Flower Life

In these stories, inspired by long-lost photographs, the lives of the people in the frame are imagined and then explored, layer by layer. What must have it like to be them? We share the lives of three sisters, brought up in Penang. We hear of what happened to them, and to their Chinese neighbours caught in the tides of war. We see a group of small boys in a Glasgow slum, their young lives stunted by poverty, and hear how life worked out in contrasting ways for them. We follow a young woman's search for love in the unlikely realm of Egyptian antiquities.

China, 1957: Chairman Mao has declared a new openness in society. “Let a hundred flowers bloom; let a hundred schools of thought contend.” Many intellectuals fear it is only a trick, and Kai Ying’s husband, Sheng, a teacher, has promised not to jeopardize their safety or that of their young son, Tao. But one July morning, just before his sixth birthday, Tao watches helplessly as Sheng is dragged away for writing a letter criticizing the Communist Party and sent to a labor camp for “reeducation”. Once again, Tsukiyama brings us a powerfully moving story of ordinary people facing extraordinary circumstances with grace and courage.

The second in a new trilogy that extends the Dollanganger Family series that began with Flowers in the Attic. Picking up where Beneath the Attic left off, Out of the Attic goes back two generations before Corrine Foxworth locked her children in the attic. See how the twisted, beloved Dollanganger legend came to be. With five new Lifetime movies (beginning with Heaven) and the 40th-anniversary celebration of Flowers in the Attic, there has never been a better time to experience V.C. Andrews and the peculiar darkness of the human heart.

We are back in Rilton Castle for the eighth story in the series, There is trouble blowing in the wind. Is it the answer or smoke from another holiday cottage, burnt to the ground by an arsonist? Maybe it is the aroma of Moonshadow Grey’s cooking, or the scent from one of her ready-rolled joints? Perhaps it is the noise from the huge loud speakers in the flat next door to Mrs Julia Fothergill, who is suffering from an outbreak of cuckoos. It’s July in Dorset and the peaceful summer is about to be disturbed by violence and mayhem, yet again. The twins are off from school, Mike is drawing ...

A moving and eloquent novel about love, grief, renewal - and the powerful language of flowers. Ruby Jewell knows flowers. In her 20 years as a florist, she has stood behind the counter at the Flower Shoppe with her faithful dog, Clementine, resting at her feet. A customer can walk in, and with just a glance or a few words, Ruby can throw together the perfect arrangement for any occasion.

The year is 1794, and Fritz - passionate, idealistic and brilliant - is seeking his father's permission to announce his engagement to his heart's desire: 12-year-old Sophie. His astounded family and friends are amused and disturbed by his betrothal. What can he be thinking? Tracing the dramatic early years of the young German who was to become the great romantic poet and philosopher Novalis, The Blue Flower is a masterpiece of invention, evoking the past with a reality that we can almost feel.

A young girl loses both her parents in a tragic event and is taken to live with her grandmother on a flower farm. Growing up, Alice learns the language of Australian native flowers as a way to say the things that are too hard to speak. But she also learns that there are secrets within secrets about her past. An unexpected betrayal leaves her reeling, and she escapes to try to make her own—sometimes painful—way through the world and to find her story.

Once again we return to the prettiest village in England, with autumn approaching and where a new school year has started. The Ash twins have gone to Rilton Castle School, meeting new friends and taking on new roles. The family at the Manor House settles down to hard work, rugby and cross country running, as Tom Flowers and James Stonely take on a new case for Sir Freddie Morgan, who keeps big cats on his estate. Sir Freddie needs to know if his place is safe enough from saboteurs to take on a tiger with an evil reputation. Then the peace of Rilton Castle is shattered by a terrorist attack ...

Sometimes I look at them wielding motionless swords, brows disfigured in permanent rage, mouths open to scream curses that no one will hear. Sometimes I look at the men who tried to kill me. "The Secret Face" is the first poetry collection from Elektra Flowers. Touching on eternal themes of love, belonging, alienation, and the raw emotions that come from living in the modern world. Poems featured include: "Medusa," a poem from the perspective of the Greek goddess, reflecting on the men she's turned to stone. "Opportunity," an elegy to the Mars rover. "The Ballerina," a vision set in a ...

