Open to adults. Registration required. It's winter in Brigantine and we're still here! Come out of hibernation once a week to write with us. Bring your own writing supplies--laptop, journal, etc--and join us for afternoon coffee and quality company. Whether you write poetry, fiction, non-fiction, memoir, or if you've never written before, this is the meet-up where you'll find the encouragement and inspiration to keep you going or get you started. Sponsored by the Atlantic County Library Foundation. All programs subject to change
Not all books tell readers what to call the main character. An editor recommends two that don’t.
Not all books tell readers what to call the main character. An editor recommends two that don’t.
In her memoir, “More,” Molly Roden Winter recounts the highs and lows of juggling an open marriage with work and child care.
In her memoir, “More,” Molly Roden Winter recounts the highs and lows of juggling an open marriage with work and child care.
“Ilium,” by Lea Carpenter, follows a young woman torn between opposing forces in her double life.
“Ilium,” by Lea Carpenter, follows a young woman torn between opposing forces in her double life.
In Temim Fruchter’s debut, “City of Laughter,” a grieving daughter dives into her ancestors’ hidden pasts to find closure and meaning in her own life.
In Temim Fruchter’s debut, “City of Laughter,” a grieving daughter dives into her ancestors’ hidden pasts to find closure and meaning in her own life.
Author: Pendleton, Madeline, author.
Published: 2024
Call Number: B PENDLETO
Format: Books
Summary: "A big-hearted, no-bullshit memoir from TikTok superstar Madeline Pendleton about her journey from living paycheck to paycheck to creating a multi-million-dollar business that offers a compassionate alternative to capitalism. Imagine a job where you work four days a week and earn as much as the CEO. You also get full benefits, a gym membership, free lunch, and unlimited time off, including mental health days, no questions asked. Hard-won profits don't just end up in the CEO's pocket--they're distributed equally among all employees. The company even buys you your very own car. It sounds too good to be true, but this is the reality at Tunnel Vision, the clothing company that Madeline Pendleton Hansen built from the ground up. Like so many Americans, Madeline used to struggle to make ends meet. Raised by a punk dad and a goth mom in Fresno, California, she spent her teens on the brink of homelessness, relying on the kindness and spare couches of the local punk community to get by. By her twenties, she was drowning in student loans and credit card debt, with no relief in sight. Madeline felt the intense toll that financial stress was taking on her and her loved ones, and she was sick of her bosses treating her as disposable--she knew there must be a better way. After years of living broke, Madeline decided to study the rules of capitalism, the game everyone is forced to play. She used what she learned to build a new kind of business, one rooted in an ethos of community care. Now, Madeline is paying it forward by sharing her path to success on her terms, plus no-nonsense life and money advice: How do you build credit? How do you negotiate higher pay? How do you build a better world? Millennials and Gen Zers like Madeline are facing an unprecedented financial reality: Stagnant wages, skyrocketing housing costs, a student debt crisis. I Survived Capitalism is essential reading for anyone searching for hope and stability in an unjust world"--
Author: Michaelides, Alex, 1977- author.
Published: 2024 2023
Call Number: F MICHAELI
Format: Books
Summary: Spending Easter with Lana Farrar, a reclusive ex-movie star and one of the most famous women in the world, on her idyllic private Greek island, her guests, concealing hatred and desire for revenge, become trapped when the night ends in violence and murder. "This is a tale of murder. Or maybe that's not quite true. At its heart, it's a love story, isn't it? Lana Farrar is a reclusive ex-movie star and one of the most famous women in the world. Every year, she invites her closest friends to escape the English weather and spend Easter on her idyllic private Greek island. I tell you this because you may think you know this story. You probably read about it at the time -- it caused a real stir in the tabloids, if you remember. It had all the necessary ingredients for a press sensation: a celebrity; a private island cut off by the wind...and a murder..." --Amazon.com
Author: Willingham, Stacy, author.
Published: 2024 2023
Call Number: F WILLINGH
Format: Books
Summary: "A sharp and twisty exploration of female friendship from the New York Times bestselling author of A Flicker in the Dark and All the Dangerous Things. Lucy Sharpe is larger than life. Magnetic, addictive. Bold and dangerous. Especially for Margot, who meets Lucy at the end of their freshman year at a liberal arts college in South Carolina. Margot is the shy one, the careful one, always the sidekick and never the center of attention. But when Lucy singles her out at the end of the year, a year Margot spent studying and playing it safe, and asks her to room together, something in Margot can't say no--something daring, or starved, or maybe even envious. And so Margot finds herself living in an off-campus house with three other girls, Lucy, the ringleader; Sloane, the sarcastic one; and Nicole, the nice one, the three of them opposites but also deeply intertwined. It's a year that finds Margot finally coming out of the shell she's been in since the end of high school, when her best friend Eliza died three weeks after graduation. Margot and Lucy have become the closest of friends, but by the middle of their sophomore year, one of the fraternity boys from the house next door has been brutally murdered... and Lucy Sharpe is missing without a trace. From the author of A Flicker in the Dark and All the Dangerous Things comes a tantalizing thriller about the nature of friendship and belonging, about loyalty, envy, and betrayal--another gripping novel from an author quickly becoming the gold standard in psychological suspense"--
Author: Shalvis, Jill, author.
