Betsy Carter

A perfect story for our crazy times.  Historical fiction of German Jews coming to the United States i from pre-hitler Germany.

Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

Minnesota

"Carter's warm and beautiful prose brings us love, tragedy, mystery and hope in a moving celebration of America and the people who have come to it."--Amy Bloom, New York Times bestselling author of Lucky Us and Away For fans of The Nightingale and Brooklyn comes an exquisite and unforgettable novel about friendship, love, and redemption in a circle of immigrants who flee Europe for 1930s-era New York City. On the eve of World War II Egon Schneider--a gallant and successful Jewish doctor, son of two world-famous naturalists--escapes Germany to an uncertain future across the sea. Settling into the unfamiliar rhythms of upper Manhattan, he finds solace among a tight-knit group of fellow immigrants, tenacious men and women drawn together as much by their differences as by their memories of the world they left behind. They each suffer degradations and triumphs large and small: Egon's terminally acerbic lifelong friend, bestselling author Meyer Leavitt, now wears a sandwich board on a New York street corner; Catrina Harty, the headstrong daughter of a dirt-poor Irish trolley driver, survives heartbreak and loss to forge an unlikely alliance; and Egon himself is forced to abandon his thriving medical practice to become the "Cheese Man" at a Washington Heights grocery. But their spirits remain unbroken, and when their little community is faced with an existential threat, these strangers rise up together in hopes of creating a permanent home. With her uncanny ability to create indelible characters in unforgettable circumstances, bestselling author Betsy Carter has crafted a gorgeous novel that will resonate with anyone who has ever felt adrift and longed for home.

We Were Strangers Once

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New York

Carbondale, Illinois. 1958. For widowed Tessie Lockhart, booking two seats on a passenger train to Florida symbolizes a fresh start, far from her memories of love and loss. For Tessie’s teenage daughter Dinah, who misses her father terribly, the move to Gainesville means a new school and the painful ordeal of making new friends. Rich, popular Crystal Landy is one of the first girls Dinah meets—and it will be Crystal, along with her exquisite mother, Victoria, who will transform the Lockharts’ lives in ways they never could have imagined. For as war and change come to this small southern town, the bonds between mothers and daughters will be tested, friendships sealed, secrets revealed, and relationships forever altered by the turbulence of the coming decades.

Wise, moving, and warmly funny, The Orange Blossom Special, spans twenty years in the lives of an unforgettable cast of characters. Betsy Carter has crafted a powerful, richly rewarding novel about growing up, moving on, and turning strangers into friends.

Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

Texas

A Novel


Carbondale, Illinois. 1958. For widowed Tessie Lockhart, booking two seats on a passenger train to Florida symbolizes a fresh start, far from her memories of love and loss. For Tessie's teenage daughter Dinah, who misses her father terribly, the move to Gainesville means a new school and the painful ordeal of making new friends. Rich, popular Crystal Landy is one of the first girls Dinah meets--and it will be Crystal, along with her exquisite mother, Victoria, who will transform the Lockharts' lives in ways they never could have imagined. For as war and change come to this small southern town, the bonds between mothers and daughters will be tested, friendships sealed, secrets revealed, and relationships forever altered by the turbulence of the coming decades.

Wise, moving, and warmly funny, The Orange Blossom Special, spans twenty years in the lives of an unforgettable cast of characters. Betsy Carter has crafted a powerful, richly rewarding novel about growing up, moving on, and turning strangers into friends.

The Orange Blossom Special

439cd650-68fc-4689-bf15-89c690de060c-1

Alabama

Desperate to compete with the newly opened Walt Disney World Resort, Miss Thelma Foote struggles to deal with the lack of business at Weeki Wachee Springs, while coping with the constant repairs, bills, and mischievous "mermaids," but everyone's luck takes a turn for the better when Delores Walker arrives from the Bronx to pursue her long-time dream of becoming a mermaid.

Swim to Me

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Connecticut

From the bestselling author of We Were Strangers Once, a quirky, charming, and darkly comic historical novel set in the 1950s about three generations of women whose lives are changed when a mysterious stranger comes to town--for fans of Fannie Flagg and Edward Kelsey Moore. As a young woman, Geraldine Wingo was a fiery beauty, turning heads in her small upstate New York town where she and her husband, Earle, run a popular bakery. All that changed, however, once she became pregnant with Emilia Mae, a difficult baby Geraldine is convinced is marked by the devil's tongue. Emilia Mae spends her life seeking and losing love in all the wrong places, so she never expects it to come sailing into town one day on a breeze when she's a thirty-three-year-old single mother. But Dillard Fox is no ordinary stranger--Emilia Mae and her daughter, Alice, are immediately drawn to his quiet friendliness, the brown tweed cap he never removes, his slow North Carolina drawl, and his talent for music. There's no question he's hiding a mysterious past, but will that stop them from building a new family together? Lost Souls at the Neptune Inn is a love story about creating a family where there was none, and about the enduring power of the human spirit. It is about impossible love and building a self when you start out empty. With all the charm and brightness and wisdom that Carter is known for, Lost Souls at the Neptune Inn is an unforgettable, magical new book from a beloved author.

Lost Souls at the Neptune Inn

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Sometimes to be who you really are, you have
to pretend you're already who you want to be.

At two, Delores's mother dropped her into the shallow end of a lake, trusting instinct would teach her daughter to swim. From then on, the water is where Delores Walker feels most at home. Now, nearly seventeen, she's boarding a Greyhound bus leaving the Bronx for sunny Weeki Wachee Springs, a tacky roadside attraction in the shadow of Walt Disney's new Florida phenomenon.

