THOUGHTS ON THIS 'n THAT

  An unputdownable novel of loves lost and found, shocking secrets―and the power of female friendship. 1956: On idyllic Balboa Island, just off the California coast, life seems peaceful and welcoming. But when the lives of three women begin to unravel in shockingly different ways, an unlikely friendship―and the game of tennis―may be the only thing that can save them. Milly Kinkaid's plan to fix her crumbling marriage seems to be falling apart before it even begins. She believed that moving her young family from Hollywood to Balboa Island might entice her increasingly distant husband to come home earlier after work. Instead, he's barely coming home at all. Society matriarch Sylvia Johnson and her husband have been pillars of their community for decades, and have just recently begun a new business venture: The Island Club, a place for members to swim, play tennis, and dine in style. But when she learns that he has been risking their financial security and putting their family...

  Once again brilliantly combining the lyrical observation of F. Scott Fitzgerald with the laser-bright social satire of Evelyn Waugh, Jay McInerney gives us the stunningly accomplished and profoundly affecting final volume in the tetralogy charting the marriage of Russell and Corrinne Calloway, now in their sixties, against the backdrop of various crises that have bedeviled our society in the past forty years. The celebration of the thirty-fifth wedding anniversary of Russell Calloway’s best friend, Washington Lee—the least likely monogamist of his acquaintance, who somehow has become over the years a model husband and father—at the Odeon in the Spring of 2020 sparks an at once funny and moving autumnal reckoning with mortality as the specter of the Covid-19 virus spreads. In this moment of unprecedented upheaval—frantic and fraught real-time response, piercing personal and political impact—the Calloways find themselves and their marriage tested in ways they could never have antic...

Hi friends, I'm sure I'm not alone, when I write that life is challenging today, and getting even more so. I'll start with the obvious observations. We're at war for ..... Please tell if you know why. Gas prices show no sign of falling, and forget about leaving the grocery store without paying more than planned. I don't even want to mention health insurance, but it has scared many of us. And knowing that one in four children in our country  goes to bed hungry every night breaks my heart. I'm sure I'm not alone. It's not easy to be as chipper as we once were. Experts, whom I in no way claim to be, write that it's harder to make and keep friends as we get older. I used to be around a lot of people at work. We'd make plans, and it was great. I used to read several books a week and write my thoughts. That's not the case anymore. I'm lucky if I get through reading one book in a couple of weeks, and I'm not writing reviews. But I'm try...

  EXCITING OPPORTUNITY: Caretaker urgently needed. Three days of work. Competitive pay. Serious applicants ONLY. Macy Mullins can’t say why the job posting grabbed her attention—it had the pull of a fisherman’s lure, barbed hook and all—vaguely ominous. But after an endless string of failed job interviews, she's not exactly in the position to be picky. She has rent to pay, groceries to buy, and a younger sister to provide for. Besides, it’s only three days’ work… Three days, cooped up in a stranger’s house, surrounded by Oregon Coast wilderness. What starts as a peculiar side gig soon becomes a waking nightmare. An incomprehensible evil may dwell on this property—and Macy Mullins might just be the only thing standing between it and the rest of humanity. Follow the Rites... Follow the Rites... Follow the Rites... ..--- / ..... / ---.. Marcus Kliewer is a writer and stop-motion animator. His debut novel, We Used to Live Here, began life as a serialized short story on Reddit, where it...

  Mebel, a doting Chinese Indonesian trophy wife, is 63 and completely unprepared for life’s next act: her husband of 40 years, Henk, leaving her for their much-younger private chef.  But rather than wallow, Mebel does what any self-respecting almost-divorcée would do: she enrolls in culinary school. After all, any good wife knows that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. Take that, Henk’s mistress! Henk will be running back to Mebel in no time!  Except, instead of kicking off her plans for revenge in a fabulous culinary institute in Paris, Mebel accidentally enrolls in a tiny program in the rainy English countryside.  Amid culture shock, kitchen disasters, and unexpected friendships, Mebel begins to realize that maybe this escapade isn’t about getting her husband back. Maybe it’s about finding herself for the first time. Hullooos! Jesse here! Thank you so much for dropping by my website. I spent a heck of a long time trying to make it not-terrible. There...

  Faeries disappeared over one hundred years ago, as suddenly as slipping through a doorway. It was only the very foolish, or the very determined, who held out hope for their return. Welcome to Thistlemarsh—a ramshackle estate where an impoverished orphan and a beguiling Faerie collide in an enchanting novel of love, revenge, and ruin. In the wake of World War I, the world is a decidedly unmagical place for Mouse Dunne. She once dreamed of becoming a Faerie anthropologist, but with one telegram, her world shattered. At the Battle of the Somme, her cousin’s body disappeared into the mud, and her brother was left with debilitating shell shock. It was time, she knew, to put aside childish dreams. When Mouse receives news that her uncle has left her the Faerie-blessed Thistlemarsh Hall, a dilapidated manor in the English countryside, she must leave her brother’s side and return to her childhood home to claim her birthright. But there is a catch in her uncle’s. If Mouse does not rehabil...