検索キーワード： 現代文学

Freedom. That’s all I wanted. Freedom from baseball. Freedom from my dad. Freedom to do what I wanted. Freedom to be me. Instead, I found pain. Regret. Loss. Unfulfilled dreams. No one tells you that the highway of freedom is paved with pain. Or that on your way to rock bottom, you consider choices you know will destroy you, perhaps because you’ve already destroyed yourself. Maybe what I really wanted was freedom from pain. And maybe true freedom only comes through pain. For years I blamed God. I thought he was the problem.

Miranda is too busy for cancer. But medical tests don't lie. A deadly tumor is taking over her 18-year-old brain, threatening to shatter her hard-earned dreams of an Ivy League education to dust. Schoolwork competes with plans for treatment, and Miranda's stress heightens when her parents schedule the local pastor's kid to come over and pray for her healing every morning before school. When Miranda's health takes a turn for the worse, she looks into religious matters. Including life after death. Just in case.

Lady Elise Henderson lives two separate lives. At home in Scotland, she’s the titled daughter of the Marquess of Roxbury, an heiress in her own right. In London, however, she’s Elise Taylor, a top MI6 operative for the “home office.” But when a devastating accident threatens to end her career, Elise is left with far too much time for self-reflection and the regret of a decision made long ago that features one man: fellow MI6 agent Harry Benson.

Charity Anderson turned her back on Kings Meadow years ago, with good reason, and has avoided visits to her hometown whenever possible. But with her house in Boise damaged by floodwaters and a book deadline bearing down, staying in her parents’ empty home seems her only option. However, being back in Kings Meadow dredges up a painful secret, and old fears threaten to overwhelm her.

Mel Ellis knows that her eating disorder is ruining her life. But she can't bring herself to go to rehab so someone else can fix her mess. Broken and empty in more ways than one, Mel makes one last-ditch effort to make hers a story worth telling. She will walk her own road to recovery along the lesser-known trails of the North American wilderness. Though she is physically and mentally unprepared to face the difficulties that lay ahead, she sets off on foot from Grand Rapids, Michigan, and heads toward Mount Rainier National Park in Washington State.

In a season of loss and change, Wren Crawford and her great-aunt, Katherine Rhodes, share the journey as companions in sorrow and hope. As Katherine prepares to retire as the director of the New Hope Retreat Center, she faces both personal and professional challenges—especially after the arrival of the board's candidate to replace her. Not only must she confront more unresolved grief from her past, but she's invited to embrace painful and unsettling insights about her own blind spots.

Consider how the world would react or the concerns that would be raised if Jesus were a woman teacher and prophet today. That is a question I address in my book Jaycee. Serenity is a tiny town in which the story takes place. (Anywhere in the United States.) The problems and challenges that Jaycee and her companions encounter are contemporary and relevant to us today. I've long questioned why women aren't permitted to be priests and why they aren't as revered in the Catholic Church as males have been for centuries.

When the ever-cautious Val Locklier moves cross-country with her son for a secure job, everything she’d planned unravels within the first week. After Val reluctantly agrees to rent an apartment from her best friend’s brother, an unexpected chance at an elite filmmakers’ mentorship ignites fresh hope for a dream career. But as Val’s community begins to expand, so do her insecurities, especially those heightened by her growing attraction to a certain friendly landlord.

Ryan Fleming is a young agnostic reeling from his brother’s death. Though he is deeply angry with God, he makes good on a promise he made to his brother in the final moments of his life: to visit a church at least once. But shortly after his arrival, the slick megachurch’s shoddily installed video projector falls on his head—sending Ryan through a wormhole into another world. To make it back to his own universe, he must partner with a woman named Faith to awaken a long-sleeping King—the World-Maker who can make all things new.

Eighty-two-year-old Mish Atkinson from Fair Valley, West Virginia, is determined she’s going to make something of the time she has left on this earth. When a text message on her new smart phone leads to an encounter with a woman she believes is Jesus, Mish is eager to obey the woman’s instructions to follow the love. She knows that Jeff, the gay pastor at her church, think she’s lost her marbles, but now that her husband is gone, she’s not going to let anyone put a damper on her sunshine.