When the snow falls and the holiday season arrives, the lives of two septuagenarians cross paths in an unexpected way in Spring Flowers in the Snow. For these two, it's a chance to find a blessing in the fourth quarter of their lives. We follow their journey as they learn to cope with the joys and sorrows of the holiday season. If you enjoy novels such as The Notebook or Me Before You, you'll love this heartwarming tale of unexpected love and the beauty of second chances.

1876. Among the filth and depravity of Covent Garden's flower markets, orphaned Irish sisters Flora and Rosie Flynn sell posies of violets and watercress to survive. It is a pitiful existence, made bearable only by each other's presence. When they become separated, the decision of a desperate woman sets their lives on very different paths.

Brooke King has been asked over and over what it's like to be a woman in combat, but she knows her answer is not what the public wants to hear. The answers people seek lie in the graphic details of war - the sex, death, violence, and reality of it all as she experienced it. In her riveting memoir War Flower, King breaks her silence and reveals the truth about her experience as a soldier in Iraq.

Lindsey is sad when her friend Julia moves away. She is convinced she will never find another friend to play with her in the garden. But when Julia’s tulip bulb finally blooms in Lindsey’s garden, a new friendship will also bloom.

The final story of the Gemini & Flowers mysteries. Ego quoque in tempore vitae meae. It is three years since we last visited Rilton Castle and “times they are a changing”. Lady Greta Hollander has died and Mike Ash has become the seventeenth Duke of Bloxworth. He and Tom are moving to Hollander Hall, leaving the village in the safe hands of Finn and Fade, now a happy couple. Patrick is going to join the police and is starting work as a trainee Special Constable with Regina Muga’s team before going to Hendon Police College.However, this is Rilton Castle after all, so things are never ...

Nuneaton, 1880. Twenty year old Daisy Armstrong lives a happy life with her loving father, Jed. They have a special bond, particularly after losing her beloved Irish mother and younger brother. But when Jed falls in love with a local widow, everything is set to change for them both. With expensive tastes and a lavish lifestyle, moving into Daisy and Jed's humble forge is not what the widow or her spoiled son, Gilbert, expected - and they make that very clear. Worked to the bone trying to look after their busy home, Daisy is exhausted.

In this gripping, intimate memoir about health, illness, and the invisible reverberating effects of our medical system, Standefer recounts the astonishing true story of the rare diagnosis that upended her rugged life in the mountains of Wyoming and sent her tumbling into a fraught maze of cardiology units, dramatic surgeries, and slow, painful recoveries. As her life increasingly comes to revolve around the internal defibrillator freshly wired into her heart, she becomes consumed with questions about the supply chain that allows such an ostensibly miraculous device to exist.

When Juanita Sanchez and the Desert Flowers—Willow Sanchez Kincaid, Rose Bowers, and Lily Walden—open Juanita’s Kitchen, the food kitchen Alec Thurston and they formed as a charitable organization, a young woman named Ivy Barrett and her seven-year-old son, Benjy, come into their lives. Ivy is appointed head of the kitchen staff, and they all work together to open the kitchen before the holidays.

For the first time ever, 75 beloved songs from Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood and The Children's Corner are collected in this charming treasury, sure to be cherished by generations of children as well as the millions of adults who grew up with Mister Rogers. The audiobook includes the iconic song "Won't You Be My Neighbor", music and lyrics by Fred Rogers.

We stand at a tremendous precipice, the world around us ripe for transformation - a transformation that can only begins within each one of us. Our experience of life on this planet, what lies ahead, is up to us...to you...to me. 30 Days to Unstoppable: Be the Dream Made Visible is not just an audiobook, but a meditative practice and journey that supports you in creating whatever you desire to experience in your outer world - by first creating it within yourself.

The first book to examine and extract the workable teachings from The Secret of the Golden Flower. Forget dogma and belief systems… This is a DIY meditation method, especially suited for those individuals tempted to brave the solitary path. Its only limits are your ability to envision and strive for a new YOU. Since the publication of Deciphering the Golden Flower One Secret at a Time (ASIN: B001A9TN7Q) in 2008 (DGF), readers have asked for an in-depth guidebook on using The Secret of the Golden Flower (SGF) to awaken kundalini in a manner, and with results, similar to those described in ...