The Hurricane Sisters

Hurricane season begins early and rumbles all summer long, well into September. Often people's lives reflect the weather and The Hurricane Sisters is just such a story. Once again New York Times bestselling author Dorothea Benton Frank takes us deep into the heart of her magical South Carolina Lowcountry on a tumultuous journey filled with longings, disappointments, and, finally, a road toward happiness that is hard earned. There we meet three generations of women buried in secrets. The determined matriarch, Maisie Pringle, at eighty, is a force to be reckoned with because she will have the final word on everything, especially when she's dead wrong. Her daughter, Liz, is caught up in the classic maelstrom of being middle-age and in an emotionally demanding career that will eventually open all their eyes to a terrible truth. And Liz's beautiful twenty-something daughter, Ashley, whose dreamy ambitions of her unlikely future keeps them all at odds. Luckily for Ashley, her wonderful older brother, Ivy, is her fierce champion but he can only do so much from San Francisco where he resides with his partner. And Mary Beth, her dearest friend, tries to have her back but even she can't talk headstrong Ashley out of a relationship with an ambitious politician who seems slightly too old for her. Actually, Ashley and Mary Beth have yet to launch themselves into solvency. Their prospects seem bleak. So while they wait for the world to discover them and deliver them from a ramen-based existence, they placate themselves with a hare-brained scheme to make money but one that threatens to land them in huge trouble with the authorities. So where is Clayton, Liz's husband? He seems more distracted than usual. Ashley desperately needs her father's love and attention but what kind of a parent can he be to Ashley with one foot in Manhattan and the other one planted in indiscretion? And Liz, who's an expert in the field of troubled domestic life, refuses to acknowledge Ashley's precarious situation. Who's in charge of this family? The wake-up call is about to arrive. The Lowcountry has endured its share of war and bloodshed like the rest of the South, but this storm season we watch Maisie, Liz, Ashley, and Mary Beth deal with challenges that demand they face the truth about themselves. After a terrible confrontation they are forced to rise to forgiveness, but can they establish a new order for the future of them all? Frank, with her hallmark scintillating wit and crisp insight, captures how a complex family of disparate characters and their close friends can overcome anything through the power of love and reconciliation. This is the often hilarious, sometimes sobering, but always entertaining story of how these unforgettable women became The Hurricane Sisters.

There are three ways to tell if a Low Country lady is a hurricane sister: if she has a hurricane tracking map, an ax in the attic, and a hell or high water box in her possession. In September of 1959, Hurricane Gracie barreled down on Beaufort, South Carolina, with enough violence to change the lives of the Low Country ladies forever. With a hurricane forecast to arrive any minute, Mrs. Forester fi nds it hard not to worry. As she nervously scans the gray skies, rain spatters on her window. A few hours later, she and her family cower in bed as debris shatters windows. But Mrs. Forrester is not the only one who frantically searches the skies every time a hurricane is forecast. Prudence Seabrook is just a girl in 1964 when she first considers death. As thunder shakes her house, she clings to her sister, hoping no evil will pass. This time she goes unscathed, for all the hurricane sisters know that only years ending in "9" portend disaster. This charming collection of short stories highlights an eclectic group of characters that prove that Low Country ladies of a certain age have every reason to scan the skies from June to November-waiting, watching, and wondering.

There are three ways to tell if a Low Country lady is a hurricane sister: if she has a hurricane tracking map, an ax in the attic, and a hell or high water box in her possession. In September of 1959, Hurricane Gracie barreled down on Beaufort, South Carolina, with enough violence to change the lives of the Low Country ladies forever. With a hurricane forecast to arrive any minute, Mrs. Forester fi nds it hard not to worry. As she nervously scans the gray skies, rain spatters on her window. A few hours later, she and her family cower in bed as debris shatters windows. But Mrs. Forrester is not the only one who frantically searches the skies every time a hurricane is forecast. Prudence Seabrook is just a girl in 1964 when she first considers death. As thunder shakes her house, she clings to her sister, hoping no evil will pass. This time she goes unscathed, for all the hurricane sisters know that only years ending in 9 portend disaster. This charming collection of short stories highlights an eclectic group of characters that prove that Low Country ladies of a certain age have every reason to scan the skies from June to Novemberwaiting, watching, and wondering.

Second book by the housecleaner and winner of the Nicholas Roerich Prize, whose poems have been read a record 18 times by Garrison Keillor on "The Writer's Almanac." "Getting Ready To Be Poor" My sister laughs, says she can eat Ramen noodles For lunch and dinner, instead of just for lunch. It's no big deal, she's been poor before. No washing whites in hot. No deodorant, floss, Q-Tips, Kotex or Midol. One-ply toilet paper. No Kleenex. No cotton balls. No new shoes. No espresso. No Red Bulls, or Taco Bell. No vacation, Lord knows, and no cash for the collection plate. But, she says, I can take on more cleaning jobs. I can do that.

Waterstones Scottish Book of the Year. The Other Mrs Walker is the beguiling debut from Mary Paulson-Ellis, for fans of Kate Atkinson and Sarah Waters. Somehow she'd always known that she would end like this. In a small square room, in a small square flat. In a small square box, perhaps. Cardboard, with a sticker on the outside. And a name . . . An old lady dies alone and unheeded in a cold Edinburgh flat on a snowy Christmas night. A faded emerald dress hangs in her wardrobe; a spilt glass of whisky pools on the floor. A few days later a middle-aged woman arrives back in the city she thought she’d left behind, her future uncertain, her past in tatters. She soon finds herself a job at the Office for Lost People, tracking down the families of those who have died neglected and alone. But what Margaret Penny cannot yet know, is just how entangled her own life will become in the death of one lonely stranger . . . 'One of the strongest debuts of the year' Herald 'Full of twists and turns' Independent 'A wonderful, inventive debut . . . I can't wait to see what this author has up her sleeve next' Fanny Blake, Daily Mail

A lost princess. A mysterious puppet master. And a race against time—before all is lost. Princess Rani longs for a chance to escape her gilded cage and prove herself. Ria is a street urchin, stealing just to keep herself alive. When these two lives collide, everything turns on its head: because Ria and Rani, orphan and royal, are unmistakably identical. A deal is struck to switch places—but danger lurks in both worlds, and to save their home, thief and princess must work together. Or watch it all fall into ruin. Deadly magic, hidden temples, and dark prophecies: Sisters of the Snake is an action-packed, immersive fantasy that will thrill fans of The Wrath & the Dawn and The Tiger at Midnight.

Moving from the golden halls to the depths of the underworld, The Hurricane Party is about one man's search for justice for his son in a world on the brink. A place where true love is so strong it can bring about the end of time.

New York Times bestselling author Dorothea Benton Frank is back home in the Carolina lowcountry, spinning a tale that brims with the warmth, charm, heart, and humor that has become her trademark. Porch Lights is a stirring, emotionally rich multigenerational story—a poignant tale of life, love, and transformation—as a nurse, returning to Sullivans Island from the Afghanistan War, finds her life has been irrevocably altered by tragedy…and now must rediscover love and purpose with the help of her son and aging mother. An evocative visit to enchanting Sullivans Island with its unique pluff mud beaches, palmetto trees, and colorful local lore—a novel filled with unforgettable characters, and enlivened by tales of the notorious Blackbeard and his bloodthirsty pirate crew and eerie Edgar Allan Poe stories—Porch Lights stands tall among the very best works of not only Dottie Frank, but Anne Rivers Siddons, Rebecca Wells, Pat Conroy, and other masters of the modern Southern novel as well.