Publisher: idb
The Years is a 1937 novel by Virginia Woolf, the last she published in her lifetime. It traces the history of the genteel Pargiter family from the 1880s to the "present day" of the mid-1930s, describing the small private details of the characters' lives. Except for the first, each section takes place on a single day of its titular year, and each year is defined by a particular moment in the cycle of seasons.
The story of the Bounty mutiny is well known. Fletcher Christian's mutineers set Captain William Bligh and others adrift in a ship's boat. Bligh sailed some 5000 kilometres to safety; the mutineers returned to Tahiti before making their way to isolated and uninhabited Pitcairn Island. But what of the Tahitian women who joined the Bounty at Tahiti? Their powerful and compelling story is told in Transit of Venus. Mauatua and her friends and relatives speak directly to us in beautiful and startlingly perceptive ways as they move away from their homeland and pass into the feverish intensity of drunkenness, betrayal and murder that mark the early years on Pitcairn. In so doing they assert their place in a story that has fascinated readers for generations.Show book
Diane Allen's The Yorkshire Farm Girl is a heartfelt novel of a family dreaming of a better life when war looms on the horizon. Life is hard for the Fothergill family as they try to make a living on their farm in the Yorkshire Dales. Bob Fothergill has set his sights on buying his own farm instead of renting the one they currently hold. Sally his teenage daughter, wishes her father would see that she could help more with the farm, but he believes that a girl's place is in the home. Ben, their youngest, has no interest in farming so is ignored. Sally's mother makes do knowing her husband wants what's best for them.But when Bob decides to take a well-paid part time job, collecting milk for the local dairy, it causes friction in the family, bringing tension to New Year’s Day, 1939. Ivy and Sally’s lives change. Sally gets her wish to be more hands on with the farm, coping with a bad winter and lambing sheep on her own. But then a stranger walks into Ivy’s life that shows her the affection that she craves and her heart is lost to him.With Germany is shaking its angry fist at other nations and the threat of another war undermines everything. Times are hard and the future is uncertain, but perhaps the coming years could bring better times. But will the Fothergills survive the oncoming storm?Show book
The Black Death! England has won the war with France but the disease which rampages through the land takes both rich and poor, warrior and worker. John Hawkwood and his two companions spend the winter in the north. It is in the spring that he begins to mould his company into a fighting force, and he serves the Baron Mortimer on the Welsh Border. There his men learn to fight as one and John Hawkwood begins the change from archer to man at arms. When the King and the Black Prince commission him to fight for them, first in an action against the Castilian pirates and then on a chevauchée through Gascony, he learns the skill of leadership.Show book
On Christmas morning Kitty Doherty gives birth to her baby—who is immediately taken away for adoption in America. But Kitty's life is hanging by a thread, her only hope a dangerous journey through snow to Ballymara and her Irish family. Meanwhile, in Chicago, Sean and Alice try to set up a new life, far away from the families they have deserted in Liverpool.Show book
A novel of the Venetian girl who became the most powerful woman in the Ottoman Empire—perfect for fans of Netflix’s Magnificent Century. The Ottoman Empire was at the height of its power during the sixteenth century when Cecilia Baffo Veniero was kidnapped from her Venetian birthplace and chosen to be the wife of Selim II, successor to Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. She would be known as Nurbanu. The Mapmaker’s Daughter vividly imagines the confession of Nurbanu as she lies on her sickbed narrating the spectacular story of her rise to the pinnacle of imperial power, determined to understand how her extraordinary destiny was shaped. With unflinching candor, Nurbanu reviews the desires and motives that have both propelled and harmed her, as she considers her role as a devoted yet manipulative mother, helping to orchestrate her son’s succession to the throne. Serving as the appointed enforcer of one of the empire’s most crucial and shocking laws, Nurbanu confronts the consequences of her loves and her choices—right up to one last shattering revelation.Show book
In a cutthroat western town, a newcomer is tricked into helping an outlawAfter three days in a stagecoach, Chad Dempster is weary, dusty, and sore. On his first step into Las Palmas, he slips, and crashes face first into the dirt. His clumsiness earns him a nickname—Tanglefoot—and the sympathy of Glen Walker, one of the most powerful men in town. Walker buys Chad lunch, finds him a place to stay, and gets him a job driving the stagecoach. He seems like the best friend a newcomer could have—but he is setting Tanglefoot up to die.On Chad’s first run with the stage, a crew of bandits open fire on him. He is saved only by the quick shooting of a mysterious passenger. But why did the outlaws quit so easily? And if the passenger was the one who saved him, why did Chad not see him draw his gun? Trapped in a conspiracy he can’t understand, Tanglefoot must move quick to stay alive, or risk something much worse than falling on his face.Show book
