Mary Alice Monroe

Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

Illinois

Linked by their monthly book club meetings, five women in suburban Chicago come to realize that they share more than just the books they read as they struggle with a number of life-changing issues and discover the true meaning of friendship.

The Book Club

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California

Raising her autistic child alone after being abandoned by her husband, Dora, who for years played the role of a perfect wife in a loveless marriage, spends a stormy summer of healing and self-discovery with her half-sisters and grandmother. Simultaneous. Hardcover available.

The Summer Wind

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Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

Colorado

Four very different women embark on a transformational journey that follows the migrating monarchs across the United States to Mexico. The story begins when Luz Avila's grandmother, the local butterfly lady, purchases an old, orange VW bug for a road trip home to Mexico. When she unexpectedly dies, Luz is inspired to take her grandmother's ashes home. In the manner of the Aztec myth of the goddess who brings light to the world, Luz attracts a collection of lost women, each seeking change in their lives. The Mexican people believe the monarchs are the spirits of the recently departed and Luz taps into ancient rituals and myths as she follows the spectacular, glittering river of orange monarchs in the sky to home.

The Butterfly's Daughter

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Paperback (1 to 2 lbs)

Pennsylvania

Caretta Rutledge returns to repair the family beach house on the Isle of Palms as she tries to rebuild her life and her family relationships.

The Beach House

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Kentucky

A Novel

"From New York Times bestselling author Mary Alice Monroe, comes her highly anticipated epic and triumphant new novel-a celebration of the land and spirit of the early twentieth-century Lowcountry"--

Where the Rivers Merge

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Washington

Sweetgrass is a historic tract of land in South Carolina that has been home to the Blakely family for eight generations. But Sweetgrass—named for the indigenous grass that grows in the area—is in trouble. Taxes are skyrocketing. Bulldozers are leveling the surrounding properties. And the Blakelys could be forced to sell the one thing that continues to hold their disintegrating family together. In this poignant novel of hope, acceptance and the powerful gift of forgiveness, Mary Alice Monroe paints an intimate portrait of a family that must learn to unravel old patterns and weave together a new future.

Sweetgrass

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When Cara Rutledge rents out her beach house to artist Heather Fordham, a sudden tragedy brings Cara back to the beach house, but Heather refuses to move from her newfound sanctuary.

Beach House for Rent

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Maryland

Return to the bestselling Beach House series with Mary Alice Monroe’s tale of the struggles and triumphs of the historic Rutledge family of South Carolina. “Authentic, generous, and heartfelt” (Mary Kay Andrews, New York Times bestselling author), this is an illuminating story of new beginnings, resilience, and one family’s enduring love. Cara Rutledge returns to her Southern home on the idyllic Isle of Palms. Comforting in its familiarity, it is still rife with painful memories. Only through reconnecting with family, friends, and the rhythms of the lowcountry can Cara release the hold of the past and open herself to the possibility of a new career and love. Meanwhile, her niece Linnea, a recent college graduate with an uncertain future, leaves her historic home in Charleston, with all its entitlement and expectations, and heads to her aunt’s beach house. On the island, she is free to join the turtle team, learn to surf, and fall in love. Remembering the lessons of her beloved grandmother, Lovie, the original “turtle lady,” Linnea rediscovers a meaningful purpose to her life and finds the courage she needs to break from tradition. In “this tender and openhearted novel of familial expectations, new boundaries, and the power of forgiveness” (Booklist), three generations of the Rutledge family gather together to find the strength, love, and commitment to break destructive family patterns and to forge new bonds that will endure long beyond one summer reunion.

Beach House Reunion

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Elin Hilderbrand

William Richard Frank

Adriana Trigiani

Patti Callahan Henry

Cassandra King

Nathalie Dupree

Marjory Wentworth

Peter Frank

Victoria Benton Frank

Florida

Stories Inspired by Dorothea Benton Frank

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!

In this entertaining anthology, a group of bestselling authors and writers pay tribute to legendary, larger-than-life New York Times bestselling author Dorothea Benton Frank and her literary legacy.

Inspired by the title Dorothea Benton Frank planned for her next book--Reunion Beach--these close friends and colleagues channeled their creativity and admiration into stories and poems that celebrate this remarkable woman and her abiding love for the Lowcountry of her native South Carolina--and Charleston--a place of beauty, history, charm, and Gullah magic. 

From Elin Hilderbrand, #1 New York Times bestselling author, a sequel to Summer of '69.

From Adriana Trigiani, New York Times bestselling author, comes a poignant, humorous interview from the hereafter between Pat Conroy and Dorothea Benton Frank.

From Patti Callahan, bestselling author of Becoming Mrs. Lewis and Surviving Savannah, comes The Bridemaids, a story about a girls trip to the South Carolina beach.

From Mary Alice Monroe, New York Times bestselling author, Mother and Child Reunion, a heartwarming story set under the warm South Carolina sun.

