Gary Soto writes that when he was five "what I knew best was at ground level." In this lively collection of short essays, Soto takes his reader to a ground-level perspective, resreating in vivid detail the sights, sounds, smells, and textures he knew growing up in his Fresno, California, neighborhood. The "things" of his boyhood tie it all together: his Buddha "splotched with gold," the taps of his shoes and the "engines of sparks that lived beneath my soles," his worn tennies smelling of "summer grass, asphalt, the moist sock breathing the defeat of basesall." The child's world is made up of small things--small, very important things.

A great summer beach read filled with sunshine, cooking, and--of course--romance! Elizabeth Margaret--better known as Em--has always known what her life would contain: an internship at her father's firm, a degree from Harvard, and a career as a lawyer. The only problem is, it's not what she wants. So when she gets the opportunity to get away and spend a month with the aunt she never knew, she jumps at the chance. While there, Em learns that her family has some pretty significant secrets. And then there's Cade, the laid-back local surfer boy who seems to be everything Em isn't. Naturally, she can't resist him, and as their romance blossoms, Em feels that for the first time ever, she is really living life on her own terms.

You really need to experience this story. It’s a sweet, friendly, nice, entertaining and special one. A romantic novel based on real event that will captivate you forever. SHE is about to say "Yes I do" to the perfect man of her dreams. HE needs more time to think it over before making a decision that will affect his whole life. SHE and HE do not know each other and they are not mean for each other and that will not ever happen. However, the special and magical Ikaria Island, Greece will witness the best summer of their lives, when the world of the two protagonists seemed to be about to crumble. Her readers have said: « Lucy Morton is a breath of fresh air in the romance genre. A roller coaster of emotions that takes your heart». « It's been a long time since I got captivated and I used to get so excited with a reading of the romance genre without being cloying or typical. The summer of your life is a novel that everyone should read». « Its characters will break your heart. You manage yourself in involving into the bowels of history and when you finish, it is impossible to get it out of your head».

Eleven-year-old Elva has a very busy summer splashing in the creek, enjoying two family weddings, going to a fair, joining in hymn sings with other Mennonite youth, and helping prepare for school to begin anew.

Every summer, Samantha Wheland joins her childhood friends, Isabel, Kendra and Mina, on a vacation somewhere exotic and fabulous –– this year it's a beach house in Honduras. But for the first time, their clan is not complete. Mina lost her battle against cancer six months ago, and the friends she left behind are still struggling to find their way forward without her. For Samantha, the vacation feels wrong without Mina. She's unsure what direction her life should take and fearful that whatever decision she makes about her French boyfriend's surprise proposal will be the wrong one. The answers aren't in the journal Mina gave Sam before she died. Or in the messages Sam believes Mina is sending as guideposts. Before the trip ends, it will take the bonds of existing friendships, family stories of love and loss, and a glimpse into a world far removed from her own to convince Sam to trust and follow her heart.

A Summer for a Lifetime is about changes for the good on of an individual and the two nations he called home. It of ignorance being replaced by knowledge, distrust acceptance, hate being replaced by love.

"As Celia struggles to keep Tessa from getting caught up in a bleak crusade for answers, she finds that their sessions open the door to emotions that she's spent years ignoring, forcing her to face the rising tensions in her life - her troubled teenage son, her alcoholic ex-husband, and her fragile new marriage. Celia begins to realize that she must come to terms with the tragic mistakes of her past and the choices that have led her family to their own brink of destruction." "A haunting portrait of two women whose lives converge unexpectedly when the answers one needs turn out to be the other's only chance for peace, Life Without Summer illuminates connections between love, marriage, truth, and forgiveness no reader will forget."--BOOK JACKET.

You may know Robert James Waller as the man who brought the world to Iowa's storied covered bridges. What you may not realize is that before and since becoming an internationally acclaimed novelist, Waller has grappled with a very real puzzle: How can an individual, a group, and/or a society cut through the confusion of everyday life to successfully navigate its pitfalls and traps? Through intense reflection, shrewd reasoning, and not a little trial and error, the reclusive author has developed a unique and inventive paradigm for thinking clearly and logically. In The Summer Nights Never End Until they Do, Waller shares a methodology can be applied to everything from governmental gaffs and immigration reform to losing weight and financial freedom. Like so many things that make sense, Waller's words are complex in their simplicity, turn from the madness of short-term, quick fixes and toward time-tested, reasonable goals. The devil is in the details. So, too, are the answers.

From the New York Times columnist, a portrait of a family and the cycles of joy and grief that mark the natural world: “Has the makings of an American classic.” —Ann Patchett Growing up in Alabama, Margaret Renkl was a devoted reader, an explorer of riverbeds and red-dirt roads, and a fiercely loved daughter. Here, in brief essays, she traces a tender and honest portrait of her complicated parents—her exuberant, creative mother; her steady, supportive father—and of the bittersweet moments that accompany a child’s transition to caregiver. And here, braided into the overall narrative, Renkl offers observations on the world surrounding her suburban Nashville home. Ringing with rapture and heartache, these essays convey the dignity of bluebirds and rat snakes, monarch butterflies and native bees. As these two threads haunt and harmonize with each other, Renkl suggests that there is astonishment to be found in common things: in what seems ordinary, in what we all share. For in both worlds—the natural one and our own—“the shadow side of love is always loss, and grief is only love’s own twin.” Gorgeously illustrated by the author’s brother, Billy Renkl, Late Migrations is an assured and memorable debut. “Magnificent . . . Readers will savor each page and the many gems of wisdom they contain.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

When nineteen-year-old Eddie drops out of college, he struggles to find a place for himself as a Mexican American living in a violence-infested neighborhood of Fresno, California.