Translation
author: Jean Kwok
name: Charvella
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2010
rating: 3
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]]> Cathedral 11449 Raymond Carver’s third collection of stories, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, including the canonical titular story about blindness and learning to enter the very different world of another.

It was morning in America when Raymond Carver's Cathedral came out in 1983, but the characters in this dry collection of short stories from the forgotten corners of land of opportunity didn't receive much sunlight. Nothing much happens to the subjects of Carver's fiction, which is precisely why they are so harrowing: nothingness is a daunting presence to overcome. And rarely do they prevail, but the loneliness and quiet struggle the characters endure provide fertile ground for literary triumph, particularly in the hands of Carver, who was perhaps in his best form with this effort.

Raymond Carver (1938-1988) was an author who rejected the more experimental fiction of the 60s and 70s. He pioneered a precisionist realism reinventing the American short story during the eighties, heading the line of so-called "dirty realists" or "K-mart realists". They are stories of banal lives that turn on a seemingly insignificant detail. Carver writes with meticulous economy, suddenly bringing a life into focus in a similar way to the paintings of Edward Hopper. As well as being a master of the short story, he was an accomplished poet publishing several highly acclaimed volumes.]]> 230 Raymond Carver 0679723692 Charvella 3 4.29 1983 Cathedral
author: Raymond Carver
name: Charvella
average rating: 4.29
book published: 1983
rating: 3
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]]> <![CDATA[A Singular Woman: The Untold Story of Barack Obama's Mother]]> 10400627
Barack Obama has written extensively about his father, but little is known about Stanley Ann Dunham, the fiercely independent woman who raised him, the person he credits for, as he says, "what is best in me." Here is the missing piece of the story.

Award-winning reporter Janny Scott interviewed nearly two hundred of Dunham's friends, colleagues, and relatives (including both her children), and combed through boxes of personal and professional papers, letters to friends, and photo albums, to uncover the full breadth of this woman's inspiring and untraditional life, and to show the remarkable extent to which she shaped the man Obama is today.

Dunham's story moves from Kansas and Washington state to Hawaii and Indonesia. It begins in a time when interracial marriage was still a felony in much of the United States, and culminates in the present, with her son as our president- something she never got to see. It is a poignant look at how character is passed from parent to child, and offers insight into how Obama's destiny was created early, by his mother's extraordinary faith in his gifts, and by her unconventional mothering. Finally, it is a heartbreaking story of a woman who died at age fifty-two, before her son would go on to his greatest accomplishments and reflections of what she taught him.]]> 376 Janny Scott 1594487979 Charvella 3 3.83 2011 A Singular Woman: The Untold Story of Barack Obama's Mother
author: Janny Scott
name: Charvella
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2011
rating: 3
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]]> <![CDATA[Growing Up King: An Intimate Memoir]]> 1181544 320 Dexter Scott King 0446529427 Charvella 4 3.56 2003 Growing Up King: An Intimate Memoir
author: Dexter Scott King
name: Charvella
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2003
rating: 4
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]]> The Complete Collected Poems 9444 273 Maya Angelou 067942895X Charvella 4 4.44 1994 The Complete Collected Poems
author: Maya Angelou
name: Charvella
average rating: 4.44
book published: 1994
rating: 4
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]]> The Pelican Brief 32499 400 John Grisham 0385339704 Charvella 3 4.06 1992 The Pelican Brief
author: John Grisham
name: Charvella
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1992
rating: 3
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]]> The Last Juror 5346
The future of the 'Times' looked grim until a young mother was brutally raped and murdered. A member of the notorious Padgitt family was soon arrested. Traynor reported all the gruesome details, and his newspaper began to prosper.

The accused, Danny Padgitt, was tried before a packed courthouse in Clanton, Mississippi. The trial came to a startling and dramatic end when the defendant threatened revenge against the jurors if they convicted him. Nevertheless, they found him guilty, and he was sentenced to life in prison.

But in Mississippi in 1970, life didn't necessarily mean life, and nine years later Padgitt managed to get himself paroled. He returned to Ford County, and the retribution began.]]> 278 John Grisham 0385339682 Charvella 3 3.93 2004 The Last Juror
author: John Grisham
name: Charvella
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2004
rating: 3
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]]> To Kill a Mockingbird 2657 "Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird."

