Janie One More Time

Supervillains? No problem. High school? Well, that’s another story… Former comic book artist Jane Maxwell likes to think she’s adjusted pretty well to life as a superhero. She’s got full command of her powers, her wife’s back from the dead, and she’s launched a thriving new comics company. It’s a lot to juggle, but she wouldn’t trade it for anything. But trading her life is exactly what happens when a villain transports her to a parallel world and body-swaps her with a version of herself twenty years younger. Trapped in the year 2000, Jane will need to juggle high school drama, a surprising new ally, and math she’s long since forgotten how to do… all while finding some way to get back to the body and life she belongs in, before either she or her younger self can mess up each other’s futures for good.

Time Period: 1867 Eleven-year-old Janie finds herself in a quandary. The War Between the States is now over, and Miss Laura, widowed mistress of Rubyhill Plantation, has told Rubyhill's former slaves they're welcome to stay or free to leave. But for Janie, where should she go? There are still dangers in the South, and so many unknowns in the North-and moving may eliminate any chance of ever finding her mother. Using actual historical events to tell the poignant story of a newly-liberated young slave girl, Janie's Freedom is an excellent read for eight- to twelve-year-old girls, teaching American history and the Christian faith at the same time.

It’s 1955, and Benjamin Burrows and Janie Scott are trying to live a safe, normal life in America. It’s not easy, when they have the power to prevent nuclear disaster, and sinister forces are circling. Soon the advice of a mysterious, unscrupulous magician propels Janie and Benjamin into danger, and toward the land of the dead. Meanwhile, their friend Jin Lo washes up on a remote island where an American spy is stationed, and finds herself on the trail of a deadly threat in China. But she’s on the other side of the world—how can Janie and Benjamin reach her? The triumphant finale in the trilogy that began with Maile Meloy’s bestselling, critically acclaimed The Apothecary, and continued in its captivating sequel, The Apprentices, The After-Room is full of enchantment and heart, with Ian Schoenherr’s stunning illustrations throughout.

“Filled with enchantment and intrigue” (Toronto Star) and “a great choice for a book club” (The Huffington Post), Dragon Springs Road takes readers on an evocative journey a century in the past and half a world away. In early-twentieth-century Shanghai, an ancient imperial dynasty collapses, a new government struggles to life and two girls are bound together in a friendship that will be tested by duty, honour and love. Abandoned in the courtyard of a once-lavish estate outside Shanghai, seven-year-old Jialing learns she is zazhong—Eurasian—and thus doomed to face a lifetime of contempt from both Chinese and Europeans. The Yang family, new owners of the estate, reluctantly take her in as a servant. As Jialing grows up, her only allies are Anjuin, the eldest Yang daughter, and Fox, an animal spirit who has lived in the courtyard for more than three hundred years. But when a young English girl appears and befriends the lonely orphan—and then mysteriously vanishes—Jialing’s life takes an unexpected turn. As Jialang grows into womanhood during the tumultuous early years of the Chinese republic, she must find a way to survive political intrigue, jealousy, forbidden love and even murder. Through every turn she is guided, both by Fox and by her own strength of spirit, away from the shadows of her past toward a very different fate. “Rich with detail and a fascinating interplay between the spiritual and earthly realms, Chang’s second novel explores whether it is possible to overcome your past” (Booklist).

One dance changes everything . . . Big-city newscaster Ashley Lanovan never envisioned herself divorced and unemployed by thirty-five. She agrees to housesit a friend's property in small town USA, but rapidly realizes she's a fish out of water. Learning to adapt has never been her strong point, but the neglected community is friendly and needs her business savvy. A computer hack puts CIA agent Mark Garmund's life in danger, so he takes a few days refuge with friends in Nature's Crossing. When he once again meets the woman his friends introduced him to years ago, he realizes it's time to make some choices about his future. But he needs to make sure Ashley will be safe, because the dangers from his past are only a step away. Mark has deleted Ashley's phone number twice before, now a free concert ticket has him tangled up in her smile once again. Each book is a standalone read, but each time you open one of the novels in this small-town series, you are once again welcomed to the familiar faces and settings of Nature's Crossing.

First published in 1972, The Foxfire Book was a surprise bestseller that brought Appalachia's philosophy of simple living to hundreds of thousands of readers. Whether you wanted to hunt game, bake the old-fashioned way, or learn the art of successful moonshining, The Foxfire Museum and Heritage Center had a contact who could teach you how with clear, step-by-step instructions. Today, Foxfire's mission remains the same, and The Foxfire Book of Simple Living is both a rich look back at five decades of collected wisdom, as well as an intriguing look forward at the artists and craftsman who are working to preserve the Appalachian tradition for future generations. We hear from doll and soap makers who continue to use and adapt the time-tested methods outlined in The Foxfire Book, not to mention hunters, blacksmiths, musicians, and carpenters whose respect for those who preceded them enhances their own art. We see how the mountain community has responded to the films, books, and plays that have tried (and sometimes failed) to represent them. And, above all, by listening to the voices of those who came before, we celebrate the people who have preserved the stories, crafts, and customs that define life in the Appalachian mountain region.

Shipped to a foreign planet. Consumed with heat and desire. Matched with the fearsome alien warlord who wants to put a baby in me. The things I do for my family. We were all out of options. My baby niece was going to starve. There was only one way out of this mess: sign up to be an alien’s surrogate. Before I know it, I’m in a strange new world and matched to a golden alien they call an alpha. But that’s not all. Something’s happening to my body. Something I can’t explain… My possessive, over-the-top mate says we’re meant to be together. He gives me endless nights of passion where he fulfills my every wish. And he treats me better than every human man ever has, combined. There’s just one catch: the contract is only for a year. I need to go home to my family, and I’ll never see my baby again. But can I really leave a piece of my heart behind?

"I can’t remember the last time I read a book I wish so much I’d written. Treeborne is beautiful, and mythic in ways I would never have been able to imagine...I can’t say enough about this book."—Daniel Wallace, national bestselling author of Extraordinary Adventures and Big Fish: A Novel of Mythic Proportions An Honorable Mention for the Southern Book Prize One of Southern Living's "Best New Books Coming Out Summer 2018" and one of Library Journal's "Books to Get Now" Janie Treeborne lives on an orchard at the edge of Elberta, Alabama, and in time, she has become its keeper. A place where conquistadors once walked, and where the peaches they left behind now grow, Elberta has seen fierce battles, violent storms, and frantic change—and when the town is once again threatened from without, Janie realizes it won’t withstand much more. So she tells the story of its people: of Hugh, her granddaddy, determined to preserve Elberta’s legacy at any cost; of his wife, Maybelle, the postmaster, whose sudden death throws the town into chaos; of her lover, Lee Malone, a black orchardist harvesting from a land where he is less than welcome; of the time when Janie kidnapped her own Hollywood-obsessed aunt and tore the wrong people apart. As the world closes in on Elberta, Caleb Johnson’s debut novel lifts the veil and offers one last glimpse. Treeborne is a celebration and a reminder: of how the past gets mixed up in thoughts of the future; of how home is a story as much as a place.