A stately mansion sits atop the crest of Hummingbird Hill on the outskirts of Big Spring, Texas. This is the tale of that mansion and the trials and tribulations experienced by its inhabitants over the years, as it goes from the family home of James “Buck” Henderson and his wife, June, to one of the South’s most elegant “sporting” houses, to a home for runaways, and finally, a family home again. It is a tale of love, hate, rape, incest, murder, and intrigue. The story begins with Buck Henderson’s early years in Philadelphia, to his heroism during World War I, his battlefield promotions and medals for bravery, including the Congressional Medal of Honor, his recovery in a Denver hospital, and his marriage to June. After securing an engineering degree at Penn State, Buck and June set out for Big Spring, Texas, where they find success in the oil field supply business and raise a family, but their happiness is followed by rape, murder, and the sale of their beloved mansion.

Looking at my lifelong friend, lying in her bed, I smile and pick up the book. Opening the pages, I arrange my glasses until the words become clear and start reading aloud, the love story that begins in truth and ends the way it should have outside of my dreams...

'We're going to a fine place,' Idie told Homer to console him, 'with gullies and monkeys and hummingbirds.' Idie Grace is twelve when she inherits a grand old house on a Caribbean island, and is sent away from grey old England to a place where hummingbirds hover and monkeys clamber from tree to tree. As a lady of property Idie can do as she pleases, so she fills the house with exotic animals, keeps her beloved horse in the hallway, and carries a grumpy, talking cockatoo called Homer on her shoulder. But the island house holds as many secrets as it does animals, and the truth behind Idie's inheritance is the biggest secret of all . . . Perfect for fans of Eva Ibbotson and Katherine Rundell

A thrilling new novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Lisa See explores the lives of a Chinese mother and her daughter who has been adopted by an American couple. Li-yan and her family align their lives around the seasons and the farming of tea. There is ritual and routine, and it has been ever thus for generations. Then one day a jeep appears at the village gate—the first automobile any of them have seen—and a stranger arrives. In this remote Yunnan village, the stranger finds the rare tea he has been seeking and a reticent Akha people. In her biggest seller, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, See introduced the Yao people to her readers. Here she shares the customs of another Chinese ethnic minority, the Akha, whose world will soon change. Li-yan, one of the few educated girls on her mountain, translates for the stranger and is among the first to reject the rules that have shaped her existence. When she has a baby outside of wedlock, rather than stand by tradition, she wraps her daughter in a blanket, with a tea cake hidden in her swaddling, and abandons her in the nearest city. After mother and daughter have gone their separate ways, Li-yan slowly emerges from the security and insularity of her village to encounter modern life while Haley grows up a privileged and well-loved California girl. Despite Haley’s happy home life, she wonders about her origins; and Li-yan longs for her lost daughter. They both search for and find answers in the tea that has shaped their family’s destiny for generations. A powerful story about a family, separated by circumstances, culture, and distance, Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane paints an unforgettable portrait of a little known region and its people and celebrates the bond that connects mothers and daughters.

Provides information on accommodations, restaurants, attractions, outdoor activities, and driving and walking tours in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island.

A certificate for one free night to any inn listed. A value of $50-$650. An easy-to-use reference to 1,600 inns. Detailed listings of inns in all 50 states, Canada and U.S. territories. State maps locating each inn. More than 500 illustrations, Index of inns with special significance.