The Magnolia League

When her free-spirited mother dies in a tragic accident, sixteen-year-old Alexandria Lee is forced to leave her West Coast home and move in with a wealthy grandmother she's never known in Savannah, Georgia. By birth, Alex is a rightful if unwilling member of the Magnolia League-Savannah's long-standing debutante society. But white gloves and silk gowns are a far cry from the vintage t-shirts and torn jeans shorts she's used to. Alex is the first in decades to question the Magnolia League's intentions, yet even she becomes entangled in their seductive world. The members enjoy youth, beauty and power...but at what cost? As Alex discovers a pact between the Magnolias and the Buzzards, a legendary hoodoo family, she discovers secrets-some deadly-hidden beneath the glossy Southern veneer. New York Times bestselling author Katie Crouch's poignant and humorous voice shines in this enchanting and mysterious story about girls growing up in a magical Southern city.

Money, beauty, power, and love -- the youngest members of the Magnolia League have it all. Some may call them lucky, but the truth is they're charmed. Armed with spells, potions, and conjures from the powerful Buzzard family, the Magnolias have bought their luck...at a price. Ensconced in the League's headquarters on Habersham street, golden girl Hayes Anderson would never dream of leaving Savannah, where there's no problem that can't be solved with a cup of Swamp Brew tea. But when danger lurks and family secrets are unearthed, Hayes learns that magic can't fix everything. Across town at an old mansion on Forsyth Park, recent California transplant Alexandria Lee is on a quest to free her mother's spirit from a hoodoo spell. As dark magic sweeps through Savannah's historic squares and misty backwaters, will Hayes and Alex have the strength to save the people they love -- and themselves? Katie Crouch's second Magnolia League novel is a beguiling story about family, friendship, and the magical ties that bind.

Meet Sarah Walters, a Camellia Society debutante with a weakness for bad ideas. Sarah's mother lectures her on etiquette but tends to get loose after a few gins. Still, Sarah tries to follow the debutante code - after all, in Charleston, manners mean everything. But it's not easy to follow the rules, particularly in the summers when she runs into boys in pickup trucks, or, later, when she moves to New York with her friends. For the Camellia girls soon learn, careers don't always go to plan and men don't always love you back: the bright future they thought was theirs dissolves into heartbreak, illness and addiction. And when a shocking event brings thirty-something Sarah back home to Charleston, she must decide where 'home' really is.

From Academy Award-winning multi-talent Jamie Foxx, a hilariously candid look at the joys and pitfalls of being the father of two daughters. Jamie Foxx has won an Academy Award and a Grammy Award, laughed with sitting presidents, and partied with the biggest names in hip-hop. But he is most proud of his role as father to two very independent young women, Corinne and Anelise. Jamie might not always know what he’s doing when it comes to raising girls—especially when they talk to him about TikTok (PlikPlok?) and don’t share his enthusiasm for flashy Rolls Royces—but he does his best to show up for them every single day. Luckily, he has a strong example to follow: his beloved late grandmother, Estelle Marie Talley. Jamie learned everything he knows about parenting from the fierce woman who raised him: As he puts it, she’s “Madea before Tyler Perry put on the pumps and the gray wig.” In Act Like You Got Some Sense—a title inspired by Estelle—Jamie shares up close and personal stories about the tough love and old-school values he learned growing up in the small town of Terrell, Texas; his early days trying to make it in Hollywood; the joys and challenges of achieving stardom; and how each phase of his life shaped his parenting journey. Hilarious, poignant, and always brutally honest, this is Jamie Foxx like we’ve never seen him before.

Those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it . . . When seventeen year-old Jasper is approached at the funeral of his deadbeat father by a man claiming to be an associate of his deceased parents, he’s thrust into a world of secrets tied to America’s history—and he’s right at the heart of it. First, Jasper finds out he is the sole surviving descendant of Benedict Arnold, the most notorious traitor in American history. Then he learns that his father’s death was no accident. Jasper is at the center of a war that has been going on for centuries, in which the descendants of the heroes and traitors of the American Revolution still duel to the death for the sake of their honor. His only hope to escape his dangerous fate on his eighteenth birthday? Take up the research his father was pursuing at the time of his death, to clear Arnold’s name. Whisked off to a boarding school populated by other descendants of notorious American traitors, it’s a race to discover the truth. But if Jasper doesn’t find a way to uncover the evidence his father was hunting for, he may end up paying for the sins of his forefathers with his own life. Like a mash-up of National Treasure and Hamilton, Matthew Landis’s debut spins the what-ifs of American history into a heart-pounding thriller steeped in conspiracy, clue hunting, and danger.

Top five Best Books About Running, Runner's World Magazine Top three Best Books About Running, readers of Runner's World Magazine (December 2009) A phenomenal portrait of courage and desire that will do for college cross-country what John Feinstein's A Season on the Brink did for college basketball.

Hannah Legare is in trouble. Despite marrying a wonderful man, she struggles to stay faithful to him. Despite setting up a hugely successful business venture, she can't quite focus on its growing financial difficulties. Despite knowing that her husband has finally decided he can no longer stay in their marriage, she believes that by climbing up his balcony, fuelled by one cocktail too many, she can somehow persuade him to take her back. One three-storey fall later, Hannah Legare is on her way back to reluctantly recuperate in her childhood home, Charleston: a town full of memories, and the town where she last saw her father. On a warm April evening in 1985, Buzz Legare - notoriously charming general practitioner and family man - went on a routine fishing trip in the mouth of the Charleston harbor. Two days later, his boat was found drifting, holding nothing but his fishing pole and his waiting labrador retriever. Now it is 2008, and the family Buzz left behind is still reeling from his disappearance. His son, Palmer, a veterinary surgeon, has crafted a seemingly perfect life for himself. But although he has a loving partner and a fabulous, envied home, Palmer feels frustratingly numb to it all. Buzz's wife, the (well) re-married Daisy, despite having much to say about her childrens' lives, is almost pathological about keeping her own feelings under lock and key, and then there is Hannah, whose return to Charleston and whose attempts to solve the mysteries of the past stir up a hornets' nest of secrets and emotion.

Returning to hot, steamy, Magnolia, South Carolina, is the last thing Jordan Weston wants to do. The death of her grandmother and inheritance of the family plantation mean she can sell the land and make enough money to realize her dream-to open her own theater in New York. But more than the weather sizzles in Magnolia. Jordan's forced to hire Sam Tanner to repair the old house. Jordan lusted after Sam in high school when he was the bad boy and she was the nerdy drama geek. He'd even kissed her once, firing up her adolescent fantasies, then laughed when she ran away. Though she tries to resist his considerable charm, Sam's not giving her any quarter. He's making it abundantly clear that this time she isn't going to run. Under a scorching South Carolina sun, her resolve to remain impervious to Sam melts and she gives in to her desire. After all, why not engage in steamy sex with the bad boy of her dreams to while away her time in sultry Magnolia? When the project is finished, she'll go back to New York and forget all about Sam. If only her heart would let go of foolish dreams.