I never wrote anything longer than a 5-minute song before I was forty-five years old! My life has been spent on the road as a performing songwriter, dancing and playing, and (after our own twins were born) teaching kids to do the same. But one night I woke up from a dream I couldn’t wrangle into song length, and by the end of the day, I had written four chapters of The Locke Box. I naturally wrote songs as I wrote the book. I got curious about who else was doing that. So here’s a short list…
Family is where you find it when a bizarre car crash leaves two strangers to care for an orphaned baby, a pregnant cat, and the key to a mystery that hits close to home. Sensual but clean, suspenseful but cozy, funny, and endearing. For your next best love story, open The Locke Box. The corresponding music album, Songs from The Locke Box, fleshes out the story in musical snapshots from the character's point of view and is available at my website.
The Jack Reacher series is full of action and intrigue. Readers enjoy the hero’s bad attitude and quirky sense of humor. This particular book digs into Jack’s past when he visits his dad’s hometown only to learn that no Reacher has ever lived there. The reason it made this particular “top five best” list is because of a cool, corresponding roots-rock album written by the author and Baltimore based band Naked Blue. The album, Just the Clothes on My Back, will fascinate Jack Reacher fans who are sure to get some inside jokes and remember scenes from the novels.
The most hotly anticipated thriller of the year follows our hero Jack Reacher on a quest into his father's past, and climaxes in the most blood-curdling ticking time bomb of an adventure yet.
The present can be tense . . .
A young couple trying to get to New York City are stranded at a lonely motel in the middle of nowhere. Before long they're trapped in an ominous game of life and death.
Get lost on the Greek Isle of Hydra among an artistic commune of Bohemian proportion. The year is 1960. One of the characters in the book is real-life songwriter Leonard Cohen, who actually lived on the island at the time. Author Polly Samson and legendary songwriter/instrumentalist David Gilmour wrote the song Yes I Have Ghosts which is a line from the book. In an interview with American Songwriter, Samson said while she was writing the book, she wandered through a cemetery asking questions of her characters. She asked, “Do you believe in ghosts?” And one of her characters responded, “Yes I have ghosts. Not all of them are dead.”
'Delicious' Nigella Lawson 'Clever and beguiling' Guardian 'Sublime and immersive' Jojo Moyes
Erica is eighteen and ready for freedom. It's the summer of 1960 when she lands on the sun-baked Greek island of Hydra where she is swept up in a circle of bohemian poets, painters, musicians, writers and artists, living tangled lives. Life on their island paradise is heady, dream-like, a string of seemingly endless summer days. But nothing can last forever.
'A surefire summer hit ... At once a blissful piece of escapism and a powerful meditation on art and sexuality' Observer 'Heady armchair…
First released in 1952, East of Eden has become part of the American conscious. Maybe I should say conscience. It explores the free will of humans to bestow life and to steal it away. The Hebrew word “timshel” interested Steinbeck. It is one God spoke to Cain in the Biblical story of the first murder when Cain killed his own brother. Depending on the translation, God was saying that Cain would be able to conquer his urge to sin, or that he does not have the power of free will, that he must sin. The Irish band Mumford and Sons wrote the song Timshel in reaction to this iconic book.
California's fertile Salinas Valley is home to two families whose destinies are fruitfully, and fatally, intertwined. Over the generations, between the beginning of the twentieth century and the end of the First World War, the Trasks and the Hamiltons will helplessly replay the fall of Adam and Eve and the murderous rivalry of Cain and Abel.
East of Eden was considered by Steinbeck to be his magnum opus, and its epic scope and memorable characters, exploring universal themes of love and identity, ensure it remains one of America's most enduring novels. This edition features a stunning new cover by renowned…
The Poop Song is a picture book with downloadable music. Eric Litwin is the master of preschool story structure (think Pete the Cat, I Love My White Shoes, also a musical book). After Eric married his lovely wife, a pediatric gastroenterologist, she convinced him of the need for a good poop song. So there you go. Super, playful illustrations by Claudia Boldt.
A satisfyingly silly picture book sing-along about pooping-a topic kids find hilarious and parents find necessary!
Discover how cats, pelicans, space aliens, and even dinosaurs poop in this rollicking, rhyming verse that's sure to elicit giggles. With plenty of hilarious pictures and a catchy chorus that encourages young children to use the toilet, this laugh-out-loud story is the go-to potty training book that every family needs.
* A playful approach to potty training
* Full of humor that is silly, not disgusting
* From the bestselling author of Pete the Cat: I Love my White Shoes
David Berkeley, a singer/songwriter, wrote this book of short stories, each one connected because the minor characters in one story are the major characters in another. David wrote a song for each story from the character’s point of view. The music album is called Cardboard Boat and you can find it on his homepage.
The Free Brontosaurus made this list because Berkeley's creative genius knows no bounds. He has been prolific in words and music for decades while raising a family and traveling the world. This particular work, with its interconnected set of characters, explores beauty and gratitude in unlikely circumstances.
The Free Brontosaurus is a novella comprising ten interweaving stories, complete with an accompanying album of ten songs. All set in the same fictional city, at the same moment in time, minor characters in one story are major characters in another. It is a bit like Olive Kitteridge, if reimagined by Miranda July. These are gently written narratives of isolation, describing characters disconnected from home and community. The book is full of dark humor, sadness, and glimmers of joy. Ultimately, the characters' abilities to find beauty in the bizarre connect and redeem them, offering the characters (and us) hope. The…
Looking for clean romantic suspense with spiritual undertones?
Look no further than the Acts of Valor series by Rebecca Hartt. With thousands of reviews and 4.7-5.0 stars per book, this 6-book series is a must-read for readers searching for memorable, well-told stories by an award-winning author.
A dead man stands on her doorstep.
When the Navy wrote off her MIA husband as dead, Eden came to terms with being a widow. But now, her Navy SEAL husband is staring her in the face. Eden knows she should be over-the-moon, but she isn’t.
Diagnosed with PTSD and amnesia, Navy SEAL Jonah Mills has no recollection of their fractured marriage, no memory of Eden nor her fourteen-year-old daughter. Still, he feels a connection to both.
Unfit for active duty and assigned to therapy, Jonah knows he has work to do and relies on God, who sustained him during captivity, to heal his mind, body, and hopefully his family.
But as the memories lurking in his wife's haunted eyes and behind his daughter's uncertain smile begin to return to him, Jonah makes another discovery. There is treachery in the highest ranks of his Team, treachery that not only threatens him but places his new-found family in its crosshairs.
Presumed Dead, Navy SEAL Returns Without Memory of His Ordeal in the Christian Romantic Suspense, Returning to Eden, by Rebecca Hartt
-- Present Day, Virginia Beach, Virginia --
A dead man stands at Eden Mills' door.
Declared MIA a year prior, the Navy wrote him off as dead. Now, Eden's husband, Navy SEAL Jonah Mills has returned after three years to disrupt her tranquility. Diagnosed with PTSD and amnesia, he has no recollection of their marriage or their fourteen-year-old step-daughter. Still, Eden accepts her obligation to nurse Jonah back to health while secretly longing to regain her freedom, despite the…
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