With a hundred silver dollars left behind by her runaway dad, Delores is chasing her dream of being a mermaid with a group of other aquatic hopefuls--girls just as awkward and uncertain out of water as they are beautiful and graceful in it. And in this make-believe world of sequined tails and amphibious fantasy, Delores will learn some very real lessons about growing up and surviving in a world where everyone sometimes feels like a fish out of water.

A heartfelt novel of coming-of-age no matter what age you are, populated with characters offbeat, outcast, and thoroughly lovable, Swim to Me is filled with the kind of wise magic that'll have you believing in the impossible before the final page.



Kansas

Oregon

Michigan

Here’s a memorable tale of two unlikely heroes: the lively, beautiful Flora and her husband, the brooding, studious Simon, two immigrants, both sent to America by their families to find a better life. An improbable match, they meet in New York City and fall in love. Simon—inventor of the jigsaw puzzle—eventually makes his fortune. Now wealthy, Flora and Simon become obsessed with rescuing those they left behind in Europe, loved ones whose fates will be determined by growing anti-Semitism on both sides of the Atlantic. The Puzzle King explores a fascinating moment in history with a cast of characters who endure with dignity, grace, and hope for the future.

The Puzzle King

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Tennessee

When an elusive Southern stranger arrives in 1960s New Rochelle, three generations of women are forever changed.

 
When the heart finds its home, anything is possible.
 
Geraldine, Emilia Mae, and Alice Wingo couldn't be more different from each other. Geraldine is a fiery beauty, turning heads while running the local bakery with her devoted husband, Earle-but she never quite takes to motherhood. Her daughter, Emilia Mae, spends her life chasing her mother's affection and goes looking for love in all the wrong places. So when she gives birth to her own daughter, Alice-the girl with the quick laugh and music running through her veins-she vows to do things differently.
 
Then, Dillard Fox, a handsome stranger with a Southern drawl sails into town, bringing with him a gentle warmth that draws in all three of the Wingo women. Emilia Mae, never thinking she'd find true love, builds the kind of happy life with Dillard that neither of them ever expected. Geraldine slowly learns to be kinder to her difficult daughter, and young Alice may have found the father figure she always wanted. But everyone has their secrets, and the one that Dillard has been carrying all of these years threatens to upend their idyllic family.
 
Over the course of their lives, these three women navigate their relationships with each other and the changing world around them. Filled with Carter's characteristic wit, this charming, wise novel is a paean to love-any way you can find it.
 

Pennsylvania

5x7” ish size paperback novel in great condition from non-smoking home

New, never read. Has remainder mark on top.

North Carolina

Florida

Arkansas

Massachusetts

For fans of The Nightingale and Brooklyn comes an exquisite and unforgettable novel about friendship, love, and redemption in a circle of immigrants who flee Europe for 1930s-era New York City.

"Carter's warm and beautiful prose brings us love, tragedy, mystery and hope in a moving celebration of America and the people who have come to it." -- Amy Bloom, New York Times bestselling author of Lucky Us and Away

On the eve of World War II Egon Schneider--a gallant and successful Jewish doctor, son of two world-famous naturalists--escapes Germany to an uncertain future across the sea. Settling into the unfamiliar rhythms of upper Manhattan, he finds solace among a tight-knit group of fellow immigrants, tenacious men and women drawn together as much by their differences as by their memories of the world they left behind.

They each suffer degradations and triumphs large and small: Egon's terminally acerbic lifelong friend, bestselling author Meyer Leavitt, now wears a sandwich board on a New York street corner; Catrina Harty, the headstrong daughter of a dirt-poor Irish trolley driver, survives heartbreak and loss to forge an unlikely alliance; and Egon himself is forced to abandon his thriving medical practice to become the "Cheese Man" at a Washington Heights grocery. But their spirits remain unbroken, and when their little community is faced with an existential threat, these strangers rise up together in hopes of creating a permanent home. With her uncanny ability to create indelible characters in unforgettable circumstances, bestselling author Betsy Carter has crafted a gorgeous novel that will resonate with anyone who has ever felt adrift and longed for home.

Indiana

#hardcover #fiction #betsycarter #southern #novel #gossip #historicalnovel #friendships 

Georgia

“In this unsentimental yet affecting novel, intertwined tales of Irish ans German immigrants to the U. S. vividly capture…the experience of immigrants-and our conflicted promise to them-even today.”-People Magazine

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Betsy Carter

We Were Strangers Once

Betsy Carter

We Were Strangers Once

Betsy Carter

The Orange Blossom Special

Betsy Carter

Swim to Me

Betsy Carter

Swim to Me

Betsy Carter

Lost Souls at the Neptune Inn

Betsy Carter

Swim to Me

Betsy Carter

We Were Strangers Once

Betsy Carter

Lost Souls at the Neptune Inn

Betsy Carter

The Puzzle King

Betsy Carter

Lost Souls at the Neptune Inn

Betsy Carter

Lost Souls at the Neptune Inn

Betsy Carter

We Were Strangers Once

Betsy Carter

We Were Strangers Once

Betsy Carter

Lost Souls at the Neptune Inn

Betsy Carter

We Were Strangers Once

Betsy Carter

We Were Strangers Once

Betsy Carter

We Were Strangers Once

Betsy Carter

The Puzzle King

Betsy Carter

Swim to Me

Betsy Carter

We Were Strangers Once

Betsy Carter

We Were Strangers Once

Betsy Carter

Lost Souls at the Neptune Inn

Betsy Carter

We Were Strangers Once