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November 2018 Calling All Patrons . . . Do you have a book you would love to recommend to other patrons? We would like to hear from you! Please click on the link below and fill out the form. (Your title should be part of the Avon Lake Public Library collection.) The review may be posted in the library for patrons who are looking for book suggestions. Thank you!
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Through the Autumn Air
by Kelly Irvin
The mother of ten and a widow of seven years, Mary Katherine is a bundle of energy, always willing to step in and help her friends around her Amish community. She pours her creative spirit into writing stories, even as she speaks aloud to her late husband every day. Her dream is to open a bookstore with an English friend, but the church elders want her to work in an Amish-owned store instead. When her old school friend, Ezekiel, offers her a position as a cook in his restaurant, she knows she should accept. But does she really want to spend her time working over a hot stove? When a mysterious English stranger breaks into her house to make himself a sandwich one autumn night, Mary Katherine turns to Ezekiel. They both see that Burke is need of more than a meal, and Ezekiel offers him the job at the restaurant. As they set out to care for their new friend, Mary Katherine and Ezekiel find themselves often working together. Mary Katherine is drawn to Ezekiel, but she remembers the terrible risk of giving her heart to someone. Can two people in the autumns of their lives and so well-versed in the pain of loss put the past behind them and trust in the hope that comes with each new season?
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| Freedom's Light by Colleen CobleHannah Thomas believes she’s escaped Galen Wright’s evil intentions by marrying an older lighthouse keeper. Seemingly safe in faraway Massachusetts, her world is upended when John is killed in one of the first battles of the Revolutionary War. Hannah is allowed to continue the difficult task of tending the twin lighthouses in John’s place, though she faces daily disapproval from John’s family. She thinks her loneliness will subside when her younger sister arrives, but she finds Lydia’s obsession with Galen only escalates the dangerous tides swirling around her. A stormy night brings a shipwrecked sea captain to Hannah’s door, and though he is a Tory, her heart is as traitorous as the dark-eyed captain. Even though she discovers Birch Meredith isn’t the enemy he seemed at first, Hannah isn’t sure their love will ever see the light of freedom. |
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| Everything She Didn't Say by Jane KirkpatrickIn 1911, Carrie Strahorn wrote a memoir entitled Fifteen Thousand Miles by Stage, which shared some of the most exciting events of 25 years of traveling and shaping the American West with her husband, Robert Strahorn, a railroad promoter, investor, and writer. That is all fact. Everything She Didn't Say imagines Carrie nearly ten years later as she decides to write down what was really on her mind during those adventurous nomadic years.
Certain that her husband will not read it, and in fact that it will only be found after her death, Carrie is finally willing to explore the lessons she learned along the way, including the danger a woman faces of losing herself within a relationship with a strong-willed man and the courage it takes to accept her own God-given worth apart from him. Carrie discovers that wealth doesn't insulate a soul from pain and disappointment, family is essential, pioneering is a challenge, and western landscapes are both demanding and nourishing. Most of all, she discovers that home can be found, even in a rootless life. |
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| Ours for a Season by Kim Vogel SawyerAnthony and Marty Hirschler are part of an Old Order Mennonite community in Pine Hill, Indiana. The couple has grown apart since a doctor confirmed they would never have children. Marty longs to escape the tight-knit area where large families are valued, and the opportunity to do so arises when her childhood friend, Brooke Spalding, resurfaces with the wild idea of rebuilding a ghost town into a resort community. Brooke hires Anthony to help with the construction, drawing the Hirschlers away from Indiana and into her plan, and then finds herself diagnosed with cancer. Moral complications with Brooke's vision for a casino as part of the resort and the discovery of a runaway teenager hiding on the property open up a world neither the Hirschlers nor Brooke had considered before. Will they be able to overcome their challenges and differences to help the ones among them hurting the most? |
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Words From the Heart
by Kathleen Fuller
Her fingertips brushed against something else in the box of doilies. She lifted a bundle of letters, neatly tied with a thin red ribbon. Ivy Yoder hasn't heard from John King in over a year. She knows it's time to let go of the idea that they will one day marry, but she's humiliated to be one of the oldest single women in her Amish community of Birch Creek. When quirky Cevilla Schlabach asks her to help clean out an attic, Ivy is grateful for the distraction. Noah Schlabach isn't from Birch Creek, or even Ohio. His job as an auctioneer takes him around the country and away from a typical Amish life, but he still remains devoted to his family. So when his aging aunt asks him to help clean out her attic, he agrees. Plus, who knows what curious items he might find up there? As Noah and Ivy work side by side, they come across a different kind of treasure: a packet of letters written during the Korean War. Soon they are swept up in the story of two young people falling in love--even as they remain determined not to fall in love themselves. Words from the Heart is a moving story of lost love letters, fragile fears, and the beauty of taking another step forward"
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| The Gift by Shelley Shepard GrayThe Schwartz family is happy to be spending Christmas on their new farm in Hart County. But when Susanna Schwartz hears gunshots that causes her buggy to overturn, and then her little sister falls through a wooden bridge into the icy creek, it becomes clear from these dangerous “accidents” that someone wants them gone.