A lawyer's advice to his children as he defends the real mockingbird of Harper Lee's classic novel - a black man charged with the rape of a white girl. Through the young eyes of Scout and Jem Finch, Harper Lee explores with exuberant humour the irrationality of adult attitudes to race and class in the Deep South of the 1930s. The conscience of a town steeped in prejudice, violence and hypocrisy is pricked by the stamina of one man's struggle for justice. But the weight of history will only tolerate so much.

"To Kill A Mockingbird" became both an instant bestseller and a critical success when it was first published in 1960. It went on to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1961 and was later made into an Academy Award-winning film.]]> 323 Harper Lee 0060935464 Charvella 5 4.25 1960 To Kill a Mockingbird
author: Harper Lee
name: Charvella
average rating: 4.25
book published: 1960
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[Just Let Me Lie Down: Necessary Terms for the Half-Insane Working Mom]]> 7519547
Using stories and insights from her own life, she provides a lexicon for the half-insane working mom. Anyone who has left a meeting to race to the Halloween parade immediately understands van Ogtrop's definition of " Kill the messenger" as "The action you must take in order to forget about the office for a time--that is, to remove your Blackberry/Treo/iPhone/whatever from your person and store it as far away as your neurotic self will allow." Filled with essays, lists, and resonant observations, JUST LET ME LIE DOWN establishes van Ogtrop as the Erma Bombeck of the new millennium.]]> 272 Kristin van Ogtrop 0316068284 Charvella 3 3.53 2010 Just Let Me Lie Down: Necessary Terms for the Half-Insane Working Mom
author: Kristin van Ogtrop
name: Charvella
average rating: 3.53
book published: 2010
rating: 3
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]]> The Grapes of Wrath 18114322
First published in 1939, Steinbeck’s Pulitzer Prize-winning epic of the Great Depression chronicles the Dust Bowl migration of the 1930s and tells the story of one Oklahoma farm family, the Joads—driven from their homestead and forced to travel west to the promised land of California. Out of their trials and their repeated collisions against the hard realities of an America divided into Haves and Have-Nots evolves a drama that is intensely human yet majestic in its scale and moral vision, elemental yet plainspoken, tragic but ultimately stirring in its human dignity. A portrait of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless, of one man’s fierce reaction to injustice, and of one woman’s stoical strength, the novel captures the horrors of the Great Depression and probes into the very nature of equality and justice in America. At once a naturalistic epic, captivity narrative, road novel, and transcendental gospel, Steinbeck’s powerful landmark novel is perhaps the most American of American Classics.]]> 496 John Steinbeck 067001690X Charvella 4 4.06 1939 The Grapes of Wrath
author: John Steinbeck
name: Charvella
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1939
rating: 4
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]]> <![CDATA[How to Be an American Housewife]]> 7504179
How to Be an American Housewife is a novel about mothers and daughters, and the pull of tradition. It tells the story of Shoko, a Japanese woman who married an American GI, and her grown daughter, Sue, a divorced mother whose life as an American housewife hasn't been what she'd expected. When illness prevents Shoko from traveling to Japan, she asks Sue to go in her place. The trip reveals family secrets that change their lives in dramatic and unforeseen ways. Offering an entertaining glimpse into American and Japanese family lives and their potent aspirations, this is a warm and engaging novel full of unexpected insight.]]> 277 Margaret Dilloway 0399156372 Charvella 5 3.63 2010 How to Be an American Housewife
author: Margaret Dilloway
name: Charvella
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2010
rating: 5
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]]> Interpreter of Maladies 5439 Librarian's note: An alternate cover edition can be found here

Navigating between the Indian traditions they've inherited and the baffling new world, the characters in Jhumpa Lahiri's elegant, touching stories seek love beyond the barriers of culture and generations. In "A Temporary Matter," published in The New Yorker, a young Indian-American couple faces the heartbreak of a stillborn birth while their Boston neighborhood copes with a nightly blackout. In the title story, an interpreter guides an American family through the India of their ancestors and hears an astonishing confession. Lahiri writes with deft cultural insight reminiscent of Anita Desai and a nuanced depth that recalls Mavis Gallant.]]> 198 Jhumpa Lahiri 0618101365 Charvella 4 4.18 1999 Interpreter of Maladies
author: Jhumpa Lahiri
name: Charvella
average rating: 4.18
book published: 1999
rating: 4
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]]> The Namesake 33917 Interpreter of Maladies established this young writer as one the most brilliant of her generation. Her stories are one of the very few debut works -- and only a handful of collections -- to have won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Among the many other awards and honors it received were the New Yorker Debut of the Year award, the PEN/Hemingway Award, and the highest critical praise for its grace, acuity, and compassion in detailing lives transported from India to America.

