Brett Bale is a young artist with an established demand for his work. He has an art broker. He has contracts. He has the opportunity of being reviewed in an international publication, but during a critical moment in his career, he's preoccupied by a steady flow of admiring girls. His dating record is less than stellar, and he has a history of self-destructive behavior when relationships go south. Into Brett's life enters Olivia Martin, who is whip-smart, tough-as-nails and has the teeth to eat Brett alive. When the novel opens, Olivia is bent on maneuvering her way to the boardrooms of the Fortune 500. She quits her fancy job at a New York City hedge fund to join a start-up in San Francisco, but before she can pop the champagne, she's informed that she can't work in the industry because of a do-not-compete clause in her employment agreement. With her life on hold, she flees to her parents adopted home in Richmond, where she reconnects with a curious college acquaintance and meets Brett for the first time. With the fog of 80-hour work weeks lifted, she gets swept away by her rekindled love of painting and excitement for the boy that introduces her to his world. All of Olivia s decisions prior to meeting Brett had been calculated in decimal points, but once she steps into the artist's world, her numbers begin to lose their significance, her algorithms begin to lose their persuasive power. . . "Enthralling. . ." --The Columbia Review of Books and Film "[The] ultimate message, strengthened by a sprinkling of colorful and generally optimistic supporting characters, is that life’s beauty is better enjoyed with someone you love by your side." --Red City Reviews (Five-Stars)

The Medium of Desire

Romance

McGlothlin, Alex

Contemporary

Little Star

Life’s most beautiful moments are often found in the routine of the day – sweeping a floor, growing a flower in a window, laughing in a kitchen. But what if we’re too busy to appreciate the joy they bring? Sometimes, young eyes are better at finding life’s hidden, simple treasures and showing us all what is truly most important. In "I Want to Laugh in a Kitchen," young Patrick sees opportunities for fun in every chore, adventure at each turn. But his parents are too rushed to savor those moments with him. When Patrick notices a cardinal looking right at him and his mom and dad, his parents are finally awakened to the beauty and joy of the moment. Readers are then guided to go back through the book and find the cardinal in each illustration. In "I Want to Laugh in a Kitchen," the young teach the old to "stop, look, and listen," and embrace the bits of joy tucked in to the everyday.

I Want to Laugh in a Kitchen

Children's Books

Bannister, Maureen

Animals

A lifelong writer with a Ph.D. in dramatic literature, Aileen Robbins served as managing editor of the Drama Review and contributed articles to the New York Post, Elle, Lear's, and other publications. But when her childhood friend, Brooke, suggested a trip to Italy for a class in the personal essay, Aileen found her true voice. No Time for Small Talk is a collection of humorous and heartfelt essays that celebrate family, food, shopping, song, and connection. A one-time opera singer, beloved mother, grandmother, sister, and friend, Aileen co-founded the Dunn-Robbins Group, a wine and spirits marketing and public relations firm and is a member of Les Dames D'Escoffier. She co-authored Chinese Cooking for the American Kitchen with Karen Lee, which was nominated for a James Beard award. "Why did I choose a pear for the book's cover?" she writes. "I love pears. I have pear artwork all over my house. But one pear, in particular, holds meaning for me. It is a brass sculpture by the artist Philip Grausman, a wedding gift from my parents. The brass pear is as heavy a bowling ball and almost as big. As we divided up our belongings after our divorce, my ex-husband insisted on keeping it, along with my father's cufflinks. I went along with this until I couldn't. To make a long story short, I got the pear back. And now it sits in my dining room, where it belongs. For me, the pear has always represented a quiet strength and a small triumph. And of course, pears are delicious."

No Time for Small Talk: Essays From a Realistic Optimist

Robbins, Aileen

Cookbooks, Food & Wine

In the wake of her mother's suicide, Ingrid is desperate for a path back to a normal life: family, friends, high school, and some hope that she won't follow in her mother's footsteps. Instead, she finds herself moving to a strange town where quaint charm shrouds a mysterious past. When she starts hearing voices, she enlists the help of an amateur ghost hunter and a popular, troubled scion to figure out if she's hallucinating or being haunted. Their investigations awaken the past, and they discover a darkness at the heart of the town and its most powerful family.

Medium Normal Ingrid

Teen & Young Adult

Tate, William S.

Literature & Fiction

Podium is a local nonprofit organization in Richmond, VA. Our mission is to provide programs to help youth learn skills to become confident and capable writers and communicators in school, their careers, and life. This journal celebrates ten years of creative expression by some of Richmond's best young voices.

Podium: 2009-2019 Ten years of exploration and inspiration

Foundation, Podium

Literary

In a voice both timeless and distinctly greatest generational, Parke F. Smith writes about being the last US pilot accepted into the ranks of the RAF via their training exchange program at War Eagle Field, Los Angeles. After completing their course, he sailed to England on board the HMS Queen Elizabeth, swore allegiance to the King, and was offered a coveted spot training as a fighter pilot. From 1942 to 1946, Smith flew 129 missions in North Africa, Italy, and over the North Sea, before returning home. Amazingly, blessedly, he made it home, unlike so many of his friends and comrades. It is to them he dedicated his writing. Smith's war stories are only the half of it. Smith is skilled at conveying the human connection and camaraderie that forms in war's trenches and skies. He has a way of revealing enduring universal truths through anecdotes made even more humorous from his perspective as a total outsider. Ultimately, Smith's is a story about finding home-no matter how foreign-and fighting for it with all you've got. Not only did Smith love the Spitfire aircraft, his true gift was how he lived his life: fiercely determined and passionate, a real spitfire.

