Join us on a literary world trip!
Add this book to bookshelf
Grey
Write a new comment Default profile 50px
Grey
Subscribe to read the full book or read the first pages for free!
I want to read the book!
All characters reduced
The country of the pointed firs - cover

The country of the pointed firs

Sarah Orne Jewett

Publisher: GAEditori

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

Summary

The narrator, a Bostonian, returns after a brief visit a few summers prior, to the small coastal town of Dunnet, Maine, in order to finish writing her book. Upon arriving she settles in with Almira Todd, a widow in her sixties and the local apothecary and herbalist. The narrator occasionally assists Mrs. Todd with her frequent callers, but this distracts her from her writing and she seeks a room of her own.
Renting an empty schoolhouse with a broad view of Dunnet Landing, the narrator can apparently concentrate on her writing, although Jewett does not use the schoolhouse to show the narrator at work but rather in meditation and receiving company. The schoolhouse is one of many locations in the novel which Jewett elevates to mythic significance and for the narrator the location is a center of writerly consciousness from which she makes journeys out and to which others make journeys in, aware of the force of the narrator's presence, out of curiosity, and out of respect for Almira Todd.
Available since: 02/06/2020.

Other books that might interest you

  • Fly Like a Bird - cover

    Fly Like a Bird

    Jana Zinser

    • 1
    • 2
    • 0 
    A coming-of-age story of a young white girl who discovers racism and betrayal as she tries to unravel the truth about her parents’ deaths and escape the town that lied to her.

"Fly Like a Bird presents plot and subplot lines compelling enough to keep the reader turning the pages, and heart racing at times. . . Those who populate the story are colorful, loving, hateful, sad, evil, heroic and courageous, but never stereotypical . . ." - Verified Reviewer

Ivy, a young girl growing up in a small town in the 70s where everyone knows everything, discovers her family and the people in her town are keeping secrets about the night a car crash killed her parents.

The secrets she uncovers and her efforts to leave the town that lied to her, force Ivy to confront betrayal, death, racism, and the meaning of family.

"I actually lived this book. Took me 8 hours to read it. Couldn't put it down. I'd recommend it to everyone. It doesn't matter where you were born and raised, home is really where your family lives, related or not." - Verified reviewer.

"This was a great read! The author really dived deep into topics of racism, domestic violence, sexuality and the impact of family secrets via a young girl that loses her parents. This was well written and an enjoyable read" - Goodreads review.

". . . I am pleased to recommend this noir-style Iowa historical to friends and family. It is an interesting read, telling tales of what it takes to make-or-break a family . . ." - Bonnye, Netgalley and Goodreads reviews

". . . I really connected with this book. I found it hard to put down. It resolved too quickly and perfectly in my opionion, and that felt rushed. . . I would have liked a cliff hanger and a follow up book . . . it was THAT enjoyable. I will definitely read more from this author and would recommend this book highly." - Colleen - NetGalley review

"I love family stories, especially about grandparents. And this is a good one. Ivy has lived with her grandmother for as long as she can remember, ever since her parents were tragically killed. Theirs is a small town in the 70s, rife with racism and prejudice and suspicion and secrets. Seems like everyone knows those secrets except for Ivy. The older she gets, the more driven she becomes to find out the truth about what really happened that night so very long ago." - Shawna - NetGalley review
    Show book
  • Starborne - cover

    Starborne

    Aleph Katz

    • 0
    • 3
    • 0 
    All it takes is one bad match.
 
Charlie Starborne hops over the fence and strolls down the street to the police precinct, where she is serving a year-long court-appointed sentence. She signs in, name and date, May 3, 2042. She would do anything to escape the bland, bleak-walled precinct . . . until she is assigned to help develop the EASY program. This program can scrub through a person’s memories to identify culprits in a crime.
 
When tragedy strikes, Charlie sees no option but to steal the EASY program, her heart set on solving the crime. But her past and new obstacles are there to hold her back. Her new mission will be difficult as she will face old enemies, be betrayed by her loved ones, and fight her way to an answer. Can she take the leap she needs to find a murderer and let go of a past that is staring her in the face?
 
