Ann Hood

An Italian immigrant watches her six children grow up while she searches for her seventh, the product of a love affair who was given up for adoption. In turn-of-the-century Italy, fourteen-year-old Josephine, sheltered and naive, is forced into an arranged marriage to a man she doesn't know or love who is about to depart for America, where she later joins him. Bound by tradition, Josephine gives birth to seven children. The last, Valentina, is conceived...

"An entertaining and fascinating memoir of "gifted storyteller" (People) Ann Hood's adventurous years as a TWA flight attendant. In 1978, in the tailwind of the Golden Age of air travel, flight attendants were the epitome of glamor and sophistication. Fresh out of college and hungry to experience the world, Ann Hood joined their ranks. She carved chateaubriand in the first-class cabin, found romance on layovers in London and Lisbon, and walked more...

"An intelligent, moving read" (Pages) and "a testament to women's friendship and to Ann Hood's talent" (Hilma Wolitzer).After the sudden loss of her only child, Mary Baxter joins a knitting circle in Providence, Rhode Island, as a way to fill the empty hours and lonely days. The women welcome her, each teaching Mary a new knitting technique and, as they do, revealing their own personal stories of loss, love, and hope. Eventually Mary is

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"Growing up in a mill town in Rhode Island, in a household that didn't foster a love of literature, Ann Hood discovered nonetheless the companionship of books. She learned to channel her imagination, ambitions, and curiosity by devouring ever-growing stacks. In Morningstar, Hood recollects how The Bell Jar, Marjorie Morningstar, The Harrad Experiment, and The Outsiders influenced her teen psyche and introduced her to topics that could not be discussed...

"It is 1969, and as Peter, Paul, and Mary croon on the radio, poster paints splash the latest antiwar slogans. Suzanne, a poet, lives in a Maine beach house awaiting the birth of her love child, whom she will name Sparrow. Claudia, who weds a farmer during college, is planning to raise three strong sons. And Elizabeth and Howard get married, organize protest marches, and try to raise their two children with their own earthy, hippie values."--

"Time travelers Maisie and Felix meet a young Alexander Graham Bell (the inventor of the telephone). When the twins get separated from Alexander, they join the thousands of orphans in the streets of Victorian London"--

While visiting their father in New York City, Felix and Maisie use a shell she brought from The Treasure Chest to travel to late 1800s Hawaii, where they meet a young girl who will one day be Queen Liliuokalani, the last queen of Hawaii.

When their parents divorce, twelve-year-old twins Felix and Maisie move with their mother to live in the attic of a historic Newport, Rhode Island, mansion where they discover a hidden room that carries with it an intriguing secret.

"When Felix gets a crush on his friend Lily, who was adopted from China as a baby, he decides to try to take her back in time to learn more about China. After being caught by Maisie, the twins find themselves transported to a small village on the Yangtze River, leaving Lily behind in the present. In China, the twins meet Pearl Buck in the days just before the Boxer Rebellion. With bandits chasing them, they flee to safety in Shanghai. The twins return...