Neil Vance has been heartbroken ever since his parents lost their family farm. He knows it’s not the Schwartz family’s fault, but he can’t help but be resentful. Until he meets Susanna. She is kind-hearted and bold, and Neil can’t stop thinking about her pretty green eyes. Neil thinks the accidents are just that, but Susanna’s father is convinced the Vance family is responsible. Susanna refuses to believe Neil would do anything to harm her. She’s fallen in love with him and knows he is a good man. But her family is ready to pack up and move, and time is running out to uncover the truth before someone gets hurt . . . or worse. |
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| Christmas at Promise Lodge by Charlotte HubbardAs Promise Lodge’s first wedding arrives, the evidence of a community building a foundation for the future is a cause for celebration. But the bishop’s narrow-minded wedding sermon doesn’t sit well with the Bender sisters, the town’s courageous founders, especially widowed Mattie Schwartz. She believes marriage and family aren’t the most important of God’s gifts—even if she suspects her tender feelings for Preacher Amos Troyer run deeper than simple friendship. Amos hasn’t given up hope that stubborn, spirited Mattie will change her mind about taking another husband, but when an accident threatens to change the course of his life forever, he wonders if the Lord has sent him a message. He’ll need faith, hope, and charity to find the right path—and a Christmas blessing to convince Mattie to walk it with him. This second title in the Promise Lodge series includes recipes for dishes featured in the book. |
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| An Amish Christmas Love: Four Novellas by Beth Wiseman, Amy Clipston, Kelly Irvin, and Ruth ReidThis heartwarming anthology of Christmas stories celebrates the Christmas season and love in various forms. In Beth Wiseman's Winter Kisses, when three generations of Stoltzfus women are forced to shelter together with their suitors on Christmas Eve, all three potential grooms drop to their knees for very different reasons—a proposal, a prayer, and an epiphany. In The Christmas Cat by Amy Clipston, widow Emma Bontrager, spending her first Christmas without her husband, is visited by a big, fat, orange barn cat and a group of young people who remind her that love and hope abide. Kelly Irvin's Snow Angels tells the story of David Byler, torn between Molly Shrock, his new love in the Plain community, and Bobbie McGregor, an Englisch girl from his past. In Ruth Reid's Home for Christmas, Ellie Whetstone's encounter with an Amish man, Ezra Mast, and his young daughter has her questioning whether their community with its slower pace be the right home for her. |
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| The Angel of Forest Hill: An Amish Christmas Romance by Cindy WoodsmallWhen Old Order Amish Rose Kurtz is asked to leave her family, travel deep into West Virginia, and help Joel Dienner with his children in the wake of tragedy, the quiet young woman recognizes a home where she might find kindness instead of criticism and hope replacing harsh words. She agrees to stay in Forest Hill and become Joel's wife for the sake of his family needs, but their marriage is to be a partnership, one built from need, not love and affection. As the years pass, Rose continues to beckon Joel to join life again, to take joy in his growing children, and to awaken his heart to the possibility of new love. Joel hopes that Rose can move beyond deep-rooted hurts to see the beautiful Christmas ahead, their season. But will the arrival of a beautiful widow and a series of misunderstandings reverse how far Rose and Joel have come? |
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Looking for more personalized reading recommendations? Stop in and talk with one of our librarians at the information desk! |
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Avon Lake Public Library 32649 Electric Blvd. Avon Lake, Ohio 44012 440-933-8128alpl.org |
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