The tale of friendship between two people, one Israeli and one Palestinian, that symbolizes the hope for peace in the Middle East. “Makes an incredibly complicated topic comprehensible.”--School Library Journal In 1967, a twenty-five-year-old refugee named Bashir Khairi traveled from the Palestinian hill town of Ramallah to Ramla, Israel, with a goal: to see the beloved stone house with the lemon tree in its backyard that he and his family had been forced to leave nineteen years earlier. When he arrived, he was greeted by one of its new residents: Dalia Eshkenazi Landau, a nineteen-year-old Israeli college student whose family had fled Europe following the Holocaust. She had lived in that house since she was eleven months old. On the stoop of this shared house, Dalia and Bashir began a surprising friendship, forged in the aftermath of war and later tested as political tensions ran high and Israelis and Palestinians each asserted their own right to live on this land. Adapted from the award-winning adult book and based on Sandy Tolan's extensive research and reporting, The Lemon Tree is a deeply personal story of two people seeking hope, transformation, and home.

A love letter to Syria and its people, As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow is a speculative novel set amid the Syrian Revolution, burning with the fires of hope, love, and possibility. Perfect for fans of The Book Thief and Salt to the Sea. Salama Kassab was a pharmacy student when the cries for freedom broke out in Syria. She still had her parents and her older brother; she still had her home. She had a normal teenager’s life. Now Salama volunteers at a hospital in Homs, helping the wounded who flood through the doors daily. Secretly, though, she is desperate to find a way out of her beloved country before her sister-in-law, Layla, gives birth. So desperate, that she has manifested a physical embodiment of her fear in the form of her imagined companion, Khawf, who haunts her every move in an effort to keep her safe. But even with Khawf pressing her to leave, Salama is torn between her loyalty to her country and her conviction to survive. Salama must contend with bullets and bombs, military assaults, and her shifting sense of morality before she might finally breathe free. And when she crosses paths with the boy she was supposed to meet one fateful day, she starts to doubt her resolve in leaving home at all. Soon, Salama must learn to see the events around her for what they truly are—not a war, but a revolution—and decide how she, too, will cry for Syria’s freedom.

A beautifully written debut novel of a young Indian woman struggling between embracing her heritage and fitting in as an American In Oak Grove, California, 1976, there are as many Sikh temples as Christian churches, the city council has prints announcements in both English and Punjabi and the large Indian immigrant community is gracefully coexists with the old farming families. But for 15-year-old Jeeto, figuring out where she fits best—and what she must do to find that fit—isn't so easy. Jeeto soon realizes that the women around her do far more than drink tea on balmy California afternoons—their traditions and religion give shape to fortune and destiny in a world of arranged marriages and strict family politics that force Jeeto to struggle with reconciling the possibilities of freedom and love. In the tradition of Jhumpa Lahiri and Arundhati Roy, Under the Lemon Trees is poised to speak to this same audience in an historically successful market. A stellar debut from an acclaimed writer, this is a story about finding love and discovering a true home while navigating traditions, family and faith—part Bend it Like Beckham, part Monsoon Wedding, this is a cultural and romantic tour de force.

When Grandma gives you a lemon tree, definitely don’t make a face! Care for the tree, and you might be surprised at how new things, and new ideas, bloom. “Charms from cover to cover.” —Kirkus (Starred review) “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” In this imaginative take on that popular saying, a child is surprised (and disappointed) to receive a lemon tree from Grandma for her birthday. After all, she DID ask for a new gadget! But when she follows the narrator’s careful—and funny—instructions, she discovers that the tree might be exactly what she wanted after all. This clever story, complete with a recipe for lemonade, celebrates the pleasures of patience, hard work, nature, community . . . and putting down the electronic devices just for a while.

A NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST “Extraordinary ... A sweeping history of the Palestinian-Israeli conundrum ... Highly readable and evocative.” – The Washington Post The tale of a simple act of faith between two young people, one Israeli and one Palestinian, that symbolizes the hope for peace in the Middle East – with an updated afterword by the author. In 1967, Bashir Khairi, a twenty-five-year-old Palestinian, journeyed to Israel with the goal of seeing the beloved stone house with the lemon tree behind it that he and his family had fled nineteen years earlier. To his surprise, when he found the house he was greeted by Dalia Eshkenazi Landau, a nineteen-year-old Israeli college student, whose family left Europe for Israel following the Holocaust. On the stoop of their shared home, Dalia and Bashir began a rare friendship, forged in the aftermath of war and tested over the next half century in ways that neither could imagine on that summer day in 1967. Sandy Tolan brings the Israeli-Palestinian conflict down to its most human level, demonstrating that even amid the bleakest political realities there exist stories of hope and transformation.

