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  The Young Lions - A Novel

  Irwin Shaw

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  One of the great World War II novels, this New York Times–bestselling “masterpiece” captures the experiences of three very different soldiers (The Boston Globe).   Standing alongside Norman Mailer’s The Naked and the Dead and James Jones’s From Here to Eternity, The Young Lions is one of the most powerful American novels to tackle the Second World War. Ambitious in its scope and robust in its prose, Irwin Shaw’s work is also deeply humanistic, presenting the reality of war as seen through the eyes of ordinary soldiers on both sides. The story follows the individual dramas—and ultimately intertwined destinies—of Christian Diestl, a Nazi sergeant; Noah Ackerman, a Jewish American infantryman; and Michael Whitacre, an idealistic urbanite from the New York theatrical world.   Diestl first appears as a dashing ski instructor in Austria, mouthing his loyalty to Nazi ideals. As the war progresses, Diestl’s character continues to erode as he descends into savagery. Ackerman must endure domestic anti-Semitism and beatings in boot camp before proving himself in the European theater. Eventually, as part of the liberating army, he comes face-to-face with the unimaginable horrors of the death camps. Whitacre, trading cocktail parties for Molotov cocktails, confronts the barbarism of war, and in fighting simply to survive, finds his own capacity for heroism.   Shaw’s sweeping narrative is at once vivid, exciting, and brutally realistic as well as poignant in its portrayal of the moral devastation and institutional insanity of war. Penned by a master storyteller at the height of his craft, The Young Lions stands the test of time as a classic novel of war and the human experience.  This ebook features an illustrated biography of Irwin Shaw including rare images and never-before-seen documents from the author’s estate.

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  The Nutmeg Tree - A Novel

  Margery Sharp

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  In 1930s France, a free-spirited mother undertakes to derail her very proper daughter’s engagement   Julia Packett has barely laid eyes on her daughter, Susan, since leaving her with her well-heeled in-laws following the loss of her husband in World War I. Now thirty-seven, Julia’s lack of prospects hasn’t dimmed her spirit or her appetite for life. But when Susan asks her to come to France for the summer to persuade her grandmother to allow her to marry, she sets sail with the noblest intentions of acting the paragon of motherhood.   At her mother-in-law’s vacation villa in Haute Savoie, however, Julia sees that her priggish but lovely daughter is completely mismatched with a man much more suited to herself: a charming, clever playboy. The arrival of Susan’s legal guardian, the distinguished Sir William Waring, further complicates the situation.   Soon Julia’s efforts to pass herself off as a lady and secure her daughter’s happiness spin out of control, leading to romantic entanglements and madcap adventures that will challenge preconceived notions about the ultimate compatibility of any two people who fall in love.

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  The Rest of His Days

  Pamela Taylor

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  When Sir Guy promised Will's dying mother he'd look after her son, he couldn't imagine where that oath would lead. So, he takes Will on as a man-at-arms for the worst job in England—guarding the deposed king. Will's fondness for making friends in the tavern and for the occasional company of barmaids runs contrary to Guy's personal code of honor—devotion to God and king. But the young man is a competent soldier and well-liked, so Guy settles for the occasional, public admonishment to keep the others from going down what he considers Will's path of dissolution.Until the night Will does the unforgivable, leaving Guy's honor and his career as a knight in tatters. And leading him to swear another oath to seek retribution from Will for the harm and havoc he created. Harm and havoc that touch not just Sir Guy, but bishops, barons, earls, and even the young king Edward III. An oath that will lead Guy from the Stews of London to Ireland and France, and eventually to the early skirmishes of the looming Hundred Years War. As Guy descends into obsession with the restoration of his honor, Will has finally found a worthy purpose in life and pours every ounce of his cunning and courage into it. Set against the mystery of the death of Edward II of England, this is a tale of power struggles writ both large and small, finding redemption, and the true meaning of honor.

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  The Darling Dahlias and the...

  Susan Wittig Albert

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  New York Times best-selling author Susan Wittig Albert transports listeners to the summer of 1934, when a sensational murder shakes up the small Southern town of Darling, Alabama - and pulls in the ladies of the Darling Dahlias' garden club, who never let the grass grow under their feet when there's a mystery to solve. The 11-o'-clock lady has always been one of garden club president Liz Lacy's favorite spring wildflowers. The plant is so named because the white blossoms don't open until the sun shines directly on them and wakes them up.  
  But another 11-o'-Clock Lady is never going to wake up again. Rona Jean Hancock - a telephone switchboard operator who earned her nickname because her shift ended at 11, when her nightlife was just beginning - has been found strangled with her own silk stocking in a very unladylike position. Gossip sprouts like weeds in a small town, and Rona Jean's somewhat wild reputation is the topic of much speculation regarding who might have killed her. As the Darling Dahlias begin to sort through Rona Jean's private affairs, it appears there may be a connection to some skullduggery at the local Civilian Conservation Corps camp. Working at the camp, garden club vice president Ophelia Snow digs around to expose the truth before a killer pulls up stakes and gets away with murder.

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  The Adventurers

  Vivian Stuart

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  THEY FLED AN OLD WORLD RAVAGED BY WAR AND HEARTBREAK TO SEIZE THEIR HEARTS' DESIRES IN THE NEW...
  The ninth book in the dramatic and intriguing story about the colonisation of Australia: a country built on blood, passion, and dreams.
  Justin Broome, the son of two of the most legendary prisoners in New South Wales, learns that skill and courage do not stand a chance against prejudice.
  Bitterness and disappointment are mixed with the wear and tear of his everyday life; all the while shiploads of miserable prisoners and free settlers continue to arrive from a war-weary England.
  Rebels and outcasts, they fled halfway across the earth to settle the harsh Australian wastelands. Decades later — ennobled by love and strengthened by tragedy — they had transformed a wilderness into a fertile land. And themselves into The Australians.

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  Docherty

  William McIlvanney

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  Whitbread Award Winner: A Scottish miner fights for a better life for his son in this “intense, witty and beautifully wrought novel” (Daily Telegraph). 
   
  At the dawn of the twentieth century, newborn Conn Docherty, raw as a fresh wound, lies between his parents in their tenement room, with no birthright but a life's labor in the pits of his small town on the coast of Scotland. But the world is changing, and, lying next to him, Conn's father, Tam, has decided that his son’s life will be different from his own…  
   
  Gritty, dark and tender, Docherty is a modern classic, “a serious, considered and achingly sympathetic engagement with the people whose only trace in historical record is birth and dead notices” (Scotsman). 
   
  “McIlvanney depicts the west of Scotland with a canny and ruthless insight.”—Scotsman  
   
  “As a stylist Mr. McIlvanney leaves most of the competition far behind.”—The New York Times Book Review

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