Home To Roost

Elliot is on the run from a situation that's just too big to handle. Sooner or later, it's going to catch up with him. 'You’re seventeen, left school, scarred for life,’ Dad said, pointing at Elliot’s tattoo, ‘and living off us like a child.’ Elliot’s in need of a fresh start, so he’s dispatched to a new city to work as an apprentice electrician. His boss, Arnie, is an ex-naval officer whose bad temper and frequent advice don’t make for easy living — but Elliot’s out of options. Elliot is just settling into some sort of routine when a disturbing rumour surfaces about his ex-girlfriend, Lena. As Lena tries to track him down, Elliot dives for cover. But a problem this big only attracts more problems, and, after a shocking workplace accident, they’re all going to catch up with him at once. The question is, will Elliot come out of hiding and face them head on? Coming Home to Roost is a fast-paced, bighearted novel about an age-old situation, from the award-winning author of Snakes and Ladders.

Each day, Bob Sheasley leaves Lilyfield Farm and heads into the city. And each day, he brings along a basket of eggs for his coworkers at The Philadelphia Inquirer. Depending on the breed of hen, these eggs may be white, green, rose, blue, or as brown as chocolate. And they are all deliciously fresh, a taste of the rural way of life that people have enjoyed for millennia, one in which chickens have played a supporting role for nearly as long. In Home to Roost, Sheasley tells of the intertwined relationship between humans and chickens. He delves into where chickens came from, what their DNA tells us about our kinship, how we've treated our feathered fellow travelers, and the roads we're crossing together. This is a story of agriculture and human migration, of folk medicine and technology, of how we dreamed of the good life, threw it away, and want it back. Modern farming has changed the lives of both bird and man over the past century. But backyard farmers like Sheasley offer hope for a return to the pleasures of locally grown food, as diverse as the chickens he's raised on Lilyfield Farm. With wit and personal insight, Home to Roost examines of how our lives can be changed for the better, with something as simple as a backyard coop.

“Morgan has given an entire generation of black feminists space and language to center their pleasures alongside their politics.” —Janet Mock, New York Times bestselling author of Redefining Realness “All that and then some, Chickenheads informs and educates, confronts and charms, raises the bar high by getting down low, and, to steal my favorite Joan Morgan phrase, bounced me out of the room.” —Marlon James, Man Booker Prize–winning author of A Brief History of Seven Killings Still fresh, funny, and irreverent after eighteen years, When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost gives voice to the most intimate thoughts of the post-Civil Rights, post-feminist, post-soul generation. Joan Morgan offers a provocative and powerful look into the life of the modern black woman: a complex world in which feminists often have not-so-clandestine affairs with the most sexist of men, where women who treasure their independence frequently prefer men who pick up the tab, where the deluge of babymothers and babyfathers reminds black women who long for marriage that traditional nuclear families are a reality for less than forty percent of the population, and where black women are forced to make sense of a world where truth is no longer black and white but subtle, intriguing shades of gray.

'My father would not have wasted time reading -- a trait I have inherited from him.' The unmistakeable voice of Deborah Devonshire, the youngest of the Mitford sisters, rings out of this second volume of her occasional writings. As broad and eclectic as her long and eventful life, the pieces range from a ringside view of John F. Kennedy's inauguration and funeral, a valedictory for her local post office, the 1938 London season, Christmas at Chatsworth and the hazards of shopping for clothes when your eyesight is failing. Affectionate, shrewd and uproariously funny, her no-nonsense, bang-on-the-nail observations are as good as any antidepressant.

____________________________ What's it really like to give it all up and follow your dream? The follow-up to Up With the Larks, and the second volume in the heartwarming, laugh-out-loud true story of Tessa, who moved from the London rat-race to become a postie in rural Cornwall. Tessa and her husband are delighted when a new young couple arrive in the village fresh from the city - just as they once did. However what looks such a promising new friendship turns to a nightmare, as these are people who think money can buy them acceptance - and the village is soon in quiet revolt. Tessa finds herself in the thick of it - and realises that she has grown very strong roots in the community in the two years she has been in Cornwall. Like so many in the country, she has to think about turning her house into a source of income in the summer months. Having finally got the place up to scratch, she and her family are wondering whether to camp for a couple of months when they are asked to take over a B&B owned by friends of friends. Tessa is bubbly, outgoing - but quite inexperienced at being a landlady. She muddles through only with the generous help of the 'customers' on her postal round. ____________________________ Written with her usual warmth and good humour, Tessa Hainsworth enchants us again with her stories of life as a newcomer to 'deep' Cornwall and makes us dwell on the true value and meaning of 'home'.

Rachel Manija Brown describes what it was like to grow up in an ashram in India, discussing how her hippie parents uprooted her from her childhood home in California to live in a drought-stricken ashram in India while they devoted themselves to Meher Baba.

This collection of 18 charming quilts and home accessories from Sherri McConnell brings together the best of the old and new in quilting. Sherri’s new designs update traditional blocks (many handed down from her grandmothers) with fresh colors and fabrics from some of today’s top designers. You’ll also visit Sherri’s quilting room and learn how to find inspiration for your own quilting. Projects in the book include quilts both large and small, plus pillows and table runners—perfect for scrap fabrics, fat quarters, and precut charm packs and jelly rolls. Fast and easy projects also make wonderful homemade gifts.

An examination of America's violent legacy and the realities we are ignoring.