In The Namesake, Lahiri enriches the themes that made her collection an international bestseller: the immigrant experience, the clash of cultures, the conflicts of assimilation, and, most poignantly, the tangled ties between generations. Here again Lahiri displays her deft touch for the perfect detail � the fleeting moment, the turn of phrase � that opens whole worlds of emotion.

The Namesake takes the Ganguli family from their tradition-bound life in Calcutta through their fraught transformation into Americans. On the heels of their arranged wedding, Ashoke and Ashima Ganguli settle together in Cambridge, Massachusetts. An engineer by training, Ashoke adapts far less warily than his wife, who resists all things American and pines for her family. When their son is born, the task of naming him betrays the vexed results of bringing old ways to the new world. Named for a Russian writer by his Indian parents in memory of a catastrophe years before, Gogol Ganguli knows only that he suffers the burden of his heritage as well as his odd, antic name.

Lahiri brings great empathy to Gogol as he stumbles along the first-generation path, strewn with conflicting loyalties, comic detours, and wrenching love affairs. With penetrating insight, she reveals not only the defining power of the names and expectations bestowed upon us by our parents, but also the means by which we slowly, sometimes painfully, come to define ourselves.]]> 304 Jhumpa Lahiri 0618485228 Charvella 5 4.02 2003 The Namesake
author: Jhumpa Lahiri
name: Charvella
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2003
rating: 5
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]]> Mom & Me & Mom 15798797 Mom & Me & Mom, Angelou dramatizes her years reconciling with the mother she preferred to simply call “Lady,� revealing the profound moments that shifted the balance of love and respect between them.
Ěý
Delving into one of her life’s most rich, rewarding, and fraught relationships, Mom & Me & Mom explores the healing and love that evolved between the two women over the course of their lives, the love that fostered Maya Angelou’s rise to the heights.]]> 201 Maya Angelou 1400066115 Charvella 5 4.20 2013 Mom & Me & Mom
author: Maya Angelou
name: Charvella
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2013
rating: 5
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]]> Some People, Some Other Place 188235
Ranging from the Deep South at the turn of the century, to a diverse contemporary town filled with people striving for a better life, Some People, Some Other Place is J. California Cooper at her irresistible, surprising best.]]> 384 J. California Cooper 0385496834 Charvella 4 4.40 2004 Some People, Some Other Place
author: J. California Cooper
name: Charvella
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2004
rating: 4
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]]> The Twelve Tribes of Hattie 13320466
In 1923, fifteen-year-old Hattie Shepherd flees Georgia and settles in Philadelphia, hoping for a chance at a better life. Instead, she marries a man who will bring her nothing but disappointment and watches helplessly as her firstborn twins succumb to an illness a few pennies could have prevented.Ěý Hattie gives birth to nine more children whom she raises with grit and mettle and not an ounce of the tenderness they crave.Ěý She vows to prepare them for the calamitous difficulty they are sure to face in their later lives, to meet a world that will not love them, a world that will not be kind. Captured here in twelve luminous narrative threads, their lives tell the story of a mother’s monumental courage and the journey of a nation.

Beautiful and devastating, Ayana Mathis’s The Twelve Tribes of Hattie is wondrous from first to last—glorious, harrowing, unexpectedly uplifting, and blazing with life. An emotionally transfixing page-turner, a searing portrait of striving in the face of insurmountable adversity, an indelible encounter with the resilience of the human spirit and the driving force of the American dream, Mathis’s first novel heralds the arrival of a major new voice in contemporary fiction.Ěý]]> 243 Ayana Mathis 0385350287 Charvella 4 3.47 2012 The Twelve Tribes of Hattie
author: Ayana Mathis
name: Charvella
average rating: 3.47
book published: 2012
rating: 4
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]]> Life Is Short But Wide 4674126 Like the small towns J. California Cooper has so vividly portrayed in her previous novels and story collections, Wideland, Oklahoma, is home to ordinary Americans struggling to raise families, eke out a living, and fulfill their dreams. In the early twentieth century, Irene and Val fall in love in Wideland. While carving out a home for themselves, they also allow neighbors Bertha and Joseph to build a house and live on their land. The next generation brings two girls for Irene and Val, and a daughter for Bertha and Joseph. As the families cope with the hardships that come with changing times and fortunes, and people are born and pass away, the characters learn the importance of living one’s life boldly and squeezing out every possible moment of joy.
Cooper brilliantly captures the cadences of the South and draws a picture of American life at once down-to-earth and heartwarming in this-as her wise narrator will tell you-“strange, sad, kind’a beautiful, life story.� It is a story about love that leads to the ultimate realization that whoever you are, and whatever you do, life is short, but it is also wide.]]> 336 J. California Cooper 0385511345 Charvella 5 3.98 2009 Life Is Short But Wide
author: J. California Cooper
name: Charvella
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2009
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking]]> 8520610 The book that started the Quiet Revolution