Fourteen-year-old Sam Snyder thinks he is going on a short vacation to visit his godfather. Instead, his adoptive mother drops him off at a Baptist reform school in the backwoods of Missouri. Surrounded by razor-wire fences, violent at-risk youth, and oppressive staff, he quickly realizes that he's not in California anymore. Between fistfights, fire-and-brimstone sermons, and falling in love with a girl who he's never even spoken to, Sam struggles to keep his unbridled tongue and teenage lust in check in hopes of an early release.

Cuando Rachel y Joe se retiraron a un condominio para mayores de 50 años, no anticiparon el encuentro con divertidos y excéntricos residentes, o el asesinato de la amiga de Rachel, dueña de un refugio de animales. Los sospechosos son muchos: el cuidador del refugio, un marido maltratador, un sicario equivocado y un extraño hombre con sombrero de copa. Mientras se investiga el asesinato, surgen problemas para la pareja que aparentemente tiene el matrimonio perfecto. Pero, ¿qué hará falta para convencer a ambos de que la confianza y el amor lo vencen todo?

Serena, Michelle, Kenya, and Lynette have been best friends since they were small children. And as sister friends forever, they have always been there for one another, through good times and bad, no matter what. This year is a crucial turning point for each woman. Serena, still single, is questioning why love hasn’t found her yet. Michelle is engaged and ready to walk down the aisle—until an old flame strolls back into her life. Kenya is happily married, but at the same time, her husband’s ex-wife won’t allow them or their family to live in peace.

Der weißhaarige Jones taucht eines Tages bei dem jungen Andy auf, und später auch bei einigen anderen Frauen und Männern von Orange Beach, einer kleinen Stadt, in der es zugeht wie überall: Ehen kurz vor der Scheidung, junge Leute ohne Hoffnung, Geschäftsleute mit unsauberen Geschäften, alte Menschen ohne Freude. Durch Jones entdeckt einer nach dem anderen etwas verloren Geglaubtes: eine neue Perspektive. "Manchmal muss man die Dinge nur ein bisschen anders sehen", fordert Jones resignierten Andy auf und hilft ihm zu sehen, was er bislang übersehen hat.

Tally Smucker’s quiet life of reading and quilting hides her sorrow over her mother’s declining health and the lack of a fulfilling future for herself. When her daily life is shaken by her free-spirited neighbor Danielle - who grew up Plain but joined the Army at 18 - Tally’s instinct is to distance herself. Yet she finds she can’t turn away when Danielle’s brother, Kenan, specifically asks for her help.

Brielle Adebayo is fully content teaching at a New York City public school and taking annual summer vacations with her mother to Martha’s Vineyard. But everything changes when her mom drops a bombshell - Brielle is really a princess in the island kingdom of Ọlọrọ Ilé, off the coast of Africa, and she must immediately assume her royal position, since the health of her grandfather, the king, is failing.

Cassie George is barely staying above water as she works to get her doctorate and raise her daughter. But she stubbornly keeps swimming to prove a few bad decisions haven’t ruined her forever. Plus, it’s all a great excuse to stay away from the small Oregon town she fled in shame years prior. But when she receives a call that the aunt who raised her has had a major health crisis, she knows it’s time to return.

Alice runs a New Orleans flower shop alongside her aunt, but thoughts of her mother, who went missing during Hurricane Katrina, are never far from her mind. After getting off on the wrong foot with a handsome yet irritating man who comes to her shop, Alice soon realizes their worlds overlap - and the answers they both seek can be found in the same place.

Middle-aged, disappointed, and self-loathing, Adam Camp is anything but the picture of a successful man. With his wife threatening to leave him and their son addicted to drugs, Adam teeters on the verge of absolute despair - questioning his own existence and purpose for living. While walking through a city park, Adam is approached by an old painter. The mysterious artist convinces Adam to let him paint his portrait, and what happens next is nothing short of a masterpiece.

Margaret, Rose, Jane, and Fran had a good thing going: meet every week in the dusty quiet of their peaceful chapel and knit prayer shawls. No muss, just ministry. That is, until their pastor boots them out of the church in his last-ditch effort to revive the dwindling congregation. Uptight Margaret isn’t having it. Knitting prayer shawls at the mall where people can watch is the most ridiculous idea she’s ever heard of, and she’s heard plenty.