Reunion Beach also features letters, short stories, poems, and essays from:

 * Mary Norris, New York Times bestselling author and staff writer for The New Yorker
 * Cassandra King Conroy, bestselling and award-winning author of Tell Me A Story
 * Nathalie Dupree, James Beard Award-winning cookbook author
 * Marjory Wentworth, former Poet Laureate of South Carolina
 * Gervais Hagerty, author of In Polite Company
 * Jacqueline Bouvier Lee, Peter Frank, Victoria Peluso, and William Frank

Infused with Dorothea Benton Frank's witty spirit, Reunion Beach is a literary homage and beautiful keepsake that keeps this dearly missed writer's flame burning bright.



Reunion Beach

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Massachusetts

The Summer Wind is the second book in Monroe's Lowcountry Summer trilogy, following the New York Times bestselling The Summer Girls. This series is a poignant and heartwarming story of three half-sisters and their grandmother, who is determined to help them rediscover their southern roots and family bonds.

It's midsummer and Eudora, nicknamed Dora, is staying at Sea Breeze, the family's ancestral home on Sullivan's Island. For years, Dora has played the role of the perfect wife and mother in a loveless marriage. Now her husband filed for divorce, her child is diagnosed with autism, and her house is on the market. Dora's facade collapses under the weight of her grief and she suffers "broken heart syndrome." Mamaw and the girls rally around Dora--but it's up to Dora to heal herself as she spends the summer prowling the beach, discovering the secrets of the island and her heart. This is a summer of discovery for all the women of Sea Breeze. Carson returns from Florida to face life-changing decisions, Lucille confronts a health scare, and an unexpected visitor has Harper reconsidering her life's direction.

When tropical storm winds batter the island, the women must band together and weather the tempest--both the one outside their windows and the raging sea of emotions within each of them. They must learn again what it means to be a sister. It is up to Mamaw to keep the light burning at Sea Breeze to guide the girls through the lies, the threats, and the rocky waters of indecision to home.

Louisiana

Arkansas

Five remarkable women find meaning and friendship through the power of their book club. On the surface, it is a monthly book club. But for five women, it is so much more. For Eve Porter, whose husband's sudden death cheats her of every security she had planned on, the club is a place of sanctuary. For Annie Blake, a brilliant attorney intent on starting a family late in life, it is the chance to finally let down her guard and dream of other possibilities. For Doris Bridges, it is her support group as she acknowledges her dying marriage and finds the ultimate freedom in her husband's betrayal. For Gabriella Rivera, the "perfect" wife, mother and friend who offers support to everyone but is afraid to ask for it herself, it is a sense of community. And for Midge Kirsch, an artist who has always lived her life against the grain, it is a haven of acceptance. They are five women from different walks of life, embracing the challenge of change. And as they share their hopes and fears and triumphs, they will hold fast to the true magic of the book club--friendship.

Alabama

Summoned by their Charleston society grandmother to a historic family home on Sullivan's Island, estranged sisters Carson, Eudora and Harper share a summer of healing and forgiveness while exploring the tenacious complexities of sisterhood and friendship. By the award-winning author of Beach House Memories. Original. 75,000 first printing.

The Summer Girls

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"It is summer's end and Sea Breeze, the family's beloved estate on Sullivan's Island, must be sold. It is an emotional time of transition as Mamaw and the three sisters each must face loss and find a new place in the world. Harper, the youngest sister, arrived at Sea Breeze intending to stay only a weekend, but a rift with her wealthy, influential mother left her without direction or a home. During this remarkable summer, free from her mother's tyranny and with the help of her half sisters, Harper discovered her talents and independent spirit. But summer is ending, and the fate of Sea Breeze hinges on Harper's courage to decide the course of her own life. To do so she must release her insecurities and recognize her newfound strengths. She must accept love fully into her life--the love of Mamaw, Carson, and Dora, the love of Sea Breeze and the lowcountry, and most of all, the love of a Wounded Warrior who has claimed her heart" --

The Summer's End

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Texas

While recovering from breast cancer in a remote cabin in North Carolina, Mia Landan finds the journal of Kate Watkins, a 1920s fly fisher, and, inspired by Kate's example, learns to fish and uncovers many secrets around her.

Time Is a River

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New York

Inspired by the title Dorothea Benton Frank had planned for her next book - Reunion Beach - close friends and colleagues pay tribute in stories and poems that celebrate Frank, a prolific author who had a love for the Lowcountry of her native South Carolina.

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Book is in excellent condition with no tears, marks or writings inside,  but the spine is bowed inward (see photos). 