Published: 2024
Call Number: F SHALVIS
Format: Books
Summary: Running her farm-to-table café as well as a menagerie of rescued animals, Luna Wright, when the owner of Apple Ridge Farm passes away and his investment manager takes over control, she, with her home threatened, must dig deep to find true strength and the real meaning of love and family. "Luna Wright is a lot of things, but sweet and trusting isn't on the list. However, she's a sucker for the underdog and a hard-luck story. Adopted at birth, with scant knowledge of her biological family, she's created her own inner circle, a motley crew which includes her bestie Willow, to help her run the struggling but charming Apple Ridge Farm. With a farm-to-table café as well as a menagerie of rescued animals (complete with a baby goat who keeps escaping to the pantry to eat the secret stash of decidedly not organic potato chips), it's the best home she's ever known. But when the owner Silas, who they secretly call The Grinch, passes away, Luna discovers the farm is now under control of his investment manager, the enigmatic Jameson Hayes....and her. And that Silas had many, many secrets..." -- Amazon.com
Author: Bertino, Marie-Helene, author.
Published: 2024
Call Number: F BERTI
Format: Books
Summary: "A tender, deeply wise novel of a young woman who doesn't feel at home on this earth, by the author of Parakeet"-- At the moment when Voyager 1 is launched into space carrying its famous golden record, a baby of unusual perception is born to a single mother in Philadelphia. Adina Giorno is tiny and jaundiced, but reaches for warmth and light. As a child, she recognizes that she is different; she also possesses knowledge of a faraway planet. The arrival of a fax machine enables her to contact her extraterrestrial relatives, beings who have sent her to report on the oddities of earthlings. For years, as she moves through the world and makes a life for herself among humans, she dispatches transmissions on the terrors and surprising joys of their existence. But at a precarious moment, a beloved friend urges Adina to share her messages with the world. Is there a chance she is not alone?
Author: Bradford, Barbara Taylor, 1933- author.
Published: 2024 2023
Call Number: LP F BRADFORD
Format: Large print
Summary: "James Falconer -- a tycoon and a self-made man -- seems to have the world in the palm of his hand. But the Great War looms, and James decides to fight for king and country. The fighting is bloody and brutal, and James returns a changed man, with wounds both physical and mental. His beloved wife is dead, but a new woman returns to help nurse him back to health. Georgiana Ward once held James in her thrall, but years have passed and bitterness has set in. Still, the old attraction is there and James is determined to make amends to both Georgiana and his child Leonie -- now a grown woman and someone he hasn't seen in decades. Leonie is having none of it, and is embarking on a dangerous journey with a man who might very well destroy her. As James fights to return to the man he once was, he needs to find a way to heal his body, soul, and family."--
Author: Shalvis, Jill, author.
Published: 2024
Call Number: LP F SHALVIS
Format: Books
Summary: Running her farm-to-table café as well as a menagerie of rescued animals, Luna Wright, when the owner of Apple Ridge Farm passes away and his investment manager takes over control, she, with her home threatened, must dig deep to find true strength and the real meaning of love and family. "Luna Wright is a lot of things, but sweet and trusting isn't on the list. However, she's a sucker for the underdog and a hard-luck story. Adopted at birth, with scant knowledge of her biological family, she's created her own inner circle, a motley crew which includes her bestie Willow, to help her run the struggling but charming Apple Ridge Farm. With a farm-to-table café as well as a menagerie of rescued animals (complete with a baby goat who keeps escaping to the pantry to eat the secret stash of decidedly not organic potato chips), it's the best home she's ever known. But when the owner Silas, who they secretly call The Grinch, passes away, Luna discovers the farm is now under control of his investment manager, the enigmatic Jameson Hayes....and her. And that Silas had many, many secrets..." -- Amazon.com
Author: Gerritsen, Tess, author.
