The Open House

BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Elizabeth Berg's Once Upon a Time, There Was You. In this superb novel by the beloved author of Talk Before Sleep, The Pull of the Moon, and Until the Real Thing Comes Along, a woman re-creates her life after divorce by opening up her house and her heart. Samantha's husband has left her, and after a spree of overcharging at Tiffany's, she settles down to reconstruct a life for herself and her eleven-year-old son. Her eccentric mother tries to help by fixing her up with dates, but a more pressing problem is money. To meet her mortgage payments, Sam decides to take in boarders. The first is an older woman who offers sage advice and sorely needed comfort; the second, a maladjusted student, is not quite so helpful. A new friend, King, an untraditional man, suggests that Samantha get out, get going, get work. But her real work is this: In order to emerge from grief and the past, she has to learn how to make her own happiness. In order to really see people, she has to look within her heart. And in order to know who she is, she has to remember—and reclaim—the person she used to be, long before she became someone else in an effort to save her marriage. Open House is a love story about what can blossom between a man and a woman, and within a woman herself.

‘Oh my goodness... There were so many twists and turns... I wish I could award it more than five stars.’ Goodreads reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Everyone’s welcome. But not everyone leaves... Nick and Amber Miller are splitting up and selling their Devon home. But despite the desirable location, the house isn’t moving. Not a single viewing so far.

Moving house has never flustered author Jane Christmas. She loves houses: viewing them, negotiating their price, dreaming up interior plans, hiring tradespeople to do the work and overseeing renovations. She loves houses so much that she’s moved thirty-two times. There are good reasons for her latest house move, but after viewing sixty homes, Jane and her husband succumb to the emotional fatigue of an overheated English housing market and buy a wreck in the town of Bristol that is overpriced, will require more money to renovate than they have and that neither of them particularly like. As Jane’s nightmare renovation begins, her mind returns to the Canadian homes where she grew up with parents who moved and renovated constantly around the Toronto area. Suddenly, the protective seal is blown off Jane’s memory of a strict and peripatetic childhood and its ancillary damage—lost friends, divorces, suicide attempts—and the past threatens to shake the foundations of her marriage. This latest renovation dredges a deeper current of memory, causing Jane to question whether in renovating a house she is in fact attempting to renovate her past. With humour and irreverence, Open House reveals that what we think we gain by constantly moving house actually obscures the precious and vital parts of our lives that we leave behind. This is a memoir that will appeal to anyone whose pulse quickens at the mere mention of real estate.

With a keen eye and ear for story, "Hockey Night in Canada host and bestselling author Scott Russell chronicles a sport both exotic and familiar -- curling. Canadians have a unique enthusiasm for curling. It transcends barriers. World-class athletes curl with absolute beginners, and grandmothers and grandsons take to the ice together. There are more than a million registered curlers in anada, and millions more tune in to watch curling events on television. The outpouring of emotion that followed Sandra Schmirler's death revealed that curlers are counted among our national heroes. Curling doesn't offer the excitement of other winter sports -- no thunderous body checks, no vertical leaps, no million-dollar superstars. But when Scott Russell visited curling clubs across the country, attended the Brier in Calgary and the Olympic games in Salt Lake City, and spent time with curlers, from celebrities like Colleen Jones to the unsung father, uncle and son-team who built the Eagle Hill Curling Club in Alberta, he discovered the magical allure of curling. As Canadian Olympic gold medalist Joan McCusker said of curling's appeal: "Ordinary people doing extraordinary things is the attraction." Open House takes us inside the world of curling, and captures the spirit and lore of the sport, the dedication and passion of its participants. "From the Hardcover edition.

Continuing a two-year program to bring back twenty-two Maurice Sendak treasures long out of print, our second season of publication highlights one of the most successful author-illustrator pairings of all time. A pioneer of great children's literature, Ruth Krausspublished more than thirty books for children during a career that spanned forty years. Krauss and Sendak collaborated on eight books, and we are delighted to reintroduce four of these gems in brand-new editions, together with a favorite Maurice Sendak picture book.

An inspired new comedy from one of theatre's most distinctive and celebrated writers.

When Inspector Appleby's car breaks down on a deserted road one dark night, he happens upon an imposing mansion, whose windows are all illuminated. His sense of curiosity gets the better of him when he discovers that the front door is wide open.

Chronicles the development of the Open House Centre in Bath which provides a warm welcome to all visitors whatever their needs. It is a model that it is hoped will inspire similar efforts on the part of many other church groups. Michael Lee, a member of the Iona Community, helped to create the Centre and continues to be involved in its running.