DescriptionShe's one of America's fairest and funniest ladies. Actress and screenwriter, director and comedienne, Fannie Flagg is also a most accomplished and high-spirited author. Said Kirkus of her first book, Coming Attractions: "It's subtitled 'A w…
DescriptionDuring World War II, American soldiers from every city and walk of life rolled through North Platte, Nebraska, on troop trains, en route to Europe and the Pacific. The tiny town transformed its modest railroad depot into the North Platte Canteen, a place…
DescriptionIt is 1962. Daisy Lane's man, Kenny, is in jail for robbery, leaving Daisy to run the couple's cafe down in Gosport, Hampshire. Daisy lives above the cafe and shares the house with Kenny's older brother, Eddie: a handsome, resourceful villain with a streak of viciousness that leads him to commit acts of terrifying violence to get his way. But Eddie has a weakness and it's called "Daisy". He loves his brother's wife; Kenny's not around, and Eddie always gets what he wants.
DescriptionAs 80-year-old Mrs Cleo Threadgoode tells Evelyn Couch her life story, she escapes the Rose Terrace Nursing Home and returns to Whistle Stop, Alabama, in the 1930s. She tells the tale of two women: the irrepressibly daredevilish tomboy Idgie and her friend, Ruth, who, back in the 30s, ran a little place offering good barbecue, good coffee, all kinds of love and laughter, and even an occasional murder. And as the past unfolds, the present, for Evelyn and for us, will never be quite the same.
DescriptionMonica Ali's stunning second book is a collection of stories, set in the Alentejo province of Portugal, linked by characters and a vivid sense of place and time. Teresa, a beautiful young girl from the village, is supposed to marry a suitable man from the same community, but she wants to see the world. Vasco is a cafe owner who is losing business to the new Internet cafe down the road. The unseemly, dysfunctional, but strangely riveting Pottses are a family of ex-patriots, trying to cobble a life together, living at odds with one another until they run into trouble from the outside. We also meet several English tourists, including a young couple engaged to be married and confronting each other's weaknesses and idiosyncrasies for the first time, and an older woman imagining a new life while fantasizing about never returning home.
