The Glass

Madonna

 

 

Coming of age is supposed to be easy in the 70s. After all, women are liberated and love is free. Why does Sarah Stevens find life so hard? Union rules and tradition still ban women from making glass, an art form Sarah views as part of her family heritage. And regard for virginity is not as dead as Sarah thinks when she gives hers up to a college boyfriend. Her husband, unable to get past his jealousy, isolates her in a backwoods trailer and tells her he always wanted to marry a virgin. Unintentionally reinforcing his criticism, Aunt Livvie treasures a family heirloom, a glass figurine of the Madonna. It shines with perfect purity no real woman could achieve.

 

The novel weaves together stories of three generations of glass workers who emigrate from Germany to West Virginia. From Aunt Livvie, Sarah learns about women in her family who overcame wrenching losses, brutal working conditions, and rape. Her aunt’s stories, wisdom, and unconditional love give Sarah the courage to forge a new life for herself and her child.

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Mama's

Comfort Food

 

Karen Fletcher, alias Mary Elizabeth Kensington, has everything: haughty British-born façade, successful public broadcasting career in Atlanta, beautiful home, and devoted fiancé. Following her breast cancer diagnosis, Karen returns to her southern hometown of Chattahoochee, Florida, to garner support, seek treatment, and unravel the tangled fabrication she has so carefully woven. Karen embarks on the long and often painful journey to claim the rest of her life.

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Two Thousand Daffodils

 

Gayle Swedmark Hughes shares much of her incredible life with us through this very descriptive and powerful glimpse in to her past. This novel is packed with true stories of her growing up in the South followed by a lifetime of incredible experiences. From leaving the little island town of Fernandina on Amelia Island to attend Florida State University at 15 years of age, to being the only female law student at the University of Iowa, Gayle blazed a path for young women to follow. From her experience in the courtroom as a successful trial attorney, finding true love, surviving cancer to all of her travels to NYC, Washington State, England, Portugal and beyond, this is Gayle's remarkable tale of life, love, faith and, ultimately, fate. Gayle's story serves as an inspiration to all of us. Not just young women.

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The Color

of Lies

Forty-year-old widow Molly Culpepper believes her hometown is a place of harmony and white picket fences--until a colleague chalks a racial slur on the blackboard during Barack Obama's presidential campaign. In the uproar that follows, a citizens' group files a lawsuit alleging discrimination against the high school where Molly teaches. To address the lawsuit's concerns over academic weaknesses, Molly joins forces with a black minister to plan curriculum improvements and a fundraiser for equipment upgrades. The town's racial divide becomes personal when Molly clashes with a new black student, J.D. Marshall. His rough language and lack of control disrupt Molly's classroom, but she is determined to find a way to reach him. In addition to problems at work, Molly struggles to raise two boys on her own, to keep her alcoholic father out of trouble, and to find time for romance.

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