Spitfire: An American WWII Fighter Pilot in the RAF

History

Smith, Parke F

Europe

From 1959-1964, Prince Edward County, Virginia, closed its public schools rather than desegregate them, as ordered by the Supreme Court in the 1954 Brown v Board of Education decision. Alfred L. Cobbs, a rising tenth grader at the time, was one of the causalities among the African American students of the "locked out" generation. In Locked Out, Cobbs chronicles his struggle for an education in the face of this traumatic experience. With the support of a sympathetic family who lived outside the county, Cobbs was able to finish high school. In college, he found refuge in the study of and immersion in the German language and culture, which aided him in finding his way existentially, and ultimately led him to a rewarding career as a professor. Locked Out is a testimony of human perseverance and triumph against the odds.

Locked Out: Finding freedom and education after Prince Edward County closed its schools

Biographies & Memoirs

Cobbs, Alfred L

Community & Culture

The history of "Virginia's Grand Motion Picture Palace," the Byrd Theatre, belongs to every movie goer who has graced her gilt doors and sat on the edge of a springy seat awaiting the rise of the mighty Wurlitzer. Seeing a show at the Byrd is now cemented in the Richmond experience, a beloved piece of the city's authentic soul. It's a tradition that nearly didn't survive. The Byrd: Miracle on Cary Street is Duane K. Nelson's behind-the-scenes account of restoring the Byrd in the 1980s to her original 1928 luster with the help of Richmond A-listers, theater front-liners, and a host of movie aficionados. Thanks to their hard work, vision, and sweat equity, seeing a show at the Byrd, and paying only a few dollars to do so, has been a treasured experience since the Byrd reopened her doors in 1984. Read the who and the how of saving the Byrd and walk down memory lane through the movies and reviews of your own Richmond experience. Nelson managed and operated the Byrd Theatre until 2007 when her future was entrusted to the Byrd Theatre Foundation. A portion of proceeds from the sale of this book will benefit their mission. Every so often God chooses an individual, gives them a purpose, and gives them a mission to perform in life. Sometimes that person is the most unqualified and undeserving person in the world. Duane K. Nelson felt that way about being, somehow, chosen to perform the mission of saving the Byrd Theatre in Richmond, Virginia. Nelson managed the Byrd Theatre from 1982 to 1989 and then owned the management operation of the Byrd Theatre for close to eighteen years. This is the story of the redevelopment, restoration, and operation of the Byrd Theatre during his twenty-five-year tenure. It is also the story of the vision and means of making that vision possible for the continuous operation and salvation of the Byrd Theatre for many years and generations to come. This story is true and includes many names of the people who contributed so much to the Byrd Theatre.

Miracle on Cary Street: Restoring Virginia's Grandest Movie Palace

Humor & Entertainment

Nelson, Duane K

Movies

When Robert Waldruff returned home - with "luck and divine grace" - from the Vietnam Conflict, he put the memories behind and began his pursuit of the American Dream. 
For 35 years, those memories stayed locked inside. 
It happened. He served. And that was that. 
When his grown daughter Paden - born while Waldruff served in the Western Pacific - wanted to learn about her dad's "Vietnam War," he immediately agreed. The two started a two-and-a-half-year correspondence that explored personal and family history as well as Vietnam. 
In 2016, Waldruff enrolled in the Mighty Pen Project, a class at the Virginia War Memorial where veterans reflect, record, and memorialize their experiences. From a Marine includes a selection of Waldruff's short stories, poems, and his one-act play, Guardian Angels, which was professionally produced in September 2021 by Firehouse Theatre, Richmond, VA. 
"... sense courage and spirit in these pages, Robert's toughness leavened by time and empathy. You may see that, like me, you can trust him when you struggle somewhat. Robert is here in these hard-won words. You can lean on the lessons he shares."-David L. Robbins, New York Times best-selling author of Isaac's Beacon and War of the Rats

From a Marine

Waldruff, Robert H

Parenting & Relationships

Originally Published as "A Negro Explorer at the North Pole: The Autobiography of Matthew Henson." Bone-chilling wind, treacherous ice, and bitter cold. To explorer Matthew Henson, those were mere obstacles worthy of clearing in his pursuit of reaching the North Pole. His account of the perilous journey outlines an incredible feat of the human body and spirit. Henson draws from both memory and his diary entries to recount his odyssey to the pole on Commander Robert Peary's 1909 successful expedition. Through vivid descriptions of the northern wilderness and insightful commentary, Henson paints a picture of a Westerner's discovery of the North with the help of Inuit guides and sled dogs. On Top of the World is a tale of exploration, discovery, and companionship in the Arctic, told by the explorer who helped clear the way.

On Top of the World

Henson, Matthew

See the best price to sell, buy or rent books by the Little Star publisher. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Little Star