Ann Hood

"An enthralling novel about love, loss, secrets, friendship, and the healing power of literature, by the bestselling author of The Knitting Circle. Ava's twenty-five-year marriage has fallen apart, and her two grown children are pursuing their own lives outside of the country. Ava joins a book group, not only for her love of reading but also out of sheer desperation for companionship. The group's goal throughout the year is for each member to present...

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...

In a collection of personal essays-- each accompanied by a recipe (or two)-- Hood describes her Italian American childhood, detailing how the kitchen became the heart of her own home. Tracking her lifelong journey in the kitchen, she spills tales of loss and starting from scratch, family love and feasts with friends, and how the perfect meal is one that tastes like home. -- adapted from jacket. "In this warm collection of personal essays and recipes,...

In her admired works of fiction, including the recent The Book that Matters Most, Ann Hood explores the transformative power of literature. Now, with warmth and honesty, Hood reveals the personal story behind these works of fiction. Growing up in a mill town in Rhode Island, in a household that didn't foster the love of literature, Hood nonetheless learned to channel her imagination and curiosity by devouring The Bell Jar, Marjorie Morningstar, The...

A grieving young widow and a pregnant teenager find an uncommon friendship in a luminous, deeply moving novel   After a college student speeding in a blue Honda Civic kills her husband of less than a year, Olivia is completely lost. One hot summer day, she walks into the beachfront Rhode Island cottage she and David bought the previous August-the place where they had planned to someday start a family-and finds a stranger sitting at her kitchen table....

Libby woke up that morning and knew it was time to leave . . . Libby Harper, unsatisfied with her suburban life, abandons Massachusetts, her two teenage children, and Tom, her husband of eighteen years. Depressed and feeling trapped, she is determined to realize her fantasies of Hollywood fame before it is too late. Dana has been expecting her mother to walk out for years. Her older brother, Troy, who is always in trouble, has been struggling to get...

A family heals in unexpected ways in the wake of senseless tragedy Alexander Porter is on the phone with his six-year-old son when he is struck by lightning and killed. It is a freak accident, without meaning or justice. Alex's sudden death disintegrates his family. His mother takes off for a new life in California. His father descends into kleptomania. His ex-wife begins selling makeup door to door. His sister mourns by taking Sam, Alex's son, on...

In China there is a belief that people who are destined to be together are connected by an invisible red thread. After losing her infant daughter in a freak accident, Maya Lange opens the Red Thread, an adoption agency that specializes in placing baby girls from China with American families. Maya finds some comfort in her work, until a group of six couples share their personal stories of desire for a child. Their painful and courageous journey...

"Katie was Jude's favorite person in the world. And not many brothers say that about their sister and mean it. She was also the person who died. And Jude believes he was the one who killed her. Now, twelve-year-old Jude must figure out what life looks like without his favorite person. It's only when he meets a girl named Clementine, who also lost a sibling, that he begins to imagine a world where maybe things might be okay. But Clementine is nursing...

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.