Instant New York Times Bestseller The New York Times bestselling author of The Summer Guests returns at long last to her beloved Isle of Palms in this breathtaking novel about one family’s summer of forging new beginnings against the enduring beauty and resilience of the natural world. It’s been sixteen years since Caretta “Cara” Rutledge has returned home to the beautiful shores of Charleston, South Carolina. Over those years, she has weathered the tides of deaths and births, struggles and joys. And now, as Cara prepares for her second wedding, her life is about to change yet again. Meanwhile, the rest of the storied Rutledge family is also in flux. Cara’s niece Linnea returns to Sullivan’s Island to begin a new career and an unexpected relationship. Linnea’s parents, having survived bankruptcy, pin their hopes and futures on the construction of a new home on Ocean Boulevard. But as excitement over the house and wedding builds, a devastating illness strikes the family and brings plans to a screeching halt. It is under these trying circumstances that the Rutledge family must come together yet again to discover the enduring strength in love, tradition, and legacy from mother to daughter to granddaughter. Like the sea turtles that come ashore annually on these windswept islands, three generations of the Rutledge family experience a season of return, rebirth, and growth. “Authentic, generous, and heartfelt” (Mary Kay Andrews, New York Times bestselling author), On Ocean Boulevard is Mary Alice Monroe at her very best.

On Ocean Boulevard

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Tennessee

A tale set in the 1970s American South shares the story of Lovie Rutledge, who reflects on a summer during which a beach vacation to escape her unfaithful, disdainful husband culminates in a fateful romance with a handsome biologist.

Beach House Memories

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Virginia

Swimming Lessons

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Indiana

This "authentic, generous, and heartfelt" (Mary Kay Andrews, New York Times bestselling author) instant New York Times bestseller from the author of The Summer of Lost and Found recounts one family's summer of forging new beginnings against the enduring beauty and resilience of the natural world.

It's been sixteen years since Caretta "Cara" Rutledge has returned home to the beautiful shores of Charleston, South Carolina. Over those years, she has weathered the tides of deaths and births, struggles and joys. And now, as Cara prepares for her second wedding, her life is about to change yet again.

Meanwhile, the rest of the storied Rutledge family is also in flux. Cara's niece, Linnea, returns to Sullivan's Island to begin a new career and an unexpected relationship. Linnea's parents, having survived bankruptcy, pin their hopes and futures on the construction of a new home on Ocean Boulevard. But as excitement over the house and wedding builds, a devastating illness strikes the family and brings plans to a screeching halt. It is under these trying circumstances that the Rutledge family must come together yet again to discover the enduring strength in love, tradition, and legacy from mother to daughter to granddaughter.

"A heartwarming story of lowcountry love, loyalty, and longstanding friendships" (Booklist), On Ocean Boulevard is Mary Alice Monroe at her very best.

New York Times bestselling author Mary Alice Monroe returns to her beloved Isle of Palms to tell the poignant, charming story of two women, one summer, and one very special beach house. When Cara Rutledge rents out her quaint beach house on Isle of Palms to Heather Wyatt for the entire summer, it’s a win-win by any standard: Cara’s generating income necessary to keep husband Brett’s ecotourism boat business afloat, and anxiety-prone Heather, an young artist who’s been given a commission to paint birds on postage stamps, has a quiet space in which to work and tend to her pet canaries uninterrupted. It isn’t long, however, before both women’s idyllic summers are altered irrevocably: the alluring shorebirds—and the man who rescues them—begin to draw Heather out of the shell she’s cultivated toward a world of adventure, and maybe even love; at the same time, Cara’s life reels with sudden tragedy, and she wishes only to return to the beach house that had once been her port amidst life’s storms. When Heather refuses to budge from her newfound sanctuary, so begins the unlikeliest of rooming situations. While they start out as strangers, as everything around the women falls apart they learn that the only thing they can really rely on is each other. And, like the migrating shorebirds that come to the island for the summer, these two women of different generations must rediscover their unique strengths so by summer’s end they, too, can take flight in ways they never imagined possible.

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Mary Alice Monroe

The Book Club

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The Beach House

Mary Alice Monroe

Where the Rivers Merge

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Sweetgrass

Mary Alice Monroe

Beach House for Rent

Mary Alice Monroe

Beach House Reunion

Elin Hilderbrand; William Richard Frank; Adriana Trigiani; Patti Callahan Henry; Cassandra King; Nathalie Dupree; Marjory Wentworth; Mary Alice Monroe; Peter Frank; Victoria Benton Frank

Reunion Beach

Mary Alice Monroe

The Summer Wind

Mary Alice Monroe

Where the Rivers Merge

Mary Alice Monroe

The Book Club

Mary Alice Monroe

The Summer Girls

Mary Alice Monroe

The Summer's End

Mary Alice Monroe

The Summer Wind

Mary Alice Monroe

Time Is a River

Mary Alice Monroe

The Summer Wind

Elin Hilderbrand; Adriana Trigiani; Patti Callahan Henry; Cassandra King; Nathalie Dupree; Marjory Wentworth; Mary Alice Monroe; Peter Frank; Victoria Benton Frank; William Richard Frank

Reunion Beach

Mary Alice Monroe

On Ocean Boulevard

Mary Alice Monroe

Beach House Memories

Mary Alice Monroe

Swimming Lessons

Mary Alice Monroe

On Ocean Boulevard

Mary Alice Monroe

Beach House for Rent

Mary Alice Monroe

Beach House Memories