'Sun-soaked escapism' Best 'A gorgeous, mouth-watering dream of a holiday read!' Red In the beautiful village of Vernazza, the Mazzone family have transformed an old convent overlooking the glamorous Italian Riviera into the elegant Lemon Tree Hotel. For Chiara, her daughter Elene and her granddaughter Isabella, the running of their hotel is the driving force in their lives. One day, two unexpected guests check in. The first, Dante, is a face from Chiara's past, but what exactly happened between them all those years ago, Elene wonders. Meanwhile, Isabella is preoccupied with the second guest, a mysterious young man who seems to know a lot about the history of the old convent and the people who live there. Beneath the summer sun, Isabella is determined to find out his true intentions and discover the secret past of the Lemon Tree Hotel. Readers LOVE The Lemon Tree Hotel 'Enchanting' 5* reader review 'Delicious' 5* reader review 'Beautiful' 5* reader review 'Wonderful' 5* reader review 'Heavenly!' 5* reader review

On paper, things looked good for Mark Rice-Oxley: wife, children, fulfilling job. But then, at his 40th birthday party, his whole world crumbled as he succumbed to depression... How many men do you know who have been through periods when their lives haven't seemed right? How badly askew were things for them? Many men suffer from depression yet it is still a subject that is taboo. Men often don't visit the doctor, or they don't want to face up to feelings of weakness and vulnerability. By telling his story, Mark Rice-Oxley hopes it will enable others to tell theirs. In this intensely moving memoir he retraces the months of his utmost despair, revisiting a landscape from which at times he felt he would never escape. Written with lyricism and poignancy, Mark captures the visceral nature of this most debilitating of illnesses with a frightening clarity, while at the same time offering a sympathetic and dispassionate view of what is happening, and perhaps why. This is not a self-help book but a memoir that is brimful of experience, understanding and hope for all those who read it. It is above all honest, touching and surprisingly optimistic.

"Ascension / is the work of a lifetime on one's knees," writes Michele Lesko. The women in her poems kneel for loveless sex, unrelenting housework, and prayer to a tortured god. Emotionally intense and bracingly honest, a jolt of lemon in the sea of sweetness that is much contemporary poetry. Julie Kane, the 2011-2013 Louisiana Poet Laureate, is Professor of English Emeritus at Northwestern State University and is the author of six volumes of poetry. To read the poems in Lesko's Kneeling Under the Lemon Tree, is to live by both their tart and promise. Nothing and no one is to be turned from--not the priest, not the parents, not lovers, professors, or the poet herself. The ache and yearning in the sharp lines are balanced by a sweet the poet insists upon, but still refuses (at first) in total fullness. You walk a knife's edge of exquisitely crafted line-breaks, which in their patience and balance hold the understanding of several opposing truths at once. Even silence works overtime, refuses to let you take it for granted, as it writes itself large in these poems' tight blooms of music. This collection of poems is record and mirror, and in those hustles, provides us with a powerful witness and a catalog of questions to challenge the power we wield and the power to which we're subject. This is a powerful book. It won't let you off easy, and it won't let you down. Roger Bonair-Agard, a Cave Canem fellow and National Poetry Slam champion, is the author of three volumes of poetry and the co-founder of louderARTS Project. He teaches writing at the Free Write Arts & Literacy Program in Chicago. There is such tenderness here: "Two pale breasts softly sit / atop twelve bones aligned / to protect a single heart" and "Maybe I will grow to love this sorrow." Lesko has conjured a strong, steady voice that carries her speaker from childhood to motherhood, from religion to spirituality, in intimate, vulnerable narratives that both lighten the spirit and break the heart of the reader. Here is not brokenness or resolution; what's found here is recognition and purpose. Reneé Ashley is the author of six volumes of poetry, two chapbooks, and the novel, Someplace Like This. Part of Ashley's poem, "First Book of the Moon," appears in the permanent installation by artist Larry Kirkland in Penn Station Terminal.

When it’s pouring with rain, Gogo decides to pass the time by making some pancakes. But she soon discovers that the family has run out of three important ingredients: flour, eggs and milk. Without those, you can’t make pancakes. But clever Gogo has an idea. She sends Lungi and Sipho to a different neighbour to borrow what they need, and to take each of them a gift of lemons from the family’s lemon tree in return. And so, due to the kindness of the neighbours, Gogo and the eager children are finally able to make the pancakes. In The Lemon Tree, nominated for a prestigious Golden Baobab Prize in 2014, author Katherine Graham tells a simple, moral story with charm and an ability to transport the young reader evocatively into the moment. The story is beautifully illustrated by Wendy Paterson.

Ted suspects that something is wrong at the Miller's house across the street. What he learns launches him into an uncomfortable and haunting encounter with his neighbor that forces Ted to look inward and examine his own life. Hale's page-turning short story, In the Shade of the Lemon Tree, takes Ted, and the reader, on an emotional, eye-opening journey that reveals one surprising truth after another. Looking out on the city that never sleeps from his tenth floor penthouse, Daniel seems to have it all. But in The Letter nothing is certain, and a tragic turn in life takes him from New York City to the coast of Maine, as he clings to the hope of a past love that may be lost forever. The themes of love and loss flow through the tender and touching short stories in this collection, finding drama in the seemingly simple routine of life-Saturday drives with a grandfather, a stroll along the beach where the past competes with the present, and the anticipation of a family wedding.