Published: 2024 2023
Call Number: LP F GERRITSE
Format: Large print
Summary: "Former spy Maggie Bird came to the seaside village of Purity, Maine, eager to put the past behind her after a mission went tragically wrong. These days, she's living quietly on her chicken farm, still wary of blowback from the events that forced her early retirement. But when a body turns up in Maggie's driveway, she knows it's a message from former foes who haven't forgotten her. Maggie turns to her local circle of old friends -- all retirees from the CIA -- to help uncover the truth about who is trying to kill her, and why. This "Martini Club" of former spies may be retired, but they still have a few useful skills that they're eager to use again, if only to spice up their rather sedate new lives. Complicating their efforts is Purity's acting police chief, Jo Thibodeau. More accustomed to dealing with rowdy tourists than homicide, Jo is puzzled by Maggie's reluctance to share information -- and by her odd circle of friends, who seem to be a step ahead of her at every turn. As Jo's investigation collides with the Martini Club's maneuvers, Maggie's hunt for answers will force her to revisit a clandestine career that spanned the globe, from Bangkok to Istanbul, from London to Malta. The ghosts of her past have returned, but with the help of her friends -- and the reluctant Jo Thibodeau -- Maggie might just be able to save the life she's built."--
Author: Carpenter, Lea, author.
Published: 2024
Call Number: F CARPENTE
Format: Books
Summary: "Fast-paced and powerful, gripping and immersive, this subtly crafted and suspenseful novel, set in the present and the immediate past, in the dark world of international espionage in London, Mallorca, Croatia, Paris, and Cap Ferret is told through its young female protagonist who unwittingly becomes a perfect asset in the long overdue finale of a special op. The young English narrator briefly tells us of her unhappy family life in London, wanting to escape, and of her childhood obsession with a locked private garden, near where her mother worked, accessible only to the owners of a few houses. Just as she is about to turn 21, at a party near that garden she meets its charismatic and mysterious new owner, Marcus, thirty-three years older, who sweeps her off her feet, proposes and soon they are married at his finca in Mallorca. On their honeymoon in Croatia, he reveals there is something she can do--a plan is in place and she can help with "a favor." Posing as an art adviser starts as soon as they meet up with Raja in Paris, who sends her off to stand in for him at a lunch of what he says are his friends at Cap Ferret where she must just "listen." A helicopter ride alone to a remote, highly guarded and regulated compound on a spit of land called Cap Ferret in the Atlantic is not what it seems. We meet the mysterious, and charming owner Edouard, along with his wife Dasha, children Nikki and Felix, among others. Everyone has a role, and almost everyone is scripted. Brilliantly compelling, this is a spellbinding and poignant story of a long planned joint CIA Mossad op that only needed the right asset to complete"--
Author: Atrek, İnci, author.
Published: 2024 2023
Call Number: F ATREK
Format: Books
Summary: "Nineteen-year-old Ada adores spending every summer in a Turkish seaside town with her mother and grandmother at the family villa. The glittering waters, picturesque olive groves, and her spirited friends make it easy for Ada to leave her idle life in California behind. But no matter how much Ada feels she belongs to the country where her mother grew up, deep down, her connection to the culture feels as fleeting as the seasons. When Levent, a mysterious man from her mother's past, shows up in their town, Ada can't help but imagine a different future for her mother--one that promises a return to home, to love, to happiness. But while playing matchmaker, Ada has to come to terms with her own intensifying attraction to Levent. Does the future she's fighting for belong to her mother--or to her alone?..."--
Author: Hawkins, Rachel, 1979- author.
Published: 2024 2023
Call Number: F HAWKINS
Format: Books
Summary: "When Ruby McTavish Callahan Woodward Miller Kenmore dies, she's not only North Carolina's richest woman, she's also its most notorious. The victim of a famous kidnapping as a child and a widow four times over, Ruby ruled the tiny town of Tavistock from Ashby House, her family's estate high in the Blue Ridge mountains. In the aftermath of her death, that estate--along with a nine-figure fortune and the complicated legacy of being a McTavish--pass to her adopted son, Camden. But to everyone's surprise, Cam wants little to do with the house or the money--and even less to do with the surviving McTavishes. Instead, he rejects his inheritance, settling into a normal life as an English teacher in Colorado and marrying Jules, a woman just as eager to escape her own messy past. Ten years later, Camden is a McTavish in name only, but a summons in the wake of his uncle's death brings him and Jules back into the family fold at Ashby House. Its views are just as stunning as ever, its rooms just as elegant, but coming home reminds Cam why he was so quick to leave in the first place. Jules, however, has other ideas, and the more she learns about Cam's estranged family--and the twisted secrets they keep--the more determined she is for her husband to claim everything Ruby once intended for him to have. But Ruby's plans were always more complicated than they appeared. As Ashby House tightens its grip on Jules and Camden, questions about the infamous heiress come to light. Was there any truth to the persistent rumors following her disappearance as a girl? What really happened to those four husbands, who all died under mysterious circumstances? And why did she adopt Cam in the first place? Soon, Jules and Cam realize that an inheritance can entail far more than what's written in a will--and that the bonds of family stretch far beyond the grave"--
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