Moon Strings And Birthday Letters

At Isabella’s thirteenth birthday celebration, her father announces he is beginning a new tradition—to write her a letter every year on her birthday until she turns twenty-one. The letters will chronicle her life while serving as a reminder that no matter what happens in life, God is always faithful. Seven years have passed since Isabella last opened her memory box of letters. Now that she is celebrating twenty-eight years of life, it is time to open the box again. Life has not always been a smooth ride for Isabella, but despite the loss of her father, she has remained focused on her dreams. Now as she prepares to embark on a medical internship that will take her from Louisiana to Italy, she has no idea what awaits. As she re-reads her collection of birthday letters, Isabella revisits their messages in the most unexpected of ways. But will she accept the divine invitation to recapture her childlike faith and once again believe that the moon is being held by heavenly strings? In this inspirational tale, a young woman revisits a collection of letters penned by her father as she enters a new chapter and searches for a way to reconnect with God and her faith.

Ted Hughes's Birthday Letters are addressed, with just two exceptions, to Sylvia Plath, the American poet to whom he was married. They were written over a period of more than twenty-five years, the first a few years after her suicide in 1963, and represent Ted Hughes's only account of his relationship with Plath and of the psychological drama that led both to the writing of her greatest poems and to her death. The book became an instant bestseller on its publication in 1998 and won the Forward Prize for Poetry in the same year. 'To read [ Birthday Letters] is to experience the psychic equivalent of "the bends". It takes you down to levels of pressure where the undertruths of sadness and endurance leave you gasping.' Seamus Heaney 'Even if it were possible to set aside its biographical value . . . its linguistic, technical and imaginative feats would guarantee its future. Hughes is one of the most important poets of the century and this is his greatest book.' Andrew Motion

Maggie Calahan's favorite saying is, "get a grip." Her friends describe her as an independent woman, sure of her place in this world. All of this comes into question, when she meets Julian. Maggie finds herself drawn to him in spite of all the reasons she shouldn't. Years of shielding her heart helps her keep her feet on the ground as she goes about her very ordinary life. Her letters to Julian, tell him who she is, where she has been and where she hopes she is going. Maggie's story will be familiar to the reader. They will see themselves in her challenges and dreams and hopes.