At least one-third of the people we know are introverts. They are the ones who prefer listening to speaking; who innovate and create but dislike self-promotion; who favor working on their own over working in teams. It is to introverts—Rosa Parks, Chopin, Dr. Seuss, Steve Wozniak—that we owe many of the great contributions to society.Ěý

In Quiet, Susan Cain argues that we dramatically undervalue introverts and shows how much we lose in doing so. She charts the rise of the Extrovert Ideal throughout the twentieth century and explores how deeply it has come to permeate our culture. She also introduces us to successful introverts—from a witty, high-octane public speaker who recharges in solitude after his talks, to a record-breaking salesman who quietly taps into the power of questions. Passionately argued, superbly researched, and filled with indelible stories of real people, Quiet has the power to permanently change how we see introverts and, equally important, how they see themselves.

Now with Extra Libris material, including a reader’s guide and bonus content.]]> 333 Susan Cain 0307352145 Charvella 5 4.07 2012 Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking
author: Susan Cain
name: Charvella
average rating: 4.07
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]]> The Secret Life of Bees 11548119
When Lily's fierce-hearted black "stand-in mother," Rosaleen, insults three of the town's most vicious racists, Lily decides they should both escape to Tiburon, South Carolina—a town that holds the secret to her mother's past. There they are taken in by an eccentric trio of black beekeeping sisters who introduce Lily to a mesmerizing world of bees, honey, and the Black Madonna who presides over their household. This is a remarkable story about divine female power and the transforming power of love. ĚýTo celebrate the tenth anniversary of the book’s debut, Penguin presents a beautiful special edition of this wonderful novel, including a new introduction by the author—a gorgeous book that women will share and pass on to their daughters for years to come.]]> 336 Sue Monk Kidd 0143120263 Charvella 4 3.91 2001 The Secret Life of Bees
author: Sue Monk Kidd
name: Charvella
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2001
rating: 4
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]]> <![CDATA[An Introduction to Language, 9th Edition]]> 7494068 643 Victoria A. Fromkin 1428263926 Charvella 3 3.57 1974 An Introduction to Language, 9th Edition
author: Victoria A. Fromkin
name: Charvella
average rating: 3.57
book published: 1974
rating: 3
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]]> The Color Purple 827792 288 Alice Walker 0156031825 Charvella 5 4.29 1982 The Color Purple
author: Alice Walker
name: Charvella
average rating: 4.29
book published: 1982
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[South Side Girls: Growing Up in the Great Migration]]> 22504799 South Side Girls Marcia Chatelain recasts Chicago's Great Migration through the lens of black girls. Focusing on the years between 1910 and 1940, when Chicago's black population quintupled, Chatelain describes how Chicago's black social scientists, urban reformers, journalists and activists formulated a vulnerable image of urban black girlhood that needed protecting. She argues that the construction and meaning of black girlhood shifted in response to major economic, social, and cultural changes and crises, and that it reflected parents' and community leaders' anxieties about urbanization and its meaning for racial progress. Girls shouldered much of the burden of black aspiration, as adults often scrutinized their choices and behavior, and their well-being symbolized the community's moral health. Black Chicagoans were not alone in thinking about the Great Migration, as girls expressed their views as well. Referencing girls' letters and interviews, Chatelain uses their powerful stories of hope, anticipation and disappointment to highlight their feelings and thoughts, and in so doing, she helps restore the experiences of an understudied population to the Great Migration's complex narrative.]]> 264 Marcia Chatelain 0822358549 Charvella 0 to-read 3.92 2015 South Side Girls: Growing Up in the Great Migration
author: Marcia Chatelain
name: Charvella
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2015
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]]>