Abandoned as an infant and raised by a young couple, Alice Thornton grows up aching for acceptance and wholly unaware of the women who came before her, a situation that compels her pursuit of a man who cannot love her.

A haunting, luminous debut novel set in a small New Hampshire town: the story of the crisscrossing of lives, within and without family, and of one woman, given up for adoption as a baby, searching for the truth about her life. As an infant, Alice Thorton was discovered in Kettleborough, New Hampshire, in a boathouse by the lake; adopted by a young, childless couple; raised with no knowledge of the women who came before her: Eleonora, who brought her family to Bear Island, the nearly uninhabitable scrap of land in Kettleborough’s lake; Signe, the maiden aunt who nearly drowned in the lake, ashamed of her heart; Sophie, the grandmother who turned a blind eye to her unwanted granddaughter. Alice grows up aching for an acceptance she can’t quite imagine, trying to find it first with an older man, then with one who can’t love her back, and finally in the love she feels for one she has never met. And all the while she feels a mysterious pull to the lake. As Alice edges ever closer to her past, Lake People beautifully evokes the interweaving of family history and individual fate, and the intangible connections we feel to the place where we were born. This ebook edition includes a Reading Group Guide.

The engrossing epic novel—a #1 bestseller in Norway—of a young woman whose fate plays out against her village’s mystical church bells—now in paperback As long as people could remember, the stave church’s bells had rung over the isolated village of Butangen, Norway. Cast in memory of conjoined twins, the bells are said to ring on their own in times of danger. In 1879, young pastor Kai Schweigaard moves to the village, where young Astrid Hekne yearns for a modern life. She sees a way out on the arm of the new pastor, who needs a tie to the community to cull favor for his plan for the old stave church, with its pagan deity effigies and supernatural bells. When the pastor makes a deal that brings an outsider, a sophisticated German architect, into their world, the village and Astrid are caught between past and future, as dark forces come into play. Lars Mytting, bestselling author of Norwegian Wood, brings his deep knowledge of history, carpentry, fishing, and stave churches to this compelling historical novel, an international bestseller sold in 12 countries. With its broad-canvas narrative about the intersection of religion, superstition, and duty, The Bell in the Lake is an irresistible story of ancient times and modern challenges, by a powerful international voice.

This book focuses on the long-term interactions between people and nature in and around Lake Biwa, one of the oldest lakes in the world. Accordingly, it not only covers the characteristics of the biota of this ancient lake, but also approaches it as a ‘cultural ancient lake.’ Furthermore, various problems affecting the lake, especially recent environmental changes that occurred before and after Japan’s rapid economic growth of the 1950s and 60s, are reviewed, including water pollution, lakeshore development and the reclamation of attached lakes, alien and invasive species, and problems related to the recent warming of the climate. Lastly, by analyzing data on these problems collected by the local government and residents of the lake basin, the book provides a comprehensive outlook on the future of Lake Biwa and people’s lifestyles. As such, it provides indispensable information for all people engaged in improving and conserving water regimes around the world, as well as people interested in the culture and history of Japan.

An enthralling, historically rich, small-town mystery in which a teen works with her deceased sister to solve an assumed murder. Sixteen-year-old Clara Morris is facing an awkward summer with her father in the tiny upstate town of Redmarch Lake. Clara’s relationship with her parents—and with life in general—has been strained since she lost her twin sister, Zoe, when the girls were eight. As a child, her sister had been her whole world—they even shared a secret invented twin language. Clara has managed to rebuild herself as best she can, but she still feels a hole in her life from the absence of her twin, and she suspects she always will. She soon finds that Redmarch Lake, where her father’s family has lived for generations, is a very unusual place. The townspeople live by odd rules and superstitions. The eerily calm lake the town is named for both fascinates and repels her. The town’s young people are just as odd and unfriendly as their parents. Clara manages to befriend the one boy willing to talk to an outsider, but he disappears during a party in the woods. The next day, he is found dead in the lake under mysterious circumstances. The townspeople all treat this as a tragic accident. Clara isn’t buying it, but she doesn’t know what to do until she receives a mysterious note hinting at murder—a note written in the language she shared with her twin sister, Zoe.

Adrian and Teresa Douglas have the perfect life...until they move their family into a home with a sinister past. The home is at the center of a dark and supernatural war waging against the world of the living. An army of tortured souls are determined to abduct the Douglas children and claim them as their own. Accidents, unexplained illnesses, and malevolent creatures roam the property, and Adrian and Teresa must protect their family from the rotting corpses know as the people from the lake.

Sociology and Christianity? Attempting to bring sociology and Christianity together is like trying to mix oil and water. Christians seem to have as little regard for sociology as sociologists generally have for Christianity. However, in the middle of this conflict there is a group bold enough to call themselves "Christian sociologists"; they are not willing to be stereotyped but are seriously committed to both realms. This collection of essays covers topics that are typically addressed in introductory sociology courses. Written from a Christian point of view, these essays are also geared for a wide range of readers from undergraduates to professional sociologists who bring faith commitments to the sociological task. The editors' goal is to provide an understanding of societal forces that is informed by a Christian conscience. Toward that end, certain recurring themes are found in this book: the need for informed Christian social action, the conflict between the individual and the community, the conflict between freedom and determinism, and the significance of social sin.

The Starling family is scattered across the country. Parents Richard and Lisa live in Ithaca, New York, and work at Cornell University. Their son Michael, a salesperson, lives in Dallas with his elementary school teacher wife, Diane. Michael's brother, Thad, an aspiring poet, makes his home in New York City with his famous painter boyfriend, Jake. For years they've travelled to North Carolina to share a summer vacation at the family lake house. That tradition is coming to an end, as Richard and Lisa have decided to sell the treasured summer home and retire to Florida. Before they do, the family will spend one last weekend at the lake. But what should to be a joyous farewell takes a nightmarish turn when the family witnesses a tragedy that triggers a series of dramatic revelations among the Starlings-alcoholism, infidelity, pregnancy, and a secret the parents have kept from their sons for over thirty years. As the weekend unfolds, relationships fray, bonds are tested, and the Starlings are forced to reckon with who they are and what they want from this life.

Big Moose Lake in the Adirondacks is the lively and well documented story of the growth of the lake side community made famous by the incident that inspired Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy. The rich history of the lake unfolds with stories of its early residents, hunters, and guides—Jim Higby, Billy Dutton, Henry Covey, and Bill Dartin—the late 1870s, of the lake's ownership by William Seward Webb, of the construction of the first private camp—Club Camp—in 1878, and the coming of hotels and resorts beginning in 1880 with the construction of Camp Crag. From a time when a telephone number was a simple "8F6" and the "pickle boat" brought supplies to camp, to more recent stories of exuberant waterskiing and motorboat regattas, the book includes a detailed history and descriptions of the camps and resorts on the lake, persons and celebrities who made the lake their year-round or seasonal home—including actress Minnie Maddern Fiske and artist David Milne—natural disasters and political events, recreation, and the work of the Big Moose Property Owners Association. This is the story of Big Moose Lake brought to life by more than 275 family photographs, antique postcards, and previously unpublished memoirs, oral histories, diary entries, and the personal correspondence of the men and women who settled the area and of those who call it home.