Barbara J. Taylor - Free Library Land Online - LGBT

Rain Breaks No Bones

Fri, 02 Aug 2024 12:31:04 +0300

Set in 1955, this final installment in Taylor's best-selling Scranton Trilogy explores a family's legacy of loss and a sometimes mystical vision of a better tomorrow

EVERYBODY HAS SECRETS. EVEN THE DEAD.

Fifty-year-old Violet has had a good life. The love of an honest man. The joys of motherhood. Yet, even in 1955, her heart still aches over the death of her sister more than four decades earlier. Lately, Violet can't help thinking about the little girl, picturing her in the moments before the accident, wearing that pleated white dress and a hair bow to match. Maybe if her big sister were here now, she could tell Violet what to do about the secret she's been keeping from her daughter Daisy.

Daisy has a secret of her own. When she first moved back home to Scranton, she wasn't ready to give up her dreams of performing in Atlantic City. Then she met Johnny, a man who needs music as much as she does. Her first...

All Waiting Is Long

Fri, 11 Nov 2016 14:15:02 +0200

"Powerful...Every page is saturated with the 1930s milieu as the sisters navigate the adversities of their reality on a sea rough with the unrealistic expectations of well-intended idealists both religious and secular. As if to highlight those expectations, Taylor periodically interrupts her third-person narrative with Greek chorus-type commentary from the Scranton-based Isabelle Lumley Bible Class, including excerpts from a 1929 sex manual for women. The overall result is a thought-provoking book club discussion cornucopia."
—Booklist, Starred review
"In this richly populated community, old ties are either torn or tightened, and the characters left behind when the sisters went off are nicely fleshed out...Ms. Taylor writes with total mastery of her craft. Her similes and metaphors are born of a highly developed abstractive sensitivity, and her dialogues are unerringly true to their respective speakers."
—BookPleasures
"In All...

Sing in the Morning, Cry at Night

Tue, 11 Nov 2014 21:02:20 +0200

Named a Best Book of Summer 2014 by Publishers Weekly!
"An earnest, well-done historical novel that skillfully blends fact and fiction."
—Publishers Weekly
"A profound story of how one unforeseen event may tear a family apart, but another can just as unexpectedly bring them back together again."
—Publishers Weekly, Best Book of Summer 2014 Pick
“No one without a heart as big and warm as Barbara Taylor's possibly could have written a story about a family tragedy that's infused with so much hope and love, humor, mystery, and down-to-earth wisdom. This is a book I'll want to give to people. I could not put it down and can't wait to be captured again by the next book this wonderful human being writes."
—Beverly Donofrio, author of Astonished: A Story of Evil, Blessings, Grace, and Solace
“Not since reading Richard Llewellyn's How Green Was My Valley fifty years ago...