You'll love Starborne if you love: Divergent by Veronica Roth, Awaken by Katie Kacvinsky, City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau.
    Show book
  • Saint Fire - cover

    Saint Fire

    Tanith Lee

    • 0
    • 1
    • 0 
    Following Faces Under Water, Tanith Lee’s alchemical thriller series continues with a Joan of Arc–inspired novel set in an alternate medieval Venice.   In Saint Fire, the second volume in the Secret Books of Venus series, Volpa is a strangely beautiful servant girl who glows with an inhuman inner flame. When her master, an abusive wood seller, is mysteriously incinerated, Volpa discovers her power of fire. Her gift is noticed by the Church leaders, who see her as a mighty weapon in their holy wars. This gripping fantasy of a mysteriously gifted Joan of Arc is stunning from beginning to end.   “Lee’s writing is as entrancing as ever, full of evocative imagery and memorable characters. The questions she raises about faith and hypocrisy, fear and justice, are deftly rendered and not easily answered.” —Publishers Weekly   “The author of Faces Under Water continues her saga of a city at the mercy of powers beyond its control. Lee’s sensual and evocative storytelling imparts a dreamlike quality to this tale of transcendent faith and human passion.” —Library Journal   “Evocative, and set forth in Lee’s eerily crystalline prose.” —Kirkus Reviews
    Show book
  • Forced to Marry - cover

    Forced to Marry

    Barbara Cartland

    • 0
    • 11
    • 0 
    With her aging grandfather on his deathbed and not expected by his doctors to live for more than two or three months, it comes as little comfort to the beautiful Gytha Sullivan that he has made her the heiress to his considerable fortune. What is much worse is Sir Robert Sullivan’s fear that she will be seduced by some ‘smarmy fortune-hunter’, who will squander her inheritance.And this deep concern of his makes him insist that she marries one or other of her two loathsome cousins, Vincent and Jonathan, who will do anything to take his fortune for themselves.Desperate to escape from this terrible fate, Gytha goes to visit the Master of the neighbouring estate, the dashingly handsome Lord Locke, whose life her father once saved in the War against Napoleon, and beseeches him to, in turn, save her by becoming engaged to her, thereby making a forced marriage to either of her cousins impossible. Appalled by the poor girl’s plight his Lordship agrees much to the anger of Gytha’s family and his exotic lover the entrancing Princess Zuleika. Little does Lord Locke know that, as he gains a false fiancée, he is truly about to lose his heart!
    Show book
  • Love on the Wind - cover

    Love on the Wind

    Barbara Cartland

    • 0
    • 5
    • 0 
    LOVE ON THE WIND SynopsisAlone since the tragic death of her beloved parents, Indian-born beauty, Sita, has suffered a life of torment at the hands of her uncle, her reluctant Guardian, who despises, abuses and beats her. In despair on a voyage to Calcutta, she is on the verge of throwing herself overboard when she is saved by a handsome and mysterious stranger. Even after her saviour disappears, he seems ever-present in her thoughts and in the background of events as Sita is caught up in the political intrigue and turmoil surrounding the controversial Ilbert Bill, which aims to put Indian Judges back into the Indian Courts to sit in judgement not only on their compatriots but also on the British. Kidnapped by murderous men desperate to stop the Ilbert Bill, who say, “if your uncle wants you back, he will have to agree to kill it.”Sita is locked into a cold damp cell in an ancient Fort and is desperate to escape when she is rescued by her hero, who she has sent her thoughts to that she is in desperate danger.Her hero disappears and then she helps a mysterious stranger save the Nizam of Hyderabad from being killed by a dissident. She is then distraught that her uncle wants to return to England and she has had no contact from her hero and she does not even know his name. Sita can only pray that the thoughts of love she sends out so fervently will reach him and bring him to her rescue once more.
    Show book
  • Vicinity - Short Stories - cover

    Vicinity - Short Stories

    Justin Kennedy

    • 1
    • 7
    • 0 
    A collection of surreal cyclical horror short stories, comprising the first collection from author Justin Kennedy.  Currently,  Justin lives in Campbell, CA and works at a law firm.  Much of the subject matter in this collection was inspired from real events and real nightmares.
    Show book